The grilled fish turned out to be pretty delicious.
So delicious, in fact, that splitting it three ways wasn't quite enough, forcing a certain Queen to go dive back into the sea and catch another one.
This time the fish was smaller, only a bit over two meters long.
While they ate,
the [Empress] kept chattering on and on about how she'd once caught a fish king over ten meters long, and split it among the children of an entire village, who'd feasted on it for a whole day — blah blah blah.
Her chattering little mouth never seemed to stop, which was honestly a waste of that cool, alluring pretty face of hers.
As for Ais,
the Queen didn't seem to react much to her — she simply thought the girl looked a bit like Aria, and that was about the extent of it.
Maybe she really was an airhead, because she clearly couldn't tell that this girl was Ais all grown up.
Still, she had noticed that Ais was extremely strong.
So ever since a little while ago,
the woman had been sidling up next to him, nudging him with her elbow now and then, shooting him meaningful looks over and over.
Isagi understood exactly what she meant.
After all, the Queen's mind was, to put it simply, about as uncomplicated as it got — there really wasn't much else rattling around in that little head of hers.
Isagi had no objections to that, of course, and Ais's ability was quite convenient besides, since the girl could now imitate his dream world and fight inside it, meaning that no matter how fiercely the two of them went at it, none of it would affect the outside world in the slightest.
Earlier,
his own [Duel] with the [Empress] had been put on hold for exactly this reason.
They couldn't fight it out in the open, and now they couldn't go down into the Dungeon either.
And while he could also pull her into his [Nightmare], crossing over here already consumed Divine Power, so he had no way to expend any more Divine Power on other things in this world.
So Isagi figured,
he'd just wait until she was revived in the future — by then, whether it was going into the Nightmare or heading back to [Dragon Valley], either option would be open to them.
While he was thinking this over,
Isagi had already worked it out with Ais.
The golden-haired girl blinked in mild surprise, but quickly agreed.
Ever since leveling up to Lv.8, Ais had clearly begun to feel a certain kind of "loneliness."
She couldn't just cut loose whenever she wanted.
There was no opponent left who could really fight her.
Going into the Dungeon, most Monsters meant nothing to her anymore.
She thought she understood, a little, what Ottar must have felt back then.
So now that someone was willing to fight her, and it looked like an even match — maybe even someone stronger than her — why would the girl ever say no?
Let's begin, then!
Soon enough,
Ais had drifted off to sleep leaning against Isagi, and the Queen, who'd started out confused and puzzled by all this, before long dozed off too, snoring softly against his other shoulder.
Everything went quiet again, impossibly still.
The wind blew gently.
The damp scent of earth after rain drifted over, along with, from far off, the faintly salty smell of the sea.
All Isagi could do was skillfully arrange the two women leaning against him into reasonably comfortable positions, so that all three of them could rest against this pile of rocks by the shore.
Then,
he simply stared blankly at the distant sea and the village.
He had no intention of watching the fight — there wasn't really much to see anyway.
And besides—
before long, the distant village rang out with a clanging sound — the watchpost at the edge of the village striking its great bell, signaling that Monsters were attacking from the sea.
Just like when he and the Queen had first arrived here.
The village quickly fell into orderly motion — some led soldiers down to the shore to fight off the Monsters, while others mounted horses and rode swiftly out of the village, off to report the situation to the city.
At the same time,
Isagi saw a huge wave surge up from the sea, a dark mass of Monsters pressing toward the village under the somewhat gloomy sky.
The boy rose to his feet.
After setting the two women down among the rocks, he moved swiftly toward the fishing village in the distance.
During the whole stretch of time that Ais and the Queen spent fighting in their shared dream, Isagi ended up handling at least three or four Monster attacks on the port city.
None of them were particularly difficult.
Still, from far off, Isagi thought he could sense something in the sea taking notice of him.
Perhaps it was Leviathan, still alive at this point in time — following the direction of that presence's gaze, Isagi found himself wondering: if he brought Ais and the [Empress] into the fight right now, could the three of them simply defeat it, here in this era?
Isagi had actually thought about this kind of thing before.
For instance,
bringing the entire future Astrea Familia, along with Riveria and Ottar and the others from Loki Familia and Freya Familia, straight into this era.
And then, going ahead and wiping out both Behemoth, still rampaging across the continent at this time, and Leviathan, still lurking in the sea.
Isagi didn't think that would be a problem.
If Zeus and Hera Familia had managed it back then, surely his own lineup now, even more formidable, could manage it too.
And if everyone kept growing stronger, all reaching Lv.8 or even Lv.9, maybe they could even take down the [Black Dragon] directly, right here in this era—
Isagi had once discussed this idea quite seriously with the goddesses.
In the end,
the goddesses had agreed it would trigger a serious "shift in the timeline," but whether that would turn out good or bad, no one could say.
Maybe Zeus and Hera Familia would survive because of it — and not just them, but countless other people might live on too — but...
none of it could be foreseen.
The unknown was always frightening, always something to fear — and if the [Black Dragon] were destroyed in this era,
then,
would the gods still even need to descend to the lower world?
Would there simply be no gods left in the future?
And if the gods never came down, or if that turned out different somehow, what would happen to the "[Appointed Time]" with the Dungeon?
The future might end up changing in some absurdly drastic way because of it.
The more he thought about it, the more terrifying it seemed.
Isagi now understood, at least somewhat, why the very first thing the gods did upon descending to the lower world was to make the "[Appointed Time]" — forbidding themselves from using divine power.
Because Divine Power's impact on the world ran far too deep.
Once used,
there was truly no telling what might happen afterward.
Having worked through this logic, Isagi finally decided not to try changing any of it.
Just as the goddesses had said,
overusing Divine Power would also be a kind of "disrespect" toward the other children of the lower world.
And that was exactly why,
when it came to reviving the [Empress], Isagi had wanted to come to the past first, to ask for her own opinion on the matter.
The gray, hazy sky of early summer gradually darkened,
turning, along with the distant sea, into a deep, inky black.
It was right around then
that Ais and the Queen both suddenly woke up.
Neither of them said who had won.
Both wore the same pouting, unsatisfied expression on their faces — especially the [Empress], who, the moment she woke, immediately started shouting about going to catch more fish for dinner, as if they were about to launch into another three hundred rounds of battle.
Honestly, this woman...
Sometimes Isagi wondered if she wasn't just a little too simple for her own good.
____
📢 WANT MORE CHAPTERS? HELP US HIT OUR MILESTONES!
💬 Reviews: Leave a review! For every 5 REVIEWS, 1 bonus chapter gets released. 💎 Power Stones: Hit 100 POWER STONES to unlock another bonus chapter! 🚀 P@treon: Want to read ahead? Join the P@treon (Walnut-chan) to get up to 40 chapters ahead and access 60+ stories!
🔥 New history: DanMachi: Inheriting the Legacy of Alternate Versions — posted on The_Mikudayo