It had just turned night when the door to the House’s dorm creaked open.

  Carol held the door open while I guided Hecate inside with her arm wrapped around my shoulder.

  “Ah… You’re back. Welcome ho- Hm?!” Katja stood up the moment she saw us. She was at the table to the right of the entrance, maintaining her sword. “Why do you look like that? What happened?!”

  The television was on with the sound of swords clashing coming from Narumi’s game echoing through the room. But much louder was the controller she dropped and the sound of her running up to us. “He- Hecate?! What happened to your eye? Why do you have those bandages? There’s so much blood… I- Iroha… What happened?! Is she okay?”

  They were both worried, and I couldn’t blame them.

  “She’s not in any danger…” I pushed past them and helped Hecate sit down. “We gave her some first aid. For now…”

  “Who hurt her-” Katja glanced at Hecate, then at my abdomen. “You…? Was it a monster? We didn’t hear any reports… Was it Ayumu? Did she come back?”

  “It was Ayumu, but not in the way that you’re thinking… It’s complicated, but we’ll explain later.”

  After my explanation, Carol grabbed Katja’s shoulder. “We need to get her looked at. Can’t go to a normal hospital, right? That Reia girl, wasn’t she a genius doctor? Can we take Hecate to her?”

  “That’s a good idea!” After nodding, Katja doubted herself. “Oh, but… Relying on her is relying on the PSF… I don’t think I should show my face there right now…” More doubts, and she bit her lip. “Sorry… Forget I said anything… I’ll drive you there, so take her to the car.”

  …

  And now, we wait…

  Carol, Narumi, and I waited in the hallway of this strange clinic while Reia performed an emergency surgery on Hecate.

  The drive here was stressful but uneventful. Carol was up front with Katja, while Narumi and I were with Hecate. Narumi was easily the most affected out of all of us, perhaps even more than Hecate. Not really, but from the way she was panicking, it’d be easy to get that impression.

  Narumi spent the whole ride trying to speak to Hecate and checking up on her. Hecate weakly leaned on my shoulder, but she still nodded along, always showing Narumi a faint smile. One hand remained over her eye the whole time just so Narumi didn’t have to look at the bloody bandages.

  Even when hurt, she’s still worried about Narumi’s heart. A girlfriend this gentle deserves all my support.

  “What do we do? What if it’s too late? Can I give her some of my blood? She- she’s not going to die, right? She’s coming back with us, right? Why did there have to be so many cars out today? Is Hecate cursed? She told me once that she was cursed.” There was a bench on the wall outside the surgery room. Narumi frantically wiggled around in a panic.

  “Don’t worry, Narumi… Don’t overthink it… Hecate’s going to be fine… I swear…” I pulled her head closer and gave her a hug.

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  “Really? Are you sure? How can you know for sure? I wanna trust you, but…”

  Carol was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. Narumi’s panic forced a sigh out of her. “This is Hecate we’re talking about, remember? Make a mess in the House like you always do, and she’ll be there to nag you before you can even blink. Can you even imagine anything else?”

  “Yo- you’re right…” Narumi blinked with a blank expression. “You’re right! Hecate’s strong! Really strong! She’ll recover! You’re right!”

  All of a sudden, she broke free from my grasp and stood up.

  “Katja’s probably worried too! I’m gonna tell her the good news!” She ran off with her phone in hand.

  We only said that to calm you down! Are you sure you don’t want to wait for some actual news?

  Before I could stop her, she was gone.

  Oh well, at least she’s got some energy back.

  “Hey, Iroha… Now that it’s just us…” Carol pushed me from the side and sat next to me. “Can you tell me what happened back there? After you disappeared? You seemed a little strange when you returned.” She stared with a serious and inquisitive expression.

  “*Sigh…* It’s a long story, but if I had to sum it up, I’d say I finally learned why Ayumu’s so fixated on us… Or on me, to be exact.”

  “Hmm… Is that so? Tell me. What exactly went down?”

  The whole story gets kinda personal, but… She has the right to know… “It all started because of the monster Ayumu created. She created a pocket dimension and trapped us both inside. I tried to reason with her. I knew she had some kind of grudge, but I had no idea why at the time. In response, she called me a liar.”

