"Welcome home, both of you."
Turi opened the door with a smile, but kept it open as she blinked several times and furrowed her brow with a hint of worry.
"...What's wrong, Dad? You've got a scary look on your face. Was it cold outside? Or was Mine too heavy?"
"Turi, that's mean."
I puffed out my cheeks in protest, and Father smiled wryly. "Mine is too light. Get bigger," he said as he set me down, then ruffled my hair.
Father's tense atmosphere eased slightly, and Turi let out a small laugh of relief. "Sorry, sorry," she apologized, brushing the remaining snow from my hair.
"The trip back started getting blizzard-y, so it was pretty cold."
I mentally applauded Turi for switching the mood in an instant. I pursed my lips, and Turi mimicked me by pursing hers too.
"Mine got carried by Dad the whole way, even inside his coat, so you weren't cold at all. I couldn't do that, you know."
Giggling, I headed to the bedroom to put away my tote bag and coat.
In the kitchen, Mother was preparing dinner.
"Welcome home... Shall we eat first?"
Before anyone could say a word, she'd already sensed something had happened from Father's tense mood and expression. After a brief furrow of her brow, she began laying out the meal with a smile.
"Here you go."
"Thank you for the food."
Prompted by Mother, I began eating a dinner far quieter than usual.
Without a single word spoken yet, Father already had deep furrows between his brows. Mother kept her eyes downcast. Turi looked on uncertainly, glancing around. The atmosphere was already heavy.
Watching the three of them, I brought the hot soup to my lips.
Is it really okay to talk about this? If I tell them just one more year, will Dad lose his mind and go on a rampage? How should I even approach this conversation? I'd rather keep the cost of the Magical Tool hidden if possible...
As the meal progressed, my mind kept circling back to what was coming, and my heart started pounding.
"I'm done."
The dishes were cleared away, and Mother placed a kettle of herbal tea brewed with calming herbs on the table with a soft clink.
"So, you're going to tell us what happened, right?"
Mother sat beside Father as she said this, but Father shook his head slowly. His light brown eyes locked onto me with a severity I'd never seen before — not a trace of his usual dopey grin. His serious gaze was so intimidating that I swallowed hard.
"It was Mine who said there was something to discuss."
With Father's words, every gaze in the family turned to me. My throat went dry with nerves, even though I was only talking to my own family.
"So, um, about my illness, it's... um..."
Where should I even start? How could I explain it so they'd understand? My mind was spinning with those questions, yet the actual words I needed completely refused to come. A strange sweat broke out, and the more I panicked, the more my mind went blank.
As I searched for words and moved my mouth uselessly, Father narrowed his eyes.
"Your illness is cured, isn't it? You stayed at the Guild Master's place for a few days and came back cured. Isn't that right?"
"W-well, to get straight to the point, it can't be cured."
My mind completely blank, I skipped over all the explanation and went straight to the conclusion.
It hit the family like a bomb. After a moment of stunned silence, everyone's eyes went wide, and I could hear them all gasp in unison.
Immediately after, Father shot up from his chair as if kicking it over, slamming the table with his fist.
"...What do you mean!? The Guild Master said he'd cure you — did he lie to us!?"
"You're not cured, Mine!?"
Father bore down on me from the front and Turi from the side. I waved my hands frantically, trying to get them both to calm down and sit.
"Hey, hey, calm down and sit. I don't know very much about this either, and I'm not sure how to explain it, so I'm probably just going to ramble from what I remember, but..."
Father sat down hard, clenching his back teeth so fiercely I could practically hear them grinding.
Mother was trying to stay composed, her trembling hand reaching for a cup. She took a sip and gestured for me to continue.
"Yes, please explain properly."
Turi beside me also reached for her cup. I picked up my own, took a sip, and then opened my mouth.
"My illness is called Self-Eating. Apparently, it's an extremely rare disease."
"I've never heard of it."
Father nodded at my words, but Turi gripped her cup tightly and murmured quietly.
"...I heard about it from Mine before. She said it costs a lot of money to treat."
"Money!?"
