EXCLUSIVE BONUS CONTENT Ceres’s Dream Therapy I—Kyouka Igarashi—have a little problem. It’s nothing new, but ever since I came to the Labyrinth Country, I’ve had more and more restless nights. As I attended all-girls schools from high school through college, I had spent very little—actually, if I could drop all pretense—absolutely zero time thinking about relations with men. Suzuna and I could relate on that point, and later when we had the chance to talk privately, we found out we also had similar opinions on men and shared the same dilemma. “Heh-heh… How innocent you young lasses are. Just watching you makes me feel years younger. Let them call me past my prime for all I care.” “No one calls you that, Master. Has that been eating at you or something?” “Steiner…or rather, Chiara. I suggest you reign yourself in, or I shall throw you in front of Arihito exactly as you are now.” “Eek…! Y-you can’t! Not that it would mean anything to Mr. Atobe if he saw me…” One evening, Suzuna and I soaked in the tub discussing our little problem. That’s when Ceres and Steiner, who were also taking their baths, cut in. Ellie, Misaki, Madoka, and Theresia had already gone to get changed. Seraphina, on the other hand, was out on her nighttime run with Cion despite the busy day we’d had raiding the labyrinth. “I don’t mean to pry, but…I had no idea there was a real girl under all that armor,” I said to Chiara. “Yes, at first I believed it was empty since I heard you talk about a Living Armor skill…but once I went up in level, my Shrine Maiden senses grew keener, and I could tell you were inside, Chiara.” “So you’d noticed, Suzuna. Haaah…” The not-actually-living armor sighed. “There’s no deep meaning to it or anything, but I’m pretty petite, so sometimes Seekers who look a little rough around the edges would come to our forge and tell me flat out they’d never trust a child to do anything for them. That’s when I started going to work wearing the suit of armor my father made.” “I get the sense you skipped a few parts in the middle there, but…in any case, it’s nice to meet you face-to-face, Chiara,” I told her. About as tall as Ceres, Chiara was apparently seventeen years old, a year older than Suzuna. To me, she felt like a much younger sister. “If you don’t mind me prying…I always do a double take whenever I work on your equipment, Kyouka.” “…Kyouka, have your girls gone and grown again?” Ceres asked incredulously. “N-no, I… I’ve been running around so much every day, they should’ve shrunk if anything, no?” The others never failed to comment on my chest whenever we bathed together. I’m still self-conscious about it, but when I was little, I even tried doing all sorts of exercises to make them smaller. Nothing ever worked, though, so now I tried not to think about it. Coming to the Labyrinth Country was difficult in a lot of ways, but there were also some good things about it, too—one of them being that either my magic or maybe some special effects in my equipment had almost entirely relieved the heaviness in my chest that had always weighed me down. “I imagine you’d be hard pressed to find another forge in the Labyrinth Country with more expertise in processing armor to suit your challenging bosom, Kyouka, if I may say so myself,” Ceres boasted. “I’m sorry to make so much extra work for you…,” I said. “Is that what you were looking for?” “M-Master, cut that out! You can’t go picking fights with our most important customers!” “Hmm, yes, that was rather unbecoming of me. You must understand her plight well, Chiara. For one so small, you have quite the voluptuous chest indeed.” “Exactly! But at least I don’t have to worry about men leering at me when I’m wearing my armor… Oh, but, um…not that I would worry about Mr. Atobe in that way.” “T-true… He never looks at Louisa or me like that, either.” “O-of course. Arihito is a genuinely good man…” Suzuna and I saw eye-to-eye on this kind of thing, too. If our group conversation ever turned to Atobe, we would often chime in at the same time to back him up—not that anyone ever talked badly about him. Mostly, whenever Misaki would say something like, “I wonder if Arihito’s just, like, not into sexy times,” I’d always make sure to tell her he was attracted to women but just tried not to bring that sort of thing up in the party, or something defensive like that. At the same time, I was always trying to avoid thinking maybe he just wasn’t interested in me personally. I was never what you’d call a caring boss, and I doubted Atobe had completely left those impressions of me behind. At the end of the day, he probably likes girls who are patient and welcoming like Louisa, and I mean, I do think I should try to be more like her, but I’m also four years younger than him, so maybe he sees me less as a woman and more as like a little sister figure, and of course, your skin does start to sag a little at twenty-five compared to high schoolers, and maybe Atobe just looks like he’d be into older women but actually has a soft spot for younger girls. But I mean, I’ve definitely been getting enough exercise ever since I came to the Labyrinth Country, so if anything, I feel just as energetic as a high school girl, and I wouldn’t mind at all if Atobe wanted to think of me as more of a— No, I can’t go there. Atobe never