-----Nozomi’s POV-----

(Note: These events occurred before the previous chapter while Ru was unconscious.)

I was quietly looking at an unconscious goblin… He was breathing softly while resting on top of Elise’s bed. It genuinely looked like he was just taking a nap.

“Ru…” Elise was holding one of his hands.

“…” Silvia was silently holding his other hand.

“He doesn’t have any visible wounds, nor any damage to his organs. He is the epitome of health.” Junko said with a serious expression.

“You’re correct, Junko. He’s the epitome of health right now. He also leveled up a lot.” Lady Electra nodded in agreement.

“Even though you say that, I still can’t help being worried about him…” Mara smiled bitterly.

“Sigh… Why does he always end up unconscious…?” Lara said with a sad expression.

“You could say that it has become part of his charm.” Lady Arrat said with a smile.

“Is it that common for him to be unconscious?” Rose asked while tilting her head.

“W-W-W-Will he be alright?” Leonard stuttered a bit.

“Yes, yes. He will be alright and he’ll wake up eventually. You guys still have some things to care about, right?” Lady Astera was looking at my mother with annoyance.

My mother was hiding in a corner while trembling a bit…

I wanted to help her, but going against a goddess might be a bit…

Suddenly, the door of the room opened. Mi, Da, and Tomoko came into the room.

“Situation report! We have restrained all of the baddies!” Da said with excitement.

“We managed to successfully gather all of them in the garden of the castle. Only a few got some minor wounds. Laura, Rob, the rest of our sisters and Elise’s friends are currently guarding them.” Mi said with a sleepy expression.

“Since I’m already done with the thugs, I will now take the role of caretaker of Ru. You can all go and rest!” Tomoko seemed very excited… She had a very suspicious smile…

“Tomoko, you do know that we can still read your mind, right?” Lady Astera looked at her with a blank expression.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Tomoko averted her gaze.

“It might be for the better that you don’t take care of him, Tomoko…” Lady Electra smiled bitterly.

“Ehh…? No way!” Tomoko looked extremely shocked.

“After what you and Wa did to that assassin woman, I think it might be for the better if you take care of her instead.” Lady Arrat smiled at Wa.

“She’s lucky to be alive considering how much aphrodisiac she ingested… She’ll be in that state for a week or more.” Lady Astera spoke with a flat tone.

“I’m sorry, okay!? We were bored and the assassins were too weak!” Tomoko tried to justify herself.

The goddesses didn’t seem to be convinced...

“To think that it would be Tomoko that did something like that… I would have expected Airi, but you… It is a bit out of character, to be honest.” My mother said while rubbing her chin.

“Suisui-chan!? What’s that supposed to mean!?” Tomoko looked flabbergasted.

“Yeah, I would also like to know that…” Silvia raised an eyebrow.

“You know exactly what I mean, you perverts.” My mother replied with a smug expression.

Lady Arrat suddenly clapped to get everyone’s attention.

“I’m glad that you all seem to be enjoying yourselves, but even if our favourite Hero is out of commission again, we should still take care of what we were doing until now. Suika captured the Guild Master, right? This is a good opportunity to gain a lead to get to Wyvern, don’t you think?” Lady Arrat suggested with a warm smile.

Everyone in the room nodded.

“I guess we should take turns to take care of Ru, while he’s unconscious.” Silvia said while looking at the face of his sleeping husband.

“I’ll do it.” Elise had a very serious expression.

“I know what you’re thinking right now, Elise. Don’t you think it would be better for you to handle the Guild Master matter? You could get some closure about the dissolution of Alpine Tempest.” Lady Arrat smiled at her.

“I agree. I think you and your companions should discuss what you all are going to do in the future after this.” Lady Electra nodded in agreement.

“I see… I guess I also need to do that…” Elise looked a bit unsure.

“I could take care of him.” Rose smiled warmly.

“M-M-Mom… What about the spiderwebs in the dining room?” Leonard said shyly.

“Oh… That’s a bit troublesome…” Rose looked troubled. 

“Oh! Would you look at the time? I need to go do some spider things!” Tomoko was  about to run away from the room.

Lady Arrat immediately grabbed her shoulder and prevented her from running away…

“Tomoko, don’t worry about the spiderwebs for now. I would like you to do something for us. Could you go out with Sae and help her to evolve? Of course, Silvia will go with you.” Lady Arrat asked Tomoko.

