Now, there were less than half an hour left until they returned to the Warhammer-side world.
Kain opened a vial of Earth Elixir and drank it down.
Don't get the wrong idea. It wasn't to "restore stamina" or anything.
After all, after nearly five straight hours of… indescribable activity, he was definitely feeling a little hollowed out.
This was purely so his body could be saturated with even more power ahead of time. That way, once he was back over there, he'd have a better chance of withstanding that ugly situation waiting for him.
As for why he didn't wait until the last few minutes before the transfer—because if he drank Earth Elixir right before the teleport, a handful of seconds probably wouldn't be enough for the medicine's energy to fully bloom.
"Mhm. This really does suit you."
The gentle, slightly seductive voice came from soft lips right in front of him, while two hands reached up again to smooth out his collar.
"Two-Nine-Three." She looked like a dutiful wife, tidying up her husband's appearance before he went out.
So Kain glanced at the full-length mirror beside them. He wasn't dressed in some crisp suit-and-tie look—more of a gothic style, instead.
Honestly, Saeko's instincts were on point. This kind of outfit fit the world he was heading back to.
Though once he got back… it'd probably be burned to ash immediately.
"By the way," Saeko said, eyes glinting, "you really want to use that 'other' place, don't you?"
"…What?"
Kain didn't process what she meant at first.
"The place Mrs. Takagi almost used by mistake at the beginning."
That made Kain's expression stiffen, the embarrassment on his face impossible to hide.
But it wasn't just because Saeko had noticed.
With that teasing look of hers, it was like she was saying: back then, he'd looked like he wanted Yuriko to just go with it—and that her whole "type" made him even more fired up.
So now that Saeko had caught him apparently thinking about the lady of the house too, it made him feel guilty in a way he couldn't quite shake.
As for Saya's request—asking him to temporarily become "that man" in Yuriko's delusional world—Kain didn't really feel guilty about that part.
If he truly had guilt, he would've refused from the start.
He didn't want to be that fake.
Even so… it was still a little fake, because he'd acted like he was doing it only because Saya had asked—like he had no choice.
"Ahem."
A deliberately staged cough rang out. When Kain looked over, the glasses-wearing girl with twin-tails was staring back, turning her head with a puzzled expression.
She'd clearly heard Saeko's line.
After a brief silence—
"You'll come back… right?"
Saya's eyes, still simmering with anger, shifted into something much more complicated.
"Well…"
"Of course he'll come back," Saeko cut in smoothly. "He's probably already thinking about some kind of rice bowl feast. If you promise him that right now, Takagi, he'll fight like hell to stay alive and come back for it."
Kain stared at Saeko, speechless.
How did she even know that kind of meme? Kuroneko, most likely.
And no—she was slandering him. He wasn't thinking that.
…Okay. Maybe just a tiny bit.
Still, Saeko's interruption did exactly what it was meant to do—he swallowed the words he'd been about to say, the words that would've dragged the mood into something heavy and suffocating.
Saeko was doing it on purpose. She didn't want him to say it.
Because whatever he was about to say would've sounded like the classic anime "raising a flag"—the kind of line that jinxes you the moment it leaves your mouth.
Saeko might not know the exact "flag" meme, but she clearly understood the shape of what he was about to say—like it would invite bad luck—so she forcibly cut him off, twisting the atmosphere into something else.
"Y-you pervert! What the hell are you even thinking about?!"
Saya looked so furious she was practically shaking, her twin-tails bristling like they were about to stand straight up.
She bared her little fangs, grinding them, like she was about to march over and bite him hard.
Then, in the next second, Saya snatched up an empty aluminum can and hurled it at the doorway, startling whoever was there.
Two people were hiding by the door—two girls who, to Kain's eyes, had oddly similar "character designs."
One was Kiba Mikoto.
The other was Rei Miyamoto.
"Um… we didn't hear anything," Mikoto said, immediately stepping in from the doorway the moment she was discovered, blurting out the most suspicious thing possible.
Nobody had even asked what she heard. She'd just outed herself on reflex.
"R-right. Didn't hear anything about… rice," Rei added, her face stiff.
She really was bad with words…
And it was probably the alcohol, too—making it way too easy for her to let her thoughts slip.
Her mind couldn't help replaying what she'd witnessed earlier, leaving her feelings a tangled mess.
When Shizuka-sensei and the others stormed into that "competition," they weren't shocked by the scene—they actually joined in.
And that made Rei think, despite herself…
Why hadn't she gotten heated and jumped in, too?
Why hadn't she gotten just a little more drunk?
After that, the room fell into a strange, delicate silence. Time kept moving, creeping closer and closer to 4:00 a.m.
The closer it got, the more restlessness showed on everyone's faces.
Except two people stayed relatively calm.
One was Kain.
The other was Saeko.
"Don't…"
Saya abruptly swallowed the last word before it could come out.
She'd been about to say, Don't die, but it felt like saying it would jinx him—like raising the worst kind of flag.
And the reason she was so unsettled was obvious: after his casual, flippant wording, she'd suddenly realized what it really meant.
She was smart. She immediately understood that once he left, the place he was returning to would throw him into something beyond imagination—something that would injure him right away, forcing him to burn through multiple vials of spirit medicine early.
"Ten seconds," Saeko suddenly said.
Saya's face changed.
She snapped her eyes to the clock—there were clearly still three minutes until 4:00.
And then she realized what that meant, and her blood ran cold.
Mikoto, too, tensed up, eyes wide, refusing to blink.
She wanted to see it—how this mysterious man, this man who felt like he came from the future, was going to leave.
"Ten seconds?" Rei froze, lips parting.
What was she supposed to say?
"If… if you come back, then I… I promise…"
Her voice was shy and mortifyingly small, trailing off—then, right when she was about to reach the crucial part, it was cut off as if someone had pinched the sound in midair.
Because Kain vanished without warning.
And the girl whose words had been cut off just stood there, blank and stunned.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]