This time Mother's eyes went wide and she shot to her feet, her face pale. She'd no doubt realized that the Guild Master had been paid, and they hadn't contributed. I'd wanted to keep the amount secret if possible, but it didn't look like that was going to happen.
"Mother, let me explain and just listen."
"..."
Mother looked at me with a reproachful expression but slowly sat back down.
Feeling every pair of eyes on me, I began with an explanation of Self-Eating.
"Self-Eating means there's a heat inside your body that moves on its own, and it keeps growing. When you get really angry, or so disappointed you want to die, that heat runs wild inside you and it feels like you're being eaten alive."
"Being eaten...?"
Turi turned pale as she stared at me. She looked at my fingertips, the ends of my hair, checking whether any part of me was actually being consumed.
"You can usually control the Self-Eating heat with your willpower. If you keep it locked away in the deep center, it's fine, but it keeps growing."
"S-so what happens when it grows too much?"
Turi trembled as she gripped my hand tightly.
"When you can't contain it anymore, it bursts out and overflows from your body. Before it overflows, I get swallowed by it... This time, the heat overflowed and I nearly drowned and got eaten. The Guild Master used a Magical Tool to suck out the heat. He took out a lot, but it'll keep growing, so he said it will absolutely never be fully cured."
Ugh, Turi let out a groan and glared at me with glistening eyes on the verge of tears. No, not glared — it was more like she was desperately fighting back tears.
Looking at Turi made me feel like I was going to start crying too, so I looked away and took another sip of tea.
"Also, Frieda told me that because this strange heat has been eating away at me little by little, I haven't been growing very much. To cure Self-Eating, you need a Magical Tool, and only nobility has them, so they're incredibly expensive. And you need connections with the nobility, like someone from a family like the Guild Master's, to even get your hands on one."
"Then Mine's survival was indeed thanks to the Guild Master?"
Father's hoarse voice sounded hollow, like he'd lost the direction for his emotions. I nodded quietly.
"Yeah. The Guild Master let me have one of the Magical Tools he'd been collecting for Frieda. But there aren't any more, and he told me I'd have to figure out my own plan going forward."
"Going forward? Is there some way to cure it!?"
I could see hope lighting up in Father's eyes as he leaned forward. Turi's eyes, which had been about to cry, brightened too.
Feeling the pain of their expectant gazes, I told my family about the only option that would let me survive.
"Either I sign a Contract with nobility and live as a kept pet, or I stay with my family and rot away. Those are the only two choices..."
"A kept pet? What does that mean?"
Father's face twisted into an expression of utter bewilderment. Turi tilted her head with a blank look, not quite understanding the meaning. Mother remained deathly pale, gripping her cup so tightly her knuckles were white.
"Because Frieda signed a Contract with a noble, she was given the Magical Tool and got better. She said her family was wealthy and influential merchants, so they were able to Contract with a noble under good terms. I don't have any connections with nobility, so even if I sign a Contract to keep my life, I have no idea how I'd be treated."
"...You can hardly call that living."
At Father's lifeless murmur, I nodded deeply. Having lived a life as Urano, I simply couldn't accept a life lived at the mercy of nobles with no freedom of my own.
"Hey, Mine. What about the money? The Magical Tool you were given wasn't free, was it?"
Mother spoke up as if she could no longer hold back. I thought to myself that she hadn't let it slide after all, and nodded.
"I paid for it, so it's fine."
"How much was it?"
"It was expensive, but when you think about it as the price of a life, well..."
"So how much was it? You said you'd tell us. No secrets."
When I tried to hedge, Mother's eyes sharpened and she grew angry. I let out a small groan and averted my gaze slightly as I mumbled the price.
"...Two small gold coins and eight large silver coins."
Everyone's eyes went wide and their jaws dropped at the sum — equivalent to two and a half years of Father's annual income.
"Two small gold coins and eight large silver coins!? How could you possibly..."
"...
"Wait, what!? Kanichan Rinshan cost that much!?"
