Guys, I'm really sorry—this chapter turned out like total crap; I'm not proud of it at all. But it was the best I could do, and I didn't even really proofread it. My exam week starts now, and I just don't feel much like writing.
//
Luki and Freya walked casually side by side, maintaining a respectable distance between them. Freya was slightly ahead, her steps light and deliberate as she guided him toward their destination.
They didn't exchange a single word during this initial stretch of the walk. Perhaps they were struggling to find a way to start a conversation, or maybe they simply weren't in the mood for small talk. Regardless, the silence allowed Luki's mind to wander to other places.
And then, he noticed something.
Freya was the Goddess of Beauty. Beyond being a massive celebrity, she possessed a supernatural charm capable of practically enslaving mortals.
Yet, strangely... no one was reacting that way.
'Strange...'
When the literal Goddess Freya walks out into the streets, regardless of her clothing, disguise, or company, the bare minimum expected was for people around them to turn their heads.
But that wasn't happening. It was as if she were nothing special.
"Are you doing something?" Luki asked, breaking the silence.
"Good morning to you too?" Freya replied, a subtle note of amusement in her voice.
"The people—are you doing something to them?" Luki clarified, gesturing to their surroundings with his finger. "Like, they aren't reacting to you the way I expected."
"Oh, that?" Freya murmured, glancing at the passing crowds. "It is quite simple, really. I am merely using a fraction of my power to make them ignore me."
"Oh, I see," Luki said.
The two of them kept walking, the silence returning for a brief moment before Freya spoke up again.
"Are you... not going to question it further?" Freya asked, tilting her head slightly.
"No. Why should I?" Luki replied.
"I do not know. I thought it would go against your tastes or something of the sort," Freya admitted, her gaze dropping slightly. "What I am doing is essentially countering one form of hypnosis with another. You have already made it clear that you dislike that side of me."
"Yeah, well, it is what it is," Luki shrugged. "Better than having our event ruined because we attracted too much attention. Besides... I don't think I dislike that side of you all that much anymore."
"Is that so?" A brilliant, soft smile graced Freya's lips. "That pleases me. What was it that changed your mind?"
"I've been thinking about it these past few days, and I realized it's pretty unfair to judge someone for what they didn't choose to be..." Luki paused, rubbing the back of his neck. "Man, that sounded weird. Like... How do I say this..."
Freya tilted her head, her curiosity piqued. "Predators?"
"Yeah. That is it," Luki explained, gesturing vaguely with his hands. "A wolf doesn't hunt because it wants to be evil. It hunts because it was born a wolf. It's written into its very blood. You could have the gentlest, most well-behaved beast, but the moment it sees prey, its claws are going to twitch. It's an impulse."
He stopped for a fraction of a second, looking over at her with an unusual expression.
"The point is... you are the Goddess of Beauty. You were born with a charm that bends minds, and an instinct to claim what catches your eye. Expecting you to just *not* feel that way is like asking a fire not to burn. It's your nature. I can't keep judging you for how you were born. It's unfair... disregarding all the shit you did while using that as an excuse"
"My, how mature of you, Luki," Freya gasped softly, her eyes widening in genuine surprise. "I certainly did not expect that from you."
"Yeah, me neither," Luki muttered with a dry laugh. "I almost burned out one of my few remaining brain cells coming up with that."
"Fufufu..."
And with that, the conversation came to an end once more.
Luki brought his hand to the back of his neck, feeling a wave of embarrassment he rarely experienced before. Once again, he was beginning to regret ever coming up with this idea.
Freya, on the other hand, kept smiling as if she were having the best day of her life, though only she truly knew what was going on in her mind.
"There it is, Le Miroir d'Argent," Freya said, stopping and pointing toward a shop on the other side of the street.
The establishment featured an elegant, refined architecture. White walls, low iron fences with intricate mandala patterns, and slender, delicate chairs—everything about it was minimalist, detailed, and sophisticated.
"Is that a cafe?" Luki asked.
"What is the matter, have you never seen one before?" Freya replied with a playful tilt of her head.
"Not here..."
He didn't say anything else, but they both knew exactly what he was referring to. Still, that didn't matter at the moment.
They crossed the street and arrived at the entrance, noticing a small amount of movement through the glass windows.
"Seems like a good place to start a date," Luki commented.
