“Although I am some distance away from you, reality may disappoint you, because I heard everything.”
At that moment, a cool female voice came from the other side.
The voice was pleasant and melodious, yet its tone was rather stern, faintly carrying a trace of dignity.
At the edge of the lake, a goddess with aqua-blue hair, wrapped in a white bathrobe, approached the circle of girls and interrupted their conversation.
Her perfect figure was displayed to the fullest beneath the bathrobe, and her jewel-like emerald eyes held both calmness and severity.
A strict goddess.
With just one glance, anyone would naturally come to that conclusion.
There was an essential difference between gods and mortals.
Even without anything to indicate their identity, even if they were simply walking among a crowd, even an ordinary person would be able to perceive that difference.
They would instinctively feel awe and think, “Ah, this is a god.”
“…”
However, the moment she heard that voice, the brown-haired girl who had just been weakly complaining immediately felt her little face collapse.
Like a child caught by her parents after doing something wrong, she raised both hands beside her cheeks and put on an expression that seemed to say, “I know I was wrong,” while trying to act cute.
“I’m sorry, Lady Artemis…
I was wrong~”
“Too late!
Chloe, come to my tent before you go to sleep later!”
The goddess with aqua-blue hair falling over her shoulders wore an extremely serious expression.
Her lips parted slightly as she declared the brown-haired girl’s fate in a tone that allowed no argument.
“Yes…
I understand.”
The brown-haired girl named Chloe answered pitifully, already beginning to mentally prepare herself for the miserable experience awaiting her later.
The teachings of the goddess were not something easy to deal with.
It seemed she would not be able to sleep tonight…
To be precise, she would not be able to get a good night’s sleep.
Even if she lay inside her tent, her ears would probably still be filled with the goddess’s teachings, right?
This was not an exaggeration.
It was a law that had already been verified one after another by the companions within the Familia!
After Chloe, Artemis’s stern gaze swept across the many girls who had made “dangerous” remarks earlier.
Like a teacher memorizing the faces of students who might make mistakes in the future, she quietly took note of them while also giving them a warning look.
The girls all felt guilty under her stare, one after another lowering their heads and not even daring to breathe too loudly.
Who knew whether they would be the next one to suffer?
At a time like this, it was better to behave a little~
After a while, the goddess, who looked both serious and dignified, finally withdrew her gaze.
She glanced at Rethusa, her Familia’s captain, and seemed somewhat hesitant, as if she wanted to say something.
In the end, however, she did not speak.
After letting out a quiet sigh, she left first.
After she departed, the girls first looked around like thieves, especially staring hard in the direction Artemis had left.
Once they confirmed that Lady Goddess showed no signs of returning, they immediately began chattering again.
Although they might temporarily shrink back, the girls’ enthusiasm was not something that could be suppressed so easily~
…
After changing clothes on the shore, Artemis held her bathrobe in her arms and walked along the path back to camp.
She freed one hand and somewhat helplessly rubbed the space between her brows.
“It will be fine once enough time passes…”
The goddess murmured softly.
As the patron deity of the Familia, she naturally understood the situation of the girls in her Familia extremely well.
Did they think that pretending to be obedient meant she did not know what they were thinking?
What a joke.
More than half of the girls in this Familia had grown up under her watch.
How could she possibly not know?
She simply did not say it out loud…
Of course, part of the reason was also that she did not know how to say it.
After all, Artemis was a virgin goddess who had never even experienced love herself.
At times like this, Lady Goddess would attribute the girls’ behavior to the restlessness of adolescence, trying to suppress it on one hand while slowly waiting for this period of time to pass on the other.
Originally, Artemis had been thinking of asking Rethusa to check on the boy they had rescued today.
But now, it seemed that if she really opened her mouth and asked, Rethusa would not be the only one going.
After all, this mother hen of a captain was also terribly indulgent toward the girls of the Familia.
She would almost never refuse their requests, let alone something as minor as going to “take a look.”
Did that mean she had to go herself?
That thought flashed through the goddess’s mind.
And surprisingly, from the response that arose within her own heart, Artemis did not feel any rejection toward the idea.
Even she herself failed to notice this.
Inside the temporarily built tent camp…
Artemis did not spend much time before returning here, as the camp was not very far from the lake.
After placing the bathrobe back inside her own tent, the goddess came to a tent near the edge of the camp with complicated feelings.
She lifted the entrance flap and stepped inside.
There was not much to describe about the interior of the tent.
It was very plain, after all.
It was something they only used at night and packed away during the day.
The blond boy they had rescued was still lying on a beige cotton sheet.
A small piece of white gauze was stuck to his forehead, and he was covered by a blanket.
He did not look as though he was about to wake up.
“…Hm?”
Artemis quietly approached the boy and crouched beside him.
As his appearance entered her eyes, she felt that something was not quite right…
but even she herself could not say what it was.
That feeling had already arisen the first time she saw this boy, but they had been in the middle of battle then, so Artemis had not paid much attention to it.
Now, as she quietly sensed it, she found that the feeling was especially clear.
How strange…
Without realizing it, Artemis, who had become immersed in her own guilty thoughts, quietly drifted off.
At that moment, Ize hovered back and forth on the boundary of awakening.
He was in that lazy state where he was about to wake up, yet could not help wanting to doze off for just a little longer.
However, that feeling did not last very long.
Soon, Ize’s consciousness slowly floated to the surface.
His dark vision gradually opened up, and for a moment, his mind was completely blank.
He blinked two or three times before the things around him finally became clear.
A cloth ceiling…
So he was probably lying inside a tent right now?
Ize judged his current situation.
Had someone saved him?
Although it was a pity that he had not clearly seen what had happened at the time, he vaguely remembered that there had been people around him before he lost consciousness.
No…
not just back then.
Even now, there was someone beside him!
A flash of blue at the edge of his vision made Ize instinctively turn his head to look.
Since he was lying on his back, just slightly turning his head was enough for him to fully capture that beauty, one that did not seem to belong to a mortal.
However, the other party seemed to still be lost in thought and did not immediately react to Ize’s stunned gaze.
“Hiss…”
Ize immediately sucked in a deep breath and could not help narrowing his eyes as he tactically leaned backward.
…Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he pressed himself back?
As for the matter of waking up from unconsciousness only to find a goddess beside him, could someone please explain what was going on?