The inn where Paul was staying, the "Dawn at the Gate."
Right next to it, a large tavern.
About ten round wooden tables lined up inside,
and I was seated at one of them.
Across from me sat Paul.
And despite it still being daytime, every single seat was occupied.
The guys I'd knocked unconscious earlier had been treated by one of Paul's fellow healers and were now sitting there too.
Needless to say, they weren't looking at me with friendly expressions.
Everyone here, apparently, was one of Paul's companions.
What caught my attention in particular was the woman seated just behind Paul and off to one side.
A female warrior.
She had short, chestnut-brown hair that flared outward at the tips.
With her duck-billed pout, she gave off a charming impression.
What really stood out, though, were her figure and outfit.
Generous bust, a nipped-in waist, and a plush rear—
all wrapped in what amounted to a bikini armor.
She was a girl in her late teens.
In other words, the very woman Paul had called Vera.
She had exactly the kind of figure Paul would go for—
even I felt my eyes lock onto her the moment I saw her.
Bikini armor wasn't all that rare in this world.
It was a world where minor wounds could be healed with Healing Magic in no time.
The philosophy was to sacrifice protection for lighter weight.
Chain mail and the like were a hindrance.
Plenty of swordsmen dressed this way.
I'd seen plenty of it on the Demon Continent too.
She was probably one of those types.
Still, I'd never seen anyone go quite this far with it.
Normally you'd wear it over a light tunic,
and put protectors on joints like the shoulders and elbows.
Even if she'd taken them off for the tavern, she could have thrown on a cloak or something.
At the very least, every woman I'd met on the Demon Continent had done that much.
Wasn't she cold dressed like that?
I'd heard that Millis had the Seven Towers keeping the climate stable year-round.
If so, maybe it was fine.
Either way, I'd be happy to keep looking.
A feast for the eyes.
As I stared, our eyes happened to meet.
She shot me a sharp wink.
I winked back.
"Hey, Rudeus… Rudeus?"
Paul called, and I tore my gaze away from the woman.
"It's been a while, Father."
"Well… yeah, Rudeus… You look alive, at least."
Paul spoke in a weary voice.
Somehow, he looked entirely different from what I remembered.
His cheeks were gaunt, dark circles hung beneath his eyes,
he'd grown scruffy stubble, his hair was a tangled mess,
his breath reeked of alcohol, and overall he looked haggard.
He bore almost no resemblance to the Paul in my memory.
"Uh… well…"
My mind couldn't quite catch up.
Why was Paul here?
This was Millisium.
It was about as far from Asura as Africa was from Mongolia.
Had he come looking for me?
No—they couldn't have known I'd been teleported to the Demon Continent.
So this must be about something else.
What had happened to the job of protecting Buena Village?
"So, Father, what brings you here?"
Thinking that was the natural first question, I asked.
Paul looked surprised.
"What do you mean, 'what brings me'? You saw the message, didn't you?"
"The… message?"
A message.
What was he talking about?
I had no memory of seeing anything like that.
Seeing the confusion on my face, Paul scowled.
Had I said something to upset him?
"Hey, Rudeus—what have you been up to all this time?"
"What do you mean, 'what have I been up to'? It's been rough."
I was the one who wanted to hear what had happened.
Even as I thought that, I recounted my journey so far.
Being teleported to the Demon Continent,
being saved by a certain member of the Demon Race,
becoming an adventurer,
and spending a full year crossing the Demon Continent with Eris.
Looking back, it had been quite an enjoyable journey.
The beginning had been rough,
but about six months in, I'd gotten used to life as an adventurer.
Perhaps because of that, my speech grew more animated as I recounted the episodes of our travels.
What I told was an entirely true, grand spectacle.
The journey was divided into three parts:
Part One—my meeting with my dear friend Ruijerd, and the big commotion in the Town of Licarice.
Part Two—rescuing Ruijerd and the great magician Rudeus's journey to set the world right.
