As he touched those slightly cool lips, a pop-up window appeared before Lan Ze's eyes.
[Quest Complete]
Lan Ze quietly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.
He closed the pop-up window and was about to quietly back away, but the next instant, Lan Ze dared not move at all.
The woman who ought to have been fast asleep had opened her eyes at some unknown moment.
Those red star pupils were gazing directly into his eyes.
"Damn it, where on earth did that guy run off to?!"
Ishtar flew through midair aboard the heavenly ark, searching the high skies for Lan Ze's figure.
He was her divine messenger, after all, and she was the one who had taken him to the treasury. Out of a sense of responsibility, she naturally wanted to look after Lan Ze.
...Well, actually it was not out of any sense of responsibility; this goddess favored by the gods simply felt that she had managed to snatch a person from the Goddess of the Underworld with great difficulty. She had not even bragged about it to the Goddess of the Underworld yet, so how could she manage to lose the person?
At least she had to wait until she had a chance to see Ereshkigal one day, throw an arm around her divine messenger, and say with imposing majesty: Your divine messenger has already been molded into my shape... At the very least, she had to tick off the Goddess of the Underworld first!
Yet she still had not found Lan Ze's figure. She had clearly scoured most of Uruk and even tracked him to the direction he had left, yet now she could find no trace of him anywhere.
"Where on earth did he go?" Ishtar lowered her gaze to look down at the ground, murmuring to herself in her heart.
Tiamat's gaze was exceptionally clear and pure, and Lan Ze could even see his own face reflected in her eyes.
She gazed at Lan Ze calmly, seemingly unable to understand what this child had just been doing.
"That was just an accident... Would you believe me if I said that?" Lan Ze tried to defend himself.
He thought Tiamat would fly into a rage, but her current reaction was rather different from what he had imagined.
Tiamat remained silent throughout. Although someone had kissed her while she was asleep, she did not seem angry in the least. Her expression was extremely natural, and at least on the surface, there was not the slightest sign of anger to be seen.
Yet Lan Ze did not think so. With a guilty conscience under Tiamat's innocent and natural gaze, he hurriedly added, "I'm sorry, I know doing this was wrong, but it was all because of irresistible forces—"
Silence reigned.
Tiamat still made no sound; only the sound of ocean waves echoed in his ears. This tranquility, akin to the calm before a storm, made Lan Ze feel profoundly uneasy. Although Tiamat's gaze still seemed gentle, no one could tell if she might suddenly fly into a rage the next moment.
After all, no matter what, the one he was facing now was the Creation Mother Goddess; this halo alone was enough to multiply one's pressure manifold.
Tiamat suddenly moved, slowly raising her right hand and cautiously reaching out toward Lan Ze.
Rather than anger, it looked more like a probe—she was testing whether Lan Ze would escape from her embrace.
Yet Lan Ze knew nothing of this. He only felt that he was about to kick the bucket the next instant, so he simply closed his eyes and waited for death.
He did not believe he could escape from a terrifyingly extreme beast, so at a time like this, it was better to die with some dignity.
By rights, he should have held his head high and shouted proudly, "Kill me or carve me up as you please," but the problem was that he had just kissed her not long ago, making such words rather unreasonable under the circumstances.
Thus, Lan Ze simply played mute and said nothing, leaving Tiamat to deal with him however she saw fit.
There was nothing left to say either, since he had indeed kissed Tiamat, so he could consider it a death well-deserved.
At any rate, he had already come out ahead no matter what.
At that moment, however, Lan Ze suddenly felt a damp sensation on his cheek, and a faint, delicate fragrance drifted into the tip of his nose.
That faint scent made even Lan Ze's brain, which had already given up on thinking, start functioning again.
The wonderful, damp, and tickling sensation on his cheek caused ripples in Lan Ze's mind, and he slowly opened his eyes.
