Ten years...
White Noroi struggled to keep his vision from going black and asked in a trembling voice.
"Then, what if I give you useful information?"
Doug continued gazing fondly at the door. "...About eight years, probably. You've only seen and used it, after all. You don't know how it's built inside. But you could save me some time planning the layout, so I might be able to put the internal circuits together sooner."
Eight... eight...
Eight years...
White Noroi took a deep breath.
The light before his eyes flickered in and out.
He stammered to himself, on the verge of a breakdown.
"So... at the earliest... I still have to wait eight years... before I can go back?"
He had to go back-
After all, they were two completely different worlds. He would crawl back if he had to.
But he hadn't expected-to have to wait another eight years!
He felt like he was going to fall apart.
A second before White Noroi completely broke down, Doug finally looked away.
His gaze settled on White Noroi beside him, and he spoke in his rough voice as though it were perfectly obvious.
"You won't actually have to wait that long."
Doug's voice echoed in his ears.
White Noroi turned to look at him blankly.
I won't have to... wait that long...?
Before he could grasp what that meant, Doug asked him, "What day did you cross over?"
He forced his frozen brain to work and answered sluggishly.
"...The eleventh... no, on this side... the morning of March thirteenth..."
Doug nodded. It was the morning of the sixteenth today, so that was roughly three days ago.
In other words, about seventy-two hours earlier.
He said casually, "Right, then you should be able to go back before long."
White Noroi: "...?"
White