Chapter 33

“Huff… huff… huff…”

Cold sweat descended down my forehead. I turned to my right, Elerina wasn’t there. I jumped out of bed, looking for her.

“Elerina!” I shouted, not caring if I’m waking up my neighbors or not.

“Ni- Nicholas!?” Elerina came from the wardrobe, still wearing her pajamas, a puzzled look on her face.

“Thank goodness…”

I pulled her into a hug, holding my tears. Elerina patted my back. “There there… everything’s going to be alright.”

I couldn’t even describe how relieved I am to have her still with me. Elerina took my hand and guided me back to bed. Of course, due to the difference of worlds, she was now sitting at the center of the bed, her foot going through the mattress.

“Tell me everything.”

I told her about the dream I had, about my fear of missing her, about how I was looking for her. Elerina listened closely, paying attention while nodding along.

“I see…” she murmured after I finished.

“... Do you still wake up at this time?”

I remember in her world, people would get up to socialize during the middle of the night. I didn’t remember her ever doing that again though, as she wanted to match up our sleeping schedules.

“I mean, it’s fine if you want to, I won’t stop you.”

Elerina gently shook her head. “... I don’t know why…”

She glanced away from me. “... I remember…”

“Remember?”

She took a deep breath. “I remember joining the late night talks, even as a kid… Well, I can’t exactly say I remember, as I’m sure I never experienced it… but…”

She turned back to me. “What if… and this is a big what if, but what if you’re right, and my memories are a mess?”

What if Elerina was never abandoned by her father? What if Elerina’s memories of being ostracized from her village were all fake? What if it was her that just went up and left one day for no reason?

Elerina leaned on my chest, clenching my shirt. “I used to be sure of my memories, but not anymore…”

“... How did you remember?”

“... Similar to you, actually. It’s a dream, but it felt real… way too real.” She opened her hands, looking at her palms. “I… I remember my father holding my hand… but… there’s just no way that’s true, right? I mean…”

She trailed off again.

“I’m… scared.”

I hugged her tight. It was the only thing I could do.

“What if… by leaving… I doomed my town to its fate? What if I… What if I hated them all for no reason? What if they’re kind to me, but I returned that kindness with malice? Just what did I forget? Did I actually forget them, or was it something else?”

Tears began forming in Elerina’s eyes. “I want to know…”

“Elerina…”

“Hiks… why… why am I like this…”

“Elerina…”

“I… I don’t… What… What did I do?”

“Elerina.”

Tears flooded out. Elerina cried, and all I could do was hold her tight.

•••

“Sorry… I showed you an unsightly side of me…” Elerina let out a little snicker while wiping the tears from her eyes.

“It’s alright. If anything, I consider it to be an honor to witness more sides of you, Ellen.”

“I told you to not call me that.” Ellen lightly punched my side while pouting. That seemed to cheer her up a bit, at least, although I still don’t understand why she hated that nickname so much.

“Ellen.”

“Oh, now you’re doing that just to annoy me!” Elle- I mean Elerina, leaped onto me and pushed me down to the bed. She locked me with her legs, her hands by my sides. Her eyes gleamed in a scary way.

“Umm… Elerina?”

“Time for your punishment!”

She began tickling. I exhausted myself from all the laughing that night.

•••

“We got some intel.”

The next day, we ate breakfast with Memorus and Angen, who had finished all their business surprisingly quickly. I thought they would take a couple of days at least.

“What did you find?”

“Apparently, it’s been years since someone last tried going into the former empire’s territory.”

The last recorded claim of someone leaving was over a hundred years ago. This meant traveling to that region is very uncommon.

“And, those all had a high affinity for magic.”

“Well, that’s interesting.” While I didn’t understand the full extent of the magic system, often those with strong affinity for magic are strong warriors. What kind of dangers are so bad that those with strong affinity failed to return home?

“Well, I can’t use magic… so there’s that, oh, and neither does Nicholas.”

“That’s what I’m thinking…”

“And one more thing, every single person that went, went in alone.”

I’m surprised by how much Memorus could gather in a single night. Despite how he looks, he must be a kind of extrovert, or at least, have a way with people. I couldn’t imagine myself going around asking people these kinds of questions, let alone coming back with proper information. There’s one more thing that’s even more surprising, however.

“Why alone? Isn’t that more risky?”

“Apparently, everyone tried to warn these adventurers, and those who did go didn’t manage to find a party to come with them, so they went alone, spouting stuff like ‘just you wait, I’ll come back with untold riches!’ and they didn’t even leave behind a corpse. Not surprised, honestly. Even until now, people still fear that area. No one in their right mind would go there without a good reason.”

“So if we don’t have an affinity for magic, and we traveled together, we should be safe?”

“Possibly? There’s no definitive answer.”

“I can buy anti-magic potions if you want.”

“And we do have considerable firepower thanks to that thing.”

The gun should be able to blast through anything that couldn’t be sliced, and even if it couldn’t, it would surely at least buy them time to escape.

“So, what are our plans?”

“There aren’t really any, other than relying on the drone and doing the rest blind.”

Since no one ever returned and lived to tell the tale, we have zero way of knowing what lies ahead of us. I should still be able to make a difference, though. Since I’m not connected to their world, if something happened to them and they got stuck, then I could resupply them endlessly, in theory at least.

We might not even need to find a way to return. If something bad happens after we find a way to transport people, I could pull them here. It probably isn’t something they want to happen, but that’s just something for the ‘worst case scenarios’ bin.

“It’s really risky… are you sure you two wanted to join?” Elerina asked. While I’m sure she’s grateful for the company, Angen and Memorus stood to gain nothing from our success. If anything, her world would lose an S-Rank adventurer, thanks to her departure.

“What are you saying? We’ve come this far, might as well see it to its end.”

“Besides, all those who disappeared are people who went on it alone. Us not coming basically seals your fate.”

Hearing their resolute answers, Elerina let out a grin. “Thank you.”