Chapter 4: Preparing for a Trip Home

The war in Isengard had ended with our victory. It seemed safe to assume that all the wicked devout had been defeated. There were two we hadn’t been able to confirm the bodies of, but from what Kuon had heard from Gould, it sounded like he had used those two as sacrifices for the time tunnel. He really stopped caring what he used for his goal, didn’t he? Though I suppose from his view, his plan was to return to the world of five thousand years ago, so who cared what happened to this world.

Please don’t have it be that there’s some secret survivors or something…

Once we finished cleaning up the mess in Isengard, we returned to Brunhild. I immediately called a summit for the alliance and explained what had happened. I didn’t provide all the details, but I made them aware that there had been a Gollem with the memories of an old magitech scholar implanted inside it who had tried to invade the world with the wicked devout. Everyone was relieved that we had stopped them before it was too late.

There was still one problem remaining, however, and that was the golden drug that the wicked devout had scattered across the land. So much of it had been dealt to people that it had been headache-inducing trying to gather it all.

I started by conducting a [Search] in each country to get a rough idea of where those in possession of it were located, and then we arrested them. We confiscated the golden powder, purified it, and then destroyed it. Although the possibility was exceedingly low, there was the chance that someone who continued taking the drug would mutate while still retaining their self-awareness, which created the risk of another wicked devout being born. The best thing to do was to be thorough in completely ridding the world of the drug.

There were already several victims who had mutated so severely that no antidote or magic could reverse the process. I hated to say it, but when someone had progressed to that state, the best thing we could do for them was to put them out of their misery. Keeping them alive would just be torture, after all. It might be silly to say for souls that could no longer return to the cycle of reincarnation, but I could only hope they were able to rest in peace.

The Fishmen, Four-Armed Gollems, and Rock Titans that had been under the control of the wicked devout were no different from regular monsters now that they had lost their commander. They weren’t all that powerful, so we left the disposal of those to the adventurers. The Fishmen used to be human, but so did Zombies and Skeletons, so there was no need for them to hold back.

Once I flung the smaller jobs to the respective countries’ leaders, I was finally free.

God, that was completely exhausting…

◇◇◇

“Now that you’re planning to travel to Earth, would you like to train your Spatial Translocation to manage it yourself? This feels like the perfect opportunity.”

“Huh?”

When I asked God Almighty for help with the family trip, that was the first thing he said to me.

“Training?”

“Even though you reside in the mortal realm, you are still a god. You should be able to at least travel between worlds. Unknown worlds may be impossible for you, but the world you were born in should not be difficult.”

“At least,” he says.

But if Ende could do it, then maybe it wasn’t that difficult to master? If I could manage going to Earth by myself, then maybe I could visit my family over there whenever I pleased.

“I know I don’t need to remind you of this, but you have already died in that world. Reviving you would be defying the world’s logic, which was why I had you go as your child self last time. But…”

But…what?

God Almighty was suddenly struggling with his words, eyes shifting suspiciously. Well, I suppose he was the one who accidentally killed me, so it would feel a little awkward to discuss.

“Can I go to Earth so long as I revert to my child form or even go as a completely unfamiliar person?”

“If your world were recognized as a resort for the gods, then that would be fine, but gods descending on worlds at their whim without even being granted permission is most certainly an issue. Well, it’s fine if you have my permission, given my position, but…”

Right, I did go around to a bunch of worlds with Karen back when I first learned how to use Spatial Translocation. Were those worlds where permission had long been granted? A lot of them had been fairly primitive civilizations— could that be why?

“That isn’t the problem… This is a bit hard to say, but…” “What is it?”

God Almighty began fidgeting and avoiding my eyes again. Would there be some problem if I went to Earth right now? Even if someone saw me in my child form and thought I looked familiar, they’d never think it really was me, so it was hard to think that was the issue.

“Your parents may be aware that you are still alive.” “Huh?!”

Mom and dad know I’m alive?! How?! What tipped them off?! I thought we made them think they were dreaming?!

“You remember how you stayed in that house when you went to Japan? Well, your mother went there after you left and ended up noticing a lot of oddities.”

