/
“Urghh 







”
“Tia!”
Ed was speechless at the sight before him. As if interrupting his gaze, Alexis rushed to Lunaritia’s front and immediately checked the state of her wounds.
“Gonzo! Please!”
“Leave it to me. I’ll heal her without leaving a single scar.”
Leaving Lunaritia in the hands of Gonzo, who came running up slightly later, Alexis turned his gaze in the direction from which the attack had come. Spotting a lizard-like demonic beast mimicking a tree trunk ahead of him, he quickly stepped in and slashed it down with one swift slash.
“Yosh 

 Gonzo, how’s Tia doing?”
“No problem. It would have been troublesome if she had been hit by an arrow with just a little force, but since it was a magical attack, there are no foreign objects left in the body and the wound should heal quickly.”
“I see. 
.”
Relieved at his trusted colleague’s diagnosis, Alexis turned back to Ed, who was standing behind him and moving his mouth as if to say something. In front of his angry face, Ed was too flustered to say anything.
“I-I-I
”
“It’s your fault!”
“Guah!?”
Alexis, with his fist clenched tightly, punched Ed in the cheek as hard as he could. But that was not enough to stop Alexis’ anger.
“Because of you, one of my precious friends has been hurt! How in the world are you going to take responsibility for this!”
“Stop!”
Alexis hits Ed two or three times, and Lunaritia’s voice comes from behind her to stop him. She was a little pale, but still, her wounds were already completely healed.
“Don’t do it, Alexis. I covered for Ed on my own.”
“That’s 

 no, but 

”
“It’s okay! Hey, Ed?”
Pushing aside the agitated Alexis, Lunaritia crouched down in front of Ed, who was frozen in shock, and brought her own face close to his and spoke softly to him.
“You understand it now, right? From here on 

 no, we’ve always been in dangerous places. This time I was able to save you, but there is no guarantee that I will be able to save you the next time. So
 won’t you stop coming with us from now on? We’ll take you to the town one last time, and then say goodbye there.”
Despite the fact that he had caused her injury, there was a clear sense of gratitude and appreciation in her demeanor towards him. In front of such a Lunaritia,
, however, Ed smiled faintly.
“Ha, hahaha
 I won’t. I won’t say goodbye.”
“Ed?”
“Well, for a little while longer, I’ll just follow you guys on my own. So if I get targeted again
 pl-please help me. You guys are a hero party, so it’s okay to protect a helpless ordinary person, right? Please, I beg you.”
“You 

!”
At Ed’s words, Alexis tried to punch him again. But before he could do so, Lunaritia slapped Ed across the cheek.
“Enough already! I understand that you have a reason for not being able to tell us and for continuing to follow us, but why do you have to speak to us like that?”
“I-it can’t be helped! It’s already well-known that I’m with you guys, and if I abandon you here and end up dead, there will be talk like ‘Ah, so the hero finally abandoned the civilians and ran away,’ you know? If you don’t want that, then please continue to protect me. I’m begging you, Alexis-sama, Gonzo-sama, and also
Tia-san.”
“
..It’s Lunaritia”
“Huh?”
The heat disappeared from the always gentle jade eyes, and Ed was startled by the icy voice.
“Like I said, It’s Lunaritia. I don’t consider us close enough for you to call me ‘Tia’. Am I wrong?”
“Uh
 that’s right. I’m sorry, Lunaritia-san.”
“
 Let’s go, Alexis. I’m fine now.”
Alexis and the others started walking after Lunaritia, who got up. Ed, who staggered up a little later, followed and 
. then the journey resumed.
The hero party and Ed stopped having even the simplest of conversations. Lunaritia, in particular, had changed dramatically and no longer spoke or even made eye contact with Ed. And then, several months later, a minor incident occurred
 However, as a result of the accumulated suspicion up to that point, Ed was expelled from the hero party and disappeared from the world ten minutes later.
As they parted ways, the look in Lunaritia’s eyes towards Ed held neither contempt nor pity, but rather
.. it was a gaze as if she were looking at a stone.
******
“
. I see, So that was me in that world.”
Lunaritia, who had returned while holding the 100th piece to her chest, quietly muttered this.
Lunaritia understands that she may have a kind personality, but she doesn’t have a character that indulges people indefinitely. Therefore, she cannot forgive the former Ed, who exposed herself and her comrades to danger without even explaining the reason behind it, and acted as if it was natural.
So surely no one was to blame this time either. After swallowing her feelings of turmoil, Lunaritia inserted the last piece of the figure into the chest of the humanoid behind her. The finished product was a doll about the size of a human child. The doll, which was empty inside because it was only a combination of fragments, moved slowly the next moment and sat down on the spot with its knees in its arms.
[
I didn’t want to]
A doll with his face buried in his lap, a child’s voice, much like Ed’s, spilled from his mouth.
[I didn’t want to do something like that. I didn’t want to cause any trouble, I didn’t want people to worry about me, and I was afraid to fight.]
What Ed whispered was his true feelings of his former self. It was the darkness in his heart that he carried alone, unable to convey it to anyone.
[I wanted to say thank you to the people who were kind to me. I wanted to apologize for the trouble I had caused. But more than any other feeling, I just wanted to go home so badly
 I couldn’t bear not being able to go home no matter what. It was unbearable for me, more than the thought of dying or other people getting hurt or dying!]
A curse. An instinctive feeling that Ed must put before everything else because he was created by God to be that way. It was an absolute chain that binded Ed, one that he was not allowed to resist.
[I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home. 
..]
“Ed