“Will I have a reward?” Tomoko asked with sparkling eyes while looking at Ru.

“I will personally get the two of you married.” Lady Astera smiled.

“Deal! See ya later!” Tomoko immediately ran out of the room.

Silvia smiled bitterly before kissing Ru in the cheek.

“Well, I guess I should go with her before she causes more trouble. To think that Tomo-chan would change so much…” Silvia said as she stood up and walked towards the door.

“The roles have been inverted eh? Either way, the three of you will still end up causing trouble.” My mother spoke with a teasing tone.

“How rude! I have matured a lot in the last few millennia!” Silvia looked very annoyed as she was getting out of the room.

My mother looked very amused while Silvia was leaving.

“Leo, could you help your poor mother to clean all the spiderwebs?” Rose smiled bitterly.

Leonard nodded vigorously.

“Yes! I’ll clean everything on this floor!” Leonard spoke with excitement before leaving the room.

Mara, Rose, my mother and the goddesses smiled at the sight.

Maybe I should help Leonard...

“Cute kid... Lara, how about we help Rose with the spiderwebs? There were a ton of them in the dining room.” Mara asked Lara with a smile.

“Yeah, I guess it will take a bit of time to clean everything. I would like to stay here and take care of Ru, though…” Lara smiled bitterly while looking at her husband.

“I’ll take care of Ru, so please help Rose!” Junko said with a serious expression.

“Ah… If he is in Junko’s hands, then I can rest assured that Ru will be taken care of properly.” Lara nodded to herself.

I looked at the sleeping goblin… 

He and his family have done a lot in the short time we have known each other… They fed me, gave me clothes and saved me from my captors… I also managed to get reunited with my dear mother while I was traveling with them…

…

This is a chance for me to pay them back…

“U-U-Ummm…” I stuttered again…

Sigh… There’s no use… Even with my mother here and knowing everyone in this room, I still get nervous…

“What is it, Nozomi?” Junko asked with a gentle smile.

Uuuuuuuh… When you look at me like that with that smile I will only get more nervous… 

“Tell us what’s on your mind, we won’t bite!” Lady Arrat had a warm smile on her face… Her smile was so soothing…

I started to twiddle with my thumbs while I was gathering the courage to speak again…

“Don’t worry and take your time! We are all ears!” Elise immediately started to encourage me.

My mother silently walked towards me and started patting my head.

C’mon Nozomi… It is just words… It is not that hard...

“I-I-I was thinking that maybe… Maybe… Maybe I could take care of him…?” I asked very awkwardly…

For a second, I was met with silence… For a second I thought they were going to reject my offer… 

“Oh! Would you be willing to do that? That would be helpful while we are dealing with the aftermath of last night!” Elise said with a very gentle smile.

“I agree. I was thinking of staying here and taking care of him as well, but this would allow me and my older sisters to fix that error in the system.” Lady Electra looked at Lady Arrat and Lady Astera.

Mara, Lara and Rose then walked towards the door.

“Well, since we will have Junko and Nozomi take care of our sleeping beauty, we will be helping Rose with the spiderwebs.” Mara smiled confidently and winked at me.

“I’ll come to check on him every now and then though. If you two need anything, don’t even hesitate to ask for it, okay?” Lara made a lot of emphasis on us asking for her help.

“I’m really grateful for the help! I would also love to take care of my son-in-law, but sadly unfortunately I have a business to run. I will leave everything in your care then!” Rose smiled warmly at us before happily walking away.

Mara and Lara followed shortly after.

I then noticed that Elise caressed Ru’s cheek before standing up. She walked towards Mi and Da.

“I guess I’ll be going then. Mi, Da, do you want to come with me?” Elise asked the two goblin sisters.

“Yeah! I’ll show you all the cool things that we confiscated from the baddies!” Da said with excitement.

“Let’s go. I’m still not done with those guys… I’m still kinda pissed with the asshole with glasses, so I will be beating up his thugs some more.” Mi’s face was full of anger and annoyance.

“Jeez… Did you even leave something from me?” Elise asked with a bitter smile as the three of them were leaving the room.

“The asshole with glasses is still unharmed. The others have some minor wounds.” Mi sounded pleased about that…

I could no longer hear their talk. they had disappeared completely.

“Well, we should get going then.” Lady Arrat looked at Lady Electra.

“We will be watching, so if you need some help, you can also call us.” Lady Electra showed me a very gentle smile.

