At last, Valentine's was finally over!

Well, not completely, but the individual dates were successfully completed, everyone had a great time, and I was completely exhausted by the end of it. Well, maybe not as much as Elly, who was sprawled out on the floor and resting her head on my thigh with a satisfied (if somewhat silly) grin. To be fair though, after all the jumping and waving she did on stage, it would've been stranger if she wasn't tired.

We were back in my room, and I was enjoying a well-deserved cup of hot tea, sipping carefully to make sure I wouldn't accidentally spill in on my girlfriend, who was currently rubbing the back of her head against my leg while humming to herself. To say that she was still on cloud nine would've been an understatement.

After the successful concert, which lasted into the night, we spent some time with the Dragon Prodigy members. Despite their appearances, they were pretty decent people, and at least side-character level developed, so we had a nice back-and-forth going. However, we had a timetable to keep, so we soon had to bid our farewells and pick up Judy before heading out for our third and last visit at the Valentine's Fair to watch the closing fireworks.

Speaking of her, my lovely assistant just returned to the door and she looked absolutely… the same as usual.

"I brought more crackers," she stated as she walked in with a tray and placed it onto my bed, and then she unceremoniously sat down next to us.

Her makeover was… considerably less 'full' than I expected. She obviously didn't adopt a punk rocker or a goth or whatever aesthetic, so let's put that joke to bed, but even so, the change was so minor I doubted most people would've recognized it at a glance.

Sure, she received a professional makeup treatment, and was also taught how to do it herself in the future, but it was a light one that only enhanced her features. Her hairdo received a bit more attention, but even so, the difference was minimal. They cut her bangs a little shorter, and whatever conditioner they used made her hair seem, for lack of better terms, 'fluffier', but otherwise, the style remained the same. She was even still wearing the first ribbon I ever gifted her, and while I understood the sentimental value, it just reinforced how much she looked like her usual self.

"Is there something on my face?" she asked, making me realize that I was staring. Was she teasing me though, or asking sincerely, I wondered?

"Just your nose," I answered with a smirk, and she subtly rolled her eyes at me.

Seriously though, while her makeover had little visible effect on her appearance, I couldn't take my eyes off her. Why was that? Who knew? I sure as hell didn't, since as I have already emphasized, she looked the same as usual, if a little touched up. But then again, maybe that was the point. After all, former placeholder or not, Judy was pretty. Some might say she wasn't princess- or Angie-pretty, but beauty was in the eye of the beholder, and as said beholder, I could firmly declare that they were full of shit.

"Chief? You are still staring."

"I can't help it," I admitted, and it caused my other girlfriend to let out a tinkling laugh at my expense.

Thinking about it, maybe this was supposed to be a statement from my dear assistant. Something about societal norms of beauty and being herself and all the other usual aesops. Alternatively, I was grossly overthinking this.

"Are you disappointed?" she suddenly asked, and after a brief moment of consideration, I shrugged.

"I was curious about how you would look with a mohawk, but I have to say, you probably look much prettier this way."

She narrowed her eyes imperceptibly, as if trying to decipher my words using my expression, and after a long beat, she also shrugged.

"Good enough."

With that, she leaned over and planted a kiss on my cheek, earning another giggle from the princess.

"Are you going to stay like that?" Judy asked, and after some moaning and groaning, Elly also sat up properly.

"Oh, fine. Do you want to start the next round?"

Judy nodded and picked up the stack of colourful cards on her left. It was a game called 'You Know', with simple rules about matching cards based on colour, number, or using special cards to spice things up. It was a fun, hectic, and yet relaxing game that was perfect for winding down after a long day of consecutive dates. Furthermore, I was an avid advocate of the adage 'The family that plays together, stays together', and so I considered this the most fitting way to close our Valentine's. Well, there was one last thing, but that had to wait a bit longer.

"Today was the best," Elly suddenly declared after sidling over to me and resting her head on my shoulder.

"The bar is set high for next Valentine's Day," Judy agreed while shuffling the cards like a professional poker dealer. She must've learned that from Abram.

"Hooold on. Do you honestly expect me to one-up myself every year?"

"Why not?" Elly teased me with an impish smile. "Next year, let's go on a skiing holiday date!"

"What about skydiving?" Judy doubled down.

"Oh, oh! How about scuba diving in the tropics? There's a lot of things to do underwater!"

"Such as other people," my dear assistant stressed, but instead of backing her up, Elly shook her head.

"No, I don't mean that! It's looking at corals and old shipwrecks."

"And punching sharks," I inserted in a low voice.

"Yes, and punching… No! No shark punching!" Elly objected and pinched my cheek.

"Seriously, girls," I said, ignoring the way my face was being tugged on. "Can we please not overdo it?"

"I don't think it's overdoing it," Judy whispered and placed the cards down. "We should do as much as possible. You can never know when the world might end, so it's best not to have any regrets."

"Hey! No depressing meta-topics on our Valentine's!" I objected in turn and reached out to pinch her cheek.