Part Three—falling into a despicable trap set by the Beast Race, ending up captured and in a desperate situation.
There was some exaggeration in my telling, but my mouth moved smoothly,
and as I grew more into it, I added gestures and animated sound effects,
building to a grand oration.
I glossed over the matter of the Human God, of course.
"And when we finally arrived at Wendport, what we saw was…"
"…"
I stopped speaking just as Part Two—"Three Across the Demon Continent: Tales of Kindness"—came to a close.
Paul had grown visibly displeased.
He was grimacing, tapping the table impatiently with his finger.
What had upset him?
Not understanding, I tried to continue.
"So then, after that we headed to the Great Forest—"
"Enough."
Paul cut me off in an irritated tone.
"So that's what you've been doing for the past year and change— gallivanting around on vacation. Got it."
Paul's words stung.
"I had a hard time too, you know!"
"How?"
"Huh?"
Being asked that, I let out an odd sound.
"I can't feel a shred of hardship from the way you talk."
Well… it was because I'd told the story that way.
I had gotten a bit carried away, admittedly.
"Hey, Rudeus—there's something I want to ask."
"What?"
"Why didn't you gather information about the other people who were teleported to the Demon Continent?"
I fell silent.
I had no choice but to stay silent.
I had no answer to give.
There was only one reason.
Just one.
I'd forgotten.
At first I'd been consumed just dealing with my own situation,
and by the time I had breathing room,
it simply hadn't occurred to me that anyone other than our group might have ended up on the Demon Continent.
"I… forgot. I didn't have the bandwidth…"
"You didn't have the bandwidth?
You had enough bandwidth to save a Demon Race stranger you'd never met,
but not enough to worry about other people who'd been teleported?"
I said nothing.
My priorities had been wrong.
Put that way, maybe he had a point.
But being told this after the fact didn't help.
At the time, I'd genuinely forgotten.
There was nothing I could do about that.
"Hah!
You didn't look for anyone, didn't even send a single letter,
and instead went on a grand little adventure with your dear, dear young lady,
playing at being an adventurer like it was a field trip.
On top of that, you even had a powerful escort.
And when you finally showed up in Millisium—hah, what was the first thing you did?
Stumble onto a kidnapping, pull your pants over your head, and play hero?"
Paul snorted derisively, then grabbed a bottle of liquor sitting on the adjacent table.
He drained half of it in one gulp.
Then he spat on the ground as if to mock me.
That blatant display of contempt set my blood boiling.
I wasn't going to tell him not to drink,
but wasn't this supposed to be an important conversation?
"I was completely overwhelmed too!
I didn't know left from right, but I knew I had to protect Eris…
So what if I slipped up a little? It can't be helped!"
"Nobody's saying you did wrong."
His tone dripped with mockery.
Finally, I raised my voice.
"Then why are you attacking me like this?!"
I had my limits too.
I didn't understand why Paul was saying these things.
"Why?"
Paul spat on the ground again.
"You tell me. Why?"
"What do you mean, 'why'? What?"
I couldn't understand. What was Paul trying to say?
"So Eris—she was Philip's daughter?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, of course she is."
"I've never met the kid myself, but she must be quite the young lady.
Could it be you didn't send a letter because you thought having a bodyguard for your lady would cramp your style?"
"I told you—I forgot! That's all there is to it!"
I wasn't thinking about anything beyond that.
True, Eris was a girl from a distinguished family.
The Greyrat Family was powerful.
If you'd gone to the lord of Zantport, they might have assigned one or two bodyguards.
But that hadn't been possible because I'd been captured in the Beast Race's village, and I hadn't explained that—well, I hadn't gone into that much detail.
Even so, regardless—
I'd done what I could.
I hadn't played every hand perfectly,
but that didn't give him the right to blame me for it.
"Commander, maybe that's enough?
He's still young—you can't expect too much from him."
While I'd been silent, the woman in bikini armor had placed a hand on Paul's shoulder from behind.
Seeing that, I scoffed.
