“Well then, enough blushing, the two of you. There are more important things to discuss, I believe.”

Yumias clapped her hand twice, seemingly ignoring that she was the cause of this in the first place.

“I believe some questions might come up. Your dear Karen is surely confused about all of this.”
“... It’d be a lie if I said I wasn’t.”
“Mm! I thought as much. Go, ask away! I just might answer!”

So she might not… Haaa, at this point, I had already resigned myself to her eccentricities. It wasn’t worth getting worked up over. It really wasn’t.

“Ehhh… Yumi… What should I do?”

Karen turned to me, whispering quietly.

“Just… ask her something, I guess?”

As unfortunate as it was, there didn’t seem to be many people who had knowledge of this particular topic. The Elder didn’t know anything about it, nor did it seem that Ria would. And they were by far the most knowledgeable people around us. Whether we could trust her answer, though… Not like we had a choice, though.

“Then… Miss Yumias.”
“Yumias is fine.”
“Miss Yumias.”
“You’re quite a spoilsport, aren’t you?”

Oh, her voice was slightly sad for once.

“You said that we were connected through our… souls—”
“That I did.”
“—that this connection would grow stronger and that we wouldn’t be able to separate for certain distances… did I get that right?”
“Yes, yes, teacher is proud of you!”

Yumias clapped vigorously.

“So, err, what kind of distance are we talking about? And what do you even mean we can’t be apart? Is there some force keeping us close?”
“Oh, good questions!”

They were indeed good questions. It was making me wonder how it would actually show itself.

“Let’s answer your first one, shall we? The matter of distance… To be precise, there is no set distance.”
“There... isn’t?”
“Yes. It changes. And in the first place, even I can only give you an approximation. It might differ completely. That said, yes… Let’s start with the distance right now.”

Right.. Now?

“Wait, it’s already happening now?” I asked, my voice loud from surprise.
“Yes, dear. But, frankly, the distance is so large that it doesn’t even matter. After all, you could make a round trip from this place to the sun, then to the other sun and then back to this place and still have some to spare.”
“Ohhh…”

Okay, yes, that definitely wasn’t going to affect us…

“It does prevent you from being thrown into a different world, though. So, if I whisked one of you away, well… You’re better off not knowing.”

I could already imagine what kind of horrific fate would await us if she didn’t want to tell us…

“But apart from that, it’s irrelevant. Anyway, with more time, this distance gradually shrinks. Even right now it does. Give it a few hundred years… Let’s say about five hundred? That’s a nice number. So, in five hundred years, the distance… would still be enough to go from here to the moon.”

Great. So, in five hundred years it still wasn’t relevant for us.

“But a hundred or two hundred after that, you probably wouldn’t be able to be apart from here to the other side of this world. And another hundred it’d be around half that. And the final hundred it’d mellow out at… Mhm, the distance from here to what the people call the Beyond? If you were that far apart, then you’d reach the limit?”

That was still a huge distance… Albeit, admittedly one that wasn’t impossible, anymore.

“But that’s so far in the future I can’t even imagine it,” I muttered.
“It really is…”

Yumias only shrugged in response. If the stories were true, she was unimaginably old… Maybe a thousand years or two weren’t that much for her.

“That all assumes the current rate, though. If you do your little mischief—and with that I mean intruding on Yumi’s little beauty sleep—then it’ll accelerate far, far faster. Assume it shaves like fifty years off each time.”

Each time?

“And how often will that even happen to me?”
“Who knows? There’s no limit, technically.”
“... What?”

There wasn’t a limit?

“Your questions come later, dear. Everyone has a turn and it’s not yours right now.”
“...”

I really wanted to ask her right now, though. Still, I swallowed my question and waited for her to finish first…

“Right, where was I? Oh, your second question. I remember. What was your second question again?”

She didn’t remember at all!

