Three days later, Seiichirou’s party was back in Romany—even quicker than the outbound journey. This was because Aresh pooled his formidable magic talents with those of the kingdom’s foremost sorcerer. Diana, his reliable mount, also chipped in by pulling their carriage along.
Incidentally, Seiichirou spent the whole trip glued to Aresh’s side. After all the exertion of the previous night, he snoozed the entire first day. Norbert, who was in the same carriage as them, apparently spent the whole time trying to look at anything but them.
As soon as they were back, Aresh and Orjef requested a meeting with Camile and Yurius, where they made their report.
The next day, Seiichirou was called into a meeting with Yurius, Camile, Aresh, and Zoltan in attendance. Yua was invited, too, and she stood there looking puzzled. The last time she went to an official meeting was after the purification expedition, where Seiichirou had proposed the barrier plan. That meeting had taken place in the audience chamber, right there in front of the king and a crowd of nobles.
But this time was different. There were only four people to face: Yurius, the crown prince and her sweetheart, Prime Minister Camile, Zoltan from the Royal Sorcery Department, and Aresh, Seiichirou’s partner and the commander of the Third Royal Order. This was not a public space, and both Yua and Seiichirou would have their individual opinions respected here.
“I can return to my world…?”
Unlike Seiichirou, who appreciated the Romany Kingdom’s discretion, Yua reacted to the news with pure astonishment.
“Not immediately,” said Aresh.
Zoltan elaborated: “We have merely established the means. There is still much research to do and many experiments to repeat before it comes to fruition. In the meantime, I ask you to consider your plans.”
Zoltan was the Sorcery Department’s representative instead of Ist because everyone figured that Yua probably wouldn’t ask about the technical details.
“How long…are we talking?” she asked.
“I would say it will take about a year,” said Camile.
Yua gasped upon hearing a concrete number.
A year—that was not an absurd amount of time. A year could go by in a flash. Considering that it had already been almost a year since they had come to this world, time truly did fly.
“To return or not to return…the decision is up to you.”
Yua’s head jerked up at Yurius’s words. There was something bittersweet about his gaze.
“Speaking purely for myself, I don’t want you to go back…but we dragged the two of you to this land without your permission. After all the help you have given us, we have no right to tie you down any further.”
In fact, Yurius was saying he should be applying his entire efforts into getting them back home. Knowing this, Yua’s eyes brimmed with tears of happiness…and sadness at the same time. She did not say a word.
“Hey, Kondou,” Yua called out to him the moment they were out of the conference room. Having anticipated this, Seiichirou sent a silent signal to Aresh with his eyes, and then followed Yua to a terrace overlooking Romany’s capital.
He took a seat facing Yua, and a maid brought them tea.
“Kondou… What do you plan to do?” Yua asked him. “About Aresh…”
“I’ve already made my decision. You need to make your own,” Seiichirou said bluntly.
For a moment, Yua looked as if she was about to choke up, but then she clenched her fists and simply hung her head.
“Right… I have to make my own choice…”
“You do. But…as was mentioned before, it may be possible to come back to this world after returning to Earth, even if it isn’t one hundred percent guaranteed.”
Traveling back and forth between worlds carried great risks, and there was no guarantee yet that it was even possible.
And beyond everything, it would cost money.
They needed people to draw up the magic circle and a vast amount of magical energy to activate it. The ore Ist had mentioned was scarce in quantity, and the price made Seiichirou’s head spin. To make the crossing work, the sorcerers would also need training to up their success rate. The whole venture was comparable to space travel.
Although the Romany Kingdom was willing to wrangle the funds for a one-way ticket, a round trip wasn’t so simple. Honestly, just returning Seiichirou and Yua to Earth would cost almost ten percent of the country’s yearly tax. Seiichirou had heard that a space trip cost about two billion yen, which made the returning spell almost three times more expensive relative to the national budget. Seiichirou wanted to chip away at the costs as much as he could in the year that remained.
“I’ll have a talk with Yurius.”
