I Didn't See The Tentacle Tag

"The orders received from the goddess were merely to protect you with our lives till you succeed her."

"..."

"As for who you are and why she had chosen you, she left us in the dark. You seemed interesting, so I wanted to watch over you for a while."

I never suspected her of all people to be wary of me.

"However, things proceeded a bit too quick, thanks to the 'interference' placed on you. To be able to speed up the fate of a goddess, the caster must have sacrificed quite a lot. But just now, you just cleared the interference off your own free will, didn't you?"

"It wasn't-" I stopped halfway through my words as I decided to keep the stuff about children of Iris a secret.

"I initially believed it to be an interference, but it was a contagious curse, wasn't it? A curse that speeds up fate while making the surrounding life believe it to be a normal occurrence. You surely cannot say you do not have anything to do with this, do you?"

『Body adrenaline levels are high. Chances of increasing suspicion are currently high.』

She wasn't helping a bit, but she was right. I had to calm down unless I wanted raise suspicion.

"Calming yourself down so that you don't raise suspicion? You have quite the maturity for a seven year old kid."

It backfired.

"You don't need to panic. Pumpkin has the highest authority among us. I cannot take any big decisions on my own."

『She is scary.』

"Well then, I might as well check on the other apostles. Don't even think about escaping from here. The eighth is on guard outside and I assure that she isn't anywhere near as merciful as me."

The eighth was with her too? I realized I hadn't seen the eighth at all. I felt that it wasn't the right time to show her my face yet, so that I could at least increase my chances of escaping.

『Why do you want to escape, master?』

'Why? Crow is incredibly suspicious of me-'

『Is there a reason you need to be afraid?』

'What do you mean?'

『That woman did some lame manipulation on you and your lame brain was lame enough to fall for it, wasn't it, master?』

'Stop making fun of me and come to the point.'

『You have no reason to escape, yet she made you fear getting caught for nothing and warned you not to escape. She used a spell that increases adrenaline secretion on you. You would eventually try to escape due to fear, which would give her enough reason to persuade other apostles against you.』

'Are you some sort of a genius?'

I had no idea if it was her being a genius or me having a lame brain.

『I personally suggest that you stay put, right here.』

Was I even the 'master' any more?

After a few hours of chatting with Lily, I heard the door open. It wasn't Crow who entered. It wasn't the eighth either. It was a familiar face, the third seat, Monkey.

"Umm, hello?"

She didn't reply. She stared blankly at me.

"Well... w-what's it?"

Some weird, sinister, tentacle-like appendages appeared from behind her back.

"Miss Monkey, what are those scary things behind you?"

There was no response.

'L-lily... Do you know what that is?'

『Those are tentacles. Do you perhaps lack even basic human comprehension to be unable to realize that?』

'I know those are tentacles! What the hell are those things doing on her back?'

『I assume it would be of best practice to not move even a bit.』

'Are you kidding me? With that mask on, she looks like the perfect murderer!'

『At times like this, it is best to entrust your body with me.』

'O-okay... I'll stay put.'

It approached me. Not the tentacles, but that monster with the appearance of a monkey-masked killer. I tried my best to not move an inch. Within the blink of an eye, those tentacles on her back restrained my limbs.

'So, now what?'

『My statement still stands.』

There was a sudden loud sound, as if something shattered, and the tentacles lost their grip on me. There was a huge hole in the ceiling. In front of me, I saw the 'monster' buried under a pile of rubble.

Atop the rubble, there stood a small figure, probably smaller than mine, wearing a space-mask. From within the mask, I heard a muffled voice.

"I am sorry for the delay. I am the eighth seat of the apostles, the spacewalker."