At the very least, tonight she had to stand guard beside Kami-sama's pillow!!!
That thought settled it. Tsukuyo Inaba pinched the hem of her thin nightgown, bare feet sinking into the soft wool carpet.
Her eyes stayed closed. She relied on hearing far beyond any ordinary person's, and on the Development Ability that had only grown sharper since her ascension to Lv.3 — Mind's Eye. Step by step, she followed the corridor toward the guest room assigned to Haimer.
Tsukuyo Inaba bit her lip, a rabbit thumping around behind her ribs. Tonight I have to go through with it. Her mind was made up.
The elf girl blundering half-drunk right up in front of Kami-sama had rung the shrillest alarm bell imaginable.
And on top of that, there was that madwoman Amou Kirukiru.
If she didn't fight for what she wanted, then in a [Haimer Familia] crawling with monsters like these, sooner or later she wouldn't be able to claim half an inch of space at Kami-sama's side.
With that, Tsukuyo Inaba quickened her pace. It was time to stake her claim properly.
But just as she was about to round the corner of the corridor, her pink ears gave two twitches.
In the web of perception Mind's Eye fed her, the hallway behind her — empty a moment ago — had suddenly sprouted furtive breathing. And not just one set of it.
"One, two, three…"
Her steps halted. Heat rushed up her cheeks. She turned toward the dimmer patch of shadow at the far end of the hall and lowered her voice.
"Come out."
"I can hear every one of you."
The air held still for two seconds. Then came a guilty rustle of cloth.
A moment later, several figures shuffled out of the shadow at the corner, slow and reluctant.
Leading them was Mary Kikakujou, hugging a pink rabbit cushion.
The blonde-ringleted young lady of Japanese-French blood had misplaced her usual haughty pride somewhere along the way. She wore a long coat, and wrapped underneath it was a lace camisole nightdress.
Caught red-handed, Mary Kikakujou turned her face aside. "I—I just came out for a wa— a walk…" she stammered.
"Liar!" Onigawara Rin popped out from behind her.
Rin was wearing a prim cotton short-sleeved pajama set — and, somehow, carrying her sword.
"You wear perfume for a walk?" Rin demolished her without mercy.
"Mind your own business! Is prowling around at midnight with a sword any more normal?" Mary Kikakujou shot back, red to the ears.
While the two of them bickered, Warabi Hanasaka wandered out as well, hair a bird's nest. Nomura Satori simply hung upside down from one of the corridor's wooden beams, then flipped and landed without a sound.
Even caught in the act, the girl was all grins and blithe confidence. "Hey, nobody can sleep tonight, huh?"
At the very back, Tendou Kisara leaned against the wall in a black athletic tank top, arms folded, saying nothing — but her eyes were fixed straight ahead.
Even the squad's foremost magic caster, the Holy Emperor, stood at the tail of the line with a shawl over her shoulders, faintly embarrassed. And yet those pale blue eyes burned with sheer stubbornness.
Tsukuyo Inaba looked at them all and had nothing to say.
She didn't need to ask. Every last one of them was headed for Kami-sama's room, exactly like her. Amou Kirukiru had provoked them past the point of caring about their dignity.
That flawless coordination they showed slaughtering monsters in the Dungeon? Gone. Traded in, all of it, for a scramble over bed space.
"You people…"
Even a cornered rabbit bites, and Tsukuyo was more rabbit than most. Flushing scarlet, she ground her teeth. "You actually followed me."
"Now, now, Tsukuyo, don't put it like that." Mary Kikakujou coughed delicately. "We simply happen to have the same destination."
"Right, right." Little Satori sidled up and patted Tsukuyo Inaba's shoulder. "We're rivals, aren't we? Can't have you sneaking off on your own."
Rivals. The moment the word was out, the air in the corridor turned several shades pinker.
It was the thing they had all silently agreed never to name. Now it lay out in the open.
And once it was in the open, nobody was willing to give ground. Only this time there were far, far too many of them.
Even so, Tsukuyo Inaba drew a deep breath. She wasn't going to fall silent or shrink back the way she once would have.
With Mind's Eye mapping the world for her, she straightened her small back and turned first. "In that case, let's each rely on our own skills."
Gathering her courage, Tsukuyo Inaba set off in long strides straight for Haimer's door.
Behind her, Mary Kikakujou, Lun and the rest exchanged one glance and hurried after her.
A whole regiment of girls in nightclothes swept down the corridor in grand procession.
And the sight landed squarely in the eyes of the two who had just come out of the women's bath at the other end of the corner — Riveria and Lefiya.
Riveria, in a neat long skirt, took in these housemates radiating murderous intent and pink bubbles in equal measure.