  Carol tilted her head, getting a better look at my face.

  “I had no idea what she was talking about, so I fought her monster. But in the end, she herself managed to stab me and get on top of me.”

  “She did…? Ehh…” Carol’s eyebrow twitched for a second.

  “Look, it’s not like that, Carol… At least not for me… But it may have had that meaning for her… I was pinned down, so she told me everything while trying to stab me again. Apparently, the reason why she did all this, the reason why she hates you, and the reason why she hates me is because she loves me… Or at least she loved me at some point.”

  I told her about my past with Ayumu. What led to the distance between us, and what led me to lie to her. Carol was angry.

  “Sh- she was holding a grudge because you wanted to protect yourself? That’s so stupid! That’s the reason Hecate had to get hurt…? Please tell me you’re joking…”

  “If I was honest with her back then… Things might have been different, but… how was I supposed to know? Sorry…”

  “I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, but you’re stupid. You and her. You’re both completely and utterly stupid. I get that she was mad, but holding a grudge because of that and letting it get this far? Ridiculous…” Carol crossed her arms and shook her head. “Hey… Was learning that she liked you the reason you didn’t…” Kill her?

  Couldn’t get much worse than this… When she told me the truth, I could see the world Ayumu wished for. I got blinded by my emotions and let someone I love get hurt… All because of my harem fantasies…

  “Sorry… I’m the worst…”

  It was probably a betrayal of the highest order, but Carol only sighed.

  “I don’t like it, but I can’t blame you for hesitating… Even I was thinking you’d be going too far if you did it. It’s just… Why did it have to turn out like this? *Sigh…*” Her head leaned back and she looked blankly at the ceiling.

  “I promise you, Carol… I won’t hesitate again… There are some absolutes in the world that should not be challenged. I’ll never make the same mistake again.”

  It honestly took too long, but I think the lesson has finally sunk in…

  Will I ever be able to repay Hecate?

  “Waaaaaaahaaaaaaa! Katja’s so mean! She yelled at me over the phone! She’s mad at me now!” The melancholic mood that loomed over our bench was instantly murdered by Narumi crying hysterically. She ran back to us and jumped into my arms… There, there…

  “She’s mad?” Carol frowned. “What did you do?”

  “Nothing! I just told her the truth. I said that Hecate’s strong, so she’s going to recover. It only makes sense. Then she yelled at me!”

  “And what did she say?” I asked.

  “She said I almost gave her a heart attack and called me stupid. Something about calling her without any real news… She’s so mean! Waaahaaaa!”

  “Oh… Maybe it was a bad idea to let you go outside…” I glanced at Carol, who averted her eyes, looking equally as guilty. “Don’t worry, Narumi. We’ll clear things up with her later. There there…”

  *creak…*

  Narumi’s tears immediately stopped, and all our ears perked up.

  “*Gasp!*”

  It’s her… With the same composure as always, Hecate emerged into the hallway. Her complexion was much better than before, and she had a calm smile on her face. Straightened dress in pristine condition, save for the few bloodstains that would need a thorough wash. The big difference was her right eye. She was wearing a white eyepatch over it.

  “Hecate!”

  Narumi jumped in for a hug, and we followed right after her.

  “Oh? Have you been waiting for me this whole time?”

  “As if we’d ever just leave you here… Come on…”

  Carol’s aggressive response made Hecate giggle. “You have a point. Thank you.”

  “How are you doing? Have you recovered?” Narumi looked at her.

  “As you can see, I’m perfectly fine… It was just a scratch.”

  There’s no way that was true… How could she be fine when she has an eyepatch on…? With the wound she received, there’s no way she’ll ever recover… Why would she put herself in danger to protect me? I can take hits so much better than her… There was no need, and she shouldn’t have done that…

  Yet, the smile she showed was so reassuring that it seemed to melt all those worries away… Maybe she really is fine… Maybe for a moment it’s fine for me to believe that…

  “Hecate…” I walked up and gave her a hug. “Thank you, you idiot…”