the alley Shiori stealthily peeked at the main street, straining her ears to eavesdrop on each person’s conversation.
As expected, she didn’t have the ability to understand everything but she could more or less understand what they were talking about.
For example, those aunties’ [1] conversation topic was something about how their bodies weren’t doing too well.
Vocabulary such as “Waist”, “Pain”, “shoulder”, and “Stiff” were peppered into the conversation.
“Why did this happen…”
Shiori headed back into the alley for the moment, and crouched down to hug her head.
What the heck am I supposed to do now!
(First of all, should I look for “him”?)
This is the world he lives in after all, and he’s the only one I can rely on.
In Shiori’s mind surfaced his dearly missed figure.
From his beautiful eyes and silver hair to his tall height and supple muscles.
Despite his elegance, some part of him was wild and rough; despite his gentleness, he was sometimes sharp and manly.
Based on his white uniform covering his body and the sword worn on his waist, the man looked just like a knight.
Well, he actually is a knight of this country though.
Shiori sighed, remembering about the incident 3 years ago.
By chance, he and she encountered on a cold midwinter day.
During the winter break of her first year at university, alone in her apartment, she was preparing nabe[2] for dinner.
Just when Shiori noticed the small room fill with light, in the next moment, there was a knight-like man standing, staring dumbfounded at Shiori who was still in the kitchen.
But Shiori was the one who thought she should be surprised.
Suddenly, in her room appeared a man cosplaying with a dangerous weapon– a western sword.
At first living together was truly troubling.
How they couldn’t communicate in each other’s language was the biggest problem.
Even so, while she was attempting to communicate, she began to think that perhaps he was from another world.
It was an unrealistic hypothesis and normally Shiori would have laughed at it, but the fact was the man had truly appeared out of thin air because Shiori’s very own eyes witnessed it happen.
In the end, instead of reporting him to the police Shiori sheltered the silver haired man.
It wasn’t so much that she would feel sorry for him if he was arrested by the police. Instead, she was more worried that he would kill the police with his sword.
He was a little on edge at first, perhaps because he arrived to an unknown world.
They became less reserved with each other; eventually, he quickly mastered j.a.panese thanks to Shiori.
He was a silver-haired man with good motor skills, and his appearance could easily be mistaken as a foreign model. However, that wasn’t where his advantages ended.
In other words, his head, learning ability, and memory were superb.
By the end of the month he could converse with her in broken j.a.panese. By the end of three months his j.a.panese was so fluent and accentless you would believe him if he told you he was born in Tokyo.
When he became able to speak j.a.panese, they were able to more deeply understand each other.
He then recalled and explained to Shiori that he travelled to her different world.
“An acquaintance of mine is a sorcerer. Just before arriving, I was summoned here by that guy. The experiment tried to teleport someone above a magic circle. The only cause I could think of was that. If I meet that guy again…”
He said, with a loathing expression.
Shiori was surprised. In his world existed magic and what’s more magicians were an actual occupation.
“Sounds just like a fantasy!” she thought.
However, it seemed that to the man, modern j.a.pan was the real fantasy.
Even now, she still found the scene of a grown man uneasily bringing himself to touch the vibrating mobile terribly amusing.
Sheltering him cost two people’s portion, Shiori’s schoolwork had to take a backseat as she had to work a part time job.
But the man himself was very bothered by this and asked Shiori if there was anything he could do.
However, the man lacked the knowledge and common sense needed to work a job in j.a.pan.
From a j.a.panese person’s perspective, with his gaudy flawless appearance and his colorful silver hair would only hinder his efforts in finding a job.
Thus, Shiori intended to take care of the money by herself until he was familiar with j.a.pan.
In order for him to quickly get a job, he put great effort into learning j.a.panese customs and common sense, something Shiori looked fondly upon.
In the confined apartment lived two people.
Although they quarreled a bit, they spent everyday enjoyably.
However–
Their farewell was sudden.
It happened roughly 3 months after the man stumbled into her world.
Shiori returned from work, and the moment he greeted Shiori inside the room, a light appeared from beneath his feet enveloping his slender and muscular body.
Then…
“What!?”
At the blinding light, Shiori reflexively squeezed her eyes shut, again she opened them, but the man’s figure had already vanished.
They neither had the time to hug goodbye, nor even say a word.
In the blink of an eye, he left.
Shiori stood frozen in the entryway, her dumbfounded eyes staring at the scene before her.
Until some time ago she was expecting to be warmly welcomed home. For her sake she convinced herself that he would never again come back.
He came here because of the magician, now he disappeared because of the magician.
Shiori was certain that the man had been called back to his own world with the magician’s magic.
(In that case, wasn’t that good?)
Despite thinking that, her heart was wracked with an inescapable sense of loss which stayed with her for awhile afterwards.
And so, three years pa.s.sed.
(This time I’m the one being summoned?)
In an unknown world’s inconspicuous alley, somehow Shiori accepted her reality.
In the street people exchanged words, surely when “he” first visited he spoke the exact same language.
She was certain, because in exchange for teaching him j.a.panese, in return he taught her his language.
And now, she had no doubt that she was somewhere in his country.
If this time it’s my return to rely on him, I don’t think there’s anything to feel guilty about.
So thought Shiori.
However, three years had already pa.s.sed since Shiori and he lived together.
He was an unforgettable existence to Shiori, but that didn’t mean he would feel the same about her.
Perhaps he already forgot all about Shiori.
“But besides him I have no one to rely on…”
It wouldn’t do to loiter in this alleyway.
Very soon, night would fall.
It seemed to be a peaceful enough town, but compared to j.a.pan it was perhaps still much less safe.
“Perhaps he forgot me but even so, for now, I’ll depend on him–depend on Kraust.”
And just like that Shiori stood up, leaving the alley.
[1] If you’re not familiar in many asian cultures you call slightly older females “Aunty” even if they are not blood related to you. Instead of miss or ma’am in English you would hear older sister or aunty. The person could be a random stranger, family friend, or your blood related sister/aunt.
[2]