Side: Amahashi Kakeru

What woke me up was a mass notification sent out through the school's social media.

"Emergency school closure?"

It was a notice saying classes were canceled for a safety inspection following the earthquake. Nine times out of ten, this was about the dungeon. I wondered what had happened with that after the fact.

The fact that it hadn't blown up into a huge commotion—did that mean no monsters had been found? Or had something happened, and that was why classes were canceled?

Once I started thinking about it, one question after another came up.

Well, whatever. It wasn't something I needed to think about right now. I figured I'd at least go wash my face, and when I stepped out of my room, a nice smell was drifting in from the kitchen.

"Kakeru-san, good morning!"

"Yeah, morning."

I'd wondered who it was—turned out to be Sanctina. Apparently she'd been getting breakfast ready.

"School's off today, so no need to rush. I'm pretty sure it's because of the dungeon."

"Oh, okay. They canceled it?"

Sanctina looked a little uneasy too. The dungeon was something I'd be better off asking the four of them about. Honestly, I didn't know all that much about dungeons myself.

For now, washing my face.

"Oh, Kakeru. Morning."

"Mor—ning? Sorry!!"

My groggy head cleared all at once. I'd run straight into Filia, who'd just stepped out of the shower.

How to put it—she didn't seem all that bothered about being seen. She covered up right away, but the impression I got was that she did it more out of etiquette than anything.

She did seem to be a fair bit older than me. A mature way to handle it. Honestly, I felt bad for seeing rather more than I should have.

"Sorry. Cleansing my body in the morning is part of my daily routine."

I really needed to knock before going into the washroom. That was careless of me.

I pulled myself together, washed my face, and brushed my teeth. Might as well—I figured I'd raise something with Filia that had just crossed my mind.

"So school's off today. Want to head out for a bit? You'd like to look at clothes and stuff, right?"

"That sounds good. There are all sorts of things I'd like to see."

The answer came back more readily than I'd expected.

How to put it—when someone tells me they want to do this, or that they want that, there's a part of me that relaxes a little. Maybe it's easier on me when people ask for things to some degree, rather than holding back.

It had only been a few days since we got back here, but living together, maybe they were gradually getting comfortable enough to say what they really felt. Yesterday at the family restaurant had been like that too.

That genuinely made me happy.

Still, it surprised me that they no longer seemed all that eager to hurry back.

Here I was, seriously thinking about how I wanted to send them back, and yet even Pricia said she wasn't in any particular rush to return.

Well, they had no freedom there. Pricia and Sanctina, anyway. Filia I still couldn't quite read.

"Itadakimasu!"

The breakfast Sanctina had made was Western-style. There were grilled sausages, a vegetable soup, and a boiled egg. I ate it with some toast.

I'd assumed they couldn't cook, but apparently Sanctina and Filia could. How to put it—Sanctina almost seemed to have perked up now that she didn't have attendant clerics around anymore.

Was I imagining it?

Yeah, the vegetable soup had a simple seasoning, but it was good. She hadn't gotten a handle on all the seasonings yet, so she'd probably steered clear of anything too complicated. A gentle flavor, perfect for the morning.

It went well with the slightly browned, buttered toast.

The boiled egg was soft-boiled—probably because there hadn't been a culture of eating eggs over there. It was fine as it was, but it kind of made me want to see how they'd react if I had them try something like tamago kake gohan.¹

After breakfast, we decided to all go shopping together.

They really did have only the bare minimum of clothes. I'd felt bad about it, so this was as good a chance as any.

"What a fine store."

For now we'd come to the same big-box retailer as last time. Pricia looked a little startled by how spacious the place was.

There hadn't been any mass-produced, factory-made clothing in the world over there. Basically every shop catering to nobles was made-to-order. There'd been simple ready-made clothes for commoners, but even those had seemed to be made on-site at the shop.

"I see, so they mass-produce the same clothing as well."

Hmm. Noctia had the sharpest grasp of all of them. One look at the racks of clothes and she'd understood immediately.

Whoops—right now I was supposed to teach them how shopping worked and have everyone pick out clothes they liked.

Pricia started walking off as if to survey the place. It was as spacious as a castle from the world over there, so maybe it actually put her at ease.

Sanctina had already started picking out clothes. She was looking at fairly simple ones.

Filia, while she picked up a few items, was checking the sizes and inspecting the stitching. Maybe she wanted to make her own. I figured I'd look up shops on my phone later so we could go somewhere that sold fabric and the like.

Huh? I couldn't see Noctia anywhere. Then I spotted her—she was sitting in one of the chairs inside the store. There were already clothes in her shopping basket.

"You picked already?"

"Yes. I don't really have any particular preferences about what I wear. Even over there, I just wore whatever was prepared for me."

It was a hard thing to imagine a woman saying. Then again, she'd always been an odd one—or rather, a member of the demon race. She'd been clearly different from the other members of the demon race who came out to the front lines.

"To think a day would come when I could sit and talk with you like this."

Looking around the store, where there were still only a scattering of customers, Noctia spoke with a faraway look, and it brought back things from the world over there.

There'd been a lot of people around me, and a lot of demons around Noctia. We'd exchanged words even as we crossed blades—and even that had been enough to send someone into a rage to stop us.

"Hey, what do you make of Pricia and the others? Do they really not want to hurry back?"

"Filia, I'd say, doesn't mind either way. Elves have long lifespans. She'd be fine staying here long enough to see you to the end, then going back. Pricia and Sanctina still have their doubts, I think, but their strong will to return is starting to waver."

Just what I'd expect from a former Demon Lord. She watched the people around her closely. In that case, maybe I really did need to start considering a long-term stay over here.

"And another thing. Going back and returning to their old life are two separate matters. For the two of them, going back means losing their freedom. In exchange, a fitting life is guaranteed and they'll never go hungry, but… being known as the companions of the Hero who defeated the Demon Lord—that kind of fame can torment them, too."

I was mulling over all sorts of things when Noctia said that to me.

"Was that in the past records too?"

"Yes. All sorts of things."

So even if they went back, they might end up living quietly as different people. Honestly, life was hard.

"Kakeru, I'm sorry for dragging you into this. But… I was saved. By you."

At those words, I looked over at Noctia beside me, and she was wearing a natural smile, the kind I'd never once seen back in the world over there.

"I think it's fine for things to end this way. It'll cool the heads of those big shots over there a little, at least."

"Ufufu. Maybe so."

Maybe the two of us had been alike all along. I thought so now.

We'd been freed from what you could call our mission, or our fate. Noctia and I had.