Free Web NovelChapter 476: Chapter 477: Suigintou’s Stirrings
The Goddess of Bows, Metis, hailed from a realm where heroes were summoned and worlds hung in the balance.
Her silver hair cascaded like moonlit water. Her demeanor radiated sacred dignity—the perfect image of divine purity. But beneath that porcelain mask lurked something rotten. A passionate, wild creature who collected heroes the way some women collected jewelry. She seduced them into forbidden trysts, watched their missions crumble, their worlds burn, then moved on to the next pretty face.
The Great Goddess had banished her to a forest at the God Realm’s edge. Males were forbidden from approaching.
And now this perverted deity had appeared in this world. Had given Hozuki Nozomi a blessing.
The MAX archery talent was useful, certainly. But being marked by such a predator? That Cardinal Archbishop’s handsome features told the whole story—Metis was absolutely a face-con. The man had lacked Hero qualifications; he’d been nothing but a consumable. A disposable vessel she’d discarded the moment Nozomi showed doubt.
Ruthless.
If he weren’t a transmigrator with the Game Life System, he’d probably have swallowed her honeyed lies whole. Would’ve been led to slaughter like every hero before him.
The implications spread wider, though.
The God Realm and this world were connected. Future threats wouldn’t come solely from demons or Demon Lord armies. Goddesses themselves might descend—and Metis was no different from an evil god wearing divine robes.
Nozomi’s jaw tightened. His resolve crystallized into something harder than steel.
He would never allow anyone to touch his girls.
He would never allow anyone to shatter the peace he’d built.
Even a Goddess. Especially a Goddess.
"Seems I need to accelerate artifact collection. System, lend me some power."
[Ding. The System is already powerful. It’s the player who’s been lounging in comfort, constantly seducing beautiful girls.]
"Uh... I’m a slacker who enjoys life. Is it wrong to give Yukino and the others a wonderful home?"
[Ding. The player isn’t wrong, but artifacts are scattered worldwide. Remaining stationary—even with causality events—won’t trigger continuous collection quests.]
[Ding. Incidentally, the combined power of the Rozen Maiden is also a lost artifact.]
"So... I really have been too lazy?"
Awkward silence.
The System, ever considerate, didn’t press the point.
Their entire exchange had taken barely a heartbeat.
Sakurajima Mai tugged his sleeve, her fingers trembling slightly against the fabric. The scent of her shampoo—something floral, jasmine perhaps—drifted up as she leaned closer.
"Was that really a Goddess?"
Still processing. Still reeling from witnessing divinity manifest.
Nozomi smiled softly, nodding. "Yes. She was a Goddess."
He wouldn’t burden her with knowledge of Metis’s true nature. Not yet.
"But in my heart, Mai is also my Goddess." He lifted her slender hand—porcelain-pale, delicate bones beneath silk-soft skin—and pressed his lips to her knuckles. "A one-of-a-kind Goddess."
Crimson flooded her cheeks.
"You’re awful," she muttered, though her voice had gone breathy. "Saying such sweet things even now."
He always knows exactly what to say. It’s infuriating. It’s wonderful.
"I’m completely serious."
"Hmph. You’ve said that to Yukino and Mahiru too, haven’t you?"
"Heaven’s honest truth—I haven’t. Yet."
"Yet? So you will?"
"That... depends on circumstances."
"Scum!"
Her small leather shoe pressed down on his foot—barely any pressure, more petulant than punishing. The tsundere pout curving her lips made his chest warm.
He pulled her into his arms, inhaling deeply. Jasmine and something uniquely Mai.
"Alright, enough teasing. We need to get the Kujou sisters somewhere safe."
The altar would be destroyed. Metis’s faith had spread through this world like rot through wood—even Aqua’s Axis Church had appeared previously. Nozomi suspected the Water Goddess had been sabotaged by rival deities. How else could her intelligence have dropped so catastrophically?
Then again... Aqua might simply be inherently foolish.
Either way, problems for another day.
