ACT 5
“Look, like I’m saying!” Yuuto shouted. “Jörgen, you become the patriarch. You’ve got the dignity for the position, and you’d do a much, much better job at it than I ever have.”
“Father, you are the only one who would say that!!”
Without missing a beat, an angry shout came back through the phone that was loud enough to make Yuuto’s head hurt. He grimaced.
It was the third day since he’d regained contact with Yggdrasil. Right now he was speaking with Jörgen, the Wolf Clan’s second-in-command.
The clan system of Yggdrasil was such that a clan governed over an area of territory, and was based on a family for its structure, with the patriarch at its top. The second-in-command was the “eldest child” of the patriarch’s child subordinates, and in the event of something befalling his sworn father, he had a duty to succeed as the next patriarch of the clan.
For Yuuto, this was the perfect chance to hand over the position to Jörgen, and so he had been making that suggestion for over a day now, but he kept receiving the same intense opposition.
“N-no, look, it can’t be just me,” Yuuto said. He tried his best to argue back with the first reasonable thought that came to mind. “All of the clan elders, didn’t they put in for you to succeed me?”
“No! Uncle Bruno, and Uncle Hokan, and Uncle Helge, they all wish for you to return to us, Father!” Jörgen shot back.
“Those guys... didn’t they all oppose me becoming patriarch and refuse to swear the Oath of the Chalice with me?”
“Why are you talking about something from so long ago?! As I have made clear to you several times now, Father, everyone wishes that you would return to us, from the elders to the ranked clan officers. Everyone has arrived at the same conclusion!”
“Everyone’s just putting me up on a pedestal,” Yuuto said. “It’s going to be all right. Jörgen, you’ll definitely do a way better job at being patriarch than someone like me ever could.”
From Yuuto’s way of thinking, the very concept of some young brat like himself ruling over a nation as its sovereign was outlandish in the first place.
All while he’d been living in Yggdrasil, he had seen that there were already people with more practical experience, like Jörgen or Skáviðr, and had noted they would be much more fitting for the position.
He’d been trying to get that point across casually, but...
“Father... the fact that you do not let yourself become conceited, and always maintain a humble heart, is something that is wonderful about you, that draws people to you,” Jörgen said. “But...”
“Hm?”
“In every single situation, you always undervalue your own worth!!”
The scream that came out from the phone this time was much louder even than before, and Yuuto reflexively pulled his head away from the receiver.
“Whoa!”
Yuuto almost let himself respond with a complaint, but he could hear heavy breathing from the other end, like the heaving of a raging bull, and he decided to hold off.
Jörgen took a deep breath, and let out a long sigh. “Someone of my mere talents would most certainly not be able to make the subsidiary clans maintain their obedience. Aunt Linnea’s heart is loyal and noble, and so she might fight at our side, but as for the Claw Clan’s Botvid, and the Wheat, Mountain Dog, and Ash Clans... they will certainly break away.”
“...Break away?” Yuuto repeated. “But we had them all exchange the Oath of the Chalice with you in order to prevent that.”
“Yes, and that is why they will not oppose or attack us on the surface. However, they will surely also not act as we wish them to. In this situation, we cannot hope to fight the Panther and Lightning Clans.”
“Hmm...” Yuuto scratched the back of his head.
The Lightning and Panther Clan alliance...
This was the root of the problem, the core of his dilemma.
According to Yuuto’s assessment, Jörgen had always taken care of things handily in Iárnviðr when Yuuto was away, and so he was plenty worthy of becoming patriarch. That was exactly why Yuuto had chosen him as second-in-command.
However, if they would be facing the Panther and Lightning Clans, two powerful foes at the same time, it was certainly true that he wasn’t sure how things would turn out.
It wasn’t an issue with Jörgen’s worthiness as patriarch; rather, it was that the patriarchs of the enemy clans boasted abilities that were ridiculously broken.
Steinþórr had his overwhelming brute fighting strength, and Hveðrungr’s eye for strategy was a terrible threat.
In truth, the news that the wagon wall defensive tactic had been defeated had made his blood run cold. He never would have thought that a military strategy from over three thousand years ahead of that era would be so easily conquered.
The tactic his enemy had used was akin to the famous “Trojan Horse,” and so that particular move wouldn’t work over and over without being seen through, but there was ample possibility that the man had thought up several more techniques to defeat the wagon wall.
In order to counter the Panther Clan, the wagon wall would not be enough, it seemed.
Yuuto recalled something that he had hesitated on, and ultimately refrained from using, because of the terrible repercussions that might occur afterward.
Should I have them use that? No, but that would...
He shook his head to clear his thoughts.
“Father! ...Father!” Jörgen shouted.
“Y-yeah. Sorry, I’m here. I was just thinking.”
“Ohh, so you are considering returning to us after all, then!”
“Ah, um, no.”
“I beg you! Father, I know that you have always wished to return to your realm beyond the heavens. So, I would not ask you to be here with us in the Wolf Clan forever. Just three more years! Please, give us three more years!”
“Even if you say that...” Yuuto furrowed his brow, and sighed.
The Wolf Clan had become something like a second home to Yuuto, and through the Oath of the Chalice, the clan had become like his family. And so, of course, Yuuto wanted to find a way to do whatever he could.
However, right now, his only method for returning to this world was via the magic of Sigyn, of the Panther Clan.
Jörgen might be asking for only for three years, but even if Yuuto were able to go back to Yggdrasil somehow, there was no guarantee he’d be able to return home again.
Beeep-beep! Beeep-beep!
“Ahh, it sounds like we are out of time,” Jörgen said rapidly. “In any case! Aunt Felicia will be returning to the city tomorrow. Please, please! Please return to us...”
Jörgen’s voice cut off.
Click. Beep, beep, beep.
With the call ended, there was only the mechanical beeping in Yuuto’s ears.
Back when he was in Yggdrasil, Yuuto had come to resent those heartless sounds that accompanied the end of his calls. But today, he actually found himself feeling like they’d come to his rescue.
Mitsuki had been watching him carry on his discussion with worry in her eyes. “Good job getting through that, Yuu-kun. It sounded like it was really hard for you... are you okay?”
Her question didn’t come to him through a phone receiver; his childhood friend’s voice was loud and clear, right here next to him.
Yuuto stared at her face intently.
“Huh? What is it?” Mitsuki tilted her head slightly.
He wasn’t looking at a picture of her; right now he could see her form, her living movements, with his own two eyes.
Such things could be an ordinary part of his life here, but to return to Yggdrasil would be to throw them away.
It would mean leaving behind this girl who had already waited faithfully for him for three years.
He couldn’t bring himself to do that.
However, he didn’t want to abandon the Wolf Clan, either.
