The first drag of the cigarette that Alyssa had taken seemed to almost instantly revitalze her. Her crimson eyes, which had barely been opened, filled with life again as soon as the smoke entered her lungs.
She coughed, finally becoming aware as her gaze settled on me and Jay again.
"Haha…feels good to be back from the dead."
She smiled, and I wanted to rush in and hug her…but I knew she wouldn't appreciate that sort of thing.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Saintess."
I grinned, reaching a hand towards her. She gratefully took it to pull herself back, hopping back to her feet with a grin. She took another drag of the cigarette as soon as she was on her feet, and exhaled the Material-infused smoke.
I was used to dealing with customers smoking in my face, back when I worked in the convenience store, so I had always wondered why the Saintess's cigarettes never made everyone in the room have a coughing fit, especially Liliana.
Now I understood, By infusing the cigarettes with the 'Materials', imbued with a strong purpose to help the Saintess resist the concept trying to control her, Jay had turned them from regular cigarettes, to some kind of...magical consumable.
Even the smoke was no longer 'cigarette smoke' as we knew it, but something else.
"Good to have a welcoming party, I guess. Even if there is an odd one out."
Jay was smiling serenely while clasping their hands together in a motion of prayer.
"I'm just glad to see that you're alive and well, Saintess." Jay replied, unaffected by being called the 'odd one out'.
Alyssa gave the priest an awkward look. She scratched the back of her neck, turning her crimson eyes to the side.
"And hey, uh...sorry for trying to shoot you. You're still shady as hell to me, but, yknow, I'm a decent enough gal to know when I've got debts to pay."
Jay just responded with a simple shake of their head, dismissing her gratitude towards them.
"Again, the only thing I need is to see you freed from the shackles that were attempting to bind you...if only temporary."
"Wait, you tried shooting Jay? Haha, you're as crazy as always!"
I laughed, to which the Saintess grit her teeth.
"Shut it! I was worried about you, insensitive bastard of a Manager!"
She shouted, practically baring fangs at me like a mad dog. I just laughed louder, even at her outburst. Alyssa was so honest, but at the same time she was the one who got frustrated with her own honesty about her feelings.
More and more, I stopped seeing her as that psychotic guild leader I had heard about in my first life...and more just like an adorable puppy, barking at me whenever she got the chance.
"Yes, please stop bullying the Saintess, Mr. Manager! Sure, I was sad when the Saintess raised her guns to me, but if it were for her holiness, I'd endure 100 bullets by her hands!"
Jay stepped forward, resting a gloved hand over their flat chest, an oddly resolute expression on their face. The Saintess gave them a pointed, blank look.
"Uh...I don't think you need to go that far, pal...besides, you did help me and all, but we literally just met?"
"A-Ah...so you truly don't remember me, Saintess...what a harsh trial I have been bestowed..." They murmured, dramatically collapsing against a nearby wall. I couldn't tell if they were serious or not.
"Well, enough of the theatrics. Daytime's here. We should get moving." I patted our packs, which were already full of supplies...supplies that Jay had been diligently scavenging, while I was recovering from my injuries, and while the Saintess was fighting off the 'Idea of God's influence.
I picked mine up and tossed it over to the Saintess.
"Tch. Maybe I was wrong for calling you a fake manager. I've never worked a job, but I've heard that they're all slavedrivers like you."
The Saintess clicked her tongue, holstering her pistols and roughly grabbing her pack out of the air. She then looked at Jay, then at me. I nodded, and began approaching the slumped over priest.
Jay had been helpful, and it was only that same Jay could further teach me about refining Materials, which would certainly be useful in the next Regression and others...
Thinking of another person in terms of usefulness felt wrong. But until further notice, I had the constant, repeating end of the world hanging above my head. I couldn't keep every single person on the planet under my personal wing.
"Come on, Jay."
"...?"
Jay looked up at me with confusion. From their position against the wall, slightly collapsed on the ground, they looked surprisingly...vulnerable. I could see every piece of their delicate features from here - interrupted only by their empty, void-like eyes.
"You really thought I'd just let you go back to stalking us? Come on, you're walking with us, now."
"Wait, they were doing WHAT?!" The Saintess stormed over, guns in hand.
"Oh come on, Alyssa, you're way too trigger happy with Jay...I know you're just happy to shoot something after getting better, but..."
"Ah, shut up, you useless Manager! You went at it by yourself and you came back battered and bruised like you fell off of a cliff! I got the rights to let off a few shots without supervision."
Alyssa grinned, smug at her ability to finally lord something over me.
"And even while you were falling apart, you were still trying to protect me and seek my presence out...ahh, you really can't go without me either, can you?"
Alyssa's cheeks almost completely turned red at my words, her hands trembling.
"G-Gah...s-shut up, you...!"
Jay laughed from behind us. It was an airy, light sound...nothing like that darkness that usually seemed to lie behind all of Jay's actions and words.
"Tsk. What's so funny?"
Alyssa turned around to face Jay, with the blush still remaining on her face. She had put away her guns and was now just folding her arms, kicking against the ground.
"I...I'm just happy to be formally accepted among your guild." Jay spoke, his words...making both of us give confused glances.
"Guild?"
Both Alyssa and I spoke in unified confusion.
'I definitely haven't passed the idea of making a Guild pass either Alyssa or Jay. I wanted to see how the Sistine Chapel would naturally form, after all. Not to mention...I really didn't want to get too attached to the guild members again. There were many that I still remembered from the life after my first Regression, that I didn't care to think on too deeply, for my own sake.'