According to God Almighty, mom suddenly decided she wanted to clean grandpa’s house. While she was cleaning, she found a bunch of long hairs of gold, silver, and, worst of all, pink. My mom could be slow on the uptake, but even she could understand the implications of that.

Oopsies… Sakura met mom in that dream, so there’s no way to cover that one up.

Mom had then become positive that my wives existed—and therefore, that

that dream hadn’t been just a dream. She turned the house upside down and found that grandpa’s secret stash of alcohol was missing, that there was a photo missing from an album, and that there were signs of something having been stored in the fridge recently.

To make matters worse, mom then told dad, who then hired a private investigator he knew to look into it. The investigator quickly discovered that the girls had been at the nearby department store and family restaurant. They also learned that a small boy had been with them at the same time. When they showed a picture of me when I was younger to the people working there, they identified that it had been me.

“My mom is so proactive…”

“And then, every night since then, she’s been shouting at me in her dreams, begging me to give you back. I’m becoming just a touch scared…”

“I’m so sorry,” I said, bowing deeply to the weary god.

Don’t threaten a god, mom…

“I would advise you to talk to them when you go back.”

“Oh. Uh…is that okay? I’d be telling them about the Divine Realm and about the fact that there are different worlds.”

“Technically, I could erase their memories at any time, but that wouldn’t feel right. It was I who stole their son from them, after all.”

It seemed God Almighty still felt guilty about what he’d done. I would have said he didn’t need to worry so much, but I wasn’t sure I would’ve meant it.

“Of course, I need you to make sure they do not speak that truth to anybody. I do not believe your parents would be so careless, but if they did, then I really would have to erase their memories.”

“Got it.”

I would much rather my parents knew I was alive but was just too far away to visit frequently rather than having them continue to think I was dead.

“Wait, but then, does that mean I can go visit my parents as much as I want once I can use Spatial Translocation to get to Earth by myself? Oh, of course, I’d make sure to get permission from you first.”

“You can. I can’t keep giving out permission willy-nilly, but once a year should be fine.”

I can go home once a year?! That’s great. Now I can watch Fuyuka grow up!

“Keep in mind that you are a special case as my ward. Consider it an extra reward for becoming the curator of a world that is now a resort for the gods.”

“So it’s a bonus, then?”

“Not really, but…let’s just say it is.”

Rewards like that made it much easier to get motivated for a job.

Wait…a job? Hang on. Did this mean that if more gods ended up going to my new world and causing problems, I needed to be the one to deal with it? Was this an advance payment for such a difficult job? Did this mean it was more like a sweet trap to lure me into hard labor rather than a reward?

I glanced at God Almighty, who immediately looked away and started whistling.

Stop that. What an old-fashioned way of trying to play something off.

That confirmed my suspicions, at least…

I guess I’d need to do this eventually, anyway, so having a reward was much better than doing it for free.

“Shall we get you started on your training, then?” “What?! Already?!”

“No need to worry. I’ll be granting you a very trustworthy navigator.”

Granny Tokie suddenly appeared beside God Almighty. Was she going to be my guide?

“She is the goddess of space-time, after all. She’s godlike when it comes to matters such as these.”

And there’s the dad joke. Not that he’s wrong.

“But don’t you need to deal with the timequakes?” I asked her.

“Now that the cause has been dealt with, I can take my time. You’d prefer it that way, wouldn’t you, Touya?”

“Well…”

If she mended all the rips just like that, our remaining time with the children would be over in a flash. I would certainly prefer she go as slowly as possible. In that case, I’d take them up on the offer. It wasn’t every day that you got to learn how to use Spatial Translocation from the goddess of space-time directly.

“You don’t need to worry about how long the training takes either. No matter how many years it takes you, I can always return us to this moment in time.”

“Hang on! This’ll take years?!”

“It was just a hypothetical. If we only need to train you to travel to one world, then it would maybe take…a month or so.”

A month was still a pretty long time for just one world. It was nice that I wouldn’t have to worry about how much time it would take, but the possibility being raised at all showed just how difficult a task this would be. If she’d said it would take me ten thousand years, I might’ve given up right then and there.

Regardless, I had to succeed. Not just for this trip, but for the future as well; it would be useful if I could go back anytime I wanted.

