215. Frantic struggle.
215. Frantic struggle.
".........."
She pressed her lips together tightly.
Her eyes were filled with immense focus.
It looked as if she was about to say something, the words welling up all the way to her throat.
'What's she going to say?'
She'd probably ask if I had any kind of plan.
Truthfully, a plan had somewhat come to mind.
After all, it was why I had reached my hand out just moments ago.
'If I use Advent...'
When I used 'Time,' I had been able to cross through that colorless space.
So, if I used 'Advent' to pump up 'Time' and then came out to grab Rhea, I figured it might work somehow... but...
...Ultimately, it was practically a gamble, so I couldn't be confident.
'Still, what choice do I have?'
I couldn't make Theia any more anxious than this.
I steeled myself, preparing for the words that would follow.
And so
"First──let's eat, and then we start."
"Yes. I'll somehow....yes?"
***************
Chicken, half-eaten and leftover.
Vegetables, from she didn't know when.
A carrot, slightly dried out.
A tub of doenjang, shoved into a corner.
A radish, squished down at the bottom.
Green onion slaw from ordering padak, etcetera.
It was practically pure chaos, hardly what you would call proper ingredients.
In a situation like this, rather than trying to make something, wouldn't ordering delivery be the better choice?
But if you entrusted the fridge to someone else's hands, the results varied by a thousand miles.
"Does it suit your taste?"
"It's so deicioushoooh...!"
The taste of a home-cooked meal she had after a long time was so remarkably good that it suited her palate.
Honestly, if you judged purely on taste, it didn't even compare to chicken or pizza.
Those things were engineered purely to be eaten, with flavor forcefully crammed in.
But despite that, it suited her taste perfectly. Every bite slid down her throat gulpgulp.
'Even just a single fried egg has a different level of quality.'
The subtle, deep flavor of the doenjang soup.
The salty yet restrained flavor of the side dishes. The rich and satisfying taste.
The kind of food that felt like it could go into her mouth endlessly without putting any strain on her body.
"I'm glad it suits your taste. I was a little unsure about it."
"It's really good. Really. Truly."
What on earth was there to be unsure about?
If some bastard showed up to nitpick this table, I had half a mind to rearrange their teeth.
"Tia said it was okay, but Ter said it was a bit bland for his taste."
"............."
So it was a bastard whose teeth I'd already rearranged.
Anyway, my stomach was full, so full.
You really have to eat nothing but delivery food for a whole month straight for your mouth to not spout such nonsense.
If you ate enough chicken until the chicken shit and rancid smell started seeping from your mouth, wouldn't you bow your head and apologize before the savory and gentle charm of doenjang soup?
Having eaten one whole bowl and polished it clean, I lifted my empty rice bowl and stood up.
"You're done eating?"
"No. I'm going to eat one more bowl."
"Huh? But then why..."
".....?"
If you're going to eat more, you have to scoop more rice first, obviously.
I lifted the rice paddle lodged next to the electric rice cooker and scooped out a heaping spoonful.
As I sat back down, picked up my chopsticks, and started eating again, Theia stared at me as if I was a novelty.
"If you had told me, I would have brought it to you..."
"Why would I ask Theia for something that's just a short distance away?"
The thirsty dig the well and the hungry scoop the rice—that was the way of the world.
Ultimately, only after I had emptied about three bowls right there did this insane binge finally end, and Theia naturally began clearing the dishes to the sink──ah, ah, no. Not that!
"I'll do this. The dishes."
"Huh? But─"
"─If you set the table, I should do the dishes."
"............"
If it had been the usual, she would have suggested rock-paper-scissors, but she couldn't do that to Theia.
I roughly pushed her aside with my body, shooed her away, then went to the sink and grabbed the scrubber.
"Hmm."
Soak in water, scrub with a bit of detergent on the pad.
The repeat cycle of dishwashing: rinsing again with water.
The texture of the scrubber in my hand after such a long time felt somewhat unfamiliar.
'Now that I think about it, during all the loop cycles'
I hadn't done the dishes even once.
Meals were all done at the cafeteria or with convenience store lunchboxes.
Even when I stayed with Ur, I didn't particularly do the dishes.
At the very least, before the loops started, I think I did the dishes a bit back when Minerva used to cook for me──now that I think about it, it really had been an eternity since I washed dishes, hadn't it?
"Whoa─cha-cha-chat...."
I let my mind wander for a moment and nearly dropped a bowl.
I caught it again, rinsed it in water, and set it aside, and in that moment my eyes met Theia's.
"....Hm?"
Why was she watching so intently?
First, I had to finish the dishes, so once I did, I casually shook my hands dry.
"Chrono... I think a wife will dote on you a lot in the future."
"All of a sudden?"
What was that?
Was that a highly elaborate roundabout way of acknowledging my relationship with Hestia?
As I pondered, unable to gauge the true meaning, Theia leaned back on the sofa and continued speaking.
"I wish our Ter could be more like Chrono..."
"?"
"That child, he never once helped with the dishes."
"Well... isn't that kind of normal?"
Before I came to this place.
Back when I was my original self, it was the same.
When I lived alone, I had no choice but to do it, but when I was at home, who did the dishes with their own hands? Mom and Dad mostly did all of it.
