"Yup, she's basically safe now."
Anathasia raised a finger casually, as though she were talking about some troublesome student instead of a reality-threatening anomaly.
"She's just as stubborn as I am though."
Roselia's jaw slackened slightly. Her lips parted once before a dry laugh finally escaped her.
"Miss Veridielle... you..."
She gently shook her head before staggering back a step.
Hinami immediately caught her before she could lose balance completely, lightly supporting her by the arm.
"Thank you..." Roselia murmured quietly while glancing over her shoulder toward Hinami.
After steadying herself, she let out a slow breath, a hand resting against her chest as a faint smile curved along her lips.
"I really shouldn't be surprised anymore at this point..."
"...it's Miss Veridielle we're talking about, after all."
She slowly lifted her head again as Hinami stepped back beside her, silently observing the room.
Occasionally, her gaze drifted toward Noah, who was currently leaning against my shoulder for some reason.
"Dude, you're heavy..."
"Come on," Noah complained dramatically. "It's been years since we've been this close."
"You're thirty-seven, for god's sake..."
I groaned softly while staring blankly through the glass panels overlooking the city below.
"You still smell nice thou-"
"Yeah, that's enough."
Before he could finish, I grabbed his face and gently shoved him away before flicking his forehead afterward, making him wince.
Hinami-who had been quietly watching us-let out a soft chuckle.
Meanwhile, Anathasia continued pacing around Roselia in lazy circles while twirling strands of her hair around her finger.
"Why am I surrounded by weirdos with a thing for scent..."
The words slipped from my mouth in a dry mutter.
Noah clicked his tongue beside me.
And Grace...
...had already comfortably fallen asleep on my lap again.
-
Several minutes later, all six of us sat gathered around the small table near the center of the office.
Well...
Grace was still asleep.
Anathasia sat beside me while Roselia, Noah, and Hinami sat across from us.
Hinami glanced toward Noah briefly before gently fixing part of his hair.
"Our little Sayaka hasn't been giving you too much trouble, right?"
Noah shook his head lightly before placing his hand over hers with a smile.
"Not at all."
"She's energetic like her dad, sure, but it's nothing I can't handle."
The rest of us quietly fell silent while they spoke.
Roselia stared out the window while Anathasia absentmindedly ran her fingers through Grace's pink hair.
"Her hair is... so pink."
"...Like, aggressively pink."
My expression flattened slightly as I watched everyone subtly avoid looking at the couple across from us continuing their thing.
Roselia looked seconds away from metaphysically vanishing from embarrassment alone.
Then she accidentally locked eyes with Anathasia.
For a brief moment, she genuinely looked like she was considering taking on her fox form and curling into a tiny ball somewhere.
Anathasia, meanwhile, immediately looked away before casually giving her a thumbs up.
Roselia's eyes visibly lost a portion of their remaining light.
After a while, I finally cleared my throat.
"That said..."
Hinami and Noah immediately stopped talking before sitting up straighter and turning toward me again.
Roselia's shoulders instantly slumped in visible relief as she shot me a quick glance before subtly giving me a small thumbs up of her own.
I closed my eyes briefly, letting out a quiet breath as the atmosphere in the room finally became lighter again.
Then I glanced toward Anathasia beside me before continuing.
"The TCA isn't exactly an issue anymore, so the only thing we really have to consider now-"
"...is food."
Anathasia cut in immediately while raising a finger.
The room fell completely silent.
All of us slowly turned toward her.
Anathasia blinked once before looking back at everyone one by one, visibly confused by the silence.
"What?"
"I'm hungry."
...
"Seriously?"
Hinami quietly picked up her phone.
"Yes. Please bring up some tea and pastries."
A long sigh slipped from my lips as I rubbed my temple slowly.
Beside me, Anathasia leaned back against the couch with her arms crossed while absentmindedly stroking Grace's hair.
Several minutes later, staff members entered carrying a tea set alongside various pastries arranged neatly across the table between us.
Anathasia had already begun stuffing herself with cookies almost immediately.
Meanwhile, Roselia slowly lifted her teacup toward her lips before taking a small sip. Across from her, Noah casually grabbed a cookie before taking a bite himself.
After swallowing, Anathasia finally spoke up.