He didn’t know what he should do.
However much he thought about it, he just didn’t know what to do.
In the living room, Mitsuki’s mother, Miyo, sipped from her tea, then let out a long sigh. “Haaahhh... after hearing something like that, it starts to feel like his story about going to another world isn’t entirely a lie, doesn’t it?”
She might not have given birth to him herself, but Yuuto was like family to her, the precious child left behind by her late best friend. It really pained her heart that he’d been a runaway for three years.
On top of that, this was the very boy her beloved daughter had been attached to and pined after since grade school.
There were quite a few things Miyo was curious about, and she had invited him over for dinner tonight intending to grill him for more details, but the situation had taken a turn for the interesting.
With the TV turned off in the living room, conversations in the nearby hallway carried right through the wall. A bit of eavesdropping in this situation was only human nature.
“Hmph, don’t be ridiculous. Don’t tell me you’re buying that idiotic crap.” Her husband, Shigeru, practically spat out those words in irritation, punctuating them with the crunch of metal as he crushed the empty beer can in his hand.
It seemed he couldn’t stomach the idea of this boy being so close to his adorable daughter.
Miyo had explained to him that she’d known Yuuto since he was small, and that he was a good boy, but Shigeru wasn’t interested in listening.
“But that clearly wasn’t Japanese he was speaking,” Miyo said. “It wasn’t English, either.”
“Hmph, that just means it was some more minor foreign language.”
“Even then, it means he’s perfectly mastered speaking such a language, so that’s pretty impressive.”
“Ggh...” Shigeru grit his teeth and grunted in frustration.
Even he had been able to tell it was a real foreign language, and not just some foreign-sounding words of the sort grade school children made-up during their games of pretend.
“And by the way, about that metal headband?” Miyo said. “Today I took it to that secondhand shop for brand-name goods in the department store, and had them examine it. They said it really is made of pure gold.”
“Is that really true?!”
“What would I get by lying to you about that?”
“Urgh...”
“Isn’t it about time you just admitted it?” Miyo said. “At the very least, your daughter knows a good man when she sees one.”
Her husband turned his face away and thrust out his drinking cup towards her. “Hmph! Bring me another!”
“Right, right. Just this once, dear.”
Miyo shrugged her shoulders as if to say, What am I going to do with you? and made her way to the fridge to grab her husband’s second drink of the night.
As Yuuto was on his way out the front door, he turned and bowed politely. “Thank you for dinner. It was wonderful.”
“Oh, you’re too kind. Please come and eat with us again. We’d love to have you,” Miyo replied, flashing a broad smile.
It wasn’t the sort of social smile that accompanied polite flattery. Yuuto could tell that it was from the heart.
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you very much.” Yuuto bowed his head again holding onto the renewed sense of gratitude in his heart.
“Yuu-kun, see you again soon,” Mitsuki said.
“Yeah, catch you later.” Yuuto returned Mitsuki’s wave of farewell, and exited the Shimoya home.
Outside it was fully dark, his way home illuminated only by the spots of light from the street lamps along the road.
There wasn’t another soul around, perhaps as was fitting for such a countryside town.
Yuuto was visited by a strange sense of loneliness. Perhaps that just showed how warm and happy it had felt at Mitsuki’s home.
“Considering the position I’m in right now, it’s a little too good for someone like me.” Yuuto looked up at the starless, cloud-covered sky and sighed.
Currently Yuuto hadn’t finished middle school, nor was he attending high school, and he wasn’t working, either.
And Mitsuki’s family had accepted someone like him, if not as Mitsuki’s official boyfriend yet, at least as her male friend. Yuuto didn’t think he’d ever be able to fully express his gratitude for that.
The meal had been unbelievably delicious, too. When he’d taken his first bites of the freshly steamed rice and first sips of the hot miso soup, it had brought tears to his eyes.
If he continued his life here in the modern world, these ordinary, peaceful and happy days would surely continue.
Of course, Yuuto had already learned by now that life wasn’t all a bed of roses.
Eventually, he would be faced with obstacles and struggles due to the fact that he hadn’t gotten a standard education.
But, at the very least, he wouldn’t have to kill or be killed over it. He would not have to stain his hands or his heart with the blood of others. This was the kind of world he’d wished to return to, for so, so long.
But... in the back of his mind, a voice whispered to him:
Are you going to forsake your family for your own personal happiness?
Isn’t that exactly the same as your father, the man you despise the most?
This was the source of the feelings of guilt which continued to plague Yuuto in the modern world, surfacing whenever he allowed himself to enjoy how peaceful it was here.
He kept trying to stay positive, telling himself that even without him in the other world things would work out somehow, but he couldn’t avert his eyes like that any longer.
“Dammit!!” There was a dull thud! as Yuuto slammed his fist into a nearby telephone pole.
It hurt, naturally. It hurt like hell.
Even so, he struck with his fist a second, a third time, unable to do anything about the horrible swirling feelings in his chest except take them out on the closest thing nearby.
It was the following night.
As soon as the call connected, a voice familiar to Yuuto’s ears came through the receiver. “Big Brother!”
There was no need to wonder who it might be; there were few girls who called Yuuto “Big Brother,” and only one with Felicia’s sweet, gentle voice.
He felt his heart welling up with joy.
He’d already known she was safe. However, there was a big difference between receiving that information and the feeling that came from actually hearing her voice for himself.
“Thank goodness,” he said with relief. “So you really did make it out safely!”
“Yes! Likewise, Big Brother, it is so wonderful that you are all right! I had faith that you’d returned safely to your country beyond the heavens, but hearing your voice like this truly brings me relief.” On the other end of the call, Felicia let out a sigh of relief.
Certainly, thinking about it from Felicia’s perspective, Yuuto had suddenly vanished before her eyes. Even if she’d had faith in his safety, she must surely have been anxious.
“Well, I’m fit as a fiddle,” Yuuto assured her. “What about you guys? I heard Rún got injured.”
“Ah, then I’ll let Rún speak to you. She’s been saying, ‘Hurry up and give it to me!’ and making a fuss this whole time. Here.”
“F-Father!”
“Ah, hey, Rún,” Yuuto said. “Is your hand injury doing all right?”
“Yes, Father. It is nothing serious. More importantly, I must apologize. Not only did I lose Fort Gashina to the enemy, we lost many of our soldiers and officers...” Sigrún’s voice was choked with bitter frustration. The Mánagarmr surely felt a grave sense of responsibility for the defeat.
“It’s not something you should brood over,” Yuuto comforted her. “This all happened because I suddenly vanished like I did. You did a good job holding out as long as you did in that situation.”