“Then let’s start with time travel.” “Huh?! Time travel?!”

Granny Tokie’s sudden suggestion caught me by surprise. As the goddess of space-time, she ruled over, well, space and time. Magic that allowed someone to travel through space was considered teleportation magic, such as [Gate] or [Teleport]. Spatial Translocation also went under that umbrella, so I thought that was the type of thing I was going to be trained in.

“Time works differently between worlds. The time of the world you’re in right now actually runs faster than the time in your old world. That’s why if you go to Japan, spend a few days there, and then come back without adjusting the time correctly, several years will have passed.”

Oh man, seriously? Time dilation comes into effect when crossing between worlds?

Wait, was that why we sometimes referred to it as the Urashima effect in Japanese? Was Urashima Tarou invited to another world and then returned home? The usual theory was that he went to space, but outer space and a different world weren’t really that different.

Did that mean God Almighty and Karen had easily managed to do that when they were traveling between worlds?

“So if I tried to go to Earth with my skill level, I’d end up in the past or the future?”

“Given the differences in the flow of time, it is highly unlikely that you would end up in the past. You may end up traveling billions of years into the future and enter the world after civilization has long been destroyed, though.”

You’ve gotta be kidding.

Would a future like that be ruled by monkeys? I didn’t want to see a Statue of Liberty looking all beat-up…

“It’s very possible to have that happen if you aren’t careful when crossing worlds, but a skilled Spatial Translocation will prevent that. That’s why I want us to start by seeing if you can perform simple time travel in this world.”

After saying that, Granny Tokie placed a retro alarm clock on the low table. “Uh…what do I do with this?”

“Use Spatial Translocation while fully imagining the world an hour in the future. If you succeed, the clock hand will be a whole hour forward in an instant.”

I see. So the goal is for me to jump an hour into the future. Imagine the world an hour in the future… Imagine the world where the clock is showing one o’clock… All right, let’s give it a shot.

I closed my eyes tight and imagined the clock moving forward in my mind. “Spatial Translocation.”

My body momentarily felt lighter and then immediately returned to normal. When I opened my eyes again, the clock wasn’t exactly at one, but five minutes past one.

Hey, that isn’t bad for my first try!

“Unfortunate. That’s a failure.”

My excitement was immediately deflated as Granny Tokie delivered her blunt rejection with a smile.

Seriously? Isn’t that a bit harsh? I was, like, five minutes off…

And then, I noticed that God Almighty wasn’t here anymore. Did he go somewhere in that hour?

“But five minutes is within the margin of error, isn’t it? I don’t have to be that precise, do I?”

“Five minutes? You misunderstand. You’ve traveled seventy-three hours into the future. It’s a complete failure.”

“Huh?!”

Seventy-three hours?! I jumped over three days?!

Granny Tokie clapped her hands. I felt floaty again, and then the clock was back to pointing at twelve. God Almighty was also back to calmly drinking tea beside Granny Tokie. Did we return to our original time?

“I see you failed,” he said. “Well, you have just begun.”

“You only imagined the sight of the clock at the endpoint, didn’t you?

Instead, try imagining the process of the hands actually rotating until they reach your desired time,” Granny Tokie advised.

I closed my eyes tight and did as she said.

Just one hour, just one hour…

“Spatial Translocation.”

When I next opened my eyes, the clock showed ten past one. Was that a success or a failure? When I looked up at Granny Tokie, she was smiling again.

Uh…is it a failure, then?

“That was a success. You were a little off, but you still jumped roughly an hour into the future.”

“Oh, thank god…”

I felt myself relax. I’d somehow succeeded. I’d jumped an hour into the future. Though, admittedly, it didn’t really feel like it. It wasn’t going to turn out that God Almighty had secretly moved the clock forward while I had my eyes closed, right?

Granny Tokie clapped her hands and the clock returned to displaying the time as twelve.

“Now, we’ll shoot for three days.”

“H-Hang on. You mean I have to visualize the long hand going around seventy-two times?”

Wasn’t that really difficult? What if I fell asleep while trying to count how many times it had circled the clock?

