Thanks to last night's marathon session, by the time anyone managed to catch up on sleep, the clock had already rolled past noon.
Autumn sunlight filtered through the curtains in warm, golden stripes. Still bright enough to fill the room, but missing the brutal edge of midsummer's glare. The silence held for exactly as long as it took for a languid yawn to shatter it.
"Mmmm~ Now that was a good nap."
Chysis's voice drifted through the room, soft and satisfied. From beneath the enormous comforter that covered the entire bed, one slender arm rose into the air like a flag of surrender in reverse, declaring its owner officially conscious.
But something was wrong.
The arm she'd been clinging to all night. The one she'd locked in a death grip against her chest specifically to prevent the young man from sneaking off while she slept.
It was gone.
"Hm?"
Chysis threw the covers back and sat bolt upright.
Her first fear was that Bokue had woken up and left without her. But no. He was still there, still in bed, still very much asleep. He'd simply extracted his arm from her clutches at some point during the night and rolled over to face the other direction.
And on the other side of him was... if Chysis remembered correctly... Runeas.
Oh, absolutely not.
Her annoyance spiked immediately.
The old saying rang true: it wasn't about having too little, but about having it unevenly distributed.
Last night, all three of them had been right here. Chysis. Runeas. Venelana. Equal participants, equal billing. And yet, the moment she dozed off, Bokue's unconscious body had drifted toward Venelana like a compass needle finding north, leaving Chysis high and dry on the abandoned side of the mattress.
This was blatant favoritism. Textbook harem mismanagement.
'Not on my watch.'
Chysis rolled onto her side, grabbed Bokue's shoulder, and pulled him back toward her.
Sure enough, his body had been curled up against Venelana in a perfect spooning position, the two of them fitted together like a pair of nested bowls.
No more. Harem harmony demanded equal treatment across the board. And since Venelana had monopolized Bokue for months before anyone else entered the picture, Chysis was fully entitled to some compensatory exclusive time of her own. Starting now. Starting right this—
...Huh?
The smug little smile that had been forming on Chysis's face froze solid.
Because the instant she'd pried Bokue away from Venelana's side, she discovered there was someone else lying on his chest.
A girl she had never seen before.
Small. Pale. Long, jet-black hair cascading over narrow shoulders. And she was very much awake, staring up at Chysis with eyes that held the calm, bottomless quality of a void with a personality.
???
Chysis's brain went completely offline.
What... what was this? A washer?
In mechanical engineering, when you want to ensure a tight, stable fit between a bolt and a nut, you slot a thin washer in between to keep everything locked in place.
If Bokue was the bolt and Venelana was the nut, then this black-haired gothic girl had literally been serving as the washer wedged between them.
And even now, with Bokue flipped onto his back, the girl remained perfectly positioned on his chest, her small legs straddling his torso like a child riding a horse. She showed absolutely zero awareness that her situation might be considered unusual, continuing to lie there in perfect, undisturbed stillness.
Chysis was certain she'd never laid eyes on this girl. Four days on Itogami Island had been more than enough time to become acquainted with every woman in Bokue's orbit. She'd done a thorough headcount.
This one wasn't on the list.
"Bokue. Wake up."
"Mm?"
Being pulled from sleep for the second time in as many minutes, Bokue groaned softly and cracked his eyes open.
"What is it, Chysis-nee?"
"Don't 'what is it' me."
Chysis pointed at his chest.
"Look down."
Down?
Bokue blinked. Tilted his chin toward his sternum.
Half a second passed.
"Ophis? Why are you here??"
...
❁❁❁❁
One minute later, the commotion had roused the remaining sleepers.
Bokue's shout had been enough to jolt both Runeas and Venelana awake, and the four of them now sat facing the small intruder.
Chysis was the first to ask.
"You called her Ophis. You know her?"
"More or less."
Bokue pressed his palm over his eyes, shielding whatever expression was happening underneath.
"I ran into her when I went to Lilith to register for the international rankings tournament. She's been trying to get me to do her a favor ever since."
"A favor?"
"She wants me to help her defeat Great Red."
"..."
Great Red. The Dragon of Dragons, recorded in the Book of Revelation. An entity so overwhelmingly powerful that even the Biblical God at his peak couldn't bring it down.
And this slip of a girl wanted to commission Bokue to beat it?
"Correct."
Ophis gave a small nod, lifting her pale, doll-like face.
"I asked... She said. To make Bokue Keikain agree. To help. I need to make Bokue Keikain. Happy."
"So I watched. You. For two days. And I learned. What makes Bokue Keikain. Happy."
'Huh. Even her speech pattern's changed.'
Bokue's eyebrow ticked upward.
He distinctly remembered that when they'd first met, Ophis had spoken in an archaic, stilted manner, peppering every sentence with "thee" and "thou" like she'd stepped out of a Shakespearean revival.
The switch to modern speech was an improvement, technically, but she clearly hadn't adjusted yet. Her sentences came out in short, choppy fragments, halting at odd intervals like a GPS recalculating mid-sentence.
Still, the meaning came through well enough.
"Yeah, no. I'm not picking fights with strangers for no reason."
With that said, Bokue reached over and ruffled the gothic girl's hair.
"But if you want to stay on Itogami Island, I'm fine with that."
...
❁❁❁❁
Meanwhile, in the deepest reaches of the Underworld.
A region that, while technically connected to the demon realm, existed entirely beyond the authority of the Four Great Satans.
Its name: the Realm of the Dead. Dominion of all departed souls.
"Go forth, child of man. I have bestowed upon you power sufficient to seize the strength of a legendary dragon."
"Heh heh heh. As you command, Lord Hades."
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