We returned to the living room and ate ham at the kotatsu.
“There’s not much.”
The ham was paper-thin, after all.
“Can’t be helped. Anyway, it’s 11:30 PM now…”
I noticed a wall clock and finally realized what time it was.
“Since it’s Golden Week, they probably went on a trip. Oh well. Let’s leave a note in the morning.”
I should write an apology. Then we can explain to our parents and pay them back.
“What do you want to do? Sleep?”
“Even if we stay awake, we’ll just be hungry. Let’s head into town in the morning. We’re technically within the city limits, so we should be able to find a car somewhere.”
That made sense.
“Then I’ll turn off the lights.”
I got up, turned off the lights, and lay down at the kotatsu. Then I closed my eyes, but I didn’t feel sleepy at all. Come to think of it, there was a time difference—it was still evening for us. Even so, I kept my eyes closed, but after thirty minutes, I still wasn’t sleepy.
“…Hey, you awake?”
Ayaka spoke up.
“Yeah. Zero sleepiness.”
“Me too. I wonder what’s going to happen to us now?”
Maybe I couldn’t sleep because of anxiety.
“There’ll be a lot going on for a while… but eventually things will settle down. Then maybe we can start a company.”
“You’re proactive about that kind of thing.”
“With only middle-school diplomas, we won’t get decent jobs. And even if we do find work, after something like this, our coworkers will just look at us strangely. So we should create a place of our own. We can invite Minato, Takamiya, and the others and start a company with all six of us.”
I think we could make it work.
“Starting a business doing what?”
“We can do anything. We have skills, you know. We have spatial magic, so we could do delivery or moving services.”
Though we’d need driver’s licenses first.
“I see. That sounds nice. We can carry tons of stuff.”
That was the benefit of our jobs.
Though as an alchemist, I couldn’t do that.
“Right? The company name will be Dropout.”
Fitting for us.
“I don’t like that. And we wouldn’t get any customers.”
Ayaka laughed.
“Well, yeah. I’d be the president.”
“So it’s just an extension of the other world. I like it.”
We had talked about this before the transfer.
“Ayaka, life has a way of working out. We went to another world, but we survived.”
“Yeah… though Mei died.”
“Shouta too. But our lives go on.”
Even if we stop, the world and time won’t wait for us. In fact, a classmate who didn’t stop defeated the Demon King.
“Right… thank you. I think I can sleep now.”
“Yeah… hey, about before the transfer—what did I say when I was drunk?”
“That’s for another time. Besides, you’re the one who said it, so shouldn’t you know?”
I had no idea at all.
Huh? I didn’t confess, did I?
I didn’t say that I’d been a little interested in her since we became classmates in second year, did I?
“…Good night.”
“Heh, you’re not so proactive about that, are you?”
Huh?
Sounds like I did say it…
“Did you ask Miyamae-san anything?”
She was the only one I consulted…
“Mayumi? No.”
“I see. Ah, I’m getting sleepy.”
“Yeah, yeah. Good night.”
I closed my eyes, cast Sleep on myself, and forced myself to sleep.
The next morning, I woke up, got up from the kotatsu, and opened the curtains. Sunlight flooded into the room.
“Morning…?”
Ayaka woke up.
“Yeah. It’s 7 AM.”
“Gotta go to school…”
How nostalgic.
Though back then, we had never even spoken to each other, let alone gone to school together. We were classmates, but it was still April, right after the class reshuffle.
Well, I think it would have been awkward even if more time had passed…
“There’s nothing to eat, but drink this.”
I said, taking out two small vials and handing one to Ayaka.
“A potion? Thanks.”
Ayaka took the vial and drank it, so I drank mine too. Then the minor aches from sleeping at the kotatsu faded away, and my body felt a little lighter.
“Ah… I was more tired than I realized.”
Maybe I just hadn’t noticed.
“A lot happened. I really do feel better. Alchemist-sama is amazing. Heal can only heal wounds, after all.”
I was an alchemist who could make potions like this, and I made my living selling them. Actually, it was more profitable than hunting monsters as an adventurer.
“Can’t do anything about hunger, though. Let’s go.”
“Yes. I’ll write the note.”
Ayaka took a pen and notepad from on top of the kotatsu and wrote an apology and her phone number.
“Your number?”
“Yes. Funny thing is, I still remember it after ten years.”
I had never memorized mine in the first place.
“Alright, let’s go.”
“Yes. We might not be able to see each other for a while.”
Ah… that’s possible.
They’d probably take us to hospitals and stuff.
“Can’t be helped. Well, let’s meet up somewhere.”
“Yes. What about school?”
That might work.
“Let’s do that.”
We got up, left the living room, and exited the house. It felt a bit chilly, but there was no wind, so it wasn’t unbearable.
“No one’s around, right?”
“Yeah. No one working in the fields either.”
“Oh well. Let’s walk along the road.”
We made it to the road and looked left and right.
“Which way?”
“From my vague memory, I think Beppu faces the sea.”
“Did it?”
I played a game as a kid where I traveled around Japan buying up properties, but I don’t really remember.
“Then let’s go the opposite direction from the mountains.”
To the right.
“Yeah. We’ll figure something out.”
We started walking to the right. The road was paved with asphalt and easy to walk on—utility poles, gutters, mirrors, everything felt so nostalgic.
“We really are back.”
“Yeah… hey, what’s with that mountain?”
Ayaka was looking at a mountain where no trees were growing. It wasn’t a sight you often saw in Japan’s mountains.
“Who knows? All I know about Beppu is the hot springs.”
“Maybe we should’ve charged our phones after all? I want a map.”
Oh right, there were convenient apps like that. I’d completely forgotten.
“We’ll find a car if we keep walking.”
“Yeah… wait, isn’t it too empty?”
We’d left the rural settlement behind and were walking steadily, but no cars or people were passing by.
“Hmm… the house we stayed at felt lived-in, though.”
“Right… it didn’t feel like a ruin or ghost town… hmm?”
Ayaka looked ahead. A car was coming toward us from the front.
“Good, let’s have them contact the police.”
“Yeah… hmm? What’s this presence…?”
“What do you—”
I was about to ask what was wrong, but the words died in my throat. Because what I could see in the driver’s seat of the white van up ahead didn’t look human.
The van stopped about ten meters in front of us, and the driver got out. Green skin, sharp eyes, and pointed ears… no matter how you looked at it, it was a goblin.
“Kh!”
Ayaka came to her senses, drew her sword from her spatial magic, and took a stance. I readied myself to use magic at any moment.
“Why is there a goblin in this world!?”
“I don’t know! We’re fighting!”
Ayaka dropped into a low stance.
“Huh? Why are humans in a place like this?”
Huh?
“What?”
“W-what do you…”
It talked?
The goblin talked?
I’d never heard of a talking goblin…
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