Turi, who'd always been the one pressing the oil out of it, cried out in shock. Harvested from the forest and only needing to be pressed, it took labor but zero capital. The idea of buying it for a huge sum was completely beyond Turi's understanding.
"Yeah. Apparently if you sell to nobility, you can make a really good profit. There's already a workshop and everything..."
As I started telling Turi about the Rinshan workshop, Father shook his head with a stern expression and fixed me with a sharp look.
"Enough about the past. What I want to hear is what comes next. Relapse is certain, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
"...How long do you have? Judging by how you've been dodging the subject, you already know. You've been desperately trying to steer the conversation away because you didn't want to be asked."
"Why do you always figure things out..."
Surprised by Father's perceptiveness, I couldn't help but sigh. When all he'd heard was that Self-Eating couldn't be cured, he'd been furious enough to kick over a chair and slam the table — there was no way he'd take the news of my remaining time well. But having been confronted like this, there was no escaping it.
"Because I'm your father. ...Now, don't try to change the subject."
Those light brown eyes stared at me with unwavering resolve — no way he'd be deceived, no way he'd let me go until I answered. Resigned, I opened my mouth.
"...About one year."
"!?"
"They said the Self-Eating heat will overflow again in about a year, so I should think carefully about what to do."
A heavy, suffocating silence fell. Father, who I'd expected to explode, simply furrowed his brows deeply and looked down.
The silence was broken by Turi's sob.
"M-Mine... you're going to die? In just one year...? No way, that can't be!"
As if giving up on holding back her tears, Turi burst into loud, unrestrained crying, leapt from her chair, and threw her arms around me in a tight embrace.
I wrapped my arms around Turi's back, patting gently to soothe her.
"Turi, calm down. If it weren't for this, I'd already be dead. Frieda and the Guild Master gave me the Magical Tool, which means I get to live another year."
My words, meant to calm her down, seemed to pour oil on the fire. Turi shook her head through her streaming tears.
"Don't say things like 'already dead'! Just one year!? I don't want that! *hic* You were finally getting a little healthier! We were finally able to go to the forest together! I don't want Mine to die!"
When I was Urano, I'd died in a great earthquake, so I'd never seen my family grieve. Had I made them this sad? Made them cry like this?
And the family I'd been given once more — I'd made them cry too. No matter how many times I was reborn, I was still an ungrateful child. How pathetic.
"Don't cry, Turi. Please. Even without a Magical Tool, I'll look for a way to deal with the Self-Eating heat."
"And what if you can't find one!? You'll die, Mine! I don't want that! Waaaaah!"
She clung to me tightly, crying and gripping me so hard it squeezed the air from my chest. My eyes stung with heat, and despite my intentions to hold it back, tears spilled from my eyes too.
"Turi... stop crying. I'm the one who wants to cry..."
"*hic* ...I'm sorry, Mine. I'll look too. I'll look for a way to cure your illness... *hic* ...but even when I tell myself to stop crying, I can't..."
As I brushed away my own tears and kept patting Turi's back while she struggled to stop crying, Father spoke in a quiet voice.
"What are you thinking, Mine? There are ways to live like Frieda, aren't there?"
"*hic* ...I can't bring myself to live away from my family not knowing how nobles would treat me. *hic* ...Frieda said the noble she Contracted with allowed her to live with her family until she came of age. But what if the noble I Contracted with didn't allow that?"
The answer was obvious.
"I'd be taken away immediately, right? Probably fewer nobles would be willing to wait than ones who wouldn't, I'd think."
"...Yeah."
I had no idea how nobles intended to use the Self-Eating heat. But I thought it was unlikely that anyone who'd just Contracted would give you time. If they took you away the moment the Contract ended, then the one who Contracted with you would actually get less time with your family.
"So, you know, I've been thinking it might be okay to just live with my family and die this way. *hic* ...I don't want to leave my family."
"Mine..."
Tears welled up in Mother's eyes too. She turned her face slightly away, as if not wanting to let her children see, and wiped her eyes.
Father watched me steadily, his expression unreadable.