“... What would happen if those distances are reached?”
“Right, now I remember. Well, that one is pretty boring. You will feel lethargic and ill which gradually worsens. You won’t die, you’ll just feel so bad you wish you could.”
“That’s… surprisingly tame.”

To be perfectly honest, I half expected something along the lines of instant death, being forced back by some invisible force or just one of us instantly falling unconscious until they returned into range.

“It’s not like it’s a string that instantly snaps, you know? It’s more like a really incredible rubber band. One that won’t break even if you two were a few solar systems apart. Although, the pain you’d feel at that distance is nothing I’d ever want to imagine, mind you. It’s already bad enough that you’ll want to die if you’re just a few steps over it. Imagine a few solar systems between that.”

No, I wasn’t going to imagine it. In the first place, I never planned to be that far away. Or how would I even?

“Well, pain aside, there’s nothing really detrimental to it.”
“I see. That’s good news.”

Not having to worry about this was a good thing. And even if it wasn’t in the really far off future, it was probably still not something we’d have to worry about anytime soon.

“Did that answer it all?”
“Yes. Thank you very much.”
“So polite. Can I adopt you?”
“Err…”

Karen inched away from her a little, glancing towards me. If I had to guess… she needed help.

“Don’t ask her troublesome questions that are hard to reply to.”
“Oh, but I was serious. And wouldn’t that be good for you anyway? Then you’d be real sisters! And I’d have another adorable daughter. One that’s not so snappy.”

That was still her assuming that she was my mother, though. Just because she was the cause of my situation…

“Ah, but I’ll have to refrain from making it a blood-related adoption, you know? I’m not in the mood for giving birth.”
“What the… I don’t think that was ever an option?”

Karen was already standing here. The hell was she talking about?

“Is that so? That’s a relief. Well, I guess you wouldn’t want to wait two decades until she’s grown-up again.”
“...”

Okay… Time for a topic change. A quick one.

“More importantly, you said I could ask some questions.”
“More important? That’s not more important than increasing the family, is it?”

Oh, for fuck’s sake, don’t stir it back.

“I guess I’ll need to teach you your manners again. Just where did you go wrong?”

Wondering that, too. For different reasons, probably.

“So…”
“Yes, yes, ask away. Mama Yumias will answer all.”
“... You mentioned earlier that there was… no limit to that… ‘beauty sleep.’”
“Ahh, I did? I did. My, where do I start?”

Yumias cocked her head a little, her hat shifting accordingly, nearly falling off.

“Well, there’s not much to say, to be honest. You just keep doing it?”
“...”

What a helpful explanation.

“I mean, I understand that it’s something like… Err, evolving? But what’ll happen if that keeps going on? I mean, I don’t even know what really happened this time.”
“There’s no limit to evolving, though? Living beings always evolve. Even I can’t tell you what’ll happen exactly.“
“So you don’t…”

No convenient way of knowing in advance, huh…

“I don’t. Isn’t that what makes it so exciting?”
“Ugh…”

Exciting for her, she meant.

“Ah, but don’t worry, you’ll stay as the cute little girl you are, no matter what. I do honor my promises, after all.”
“A girl that transforms into a monster…”
“Well, nobody said you shouldn’t.”

Nobody said they should either.

“Maybe I should make another wish and ask this time for me to stay a normal person.”
“Uh-uh, only one wish per person!”
“So you could…”

Well, I knew in advance she wouldn’t do it. If she’d do it so easily, I wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.

“Anyway, that’s enough questions for today! I don’t want to sit around all day and answer whatever questions you have.”
“... I wonder who the root cause for those questions is.”
“Certainly not me.”
“Sure.”

Certainly her.

“Karen. Karen dear, my daughter’s mean to me! Comfort me!”

Before I could even blink, Yumias had disappeared from her seat and sidled up to Karen, hugging her waist.

“Eh? What? What’s happening?!”
“Comfort me!”
“Ehhh?”
“Hey, let go of Sis!”
“Look! She’s mean!”

This damn little gremlin. I was the only one allowed to get comforted by Karen.

