ch21-ch40 · 027-ch27

Chapter 27: Question and Answer Corner

"And so, we finally arrived at this world. In Ceylo, it's called 'the world beyond the mirror'... but well, it's Earth."

After saying all that in one go, Papa drinks his coffee again. His Adam's apple moves, seeming oddly slow to me.

Maybe he wondered why I just kept silently staring, because Papa tilted his head a bit.

"Um... that's pretty much how it went, but what do you think?"

But what am I supposed to think?

I might not be able to express it well, but I try my hardest to put my thoughts into words.

"...Uuuum, I guess listening to the story, I'm kinda... convinced?"

"Convinced?"

"Yeah. I mean, even when I heard you were a knight-sama who saved the world, it didn't really sink in or anything... though I did see you actually fighting in that black armor."

I had thought that fighting fiercely against the Demon King and winning, being the strongest knight!—that was totally not Papa's character.

"...But actually, you were just in charge of cooking, or you got chosen by the 'Egg', and even though you didn't really want to, you tried hard for everyone else's sake... that feels way more like Papa, like usual Papa, and I can totally accept that."

"Ai..."

I didn't mean to praise him, but Papa seems happy anyway.

I felt a little embarrassed, so I decided to change the subject.

"Um, so is it okay for question time now?"

"Yeah, I'll do my best to answer whatever I can."

"Then first, is it true that I'm a half-between person from the other world and this world?"

Papa, as if expecting this question, nodded firmly while looking into my eyes.

"That's right. Half of Ai's blood is Ceyloan blood."

"Then what about my family registration? I mean, you don't even have family registration yourself, do you, Papa!"

This time, it seemed like he wasn't expecting that, and Papa leaned forward a bit.

"That's a surprisingly practical question... well, it is like you, Ai. The family registration is fine. I can't tell you how, but I'm properly registered as Shirakawa Rokuro, and you're registered as my daughter."

Heh, is that so. I wonder how he did it—did he use hypnotism from the other world on government officials or something?...yeah, he definitely couldn't tell me about that. I guess I won't press him on it.

"...Then, what about Mama? Did Mama know you were from another world?"

"...Yeah. Mama hated fighting and conflict even more than I do, so she said she didn't want me to go back to Ceylo, and that she wanted Ai to grow up normally and peacefully in this world."

Heh, so Mama wasn't interested in the other world. Even though a young girl would probably be interested. Ah, but maybe novels and anime about other worlds weren't as popular back then like they are now.

Even in reality, places with wars are dangerous and scary, so I wouldn't want to go there, but from Mama's perspective, maybe that's how she saw Papa's original world.

When I think about it that way, it makes sense why Papa kept it from me.

If it were a fairy tale-like, fantasy, fluffy world, maybe that would be one thing, but saying "I came from a world full of fighting"—that's not something you'd want to tell your daughter.

"...Right now, besides me, is there anyone else who knows about you, Papa?"

"I've told Gou-san. We met right after I came here, you see. Honestly, if I hadn't met Gou-san, I think it would have been hard to make it in this world."

Eh, Grandpa knew!

And knowing Papa was from another world, he still rented the detached building to him. That's amazing generosity.

"And that's why he came to pick us up at the shrine too."

"It made it easier to explain. When I told him that people from the other world had kidnapped Ai, he got so angry I could tell he was turning red even over the phone."

Haha, that's so like Grandpa. He's always so sweet to me, and I love him so much.

"Huuun, I seeee. I think I understand most of it now."

"Already? Is that enough?"

"For now, yeah. I kind of understand how Papa felt about keeping it from me, and I think you were just worried about me."

After all, if Melkid and the others hadn't come to this world, Papa might have been from another world and I might have been a half-between, and we might never have known.

Hm? Came to this world, you say...

"Oh yeah, Melkid and those uncles came here targeting Papa, right!? After leaving you alone for over ten years, why all of a sudden now?"

"That's right... either they hadn't realized until now that Papa had fled to this world, or maybe something suddenly happened in the Ceylo Kingdom that made this necessary, I guess."

Papa pinches the black stone hanging from his neck... the 'Egg' to show me. Now that I think about it, Melkid was trying to get that, wasn't he? Though he got rejected by the crow-san.

"Do you think they'll come again?"

"I threatened them pretty badly, so those guys probably won't come... but if it wasn't just Melkid's own decision and there's someone above him who sent him, maybe next time they'll send someone else."

Papa makes a difficult face and drops his gaze to the low table. Yeah, this totally looks like he knows for sure it wasn't just Melkid acting alone.

"...That's why I want you to always keep your charm with you, never letting it leave your skin."

"My charm... Penta?"

I stroke the blue penguin hanging from my smartphone.

"Yeah. Penta will let me know if anything happens to you."

"Oh, really! So that's how you were able to chase after me even when I was kidnapped.... ...Wait, does that mean they've been monitoring my location all this timeee?"

Well, I haven't gone to any suspicious places, so even if they're tracking me, it's not like I care or anything.

"No, no, no, no! That's not it, that's not it! Penta isn't a GPS! It just lets me know when something happens, that's all!"

Papa, panicking while being stared at by his daughter with half-closed eyes, is as funny as ever.

But the fact that it only tells him in emergencies is actually pretty amazing, isn't it? So this is otherworldly science, huh.

Or maybe, like Papa's black stone, Penta is actually alive too.

Around that point, Papa's stories about his past ended, and the two of us prepared and ate lunch together.

Honestly, it's not like I don't want to know what kind of place the other world is and what kind of people live there.

But Papa seemed to find it painful to remember things about that world... about the war, so I decided not to ask any more about it.

I did ask the main things I wanted to know, after all. Since we're living in Japan like this now, I think that's fine enough.

...But.

There's just one thing that's been bothering me, that I didn't ask.

That's the fact that Papa was called a "Great Sinner."

He said crossing to another world was "taboo," so that's probably a sin too. But being called a Great Sinner for that alone feels a bit off.

That's because Melkid, who called him a "Great Sinner," also crossed between worlds. If interworld transfer is a great sin, then to judge that sin, the pursuers would also commit the sin of transferring... that somehow seems strange to me.

Maybe the "Great Sin" isn't about interworld transfer, but there was something much bigger, perhaps.

Because of that, maybe Papa had no choice but to flee to another world...

...No, no, it's not good to jump to conclusions, is it.

—If I was that curious, I should have just asked. That's what I think to myself. —If I ask, Papa will go far away. That's what I fear, as I struggle with myself.

In the end, I couldn't ask about that.

But I think that's fine. I'm a woman who doesn't get stuck on the past, I'm Shirakawa Ai.

That's what I was thinking, but at this time, I never imagined that I would learn the meaning of this "Great Sin" relatively soon.