Right then and there, within his field of vision, Tiamat was gently stroking his head with one hand while lowering her upper body slightly. Her smooth forehead was almost pressing against Lan Ze's, and she was licking his cheek with a soft little tongue just like a cat.
Lan Ze stood stunned for a long moment, staring blankly at the woman's face close at hand.
Cyan locks brushed past the front of his face, tickling him, accompanied by the fragrance unique to Tiamat.
Lan Ze suddenly realized a very serious problem.
—Tiamat genuinely seemed to be treating him like a child.
No, rather than saying Tiamat treated him like a child, it was more like he had just gone out and picked up a gentle little kitten.
For the actions Tiamat was displaying at this moment were precisely those of a helpless little kitten.
Though he had not fed this cat any food, for this Creation Mother Goddess, simply having someone to pour her heart out to and speak with seemed to have already satisfied her.
To the extent that... Tiamat did not mind Lan Ze's kiss just now in the slightest.
It was unknown whether Tiamat lacked the concept of kissing altogether or if she simply did not care about such minor matters.
Regardless, the current outcome had left Lan Ze quite satisfied.
Originally, he had already prepared himself to be executed on the spot by Tiamat.
"That's enough, don't be like this anymore, Mother..." Lan Ze struggled to push Tiamat's face away.
If this continued any longer, he feared he wouldn't be able to keep himself in check, and if Mother of All discovered it, he would lose all face.
Having managed to pacify Tiamat and watching her raise her head once more to gaze at the ocean, Lan Ze quietly breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the moisture from his face.
"Go back to sleep, Mother," he spoke up.
Tiamat lowered her head to look at him, nodded slightly, and then uttered a melodic "Aaa," covering his eyes with her hand as if coaxing a child to sleep.
Lan Ze unassumingly opened the menu, intending to log out of the game.
The next instant, however, Tiamat suddenly grabbed his wrist.
As if she knew what he intended to do, those bright red star pupils instantly gained a hint of moisture, looking pitiful in the extreme.
Lan Ze could not help but freeze.
Fine... This little kitten seemed to consider herself the master, and right now, she did not want to let her child leave.
"Aaaa (Don't leave me)," Tiamat said in a gentle voice.
"...I understand," Lan Ze had no choice but to say.
He did not know why Tiamat could perceive even his intention to leave temporarily... Was it intuition?
"Aaaa (And don't love me anymore)," she suddenly whispered softly, her voice gentle and calm, as though she had seen through everything.
Lan Ze's heart trembled violently. For some reason, looking into those gentle eyes, an inexplicable sorrow welled up inside him.
Once the Creation Mother Goddess loved by all living things, her children had treated her as a stepping stone and left her behind, after which she was even banished to an empty imaginary number world until one day, under Goetia's conspiracy, she appeared in Uruk.
She had bestowed everything upon humanity, only to be feared by them in the end.
And by this time, Tiamat no longer had anything useful left to give her children.
Therefore, at the very end, letting herself—who stood as an obstacle to humanity's order—disappear completely from this world.
This was the final gift she could leave for her children as the Creation Mother Goddess.
Lan Ze gently raised his other hand, closed the menu, and then softly grasped Tiamat's slender, delicate palm.
"I'm not leaving. I'll stay right here with you."
Lan Ze slowly opened his eyes.
The first thing that came into view was still a pair of massive human hearts. Because of this, he could only vaguely make out the general shape of Tiamat's face.
There was no help for it; they were truly too large, and coupled with the viewing angle, they did indeed interfere with his normal line of sight.
Still, it didn't matter. He didn't necessarily have to see Tiamat's face anyway.
Looking at the other scenery wasn't bad either.
A gust of cool sea breeze swept across his cheeks, making Lan Ze shiver all over.
He gently rubbed his arms, trying to drive away the chill.
To be honest, he was already finding it somewhat difficult to distinguish between reality and the game. After sleeping in this world, he clearly felt much more energetic, as if the fatigue from staying up late over the past few days had all been made up for at once.