"Yes. I occasionally come here with my goddess friends to unwind. The sweets are quite delightful."
Chime.
"Welcome," a deep, booming male voice greeted them.
"Huh?!" Luki froze, making a strange face as he observed the maître standing before them.
He was... huge. Tall enough to tower over Luki, who was already two meters tall. And muscular—insanely muscular. Stocky, imposing, and... deeply familiar.
"Ottar...?" Luki spoke up, his voice dripping with uncertainty.
"I do not know of whom you speak," the muscular giant replied in an exaggeratedly courteous tone, bowing stiffly from the waist.
"Fufufu~"
As if absolutely nothing were wrong, the literal strongest man on the planet guided them to an open table, pulling out the chair so Freya could sit, and handing them a small menu before walking back to the door.
BAM!!!
And then he closed it calmly.
'This cannot be happening...' Luki denied internally, overwhelmed by the sheer absurdity of the moment.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Freya watching him while gracefully hiding a smile. That was when the realization hit him.
"What are you planning?" he interrogated intensely, snapping into an alert posture.
"Nothing. It is just that your surprised face is quite cute," Freya teased.
"I thought we had an agreement," he said, referring to her promise to stop playing mind games and court him normally.
Luki was on the edge of his seat, his wings bristling as if he were ready to bolt at any given second. Even though he was fully capable of teleporting away whenever he wanted, it didn't lessen the tension.
"Oh, Luki, what is with that dark expression and sharp tone? Didn't you just say you liked me more?" Freya bantered.
Luki didn't answer, merely staring at her intensely.
Freya let out a resigned sigh, her signature smile becoming a little less forced and a bit more... casual.
"It was not my idea, if that is what you are thinking," she explained, restlessly tapping her fingers. "I believe my children became worried and decided to come... help."
She subtly gestured to the side with one hand resting on the table.
Luki shifted his gaze, surreptitiously observing what she wanted him to see.
The place was empty, devoid of any customers besides them. However, there were four short men dressed as waiters, scurrying from one side to the other doing completely unnecessary tasks. They looked identical down to the last strand of hair, save for their distinct eye colors.
'Four Pallums... prancing around? They are strong... Not as strong as Finn, but definitely stronger than me. Each of them, Level 5 perhaps?'
Even with an incredible memory, it was absurdly selective. Luki couldn't recall many details from the anime anymore, nor was he particularly invested in Orario's current affairs, so he didn't recognize who they actually were.
Yet, any other passerby would have instantly recognized that those four were the Gulliver Brothers—a famous elite squad of quadruplet First-Class adventurers and executives of the Freya Familia. In short, they were a far cry from mere waiters.
"Aren't they quite adorable pretending like that?" she remarked in a melodious voice.
To top it off, she waved casually at them.
Like deer caught in the headlights, the four reacted in sheer shock, quickly snapping their faces away. A faint blush crept onto their cheeks as if they were incredibly shy.
"Heh..." Luki simply let out a dry chuckle, refusing to overthink the matter any further.
He picked up the menu, but before he could even read what the items were, his eyes darted straight to the prices. It nearly made him fall right out of his chair.
"Inhale... What the hell is this?!" Luki gasped. "Am I buying the food along with the waiter?!!"
"Pff~"
Everyone in the room turned their heads.
Freya was holding back a genuine laugh, leaning slightly forward with one hand on her stomach while the other covered her slightly puffed-out mouth.
'So beautiful...!' the Gulliver brothers and several other hidden individuals thought in perfect unison upon seeing her expression.
However, someone did not share that poetic sentiment.
"Are you laughing at me?!" Luki shouted, exaggeratedly outraged.
"Pff~ Hahahaha!" Freya completely broke into laughter.
"Grrr..." Luki growled, clenching his fists.
Luki was never someone to care about this sort of thing. To tell the truth, he was mostly forcing the exaggeration to put on a show, just as he had promised he would put effort into this date. Yet, he had to admit he was still slightly offended by those pricing tags.
'A single appetizer of biscuits costs more than forty thousand valis,' Luki thought, his eye twitching. 'Who pays for something like that?! I don't even make that much in a single day of work!'
"I am sorry, I am sorry... Pff~ sorry," Freya tried to compose herself, wiping a stray tear from the corner of her eye. "I ended up overlooking the fact that not everyone shares the same financial situation that my social circle enjoys."
