“...”

[...Why are you just standing there? Isn’t this a crisis for you?]

Though Caliban said that to me, who was just standing there dumbfounded after receiving the box from Riru…

‘...Yeah, sure. It is a crisis, but…’

The first thought that came to my mind was…something was off…

Wedding ceremonies in the Tribal Alliance were massive events that could surpass your wildest imaginations. Even when you had to compare it with other nations’ traditions.

There were various reasons why, but fundamentally it was because the nation used a strong sense of unity to make up for its low population number.

Considering that…

If a member of the Chieftain’s clan were the one who’d get married…the ceremony would be so massive that just thinking about its scale could give you a massive headache.

“...”

What I was trying to say here was…

Riru coming here with just a box to propose to me was something that should never happen under normal circumstances.

This kind of modest proposal would be seen as rash. No one from the Tribal Alliance would even think about proposing in this way.

Considering that Riru herself was someone who valued the importance of tradition highly, such a proposal only brought me discomfort rather than a sense of crisis.

“...Marriage?”

Anyway…

I cautiously asked that question.

First, I gotta probe if she was truly serious about it or not.

“...Yeah.”

But…

Though she was avoiding my gaze, the tone of her voice remained the same.

She looked clearly embarrassed, but there was a fierce determination in her response.

“...I know this is sudden.”

Riru opened her mouth before covering her face with her hands.

“...But, if it isn’t now, I might not get another chance ever again.”

“Sorry?”

“If I were to leave things as they are, I have a feeling that someone would snatch you away…”

That mutter came from beneath the hands that were covering her face.

This time, her voice was rather subdued, unbefitting of her character.

No doubt, in there I could sense…

Her fear.

The contrast between her usual confident demeanor and her current self made this felt even more real.

It really felt like this person was baring her heart open to me.

“...”

However…

[...Are you going to reject her?]

Well, did I have another choice?

If the immediate threats to my life like Eleanor and Yuria didn’t exist, I would literally just reject them all.

Given my situation, I couldn’t afford getting myself surrounded by the Devils too closely; The risk was way too much.

“...”

I clenched my teeth.

So hard that I could taste blood in my gums.

Honestly, while I could stand being called trash or whatnot…

I always felt guilty acting that way towards the people who sincerely opened their hearts to me.

“I’m sorry, Riru.”

My declaration that I wanted to live happily with the Devils was true, but if she were to bring up something like this so suddenly…

I couldn’t just accept it.

Because that was my goal for later. Only after the main scenario was sorted out, and all potential threats were eliminated could I have the lenience to do that.

My answer was pretty much determined from the start already.

“...Right now…is a little too sudden…”

“...”

“I think…there’s still too much we need to learn about each other before we can reach that point…”

With great difficulty, I managed to say those words out…

While suppressing the choking feeling in my throat, I tried to get the words out as calmly as possible.

“...”

After that, she went silent.

Well, obviously. No way in hell she could just give an immediate response after hearing such words.

She still had her face covered, so I couldn’t see her expression.

“...I’m sorry, Riru. I think it’ll be a bit difficult right now.”

My tone was somber, I continued.

Again, she didn’t give out any particular reaction. She just kept her head down, facing the ground.

“...When you say ‘right now’...”

Her voice was low, and it sounded rather subdued.

“Does that mean your answer can change later?”

“...”

Well, yeah, of course.

I was already planning to live with you in the first place.

But I couldn’t say that now.

The best I could do was to pass it over vaguely.

“...I think, what we should do now is to get to know each other better first, that’s more important than anything else.”

As I said that, I let out a bitter smile.

It was the most clichéd rejection line, the same one everyone would say out of pity. But unlike them, I was being sincere.

There was indeed still a mountain of things we needed to learn about each other. Also, we were going to continue to see each other anyway.

“...So, what exactly does getting to know each other better mean?”

“To put it simply, well, while it’s hard for us to get married right now…we can still spend plenty of time together.”

Getting married immediately might be a bit much…

But we could always start slowly while building up our relationship steadily.