So that's how it was.
This man would lecture me with self-righteous indignation,
but he was the type who couldn't say no to a pretty face.
And yet, someone like that—
How dare he lecture me?
I hadn't laid a single finger on Eris.
There had been dangerous moments, sure.
I'd nearly been consumed by carnal urges.
But I had never—not once—made a move.
"I don't need to hear lectures about women from you, Father."
"…Huh?"
Paul's gaze went flat.
I didn't notice.
"Who is that woman, anyway?"
"What about Vera?"
"There's a beautiful woman right beside you like that—
Does Mother know? Does Lillia know?"
"…They don't know. How could they know?"
Paul's face twisted with frustration, but I didn't see it.
I simply believed I was winning the argument.
"So you've been free to cheat all you want.
Putting her in such a provocative outfit, too.
I suppose it won't be long before I have a new little brother or sister."
Before I knew it—
I realized I'd been punched.
I was on the ground.
Paul stood over me with a hateful look on his face.
"Don't say stupid things, Rudeus."
I'd been hit.
Why?
Damn it.
"You. Rudeus. If you're here, that means you went to Zantport too, right?"
"So what if I did?"
"Then you should know!"
I had no idea what he was talking about.
All I understood was that Paul was hiding something,
and he was treating it as something I ought to have known,
condemning me for my ignorance.
Don't mess with me.
There were things I didn't know too.
I didn't know a whole lot.
"I said I don't know!"
I raised my fist and swung at Paul.
He dodged.
At the same time, I activated my foresight eye.
<Trip me and knock me down>
I stomped hard on Paul's foot.
Then, pivoting, I aimed for his jaw.
<Dodge—counter-punch>
For a drunk, he moved well.
I channeled mana into my right hand.
In a fistfight, I still couldn't match Paul.
But I had magic.
I conjured a tornado from my right hand and slammed it into Paul.
"Whoa—?!"
Paul tumbled end over end, crashing deep into the counter.
Bottles shattered around him as he hit the floor.
"Damn it! You actually did it!"
He got back up quickly, but his leg was bothering him.
You drank too much, idiot.
The old Paul would've been stronger.
He probably would've deflected my tornado even from that position.
"You bastard, Rudeus…"
A staggered Paul was rushed by another woman.
A magician in a robe.
Meanwhile, this man had women surrounding him,
and he'd had the nerve to lecture me.
"Don't touch me!"
Paul shook her off and stalked toward me.
"Paul—you. How many women were you cheating on while I was gone?"
"Shut your mouth!"
<Right hook coming>
A pathetic telephone punch.
Could this really be the same Paul?
I could probably dodge this without foresight.
I caught his arm and threw him in a shoulder toss.
Of course, I didn't know any judo.
I used Wind Magic to generate momentum and hurled him to the ground with brute force.
"Gahh…!"
He couldn't even land properly.
I didn't know if they had breakfalls in this world or not.
I mounted the fallen Paul.
Just like Eris always did—
I pinned both his arms with my knees so he couldn't resist.
"I tried my best too!"
I punched him.
I punched him.
I punched him.
Paul gritted his teeth and glared at me with hate in his eyes.
Damn it.
What was with that look?
Why was he looking at me like that?
"I didn't have a choice!
I was in a place where I knew nothing!
I didn't know a single person!
And somehow I made it this far!
Why do I have to be the one getting blamed?!"
"…If it were you, you should've done better!"
"I couldn't!"
After that, I hit Paul in silence, over and over.
Paul said nothing—just bled from the corner of his mouth,
staring at me.
He looked irritated.
Like someone dealing with a person who couldn't be reasoned with.
Why?
He wasn't supposed to be this kind of person…
Damn it…
Damn it.
"Stoooooop!"
That was when something flew in from the side and collided with me.
The impact knocked me off balance atop Paul,
and in the next instant, Paul shoved me away and scrambled to his feet.
I tensed, ready for a follow-up attack.
But Paul didn't move.
