Her steps were slow, as if she were walking a path that had no end. She truly wished the road would never end, so she could keep holding her like this forever.
The young shrine maiden carried the young God out of the street. The wind caught their hair—gold and black—and sent their sleeves fluttering wildly in the night.
Neither spoke. They returned home in silence. Wang Yue sat back in her chair and continued to refine her Cognitive Mapping, adding the details about the gold prospectors.
She closed her eyes, thinking deeply.
She hadn’t expected Deep Ones to appear in this town.
To be precise, they were Hybrid Deep Ones.
She remembered the lore clearly: that immortal, intelligent race of amphibious fish-men had a disturbing obsession with human women, seeking to impregnate them to produce hybrids.
In the Cthulhu mythos, the beings with actual tentacles often didn’t care for human women, but the Deep Ones were notorious for viewing them as ‘hot weapons’ / resources.
Erik’s unblinking stare, the folds on his neck, his bald and rough skin—all of these were hallmarks of a Hybrid Deep One.
According to the theory of geographical isolation, there had to be a colony of Deep Ones nearby. She just didn’t know how they had made it from the distant ocean into the inland territories.
As she pondered, a pair of small hands suddenly settled on her shoulders. Lilith’s voice, uncharacteristically soft, whispered in her ear.
“Great God, it is time for your bath. The water is ready.”
“Thank you.”
Wang Yue stretched and grabbed her change of clothes before heading to the bathroom.
Sitting on a small stool, she lathered herself with soap, creating a thick pile of bubbles while she thought about the connection between the Deep Ones and the fish-man bas-reliefs.
It was common knowledge that Deep Ones had three main interests: virgins, gold, and live sacrifices…
Wang Yue felt she was on the verge of connecting the dots when the door creaked open.
Thanks to her crows on the roof, she knew it was Lilith.
Wang Yue froze, crossing her arms over her chest and hunching her shoulders. She asked warily, “What are you doing?”
“I’ve come to scrub your back, Great God. It must be so difficult for your short little arms to reach back there.”
Lilith took off her thin, translucent white Juban and hung it on the hook by the door.
She gracefully stepped out of her Geta, her soft feet padding silently across the floor until she stood directly behind the black-haired girl.
Though Wang Yue didn’t look, the rustle of fabric told her everything: Lilith was currently stark naked.
Wang Yue’s brow furrowed in distress. Her small body curled into a ball as she said urgently, “I… I can do it myself!”
“We’re both girls, what is there to be shy about? You’re so strange.”
“I guess that’s true…”
Wang Yue glanced sideways. Her eyes caught the wand in Lilith’s hand, and she feigned shock. “Why are you holding your wand in the bath?! Put it away!”
“Oh, so the Great God prefers I use my hands? That works too.”
“Eh?”
I fell for it!
And this is bad!
Wang Yue suddenly remembered something terrifying: pleasing a God wouldn’t break a faith connection. If Lilith decided that “doing something pleasurable” was for the sake of the Great God’s happiness…
Her face turned beet red. Her thoughts raced ahead to a scenario where Lilith pinned her to the floor using grappling techniques, and she would have to use her own martial arts to counter-pin her, the two of them wrestling for dominance through female jujutsu…
Suddenly, her body shivered. Her thoughts snapped back to reality as she felt a pair of soft, ice-cold hands press against her skin. A bone-deep tremor surged through her—she couldn’t tell if it was the fear of being at someone’s mercy, the excitement of anticipation, or… perhaps both?
Finally, her reason won out. She cried out desperately:
“Don’t touch me like that!”
“Use a scrubbing mitt! A scrubbing mitt!”
“The one made of thick sisal! Please!”
“If you don’t have one, even a ball of steel wool will do…”
A giggle sounded from behind her, and the small hands pulled away.
Lilith was happy—so happy she felt like crying.
This was the first time Wang Yue hadn’t used a Mystic Art to reject her. Look at those ears, turning red from shame; look at the tension in her neck, the way her back twitched to avoid the touch, the way her toes curled… That naive, adorable reaction nearly shattered Lilith’s sanity.
Back then, she had tried every scheme imaginable to get this close, and now it had happened so easily.
But…
Even though she was right there, within reach, Lilith felt as though she had lost her forever.
She wanted to go back so badly. She wanted to go back to the first day of school.
She thought about it every day.
When she ate, when she drank, when she hugged her pillow, when she walked.
If only she could do it over…
She definitely wouldn’t have said those cruel things to Prima. Instead, she would have placed those Fruit Jellies she’d prepared into the girl’s hand as a greeting.
And she definitely wouldn’t have used a Mystic Art on Wang Yue. Instead, she would have given her a mysterious smile and said:
“We meet again, Wang Yue. This time, I won’t let you run away.”
The steam of the bathroom hid the shimmer of her tears.
