Why don't you pick me up

　　"That..."

　　Ishtar looked at Ryota closely, and said hesitantly: "You think I'm pretty?"

　　"You are the goddess of beauty and harvest, of course you are beautiful."

　　Ryota showed a smile, not stingy with his compliments.

　　"Then you… you…"

　　Ishtar suddenly faltered and blushed at the same time.

　　"What is wrong with me?" Ryota wondered.

　　"You..." Gritting her teeth and being mean, Ishtar exclaimed: "Do you like me?"

　　"Hmmm..." Ryota thought for a while and replied, "Of course I have a good impression. After all, you are a member of my team. If I don't have a good impression, I won't invite you to join the team."

　　"That's not what I want to hear."

　　Ishtar suddenly pulled Ryota into an alley, leaned him against the wall, lifted her bare toes slightly, and asked: "What I want to ask is, do you have any affection for me personally?"

　　"Uh... your question is quite bold..." Ryota looked at Isthar unexpectedly.

　　Even though the other party was Ishtar by nature, it somewhat combined Tohsaka Rin's temperament.

　　With Tohsaka Rin's embarrassment and tsundere tsundere, how dare she ask such a question?

　　Seeing Ishtar's expectant eyes, Ryota hesitated for a few seconds, and told the truth:

　　"Of course there are good feelings, but for now, it's still at the level of appreciating beautiful things. As for the things you think about, I don't have them for the time being."

　　"Then do you wish to go further?" Ishtar asked.

　　"...Are you okay?"

　　Ryota stretched out his hand and gently touched Isthar's forehead, and muttered: "The goddess usually doesn't have a fever..."

　　"I'm not sick!" Ishtar blushed.

　　She wasn't used to Ryota's gentle actions towards her.

　　"Answer my question." She insisted.

　　"If you were a boy, you would look forward to it, right?"

　　Ryota nodded honestly.

　　"Then I… the Goddess will give you this chance."

　　Ishtar changed the subject, stopped hesitating, and immediately said: "As long as you kiss the back of my ankle now, I will grant you a few wishes…"

　　Pa –

Before she finished speaking, she was hit on the head by Ryota, but the force wasn't great, it wasn't a warning or a punishment.

　　"As a goddess, you must always maintain your dignity."

　　Ryota pulled away his right hand and reminded Ishtar: "If I kiss your instep, will you be my lover? You are so easy? Don't say such things in the future."

　　"That is not true!"

　　Ishtar took two steps back, and after returning to her normal position, she said with an unnatural expression: "You are so wrong! Shiro."

　　According to a normal reaction, Ryota should have punched her hard just now. After all, this man can be quite cruel sometimes.

　　In the end, even the punishment was very lenient.

　　Ishtar couldn't help but become active.

　　"I'm normal, don't worry about it." Ryota waved his hand and said "You looking for something for me? Why didn't you tell me?"

　　"I just want to confirm how you deal with Mother Goddess."

　　Ishtar's tone was somewhat serious: "Even if you guarantee the mother goddess's layer of immortality, you will be responsible for dealing with it, but based on my understanding of you, you can't do this kind of thing at all now?"

　　"So that's the case, you don't need to worry." Ryota understood, and comforted her: "Don't worry, it's fine leave it to me."

　　"This is a big problem, okay!" Ishtar retorted, "I thought you had something to do, but you really placed your hopes on the Fifth Bridge, and now there's only one month left. How are you going to complete the Fifth Bridge?"

　　"There are points for helping."

　　"Then do you have enough points?"

　　"...Not enough."

　　Ryota was telling the truth.

　　Since Ishtar had paid attention to this matter, it wasn't hard to guess the result. After all, she's not that stupid.

　　There's no point in keeping it hidden.

　　"You are really trying to dare…"

　　Ishtar held back her questioning air a bit, sighed softly and said: "I felt something was wrong before, but I didn't expect to guess it right. How many points are you still lacking? I still have…"

　　"Not enough," Ryota shook his head: "Your points are not enough, and during the adventure, there is no way to earn points for other people."

　　"Then aren't we done?" Ishtar said in surprise, "Why are you still so calm?"

　　"I bet." Ryota said: "Before the day of the decisive battle arrived, I managed to gather my emotions and complete the Fifth Bridge's mind breakthrough."

　　"Too messy!" Ishtar frowned "What if you lose the bet?"

　　"My preparations are complete," Ryota comforted, "Don't worry, even if I lose the bet, I still have a final choice."

　　"Last option?" Ishtar hurriedly asked, "What is that?"

　　Ryota shook his head: "This involves my secret, I can't tell you."

