After leaving the forest, I see Luna near our house, looking up at the sky alone.
There’s no one around her, and there’s an odd mood to her.
“Ah, welcome back.”
She smiles when she sees me approaching.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking at the moon. It’s bigger than usual.”
“Ooh…”
Luna points up, and when I look up, I see she’s right.
Is this a super moon? This isn’t Earth, so I assume it’s not the same, but it’s my first time seeing it.
Even when it was on the news, I was too busy working…
“It makes me want to go watch the moon with everyone.”
“Miss Reina’s preparing some things right now.”
“Preparing?”
“Yes, to watch it in the bath with everyone! Ah, there they are!”
It’s Reina, Tiltue, and Snow.
Edinburgh also comes out of Merlin’s house, so I guess she’s coming along.
Ceres and Erie are wearing different clothes than usual. They’re dressed lightly to go to the bath.
It feels really vibrant and cheerful with so many beautiful girls around. I’m happy to see it.
“Everyone’s going to a hot spring moon viewing? I’m jealous…”
“Why don’t you come too, mister?”
“I can’t. I have to stay until everyone gets back.”
Luna asks that without a hint of embarrassment, and I smile awkwardly while saying no.
It’d be one thing if it was just Reina and Tiltue, but I can’t go with everyone else.
Luna goes to the others, and I look up at the moon again.
“It really is huge.”
Is it because I’m in a different world? I feel a lot of power coming from it.
Come to think of it, there was a full moon when I fought Wil… And when I remember that, a chill runs down my spine.
“Kukuku. You noticed?”
“Wil…”
She has an even more evil than usual smile on her face, and the sight of her with the full moon behind her makes her look like the last boss of a videogame.
In reality, I don’t think it would be wrong to call her the final boss of this world…
“Don’t you think things haven’t been well lately?”
“…What hasn’t?”
I have a bad feeling, and walk back a little.
And she looks down at me like she thinks that’s funny.
“You have been settling down in a lot of ways, and Reina doesn’t get agitated too easily. This is not good. Not good at all.”
“I think it is. Peace is the best. A slow life every day. Hurray for fun days.”
“Don’t you think it’s the day-to-day excitement that causes it?”
“…I can’t deny that.”
But if she’s involved, it will be a pain for sure.
…Let’s run.
“Whoa.”
“…”
The moment I turn around to run away, an ice wall appears.
I punch it to break it out of reflex, but there’s another ice wall behind it. It’s going to take some time to escape like this.
“Then I can fly…!”
“Hey hey. Don’t run in the middle of a conversation.”
Wil predicted what I was about to do, and is sitting on an ice wall above me.
She’s looking down with an amused expression, reminding me of when we first met.
“You’re thinking of doing some nonsense again, aren’t you?”
“Come on… I was just going to give you some advice. It’s been a while.”
“No thanks.”
“Just listen. Reina and the others are going to a bath, right?”
She’s not listening to me.
“Don’t you want to join them?”
“No. People like Ceres and Erie are there too, so of course not.”
“Ah, the hero’s girls… Don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t say that with a smile! Of course I will!”
It’s not like I don’t care about the others, but I don’t want to see someone else’s wives naked.
I wouldn’t want that with Reina or Tiltue either, even if they were friends.
“I see, so you want to resist?”
“Of course.”
“Then I will force you!”
Wil realizes I’m serious, and floats again, with her arm raised towards the moon.
“Everyone will notice it if we fight!”
“Don’t worry! I have soundproof magic and magic energy isolation around here! If they come out because we made too much noise, it would defeat the purpose!”
“You’re always shrewd in the weirdest ways!”
I break the icicles flying in, and fly to get as far as possible.
But it looks like she expected that, as an ice scythe flies at me from where I’m headed.
“Uoh!?”
I immediately counterattack and try to break it, but it’s so tough that I can only deflect it.
“Hahaha! I’m a little different during a full moon!”
“You’re doing what you always do!”
I fire myself up and face her.
She looks serious. She’s really trying to defeat me and throw me into the girls’ moon viewing fun.
“I’m not losing!”
“Kukuku! Struggle all you want! The result will be the same!”
A lot of magic flies in the air.
It’s not just ice like always, there’s fire and lightning, and all sorts of elements assaulting me.
Normally magic doesn’t hurt me, and Wil’s is no different, but I can’t imagine her doing something pointless in battle.
I don’t know what will happen if that hits me!
Will it suddenly bind me? Dispel my flying magic…
If her goal is to throw me into that bath, there’s a good chance she’s using magic that will do that.
“Then I’ll evade it!”
I fly as fast as possible to not let it hit me, and manage even as it almost grazes me.
“Tch, he’s perceptive!”
Wil moves her hands and skillfully blocks my escape paths with magic.
There’s an overwhelming gap in our combat experience, but that’s why I’m not poorly resisting. I’m making use of my immense magic energy and great physical abilities to just run.
Wil and I keep fighting under the full moon…
“…That’s enough.”
Until she suddenly stops.
It feels like she was really going at it, as her face illuminated by the moonlight seems a little red.
“Too bad. I really wanted to toss you into their bath.”
“I’m not… Going to just keep letting you win.”
Her attacks can’t damage me, but in the end, I have no combat experience.
Wil spent thousands of years fighting, so if she gets serious, she can find a way to do as she pleases.
And while I won’t get tired physically, being attacked one-sidedly is mentally taxing.
Wil composes her breathing a little and slowly comes down.
I do the same, and when we land in front of the house, Snow comes running.
“Daddy!”
“Whoa. Was the bath nice?”
“Yes! Snow had fun with everyone!”
She dives to hug me as always, and I catch her.
She smells of shampoo, so I imagine someone washed her nicely.
I look towards the bath, and see the others coming this way.
“Arata… It looks like Wilhelmina attacked you. Are you okay?”
“Eh? How do you know?”
“How… I saw it from the bath.”
“Ah…”
I turn to Wil, who is snickering.
So that talk of soundproof and magic energy blocking magic…
“If you looked down, you could’ve seen all of them naked.”
“““…!?”””
All the girls tense up.
If they saw me, it makes sense that I could see them too.
“Mister Arata… I have Arc…”
“Arata…”
Ceres reached the same conclusion, and looks embarrassed, while Erie glares.
“No no no! I didn’t see anything!”
“Really? It didn’t feel like you were focused on fighting me.”
“I was super focused! How could I fight you without being focused!?”
“I held back, so you actually had it pretty easy.”
“You were going at it harder than usual!”
This is where I finally understand her plan.
It would’ve been best if she could throw me to the bath, but if she couldn’t, she could work it so this situation happened.
What a nasty vampire…!
“Kukuku, thanks for the dessert, it has been a while. Enjoy the full moon!”
She says, and in spite of the light of the full moon, I can’t see her all of a sudden.
At the same time, Edinburgh’s house lights up, so I guess she’s there.
Couldn’t she have just walked there normally? I think, to try to escape reality while looking behind me.
“I can explain, so can you just listen?”
“No one is suspecting you, but…”
Reina knows this was Wil’s doing, but it’s important to set things straight.
I hand Snow to Tiltue, and tell everyone what happened.
Thanks for the treat.