Now in the bathroom, Ethan was already washing himself while, taking advantage of the few minutes he had alone, he decided to ask the system why he didn't wake up this time.
[...The host's process of waking up relies purely on his own will. It may, however, be influenced by various external factors. For example, if the Host is holding someone during sleep, based on that person there could be difficulties to 'wake up' in time.]
The system's words cleared his doubts a bit.
'...Oh, so it means I was influenced by Lefiya's bad habit?'
He expected the reason to be her difficulty to wake up, but to his surprise the system didn't meant that.
[...No. The host unconsciously d.e.s.i.r.ed to 'sleep more' based on the closeness to that person. The host lacked the will required, so the system couldn't wake up the host, since the system can't do something the host doesn't want.]
It was simple. Ethan wanted to sleep more instead of waking up early even if he knew he had to do that. The problem was his d.e.s.i.r.e to sleep influenced the system as well, so even if it wanted to wake him up, it couldn't.
'...It's tricky. Can't I like, order a change regarding sleep or remove this restriction?'
He would have preferred to be wakened up 'against his will' instead of sleeping more, as he lost not only the change to talk with Light, but also to help Reyna out.
[Unfortunately this is impossible. It was strictly forbidden for the system and any of its parts to go openly against the host's will. The system can refute for example to give you quests if you ask, that much is allowed, but crossing the line is forbidden.]
The system empathized twice the same meaning, to make Ethan understand that this wasn't really possible, and that therefore he would have to find another solution.
'..And if I ask you to wake me up?'
[The d.e.s.i.r.e to sleep would cancel the request]
He sighed. If he couldn't control his sleep schedule in this way, then he needed an alarm clock of some sort.
'I wonder why this problem presented itself only now though'
Ethan had doubts, but he remembered the system talked about influences, maybe the fact he always viewed Ais as someone who wakes up easily, while Lefiya was the 'heavy sleeper' was probably the cause, or so he believed..
'Wrapping my head around this is meaningless now though.'
He didn't want to make Loki wait too much, so Ethan quickly removed the remaining soap on his body by immersing in the water.
---
"..He's just woken up?"
Loki was really annoyed when she heard Glenda say those words.
"Yes Loki-sama, Master said to apologize for making you wait."
Sighing, she shook her hand as she didn't mind, the problem was Freya would be in the Twilight Manor soon, and she didn't want to make her wait too much.
'Who knows what that Goddess would do if she was made to wait too much.'
While these thoughts surfaced in her mind, Loki's curiosity was piqued over something else.
"...By the way, Glenda, do you think this is what you were looking for?"
She didn't care much, since nor Glenda nor Reyna were members of her familia, but she still had ties with both of them.
Her question startled her, but she knew the question itself was harmless.
"...I was looking for something much worse than this. Albeit big, this house is filled with warmth. This place is perfect for Reyna."
She looked around while expressing her thoughts. Even if it was hard for Reyna to cope with many people in one house, she could understand here there weren't people who would easily discriminate, the girls and Ethan himself were out of any expectation Glenda had, it was truly astonishing.
"..And what about you"
"About me...? I thought I would only be a mere maid in this place, but Master told me I will also be useful in the future, he made me understand my sight couldn't be focused only to look at what Reyna could have since Master already said he would try to ease her fear of men, but I was considered too, and that made me happy. This place is where I feel like belonging, so my d.e.s.i.r.es are satisfied."
She meant her words. Not only Ethan told her he would help Reyna, he would also consider her. It didn't matter to her whatever he did with her as long as Reyna was safe, but Ethan had a different idea of this, since as he stated, Glenda is now his subordinate, and he would do anything in his power to protect both, equally.
"...Is that so."
Loki played with her fingers while following Glenda in the kitchen as she told her they were serving breakfast for everyone this morning...
---
While this happened, Ethan was already out of the bath, dressing.
"...I can hear them talking."
He didn't understand what they were talking about since the bath was distant from the kitchen, but he understood the conversation was quite lively...
"By the way, didn't Lefiya say she would come as well? I didn't see her around"
"..Now that you say it I didn't see her since yesterday, could it be she's still sleeping?"
Lili didn't know if she was 'friends' with Lefiya, but she still asked this question out of curiosity. It was impossible for her that Ethan and Lefiya didn't go to sleep together, so the fact only Ethan was awake weirded her out.
"...I'll go to wake her up"
Glenda was the one to speak. She was the first who found it weird for her to be strangely asleep, but since Ethan didn't wake her up she thought maybe she would do so alone, but now it didn't seem to be the case.
'Could it be Ethan forgot she would come as well?'
---
After Ethan was ready, he went to the kitchen as he saw everyone was already there, Lefiya included.
