350 347. After the closing.txt (1/2)

--Cold.

The tips of my feet and hands are so cold that they stick to my bones, and I feel as if my body is slowly turning into icy sweets (sherbet).

So I instinctively try to get a little warmth. I rub the tips of my left and right feet together, intertwining my hands together and making my whole body shake in small increments. My upper and lower back teeth continue to hammer together and make a clicking sound.

Already the outer skin of my body feels warm.

I know from the feel of my skin that I'm wrapped in a blanket. But the warmth is only transmitted to the outer layer of my body, and the contents of my body will always remain cold. It's so cold that all I can think of is that instead of blood, cold water is flowing and instead of flesh, it's ice.

Oh, it's cold. It's cold anyway.

Needing another blanket, needing human skin, I start to move.

I open my eyelids.

I sucked the light of the world into my eyes, put my hands on the bed, and pulled myself up vigorously.

The scene that comes to my eyes is a featureless wooden room. The furniture was one bed and one table. It's not a clean or dirty room, but I think it's one of the superior rooms in the other world. My life in the other world until today makes me somehow understand the price (grade) of this room.

'Ah, le ......?'

Now I woke up from my sleep.

But the first question was a question.

There's no doubt that there's a big question in my heart, but I can't find the words to follow it. But I can't find the words to follow up on what I'm wondering about.

In that strange - and very familiar - feeling (・・・・・・・・・・), I look around calmly.

Ironically, I didn't have enough humanity in me to be confused by this kind of thing anymore.

'I need to know the place first,'

The gathering of information with a light dimension was instantaneous.

I understood the entire structure of the building I was in.

It's a modest inn. I'm currently in a room in a corner on the second floor. The price is probably a few dozen silver coins per night. A room in the lower part of the country on the mainland, and a room in the upper part of the country around the Allies.

And among the total of sixteen people moving in the inn, I found one familiar face.

A 'gentile' with black hair hanging down to his waist.

She's dressed in otherworldly clothes, but she's definitely my sister.

In the next room, there was Aikawa Yotaki.

She was just about to leave that room. The 《Dimension》 caught it.

Without time to think, Yotaki enters the room I'm in.

There's not even a knock on the door. Even if it's in the family, it's an unreserved entry into the room.

However, it was very nostalgic.

In my former world, it's a scene I've seen many times. Yotaki opens the door to my room, peers in, and calls out to me in my bed to confirm. This is now repeated in the 'other world'.

”-- Brother. Are you awake?

And I return it the same way I did in the original world.

'Oh, I'm up ....... Finally, it's up .......

Maybe it was the realization that I had been asleep for a very long time that made those words leak out.

My sense of time has been fuzzy for a while now. He was too lazy to remember the events of yesterday, and a languid feeling followed him. An ordinary person would be confused by the nausea and discomfort, but if it were me - I'm used to it.

Yotaki's twin eyes are watching me as if they are piercing me.

Two black eyes keep moving, watching my every move.

You still look sleepy. ...... Just now, I've prepared breakfast, would you like to eat too, brother?　Of course, we don't have any white rice.

Breakfast ......?

I trace the meaning of those words with Dimension.

Breakfast is prepared on the table in the next room. Furthermore, there were traces of the kitchen being used in the inn's dining room downstairs. A light 'past vision' naturally kicked in, and I understood that Yotaki had bought the foodstuffs early in the morning and cooked them there.

--I'm not going to be able to get the same thing done.

Instantly, a certain obsession took hold of me. I got off the bed and shouted at my sister.

'Yotaki ......!　I'll take care of that!　I'll take care of it, you just rest...

'Ha, brother ....... It's all right now.

But it was stopped by Yotaki's dumbfounded sigh.

She put her hand to her chest and admonished me a little censure.

'All of that stuff is over. It's over. It's ...... so you'll have to let me do it from now on, because you've been relying on your brother to do it for you. We talked about that the other day, didn't we?

