5 - future story

The girl who had been staring at Thor stared at him intently, but suddenly became panicked and started moving her head around as if she was looking for something.

Then she tilted her head as if she had given up, as if she had no idea what she was in for.

"Well, hello?"

"Oh, good evening. Are you all right?"

"Yes, um, I think I'm probably fine."

He accepted Thor's right hand, so I took him out of the wardrobe and sat him down on the bed.

Thor watched her with a calm face as she looked around the room with interest.

When she calmed down a little, he called out to her.

"Would you like an explanation?"

"Oh, by all means!"

Thor gave the girl a brief summary of what had happened so far.

The old man, her grandfather, had saved the girl from being seriously injured by stopping her with the .

He could not heal her immediately because it required a lot of money to do so.

The old man, who had worked hard to earn the money for the cure, entrusted it to Thor, whom he had met in this town, and then died.

Of course, the latter part is a lie.

Thor dared to hide his existence as a boy who was his childhood friend.

He could have taken the form of the boy he was when they parted by using .

But no matter how young he makes his body, there is nothing he can do about the fact that he is still a tired old man inside.

She will only be in trouble if she is indebted to this middle-aged man.

Thor's wish for the girl's happiness was his true intention.

That is why he did not change her appearance and brought her back with her old face.

With this appearance, the possibility of her being recognized as she really is is as small as possible.

There was one more major reason why he could not make her look younger.

It is the amount of magic power.

The amount of magic power needed to perform magic tricks stops increasing naturally in the mid-teens.

From that point on, the amount of magic power increases little by little through repeated use of magic tricks.

Therefore, the older a person is, the more magic power he has, and the more famous he is.

With the current amount of Thor's magical power, the number of times he can use consecutively is limited to five times.

He can use more continuously if he returns to the state where his magical power is recovered, but that would put pressure on the number of times he can use , which is only ten times.

If we go back to the age of 20s, the limit would probably be three times, and if we go back to the age of 10s, the limit would be two times.

Thor could not think of giving up this advantage if he was going to continue to be an adventurer.

The girl, who had been nodding her head at the suspicious middle-aged man's story, finally relaxed her shoulders as if she had understood the situation.

"Oh, that's why you were in the wardrobe..."

As usual, his way of making sense of things is a little different.

The girl who had been staring intently into Thor's eyes stood up and bowed deeply.

"Thank you for everything you and Grandpa have done for me. Thank you very much.

"Don't worry about it, it's my job. You've got a lot going on and you're probably a little confused. Take the rest of the day off."

Um, shouldn't I still be up?

"Are you worried?　I'm going to sleep in the other room, so don't worry about it."

"No, I just wanted to tell you more stories."

Just when you think you've come back from the brink of death, your relatives and the village you lived in have vanished.

As much as he wanted to be there for her, Thor was aware that he was not a good liar.

If he tried to get into a more complicated conversation, he would surely be found out.

The girl's eyes light up with joy as Thor scratches the bottom of his chin, at a loss for words.

"Ah!　You haven't changed your habits, have you, Thor?"

Thor put his hands to his temples and exhaled longingly.

"Since when?"

"What?"

"Since when do you think I'm Thor?"

"Well, since when? Well, maybe it's because your eyes were so kind when you were talking about Grandpa."

The girl put her index finger on her chin and smiled cutely.

"...... No wonder you never asked me my name."

"Also, I knew about Grandpa's , so I'm sure this is thanks to Thor's ."

The girl, who had a sad look on her face as she stroked his neck, continued to speak.

"But I was surprised. I was surprised that so much time had passed and that Grandpa had died. ......"

The girl looks up at Thor, and suddenly large tears well up in her eyes.

The girl blinked soundlessly, and the overflowing drops fell down her cheeks at once.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cry. ....... I don't mean to cry,...... but I'm so happy.

The girl's eyes looked straight at Thor while her lips trembled.

"I'm so happy that you're alive, Thor, I can't stop thinking about you.

I've been thinking the same thing. Thank you for being alive, Sola.

"Wow! I'm so happy to see you again.

Thor was able to thank her for the first time in twenty-five years, and a sobbing Sola jumped into his heart.

When Thor did not avoid her, he caught her face, and the girl sniffled loudly with her face buried in the water.

Thor awkwardly pulls her thin shoulders.

"Wow, I was a better big sister than you... Gussh, you've been chased away..."

"Oh, you're an old man now."

"Yeah, zzzz, it was so cool, it made my heart pound."

"It's all in your mind."

Thor's words, which he dismissed with a gentle smile, made Sola laugh out loud with tears in her voice.

She presses her ear against Thor's breastplate and closes her eyes tightly so as not to miss the beating of his heart.

After a while, Thor notices that Thora's breathing has slowed down and calls out to her in a whisper.

"Are you hungry?"

There was no reply.

When I pulled her away from my chest, she was breathing a small sigh of sleep with a tear-stained face.

She must have been relieved and relaxed.

I gently took the girl in my arms and tucked her into bed.

After removing her shoes and covering her with a blanket, Sola's mouth relaxed as if she was relieved.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Thor let out a small sigh.

Now that her true identity was known, she would aggressively approach Thor.

Thor knew the personality of the girl who had been with him since childhood to the point of disgust.

She was laid-back, caring, friendly and unafraid.

However, when she decides to do something, she is very stubborn and has a lot of energy.

At this rate, he is sure to say that he wants to be an adventurer.

Thor, however, is no longer concerned, but he is aware of his bad reputation.

There was a good chance that the girl would get angry or hurt by working with him.

He considered going back to his twenties, changing his name, and registering as an adventurer again.

I would have less magic power, but now that has fully grown up, it would not be a dream to become a high rank adventurer.

No, much further down the road, I may become a hero who will leave his name in the history.

Or you can choose to forget everything and go back to the village where you and Sora disappeared and rebuild it together.

We can't restore the dead, but we can restore the buildings and fields destroyed by monsters with .

But that would mean throwing away our lives.

Thor could not bring himself to deny the days when he had worked so hard to live, even though they were full of painful memories.

He is an old man who has been scraping up mud at the bottom of the pile, and he has a stubbornness that he can't easily throw away.

Besides, in the twenty-five years that he had been in this town, even the unsympathetic Thor had made a certain number of people who were friendly to him.

I owe them more favors than I can count.

Thor could never have chosen the idea of silently changing his appearance or disappearing.

"It's the only way I know how to live. ......"

Thor thought to himself as he recalled Sola's changing facial expressions.

Ever since he had heard the girl's first voice, his old memories had come back to him one after another.

Memories of his life in the village, his family and neighbors, which he thought he had completely forgotten.

And the warmth of the girl's touch still remained in his fingertips.

The girl who had been just standing there like a puppet, now moves, speaks, reveals her emotions.

Thor noticed that something he had not felt for a long time was rising up from the bottom of his stomach.

A feeling that he had been trying to keep away and forget since the death of the old man.

But a person who really wants solitude would not bother to feed a stray cat.

"............ I'll see what I can do about it tomorrow."

Biting back a yawn, Thor rummages around and slips in beside the girl.

Now Thor actually does not need to sleep anymore.

He just needs to get his body back to the state it was in after a good night's sleep.

Likewise, if he gets hungry, he can simply return to the state he was in after a hearty meal.

With , we no longer need to sleep or eat forever.

Thor had a faint sense that he was close to immortality in the extreme.

But he dares to close his eyelids.

Then he spoke words he had not said for a long time.

"Good night, Sora."

"......Goodnight, Thor-chan. ......MushyMushy."