For a moment, she looked at me uncomprehendingly and then glanced at Elly.

"Am I supposed to pinch her cheek next?"

"If it makes you stop thinking about silly things like that, then sure!" the princess declared and offered up her cheek, but in the end, Judy shook her head and didn't take her up on it.

Honestly, her worry wasn't completely silly, but this definitely wasn't the time to get bogged down in grand cosmic possibilities.

"Let's be happy!" Elly exclaimed and finally let my face go, but only because she raised her fist into the air, like some kind of shounen protagonist type. "I already had my dream fulfilled… no, I actually had a lot of them fulfilled, but this was a big one, and I got it today! Aren't you the same?"

"Yes," Judy answered tentatively, but then she looked me in the eye. "I was told I was going to be the Chief's heroine though, and I'm still waiting for that."

"What? You are my heroine already," I insisted, but she shook her head and pointed at me.

"When the hero is together with the heroine in the same room like this, he's supposed to be very self-conscious and blush a lot because of UST. I'm waiting for that to happen."

"… I'm sorry, Dormouse, but that's just not going to happen. Our sexual tension was already well and truly resolved a while ago, so we're about as far from UST as we can get."

"In that case," she stated, folding her arms, "I will get really disappointed, and I will hate you for at least several hours."

The way Judy was trying to pretend to be pouting was, in one word, adorable. Still, this was a common skit, and while I was tempted to just go along with it like usual, I suddenly had a better idea.

"Hold that thought for a moment. This is a decent opportunity."

"For what?"

I ignored the princess and the question marks circling over her head and jumped to my feet. After rummaging a bit in my desk drawer (putting the thing I was looking for at the very, very back was a bad idea in retrospect), I managed to retrieve two small boxes and kneeled next to the girls.

"Chief? Are those what I think they are?"

"If you mean you 'official heroine designators', then they sure are!" I declared with a mischievous smirk, and after a long beat, exhaled a quick breath. "Well, this is all kinds of backwards, since we already got officially engaged in public, but tradition is tradition, and there's no better day for it than today."

Judy looked a tad confounded by the sudden change in topic and atmosphere, while Elly was waiting with bated breath, eyes shining and fingers curled into fists in her lap. I didn't want to make them wait for long, so I presented the small, blue felt-covered boxes, holding both of them in one hand and then flipping their lids open at the same time.

When I did, all the ambient mana trapped inside was released at once, giving off a burst of misty, colourless lights that lingered around my hand. It originated from the pair of simple golden rings inside. They were completely unadorned, because diamonds are for suckers, except for a softly glowing line of bluish-white letters encircling them on the outside, written in old Celestial script. It wasn't quite elvish, but it was the only written fantasy language I knew, and the shifting letters looked suitably mystical. Too bad only I could see them right now, since they would only show themselves to the average onlooker when the protective enchantments crammed into these tiny metal bands were triggered.

"Dormouse, princess?" I spoke in a low voice and presented the boxes to them. "Would you be my permanent heroines?"

Elly let out a soft squee, barely holding back her excitement, while Judy gave me an extra-deadpan look.

"Wife, Chief. The word you're looking for is 'wife'."

"I like 'permanent heroine' better," I answered with the same cheeky grin from before. "I think it much better reflects our relationship and where it all began."

Judy wanted to say more, but Elly couldn't wait any longer, and she snatched one of the boxes out of my hand with a delighted, "Of course!"

"What say you, Dormouse?"

"Silly question," she answered as she gingerly took the other box and took a close look at the ring. "Enchanted?"

"Naturally."

"What does it do?"

"I… would rather not say," I told her a bit sheepishly, and when she gave me an odd look, I was forced to amend, "I don't want to over-hype it, but… let's just say it's one of my biggest contingency plans." Saying so, I picked the ring up and carefully slid it onto Judy's ring finger. I did the same to the expectant princess, and then finally told them, "Consider this a promise. Even if this stupid world ends without warning, I won't let you disappear with it. Even if I have to tear the Simulacrum apart, so long as you wear these rings, you should be fine until I find you. No matter the cost."

My words ended up much heavier than originally intended, and for a moment I was worried I ruined the mood, but then, without warning, Judy suddenly sprung forth and nearly tacked me off my feet. Before I knew it, she was giving me a deep kiss, and once I could catch my breath, she grabbed me by the collar.

"Chief. Lewd me."

"That was waaay to direct, and..." Before I could get a word in, I was caught in a pincer maneuver by the princess. "W-Wait, girls! Slow down! What about the game?"

"Screw the game," my lovely assistant declared with an actual, honest to goodness, completely overt provocative smile, and after seeing that, I had no options left.

"Well, I had a feeling something like this would happen," I said and then put an arm under Judy and lifted her up into a bridal carry before bringing her over to the to bed. Which was two steps away, but that was beside the point. After placing her down, I naturally had to give the same treatment to the princess as well, and once I was done, I dramatically unbuttoned my shirt. "Very well, my dear heroines. I'm afraid none of us will be sleeping tonight!"