Between us stood a girl.
"Stop it already!"
She had a nose reminiscent of Paul's and golden hair like Zenith's.
One look, and I knew.
Norn.
My little sister.
She'd grown quite a bit.
She was five now, wasn't she?
No—had she already turned six?
Why was she facing me with her arms spread wide?
"Don't bully Papa!"
I stood there, stunned, absorbing her words.
Bully?
No, but—
What?
Norn was glaring at me, eyes brimming with tears.
I glanced around, wondering why—
Criticism was directed at me from every direction.
"…What the hell?"
My heart went cold.
A memory from decades ago surfaced.
The time I'd been bullied.
Back then too, the moment I'd talked back even a little,
the entire class had turned on me with looks of condemnation.
Of course. Of course that was the case.
I must have said something wrong.
I gave up.
My heart broke.
Fine.
I'm leaving.
I saw nothing.
I did nothing.
I'd go back to the inn, wait for Eris and Ruijerd,
and set out again immediately.
Tomorrow or the day after.
I could make money even outside the capital.
There had to be an Adventurers Guild in Westport too.
"Rudeus—you weren't the only one teleported.
Everyone from Buena Village in the Fittoa Region was caught up in the Teleportation disaster."
Paul was saying something.
I heard it dimly.
…Huh?
Wait. What did he just say?
"I left messages at Zantport and at Westport too.
At the Adventurers Guild.
You became an adventurer, didn't you?
Why didn't you check…"
He said that, but Zantport wouldn't have had—
No. Wait.
I hadn't stopped by the Adventurers Guild in Zantport.
I'd gone straight to the Doldia Tribe's village to pick up Ruijerd.
"While you were off having your leisurely adventure, people died.
A lot of them."
A lot of them.
That scale.
The Mana Disaster.
The Teleportation Disaster.
Why hadn't it occurred to me?
The Human God had even said "a large-scale mana disaster."
Why had I assumed Buena Village was safe?
Of course.
Everyone was missing…
"So that means… Sylphiette too?"
When I said that, Paul made that same irritated face again.
"Rudeus. You're more worried about a girl than your own mother?"
I choked.
"M-Mother hasn't been found either?!"
"No. She hasn't been found at all! Neither has Lillia!"
Paul's voice was anguished, each word a blow.
I staggered as if I'd been punched again.
My legs went wobbly.
I was about to collapse.
There was a chair behind me.
I barely managed to grab onto it.
"We organized this search party to find the people who were teleported."
A search party.
So that was what this was.
These people were a search party.
"S-Sir, why would a search party be involved in kidnapping?"
"Some of them ended up as slaves."
Slaves.
Teleported into a place they couldn't identify,
deceived, and sold into slavery…
There had been many such people.
Paul and the others had cross-referenced a list of the missing,
then visited each slave one by one, pleading with their owners to release them.
But many owners were unwilling to part with slaves they'd acquired that way.
Under Millisian slave law, regardless of circumstances,
once someone became a slave, they were the owner's property.
So Paul had resorted to forcibly spiriting slaves away.
Stealing a slave was obviously a crime.
But the law had loopholes.
Paul had exploited those legal loopholes to free dozens of slaves.
Of course, those who wished could remain enslaved.
But most slaves had tearfully begged to return home.
The boy rescued this time was one of them.
I'd thought he looked familiar—he was Somar, one of the boys who used to bully Sylphiette.
He'd spent the past year being treated like a male prostitute.
Listening to the anguished cries of those who'd been enslaved—
and knowing there were others they hadn't been able to save—
Paul had endured resentment from certain nobles,
and even some of his own companions couldn't stomach his heavy-handed methods.
Pressure from above, from below, from every side.
Paul had ground his nerves down to nothing every single day,
but he'd never given up.
Just to help the people who'd been teleported by the Mana Disaster.
"Rudeus. I thought you'd already figured things out
and were already out there doing something."
At Paul's words, I slumped forward helplessly.