"..Why didn't you wake me up...!"
She asked so with an embarrassed expression. Everyone in the house was aware they slept together, so the question didn't surprise anyone in the room.
"...I'm sorry, my mind was somewhere else."
He was wrapped in many thoughts, so he had actually forgotten she also had to wake up and while he said so Glenda had an almost 'knowing' smile on her face that dissipated moments after.
"...By the way, since breakfast is already ready let's eat first, then we'll return to the Twilight Manor."
Loki was pissed at the fact he made her wait, but she chose to keep these thoughts for another time, as Ethan said, now their mind was somewhere else, so they couldn't keep their focus on things that could be overlooked...
With this, their breakfast quickly came to an end as Lefiya told them she would come after she had a proper bath while the others would directly head to the Twilight Manor.
---
After reaching their destination, Ethan asked Loki if Freya was already there, but she replied she didn't see nor hear a thing about her yet, even if the scheduled day for their meeting was supposed to be today.
"...She should be here in less than 10 minutes, I hope you know what to do with her. If you need any help I'll try to step in the conversation, otherwise I'll just let you two deal with it."
Loki felt really frustrated. Normally she led the conversation to whatever she wanted to achieve, but not only this would be difficult with someone as cunning as Freya, it would also be bad as she 'allowed' her to talk with him without her interference.
While he nodded at her words, Tiona had her hands behind her head as she had her carefree attitude while Riveria sighed as she had to deal with something else, so she couldn't be there for him.
Hearing him the last evening though made her able to put her trust in him. She believed if he could overcome this, then the rest wouldn't be as hard.
'His plan seems to be effective in the long run, but it will be more difficult to achieve it based solely on this conversation'
She understood Ethan quickly acc.u.mulated a great deal of pressure on his shoulders, which was something that slightly worried her, but he seemed to be holding against it just fine, so she chose inevitably to let him do what he wanted to...
---
After a while, Ethan and Loki were alone in the room, but before they could even start a conversation, a person opened the door.
"...L-Loki-sama, Freya-sama and The King are here."
The guard stammered these words as the latter was afraid of the only person in Orario who was able to become level 7, but not only that, to be in company of his own Goddess, the guard couldn't help but be frightened out thinking whatever they wanted from here was anything but good willed..
"Let them in."
That was all Loki said as the guard nodded before heading back to his position at the gate.
"Has Freya been here only to cause problems so far? That guard was so scared even if the two didn't do anything."
His words made Loki smirk
"Freya spells problems whenever she goes. It's only natural the members of my familia would be scared if they suddenly found themselves standing in front of that vile Goddess."
These words were interrupted by a voice outside the door.
"Ara Ara~ You don't seem to have yet understood the meaning of my words, Loki?"
She didn't mind what Loki thought of her at all, so she laughed it off as Ottar opened the door for her.
"I arranged the meeting as you asked. The favour should already be extinguished now."
Loki 'tried' to use reasoning against her, even though she knew it wouldn't be so easy.
"...We'll talk about that at a later date. For now, let me see the child that intrigued me so much."
She previously had her focus on Loki, but she diverted her eyes only to stare at the figure of the child she was trying to 'understand' so far.
Freya didn't expect him to be so different compared to seeing him only as an image in a crystal ball. He didn't seem to be so beautiful at a first glance, but now she could understand he had more qualities than she previously thought.
"...It's a p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e to finally be able to meet you personally. I believe you should already know me since your Goddess told you about my wish to meet you..."
She stared at his scarlet-gold eyes with a small hint of l.u.s.t, but since it was their first meeting, she wanted to go slowly. Her plan in fact would make her wait a bit more before being able to savour him.
---
(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8. You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". Well, I'm replying to every interesting question you readers are asking in my chapters, so, you should absolutely enter if you want to read my answers. Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as Light..! (Soon even Qienta).. so it's recommended to join, I frequently post polls as well, regarding things that(most likely) will be present in the story. One last thing, I post chapter updates in my discord right after I posted on , so I guess you can join to be able to know when I post chapters faster.)
(Poll going on in the discord: Vote what you think is better. I only want to introduce one of these three, the ones with most votes when I feel like it wins. - Light being able to interact with the real world. - Qienta shows up before planned. - More power ups than planned for the girls and Ethan himself.)
(Do you enjoy reading my novel? If the answer is yes, then thanks. I'll leave my ******* here. w ww.pat reon.com/watashiwavdesu)
(Alternate Titles: "Freya and Ethan's first meeting!", "Lefiya is cute...or is it just me?", "Just to quickly clarify something, Reyna wasn't r.a.p.ed. Bye")