Four days passed in the blink of an eye.
Just like Anathasia said, Arianne ended up taking both the credit and the mild annoyance for the sudden appearance of the giant serpentine creature back at the island.
After that whole mess… and the swimsuit incident… No. Let's not recall the swimsuit incident.
Anyway, with the trip finally over, Christmas was already just around the corner—
"No," Anathasia cut in casually. "We still have our finals four weeks from now though?"
I stopped mid-step.
Slowly, I turned to her.
She stood beside me at the dock, finishing her snack like she hadn't just shattered my sense of seasonal optimism. My expression flattened.
"…Was the reminder really necessary?" I asked.
"I was trying to narrate here."
She shrugged, completely unapologetic.
The next moment, Anathasia glanced around—
—and suddenly, we were standing right in front of the house.
"Home sweet home~" she hummed, casually sauntering inside.
There were a little over three weeks left until finals, and we spent most of that time reviewing whenever we had even a sliver of free time.
Notes, discussions, late nights. It all blurred together.
I wasn't exactly sure why… but time felt *strange.*
Like it was moving unnaturally fast, yet somehow still letting us keep up.
And before I fully processed it—
I was already seated beside Anathasia, exam paper laid out in front of me.
The room was silent save for the steady scratch of pens against paper, every student hunched over their questionnaire.
I stared at my sheet for a long moment, then subtly glanced at her.
[Say… is it just me, or is the pacing kind of… off?]
She didn't look up.
[I sped it up a bit,] she replied calmly. [I needed to get rid of the filler.]
My expression went flat.
[…Right.]
Hours passed after that.
By the time dusk began creeping over the city, the first five exams were already over.
We walked home beneath the fading sunlight, the sky slowly bleeding into warmer hues. And for the first time, I found myself really looking at her.
At what she'd done.
That was the first time she actually used her… abilities?
No—she said it wasn't abilities. It was authority.
And this wasn't time manipulation. Or spatial warping. Or creating something from nothing.
It was—
"Pure reality manipulation," she said suddenly, as if plucking the thought straight out of my head. She slipped her phone back into her pocket without breaking stride.
"To put it simply."
She stopped, then turned toward me with a small grin.
"The only reason you noticed," she added, "was because of the Stillness."
A pause.
"No one else did."
"So you're basically going full authority," I said dryly, "just to speed up Christmas?"
She nodded without hesitation, stepping a little ahead of me.
"Yup. I'm just trimming unnecessary events that won't matter in the long run," she said, hands laced behind her head.
"So it's not really reality manipulation," she shrugged. "More like… reality editing."
I followed quietly as the house came into view a few blocks away, her words sinking in.
And once again, the absurdity of her existence compared to everything I once thought was normal hit me square in the chest.
It's still hard to believe I'm standing beside someone who holds the foundation of this reality… and countless others.
The next moment, we were home.
Bags already unpacked. Clothes already changed.
No transition.
"Kyaa~ just a week before Christmas, huh?" Anathasia sighed, flopping onto the couch as I sat on the other end.
"Yeah," I said, pulling out my phone and glancing at a message from my mom. "Any ideas on what we're doing this year?"
"Besides decorating Christmas trees like you did last time."
She paused.
Then slowly turned to look at me.
"How do you still remember that?" she asked, narrowing her eyes as she leaned closer.
I shrugged, leaning back against the couch and crossing my legs.
"It was memorable," I said. "You were basically a kid back then."
I smiled.
"One that couldn't tell the difference between Christmas ornaments and Halloween decorations."
Her expression slowly went flat. Her mouth opened like she was about to respond, then closed again.
She clicked her tongue and looked away.
"How about we just stay at your parents' place instead?" she said, glancing back at me with one eye half-closed.
"She already asked you in that message just now anyway."
"What do you—"
My phone lit up.
I glanced down and immediately saw Mom's message sitting on my lock screen.
"Can you come home before Christmas? And bring Anathasia with you if possible. Take care~"
I let out a slow breath, setting my phone aside before meeting her gaze.
"I guess that's fair," I said with a small shrug.
"They did spend the holidays here last year, after all…"
"But—"
"But Leah might be there?" Anathasia cut in casually, waving a hand dismissively.
"Is she really worth worrying about?"
I shook my head.
"She's not the issue," I murmured. "It's just…"
I sighed.
"My uncles are going to be there."
She blinked once.
"…You don't want to drink."
"I don't want to drink," I confirmed.
She went quiet, rubbing her chin as her gaze drifted to my finger, where the ring she'd given me rested.
After a moment, she raised a finger.
"I can just remove the alcohol and make the liquid sweeter," she said.
"Then you can pretend to drink with them without ruining the vibe."
"So basically…" I said slowly.
"Some kind of matter manipulation on a molecular level?"
She nodded, a small smile tugging at her lips as she leaned back against the couch.
"Exactly. I can do it to mine too if they offer me any," she added.
"That way we both stay sober *and* avoid that awful taste."
She grinned.
"Genius, aren't I?"
I looked down at the table, resting my elbows on my knees.
"That's actually… really smart."
Anathasia huffed, folding her arms as she sat up straighter, puffing out her chest.
"I know," she said smugly.
"I'm not the First Outer God *and* a Godhead for nothing."
I nodded before lying back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling.
"Sounds fair…" I muttered. "Let's go with that, then."
Silence settled over the room.
Only the gentle rustling of leaves could be heard, carried in by the cold *ber-month* breeze slipping through the open glass door at the back.
A strand of white hair fell across my face.
When I blinked once, Anathasia was standing behind the couch, looking down at me with that familiar, gentle smile.
I blinked again.
She was suddenly seated at the other end of the couch.
And when I sat up, she immediately shifted positions, lying down and using my lap as her pillow instead.
I sighed quietly, resting my hand against her hair.
—
A week passed after our finals.
As planned, we went back to my hometown shortly after just a few days before Christmas. Expecting to… do something.
But instead—
"It's been pretty quiet these days…" Anathasia whispered, lightly kicking a stone along the roadside as we walked. We'd been sent out to buy extra ingredients for tonight's Noche Buena.
"It's kind of eerie," she added.
"And by that, you mean…?" I asked.
"I mean it's *too* peaceful," she replied. "I set up some pretty sturdy countermeasures in case things got out of hand—but they're almost too effective."
I tilted my head slightly, watching her back as she walked a few steps ahead.
"Isn't that a good thing, though?" I said.
"Everything's in order. You get to laze around as much as you want."
She folded her arms, gaze lowered as I caught up beside her.
"That's true…" she admitted.
"But honestly, omniscience can get really boring."
After a short pause, she continued quietly.
"Rania and Roselia have been really active lately… Kagariel's awake too."
She let out a soft sigh.
"Must be why I barely have anything to do."
We walked in silence for a bit before I spoke again.
"By the way," I said, "those Collective Sphere–like structures you mentioned repairing a few months ago… what exactly were those?"
Anathasia glanced back at me.
"Oh, those?" she said casually.
"They're just really big bubbles. Each one containing infinite smaller bubbles, and each of those containing infinite smaller bubbles too."
She looked ahead again.
"The smallest ones are universes," she added.
"Realities like the one we're in."