The Library

In the following days, we traveled with relative ease.

When we ran out of venesun on the second day of our departure, I went hunting after lunch and brought back a large boar for dinner, to the shock of the girls. They thought I would bring back rabbits and hares, but I told them they were a lot of work—wild boars and hogs were easier, and I missed a simple tonkatsu.

They watched me take the carcass apart, and thankfully helped me with storing them. With this, we'd have enough food to last us until meeting the other Coren.

While Adeline and Rita set up our tents for the night, the Saint would help me during meal preparations, satisfying her curiosities about Earth, but she refrained from asking about personal matters.

Even when Raede prodded at the Saint to speak her mind the second time we visited him, she just shook her head and maintained her questions about Earth's machineries and technology.

On the third day of our departure, I asked her about it, and she stammered an excuse, saying that I might not have wanted to talk about it.

She was right in a way, but only about my parents—she could still ask me about what I did, what I liked and disliked. Weirdly enough, she told me it was alright, that the past should remain in the past.

There was more I felt like she wanted to say, but at my expectant stare, she looked away and told me to finish our dinner. So I let it go, and when we were done, I served them deep-fried tonkatsu with its accompanying sauce, which they loved and fought over.

And for the third night in a row, the Saint joined me in my tent.

"Saint," I acknowledged as she sat on my bed again. "You know the others would misunderstand."

"I already told them what we're doing," she sighed. "I promise I'm not thinking what they're thinking. Being a Saint means I have to remain pure—"

Putting my hand up, I stopped her from saying more, before placing it on my forehead, my face burning at the implication. "I know. You . . . you don't have to tell me."

Her face was red as well. "I'm just saying. Just in case."

"Can't we do it in different tents instead?"

Her gaze wandered this time. "That's . . . it's easier like this. They told me."

Fine, I'll ask them when we get there. We stayed in comfortable spots across from each other, observing one another, before closing our eyes. I could feel my birthmark acting up, and when I opened my eyes again, I was no longer in my tent.

Instead, I sat at another table, with stacks of books towering at the sides, Raede reading one in the middle of them as if we just didn't intrude his realm. Everything was still hazy and cloudy, but I could make out shelves branching out from where we were, so I assumed we're in the middle of this . . . room. Light shone above us, but whether it was from an artificial light source or natural light, I couldn't tell.

While I tried to make sense of the environment around me, the Saint on the other hand had already approached her god, who motioned for her to read the book they were holding. When she did, the god decided to put their focus on me, their starry eyes sparkling at the sight of me.

Like they already knew what I was about to ask, Raede clung to my arm and steered me away from the Saint whom I exchanged worried glances with, saying, "You and my Estelle have to get along too, Junpei. And it really is easier to have you two in the same space for transportation. Like really close~"

I leveled an unamused look at them, and they conveniently ignored it in favor of dragging me deeper into this library. "Raede, will you stop your matchmaking? You know we can't."

Considering that Saints weren't allowed to take lovers in the first place, and they had a mission to fulfill.

But Raede didn't enlighten me with a response, and I sighed, trying again. "Where are we, anyway?"

This, they answered. "Ah, right. You don't know about this place. It's my library! Things that had happened, things that are happening, and things that will happen are written in these books—if people would follow the books anyway. Most of the time they don't, and the books would rewrite themselves."

"Why record the future if it's going to change then?"

"Because changing it doesn't happen often," they finally answered me properly. "Did you forget what you were taught in Literra? 'The god Raede had dreamed of everything that is to be dreamed, and had written these visions diligently into books, until the end of the world.' Of course, I didn't literally write everything. This is my realm, so sometimes I just think of things and—voilà!—they appear.

"And people don't know that those writings could change. They all chalk it up to 'my plan' when situations go awry or improve, but some things weren't planned, especially the choices of my Saints and Salvares." We stopped walking, and Raede pulled out a thin, old book without a title from an inconspicuous shelf, before handing it over to me.

I accepted it, but I'm still confused. "Why are you telling me all this?"

"Why do you think?" Raede looked at the little book bitterly with pursed lips. "I hear your thoughts, you know—we are connected, just like how Estelle and I are, but I don't blame you. I took you from your home and put you here to fulfill some prophecy."

Oh. "Raede—"

"Don't worry!" They clung to me and grinned up at me again, pinching my cheek. "I will still fulfill my end of our agreement. So don't worry, my Junpei, this god will never leave you."

I didn't know what to say and only stared at them, but if we really were connected, then maybe I didn't have to say anything. I just sighed and pinched their cheek, to which they yelped. "You are a troublesome god. What is this book anyway?"

They pulled my hand away from their face. "That might help you and my Estelle in the future."

"Raede."

"I meant against the Demon King! Inside that book is everything I know about them."

"How thin."

"Exactly. Even though it had been a few millennia . . ."

"I'll pretend this is useful at all."

The little god stomped their foot. "It is useful! Why are you so mean to me, Junpei?"

"You know I'm not." I pinched their cheek again, before dropping my hand. "Raede, is there really . . ."

They looked down and took my hand in theirs. "I told you it's up to you and her, didn't I? Whatever your choices will be, I will accept them. You two write the story, and I can only watch over you until I am needed."

Sighing, I walked us back to where the Saint was, our hands still linked. "Then I hope that you'll help me save her when the time comes."

A giggle. "For someone who didn't want to get attached, you sure are very attached to my Estelle," Raede hummed, sounding pleased. "I chose you correctly after all~"

It was so easy, with the Saint spending time with me in the one thing I loved doing: cooking. In those moments, we weren't the Saint and Salvare, counting down our days until the fight with the Demon King—instead we were Estelle and Junpei, who were preparing a meal for us and our friends while on a camping trip.

That was, if we were back on Earth.

Raede squeezed my hand.

When we finally returned, the Saint looked sad as she looked up from the book the god had given her. "Where did you two go?"

Raede unclasped our hands to hug the Saint to their chest. "I was showing our Junpei around. I also gave him a book you two might want to read soon!"

The sadness disappeared from the Saint's face. "My lord."

"Not you, too? It's about the Demon King!"

Shaking my head lightly, I sat in front of them and watched them bicker for a bit, before looking at the book in my hand—so thin and fragile, as if it would dissolve into dust the tighter I held on to it. I didn't know what's in this book, but for it to be this thin despite the fact that Raede should have known the Demon King more than anyone . . .

I pursed my lips and opened the book.