09-14 I’m Back
Elsa, Barbara, and Hannah were gathered in Gheebeck’s house and talking.
“So… Where did we leave off?”
Barbara said and tilted her head, then,
“…We were talking about the person who left the village.”
Elsa replied. After hearing that, Hannah said,
“You mean about Onii-chan?”
This time Elsa tilted her head,
“Onii-chan?”
She said, and didn’t look to understand. Noticing that, Barbara elaborated.
“Hannah-chan is talking about someone called Jin who said he had come from, what was it? Japan? He’s a Magi Craftsman, you know?”
“Eh? No way, Jin-nii!?”
Hearing that, even Elsa got so surprised she stood up from her seat.
Hannah was also surprised when she heard Elsa.
“Jin-nii? Onee-chan, you said Jin-nii, right? Onee-chan, are you Onii-chan’s little sister?”
“Mm, I’m Jin-nii’s sister.”
Hearing that, Hannah lit up.
“Jin onii-chan! He got back home okay! Hey, hey, is Onii-chan well? Where is he now? What’s he doing? How about Reiko onee-chan?”
Hannah threw questions at Elsa at rapid succession, overwhelming her.
“Ji–Jin-nii is at home. He’s well. He’s building all sorts of things…It seems. Reiko-chan’s with him too.”
Elsa could barely reply.
“So that’s how it was, I’m glad… I was so worried all this time! Not just me, everyone was!”
“Yes, that’s right, Elsa-san. Because your elder brother is a benefactor of this village, and one of us too.”
“Very interesting. Jin-nii never told me.”
Elsa said and that surprised Barbara and Hannah a little.
“Is that right? As a matter of fact, …”
“Hey, you know what? Onii-chan, he…”
“Jin-san built us a hot spring.”
“Onii-chan built Mint for me!”
They both began talking about Jin to Elsa so she got confused.
“Wa–wait a moment. Please speak one at a time.”
Elsa said while smiling awkwardly, then Barbara and Hannah exchanged glances and laughed.
“Hannah-chan, did you have dinner yet?”
After things had calmed down a little, Barbara asked Hannah.
“Yeah, I’ve eaten. I also told granny I’m going to elder-san’s house before leaving.”
“I see. In that case, are you going to have a sleepover? If you do then you can talk with Elsa-san at ease.”
Barbara said to Hannah. Hannah gladly accepted the offer.
“Yeah! A sleepover!”
Barbara then went to tell Hannah’s grandmother Martha that Hannah is spending the night here.
In the meanwhile, Hannah spoke a lot about Jin. Once Barbara came back the three once more talked together.
That continued into the night until Hannah’s eyelids began to droop, and so they moved to the bedroom.
Hannah ended up sleeping with Elsa on the same bed. Because she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Eheh. Together with Onee-chan. Good night.”
“Mm, good night, Hannah-chan-”
Soon Hannah sounded like she was asleep.
Barbara and Elsa continued their conversation in a low voice so as not to wake Hannah up.
“You see, Hannah-chan has no parents so she’s lonely. And then last year, Jin-san came along, they lived together, and she took to him. And then again, he disappeared.”
“…Oh, so that’s what happened.”
“Yes. And that’s why because you’re Jin-san’s little sister, she’s so…”
Hannah was clinging to Elsa’s right arm with her small hands.
“Hannah, chan.”
Elsa gently stroked Hannah’s head. Hannah’s hair smelled like the sun.
＊ ＊ ＊
Next day, when the sun had risen.
“Half past eight, huh. In Kaina Village that’s half past six. I wonder if everyone’s awake by now?”
Jin couldn’t stay still and was fidgety.
“Father, isn’t what you said that you’d go to Kaina Village to meet her at eight o’clock?”
Reiko reminded him.
“I did say that, I’ll have to calm down.”
Seeing Jin like that, Ann had a question.
“Master, if you want to visit them that badly why haven’t you gone there until now?”
Being asked that, Jin hmmed and replied.
“I suppose I didn’t want to cause any trouble.”
“What do you mean?”
“Uhm, when I was in Kaina Village I was suspected of building the golems that had been attacking here and there, or something like that.”
