I woke up in a messy room divided between dark and bright colors and with two different styles of decoration.

  Well, ‘waking up’ was too strong of a word, I guess. I still felt floaty and the scenario around me wasn’t that well-defined, so it could be a dream too. Either that or this wasn’t the real world at all, maybe the afterlife. I wasn’t sure if I felt like asking the two weirdos in the small table outfitted with a map that they seemed so keen on watching, though.

  “I knew you were interfering on my side!” The first of the two, a golden-haired and golden-skinned woman shining in flowing robes and with a voice that seemed to echo around, complained. “That is cheating, I am sure of that.”

  “By definition, they’re on my bay as long as they have those Demon Blades.” The other woman in the room, a purple-haired and purple-skinned one wearing the same weird robes but in a darker palette, answered in a cocky tone. “Didn’t you agree to give me a new toy since you mistakenly brought two?”

  “I did, but you went for my humans! I am the one on their side right now… You should not be working with them! Using sophistry to justify that is not right.”

  “You really lack strategy, eh? That’s why I’m always winning our games and have to give you advantages all the time…”

  “I make, not break. You are the one who cannot let everyone live quietly.”

  “Leave them quiet and they’ll blow themselves up, remember? It happens almost every time.”

  “Hmmmm! But almost…”

  These people had weird voices that sounded like a mess of echoes and I couldn’t even judge their looks well. It was as if I somehow wasn’t able to register what I was seeing further than ‘two weird women’, and I was too tired for it.

  Something that seemed to draw the attention of the two away from their little discussion.

  “Oh? Why’s she moving? Shouldn’t she, you know…” The purple one spoke with some surprise. It was starting to make me think I actually reached the afterlife, though I was waiting for something with more fire…

  “She should not, unless… Ow.”

  “’Ow' what?! Is she actually here? How?!”

  “Maybe? It is part of her soul, so if her body got damaged enough, as it did, then the tiara would have left her in stasis, so…”

  “Damn you, Tella! I told you to summon things properly on your turn. She should be sleeping, not plane-walking!”

  “I am sorry, Aria, but it’s so complicated!” The mess of echoes answered in tears while I still had no will to get involved or care about it. “Every time I tried to talk with her, it was so…”

  “Okay, okay, I get it. I’ll solve this mess for you, again.” The purple one answered, and I could see her companion brighten up in answer as she cleared her throat. “Aham! In order of what you want to know: you’re not dead, we are goddesses, we call this place the inter worlds, and you’re here because you went way too far. In fact, you’re only alive because you were using that tiara your friend gave you. Go get the details yourself. Also, you’re way too disrespectful for a human. From your description of us to what you want to know, you’re WAY too disrespectful.”

  She answered most of my questions without hearing me make them, surprising me for a moment and then smiling cockily as she noticed such. I guess that’s something you would expect from a goddess.

  It didn’t help me with my problems, though.

  “I have to apologize for troubling you, Ms. Emi… Oh! I apologize once more. I did forget you were using a… Oh! Sorry, I did not mean to get you angry again, Ms. Emi… Ah! I am sorry!” The other one tried to add something but instead went in circles with herself.

  “Pfft! You’re messing up hard this time, eh? That’s fun to watch, but we should deal with the mortal already, Tella.” Aria called out as I was getting annoyed by having ‘my’ name called. “And you shouldn’t get annoyed so arbitrarily, girl. That’s very petty of you… Oh, and you think I’m petty too? That’s fair, but I guess neither of us cares. And no, I’m not stopping with the mind reading. I’m petty, remember?”

  “That is very mean of you, Aria. We do have to explain what is happening instead of playing around.” Tella cut into the ‘conversation’, trying to make sense of it to me. “You are here for two reasons. First, I may have… summoned you faultily. Part of your soul got stuck halfway through, here, if you want to be specific. And then, as you got so close to dying and had the stasis artifact, your consciousness ended on the other half, for now.”

  “A good explanation, no? Even if all it means is that she didn’t pay attention to the summoning and messed up. She would have fixed it in a moment if she ever managed to explain that you could go on the summoning artifact and redo the spell to fix it.”

  “That is… my fault. But it did make you capable of controlling divine magic since you are, in a way, in direct contact with us. Wasn’t it useful to have free reign over all mana? Also made your body resistant to damage, and helped with stealth since only some of your soul was around. Many advantages, right?”

  “Also made your mana pool puny, made you unable to use most magic, as is dangerous for everyone. Caused a lot of trouble with your world’s god too... A huge mess, if you ask me.”

  “Aria! Stop making me feel bad...” The golden one wailed again as I was starting to think these two were very keen on going forever. I was starting to think I should've died right away... And, hell, the other one noticed I was thinking about it.

  “If you’re feeling bad, then… Oh? You’re really disrespectful, aren’t you? Wishing for the goddesses to shut up enough to prefer being dead… I guess you’re not interested in knowing more, right?”