He wondered if his body had recovered its vigor simply because he had gotten enough sleep, or if sleeping in Mother of All's embrace came with a buff.
Still, he couldn't drag this out any longer... He seemed to have stayed in the game for quite a long time now, and by now Aika had probably broken into his room.
Lan Ze thought to himself.
Although Sajyou Manaka did not live with Lan Ze, she was responsible for nearly all of his lunches and dinners. If Lan Ze lay in his room for half a day at a time, that girl might end up forcibly logging him out.
He had to go out and grab a meal before that happened.
Mostly because he was also feeling a bit hungry now.
Sleeping here could keep his real-world self from feeling sleepy, but it couldn't solve the problem of a rumbling stomach.
After all, there was nothing edible to be found in the environment where Tiamat resided.
Unless...
Lan Ze cast a couple of extra glances at those majestic human hearts, then hurriedly shook his head, banishing the messy thoughts from his mind.
He shifted his body slightly and looked at the woman sleeping soundly before him.
For some reason, Tiamat seemed as though she could never get enough sleep. Even though she had slumbered for a very, very long time, she was still fast asleep now.
Could she build up her strength and store up energy through sleep?
Yet what good was storing up energy when she would still end up appearing in Uruk in a self-sealed state anyway?
A sudden thought stirred in Lan Ze's heart.
He suddenly wondered if his appearance here wasn't an accident at all, but rather the system playing tricks.
Thinking about it that way made it a bit spine-chilling. First of all, the system would have had to guess that the dark night sun ship he was taking would run into trouble before it could tamper with things.
And what did it want to achieve by sending him to the beast?
Could it be that it expected him to defect?
Looking at Tiamat's slender figure and her serene, gentle sleeping face, Lan Ze sneered inwardly.
He actually would defect.
"Why are you so late today?"
Sajyou Manaka sat opposite Lan Ze, staring at him with a face full of aggrieved resentment.
The moment Lan Ze sat down, his gaze was drawn to the lavish spread of food on the table.
Just as he picked up his chopsticks, Sajyou Manaka lightly kicked Lan Ze's shin. "Did you go slacking off and taking naps again?"
"Studying makes me forget the time," Lan Ze said gravely, then set to work with his chopsticks, shoveling rice rapidly.
"Hh, I suppose you were bewitched by some vixen." Sajyou Manaka narrowed her lovely eyes, the girl's usually gentle-looking gaze carrying a hint of danger at the moment.
Even now, she could still faintly catch that scent lingering on Lan Ze.
It was the smell of a beast, carrying a sweet fragrance. Nine times out of ten, he had been in contact with some strange female outside today.
"Did you go anywhere today?" Sajyou Manaka rested her chin in one hand, studying him lazily. Her white-silk-clad foot trod upon the top of his foot beneath the table, and the moment Lan Ze dared to lie, she would immediately increase the pressure and step down.
In reality, as the omniscient and omnipotent princess of the root, Sajyou Manaka was capable of foreseeing her own future, but such a life was far too dull, so she had restricted her own power.
The girl did not know her own future at the present, but she held immense confidence in her own strength. Therefore, no matter how powerful an enemy she faced, she would never feel fear.
To say nothing of repelling the enemy, she was at least entirely capable of withdrawing unscathed.
This kind of confidence also extended to her relationship.
Lan Ze was already her man... Sajyou Manaka still believed this to be true even now.
Yet for some reason, ever since she caught that faint fragrance on Lan Ze today, she had a lingering sense that something wasn't quite right.
The magician who had attempted to sneak into Lan Ze's house last night, coupled with the bizarre scent on his body today—could these two matters be connected?
Looking at Lan Ze's innocent expression, Sajyou Manaka's thoughts had already drifted far away.
"I didn't go anywhere. Why would you ask that?" Lan Ze's voice pulled her back to reality.
Before you continue