We ate at one of the busier food stalls in the Saint Giselle market, tucked beneath a rust-streaked awning just off one of the main through-paths. The scent of sizzling meat and singed spices hung in the air like perfume, and behind the counter, the vendor—a stocky man with a thick apron and a mane of silver hair—was fanning the fmes under his cy-lined grill.

  “These goats, I tell ya,” he said as he basted a skewer, “you give ’em rusted nails or mushroom stalks, they’ll eat ’em the same. Stomachs like compact alchemy kilns. That’s why Saint Fleur raises ’em like prized hounds.”

  “Saint Fleur,” I mumbled. “That’s the upper middle yer.”

  He ughed, flipping a pepper-studded pork skewer. “Pigs, too. Won’t compin. Give ’em trash and sludge, they’ll turn it into fat.”

  I nodded along, taking a bite from my own skewer and letting the spice hit.

  “Didn’t think anything fed on sludge could taste this good,” I said between mouthfuls. “I get why you’ve got a line.”

  The vendor grinned. “Praise the pigs, not me.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Rave looking at me. Her eyes were narrowed, not quite a gre, not quite curiosity. Irritated, most likely. She never liked being confused. And to be honest, how pigs raised on sludge could be this good was very confusing.

  “You like yours?” I asked.

  She looked down at her skewer like it had just offended her. “Obviously.”

  I smiled. The way she was chewing, you’d think she had a vendetta against the morsel.

  When the vendor turned away to take another customer’s order, Rav lowered her voice.

  “You seriously thinking of sneaking into the upper yers?”

  I shrugged, brushing grilled onion off my p. “It’s a fun idea. Not sure I can do it just yet.”

  “You don’t have business up there,” she said ftly.

  “True,” I said. “But then, business can be made.”

  “Don’t you have work to do? Don’t waste time scheming.”

  “I’ve got a system. All my upcoming orders are already done,” I said, grateful for Timaeus and the ease of his version of modern alchemy.

  She didn’t look at me. Just stared at her food like it held answers.

  “Is it because of Elsbeth?” she asked suddenly.

  I blinked. “Huh?”

  “You were different after seeing her that day. You haven’t been the same since.”

  I leaned back, letting the heat from the grill soak into my coat. I didn’t want to ugh—not because it wasn’t funny, but because Rave looked genuinely uncertain.

  “No,” I said softly. “It’s not because of Elsbeth.”

  Her brow knitted. “Then what?”

  “It’s because of her. And Meredi. And you.”

  She paused, mid-chew. “What the heck does that mean?”

  I smiled and tossed the stick of my finished skewer into the nearby bin. “I’m a big fan. Of the three of you. That’s all.”

  There was a long, heavy silence between us—long enough that I could hear the sizzle of the next round of skewers. Rave kept her eyes on her food, but I could tell her grip on the stick had tightened.

  “I want to reach you three,” I said. “That’s all. I’m just trying to step up.”

  “You’ve got ambitions, apparently,” Rave muttered.

  “I do… But it’s enough that you’re still sitting next to me. I could die happy with just this.”

  She clicked her tongue. “No one wants you dying, you idiot.”

  I stood up, dusting my hands. “I’m heading back to Meredi’s. I got her something.”

  Rave gnced at what I was holding. “A lunchbox? When did you get that?”

  “While you were staring at your skewer.” I nodded and grinned. “I want to see what kind of face she’d make when she opens it.”

  She rolled her eyes, but there was no malice in it.

  “You’re exhausting.”

  “Thanks for letting me exhaust you,” I replied.

  She sighed. “Shut up.”

  She stood up a second ter, and we walked together toward the next street, weaving through the crowd, the scent of grilled pork and charcoal trailing behind us.

  ***

  When we got back to the workshop, Meredi was hunched over the forge table, hammering out the copper rings for a mechanism she was excited about. She didn’t notice me at first—not until I cleared my throat and held out the paper-wrapped package.

  “Brought you something,” I said.