“You can just imagine the sun rising and setting three times. When you repeat the process enough, you’ll start to get the hang of it.”

That was a lot easier. But would that mean I could only jump to the morning of a day? Well, no, I guess I could have some degree of freedom by visualizing where exactly in the sky the sun was.

After that, I repeated time travel attempts over and over again and finally managed to get the hang of it.

Man, I’m beat…

Granny Tokie then instructed me on rewinding the clock, so I learned to travel to the past as well. I never imagined the day would come when I would really be able to travel through time.

“Just so you’re aware, time travel is permitted here in the Divine Realm, but generally, it is forbidden to be used in the mortal realm,” God Almighty warned. “You should use it solely to make adjustments to the time when crossing worlds.”

“What? Really?”

“The commotion this time should’ve shown you the risks involved in time traveling. I can’t be expected to cover for you all the time,” Granny Tokie said.

It was true that if Granny Tokie hadn’t been there, there would have been a real risk of a time paradox being created due to the alterations made in the past. Especially in my case, since I lived in the mortal realm. If I were to travel back and forth in time there, I could easily end up making some huge mistake.

“If you went to the past and came face-to-face with a child on her deathbed, would you be able to leave her to her death?”

“I…”

“That child, were she to be saved, may greatly alter history. Or perhaps, her survival may spell the death of someone else. If you have no confidence that you can remain uninvolved, then you should be very careful about traveling through time.”

I understood what Granny Tokie was trying to say. The spatiotemporal issues caused by the timequake were an exception. Usually, historical alterations wouldn’t be permitted. Being able to freely travel between the past and the future inevitably carried a certain degree of risk with it. It would be incredibly rude of me to travel through time on a whim and expect Granny Tokie to clean up my messes for me.

“Next, let’s try teleporting to Earth to see if you can make the required adjustments there. I’ll guide you at first. Let’s teleport there for now.”

“Huh?! Hang on!”

Before I even got any time to prepare myself, Granny Tokie grabbed my hand and was suddenly using Spatial Translocation to teleport us to Earth.

◇◇◇

“This is…”

Granny Tokie had taken me to a dense jungle. I could hear strange bird calls all around me.

Is this really Earth?

“It was important to choose somewhere with no one around, so this seemed suitable. A bit of noise won’t hurt.”

So that’s why…

Wait, where even is this? It looks like a tropical rainforest, so…South America? The Amazon? A Malaysian jungle?

“I made the adjustments to Spatial Translocation when we jumped this time. The same amount of time has passed since you left this world as you spent in the other world. There is not even a single second of difference. We will make this moment of time our starting point. Make sure to remember.”

In other words, she’d brought us to Earth at a moment that matched my perception of time passing in the other world since my last visit here. But if Earth’s time went slower…did that mean we’d technically arrived in the future?

I was starting to feel like I was getting a sense for the time. It wasn’t that far in the future, right? Even though our world’s time passed faster, it wasn’t like the difference was by hundreds of years or anything. In that case, I didn’t think it would be that difficult to make the necessary adjustments. Not that I thought I could do it right this second, of course…

“Let’s start our training, then, shall we?”

After saying that, Granny Tokie took out that old analog alarm clock again. “Almost five minutes will have passed since we arrived here. Bring us back to the other world five minutes after we left.”

And yet, I’m being asked to do it right this second! Five minutes, huh? So just visualize the long hand turning five times… Wait, no! That would be five hours!

I needed to visualize the second hand going around five times.

I battled with the clock face in my mind’s eye and began my training to make the power of Spatial Translocation my own.

◇◇◇

“Three PM on the dot. Nice! I can even handle the time difference!”

I was trembling with excitement as I looked across the River Thames at the Elizabeth Tower—or Big Ben, as it was more commonly known. Passersby were giving me odd looks, but I didn’t concern myself with them—I’d finally passed the trial, so I couldn’t help but be excited.

A month had passed since my training had begun. After enduring Granny Tokie’s cheerful yet absolutely devilish Spartan training, I’d finally succeeded in mastering the power of Spatial Translocation. Or, well, I’d mastered it within the realm of Earth.