  Having her reading my mind was an annoyance and hearing them talk amongst themselves while I waited was even more so. I’m not in a state to be patient or reasonable right now too, so it wasn’t as if I could be meek and wait.

  Also, neither of them seemed to be going anywhere, so I was better off going back to the real world or dying for real anyway.

  “I apologize for losing the point… But there is little more to say now.” The golden goddess continued eventually, trying to keep on the matter for once. “I brought you here by mistake, but saw you would be helpful, so instead of fixing it, I called to keep the game going and evened the sides. Yes, by ‘game’, I do mean the whole struggle between humans and demons. It is my turn on the human side, so...”

  “You’re losing the point again… That’s why you never explain your hero's magic right away, you know? I’ll keep it simple, she helps the humans, I try to kill them, and we switch every couple of centuries.”

  “That… That is the gist, indeed.”

  “Well, that’s it. The only problem is the fact you took way too long to be summoned in full, so you're in a bit of trouble if you want the other half of your soul back… Oh? You don’t want it back?” Aria smirked at what she read in my mind and then continued while almost starting to laugh. “If all that resistance was due to this, then you think it would be better to stay as is? Now that’s a way to take it, though you’ll keep pushing your physical body until it breaks if you do so… Is it worth it?”

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  The answer to this one was easy. The half-soul package was too much of an advantage if I wanted to top my last death attempt, but the divine magic was even further so. It would be dumb to give it away like this. Her expression seemed way too amused for my taste after I ‘answered’ so, but that would be fair. Seeing someone weird like this would be amusing to a goddess who usually dealt with heroes and demons.

  I was only unsure of why they were giving me so much information.

  “You would not like the answer.” Tella gave me a benevolent smile and then rose up, touching my forehead after approaching a little. “But I guess it would be fair to give you a little boon… And since she got here on her own, you cannot complain about it, Aria.”

  “Do as you please. Another little advantage won’t change a thing for you. I already have my own plays in motion, and I hope you’ll keep playing with me, heroine. In fact, I may even add a bet or two from now on, especially for you…”

  “Do not cause more chaos than you need, please. She’s already shaken enough for now.”

  “Whatever you say… But a third player would fit nicely, no?”

  “That… Maybe. I’ll think about it.”

  The two goddesses smiled at each other in a way I could only see as more friendly than it should be, but I didn’t mind it. I had other things to think about. There was a shining finger on my forehead and I felt my body getting lighter than it should as I got whatever ‘boon’ the goddess wanted to give me.

  “Either way, I shall now show you things none should know this easily…”

  As she said so, it felt as if I was having a very good rest. The awkwardness of some of my movements and the heaviness of my mind vanished, and I could go back to ignoring the darker thoughts. I could only guess that this golden goddess was healing me or something of the kind, but there was more to it.

  A huge more. Something that was irrelevant for almost everyone but me. Pieces of information and images I shouldn't be able to know, but that came from people I knew. Very normal ones and very surprising ones in random proportions, but many of which affected me. More than they should.

  One in particular, that was a lot more than I could imagine.

  Pictures of people I didn’t know for long as they were reacting to the fainted girl who seemed unlikely to wake up. Their thoughts, actions, and how they saw me. She was giving me them all straight up and making me feel weird about just giving up when seeing all that. All of which I could only take as a way to assure I wouldn’t be throwing myself into some crazy plans again…

  It was a cheap trick on the same level as mine if you asked me, but it was a nice one. Like this, the ojou-sama who went to sleep had no choice but to take over again. And maybe this time, she would stay around. She had a lot to answer from a lot of people, so it was only fair.

  “I can see it works! You are now patched up in body and mind, as far as I can, and ready to go. Thank you for all the service, and I hope we meet again in a more proper manner.” She nodded at my thoughts and reaction while the other one stood at the back smirking. “Now, I believe you do not want to be here anymore and I am in the middle of a game, so…”

  “’Till we meet again, goddesses. And thank you.” I answered properly for the first and only time here, getting a positive reaction from the other two creatures in the room as my vision started to waver.

  It was time to ‘wake up’ properly and to be sure to not lose ‘myself’ again, and that was what I did. It was a way-too-seamless motion too. I even woke up right in my room.

  I looked around a little, taking a look at all my few pieces of furniture and items. All seemed to be like I left, but it felt like it was bigger than usual. I don’t remember having to turn my head so much to see everything… Or actually, it wasn’t that the room was different, but that my sight was. To be specific, my right eye seemed to be blind.

  Looks like the consequences of my actions reached me, eh?

  Other than that, my whole body wasn’t moving very well and a lot was still hurting. Actually, most of my body was hurting while I couldn’t feel anything on my left hand. It was a surprise that this one was still attached, though, so I was fine with the massive scar this one time. Maybe I wouldn’t even cover this one in make-up like the others. Use it to get some cool points… My legs were very numb too, but those I couldn’t guess the reason right away.