  She turned, wiping her brow with the back of her wrist, and eyed the package like I’d just offered her a cursed object.

  “What is it?”

  “Lunch.”

  She blinked. “What?”

  I smiled. “Lunch, Meredi. It’s what we had too .”

  Her hands froze, half-reached toward the package. Then she looked at me, like she was trying to find some joke in my eyes.

  “Go on,” I said.

  She took the bag slowly, like it might crumble in her grip. Then unwrapped the twine, peeled it back—and just stared. The contents were simple. Just some meat skewers and vegetables.

  For a long second, she didn’t say anything.

  Then her eyes shimmered, and she looked away fast.

  “Thanks,” she whispered, voice thick.

  I couldn’t stop myself from grinning. I felt like I was right where I needed to be.

  The rest of the day was slower. Just spent time with Meredi—watching her test alloys inbetween waiting for my coatings to stabilize. We did some cleaning too, since there was so much downtime. At one point, she muttered something about being able to work twice as fast with me around, then immediately told me not to screw up the groove.

  Rave had vanished by then. No goodbye, no snark. Just gone. Probably off doing whatever counted as work in her world.

  Cynthia showed up in the evening with a fresh cut across her forearm and a bag of groceries slung over one shoulder. Her employer had given the guards unique fruits, and she got a tomato the size of her head and insisted we work it into dinner. Who would say no to a super tomato?

  We ate together at the dinner table. Cynthia talked too much. Meredi’s ughter was heavenly. It was the only thing keeping me from busting Cynthia’s balls too much.

  There was no big revetion. No dramatic breakthrough with Meredi. This was the sort of pace I had expected. Just nice, pleasant times at the forge. At one point, she accidentally brushed my shoulder with hers and didn’t flinch away. That was pretty awesome. Made my evening.

  When dinner wrapped up, I helped clean up and went on my way with Meredi seeing me off. I wasn’t really sure if the day could be more perfect.

  But then I got to my workshop.

  Rave was waiting there, leaning against the doorframe. Coat drawn and boot toe lightly tapping the ground.

  She didn’t speak. Just tilted her head at the workshop door.

  I unlocked it and opened it for her.

  She walked past without a word. Stopped just short of the alchemy desk and folded her arms.

  She only made a sound after I closed the door.

  “I’ve been thinking,” she said, eyes still on the far wall. “About what you did st time.”

  “Oh, alright,” I said, setting my stuff down. “Should I sit?”

  “No, this will be fast.”

  I nodded and stood in front of her. She searched my eyes, seemingly for any hint as to my thoughts.

  And then she sighed. “Timaeus, this—me and you—I don’t think it can happen.”

  I felt my heart sink a little, but that was okay. I had already gotten way further in the route than I ever thought possible.

  I nodded slowly and smiled. “Okay. But you’re still my supplier, right?”

  Her eyes narrowed, and her brow creased. “Yes. Obviously.”

  “Then great. Thanks. I’m happy I didn’t blow you and me up.”

  She looked at me with bewildered eyes as she slowly shook her head. “Unbelievable.”

  “Pardon me?”

  Rave rolled her eyes and marched to the back room. “I’m staying here tonight.”

  What whipsh; I followed her, unlocked the door to the backroom, and followed her up the stairs to the bedroom.

  “You are?” I asked, confused.

  “Yeah, been seeing too much of Meredi recently.”

  What threw me off was the casualness with which this was happening. I searched this body’s memories, and I think I was getting fragments of Rave hanging out here. But staying over?

  “Sure, I guess I’ll just take the floor.”

  “What?” she asked, looking over her shoulder. “The bed’s big enough.”

  I tried to keep my eyes from widening. “Right. Yeah.”

  She was right. That bed could fit four people. Honestly, it was kind of weird that I had it, but I didn’t question it.

  I chuckled, trying to go with the flow. “I was gonna go to bed anyway—”

  “Yeah, because you spent the whole day and evening palling around with Meredi.”