Don't be ridiculous…
How was I supposed to have known?
Ah, but—right.
Of course.
Maybe along the way, in the towns I'd traveled through on the Demon Continent,
there had been people from the Fittoa Region who'd been teleported there.
If I'd talked to them, I might have grasped the full scale of the disaster.
I'd neglected to assess the situation.
Before learning about the disaster,
I'd prioritized Ruijerd.
A failure.
"And you call that a leisurely adventure…"
Carefree. Naïve.
Yeah.
That was it.
While I'd been getting excited over Eris's underwear,
getting excited over the body of the woman at the Adventurers Guild,
licking the Demon Emperor's thighs,
and groping a cat-eared girl—
Paul had been desperately searching for his family.
No wonder he was angry.
"…"
But the words "I'm sorry" wouldn't come.
Because it couldn't be helped.
What was I supposed to do?
At the time, I'd genuinely believed that was the best course of action.
"…"
Paul said nothing.
Norn stayed silent too.
But I could feel intense rejection in their gazes.
That sensation carved into me.
It dug into my heart.
It dug into my soul.
Looking around,
even Paul's companions—
the members of the search party—were staring at me with accusatory eyes.
A memory from my past surfaced.
It was the day after the delinquents had stripped me naked and pinned me to the wall.
Walking into class the next morning and feeling everyone's eyes on me…
My mind went blank.
---
Before I knew it, I'd made it back to my own inn.
I collapsed onto the bed.
I couldn't think straight.
I didn't understand what was happening.
I couldn't process anything.
Something rustled inside my clothing.
Reaching in, I pulled out a piece of paper.
I crumpled it into a ball and tossed it away.
I hugged my knees on the bed.
I didn't want to do anything.
Looking back, this was the first time my parents had ever been cold to me.
Both in my previous life and in this one.
No matter what they said, my parents had always been soft on me.
That Paul just now had completely shut me out.
That attitude—it was the same.
It was the same as when my brother had thrown me out of the house.
What had I done wrong?
I didn't know.
I'd thought I was handling things well.
Looking back, I couldn't identify any fatal mistake in my judgment.
If I had to name one thing, it would be relying on Ruijerd at the start.
Doubting a god yet following his advice, I'd rescued Ruijerd.
I'd told the story of our travels as entertainingly as I could.
I had been showing off, sure,
but I hadn't wanted to worry Paul, and there was my pride.
I'd wanted to say: See? I can handle myself.
From Paul's perspective, it probably wasn't amusing.
Paul's companions certainly wouldn't have found it entertaining either.
I'd made a slip of the tongue, yes.
I hadn't meant to prioritize Sylphiette over my mother.
But Paul and Norn were there.
I'd assumed Zenith would be fine too, right?
No—that was an excuse.
In that moment, Zenith hadn't even crossed my mind.
He'd been the one who brought up women.
I hadn't laid a hand on Eris.
So Paul—who was himself a cheater—had no right to lecture me…
Ah. I see.
Maybe Paul hadn't either.
I see.
That was why he was angry.
Okay—I was starting to make sense of this.
Good.
Tomorrow, I'd talk to him again.
Paul had just gotten emotional, that was all.
We'd had fights like this before.
If we talked, we'd understand each other.
Yes, that was fine.
I was worried about my family too.
Not gathering information had been a simple failure of communication.
True, it stung that I'd had a year and a half on the Demon Continent and hadn't done anything.
But I'd been trying to survive too.
It would work out.
Yes, that was right.
If we searched carefully, we'd be fine.
Paul had to know that too—
that in such a vast world, you couldn't expect to find people right away.
So I'd calm Paul down, and we'd plan our next steps.
Focus on the areas not yet searched.
I'd help too.
Once I delivered Eris to Asura, I could head north or somewhere else from there.
Right—first I'd meet with Paul…
I'd go back to the tavern and see Paul…
"…Ugh."
A sudden wave of nausea hit, and I ran to the toilet.
I threw up everything, retching over and over.
