The Journey Home

The sun in Rapan City was scorching.

It had been three days since we came out of the labyrinth, but my skin was still red, and a layer of skin had peeled off my shoulders.

On the second floor of the inn, Rudeus sat by the window, fiddling with his earth hand.

The earth hand had no fingers or joints. It was more a lump of dirt than a hand. He tried carving patterns into it with his right hand, but the few lines he made were crooked, like a funny face drawn in mud.

Rudeus's hand is really ugly, uglier than any weapon I saw on the Demon Continent. If I'd been faster, would he have been able to keep his hand? And Paul... This is all he has left now.

He carved for a while, then gave up and put his wand on the table.

"Time to change your bandages." I walked over.

"Okay."

He took off his shirt. His right hand moved deftly, while the empty left sleeve, which Roxy had pinned to his shoulder, swung back and forth. I went around behind him and peeled off the old bandages. The blood had dried and stuck to the cloth, so I picked it loose bit by bit with my fingernails.

The scar on his back was the longest, stretching from his collarbone to his shoulder blade. Roxy's healing magic had mostly closed it, but it was still red. The bruise where the Hydra's tail had struck him had turned from purple-black to yellow-green, and its edges were beginning to fade.

I wrapped the fresh bandages around him, trying to make them as neat as possible. During our three years on the Demon Continent, Rudeus had always been the one to bandage wounds. He had only bandaged me three times, and each time he had done it neatly, corner to corner, with beautiful knots. Mine looked much uglier than his.

"There."

"Thanks." He put his shirt back on and fastened the buttons with his right hand.

Soft footsteps came from the doorway.

Norn stood by the door, her golden hair still crowned by that stubborn tuft sticking up. She looked at Rudeus's severed left hand, then at the bloodstained old bandages in my hand, before looking away.

The corners of her mouth curved upward.

It was brief, but I saw it.

It was the first time Norn had given me that look. When we first met at the search party's camp, her gaze had always been full of curiosity. Later, after learning how strong I was, she had looked at me with trust. This look now... I wasn't quite sure what it was.

She's probably laughing at how badly I wrapped the bandages. I admit they do look ugly.

Norn watched for a while, then turned to leave. When she reached the door, she stopped.

"Sister-in-law..."

Her voice was so quiet I almost didn't hear her.

"Thank you for bringing Mom back."

Then she left. Her footsteps were soft, like a cat's.

I stood in the doorway, watching her disappear down the hall.

That afternoon, I went to see Zenith.

She had been settled in a south-facing room on the first floor, where sunlight streamed through the window and fell on her golden hair. Lilia had helped her wash and get ready. Her hair hung smoothly over her shoulders, and she had changed into a clean white cotton dress.

She sat in a chair by the window, looking outside. There was a tree in the courtyard, its leaves rustling in the wind.

I sat down across from her.

She didn't look at me.

I didn't know what to say. I wasn't good at comforting people. On the Demon Continent, whenever Rudeus was sad or down, I would stay by his side. Rujierd had once said that being there for someone was a comfort in itself. I wasn't sure whether he was right.

I put a glass of water within Zenith's reach. She didn't move.

I sat for a while, then stood up to leave.

Her hand lifted.

It was so slow I almost didn't notice. Her fingers touched my cuff, lingered for a second, then dropped.

The touch was light, even lighter than when she had touched the back of my hand in the dungeon.

I stood there, looking down at my cuff.

Did she just touch me? Rudeus and Paul would be happy if they saw that, wouldn't they? I believe in Zenith. She must be able to sense me, to sense her family.

My nose stung a little.

I took a deep breath, left the room, and stood in the hallway for a while. Only after the sting in my nose faded did I go back upstairs.

That evening, the sound of hooves and a commotion came from outside the inn.

I leaned out the window.

A tiny figure slid down from the back of a horse. She was a little girl, about six or seven, with wine-red hair just like Lilia's, tied in a ponytail. Her clothes were covered in dust, and her face was dirty too, but her eyes were frighteningly bright.

Aisha.

Lilia's daughter and Rudeus's younger sister.

What is she doing here? Didn't she get separated from Lilia? Shouldn't she be in the Shirone Kingdom now?

I only learned later how she escaped from Shirone. She stole a horse while Pax was changing guards, tucked a purse she'd taken from Pax's study inside her clothes, and rode day and night to Zant Port alone. She used the money in the purse to buy passage on a merchant ship, crossed the Lingus Sea to the Begaritt Continent by herself, then crossed the desert to Rapan. A six-year-old girl, all on her own. I don't know how she did it. When I asked her if she'd been scared, she said she had, but whenever she thought of her brother and father waiting for her somewhere, she knew she couldn't stop.

For her brother and father... Amazing!

Aisha ran into the inn. A few minutes later, crying came from downstairs.

I went down.

Aisha clung tightly to Rudeus, sobbing her heart out. Rudeus stroked her head with his right hand, his expression helpless and full of concern.

"Your hand... What happened to your hand, big brother...?"

"It's all right," Rudeus said.

"Liar!" Aisha looked up, her face streaked with tears and dirt. "I saw it! Where's your left hand? Where did it go?!"

Rudeus said nothing. He extended his left wrist from his sleeve, revealing the rough earth hand to Aisha.

Aisha stared at it for several seconds. She reached out and touched its surface.

She turned and saw the injured Lilia, and tears welled up in her eyes again. She threw herself into her mother's arms.