”
Lunaritia gently hugged the doll, who sobbed like a child. If she could, she would let him go home. She would even be willing to consume her own life span to do so. However, there was no way that Lunaritia, a mere elf, would be able to send Ed back to his nonexistent homeland.
“It’s okay, Ed. It’s okay. I may not be able to send you back home, but
 I can help you create a place you can call home,”
[A place to call home
? That’s impossible. I’m empty inside. There’s no way I can create a place to call home]
“Ara, You are not empty, you know?”
With little Ed in her arms, Lunaritia puts her hand on the doll’s chest.
“It’s true that maybe you didn’t have anything inside of you until now. But things are different now. The Ed who has traveled with me has many important people in his life. Come on, try to remember,”
From Lunaritia’s hands, thoughts were infused into the dolls. Alexis’, Waffle’s, Rebecca’s, Miguel’s, Toby’s, Dalton’s, Reil’s, Galgadore’s and Elleas’ 
., and Lunaritia’s own memories and memories of walking together in all those worlds filled the empty shell of the doll. The empty shell of the doll began to fill up with all these memories and emotions, creating a place for Ed to call home.
“You get it, right? You are not a puppet made by God or a shell of the Demon King of the End. No, that may be true, but you are not just that. So let’s go home together. You are Ed. The most important person in my life.”
The doll in her arms began to glow with a dazzling light. It glowed so white that it filled the entire black space around it – and the next moment.
“What!?”
“Oh! She woke up!?”
Lunaritia woke up with a start, and Gastor, who was fighting nearby, shouted to her.
“Sorry! How long was I unconscious for?”
“Huh? Oh, probably about five minutes.”
“Five minutes?! Just five minutes?!”
“Oi, what do you think five minutes in the middle of a battle is?! I can’t keep this up much longer, you know?!”
“Oh, right, sorry. Let’s finish this right away then.”
While apologizing to Gastor who complained, Lunaritia stepped away from the Demon King and held the [Dawnbreaker] in her hand.
“How long do you plan on sleeping! WAKE UP
.ED!”
With a cry, she stabbed the [Dawnbreaker] into the Demon King’s leg with all her might. Then, with a whoosh, the black mist covering the Demon King was blown away, and cracks began to appear all over the Demon King’s body from the spot where the sword was thrusted.
“Whoa!? What the hell, you mean to tell me this big guy can be taken down with just one sword strike!?”
“Amazing! Tia-chan is super awesome!”
Paying no attention to any of the surrounding noise, Lunaritia continued to gaze straight at the Demon King’s chest area. Eventually, unable to withstand the light leaking from within, his chest exploded and Lunaritia moved her right hand with all her might, pulling the red string extending from her pinky finger towards herself.
What she felt was a solid response. Something the size of a human being was falling toward Lunaritia, mixed with pieces of the Demon King, and while killing its momentum with wind spirit magic, Lunaritia firmly caught it with her own two hands.
“
..Man, this is really the opposite of my role, isn’t it? It’s so uncool.”
“Fufu, how are you feeling after waking up?”
“That’s
You know that”
“What’s that?”
“I mean it’s that thing! Anyway
Thanks for the help, Tia”
“You’re welcome. Welcome back, Ed.”
“I’m back, Tia.”
Ed, embraced by Lunaritia like a princess, replied to his best buddy with a sincere smile.