"I still have a year. So I want to live doing everything I want to do, so I won't have any regrets. ...Can I stay with my family? Or should I go with the nobles after all?"
"Mine stays with me! You can't disappear!"
As if speaking for everyone, Turi's words left both parents with nothing to do but nod.
I was so happy to be given permission to stay that I wiped away my tears and smiled.
"So, the thing I wanted to discuss starts from here..."
"There's more?"
Mother said it with a startled look, but the illness had been about making them understand my current situation — this was the actual consultation. I wanted them to understand my condition first, then help me figure things out.
"My... work."
"Becoming a merchant, right?"
Father frowned with a puzzled look. He was calm now — no more explosive anger or rage — and his willingness to just listen made me feel relieved. I spoke up.
"That was the plan, but I was being too optimistic about what lay ahead, or rather, I hadn't thought it through properly. ...I can't work with my physical stamina, right?
"That Otto guy..."
Father muttered in a voice laced with irritation and anger. Otto had only been giving honest, objective advice — it would be terrible if he got blamed for it. I quickly added the suggestion Otto had made.
"So he suggested that instead, I could do work like writing letters and documents from home, and continue selling products to Benno like I've been doing, and helping out at the Gate. That way it would be easier on my body."
"Is that so. Otto, huh... You're right. Otto's correct — Mine's best off staying at home. You shouldn't push yourself."
A small smile appeared at the corner of his lips as he said this, sounding almost pleased.
Turi, still clinging to me and leaking sobs, and Mother both nodded vigorously in agreement with Father's assessment.
"I did promise to work at Benno's shop, though — would it be okay to go back on that?"
What I, who knew almost nothing about how work in this city operated, wanted to ask my parents was exactly this. It would mean breaking a promise, but would there be any real problem?
"You haven't officially started yet, and if you collapsed on the job, it'd be trouble for them too. If you explain things properly, I'm sure it'll be fine."
"Got it. It's a shame to lose a job opportunity I finally found, but I'll prioritize my health and look for something else."
It might be worth consulting Benno about whether there's any work I could do from home. The detailed conversation could wait until spring.
"Yaaawwwn..."
Because I'd been talking for so long, the moment the conversation paused, a huge yawn escaped my mouth. Mother saw it and lightly clapped her hands.
"If you're done talking, go to bed. It's late."
"Yeah. Good night."
"*hic* ...Good... night..."
Turi, still sniffling, headed to the bedroom with me, and we got into bed together.
"Turi, stop crying. You're cuter when you smile. Starting tomorrow, let's do all sorts of things together."
"Mm-hm. I'll play with Mine so much. I'm staying right here with you."
I soothed Turi as I slipped under the covers.
Turi immediately burrowed into my futon, wrapped her arms around me, and fell asleep, as if to say I wasn't going anywhere. If it helped her feel at peace, that was fine, so I closed my eyes too.
I'd expected Father to fly into a bigger rage or cause more of a scene, but contrary to my expectations, he listened seriously and with few words. I let out a sigh of relief that we'd been able to talk properly, and my consciousness slowly drifted away.
I'd let Turi do whatever she wanted so she could feel at ease, but I woke up to find her strangling me. I hurriedly untangled her arms and escaped.
I'd actually die. Even without Self-Eating, not being able to breathe would kill me.
Rubbing my neck, I blinked. The bedroom, which should have been pitch dark at this hour, had a sliver of light coming in. I rubbed my sleepy eyes several times, but it was no mistake or dream.
The door was half-open, and I could tell the fire in the hearth hadn't been put out yet. I heard no voices, so it wasn't like my parents were up.
In the dark, I could see Mother was already asleep — a lump beneath the covers.
Did Mother forget to put the fire out?
I slipped out of bed, tiptoeing so as not to wake Turi, and crept toward the kitchen.
Father sat alone in the dim kitchen lit only by the hearth's flames, drinking steadily.
There was nothing of the cheerful drunkard I remembered. He drank in silence, crying quietly to himself.
I could almost hear soundless wailing, so I quietly looked away and went back to bed.
The serious family meeting has concluded.
Next time, I'll report to