What?

　Minerva is surprised by the sudden change in attitude Aldis has shown.

'No ......, I see. Rona mentioned it earlier. Did you get attacked?'

　Aldis, on the other hand, quickly came to his own conclusion to the questioning of Minerva and was satisfied with himself.

'Al?'

　Rona, who had been peering at him curiously, called out to him.
　As she slowly walked up to Ardis, she suppressed her voice to voice her question so that Minerva and Moore wouldn't hear her.

'Which ...... Al is it?'

　The question, which would make no sense to someone who doesn't know what's going on, is answered by Aldis with an awkward look on her face.

'It's both,'

Both?

Yeah, they're both me. I can see now that it's not that either of them are fake or anything, it's just that they're both me. ...... I'm not sure why, but if it's the cause, it's probably Erion.

'Erion?　What do you mean?

　Aldis sat down on a stump and rubbed the tops of her eyes with her fingers.

　Eventually, their thoughts came together and they began to explain to Rona about their past experiences.

Hmm ....... Each Al has had separate days, hey .......

Do you believe that?

Well, you'll just have to believe it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who knows that both this one and the other one are real, and if that's the case, it makes a lot of sense. So, you're saying that the cause is the magic that Erion used?

'Its most likely. What's with the 'not fully adjusted to the details'? Not just the details, but being sent to another world and then altering yourself, there's a lot of problems.

　Aldis lodged a complaint to the surgeon who was not here, but while saying so with his mouth, an emotion arises in Aldis's chest that is hard to express in a single word.

You can't go too slow either way, you know. You know that, don't you, Al?

Yeah. Time obviously passes differently here than over there. When I'm sluggish over here--

It's going to be years over there in the blink of an eye.

　Both Aldis and Rona share the same concern.

'You alone can come and go on your way, can't you?

Yes, I can.

'Why didn't you just check on him and come right back or go over there and get some food or something?

I mean, I would have tried it if it would have brought me back.

What do you mean?

You can go, but you don't know if you'll be able to come back to this place. If it was your own will, you could have moved on, but this time you were forced to come back.

　When they cross the world, they need some kind of mark to fix the coordinates they reach.
　In Rona's case, she uses her roost in this world and her house in the forest in the other world as her coordinates.

　She can cross the world without fixing the coordinates, but she cannot predict where she will end up.
　Therefore, it is a bet whether he will be able to return to a place with which he has no connection or familiarity.

　Especially for "going" without a designated destination, but that's not possible for "returning".
　If it was just Rona alone, she could go to the house where Nere and the twins were waiting, but Aldis and the others would be left behind in this world.
　It would be impossible for them to join each other from that state.

　If it's just Aldis alone, being left behind won't bother you too much, but if you think about Minerva and Moore, you'll be hesitant to try it easily.
　It's a good thing that you're able to have a good time with your friends.

''There's a chance we could use Al's magic as a guidepost to come back now, but ......, I've never tried it before, so I don't know if it will work.

Markers for fixing the coordinates: ......

　Aldis wrinkles his brow.

　Right now, he has Minerva and the others as his guardian targets, plus he's also pressed for time.
　I was not inclined to try it out easily with the uncertainties that remained.

The fact that Rona and the others were sent away and that my consciousness returned to us. It's not natural that these two things happened at the same time. If the timing of my losing consciousness at the organization's base and your being sent away from the Duke's residence were the same, the original cause might be the same ....... If we don't know the cause of that, then there's no way to make an inference.

I did feel an unnatural flow of magic right before I was sent away, though.

"Unnatural trends?

'The magic was rapidly being drawn in, or rather, flowed into a single point: ......'

It's just flowing into, hey, ......

　Then, as if she suddenly remembered something, Rona made a dumb noise.

'Ah,'

What's going on?

You know, I ran into some contaminated water earlier.

It's a little late for that, isn't it?

I thought it was pretty unseasonable, but he said something like 'a place to live where so much dense magical power can flow in'. I didn't care about it at the time, but now that I think about it, it's strange.

'Is it a place where dense magical power gushes out or ....... Is it because that magic power inspired you to awaken at a time like this?　If that's true, that's something to be concerned about.

'Do you want to go there at dawn?　Al wouldn't have a problem with that now, would he?

　Aldis nodded briefly at Rona's question.

'All right. We don't have any other clues. You can show me around when it's light.'

　After wrapping up the conversation, Aldis stands up and tells Minerva and the others about his future plans.

