Aiden, who had been reduced to a complete background prop, watched this miraculous scene unfold while sweating bullets.
Female friendship truly was an incomprehensible mystery.
Seeing that the two of them wouldn't finish chatting anytime soon, Aiden decided to go find Furina to tell her about the arrival of their new companion.
While Robin and Himeko chatted happily, Aiden quietly slipped out of the room.
Soon, he found Furina playing "Jungle Chess" with Astrea in the spacious living room of the Palais Mermonia.
When Aiden found Furina, the match was clearly already a lost cause.
Furina sat on the sofa with her cheeks puffed out, looking utterly miserable. Her exquisite, doll-like face was densely plastered from forehead to chin with small white slips of paper given as penalties, to the point where her original appearance was almost obscured.
In contrast, Astrea, sitting across from her, maintained her gentle and demure appearance, her face completely clean without a single slip of paper.
Seeing this, Aiden couldn't help but turn around and secretly chuckle.
Astrea wasn't him.
The personality of this Goddess of Justice contained a perfectly measured dose of dark humor. She would absolutely never pass up an opportunity to openly tease Furina.
Unlike Aiden, who almost every time he played games with Furina, would subtly go easy on her, finding all sorts of ways to let her win.
Because of this, Furina had once severely overestimated her own abilities, egotistically believing she was a once-in-a-century genius in the realm of Jungle Chess.
But in reality, that was merely a beautiful illusion Aiden had woven for her out of pure doting.
"Furina, I need you for a moment," Aiden stepped forward, clearing his throat as he spoke.
Furina, who had been struggling to find a way out of her humiliation, lit up as if she had just seen a savior the moment she heard Aiden's voice.
With a flurry of "swish" sounds, she tore all the paper slips off her face, crumpled them into a ball, and tossed them on the table. She jumped up from the sofa, stuck her tongue out at the smiling Astrea, made a funny face, and threw down a challenge:
"Hmph, that's it for today! Just you wait, Astrea! Next time, I'm definitely going to cover your face in paper slips too!"
Having said that, without waiting for Astrea's response, she grabbed Aiden's hand and dashed upstairs without looking back. She looked exactly like a little hamster that had lost a fight but refused to admit defeat.
Aiden could only look back and offer Astrea an apologetic, wry smile.
Astrea didn't mind Furina's "wild claims" at all. She merely smiled gently, watching their backs disappear around the corner of the stairs.
Then, she looked down at the board filled with cute animal pieces and murmured softly, "This is actually quite interesting."
As soon as she spoke, Cecil and the others, who had been watching eagerly from the sidelines, immediately swarmed over.
"U-Um, Lady Astrea!"
Cecil's cheeks were slightly flushed, and she sat across from Astrea a bit bashfully. "Since Lady Focalors is busy... if you don't mind, p-please let us be your opponents."
Looking at these children of her Astrea Familia, who clearly had ulterior motives beyond just playing a game, Astrea saw right through their desire to get closer to her, and her smile grew even gentler.
"Sure."
"Oh yeah!"
Cecil cheered wildly in her heart, though she tried hard to maintain a lady's modesty on the outside.
To be able to play chess with our Goddess... I'm so happy!
"That's so unfair! Why is Astrea so good at chess?!"
On the stairs leading up to the second-floor bedroom, Furina was practically dragging Aiden by the wrist, complaining indignantly as she ran up.
Her face, newly freed from the paper slips and still bearing sticky residue, was written full of frustration.
"How did I never notice this before? She's way better than you! Every time I play with you, I clearly win!"
Hearing this childish accusation, Aiden's mouth twitched slightly.
He really wanted to say, Is there a possibility that it's not that Astrea is too good, but rather... you're just really bad?
Or perhaps, is there another possibility that it's not that Astrea is better than me, but that I release an entire ocean's worth of water for you every time?
But seeing Furina's stubborn expression, Aiden ultimately swallowed the words that had reached the tip of his tongue.
Sigh, she's our family's adorable Goddess. What else can I do but spoil her?
"Ahem, maybe it's because Astrea is the Goddess of Justice, so she has a natural intuition for 'games of strategy'," he consoled her.
"Is that so?" Furina tilted her head, seemingly finding the explanation reasonable, yet still feeling something was off.
But quickly, she remembered something. She abruptly stopped in her tracks, turned around, and looked at Aiden with bright, sparkling heterochromic eyes.
"Ah, right! I was so busy running away that I forgot to ask—you said you needed me for something. What is it?"
Aiden was momentarily startled, thinking Furina had suddenly gotten smarter and realized he had been teasing her. Relieved, he steered the topic back on track. "Yeah, my summoning is finished. I wanted you to come take a look and see if you can grant a Falna to our new companion."
"A new companion?"
Furina's eyes grew even brighter, filled with curiosity. "Male or female? Good-looking? Interesting?"
However, amidst her rapid-fire questioning, Aiden merely replied calmly, "She... might be a bit special. Her form of existence is that of a Spirit."
"A Spirit?"
The curiosity on Furina's face instantly froze, and she blinked subconsciously.
The next second, Aiden clearly felt her entire aura undergo an earth-shattering shift.
Her hand, which had been holding onto Aiden's, let go unconsciously.
Within those heterochromic eyes, Furina's silly demeanor rapidly receded, replaced by a profound, composed radiance.
Her posture became straight and elegant, and even her signature ahoge seemed to lose its usual liveliness, drooping down quietly.
Focalors had logged on.
"If she is a Spirit," her voice held subtle differences from Furina's, "then there should be no way to grant her a Falna."
She frowned slightly with her beautiful willow-like eyebrows and patiently began to explain.
"Spirits, like us gods, are born in the heavens. They are celestial beings, a magical race, and the favored children of the gods. Although they appear to have flesh and blood and possess physical bodies just like mortals, this is merely a superficial appearance. In essence, they are spiritual entities condensed from pure magic power; they do not possess bodies of true flesh and blood."
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