***
The man was having a hard time.
The reason was tardiness.
“No, I mean! I saw some weird capable people, you see.”
As the man explained why he was late, the boss sitting across from him sighed and pressed his forehead as if he was tired.
“…haa.”
“They looked like foreigners, but there was something strange about them…”
“No, you… If you want to make an excuse for being late, you have to come up with a better excuse.”
Seeing the gibberish and the appearance of his subordinate holding his flushed cheeks, the boss, who was sitting at the top of the table, sighed again after judging that he was late because of women’s issues.
“Whether it’s women’s issues or capable issues! You’re late, you’re still late… because you’re late, write me a written apology.”
“Yes? Then…”
“I’ll let you off once this time. Write it down now.”
Perhaps it was quite unfair, his subordinate’s eyes appealed desperately for reconsideration… But the boss only waved his palm coldly, as if to tell him to stop.
“…haa.”
As his subordinate, who sighed, left his room, the boss, who was staring blankly at the documents on the desk, muttered quietly.
“Capable person…”
Soon, the boss pulled out his cell phone and started calling somewhere.
*****
At Riley’s request for a place to stay, Mi-rae, a young girl who brought a bouquet to the memorial, was guiding Riley, Sera, and Nara to her house.
“I thought mister was dead.”
“This and that happened.”
Riley, who didn’t tell the truth, was following her, explaining only that complicated circumstances were intertwined.
“Mister is alive… I can’t tell this to others, right?”
When Mi-rae, who was walking at the forefront, asked the question, Riley, who was wearing a hood, nodded.
“If the dead were known to be alive, people would be confused… I would be like that too.”
Especially if Helena found out, he couldn’t use the things like the ‘surprise’ and ‘part’ operation that he had already talked about with Abyss…
Now he had to hide his identity.
“By the way, you managed to recognize me.”
“The atmosphere was just like mister.”
“…yeah.”
Given the timing of this place, Riley, who cut her friends to salvation around last year, stopped trying to ask the question, ‘Don’t you hate me?’
“What a relief. Mister came back alive because you see, now the flowers to bring to the memorial were really running out.”
Because if she hated him, she wouldn’t have put that pretty bouquet on the memorial.
“I think there’s a lot I’d like to ask you about the situation here since then… is it okay?”
“Yes, I don’t mind, but…”
Mi-rae, who nodded at Riley’s question, looked back at Sera and Nara, who were walking behind her, and continued.
“Are they two good people?”
“Yeah. They’re foreigners, so you won’t understand their words, but they’re good guys. I’ll explain it to you later.”
A foreigner, in other words, an outsider. At the time when the Demon King was in full swing, it was a word used to refer to people with different languages ??and cultures that they encountered in the process of merging cities that had been divided into several parts.
“Have you been out of town all this time?”
“Well, you can say that.”
Meanwhile…
Sera and Nara, who were looking at Riley and Mi-rae, who were having a harmonious conversation, were tilting their heads because they had no idea what they were talking about.
“What are they talking about?”
“A depressing, serious story… no, it doesn’t seem to be?”
Unlike Riley, the two felt awkward because they couldn’t communicate with Mi-rae. Instead of hearing the story, they began to focus on staring at Mi-rae.
“Maybe looking at her atmosphere, I guess?”
“She looks like to know young master, right?”
Riley slowly turned his head and began to stare at Sera and Nara, who were talking about Mi-rae in whispers.
“Even if you don’t whisper like that, I’ll tell you everything in a little while, so just follow quietly.”
Sera and Nara flinched at Riley’s scolding and bowed their heads with a grin.
“Here it is. It will be inconvenient for several people to stay, but if you don’t mind, you can stay.”
With Sera and Nara bowing their heads, Mi-rae, who was looking back, said that they had arrived at her house and walked in quickly.
A shabby atmosphere. The future house that caught their eyes was all crumbling. It was so old and bleak enough to call it a haunted house rather than a house.
“This is… her house.”
“There were many castles before… why…”
Sera and Nara, who had been walking around looking at the apartments and buildings built on concrete, looked worried at the infinitely shabby future house.
“…”
Most of the fences collapsed and couldn’t do their job, and the garden was littered with dirt and dark weeds.
“Let’s go in.”
Riley, who was looking around the garden, had a similar feeling. He looked around with a worried expression and followed Mi-rae into the house.
“I’m home!”
Mi-rae shouted brightly, followed by Riley, Sera, and Nara behind her.
“Mom, we have guests!”
The inside of the house was still well-organized compared to the outside. So, even though it looked a little messy, it didn’t give off an eerie atmosphere as seen from outside.
“Take off your shoes and come in.”
Following Mi-rae who went inside first, Riley took off his shoes and went inside. While Nara and Sera, who were about to go inside with their shoes on, sweated profusely and took off their shoes.
“Is your mother here?”
Although Mi-rae allowed them to come with her, he didn’t really think of making this place their hiding place… Riley went to Mi-rae’s parents to express his gratitude for being willing to take care of them for a while.
“Oh, yes… she is here.”
After receiving Riley’s question, Mi-rae seemed to hesitate for a moment and pulled the hem of his sleeve.
“Mister, wait…”
Riley, who was being pulled by Mi-rae, gave Sera and Nara a glance to wait in the living room for a while and then took a step.
