"Where am I...?"
"Are you awake?"
When I opened my eyes again, I saw a familiar ceiling.
This was the home of Miach Familia, where I had been staying until just a little while ago.
"Lady Hestia?"
"Yes. How is your body feeling?"
"Why am I... ngh!"
I reflexively tried to sit up, but the pain that shot through my whole body, especially my head, forced me back down onto the bed.
In that moment, I remembered something I had forgotten.
"Right. My shop... I'll have to rebuild it later."
"I'm sorry. I never imagined that Apollo, that damned bastard, would go that far..."
"You really don't need to apologize."
After all, I was the one who always told her that if anything happened, I should flee there.
So I said it to the goddess as calmly as I could, trying to reassure her instead.
But despite my tone, it seemed my expression was nothing like that at all.
Judging by the way Lady Hestia was watching me with anxious eyes, that much was obvious.
Hmm. I thought I was managing at least a somewhat relaxed smile.
Guess keeping a straight face is way too hard.
"Um, Magus-kun."
"I'm still a little tired. I'm going to rest a bit more."
"Ah."
It was a gentle tone, but also an unmistakable request to leave.
At my words, I could see Lady Hestia's face stiffen slightly.
But unfortunately, right now I didn't have the energy, the mental strength, or even the spare attention to worry about her.
That was how badly I was feeling right now. Miserable, very miserable, unbelievably miserable.
So this was the best option.
At least, that was my judgment at the moment.
Was I just throwing a tantrum?
Damn it, who cares.
I'm the one who wants to cry right now.
"By the way, Lady Hestia."
"Y-Yes? What is it? Do you need something?"
"No. It's not that... How did I get back here?"
"Ah, that."
But before anything else, I needed to know the thing I was curious about.
At my question, Lady Hestia answered immediately without even pausing to think.
"A pretty elf girl with black hair carried you here on her back. She said you had helped her once before. Do you know her?"
So it was Firvis.
What had she come here for?
Well, something that minor could be looked into later.
So without saying anything else, I pulled the blanket up over my head and buried myself under it.
At my reaction, Lady Hestia looked like she was about to say something, then stopped herself and left the room with a lonely expression.
Normally, I would have paid more attention to her and tried to be considerate.
But unfortunately, right now I had enough problems of my own.
"Haa."
I let out a deep sigh from under the blanket.
I feel like I desperately need antidepressants or I'm going to die.
If I had to compare this feeling to something... yeah.
It was like losing an external hard drive full of collections I'd spent years gathering and carefully organizing because of some sudden malfunction.
Anyway...
"This is the worst."
Yeah, exactly.
It really was the worst day ever.
...I seriously want to cry.
*
"Th-This is bad!"
After leaving the room where the Magus was staying, Hestia was genuinely flustered for the first time in a long while and could not keep still.
Seeing her friend so unsettled, the god Miach looked at her in confusion and asked her a question.
Of course, he also lowered his voice carefully, mindful of the patient who would be inside the room.
"What is it, Hestia? I can tell something is wrong, but this isn't like you."
"M-Miach. Wh-What should I do?"
"Hmm? That's surprising."
Hestia was worrying even more than he had expected.
At her reaction, Miach tried to comfort her and continued in a gentle tone.
"Well, it is truly unfortunate that the child's shop was completely destroyed, but thankfully no one was injured, yes? I thought that child wasn't the kind to be so inconsiderate as to overlook even that. Or am I wrong?"
"Th-That's true, but...!"
Unable to bear her own frustration, Hestia recalled several old memories in response to her friend's easygoing words.
They were old memories now worthy of being called recollections.
The Magus from back when he was still young.
Things no one else knew, things only Hestia, who had cared for him at his side, knew.
The days when he had run wild without understanding anything.
"No. This time, it's different from usual."
After piecing all of it together once more, she shook her head and rejected his assumption.
That naturally made Miach question her worry.