“I’ll handle that part. Please focus on the bug in the system…” Lady Astera said with a blank expression.

The two goddesses just nodded and disappeared just like Elise and the goblin sisters.

“Nozomi, are you sure you want to do this? It is a lot of responsibility.” My mother asked me with a serious expression.

I nodded.

“I-I-I need to pay them back…” I stuttered again while looking at Ru and Junko.

I was suddenly hugged by my mother.

“I’m proud of you, Nozomi. I’m very sure that you will do a good job. You got this!” My mother whispered encouraging words in my ear.

“T-T-Thank you, Mother…” I hugged her back… I felt very embarrassed to do this in front of others.

My mother then stopped hugging me and smiled confidently at me. It was her way to tell me that this would be easy...

I’ll do my best!

“Well, it is time for us to leave as well, Suika. We have a lot to talk about.” Lady Astera had a sinister grin on her face.

“Umm… Can’t we postpone it? I would like to help Nozomi…” My mother’s whole body was trembling…

“I’m afraid we cannot. Face this as a grown up, Suika. Good luck, you two. Don’t overdo it, okay Nozomi?” Lady Astera looked at Junko and I, then smiled before she disappeared alongside my mother.

My mother didn’t even have the chance to protest.

I could only stare at the empty air where my mother and Lady Astera used to be…

Junko then got up from bed and walked towards me.

“Well, that only leaves the two of us. I’ll teach you everything there is to know about taking care of another person, okay?” Junko smiled at me.

“Y-Y-Yes!” I nodded vigorously.

“For now, why don’t we start giving him a meal? I heard his stomach growl just a few moments ago. Can you stay here with him while I prepare a meal?” Junko seemed to be thinking about a proper meal for Ru.

Ehh? Me… Alone with him…? It is so sudden… What do I do if he needs to go to the bathroom or if he suddenly wakes up…?

Junko immediately noticed that I was panicking internally.

“Don’t worry! I already took him to the bathroom and according to the goddesses, he will not wake up soon. You just need to watch him for a bit. Easy, right?” She patted my head.

I nodded.

“Good! I will be back very soon!” Junko smiled at me once again before leaving the room.

I was now all alone with the unconscious Ru.

“How did I end up alone…?” I asked myself that question.

I then looked at the unconscious goblin…

“It is just watching him for a bit… You can surely do that, Nozomi… It will be very easy… It is just until Junko returns…” I told myself that.

After a few moments trying to calm my nerves, I decided to sit near him. I brought the chair of the nearby desk closer to the bed and took a seat by Ru’s side.

“...” I looked at him very intently.

He was still breathing softly. He appeared to be at peace while sleeping like that…

“She said that I needed to watch over you for a while, but… What do I do now? Do I just keep staring at you or can I read a book while I’m at it…? No, I don’t think I should get distracted with that in case something happens… Sigh… I’m so bad at this…” For some reason, I started talking to him.

Of course, there was no response from him. He kept sleeping peacefully.

“I wish I was better at interacting with people… When I was a child, my mother and I stayed in a small town while she was working. Several of the local children tried to befriend me. I did my best to talk to them and become friends with them, but… It was very uncomfortable for me to be surrounded by too many of them… It made me stutter a lot which made some of the kids make fun of me…” I smiled bitterly.

Ru didn’t not respond… He simply listened to me patiently…

“The majority of the children actually defended me even though they barely knew me, but… The words of the ones who were making fun of me really hurt a lot… I remember that I cried a lot...” I said while remembering those days...

Ru kept hearing me ramble...

“I… I’m not proud of this, but I ran away from all of those kids every time they saw me… I tried to spend as much time as possible indoors helping my mother. Ah! Don’t think me helping my mother with her experiments was an excuse to not see those kids! I genuinely enjoyed the time I spent with my mother and I learnt a lot under her guidance!” I ended up panicking…

Ru didn’t judge me or laughed at me for panicking...

“Sigh… When it came time for us to leave the town, some of those kids still came to see us go… I didn’t say a word to them… I couldn’t… I tried to, but I couldn't… Every time I looked at them, they reminded me of the insults of the cruel children who made fun of me…” I sighed heavily.

I looked at Ru, who was listening to me very intently.

“For a while, I was glad that we had left. I was sure relieved that I wouldn’t live something like that again. I was sure that I would live forever with my mother. She was all I really needed.” I easily admitted one of my deepest secrets.

