First Impressions (10)
I slipped back into the clothes I’d left in the changing room.
“Still, the bath felt pretty good, right, Luna?”
“Yeah. A bath every once in a while isn’t bad.”
Personally, I prefer showers.
Part of it is that I like getting clean quickly, but I also enjoy just zoning out under the pounding spray of water.
Still, soaking like this once in a while is pretty nice.
The ending, though… that was a little—no, a lot—unsatisfying.
“Yeah, yeah. Baths are great.”
All because of him.
Even Faye had gotten angry at Theo’s antics.
Faye! Of all people!
I remember it clearly.
She’d snapped, “How could you pee in the water people are bathing in!”
Her sense of outrage was still weird as hell, but the fact that she actually got mad was something.
After Faye blew up, Theo didn’t pull any more stunts. He washed up quietly and came out.
Whether he was shocked that Faye had actually gotten angry or he’d hit his refractory period, I wasn’t sure. Either way, it worked.
Once all three of us were dressed and headed back up to the first floor, the Goddess was waiting in the living room.
The first time we saw her, she hadn’t even bothered covering her naked body and had become Theo’s personal eye candy. Now, a little over a week later, she was living normally and wearing clothes.
Theo preferred her naked, and I wasn’t exactly against it either. It was a shame.
Claire had glared daggers at us and strongly objected.
In the end, the Goddess’s wardrobe became Claire’s responsibility. Claire herself had beamed and said, “If I can serve the Goddess, that is my happiness,” so there was no problem.
“You were all downstairs? I must have stepped out for a moment when you arrived.”
The Goddess greeted us with her usual benevolent smile.
After about a week, she’d grown used to living in this building and had started wandering around on her own.
“Wow! Pretty big sister!”
The moment Faye spotted the Goddess, she scampered over and stopped right in front of her. Then she tilted her head and peered curiously at the Goddess’s face.
“My, my. What an adorable child. And…”
The Goddess’s gaze seemed to look deeper than just Faye’s appearance—into something far beyond the surface.
“…you are someone very precious as well.”
The Goddess glanced briefly in my direction.
Ah. She noticed.
That Faye also possessed a fragment of the Goddess.
Then again, her name literally contained the word for a fragment of the Goddess, so it would’ve been weirder if the Goddess hadn’t realized.
I gave the Goddess a small nod.
It meant she could do as she pleased.
Understanding my signal, the Goddess turned her eyes back to Faye.
“Adorable one. May I ask your name?”
“Me? I’m Faye. Faye Ronand.”
“What a lovely name, Lady Faye. If it’s alright with you, would you allow me to offer you a small bit of help?”
“Huh…?”
Faye blinked in confusion, mumbling as if she couldn’t quite process the situation.
A beautiful woman had suddenly appeared and immediately offered to help her. Of course she’d be thrown off.
Faye looked around in bewilderment before turning to me.
“L-Luna! What is this? What’s going on?!”
“Aigoo.”
If she’d just said yes to the help, things would’ve been so much easier. Of course it couldn’t go that smoothly.
Still, refusing mysterious assistance right away showed a certain noble-like wariness. That was admirable in its own way.
I took a step back, signaling that I’d leave the explanation to Theo.
“I’ll explain instead of Luna. The ‘help’ this person is talking about…”
Theo gave a short, careful explanation, leaving out the few details that needed to stay secret.
After listening to everything, Faye’s eyes sparkled as she shouted.
“I can get stronger? I’ll take it! I’ll take it!”
She accepted so easily that even Theo looked stunned.
“Faye, did you really understand? We don’t even know what kind of power you’ll get.”
The ability the Goddess granted was impossible to know until it was received. That was by design—it awakened the potential each soul already possessed.
Of course I already knew what ability Faye would get, but I couldn’t say that.
Even so, Faye nodded without hesitation.
“Yeah. I heard it clearly. It’s fine. I need to get stronger.”
It was a brave statement, yet somehow it carried an undercurrent of unease.
Once Faye’s consent was confirmed, the Goddess pulled her into an embrace. It was the same process Theo and I had gone through.
“The ability Lady Faye has received is Recovery. Your stamina and wounds will heal much faster.”
“Recovery?”
Faye tilted her head for a moment.
“It means from now on, you can do two sparring sessions in a row without getting tired.”
“Yay!”
When I explained it at her eye level, she threw both arms into the air with joy.
“Thank you, pretty big sister!”
“Hehe. I’m glad you’re happy.”
In the game, Faye’s ability had also been Recovery.
The ability that automatically regenerated HP during battle without needing separate heals was small but genuinely useful.
