Chen Li's face was full of... "concern."
Seeing the expression of concern all over Chen Li's face, Ereshkigal's gaze somehow became a little dazed.
"..." —Chen Li.
Chen Li truly was full of "concern."
You were a god, a god!
What were you doing, Ereshkigal?!
You nearly got cut by petrified flowers. Was that really something you could pull off? Just how much of Rin Tohsaka's habit of dropping the ball at critical moments had you inherited?
Did Rin Tohsaka really have a tendency to trip on flat ground?
"S-sorry. I'm such a useless goddess!"
Having come to her senses and realized how embarrassing her performance had been, Ereshkigal felt thoroughly vexed.
"Is that so? Perhaps, in your own eyes, you're a foolish goddess who can't even handle something this trivial..."
Hearing Chen Li's words, Ereshkigal lowered her head even further.
"But what I see is a kind goddess who wasn't willing to harm even a flower. You were afraid that using your spear to support yourself would crush the petrified flowers in the flowerbed, weren't you?"
Chen Li shook his head and helped Ereshkigal up from where she had gone limp in his arms, whether from weakness or on purpose.
"Huh?"
Ereshkigal froze at Chen Li's words.
"If you fell onto the flowers yourself, perhaps only you would get hurt, and it wouldn't be enough to crush the petrified flowers. But if you struck the flowers with your spear, they would be beyond saving... That was what you were thinking, wasn't it?"
Sensing Ereshkigal's stunned silence, Chen Li spoke.
"Th-this... Doesn't that make me rather pathetic?"
Having had her thoughts seen through, Ereshkigal could not help lowering her head.
After all, these were flowers she had painstakingly cultivated. Her pain would only be temporary, but crushed flowers could never