Hearing my reply, Riru spoke up again.

“...Then.”

After another moment of hesitation…

She opened her mouth again, clearly looking nervous.

“Does that mean we can start as a romantic relationship?”

“...If it’s that much…yes, we can.”

Compared to some of the women around me, the ones who straight up would kill me if I didn’t marry them, this much was relatively tame.

It wouldn’t be hard to manage such a relationship, and even if the others were hounding me about it, I should be able to deflect them with ease.

“Really?”

After saying that…

She finally removed her hands from her face.

“...?”

But…

Her expression was a bit…strange.

“...??”

Why?

I clearly rejected her proposal…

But why did she have an expression that said, ?

“...Our relationship will become that of a man and a woman, that means we’re more than friends, but less than lovers, right?”

After saying all that, she let out a smirk.

I was dumbstruck, so despite what was going on in my head, I could only nod my head reflexively.

“I-I guess.”

“Alright, if that’s the case…”

She let out a bright smile before patting my shoulder.

Then she suddenly pulled me into her embrace.

“...Riru?”

“Since our relationship is that of a man and a woman, I can do this much, right?”

“...R-Riru?”

“From now on, let’s meet up often. I’ll call you later, okay?”

She said with a slightly twisted, yet wild smile.

Like the same Riru that I had always known.

It made me think that…

She had only been ‘acting’ all gloomy and deflated while she was listening to me.

“Remember, you are the one who said ‘Let’s take it slowly’, so no backing out, okay?”

“...”

“Alright, that’s all.”

Riru, who was scratching her cheek…

Still with her cheerful smile, albeit with a slight blush now…

Lightly punched my shoulder and spoke.

“I’m in your care. My Dear ‘Boyfriend’.”

“...”

‘Umm…’

 

‘What the hell is going on…?’

‘Why am I breaking out in a cold sweat?’

 

‘It feels like I just made a terrible mistake…’

“A-Anyway, bye bye! Have a nice evening!”

Seemingly embarrassed by her own words, Riru quickly stormed away.

And…

Leaving me standing alone under the night sky, accompanied by the sound of crickets.

“...”

‘Seriously, what the fuck just happened?’

[Truly a masterpiece. Is this what true poetic justice looks like? Or, in your language, is this the result of the butterfly effect?]

Caliban said, his voice was full of incredulity.

“...What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?”

[No, like…how can I not laugh when I had the front-row seats watching you get completely outplayed? You realized that she learned all of that from you, right? This whole thing is just peak comedy! There’s nothing better than this!]

“Excuse me?”

The fuck was this person saying?

Caliban continued with a chuckle.

[Just think about it. By rejecting her marriage proposal, you were forced to start a ‘relationship between a man and a woman’ with her, no?]

“...”

[Originally, you haven’t been paying any attention to her, and you had no intention of making the first move on her either. But from now on, she doesn’t need to do that. Under the guise of ‘relationship between a man and a woman’, she could just approach you without holding herself back.]

“...”

[Prior to this, everyone would just rush at you, telling you that they’d kill you if you wouldn’t embrace them…that’s why you never thought anyone would pull a fast one on you like this. Your tolerance against this kind of thing is pretty low, huh?]

Huh? Wait…

[In any case, since you’ve already agreed to start meeting her in a more romantic manner, you can’t back out if she wants to push herself on you. She has the moral high ground now.]

“...W-Wait a minute.”

[Until now, all the women around you are throwing fits to get your attention, and there hasn’t been a single one who’d become proactive and ‘call’ you over. But there is one who’d do that now.]

‘W-Wait, a-about that…’

 

‘D-Does it really work that way?’

[That lady’s quite the schemer, jeez.]

“...”

[You just got played by her, you punk.]

“...”

[The marriage proposal was a bait. A trap she set to get this kind of privilege from you.]

Hearing this…

I stood blankly for a long while.

Only then did I realize something.

“...Eh?”