acted any differently even when I took a shower at the office, plus he’s the type to compartmentalize his work and private matters, and now that we’re working together in the same party, he’ll never think of me as more than a party member, so— “U-um… Kyouka, are you all right?” Suzuna gently asked. “H-hmm… I know we tend to soak longer than most, but perhaps we’ve gone a tad too far…” “Ah… S-sorry, I’m fine. I just got lost in thought.” “…You know, I think I will ask after all. Kyouka, show me the talisman you have on, dear.” “…Um, that’s kind of embarrassing. It’s on my stomach, so…” “No need to be shy. There is not an inch of your body you should be ashamed of sharing with the world…however crass that may sound.” Stepping out of the bath, Ceres came over and asked to see my talisman. The Misty Wisps of Spectral Change Charm was stuck to my skin between my chest and belly button with a special kind of seaweed that apparently didn’t disintegrate or come loose in water. “…Her talisman script has not changed in the least. I swear, who can understand why that woman would agree to my request yet send not even a line in reply?” “…Sorry to pry, but you and Lynée look so much alike. How do you know each other?” I asked. “She and I hail from the same birthplace. But please, ask me no more on the subject. You shall learn more in time, I imagine.” Despite her girlish appearance, Ceres must have lived a much more turbulent life than I ever did. Deep sorrow filled her gaze as she inspected my talisman, though she also seemed to be revisiting something wonderfully nostalgic. “…I hope you two…if not make up, then have the chance to meet in person one day.” “I’m much too old for such sentimental rot. It was Lynée who chose to leave first. We have simply trodden our separate paths ever since.” “You say that now, but…don’t you remember what you told me when you saw Melissa with her mother? You said you envied how they so naturally became a family again as soon as they met. Maybe you and Lynée could have a heart-to-heart and go back to the way things were, too, don’t you think?” “Watch your tongue, Chiara. Now, enough about me—this talisman. It does indeed suppress Passion simply by adhering to your skin. In time, Passion 3 will dwindle to Passion 2 and so on until you are completely cured… However, there is one problem.” “Problem…? Does keeping it on have any side effects or something?” Ceres’s expression told me I hadn’t guessed exactly right but was also not far off the mark. It felt a little awkward talking to her while she examined my talisman; the top of her head just barely brushed the bottoms of my bare breasts. “First, although the talisman has suppressed the symptoms of the Ghastly Plague the Altargeist exposed you to, it has not completely healed you yet. It will also give you some protection from other status ailments as well, which we cannot discount. However, if for some reason an attack destroys the talisman, you will instantly suffer the full effects of Passion 3 on the spot. And no one can tell exactly how onerous it will be to create another talisman.” “I—I had no idea… Do you think I should go to a Healing Center?” “I daresay not. While there are a few treatment methods for Passion 3, only those with highly advanced healing skills could utilize the more agreeable options. You’d have to resort to alternative treatments.” Just as I was about to ask about those alternative options, Ceres seemed to read the question on my face and asked me to crouch down to her level. Then, in a quiet whisper, she explained it to me. “…S-so…I have to satisfy my…l-libido…?” “……!” Suzuna looked stricken. “U-um… It’s not what you think. Everyone has these urges to some degree, but this Passion 3 is messing with mine.” “In essence, the Altargeist monster likes to send Seekers into a rut. If not treated with care, it can cause parties to fracture and dissolve.” I knew Ceres explained all this with sincere intentions, and I appreciated it—but once I started thinking about what my own worldly desires would be, it felt like she saw right through me. My knees buckled. “…Kyouka, are you okay?” Suzuna asked. “I-I’m fine… Sorry to worry you…” “I—I wish I could, you know…p-purge those desires for you, but…” “D-don’t worry about it… Plus, I’m not the only one, right? You must have some, too, Suzuna…” “It is a burden all young lasses must bear. Loneliness calls upon even gentlewomen such as myself some nights.” “Um… M-Master, is it just me, or has it been forever since you acted like a regular woman?” For that one moment, Ceres spoke with a truly sophisticated air; despite her petite, cute demeanor, she assumed a calm and demure aura more like Falma’s. “In any event, that thirst need not necessarily be quenched in the physical sense. Much like what you call ‘movies’ in your world or like the novels we read in ours, fantasy can at times influence a person’s psychological state just as effectively.” “Y-yes… I have indeed cried before while watching some emotional movies.” “Come now, you’ll make me feel like an elderly professor if you speak to me so formally… But never mind that. The pinnacle of human imagination, what you might call the process through which one organizes one’s thoughts and feelings—I’m talking about dreams. Bend that to your