Side: Amahashi Kakeru

The next day, leaving the family home in my uncle and aunt's hands, we set off on the trip back.

As for the house — back at Grandma's funeral I'd told my uncle I wanted to come back once I'd graduated high school or college, and so until then it was settled that they'd look after the place for me.

Keeping up a house nobody lived in was honestly a fair bit of work. I really was nothing but on the receiving end of their help.

Just like on the way in, my uncle drove us to the station and we boarded the train.

"Let's take a little detour on the way back."

It might not have been the most interesting stretch of time for Pricia and the others, and I felt a bit bad about that, but none of them looked particularly put out.

We rode the same train as on the way in for part of the way, then transferred to a different line heading away from the direction of the house, and after about an hour it came into view.

"Oh — the sea."

The women's surprise made me a little happy. I'd taken the detour thinking I'd show them a bit of the sea on this side of things.

"Yeah. Figured we'd take a short walk before heading home."

Maybe it'd be a decent change of pace. I wanted them to see all kinds of places and get to know them, and to find and start thinking about things they wanted to do, places they wanted to go.

This wasn't exactly a tourist spot — just a town along the coast with a fishing port and a swimming beach, nothing more. In spring, this time of year, even on a Saturday like that day the area around the station was deserted.

It was the kind of street that had a little shopping arcade a generation ago. Rusted signs and the homes left behind where shuttered shops used to be lined the road.

Out in the country, retail like local shops had declined everywhere, since there were big chain supermarkets and drugstores. Even a coastal town like this one had them.

Still, for a leisurely stroll it wasn't half bad.

"Oh, it's lively over here."

"Yeah. It's a facility called a michi-no-eki.¹They're popular because they're just right for stopping in when you're on a little trip or out somewhere."

We walked a bit, and when we came out onto the national highway running along the coast, there was a relatively new michi-no-eki. Since Sanctina had shown interest, I figured we'd stop in.

Restrooms and a rest area, booths selling souvenirs and local products, food stalls. It being a holiday probably had something to do with it — the place was busier than I'd expected.

"There really is such an abundance of things for sale here. Just looking is fun."

She might've had a point. Maybe because distribution and transport hadn't developed over in the other world, even the little luxuries that did exist were expensive, and anything beyond the daily necessities a commoner would buy ran high.

Sanctina was looking at the local food products, while the rest of the women were looking at the souvenirs. Sake, sweets, little odds and ends — nothing that struck me as unusual, but to them it all seemed rare, and they looked like they were enjoying it.

"Want to grab some drinks and sweets to take back? Which ones do you like?"

"Let's see. I'd like to try drinking this one."

"Right. I've never had it either."

Pricia was still a little reserved as ever, but Filia and Noctia each picked something they wanted to try. Sake and fruit wine.

It couldn't be called cheap, but it wasn't so pricey I couldn't buy it.

"The drinks are tastier over here, aren't they."

"Is that so."

Noctia's offhand remark made me think of the Demon Lord's castle back over there. Calling it the Demon Lord's castle, though, it wasn't the lurid sort of thing you'd find in a story — if anything it was a refined place, grand and magnificent to the point of beauty.

The royal castle in Pricia's country was something too, but the Demon Lord's castle went a step beyond.

That said, Noctia herself, the one who'd actually been the Demon Lord, honestly seemed like the type with no use for authority or power.

"I don't really like old wines and such all that much. I prefer the sake we drank yesterday."

Ah, the sake and shochu²my uncle put out. Decently priced stuff, sure, but not exactly top-shelf.

Noctia and Filia drank it like it was especially delicious, so my uncle had kept bringing things over from his own house to pour for them. Seemed it made him happy to see them enjoy the sake and sweet-potato shochu.

After we bought the sake and sweets, plus some fresh seafood, we left the michi-no-eki and decided to take a walk around the nearby fishing port and sandy beach.

As the sea drew closer, there was that distinctive smell of the ocean.

"An internal combustion engine. They sure spread an interesting thing around, didn't they."

Most of the fishing boats seemed to be out, but Noctia was studying the ones that remained with great interest. Yeah, she was the only one whose angle on things was different.

"What's an internal combustion engine?"

"I don't know either…"

"How to put it — power? The force that makes things like cars and buses, vehicles that move, move."

Pricia and Sanctina looked completely lost. Honestly, I couldn't manage to explain it all that clearly, but teaching them things they didn't know like this might actually be pretty fun.

Both the other world and this one had their good points and bad. And on top of that, with dungeons existing when I'd thought they didn't, it had started to seem possible that what I knew of this world was only a fraction of its true nature.

But still — the essence of people. The hearts of intelligent beings didn't change much, and when I thought about that, I figured everyone could make it living over here.

We came down to the beach. Watching the waves roll in and pull back out, I talked with everyone for a while.

"Tomorrow's a day off too, so I was thinking of going somewhere we can move our bodies a bit. It's a little different from training, but…"

The one I was especially concerned about was Pricia. She didn't seem settled unless she was doing something. Searching for dungeons was fine, but in Pricia's case I figured it'd be better to start with just getting some exercise.

Maybe I'd take them camping or something. Grandpa loved it and used to go a lot back in the day. In Grandpa's case, he owned a few patches of mountain woodland, so the three of us — me, Grandpa, and Grandma — used to camp there a lot.

Out in the country, a fair number of people owned mountain woodland. Mountains and trees used to be wealth, after all. These days it didn't bring in any income, so I inherited it when Grandma passed, but I'd just left it sitting.

"Hey, Kakeru. You don't have to spend your precious day off keeping us company."

While I was mulling all this over, Pricia was looking at me. Was she holding back? Something I'd noticed since coming over here — she seemed to be the one who overthought things the most.

Filia and Sanctina were both compromising with the situation in a good way, and Noctia was already enjoying her new life.

"It's nice of you to say that, but honestly, the school's a new place and I don't have any friends I'm that close with, and with Grandma gone there's nothing in particular for me to do."

After Grandma passed, I hadn't done anything on my days off. About all I did was go online or watch videos.

Honestly, being a little busy felt better right now — it made the days feel fuller.

Ah — Grandpa's mountain might let me train without holding back. Maybe combine camping with some training? In Pricia's case, moving her body would surely make things easier on her.

It was too late in the day for it now, but Golden Week might be good for that too.