The Goddess of Beauty had snuck along like some little tagalong, hiding in the carriage's luggage compartment the whole way.
Heh heh—
By the time Artemis discovered the stowaway, it was already too late to do anything about it. Given the distance, either Ais or Asfi would have to fly her all the way back and then return, or they'd simply have to let the matter go.
What was more... Aphrodite seemed awfully close with Ais.
Watching the two blonde girls huddle together so readily, Goddess Artemis sensed that something was off.
Those two were definitely plotting something!
The Moon Goddess didn't understand Ais very well, but she understood Aphrodite perfectly.
And so.
After the late-night snack, when everyone had returned to their rooms to sleep, Artemis did not sleep.
As the goddess of the moon and the hunt—
at night,
a young goddess's senses were amplified without limit. The slightest stirring anywhere in the inn couldn't possibly escape her ears!
So whatever scheme that woman Aphrodite was cooking up, Artemis was bound to catch her at it.
Any "evil" had to be brought to justice!
Holding fast to that conviction,
the young goddess lay in bed, keeping constant watch on the window, as the night deepened further and further, well past midnight.
As great swaths of darkness settled in, and even the stars and moon had quietly vanished,
outside the window,
a heavy summer-night rain began to fall.
And at that very moment, Artemis heard movement not far away!
She poked her little head out!
In the darkness, the Moon Goddess was the finest of hunters!!
Relying on her keen night vision,
Artemis spotted them — two blonde silhouettes, stirring restlessly in the courtyard!
So it really was them!!
The Elves' traditional houses, of course, weren't built up in trees.
Nor did they hollow out some great tree and live inside a hollow trunk — that was just a rumor from old human fairy tales!
The Elves held nature dear. How could they possibly tear up a forest just to build houses?
Because of that,
the "log cabin" style of house was something you would never see among the Elves.
In ancient times, the Elves piled stones to build their homes.
And as more recent "techniques" developed,
the Elves gradually learned to reshape the element of earth with Magic, raising houses that gave the illusion of having grown straight up out of the ground itself.
Because of this,
the towering, magnificent "structures (miracles)" of the Elven race were almost always built into mountainsides — some, it was even said, had once been entire mountains, reshaped by Elf mages.
The house everyone was currently staying in was much the same sort of thing.
A dwelling made purely of packed earth, crude and slightly crooked at first glance, decorated in the distinctive Elven style — they loved to adorn their homes with flowers, grasses, and colorful cloth.
At the same time, the doors, hallways, and windows were all somewhat taller and wider than in ordinary houses.
This wasn't just because the Elves themselves were tall, but also because of their proud temperament, which had shaped their aesthetic sensibilities.
As for the earthen hallway—
under the pounding rain, it grew not only damp but sticky underfoot.
Artemis was long since used to it.
After all, as the Moon Goddess, she often hunted in forests, and she was on good terms with many Elves who lived among the trees — she'd even been a guest in their villages before.
By comparison!
those two fumbling about in the dark were far clumsier.
"Ow!"
From the darkness came a pained yelp — the Goddess of Beauty had slipped and fallen flat.
Fortunately, Ais had quick hands and quick eyes.
She hauled the goddess up off the ground in an instant and clapped a hand over her mouth!
It wasn't that the girl meant any disrespect to a goddess — it was just that tonight's operation absolutely could not afford any more mishaps!!
Just like last time.
Last time had been a disaster!
Thinking back to that perfect opportunity, wasted — she'd ended up sleeping the whole night on the cold... no, actually pretty warm floor of the boy's room.
Ais still found it utterly absurd!
She hadn't dared tell "Mama" Riveria about it — it was simply too humiliating!!
So,
tonight the girl was launching a new operation. The target was exactly the same as before, but this time the process and the content would be completely different.
This time, Aphrodite claimed she'd brought a "supremely invincible secret weapon."
Ais still had her doubts about that.
But she decided to trust her anyway — after all, last time's mishap really hadn't been the goddess's fault.
Hmm...
"Let's go!"
The Goddess of Beauty was as full of energy as ever.
Even now, her expression was every bit as earnest as if she were about to step onto a stage for a performance.
As the goddess of love,
there was, of course, nothing more important right now than making the girl's "dream come true."
