That evening, I pondered over the story Dante had heard before I returned to the room.
The more I chewed on it, the more the thoughts followed one after another. I remembered Dante lying down near my house the day we first met, and I remembered the scene where the villagers were together.
Again, the memory of the day I⊠died also came to my mind.
Those people called the degenerates whose goal was said to take the position of the Master of the Magic Tower, even for a short while, and obtain some ancient magic or something. From attacking Dante to setting off a bomb in the village, it wasnât something sane people would do.
The more I thought about it, the more hatred towards people I didnât even know seemed to rise from somewhere. As always, it calmed down quickly, yet the anger that had no way to go didnât completely disappear.
Ah, thatâs why Dante didnât want to tell me.
At the end of those complex, if complicated thoughts, I fully accepted Danteâs intention when he said, âYou donât have to be anxious.â And maybe not listening to the story would have helped my mental and physical stability.
However, since I had already heard all the circumstances, and I knew that even if I went back a few days ago, I would still press Dante to hear the story, so I had no regrets. Anyway, itâs something I should know.
In this situation, all I wanted was one thing. To get this resolved as soon as possible, and to get back to our daily lives before we got separated.
Indeed, I hoped that nothing, even the slightest, would stir up Danteâs anxiety.
***
âArenât you going to run away today?â
âI said sorry, didnât IâŠâ
âTo be sorry is to be sorry, and to be offended is to be offended.â
At my words, Dante put on a sullen expression, but he showed no sign of leaving my side. Which means, Iâm going to stick with you anyway.
Dante gave up all of a sudden the fuss he had been running for the past few days.
Rather, he tried to be by my side harder than before, as if he wanted to be compensated for the time he had been away from. It was such a quick change of attitude that I thought that if I hadnât dug it out like this, it would have been Dante who would regret it, and thanks to Dante, I didnât even have time to feel distraught.
No, it might be more appropriate to say that I wasnât given time to think more about what I heard. First of all, my time to be alone is almost gone.
ââŠDante.â
âMm.â
âYour arms are heavy, canât you put them away?â
To be honest, I want to tell them not to put their arms away, but to move aside. No, I just wanted to ask if it was okay to move to a different sofa.
Itâs only once or twice that he puts his arm around my shoulder and hugs me halfway. Every time I sit down, I get stuck like this, so I feel cramped. However, I didnât want to shake off Dante, who would be anxious even at this moment, and Dante noticed my attitude like a ghost.
In other words, if he had hugged me more, he would have hugged me, and he wouldnât fall away.
Looking at Danteâs face, which couldnât hide his satisfaction, I barely managed to hold back a sigh.
It has been like this ever since I heard Danteâs inside story. Dante didnât try to hide his insecurities anymore, so he tried to stay close to me more, enjoying my unobtrusive attitude.
Contrary to the time I was chasing Dante, it was me who begged me to stay away. But Dante, not only was it not enough for him to stick by my side, he sent Lisa when he wasnât there.
The intention was obvious. It must be an extension of what he told me to stay inside the Magic Tower, well. Even if Iâm inside the Magic Tower, there must be people who donât want to leave me alone.
Isnât it too much anyway? I thought between Dante, who refused to stay by my side, and Lisa, who at the same time began to keep a close eye on me.
How far will Danteâs overprotectiveness go?
And how far am I supposed to take that?
Actually, it wasnât a question with a clear answer. However, just because there was no answer, it was difficult for me to live without incident.
There were two options in order to relieve the discomfort felt in this implied situation, even for a short time. First, put this feeling down on your own. Second, tell others how you feel.
If it were me in the past, I would have chosen the first one without hesitation. If it was me in the past who was reluctant to build relationships with others and felt uncomfortable receiving help from others.
But after meeting Dante, I gave up the habit of blindly keeping my distance from others. Now I know I wonât be left alone in the far future.
ââŠSo I donât know what to do now.â
So, like this, I was able to hold on to Masha and tell her about my situation in a concise way.
Masha listened intently to my story, then she said.
