Ch.246Side Story: The Heavenly God and the Devil – 1

“How long did we sleep?”

“You slept for a little over an hour, ma’am.”

“Ugh, that’s quite a while.”

Rosaria yawned widely and stretched her arms. The movement naturally exposed her armpits and emphasized her chest, but no one nearby paid any attention. Of course, Rosaria herself didn’t care either.

Next to her, Priscilla was still nodding off with a drowsy face. Laura and Elysier were having the suntan oil wiped off their bodies with the help of two maids.

Although they were colleagues in the Eternal Guild, Nika secretly preferred being treated as a subordinate like this.

If she became friends with the master and the other four who were already in a very intimate relationship, the forms of address would become confusing. Whether as Nika or Yustera, it was more comfortable to be treated as a subordinate.

That way, she could truly feel like she belonged to her master.

“By the way, where did Mira go?”

“I don’t see Latina and Leona either.”

“She went to look for them.”

Nika briefly summarized what had happened before waking the four of them.

Everyone was sleeping so soundly that the master felt bad about waking them, so he suggested that those who were awake go to the beach. When they returned, they found the ice box left open and the alcohol that had been inside was gone.

After piecing together various clues, they suspected that Leona and Latina, who had been missing since before they went to the beach, had taken the alcohol. So Mira went to look for the two of them.

After hearing the explanation, Laura opened the ice box. Just as Nika had said, the number had clearly decreased. By 17 bottles, no less. Since Laura was the one who had stocked the alcohol, she knew exactly how many were missing.

“…So we slept so deeply that we didn’t even notice someone passing by and taking that much.”

“Well, it’s not really a problem, is it? We can always buy more alcohol. Since we’re already here, think positively. Let’s just consider it a nice hour-long nap.”

Rosaria, who was having her body wiped down by Beatrice after Laura and Elysier, checked herself all over.

Despite having suntan oil on and lying on a cloudless beach under the midsummer sun for over an hour, her skin was pure white without even a hint of redness. Truly a blessed body.

“You said Mira went to look for those two, right? When was that?”

“She said to wake you up and start preparing dinner if she didn’t return within 20 minutes.”

“20 minutes? Does it take that long to find those two?”

Priscilla tilted her head in confusion. The island wasn’t even that big. Even if they were hiding well, detection magic should have found them long ago.

“I wonder if she’s sitting with those two drinking alcohol.”

“Surely not. She said she was going to look for them.”

Everyone seemed to assume that it was impossible for Mira not to have found them. It made sense. It wasn’t like searching the entire empire; there was no way she couldn’t find two people on a small island.

“What I mean is that they might have planned this from the beginning. They could have deliberately hidden to make Mira come looking, and then forced her to drink with them when she arrived.”

“That’s a frighteningly plausible plan.”

“Is it? If I were those two, I would have considered why they disappeared.”

“…”

Laura looked at Elysier with an incredulous expression, but inwardly she couldn’t completely rule out the possibility.

Given Mira’s personality, if those two teamed up against her, she wouldn’t be able to firmly refuse. Just like with the four of them here.

“Let’s wait a little longer. If she still doesn’t come, we can go look for them…?”

Just as Priscilla was suggesting they wait a bit longer, a brilliant golden light shot up from the other side of the island, as if the sun itself had descended to earth.

“Mira! What happened? Are you okay?!”

Familiar faces came rushing from far away. So they saw it from over there too.

The flash of light from the holy power was incredibly intense, though thankfully not harmful to the eyes.

“…”

“…”

Thanks to my quick thinking, Leona and Latina had managed to fix their clothes in time and were now awkwardly sitting on rocks behind me, pretending to be distracted. There was a strange distance between them.

Even though they had been half-drunk, they had kissed, entwined their tongues, and even shared each other’s saliva—now the embarrassment was finally catching up to them.

Fortunately, the people who came looking for us showed no interest in that scene.

“Mira, what’s wrong with that thing?”

“…I don’t know either.”

The magic staff was floating in the air by itself, absorbing all the attention. It was still glowing brightly, though not as blindingly as it had been when it could be seen from the opposite side of the island.

I truly had no idea why it was behaving this way. Just as I was muttering about whether to do it again while looking down at the half-naked Leona and Latina, the light suddenly gathered and turned into this.

“Was this why you couldn’t come back? Were you trying to figure out what happened?”

“Huh? Oh… yeah. That’s right.”

I answered reflexively. I had been wondering what to say if they asked why I hadn’t returned for over 20 minutes, and when a convenient excuse presented itself, I jumped on it.

I couldn’t possibly say that I had lost my mind over Leona and Latina and was having sex with them. At least not here.

Fortunately, everyone seemed to half-accept this explanation, given the combination of Latina and Leona.