'Oh, that ....... I remember that ....... It's all right now ......, as I recall, thanks to Nosfi, we're both already .......

Yangtaki's illness was cured.

It was an incurable disease that couldn't be cured in the original world, but in this other world where magic has developed, it was finally cured. In other words, there's nothing more for me to worry about.

With a sigh of relief, I relax from my entire body.

''Oh, it's over ....... Everything, everything, is already .......

'Yes, it's over. It's all over now, everything is over.

I admitted it, and Yotaki determined it too.

Yotaki would not have lied about anything.

Now I can understand all the falsehoods of people. It's not just the observation by the disturbance of the breath and pulse, but also the double false diagnosis including dimensional magic, and I can know it even without the intention to do so.

Yangtaki's blood circulation is good. His body temperature is normal. His physical condition is perfect.

In other words, it's really over.

I understand that, and I respond with a pout.

”...... breakfast, shall we have breakfast together?

Yes. Let's eat together.

I lightly prepare myself in the room and then walk into the next room with Yotaki. There were breads lined up, soft in the other world - but hard in my world - and there was a warm root vegetable soup on the table.

When we arrived at the table, we clasped our hands together to say ”Itadakimasu” at the same time, and we popped them into our mouths.

We bite into the cookie-cutter bread and let the moisture in our mouths loosen it up. After swallowing the bread, we pour the soup into our mouths, bit by bit, to moisten them.

The moment the liquid hits your tongue, you can recognize all the ingredients of the soup in detail. Its cooking procedure is also recognizable. That was not the intended analysis. It was the habit of an extreme dimensional wizard. But from that information, I smiled, feeling strangely happy when I realized that the soup Yotaki prepared was carefully prepared.

''It's delicious. It's very good, Yotaki: ....... Thank you .......''

...... haha. Good.

Yotaki listened to my assessment, sighed out of habit, and concentrated on the meal himself.

It was a simple, unremarkable dining scene. Shredded bread included soup, shredded bread included soup, shredded bread included soup. There was no particular conversation. Just time to take a meal with my family. Just that and nothing else is needed.

Just a calm, safe, peaceful, warm meal and a warm body ....... Just ......?

A slight doubt mixed in with the leisurely moments.

It was a chill in my body that even the warmth brought by the soup that filled my stomach couldn't warm it up - a chill in my body.

''Hey, Yotaki. It's not strangely cold ......?

Yotaki casually replied to that word.

Yes, of course it's cold. After all, it's snowing outside.

It's snowing ......?

I stood up unceremoniously, even though I was eating, and approached the window of the room.

I push open the wooden panel that separates me from the outside world.

A moment later, a cold air that rubbed against his skin blew into the room. It was a breeze with a bit of powdery snow mixed in. And then I saw a fitting sight.

'Whoa ......!　Awesome ......!

It was a silvery white world.

Paraplegic snowflakes fell from the sky, and the simple streets I knew so well were covered in pure white snow. Whether I looked up or down, it was white. Even my own breath was white. The clothes of the people walking down the street are the only things that add color to the canvas.

I enjoy the snowy landscape with my ears as well as my eyes.

From the small sound of falling snow to the sound of children's footsteps running around in their thick clothing.

And the distant melody. The light, gentle, comforting, bouncy sound of metal percussion instruments.

'Yotaki, this sham-sham-sham sound: ......'

'That's the sound of a bell. Apparently, there is a custom here to wear bells. They range from big ones to small ones. Sometimes we even see kids wielding handbells.

I couldn't be sure because of the mixture of large and small, but these are bells.

'A series of bells, many ....... This is kind of like .......

The unstoppable sound is strangely exciting.

The city is ordinary now, but I feel like I'm living a special everyday life. A sense of anticipation, as if a new event is about to begin, and a sense of relief at the prospect of something familiar. The blood coming out of my heart is uplifting, as if it's thicker than usual.

'Yes. It's like the Nativity (Christmas) of our world. ...... haha. Tiara seems to have heard us talking about it and made a whole lot of sense.