I was now able to teleport between our world and any country on Earth that I wanted using my own power, and I could even make sure I adjusted the time correctly. I could spend a year in the other world, and then make sure a year had passed on Earth when I traveled over.

It’d been so long since I’d last been on Earth that I’d gotten a bit carried away and ended up visiting a whole bunch of countries during my training, but it wasn’t as if anyone in those places would know me, so it was fine. I’d made sure to cast cognition disruption magic, so they likely didn’t even realize I was there. The Londoners only noticed me because I got a bit too excited.

“I see you managed it.”

Granny Tokie appeared beside me without a sound. Even though she had appeared so suddenly, the passersby were all continuing their fast-paced walking, paying her no mind whatsoever. She must’ve been completely hiding her presence. Apparently, she’d made sure that we wouldn’t appear on security cameras and such either. Coating yourself in a light layer of divinity could disrupt that kind of thing, it seemed. But then, when I tried to do it myself and took a selfie, I could see myself perfectly fine.

Huh?

“Your smartphone is a sacred treasure from God Almighty. Of course you’d show up on it.”

That…makes sense.

“I’ll rewind time back to when you started your training now,” Granny Tokie said as she clapped her hands. We were immediately back in the Divine Realm where God Almighty was waiting.

“Welcome back. I see you’ve gotten the hang of it.”

“Yes, thank you. Now I can go back to Earth whenever I want.”

The alarm clock on the low table hadn’t changed from what it had been when I started training. Or, more precisely, a whole month’s worth of time had been wound back…

“Let me be clear, you can only go when I grant you permission, okay? It is absolutely unacceptable for you to travel to Earth without asking. I won’t hesitate to punish you if you break that rule.”

“There are some very fussy gods up here, so we need to make sure we don’t give them any ammo. It would make things much more difficult later otherwise.” The two deities gave me very firm reminders. Those fussy gods Granny

Tokie was referring to were likely the ones who didn’t think all that highly of me. If I broke the gods’ rules like they were nothing, those gods would say, “I told you so,” and it would absolutely bring shame to God Almighty, so I had to make sure I didn’t do that. Even if I was a grand duke in the mortal realm, up here, I was just a baby.

I’d promised I would only use time travel as a way to adjust time differences during Spatial Translocation, so I needed to make sure I abided by that. If there were any problems, I needed to talk to the gods I trusted, not just make my own judgment. Communication was key.

“I’ll see you next week, then.”

Now that the month of training was over, I finally returned to the castle.

Ahhhhhh, I’m finally home…

To everyone else, not a single second of time had passed, so there had been no changes from when I’d gone to the Divine Realm. For me, though, I hadn’t been back for a whole month, so I honestly really wanted to rest…

Although it was still early in the afternoon, I headed for my bedroom…only to be caught by Kousaka on the way and dragged into my office.

Nooooooooo!

“You must finish your backlog before you depart on your trip. I have received permission from the duchesses on this matter.”

Kousaka had the most pleasant smile on his face as he smacked down a whole pile of paper on the desk.

I’ll never finish this! This is gonna take more than today! Can I use Spatial Translocation to escape this?!

The answer was obviously no, so I got straight into my work. Using [Accel] to speed up my brain, I zoomed through the paperwork from right to left.

This was a bit of a late observation, but we clearly had far too few secretaries here!

I’m gonna fall apart if I don’t recruit more civil servants soon!

I finally finished when the clock had just passed midnight… I wasn’t sure if it was because my mind was still stuck in training mode, but I automatically thought about trying to turn the clock hands back…

This isn’t good. I’m going loopy.

The first thing to do was sleep… I could handle everything else tomorrow.

The moment I made it back to my room, I dove into the bed.

Right, I needed to tell the girls that my parents had realized we were real. I was sure they’d be happy to know that we could make trips back once every year, at least.

Hang on, did future me never bring my kids to see their grandparents? Or did I hold back because it would mean changing the history where the kids first met them on current me’s trip?

We’d probably be able to figure something out if we asked Granny Tokie for help, but that felt like a bit much. She’d already helped with far more than she should’ve had to. That meant the next time my parents would see their grandkids would be at least ten years from now. It was better than them not getting to meet at all, given that that would’ve been the reality in a different timeline, but it also meant that they weren’t able to be present for their grandchildren’s births. At the end of the day, I was still a terrible son.