　　Hearing this, Ishtar looked at Ryota.

　　Stared at him for more than half a minute.

　　Ryota was a little confused and said: "What are you looking at me like that for?"

　　"There is no shortage at all, you are getting better and better at acting, no wonder you can trick Misaki's group."

　　Ishtar waved her hand and said: "But don't think of me as an idiot, it's easy to conclude with simple logical reasoning that you're just trying to be brave! Even if there is an ultimate solution, the risks must outweigh the benefits, right? Otherwise, you already used it, why should we wait more than 20 days?"

　　"Oh? You sure got smarter, Ishtar." Ryota smiled and praised.

　　"Don't talk to me in this tone, I'm not used to you like this."

　　Ishtar groaned slightly, then fell silent.

　　Ryota's main quest is not to eliminate Tiamat, but he insists on staying and taking great risks to do so.

　　She also had no idea how motivated Ryota was to take such an action for her.

　　As embarrassed as she was to admit it, Ishtar felt like her heart must have been deeply moved.

　　At the same time, she also thinks Ryota is stupid.

　　He didn't ask for anything from her, and he didn't choose her. Why did he treat her so well?

　　As for looking forward to her being able to help when she grows up in the future. Ishtar had to admit one thing—namely, Ryota's growth rate was many times faster than hers.

　　Theoretically, it was unlikely that she could catch up to Ryota in terms of strength.

　　If there's something Ryota can't work out, then letting his future go, probably won't work either.

　　Here everything becomes clear.

　　Ryota helped her maybe out of pure instinct. Therefore, there can be no question of gains and losses.

　　"Shiro,"

　　Under Ryota's gaze, Ishtar took the initiative to end the silence: "I completely know your thoughts. There is one thing I ask you to promise me."

　　After a pause, she said in a slightly serious tone: "If we still fail in the end, you should return to the safe house."

　　"Why are you saying this all of a sudden?" Ryota shook his head "I was the one who proposed the plan, so what if I run away?"

　　Ishtar frowned and said, "Listen to me first..."

　　"Do not rush."

　　Ryota interrupted her and asked a question: "I'm going, what about you?"

　　"It's simple," Ishtar replied, "When you come back, just send me a nomination assignment, and let me take cover."

　　Hearing this, Ryota didn't answer and remained silent, and looked at Ishtar silently.

　　The pressure in his eyes grew stronger and stronger.

　　Finally, Ishtar couldn't bear the pressure of these stares, and said in a self-deprecating tone: "Okay, okay, I lied to you, there's no way I'd accept your request to run away. Think about it, after all, I am the patron saint of Uruk. Because I have this status, as a goddess, I must take responsibility. Leaving Uruk alone and running away... Sorry, I can't do that. "

　　"If you can't do it, you will die," said Ryota.

　　"I know, but I won't really die."

　　Ishtar waved her hand pretending to be relaxed: "My name will live on in the annals and become a Heroic Spirit. Even if this world is destroyed, as long as you are alive, you can go to the normal world and summon me again. Isn't that great? I just don't know when the time will come, I'm still not a member of that guild yet..."

　　"Impossible."

　　Ryota refused very simply: "The Age of Gods will perish in the next generation, where can I summon you? Don't think that I don't know the truth, like the relationship between the Heroic Spirit and the Servant. Even though Servant can be considered as an imitation of a Heroic Spirit, his consciousness is independent. If he died, then he really died. Even if the record doesn't turn off and can be summoned again, what is summoned is a new independent consciousness. In my opinion, these consciousnesses cannot be classified as the same being. "

　　He shook his head and said: "Ishtar, in my opinion, you are unique, I don't agree with you, just give up."

　　"..."

　　Ishtar's cheeks suddenly turned red.

　　She suddenly felt nervous.

　　Uh... Is this person really provocative?

　　"And…" Ryota continued: "I made the decision to destroy Tiamat, not just for you."

　　He turned around and glanced at the bustling ancient city outside the alley, and sighed: "Everyone wants to endure. I have the ability to help, so of course I have to try."

　　"Are you stupid?"

　　"Don't say that, have you ever thought of running away? I'm not the only one who wants to protect them."

　　Ryota smiled: "I think your attitude towards the future is too pessimistic. Even though we have a great chance to win. What's more, I didn't do it all for others, it could be considered as imposing my own potential. It's a challenge, and if I succeed, I'll save a lot of time, which is important because I don't have much time. "

　　Ishtar wanted to say something else.

　　But Ryota forcefully grabbed her hand and walked out of the alley.

　　"In my opinion, you are free enough, since you are free, why don't you accompany me to make pre-war arrangements."

