[The First Emotion and the Hug of the Goddess]

“…What?” A crack appeared on Yomi’s expression for the first time, but a couple of seconds later, he heaved a small sigh and said, “You’re bluffing. The purpose of which is perhaps to agitate me, but I have no ‘emotions’. I’m afraid to say that your scheme wouldn’t work on me, Savior.”

“No, I wasn’t scheming anything. I simply stated the fact, that’s all.”

“Hou? If so, can you really defeat me?”

To Yomi’s question, I nodded, “Yeah,” and continued, “In fact, I have to wonder what makes you so relaxed? I just need to defeat you in a place clean of ‘filth’. Simple as that, right?”

“A place clean of ‘filth’, you say? Nonsense. There’s no such a place in this world. With that being the case, you have no way of defeating me.”

“Well, you’re free to think whatever you like. But how about we try it right here and now? If you so wish, I can turn you into cinders in the blink of an eye, you know?”

“……” Yomi, who had been so talkative, held his tongue at that moment.

Perhaps he was contemplating if my words were mere bluffs or not.

After all, he’d always thought of himself as undefeatable on the account of being nearly immortal. Yet now a person who claimed to be able to defeat him showed up.

It was no wonder he was skeptical.

And that was enough.

The more he worried about it, the more the ‘emotions’ that he’d said he didn’t have would be awakened.

If he came to be afraid of dying and withdraw, then that was good.

I mean, they were originally monsters, meaning, they could be considered Phinis-sama’s children.

Just then.

“Ahaha, Yomi’s lost~.”

The one laughing so innocently while jumping onto a nearby tree branch was none other than Patty.

“Huff… stop… huff… right there…” Elma also showed up a moment later, and she glared hatefully at Patty.

It seemed that he had been avoiding her attacks by hopping from branch to branch.

“I have lost?”

Just as Elma did, Yomi directed a hateful glare at Patty, who nodded, “Yup,” and said, “I mean, you haven’t moved a single muscle after he said he could beat you, Yomi.”

“……”

――Swish!

“Eep!? Hey, watch it~!? What if that hit me~!?” Patty cried in protest as the upper part of the tree he was on was cut off diagonally.

Yomi dismissed his protest with, “Hmph,” and began to turn around. “We are going back.”

“What~? Can’t we stay a little longer~? H-hey, wait for me~!” Patty hurriedly jumped off the branch and followed after him.

Midway, Yomi paused his feet, looked back at me, and said, “Remember this, Savior. The next time we meet will be the time for you to die.”

◇ ◇

“Remember this, Savior. The next time we meet will be the time for you to die, pfft—so cliché!”

Dahahahaha! Needless to say, the one who laughed so hard to the point of crying was Ophir.

After we had confirmed the safety of everyone, including the oni woman, the atmosphere became much more relaxed, to the point that Ophir even mimicked Yomi’s parting words.

“You don’t have to laugh so hard. That person is aiming for Exa-sama’s life, you know?” Magmell said.

“I mean, that guy was so uncool, doncha think? He came all high and mighty, sayin’ we can’t beat him and stuff. But then he got cold feet at Exa’s provocation and turned tail… pff.” Ophir burst into laughter again, but—

“What’s so funny…?”

“Eeek!?”

When Phinis-sama pressed her with both eyes wide open, she jumped and went hiding behind Tirna.

“No, there’s no point for you to use Tirna as a shield with your built…” Magmell gave her a look of exasperation.

“I-I can’t help it!? That goddess is fuckin’ scary!?”

“There, there.” Tirna patted Ophir’s head.

Heaving a sigh, I asked Phinis-sama, “Does the fact that they’re originally monsters bother you?”

“Yes… even if their form has changed, those children are still my children…”

“I see…”

“But…” Phinis-sama said with a gentle smile, “Thank you… you went out of your way to give that child a choice for my sake, didn’t you…?”

“Well, it’s no big deal… I mean, they were created just for Elysium’s convenience. I figured there’s no compelling reason to fight them.”

“Fufu, what a kind child you are… Come here… I’ll give you some headpats…”

“Huh!?”

Of course, I couldn’t refuse in this situation, so I ended up being spoiled by Phinis-sama while receiving glares from everyone.