I flopped around on my bed, feeling guilty toward my parents, and then eventually drifted off to sleep.

◇◇◇

“There’s not a lot we can do if they’ve already found out. God Almighty forgave you, yes?”

“Right. There shouldn’t be any problems.”

“In fact, now we can go see them without any sneaking around, we can. Is there really a problem?”

When I told the girls what God Almighty had told me yesterday, that was what they said to me. And they were right, there was no problem, but…

“I’ll most likely get majorly scolded. Mainly by my mom.”

“I doubt there’s a lot you can do about that…” Linze awkwardly laughed. But she was only able to respond like that because she hadn’t ever been a victim of one of my mom’s lectures. The intensity of the telling-off she would give you if you tried to lie or deceive her was nothing like what they’d seen. She was as insistent as a drunk trying to pick a fight.

And it wasn’t that I didn’t get it—they’d thought it had been a dream, but then it turned out not to be a dream. The natural feeling was that you had been deceived in some way. I just hoped she could understand that we had lots of circumstances on our end too.

“You’re mother and son. You’ll figure it out.”

Oh god, Leen completely threw in the towel. Dammit, I guess I’m on my own. 

“More importantly, what decision did you come to concerning Allis?” “She’s Kuon’s fiancée, so I want her to meet her mother and father-in-law.” “But then, what will you do about Leylle?”

“I guess…have her look after things while we’re gone?” “It doesn’t feel right to exclude someone like that…”

The topic of discussion had already shifted to Allis. I guess I’d need to give up on the cavalry. I had to think up a way to ignore my mother’s scoldings on my own…

“For now, let’s just talk with Melle and the girls. The bigger problem will be…”

“Ende…right?”

The moment Linze said his name, everyone let out a sigh. “Knowing him, he’ll insist that he gets to tag along too.”

“His own ability to travel between worlds is quite troublesome…”

Elze and Lu appeared worried, but I didn’t think that would cause an issue. Ende’s ability to cross worlds was purely spatial—I was pretty sure he couldn’t time travel. In other words, even if we departed for Earth at the same time, Ende would likely end up far in Earth’s future. If that future was more than two weeks later, then we’d be back before he even found us.

Though it seemed pretty likely that he’d then just beg me to take him with Spatial Translocation…

◇◇◇

“That sounds fun! I’ll go!”

“Absolutely not! Who knows what’ll happen to you out there?!”

And of course, it went exactly as we figured it would: The daughter and the father had completely opposite opinions on the matter.

We’d gone to Ende’s house to ask about bringing Allis, and while Allis had clearly been excited at the prospect, Ende had snapped.

“Traveling to a different world isn’t some simple affair. Common sense in our world is not the same as in a different world—you have to make sure you follow what is common sense to them. Even if you’re as cautious as can be, you might still be attacked by monsters you can’t find in our world, or be chased around by some uncivilized savages. I can’t let Allis go to a place like that!”

Ende had traveled to a whole bunch of different worlds in his life. He knew exactly how dangerous it could be. But was he saying that people living on Earth were uncivilized savages?

Take that back, asshole! Oh, wait… You’ve been chased around before, haven’t you? You’re talking from experience.

If I could agree with anything, it was that it was dangerous to go over there without understanding how things worked. If you didn’t know what a pedestrian crossing was, you might cross while the lights were still red. If you didn’t know about plugs, you could end up sticking your finger into a socket and getting electrocuted.

But that was what we were here for—to make sure the kids knew these things, so I didn’t think he had any reason to worry. Well, Kuon would likely be the one watching out for Allis, but either way, it would be fine.

“Why?! I’m Kuon’s fiancée! Of course I should go with him!”

“But you aren’t married yet! It isn’t just the natural course of things!”

I sighed as I watched the two of them glare at each other, and Melle, Ney, and Lycee couldn’t help but sigh with me.

“What do you guys think?” I asked them. “Well…I personally think it’s fine.”

“It’ll be a little lonely without her, but if Allis wants to go, then I think she should.”

“Indeed. Broadening one’s horizons is not a bad thing. But is it really safe over there?”

