Sharing a Bed? - 1
The road to the harbor felt endlessly long for this body of mine.
Sweat traced paths down my face as if I were enduring some grueling pilgrimage. Even though it was a cool spring day, the sun racing toward the highest point in the sky still poured its scorching rays straight down onto me.
Following slowly behind the Hero, I took in the village scenery—it was beautiful. Flower petals of every color drifted down from the trees lining both sides of the road, and crowds had lined up to see us off.
They clearly saw us as their hope.
I watched them with complicated feelings until my eyes met those of a child gazing up at me with pure, unguarded eyes. Just an ordinary kid you could find anywhere. The innocence in that gaze was so pure that I instinctively met it—then looked away again as guilt stabbed sharply through my chest. It wasn't deliberate; it was pure instinct.
Do they know I'm not the real Saintess? If they ever found out I was a fake, those same eyes would turn into stones raining down on my head.
I was nothing more than an unwelcome guest.
I'd already decided to cast off useless thoughts and just keep looking forward as I ran—yet a single child's eyes were enough to shake that resolve with ease.
At last we reached the harbor. I had no desire to show the ugly sight of gasping for breath in front of everyone, so I silently chanted a healing spell and mended my body. Putting on a composed front—that was what a solid mask was for. Clamping down on the queasiness in my stomach, fixing the stabbing headache, realigning my creaking body. That was all it was.
I felt a flicker of doubt when I saw the massive ship floating on the rolling waves—it looked different from the one that had formally brought me to the Holy Kingdom—but so many pieces of my game knowledge had already gone off-script that I decided to just let it slide. Useless fretting was nothing but garbage taking up brain space. Efficiency only.
The journey to the ship had been filled with nothing but heavy silence, and that silence lingered even after we boarded. In the awkward atmosphere, the Hero was the first to speak.
"Shall we start with introductions?"
Hearing words I'd heard dozens of times in the game again felt strangely nostalgic, almost familiar. While I pulled out paper and wrote down my name and age, Jerome, seated beside me, began his introduction.
"My name is Jerome. I'm a Holy Knight."
...That's it?
I listened with my ears open and felt a little flustered. Wasn't it normal to mention specialties, skills, experience—something like that?
The Hero seemed to be waiting for me, as if he intended to speak last.
My name is Theas, and I am the Saintess.
I am twenty years old.
Holding up a paper with those words written on it made embarrassment flood through me, but what else could I do? True to the vaguely perverted Japanese game it was, the party-joining and self-introduction scene always went exactly like this. I was just pretending to be the Saintess, so I followed the script. After finishing that bit of self-justification, I erased the writing and waited for the Hero to speak.
"As you all know, I'm the Hero. My name is Ain."
Usually the player gets to input the Hero's name themselves... so his real name was Ain, huh.
Learning the game's background lore like this was a small, pleasant distraction that let me forget my situation for a moment. Remembering how many community flame wars had broken out just trying to discover the Hero's default name even gave me a faint sense of superiority. It was an open-world game with so many branching choices that people constantly argued over what the "true route" even was. Seeing that we'd reached the Holy Kingdom in only two days made me think I might have to give up on predicting the story entirely—and that left me feeling hopelessly lost.
I swallowed the sigh that tried to escape, and awkward silence filled the cabin once more. Then, intending to return to my own room, I pushed my chair back, stood, and started walking toward the door.
That was when the Hero's voice came from behind me.
"Um... there are only two cabins."
"How should we divide the rooms?"
I stopped mid-exit and turned around. The Hero was still wearing that bright, irritating smile.
This bastard. He did that on purpose, one hundred percent.
I wasn't a woman, but I felt like I roughly understood what "a woman's intuition" meant. If I could just punch that face once, I'd have no more wishes left.
No. Calm down first.
Cursing him out in my head changed nothing. I had no idea why the Hero—who was supposed to be a pure country boy—was using such an obvious scheme, but it was already happening to me, so what could I do? With the Hero casually occupying a seat, I quickly scanned the interior of this cabin.
One table, three chairs, one bed...
One bed...?
God had abandoned me.
The Saintess was a passive character. She wasn't the type to forcefully voice her opinions in a situation like this, and spending time with the Holy Knight called Jerome wasn't something I wanted either. A character with barely any dialogue to begin with could never push back in a moment like this.
Ain's Side
From the moment I first opened my eyes after placing everything on the Scales—turning back the clock hands, saving her, and correcting the twisted past—I had been waiting for this instant alone.
The her I reunited with was breathtakingly beautiful, and in another sense, completely unchanged. Those starlight-filled eyes still sparkled, and the brilliant strands of her silver hair scattering under the sunlight were dazzling. She still said the same words to me, still made the same gestures, and she was just as lovable as ever.
Would I get to hear her answer to my confession this time? My heart raced ahead of me, but I didn't want to ruin the first impression. She was meeting me for the first time; if I confessed right from the start, she would definitely refuse. I didn't want to be rejected. One careful step at a time.
Originally we should have stayed the night and boarded a ship back to the Empire the next morning, but the tight schedule I'd set wouldn't allow it. Having decided to act in order to save everyone after regressing, I had no intention of giving myself any rest. The more I suffered, the higher the odds of saving them all—that was the calculation.
The Jerome I reunited with was smaller in stature than the one in my memories, yet he still asked to join my party from the very first meeting. Seeing that unchanged side of him oddly put me at ease. More importantly—wasn't he standing a little too close to the Saintess? A twinge of jealousy rose, but I knew the feelings Jerome held for her were sympathy and admiration, so I let it go.
Jerome's little sister still had terrible manners. She was far too emotional, and later she would follow her brother onto the battlefield only to have her head cut off right in front of him. That was when Jerome abandoned his faith. But that would never happen now. I would stop it.
While walking out of the Holy Kingdom's church, I sensed a faint starlight. It was flowing from the Saintess. She must have used healing on herself. Her frail constitution had always been poison to her; during the long time spent on the front lines, some unknown illness had worsened. Recalling the past threatened to plunge my mood into sudden gloom again, but I found comfort simply in the fact that she was alive here and now.
I took out one of the snacks I'd prepared for her and held it out. It was one of the desserts I'd secretly pocketed during the imperial welcome banquet. The support funds had been more generous than expected, so I could store it in subspace without it melting. And honestly, that choice had been an excellent one. The moment she put it in her mouth and chewed, her expression melted into pure bliss—it was so adorable. She still loved sweet things. Confirming that she hadn't changed at all made me want to laugh out loud. I was simply that happy.
After a little more time passed, we finally reached the ship, and I started the introductions. Once the short exchange was over, I finally got to the main point.
"Um... there are only two cabins."
"How should we divide the rooms?"
Yes. I did it on purpose.
Because I had used the Hero's token granted by the Emperor, I could have easily secured one more cabin if I'd wanted. The ship's owner would feel sorry for himself, but the imperial family would certainly provide ample compensation. Still, this process was necessary to satisfy my personal greed. If it meant I could spend even a little more time with her, I would do anything.
The Saintess turned her body, which had been about to leave, and held up a piece of paper. I sensed a brief hesitation in the motion, but it didn't last long.
I'll share a room with the Hero.
Jerome, sitting beside her, tilted his head slightly, but then seemed to decide that nothing untoward could happen with the Hero involved, and left with peace of mind.
"I'll be heading in, then."
"Yes."
I saw Jerome off as he left the room, then closed the cabin door. When I turned around, she was sitting there with her face faintly flushed.