“Ehhh… Yumi… Don’t bully her?”
“...Why a question?”
“I don’t know.”

Neither did I...

“Haaa… Whatever...”

As if someone had let the air out of a balloon, my anger—annoyance, really—deflated. I leaned back in the chair and took a sip from the soda that Yumias had brought out. It was good. A slightly nostalgic taste. I might be able to forgive her if she brought this out once in a while.

That’d be a little too easy, though. But… it’s not like I’m really mad at her, anyway. I do enjoy my current life a lot. It’s just that she’s a little too skilled at annoying me.

I definitely wasn’t good with her type. And I didn’t like how she trampled all over my feelings.

Let’s stop there before I start being self-depreciative…

With another sigh, I turned to my side, to look at what the two were up to. For some reason, two pairs of eyes stared right back at me.

“... What?”
“Mm, my dear, you just suddenly turned around all, going all gloomy that I feared for a moment you might smash the glass and slit your throat with a shard.”
“Who the hell would do something like that so randomly?”
“There are always people like that. From one moment to the next they snap, reaching the end of their patience and then… Wham! Gone are they. Then again, it wouldn’t even matter in your case since it’d heal right away, no matter what you tried.”
“...”

If losing my head wasn’t going to kill me, then slitting my throat would be even less of an issue, after all.

“Anyway, I’m just exhausted, that’s all. Contrary to you, we had a long day.”
“Ohh! I heard about that! The castle stuff!”
“... A fort.”
“Same thing in green.  But that’s so cool, your own little castle.”
“It’s the mercenary band’s.”
“To which you belong, my dear. So, by extension, also yours.”

Actually, that wasn’t entirely wrong, was it? At least the feeling was right.

“So, did you already see it? How was it?”

Yumias leaned forward, inching closer to me. She was still next to Karen, though, so she was actually leaning right over her…

Who was it that complained about my manners again?

But, I had to admit, like this she looked just like an innocent kid that was a little bit too excited. This person was way too random.

“It was… big, I guess?”
“How big?”
“...The wall was a few captains tall. Like four or so?”
“Like Korwen? Mh, that’d be quite tall. And what was inside?”
“... Old abandoned buildings. Oh, and dead bandits.”
“Yikes. Did you at least clean them up?”

Hey, those had been people before…

“No, we didn’t… We only searched the premises today.”
“My, but they’re going to smell. Clean up quickly, would you?”
“... I think you want to tell that to the captain.”
“Good idea. I’ll do that later.”

Apologies, Korwen…

“So, what else?”
“Err… There’s not much else to say that’s really interesting… I guess that the forest is surrounding it and some buildings have plants growing inside?”
“Ohhh, that really sounds like ruined buildings! Now I want to see it.”
“Well, go ahead?”

Knowing her, she shouldn’t have trouble hopping over.

“My, Yumi, I can’t just go there. Where’s the fun in that? Of course, I’ll leave with you all and look at it with you all.”
“... Okay?”
“The excitement before is part of the fun! Ehehe, I can’t wait. I wonder if they’ll let me have a room.”

If they did, please not next to ours. Maybe I should goad Emily and the girls into occupying the ones to our sides. Right, Emily, Maya and Sele on one side and Lily and Rina to the other. Perfect defense.

“I still have some stuff in my stash I need to get rid of. I’m sure Korwen will be more welcoming then. Better be quick about it!”
“... Stash?”

What kind of stash was she trying to bribe Korwen with?

“Alcohol stash.”
“... You got my interest.”
“... I wonder when I raised such an alcoholic.”
“I’m not an alcoholic. I just enjoy a good drink once in a while.”
Once in a while, eh?”
“Yes, once in a while.”

I already learnt my lesson, thank you very much. Alcohol is evil. An evil temptation.

“... That reminds me, didn’t you raid the captain’s alcohol stash?”

Wait, wasn’t this bad?

