After petting her for a long while, I suddenly came to my senses.
*What am I doing right now?*
I was used to her, but from Ais's perspective, I was just a suspicious person she had met for the first time yesterday.
And yet I'd gone and started stroking her head without warning? Of all things, to a child like this?
*I've lost it...*
Thinking it was fine just because she wasn't resisting made no sense, even to me.
Just from what happened yesterday, I was clearly stronger than Ais. In other words, Ais probably wasn't staying still because she liked it, but because I was dangerous and she was obediently putting up with it.
*Idiot...*
No matter how I looked at it, not even considering that was pathetic.
"Ah..."
When my hand pulled away, Ais let out a strangely regretful sound. Or maybe that was just my imagination.
Then she stared at me as if she had something to say.
*This hasn't changed either...*
Staring at the other person while thinking over what to say in her head. It was something I was used to now, but when I first met her, how overwhelming had it been?
It was even more so because she was someone I admired. Back then, I didn't even know Ais had such a natural side to her.
"Um."
After finishing her thoughts, Ais opened her mouth.
But for some reason, I felt a strong sense of déjà vu in this situation.
"Can I ask you something?"
As if I had faced this same kind of moment before, in another time, another situation, from another position.
"What is it that lets you get so strong?"
It was a little different, but it was clearly a recreation of a scene from the past.
Another time, another situation, another position.
And yet the same person had asked me the same question in the same place.
It was the moment when I first crossed swords with the one I admired—no, the moment I was first taught by her.
The girl before me overlapped with the girl from back then, when she had sharpened her usual odd, absent-minded expression into something keen and looked at me with serious eyes.
An anxious, precarious, immature girl, and yet she was Ais Wallenstein then, and she was Ais Wallenstein now.
"...That is..."
And because of that, I couldn't give the same answer I had back then.
I couldn't say the same thing I had then.
Because I knew her circumstances, because I knew her situation, because I knew how she felt.
I knew, to the point of not wanting to know, that what I had said back then would not reach her now.
"Tell me."
Her straight, unwavering eyes pierced through me.
A pure, almost overwhelming longing dwelled in them.
Pure resentment. Pure vengeance.
The one who had lost everything was trying to burn herself away and move forward in order to reclaim what she had lost.
Without even realizing that there was no turning back anymore.
"..."
I couldn't speak.
Her eyes were too painful to look at.
More than anything else, the fact that there was nothing I could do for her hurt me the most.
"May I ask you one thing too?"
And so there was only one thing I could do.
"If I answer, will you answer me too?"
"Yes."
"Then all right."
Ais nodded, looking satisfied.
Watching her, my feelings grew even more complicated as I thought about it.
What I could do for her now.
What she truly needed.
At this moment, telling her the "right path" was not important at all.
What mattered was holding her up so she wouldn't fall. And...
Making sure there was a place she could always return to.
*
"That is..."
At first, it was nothing more than coincidence.
A chance sight while looking around at this and that.
A chance to be looking in that direction at just the right moment.
A chance to have noticed it and focused on it a little.
So many coincidences, stacked one after another.
But the result of those coincidences piling up was by no means small.
"That is..."
Far away, on the city wall surrounding Orario, a girl and a boy were walking together.
The girl gave off a golden radiance. I knew her face.
*That girl is... Loki's?*
She was definitely the girl Loki had brought with her. I remembered her because she had such a peculiar soul.
A child whose soul was sharp like a sword rather than human, one I had left alone because I had no interest in swords that weren't people...
"She's changed?"
The sword had become a girl before I knew it. The sharpness in her expression had softened, and the blade that had once been drawn tight was now sheathed.
*Who is that?*
The white-haired man beside her. Someone I had never seen before.
*I can't feel anything...*
Even while looking at him, it felt like I wasn't looking at him at all. It was as if someone were covering my eyes.
"Though I can see his face just fine..."
He had a decent face. Losing an eye was a point against him, but he was so cute that even that somehow became a charm.
"Hmm~"
Interest stirred in those silver eyes.
Had that man changed that girl?
Curiosity rose in me. It was the kind of chronic curiosity that all gods had in one form or another, large or small.
Who that man was, where he had suddenly come from, how he had managed to win that girl over.
Was he one of Loki's children? Or was he a follower of some other god passing by?
I was interested. That was why I wanted to meet him.
If that boy was the one who changed the girl, then that was fine. If not, that was fine too.
If he had, he might be able to cure this boredom. If he hadn't, then all I had to do was share a hot love affair with the boy instead.
The goddess did not hesitate.
"Mia."
"Hm? What is it?"
Even with the follower who treated her so casually, the goddess paid it no mind.
"I have a favor to ask."
*
I was currently facing Ais.
There was no need to ask why this had happened. It was a matter I had proposed in the first place.
"—Shall I teach you how to fight?"
Ais took that abrupt question at face value and nodded.
What came after that was swift and seamless. Ais forgot all about the question and drew her sword, while I looked at her, picked up a nearby branch, and made a suitable weapon out of it.
Ais looked a little offended when she saw that, but she didn't object. She must at least understand that the difference in our skill was enormous.
She wasn't cold, but she wasn't blindly reckless either.
She could see the truth clearly. That gave me a little relief.
Only a little, of course.
*Even knowing it, she still charges in...*
Knowing is one thing, but the problem is that she knows and still goes, "I don't care," and charges ahead. It would be nice if she could hold back just a little.
*...Am I really one to talk?*
A man who had lost an eye and an arm had no right to say that. And even if I corrected her, she probably wouldn't listen anyway.
So I had to guide her. I had to redirect that mind, so sharp and intent on killing monsters, toward something else.
Slowly, and little by little.
Not big, but certain. That would change her life.
*...Is this really right?*
I tried not to think about it, but I couldn't help it.
Because this situation was completely different from everything before.
Zeus Familia, Hera Familia—those weren't a big problem.
They had been wiped out before I was even born. Since they had so little connection to my future self, I thought the changes would be small too.
But Ais? She was a woman who was alive in the future, and someone who meant a great deal to me.
Was it really all right to interfere with her this much?
And yet, apart from that thought, there was also a part of me that felt it didn't matter.
I still thought this whole situation was vague, as if maybe it was all a dream.
It didn't feel real, I suppose. I couldn't quite bring myself to be serious because of that hazy sense of ease.
"What are you thinking about?"
Ais asked me that with a sulky expression.
*Ah, crap... was I spacing out too much?*
No matter how big the skill gap was, being ignored was unpleasant.
Especially for Ais, who was obsessed with becoming stronger.
Thinking about something else in front of her must have been more irritating than most provocations.
"...No, I'm sorry."
Putting everything else aside, that was rude. For now, I should focus on the present.
I exhaled. I let the strength out of my body and kept myself as natural as possible.
At the same time, I made sure not to put too much force into anything. Ais was Level 1 right now. One wrong move, and she could die from a single strike.
I'd have to fight while taking every possible precaution not to kill her. I think I was starting to understand a little of the hardship Ais had gone through when she taught me.
Thinking that, I looked at Ais. She was already in stance, waiting with full readiness.
She looked like a puppy being told to [Wait], which was kind of adorable, but I couldn't keep this up forever.
Waving the branch I had wrapped in cloth to soften the impact, I said, "Then, come at me."
At those words, Ais rushed at me in a flash.