“No, I didn’t. It is Big Brother Olof who deserves your praise. If he had not stayed behind in Gashina and held back the enemy, then... I think Felicia and I might not be here speaking with you right now.”
“...I see.” Yuuto said only that, then paused, his lips pressed tightly together.
He’d learned about Olof in an earlier report; there was almost no chance the man had survived.
“Then the fact that I can talk to you both now is because of him,” Yuuto said in a quiet voice. “We really owe him our thanks.”
“Yes...” Sigrún agreed softly.
Olof’s death had been a huge shock to Yuuto.
This was the man he’d trusted enough to put in charge of governing what had become the Wolf Clan’s breadbasket, the city and province of Gimlé. Yuuto himself had often personally relied on Olof in various affairs.
And, back when he’d first become the patriarch, when many had looked down on him as an arrogant young upstart and the clan elders had been plotting behind the scenes to unseat him, Olof had become his sworn child subordinate and served him faithfully.
The man hadn’t performed flashy acts of military prowess on the battlefield like Sigrún or Skáviðr, but applied himself to any mission assigned to him, providing steady and solid results. He was an unsung hero, and long, difficult tasks had always been safe in his hands.
Yuuto had had fewer opportunities to meet and speak with him in recent days, due in part to his post being far away from the capital. Still, in Yuuto’s heart, he had remained a trusted and reliable member of his family, someone Yuuto cherished and who respected him in return.
Not only would they never meet again, but Yuuto would never even hear his voice again. That feeling of loss was like a hole was being ripped open in his chest.
Yuuto held back the tears that had been forming in the corners of his eyes. “...Rún, could you put Felicia back on?”
“Yes, Father. Hey, Felicia, Father said to give it back to you.”
“Yes, Big Brother, I’m here,” said Felicia.
“Hey, Felicia, there’s... one thing I want to ask you.”
Why would you even ask her this? shouted a voice of reason, somewhere in the back of his thoughts.
It wasn’t something he should ask aloud.
It wasn’t something he should consider asking.
He knew that, but he couldn’t keep himself from asking her, either.
“If you followed the same steps, the same ritual, as before, would you be able to summon me to Yggdrasil again?”
“Ah...!” On the other end of the line, Yuuto could hear Felicia gasp.
She paused, swallowing, and then spoke her answer very carefully.
“In all honesty, I cannot be sure. The fact that I was able to summon you here in the first place was something akin to a miracle, after all. However...”
“However?”
“At most, all I would be capable of is calling you to this world. I cannot send you back.”
“Oh... Yeah, that’s true, isn’t it.” Those words were all that Yuuto managed to squeeze out in reply.
Indeed, if Felicia were capable of it, she would have been able to send him back to the modern era long ago, even back when he’d first arrived three years ago.
At present, the only person who had a method for returning Yuuto from Yggdrasil was Sigyn of the Panther Clan.
However, she was the wife of the Panther Clan patriarch Hveðrungr. It didn’t take much to imagine just how impossibly difficult it would be to capture her and get her to do as they asked.
In other words, if Yuuto were to return to Yggdrasil once more, there was a good chance he might never be able to return home again.
“Big Brother, if it is still your wish regardless, I shall perform the summoning rituals, as many times as you require,” Felicia said. “What is your decision?”
“......” Yuuto was silent, unable to answer.
It wasn’t something he could easily agree to.
He felt a sense of self-loathing for having asked about it in the first place when he wasn’t mentally prepared to make this decision.
All it did was fill the others with hopeful expectations.
There was a long moment of silence.
“Big Brother?” Felicia suddenly called to Yuuto, in a voice that seemed to wrap softly around his heart, even through the phone like this.
“What is it?”
“No matter what you may decide to do, I will abide by it. Even if, for instance, you decide not to return to this world.”
“...Are you really okay with that, though?”
“As a Wolf Clan high officer and the leader of your sibling subordinates, perhaps it is wrong for me to say this, but for me personally, before any of that, I am your younger sister, Big Brother Yuuto. As a younger sister, I wish for my older brother’s happiness.”
“Oy, Felicia, what are you saying?!” a voice shouted in the background.
“Oh, my, it seems good Jörgen has lost his temper.” Felicia’s tone was jovial and joking, and Yuuto could hear the sounds of running around, and something being knocked over.
It would seem that Felicia was running around to evade Jörgen, who was trying to take the phone away from her.
Between breaths, Felicia continued. “Thankfully, there is still time before the next full moon. Please, do take your time and think on it. You do not... want to regret your choice. Well then, good night!”
“Heh...” Yuuto stifled a wry laugh. “All right, and thank you, Felicia.”
Yuuto’s voice was flooded with a mixture of emotions as he gave her his thanks and ended the call.
Good grief... as always, that adjutant of mine is too good for me, he thought with a sigh.
No matter the time or situation, Felicia always put Yuuto first and foremost. That had been true ever since the first moments after he’d arrived in Yggdrasil, a powerless child who couldn’t do anything. She had always devoted herself to him with selfless loyalty.
That was precisely why he couldn’t bear to forsake her.
Yuuto’s dilemma only grew deeper.
Her back to the wall, Felicia nonchalantly held out the smartphone to her pursuer. “It’s already finished, Jörgen.”
Jörgen moved to snatch it roughly from her, but then he slowed himself and took it gingerly into his own hands.
At the last second, his rational mind must have kicked in and told him he couldn’t take the slightest risk of accidentally breaking the thing.
His anger, however, had far from subsided.
“Aunt Felicia! This is no matter to joke about. I cannot believe you took it upon yourself to say such things! This is a matter that concerns the very fate of the Wolf Clan itself, and you must not forget that!”
“Please accept my apologies. However, it is just as I said to him a moment ago: I may be a high officer of the Wolf Clan, but before that, I am a woman who fell for Big Brother Yuuto, and I pledged myself to him when I exchanged the Oath of the Chalice.”
“Grh...! If that’s true, then it is all the more reason you should devote yourself to him at his side!”
With those parting words, Jörgen stomped his way out of the hörgr, the Wolf Clan’s religious sanctuary hall.
He would surely be returning to his administration duties. With the huge defeat at Fort Gashina, the threat from the Panther and Lightning Clans was encroaching ever closer.
Right now, Jörgen was entrusted with all of the authority and rights of the patriarch, and he surely had a mountain of work piled up.
“You shouldn’t be too reckless either, you know,” Sigrún cut in with a wry grin. “If you’re not careful, things like that could land you in prison.”
The current crisis threatened the clan’s very existence, and her actions could be construed as preventing the arrival of someone who could save them; it would not be amiss for some to suspect her treachery.
Considering what her biological older brother had done, that was all the more of a danger.
“Oh, but you are not mad at me?” Felicia asked.