Unlike when Eleanor proposed to me, or when Yuria threw herself at me…

There wasn’t a ‘Devil Related Alert’ this time…

That meant…

From the very start, she came to me with the mindset of, .

It was almost as if…

She had anticipated that I’d give her this exact answer if she were to prod me like that.

Now that I think about it, there was something strange in her way of proposing to me.

“...Eh…?”

Did that mean…

She gaslit me…?

Riru Garda desperately rubbed her flushing face.

[Woah, you actually did it.]

“...Shut up.”

She muttered grumpily to the teasing voice that came from behind her.

Her heart was pounding so wildly, that she felt it was so surreal.

Because, just now, she…

“...Hey, uh…you know...”

[Yes?]

“...Since he's my…’boyfriend’ now, c-can I…”

She muttered her words while stroking her own face.

“...Y-You know…c-can I…g-go on dates with him…o-or k-kiss him…a-and stuff…?”

[...]

Looking at her, the Blue Devil was struggling to suppress the laughter that was about to burst out.

‘My goodness.’

 

‘I can’t believe I’d hear something like that from a grown woman.’

 

‘She’s so unbelievably innocent when it comes to this, huh? Totally different from her look.’

‘...I have to pat myself in the back for giving you that advice.’

If they were to follow Riru’s own ‘pace’ she would never have done something like this.

He was her first love, relationship, confession and romance.

From now on, everything she’d build up with that man would be something that she had never done prior to this.

And she opted to skip all that and immediately jump to a marriage proposal, which was something rather…’unfair’.

However…

That was exactly why she did it.

“...Back when you said I’d be rejected here no matter what I do…I wondered why I should even bother doing it…”

She murmured in a slightly excited voice in between her restless pants.

“...But you’re really reliable when it comes to this matter.”

Throughout her time together with this Blue Punk, Riru realized that all the information about the ‘future’ that the ghost occasionally spouted was almost always accurate.

Also, perhaps she was influenced by this punk, at times, she was able to glimpse a ‘few seconds’ into the future.

According to that punk, these were additional elements that occurred during a ‘Fusion’ or whatever it was.

-Grey, Purple, and Red all go through this process as well. The merging of Fragments and the Vessel. It’s just, in our case, it’s easier for us to communicate with each other compared to them. And, well, I guess it’ll make it easier for us to ‘coordinate’ too.

 

-Coordinate? What are you on about?

 

-Well, coordinate as in, getting Dear Husband to enjoy two different flavors at once during our nighttime activities.

 

-...

 

-That’s a joke~ Don’t worry, you’ll find out later, Riru.

She remembered the Blue Punk’s chuckle as she said that..

-To put it simply, we can shine the brightest when Dear Husband is in the most danger!

What followed was something incomprehensible, though.

Anyway…

[Of course. Like I’ve been saying, there’s nothing to lose here.]

The Blue Punk floated around her while giggling.

[Considering Dear Husband’s current situation, this proposal was nothing short of a bomb. There was no way he would accept it.]

However…

By keeping that certainty in mind, she inadvertently created an opportunity to establish a ‘natural relationship’ that other Vessels couldn’t even imagine.

And the ‘stage’ to continue leveraging this advantage was coming soon.

[Hm…considering the flow in the time axis, the Hero Selection is tomorrow, isn’t it?]

The Blue Devil murmured before sweeping back her hair.

“...The Hero Selection? What’s that?”

[It’s something…a pretty important incident…]

One could say that…

The branching point related to Dowd Campbell’s ‘crisis’ all started from here.

Hero, Grey Devil, White Devil, Red Devil, all of them were entwined in a chaotic whirlpool.

‘Originally’, there was no place for the Blue Devil or Riru in such a melting pot.

However…

[...’This round’ will be a bit different, Dear Husband.]

The Blue Devil, licking her lips slightly, murmured.

[We won’t just watch from afar and let the others lust after you like last time~]

Without a doubt…

For Riru who was listening in, the sentence was filled with a chilly allure that it sent shivers down her spine.