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

"So, to what extent have you noticed it?"

“…Huh?”

I couldn't understand the second question.

It doesn't sound like it's referring to Orario's current anomalies and contradictions.

Rather, it was something more important—they wanted to confirm with me some crucial "core" point...

"What...what do you mean by that? What exactly are you trying to say...?"

I couldn't understand Miss Herren's meaning, and I completely panicked.

Her expression, which had been as calm as a lake in the night, grew increasingly menacing.

She clenched one of her small hands into a fist.

Then he lowered his head, revealing his face hidden beneath his gray bangs—

"………………………………………………waste."

She whispered those two words.

"what?"

"...Waste...waste! Waste waste ...

The next second, she looked up and started cursing.

My previously blank expression suddenly widened in fright, and I involuntarily took a half step back.

"You utterly stupid piece of trash!! You've been constantly bewitching and tormenting that person, and you're completely oblivious!? Stop spouting such idiots! Behave yourself!!"

"Huh, huh, huh!?"

"How stupid do you have to be before you stop?!"

The girl suddenly changed her personality, raised her hand forcefully, and started berating me with disheveled hair.

She looked so scary, so scary that I always felt like she could kill me at any moment!!

Seeing Miss Herren suddenly start to rage, I was so frightened that I didn't know what to do, and my legs went weak.

"You lewd beast who pretends to be harmless!! A criminal without any sense of responsibility!! The greatest enemy of women in the world!! The filth of humanity!! A monster who confuses dullness with stupidity!! If the Creator God made a single mistake, it was creating an evil creature like you!! You are a worm that constantly tempts older members of the opposite sex to commit original sin! You are so shameless that you even dare to toy with the sublime goddess!!"

"Please wait a minute! I really don't understand what you're saying!!"

"And you even got me seventh place on the 'Male Adventurers Who Most Want to Be Called 'Big Sister!'' list?! Are you kidding me?!"

"How do you even know this ranking!?"

Faced with the barrage of insults that sounded like a barrage of cannon fire, I was so terrified that I could only let out a scream that was almost a wail.

Miss Herren, enraged beyond control, suddenly pulled a dagger from her waist—Ah, eh?!

"Unforgivable! Unforgivable! Unforgivable!! Everything about you is unforgivable!! Your stupid face, your pathetic screams, and the tenderness you used to torment the goddess! I should have killed you back then!!"

"Ee, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!?"

"It's all your fault for showing up in front of the goddess!"

In the blink of an eye, a sword dance began to unfold.

I let out a pathetic scream, just as I had been accused of, and dodged the daggers that kept coming at me.

Two shadows, bathed in moonlight streaming through the stained glass, danced gracefully in the center of the hall.

The sound of sharp blades slicing through the air rang in my ears. Even though her level was below mine, she was still a high-level adventurer, and I couldn't afford to be careless.

I was thrown into chaos by this unexpected turn of events, desperately trying to avoid being injured by the blade. After switching positions several times, I swung the dagger from below with my backhand grip.

"That person will feel happy, sad, or hurt no matter how trivial the matter is when they are in your presence!"

"Huh...!?"

"You clearly deserve to be a hero! Why aren't you interested in women?! Why not just accept all love openly?! That way, that person might at least get some reward! How many more women like us do you intend to hurt in the future?!"

Miss Herren, whose emotions had completely erupted, couldn't stop.

Hands, unable to vent their anger, lashed out at me, and heart-wrenching screams struck my face.

When I realized she was referring to the goddess Freya, I was greatly shaken and decided to accept the meaning these words were trying to convey.

"What kind of unwavering longing is this! You slave to longing!!"

“──!!”

Upon hearing that their dreams had been insulted, their fearful limbs immediately ignited with the will to resist.

With a fierce look in my eyes, I prepared to reach out and grab the dagger that was being swung at me.

"It's all your fault! You've ruined that person's life—and even mine...!!"

However──

"──────"

Seeing the teardrop falling from the corner of my eye, I couldn't help but stop what I was doing.

The next moment, I was knocked to the ground by Miss Herren who rushed over.

“Hmm!?”

I fell heavily onto the hard floor in a backward-leaning position.

A soft body straddled me, and the dagger landed right next to my cheek.