Even though I understood logically, my heart wouldn't clear.
The rejection from my family—the first in a long while—had utterly broken me.
---
Just past midday, Ruijerd returned.
He looked a bit happier than usual,
and seemed about to show me some kind of envelope he'd obtained,
but when he saw me sitting on the bed, his expression darkened.
"Did something happen?"
He asked.
"My father is in this town," I answered.
Ruijerd's face grew even grimmer.
"…Did he say something unpleasant?"
"Yes."
"You must have been glad to see each other after so long?"
"I suppose."
"Did you fight?"
"Yes."
"Tell me everything."
I held nothing back, telling him exactly what had happened.
Ruijerd said one word: "I see."
After that, the conversation died.
He left the room after a while.
---
In the evening, Eris came back.
Whatever had happened, she was quite excited.
Leaves clung to her clothes and dust marked her cheeks.
But she looked happy.
Judging by her mood, she'd done well hunting goblins.
Good for her.
"Welcome back."
"I'm home, Rudeus! So listen—oh…"
She smiled at me, then froze.
She rushed over,
"Who did this? Who hurt you?!"
Her expression desperate, she shook my shoulders.
"It's nothing."
"That can't be true!"
This exchange repeated several times.
When she wouldn't let it go, I told her about meeting Paul.
Without hiding anything, matter-of-factly.
What we'd talked about, what his reactions had been,
and what had occurred.
"What did you just say?!"
Eris flew into a rage.
"How can he say such things!
Does he have any idea how hard Rudeus has been working!
To call that playing around…!
I'll never forgive him! He's unfit to be a father!
I'll kill him!"
With those violent words, she grabbed a sword in one hand and charged out.
I didn't have the energy to stop her and simply watched her go.
---
A few minutes later, Eris returned.
Ruijerd was holding her by the scruff of the neck, like a cat.
"Let go of me!"
"Don't interfere in a family quarrel."
Ruijerd said that flatly, then set her down.
Eris immediately spun around and glared at him.
"There are still things you should and shouldn't say, even in a family quarrel!"
"Perhaps. But I understand Rudeus's father's feelings too."
"Then what about Rudeus's feelings!
That Rudeus—who's always so composed, who doesn't flinch no matter how much you kick or hit him—
He's completely broken right now!"
"If he's broken, then comfort him.
If you're a woman, that much you should be able to do."
"Wha—!"
Eris was rendered speechless, and Ruijerd descended from the room.
Left alone, Eris paced restlessly—
this way, that way,
glancing at me from the corner of her eye,
occasionally crossing her arms and standing rigid,
opening her mouth to speak, then stopping, then pacing again.
She couldn't sit still.
Like a bear at the zoo.
Finally, Eris sat down beside me.
Quietly.
Without a word.
She sat.
Leaving a small gap between us.
What kind of expression was Eris wearing?
I hadn't looked carefully.
I didn't have the bandwidth to look at anyone's face.
Time passed.
When I next noticed, Eris was no longer beside me.
Wondering where she'd gone, I felt arms wrap around me from behind.
"It's going to be all right. I'm here with you…"
Eris said that, cradling my head.
Soft, warm, a little sweaty.
All of it—the scent I'd grown accustomed to over this past year.
Eris's scent.
There was a sense of security.
The anxiety of being rejected by my family, the fear—
all of it seemed to wash away.
Maybe Eris was my family now too.
If Eris had been in my previous life,
I might have been saved much sooner.
That was how her embrace felt.
"Thank you, Eris."
"I'm sorry, Rudeus.
I'm not really… good at this kind of thing."
I reached forward and took Eris's hand.
Calloused from sword work, strong—not the hand you'd expect of a noble lady.
A hand shaped by effort.
"No. You helped."
"…Yeah."
The broken pieces of my heart began to mend,
and little by little, a sense of ease returned.
I felt that shift, felt a wave of relief, and let my weight lean into Eris.
Just for a moment—I'd let myself rest against her.