But she didn't cry for long. She wiped her face with her sleeve, took a deep breath, and stood up. She rummaged through the bundle on her horse's back, took out an apron, and tied it around her waist.

"Mom's hurt, so from now on, I'll do all the cooking, laundry, and cleaning."

Her voice was still trembling, but her tone was firm. A six-year-old girl stood in the inn's hall, wearing a dusty apron, as if she meant to carry the whole world on her shoulders.

Rudeus looked at her, the corners of his mouth curving upward.

"All right."

Aisha turned and ran toward the kitchen. At the door, she stopped and glanced back at Rudeus.

"Big brother, I'll make you something really delicious. Just you wait."

She smiled. As she smiled, tears began to flow again. Then she wiped them away with the back of her hand and ran into the kitchen.

That evening, Aisha made a pot of stew and some freshly baked bread.

Everyone sat around the long table on the inn's first floor. Talhand drank and ate great mouthfuls of meat, muttering, "The little girl's a good cook." Elinalise tore her bread gracefully and ate it in small bites, occasionally wiping the corner of her mouth with a fingertip. Paul clumsily tore his bread with his right hand, scattering crumbs all over the table. Zenith sat beside Paul without eating, but she didn't refuse the piece of bread he placed within her reach.

Norn ate quietly, occasionally looking up at Zenith before lowering her head again.

Rudeus couldn't get a good grip on his bread with his prosthetic hand, and it kept slipping out from between it and his right hand. I grew impatient watching him, so I tore the bread into small pieces and stuffed them into his mouth.

Aisha stood in the kitchen doorway, watching us eat. She twisted the edge of her apron in her hands, and only after everyone had started eating did she sit down at the farthest corner of the table and take small bites.

Paul looked at her and suddenly spoke.

"Aisha, you've been so strong. Thank you for everything you've done."

Aisha stiffened, perhaps from hearing her father's words of comfort. Her body began to tremble slightly, and tears flowed again, but she didn't wail. She only sobbed quietly.

Paul placed his only remaining hand, his right, on Aisha's head and gently stroked it.

"You've been through so much on the way here." There was a trace of guilt in his voice. "It's all right now. You don't have to keep holding yourself together."

Aisha couldn't hold on any longer. She threw herself into Paul's arms and burst into tears.

Aisha is strong, much stronger than me. She's only six, and she managed to find her family all by herself on another continent far away. When I was six, I was still that short-tempered young lady, wasn't I? If it hadn't been for Rudeus, I couldn't have made it back alive from the Demon Continent.

After dinner, Roxy pulled Rudeus into a corner. She took the half-drawn parchment from her belt pouch and pointed her wand at the diagram, saying things like "mana circuits" and "joint drive." Rudeus listened intently, occasionally adding a few strokes to the paper with his right hand.

I didn't understand any of it.

I went out into the courtyard and sat on a stone chair.

It was already dark. The night sky over the Begaritt Continent was different from the one over the Demon Continent. The stars on the Demon Continent were brighter and colder too, because the nights there were always freezing. Rujierd would warm himself by the campfire, and Rudeus would secretly use fire magic to raise the temperature around us a little, pretending it was the campfire doing the work.

Where was Rujierd now? Was he still looking for his people?

Footsteps came from behind me. I didn't turn around.

"What are you thinking about?" Rudeus sat down beside me.

"Nothing."

"Are you missing Mr. Rujierd?"

"...Yeah." I wrapped my arms around my knees.

He was silent for a while.

"Once everything's settled, let's go look for him."

"Okay."

"Eris." He suddenly called my name, and I turned to him.

"Wha...!!"

Before I could react, Rudeus had kissed me on the forehead. My face didn't grow hot this time, because I knew he was comforting me in his own way.

After a while, he sat back, and I looked at him. His face was a little red.

"I just...!!" Before he could finish, I leaned in and kissed him, not on the forehead.

"I know. I've always known."

The night sky was beautiful, and we held each other in the moonlight for a long, long time...

It was time to leave, to return to the home that was ours.

The next morning, the carriage stood outside the inn.

Talhand carried the luggage aboard, one chest at a time. Each one weighed half as much as he did, but he hoisted them as though they were cotton. Aisha spread blankets and cushions in the carriage and arranged Zenith's place in the most comfortable spot, where the sunlight could reach her without shining in her eyes. Norn helped her carry a small chest, and when Aisha said, "You've grown up, Norn," Norn blushed.

Paul helped Zenith into the carriage with his right hand. She sat quietly where he had arranged for her, her gaze on the sky outside the window. Paul sat beside her and put his right arm around her shoulders.

I was the last one aboard.

The carriage began to move. Outside the window, Rapan City slowly receded, and the desert glowed gold in the sunlight. Heat rose from the ground, making the distant city walls shimmer as if they were submerged in water.

Rudeus sat across from me. His prosthetic hand rested on his knee, and his other hand, his right, rested on his other knee.

He looked at me.

Then he held out his right hand.

I placed my hand in his, and he held it.

His grip was tight and warm.

Outside, the desert wind blew into the carriage, stirring my crimson hair. The distant city walls grew smaller and smaller, until they disappeared into the heat haze.

There was only the sound of the carriage rolling over the sand and Paul's occasional cough.

I held Rudeus's hand and looked out the window.

Rapan City had disappeared behind us. Ahead lay Sharia, our new home.