Amidst a shrill scream that nearly shattered my eardrums, Miss Herren grabbed my neck with both hands.

"Ugh! How hateful! How despicable! I really want to kill you!"

With my hands slumped on the ground, I forgot to resist and just stared wide-eyed in astonishment.

It wasn't that he was terrified by her furious appearance.

"But—I'm going crazy!! I love you so much!!"

It was her undisguised and revealed emotions that made my time stand still.

You could feel her trembling helplessly through your fingers, and she wasn't exerting any strength at all.

She clearly wanted to strangle me, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

The meaning of the phrase "love and hate"

Even though it was only a small part, almost just the tip of the iceberg... for the first time, I felt a sense of understanding.

"If only I had met you first!"

The girl shouted loudly.

"If only I had known this would be the future!"

The girl flew into a rage.

"Before I meet my goddess... I will hold you tightly in my arms..."

The girl trembled all over.

"If only... I could... have met you first...!"

—If goddesses don't suffer, then I can also love you as "I".

The hoarse whispers of crying faded away with each breath.

Behind Miss Herren, the light from the stained glass shone through, and she seemed like a confessor, revealing all the words buried deep in her heart.

"But in the end it still didn't work..."

“Eh…?”

"My method... ultimately failed..."

A whisper as faint as a mosquito's buzz.

A voice that kept trembling.

Longing seeped from beneath the removed mask.

"I want that lady to continue being a sublime goddess... I don't want to see her turn into a 'little girl' like me...! So I wanted to kill you, to thwart that lady's 'wish'... But... even so...!"

A stray fringe gently brushed against my cheek.

My right eye, which had been covered, was now visible.

Unlike his left eye, which is as black as if painted by the night, his right eye is both "silver" and "light gray".

Tears are streaming down this eye.

"When a 'wish' doesn't come true, that person should abandon the girl's feelings! I thought that person would wake up from the nightmare after being rejected by you—!! But instead, I keep hearing her sobbing! I've never heard that person make such a sound before!"

Tears fell drop by drop onto my cheeks.

She burst into tears like a child right in front of me, who was completely stunned.

"That person has been in so much pain! She's been tormented! She didn't even realize she was on the verge of collapse! If this continues, she'll never find salvation! It can't become like this! It shouldn't become like this! I don't want to see this ending…!"

He was constantly torn between "love" and "others," and was on the verge of collapse.

Listening to these incoherent words and facing this incomprehensible outpouring of genuine emotion.

But I simply couldn't take my eyes off her as she sobbed softly—off the emotions she was pouring out.

"...Please realize it quickly! Please notice it quickly! It's meaningless if you don't realize it yourself!"

Miss Herren shouted at me, tears streaming down her face.

"Even if I learned the truth from the 'imposter' me, it would be completely meaningless!!"

She was crying her eyes out, and continued to sob as she stretched out her hands to tell me her story.

"So, please...!"

The girl prayed sincerely with a heart-wrenching voice.

"Hurry up and figure out the truth... Mr. Bell—"

The moment I heard those words.

A vast amount of memories and information up to this point flashed through my mind at lightning speed.

"────────────"

Words, tone, voice, sadness, tears, longing—

The similarities, commonalities, resemblances, and striking resemblances are countless.

She weeps before my eyes... the girl who works at the Tavern of Abundance... and the sublime goddess who loves all people.

Three people who should have no connection.

Three beautiful figures, yet overlapping each other.

--The goddess's attendant.

—An unnamed messenger of the goddess.

—The goddess once said, "This child (this member of the family) cannot become anyone else."

Is it true that one cannot become someone else—or conversely, that the potential to become someone else is already fixed?

If that's the case, could it be possible to—become a goddess?

The "strange feeling" I had when I met her.

I feel like we've met countless times, and she's always by my side. I've had this feeling that I've known her for a long time.

Even though their appearances and voices are completely different, they are still very similar.

It's like gazing at a shimmering surface of water; every time a ripple appears, the face reflected in your eyes changes.

She just said she was a "fake".

He also said, "I should have killed you back then."

On the day of the goddess festival, a girl who looked exactly like that person planned to take my life.

The hypothesis that emerged at that time was that they could "share" memories or perspectives.