High elf that she was, past a hundred years of life, all she could do was raise a hand and press it to her throbbing forehead.
"How exactly does one describe this…" Riveria sighed.
Lord Haimer's charm really was frightening.
As for Lefiya, standing at Riveria's side, her big amber eyes had gone perfectly round and her mouth hung open without closing.
Back in the bath, Senior Riveria had force-fed her a mountain of common knowledge about the gods and the children of the Lower World. Her head had already been a shambles.
And now she turned and saw them: that rising-star Familia, the one rumored to have matched the record for the fastest leveling in the labyrinth. Those swordswomen of fearsome reputation.
In the dead of night, in camisoles and lace nightgowns, moving as a group.
To do what?!
Did she even need to think about it?!
Unbidden, Lefiya's mind conjured the broad chest she had seen the time she wandered into the men's bath by mistake. And if that many girls all crawled in there together—
Thump.
Something in Lefiya's head burned clean through.
Her face swelled red as an overripe tomato, and steam started rising off the top of her head.
This outside world, these girls — how could anyone possibly be so bold?!
Waaah! Miss Marie!!!
Lefiya's head was in such a whirl that she never noticed Mary Kikakujou at the back of the pack.
Riveria glanced at the girl beside her, who was on the verge of spontaneous combustion, and patted her shoulder with weary resignation. "That's enough, stop staring. Off to bed with you. Consider this part of your training as well."
Before long, outside Haimer's door, the girls had packed themselves into a knot.
Mary Kikakujou reached for the handle, only for Onigawara Rin to clamp a hand around her wrist. "Are you knocking, or am I?" Lun asked, keeping her voice down.
"Why not go in alphabetical order?" Satori stirred the pot from the sidelines.
Tsukuyo Inaba kept her eyes shut, pink ears twitching.
And while they were all still dithering over how to open the game, Haimer — who had heard every word from inside the room — sat in the single armchair by the window.
With a sigh he laid the old tome he had borrowed from Loki face-down on the tea table.
He listened to the jumble of heartbeats outside his door and the soft rasp of fabric. These girls hadn't made the slightest attempt to mask their presence. Or rather, in this state, not one of them had the presence of mind to try.
Haimer sighed as a headache built behind his eyes.
This was no contest for his favor. This was a manhunt.
If he didn't open the door soon, he might well wake up tomorrow to find this entire wall of the Twilight Manor torn down.
At that thought he shook his head, rose to his feet and crossed to the door.
Click.
Just as the girls finally settled on who would raise a hand and knock, the red-brown solid-wood door was pulled open from the inside.
Their hands were still hanging in midair. Every one of them froze in that instant.
As one, they lifted their heads toward the tall figure in the doorway.
Haimer still wore that soft grey silk robe. He had just bathed, and damp strands of hair clung to his forehead, leaving his broad shoulders and a stretch of hard chest bare.
Add that faultless, handsome face, and in the hush of the night the impact hit a hundred times harder than any monster in the Dungeon.
At the front of the pack, Mary Kikakujou swallowed audibly, her face burning through.
Lun, showing no backbone whatsoever, looked away, her gaze drifting aimlessly over the carpet.
Haimer studied the girls standing in two rows outside his door — slender ones, soft ones, each lovely in her own way.
"Did you all arrange this together for a late-night bed check?" Haimer tilted his head.
"Kami-sama…" Tsukuyo Inaba twisted her fingers together and stepped forward.
Her eyes might see nothing, but with senses that sharp she was hopelessly attuned to Haimer's presence now.
"I can't sleep." Her reason was blunt and to the point.
"Right, I can't sleep either." Mary Kikakujou bit her lip. "And since we're all standing out here anyway…"
For once the young lady's temper had been thoroughly overruled by her instinct for survival.
"Kami-sama wouldn't really drive us off, would he?"
Kisara and the Holy Emperor nodded silently beside her.
Faced with a pack of girls all wearing the same if-you-don't-let-us-in-we're-not-leaving look, Haimer found he had no anger left in him.
Back in the Heavens he had spent his days ringed by goddesses. But these children of the Lower World — that careful, desperate hunger to have their existence confirmed made it impossible to say anything harsh.
"All right." Haimer stepped back half a pace and turned side-on. "Everyone in. It's late."
His gaze passed over one hopeful face after another, and he sighed. "Since you've come all this way, we'll sleep together."
The words drew a burst of muffled, delighted laughter from the hallway.
And the girls who had been scheming against each other a moment earlier poured into the spacious guest room one after another, like kittens who had found a warm nest.
Still — now that they were all inside, the next problem arrived.