　　...

　　The so-called pre-war arrangements naturally delayed Tiamat and Lahmu arrival in Uruk.

　　Ryota's idea is very simple.

　　The reason why there was the "one month" time limit issue was because Ishtar's main quest was to eliminate the Gorgons within one month.

　　That time limit was Ishtar's time limit.

　　But Ryota doesn't have a time limit.

The main quest is to defend Uruk the day after Laḫmu appears.

　　Tiamat has earned 100 million Laḫmu. It made sense that Laḫmu had appeared a long time ago, but the main quest had yet to start.

　　Therefore, he speculates that the phrase "Laḫmu appears" refers to Laḫmu's appearance around Uruk.

　　Then, he had to defend Uruk for a day under Laḫmu's attacks.

　　This must be the real main quest.

　　Set according to this assumption.

　　As long as it can delay the arrival of Tiamat and Laḫmu in Uruk, or delay their landing from the sea. Then, it could definitely delay the start time of his main quest.

　　This delay is a valuable resource.

　　This would greatly increase the chances of him completing the pre-war Fifth Bridge.

　　As for the special method...

　　Ryota will freeze the sea.

　　Yes, froze the whole sea.

　　On earth in the Age of Gods, mythological worlds were separated from one another.

　　Even the sea.

　　Therefore, the range that needs to be frozen is not as large as reaching the surface.

　　Ryota feels that he can still do it on his own.

　　Moreover, the freeze is not an ordinary freeze.

　　In the Fourth Bridge, his emotions have the ability to last a long time in the material world.

　　That is to say, even if the ice cubes created by the freezing power flowing out from the "Bridge of Fear" were directly exposed to sunlight, the ice would not melt.

　　As long as he came to the sea every day to regularly and continuously inject soul force, this freezing power would continuously increase.

　　He couldn't say how long Tiamat and Laḫmu would be delayed by that.

　　Maybe a few days.

　　Maybe just one day.

　　It may not last for several hours.

　　But some time is better than no time.

　　The most important thing is – Laḫmu must have very strong love for Tiamat.

　　Frequent trips to the sea can speed up the accumulation of "love" emotions.

　　Even though it was just a guess, Ryota felt the need to give it a try.

　　...

　　"Sure enough, there is an increase."

　　Upon arriving at the beach, Ryota finds that the concentration of the emotion "love" is decidedly much higher than in Uruk.

　　All parts of great love are enveloped in love.

　　It's just that people who can't see emotions like they can see matter can't see this scene.

　　For example, Ishtar who was with him didn't know why he was surprised there.

　　Looking out to sea, Ryota could feel the love in his soul deepen. However, the speed of improvement is not exaggerated.

　　He speculated that this must have something to do with the fact that Laḫmu was not activated and was still asleep.

　　It's a shame, but talking is better than nothing.

　　"What a crazy suggestion!"

　　Ishtar was beached and still submerged in the freezing sea, unable to recover for a long time.

　　It wasn't until Ryota started work that he realized: "Wait, what did you pull me here for? I can't help you much."

　　"Staying by my side is the biggest help."

　　Ryota replied while exerting the power of the "Bridge of Fear".

　　It's not teasing, it's the truth.

　　Beautiful girls with relatively good relationships seem to have a large additional effect on increasing love – Ryota only found out recently.

　　Ryota felt a bit helpless about this trait.

　　"W-Why are you saying such things all of a sudden!?"

　　Ishtar blushed momentarily at this sentence.

　　Ryota couldn't explain the truth, so he could only say: "This kind of work is very boring, so I hope you can stay by my side, chat with me, and help relieve my boredom."

　　"I see... Tsk."

　　"Um?"

　　"Ah…you heard wrong! This goddess is speechless."

　　Ishtar suppressed her embarrassment, pretended to be calm and replied: "Since you have begged on your own initiative, this goddess will give you a bit of face. Tell me, what do you want me to talk to you about?"

　　"Up to you."

　　"You really are hard to serve." Ishtar was a little dissatisfied, but said: "Forget it, let me tell you some old tales."

　　So she started telling hidden stories from the myths of the past.

　　Including the vices of various gods.

　　She didn't miss a good opportunity to slander her sister.

　　Only what she didn't know was that as soon as she talked about Ereshkigal, Ryota only believed her a little.

　　Time flies so slowly.

　　In the next few days, Ryota would take Ishtar to the beach to get busy.

　　Sometimes he brought Ming Hong and Ana together.

　　After busy days, Gilgamesh finally completes the transfer of the people outside Uruk.

　　It's just that this incident just ended, and a new trouble came.

　　Gorgons attack.