The Return
I saw Haru, Maru, and Bora. Glad for faces I hadn't seen in so long, I smiled and started toward them.
But I was shut in somewhere—an iron cage so small I had to curl up just to fit inside it.
"A bad child belongs locked in the chicken coop."
Maru's face was utterly cold as she snapped the latch shut. There was no getting out.
I thrashed, trying anything to escape, and woke. It had been a terribly vivid dream. Finding myself under a soft quilt, I sat up and looked from side to side. Rinea was nowhere to be seen; she must have slipped away before dawn. Where she had been lying, the bedding was folded neat and smooth.
I lay back down, and the thought came anyway. Was a month really too long? I had left the other world without a word and come here, and the people waiting for me were surely worried sick. And yet, maybe because of the dream I had just had, I was afraid to go back.
If I really returned, would they shut me away somewhere like a prison and refuse to let me out? I was a citizen of South Korea, so they wouldn't actually resort to anything that coercive. Even so, unease was still unease.
I stared at the ceiling for a while, then drifted off again. A month was a long time, if you wanted to call it long, but this was not a company that would collapse simply because I had been gone that long. Stretch it to a year and who knew what might happen—but Starlight Research Institute was not so frail that a single month without me would bring it down.
"Nnngh..."
I woke to the morning sunlight. When I sat up, someone had left a change of clothes beside me—set out, no doubt, so I would put them on. I washed, dressed, and headed off to the next item on the schedule.
This one was something Rinea had asked of me. She wanted me to grant an audience to the faithful of the World Tree. She had watched my face carefully while she wondered whether I might, and I had nodded without hesitation and told her I would. They had looked after me all this time; I could hardly refuse. And she had said it wouldn't be difficult.
"God, please come this way!"
Following Rinea's lead, I entered the room the World Tree order had prepared. It was a place like a shrine, and she told me I need only sit in the chair, the one worked with ornate design.
Hearing the details on the way, I learned that a great many figures from politics and business wanted an audience with me. Ordinary believers could do no more than see me from afar, but the elves who held real influence in society seemed eager to look upon me up close.
"I'll be counting on you, God. If it becomes too much at any point, just say so!"
With that, Rinea took her place a respectful distance at my side. Soon a murmur rose outside, and a single white-haired elf elder came in.
What followed was simple. Elves, overcome at the sight of me, offered their tribute. We exchanged a few kind words, and then they withdrew, eyes full of regret at having to go.
It felt rather like an idol's fan signing. From what Rinea told me, meeting me required a staggering sum—and if they paid that and still laid offerings on top of it, I couldn't begin to imagine how rich they were.
I received the faithful the way plates come around a conveyor-belt sushi counter, until I was utterly spent. I had done nothing but play until now; the moment I did a proper day's work, my body felt the strain.
Sitting and trading a few pleasantries is not hard work in itself, but I had met nearly a hundred elves today, and my mouth ached. Each elf who came to see me only had to share a few kind words. I had to repeat them a hundred times.
"You worked so hard, God!"
It was Rinea's help at my side that let me bring the whole thing to a successful end. Whenever I looked likely to slip, she stepped in at just the right moment. I didn't want to imagine how it would have gone if she hadn't been there.
At last the final day arrived. I had agreed to stay a month, but we moved the schedule up a little. Three weeks of diligent sightseeing, and it felt as if I had already seen everything worth seeing. It was time to return to Starlight Research Institute.
They had held another festival for the order before that last day, which was an extra. There might be elves saddened by my leaving, but none sank into despair or wailed aloud—because the body of the World Tree remained. If that body were ever swallowed in flame and vanished, I couldn't say what would happen. But such a thing would never come to pass.
We decided to say our goodbyes simply, in the shrine where Rinea stayed. I shouldered a bag packed with all kinds of seeds and waited to step through the gate she would open.
"God..."
Amelia, Rinea's teacher, had come as well. She was another elf who had helped me a great deal while I was here. True, the hands that smoothed cosmetics over me after I washed had seemed to carry a hint of greed—but that was probably just my imagination.
"Can I come back here?"
The words came out thick with reluctance. This world hadn't been a bad one. Asked to live out my whole life here, I would have balked, but visiting now and then was something I would rather like.
As if she had been waiting for me to say it, Rinea held something out. It was like a ring, with a large jewel set in the center, and even at a glance it looked enormously expensive. She slipped it onto my finger.
Curious, I asked. I ought to know what it was for.
"What's this, Rinea?"
She explained it simply. Once I returned to my own world, the ring could open a gate that would bring me back here. She added that, because of the limits of mana, I would be the only one who could come.
It was a ring made from a mana stone that existed nowhere else in the world. Its worth alone, she said, was such that even half the fortune of the World Tree order would not be enough to buy it.
"The timeline that had fallen out of joint has been set properly right, so time won't race ahead, or anything of that sort."
No sooner had Rinea spoken those last words than a tremendous vortex of mana unfurled. A small gate opened before me, just large enough for me alone.
"It was our honor to attend upon God."
Amelia and Rinea watched me from postures of quiet devotion. I could come back whenever I liked, and yet they were acting as if we would never see each other again. It was awkward. Meet them again after a farewell like this, and I was sure my face would burn. Thinking so, I gave them an awkward wave.
"I had a wonderful time!"
And with that, I stepped through the gate.
"Hup!"
I knew at once that I was back in my own world, because this was the place with the greenhouses where I farmed. Only, a place that ought to have been overflowing with life now gave off nothing but a bleak, desolate chill. The crops had withered and twisted.
Did I stay out playing a little too long? I should have said something before I left, but the moment for it had never quite come. I had hesitated, and the timing slipped away. Bag still on my shoulder, I pattered along. Outside it was pitch-dark. Fortunately the building's lights were on. It stood some distance off, so I had a long walk ahead of me.
I came back loaded with gifts. Surely they'll forgive me? I remembered something the president had told me: even a month or two without me wouldn't be a problem. That was how much they had laid away in reserve.
I went into the building. It felt like stepping into my own familiar room—the feeling, if I had to name it, of returning to my quarters after a long march. There should have been security guards, but I didn't see any. I wondered where they had gone, then set the question aside. First I had to tell the people in the office that I was back.
Quitting time was long past, which must have been why no one was about. I took the elevator and pressed firmly for the tenth floor, where my room was. Anticipation had me shifting from foot to foot. The thought of seeing the office people I hadn't laid eyes on in nearly a month put me in a good mood.
However lovely the other world and its elves might be, modern society still felt closer to the heart. I couldn't help it. I had lived here for decades; a single month was nowhere near enough to grow attached to anywhere else.
Ding!
The elevator chimed its arrival, and I ran for the office. The lights were on, so someone was certainly there.
What kind of faces will they make when they see me? I only hoped they wouldn't scold me. I had vanished without a word, after all.