“I respect Father’s wishes, and I abide by them. I’m fine with what you said. I see nothing I should be mad about.”
“Oh. Well, I did not expect anyone to take my side, so that makes me happy.”
“Hmph. He did wish fervently to return to his homeland this whole time, after all. If he is happy in his peaceful world in the heavens, I could hardly bear to call him back here and force him back into the throes of war again. ...Still, it will be lonely without him.”
“Yes, it will. It will be... quite lonely.”
Felicia felt the corners of her eyes grow hot, and turned her face upward to look at the ceiling. She knew that her face would run with tears if she did not do so.
During the phone call, she had wished for Yuuto’s happiness first, and said as much, but the thought that she might not see his face again filled her with sadness.
She might hear his voice through that phone, but it felt somehow muffled and distant.
More than anything, her sorrow was over thinking that she would be unable to touch him again, to feel the warmth of his body.
Someday, she had always told herself, trying to be emotionally prepared. But now that it was actually happening, it was like a hole had been opened in her heart; whenever she thought of Yuuto, she felt she might start to tear up.
“Tch.” Sigrún clicked her tongue in irritation, and grabbed Felicia’s head, roughly pulling it against her own chest.
“What?! What are you doing all of a sudden?” Felicia sputtered.
“You were trying to act brave and cheerful for Father this whole time. I’ll pay you back for that. You can lean on me.”
“...Thank you.”
Felicia was aware of the fact that she wasn’t really strong at heart. She whispered her thanks, and then buried her face into her dear friend’s chest.
Ding dong... ding dong...
From somewhere, Yuuto heard the sound of a doorbell.
He was sitting at the desk in his room, with his head on his hands, staring blankly out the window.
His gaze was lingering on a sparrow perched on top of the electrical lines outside, but though he was looking right at it, he wasn’t really watching it.
“Sheesh, I thought you were up here!”
Suddenly Mitsuki’s face filled his vision. Yuuto shouted and lurched backwards.
“Whoa!”
He almost tumbled backwards onto the floor, chair and all, but he managed to stop himself and regain his balance.
“D-don’t come in here without knocking! And at least ring the doorbell first. Why would you just go into someone’s house without...”
“I did knock! I rang the doorbell, too, and your dad said I could come in!”
“...Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously.” Mitsuki nodded, standing tall with her arms sternly crossed. It seemed she was telling the truth.
“Sorry about that,” Yuuto said ruefully. “I was just... thinking.”
“Thinking about Yggdrasil again?”
“Yeah.” Yuuto nodded, grimacing bitterly as if he’d swallowed a bug. He’d spent the whole night thinking, and thinking, and before he’d realized it, daylight had come. Despite agonizing over it that much, he didn’t have an answer to the problem at all.
“If you worry yourself too much, it’s gonna ruin your health, you know,” Mitsuki said. “Shouldn’t you get some rest? Just sleep for a little bit, okay?”
“You’re right.” Yuuto sighed. “I’m not gonna come up with anything good if I’m too tired to think. Actually, why did you even come here so early in the morning?”
“Mmph... So you don’t notice?”
“Notice what?”
“Jeez!” Mitsuki puffed out her cheeks in exasperation, then did an elegant spin in place, her skirt fluttering.
Now Yuuto was even more lost than before. “Huh?”
“My school uniform! Starting today, I’m a high-schooler! I just wanted to show it to you as early as I could, Yuu-kun.”
“Ohhh...” Now that he got a good look at her, Yuuto saw that her blazer was different, something he’d never seen her wear before. It did ring a bell; he’d often seen it on school uniforms around this area. It had a clean and pure sort of atmosphere to it, and Mitsuki looked wonderful in it.
“...!” Suddenly, Yuuto felt his chest tighten with an intense feeling of loneliness and isolation.
While he’d been gone, Mitsuki had worked hard, continued her education, and now she was in high school.
She was even incredibly skilled at cooking now. For a girl with her great qualities, surely more boys had fallen for her than you could count on both hands.
She truly was too good for someone like him.
He’d often heard that long-distance relationships didn’t last.
If Yuuto were to leave again, this time for sure she would reach the limits of her patience, her love for him, and another man would snatch her away from him.
“What’s wrong? Oh, was it that you were captivated by me?” Mitsuki asked.
“Yeah, I was. You look really cute.”
“Whoa, whoa, you just came out straight and said it! I think this is the first time you’ve said something like that to me, Yuu-kun! ...Ah! I see, you’re gonna follow it up with an insult, right?!”
“No, I’m not. I just said that because that’s what I was thinking.”
“Ah...!” Mitsuki’s face flushed a bright red. That aspect of her was also something Yuuto found charming, and precious.
He couldn’t stand the thought of some other man being by her side.
He wanted to be the one to protect her, with his own two hands.
He didn’t want to even consider parting with her again, possibly never seeing her again.
“...is... and because it is... and so... thus...”
The principal, a large man just into his golden years, stood on a platform at one end of the school gymnasium, giving a prepared speech that was transmitted through loudspeakers.
It was a speech aimed at the new students, instructions and advice based on the experience of decades of experience as a teacher, and the content was all probably quite useful and something to be grateful for. But none of it stuck into Mitsuki’s head at all.
Right now, her head was filled only with thoughts of Yuuto.
Ever since they’d been able to get back in contact with Yggdrasil, he’d been clearly acting strange.
Of course, ever since coming back home, he’d been thinking of the people he left behind in that world, and he’d been a bit out of sorts with worry for them for a while now, but it felt like recently, that had grown much more severe and serious.
He had bags under his eyes this morning, like he hadn’t gotten any sleep at all. I’m worried about him.
Mitsuki had made sure to tell Yuuto to get some rest, but she was unsure he would be able to follow through on that.
Honestly, she wanted to run right out of this entrance ceremony and rush to his side to check on him.
The people of the Wolf Clan really, really need Yuu-kun, don’t they...?
She hadn’t asked him for too many details, but this was the childhood friend she’d known for as long as she could remember. She could tell just from his behavior pretty much what was going on.
All of a sudden, Yuuto had come here and left the Wolf Clan behind, and that had caused a whole bunch of problems.
And they were problems that Yuuto couldn’t fix just by giving orders or advice over the phone; she could understand that much.
After all, if the problems weren’t more serious than that, he wouldn’t be so torn up.
Yuuto was kind. After he’d lived with and fought with his comrades in that world, surely he couldn’t bear to just leave them to their fate. That was why he was suffering.
“High school is not part of this country’s mandatory education,” the principal said proudly. “In the past, boys and girls of your age would undergo a coming-of-age called the genpuku, and be regarded as full-fledged adults. That’s right! None of you are really children anymore. You’re now at an age where an appropriate level of self-awareness and sense of responsibility will be expected and demanded of you. You must stand on your own two feet, think with your own mind, and head towards your futures, each and every one of you!”
