Humans are social animals. They are a sum of social relationships—with family, with their country. While they need their own space, they feel a profound loneliness when truly separated from their kind. Even three days of isolation can become unbearable.
Despite possessing world-shaking power, Sū ěr found he still possessed a human heart. He wasn't ashamed of it; if anything, he was glad he could maintain this mindset, neither losing his humanity nor placing himself on a divine pedestal looking down on all things.
Perhaps this heart would change over the vast stretches of time, but for now, it remained pure.
On his first day back in this era after leaving that "flat earth" world, Sū ěr felt good. He felt lucky to have met such a kind and friendly girl. In a modern society where everyone is constantly rushing, people willing to help a stranger for nothing in return are rare.
So, how could he let a hero suffer?
When the girl named Tsubasa Hanekawa opened her bag at home, she would find a small token of Sū ěr gratitude—a perfectly square gold brick. It was the quickest form of payment a man out of time could provide.
For an ordinary person, it was more than enough.
Speaking with someone he could empathize with had put Sū ěr in a fantastic mood. He felt like a man who had lived alone in the Amazon for ten years and was finally returning to civilization; even the city's car exhaust smelled sweet.
In ancient times, humans rested at sunset and worked at sunrise. Modern humans used the power of the Industrial Revolution to extend the day, using electric lights to enjoy the nightlife.
Similarly, Sū ěr night was just beginning.
It was a bit sudden, but this was his third uninvited visit to the Higurashi Shrine.
The mud Sū ěr had transported out of the well was still piled there, untouched. For a middle school girl and an old man, there wasn't much they could do about it. A ladder was leaning against the edge of the ancient well; it seemed they had already gone down.
That meant they had seen the bones piled like weeds at the bottom. He wondered if the girl would have nightmares. The footprints Sū ěr had seen earlier confirmed their descent.
If the old man's descriptions of monsters weren't lies, he must have seen them in his youth. His descriptions were too detailed, and his laughter had been tinged with nostalgia for beautiful memories. Did he have monsters as friends?
Despite such a major event happening behind his own shrine, the old man wasn't guarding the spot. Sū ěr wondered if he'd gone to fetch help. Sū ěr had only come back to clean up the mess.
The mountain of mud began to flow like a river again, streaming back into the well and reburying the unearthed bones.
Finally, he placed the charm-covered wooden lid back over the opening. Sū ěr set a gold nugget the size of a human head on top, but as he turned to leave, he turned back with a mischievous glint in his eye. He pressed his hand against the gold; the metal rippled like jelly before solidifying into a specific shape.
A statue. It was a vivid, lifelike recreation of that middle school girl stumbling awkwardly as she was dragged along by her small dog.
She'll probably be moved to tears when she receives this gift.
Sū ěr nodded with satisfaction. He felt like a Zashiki-warashi [座敷童子 - a protective household spirit in Japanese folklore], traveling around and distributing wealth.
"Are there trees this big in the cities of the Elf?" Sū ěr asked, pressing his palm against the bark and feeling the damp moss beneath his touch.
"Why would you think there aren't?" Think had manifested herself, carefully examining the unique properties of this massive Sacred Tree. "We can form an entire city within a single tree. This little sapling is nowhere near that level."
"Right... 'little sapling,'" Sū ěr shook his head, speechless.
If a massive, centuries-old tree was just a "sapling" to this woman, what hope was there for this world?
"Nothing. Not a single trace of special energy. This tree is perfectly normal," Think said, her expression clouded with frustration after phasing through the trunk to inspect it. "Where could the problem be?"
For a non-renewable, singular sample like this, any research that might cause irreparable damage was forbidden. Sū ěr briefly considered uprooting the tree to see what would happen, but he restrained himself.
Besides, this was someone's backyard, and a tree that had been passed down for centuries... damaging the well was one thing, but uprooting their tree would be truly heartless.
Biting her lower lip, Think put her genius brain to work. But this wasn't something that could be solved by theory alone. She clapped her hands and said, "Let's build a magic workshop here. Then we can conduct a more thorough investigation."
The Great Nirvalen was confident that with focused research, she could find the reason the two of them had traveled through time. To her surprise, Sū ěr remained silent.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are we researching how we got here?"
"Because we need to—"
Think stopped mid-sentence. Her eyes widened slightly as she realized Sū ěr intent.
Sū ěr hated that primitive era. Whether it was the gods, the monsters, or the "primitive humans"—Think already knew this.
Since they were already here, why expend so much effort researching the "how"?
To go back to that primitive age?
What would be the point?
The city of steel and concrete, the people who looked just like Sū ěr, the modern world filled with culture and entertainment—this was exactly what Sū ěr had been longing for since the last world.
It was like a gift from heaven, appearing at an unexpected time in an unexpected way.
"Aren't you curious, Think?" Sū ěr turned to look at his wife, his eyes shining. "Not the replicas you and Jibril made that just looked like appliances, not the fake cities built by Alcan, but a world that truly, naturally evolved to this point?"