---
Sakurasou’s familiar hallways welcomed them back. The smell of wood polish and Mahiru’s cooking—tonight’s dinner, something savory with garlic—hung in the air.
The Kujou sisters lay in the guest room, unconscious but breathing steadily.
Time passed.
Alya stirred first, eyelids fluttering. "Ah! Where—"
"Sister?" Kujo Maria bolted upright beside her. "Why are you here too?"
"Alisa, I missed you!"
Neither remembered the succubus Shiori’s charm. Their memories simply... stopped.
The door slid open. Shiina Mahiru stepped through, golden hair catching lamplight, her gentle smile radiating warmth.
"Oh, Alisa. You’re awake." She approached the bed, movements graceful. "How are you feeling? Any discomfort?"
Poor things. They look so confused. I’ll make them tea.
Alya shook her head. "Shiina? Where is this? Why are you here?"
Maria’s gaze darted between them, equally lost.
"This is Sakurasou—where I live." Mahiru settled on the bed’s edge. "Nozomi-kun and Mai-senpai found you collapsed roadside. They thought it was dangerous, so they brought you here. Do you remember why you fainted?"
"We... don’t know."
Eventually, the Kujou sisters offered polite thanks and departed, puzzlement creasing their brows.
Nozomi let them go without explanation. They weren’t close enough yet. When they became family—then he’d share the truth about succubi and Goddesses and the dangers lurking in shadows.
---
Night deepened.
Nozomi returned to his room, flicked on a single lamp that cast amber warmth across tatami mats, and approached the ornate box resting on his desk.
He lifted the lid.
"Hi, Suigintou. Good evening."
The doll’s crimson eyes snapped open—fury and surprise warring across delicate porcelain features. Her silver-white hair spilled like liquid moonlight as she lunged for the lid, tiny fingers scrabbling against lacquered wood.
She couldn’t close it.
"Tch!"
Black feathers exploded outward, razor-edged and whistling through air thick with the scent of roses and old wood. They shot toward his face like obsidian daggers.
Nozomi caught her wrist.
"Now, now." His thumb traced circles against her pulse point—or where a pulse would be, if dolls had heartbeats. "Is that any way to greet someone who’s missed you?"
"Unhand me, you—mmph!"
He silenced her protest the simplest way he knew.
His mouth captured hers. She tasted of something sweet and indefinable—candied violets, perhaps, or the memory of sugar. Her lips were cool and impossibly soft, yielding despite her rigid posture. A tiny, muffled sound escaped her throat.
Damn him. Damn him and his warm hands and his—
Her small fists beat against his chest. Weak. Getting weaker.
He deepened the kiss, tongue sliding past her parted lips to explore the velvet interior of her mouth. She shuddered, fingers curling into his shirt instead of pushing. The black feathers drifted harmlessly to the floor around them.
When he finally pulled back, a thin strand of saliva connected their lips before snapping.
Suigintou’s face burned crimson—remarkable, for a doll. Her chest heaved with unnecessary breaths.
"You... bad human..."
He lifted her effortlessly, settling her petite form onto his lap. She weighed almost nothing—hollow bones and porcelain and whatever magic animated her. Yet she fit perfectly against him, back pressed to his chest, her silver hair tickling his chin.
She squirmed. Didn’t escape.
His arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer. The Gothic Lolita dress rustled—black lace and crimson ribbons, elaborate ruffles that did nothing to hide how small she was. His palm splayed flat against her stomach, feeling the subtle curve beneath corset boning.
"Why did you disturb my sleep?" she grumbled, though she’d stopped struggling entirely.
"Because I realized I’ve been neglecting you." His breath ghosted across her ear; she shivered. "Tonight, I finally have time. How about you introduce me to your sisters?"
Her body went taut.
"I can help you win the Alice Game."
Those crimson eyes widened. Avarice and hope flickered through them, naked and raw.
The Alice Game. The competition that would determine which Rozen Maiden became truly alive. Suigintou craved that victory more than anything—craved becoming real, becoming human.
Craved experiencing what Yukino and Mahiru felt in this man’s arms.
