…

Elsewhere, somewhere. Or perhaps nowhere in particular. Just a moment ago. Or, perhaps soon…

Athea is browsing through a list of runes on the see-through rectangle in front of her. She waves her hand lazily across it as she slouches in her marble throne, propping her head up on her fist with a very bored face.

Suddenly her eyes open wider, she blinks a few times. Her head perks up from her fist, she sits up straight and uncrosses her legs, gaining a slightly nervous expression. Just like a single woman living alone in her apartment, that just heard her front door open and close very late into the night.

She waves the screen in front of her away with her hand, and with a flick of her fingers and a trail of golden runes, another smaller one opens at her side. She observes Straf standing on a road through it.

「…Was it him? What did you do!?」

Straf looks up at the sky, towards nowhere near her viewpoint. He answers, and she hears his voice in her head.

「That's it? Nothing else?」

She crosses her arms, furrows her brows and looks to the side as she thinks. She sighs while tapping her arm with her finger.

《I could have sworn it was that bastard. But he can't possibly be the source of that disturbance. I can't let myself get obsessed with him, he can't be behind it all, all the time.》

She flicks her hand across the screen, the viewpoint moves a little, catching Cycelia with her head tilted. He hand returns to her arms.

《Well, at least that girl is still fine. That's good.》

「If it was self-defense, I guess you're off the hook for now. I'm glad you protected the girl, maybe you'll stop being a scumbag eventually. I need to find out what caused this…」

Straf asks something, Athea clicks her tongue.

「Tsk. Mind your own business!」

He shoots back a witty retort, but she dismisses the screen in the middle of his sentence with a wave of her hand. She slumps again with her palm on the side of her face, and her fingers hide most of it.

《The demon lord? No, not in this form… Some gravitational disturbance? Obviously, but how? Think, before something really bad happ-》

「How are things, Athea? Did anything unusual happen?」

She gasps and her jaw drops as she hears the very familiar voice behind her. She shoots out of her throne with a very meek and timid posture, and hastily jumps down the few steps to meet the voice.

「Lord Overgod! Why do you grace me with your presence!? Is there something you require of me!?」

She runs up to the robed figure as it takes its time to walk from behind the throne to the front. She makes herself pitifully small for the masked man, as his empty and dark eye sockets look down at her.

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「No. I have come with a simple visit. Am I not allowed to check on my diligent workers, Athea?」

He turns his mask-like face with no lips to speak of, and only a protrusion for a nose directly at her.

「N-No, I mean- Of course- I- It is whatever you wish, Lord Overgod…」

His hooded head moves slowly and with grace, unrushed and serene. His eye sockets stare into the mist-covered distant space, looking for something that is not there.

「So you say that nothing of note has happened. You have nothing to report.」

The robed man speaks with nary a worry in any of the worlds. His face-like mask snaps to Athea. She gulps nervously.

「N-n… No Lord Overgod, nothing of interest. I have everything under control… What unusual would happen, that you have in mind?」

She squeezes her teeth together to prevent their chattering, to a minor effect.

「Who knows?」

His eye sockets are fixed still, and he has no lips to turn in the either direction, but his voice almost tells a minor smile as he asks a jesting question. He looks away from Athea, scanning the endless foggy horizon slowly.

「If there are no issues, then I will no longer disturb you. Keep up the good work, Athea.」

「A- Ah… Lord Overgod, surely you jest! You are not disturbing me at all!」

Athea chases the hooded figure at its side as it walks away with its hands behind it back, one holding the other.

「I will visit again.」

He simply declares, and disappears into a narrow beam of light upwards. Athea places her fingers on her chest and quickly takes a deep breath, then exhales. She walks back to her throne on shaky legs and sits down, holding onto her mouth with her fingers and with fearful eyes.

《Does he know? Does he know!? Wait-》

She lowers her head as she furiously thinks.

《What if that bastard lied? What if he did something? Wait.》

She rubs her eyebrows with her fingers.

《Wait wait wait wait wait. If he knows, then does this mean it is no problem at all? Doesn't this mean he allows it? That means that bastard is out of leverage on me… No.》

She grimaces as she thinks even harder.

《I can't just assume that. Maybe it was a test? Did I fail? If I failed, why did he leave? Do I have multiple chances? Ahh! Why couldn't that idiot just take being handsome and surrounded with women! This is his fault! And I still need to figure out the cause of the disturbance!》

Athea shouts in her head as she hides her face in her hands.