I am back – Chapter 205

It was a bright light.

So bright and white that I worried someone might be watching from outside.

It was the same light I had seen at that moment.

The intense divine power that poured all my strength into obliterating the Demon King, or rather, neutralizing that black magic of the Demon King. A light so fierce it left no corpse behind and even melted the holy sword.

…Thinking back now, I wonder if my companions could have been hit by that light as well. Maybe the intense divine power mixed into that fierce light was what protected them.

Thus, I, the Demon King, and the world disappeared—

“……”

There I stood on the table.

So, it was me now.

Of course, it was just a video.

Honestly, I looked a bit awkward. Watching the me on the table, staring blankly ahead… it felt a little strange.

And as I stood there in the video, it gradually faded away, shrinking little by little.

Soon, only a small, blue dot remained floating on the stone plate before it vanished completely.

“……”

For a moment, the room fell into silence.

It was understandable. After seeing such a video.

What was surprising was that the emotion on my mom’s face was closer to confusion than disgust or anger.

…No, maybe it wasn’t all that fortunate?

When I watched the video at home… to be honest, I felt a bit relieved. If it was this kind of video—a type that could never be realized in modern times—then I thought I could persuade my mom about it.

But… was that just my own thinking because I knew of the existence of magic?

It seemed I couldn’t persuade my mom just by showing the video.

“…Siyun?”

My mom glanced back and forth between me and my sister several times before fixing her gaze on me.

What the video clearly wanted to show was that I was Siyun. That I was my mom’s son. That I had defeated the Demon Lord and returned to this world in another body…

…How nonsensical that story was.

When we saw the video, both my sister and I thought it was believable. We thought that, but… we were people who had already witnessed such proof several times. The very fact that we had such experiences led us to think the video was plausible. So, it’s not surprising that my mom found it unclear what I was trying to convey when I just showed her this video without any preparation.

Perhaps I should have just told my mom about this ridiculous story.

While I was regretting that internally,

“Wait!”

Someone shouted like that.

“…Huh?”

I wondered who made that sound. Maybe it was a simultaneous sound from me, mom, and my sister. Of course, it was not just the earlier “Wait,” but the “Huh?” that followed it.

“Mother! I’ll explain it to you!”

Once again, someone shouted like that.

I hadn’t heard such a voice when we activated it last time.

Could it be that a video was remaining in the background?

The sound definitely came from the desk.

That small blue dot was still hovering above the stone plate. It seemed the sound was coming from there.

Before, that dot lingered for a while before disappearing. I thought it was just the remaining space used for recording the video. I had wondered if it would store more video afterward.

But this time was different.

This time, that blue dot was rising again.

Not just rising, but it was getting larger.

Mom slightly raised herself from her seat. She looked surprised again.

But this time, it wasn’t just my mom; my sister and I did the same. We hadn’t seen this reaction when we watched the previous video.

The increasingly larger circle soon reached a size that could show a person’s face.

And—

“Ah!”

It was impressive that Mom didn’t scream when she saw that!

Though I couldn’t see what Mom saw looking towards the blue circle from this side, something that could only be recognized as ‘hair’ was spilling down from below the circle.

“Ah, s-sorry! Uh, why is this so small? When I tested it, it was much larger…!”

“What’s going on? Dana? Can you see? Is everyone there? Siyun? Siyun!? Are you there!?”

“Dana? Pia?”

My sister and I quickly looked at each other.

And then we jumped up and ran towards Mom.

Mom was half-rising, gripping the armrest of the sofa, her face pale.

And as we reached Mom to see what was happening, we immediately understood the reason for her expression.

Struggling to come out, Dana was wedging herself through that small blue circle that could display a person’s face.

Her half-exposed face and shoulder… well, Dana was quite beautiful and cute, but to be honest, it looked a bit scary.

“…This had a dimensional gate function as well?”

“Uh? Of course! Do you know how many magic stones I poured into this for a month? I set it to reopen small and then connect with this side’s magic stones, but really, why isn’t it getting any larger!”

“……”

As I stared at Dana struggling with her face stuck on the table, I gently lifted the stone plate.

“Ugh! Wait a minute…!”

In an instant, Dana, who had slightly bumped her neck on the edge of the dimensional gate, shouted that.

“I’m on the table right now. So coming out like this could be a bit dangerous, you know?”

“Uh? Th-thanks, cough.”

I moved cautiously and set her down under the table, but Dana’s neck got caught in the dimensional gate again as she made that noise.

“…What is going on right now?”

It was as if a horror movie had turned into a comedy film, and Mom spoke with a bit of calmness returned to her.

“Oh, that’s….”

My sister had an expression like she didn’t know how to explain what was happening.

“I’ll explain!”

Dana strained to say that when—

“Ah!”

Because of the suddenly enlarged dimensional gate, she fell down with a thud.

“Ow….”

The dimensional gate, which had only shown a face, had now grown to the size of someone’s upper body. It was big enough for her to bend over and come out easily.

“……”

Embarrassed to be face down on the floor, Dana stayed there for a moment, not making any effort to get up.

After about ten seconds passed,

“……”

Without saying anything, Dana got up and crawled out of the dimensional gate.

And next, Pia followed.

“Ah, haha… nice to meet you…”

Pia awkwardly bowed as Dana, her face flushed, couldn’t bear to raise her head.

“Ah… yes, hello?”

When someone with bright pink-dyed hair spoke flawless Korean, Mom was flustered and returned the greeting.

“……”

And following her out was Kalia.

For some reason, Kalia was in her knight’s attire. I thought maybe she had come over while working… But then I recalled that Kalia’s outfit was the same as I had seen in the video.

…Ah.

It seemed Kalia was really embarrassed to crawl out of the dimensional gate, as she cleared her throat awkwardly and slightly bent over towards Mom.

“…I apologize for showing such an insufficient appearance.”

“Ah, yes….”

“My name is Kalia Lushvia, a companion of your son. I have come over to explain the current situation…”

And she froze, bowing her head deeply.

“……”

And finally, the last person to crawl out of that hole was the blonde beauty.

Without needing any explanation, it was Arna.

While I thought of Dana as a pretty foreigner, Pia as a dyed foreigner, and Kalia as a foreigner with uniquely colored hair, Arna was definitely the stereotypical foreigner you’d see in drawings.

But now with slightly longer ears.

As Mom’s gaze turned to Arna’s ears, Arna smiled and said, “I’m Arna, a companion of your son. …You may have heard, but I’m an elf.”

“…Yes.”

Mom looked as if she couldn’t tell if this situation was a dream or reality.

“Ahem.”

Kalia cleared her throat with her fist to her mouth as if to provide an explanation about the current situation to Mom—

“This was Dana’s idea.”

—She didn’t say that.

As Kalia pointed at Dana on the far left with her finger, Dana immediately protested loudly, “It was a good idea! A good idea!”

“Dana, calm down. It was a good idea in the sense that it was impressive.”

“That last word wasn’t necessary! It just made it more embarrassing!”

I just realized that the three people bickering had outfits that had all appeared in the video.

So, my friends… had been preparing to explain everything to my mom since we first crossed over into that world.

From the moment we transitioned over there.

“…Hmm.”

Arna seemed about to say something when—

“……”

She perhaps found it embarrassing and turned her gaze away.

Hmm.

What should I say?

…Well.

To be honest, it was somewhat relieving to see.