The days passed without incident, so even though Takeshi didn’t like the idea, Ophélia returned to the shrine.

Takeshi checked his stats before leaving the apartment.

[Life: 100%]

[Sanity: 38%]

[Points: 5]

The points were the most immediate problem.

’Between the resets and the sanity pills, I don’t have many points left...’

He closed the panel and stepped into the hallway. Ophélia was waiting by the apartment door.

"Good morning."

Ophélia said.

"Good morning."

Takeshi locked the door.

"How long have you been here?"

"Not long."

They walked toward the high school. Aoi and Nyx didn’t appear along the way, which was different from the previous days. Takeshi didn’t know whether they had left earlier or later, but the result was that they arrived at school alone.

At the entrance, Ophélia stopped for a moment before they split up to head to their respective classrooms.

"Want to have lunch together?"

She asked.

"Yeah, that’s fine."

Ophélia nodded and entered the building.

During break, Takeshi was in the main hallway talking with Elina—or rather, listening to what she was saying.

Suddenly, Ophélia appeared at the far end of the corridor.

She didn’t approach immediately. Instead, she stayed where she was, a book tucked under her arm, looking in Takeshi’s direction. He noticed her, but he kept listening to Elina because the conversation wasn’t over yet.

Thirty seconds later, Ophélia walked over to them.

She didn’t interrupt, but she stood beside Takeshi and waited. Elina unconsciously slowed the pace of the conversation because of Ophélia’s presence.

"I’ll find you later..."

Takeshi said to Elina.

Elina looked at Ophélia and then at Takeshi.

"Sure, no problem."

She said goodbye and walked down the hallway.

Ophélia followed her with her eyes until she turned the corner. Then she looked at Takeshi.

"What were you talking about?"

She asked.

"Student council matters."

"I see."

Ophélia nodded and said nothing more about the subject, but her expression showed that she wasn’t satisfied with that answer.

Takeshi chose not to comment.

At lunch, Aoi arrived at the cafeteria and headed toward the table where Takeshi and Ophélia were already seated. She grabbed a chair on Takeshi’s side, which was where she usually sat when they had lunch together.

Ophélia placed a hand on the backrest of that chair before Aoi could move it.

"Sorry, I was going to put my bag here..."

Ophélia commented.

Aoi looked at her, then at Ophélia’s bag, and there was a second of silence.

Aoi took a chair on the opposite side of the table without saying anything.

Nyx arrived five minutes later, assessed the seating arrangement, and chose to sit beside Aoi without asking.

The conversation during lunch was normal on the surface. Nyx talked about something from magic class, and Aoi asked a question about the council schedule.

Meanwhile, Ophélia answered whenever someone spoke directly to her, but she didn’t start any conversation with Aoi or Nyx on her own.

What she did do was talk to Takeshi about the food, make a comment about something she had read that morning, and point out an observation about the cafeteria.

Takeshi responded to everything, but with growing confusion.

’Why do I feel like she’s acting strange?’

After classes ended, when Takeshi went to find Ophélia so he could walk with her, he found Nyx already standing beside her in the hallway.

The two of them were talking—or more precisely, Nyx was talking and Ophélia was responding with short answers.

When Takeshi arrived, Ophélia immediately turned toward him.

"You finally got here. Shall we go?"

She spoke directly to him, without including Nyx in the question.

Nyx noticed.

"I’m going that way too!"

She said in a tone that didn’t accept refusal.

The walk was tense. Ophélia walked beside Takeshi, and Nyx walked behind them. No one said anything.

Once they arrived at the shrine, Ophélia invited them inside, and both accepted.

Takeshi went to see if he could find anything else in the writings of the goddess Tot, but in the middle of his search, he heard someone approaching behind him.

He turned around and saw that it was Ophélia.

She stopped beside him, glancing sideways at the writings.

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

Ophélia asked.

"Unfortunately, no. It’s harder than I imagined..."

"Yeah, there are a lot of writings..."

Takeshi checked Ophélia’s stats.

[Life: 100%]

[Sanity: 78%]

[Trust: 96%]

’Why did her sanity go down?’

"Ophélia, are you okay?"

Ophélia nodded, and then there was silence for a moment.

"Takeshi."

"What is it, Ophélia?"

"Does the promise you made me still stand?"

Takeshi looked at her.

"Which one?"

"That you would always protect me."

"Of course."

Takeshi replied.

"It still stands."

Ophélia didn’t answer immediately. She looked down at the floor with an expression Takeshi couldn’t quite read.

"What if I did something that made you want to distance yourself from me?"

She asked.

Takeshi frowned slightly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if you left..."

She paused.

"I don’t know if I’d be able to keep doing the things I do at the shrine and outside of it, at school."

Another pause.

"I think you’re what keeps me functioning properly."

Takeshi processed that.

"Ophélia... you..."

The implication of those words was clear: if Takeshi distanced himself, Ophélia could not guarantee her own condition, and given that Ophélia’s death would activate an entity capable of ending everything, that was not a small amount of pressure.

"Ophélia..."

Takeshi said carefully.

"Are you aware of what you’re saying?"

"Yes."

She looked at him.

"I just wanted you to know."

"What exactly did you want me to know?"

Ophélia didn’t answer that. She held Takeshi’s gaze for a moment and then looked back down at the floor.

"That the promise matters."

She finally said.

They remained there in silence for another minute. Then Ophélia left him alone so he could read in peace.

Takeshi remained standing there, thinking.

He had seen Aoi, with her sanity at zero, threaten direct violence. He had seen Yuki kidnap him with a twisted but concrete logic. Those were forms of pressure that Takeshi could identify and against which he could look for a response.

What Ophélia had just done was different. She hadn’t said anything that could be pointed to as a threat, yet the result was the same: Takeshi couldn’t walk away without consequences, and this time, the consequences weren’t only for him.

He looked at his stats once more.

[Life: 100%]

[Sanity: 38%]

[Points: 5]

’I can’t make another mistake.’