I am back – Chapter 155

—I woke up.

It seemed it was morning, just as the Goddess said. Bright light was pouring in through the window.

Actually, it’s a bit chilly in the morning during this season. No matter how much heating there is, by the time you wake up, it’s cold enough to make your body shiver. Normally, that’s when I pull the blanket up to my neck and laze around, not wanting to get out of bed.

Not that I wanted to do that.

At least I hadn’t been able to do that for the last five years. Irrelaysia had weather that was neither hot nor cold. There were no freezing temperatures that would bring snow, and in the summer, it only warmed up a bit compared to usual.

I don’t know if it’s because it’s a planet that rotates differently from Earth or if it’s some magical reason. I like to think it’s the latter. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known that my time there had been five years, as the way we count days was completely different from Earth.

Not only the weather, but for five years in a war-torn country, I had to get ready immediately upon waking. Whatever that ‘preparation’ was.

Whether heading to the battlefield or if the whole city was about to evacuate.

I spent my days in constant busyness, and naturally, there was no time to roll around in bed.

…Well, looking at my current situation, it might not have changed much.

There was no chilly shivering because of the morning cold.

Instead, I was very warm. To be honest, I was even sweating a little in my clothes.

The blanket was pulled up… no, almost to my ears.

“Sister?”

I spoke to my sister, who was the source of that warmth.

She lay beside me, a bit above, hugging my face to her chest.

Warm and soft.

I had just woken up, but I could almost doze off again.

If I had been alone under the blanket, the parts that weren’t touching would have cooled down from the night temperature, but I shared a large bed with my sister.

With two of us in the blanket, it seemed to maintain heat much better.

They say if you have to spend a night in the snow mountains, you should share body heat with the person next to you. The atmosphere right now was just like that.

Of course, the room wasn’t that cold, and the situation wasn’t that urgent either.

So maybe that’s why I didn’t want to wake her unnecessarily.

“Sister.”

So I said softly.

If I didn’t want to wake her, I could just keep quiet.

I didn’t want to lie to her. When she woke up late and asked me why I didn’t wake her, I would end up lying if I hadn’t even tried to wake her.

I knew it was a ridiculous excuse.

But somehow I wanted to do that.

My sister smelled nice. It was a scent different from perfume or body wash, or shampoo – it was her own unique smell.

I slowly reached out and gently hugged her waist.

Her waist was so thin that it worried me. She didn’t eat that much these days. No, thinking about it, she had never really been a big eater. It wasn’t just in front of me; I felt like she was the same even with Mom.

…Ah, Mom.

I still hadn’t seen her even once since the wedding.

I was still a little scared.

This was different from the fear I first felt when I came to this world.

With my sister, I could understand each other like this. We could connect. I was able to have this happy morning, hugged in my sister’s arms.

But succeeding like this made my fear of failure that much larger.

The heart, in the end, is like a reed before the wind; it can feel hope one moment but change direction in an instant, leading to worry. Thoughts of Mom were just like that. At one moment, I felt like running straight to her and revealing my identity would end everything, and at another moment, I was scared she would treat me like a madman.

“……”

I kept putting it off, and already several months had passed.

I was such a foolish kid, too.

When I heard the term ‘unfilial child,’ I couldn’t really argue back.

But still.

“A little bit more.”

Yeah. Just a little bit more.

Let’s feel a bit more certain happiness.

And, let’s prepare my heart a little more, as well. Finish everything else properly and with a light heart.

I will truly return home.

*

The days passed quickly, and now we were already in December.

After returning in the sweltering summer, it was now a few months since I had been living here.

A lot had happened during that time. It was enjoyable. But there were still many unfinished tasks.

Dana said that the gates were expanding enough for people to finally come and go. Within the next week, we would be able to cross over to Irrelaysia.

Just in case, I filled Dana’s room with magic stones, so there shouldn’t be any big issues… I said, and then Pia heard that I had a ton of magic stones piled in my room. She was horrified and temporarily banned anyone from entering Dana’s room, and we all had to wear masks in the house.

The measures involved buying a big plastic container at a mega mart to hold all the magic stones, tightly closing the lid, vacuuming Dana’s room to make it all clean, and continuing until the entire place was aired out.

Well, since it was announced in the morning and lifted by the evening, it wasn’t that big a deal.

“……It shouldn’t have that much of an effect on people, right?”

Dana protested like that, but it seemed to go in one ear and out the other for Pia, who was responsible for our party’s health.

That stone called magic stone, or 마석, wouldn’t cause major issues for the human body unless you were inhaling the dust or sleeping while caught between stones emitting magic. But it seems that while it doesn’t have a ‘large’ effect, it isn’t entirely without effect, so it looks like keeping it organized in that plastic container wasn’t a huge problem.

Of course, a one-meter boundary was drawn from that piled-up corner.

So, after the commotion from the magic stone, the house returned to peace.

Dana worked diligently in her room every day and regularly checked in with Pia for her health. Anyway, we all received healing from Pia’s Divine Power once a day, since we were also in the spot where the magic stones were.

Kalia gathered and organized all the books she planned to take to Irrelaysia. Not only her books but also the ones that the other party members wanted to take. The books organized by the kingdom library’s classification system looked extremely neat, even to someone like me who didn’t know much.

Arna seemed to be contemplating whether to take some plants or not.

Unlike books or items, plants could become a catalyst for destroying ecosystems. Even if it wasn’t to the level of foreign species destroying the environment, there were many places in Irrelaysia that had become wastelands due to the demons. The entire ecosystem had already taken a major hit, and if Arna accidentally took a plant that caused problems, it would be quite serious. So, Arna was studying the plants of this world more seriously.

And besides ornamental plants, she also managed to gather seeds of crops that were much more palatable than the ones in nature.

Looking at the house, with preparations for our return going smoothly, I felt somewhat empty but proud.

*

“I don’t really feel it.”

One week from now, we would be able to leave—on the day Dana clearly stated that, my sister said that on the subway.

“I’ve never left this country before…”

“Me neither.”

I smiled and spoke to my slightly anxious sister.

“I’ve only been to one other place apart from this country.”

“……But if you consider the area and time you’ve traveled, isn’t that pretty much equivalent to several countries?”

…Huh? Is that so?

That might indeed be the case. If we claimed the Demon King’s territory as the Demon King’s country and counted the elves’ sacred territory as a different country, then I had been to three places.

Of course, it couldn’t really be called travel.

“But there’s nothing to worry about.”

I softly whispered in my sister’s ear, so others wouldn’t hear.

In hindsight, the distance between us made the atmosphere seem like people might misunderstand…

With people pressing in against us, the looks on people’s faces were filled with irritation from being packed in a crowded subway or the fatigue from their morning commutes.

“I’ll definitely stay right beside you there too.”

“……”

At my words, my sister blushed slightly.

I clung to her and moved my hand to hold hers.

On one of my sister’s left hand’s fingers, I felt something hard.

That hard, ring-shaped object was fitted on my sister’s left ring finger.

It was probably a softly glowing golden color, and while its design was plain, it had a somewhat luxurious vibe, a pretty ring.

That same ring blessed by the Saintess was also fitted on my left ring finger.

It was proof that we would always be together.

“……Ah.”

My sister hugged me tightly as if she couldn’t let go.

As if she didn’t care about the gazes of the people around us.

……Well, I really didn’t want to resist.