"Financial situation my ass... Let's go somewhere else. There's nothing here I can afford."
He was just about to stand up when Freya reached across the table and caught him by the arm.
"No, wait, let me pay for you."
"I... think it's better if you don't," he replied, though he didn't try to pull away from her grip.
"What is the matter? Is it some pointless masculine pride, thinking that the man must pay the bill for his companion?" Freya questioned softly. "Do not worry about that. No one will laugh at you for something so silly."
"Pff~ poor guy."
Both of them turned their heads. One of the quadruplets was hiding a smirk, while the others surreptitiously scolded him for interrupting their goddess's moment.
Luki gave them a deadpan stare, then shifted his gaze back to Freya, his expression practically saying, 'See?'
"...They can be a bit jealous at times, but just ignore them..." she whispered.
"Heh, I get it..." He couldn't hold back the repeated reaction. "And for your information, I was planning on paying for my own food, and you for yours."
"Oh, I see. I apologize for judging you that way," Freya offered, her tone softening. "But the offer still stands."
"If you insist... I guess 'just this much' doesn't mean much to someone of your stature."
"Nah..."
Unexpected moments aside, their time together had finally truly begun.
After placing an order under the intense, death-inducing glares of brothers who made very little effort to conceal their hostility, Luki and Freya sat conversing while they waited for the food.
Just as they had planned, they were pretending to act as if they were meeting for the very first time. 'Pleasure, my name is such-and-such.' 'And my name is this.' 'How are you.' 'I am doing well.' It was exactly that kind of small talk.
Freya was being quite active in her advances, asking about any and every topic without ever averting her eyes from him. She rested her chin upon the backs of her intertwined hands, her elbows propped on the table, looking as though she were completely and utterly infatuated with him.
Luki, meanwhile, tried his best to feign naturalness or forced strong reactions. He remained largely passive because he didn't know how to steer the conversation—perhaps due to a deep-seated reluctance to interact with her more than necessary, or simply because he lacked the experience.
Soon enough, their food arrived.
While Freya boasted a glass pitcher filled with a yellow refreshment decorated with lemon slices alongside a plate of assorted, cutely-shaped biscuits, Luki was abruptly served something that could only be compared to the bread the devil himself had kneaded.
Staring down at what had just been placed before him, Luki shot a look at the waiter. However, he was met only with poorly veiled hostility.
It was common knowledge that the members of the Freya Familia treated Freya with supreme devotion and loyalty. To them, Luki, who was the sole target of her affection, was a problem—an object of their toxic envy.
But someone else didn't appreciate that behavior in the slightest.
Freya narrowed her eyes. A supernatural, suffocating pressure instantly descended upon the entire establishment as she glared at the Pallum.
"May I know the meaning of this?" she demanded, her voice dripping with a freezing, absolute authority.
At that exact moment, Luki prayed he would never become the target of her gaze. Freya was genuinely terrifying.
Predictably, both the brother who had served him and the other three dropped straight to their knees. Sweating bullets, they frantically shouted apologies and begged for her forgiveness. Luki could have sworn he even heard someone doing the exact same thing back in the kitchen.
With a simple, "Scram," they vanished into thin air, and everything returned to normal. Aside from Ottar, Luki could no longer feel a single gaze lingering on him.
Then, as if nothing had happened, Freya turned her gaze back to Luki, looking entirely infatuated and innocent. If this were an anime, one could practically see a bright background of blooming flowers behind her.
Luki broke into a cold sweat, his posture turning tense. Only now did the realization truly sink in that he was sitting at a table with a tigress. Freya might behave sweetly toward him, but he had to remember that she was the main antagonist and the mastermind of the entire story—the ultimate villain.
With the atmosphere feeling even heavier than before, their date continued. The conversation only kept moving forward because Freya never stopped making comments, lasting until the food was finally gone.
"Where shall we go now?" Freya asked.
"I don't know..." Luki muttered, rubbing his neck. "How about we... just walk around?"
"That would be wonderful," Freya beamed.
Without paying for a single thing, the two of them walked out side by side.
Ottar, who until then had stood as motionless as a statue by the door, finally reacted. Stripping off his maître uniform, he revealed casual civilian clothes underneath and quietly followed right behind them.