The principal seemed to have gotten to the climax of his speech, and was speaking more powerfully.
The speech itself still didn’t really stick in her head, except for the phrase your futures, which strangely seemed to ring in her ears.
Her future...
If Mitsuki were asked what she wanted to be in the future, she could answer that she wanted to be Yuuto’s wife.
If she were asked what she wanted to do in the future, the answer that fit best to her was that she wanted to be useful to Yuuto.
If someone were to tell her that her answers lacked any sense of independence, then she didn’t really have a good response to that. But it was how Mitsuki sincerely felt, with no lies or half-truths, so that was that.
“What is it that I can do for Yuu-kun’s sake...?” she murmured. “I wonder, what would be the thing that would be best for him...?”
Mitsuki continued to ponder over those questions for the remainder of the entrance ceremony.
When Yuuto came to, he was standing in a familiar place, on a floor made from sun-dried bricks.
“Huh? Where is this?”
It was a space about the size of a small school gymnasium, with a somewhat solemn atmosphere. He couldn’t sense the presence of any people.
In the back of the room was an altar, and resting on its highest shelf was the divine mirror, the light of the nearby torches reflected on its surface with a mysterious, wavering glow.
“I’m in the hörgr? Did I come back to Yggdrasil?”
Unable to understand the situation, Yuuto left the sanctuary and descended the stairs of the Hliðskjálf, the clan’s sacred tower.
As he did, he gasped.
The area was littered with innumerable bodies, and the once-grand Wolf Clan palace was a ruin of its former self, smashed in places, covered with bloodstains in others.
Yuuto reached the palace gates and found...
“Rún?!”
Sigrún was completely drenched in blood, dead where she stood, held upright by a spear that was pierced straight through her chest.
“N-no... how could this...” Yuuto felt his body shaking violently, and he took one step back, then another.
“Ah! That’s right! Felicia! Felicia!” Screaming her name, Yuuto ran to his office.
The room was wrecked completely, and slumped on top of her usual chair was...
“Agh...!”
Felicia’s body was still. A large pool of blood surrounded her, and her blank face was ghastly pale, without any hint of life remaining.
“Ah... aghh... AAUUUGHHH!!” Yuuto screamed, his emotions unable to be put into words, and he raced out of the room.
He ran blindly through the halls of the palace, looking for anyone alive.
However...
“Uuugh... agh... ngh...!”
The more he searched, the more bodies he found.
Ingrid, Linnea, Albertina, Kristina, Jörgen, Skáviðr. All of them were bloody corpses.
“Someone! Anyone! Is there anyone here?!”
“Master!” The voice that answered Yuuto’s cries was that of a very young girl.
“Ephy?! Ephy, you’re safe!” As Yuuto turned around, he saw his servant Ephelia, running towards him and crying.
As Yuuto made to run towards her, suddenly an armed man on horseback appeared directly behind her. Yuuto felt his body tremble.
The armed rider held a spear in one hand, which he raised up, and then brought down its sharp blade on Ephelia—
“NOOOOOOO!!” Yuuto awoke with a start at his desk, screaming.
Directly in front of him was the wall of the room, a light beige color that was easy on the eyes. There were no bloodstains anywhere. Everything was clean.
Looking down, he saw the student desk made of brightly colored wood. No bloodstains anywhere here. No smell of blood, either.
Actually, thinking back, even as he had run through all of those grisly scenes, Yuuto didn’t remember smelling blood then, either.
In other words, everything he had just seen was...
“So... it was a dream.” Relieved, Yuuto let out a long, long breath, then sat back down in his chair.
Apparently he’d fallen asleep sitting here. And then he’d seen that nightmare because he’d been thinking about Yggdrasil all this time.
“I should get something to drink.” Partially because of that harrowing nightmare, Yuuto’s throat was parched.
He got up and went downstairs, heading for the kitchen. After a glass of cold water, Yuuto was on his way back when he saw a light, and stopped.
If that light had been coming from the living room, or his father’s bedroom, Yuuto would have ignored it and gone back up the stairs without a second thought. But the light was coming from the altar room, where his family’s Buddhist altar and his mother’s memorial portrait were kept.
As if compelled, Yuuto moved to the room’s entrance, and opened the sliding screen door.
He found himself looking down at his father, who was silently praying to the Buddhist figure with his hands together and eyes closed.
“Well, that’s unexpected,” Yuuto scoffed out loud. “I didn’t think you’d pray at the altar.”
It seemed that Yuuto couldn’t help but be provocative like this whenever he spoke with his father.
Thanks to the state his mind was in now, he was even less able to control that than usual.
His father slowly opened his eyes, and turned to face him. “It’s because it’s the anniversary of her death.”
“Ah...” Yuuto remembered as soon as he heard the words, and was filled with self-loathing.
Indeed, his mother had passed away exactly three years ago today.
And this man, who surely didn’t really treasure Yuuto’s mother at all, had properly remembered her death anniversary while Yuuto, who should have been the one to remember, had forgotten.
Even if he’d had a lot on his mind lately, it didn’t change the facts.
Yuuto glanced at the altar.
There wasn’t a speck of dust on it, and the Buddhist figure enshrined there was as well-polished as ever, showing that the altar had been carefully maintained.
By the time Yuuto realized what was happening, it was already too late. All the feelings he’d kept within himself bubbled up like magma, out of his control.
“...Hey. So why didn’t you come, back then?” he demanded.
It was a question so vague that, without any prior context, there would be no way to tell what he was asking about. But the meaning of the question came through loud and clear to his father.
“I thought I told you as much back then,” the man said. “I had work to do in the forge.”
“Is making swords that important to you?! That you’d just blow off Mom when she was on her deathbed?! It that all Mom was worth to you?!”
All this time, Yuuto had decided the truth of things on his own, and had never questioned his father about it. He’d rejected his father, reviled him, and sealed those feelings away in his heart.
Now the lid was off, and three year’s worth of unresolved emotions came out of him, the questions thrown against the man in front of him.
And they were also questions thrown at himself, using his father as a mirror.
His father sat there, accepting Yuuto’s withering glare, then got up quietly, and reached behind the Buddha statue to pull out a very small sheathed blade, the size of a tanto-style knife.
“What is that...?” Yuuto asked slowly.
“It’s the blade I was forging while your mother was on her deathbed.” Tetsuhito handed the knife out to Yuuto.
Yuuto took it and pulled the blade from its sheath.
It was short, but the body of the wave-patterned blade was beautifully done. Yuuto could tell this was possibly one of the greatest pieces of his father’s many works.