will, and you can cure your Passion ailment.” “S-seriously…? But what kind of dream could…?” “Should you wish to attempt it, say the word before you head to sleep and I shall assist you. However—what, in fact, you dream of shall be up to you. I confess I cannot even imagine what it might entail.” It was encouraging to think I could treat this issue in a dream, but given the kind of issue, I assumed I’d need to have that kind of dream, too. Still, I’ll be in big trouble if the talisman comes off before I heal… Looks like I don’t have much choice… And so I decided to ask Ceres for help with some dream therapy. I had to do anything I could to make sure Atobe never found out the things that had been plaguing my mind, no matter how unlikely the possibility. I’d had a vague feeling my dream would center around my time back at the company. But I was a little off. I was living in a house in a rural village. My seeking days had been so fruitful, I’d had my pick of homes after retirement. That is, of course, my husband—Atobe—and I had together chosen the house we loved best. “Hee-hee… Still fast asleep.” After preparing breakfast, I’d slipped back into our bedroom to wake him. We had a royally huge bed, one with far too much space for only two people. And yet out of all the plentiful room available, Atobe was curled up in one tiny corner of the mattress. I had to laugh at his humility, even in sleep. It made me think of things I never could have said in the old days, like how adorable I found the small tufts of hair that stuck straight up as he took a nap on the break room couch after pulling another all-nighter. I’d convinced myself comments like that didn’t mesh with my public image. Instead, I settled on serving him a cup of steaming coffee as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and giving him a, “good luck today” like a proper boss. Now, though, I’d traded all that vanity for overwhelming happiness. “…Mmn… Igarashi…” “…I told you, I’m not Igarashi anymore, remember? Silly man…” It was his fault. He shouldn’t have murmured my name so sleepily, completely defenseless. He was the one to blame here—but I was even more at fault for thinking he might appreciate seeing me in this getup. I mean, really, nothing but an apron…? I wouldn’t have even dreamed of it if Misaki hadn’t said all newlyweds do it… How would he react? I worried he might roll his eyes, but also knew he was so gentle, he’d never realize I was coming on to him unless I took extreme measures. I longed to be close to him. Pressing my body against his while we slept couldn’t satisfy me anymore. “Ngh…” Sitting on the edge of the bed, I kissed Atobe’s cheek. He showed no signs of waking, though it did seem to tickle him a little. He probably won’t wake up with another. I can keep going. Once more I pecked his cheek, careful not to make any noise. Still, he didn’t rouse, so I went in for another, and another—eventually I got greedy. I wanted to kiss more than his cheeks, his forehead. “It’s your fault for not waking up, you know…” “…Kyouka…” “…Oh, you…” He softly called my name, just when I needed to hear it most. Even in his sleep, he was a true gentleman. He must be having a really nice dream. I shouldn’t wake him up, I thought, and yet. “…Just a little more…” The string tying my apron around my neck came undone. The light filtered in through the curtains, and I hid my breasts with my arm so he could feel free to open his eyes whenever he pleased, and I climbed onto the bed. “…Kyouka, don’t hide anything from me.” “A-Atobe…” “I thought we agreed we wouldn’t call each other by our last names?” Awake before I even knew it, my husband—Arihito—sat up in bed. Though he usually wore pajamas to sleep, today his taut, rippled chest was bare. I’d loved the way suits had accentuated his neck, the flashes of his wrist I’d glimpse beneath his jacket sleeve. They’d always caught my eye. But now—I could feast my eyes on more than just passing moments. I had a front row seat to enjoy every inch of my husband. “U-um…You look amazing,” he stammered. “Sorry, too blunt?” “…Silly man. You’re supposed to be blunt,” I told him, then gently slid my hand against his cheek and leaned in for a soft kiss. Without releasing his lips, I pushed him back down against the bed, knowing he’d welcome me wholly. Breakfast today would run late. Arihito slipped his hand around my waist and hugged me tight as if to say, I’ll never let you go. ♦Current Status♦ > KYOUKA’s PASSION 3 was lifted When I awoke the next morning, it felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I vaguely remembered having a nice dream, but couldn’t recall exactly what had happened. “Good morning, Igarashi.” “Oh, morning, Arihito.” “…Wh-what…?” I’d greeted him as casually as usual, though it felt different for some reason. Probably just my imagination. “…? What’s wrong, Atobe? Why do you look so surprised?” “Oh… N-nothing. I’m glad you’re looking well.” “Oh yes, I feel wonderful. So light and free.” Thanks to the dream, I had entirely forgotten about Ceres’s treatment. It was only a little later that I realized I’d used a different name for Atobe that morning. As to whether I ever switched to calling him Arihito—that’s a story for another day.
Chapter 61
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