Chapter 40

The villagers thought Truck-kun was a well-painted statue in front of the Café. But he wasn't a statue, he was frozen in time and protected by spells.

Well, he wasn't exactly frozen in time. He was pushing time in this Isekai to move faster,so it looked like he was staying still.

The locals said they had seen the statue step off its pedestal and go up to the Café Isekai monthly when the bakery did an evening heating of the oven.

We told them they were crazy.

It was time for Truck-kun’s monthly visit. I felt it when time temporarily slowed down in the Isekai. I felt stronger, smarter, and I could walk without a cane. Truck-kun sped up time in the Isekai, making him look like an unmoving statue. And it was very uncomfortable for me.

I hadn’t expected it to be so uncomfortable. The locals asked why I limped. We developed an excuse that I’d been wounded in the war. I couldn’t move wood or carry water like last time we were here. For the first few years I couldn’t stand the embarrassment of disability. I learned.

Truck-kun walked from his statue pedestal to the Café and I waited with fresh baked pastries as he came in, white hair almost luminescent in the moonlight.

I offered him a puking platypus pastry, like I did every time. I glared at me and took something else, like he did every time.

“Progress?” he asked.

“Our little girl is making plans to move to the city down in the valley. She’s so afraid of moving out on her own, but excited too. We’ll visit every couple of weeks. A local boy will man the Café. A merchant with a cart will take me down and back so I don’t have to limp all the way.”

“Seo…” Truck-kun tried to interrupt.

“She’d visited the village with our son. He’s still young but so wise and careful with his sister. They’ve been inseparable since the tragedy of the avalanche brought them to us. She’s found a place to work and everything.”

“Seo…”

“Her coming of age party was last week. They celebrate it on the twelfth birthday around here. She's supposed to go off on her own. I wish you could have attended. Our boy’s coming of age will be in six months and we…”

“Seo, I want to know about your progress in completing this Isekai. You’re doing this more and more every time I check in. This place is designed to trap you. You’re supposed to find fulfillment here and end your connection, not make your connection deeper.”

“I know, you remind me every month.” I pushed on my half-eaten platypus pastry so that it vomited vaguely in Truck-kun’s direction.

He glared at the pastry. “So how has your progress been?”

“I’m going to talk about my adopted kids more,” I said rebelliously.

Truck-kun sighed and took another bite of his Puke the Un:Null cat breadroll. The locals loved those after we introduced them.

“For all you know, talking about my kids will help me complete my fulfillment in this world. I never knew how having children would make you feel. And I want to talk about them.”

Something strange passed over Truck-kun’s face. He set his roll down and didn’t look at me. “The more you live here, the more you’re drawn in. Fulfillment means ending your desire to be here, not making it deeper.”

That was why Nyarin had stopped attending these checkins years ago. She didn’t like how the only thing we talked about was ending Café Isekai. I had to attend, but I protested by making sure Truck-kun had a fresh puking platypus to refuse.

“They grow up fast.” Truck-kun warned as he looked out the window at our calm, hidden valley.

“They do, you should have seen…”

“That was a warning.” Truck-kun said, but his voice was gentle and sad.

We sat in silence for a while.

“Can I get some water?”

I got up to get water for Truck-kun, but when I came back from the serving counter he was gone. I looked around, then heard something from the back of the cottage.

I ran to the room that the children still shared. We only had a small cottage, so even as they grew they had to share a room. They were old enough now that there wasn’t any fighting, but there were still the nightmares.

My girl was having the same nightmare, the one where she found her parents lifeless after digging with her hands for almost a whole day. When she had these nightmares I would hold her crying form for maybe an hour before she’d sleep again.

I stopped in the door, stunned by what I saw.

My girl was tossing and calling out weakly in her nightmare, but above her was Truck-kun’s extended arm. His arm had expanded into a canopy of fur, eyes, fangs, tusks, and every kind of mouth or snout.

The mouths opened and a black mist escaped my pained girl. I wanted to go to her, but for an instant I didn’t know what Truck-kun was doing. A wild part of my mind thought he might kill the children to take away my reason for wanting to stay here.

She relaxed in blissful sleep as the last of the nightmare escaped in the form of ethereal black smoke which was consumed by Truck-kun.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Before I could say anything, Truck-kun began weeping. He pushed past me to leave the room so as to not wake the children, but I saw the absolute fear in his eyes.

I stayed with him for the hour it took for him to calm down. He was a mighty ancient being, but apparently when you take on someone else’s pain there is no shield to keep you from fully experiencing it yourself. He was racked with fear, just as real as my daughter's had been.

When he was recovered I offered him water. And I also offered him another puking platypus pastry. “For old times sake.” I said.

He laughed and for the first time, after years of me offering, he took the platypus with a smile. He chuckled, wiping away a tear as the platypus puked onto his plate with a simple push of its stomach.

“Thank you,” I said.

“I didn’t do it for you.”

“Who did you do it for? You’re always reminding me that she’s not real. That’s why she’s afraid of going out on her own, actually. The nightmares.”

“She won’t have them any more. It’s an old nightmare. I’ve consumed the last of it.”

I thought about this. “You ate her nightmare to make it easier for me to leave?”

Truck-kun shook his head. It took a while for him to answer. “I didn’t know it would work that well at the time. There was a child hurting, so I did what I do.”

“Thank you,” I said again. This time he didn’t disagree.

There were footsteps. Before Truck-kun could hide, our boy came out from the bedroom. He looked at Truck-kun, who was supposed to be an inanimate statue. “I have to apologize to the old woodcutter. I called him crazy.”

I tried to explain, but the boy asked a question.

“She had a nightmare again, didn’t she?”

I nodded and waved a hand to Truck-kun. “The last.”

The boy didn’t ask about the moving statue or why I knew it was the last nightmare. He trusted me and apparently that was enough.

“Dad, I need to tell you something.”

Truck-kun looked at me and excused himself after grabbing a couple of fresh rolls.

“I’m going to the city. I found an apprenticeship there last time we went. They need someone who can start as soon as possible. I’ll be there for her, when you two aren’t visiting. She needs me.”

“But…” I complained.

“I’ve thought it over. It’s the right thing to do. I’ll come back up for my coming of age ceremony, and you’ll see me every other week. But nothing lasts forever. I have to move on. It doesn’t mean I love you any less, but it’s the right thing to do.”

The boy had grown up so fast. The avalanche had changed him. He had worked when the other children played. He had carried water when my limp was bad. He helped the elderly in our small village. Everyone would miss him. I was proud of him.

And he was right. It was the right thing to do. Nothing lasts forever. I had to move on.

We didn’t stay for the boys coming of age ceremony. We made sure the children were set up in their apartments, in their new lives. When we returned to the mountain village we closed Café Isekai for the last time.

People remarked on the walking statue that accompanied us up toward the old haunted fortress ruins up the hill.

Nyarin wiped away tears as we neared the place. We could hear ghosts mourning the unfair battle that had taken their old empire.

Truck-kun opened the door. We went forward to our next adventure as the world dissolved.

“Dammit,” I whispered, “not another Isekai.”