"Thank you, Freya!" I said in a very excited voice.

My happiness over my new weapon was so great that I gave the goddess a tight hug.

"Eh?!" Freya flinched nervously, not expecting my affectionate gesture.

I was so happy that I kissed the goddess on the cheek.

"W-Waaaaah!" Freya let out a surprised cry. I had never seen her so flustered, not even during sex.

"Thanks a bunch, Freya!" I said, finally letting her go from my arms. "This sword will certainly make our journey easier."

Freya turned her face away, avoiding my gaze.

"Flattering me won’t help. I’m not going to give you items or skills easily from now on, you know? Just because we had sex doesn’t mean our relationship has changed, understood?" she told me in an irritated tone.

I think she misunderstood me. I hadn’t expected it to become easier to obtain more powerful skills. I had just gotten too excited and kissed her out of happiness. That was when I noticed that Freya had turned on tsundere mode, playing hard to get with me.

As if I could forget how submissive she had been to me just a short while ago in that very same room.

"Proud as always," I said in a playful tone. "But that’s fine. I like a little challenge."

Freya ignored my words, turning her face away with forced ill humor.

"Well, I think I’d better go back. I still have to find someone in the city," I told her.

I wanted to wake up early to find an informant inside the city. There was a guy who lived there who could tell me about Leo without me having to deal with Silver Fang.

"Ah, right," the goddess said, as if she had just remembered something. "There’s something I’d like to ask you before I send you back."

"Alright. What is it?"

"It’s about your friend Leo."

It was only to be expected that Freya would talk to me about Leo. If we followed SCRL’s timeline, she would have granted him a completely different blessing. He would be the hero of this story if I hadn’t stolen that from him.

I did it to survive, so it wasn’t as if I regretted it. But the path he had been taking since then bothered me.

"Go ahead and ask," I said to Freya, preparing myself for whatever she was going to ask me.

"Leo seems to be in contact with the Night Apostles, although we don’t know for sure if he’s become one of the bad guys. If he did what he said he would do, he might be in Silver Fang."

"That seems to be the case."

Freya turned towards me, looking me in the eyes. "This is serious, Rick. He may just be being used, but there’s a possibility that he’s working together with them."

"I know that," I answered her, but I couldn’t stop my voice from showing a certain irritation.

"Do you really?" she questioned me. "In the best-case scenario, he’s someone who has to be saved, but if he’s working with them, that makes him our enemy. You understand what I mean, don’t you?"

I understood. I understood very well what she meant. If Leo had become our enemy, and we had to fight him, the situation could get ugly.

I didn’t want to think about what might happen.

I sighed deeply, letting the negative thoughts leave with my exhale. "Don’t worry, Freya. If that’s the case, I’ll take responsibility."

Freya then said something I hadn’t expected from her. "What about Sarah?"

"How surprising. I didn’t expect you to care about my Valkyries."

"Of course I care!" she answered me, somewhat indignant. "I like watching the Valkyries, and I’ve grown somewhat attached to Sarah since she’s been with you from the beginning. Your number one."

I remembered having said that to Sarah in secret in the past. But like everything I said, it wasn’t actually in secret. There were always at least two people watching. The first was the girl lying on the bed, and the second was the goddess right in front of me.

"You really watch everything that happens to me. How scary."

"Don’t change the subject," Freya scolded me. "So what are you going to do about Sarah? Do you intend to hide Leo from her until you run into him?"

"Of course not," I retorted. "But I need to understand the situation better. I don’t want to make her happy about it, only to have to tell her afterward that he’s our enemy. I want to know more about how things are before telling her in the best way possible."

Freya looked at me with a frown. Her crossed arms told me she thought my idea was idiotic.

"Do you really think that’s the best way to deal with this? Sarah isn’t a child. Even if she’s your Valkyrie, you can’t protect her from everything."

"I’m fully aware of that."

"Then..."

"But I want to do it anyway. Is it so wrong not to want to hurt someone you love?"

Freya pondered for a moment before answering me, but I could see her expression waver.

"No, there’s nothing wrong with that. But you may just be delaying the inevitable."

"Even if that’s the case, I’d like to give her a few more moments of peace," I answered without a waver in my words.

Freya’s face did not look relieved. Her expression was more sad than serious at that moment.

"If that’s how it is, I’ll trust your judgment, Rick. You should already know this, but the Night Apostles are cunning and reckless. They’ll do everything they can to achieve their goals. So be careful."

I gave her a faint laugh. "What do you mean, Freya? I’m always careful."

"Fufufu." It seemed I had managed to improve her mood, because she couldn’t hold back her laughter. "Yeah, I know."

"We’ll meet again." I looked at Brandish, who was still sleeping in the goddess’s bed. "Tell Brandish I said goodbye when she wakes up."

"Don’t worry, I’ll pass on the message. In any case, you two will talk later as well."

Freya turned to me with a smile, one gentler than her usual one. Freya came over to me and, standing on tiptoe, gave me a little peck.

"See you later, Rick," she said in a cheerful tone.

Freya then pulled away from me, as if she enjoyed reminding me of the taste of her mouth before sending me away. I would spend the day thinking about that kiss because of the cruel thing she did next.

Just as I was about to try to steal another kiss from her, Freya snapped her fingers, and her sumptuous room disappeared from my sight, replaced by darkness and the sensation of falling into the abyss.

...

I woke up in Leila’s house, thanking the gods that my relationship with Freya had been an ethereal experience. Otherwise, it would have been very embarrassing to have to explain the mess in the bed. Fortunately, the only additional thing that hadn’t been with me before was my new weapon.

The same black sword Freya had created was resting beside my bed. A beautiful blade of the deepest black, as if it had been bathed in the dark, starless night sky. And yet, it looked far sharper than the weapon I had taken from the bandit I defeated some time ago.

I was excited and wanted to test my new sword, but that would have to wait. I still had to find someone in the city. I knocked on my Valkyries’ room, looking for someone to accompany me on the search. The sun had not risen yet in that early morning, so except for one of them, they were all sleeping deeply.

"Good morning, Rick," Diane greeted me, opening the bedroom door.

"I don’t know if I can call it day yet, but good morning," I answered her. "Did I wake you?"

"Yes, but it’s not a problem. Due to my training, I’m capable of waking up without trouble any time I’m needed."

"If that’s the case, I believe you can accompany me."

"Of course. What would you like to do?" she asked me in a monotone voice.

"Let’s go out on a date," I said to her.

If it had been any of my other Valkyries, maybe I would have gotten a more nervous reaction, but Diane only looked at me, bewildered. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"I believe there are better times for a date."

In Diane’s case, either she understood my jokes and rejected them, or she looked at me that way.

"Forget what I said. I’d like you to accompany me through the city. There’s someone I need to find. It’s about Leo."

My words immediately caught Diane’s attention.

"Understood." She looked down.

I was happy to see a different expression on Diane’s face as she turned red. She had been about to leave the room and go out into the street, but at that moment, she finally realized that she was wearing a nightgown.

"I’ll just go change first," she said to me, her cheeks, normally as pale as porcelain, as red as a tomato.