Chapter 9

The door to the room opened with a loud bang.

At first, I was surprised, but by the third day, I felt I was getting used to it.

"Good morning."

"…Yeah, good morning."

This was the third time I had seen Hozuki's face, which seemed relieved.

When I saw him come in and sit on the sofa, I sat down next to him.

We had gotten used to eating breakfast together in front of us.

We weren't as close as on the first day, but we still sat next to each other.

It had been three days since my new neighbor moved in, and his voice had almost stopped stuttering.

Apparently, the benefits of being a maintainer of the barrier helped him recover quickly.

Two days ago, he casually mentioned that he had stabbed himself in the stomach to die, but it had healed immediately, which made my face twitch.

I told him I hoped he wouldn't do it again since we had a new neighbor, but he seemed like he might stab himself to death the next time he was alone.

I broke out in a cold sweat, thinking I needed to delay the time until I went insane.

Even though I wasn't aware of it, if I had been the maintainer, I might have ended up in the same mental state as him.

"Sorry, Nadeshiko. For barging in every morning."

"Huh? Oh, it's fine. Are you getting used to your room, Hozuki?"

"Yeah, it's nice to have colors other than white in my room."

He had already dropped the formal language.

Apparently, in this special space, we were treated like criminals, so there was no need for unnecessary formalities.

He said I could call him by his first name, but Hozuki was a year older than me.

Even if I didn't consider the hundred years he spent in here, I still felt uncomfortable calling an older man by his first name.

Maybe I would drop the honorifics eventually, but for now, I would call him "Hozuki-san."

On the third day, his room was attached to mine, and both our rooms had changed.

His room now had a bathtub, futon, bookshelf, and other non-white furniture, while my room had an additional wall to separate the living room from the bedroom.

When he came out of his room, he entered my living room.

Since he basically spent his waking hours in this living room, and he was a quiet type, I didn't find it uncomfortable to spend time with him.

We went to sleep in our respective rooms at night and spent the next day together in this living room, a routine that had continued for three days and would likely continue.

My laptop looked like just a book to Hozuki.

When I was using the computer, it looked like I was reading a book.

During the day, we spent time watching movies or anime together, but since Hozuki saw me reading a book, I bought another laptop for screen operations to avoid the strange phenomenon of the monitor changing.

This one looked like a normal computer, so it seemed only my laptop was special, and I could only shop with it.

By the way, I explained my ability as being able to produce useful but incomprehensible items and understand their names and usage.

In such a special space, I might have been questioned, but Hozuki seemed to accept it without much thought.

After finishing breakfast, I operated my laptop to continue the anime we watched yesterday.

It was a long adventure series, and it was quite interesting, so Hozuki had been engrossed in it yesterday.

I placed a cup of tea and some snacks within reach and leaned back on the sofa.

The moment the anime started, his hand enveloped mine, a routine that had been repeated for three days.

At first, it was embarrassing, but seeing him barge in every morning made it hard to refuse.

Compared to being groped by a disliked boss at my previous job, being held by Hozuki felt like heaven.

No, it was rude to even compare them.

We weren't as close as on the first day, but I had gotten used to being in physical contact.

So, I focused on the screen without saying anything.

In this room where we couldn't step outside, we watched the protagonist in the screen adventuring with many companions.

"Outside situation?"

"Yeah, I was wondering if anything had changed after a hundred years. But if you don't want to talk about it, I won't force you."

When Hozuki asked me this, I thought for a moment.

The long series kept us engrossed, and before we knew it, it was dinner time.

The anime had reached a break, and the screen now showed the computer's standby screen.

I marveled at how he always came up with good recipes, pouring soy sauce on the all-white dinner to turn it black, and searched for the right words to explain.

First, I didn't understand the scene from a hundred years ago; I had only seen the background of a game, which was just a single image.

I couldn't visualize a realistic town.

"What do you want to know?"

"Anything, like the town's appearance or world situation."

"World situation… Oh, the western country recently unified. I think it was divided and at war a hundred years ago, right?"

"That place…"

Kikyo's homeland, the western country, had been divided and at war internally for a long time. About a year before Kikyo and I were born, the war intensified.

The king, who was pregnant with Kikyo's mother, sent her to the country where I lived.

There, my mother, who was also pregnant, hired Kikyo's mother as a servant, thinking that children of the same age would get along.

I didn't know if my mother knew Kikyo's mother's true identity, but from our perspective, the two mothers seemed to get along well without regard for their social status.

The unification of the western country led to the revelation of Kikyo's true identity.

"……"

"Is something wrong?"

When I asked him, he just shook his head slightly.

"Nothing, it's irrelevant now."

"…I see."

Feeling that he didn't want to talk about it, I backed off.

I wasn't that cruel to force him to talk about something he didn't want to.

There wasn't much else in the world situation, so I thought about the town's appearance.

It would be easiest if I could show it directly, but I typed the name of my country and "town's appearance" into my laptop.

Of course, nothing would come up.

As if to mock my thoughts, the screen connected to the computer suddenly changed.

A noisy and cheerful scene filled with bright music appeared, and I stared at it in shock.

Hozuki, sitting next to me, also stared at the screen.

"Nadeshiko, this is…"

"…It seems to be showing the current state of the town I know."

The screen showed a video as if someone was moving with a camera.

It felt like watching a travel program.

The streets where I grew up flowed through the screen.

The video, which had been moving as if someone was walking, suddenly stopped.

At the end of a long stone staircase, a beautiful building appeared, and a woman I never wanted to see again was visible in a white wedding dress.