Walking past the living room to the master bedroom, Riley entered the bedroom, where he could hear the sound of thin breathing. When he found a woman lying on the bed, he frowned.
“Your mother… right?”
“Yes.”
Riley found her mother in a coma and carefully approached the bed.
“She hasn’t been able to speak properly for the past few days. The boiling heat on her forehead doesn’t come down at all… I’m worried about her.”
Mi-rae added that she had been working at a restaurant and was eventually fired because she couldn’t get out for several days.
“Mister, my mom… will she be okay?”
In response to Mi-rae’s question, Riley, who was looking at Mi-rae’s mother lying on the bed, put his hand on her forehead and then quickly pulled it.
It’s not a high fever…
Riley put his hand on her forehead again and let out a small amount of mana, then said.
“It seems like she has a cold, but she’ll be okay.”
“Really? Really… Are you sure?”
“…yeah.”
Riley, who once replied ‘It’ll be okay when I save your friends’, bit his lips under his hood.
Pouring mana into her was only a temporary measure.
I need Priesia who can use divine power or Andal who is knowledgeable in medicine.
After taking off his hand, Riley looked back at Mi-rae, who had a gloomy expression on her face as if worried. He patted her head with a look that said, ‘For sure this time.’
*****
“…that’s what happened.”
In the living room of Mi-rae’s house, with Sera and Nara sitting in front of him, Riley briefly explained his relationship with Mi-rae and her situation.
“There was such a thing.”
“Hiks, Hiks! Huu…”
“Nara, stop crying. She’s watching you.”
After listening to Riley’s story, Sera urged Nara to stop crying by tapping him with her elbow, as if she was embarrassed by him, who was dripping with tears and a runny nose next to her.
“Oh, right. The child… Mi-rae was watching.”
Mi-rae, who couldn’t understand what Nara was saying, smiled slightly as if she realized that the crying Nara wasn’t such a bad person.
“This is Nara, this is Sera. Even though you can’t understand each other… You can take it easy. If you do something with your gestures, they’ll understand.”
Hiding in the kitchen and peeping her face out, Mi-rae bowed her head and greeted them when Riley introduced the two of them too late.
“Nice to meet you.”
Sera and Nara, who had no idea what Mi-rae was talking about, looked at Riley. Riley shrugged and interpreted what Mi-rae said.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Oh, well, same here!”
“Please tell her, nice to meet you too!”
Sera and Nara waved to Mi-rae and asked Riley to interpret.
“Likewise.”
When Riley interpreted their words, Mi-rae smiled as if they were interesting and disappeared into the kitchen.
“Then, what do we do next?”
“Are you sure we’re staying here for now?”
Riley nodded at Nara’s question. Maybe because he was trained as a mercenary, to avoid any confusion, he was drawing a map.
“Yeah, for the time being, we’ll stay here and wait for the news of the others… Finding others would be a priority. Finding Helena in earnest is the next step.”
Because it was Abyss’s power, there wouldn’t be a situation where some of the nine couldn’t cross. Riley, who assumed that they were simply scattered, continued.
“Among them, the ones with the highest priority we need to find are Priesia or Andal. The next would be Abyss and Nainiae.”
Sera tilted her head at Riley’s words and asked, “Is there any particular reason for the priorities?”
Riley nodded and replied. “Because I need Priesia or Andal to heal Mi-rae’s mother. Things don’t look… very good.”
“Ah……”
“The reason why the next is Abyss and Nainiae is different. In Abyss’s case, the reason is that he can attract the ‘demons’ that remain here. In Nainiae’s case, the reason is that she can use magic. It is easier to find others using her eyes.”
Then, thinking about the possibility that the scattered party might be wandering around without being able to adapt to ‘this world’, Riley began to scratch his hair as if he had a headache.
“Thinking about someone like Ian and Iril are scattered alone… It’s terrible.”
Sera and Nara’s expressions crumpled at Riley’s self-talk.
“That’s really… I don’t want to think about it.”
“First of all, they couldn’t communicate.”
“Won’t Iril cry?”
“Iril is okay because she’s strong, but Mr. Ian probably…”
“If a person who doesn’t understand the language and has no knowledge of this world… There’s Miss Priesia, too.”
“Ah, she might be really crying…”
*****
In front of the memorial stone of a certain warrior.
A girl with a red coat over her shoulders, a girl with a white beret, and an old gentleman with one-eyed glasses… were staring blankly at the memorial.
“Is here… the place?”
“Maybe, you are right.”
“…right.”
Nainiae, the girl with a red coat, took a step closer to the memorial and bent her knees towards the bouquet lying on the ground.
“Young master, he’s here.”
Nainiae, who found mana’s traces in the new bouquet, began to look around blankly.
Forest of buildings. Busy passers-by. The noise of cars. Ian and Priesia, who were with Nainiae, finally realized it. The culture and scenery here were significantly different from the world they lived in.
“This place…”
They had crossed to the world of Riley’s previous life, where he was active as a warrior.
“…there, the three people!!”
“…?”
Nainiae and her group, who were standing in front of the memorial stone, slowly turned their heads at the sound of a voice next to them and looked at the men in suits approaching.
“We have received reports that a person with a foreign ability is using his or her ability without permission. Please confirm your identity.”
When the man in the lead took out a business card from his pocket and showed it to them, saying he asked for identification, Nainiae, who was staring at the man, furrowed her eyebrows.
“Identification?”