“Hmm…”

Everyone except Nika, that is.

With narrowed eyes, Nika looked back and forth between Leona, Latina, and me, then met my gaze with a meaningful smile. Her eyes seemed to say she knew it was a lie.

She probably did know. Despite appearances, Nika was a Succubus Queen after all. She could easily figure out what had happened here. Just like she was the first to notice with Priscilla and Laura.

—Did.You.Do.It?

Nika’s lips moved very slowly, enunciating each syllable clearly. It wasn’t hard to understand. When my expression became ambiguous, her lips moved again.

—All.Three.Of.You.

“…”

Seeing my even more ambiguous expression, Nika smiled even wider. Her face said she would definitely need an explanation later. I nodded obediently. Only then did she look away.

“Can’t you put this back?”

“I tried dismissing it the usual way, but it stayed like this.”

If I had known how, I would have solved it myself. I couldn’t dismiss it or make it move, so I just left it as it was.

“Huh?”

That’s when it happened.

The staff glowed even more brilliantly, and suddenly a bright golden halo appeared above Rosaria’s head. Startled, Rosaria grabbed the halo and pulled.

“W-what?! Why did this suddenly pop out?!”

Come to think of it, she had mentioned during our first meeting that her halo would appear involuntarily when her holy power strengthened. I had rarely seen it with my own eyes, so I thought she had learned to control it.

Soon after, the staff began to glow in resonance. Although it wasn’t actually blinding, the explosive light made us reflexively shield our eyes.

When the light subsided…

“…What are these?”

There were two small children who looked exactly like Leona and Latina, but as if they had been turned back into elementary school students.

“So in the end, it wasn’t anything serious?”

“No, we were just dealing with something related to the magic staff. I’ll explain when you arrive.”

“Then I’ll tell the professors that.”

“Understood. When do you expect to arrive?”

“Hehe, I think it will only take another hour or two at most. I’ll try to get there as quickly as possible, so don’t worry.”

The communication ended. I turned around with a long internal sigh. In the distance, I could see two small girls surrounded by women.

Those girls were the source of my sigh.

They were just over 130cm tall, with faces that looked exactly like Latina and Leona. Even their clothes matched—one wore a gray nun’s habit like Latina, and the other wore an academy uniform like Leona.

‘At least they’re not wearing swimsuits…’

If they had copied what they were currently wearing—one in a rash guard and the other in a bikini—that would have been horrifying, given that they looked like elementary school students.

“So these are the goddess and demon lord you saw back then?”

In reality, they were a goddess and a demon lord.

They were the two who had sacrificed themselves to stabilize time. The one who looked like Leona was the goddess, and the one who looked like Latina was the demon lord.

“Y-yes… that’s… right… uuuu…”

“Wow, look! Her cheeks are so soft! So cute!”

“Hey! Don’t touch me as you please! What do you think you’re doing?”

“Looking like that, you’re not scary at all no matter how angry you get. Just give up quietly.”

Now they were surrounded by four possessed women and one maid, having their cheeks squished. The goddess was whimpering “uuuu” but quietly accepting the touches, while the demon lord was irritably swatting hands away.

Not that it did much good—her fists were only the size of a ten-year-old girl’s, so she was quickly subdued and touched again. If anything, Elysier and Laura seemed to enjoy her small rebellion even more. Nika was similar.

“It feels strange. It’s like we’re the ones being touched.”

“Yeah… I feel weird too.”

Latina and Leona watched the scene with awkward expressions. Since both children looked exactly like them, it must have been strange to see them being handled like dolls.

“…I thought a child of ours had been born from the magic staff.”

“That’s absurd, but it makes sense. I thought the staff had reacted to the combination of Mira, the Light Hero, and the nun.”

We calmed our startled hearts from a short distance away. The timing had been such that we thought these children had appeared because of our intimate activities. Especially since they looked exactly like the two of them.

‘The goddess used to look like Aria.’

Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a slender body. While blonde hair and blue eyes might be a fantasy world staple, among the people around me, only Aria had that combination of hair and eye color.

So I wondered why they now appeared with these forms.

“Eek! Let go!”

The demon lord, after having her cheeks thoroughly squished by Laura, Elysier, and Nika, seemed to reach her limit of patience. With her tiny body, she grabbed the goddess’s wrist and broke through the four people.

It was more like they let her through. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be watching with such fond expressions as she walked toward me with her barely-over-130cm body.

“Goddess. And… Demon Lord?”

“I’ve noticed this before, but why don’t you show me proper respect?”

The demon lord grumbled.

Miraculously, both deities retained all their memories from before their sacrifice. It was truly fortunate that I wouldn’t have to face off against gods or be banished from this world.

“We can discuss that later. What’s going on? Why did you appear from the magic staff?”