Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

Allen sensed Alyssa's smile and simply turned his face away.

Ari maintained her smile and looked up at the sky.

"Hey, Allen, do you feel happy that you've devoted your loyalty to your most beloved goddess... to the only master in your heart?"

"What?"

"I just had a sudden thought. Although it was a short time, I could feel the loyalty of all of you to the goddess behind me. Before I even felt envious of her... I don't know why I envied you even more."

What comes into view is a sky full of stars and a crescent moon.

A sentence that Ari unconsciously uttered was instantly sucked into that beautiful desert night sky.

"She... Goddess Freya is truly incredible. I can't understand what she's thinking at all, yet her words and eyes can always captivate the other person's heart."

"..."

"She is more beautiful than anyone else, but what is truly attractive about her is not her appearance... but her free spirit like the wind and her noble character like the light."

Alyssa now seems to understand why Allen lost his temper back then.

Those who swore allegiance to Freya must have either reformed themselves because of her or been saved by her.

But Ari couldn't kneel before her like that.

She had to suppress her own ego in order to become a "king" for the sake of the country.

Although the bright moon hangs high in the sky, it can never reach the end of the firmament.

Unable to reach the gods, who can even look down upon the moon.

"I have my own country, and the responsibilities of a king. But if I could abandon everything like you do, and focus solely on one person..."

When did I start feeling this way?

Is it while playing "halvan"?

When spending the night in the oasis?

Or ever since we first met?

Ari, who had spoken without knowing what she wanted to say, remained silent until this point.

Because she suddenly realized that this most straightforward feeling could never be put into words.

"...Sorry, I said some strange things. Just take it as me talking nonsense and don't take it seriously."

Ari laughed it off and prepared to turn and leave.

"Who cares what country it is, just abandon them all, won't you?"

But those words stopped them in their tracks.

“Eh…”

"The reason you envy our loyalty is because we are loyal to our desires, because we want nothing but that goddess and only hope to be with her."

Allen turned around and looked straight at Alyssa.

In a tone different from that of a correction, he spoke to Alyssa, who looked completely bewildered:

"Don't hide your weak will in trivial matters. Don't let the country treat you as a parasite."

"!"

Despite his sharp words, his gaze, which seemed to pierce through people, was different from before.

Ari was greatly shaken by these words.

Then Allen dropped a very impactful statement.

"In pursuit of that goddess's love, I abandoned my family... I abandoned my 'sister'."

"────"

"In the eyes of the world, I'm just a piece of trash... but so what? If I care about my self-image and give up on pursuing something, it means that what I'm pursuing is definitely not that great. That kind of thing can't even be called love... at least not to that goddess."

That's why it will be carried through to the end.

This is what is meant by "pursuit".

The young man with the cat-like demeanor asserted firmly.

Alyssa was so stunned that she just stood there, speechless.

Allen fell silent at this point.

He walked past the girl and left the balcony.

The girl, who had been thrown down, stiffly looked up at the night sky once more.

“…………”

The moon cannot reach the end of the sky.

If it forgets to look down upon the earth and forgets to shine—does it still have the right to look up at the sky?

The question that flashed through her mind weighed heavily on Aly's heart, making her waver.

Allen walked through a long corridor lined with stone pillars on both sides.

Holding a silver spear, having left a message for the girl, he heard a voice in his ear.

"fraud."

Freya leaned against the stone pillar, a faint smile on her face.

That was a smile that even the naturally violent Allen knew he couldn't resist, a smile possessed only by the goddess.

"You're still worried about your little sister (Anya) even now."

"..."

Allen stopped and replied briefly.

"You're joking."

Then he took another step and quickly left.

He squinted as he watched the goddess's retreating figure, silently observing the girl standing on the balcony.

*

In the room with the lights off, only a sliver of moonlight streamed through the window, and the thin white curtains swayed in the breeze.

Alyssa returned to her bedroom feeling depressed.

Tomorrow is a battle that will determine the fate of the nation, and it is not the time to have distracting thoughts, but she is still very distressed.

(Does this mean I... have to abandon my own country?)

How can he transform himself from a prince (Aram) into a member of the goddess's harem?

This is something that Aly has never thought about before.

For her, who knew nothing but how to live as royalty, this choice was both taboo and alluring.

No, that's not the case.

Ari's feelings for that goddess—

"Ari".

"!"

The door was pushed open, and Alyssa trembled with fright upon hearing the shout that followed.

"You, you should at least knock on the door!" Ari scolded Freya loudly for barging into the room, but Freya only replied, "I did knock, but I didn't get a response for a long time," and slowly walked over.

"You look so distracted, what are you thinking about?"

"This...this has nothing to do with you..."

Freya sat down next to Ari, who was already on the bed, without any hesitation.

Because Ari didn't want anyone to see through her thoughts, she adopted a rather impolite attitude.

Freya first gazed at Ari's profile, then smiled gently.

"Allen is just a soft-hearted person."

"Hmm...? What are you suddenly saying?"

"Despite his sharp tongue, he always acts with my best interests at heart. It's because I want you that he questions your conscience."

"!!"

Ari was surprised when Freya found out about her conversation with Allen.

At the same time, he also realized that his inner thoughts had been seen through.

The doubts buried deep in my heart.

To hide her burning cheeks, Ari quickly looked away from the goddess and turned her face to the side.

"After all, I was attracted to you, so it's no wonder you were attracted to me."

What kind of twisted logic is this!

How narcissistic is this goddess!

Alyssa pouted, wanting to complain like that, but couldn't bring herself to say it.

She simply didn't know how to deal with these feelings, and was very confused about it.

"...Even if what you say is true...this is definitely not love."

"Oh? Then what is it?"

After thinking for a while, Alyssa came to a conclusion.

She lowered her eyes and put the conclusion she had been holding in her heart into words.

"I... I've always seen the shadow of my deceased 'mother' in you."

In Ari's memory, her mother was a beautiful but ethereal woman with long black hair.

The image etched into Ari's mind was of her mother lying in bed, stroking Ari's head, and that final smile. Ari cried her eyes out, and her mother also shed tears as she apologized to Ari.

Her mother was quiet and virtuous, a far cry from Freya's free-spirited and domineering personality.

But the two images overlapped in Ari's heart.

No, it was Ari herself who wanted to do it.

Perhaps it was because she lost her mother at a young age that Ari sought maternal love in the illusion.

She was already quite old and still longed for maternal love, so this confession really made her feel ashamed. However, Freya didn't tease Ari, she just shrugged her shoulders.

"After all, I'm a goddess, so it's not wrong for you to treat me like a mother. In my eyes, you, as residents of the lower realm, are all my children, aren't you?"

"I...that's not what I meant!"

Freya couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Seeing that Ari was pouting in a huff, she narrowed her eyes kindly.

"However, I like you just the way you are. Whether it's the sincerity in speaking your mind frankly, or the part of you that's genuinely troubled because you don't understand yourself."

Facing the goddess's eyes and hearing what she said—

Ari felt her heart jolt.

Freya stroked Ari's head as if she were combing Ari's hair.

"You did a great job, Ari. You've worked so hard all this time. I swear by my own name that, in this desert world, up to this day, you have acted more like a 'king' than anyone else."

"...!"

"Your soul is no longer clouded; that amethyst-like radiance has blossomed and borne fruit."

Freya stroked each strand of hair with tenderness, as if she were lovingly caring for a child or comforting a lover.

The goddess placed her hand next to Ari's, and the bed creaked. Ari was surprised that she was so aware of the goddess's body temperature, which flustered her.

Ari had to admit that she was deeply attracted to Freya.

Is it because she is a goddess?