“Let me get this clear: While mine delivered an apocalyptical prophecy on my unexpecting lap, your [Patron] was just like ‘hey, nice job out there, good choice in mate and profession, now go out there and fight some more’, gave you a pat on the shoulder and just left?”

I didn’t know if I was supposed to feel jealous at how straight forward her [Patron] seemed to be compared to [Luck], or if I was supposed to feel proud that I was the talk of the [Gods] and that everybody knew and gossiped about me.

Honestly, I was mostly feeling frustrated about this whole thing.

“He wasn’t so casual about it, he’s a [God] after all, but I guess that was the gist of it”, Sheeno replied with a shrug.

I must have looked unhappy, or maybe angry, because while I was simmering in the beginning of some self-commiseration, my companion enveloped me in a tight hug, lifting me off my feet and squishing my head against her chest.

“But enough about that: I think I’ve been neglecting your reward for long enough~” Sheeno sensually whispered into my ear.

“Mh rhwrhd?” I mumbled through her corset.

Per her response, Sheeno bit me on the of my ear, which we discovered was something I actually liked, but before I could even begin squirming a light and deliberate cough attracted our attention.

“If you could, keep this type of matter outside of the holy ground, please?” an old scaley lady with a toga decorated in a starry motif said, with clear humor in her voice.

Sheeno dropped me dedicatedly on the spot.

“Sorry.”

“S-sorry!”

We apologized at the same time, with me clearly being the more nervous and frazzled of the two.

Besides the blush that we shared, my mate was even grinning in front of the nun!

“Mph, to be young again. Ohohohoh!” And with an ‘ojou laugh’, complete with mouth covered by the back of her hand, she sauntered away.

Slightly dumbfounded, it was Sheeno that snapped out of it first and brought us out of the [Temple], leading me along by holding my hand.

I ended up regaining my composure by the time we teleported back to the [Guild], finally getting the redness off my cheeks, so we made it back to our house as normally as we could.

As soon as we teleported into our mansion, Sheeno was once more all over me.

But as soon as she was about to whisper to me everything she would ‘reward’ me with, the loud sound of a bell jingle rang through the house.

“Wha?” I asked, caught off my game.

With both my second brain being in control at the moment and not knowing where the sound that interrupted us came from, I was left twisting my head around trying to find where it was coming from.

It was only when the sound repeated a second time that I recognized why it was vaguely familiar and subsequently understood that it must be the equivalent of an intercom in this world.

“Fine, I’ll get it”, Sheeno let me go, but not before also muttering “It better be something important, and not another [Priest]”.

I expected to see her pull a new device out of her [Spatial Ring], but instead, she disappointingly went to the door.

I expected to finally see her do something unexpected, like revealing an intercom-like interface behind a secret panel, but instead, she just opened the front door to peer at who was at our gates.

“uh… she’s pretty, but I don’t know her”, Sheeno said to herself once she saw whoever it was.

“Who is it?” I asked, interested in the identity of the interrupter.

“I don’t know, she looks like a Nymph completely in blue… maybe turquoise? I’m not sure: I always found the lessons on tapestries’ pigmentations boring.”

A turquoise Nymph.

I had stopped listening to her when she uttered that familiar color.

“No… it can’t be, can it?”

I slipped between Sheeno’s legs, soliciting a “hey” from her, but it didn’t matter: It really was freacking-

“Undine! What are you doing all the way over to the [Wilds]!?” I immediately shouted, before even I had finished internalizing her sudden appearance.

The turquoise [Water Nymph] sent me a dazzling smile once she noticed me, stretching her teal lips upwards.

“Darwin! Thank goodness that I got your address right: This place is a maze!” She shouted happily, bouncing as if for emphasis, which made her aquamarine hairs dance around her, together with some more obvious assets.

“You know her?” Sheeno asked, turning her head down to look at me.

“Yeah, she’s the [High Priestess] that introduced me to [Nexus] in the [Temple of Water], and the first friendly face that stood up for me in this world”, I narrated fondly, which earned a raised eyebrow from my girlfriend.

“You got targeted by agents of [Purity] as soon as you arrived!?” Sheeno asked surprised by my story.

“No no, just a [Noble] ass that was convinced I was a [Demon] and wouldn’t hear otherwise”, I shook my head.