[So it had something to do with what you asked me about?]
âMmhm.â
Previously, through Masha, I asked if Dante had ever appeared in the village where I died. Masha replied that she hadnât actually seen him, and that she had heard that he had been to a funeral, though.
Until then, I wondered if the reason Dante was anxious was because he found something more there. Well, in terms of conclusion, it was similar.
I only conveyed to Masha the extent of âIt seems right that Dante is still anxious about what happened 10 years agoâ, and didnât even talk about the war and the degenerates.
I was worried that she would ask if there was another reason in my heart, but Masha surprisingly readily agreed.
Rather, it was an attitude that sympathized with Danteâs unusual behavior.
[Heâs so protective.]
âWhose side are you on, Masha?â
[Iâm on the side of the winner. And arenât you quietly in the Magic Tower since you understand him?]
Well, that wasnât wrong. It was a problem because I knew why he was doing that, so I half wanted to be patient, and half wanted to tell him to do it in moderation.
I let out a small sigh when I heard Masha nagging me that âyouâre the one whoâs strange, youâre still fine even after going through that kind of thing.â
âThen do I just have to watch him do that?â
[Well, when time passes, he will be normal on his own. You wonât have anything to do anyway, letâs chat and play with me in the meantime.]
âYouâre really ruthless towards Dante, unlike beforeâŠâ
Masha snorted at her, telling me to forget her past self.
[By the way, isnât there such a thing as a time limit? Yesterday I stopped by a magic tool specialty store, and not to mention the price of communication tools, all of them had a maximum usage time per day written on them. ]
âWhy a magic tool specialty store, all of a sudden?â
[I liked it because I used it, so I wondered if there was anything else⊠No, anyway. ]
I donât have to fumble. I smiled inwardly at Mashaâs embarrassed expression. Every time she talked to me, she seemed to be fascinated by the function of the communication tool, but it seemed that she had settled into another interest of the magic tool itself.
Masha seemed to be looking at me in a peculiar way because I wasnât fascinated by communication tools, but what can I do? I used to live in a world where things like this were natural.
Effortlessly blurring the memory of coming up naturally from one side of my consciousness, I answered Masha.
âIâm not sure, Dante says he picked the best non-portable ones. I donât know exactly.â
[ âŠHe picked the best one? But can I just use it for small talks like this?]
This thing is more precious than I thought. When I heard the slightly upset tone, a small laugh came out.
âThink of it as a good thing. Itâs not like Dante is charging you money.â
[Thatâs because Iâm talking to you and not to anyone else⊠Wait. Whoâs knocking on the door like thatâŠ]
Hang in there. After saying that, Masha disappeared from my sight for a moment.
Who is that? After a while, Masha reappeared from the corner, holding her face a little more than before. She probably had her head down while standing up, so her figure seemed to be reflected up close.
âWhatâs wrong?â
[No, itâs not a big deal. Someone kept knocking on the door.]
Masha continued her words with a hint of puzzlement.
[I ask who it is, but there is no answerâŠ]
That moment.
ă ĄCrack!
ââŠ!â
There was a large crack in the part that illuminated Mashaâs face. With a sound like glass breaking.
Terrified, I reflexively grabbed the communication tool, only to realize that the broken side wasnât mine, but Mashaâs.
The crackling sound continued to be heard, and the crack in the communication tool grew bigger and bigger, so it wouldnât be strange if it was broken into pieces.
âMasha! Whatâs going on?â
[âŠ]
No answer. In an instant, nervousness passed through my body, I bit my lip and raised my voice again.
âMasha?â
[âŠ! WhatâŠ! ⊠QâŠ]
Soon, the sound began to distort as if it was out of order, but if I listen carefully to the words flowing out piece by piece, I can somehow understand it.
Yet I didnât hear a muttering of bewilderment that the communication tool was broken, or that she was fineâŠ
A thin scream.
ââŠâ
And a cry for help came through the communication tool.
As soon as I recognized the sound, and immediately after hearing the scream, as soon as the communication tool was disconnected, I held my breath.