Reunion
“What the hell is that?”
“Something like black wings just wrapped around the adventurer?”
“...Some kind of defensive skill?”
“Doesn’t feel like it. The atmosphere’s all wrong.”
Without warning, the black wings that had swallowed both Kkachi and her contractor vanished from contact. The sudden anomaly during the contractor’s skill test threw the entire examination hall into chaos.
“Th-the adventurer has turned into a giant cocoon! This is an emergency of the highest order!”
“Kkachi-nyang! What in the world is going on-nyang?”
Even if they asked, I wouldn’t know. I was just as lost.
“Calm down. Everything will be fine.”
“...Who exactly are you talking to, nyang? That wasn’t meant for us, was it-nyang?”
“The junior is the one who needs to calm down the most! She looks incredibly anxious!”
“It’s just your imagination.”
I was merely tracing figure-eights in place like a dancing honeybee, spinning round and round. Yet the two women had already started treating me like a separation-anxiety-stricken dachshund. I was a little worried, but I trusted them both, so I wasn’t particularly anxious or impatient. Truly. Absolutely.
While I spun in place for what must have been my hundredth lap, seriously debating whether to tear open Kkachi’s wings and pull the contractor out, something changed inside the oval black cocoon—as if Kkachi had sensed danger.
Crack.
“Hm?”
“Huh? Did you hear that just now-nyang?”
“Regina Gura heard it too! It definitely came from that cocoon!”
The sound of something hard splitting echoed through the hall. A thin line appeared across the black wings, like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.
“It looks like the adventurer is trying to break out of the cocoon!”
“But what’s with that red light-nyang? It looks kinda dangerous-nyang.”
Through the narrow gap seeped a crimson glow and a heat that was both scorching and freezing. The scent of fire and iron, blood and death. And then—
—Master. I think this wand is broken.
—Yuri, my dear disciple. At least load the magazine before you say something like that.
—Aha?
‘...Huh? What is this.’
A flood of emotions and memories that didn’t belong to me. ‘What? Why is the contractor in Terraforming...? No, wait?’
A dazzling array of emotions that could never have existed in that hell called Terraforming. Memories—not quite memories—of time spent with him or her, unfolding like a panorama. Small, ordinary days in a ruined world, yet more precious and happy than anything else. And then—
—M... Master.
—Thank you... for everything.
A final farewell so heartbreaking it felt like my eyes might redden at any moment. A crushing pain, as if an entire 360-episode drama had been compressed into half an episode and rammed straight into my brain, pierced through my mind. While I floundered in the flood of memories and emotions, a voice I somehow missed terribly reached me.
“Ah. You’re back...?”
The kind of natural-yet-cringeworthy line a regressor protagonist in a web novel might say. Between the crumbling black particles of the cocoon appeared a familiar black robe and black hair. And then—
“...Adventurer, why is one of your eyes like that-nyang?”
“It’s as red as a tomato!”
An unfamiliar, almost alien crimson eye. The left one shimmered faintly, as if wearing colored lenses, glowing blood-red. It looked exactly like the final stage of middle-school syndrome. Add a bandage on one arm and she could’ve passed for a full-blown chuunibyou patient.
“Are you okay, Adventurer-nyang? Does anything hurt-nyang?”
Sion approached the contractor, who was rubbing the corner of her eye with the back of her hand as if something had gotten in it, and voiced her concern. The contractor looked at Sion with the delighted expression of someone seeing an old friend after a long time and smiled softly.
“Ah, Sion-nim... It’s been a while.”
“A while!?”
Shock spread across Sion’s face at the contractor’s words. It hadn’t even been ten minutes since she’d gone into that black cocoon. What did she mean, “a while”?
“Kkachi, this is bad-nyang! The adventurer’s suddenly talking nonsense-nyang!”
“Uwaaaah....”
Sion grabbed the contractor by the shoulders and shook her violently, shooting me a look that clearly said, Do something! Following her gaze, the contractor’s black-and-red eyes slowly turned. Black lenses met red lenses. And, as if on cue, both a person and a demon(?) opened their mouths at the same time.
“...Yuri? No, Contractor... Huh? What?”
“...Raven... Huh? M-Master!? No, why... Eh?”
Standing at the boundary between past and present, the demon and contractor, master and disciple, stared at each other in utter confusion.