  “Lady Illia?!” I heard Eve’s surprised voice together with the sound of a few plates breaking on the floor. And the moment she did so, I also noticed a sudden movement below me, right over my numb legs.

  “What is the…?” Elen got up from her napping over me and looked at my eyes, changing her expression in a moment. “Illia?!”

  “That’s me,” I answered with a short smile and a little hint of confusion. “But why were you sleeping there?”

  “Why?! I’m here because you wouldn’t wake up, dammit! I don’t remember giving you permission to die out.”

  She seemed unusually angry, and I knew the reason quite well now even if it wasn’t something I would guess without the goddess’ help. I couldn’t avoid smirking at it, though. It was almost to the point that I would start laughing.

  “What’s so funny about it?!” The friendly princess pouted at my reaction as I threw myself back to the bed, turning her expression back to worry. “Actually, are you well? Should we call someone, Eve…?”

  “I’m fine. It’s just… I’m just not used to having people worry about me. It’s just that…” I answered in a self-mocking tone. “You didn’t get too wounded back there, right?”

  “Why are you…?!”

  “Your Highness was fine, milady. I’m also mostly recovered by now. Seemingly thanks to you too. I have no idea what would’ve happened if you hadn’t brought the source of that curse so we could break it on me and on Sir Hayato.” Eve interjected while finishing her clearing of the floor. “It was two weeks ago too, so he’s more than recovered too.”

  It was the deadpan expression from before, but I read it differently now. I guess that one was a boon indeed… However, in this case, it felt that my stunt at the temple ended up having some very impressive effects. Seeing the relief behind the expressionless face was still very interesting.

  “Two weeks, eh…” I mumbled with my eyes going through the many visible old wounds on my gown-wearing body. Two weeks without any work likely made them all visible and I don’t even want to see the state of my hair… Worrying about it was a mindless action and not something I should be doing, though, but Elen seemed to catch it.

  “I made sure only my dad would see you and Eve took care of all the medical needs, so don’t worry about it. Though I personally don’t see the problem…”

  “That’s probably the worst thing you can say to someone who worries about how they look, you know?” I answered Elen with a weak smirk but shook it off as fast as I could. “Want to hear how I got these scars, Bat?”

  “Do you want to say? Not that it would matter much to me. I can’t go there and beat whoever did this…” The princess asked back in a very serious tone that only worsened the hit of her next question. “And who’s ‘Bat’?”

  “Hahah! I guess it doesn’t matter, right?” I laughed at the serious reaction to my dumb joke, making both people close by share worried looks.

  “I’m not trained for this, Your Highness. We’ll need a proper doctor…” Eve told her liege almost right away, likely hinting that she couldn’t deal with someone going crazy. “Though, she was weird to begin with, so I’m not sure if it’s needed.”

  “I guess she’s fine. It would be more worrying if she started to act normal all of sudden…”

  “That’s also true.”

  “You’re both mean, you know? But I prefer you like this.” I answered while focusing back on the situation and on being ‘me’. “Also, I’m sorry for making you worry… I should’ve thought better.”

  “Oh? So you understand this much? Very good of you.” Elen let her anger seep through once more as she got up and stared deep into my eyes. “Then start explaining why you tried so hard to die there. I remember telling you to flee.”

  “I couldn’t do that without leaving you, so…”

  “I can manage, I told you that and I did it many times before!” Her cold voice and piercing gaze were very different from the usual, and for once, I was actually intimidated. “And if you could do all that alone, then I’m sure we could’ve managed something together.”

  “Illia couldn’t. That’s all I can say, though… Sorry.”

  “Tch! Fine. Do as you please, but next time, trust us a little, will you?” She slowly went back to normal and then sat at the side of my bed again. “And if you try dying without permission again, I’ll personally kill you.”

  “That’s a cliched line, princess, but I get it,” I assured the most genuinely I could. “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep this promise if things get bad enough, but I’ll try my best. Even if I have to look unsightly for it, I’ll try my best.”

  I wasn’t ready to explain further yet, but I would someday. It was my duty to do so after all that. I also couldn’t go around dying for random people if it would hurt people I care about, right? Very different from when all I wanted was to grab a moment of attention…

  My answer seemed to have shocked both the princess and the maid, though. Something they only didn’t get stuck at due to hearing a knock on the door.

  “What the…”

  “Excuse me.” Eve turned to the door her liege was cursing at and then opened it just a little, nodding at whatever was there and then turning to us. “Looks like you have visitors, milady. Should I tell them to leave until you are… Ready?”

  “Visitors, eh? That’s fun…” I smiled again while catching a little glance at the corridor and at the five people I knew waiting in there, only one of whom I couldn’t really like the presence of, though by no fault of his. “Tell them to give me ten minutes and grab my tools over there, please… I have friends to meet for once in my life.”