I kept looking at Ru… His expression was telling me that he wouldn’t tell that to anyone.

“But after a while, my mother and I had to stay in other towns. The same situation where the local children would try to befriend me occurred again and again. The only difference was that I stopped that immediately. I ignored them and spent most of my time with my mother, learning from her and helping her with her experiments. I was genuinely happy to be with her. After all, talking with other people is scary…” I easily admitted another one of my secrets.

I was sure that Ru was going to keep this one as well.

“Talking to people is really scary… They start asking a lot of questions without even letting me prepare myself to answer…” I sighed heavily again.

For some reason, looking at his peaceful expression was very comforting.

“I must be pathetic… I’m a 19 year old woman who has never had any friends because some children bullied her…” I felt like I was about to tear up.

But… Strangely, tears didn’t come out…

“I… I know that my mom must be blaming herself for my lack of friends and social skills... I have never told her any of the things I told you because I didn’t want to worry her or to affect her work… I didn’t want to tell her that her daughter was a coward who teared up just by being teased by children… A coward who was incapable of talking to others just because she was made fun of...” I smiled bitterly.

I still felt like tearing up, but the tears still didn’t come out…

“Ever since I became an adult, I thought that I would be friendless for life. I was preparing myself for that. After all, people were still scary to me... I thought it would be only my mother and I forever… I was genuinely about to accept that… Until I was kidnapped…-” I averted my gaze.

I opened my mouth to finish what I was about to say, but I ended up biting my lip… After a few moments, I was able to gather the courage to say it…

“And I met you all…” I couldn't look at Ru. I was way too embarrassed to do that.

Ru still didn’t laugh at me… He kept listening to me silently. 

“I’m glad that I met all of you… All of you immediately treated me like a friend and worried about me like you had known me for your whole life, even though that was not the case…” I admitted another secret to him.

I gathered my courage once again just to look at Ru.

“Just spending a bit of time with you made me think that I might have been wrong in avoiding all of those kids… That maybe, there was someone who could be a genuine friend, but I didn’t meet them because I was too much of a coward to try talking to people again…” I said to him with a serious expression.

Ru’s expression remained unchanged.

“Talking to people is still a very scary thing to do for me, but… I don’t want to keep being like this…  I also want to talk a lot with other people…” I closed my eyes to gather my courage again.

I took a deep breath…

“I… I know it has been a very short time, but I already consider all of you my precious friends… I don’t know much about all of you and you don’t know much about me, but you’re still my friends… But I feel like I still need to ask this…-” I took another deep breath.

I opened my eyes and held one of Ru’s hands…

“Ru… Will you become my friend?” I held his hand tightly.

Naturally, he didn’t respond. But… For some reason, I felt like he was telling me that he was accepting my friendship.

“Thank you…” I smiled at him.

I still need to ask this to everyone else, but this is a start… I want to change myself… I want to be more like Ru and the others… I don’t want to be afraid of talking to people.

“Ru… Since we are already friends, does that mean that we should talk about the things we like, right? I like reading. I like it a lot! I have probably read over a thousand books by now!” I felt really excited all of a sudden.

I kept talking to the unconscious Ru until Junko came back. I didn’t notice that I was still holding his hand until she was about to enter the room.

By the end of the day, I somehow felt more comfortable… I felt happy, just like when I was spending time with my dear mother.

Over the next few days, whenever I was alone with Ru, I would start talking about anything that was on my mind. I also started reading to him and I even sang a song for him, even though I’m not that good… But I enjoyed doing it.

My relationship with Junko also improved while we were caring for Ru. She became my mentor and my friend without even asking… She was very patient with me when I messed up…

When I really asked her to become my friend, she got pissed off at me… She said that it was too late to even ask that since we were already close friends…

It was all thanks to Ru… There were times when I would get nervous, but just looking at him made me very confident for some reason…

I don’t think I can say this in front of him, but he became my best friend… I hope that one day, I’ll be able to tell him that.

GodlyKamui

Heya! New chapter! I really had a fun time writing this chapter because I relate a lot with Nozomi. I used to be a shy kid like her. I'm still trying my hardest to be less shy. I try to talk to strangers on the street to try and beat my shyness. I takes time and effort, but I have managed to be able to have a conversation with a stranger without panicking. I still need to try to initiate a conversation myself tho... Anyway, Don't forget to join the discord! https://discord.gg/uH6APbzrFR I hope you enjoyed the chapter!