“Ah, one of those guys…”, Sheeno acknowledged my words but, at the same time, looked as if she had bitten into whatever the equivalent of a lemon was here.

It seemed she was familiar with the type, obvious once I thought about her old position, and she seemed to hold no sympathy for them whatsoever.

“Ehm, could I maybe ask you and lady Fyratta to let me in?” Undine’s voice snapped us out of the sudden funk we had suddenly founded ourselves in.

“I’m terribly sorry! Please, come in, and you can drop the ‘lady’ part: I’m not deserving of the title anymore”, Sheeno hurriedly activated the [Enchantment] that opened and closed the gate automatically so as to let the [High Priestess] in.

“Oh, pish posh! One as important as you doesn’t lose a title simply because a bigoted tyrant says so!” Undine said while patting Sheeno’s shoulder, once she was within reach.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I was about to also get out of her way so Undine could come in, but she instead went to bend down and envelop me in a hug.

“It’s so good to meet you again. I hope you’ve been acclimating properly to our reality”, she affectionally said, while awkwardly smushing her breasts against my head.

Which made Sheeno’s polite smile stop reaching her eyes.

“Oh no, is she the jealous type?”

When she finally decided to put me down I focused on not blushing, in order to avoid Sheeno subtly glaring any harder at our guest.

“It doesn’t happen often that [Adventurer Teams] rent a mansion to live together, but I’m happy to see that the place has a bit of Darwin’s personal touch mixed into the decor.

He did seem interested in more books, and I’m happy to see that you’re building your own private library”, the Nymph said while looking around our relatively sparse living room, except for some essential furnishing, like a table and some chairs, and the obvious bookshelves she had pointed out.

“Undine, it’s good to see you, but what are you doing here?” I finally asked when she seemed more interested in checking out which books I had collected, instead of explaining her impromptu visit by herself all the way over here.

She turned around with an apologetic look, but her eyes didn’t seem to know whether to settle on me or Sheeno.

“Well, one of the reasons why I came was to check on how you were dealing with having a companion, and the fact that there were rumors around of you two arguing in public made me fear for the worse, but now that I’m looking at you two it looks like you’re getting along just fine”, Undine explained, searching our faces for some sort of sign.

Sheeno snorted, probably thinking the same thing I was.

“Yes, we were ‘going along’ more than fine, thank you very much.”

Unfortunately, the [High Priestess] misinterpreted my girlfriend’s reaction and focused on her with a squint.

“Did you find what I said funny? I’ll let you know that I’ve taken a special interest in this [Human] and I will not allow you to make light of my concern”, Undine assumed a haughty air, trying to look down at the amazon, even though the latter was way taller than her.

Further unfortunately, her words sparked something within Sheeno that made her adopt a challenging expression just after she had muttered to herself about something ‘special’.

“Oh? You first call me a lady but then question my treatment of Darwin inside our house?

You’ve got guts [Priestess], I’ll admit it”, she nodded her head with a complacent expression, “but don’t think you can just come in here and act like that without any repercussion”.

“You dare to talk to me about repercussions!? I’m a [High Priestess], and teaching others about the repercussion they could incur when harassing the newly [Transferred] is my job. And that is what I’m doing right here, right now”, Undine refused to back down and only added fuel to the fire.

It was then that before they could escalate the situation any further I decided to intervene.

“She’s my lover! What happened in the merchant district was just our ‘lover’s quarrel’! Sheeno has never mistreated me. And Sheeno, Undine is just a very caring person and has no romantic interest towards me whatsoever”, I interposed myself between the two.

“Never had women fighting over me, and I’m glad it never happened before, because this shit is scary!”

“ ‘Romantic interest’? Oh!” The [High Priestess] covered her mouth to hide her expression of shock when she finally understood the misunderstanding.

“Don’t think that will be enough to appease me, this [Priest] is too haughty for my liking”, my lover replied without dropping her aggressive stance, which put Undine right back on guard.

“She’s the daughter of a [Demi-Goddess]: Give her some leeway, please”, I tried to further reason with her.

Sheeno looked at me askance, “really? A [Demi-Goddess]?”

“Yes, the [Demi-Goddess of Water]”, I nodded.