“Oh, it was delicious!”
“That’s not what I wanted to hear!”
“He already forgave me.”
“... Huh?”

No way… He did? I heard he had been furious about it when he realised it was all gone.

“No matter how rare a brew is in this place, it’ll never be as rare as one from another world!”
“...”

She bribed him. With otherworldly alcohol.

I can’t believe it… and that worked?!

But otherworldly alcohol...

“Is there anything I know?”
“Probably.”
“Anything good among them?”
“No.”
“Huh?”

There wasn’t?

“Why do you think I want to get rid of them? I couldn’t be so mean and give you something like that, dear. I’ll bring you something better next time, okay?”
“... Okay.”

She… bribed Korwen with alcohol she simply didn’t want… It was alcohol from another world and all that, sure, but that didn’t mean it was good. I had to wonder what she had told Korwen when she handed him those bottles.

“Miss Yumias, you gave the captain drinks from Yumi’s world?”
“Mh? Not only from hers.”
“Eh?”
“Huh?”
“There are many worlds out there, and alcohol consumption isn’t that uncommon among them. And if they don’t, they usually have something similar.”

Alcohol from other worlds… Honestly, I’d be interested too. Even if she said they were awful.

“Some of that stuff has been sitting in my stash for who knows how many centuries or millennia. It’s great that someone finally wants it.”

Taking that back. Not interested.

“Are those… still fine?” asked Karen.
“Alcohol only gets better with time.”
“There’s a limit to that. Don’t believe her, Sis.”
“Don’t worry, I checked it all beforehand. He shouldn’t get fatally poisoned by any of them.”

I’d better hope he didn’t.

“Either way, I’ll have to pay little Korwen a visit now and bribe him. Ah, but before that… Yumi, be a dear and help me out.”
“... With what?”
“Refilling the bottles. I can’t hand him a plastic bottle, can I? And whatever other weird bottles people came up with.”
“I agree. Have fun.”

Environmental pollution was bad. She was doing well to uphold that ideal.

“Guess that was a no then. Haa… I wish my daughter would at least help me out once in a while.”

Yumias stood up and stretched her body. Then, with a swing of her hand… the glass cups with the drinks disappeared.

“Ah.”
“Well then, I’ll be busy for a while. Later.”

She adjusted her oversized witch’s hat, before pulling it down until her entire body disappeared behind it.

“Eh?”

No, she really disappeared, only leaving the hat behind… The one that was now… not on the floor.

“... She’s too skilled at the weirdest things.”
“Ahaha…”

I sighed in resignation and lay on the table, stretching out my arms.

“And she’s exhausting the hell out of me.”
“But at least we got a few answers.”
“A few…”

It was better than nothing. In fact, you could say it was even quite a good outcome.

“Unable to be apart, she said… I just can’t imagine hundreds of years into the future, though.”
“It is a little overwhelming, isn’t it?”
“Not just a little.”

Hell, she had alcohol bottles around that were older than me. That actually was a little depressing, wasn’t it?

“I mean, we’re already busy enough with the present. I don’t even know how things will be in a single year. Or more like, in a month.”
“Mm… In a month we’ll be… Still busy repairing the fort.”
“I feared that. But hey, it might be habitable at that point already. We might already live inside at the time.”
“If they prioritize the living areas, that’d be quite possible.”
“I can’t imagine them not focussing on those.”

The mercenaries probably wanted to live in a proper home as well and not just in a wagon all the time. They finally had the chance to make that dream a reality.

“Sis.”
“Mm?”
“I want a large bed. A really big one where we can sleep together. Preferably where we can stretch out full without reaching the sides.”
“That sounds like it’d be a really large one.”
“Nn, that’s right.”
“I don’t think we can fit such a large bed inside…”

No good, huh… But it sounded so nice. We could roll together on the bed and make ourselves really comfortable.