"Secret organizations aside..."
"...we should probably expect the First Outer God of Continuity to manifest sooner or later."
Roselia immediately paused.
Hinami turned toward Anathasia as well, tilting her head slightly.
"But... Miss Anathasia, aren't you-"
"The First Outer God of Continuity?"
Anathasia finished for her before slowly shaking her head.
"No. Not really."
She casually waved her hand dismissively.
"I only held onto the Fragment of Continuity."
"I'm not exactly the First Outer God itself."
"It was simply a role I chose to take back then, before the Second through Fourth Outer Gods fully emerged."
Roselia leaned forward slightly, listening intently as she gently lowered her teacup onto the table.
Soft porcelain clinked against glass.
"So..." she began carefully.
"A new variable may emerge sometime in the near future, then?"
Anathasia nodded slowly before leaning back against the couch.
"Exactly."
"There's a pretty good chance they might become obsessed with combat or transcendence too."
"So disciplining them early would probably be ideal."
"...Did you seriously just consider treating a fledgling Outer God like a child?"
I cut in flatly, staring at her with complete deadpan.
Anathasia paused before casually glancing toward me.
"That's basically what I did with Roselia back then, y'know?"
My gaze slowly drifted toward Roselia seated across from us.
She continued elegantly sipping her tea with a quiet air of dignity around her while pretending not to hear the conversation anymore.
"I would..." she began softly.
"...rather not remember that phase of my life."
I stared at her for a moment.
"...The whole 'one flick and an entire Collective Sphere cracked apart' phase?"
Roselia didn't respond and simply continued sipping her tea in complete silence instead.
"Although..." Anathasia spoke up again, staring at the reflection rippling across the surface of her teacup.
"The First Outer God of Continuity might emerge sooner than expected."
Hinami's gaze shifted slightly while Roselia quietly lowered her cup.
"...Sooner?" Roselia raised a brow.
Anathasia nodded once.
"Continuum Swimmers can affect the continuums and the chain of causality inside every Demiurge's Image."
She took another slow sip before continuing.
"Or to put it simply..."
Her gaze lifted toward them.
"Things have become a lot more unpredictable now that the ecology outside our baseline reality is active again compared to before."
Anathasia casually shrugged.
A cookie slowly floated off the tray before slipping neatly between her fingers.
"And I'm way too lazy to use omniscience all the time anyway, so let's just wait and see."
She took a bite afterward while lazily twirling a finger beside her.
Roselia's expression slowly shifted into contemplation, her chin resting against her index finger as she stared at the pastries spread across the table.
"The First Outer God of Continuity..."
"The one that ties cause to effect and preserves the persistence of existence itself."
"The one that connects the threads of existence together..."
"...and the mirror opposite of Finality."
Meanwhile, Noah and Hinami had already drifted into their own little world entirely, leaving the three of us discussing the implications of Continuity's future emergence.
"Potentially transcendence-obsessed..." Roselia murmured quietly.
"So there's a possibility they may become a threat in the beginning?"
Anathasia casually pointed at her.
"More or less."
"That's why we should find them as soon as possible if we can. Same thing I did with you and Rania back then."
"Before they end up doing something stupid."
She paused briefly before clicking her tongue.
"Especially since the Fragment of Continuity has a habit of making its bearer ridiculously arrogant."
Anathasia leaned back slightly afterward.
"...Like how it somehow influenced me into doing a bunch of stupid things back then."
She crossed one leg over the other while resting her cheek against her palm, her gaze drifting toward the city visible beyond the office windows.
"Well..."
"I'm already a little stupid to begin with, so I guess that didn't really help much."
"Is that why Miss Veridielle always sounded rather arrogant in the past?"
Roselia asked quietly.
"The posturing... the absolute sense of superiority..."
Anathasia simply nodded in response while lazily twirling a strand of hair around her finger.
"That said..."
"I'm not really one of the Outer Gods at this point anymore."
Roselia tilted her head slightly.
"...Meaning?"
Anathasia paused briefly.
A slow sigh escaped her lips before she reached over and grabbed another cookie from the table.
Then she glanced back toward Roselia again.
"It just means I'm purely..."
For the first time since speaking, her voice lowered slightly.
"...just The Source."