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“We’re home.”

My busy old man had left us on the way to go to work, so it was just Mom and me who came home. The slightly lonesome look on Pops’ face when we parted made me a bit happy.

“Then, I’ll be making lunch,” Mom said as she went to the kitchen. “So, in this… what was it called again, Anazumu? You found a girlfriend there, didn’t you?”
“R-Right.”
“What kind of girl is she?”

Mom shot me a glance as she was heating the frying pan. Her face seemed strangely expectant.

“Ah… well, not sure. I mean…”
“Is she cute?”
“Yep, she is. Very. She’s a bit like a dog.”
“Really?”

I could only see her from behind, but she was surely grinning.

“Either way, I’ll bring her here, soon.”
“I suppose I’m looking forward to that… How did you get to know each other? Kanata’s story wasn’t exactly detailed.”
“Right.”

Well, that had been intentional… Not like I can tell her my girlfriend’s some former slave.

“You don’t want to talk about it?”
“Uhm… well, there are reasons. You’ll find out soon enough.”
“But from what Kanata told us, that Anazumu seems to be a dangerous place… She probably got attached to you after you saved her. Am I correct?”
“…”

…She was correct.

“I hit the bull’s eye, didn’t I? You didn’t take advantage of that gratitude of hers and caused her trouble, did you? Is she alright?”
“Come… come on. I ain’t got no clue what you think that other world is, but… I didn’t cause her much trouble… least I think so.”

Right, pretty sure I ain’t never been a nuisance to her… She is fine, ain’t she?

“Hmph, alright.” After shooting me a glance, Mom looked at the papers on the table. “In that case, we might have to call that off.”
“By ‘that’, are you talkin’ ’bout that foreign student thingy?”
“Yes.”

I had never known that it existed to begin with. A system for taking in gifted orphans from overseas for a certain time span, who wanted to come to Japan.

“You don’t have to call it off. That kid was plannin’ to come to our school, right?”
“Oh, well… that orphan is a girl your age, you see. She’s apparently from Norway.”

F-From Norway? Not the place I woulda expected.

In any case, so it’s a girl.

“Ain’t that fine? It ain’t gonna bother me.”
“Even if you have no issues with it, that girlfriend of yours might.”
“Oh.”

That’s true. If I told Rir that some girl would live in my house, I could see her acceptin’ it on the surface, but then mumblin’ a dejected “woof~…” with her ears droopin’.

Still.

“What will happen to that girl, then? Won’t this cause her issues? If it does, do we even have a choice?”
“Well, I thought you’d say that. Your father came to the same conclusion.”
“He did?”

Well, I can see him say that.

“Incidentally, we don’t know her name, do we?” I asked. “All we know is that she’s a second year high-schooler… and that she’s from Norway, right? Do we have any other information?”
“No, at this point, we don’t know any more. We are still in the application stage.”

That’s also surprising. You’d think they’d at least have made a photo public.

“Well, either way, you mustn’t lay your hands on her, Shuu.”
“I ain’t gonna do somethin’ like that!”
“Oh, come now. I might have believed those words if you looked like Ayumu, but no one will ever see you as anything but a man¹.”

…Even Ayumu can act like a man if he wants to. Although there’s his face.

“…Well, other than that. When will you go back to the other world?”

Mom seemed to be done cooking and was quickly transferring the food onto large plates.

“Right, tomorrow. But from what Kanata said, goin’ there and comin’ back should only take an instant. Least from the view of people other than us.”
“Does that mean you’re enjoying a second life over there?”

Huh, she’s right, you could think of it that way. Thinkin’ ’bout it in a simple timewise manner, our lifetimes have doubled.
…Nah, with those Amrita thingies, we could stay young long as we want, I guess? Not like I need to live forever.

“You might be right there,” I admitted.
“Huh, oh well, I still can’t believe everything we’ve heard, but as your mother, I think it’s best if you do what you want. Just don’t make your girlfriend sad, will you?” Mom commented as she finished dishing up lunch and placed a plate in front of me.

…It was Kimchi² fried rice, my favorite dish.

“Well, either way. I’ve said it before, but I am truly glad you’ve come home.”
“Right, I won’t cause you guys any more worries.”

I scooped up a spoonful of the dish and brought it to my mouth. Food cooked by a parent was different from food made with True Cooking.

Yummy.

1. In the original, she uses the word 漢. According Jisho, this describes a negative or aggressive masculine nuance.
2. Kimchi is a Korean dish made of salted and fermented vegetables.

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