The Magus he knew was a wise, intelligent, and strong mage.
That was why her intense concern seemed so strange to him.
"Different, you say. In what way?"
So Hestia revealed just a little of the Magus's true nature, the side only she knew, to her friend.
Just a little.
"It was like this before too. That child usually acts like he doesn't care, but he's actually narrow-minded and holds grudges for a very long time. He just has a little more room in his heart than most people, so it doesn't go that far. By nature, he's the kind of child with an incredibly strong possessiveness over what he considers his own."
"And that means?"
"I don't know what happened, but if that child gets involved this time, it could become very serious."
At her words, Miach finally began to feel that the situation might be far more serious than he had thought.
The Magus's abilities, which he knew only in passing, were by no means trivial either.
If things went wrong, other children unrelated to this matter might get dragged in and hurt more than necessary.
"So if possible, I don't want that child to get involved this time. No, I'm sure it would be much better and smoother if he didn't. At least, that's what I think."
"Hmm. If that is the judgment of someone who has cared for him for so long, then so be it."
Miach nodded, saying he understood.
But the real problem did not end there.
"But will that be all right? Apollo's condition for this [War Game]. If you want an advantage there, that child's help will be essential, won't it?"
"Ugh! I-I know that too. B-But..."
"More importantly, you may not have given him [Falna], but by all rights that child is also your [Familia]. The very first one, in fact. Once this has become a total war, you can't just leave him alone, can you? His identity is already recorded with the Guild, too. No one knows what kind of excuse Apollo might try to make out of that later."
"That's... ngh...!"
For a brief moment, Hestia fell into thought.
But her answer still did not change.
She shook her head and stubbornly held to her position.
"Even so, no. What that child needs right now is proper rest for both body and mind. I can't make him push himself any further."
"Hestia."
"From the beginning, I only applied to the Guild as his guardian so I could make sure the status of that child, who was still young back then, was properly established. He isn't even officially registered as an adventurer, so he isn't fully my [Familia] member either. What right, what qualification do I have to force suffering on him and make him go through this with me? I can't do that, Miach."
"But, still..."
"I'm a useless goddess who only causes him trouble. I haven't really done anything for him since he was little. But even so... I can't just keep watching while he destroys himself with his own hands."
With a gloomy expression, Hestia recalled the past.
In the past, the goddess had taken pity on a lonely child and embraced him in her broad arms.
But the child was more capable than anyone else, while the goddess had no special talent to speak of.
Before she knew it, the roles had reversed, and she had ended up relying on the child's competence instead.
She had meddled in his life as she pleased, blamed herself for her own incompetence, and yet done nothing else for him.
Rather, she had arbitrarily decided that the child had grown up, that he would be fine on his own now, and simply left him alone.
As a result, the child had grown into a Magus on his own, agonized alone, made decisions alone, and pushed himself too hard behind her back.
Having achieved everything by his own strength alone, he had become unlike other children, no longer valuing himself at all.
And so the Magus, without even realizing it himself... no, perhaps he already knew everything and simply no longer cared.
But that could not be allowed.
That one thing absolutely could not happen.
They could never allow that child to drift beyond being human.
Even now, things were already somewhat precarious.
If they truly left him alone like that, then in the end that child would...
"He'll end up just as that 'old man' said. That absolutely cannot happen. That would be far too cruel for that child. Absolutely not."
"Hestia?"
Miach watched his friend, who had suddenly fallen into thought and self-reproach, with concern.
But Hestia ignored her friend's worry and continued speaking about what came next.
"Please, Miach. Take care of that child in my place. As planned, I'll bring the Supporter boy with me along with the children."
"I don't know the details, but... if you've made up your mind, then there's nothing I can do. Go and come back safely with the children."
And so the two gods' conversation came to an end, and the goddess went outside.
Left behind, the god opened the door as his friend had asked.
"Oh dear...!"
Inside the room, only a disheveled bed and a lonely silence remained.
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