“I’m still perplexed at why she is so defensive of you”, the [Anomalous Heliokan] stated, refusing to change her stance and stop squinting at the blue woman.

I turned to look at Undine and noticed that she was doing the same.

“She/He feels like the sibling I never had?” We both said at the same time, surprising ourselves and each other with the words we had just spoken.

“Hey, [Buddy], is what I’m feeling from some sort of [System] fuckery?”

Negative.

I removed most of the ways the [System] could influence you since my integral installation: I assure you those feelings are fully your own.

If you were more generally asking me why you were feeling the way you do, I would probably have to try and explain to you a whole branch of the science of psychology, where it explains how your vulnerable state when you got [Transferred] made you more prone to make a meaningful connection with a more open-minded person as a sort of “life-line” that your psyche could latch onto, double points if said person had a motherly personality and was looking for a genuine connection with a new individual after being harassed for months on end by an unwanted suitor.

“…uh…”

Well, if there was someone that could explain the matter to me in detail without actually explaining the unsaid points that troubled me the most, an accurate recreation of me in A.I. form would be it.

How infuriatingly apt.

“But why would we both end up referring to each other as ‘siblings’ at the same time!?”

You already know the answer.

You already saw the place where the consciousnesses of the sapient races mingle.

I mentally snapped my fingers, “the mind-scape, right! The dark ‘non-place’ ”.

“ ‘Sibling’? But you’ve only known each other for like a day!” Sheeno exclaimed perplexed, finally dropping her hostility, causing everybody in the room to finally relax.

“I assure you: I’m interested neither in any kind of romantic pursuit nor in experiencing carnal pleasure with anybody”, Undine tried to further prove our claim, putting her hands up in a placating gesture.

“Yeah, I think she’s aro-ace, or something”, I went along with her.

“Aro-what!?” But my words only seemed to make my lover more confused.

“Yes, I’m also confused by what he meant, and not even the [System] in providing [Information] or any kind of context”, the Nymph said with a complicated look on her face.

“Y-you know… aromantic and asexual”, I tried to brush it off with an awkward shrug.

They both looked at me weirdly for a moment but then a flash of understanding passed through their faces.

“Interesting; your culture had a whole system of classification for one’s sexual orientation and gender identification”, Sheeno commented, probably having been fed with the [Information] after I had uttered the complete words.

“I personally find it pitiful that there were people that had to ‘name’ themselves as ‘different’ in order to not be oppressed by those that identified as ‘normal’, and if I’m reading this properly then even that didn’t work properly, or at least not completely in their favor”, Undine interjected with a sad look.

I scratched the back of my head in order to hide how uncomfortable their words were making me feel, “yeah… some of the [Humans] can really get hung up on shit like that”.

“…Haha, but I guess I do match the definition for what you said”, the [High Priestees] eventually consented with a chuckle after a brief lull in the conversation.

“Still, that they felt the need to differentiate themselves simply for what they were either romantically or sexually attracted to is very strange. Almost creepy that one had to announce such information in front of strangers, almost defensively”, my lover further twisted the knife.

“Maybe, but those people had to fight a lot to even begin to be considered ‘normal’ by a lot of idiots, so I’d like for neither of you to make any judgments without knowing a bit more about the context”, I said with a bit of heat in my voice.

With my girly looks I was all too well aware of how uncouth some people could have been back home, and I would not have the locals of [Nexus] make light of the effort of the LGBTQ+ community.

“You’re right, we shouldn’t belittle someone else’s culture”, Undine replied while sending a glance to a still perturbed Sheeno.

“…yes… sorry, this topic just threw me for a loop and I didn’t know what to originally think of it”, she apologized after ruminating on it for but a second.

“No worries, I knew what you said held no ill intentions”, I nodded in appreciation to both of them.

“Can we get back on topic as to why this [High Priestess] has traveled all the way over here just to meet you?” My lover steered the conversation back on track.

“Oh yes”, I mumbled, turning to look at the Nymph that was just put on the spot.

“Of course, but every explanation has its proper time and place-“

Undine stopped when she saw both me and Sheeno glaring at her.

“-w-which of course is now, hahaha, haha…ha”, she quickly corrected herself before resigning herself to a long explanation with a sigh.

And a long explanation it was.