Coming Home
After confiding my secret to my sister, I felt lighter. Still, I kept the matter of my gender to myself. I hated keeping secrets from family, but becoming a woman was one truth I simply could not bring myself to share.
Perhaps it was the weight of that one layer of burden lifted, but my heart felt freer. Once my sister left the room, I passed the time reading the bestiary, then offered a prayer before the goddess's statue before bed.
"Thank you for today as well…"
Maybe it was because a small worry had been resolved, but I fell asleep earlier than usual.
When I woke and rubbed my eyes, I could not have felt more refreshed. Without realizing it, I had been carrying so much on my mind that restless nights had become common — but today I had slept deeply, truly at ease.
"Ahh, that was a good sleep."
"Yuli, you're up?"
I had been stretching, about to climb out of bed, when the sudden voice nearly stopped my heart.
"Hyaaaaah!"
I jerked backward in shock and cracked the back of my head against the wall. I was so startled that the pounding of my heart drowned out even the pain.
"S-s-s-sister?!"
What was she doing in here?
"Yuli…"
She came toward me at once. I had no idea what was coming, but the intensity of her presence made me squeeze my eyes shut. Then a soft hand began gently stroking the back of my head.
"Does it hurt?"
"N-no…"
Thinking about it, that was just the kind of person she was. She fretted endlessly over the bump I had just given myself.
"I'm fine. More importantly — when did you get here?"
"Mm, just now?"
Judging by the fact that she had been sitting in the chair, she had clearly been waiting for some time.
"Why the sudden visit?"
"Yuli. Come home now."
She took my hand, her eyes shining with a rare, earnest light.
"Ah… let me think about it a little."
It was true that there was not much more I could accomplish here. I had found no leads on obtaining mana, nor on Holy Power. And then there was the money problem, which I could not simply ignore.
How much longer could I live on what I had left? Of course, I could always work to earn more. But if I spent my days working, would I have any time left to search for clues?
"You're not going?"
The situation was already bad enough to make me hesitate — and then I saw her dejected face, and my resolve wavered.
"I'd like a few more days."
If I was going to leave, I ought to wrap things up properly, right? I still needed to buy materials for alchemy… and since there was nowhere to spend money in the village, it would be better to use it all up here first.
"Okay. I'll wait here."
"Uh… here?"
"Yeah. I can just switch inns."
Well, that was fair enough. That was her business. And if I poked my nose into it… I glanced at the sword hanging at her hip.
Yeah. Better not pick a fight.
Even back when we trained in the village, if I overdid it or tried to skip meals, she would draw her sword and give me a look. I had tried resisting once. All it taught me was the vast gulf between us. She would hit me just to make me listen…
"Do as you like."
She nodded, expression blank. But the faint upward curl at the corner of her mouth told me I had made the right choice.
I drew water from the well near the inn, washed my face, and ate breakfast. Somehow my sister was sitting right beside me, eating too — but I decided not to mind.
I had no particular plan, but I went outside anyway. After wandering for a while, I thought of visiting the used bookstore — then remembered she would follow me, and abandoned the idea.
"How long are you planning to trail after me?"
No matter where I went, she was right behind me, and it made it impossible to get anything done.
She only tilted her head, as if she could not understand the problem.
"Why are you following me?"
I asked her straight out.
"Worry?"
If she was worried, she was worried — why phrase it like a question?
"Haa… fine."
This was hardly the first time she had been like this. I was the one who had to put up with it. Since it had come to this, I decided to show her around the city.
A café that sold decent cake, the fountain near the main castle…
"Impressive, right?"
The only fountains I had known were the modern kind that blasted water indiscriminately from machines. Discovering that this world had fountains too had genuinely shocked me — and made me realize how narrow my horizons had been.
A beautiful statue, a gentle stream of water flowing from it, and that water running down along a channel…
I looked at my sister, barely containing my awe.
She was staring at the fountain with an expression of complete indifference.
"Not impressed…?"
No reaction. Deflated, I trudged toward the temple with a hollow laugh.
"This is the temple."
"Temple?"
"Yeah. I came to pray. You won't care, so you can just wait outside."
I left her behind and walked slowly inside. Several worshippers were already praying quietly in the chapel. Near the goddess's statue, nuns and priests were devoutly explaining the goddess's teachings.
I found a seat in a quiet corner, clasped my hands, and offered a prayer.
Thank you, always.
After about ten minutes, I left the chapel. The priest was still earnestly expounding doctrine, and many people remained in prayer.
"Aren't you going to pray?"
"I already did."
"You're not doing more?"
"That's up to me."
Praying longer or more often did not make it better, I had been told. What mattered was sincerity.
With nothing else to do, I returned to the inn — and of course she followed me right in.
"Why are you coming in?"
She tilted her head as if to ask what the problem was.
"Hah… fine."
Since it had come to this, I decided to put her to work on some alchemy.
"Sister, try this."
I lit an alcohol lamp, set a pot of water and dried herbs over it, and handed her a wooden stick.
"Just stir it while feeding in a little mana."
