"I'm back."
As he opened the front door, remembering that Asia was now living with him, Cid called out.
"Bang!"
After taking one look inside, Cid blinked, then abruptly shut the door. He stepped back, glanced around to confirm it really was his house, and only then opened the door again.
What greeted him was the sight of two girls tangled together on the sofa, their bodies pressed close, a great deal of skin exposed. Both of them looked toward the entrance with awkward expressions.
"Who are you?"
…
"We're truly very sorry, Cid-san!"
Sitting on the sofa, watching Asia and the other two girls kneeling in dogeza before him, Cid felt a tingling itch in both his hands and feet. The scene was aggressively stimulating his Eminence in Shadow instincts.
Right now, he wanted nothing more than to put on his Shadow Mask, cross one leg over the other, rest his cheek against his hand, and pose like a final boss seated on a throne, waiting for a hero to challenge him.
Unfortunately, that wasn't an option. If it were just Asia, maybe he could get away with it. But with two strangers present, he had no choice but to give up.
It felt like his heart was bleeding.
"Um… you should get up now."
Noticing how uncomfortable the short blue-haired girl with a sharp, heroic look seemed, Cid quickly told them to stand.
The blue-haired girl's eyes lit up. Just as she was about to get up, a hand pressed down on her back, stopping her.
She turned her head to look at the owner of the hand, a brown-haired girl with twin ponytails kneeling beside her. At the same time, the brown-haired girl turned as well and shot her a look.
[Stay kneeling for now. We'll get up later.]
Understanding her meaning, the blue-haired girl responded with a flicker of her eyelids.
[He told us to get up. Why are we still kneeling?]
The brown-haired girl paused for a second or two, then replied.
[This situation is clearly our fault. Asia is still kneeling. How can we stand up? The Lord never taught us to be ungrateful.]
[No, I mean, all we did was stay here for a bit and eat something. If we did something wrong, we can apologize or compensate. Do we really need to kneel like this?]
[I don't know. But if Asia is kneeling, how can we not? She's obviously doing this for our sake.]
...
Are you an idiot?!
Watching their entire exchange from the side, Cid couldn't help but complain inwardly at the brown-haired girl's bizarre logic.
Just because you think you share some responsibility, you kneel too? Can you use a bit of common sense? Asia's being unreasonable, and you are just going along with it?
The blue-haired girl seemed just as stunned by that logic. She froze for a moment before replying.
[That… kind of makes sense.]
...
Where did these two idiots even come from? I thought they were the airhead and grump duo, but it turns out they are just a missing-a-screw and hot-blooded idiot duo.
Suppressing the urge to complain further, Cid turned his gaze to Asia, who was kneeling in the middle with her forehead pressed against her hands.
"Asia, do you think you've done something wrong that makes you want to keep kneeling here?"
Asia raised her head. Her eyes shimmered with tears, and her voice trembled with unease.
"I brought others into your house without your permission, Cid-san. I'm truly very sorry."
"That's it?"
Cid's lips twitched. Seeing her act as if she had committed some grave mistake, he crouched down and softened his tone.
"Then, Asia, can you tell me why you're doing a dogeza? No matter how you look at it, this doesn't call for something this extreme."
"W-when I first arrived in Japan, someone told me that dogeza is the best way to show sincere apology. Is there something wrong with that, Cid-san?"
"In a way, they weren't wrong. But don't do this so casually in the future, Asia. Kneeling like this all the time isn't a good thing.
Alright, get up. The floor's cold."
Rubbing his forehead in mild exasperation, Cid glanced at the two who were still communicating with their eyes, then simply reached out and pulled them all to their feet.
Perhaps his body had evolved again without him realizing it, but Cid found that he could actually understand the silent exchange between the two of them. He had no idea why it only worked on these two, but it didn't really matter. Just a small bonus.
"Let's introduce ourselves first. I'll start. I'm Cid Kagenou, and Asia and I are housemates. Now it's your turn. Tell me why you ended up at my place as well."
After pulling the three of them onto the sofa, Cid finished his introduction and turned toward the other two, giving a small nod to signal it was their turn.
"My name is Irina Shidou. I'm a warrior from the Church. Nice to meet you."
The one who spoke was a girl with brown twin ponytails, giving off a lively and cute impression. Most likely a hot-blooded airhead.
"Xenovia. Like this idiot, I'm also a warrior from the Church."
Looking more closely, there was a streak of dark green mixed into the blue-haired girl's short hair, giving her a cool edge. Combined with Xenovia's sharp, heroic features, she came across as a tomboy.
"As for why we're here…"
At that point, Xenovia turned to glance at Irina Shidou beside her. Sensing the look, Irina Shidou immediately turned her head away, too guilty to meet her eyes.
"It's because this idiot lost all of our mission funds. We ended up stranded on the streets and nearly passed out from hunger. Luckily, we met Asia, who's also a devout believer, and thanks to her help, we managed to survive."
In truth, it wasn't quite as dramatic as Xenovia made it sound. If they had really been on the verge of starving unconscious, the emergency safeguard placed on them by the Church would have activated before that, and they would have been taken back.
But their mission would definitely be recorded as a failure. Losing the funds and failing the task like that would be beyond embarrassing. It would almost be better to just die.
"Ah… hahaha."
Under Xenovia's stare, Irina Shidou could only laugh awkwardly. After all, she really had dragged Xenovia into this mess.
"So if you want compensation, feel free to ask her for it."
"Hey, Xenovia, that's going too far."
"Tch…"
Maybe Xenovia had gone a bit too far, because Irina Shidou lunged at her again, and the two started wrestling. Meanwhile, Cid sat to the side, watching like it was entertainment.
After the brief scuffle ended and the two separated, Cid spoke again.
"I understand why you ended up at my house. It makes sense. But earlier you mentioned mission funds, which means you came here with a purpose. Could you tell me what it is? Ah, if it's something you can't talk about, that's fine too. I'm just wondering if there's anything I can help with."
Xenovia scratched her head, then nodded in thanks before speaking.
"It's not exactly a secret. We were sent here to find the Child of God."
"!!!"