But even more important than HP recovery in combat was stamina recovery in daily life.
Things like “Personal Training” that raised stats in the training hall, or “Dispatch Requests” where heroines automatically earned money and items.
In the game, every action a heroine took consumed stamina. Faye reduced that consumption by half and recovered faster than any other heroine.
And what did that lead to?
What else? Send her to train, then dispatch her, then train her again…
At one point, people even made memes calling her the “breadwinner little girl” who single-handedly supported the protagonist’s party in the early game.
Of course, now that this was reality, that wouldn’t happen.
The game was the game—your money was my money there. But in real life, if we spent all the money Faye worked hard to earn, that would make us trash.
After calming her excitement, Faye turned to us and gave her thanks.
“Thank you! For bringing me here!”
“Aw, it’s nothing. If you’re grateful, just do one dungeon party with us later.”
“Dungeon party? That’s easy!”
She must have thought my request was simpler than expected. Faye accepted without thinking too deeply.
Of course, she had no idea that the dungeon I was talking about wasn’t one of the academy’s practice dungeons.
Good. We’d taken another step toward recruiting Faye.
I laughed wickedly to myself.
“This kid’s having weird thoughts again.”
Theo, shut up.
---
Was this really the right thing to do?
Theo couldn’t be sure.
The Goddess’s existence had to remain top secret.
Claire had come here on her own by following the Goddess’s divine power, so that couldn’t be helped. But the number of people who knew about the Goddess had to be kept to an absolute minimum.
There were simply too many suspicious points.
According to the Goddess, her sealing had happened at least several hundred years ago.
Had no one found this space in all that time?
Really?
It was possible.
To enter this place, one needed to possess a fragment of the Goddess. And it seemed that without one, it was impossible to break the seal alone.
Given how difficult those conditions were, it was entirely possible that Theo and Luna were truly the first.
But the suspicious and worry-prone Theo couldn’t accept that so easily.
What if the Church—or anyone else—had discovered this place in the past?
Or even if they hadn’t found the space, what if they had sensed the Goddess’s divine power?
Since Claire, a saint candidate, had felt it, other saint candidates could have as well.
It was possible they had sensed the divine power but couldn’t locate the space because they lacked a fragment. To Theo, that seemed like a fairly likely scenario.
If so, why would they leave the Goddess alone even after learning of her existence?
Could it be that the Church actually hoped the Goddess’s seal would never be broken…?
“Theo! What are you thinking so hard about?”
A high, clear voice cut through the endless stream of his thoughts.
It was Luna, his partner who had helped unseal the Goddess alongside him.
“I was wondering if it was really okay to tell Faye about the Goddess.”
Of course, they hadn’t given her any direct clues that would let her guess it was the Goddess.
But the fact that only the Goddess could grant an “ability”—a power clearly different from anything else—would be obvious soon enough. From there, it wouldn’t be hard for someone to start putting the pieces together.
“Eh, it’s fine, it’s fine!”
But Luna declared it with certainty. That it was fine.
It didn’t sound like she was speaking from some vague hunch. Their relationship wasn’t that long yet, but Theo could hear the confidence in her voice.
It was a baseless, abstract statement.
And yet, hearing that voice somehow put his mind at ease.
It made him feel like everything really would be okay.
For Theo, who could never stop worrying no matter how detailed his plans were, this was an incredibly unfamiliar feeling.
“Theo. You’ve used your hypnosis ability, right?”
“Uh, y-yeah. I have.”
Theo was slightly startled by the sudden question—there was a part of him that felt guilty—but fortunately Luna didn’t seem to notice.
“How was it? Amazing, right?”
“It was.”
Even now, if he closed his eyes, the memory came back vividly.
Four large and small breasts glistening wetly, reflecting the light, and the pink nipples dripping water from their tips.
And the way she had gently caressed his cock… No, better stop there. He’d get hard again if he kept thinking about it.
Completely unaware of Theo’s inner thoughts, Luna smiled brightly and said,
If my Luck is as incredible as your Hypnosis, then you can trust it too!
“Then trust my Luck too. Since your ability is amazing, mine must be amazing as well!”
“…Yeah.”
Theo let out a small chuckle and nodded.
The complicated thoughts that had seemed endless were cut off by a single laugh.
It wasn’t a bad feeling. To feel this peaceful despite having no countermeasures at all.
“Alright! Then there’s no problem, right? Let’s head back too. It’s getting pretty late.”
Luna turned first and walked out of the building.
As he watched her back, Theo felt a slight pang of guilt about using hypnosis in the bath.
Still… he was going to do it again.
