Epilogue — Dear Grandma.

“How come you’re now really bad at magic?! Is this black hair causing it?!”

“Uuuh, I doubt it was…”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at Rama’s words as he rudely pulled a lady’s hair— mine, actually, that had grown totally black upon that encounter with the Lesser Goddess I have never known well the name of.

Even my face has turned from the gorgeous beauty of Angelica to the normal every day Arika back, also my magic is pretty much harder to master than it was before even when I still understand how to use it. At least I’m still kind of an immortal Blessed One because of fundamental reasons they couldn’t change, and my wounds healed fast again.

“Dammit, it must’ve been that Lesser Goddess… If we ever meet again, I’ll explode her head…”

“Please don’t, Rama. It’s just a part of my agreement with Grandma and not her.” I smiled awkwardly as I pointed at myself teasingly. “Besides, don’t you think I look cute like this too?”

“W—what do you mean by that?!”

But before Rama could act out more on his cutest tsundere act, Rana came with her jolly steps as she stopped humming just to call out our names as she peeked out of the door with a smile.

“Rama, Lady Arika~ Elder are calling you~ It seems like we have a small little visitor~”

“Oh, sure! We’ll go!”

I spontaneously pulled Rama’s hand to go with me, causing him to blush as he gasped in surprise. It was adorable, and I couldn’t help but let out a little smile as I pulled him into the house where Elder is waiting for us.

…To think of it, I haven’t really confessed my feelings to him, even after what happened. I’m not one to rush into romances even in another world, as with what happened in the past world’s breakup with my ex-boyfriend was the result of me rushing things out. Still, it feels not right to not say it clearly to him at all, yet I kept losing the timing too that I just… never really spoke it out.

Such thoughts occupied my head until I heard a very loud sigh from a small source beyond Elder’s palm. One that surprised me, and where I’m sure the source of such a sigh was rolling his eyes judging me as he does.

“Goodness. You really thought of too much, Granddaughter of Angelica. Couldn’t you do it later?”

“Urk, it’s Mister Duragon….” I bowed down just to pinch the palm-sized dragon as carefully as possible, as I don’t want to imagine what he would do to me if he ever returned to his actual, giant mountain-like size.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t do anything about your rudeness because Angelica would not desire so. In fact, I am here because she wanted me to protect you when she couldn’t.”

Yeah, yeah, whatever, stop reading my mind and lend this 28 years old woman some privacy. I know you can’t speak with anyone but me anymore after you got turned into this small little lizard due to my Grandma’s clumsy plan, surely you can just turn your mind-reading off? I puffed my cheeks in annoyance. Mister Duragon in Elder’s palm shook his head and would’ve spoken up again to my head if it wasn’t—

“Ahem. You two, I know you’re the only one who could communicate with each other due to the…. Situation, but could I have a listen too on this stare-off?”

Elder spoke up to catch our attention, and it worked as we turned to him. So that I could put aside how Mister probably would start to complain again about the complexity of my mind, I should just speak out loud.

“Oh sure, sure, Elder!” I said with a bright smile. “Though I don’t know yet what this lizard– I mean reptile— I mean, dragon needs from me. He hasn't told me anything yet.”

“Could you stop calling me names from your previous world? It’s just, there are still a few pieces of your Grandma’s powers down on the surface that we haven’t found. She started to run out of ones she had from the last encounter. At this rate, she’ll run out by ten years.”

“...Okay, she’ll run out in ten years? That’s still a while…”

“For you, yes. For the standard of a Goddess in this world, no.” Mister Duragon spoke out. “We should get going and gather more. I’ll help out. Since it’ll be a bother if you cried missing him, bring your boyfriend you’ve been holding hands with all the time too..”

His words cause me to realize that I’m still holding hands with a confused Rama who was out of the conversation as I shriek girlish-ly with a ‘Kyaa~ I totally forgot~’ and let go of it. He ended up looking pissed while blushing. How cute, and this is why I can’t stop teasing him with a grin. I started to understand how Rana felt way too much than I expected...

“Oi, dragon, you can read her mind, right? She must’ve been thinking of something stupid, am I right?”

“Oh, she totally is. It kind of reminds me of your sister…”

“Ugh. She started to be more like Rana, definitely. Why is my piece of ____ sister affecting everyone around her that easily?”

These two didn’t understand each others’ words at all. Neither are they supposed to be able to communicate, but just from the gestures of Mister Duragon, they are able to speak somehow accurately, though so far Mister Duragon’s attempt in spilling the beans about my feelings to Rama have ended up in failure. I guess they felt more twinning in mind than the actual twins in this home…

“Hm~? I felt like someone’s talking bad about me~” Rana popped out all of sudden with an irked grin on her face. “....That aside, if Mister Duragon is here, that means we’ll be going out for an adventure again, right? Right? I was getting bored~”

“Sure. There’s still something we need to do to help my Grandma. I would’ve been relieved if Rana joined in too.”

“Yay~”

Me and Rana giggled as we clapped our hands together in agreement. As time goes by in this world, we really did get along much better as friends— and of course, she still insists about me and Rama. Which I haven’t been really updating in progress because of her influencing me to like teasing him…

“Don’t blame your friend for your own incompetence.”

“Shut up, Mister.” I pouted. “Anyway, yeah, that’s how it is. You and Rui are joining us, right, Rama?”

“I don’t know yet. Go hire Dellney again.”
“I’ll run out of proper Grandma savings by the time we’re done! She’s raising her service prices now that she knows how much is in my bank!”

“It’s your own fault, isn’t it?”

I smiled awkwardly as I scratched the back of my head. To that, Rama sighed.

“Oh well. It’s worrying to let you two go on your own. Right, Rui?”

Rui, who was lying down on the floor along on top of a soft red rug as he observed us, meows in agreement. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight. Now that I knew that Rui’s the soul of a cat passing away in my original world that my Grandma brought to this world for a second chance, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of familiarity with him as I gave the kitty a cuddle. In some ways, he’s like a sibling from the same world.

“Sure, whatever. Are we going or not?”

“Elder, we should be preparing to go soon.”

I turned my gaze to Elder to ask for permission, whose answer is pretty clear from how he nodded and smiled. I always wondered if he found his own redemption from the past trauma by letting Rana and Rama walk in their own path now….

“I think he does. And you too, to some extent.”

“What do you mean by that, hm, small dragon?”

I pinched the little dragon’s wings and put him in front of me, so I could be on eye level with him. Rana couldn’t help but laugh at the sight, while Rama sighed as he muttered a bad word under his breath out of habit. I feel like we’re a little closer day by day, so maybe the romantic confession for Rama could be put aside when I’m in the right mood.

“Let’s pack up, guys!”

As I let Mister Duragon fly out on his own to wait for us outside, I clasped my hand together with a bright smile I never had in my previous world as an adult as I led the party of three— no, it’s exactly five with Rui and Mister Duragon by our companion.

Dear Grandma, my adventure here will continue on as I walk out of this house, even if we couldn’t talk as much as we did before in our dreams. Thank you very much for giving me this chance. Thank you for forgiving me, and thank you for always loving me and putting me on your priority even when you’re given so many privileges to be doing anything else in this world.

—Your beloved Granddaughter, Arika.