Yotaki said with a sigh what I didn't dare to say. One of them contained a name that I couldn't miss.

''This, Tiara is ......?''

'Yes, Tiara did. If it snows, he told us to ring the bell like this. It seems the founder of the Levantine faith decided a thousand years ago.

Saint Tiara.

I know her well.

The girl who was my companion a thousand years ago, the great man who defined the history of this millennium, and the girl who helped me a thousand years later.

''Brother. Could it be that you have forgotten about her?

But if you ask me that way, I'll have to say I've forgotten about it.

I had traveled with Tiara on a yearly basis a thousand years ago. But in that time I could only remember a little bit of it.

But even with that little bit, I know for sure that she is a benefactor. A friend, a great man, a benefactor. There shouldn't be any doubt in that, but I felt a strange tugging in the back of my throat.

'I'm in the process of remembering a few things about Tiara: ......

Little by little? Hah, I'm glad. ...... that she hasn't disappeared into oblivion.

Not that much. Absolutely not. Because I met Tiara a while ago ......--have you met her?　I met him, and that's okay. That ......

'I heard about that. You met the 're-born' tiara and said goodbye, didn't you?

'Yes. We said goodbye ....... I'll never see Tiara again ....... I can't see her. ......

Not long ago.

Eleventh Road in the Hoosier State in the Confederacy.

There I met up with Saint Tiara again and thanked her for a thousand years ago.

And with her push, I finally found out how I really feel--

”--Hey!　Well, it's cold: ......

That's what happens when you leave it open. Are you an idiot, man?

The further back I went in my memory, the colder I felt in my core.

I quickly tightened the wooden boards to keep the cold air from coming in through the window.

'But I'm going to miss seeing Tiara again: ......

The coldness grows.

I shrug and agree with the sentiment.

'Oh, I just know I'm going to miss you so much .......

Instantly, my eyes were rapidly heating up, and I felt as if I was about to cry.

I couldn't understand the meaning of this on my own, but I instinctively thought, 'I have to ask more about Tiara,' I thought.

However, before I could ask a question, Yotaki stood up and began to prepare to go out deftly.

''Brother, it's time to leave. It's time.''

They have plans to go out.

Naturally, I was supposed to accompany him. I'm not complaining about that, but I ask back to make sure.

'Leave?　Time, where do you think you're going?

You really are sleepwalking. Speaking of going, it must be the labyrinth.

It was an unexpected place.

The Labyrinth.

It is the base point of the 'world repatriation camp' from a thousand years ago, a place that reminds us of everything from a thousand years ago, and a huge corridor that is connected to the 'deepest' part of the world.

''We are labyrinth explorers living in the United Kingdom, so we have to do our job properly. Or are you going to have an unhuman delusion that just because you're already rich, you'd rather be lazy at home and be alone with your cute little sister all the time?

It was the lightheartedness of everyday conversation.

It was ......, but there were many aspects of it that could not be overlooked.

First, where we are. Not the mainland, but the Allies. Based on the quality of the inn, probably around the Wart. And the confirmation process of 'I'd rather be alone with my sister all the time'.

I felt that Yotaki's black twin eyes, which are now casually speaking, were watching my reaction.

So I shake my head and answer lightly.

''No, it's not like that. I'll go. But are we going to enter the labyrinth alone?　There's more--

'Sure, she'll help you today. She will.

As she spoke, Yotaki had already left the room.

I follow her as she leads the way down the corridor of the inn.

Past the entrance reception desk, I walked out and shivered in the cold.

Yotaki, who was dressed in what looked like a chunky, thick coat, took a scarf from her pocket and wrapped it around my neck. The sequence of events is nostalgic as we trudge through the silvery white world. It's hard to walk because of the snow, but our physical abilities don't let that slow us down or make us tired.

We walk along the white streets and arrive at the entrance to the labyrinth.

Because of the early morning and the weather, there are not many people around.