“Stupid Eerie! Stupid Eerie! Stupid Eerie!” The Goddess Kreah screamed into her pillow. Her fists slammed against the headrest, and her feet flailed around like an eight year old princess throwing a tantrum.

“Those were my heroes, and this was my stage.” Kreah sobbed.

///

I covered up my sneeze just in time to protect King Tallow.

“Hahaha, so you really sent those heroes back home?”

“Is there a problem with that?” I asked.

“There’s no problem with me, but the Goddess’ church will definitely not like it.”

I shrugged. “We’ll be leaving here today, anyway.”

He looked down at this desk awkwardly. “I know. It will be less fun around here with you and Mary gone. I still feel weird about you taking my guild master in training.”

“Well then,” I said and made my way towards the exit. “I will see you next time.”

I left a little present on his desk before I vanished into my realm. The first person I greeted was Mary in the living room.

“Did you just wake up?”

She shook her head. “It was hard for me to sleep, so I came down here. These are nice couches, by the way.”

I walked over and sat next to her.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“So you noticed?” Mary released a deep breath and slumped back. “I don’t know. It’s weird knowing that certain parts of me are missing. Before, I could go on blissfully ignorant, but now, it feels strange.”

“I understand what you mean. It’s like looking at a distant shadow of yourself.”

She laughed and sat up. “You really do have an Eerie way of saying things.”

“Wow, now you are taking pages out of my book?”

“If I take more pages out of your book, I might remember more crazy things you did.”

“Can’t be as crazy as sending heroes across the galaxy,” I said.

She smirked. “So you admit it!”

Red painted my cheeks, and I shook my head. “I still have many delusions left.”

Stolen novel; please report.

My savior came in the form of a tired Sumire. She rubbed her eyes and sat on the opposite couch.

Sumire yawned. “Good morning.”

Mary and I both responded in kind before another one entered. Riri sat down next to Sumire, appearing more awake than her classmate. She already had a smile on her face.

“Good morning!”

Sine ran in after Riri’s melodic voice. Of course, she chose her most consistent seat—my lap.

“Morning.”

The last one to enter was Jugon—the axe hero—and being the tsundere he was, he leaned against a wall.

Mary took the lead role and stood up. “As you all know, our goal is the subjugation of the Demon King.”

Jugon huffed. “How come a Demon Lord is going to subjugate another one with us? I chose this on a whim, but if this becomes stupid, I am leaving to do quests at the guild.” He grinned. “I am sure that it would be easy to rank up and make a living with my status.”

Mary nodded. “You are all free to choose your own paths here, but know that the church may pursue you, and you might face the wrath of an angry goddess.”

Jugon’s face went purple. “Are you serious, man? This is some bull---”

“I’m okay with it,” Riri said.

“Me too.”

“I go with witch!”

“I can always send you to Earth, but if you leave, then I won’t bring you back.”

“Whatever,” he said, crossing his arms. “Just get on with it!”

“Did you take a page out of that lion’s book?” Sumire asked.

“Lion?”

“Seriously, Eerie?” Mary asked. “You don’t remember that big dumb lion who proposed to you?”

“Bleh!”

Mary chuckled and turned back to the others. “It’s important that we take our time with this. The other sins are all strong, and since Sloth is next, we might be in for a bad time.”

“Can’t Eerie just handle everything?” Sumire asked.

Mary sighed. “You want Eerie to also solve every other problem in the universe?”

“If it’s witch, she could do it,” Sine said with a smile.

I ignored them and put Sine down. I stretched my arms and legs. When I looked up, everyone was staring at me. “What? Do I have something on my face?”

“What are you doing?”

“I am stretching. I thought we were going. I want to see what the forest will look like covered in snow.”

“Finally,” Jugon said, “but I am reluctant to agree with this one.”

“Aren’t we going to make a plan?” Mary asked as I opened a portal.

“Nope! The Eerie plan is no plan at all! It’s my specialty!” I reached out my hand towards Mary. “This time I will be guiding you across the sidewalk.”

She laughed and took my outstretched hand. “If that’s the case, then I probably should not let go. Who knows where we would end up?”

“Why are you two so flirty all of the sudden?” Sumire asked.

My face heated. Of course, I would want to hold the hand of an old friend. I felt my other arm get grabbed by my newest and first disciple.

“I think it’s cute. I want witch to be happy,” Sine said.

I jumped into the portal. For embarrassing this witch, there was a price to pay. Sumire’s scream as she fell onto a floating broom in the sky brought me joy.

“You can warn me next time!”

I laughed, but because the other two were holding onto me, they now shared the broom. Sine sat in front, and Mary’s arms wrapped around my torso. It was like we were part of a biker gang, who decided to kidnap a girl. No, no, no, I quickly shook those thoughts from my head.

Riri landed on a floating fluffy broomstick. It appeared as a cleaning implement, but surrounding it was a puffy cloud—fitting her nature.

Jugon landed on a more skull and bones looking one, and his had small guitar strings towards the back. It was as though he had joined a heavy metal band.

“And away we go!” I shouted into the cold air.