“Why are those two suddenly acting like that-nyang?”
“Did something go wrong with their skills!?”
“Umm...?”
“Uh... um.”
“Ah....”
“Uh-oh....”
The contractor and I could only stare at each other like broken machines, completely lost.
“Ooh... This is a total mess-nyang! Neither of them is normal-nyang!”
“We need to take them to the infirmary! They’re clearly suffering from skill side effects!”
Sion and Regina Gura shook their heads at the two of us as if we were beyond saving.
“Come with me, Adventurer-nyang!”
“Junior! We’re going to the infirmary! Even demons have the right to receive treatment! Of course, it probably won’t do much good! But come along anyway!”
They each grabbed one of us and began dragging us toward the infirmary.
“...Ah.”
“...Mm.”
Even as we were pulled along by the arms, our eyes remained locked on each other’s faces. Even after arriving at the infirmary, that didn’t change for a long, long time.
***
The silver-rimmed glasses were pushed up, and a calm, intellectual voice that somehow inspired trust spoke.
“Hmm. I can’t say for certain about the demon, but the adventurer appears to be perfectly normal.”
The healer, with her deep navy ponytail and perpetually tired-looking eyes, gave a firm diagnosis. The contractor’s body had been enhanced to high-tier warrior levels, and her ruby-like left eye contained an enormous amount of mana comparable to a 6-Tier mage, but she didn’t bother mentioning that. It wasn’t harmful to her health, after all. More importantly, if she said anything more, her precious lunch break might vanish entirely, so the healer decided to keep her words to a minimum.
“Normal!? Does that look normal to you, Healer-nim-nyang!”
The healer’s exhausted eyes followed Sion’s pointing finger. “Ahem.” “Cough.”
On the patient bed sat the black-haired demon, and curled up on his lap was the young adventurer, lightly kicking her feet in contentment as she rested her head against his chest.
‘They look good together....’
The healer, reminded of her own father who used to hold her gently, smiled warmly at the pair—a smile that would have made her colleagues scream that she’d finally lost it if they’d seen it.
“They just look like a friendly contractor and her familiar to me.”
“No! That may be true, but they can’t even talk properly-nyang! What if they’ve got some kind of intelligence-lowering debuff-nyang?”
‘Intelligence-lowering debuff?’ She’d been a healer for ten years, but she’d never heard of such a condition. Besides, if it existed, her skill would have reacted.
“It’s not that, so there’s no need to worry, Sherpa Sion. What those two—and I—need right now isn’t treatment. It’s time.”
Therefore—
“Let’s step out for a cup of tea.”
“Uuuuuum. If the healer says so-nyang... Hm? Now that I think about it, where did Regina go-nyang?”
“I saw her following the tray with the patient meals, but after that, I’m not sure.”
“Nyang? Isn’t that dangerous-nyang?”
“I don’t think Regina-nim is the kind of demon who would stoop that low, but if she does lay a hand on the patient food, we can always report it to the Guild Master.”
“...If Lily finds out, she might throw Regina into the underground prison again-nyang....”
“That would be unavoidable. Whether human or demon, if you commit a crime, you must pay the price.”
“Commit...? Did you mean ‘commit’ or ‘get caught’?”
“No.”
“...I didn’t know the healer was this scary-nyang.”
“Please don’t look at me like I’m trash. Remember who healed your ankle today.”
“Uuum, got it-nyang.”
“Then let’s go, Sherpa Sion. We’ll have some catnip tea and roll around on the grass together.”
“Catnip tea! Sounds amazing-nyang! ...Ahem! Hey, you two over there! I’m going out with the healer for a bit, so stay sane until I get back-nyang! Or I’ll send you to a real hospital-nyang!”
“Hehe.”
“Hmm....”
“...Haa, let’s hurry up and leave, Healer-nim. If I stay here any longer, I’ll start acting weird too-nyang.”
“As you wish.”
The healer slipped her hands into the pockets of her long blue robe and left the room with Sion. And when she glanced back one last time as she closed the door—
“They look perfectly fine.”
“Huh? What did you say-nyang?”
“Nothing.”
The two of them were facing each other, chatting quietly and smiling brightly. Of course, she couldn’t see the demon’s expression, but somehow, she felt certain that he was smiling too.