Minerva, Moore. The sun comes up, we will be on the move as soon as it rises, so until then, please rest your bodies. Rona and I will take care of the beast, but since we may have to walk all over the place, make sure you recover your strength.

　The man's manner of speaking suddenly became soft and Aldis approached him, and Moore gave him a scandalous look.

　Minerva, on the other hand, looks a little confused, but asks probing questions.

''Eh, er, ....... Is it master ......?''

It's a matter of course-- Oh, I see.

　Aldis reminds herself of the obvious, almost telling her not to say the obvious.
　She remembered that she was clearly different from the Aldis they knew, and how she had behaved towards Minerva and Moore until she regained her memories of the other world.
　It was impossible not to be alarmed.

　Answering Minerva's question with a gesture, Aldis uttered a tentative apology.

'I'm sorry about earlier. I'm sorry for the way I said it.''

　But that also means that even though the choice of words was bad, they were not wrong about what they were saying.

　Minerva and Moore are both too powerless in this world.
　It's a good thing that you're able to get a good idea of what you're going to do with it.
　With an air of delicacy, the group concentrated on resting for a few hours before sunrise.





　The sun was rising, and the sunlight began to slowly warm the air around them.

'Hey, it's been a busy morning. I know you're in a hurry to find out where you're going.

Why are you in such a hurry?

　Moore and Minerva said to Aldis and Rona, who began to prepare to leave early as soon as it became light.

I don't want to spend a lot of time on this.

That is, of course, true, but ......

'The longer it goes on, the worse it gets.

What do you mean by that?

　The distance between him and Minerva and Moore has decreased since yesterday, as the thorns in Aldis's demeanor and words have disappeared.
　Of course, there is still some distantness, but that's not the level of importance to Ardis right now.
　Explanations can be slowed down later. He even thought that if they weren't hostile, that was fine for now.

'You know what, Minerva. Time moves very differently in this world than in Minerva and her world. If you take your time, when you return to the other side, you could end up with a hell of a lot of time gone by.

The passage of time?　How different is it?

　Moore now asks Rona, who has answered for Aldis, "What do you think?

'I can't say for sure, so I'm guessing, but a day here is probably going to be about a year over there.

One year. ......!

　Minerva and Moore both choke on their words.

'So, you see, it's not good if we don't find a way to get back to the other side as soon as possible.

"But there's no way to get back to ...... when you can't even find a human settlement.

　Minerva's voice grew thinner and thinner as she finally understood the seriousness of the situation when she heard that the passage of time was so far apart.

'I was talking to Al yesterday and I remembered one thing that might be a clue. Do you remember the contaminated water we came across in the creek yesterday?

　When Moore heard this, he uttered the confirmation with a pained expression.

'Are you the water demon who spoke the words?'

I don't want to bore you with the details, but there may be some clues left in that man's place that could help us in this case. So we decided to get rid of him for now and look around the creek.

'Get rid of it?　...... I thought you beat him yesterday?

I can't. I don't like using fire. You can't win the game by yourself. I'm not like those scum like Neduro.

　Rona said matter-of-factly.
　The expression on Moore's face became even more stern as he heard that.

''You're that strong ......

It's okay. Al's here now, and if you want, we can just hang out on the high ground.

Forget Minerva and Moore, you're going to have to fight hard.

　Ardis nails Rona, who laughs caracara, mercilessly.

'We need to protect you both just in case, don't we?　It would be a piece of cake for Al right now anyway.

"So don't try to make it easy on yourself. At least have a check on it.

'Yes, yes, I'll at least take the checks and balances. But I'll pass on fighting head on. As you can imagine, even I can't handle that one.

'You've been eating and sleeping too long lately, you're getting fat. Don't you think you should break out in a cold sweat once in a while to squeeze out the extra water?

'I'm not fat!　Look at the proportions. Both Filia and Rhianna are crazy about my charm. When they are napping, they always come close to me and sleep on my stomach in my pillow. She's so cute!

That's because the bulge in your belly feels better to the touch than before, right?　The bottom line is that you've lost hard muscle and gained more soft fat for it.

'What?　No, I don't think so: ......

　In front of Moore and Minerva, who looked uncomfortable when they heard that they were fighting against a water demon, Aldis and Rona lightly slapped each other.
　Rona, who silently peered into her own abdomen, pouted a line that had no trace of tension in it.

'Shall we go on a diet ......?'