A woman was singing. Though the meaning of the lyrics eluded me, the song felt profoundly melancholic.
I had heard this voice before, just one other time.
It was the third day since I’d been set adrift in another world—when Mia and I had been teleported by a Globster into a cave on our school’s mountain.
Who are you? I asked her. Why are you singing me this song?
And then… a voice whispered, and it sounded like a sigh. A woman’s voice was calling my name with longing, with love.
Ah… now I understand.
“Mia!” I called.
I could almost feel the singer smiling.
✦ ✦ ✦
I awoke in a dimly lit room, in a treehouse nestled in a hollow somewhere within the great World Tree.
On a shelf sat a magic lantern, casting a feeble orange glow over my straw bed. On either side of me, Arisu and Tamaki were breathing comfortably in their sleep.
Glancing at my watch, I saw it was still before dawn.
A rugged watch. A gift from Mia.
She was gone. Gone to a place beyond my reach.
I couldn’t protect her.
I would never see her mischievous smile again, would never hear another of her dumb jokes. The girl who had always clung to me annoyingly was no longer here.
The ache in my chest was so overwhelming, I felt like I wanted to claw my heart out. Frustration at my own helplessness boiled within me. I didn’t think I had ever felt this helpless or frustrated in my life.
“Kazu-san.”
I glanced over to see Arisu and Tamaki looking up at me with worry.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you,” I said.
“It’s fine, don’t worry about that. What’s more important—”
“Yeah, I know, I have some things to explain…”
But then Arisu stopped me with a kiss.
Tamaki followed up with a kiss as well, and in the next moment, I found myself being pushed down onto the bed.
“What’s this about?!”
“Well, you see, we thought you might be feeling down, so we decided it was important to comfort you properly.”
“Whose idea was this? Oh, never mind, I already know.” It could only have been Yukariko Shiki. “And Tamaki, you’re in on this too?”
“It’s a joint effort; we’re doing our best to support you… Kazu-san, don’t you like it?”
“To be honest, I don’t not like it.”
Arisu and Tamaki gazed down at me, their cheeks flushed. They were so pitifully adorable that I embraced them both tightly. Their warmth and the faintly sweet smell of their bodies made my head spin.
“Sorry. Just for now, let me focus entirely on the both of you.”
“Sure, Kazu-san.”
“Yeah, we’ve got you.”
Shiki probably had the right idea—what I needed now was to accept their devoted support.
“It’s all right, Kazu-san,” Arisu said as she embraced me after our moment together. “If you’re sad, we’ll lend you our shoulders to cry on. If you feel like you’re about to break, hold onto us. Because we’re all in this together.”
“That’s right, Kazu-san,” Tamaki affirmed. “Remember, we’ll always be here for you.”
As I let the sobs come out, it felt as if something that had accumulated and stagnated at the bottom of my heart was gradually being washed away.
✦ ✦ ✦
At dawn, after summoning water into a bucket to wash my face and body, I stepped outside the tree hollow with my two lovers.
The room we had slept in was situated a little away from the other residences.
“Um, you see, this place is called a ‘lover’s house,’” Tamaki explained, her cheeks flushing. “That means… sort of what it sounds like. Leen said we could be as loud as we wanted here.”
“Rushia said she wanted to have some private talks with her sister,” Arisu added. “She’s leaving you to us.”
“Ah… I see, that makes sense.”
She must have had her own priorities to consider. No doubt Rushia was acting with all our futures in mind.
“I wonder if Leen and Shiki-san are awake yet,” I said. “We have a lot to talk about with them.”
“Oh, yeah!” Tamaki piped up. “We have quite a bit to tell them, too.”
I wondered what had happened yesterday after I’d fallen asleep.
“Um… Where to start?” she mused, as if reading my mind. “Well, I reached Level 46.”
When we’d parted ways yesterday evening, she was at Level 41.
“Did you tackle the ogres on the school mountain?”
“Yes. Tamaki-chan, Rushia, and I teamed up. And Yuuki-senpai and Keiko-san teamed up with Sakura-chan and some other people to defeat a lot of ogres.”
Now that Azagralith was dead, there were no more monsters on that mountain that posed a threat to us. Even the Terrasaur Agnamu, a divine-class monster, was no longer a match for Arisu and the others.
“Kazu-san,” Tamaki began hesitantly, tugging on the sleeve of my uniform.
“What’s up?”
“Ah… um, maybe it would be better if you heard about it from Leen-san or Shiki-san.”
“You can tell me about it yourself if you want.”
Tamaki crossed her arms, hummed thoughtfully, and then shook her head after a moment. “Eh heh heh, I don’t think I can explain it well! I don’t really even understand it myself!”
Ah, so there’s some complex situation going on… Man, I’m starting to feel really anxious now.
✦ ✦ ✦
In front of the tree hollow that now doubled as Leen’s living and office space, Shiki was waiting with her arms crossed. When she saw us, her face slipped into a mischievous smirk.
“Feeling refreshed?” she asked us.
“Yeah, very much so, thanks. By the way, are you in the mood for a big breakfast?”
“I knew you’d say that. Love you for it.”
That love is not directed at me, I noted with only a little annoyance, but at the feast I can summon. I get it.
In addition to Leen, Rushia and Yuuki were also waiting for us inside the tree hollow. Both expressed that it was about time we arrived.
Then Rushia began, “Kazu, I have two things to say.”
“Next is my turn,” Leen added.
“Ah, yes, of course. Just so I know, what’s the second thing?”
“Can you bring out lots of sweet treats for us, please?”
“Rushia-san, you just don’t stop, do you?” I asked, laughing as I glanced at her.
She touched her cheek and smiled back.
This is… yeah, she’s definitely being considerate.
“Then, for now, let’s summon food for about ten people.”
I summoned a lavish multi-course meal for the table, followed by an assortment of cakes and desserts that I thought Rushia would enjoy.
Delicious smells filled the spacious cavity of the tree… and in fact, from behind the partition, I could hear Leen’s bodyguards swallowing their saliva.
“Let’s start with the meal,” Leen decided. “We can’t finish all this by ourselves, so is it all right if we share it with the attendants?”
Of course, I agreed. If needed, we could always summon more.
✦ ✦ ✦
Not wanting to waste any time while we ate, I started telling the others about what had happened to me and Mia yesterday evening.
I could hardly believe it had only been a day. It felt like another lifetime.
Mia and I had encountered a strange being in a school built by some peculiar entity in the mountains. Mia and a duplicate of that entity had fused together.
As a result, Mia fell into a situation where, in her words, she “had to transform.”
I also told them that there should be a child of mine inside her.
When I’d finished the story, her brother gave me a light punch in the stomach before offering words of blessing.
“Have you ever heard about Mia’s dream when she was in elementary school?” he asked.
“Um, I don’t know, but it’s probably not anything good, is it?”
“To fuse with Getter and embark on a journey to Mars.”
Wow, I thought, what kind of elementary school student dreams of that?
Unable to hold it in, he suddenly burst out laughing. Everyone else just sat there looking bewildered.
Somehow, I felt my heart grow a bit lighter.
Finally, I think I might be starting to come to terms with her being gone.
That must have been why Yuuki was laughing.