---o---
"I'm so foolish, really... I only knew that when Sirin cooks, her food is terrible; I didn't know Kiana was the same."
Inside the Temple of Ishtar, the youth's world-weary voice echoed through the main hall.
Across from him sat Miss Guda and her accessory, Miss Mash, their expressions quite peculiar.
Just a moment ago, they had watched this guy cheerfully devour every last bite of the meal supposedly made by his lover, all while loudly praising it.
Then, as soon as Miss Kiana, flustered with praise, returned to her room, he collapsed onto the sofa...
Looking for all the world like he was saying, "I am dead."
"Was it really that bad?"
Miss Guda, who was being detained as a maid in Ishtar's temple, looked at the youth who had practically wolfed down his food and asked tentatively.
"It was absolutely dreadful. She mixed up the salt and sugar, and she couldn't tell the difference between vinegar and soy sauce at all."
The youth, who had once believed Kiana would be the good wife and wise mother type like Raiden Mei, sighed.
Just a while ago, he had spent some time taking the charcoal-black reputation of Siegfried and whitewashing it, packaging him as a guardian of humanity who was currently monitoring the Heavenly People and would next go in search of the "Ark."
The detailed description went something like this:
Siegfried had once formulated a plan to rescue his daughter, but it was discovered by the Schicksal Overseer, Otto, who swapped her with the experimental subject K423—Sirin.
Subsequently, having learned from his bitter experience, he decided to borrow the strength of his good friend, the Anti-Entropy Sovereign, Welt, to storm Schicksal once more.
However, at that time, the Anti-Entropy Sovereign, Welt, discovered traces of the Heavenly People—an alien civilization—planning to invade Earth, and he needed to watch over humanity from the moon.
Siegfried, who had been severely injured during the Second Honkai War and whose strength was far inferior to Welt's, but was still capable enough to act as a monitor, chose to take Welt's place and watch the Heavenly People.
In exchange, Welt would use the Authority of the Herrscher of Reason to take on Siegfried's appearance, raise K423, and rescue his daughter in his stead.
But Otto, Welt's mortal enemy, keenly sensed something was amiss. He infiltrated the populace with a Soulium body, found Welt disguised as Siegfried, and launched a sneak attack, gravely injuring him.
After that, Welt lost the power to assault Schicksal and was unable to fulfill his promise to his friend Siegfried. He could only raise K423 as Siegfried while maintaining Anti-Entropy.
And so, the subsequent story unfolded.
This was the tale Li Zihan had fabricated to help Kiana walk out of her shadow.
As long as he got his story straight with Otto and Welt, added a "covert moon landing plan" to the Anti-Entropy database in advance, and then launched Siegfried into space, the matter would basically be settled.
After hearing this story, Kiana cried in Li Zihan's arms for a long time.
When she had calmed down, she remained nestled in his arms, saying nothing.
Under such circumstances, would a decent human being push away the girl in his arms—the girl who had entrusted her entire life to him—to go and find the #1 fan of the Grand Scammer?
Li Zihan had certainly done many things a decent human wouldn't, but pushing away his own girl, who had just given herself to him, to go find a nerdy doctor...
That was something even he couldn't bring himself to do.
And then, the girl who had been lying on her lover's chest for a long time, blushing, had taken his hand and asked him to teach her how to cook.
Li Zihan taught her.
And then, Li Zihan fell.
"If it weren't for the fact that Kiana made it, I would have dumped that food out and fed it to the dogs."
The youth, who had eaten every last bite of Miss Kiana's truly unappetizing meal, sighed.
"But it was the first meal Kiana ever cooked. If I told her it was terrible, she would have been upset, right?"
"Somehow, it seems like you and Miss Schariac are very much in love."
Miss Mash, who was detained as a maid, said as she poured a glass of water for the youth who had just consumed a full course of Might of An-Utu cuisine, so he could rinse his mouth.
To eat all of that salt-and-sugar-swapped, vinegar-and-soy-sauce-confused food just because he was worried about hurting his lover's feelings...
If this guy didn't have the habit of flirting with every girl he saw, he would actually be the perfect boyfriend.
His looks were impeccable, his combat power was off the charts, and he was incredibly gentle when dealing with his lover.
Miss Guda felt the same way.
Considering he was a god, his views on love didn't seem to be a huge problem either.
After all...
From a human perspective, the moral code of the gods was basically certifiably insane.
A guy like Li Zihan, who was just a bit liberal in the romance department, was practically a model youth by their standards.
Thinking about it that way, this guy was actually surprisingly decent.
Perhaps because her first impression of him had been so terrible, Miss Guda found, to her surprise, that Mr. Sun God before her seemed a little bit cute.
Of course, if she knew this sun god was a human who had ascended to godhood, she probably wouldn't think that way.
But speaking of which, why hadn't the doctor arrived yet?
Miss Guda, who vaguely remembered that this was now the second day of her detainment, thought of the face of a certain acting director.
It had been two days with no response, which wasn't like him at all.
Could it be that he had run into some trouble on the way?
The girl couldn't help but worry.
Her delicate brows furrowed slightly.
"Are you... worried about something?"
Almost the instant she showed a worried expression, the youth's voice rang out.
The youth, who had just been wearing an "I am dead" expression, was now staring at her face, his brow furrowed as he asked.
"Y-Yes, a little."
Perhaps startled by his expression, Miss Ritsuka's voice stuttered slightly.
Then, after a moment's hesitation, she spoke.
"Dr. Romani hasn't arrived yet. That's worrying me a little."
"Are you worried about Dr. Romani?"
The youth, who had received Dr. Romani's notice long ago but had completely stood him up in order to whitewash the charcoal-black Siegfried and comfort Kiana, spoke up.
"The Doctor never procrastinates on important matters."
Miss Mash, who was on very familiar terms with Dr. Romani, added.
"Logically speaking, he should have started preparing to come and pay the compensation the moment we were detained."
"But it's been two days now, and he still hasn't contacted us. It's a bit strange."
"I see."
The youth, who had received Romani's message long ago, pondered for a moment, then nodded.
"In that case, I'll contact him and ask about the situation."