Etched deeply into the side of the blade were the characters for Begone, Spirits of Disease.
“I’m a man who makes swords,” Tetsuhito said. “That’s the only thing I was ever good for. So, I thought this was maybe the only thing I could do for her. Of course, in the end, it didn’t help at all, did it?”
Yuuto’s father chuckled with a tinge of bitter self-derision, and looked up at the ceiling.
Swords had a long history in Japan as religious and spiritual objects, from being sanctified in Shinto shrines to being forged along with the birth of a baby as a protective charm. It was said that a properly forged blade could hold within it the power to dispel evil.
Yuuto’s father had gambled on that spiritual tradition.
By attempting to put his thoughts and his soul into the blade as he forged it, he had attempted to cure his dying wife’s illness by exorcising the spirit of disease.
“Why...?!” Yuuto cried in a strangled voice. “Why didn’t you ever tell me that?! If you’d just told me, I wouldn’t have...”
“All that matters are the results. When she died, I wasn’t there for her at her side. That fact doesn’t change. It’s only right for you to hate me.” His father was saying these things in his usual detached way, but his voice was wavering slightly.
That was when Yuuto finally understood.
His father had been blaming himself this whole time for not being able to save his wife, and for not having been there at her side in the end.
By continuing to accept Yuuto’s hatred and scorn, he’d been punishing himself.
“Ha... ha ha ha... you... you’re such an idiot...” A dry, cracked laugh escaped from Yuuto’s throat.
To put it bluntly, his father’s actions back then had been nothing short of idiotic. Relying on that sort of superstition would never have healed a terminal illness. If it could have, the world wouldn’t be as rough as it was.
Still, even still, Tetsuhito had done his best, within his own abilities, for Yuuto’s mother.
Looking at the magnificent blade in his hands, Yuuto could see the strength of the feelings that had forged it.
“Everything I’ve felt up until now... it was all pointless...” Yuuto whispered.
Yuuto already understood how childish he still was; that had been made painfully clear to him two years ago. But now, he was nearly sick to his stomach at realizing just how much of an idiot he had been.
His father had never abandoned his mother in the first place; he’d loved her, and tried to save her. He’d placed his faith in a miracle and tried to make it happen, right up until the very end.
By contrast, Yuuto himself had given up on his mother’s hope of survival as soon as the doctors had said there was no saving her.
He’d been averting his eyes from the fact that he was powerless.
He’d made a scapegoat out of his father, and made everything out to be his fault.
Just how much of a spoiled little brat was he?
“Heh, and look where I am, turning into exactly the kind of person I’d always told myself I hated,” Yuuto said bitterly. “The world sure is funny.”
No matter what happens, never abandon your family. That was the vow Yuuto had made to himself after his mother died.
But the reality had turned out differently.
The Wolf Clan, who were as good as family to him, were in danger, and he was stuck between them and his feelings for Mitsuki.
If his absolute vow came first, then he shouldn’t hesitate to go to rescue his family first.
“Is... there something you’re having trouble deciding?” Yuuto’s father asked, looking him in the eyes.
“...Yeah. Frankly, I don’t have a clue what I’m supposed to do. There are two things that are both important to me, and I can’t give up either of them. What would you do in that situation?”
“Hmm... I see...” Yuuto’s father folded his arms and closed his eyes.
After a few moments in thought, he opened his eyes and looked directly at Yuuto again.
“Why don’t you try putting yourself right up on the edge of the cliff?”
“The edge... of the cliff?” Yuuto hadn’t expected this kind of response.
“Make a choice that you won’t regret.” Or, “Think long and hard about it.” Those were the sort of normal responses he would have expected from his father.
As Yuuto parroted his father’s words back, Tetsuhito chuckled softly to himself. “The guys who act tough and talk big and loud about their ideals... when the going gets tough, they’re the first ones gone. This world is full of people like that. Young people who tell themselves they’ll be satisfied as long as they lived to fifty, and then once they get that age, they start thinking they’d really like to live on to seventy, that sort of thing. That’s the funny thing about people. Pride and image get in their way, and they don’t end up seeing even their own true feelings. At least, not until they’re pushed to the very limit.”
Yuuto found himself agreeing fully with what he was hearing.
As a clan patriarch, he’d seen plenty of men who bragged about their valor during peacetime, only to turn coward when it came time to actually go to war.
Yuuto’s father turned his gaze to the side, as if staring at something far away. “I was the same...”
He was looking right at the memorial picture of Yuuto’s mother.
“I always thought, as long as I could make swords, I’d be a happy man,” he went on. “I thought that... for such a long time.”
Tetsuhito trailed off. In other words, he now felt differently.
What had been the true source of his happiness? There was, of course, no need to ask him.
Looking at him more closely, Yuuto could see that he was much thinner and more haggard than the man from his memories. There was more white in his hair; he looked like he’d aged a lot in a short time.
The father he remembered from three years ago had been a hated figure to him, but also impressive and imposing. This man seemed so much smaller and weaker to Yuuto’s eyes.
That must have been just how badly his wife’s death had hit him.
Thinking back, Yuuto must have also been just as important to him.
At Mitsuki’s house, and at the police station, he’d rushed over as soon as he was called.
During their ride in the truck, he’d tried to talk with Yuuto about his future.
Even right now, he was seriously listening to Yuuto’s problems and trying to give a sincere response.
Yuuto’s perspective had just been clouded over from his hateful bias; his father had always loved his family and tried to protect them. His father was a man worthy of respect. He was just clumsy, and terrible with expressing his feelings in words.
“Okay,” Yuuto said quietly. “I think I’m starting to see what I should do. Thanks... Dad.”
Without even thinking, Yuuto addressed his father normally once more. It had come naturally to him.
The ill feelings in his heart were completely gone.
“So this is it... where it all started...” Yuuto muttered nostalgically. He stood facing a small, run down old shrine in the woods.
This was Tsukimiya Shrine. The very place where, on that fated day, Yuuto had come with Mitsuki on a test of courage, and where the divine mirror that summoned him to Yggdrasil had once been enshrined.
Back then, if I only hadn’t gotten that crazy idea into my head...
Those were words he’d repeated to himself over and over many times now, always blaming himself for that choice.
But at some point, that had changed...
Yes, right around the time he’d become patriarch.
He’d stopped thinking too much about that night.
In fact, he hadn’t really had the time to think about it. The weight of the lives of everyone in the Wolf Clan had come to rest squarely on his shoulders.
He’d spent three years working, and striving, and pushing himself like crazy.
The thought that he had to get home had always driven him.
He’d been longing to see Mitsuki again. Of course, he’d also reflected on the inconsiderate and thoughtless way he had acted back then.