“And I don’t even know where we would get such a large bed from.”
“Nn… But wouldn’t that be a problem in general? I mean, we probably need other things, too.”
“Well… They’d probably hire a carpenter to make furniture in bulk. Or maybe some of the mercenaries have experience with carpentry themselves.”
“I’ve thought about this since a while ago but… Mercenaries are quite versatile, aren’t they?”
“They do come from all over, after all.”

And with such a large number of them, there were bound to be a few who knew a little about it.

“By the way, Yumi…”
“Nn?”
“Should we laze around like this? Isn’t it dinner time now?”
“... Ah.”

I shot straight up, realising our predicament.

“The fish will be gone.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be that…”
“Nn?”
“Nothing… Should we go?”
“We should.”

I stood up from my seat and stretched my body. Honestly, there wasn’t really a reason I needed to stretch, considering my lack of bones and whatever else. I didn’t really get stiff like I used to, anymore. Still, it was a bit of a habit.

“Nn? Something wrong, Sis?”

When I turned around, I found Karen staring at me with a bemused expression.

“Well… I just thought that you and Yumias look really alike when you stretch like that.”
“... You kidding me?”

We looked alike?

“Sorry, it was just a random thought that came to me.”
“No, it’s fine… Alike... Alike…”

That wasn’t making me happy in the least.”

“Let’s go and fetch dinner.”
“Nn…”

Karen took me by the hand and led me through the camp, which was busy as usual.

“Yumi, do you remember your mother?”
“That’s quite a sudden question. Not really, no.”
“I see.”
“Do you ask because of what Yumias said?”

She kept claiming to be my mother, at least.

“A little. But I just became curious about your family situation.”
“Family situation, huh… If you mean from my old world… I had a useless father, two cute little sisters, an older sister and a mother.”

A women-dominated household. Make no mistake, I really liked my sisters. While I didn’t remember much, I at least got the feeling that they were important to me. But I also had the vague feeling that this brought its own type of trouble at times…

Probably better that I don’t really remember those parts…

Would surely only mean trouble for me.

“I see. You had a lot of girls around you, didn’t you?”
“Well, you could technically say that.”

But they were my sisters… Probably not convincing when I was saying that, who called her girlfriend ’Sis.’

“What about other relatives?”
“Err… They probably existed? You might remember that my memories are a little...”
“So you don’t remember.”
“Nn.”

Not out of choice, mind you.

“Do you miss them?”
“Nn… Hard to say. I am sure I would if I remembered more? Maybe.”
“...”
“Well, even if I did, I’m still very happy here with you.”

I squeezed her hand a little to reassure her.

“But… what Miss Yumias said, if they came to this place…”
“... I’m trying not to think about that.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine… Well…”

With another sigh for good measure, I glanced up at the sky. Several clouds were slowly making their way through the sky. Seeing so many of them, it might rain again soon.

“My old… home, while not exactly always great, is a pretty peaceful place. There are no dangers like bandits or monsters around to ruin your day, or your life. In that sense, I want them to stay where they are safe.”

I really thought so. This was just my guess based on my vague memories, but I couldn’t imagine my two little sisters coping well with this world. As for my older one, I remembered even less about her so I had honestly no clue.

“Anyway, Yumias did say that it’s not necessarily my right to decide over that… I just hope they won’t think of asking Yumias.”
“But if they do, they might actually…”
“Who knows? Yumias might do it, or she might not.”

As long as she thought it might be amusing, she surely would. But, was it amusing? Well, it might be amusing to watch considering my current… state. That would without a doubt raise questions. To add on to that, my lack of memories.

“Mm… Yumi, to be honest, I don’t think you’ll need to worry about that.”
“Nn? How so?”
“I think Yumias actually does care about you. And about your family back home.”
“... Does she?”
“I think she does. She seems happy when she talks with you… Or at least, that’s what it feels like? I’m sorry if that’s a little vague.”

Happy, huh… With that ever-smiling face… Well, it’s not like it never wavered but… It was hard to gauge her real emotions.

