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Afterwards, Rir and I did some rather unwholesome things… well, we were at that age. After doing that for a bit, we were in a hurry to get some things done, so we put on our clothes again while trying to calm each other down.

“W-Well, in the future… we can do that once in a while.”
“Woof, y-you’re right. Once in a while, yeah.”

With her face red, she was casting her eyes down.
How charming. Whether she’s embarrassed or not, Rir is cute… I guess.

“Anyway, nothin’ changed over there, right?”

For the time being, I tried to change the topic and get my mind off things.

“W-Woof. Yeah. The rector… of the orphanage, I mean. He’s a wonderful person.
“I-I see.”

Looks like my change of topic was a success. Let’s try to continue with that.

“What kind of person is he?”
“Th-That’s hard to explain. I’ve only known him for one day.”
“Well, you got a point, there.”

Though from this rector’s perspective, it wasn’t just one day. Thinking about it like that, I felt a bit lonely… but that was unavoidable.

“Well, in any case, he’s a good person.”
“Right.”

Is this the end of our conversation? Hang on, if we’re runnin’ out of stuff to say, we’ll go back to this embarrassin’ mood.
Somethin’… ain’t there somethin’ to talk about? Yep, there is! I completely forgot there is somethin’ I gotta tell her.

“Hey, Rir! We talked ’bout you comin’ to our house.”
“Woof! Did you tell your parents about the situation?”

Her ears stood up straight and she turned them towards me, as if to listen attentively.

“Yep! We already applied to it today.”
“Huh, you already did!?”
“Yes.”

When I told Mom and Pops during dinner that Rir had come to Earth and that she was the exchange student who was supposed to live with us, Pops completed the application right after we finished eating. For that reason, we hadn’t yet discussed how to proceed.

“It’s also your choice, right, Rir?”
“Woof, that’s right! I also have a say in it, so I’ll make sure to pick the Hino family.”

She leaned against me happily with a radiant smile. I patted her head.

“…Now, I’ll always be together with you, Shuu.”
“Yep, you will.”
“Are you fine with that?” she asked with a serious look.
“What do you mean?”
“Won’t it be annoying if I’m always with you? Or, more specifically-”

It seemed as if Rir was worrying that I’d see her as a burden. I wasn’t sure how often I had told her that before, but… I should say it in a cool fashion this time.

“I can guess what you’re tryin’ to say. I’m f-… fine with you. What about you?”
“Woof. If you’re fine with it, then I want to always be at your side. For me, you are everything.”

First I fumble my words and now she tells me I’m her everythin’. Even though it sounded great in my mind. I mean, inwardly I’m super happy hearin’ that she simply wants to be with me.

“I see. Then let’s do that.”
“Awoo!”

Although she had hugged me thoroughly earlier, Rir clung to my arm once more. Her smile was radiant.

___________
_______
____

“…That one is there, right?”
“Yes. I didn’t expect it to be such a place.”

In a certain space, a man with a black, smoldering body and a woman with wings growing from her back¹ were talking, while holding alcoholic beverages that refilled themselves endlessly.

“We knew it wasn’t in Anazumu,” the man mused
“Yes, but ending up in another world instead of being erased from existence…” the woman added.

The two beings were chatting while looking at a display floating in the wide, yellow space. Right now, the display showed a beautiful girl and a boy, who looked almost as beautiful and feminine as the girl, who were talking in the boy’s room. The two of them were about to do something, but then stopped and started to kiss… the image on the display changed.

“Oh, come on, we were just getting to the good part,” the man complained.
“We may be gods, but this is not something I enjoy watching.”

The woman with wings, Samayel, had switched the channel. It now merely showed the side of a road somewhere.

“Either way, those people… no matter if it’s morning, noon, or evening, no matter if they’re on Anazumu or Erf, they’re canoodling nonstop like monkeys,” the man grumbled. “If I was there, I‘d tear them apart no matter how.”
“It cannot be helped, this is human nature,” Samaeyl replied.
“And there’s six of them, this is just too much!”

The man gulped down² what remained in his glass and then refilled it with another drink.

“But there are more important things,” Samaeyl switched the topic, “like that one.”
“Indeed.”

The man with black skin, Surtr, turned his gaze where Samaeyl was pointing. There, placed on the roadside, was a Jizou statue.

“It’s in this thing, right?”
“Yes, in there.”
“That schmuck sure put some thought behind this. Deliberately going to another world just to separate the three of US. Well, more like returning there… right?”

Surtr noticed that Samaeyl’s glass was empty, so he refilled it unprompted. She didn’t seem to mind and downed the contents.

“…Well, either way, it is just a question of time until Alim Nariwei and the others make contact with the third evil god,” she stated.
“I wouldn’t be so sure. They might not.”

Surtr pulled the corners of his mouth into a sneer. However, his expression immediately crumbled.

“If they don’t get in contact, what are they going to do?” he asked Samaeyl while uneasily hanging his head.
“They will probably enjoy life with their sweethearts.”
“Guess you’re right there.”

Surtr reacted to Samaeyl’s reply with a bored look, and then downed his drink in a single gulp.

TL notes:
Another look at the antagonists with more foreshadowing. Curiously, what they can observe doesn’t seem to be limited to where the statue is. Plus, if they can observe events on Earth, then they apparently aren’t affected by the time stop (or aren’t actually bound to the statue).

While those two being able to observe everything Alim & co. do is still an unsettling thought, just having hormone addled teenagers to watch all day sounds like a special kind of hell.

1. It’s “arms” in the original, but I assume that’s an error. They were growing from her back in previous instances.
2. The original is 煽る (“to fan”, “to flap”), which I assume is an error and meant to be the homophone 呷る (“to gulp down”)

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