What was more,
she really did have a "supremely invincible secret weapon" in her possession right now — something she'd gone to great lengths to obtain (secretly pilfered) from a certain god of dreams in the city.
Heh heh heh~
She'd actually gotten the idea from Isagi and Ais!
The boy and the girl now both had the ability to pull others into their own dreams.
But when Aphrodite heard that all they did once inside those dreams was fight, she simply couldn't hold it together!
Honestly!
How infuriating!!
With such a wonderful ability, how could they use it just for fighting?!
This was a dream, after all.
In a dream, anything could come true — even things that could never possibly happen in reality, right?!
It was a world where you could do whatever you wanted, damn it!!
How could anyone waste that on just fighting.
So,
the Goddess of Beauty was determined to use the Divine Artifact she'd secretly stolen from Morpheus, the god of dreams, to weave a sweet dream for the boy and the girl. Hehe~
She slipped straight into Isagi's room!
For Ais, of course, that presented no difficulty at all.
So, as the two golden-haired beauties stood at the foot of the boy's bed, Aphrodite pulled out something that looked like a plump, round little creature — and with its soft cry, countless translucent bubbles began to rise into the air.
Within each tiny, transparent bubble, all sorts of scenes flickered past.
Those were the boy's dreams.
All kinds of dreams — past, future, and present.
As the Divine Artifact's magic took hold, Ais soon collapsed onto the bed beside him as well, and with startling speed, the two dreams began to merge — something that should have been impossible without the intervention of Arcanum.
And once Aphrodite saw that everything was set,
she prepared to enter the dream herself, ready to watch the show unfold — otherwise, what was even the point of coming?!
The beautiful young love between the boy and the girl,
of course, deserved to be witnessed (thoroughly gossiped about) by the goddess of love herself. Hehehe~
Holding fast to that thought,
Aphrodite never expected that, just as she was about to slip into the dream, an achingly familiar sense of "danger" suddenly washed over her from behind!
At the same moment, a small, ice-cold hand landed on her shoulder!!
!!!
Her plan had been found out.
But when?!
Still, once the arrow was nocked, there was no choice but to loose it. Hmph — not even Artemis could stop her now!!
She already knew exactly who was standing behind her — the Moon Goddess, of course.
But for the sake of the boy and girl's love, the Goddess of Beauty wasn't one to be trifled with either!!
Very well then—
the countless bubbles continued to drift in the air.
In the darkness, there was no flash of white light, no crash of thunder.
The two young goddesses simply collapsed, one after the other, beside the boy's bed, and fell fast asleep,
settling, just as peacefully as the plump little creature nestled in Aphrodite's arms, into the boy's dream world...
What sort of dream did Isagi usually have?
Not even Isagi himself knew — let alone anyone else.
Ais had originally assumed that entering the dream this time would take her back to the Dark Hall, or somewhere like the "adventures" she'd witnessed before.
A yellow, sand-choked mountain range crawling with rat demons and tiger demons;
or a crumbling, decaying capital city, filled with nothing but mummified corpses and the ghosts of dead knights;
or a dark, bottomless forest, thick with the stench of desolation and death;
or a war-torn, deranged foreign land, overrun with Beasts and twisted, monstrous horrors.
There were so many scenes in Isagi's dreams. Ais had witnessed nearly all of them by now — each one different, and yet somehow all alike.
In short,
all sorts of powerful Monsters would appear, the kind that could make you break out in a cold sweat if you weren't careful.
But this time was completely different.
Huh?
Perhaps because the girl's dream, and the two goddesses' dreams, had merged with it, the dream that once belonged solely to Isagi had undergone a sweeping transformation.
"If we're going to take down the Demon King, we should first go loot the nearby villagers' houses — check for treasure chests, and don't skip the cabinets, bookshelves, or beds either. Basically search anywhere something could be hidden,"
beside her,
Isagi said, dressed in light leather armor with a longsword on his back, and with the words "Braver" emblazoned in big letters above his head, speaking with utter seriousness.
"We might get lucky and find some Divine Artifact or a hidden item."
What in the world was going on?!
Ais was completely dumbfounded.