“How about you try to be a little nicer to her?”
“Only if she stops teasing me at every turn.”
“Hehe.”

For some reason or another, that got a chuckle out of Karen.

“I think it’ll be fine, Yumi.”
“Will it?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”

So it would.

“Haaa… I’ll try to. Can’t make promises if she gets on my nerves again.”
“That’s good enough.”

There was a big grin on her face now. Seriously, was it such a big reason to be happy about?

“Well… I guess she’s okay as long as we aren’t talking about my situation and all that.”
“She seemed really innocent when we talked about the fort.”
“Nn. Would be nice if she was always like this.”

Even I thought it was cute to watch. It made you forget for a second just who you were dealing with.

“She does look the part, already.”
“Nn. She definitely does. Why does she even choose to look like a little child?”

There had been one time where she had appeared older. It had been only for the sake of surprising us probably, but it definitely was possible for her to do that.

“Who knows? There’s surely a reason for that. I don’t think it’s good to pry, though.”
“I won’t.”

Probably.

“I am curious, though.”
“Yumi.”
“I already said I won’t pry.”
“Then that’s good.”

Really… Wasn’t she curious? I definitely was.

“If she can change her age, I wonder if she can change her general appearance as well,” said Karen.
“Probably? I mean, she can mess with people and their very being. Would be weird if she couldn’t.”
“Mm…”
“Nn?”

Karen stared at me as if she tried to bore a hole in me with her gaze.

“Sis?”
“... Nothing. I just thought… You never met Yumias before, did you?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“... Maybe you did but didn’t know?”
“Huh?”
“If she can change her appearance…”
“Ahhh…”

That was certainly possible. Except…

“I’m fairly sure I’d remember someone as eccentric as her.”
“Maybe she was acting?”
“Ugh… but then she could be anyone? Even right now.”
“Even me?”
“No, not you. I’d notice that, at least.”

Yes, the person in front of me was without a doubt my beloved sister Karen. The thread connecting us proved it. And surely Yumias wouldn’t be able to mess with that, right? Right? I sure hoped so….

“Hehe. So you say that you’ll always recognise me?”
“Nn. We’re connected, after all.”
“Gee, I didn’t mean that.”
“Well… I’m just a human… person, after all. Without it, I wouldn’t trust myself enough to be able to notice if she was extremely good at acting.”
“Yumi, shouldn’t this be the part where you say you’d always recognise me?”

I averted my gaze quickly.

“Nn, it was.”
“Seriously… For someone who enjoys romantic things so much, you sure aren’t going for the chances.”
“That’s exactly why I know what is realistic and what not… I think. I’m not infallible, after all. And I would rather have some kind of reassurance.”
“Reassurance… I guess that’s fine.”

Karen pulled me a little closer and linked her arm with mine. It was a little hard to walk like this with our height difference.

“If it reassures you, then that’s fine. But you know, it’s unfair that only you can see that.”
“Even if you tell me that, I don’t know how I could teach you that. I simply could after the first time in that shell.”
“Mm… Maybe I can learn it if we repeat that a few times.”
“... You just might.”

She also might learn a plethora of other things… That was in a way worrying as well.

“Now that you say that, we never really talked about why she wanted to talk with us… about you, Sis.”
“Was it not the stuff about the distance?”
“Was it really?”

There are still a lot of other questionable things about our situation…

“Ugh, there’s still so much we have to ask her….”
“We’ll surely get another chance. After all, she’s around again for now.”
“Who knows for how long… But I guess you’re right. And we never talked about those dreams, either.”

Really… This was a bit of a problem by itself. I would have much rather gotten over the whole thing.

“Next time, Yumi.”
“Nn, guess there’s no other choice. For now, let’s focus on this delicious smell of fish.”

The slightly notable smell of grilled fish wafted over to us. I could see several women buzzing around several small fires with fish over them. Fish in all sizes, colours and shapes.

“That sounds like a good idea.”
“Nn!”