Chapter 56: Frightened by the Mysterious Phenomenon, We Flee
Rafilia-san dropped the cloth and looked inside the basket.
"Eh?!"
Clatter.
With the sound of a chair creaking, Rafilia-san stood up and crouched warily, staring at the basket.
Ddddddddd...
"N-No way... This can’t be real... It’s impossible."
Rafilia-san’s face turned deathly pale like a sick person, and a slug-like bead of sweat trickled down her forehead.
"Maybe we just mis saw it because it’s gotten dark?"
"Y-Yeah, the candlelight alone does make it hard to see clearly..."
We exchanged glances, nodded, and cautiously approached the table together. We peered into the basket as if looking into an abyss.
Inside the wooden basket sat one large, perfectly round loaf of bread, packed tightly with no gaps.
"?!"
"?!"
"What the hell is going on?! Did we drink so much wine that we got drunk enough to think we ate the bread?!"
"N-No way...!"
DDDDDDDD...!
Rafilia-san’s terror-filled gaze was directed somewhere else, not at me.
What? What is she looking at?
I moved only my eyeballs within my sweat-drenched face and followed her line of sight.
"Eh?!"
Now that I was standing, I could see something I hadn’t noticed before.
We had been drinking wine. It came from a large ceramic jar that could hold about 2 liters, and we had been pouring it into wooden cups...
Splash splash splash...
The ceramic jar was filled to the brim with wine.
As proof that we had indeed been drinking, several streaks of wine still dripped down the side of the jar like blood from a guillotine, not yet dry.
"What the hell is this?! The wine was so delicious that we chugged it down like castaways in the desert! But the jar is still full to the top!"
Grab!
I picked up the wooden cup I had been using. It was empty. Only a tiny amount of red wine remained at the bottom — about as much as an old man’s weak piss. There were clear wine stains around the rim where my mouth had touched.
We definitely drank the wine and ate the bread.
Yet on the table sat a wine-filled jar and a basket containing a perfectly round loaf, with no signs of anything having been consumed.
Even though there was no draft, the four candles around the room flickered eerily like bat wings.
"I know that ’rewind’ doesn’t work for generations who don’t know video tapes, so it became ’fast rewind,’ but it sounds cool so I’m saying it anyway! Time is rewinding!"
"Ah!"
Rafilia-san seemed to have noticed something.
"Let’s check the candles!"
"Right! That’s a good idea!"
There were candle holders on the wall with candles in them. Candles get shorter while burning. Since Rafilia-san uses them regularly, she should be able to tell if time had actually passed by how much they had burned down.
While Rafilia-san checked the candles, I examined the table again. Her cup was also empty. I picked up her used cup, which still held her warmth, with both hands.
There was a red lipstick mark on the rim. I licked it.
Slurp... Lick lick lick...
So good!!!
It definitely tasted like wine!
"The candles have gotten shorter! All four of them!"
Rafilia-san let out a voice that sounded almost like a scream from beside the wall.
"So time didn’t rewind! We definitely ate the bread and drank the wine, but nothing decreased! There’s something wrong with this bread and wine!"
Crash!
I hopped back toward the wall using just my toes, shielding Rafilia-san with my left arm to keep her away from the table. I casually brushed her breast with my elbow, but thanks to my Oscar-worthy acting, I received no complaints.
"Rafilia-san! Don’t get close to the table! Hey, Iferaski! You come over here too!"
Iferaski walked over with her usual innocent expression, seemingly not understanding the situation.
Come to think of it, what the hell was this girl doing while we were panicking over this mysterious phenomenon?!
"Eh?!"
Iferaski was carefully hugging the empty basket that had previously contained the carrot. I see. Since the bread and wine had returned, she was hoping the carrot would come back too.
"W-What is going on...? The carrot is still gone. Only the bread and wine have returned to normal! This is bad! I don’t know what’s happening, but staying in this room is dangerous!"
Bam!
I slammed the door open and gestured wildly with my arm for Rafilia-san and Iferaski to leave.
"Get out of this room right now! As sure as I stop after the first round even when I plan to jerk off multiple times! Something dangerous is happening here!"
Thanks to the status examination during the day, it’s confirmed that I’m among the strongest humans, but that’s probably only in direct combat. My attack power may be high, but I have no means to counter supernatural abilities. The only option is to run.
After the two left, I tumbled out of the room as well and slammed the door shut behind me.
Bang!
"Run! Run to the guest room we’re renting!"
Snap.
I held up two fingers straight as possible — not for anyone to see, but for myself.
"There are two possible causes I can think of for this mysterious phenomenon."
First possibility: During the day, Lucia stopped time around Monbane, and that might have caused a distortion in the flow of time. I heard a wild dog barking from far away back then. Dogs can only move during time stops in adult videos. In reality, if time actually stopped, even dogs shouldn’t be able to move. That means only the area around Monbane’s castle gate had time stopped.
The current anomaly in this room might be a natural phenomenon trying to correct that distortion.
Second possibility: This one is far more dangerous and much worse.
The words Lucia said when she stopped time:
’If I stop time for too long, the god who governs time will start complaining...’
That’s right. This world has a god who controls time.
It’s possible that the time god, angered by Lucia stopping time, is now attacking me — someone connected to her.
Touch.
I touched my crotch. My dick was still the same size.
I looked at Rafilia-san’s bouncing breasts. They were jiggling like slime, still the same size.
It doesn’t seem like our time itself is moving forward or backward.
There’s no way I can resist a god.
The only one who can fight a god is another god.
"We need to go to the guest room and join up with Lucia! That’s our only way to survive!"
We ran through the pitch-black garden that felt like an underground world, cut across the dimly lit cathedral, and headed for the quiet guest room.
Inside the guest room, Lucia was sleeping while using the kemololi as a body pillow.
"Lucia, wake up. We’re being attacked by something."
"Mmm..."
"Lucia...!"
"Sleepy..."
Lucia, who is nocturnal and jerked off all night, had stayed up during the day to watch my status examination and cheer for me. That’s why she’s sleep-deprived.
"Please. Wake up. The bread isn’t decreasing."
"...Bread?"
"Yeah. Both the bread and wine aren’t decreasing. A mysterious phenomenon is happening."
"Mmm..."
"Wake up! The enemy is attacking!"
"Enemy...? What is it...?"
"I don’t know."
"Even if someone comes close... it’s fine... so..."
For a moment, the room was dyed pale blue.
Did Lucia do something?
Did she put up a defensive barrier?
After that, Lucia didn’t wake up again.
Lucia showed absolutely no wariness. Does that mean we’re safe?
"Rafilia-san, please sleep here with us tonight. You might not believe it, but this girl is a Dragon God. She should protect us if anything happens."
"E-Eh... She only looks like a young child, but... I understand. I can feel an immense power from her."
Good. Rafilia-san didn’t faint or wet herself. She doesn’t seem scared of a sleeping girl, at least.
Though we were anxious about what was happening, we decided to sleep. We had no choice but to trust the Dragon God. Iferaski, who still seemed scared of Lucia, clung tightly to me.
I couldn’t fall asleep easily — both because of the fear of possibly being attacked by some unknown entity, and because of the excitement of sleeping in the same room with four girls: Lucia, the kemololi, Rafilia-san, and Iferaski.
To calm my mind, I kept stroking Iferaski’s ass inside the pile of straw...
