I am Mirim.

I used to be sad, but now I'm happy.

I was a slave in a dungeon mine, but my sister came with her friends and rescued me.

Now I live in a magical house.

It is a safe place because it's invisible to everyone else except my new family.

My family has my big sister Rain and her husband Sorry Man. My big sister is beautiful and strong, and she always helps me and comforts me.

I want to become strong like her and help everyone too.

Sorry Man is silent and gentle person who doesn't eat or drink. I was a bit scared of him at first, but then big sister told me to sit on his lap and we became friends, I think.

Kimono and Crys are brother and sister. I don't talk much with Crys because he is a bit scary too, and sitting on his lap wouldn't help, I think.

He might get angry and his sister might get angry too.

I don't know how to become more friendly with Crys, but I talk with Kimono sometimes. She loves her brother and takes care of him. I think they are good people.

I want to become closer with them because they are part of the family.

Dancer is a funny person and makes jokes a lot. Sometimes he says things that remind me of the things slavemasters at the mine said and I don't like it.

But Dancer is not a bad person like them. He smiles a lot and loves dancing.

I sometimes see him in the Dancing Room, just spinning there alone.

He's a magical person like Rain and me, but it's different kind of magic.

Big sister has weather magic, I have marksman magic and Dancer has explosion magic – that's how big brother Speedrun explained it.

Big brother Speedrun is a weird person. But he is also magical person, I think.

He's knows everything and everyone.

When we go to a new place, he points at people and tells their names. He even knows if they are good or bad.

Speedrun told me the reason once: he knows everyone because he's a time traveler from a bad future.

He came back in time to prevent the bad future. He called it Ter-Mina-Tor Scenario or something like that. I don't know what that means.

Speedrun says strange words a lot.

He said my eye is “kawaii” and then he said “we are everywhere; that's the motto of the artillery", and once he said “meta guy here needs more lampshading” when I brought him tea from the kitchen.

I think he meant sugar. Why didn't he just say sugar?

But that's how big brother Speedrun is. He knows all the things no one else knows. He is funny and warm big brother.

It sometimes scares me how Speedrun and others think that we can kill Caliph Tze quickly and easily.

Even the slavemasters at Wineep weren't brave enough to talk bad things about Caliph. You were punished with whips if you didn't remember to pray and thank Caliph for the porridge.

How could you kill someone like Caliph easily?

But it's also nice that brother Speedrun and sister Rain get along well when they both say harsh words about Caliph. They look like best friends at those times.

Sister Kimono often says harsh words about big brother Speedrun.

She told me that sometimes Speedrun's voice and gestures make her feel so disgusted that she has to look away. I don't really understand why.

Big brother Speedrun sometimes repeats things a lot, but I don't think his voice is disgusting.

Kimono said that after Caliph Tze is dead, they will kill Suleiman next. I don't know much about Suleiman, except that he's a bad person like Caliph.

Big sister Rain said she doesn't care about Suleiman. She said that after Caliph is dead, she will stay in the garden with Sorry Man, but I can do what I want.

I haven't really thought what I want to do in the future.

Big brother Speedrun says I will become more powerful when I die, so I should die at the "prime of my life". I don't really understand what that means either, but he saved my life, so I think it makes sense to die.

He said that Crys has Shepherd's Poison and that is probably the most painless way to die. I will lose most of my feelings when I die, but that's "an acceptable trade-off", Speedrun says.

I'm not sure, but if I can help my new family, I think I will drink the poison when I grow up.

I hope I lose only bad feelings.

I need to remember another thing. Speedrun told me that after I die and turn into a machine, I should go to place in the east coast of Ur Continent called Pier City and find a place called “prepper cellar”. It's in a friendly carpenter Kebiki Woodriver's house next to a water canal, he said.

I should go there and pick up a weapon called Torch Gun. It seems it's a weapon that's perfectly suited for me when I become a machine.

I think I'd like to travel to many new places when Caliph is dead.

Speedrun traveled around the world with everyone and I feel a bit jealous about that.

But I'd also like to stay with big sister Rain and everyone in this magical house.

I'm not allowed to go to certain rooms. Speedrun says there are dangerous magics in those rooms.

I'm a bit curious, but I don't want to cause trouble. Speedrun told me a story about a boy named Wesley who got curious every week and ended up causing trouble for everyone. He said those episodes always got the “lowest ratings” and “fanbase” ended up hating the boy.

I think it was big brother Speedrun's gentle way of warning me that I'll get kicked out if I don't follow the house rules.

I don't want to be hated.

---

I said it already, but Speedrun is a weird person.

Sometimes he calls himself glitch hunter and makes weird requests.

“Mirim, I'd like to test out something with you.”

“Y-yes?” (Mirim)

“Could you run backwards on the hallway?”

“Run backwards? I can, but why...?” (Mirim)

“I'll time it with this.”

Speedrun showed me one of the black cards on his belt. It had strange white and red symbols.

The cards are Strangers artifacts that do strange things. Speedrun told me that when I turn into a machine after dying, the inside of my body will look similar to those cards.

I'm not sure I want my insides to look like black and white and red cards.

But I should still die when I grow up so that I become more useful for my friends.

After I ran from one end of the hallway to the other end, Speedrun rotated the card and asked me to do it again.

Then he asked me to run normally couple of times and took out dirty-looking boots with sharp blades attached and asked me to do a series of running kicks through the hallway.

The boots were too big for my feet, but I did my best.

“Hm, as expected...”

“Big brother, was it not good? I ran as fast as I could.” (Mirim)

“It's okay, I expected this. Are you exhausted?”

“I think I can still run more.” (Mirim)

“No need. I don't think it works. But you should remember that when you become a machine, you might be able to move faster when you run backwards. I'd really like to do this test with the twins when they come here... oh well, just keep it in mind for future.”

“Yes, I'll remember it, big brother.” (Mirim)

We did more experiments later and they ended up in failure as well, but Speedrun always told me it was fine.

“Even when experiment fails, it succeeds, because you learn something new. That's called the true strength of science. Like, if you see an island on the overworld map and then find out that the island wasn't implemented in the final version, you have to change the map instead of insisting that the island exists below the surface. It's not an island, if its by definition, you know, submerged, or if it moves around like a pumice raft –”

Speedrun is a kind and cheerful person, but sometimes he waffles on about weird things, then suddenly stops and looks somewhere far away with eyes full of sadness.

I don't know what to say when that happens, so I just stay quiet.

Even when his advice is weird, he looks funny when he tries to enthusiastically teach me new things.

I try to remember everything I can, because he's always looking after me.

I'm the Door Guardian, after all.