The Twilight Manor's guest suites were certainly large and the carpet was soft enough, but there was only one bed. It was wide enough for four or five people to lie side by side. How to divide it, though, was a matter of considerable strategy.
Haimer shut the door and locked it. When he turned around, Mary Kikakujou had already darted to the right side at the head of the bed, pink rabbit cushion clutched tight, her position firmly seized.
She even patted the quilt and announced, "I'm claiming this spot!"
"Says who?!" Onigawara Rin wasn't having it.
She propped her sword in the corner, strode to the left side of the bed, lay straight down and dragged half the quilt over with her.
The Holy Emperor stood stiffly off to one side. A ruler who had once presided over a court from on high had never faced a campaign like fighting a comrade for blankets.
Grace had been bestowed on her and her magic had climbed to terrifying heights, yet against this sort of everyday scramble she stood helpless, without a single counter.
Tsukuyo, meanwhile, used her small frame and her agility to burrow in early at the lower middle of the bed — directly beneath the pillow where Haimer usually lay.
Warabi Hanasaka sat on the carpet at the foot of the bed. Kisara, without being asked, settled cross-legged beside the armchair by the bedside, hand on her sword hilt, ready to serve as his guard at a moment's notice.
Nomura Satori giggled and flung herself bodily onto the bed, landing across Mary Kikakujou's shins and drawing a yelp from the young lady.
The whole room was filled to bursting with bright, blossoming girls. The air held the clean scent of body wash tangled with the natural sweetness of young skin.
"Haaah…"
"I honestly don't know what to say to you lot."
Haimer picked up the glass from the table and took a mouthful of water to wet his throat.
He turned to survey the bed, claimed now from end to end, and could only walk over in resignation. He sat down in the one gap left in the middle.
"Kami-sama…" On his right, Tsukuyo Inaba felt the mattress dip beside her and rested her head against the edge of his robe.
"So worried I'll run off?" Haimer reached out, slid his fingers into her smooth silver hair and ruffled it.
She squinted with pleasure under his hand, cheeks red, and offered no argument at all.
On his left, Lun watched it happen and refused to be outdone. She rolled over, shifted closer to the middle and murmured, "We've got the match against the Second String tomorrow."
"Everyone's been under a lot of pressure over this duel. The seats on the deep-level expedition are riding on it."
Mary Kikakujou tossed aside her rabbit cushion and her coat and crawled up from behind. Leaning forward like that, her camisole nightdress was straining far past what it was built for.
She noticed none of it, eyes fixed on Haimer. "Do you think we can win, Kami-sama?"
A view he had no business seeing drifted through the corner of Haimer's eye. Without missing a beat he lifted a hand, pulled over the blanket beside him and draped it across Mary Kikakujou's shoulders. "You actually need to ask me that?"
Haimer leaned back against the soft headboard, his gaze traveling over the eager, battle-hungry faces around him.
For days now these girls had been sparring themselves half to death against Loki's First Corps. Every one of them stood right at the edge of breaking past the ceiling of her current level.
Kisara's Sword Aura could trade blows with Riveria now. Mary Kikakujou's thrusts came so fast the wind couldn't catch them. Pair that with Lun's coordination and their defense was airtight.
As for Tsukuyo Inaba — and Koharu Narukami, who hadn't come tonight — they clearly had the potential to cripple a first-class adventurer in a single instant.
"Not only has every one of you ascended to Lv.3," Haimer said, "even those veteran adventurers Orario is so proud of couldn't be certain of holding you down at the same level."
"And if you lose to Loki's Second String—"
At that, Haimer reached out and flicked each of them on the forehead.
"—then I'll hang you off Babel Tower myself and let the west wind cool you down."
The words were meant to be stern. In the girls' ears they worked more like a tonic for the nerves. It proved that in Kami-sama's own assessment, the advantage was overwhelmingly theirs.
"We'd never bring shame on you!" Lun said, clutching her forehead, eyes fierce with resolve.
"Yeah, it's only the Second String." Satori yawned as drowsiness rolled over her.
Kisara lay on her side on the armchair nearby, watching them talk the whole time. Feeling that trust and ease running from the inside out, a gentle smile touched her face.
The night deepened. The whispering in the room finally thinned away, bit by bit.
The exhaustion of all that running about and hard training laid down its arms one piece at a time, once each girl had confirmed she held her place at Kami-sama's side.
In the quiet, Haimer listened to the uneven, steady breathing all around him and reached over to switch off the lamp.
Tsukuyo Inaba's fingers were still hooked in a corner of his robe, her breaths gone long and slow.
Onigawara Rin lay on her side, fast asleep, still muttering sword-form mnemonics under her breath.
Mary Kikakujou had simply draped half her body across Haimer's leg and sunk into a deep sleep.
____
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