However, now he realized something new. It was that he no longer felt regret for actually having gone to Yggdrasil.
Life in that world was inconvenient and harsh.
There was no heating or cooling by air conditioner; summers were hot, and winters were freezing.
Back when he’d first arrived there, he’d been sick to his stomach so many times that it had nearly broken him.
Every day it was only bread for meals, and he’d constantly longed for the taste of rice.
Things like television, or comics, the symbols of modern entertainment, were nowhere to be found.
He’d had some access to the modern internet thanks to his smartphone, but only for about thirty minutes a day.
But, even still...
Reflecting on all of it, his days living in Yggdrasil had been full of a sense of fulfillment he’d never experienced during his life in the modern world before that.
He’d worked hard for the sake of the people around him, researching, planning, and creating things. It had been difficult, but it had also actually been fun.
Working together with everyone to accomplish a goal, sharing in the feeling of success as they completed it — it was a feeling greater than anything he’d ever gotten from clearing a video game.
When he saw the joyful faces of his comrades, heard their words of thanks, it filled him with great pride.
It felt pretty good to be useful, to be needed that way.
He’d made friends, true companions.
They weren’t the kind of social, shallow friendships he’d made in the modern world. They were relationships born of shared joy and suffering, and at times the shared danger to their lives. They were people he could call both his comrades and his family.
Perhaps that was why, then.
Even though, for three years, he’d always wanted and wished so badly to come back home...
Even though he’d finally made it back home...
Somewhere in his heart, he missed that world.
“Yuu-kun, sorry for the wait.”
From behind him, Yuuto heard the voice of his childhood friend.
Usually her voice would make his heart jump for joy, but now it made his chest tighten painfully.
Yuuto took a few deep breaths, then readied himself and turned to face her.
“No worries,” he said. “I just got here, too. Sorry for calling you out here this late.”
Yuuto tried to act as normal as he could.
But Mitsuki had known him for as long as each of them could remember, and she already seemed to have picked up on things.
Mitsuki smiled at him gently. “You’ve decided to go back to Yggdrasil, right?”
“...You really do see right through me, don’t you?”
“I do when it comes to you, Yuu-kun.”
“Okay.” Yuuto felt a wave of pain go through his chest.
She knew him this well, this completely. She cared about him this much. And he still couldn’t reciprocate her love. He was a good-for-nothing piece of garbage, and he hated himself for it.
“Just answer me one thing,” Mitsuki said. “Are you going back because it’s your duty? Because you’re the patriarch? Because you feel responsible for everyone there?”
Yuuto considered her questions carefully.
It was true that he felt a sense of duty, of responsibility. But that wasn’t the biggest reason for him. Right now, the feeling in Yuuto’s heart that drove his decision was a much simpler and purer one.
He shook his head. “No. It’s because I love them. They’re important to me. I want to protect them.”
Seeing a dream in which they’d all been slaughtered had made him forcibly aware of his feelings.
To Yuuto right now, the people of the Wolf Clan were just as important to his life as even Mitsuki; he couldn’t put one of them ahead of the other.
For a long time he’d tried not to think about those feelings, had kept them locked away. But now, he couldn’t fool himself any longer.
It wasn’t that he had to protect them.
He wanted to protect them.
He didn’t want to lose them.
They were his precious family.
“...Okay,” Mitsuki said. “Well, I’m not gonna wait for you. I’m not doing that for you anymore.”
“Gh...!” Yuuto felt his face wrench, and he knew he must look pathetic.
He’d been prepared for this ever since he’d asked her to meet him out here. In fact, he’d even intended to say, “I want you to forget about me.”
Mitsuki was important to him too, naturally. He didn’t want to give her up to any other man.
But he could withstand that, if it meant she would be happy.
It hurt when he thought about it, made him go crazy, but it was still better than a future where his family members in the Wolf Clan were killed.
As long as Mitsuki was alive, happy and smiling, it didn’t have to be at his side...
At least, that was what he’d convinced himself he’d accepted, but now that he was hearing it straight from her, it sent shockwaves through his heart anyway.
“Ha ha... yeah, of course,” he said weakly. “You’ve already spent three whole years waiting on me; there’s no way I could ask you to wait again.”
He couldn’t help but laugh at how comical it was; he hadn’t actually let go.
Some part of him had still hoped that, even now, Mitsuki might still agree to keep waiting for him.
He’d been naive.
He’d been conceited.
Of course she wouldn’t do that.
It was stupid. A fantasy.
Here was a guy who’d finally made it back home to this peaceful, abundant, beautiful world, and then he turned around and said he wanted to go back to a treacherous world where death could come at any moment. What sort of saint, indeed, would choose to wait for a such a tremendous fool?
“Guess that’s it. I’ve been rejected,” Yuuto said sadly.
Still, in this situation, maybe she was doing him a favor by rejecting him. Doing so would let him cut off his attachments to this world.
It would give him the push he needed to leave.
He’d be able to go to Yggdrasil without any lingering feelings holding him back.
“Huh? What are you talking about?” In sharp contrast to her serious expression up until now, Mitsuki looked at him with confusion and curiosity in her eyes.
“Eh? Uh... but... you... you just said that you won’t...”
“Yes, I said I’m not gonna wait here for you. I’m going with you to Yggdrasil.”
“...Huh?” Yuuto’s voice cracked from the surprise. For an instant, he couldn’t comprehend what Mitsuki was saying.
As he looked at her dumbfounded, Mitsuki smiled at him affectionately. It was a kind, almost motherly smile.
“I don’t mean to sound conceited about this, but... Yuu-kun, the reason you wanted to come back to this world, and the reason you’ve been so hesitant to go back there until just now... it’s because I’m here, right?”
To Yuuto, she wasn’t being conceited at all. She was perfectly right.
Oh, it wasn’t like Yuuto himself was some saint, concerned only with his love. He was attached to this world for its technology too, the electricity, and gas, and clean running water.
During his time in Yggdrasil, Japanese food, specifically white rice, had always been on his mind. His first mouthful of the stuff after coming back had brought him to tears.
There were all the fun and games here, too. He could look at stuff on the internet all he wanted, use it whenever he wanted.
And yet, none of those had been the clincher for Yuuto. They were all things he could make himself endure living without, if he put his mind to it.
What truly tied Yuuto to the modern world and kept him connected to it was Mitsuki, and nothing else.
“So, if I go with you to Yggdrasil, then you won’t have to worry yourself over this anymore, right?” Mitsuki said. “You can go save everyone in the Wolf Clan without any hesitation, right?”
“You idi... I mean, you know you can’t do something like that!”