They seemed to all generally be okay with the idea, but were still a little anxious.

“There’s very little mana over there, so we can’t use much magic, but that shouldn’t matter for Allis. The country we’ll be going to is one of the safest in that world, so we’ll be fine. I’m not saying accidents can’t happen, but we’ll be keeping an eye out.”

Unless I was misremembering, I was pretty sure Japan was ranked in the top ten safest countries. Number one was Iceland, I think? If it was safe from an ordinary person’s perspective, then it would be hard for someone as strong as Allis to ever truly be in danger. Even if a gangster appeared with a gun, I doubted they could even so much as scratch her. Honestly, I’d fear more for the thug’s life than Allis’s…

“See! They think it’s fine!” “Grrrrrr…!”

With such reliable backers, Allis only gained confidence in her stance. Ende, left all on his own, whipped his head toward me with a sharp glare.

Don’t look at me.

“Then let me go too!”

“Absolutely not. I can’t look after you too, and need I remind you this is a family trip? I’m not about to take my son’s fiancée’s dad with us.”

I immediately interrupted Ende’s predictable response. We would technically be family in a sense once Kuon and Allis got married, but I refused to remind him of that. It was a guarantee that he’d be a pain if he joined us.

“You know, there’s a saying where I’m from that says if you love your child, you should let them travel. It means that rather than spoiling and coddling your child, letting them experience the harsh reality of the world is the true way to show your love and care. Being too nosy isn’t good for her, you know?”

“Nrgh! You’re saying that to me?! This isn’t ‘the harsh reality of the world,’ it’s a damn family trip!”

He had a point. But wasn’t it a little weird for the father of the son’s bride to tag along? Wasn’t that practically like walking into hell? Though, I was sure that depended on the family.

“As her guardian, I should—!” “Shut your mouth for once.”

A chilling voice came from Leylle, who was sitting between Ney and Lycee. No, that wasn’t Leylle; it was the consciousness of Halle, the Sovereign Phrase, speaking from inside her body.

Through Melle, Ney, and Lycee’s painstakingly careful persuasion, Halle wouldn’t force himself into Leylle’s consciousness even if Ende was present anymore. Allis knew about Halle now too. Apparently, she viewed him as “Uncle Halle.” That meant Ende could return home now without having to fear that Halle would go berserk the moment he ended up in Leylle’s line of sight.

However, that also meant that we never expected Halle to suddenly take over like this.

Please don’t act out, okay?

“‘You just force your own views onto others without considering their feelings. Don’t use her like some convenient tool.’ That’s what you yelled very dramatically at me, didn’t you?” Halle reminded him with a smirk. “Funny. Seems like you’re doing just that with Allis now.” “Ugh…” Ende clutched his chest at the retort.

What’s this, Halle? Did he really have the nerve to say something so arrogant?

“For us Dominant Phrase, our parents are simply those who produced our cores. From the moment we are born, we are permitted to live as we please. Why, it is even common for those who do not get along with their parents to leave and never see them again. I struggle to fathom your extreme attachment to your daughter.”

Dominant Phrase were born as adults, having inherited some degree of knowledge and experience from their parents. It might be that Dominant Phrase who were prone to self-loathing found that their children ended up not seeing eye to eye with them for that very reason.

“If she wants to go, then you should let her go. My sister left me because I tried to force my own ideals on her without sparing a thought for what she felt. Frankly, I couldn’t care less if you were to make the same mistakes as me, but things are different if it means it would make my sister sad.”

“Halle…” Melle mumbled as she cast a solemn look at Leylle…or more specifically, Halle.

It would be very Allis to ignore Ende and force herself in anyway. “Allis… Do you want to go that badly?”

“I do. I want to meet Kuon’s grandpa and grandma. I want to make sure I introduce myself,” Allis replied, looking right into Ende’s eyes as she stated her desire.

Eventually, Ende let out a resigned sigh.

“Fine. But seriously, be careful, okay? Make sure you listen to what people tell you. Don’t go off by yourself.”

“Thank you, dad!” Allis exclaimed. Her face broke into a wide smile as she launched herself at Ende.

