After saying farewell to the Sirens of Nathatone, Hao Ren and the others headed straight home.
At first, Hao Ren had worried that something might have gone wrong while he was away for so many days. After all, the ones left in charge of the house were the least reliable gang of brats imaginable: a fish baby addicted to getting into trouble, a silly cat with nothing but dried fish on her mind, and a demon girl who spent all day sticking her fingers into electrical outlets. Who knew what kind of chemical reaction those three might produce together? Thankfully, Elizabeth hadn't let him down this time. The little girl had regained the composure she'd once shown as the ruler of a city, keeping the cat and fish firmly in line. Everything at home was fine.
Except that she'd taken apart every single appliance.
Once they'd confirmed that everything at home was as usual—or at least seemed that way on the surface—the first thing everyone did was get a proper day's sleep. They needed to relax after the stress of the Io incident and all the other nonsense involving giants, brain monsters, and the like. After that, they returned to their usual routines and got on with their lives. They'd all seen their share of big events, after all, and were pretty good at adapting.
Hao Ren would've liked to take a few more days off, but he couldn't give himself a vacation. He had a mountain of reports to prepare, and the materials that needed summarizing after this incident had piled up, so he was up early, organizing his records. After a year on the job, he'd developed good work habits. During missions, he made detailed notes about every little thing he encountered, and organized every clue in his