She kept tilting her head, clearly having no idea what any of this was, but she did as I instructed.
The moment she began stirring the contents like she was cooking, the mixture thickened almost at once.
"As expected — when a real practitioner does it, it's much faster."
When I had done it myself, it took a full hour of stirring. With her, it was finished in twenty minutes. Probably the difference in the amount of mana she could release…
"What is this?"
"Ointment."
I took out a batch I had made earlier. Opening the lid, I found no difference between hers and mine.
"Hmm… the effect should be the same, right?"
I wanted to test it, but held back with her right there. As I transferred the ointment into a small wooden box, she showed interest.
"And this?"
"Ointment I made."
Her eyes lit up as she looked at my batch. Well, I had another one, and she had given me the one she made, so…
I closed the lid and held out my ointment to her.
"Here. Use it when you need it."
"Thanks."
Whether someone as strong as her would ever get hurt enough to need it, I had no idea…
Living with my sister constantly at my side was somehow unsettling. No matter what I did, she stuck to me, and it was stifling.
"How long are you going to stay next to me?"
I held out and held out, then finally asked.
"Until we go back to the village?"
Why was that a question…!
"Hah. Fine. We should go back. Let's go back."
I had confirmed that she could use alchemy. Awakening mana or Holy Power myself would have been ideal, but at least the minimum conditions for research had been met.
"We're going back?"
"Yes, you damn sister of mine."
I could not concentrate on anything with her hovering beside me. At this rate, I would have more freedom in the village.
"Let's go!"
She sprang to her feet, ready to leave that very instant.
"I have things to settle. We're leaving tomorrow."
From that afternoon on, I began packing and wrapping things up one by one. I said goodbye to the used bookstore owner who had been so kind to me, and to the nun of the Metis Church. I would have liked to bid farewell to the people I had gotten to know as an adventurer, too — but with my body changed, that was impossible. A small regret…
The next morning, I settled the bill and left the inn.
Aside from the slightly wistful look on the innkeeper's face, there were no problems.
"Isn't that heavy?"
The bag was large, stuffed with various clothes and belongings.
"I've been training, so it's fine."
I had been a bit lazy about it lately… but this much was no trouble. Once our preparations were complete, we passed through the city gates and set out for the village.
And I immediately regretted it.
"Huff… huff…"
Damn it. My sister, in high spirits, had no concept of pacing. Matching her stride without thinking at the start had been a mistake.
With her mana awakened, her stamina was monstrous. She walked at a brisk clip without proper rest, and simply keeping up was all I could manage.
"Yuli?"
Only when I began falling behind did she finally look back at me.
"L-let's… rest a bit."
I moved to the side of the road, set down my bag, and tried to catch my breath.
"Hah… hah…"
Once my breathing had steadied somewhat, I simply sat down on the ground.
My sister came over and fidgeted restlessly.
"Sorry."
"If you know, then be more careful."
Ugh, my legs were trembling — damn sister. Still, I could not hate family I had spent more than ten years with.
From that point on, she adjusted her pace with my stamina in mind.
Nothing particularly eventful happened on the road home. We stopped to rest in a small village much like our own, and sometimes slept outdoors by the roadside.
There was one monster attack, though…
The moment she spotted the creatures, she drew her sword and cut them down in less than three minutes. I had always known she was strong. But she seemed to have grown even stronger over the past year.
Time passed. Summer faded into early autumn, and at last we arrived at the village where we lived.
"We're here…"
The village I had not seen in a year and four months looked much the same as before. It would have been strange for a settlement of barely a hundred and fifty people to change much in less than a year and a half.
A member of the self-defense corps guarding the entrance greeted us — then gave me a slightly puzzled look. Of course someone who had gotten shorter would seem odd…
"Did I get taller?"
Why did overhearing that as I walked past make me a little angry?
Damn it… even as a man, I had never been particularly tall. When I first left the village to become an adventurer, I had been about this height. Maybe a little taller? In any case, the height issue was something I could brush off well enough.
I had grown a bit during my adventuring days in the city, and that growth felt painfully wasted now. Even then I had not quite reached five-foot-seven — but considering my age, I should have been entering a growth spurt from here on… what a waste.
"It's been a long time since I saw this house."
The largest residence in the village — the village chief's house, and the home where my sister and I had lived…
She did not go in. She simply stood behind me, waiting blankly.
"Why aren't you going in?"
"Yuli first."
She wanted me to go first…?
"O-okay…"
Something fluttered in my chest. She was being considerate, so I would go first. I let out a long breath and opened the door.
"I'm home."
Our adoptive mother, who happened to be in the house, came to greet us.
"Who…? Yuli?"
"Yes, it's me."
She ran straight over and threw her arms around me.
"Ahh, my son!"
Still holding me, she suddenly began feeling over my body.
"Yuli? Your body… have you gotten shorter…?"
"I have."
I held her tightly as I answered.
This was not something I could hide forever. Better to come clean quickly… the villagers knew little about magic. If I said I had been cursed, they would probably accept it.