Indeed, Yua’s decision was a matter between her and Yurius.
Seiichirou intended to go straight back to the mansion after that chat. Just as he was leaving the palace, he crossed paths with an unusual figure.
“Why, if it isn’t Seiichirou.”
Seiichirou hadn’t seen Aresh’s older sister since they got back from Egorova.
“What are you doing here, Erene?” Seiichirou asked, wondering if something had happened with Egorova. Although she was the daughter of a marquess and the current wife of a count, Erene did not work at the palace.
“I got permission to enter the Sorcery Department since I’m participating in that research experiment,” Erene answered breezily.
Apparently, she was serious about taking part in that whole thing. But still, Seiichirou had to wonder how she already had permission to enter the Sorcery Department when the project was still in its planning phase…but then he saw how Erene acted when she spotted the man arriving from behind Seiichirou.
“Hi there, honey!” she squealed, and he could practically see hearts in her eyes.
“Oh, Erene. You’re already here?” the man responded in his usual tranquil tone.
“Qusta…,” began Seiichirou.
“Hi there, Kondo. I hope my wife didn’t give you much trouble the other day,” Qusta said apologetically.
The garden variety middle manager in his thirties had a stunning beauty hanging off his arm.
Which reminded Seiichirou… Qusta had mentioned that he had a younger wife and that he was newly married. Not to mention that Erene had introduced herself as a lady of House Rein. That was Qusta’s last name, wasn’t it?
“Oh no… She’s been an enormous help,” said Seiichirou.
“But of course! Don’t you have more to say, Seiichirou? Tell my darling husband how well I did.”
Erene had in fact used her clout as a noble to their advantage, so Seiichirou thanked her again.
“And now I can help my darling with his work anytime.” Erene swooned.
“Oh, right, Kondo, I should tell you,” said Qusta. “Erene has more than enough knowledge to help out. She only lacks magical capacity.”
Okay, now it all made sense. Milan had mentioned that Erene worked hard at her magic studies. Honestly, Seiichirou had been thinking that, much like Sigma, Erene would fit right in at the Sorcery Department even without magical power, so he welcomed her addition to the team. Her connections as a noblewoman were also bound to come in handy for securing more staff.
“I never imagined for a second that my dream would come true because of you.” Erene took a deep breath. “I ought to apologize to you for my bullying.”
“Your…bullying?” Seiichirou cocked his head, not quite grasping what she was saying.
According to her, she had said some disquieting things when she came to Aresh’s mansion in his absence.
“There were objections when I first got together with my darling. It took a terribly long time for us to be wed. But when Aresh told our parents about you, they were willing to welcome you with open arms. I was so frustrated, I just…”
But even then, she hadn’t done anything particularly mean. All she did was tell Seiichirou things he would have heard later down the line. Seiichirou wondered if maybe she just had an intimidating face and she was actually a very nice person at heart.
I had no idea that their parents were so accepting of me…
That was news to him. Suppressing the blush that threatened to creep onto his face, Seiichirou said his goodbyes and left the scene.
Just as he came to the palace entrance, he spotted another familiar figure in black. He must have been waiting for Seiichirou.
“You don’t have any work to do after this?” Seiichirou asked.
“I only had the meeting today, just like you,” Aresh replied as they entered a carriage together.
“Are you still worried?”
They’d talked everything through last night, but Aresh was still unwilling to let Seiichirou out of his sight.
“Are you really sure…?”
“I told you everything last night, didn’t I? Actually, no… I’m willing to talk with you anytime.”
Facing each other directly, Seiichirou put his left hand over Aresh’s left hand. Their silver rings clinked against each other.
“We were born in different lands. We grew up in entirely different worlds. Our core values and worldviews are too different for us to understand each other, but I’m sure we can meet in the middle as long as we talk it out.”
And so they would face each other, talk to each other, and put their heads together.
That was what Seiichirou was thinking with a smile on his lips.
Aresh squinted as if he was looking at something blindly bright, and drew his arms around the man he loved.