I sighed in relief at having succeeded in our persuasion, but then I felt Ende’s glare stabbing into me.

I get it, okay? I’ll make sure she comes back safe and sound.

“What about Leylle? If she wants to go…”

“She does not,” Halle answered. “The prospect of traveling worlds scares her.

If anything goes wrong, she may end up summoning hordes of Quos again. I presume you do not want that to happen?”

Quos were those artificial gemstonelike Phrase, right? I forgot that when Leylle appeared in this world, a whole horde of Quos materialized to protect her. If they appeared in Japan, saying that people would panic was an understatement… Yeah, that would definitely be bad.

“Whaaaaaat?! Leylle should come too!” Allis cried as she turned to Leylle with a pout.

Leylle’s sharp look softened. She must have returned to normal. “Sorry, Allis… I’m just too scared… If I cause problems over there, I’ll trouble far too many people, so I’ll wait here.”

“Boo… I’ll make sure to bring back plenty of souvenirs instead, then! Look forward to it!”

“I will. Thank you, Allis.”

Allis stopped hugging Ende and moved to hug Leylle next.

I do want to let her join us, but it wouldn’t be good if she went berserk…

If we caused problems on one of my trips to Earth, we might never be allowed to travel there again. I felt guilty, but it would be best to have Leylle stay here. Like Allis said, we could just make sure to buy her plenty of souvenirs.

“By the way, when will you be leaving? And for how long?” Ney asked.

“We’ll be leaving in a week,” I told her. “The plan is to stay there for two weeks.”

And then, a week after that, we’ll be sending the kids back home…

“Sorry that we’re taking two whole weeks away from your remaining time with Allis…”

“It’s fine.”

Lycee was the next to respond, expression unchanging.

“This is what Allis wants. Besides, as Dominant Phrase, ten years is nothing.

It won’t be long before we meet her again.”

I hadn’t thought about it until now, but did Phrase live for centuries? If Kuon and Allis’s children chose to remain here as the rulers of Brunhild, would they also choose to remain here? I couldn’t tell if that put me more at ease or made me feel afraid…

I was sure Dominant Phrase weren’t immortal, but they must have a lifespan that was exceptionally long compared to a human. Not that it made them much different from the elves and other long-lived species in this world. For those of us who were now divine beings, we’d eventually leave Brunhild and remain in Babylon for a spell, waiting for the perfect time to move to the Divine Realm.

That would be the true beginning of our lives as gods.

According to Karen, Yumina and the girls would be treated similarly to angels, since they were my wards. They’d be like assistants to the gods. Since they weren’t full gods, they would need to live in the lower divine realm. If they worked hard while there, they could become servile gods, and from there become full gods.

The girls could also become gods—no, goddesses… The scale of all this had really become so massive that it was hard to believe…

Well, that was something for the far, far future.

“Touya… Make sure to take plenty of pictures of Allis while you’re there, okay? And videos. Every moment of her trip, except for when she’s in the bath or the restroom.”

“Don’t turn me into your daughter’s stalker.”

I’d take pictures and videos, but mainly of our kids.

That said, I’ll make sure Allis is in the shots, so stop worrying yourself, you creep.

Ignoring Ende, who was continuing to spout weird things, we returned to the castle. At least with this, our main concern had been dealt with. Next was teaching the children the general rules and manners of Japan, especially traffic regulations like traffic signals, pedestrian crossings, and level crossings. After that was the usual “don’t go off with strangers,” “don’t go off on your own” type of warnings…

Maybe I should have Fam from Babylon’s library make a travel guidebook.

At least if they got lost, I would still know where they were as long as they had their phones on them, but I was still really worried. The kids dropped those things pretty often…

And then, I had to worry about mom. It was painful knowing that she was definitely going to be pissed, but I had to go see her. I’d be going in my child form again, so maybe I could avoid a headbutt like last time? Actually, no, I still had memories of her digging her knuckles into my temple when she got mad at me when I was younger.

Well, even if she did have to get mad at me, I’d rather she didn’t do it in front of the kids. I still needed to keep some sort of image as their parent…

I let out yet another sigh. This was supposed to be a fun trip, yet I’d sighed so many times already just thinking about it.