  Got to my bedroom, pced my shoes outside the door and peeled off yers until I was in comfortable wear. I was too confused to do anything else, so I just climbed into bed and tried to understand this situation.

  Rave went to the closet in the room, opened it, and then reached inside to the left. Just like that, she pulled out a sack and then pulled out a rge shirt. She took off her coat and threw it onto the chair in the corner with practiced precision.

  I couldn’t help but be mystified. Rave had clothing here? And already knew where to pce it?

  With her back to me, she began untching her corset before she suddenly looked over her shoulder and clicked her tongue.

  “Hold on,” she said.

  She walked out of the room with her shirt, leaving me confused.

  “What the hell?” I muttered.

  I closed my eyes and tried to trigger memories that would expin this. Interestingly, whenever I searched for a memory of Rave changing in my head, I instead got a memory of Timaeus reading his notes or scribbling in his journal.

  Obviously, this meant that whenever Rave was changing, Timaeus was more interested in his own devices!

  Wow! What a guy. No wonder Rave thought he was gay.

  I gasped.

  Now that Rave knew that Timaeus was interested, she was being more careful. That’s kind of cute.

  Rave walked back into the room wearing her rge and loose white shirt and let out a soft groan when her eyes met mine. She went toward the bed like she was about to climb over me, but then corrected herself.

  The bed was pressed into the corner of the room. I knew that Timaeus always slept on the open side, which meant that Rave slept on the side pressed to the wall.

  She went along the foot of the bed and avoided me to get to the side closest to the wall. The white shirt she was wearing covered her well enough, reaching halfway down her thighs.

  I wasn’t peeking or anything. But getting to see sleepwear Rave was a surprise I didn’t know was possible.

  She nded on the bed with a thud, her back to me.

  “Good night, Tim,” she said sternly.

  “Good night, Rav,” I said, barely containing myself.

  I turned onto my side and counted my blessings.

  The Rave Route was a route of twists and heart-pumping turns. Wow. But I was really so astounded by Timaeus.

  Really. Just, holy shit, Timaeus, I walked into one heck of a retionship here.

  This world really let me occupy such an awesome character. If I had known, I would have spoken the praises of Timaeus back when Earth had an internet.

  What an awesome guy, and so pure too! He was so dedicated to his alchemy that he never gave in to temptation despite having someone like Rave next to him.

  I’d be falling short if I let the goddesses distract me now. I couldn’t fall short and defile that character’s legacy.

  Rave let out a loud sigh and sat up on the bed. “Hey. Tim. Open your eyes. We need to talk.”

  I turned onto my back. “Yeah? I thought we already talked—”

  She smacked me with a pillow and then pulled it back to reveal her scowl. “You aren’t reacting right, you jerk!”

  “I’m not?” I asked, yawning.

  “Why are you taking this so casually? This is serious!”

  I took a second to think about it, and then I nodded. “Okay, fair enough. You in my bed is pretty crazy—”

  “Not that! Those stupid ambitions,” she spat.

  “They’re not stupid. I promise.”

  She scoffed and chewed on her tongue. “I just… I just need you to be more conclusive with me here, Timaeus. You’re really throwing me off here. It’s getting a little hard to focus.”

  I chuckled. “I know the feeling… What do you want me to talk about? Help me narrow it down.”

  Rave looked at me for a few quiet seconds and gulped. “When I tell you that this can’t happen… Can’t you respond to me with something other than that stupid smile?”

  My head tilted. I was really trying to understand, and I was almost certain that Rave saw that earnest effort.

  “That smile makes it seem like all of it's frivolous. You’re trying to blow this up, and then you put on that breezy smile like it doesn’t bother you that I’m shutting you down.”

  “Oh,” I said, looking up at the ceiling. “I see… Heh, I see.”

  “Yeah? Do you get it?” she asked, running her hand through her hair and scratching her head.

  “I think… the reason I’m still smiling is because I’m just really happy and excited to be speaking to you… I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to make light of it.”

