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“We’ll be off, then.”

After chatting for a bit, Ayumu and the others were about to leave.

“What? You’re not comin’ inside?”
“Eh, Rir will now say hello to your parents, Shuu, won’t she?” Ayumu guessed.
“Besides, after spending so much time apart from her dear boyfriend, we should let you have some time for yourselves,” Mika added.
“”Right?””

Just what’s goin’ on today with Ayumu and Mika? Their teasin’ has been on full blast the whole day. Is that revenge for what I did?

“With that being said, Rir. When did you say you were starting at our school again?”
“Three days from now.”
“Right, then we’ll see you there in three days. Let’s meet up soon on the other side.”
“R-Right.”

After Ayumu told her that, the two couples – both holding hands – went home while being guarded by one of Pops’ subordinates, seeing there were way too many people around.

“Sh-Shall we go in, then?” I asked Rir.
“Yeah!”

Rir and I entered the house. Come to think of it, I’m about to introduce my girlfriend to my parents. The thought made me tense up.

“S-Sorry for the intrusion!” Rir said, her voice shrill with nervousness.

I immediately heard Mom’s footsteps.

“Welcome! Please come on in,” she greeted her, as she rushed towards us.

I thought it strange that Pops wasn’t coming too, but when I shot a glance into the living room, he seemed to be engrossed in talk with a foreign looking old man who must’ve arrived while we were outside. This was likely the rector of Rir’s orphanage.

“E-Excuse me!”

Rir, who had started to tremble, properly took off her shoes and crouched to place them against the wall. Her etiquette left nothing to be desired, likely more perfect than you’d see with Japanese people¹.

“You know your manners, don’t you?” Mom asked.
“I-It’s because I studied up on Japanese customs for a long time!”

Hm~, she’s tremblin’ a lot. Well, she used to have trouble with polite speech, so I guess it’s unavoidable.

“I see… Dear. She’s arrived.”
“Alright.”

When Mom called him, Pops stopped talking to the old man and came to us. His face always looked somewhat stern, but today he forced himself to relax his expression.

“Welcome. I was just hearing stories about you from the head of the orphanage.”

When he said that, Rir looked at the rector. He seemed to be a kind man, giving of a paternal feeling².

“Rir, klarte du å hilse ordentlig på dem? (Rir, were you able to properly greet them?)” he asked Rir.
“Det gikk greit, jeg tror jeg klarte det. (It went fine, I think I managed.)”

It sounded close to English, but I couldn’t understand a single word, seeing it was a different language³. On that note, Pops and the rector had apparently talked in English earlier.

After hearing her reply, the rector smiled and stood up from his seat.

“…Thank you… for taking… care of… her,” he said in very broken Japanese, while bowing his head.
“W-We should be the ones to thank you. For you to leave her in our care.”
“We will take good care of your daughter.”

My parents hurriedly replied – Mom in Japanese and Pops in English – while also bowing.

After nodding, the rector turned back to Rir.

“Rir, kom over hit. (Rir, come here.)”
“Greit. (Okay.)”

She went to the old man after he called her over. After talking for a bit, they hugged each other before immediately separating again.

“I shall… be off… then,” the man said with a smile and then went to the front door.

Mom and Pops followed him to see him off. For a brief moment, it was just Rir and me.

“He seems like a great guy.”
“He is. He didn’t have any memories of me. Or to be more precise, he knows that I wasn’t there originally… that’s how he put it.” Rir looked at the front door, where no one could be seen. “Still, even with that knowledge, for these three weeks, he treated me as if I’d always been there. I am grateful to him from the bottom of my heart.”

…So, his memories haven’t been modified. Maybe the memories of people directly related to us weren’t tampered with⁴.

After Rir told me about the orphanage for around three minutes, my parents, who’d probably finished seeing off the rector, came back.

“…Sorry to keep you waiting. Rir, for now please have a seat.”
“U-Understood!”

Rir sat down as she had been asked to. On the four-person table, where usually just the three of us sat, Rir and I were sitting opposite my parents.

“At any rate… We will be your… foster parents for the next one and a half years, should you still plan to live permanently in Japan. It’s nice to meet you, Rir Fún. Or just Rir, if that’s alright.”
“W-Woof!”
“It won’t be an issue for you if we speak in Japanese, right?”
“N-No, it’s fine!” Rir replied while trembling nervously.

Pops is a specialist, so he should get her to open up, soon.

TL notes:
I don’t speak Norwegian, so this stuff is what Google Translate spat out (DeepL only has Bokmål, which is apparently only for writing and different from spoken Norwegian, so I couldn’t use that). If you speak the language and there are errors, just point them out and I’ll fix them.

1. This is bugging me every time I see it in WN/LNs. Do Japanese assume that people in the rest of the world never take off their shoes at home?
2. The original uses 母性 (“motherhood”, “maternity”), which seems weird considering the rector is a man. There is a version of the word for men (父性), so not sure if this is an error.
3. No, this doesn’t sound like English AT ALL. Though I guess if you have zero knowledge about spoken English (which, according to WN/LNs, is the case for most Japanese high schoolers), then you might view it that way.
4. So, the people most important to ensure a normal life for those from other worlds won’t get any information about those visitors and know they’re not supposed to exist? That seems counterproductive.

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