The crisp sound of a doorknob turning shattered the fragile stillness in the room, drawing all three sets of eyes toward the door.
The tightly closed door eased open with a slow creak, and from the narrow gap, a figure cautiously poked her head inside.
Akira's first thought was Could it be Lili?
After all, among the Astraea Familia members, he was the one Lili was most familiar with.
But when the head emerged fully into view, revealing that familiar cascade of scarlet hair, his heart sank.
It was not Lili.
It was Alise.
And right then, he felt it, an ominous premonition blooming in his gut.
'Something bad is going to happen.'
Alise's gaze swept over the three of them before pausing on the parchment in Akira's hand. Her curiosity was immediate and unmistakable.
"What are you talking about?" She asked, walking into the room with the relaxed authority only a captain could carry. "Why do you all look so focused?"
Without waiting for an answer, she reached straight for the parchment.
"Nothing, just some Familia matters." Akira said a little too quickly, instinctively hiding the parchment behind his back. "What brings you here so suddenly?"
He forced a smile, though the faint unnaturalness in his tone was hard to miss.
Alise narrowed her eyes, placing her hands on her hips. "Oh? You're hiding it? What's so mysterious? Are you keeping secrets from me, Akira?"
Her sharp gaze darted between Lyra and Kaguya, as if trying to detect a tell from their expressions.
Lyra's lips twitched, her amusement barely contained. After all, both she and Kaguya already knew, one more person in the loop wouldn't hurt.
Lyra gave a subtle wave, beckoning Alise over. Confused but intrigued, Alise stepped closer, bending down to place her ear near Lyra's mouth.
Lyra raised a hand to half-cover her lips and whispered something in a deliberately low voice.
The effect was instantaneous. Alise's eyes widened, her cheeks flushed crimson, and a rush of heat surged up her neck as if steam might burst from her ears at any moment. She straightened up in shock, pointed at Akira, and opened her mouth, only to stammer incoherently for several long seconds.
Finally, she managed to get out a trembling sentence, "Th-there's actually something that good?!"
Her words struck like thunder.
Akira froze, dumbfounded. He had fully expected her to scold him, maybe even berate him for the sake of the Familia's image.
But this?
This reaction completely blindsided him.
He just stared blankly, caught between disbelief and the urge to hold his head in despair. He had once again underestimated the bizarre inner workings of this captain's brain.
Lyra, after a brief stunned pause, burst into uncontrollable laughter, doubling over and nearly falling backwards. "Alise… you… hahahaha…"
Kaguya, by contrast, wore the expression of someone entirely unsurprised.
'Well, this is the same Alise who could deliver narcissistic remarks in the middle of the conference without blinking.'
"I underestimated you, Alise." Akira muttered, stepping forward to pat her on the shoulder.
Even he, with his own considerable shamelessness, wouldn't dare say something like that out loud. He had not expected… well, this.
With nothing else to add, Akira abruptly said, "I have something to do, you guys keep chatting," and vanished from sight in an instant, teleporting away.
Lyra, still laughing so hard that tears streaked her cheeks, slapped her thigh and wheezed, "Alise, you're too much. You even scared Akira away."
Alise, now free from the direct embarrassment of facing Akira, straightened up, brushed off her fluster, and put on her usual self-satisfied air.
"Hehe, that's just because he's too thin-skinned. As the captain, I'm just looking out for my Familia." She declared, raising her chin in what she probably thought was dignified authority.
However, the faint blush still lingering on her face revealed her true conscience.
Kaguya interjected, her eyes glinting with a hint of mischief, "Alright. Let's discuss how we're going to use this."
She completely ignored Alise's muttering about this being a golden opportunity to strengthen the familia.
"You've never done that before, have you? Want us to teach you?" Kaguya asked lightly.
That was all it took to silence Alise's ego.
"Yes! Kaguya-sensei!"
Alise snapped to attention like a rookie being drilled, her voice firm despite her earlier embarrassment.
A sharp, almost metallic sound split the quiet air without warning, like a blade slicing through space itself, only for the tear to instantly mend.
From that rift, a figure emerged, materializing atop a nearby building. It was a structure built entirely from uniform blocks of pristine white stone, glowing with a gentle, sacred radiance beneath the sun's touch.
Each stone fit so perfectly with its neighbors that not even the thinnest blade could slip between them, a testament to the stonemason's masterful craft. One glance was enough to know that an absurd amount of Valis had been poured into its construction.
Akira, freshly teleported from a random location within his home, landed lightly on the rooftop and sat down cross-legged. Resting his cheek against one hand, he tilted his head slightly, his still-youthful features clouded with helplessness and faint melancholy.
"Ah… seriously, what's going on?" He murmured with a sigh.
Perhaps to some men, endless nights of unrestrained indulgence might sound like a hidden dream worth pursuing. But for Akira, at this moment, such luxuries were nothing but distractions. There were still enemies yet to be dealt with. His mind could not rest.
The entirety of Evilus had yet to be wiped out, that alone gnawed at him.
And yet, those people never stopped to consider the most basic fact, his body hadn't even reached full maturity yet.
Even if his physique had been blessed and refined into something beyond mortal limits, that didn't mean it was meant to be pushed in that way.
Was it really so hard to wait until after the battle to enjoy his, well, "charming body"?
Suddenly, Akira slapped his cheek and muttered, "Wait… am I catching Alise's narcissism virus?"
The thought alone sent a chill down his spine.
"Nope, nope, nope! I don't want that!"
He quickly covered his face as if shielding himself from some contagious mental illness. Once his brief bout of madness subsided, he let out a slow breath and lifted his gaze.
Not far away, a steady stream of adventurers were moving in and out of an imposing, awe-inspiring structure. Its sheer grandeur demanded reverence from all who approached. The Pantheon.
Withdrawing his eyes from the Pantheon, Akira looked down at the spotless white building beneath him. He instantly knew where he was.
Dian Cecht Familia's Pharmacy.
Sure enough, in the tallest section of the building hung an emblem, a golden sphere of light and a bundle of herbs, the unmistakable crest of the Dian Cecht Familia.
A familia that specialized in healing, medicine crafting, and pharmaceutical trade. Their activities spanned producing their own elixirs, especially high-grade recovery potions, along with offering professional treatments and selling various healing tools.
They were the chief competitors of another pharmacy-based familia, the Miach Familia.
Even now, they sold medical products that most other shops couldn't even hope to stock, along with advanced treatments capable of restoring something as rare as lost eyesight. These services had earned them high praise among adventurers.
Though their prices placed them out of reach for the lower classes, the middle-class and wealthy adventurers swore by their expertise.
Inside, the building was divided into multiple sections, a bustling medicine sales hall, private patient treatment rooms, and comfortable waiting lounges. Judging by the crowd packed inside today, business was as good as ever.
For Akira, this place carried a certain weight in his memories. It was here, in this very building, that Alise and the others had first invited him to join their familia.