Embrace

Xin Mu abruptly cut off the topic, and Zhang Ruofeng could only smile wryly to himself. Aside from practicing martial arts in middle and high school and meeting adults at gatherings from an early age, Zhang Ruofeng had no special abilities at all. He had realized that from the start. Every day, he was frantically absorbing knowledge about this world—its equipment, gods, Familias, conflicts, medicines, monsters, materials, money, and nobility. It was almost enough to make his head explode. Most important of all, Xin Mu and he were both people from another world. Fortunately, their goddess was on good terms with many other gods, and had close ties to both Zeus and Hera. Otherwise, Zhang Ruofeng wasn't sure whether someone might attack their Familia's base, Fura Flower Shop.

"Time is the most terrifying thing," Xin Mu said softly. "I feel like even if we're still alive a year or two from now, we'll have forgotten so many things from our world."

"There's nothing we can do about that. Once we get back, we can slowly get reacquainted with everything, just like we're doing now." Zhang Ruofeng tried to sound cheerful. His smile felt bitter, but he couldn't let Xin Mu see how upset he was.

"How many years will that take?" Xin Mu asked, her voice trembling. "I know this world. I only read about its setting and lore because you loved it."

Zhang Ruofeng fell silent. His back was already a little damp; clearly, Xin Mu was on the verge of breaking down. Only then did he remember seeing a strange, large bottle at the dinner table. Now that he thought about it, it must have been the liquor Perman and Evan had brought. He'd drunk so much that he hadn't noticed Xin Mu had been drinking quite a bit, too.

"Ten years? Twenty?" Xin Mu said dejectedly. "I'm happy as long as I'm with you, but I'm also worried my parents will search for me until they go mad..." She didn't know whether they could ever return, and she knew Zhang Ruofeng had no confidence about it either. That was why he was always seeking out adventurers and merchants who had traveled far and wide, buying them drinks and asking them to share strange tales no one else knew, hoping to learn something different that might lead them home. "You've asked so many travelers, and you still haven't found an answer, have you? And every time, you come back covered in wounds. If you—"

"Shh." Zhang Ruofeng turned and held Xin Mu, stopping her from going on. Of course he knew what she wanted to say, but he had no idea what to do either. Almost all his spare time went toward gathering information, yet the most disheartening thing was that he still knew nothing about getting home. The Four Great Dragon Kings, the Battle of Red Dragon Bay, the Mountain Beast King, the Plains Goblin Tribe—even beyond Orario, the world was filled with conflict and excitement. But Zhang Ruofeng was deeply discouraged by the fact that he hadn't heard a single rumor about people from other worlds or anything like a portal or teleportation array. It seemed that the only way back was the rumor Fura had heard from another god. "Don't worry. I'll definitely go back to our world with you."

"Mm." Xin Mu tried hard not to make a sound as she buried her face against Zhang Ruofeng's chest and cried. Zhang Ruofeng sat there in silence for a while, thinking about how badly the two of them had been beaten. All he could do was smile wryly. Before he knew it, Xin Mu had fallen fast asleep in his arms.

What are we going to do from here? Zhang Ruofeng was just as lost. He kept turning over all the wild rumors he'd heard in his mind until he drifted off to sleep.

In the morning, Zhang Ruofeng woke to movement in his arms. He opened his eyes and realized that at some point, Xin Mu had gone from holding him to being held tightly in his arms. Xin Mu had evidently noticed that he was awake, too. She quickly struggled free, her face faintly red, while Zhang Ruofeng blushed as well. He'd been drinking the night before and was so lost in thought that he'd forgotten to carry Xin Mu back to her own bed. What was more, he'd spent the morning sleeping soundly with her held tightly against him. He'd been far too careless.

"Ah, sorry! I'll go make breakfast!!!" Zhang Ruofeng had no idea how to handle the awkward, charged atmosphere, so he resorted to running away, rushing out of the room in a flurry.

"Pfft." Xin Mu clutched the hem of her pajamas and laughed as she watched Zhang Ruofeng flee in a panic. She wondered whether he'd made that mistake because their conversation the night before, while she was drunk, had made him worry too much about her—or because the subject had struck directly at the thing that made him most uneasy. Zhang Ruofeng always seemed calm, but there was a sadness and loneliness beneath that calm. Since coming to this world, that loneliness seemed to have been slowly fading. Maybe it was because his mental strength had grown: Zhang Ruofeng had become much more resistant to that inexplicable heartache of his. She and the goddess Fura still joked around with him, and he sometimes couldn't keep his composure, but it no longer felt like his heart was being cut to pieces as it had before.

While Zhang Ruofeng made breakfast, Xin Mu took out the set of daggers she had bought with him the previous evening on their way back from outside the city. It consisted of six short daggers and two long ones, eight blades in all, forged from refined steel. Each dagger had a blood groove near the tip. Even if the blade couldn't pierce an enemy's body, its sharp edge and blood groove could still inflict serious injuries. She strapped the sheaths of the two long daggers crosswise around her waist, then fastened the other six to her thighs, three on each side. The crude iron dagger given to each beginner wasn't much use anymore, but Xin Mu still strapped two of them to her legs, just in case.

"Mm, not bad. You're looking more and more like an adventurer." The goddess Fura had finished washing up and was admiring Xin Mu's outfit. In the past, Zhang Ruofeng and Xin Mu had worn modern clothes and pants, whose materials and styles clashed with this world. Zhang Ruofeng's enormous armguard made him look even more out of place.

"Thank you." Xin Mu nodded to Fura. She was sure Fura knew that she and Zhang Ruofeng had recovered and were back in the best of health, so their trip to the Dungeon would have to continue.

"Mm, be careful." Fura had always supported her Familia members in whatever they wanted to do. She never tried to restrain her adventurers, even when they were reckless. Most of them were free to choose their own paths, so they could decide for themselves how they wanted to live.

"Time to eat!" Zhang Ruofeng had just brought three plates to the table. The goddess and Xin Mu exchanged smiles, then sat down to eat with him.