Watching Iska walk away, Cid felt a chill crawl up his spine for no obvious reason.
"What was that?"
That kind of chill was… familiar.
When he was little, Alise had been intensely curious about him—as a boy—and once tried to yank his pants down. Back then, he'd felt the same kind of icy premonition.
Even now, he could remember the scene vividly.
Cid wasn't truly a child. He'd kept memories from his previous life, so there was no way he'd let Alise do whatever she pleased.
But Alise's curiosity was bottomless, and her "action power" was terrifying.
At one point, she'd even wanted to flick that legendary "thing" she didn't have.
Cid had nearly lost control.
By common sense, girls tended to develop faster than boys at that age.
And Cid still had to keep up his "background character" act—he couldn't afford to expose anything over something like this.
In the end, he pulled out a child's ultimate trump card:
Calling the parents.
No one knew what method Astraea used, but after that, Alise never did anything quite that unhinged again.
That incident stayed with him. It had been the closest he'd ever come to blowing his cover.
But the chill he'd felt back then didn't even compare to what he was feeling now.
"…Is Iska thinking about something dangerous?"
The more he remembered, the more his blood ran cold.
Not because he was scared of nearly being exposed back then—
He was scared of Iska.
Even Alise at her worst didn't hold a candle to Iska.
What in the world was she planning?!
Cid was already starting to fear the "reward" Iska had mentioned.
From what he'd heard from a peer, Raul Nord, the "battle courtesans" of the Ishtar Familia had an impressive catalog of… techniques.
The most famous were things like Rainbow Fruit Platter, Deep-Sea Demolition, and Spicy Roast Chicken…
If you wrote down the exact details in a novel, it probably wouldn't pass censorship.
He had no idea why Raul—who was only fourteen—knew so much.
But that chill from earlier had already linked itself to those "techniques" in Cid's mind.
"Did she… ask those veterans for ideas? No—she's not that kind of person. I'm overthinking it… right?"
Cid made a decision on the spot: from now on, he would keep his distance from Iska.
He wanted to believe in his comrades' purity and good intentions—but if he was wrong, the consequences would be catastrophic. He couldn't take that risk.
After steeling himself, Cid walked over toward Ryu.
The repressed elf was still trapped in her own mental spiral, wearing an expression like she was questioning the meaning of existence.
Yes. This is the correct reaction.
As a member of the Familia of the Goddess of Justice, this was a much more normal response.
At least compared to Iska.
"Ryu. Ryu? RYU!"
After he called her name three times, Ryu finally snapped back—though not completely.
"Cid…?"
Her gaze drifted, almost involuntarily, to his lips.
In her imagination, Cid had already become some kind of divine heartbreaker whose lips had been "shared" far and wide.
"…You weren't imagining something weird again, were you? I admit what you saw just now was easy to misunderstand."
Even Cid didn't know how to explain the situation.
Especially since there was a very real possibility Iska was thinking about something dangerous—which made him even less sure whether he should explain.
Meanwhile, Ryu—fully awake now—took a small step back.
"…?"
Was that half-step back really necessary?
Seeing Cid's confused, thoroughly unimpressed stare, Ryu flailed for words.
"C-Cid, I'm not rejecting you! I just—just…"
"If you can't think of a reason, you don't have to force one."
Cid wasn't exactly hurt.
He wasn't some reincarnated tragic protagonist who'd ended up in an idol's womb, only for his mother to die, and then his lover-from-a-past-life—who was also his brother in this life—to die too. He wasn't that fragile.
But Ryu took his response as him giving up in resignation.
Ryu hadn't come all this way just to make Cid think she disliked him.
Cid was about to leave the Astraea Familia. She couldn't let him go with that misunderstanding!
But before she gave him the gift she'd prepared, there was something important she needed to ask.
"Cid… do you have a lot of girlfriends?"
"How is it 'a lot'? I don't have even one!"
Cid suddenly became deeply curious what kind of slander Ryu had been running in her head.
"Th-then that's good. So it really was just my imagination."
Ryu exhaled in relief.
When her thoughts had been scrambled earlier, she had doubted Alise's words.
But now that she was calm again, she believed Alise wouldn't lie casually. It was far more likely that Ryu's habit of overthinking had spiraled out of control.
And Cid was the same.
If an important comrade said so, then she would believe it.
As for Iska…
Ryu still hadn't figured out how to defend what she'd just done.
"Cid… can you hold out your hand?"
Ryu's usual seriousness returned—though her cheeks were still a little red.
"Hm?"
Cid, not understanding, extended his right hand.
Ryu raised both of hers and gently enclosed his hand between them.
"Boys' hands really are big…"
The faint blush that had started to fade instantly flared back into a bright crimson.
"…"
Cid didn't say anything. He understood: this was Ryu's gift to him.
In this world, elves had an innate racial instinct.
If they didn't acknowledge someone, they couldn't accept that person's touch.
Within the Astraea Familia, only Alise could hold Ryu's hand.
If anyone else tried, Ryu would reflexively fling them away.
But Cid remembered something.
After Ryu joined the Familia, there had been one time he accidentally bumped into her—yet she hadn't attacked him on instinct.
Cid had only been surprised.
Ryu's reaction, on the other hand, had been intense.
After that, every time she saw him, she'd bristled like a startled cat—hissing more often than not.
That period was exactly why the others in the Familia had started thinking Ryu was targeting Cid, to the point where this repressed elf got scolded almost daily.
But Ryu and Cid had silently agreed not to tell anyone the truth.
And now, with Cid about to leave the Familia, Ryu was facing that fact again—head-on.
"Cid… even if you leave the Astraea Familia, we're still the best comrades."
"Yeah. The best comrades."
"Cid…"
"Didn't I already agree?"
"But… QAQ…"
Even without Cid saying anything harsh, Ryu still ended up crying a complete mess.
It really made you marvel at how sentimental girls could be.
From Cid's point of view, leaving a Familia wasn't something that needed this much ceremony.
With the values he'd brought from his previous life, it wasn't that different from switching companies.
But to them, it clearly mattered—deeply.
Cid realized that once he changed Familias, he really shouldn't keep changing again.
Dealing with girls' tears was a nightmare.
Whether he was acting as a background extra or as Shadow, he simply wasn't good at handling things like this.
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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