“Why not? You went there once already, Yuu-kun,” she said. “And you’re going to try to go again. If you can go there again, I should be able to come along with you.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about, here! Mitsuki, don’t you get it?! Once you go there, there’s no telling when you’ll be able to come back! You might not even be able to come back!”
“Yeah, I know that. That’s why I’m going with you. I can’t stay here waiting.”
“You idiot!” Yuuto shouted at her angrily now. “You’ve got a family, don’t you?! What about Ruri-chan? What about your other friends?! You won’t be able to see any of them anymore!”
After spending that happy night having dinner at Mitsuki’s home, Yuuto knew that, unlike him, her family was still healthy and happy.
And she seemed to get along really close with Ruri, too. She probably had other good friends at school.
It would be madness for her to throw all of that away just for Yuuto’s sake alone.
“Yeah, but I could call them by phone. There’s also social media.” Mitsuki spoke as if the weight of the situation didn’t bother her at all. “Of course it’ll be lonely, and sad, knowing that I won’t be able to see everybody in person anymore. I’m sure once I get to the other world, I might even get really homesick.”
“Then why...” Yuuto started.
“But,” Mitsuki cut him off, “that’s nothing compared to how I felt when I couldn’t see you, Yuu-kun. It was horrible. I don’t ever want to be separated from you again, ever. Because, I... because I love you so much, Yuu-kun.”
Her gaze was fixed on Yuuto as she said those words. Her eyes were serious, and Yuuto could see the deep strength of her feelings in them.
Yuuto hadn’t been prepared for the strength behind that gaze. Reflexively, his eyes averted themselves from hers.
“...How can you say that? You didn’t see me for three years.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” she said. “Three whole years went by, and my feelings never faded a bit. Actually, I just started loving you more and more.”
“Idiot,” he mumbled. “What did I even do for you for those whole three years? Nothing but make you work, and worry and suffer, that’s what.”
“And I still love you anyway, hopelessly, so really, what can I do at this point?”
“Just... you need to think about this more. This choice is gonna affect your whole life!”
“I have thought about it. I’ve thought about it as much as I could. But no matter how much time I spend thinking, I can’t imagine a future without you, Yuu-kun. Living in a different world from you, falling in love with someone who isn’t you, getting married and having the child of someone who isn’t you... I can’t picture that kind of future for myself. ...No, that’s wrong. I’d hate that sort of future.”
“......”
Yuuto was quiet. It was true for him, too; he passionately hated the idea of that sort of future. But it was also the future he’d tried to resign himself to, thinking there was nothing he could do about it.
“Yeah, I definitely hate the idea of that future,” Mitsuki continued. “I want you next to me, Yuu-kun, always. I don’t want anyone else.”
“There’s no electricity there, you know. No gas, no running water.”
“But you’d be there, Yuu-kun.”
“You’ll have to do the sort of work you’d never have to deal with here in the modern world.”
“I’d be happy to, if it means I can be together with you.”
“You really are an idiot, you know that...?”
“Quit calling me an idiot already. I mean, it’s not like I don’t know. More importantly! Are you gonna give me your answer now, or aren’t you?”
Mitsuki put her hands on Yuuto’s cheeks, and forced him to look at her.
As always, the strength of will from within her eyes was overwhelming, but with her locking his head in place, he couldn’t look away. He had to accept it.
I’ve really gone and fallen for one hell of a woman, he thought to himself, though it was admittedly pretty late to be realizing that.
Yuuto gave a sigh of resigned defeat, but also with the hint of a smile.
“...All right. I’ll take you with me.” Yuuto stopped, then started over. “No... that’s not right. Mitsuki, I want you to come with me. Please, come with me.”
“...No, Yuu-kun. That wasn’t what I meant.” Mitsuki puffed out her cheeks slightly.
“Uh?” Yuuto didn’t really understand. He’d agreed to take her with him, so why was she upset?
“This isn’t about going along, or bringing along, or any of that. Isn’t there something more important?” she demanded.
“Um...?”
“Yuu-kun, I told you I loved you, didn’t I? How do you feel about me?”
“I-I’ve pretty much already said it at this point, haven’t I?”
“No, I’m pretty sure I haven’t heard one clear word of it.” Mitsuki mercilessly shook her head side to side.
“Wh-when I said, ‘Please come with me,’ that’s pretty much what I meant. You get that, right?!”
“No, I didn’t understand anything from that. I need to hear it clearly from you, okay?” There was a tinge of mischievousness in Mitsuki’s eyes. She knew exactly what she was doing.
Even this part of her was something he found cute, though. It was true what they say about love being blind.
That being said, it would bug him to just say the words like she wanted, playing into her little game... and more than that, it would be embarrassing.
However, it also looked like he was going to have to steel his resolve here.
Wait a minute... if I’m going to have to take the plunge here anyway, then...
A flash of inspiration struck him. It was an ingenious idea.
“Mitsuki.”
“Yes? What is it?” Mitsuki wore a soft, satisfied smile. She had likely seen in Yuuto’s expression that he’d made up his mind to say his feelings aloud, and she was already happily waiting to hear it.
With how everything had gone up until this point, logically, it was already obvious what he felt, and what his reply to her would be.
And so, he was going to deliberately one-up her.
“Mitsuki, please be my wife.”
“Eh?! Your wi... WHAAAAT?!” Mitsuki cried out as if the world was ending.
As expected, she hadn’t anticipated things to leap one step further so quickly.
However, from Yuuto’s perspective, if he was going to take Mitsuki to a world she might not come back from, if he was going to upend her life here completely, then this was also a perfectly natural proposal.
“I can’t in good conscience ask my girlfriend to throw everything away and come with me to that remote, dangerous world. Not my girlfriend. But if it’s my wife, I can say it decisively, and clearly: ‘Come with me.’”
Yuuto held out his hand to Mitsuki.
“Ah... oh...”
Mitsuki’s face turned the deepest shade of red he’d seen so far, and her eyes darted back and forth between Yuuto’s face and his outstretched hand for a moment, but at last she placed her hand over his.
“...Yes. Yuu-kun... please make me your wi—eek?!”
Mitsuki’s quiet, delicate whisper of a reply turned abruptly into a squeal, for Yuuto hadn’t waited for her to fully finish before he pulled her arm, bringing her body to his, and embraced her.
His emotions were overflowing, and he couldn’t wait a second longer.
“Now that you’ve said it, I’ll never let go of you again,” he whispered.
“Good. Don’t let go.” Mitsuki looked up at Yuuto, and as their gazes locked, she softly closed her eyes.
Of course, Yuuto wasn’t dense enough to miss the cue.
He closed his eyes, and slowly brought his face to hers.
In the darkness of the night, their silhouettes were outlined by the light of the moon.
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