Defeating a Demon King, sure, she could sort of understand that — it seemed roughly comparable to slaying a Black Dragon, right?
But why did that involve rifling through the villagers' homes?
Wasn't a so-called "Braver" supposed to be a "Hero"? How could a hero do something like this?!
"That settled, let's go ask the villagers if there's any quests we can pick up. Once we're done exploring this village, we'll head out and grind some Goblins for levels!!"
"...???"
Weren't they supposed to be going to defeat the Demon King? Why start by farming Goblins — at this rate, when would they ever get around to fighting Monsters, next century?!
Ais stood frozen.
She had absolutely no idea what was going on.
All she could do was trail dumbly after the boy — and soon discovered that Isagi, right in front of a villager, simply walked straight into the man's house.
Then,
right in front of the man's wife, he began rummaging through every drawer and cabinet in the place.
That's robbery! This is straight-up robbery!!
But why didn't either of the villagers react at all?
Even more strangely...
when Ais tried to talk to the two of them, they earnestly poured out their so-called troubles and a quest:
[Please go to the general store on the other side of the village and buy us five candles.]
They even handed over money for it!
And overpaid, at that.
If you've got money, just go buy the candles yourself! Why send a Braver who's supposed to be defeating the Demon King to waste his time on something like this?!
Weren't they worried the Demon King might destroy the world while they dawdled around?!
Ais suddenly felt an overwhelming exhaustion wash over her.
Maybe this world really would be better off destroyed by the Demon King.
And so,
for a long stretch of time after that, Ais trailed after Isagi, running back and forth all over this tiny village.
Not only did the two of them clean out every single house,
she also helped buy candles for villagers, gathered eggs, tracked down a missing cat, and caught an escaped fugitive — a man who'd looked fierce and menacing at first, but crumbled the moment a weapon was drawn.
Finally, once every last one of these trivial little quests was finished,
Isagi at last led her out of the village, to the edge of the woodland beyond.
Ahh—
it was finally over.
Ais felt nothing but exhaustion by this point, unable even to understand what exactly she was doing, who she even was, or where—
she even was.
That Goddess of Beauty really wasn't to be trusted!
Wasn't this supposed to make a beautiful dream come true? What kind of "beautiful dream" was this — it didn't mean anything at all!!
Still,
at least they'd finally made it outside.
Back in the village, she'd heard there were "Monsters" living beyond its borders.
Ah, she got it now — it was just like adventuring in the Dungeon, and of course they'd started by fighting Goblins too. Got it, got it.
So this was still, in its own way, a dream about "adventure."
At least somewhat.
Finding a few familiar elements finally settled Ais's nerves, at least for the moment.
Until,
following the boy out into the wilderness, she encountered the first so-called Monster.
"A Slime Girl has appeared."
"...?"
Staring at the creature not far off, a huge question mark practically formed above the girl's head.
A Slime, of all things.
There weren't any in the Dungeon, but she'd seen them described in fairy tale books — an ordinary, weak little Monster.
Supposedly they'd gone extinct for some unknown reason.
But generally speaking,
it was a Monster formed from a gelatinous, blob-like mass — soft and viscous, like a drop of water given shape.
It had little real offensive power, though it was said to spit a fluid that could corrode clothes, armor, and weapons — but that was about the extent of it.
Its size varied wildly.
Small ones might be about the size of a cat or dog; the large ones could rival houses or even mountains.
But regardless, they were considered very low-level Monsters.
In particular, because its body was transparent, the Magic Stone inside was fully visible — completely, utterly exposing its own weak point for all to see.
There were legendary tales of them engulfing people or adventurers whole, suffocating or dissolving them — but those, apparently, weren't even true.
Regardless, though,
there was no way that legend referred to the thing standing in front of her now — pale blue, with a blob for a lower body and a transparent human girl's upper half?!
And it wasn't wearing anything at all!!
Exposing your weak point completely was one thing, but not like that, come on!!
What on earth was wrong with the Monsters in this world?!
And on top of that,
[Would you like to capture it?]
"...?"
Hearing a prompt seemingly coming from nowhere, Ais was even more dumbfounded.
Capture it? What did that even mean?
Why would anyone want to capture a Monster like this?
No.
The girl no longer dared to think any further about it!!
____
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