Starry Night

During the next few weeks everyone was in an uproar to get the crops planted. Haruki and Rudolph’s hard work had inspired them, knocking them out of their malaise.

Now that the village only had one working plow (two if you count Rudolph) and quite a few farmers had either left or were injured, the remaining people who were capable had to work harder than ever to get the crops planted before the winter.

They rotated the two plows between farms each day, and in the meantime many of the farmers had taken after Haruki’s example and tried to get as much of the work done manually as they could.

Everyone did everything they could to finish the planting and prepare for the winter ahead.

By the time the cold began to set in, they had finished tilling and sowing most of the fields, ensuring that the next harvest at least wouldn’t be a failure.

As the months grew cold, the people of the village managed to survive by splitting the seven Rindwyr that Johannes’ and Sven’s families had between them. They also had some remaining vegetables and preserved foods that weren’t raided, and did some hunting. They made use of every possible avenue to gather food and sustain themselves through the winter.

When spring finally came around, they all collectively breathed a sigh of relief. They had been stretched thin, but they all managed to survive somehow.

On a cool spring night in April, Haruki was walking through the fields of yellow sprouting grains, checking to make sure everything was developing alright. The setting sun painted the world in beautiful shades of orange.

“Haruki!” Lillianna yelled from far away.

The girl jogged up to him.

“You’re about done here, right?” she asked.

“Yep.”

“Then come on, let’s go for a walk together!”

They had been going on walks together most nights ever since the weather started to get warmer outside. She could be a real chatterbox out on the walks, they both never ran out of subjects to talk to each other about.

“Uncle seems to finally be getting used to working with both his hands again,” she said, cheerfully.

“That’s great to hear.”

Lillianna wrapped her arm around his.

“Let’s go over to the hill again, to watch the sunset!” she said enthusiastically.

Haruki followed her as they made their way to the top of a local hill, just beyond the edge of their farm. It was a lot like the grassy hill he had found himself on when he first woke up in this world, with a little tree at the top offering shade.

Patches of wild lily flowers dotted the grassy landscape. They reminded him of Lillianna, so he picked one.

“Come on, sit down. The sunset will be over soon!” Lillianna entreated.

Haruki sat down in the grass beside her. They watched the sunset together quietly, as words would only ruin the moment.

Sunset had become Haruki’s favorite moment of the day since arriving in this isekai world, and not just because that was when work would end for the day.

Back in his previous life, he could never remember ever having taken the time to sit down and appreciate the sunset. In the world of the internet and video games, he always had something more stimulating to do, but stimulation isn’t all there is to life.

Life is meant to be lived. It seems so self-evident, but it took me traveling to another world and coming face-to-face with death multiple times to truly realize it.

The last remnants of sunlight finally disappeared from the sky, and Haruki began to sit back up to head back home. Lillianna grabbed his arm.

“Let’s stay here for a little longer, we can watch the stars together,” she said.

Haruki lay back down beside her. “Alright, I’ll humor you tonight.”

They both laid there, staring up directly into the starry night sky. By gazing into the infinite celestial dome above them, they felt like puny ants.

“Do you know anything about the constellations, Haruki?”

“Nope, I don’t know anything about that kind of stuff.”

She started pointing around at the sky and naming various constellations.

“That one’s Veltaris, and that’s Celephine… oh, and that one over there is Saelus, the great wolf-bear.”

Haruki may not know anything about constellations, but he knew that none of these were names that could be found back on Earth.

I guess even the sky is completely different in this world.

The stars above them were dazzling.

He figured this had to be some sort of fantasy world thing. Even back in the real world under perfect conditions and zero light pollution, he was pretty sure the stars and nebulae were never so numerous and colorful. It was almost like looking at one of those deep-space photos from the Hubble or Webb telescopes.

He turned to his side to look at Lillianna, only to realize that she was already lying on her side and looking at him.

“Haruki, I’ve always wondered: what does your name mean?”

“Why do you ask all of a sudden?”

“It’s just that with such an unusual name, it has to mean something, right? It can’t just be arbitrary, and I can’t stop wanting to know.”

“You’re right,” he said. “My name means ‘Distant Hope’.”

She giggled. “That’s such a foreboding name! No wonder you turned out to be such a funny person.”

He wasn’t sure whether to take that as a complement or a slight.

“My name just means lily flower, combined with ‘Anna’, which was my grandma’s name, although I never met her.”

He remembered the lily flower in his pocket.

“Here, I… uhh… picked one of the wild lilies for you. It reminded me of you.”

She laughed again. “That’s such a cheesy line, but I give you points for it. Flowers are a classic.”

Haruki felt a bit embarrassed.

“Here,” she said. She tucked her hair back and leaned over him, planting a light kiss on his forehead. Haruki’s face instantly turned beet-red.

“That one was a freebie, I’m feeling generous today,” she said, playfully. “You’ll have to come up with something better next time if you want a proper kiss.”

Haruki sat upright and turned to her.

“D-does that mean… you like me?” he asked her.

“Isn’t that obvious, does it even need to be said?”

Haruki thought that was indeed something which really needed to be said out loud, but maybe being dense to romance was just the one isekai-protagonist trait he was actually gifted with when he reincarnated in this world.

“You’re too shy, you know that?” Lillianna cheekily teased him. “If I left it up to you, I’m afraid you might never have the courage to make a move on me.”

Haruki giggled nervously. “You’re right, I’m too shy.”

She rolled over onto her belly and looked him in the eyes.

“But maybe that’s a part of what I like about you.”

Haruki’s heart skipped a beat. Her words were just too much for him.

There’s something so utterly perfect about her, something beyond her cute outward appearance or even her personality, some innate aspect that makes her just right for me.

They joked around and chatted for a while longer, before eventually getting up and returning to their home.

As the warmth of spring returned to the world, it felt like a new era had dawned for Haruki. It was the start of his new peaceful life on the farm, which he could now truly call home. The work would be hard, but life would finally be happy.