"You... it was all an act, wasn't it?"
"???"
Her eyes narrowed.
I truly had no idea what kind of misunderstanding she was having.
Theia soon smiled gently and spoke toward me.
"Just because you’re in front of me doesn’t mean you should stop. You must do the same for your mom when you go home, okay?"
"Mom... huh."
Mom, she said.
If it were before I came here, I wouldn't know, but.
"Why? You hate it that much?"
"It's not that. I just don't have a mom."
"............."
In this place, I had no mom.
"....I’m sorry. I made a mistake."
"It's fine. An orphan talking about having a mom is silly, isn't it?"
"................"
To begin with, I had no existence I could call a parent.
Because I came from an orphanage.
"Sorry... I mean... I didn't... that's not what I meant..."
"What's there to be sorry about? If anything, I'm super grateful?"
Because thanks to Theia, I got to eat such a delicious meal.
"....!"
Her pupils widened with a surprised look.
Had she finally understood what I meant?
I continued speaking.
"All this time, it's been nothing but convenience store lunchboxes, delivery, things like that... I really missed this kind of food."
"Oh... yeah. Yeah. That... that... yeah."
".....?"
She kept stammering as she spoke.
Theia silently lowered her head deeply and clasped her hands tightly together.
She looked like she was silently reflecting, as if she had committed a mistake.
'Did that weigh on her conscience that much?'
I wondered just how kind-hearted a person could be, but looking at it the other way, it seemed like she had no choice but to be this kind.
After all, with Hestia, who's crispy on the outside but moist on the inside, and the 2nd-loop Protagonist as her children, how could anything less than incredible mental fortitude handle that?
Unless she was a fairly extreme pushover and pure person, it would be impossible.
"Please don't be like that, really, I'm perfectly fine."
"....Chrono is such a kind child, isn't he?"
"That's not really..."
What was this feeling that misunderstandings just kept piling up?
I gave a small dry cough and began telling Theia about the future plan.
"First, I'll talk about the escape. Didn't I say earlier that we are trapped?"
"Yeah. That's right?"
"I think there's a way out."
"............"
She stayed silent.
A gaze solely intent on listening to my words.
I spoke about my simple, brutish method.
"I'll go outside, deal with things, and come back."
"...Go outside, you say?"
"Just in case you're wondering, I'm really not the culprit?"
"I believe that."
".........."
Oh.
"...How could I think it's a lie after seeing a child work so hard?"
"I... I'd be grateful if you see it that way."
I was a bit embarrassed.
Strangely, it made the tip of my nose itch.
Pfft! Ahem, anyway!
"I will definitely send Theia back."
I drew out my weapons for the first time in a while.
Squite. And Agape.
The two weapons I wielded after so long hummed with a strange resonance as they settled into my hands.
'...I have to do this, right?'
I had to.
I didn't know how it would turn out, but I had to do it somehow.
"I'll be back."
I opened the front door and stepped onto the threshold.
The flow of time was palpable right in front of my nose.
I steeled my resolve to burst through that wall and face whatever unknowns lay ahead.
"Right... don't push yourself too hard!"
".........."
Don't push myself too hard.
Those words were exactly what made it impossible not to.
But still....
"Theia."
"Hm?"
Let's promise at least this one thing.
"I will definitely send you home."
"......! Wait ju──"
"──Advent"
[Apostle of Cronus]
...
..
.
"I said... wait..."
He left.
He was gone.
Leaving just those words of promising to send her back, he was gone.
'...He'll be alright, right?'
He'd be alright.
Of course he'd be alright.
Didn't she see it when he faced Ter?
A child who could freely manipulate lightning.
The way he easily suppressed that child as if handling a mere kid clearly showed he possessed a power that could not be ignored.
Power. Talent. And on top of that, effort.
She couldn't imagine that Chrono, a child like that, could be weak.
".....Euk."
To be precise, it was a condition she must not imagine.
That Chrono would be strong. Strong enough to resolve this incident.
That was the 'only' condition for her to be able to get outside──well, not exactly.
"Tia definitely said..."
This world was a place created for one single purpose.
Chrono. A place she could escape if she gave her body to that child.
She distinctly remembered Hestia saying something like that.
'...If I can end it by just offering my body once.'
Wouldn't it have been easier to just give it to him early on and get out?
"..........Euk?!"
Smack! She spread her hands and slapped her cheeks.
Are you crazy? How can you think like that?
Aren't you ashamed before the one who left you behind for this?
"............."
But
Still, she was stuck in 'this kind of situation' now.
It was an unavoidable situation.
So wouldn't that person also forgive her?
".............."
But
No matter what, her body was already promised.
A body already promised, a lifelong promise that she couldn't break.....
"...................."
But
But
Still, but
But, even so
".....Euk... ahh-heu...!"
The 'buts' just kept piling up in her heart.
The more they piled up, the tighter and more suffocated her chest became.
Nothing was becoming clear. It was just frustrating, endlessly frustrating.
"....Chrono."
Ultimately, all she could do was clasp her two hands together in prayer.
And the end of that prayer
"───Keuheok!"
"Chrono...?"
Was Chrono, collapsed and covered in blood,
"Get pregnant. Then I will let you go."
"............."
And an unavoidable 'future'.