It had been several days since the fight with Schneider and Maribelle. You’d think I’d be in Gillain’s arms again, like the romantic moment when I came back to life, but no... In the background of my reawakening, one other wild soul had awakened!
“All of you grown men were there, and you bastards were still just going to let Serephione die?! Shame on you!”
Swish! Clang! Bam! Smash!
My grandmother’s iron fist had activated...or so I’d heard. Miyu had told me about it after the fact since I’d been asleep at the time. The heavenly beast shook as she told me about it. The victims were my father, brother, Gillain, and Ziek. Apparently, none of them resisted. My grandmother really was the strongest in this world!
At the moment, my grandmother was gallantly nursing me back to health at the Trundle mansion in the capital. The stab wound in my chest was taking a long time to heal; according to my father, it would take about three months. I spent all my time sleepily lying in bed in a room filled with wildflowers that Miyu had picked. The sunlight coming in through the window had grown softer. Spring was near.
“Your healing filled me from head to toe with your magic. How could I not wake up after feeling you cry out in such pain?” my grandmother had told me.
Once I had fully regained consciousness, my beautiful grandmother had already come back. Her white hair somehow made her appear ageless. She gently patted my head and gave me countless “get-better” kisses on the forehead.
Of course, Lou was at my chest as I slept. He was always there when I awoke in a daze. Each time, I would reach out to him, weakly embrace him, and pet his cheek.
“Sorry, Lou.”
“It’s okay, Sere.”
I fell back asleep.
I was sorry for jumping out recklessly, for risking my life, for agreeing to the timeline reset, and for leaving Lou behind... That one “sorry” contained many apologies.
And Lou said “It’s okay” to all of them. He understood. He had probably intended to accept his fate to disappear along with me. I knew that if it had been me in his place, I would have done the same.
Lou accepted every part of me.
“Thank you, Lou.”
“Thank you for coming back, Sere.”
I love you...
“Your grandmother gave him a good punishment...so please give Larouza your forgiveness.”
My grandmother provided me and my brother an opportunity to compromise, as only she could.
My brother had come running to visit me as soon as he heard I had regained consciousness. His beautiful face was beaten up and swollen so much that he was unrecognizable. It was probably on purpose—so my brother could feel like he’d been properly punished. Anyone would be speechless and sympathize with him if they saw.
“Serephione...” He opened the door and took no initiative to move from it, so I forced my sluggish body upright and went to go toward him.
“No, Serephione! Don’t move!”
He rushed over to me, and I deliberately collapsed into him! I pushed my face into his chest so he couldn’t move away and hugged him.
“I love you, brother.”
I mentally said my magic words for him. Pain, pain, go from my brother to stupid Schneider and dumb Maribelle!
“Oh, Serephione... I love you and Lou too. Thank you for saving me...”
Droplets fell onto my head. It brought back memories of the familial bonds we’d forged on that snowy day long ago. I was so glad to know that our feelings hadn’t changed one bit since then.
Lou, who was on my shoulder, deliberately batted my brother’s more swollen cheek. “It’s over now, Larouza. Quit moping about it and think about something more constructive! You should clean up Trundle’s post-war issues in place of Erza and Sere first. There’s a lot of work to do.”
“Lou...”
“You wouldn’t have fallen under Maribelle’s charm if not for my error in judgment. I also should have told you about Maribelle and Sere being Reborn. Those two things make you innocent in this, Larouza. Understood?”
“Okay...” My brother couldn’t deny what a holy beast told him. He smiled tearfully as he listened to me interpret for Lou.
Sorrow remained on his face regardless. There was probably no way to prevent that. My kind brother couldn’t just turn off his guilt about wounding me so badly that I almost died. Only time could resolve it. That meant I had to recover before he did to show him that he had nothing to worry about!
“Good luck on the documents, brother! You better not show Gil or the cabinet ministers any mercy! And take care of the guild for me! You’ll have to fill in the S-rank gap that Gil and I left behind!”
“Yep, I’ll do my best!”
In the end, he didn’t let me heal the burn mark on his cheek.
Now that I was out of commission, I thought I would return the mastership of Trundle to my grandmother, but it apparently wasn’t as simple as that.
“If I make you relinquish your position as master, I don’t know when you’ll feel up to the task of becoming master again, so I plan to just take care of business as your predecessor. Larouza, you need to get busy! It’s your job to wring as much compensation money as you can from Gilbert of Judore! Gilbert may be dear to me, but he’s responsible for paying for his nephew’s misconduct. A good master can’t let personal feelings get in the way of what needs to be done! Oh ho ho ho!”
More than anything, I was glad to see my grandmother back to her usual self.
Once I was able to sit up on my own, Lou finally called a meeting to go over the information we’d gleaned from that day. Since I hadn’t been well, I hadn’t heard the full story of what had happened since I collapsed.
The attendees were me, Lou, Miyu, Asu, and Gillain. I couldn’t spread the information I’d learned about the gods willy-nilly, so it was only the holy beasts and Asu’s master, Gillain.
“Sorry to make you come all this way,” I apologized from my bed, still wearing the light-blue pajamas from the Marcus Trade Company. The three miniature beasts were on my bed, and Gillain sat in a chair next to me.
“Miss Sere, Miss Sere!”
Miyu was full of fighting spirit to get stronger, so she had been coming and going between Renza on Regan Island and her papa in Trundle. When we were together, though, she wrapped around my waist and wouldn’t let go. She’d been quite frightened when the person she was contracted to nearly died, apparently. I stroked her gorgeous blue scales. Sorry, Miyu...
“I understand. You were stabbed with a god-killing orichalcum sword; of course it would take a while to fully heal. You seem to have recovered quite a bit already. And your hair is gorgeous!”
“You flatter me, Asu...”
Asu had made me drink his blood directly from his wound at that time. The same blood that would turn me immortal if I cut his head off and drank it from there! Don’t make me drink that... It’ll turn me into a yokai...
As a result, I felt a strong bond with Asu. He felt like a mom to me. It was like a part of him was in each and every cell in my body. The old scar on my cheek had completely disappeared! And my appearance had even changed! My black hair and eyelashes had a red sheen to them now. I was glad it wasn’t red streaks at least...but it was a bit embarrassing.
“It’s one thing that Lou’s magic has greater influence on you than mine does, but now Asu’s does too?” Gillain took a lock of my hair and inspected it.
“Sorry, I guess?”
Gillain was Asu’s other half, but I’d gone and taken up too much of Asu’s magic.
“That’s not what I mean.” Gillain twirled my hair around his index finger. Red light twinkled off it.
“I can’t stand to see that, Sere! Cut it off like you did in Marsche! You have my permission!”
What a pain...
“A timeline reset...”
Everyone was speechless after I told them what I had heard from the moon goddess.