“But were those not false charges?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Then there’s no reason to be worried, is there? Surely everyone’s worried about you?”
“I’d be glad if that was the case, but I’ve been hesitating going there as I thought they might’ve thought of that as just getting rid of a nuisance.”
“What is that. Master, you sometimes think in a hopelessly pessimistic manner, don’t you?”
Ann said it so clearly that even Jin couldn’t suppress a strained laugh. You could say the cause of that was the traumatic incident in Jin’s past.
Back when he was a company employee. There was a certain subsidiary, or actually, as the company Jin was in was a subsidiary it was a subsidiary of a subsidiary. He was sent to work in their factory as a temporary worker for two weeks.
He didn’t know whether it was because the company employees had no motivation, or for some reason, but at any rate it was terrible.
More specifically the inside of the factory was a mess, the materials weren’t even sorted, the machine tools were out of oil and made terrible noise, and the maintenance was poor.
Jin struggled hard to inspect everything individually, give instructions how to keep things in order, and made manuals on how to maintain the machinery. In particular, he made the manuals outside working hours.
As a result after two weeks the inside of the factory was so clean you could hardly recognize it and the machines worked silently.
When Jin’s temporary transfer was over and it was time for him to return, the workers told him how grateful they were. However.
After leaving the factory Jin noticed he had forgotten some documents so of course he went back to get them. And at that moment.
(Good grief, he made me fill something as bothersome as a check sheet.)
(Hey, I knew where everything was before. Now that they’re all tidied up I don’t know what’s where any more.)
(What a self-important bastard, and just because he was from the parent company.)
(Well, he’s no longer here so let’s do things as we used to.)
He heard voices like that from beyond the door. Jin felt his whole body grow weak as he wondered what he had worked so hard for those two weeks.
Because of such an experience, Jin had become timid.
“And also, you see, I don’t want the Unifilers to eye Kaina Village.”
But Ann refuted Jin’s logic.
“No, master. That kind of half-heartedness won’t defend against the Unifilers’ evil grasp. You must proactively shut them down.”
“You can say that, but.”
“Anyhow it’s been decided that you’ll now go to Kaina Village to meet with Elsa-san. And then you’ll greet everyone. I’m sure everything will go just fine.”
“I wonder.”
After being admonished by Ann, Jin discarded his little remaining hesitation. He had slightly intended to stealthily go there and stealthily bring Elsa back home with him.
“Father, it’s a little early but shall we go?”
It was nine o’clock. At Kaina Village it was seven o’clock.
“It’s late enough that Martha-san and Hannah-chan have already woken up and finished breakfast. Rock-san and the others have surely gone to work on the fields by now.”
“I see. That’s probably true.”
After Reiko said that to Jin, he stepped inside the Warp Gate to Kaina Village with mixed feelings.
Then he appeared inside the shelter. He tried briefly inspecting the place. There didn’t seem to be any deterioration.
“Father, let us go.”
Hurried on by Reiko, while figuring out whether he did or didn’t want to go Jin climbed up the stairs, opened the door and went outside.
The weather was clear. The spring sun’s rays poured on endlessly and Jin squinted.
The area had originally been rocky but grass had grown in the surroundings, it was indeed spring. It also worked well as camouflage.
“It’s been about a year since I first came here, huh.”
Jin was reminiscing about the events of last year while slowly walking towards the village.
A villager’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
“Jin!”
“Oh, isn’t that Jin?”
“It’s Jin! Jin has come back!”
“What? It’s true, that’s Jin!”
In response to that voice everyone came out of the houses and fields to gather.
“Ooi, c’mere everyone, Jin’s back!”
“It’s true, Reiko-chan is with him too!”
And then everyone rushed over towards Jin. Some of them were even people who had neglected farmwork to come.
“Jin! You look lively!”
Rock said.
“Jin nii-chan, where did you go off to~? everyone’s been worried about you~!”
Kurt said.
More and more people gathered.
“Jin! What have you been up to! You didn’t get in touch with us at all!”
Said Martha.
And then there was Hannah, in front of the village headman’s house.
“Welcome back, Onii-chan.”
There were only two words Jin could say to that.
“…I’m back.”