Jay tilted their head, their hands clasped together. "You...you haven't formed a guild? But with the title you had been using for the Saintess, I was sure..."
"Oh what, you thought we were doing some kind of weird rolepaly or something? No, they're just cool titles. I mean, for me, they are. This bastard still refuses to call himself anything other than 'Manager'."
I chuckled, holding my hands up in surrender. "Haha, guilty as charged."
Jay tapped a finger against their chin. They looked over at Alyssa, then up and down her body at the rags she was wearing. Alyssa instinctively covered her body, shivering at the gaze.
"W-What? You're looking at my body so intensely...I'm just letting you know, I don't swing that way, alright?"
Jay looked momentarily disappointed, before shaking their head.
"No...well...I mean...I was thinking that you could come with me for a second, Saintess!"
Suddenly, Jay grabbed Alyssa's hand, disappearing behind some nearby column. Surprisingly, Alyssa didn't resist Jay's sudden hold, she just looked flustered.
Then, the noises began. The sounds of shuffling cloth, suggestive sounds of skin rubbing against skin, and the sweet sounds of Alyssa's outraged voice.
"W-What the hell?! W-Wait, you're a-! U-uwaaagh...h-hey, where are you touching, you...mmmh~!"
Alyssa's usually aggressive voice, usually being used to fling curses and mean-spirited teasing at me was moaning cutely from behind that column...I tried to close my eyes and focus, focus...for some reason, all I could imagine was that night with Viola, and my focus had long since shattered hopelessly.
...I curse this mind of mine.
Then, the Saintess appeared.
She had changed from those dirty, ill-fitting rags of clothing, to...her usual nun outfit.
The smooth black fabric clung to every inch of her body, accentuating her lithe form. I could see the vague silhouette of her shapely, perfectly round breasts, and the slight curve of her hips.
Her toned body was mostly hidden beneath, her ethereal pale skin only showing through the brief glimpses of her face, hands, and legs. Her silver hair completed it all, the strands running down to her shoulders perfectly contrasting with the black headpiece of her habit.
She had gone from looking like a vagrant to someone that could blend into a monastery if I wasn't looking closely.
"W-What...you're looking at me too damn close, too." The Saintess grumbled, cursing on instinct, maybe because she was embarrassed. The redness on her cheeks had returned in full force, and she crossed her arms, barely able to look at me.
'So in the end, it was Jay who influenced her to start wearing a Nun's habit...'
I stared at Jay, who now stood beside her.
Jay...had also switched out their priestly robes for a nun's habit, which I was surprised at. If Jay really was the same as the Saintess's 'right hand-man', which I was sure they were, then this was a noticeable deviation.
They gave a mysterious smile at me, their robes flowing around them like midnight. I could almost lose them in the robe, with their short black hair and equally dark black eyes...the habit was a lot smaller on them, too. I could practically see the fabric sliding into the smooth contours of their petite body.
And...was that a...a bulge in-between the crotch area...?
Jays' smile only deepened once they saw where my gaze was pointed, and almost playfully pulled their hips back, making it harder to see.
That sight was going to torture my thinking for a while.
"Well, Mr. Manager? Aren't you going to say something instead of simply staring?"
They said, catching me off-guard.
I certainly had been leering at the two, and Alyssa scoffed at my off-guard reaction.
"This pervert...here I was, thinking you were a decent guy for not trying to make a pass at me, too."
"Yeah, yeah, Alyssa." I rolled my eyes, managing to regain some of the blood flow in my brain again. Not without attention from both Alyssa and Jay, whose eyes had been momentarily focused on my crotch, where the tent was only slightly beginning to subside. "You two look good. Seriously good. Nun's outfits fit you! Now I feel like the one who's underdressed..."
Alyssa snickered. "Don't bother, Manager. Nobody would believe you even if you put on the pope's clothes. Especially when you were popping a stiffy by staring at what should be holy outfits."
"Please, Saintess...I sort of appreciate Mr. Manager's straightforward appreciation." Jay blushed just slightly enough to see the pink dusting their cheeks, and Alyssa just scoffed, running a hand through her hair.
"That's cause you're a perverted stalker."
"S-Saintess, please..." Jay murmured, already looking like they were losing strength in their body.
I groaned, overwhelmed by the opposing forces that were Jay and Alyssa, maybe more overwhelmed by their banter than I was by their sinful bodies.
"So, why the outfit change, anyways?" I ask out of curiosity, leaning against a nearby wall. Jay brightened immediately, clearly happy to discuss the topic.
"Well, I was thinking...I was just a bit sad seeing the Saintess always wearing those ill-fitting old rags..."
"H-Hey! They...they were good enough, for a while." The Saintess trailed off, not able to display her usual confidence with such a bold-faced lie.
"And seeing as the two of you haven't decided on forming a guild, I thought I should give us a push to a theme. A theme to a guild the three of us could establish!" Jay looked pretty proud of themselves.
"A guild, huh? Alyssa...?"
I turned to Alyssa, who had her arms folded. She shrugged, looking to the side.
"Don't look at me. He already sweet-talked me into the deal...it's just you who has a say left, Manager."
I slowly turned my gaze to Jay, who was looking at me with a rare sparkle in their eyes that was practically begging me to say yes.
I sighed, rubbing the back of my head.
"...alright. Don't expect me to start wearing a priest's outfit, though."
"Oh, don't worry about that so much, Mr. Manager...you can already pass as a very good pastor, at least!"
I didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or not, but based on the way that Alyssa burst into laughter, she thought that it was very comical.
"So, what name are you thinking of?" I asked, to which Jay was all too happy to respond.
"The Sistine Chapel."