  “What? You need to expin some more here, man.”

  I turned to her with a gentle smile I’d be careful to keep from turning into a grin. “You could tell me that there’s no shot for us, even if all the Saints rooted for me, and as long as you still spoke to me, I would be happy.” I shrugged. “I can’t help it. I’m just happy to be your friend.”

  She stared at me before letting her head hang low. “This isn’t fair, man.”

  Her hands were rolled into fists and shaking despite being pressed into her thighs. I pced a hand on hers.

  “Don’t do that,” she muttered.

  “Do things really need to be so dramatic, Rav?”

  She looked at me with tired eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m going to advocate for myself a bit here… Do you really need to draw a line in the muck? Why not… just let things flow?”

  She scratched her head again. “Okay, and what are you trying to say with that?”

  “Please, could we just enjoy each other’s company?” I pced a hand on my chest. “I promise I won’t act out of turn with you. I’d rather die than viote your wishes. But, seeing the way you’re acting… I have a tiny little hope,” I said, a little bashful about revealing myself like this.

  In the game, you could date the love interests. There wasn’t any notion of you have to get married with the person you did the dating events with. That meant that this world had some sort of dating culture, which in turn meant that Rave should understand how dating worked.

  “If you could keep in mind that I’m interested in something more, then I’d be beyond happy. But otherwise, I’m fine with this kind of strange dynamic we had.”

  Rave looked at herself, then at me. “It wasn’t weird until you made it weird.”

  “Uhuh.”

  With a huff, she colpsed onto the bed again and pulled a sheet over herself.

  “So what is it you want?” she asked, looking at me.

  “Just keep spending time with me like you would while keeping an open mind or something. Just see if you actually would like something more.”

  “My sister told me you would be able to talk me into anything,” she muttered.

  I chuckled. “Well, that’s wrong. If I could do that, we’d be making out right now.”

  She looked at me for a few beats and shook her head. “It’s because you’re not trying.” She covered her face. “Oh, why’d I say that?”

  “Because it’s confusing,” I replied. “Rav, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting this so soon after setting my sights on bigger and bolder things. These feelings have been a nice surprise for me.”

  Her hand moved from covering her eyes to covering her mouth. “Great.”

  I thought back to the game. There was a penalty if a pyer tried to get engaged with a girl while married to another. Hearts would be lost, and the vilge would comment on it, which meant no harem route. A damn shame for everyone who wanted to experience every route. If I could force a harem route here with my intervention, then I had to do it in a way that respected these goddesses… As well as I could manage, anyway.

  “Rav… Maybe this will help your mind. I’m going on like this because I’m your biggest fan.”

  Her eyes were locked on me now. She must have had a sense of what was coming.

  “But I’m also the biggest fan of Meredi and Elsbeth.”

  She removed her hand from her mouth so that I could see that her mouth was hanging open.

  “Mother fucker,” she said.

  I stifled a chuckle. It was a funny bel.

  Rave rolled onto her back and let out a sarcastic ugh. “Of course! The boy has ambitions now! From homosexual to wanting more women than he has hands!”

  “I was never into men,” I whispered.

  She rolled back onto her side, a fierce scowl on her face. “Even your mother?”

  “Meredi’s not my mother. She’s a beautiful woman who deserves to have a full life and be showered with affection. Same as you. Same as Elsbeth.”

  Rave cmped her mouth shut, but she was breathing hard, her chest rising and falling very noticeably.

  Then her gaze softened. “I deserve to be showered with affection?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you say that properly?”

  I grinned. “You’re a beautiful woman who deserves to have a full life and be showered with affection.”

  Rav gulped and sniffled. Her eyes met mine again and her lips curled into a weak smile. Then she leaned in and kissed my forehead.

  Without saying a word, she turned so that her back was facing me.

  I turned the other way. “Good night, Rav.”

  “Night, Tim,” she replied.

  What a wonderful day… but dang, Timaeus was one heck of a character. I was starting to feel cheated that there wasn’t more information about him.