"Uh, uh, what should we do? We need to move quickly...!"
"Calm down, Sylvia. If it can't be helped, we should at least get out of here first."
"Yes, yes...!"
Sylvia, trembling and looking extrely flustered, almost to the point of crying.
This girl...
It seems like her appearance has beco more childish, and she’s crying more easily now.
Is this what they an by "the mind follows the body"?
‘This is bad. Sylvia is slowly turning into a child without even realizing it.’
At this rate, Sylvia will slowly start to ntally regress into a child, unaware of it.
Later on, when I give her tasks, she might respond with sothing like, "Hmph! Why should I do that?" in a childish manner.
If she says that now, it would just be cute, but what if she says it when she’s older...?
"Ugh..."
"Why are you like this all of a sudden?!"
"Oh, nothing. I just feel a bit sick..."
Before Sylvia’s mind fully syncs with this childlike body, I need to snap her back to her original state.
If I let it go too long, we might end up with an adult who behaves like a child.
Just thinking about it made a sense of crisis hit , and I felt dizzy and nauseous.
There’s no better motivation than this.
"Let's leave the Vermont Territory for now. They might start searching the mansion."
"Yes. Even if we are forced to make contact with people, it will be better to do it far from the Vermont Territory to reduce any changes in the present."
We decided to leave the Vermont Territory first.
I hadn’t expected to drift around like this, but at least we were lucky that we had packed so small currency from ten years ago, which was still usable.
In order to avoid being noticed, we found a cargo cart leaving the Vermont Territory.
We asked the driver for permission and got on the cargo hold to leave the territory.
Finally, I slipped the driver a little bribe, and our departure from the Vermont Territory as suspicious figures would remain unknown.
We succeeded in erasing all traces.
"This... Why is it suddenly not working...? Are we going to be stuck in the past forever...? There will be two of us here, Master and . Does that an we’ll have to keep hiding for another ten years?"
"..."
[The evil god, 'Kali,' is demanding that you calm our knight.]
Sylvia, trembling and constantly fiddling with her sword.
She seems unable to stay still, filled with anxiety.
Her pitiful appearance made instinctively reach out, but I pulled my hand back.
‘I’ve been too indulgent with her, and now her mind is starting to act like a child...’
I need to restrain myself.
Didn’t Sylvia herself ask to treat her as an adult, as I always did?
It’s best to follow her request.
Appearance is just a shell; in relationships between people, it doesn't matter at all...
"Sniff..."
"Co here."
"I-I wasn’t crying. It’s fine..."
"I didn’t say that. You look cold, co here quickly."
"..."
She initially refused with excuses, but soon ran out of reasons.
Slowly, she ca closer to , leaning against .
I embraced her and gently patted her head.
Only then did Sylvia’s body stop trembling.
The sword she had been obsessively holding was slowly released.
Her breathing grew steadier, and she seed to calm down considerably.
"Don’t worry too much. We’ll definitely be able to return."
"Do you think the words you said to comfort little Irene will work on too? Irene can say that because she knows the future, but our future is uncertain, isn’t it?"
"..."
Only at tis like this does she return to her adult-level intelligence and logically question .
What a botherso character.
"If you keep trembling in fear, nothing will change. The only way for us to return to the present is through your sword. If you don’t trust yourself, how do you expect to get us back?"
"Ugh... You’re right. I’ll try to be more confident..."
Sniffling, she clung to even tighter.
Soon, her breathing beca calm, and she seed to fall asleep quietly in my arms.
She must have cried herself to sleep...
She's truly beco like a child.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of it.
The cart carrying Sylvia and left the Vermont Territory and took a large detour around the mountains.
If we had brought Charlotte, we could have cut straight through the mountains, but...
That would have made the Vermont highway a two-lane road when we returned to the present.
Eventually, we arrived at a small village near the capital.
It was a chaotic place, where nobles, beggars, foreigners, and illegal immigrants all mixed together.
It wasn’t a big deal if two unknown people stayed here for a while.
"From now on, we’re going to pretend to be well-off middle-class tourists."
"Won’t that attract bandits?"
"Every ti they show up, you can draw your sword."
"Ah, definitely... There won’t be any bandits who won’t run away when they see that."
I didn’t want to stay in this place for long, but at least in the worst case, if Sylvia’s slump lasted longer, I needed a long-term strategy for staying here.
We changed into clothes that weren’t too shabby but not overly fancy—more middle-class in appearance.
We also booked a motel, often used by outsiders.
While it had the deadly disadvantage of frequent robberies, there wasn’t much of a threat with Sylvia by my side.
"I might be hungry, which is why I’m like this. Let’s eat a good al, sleep, and try again when we’re well-rested and healthy."
"Yes, Master!"
Since I couldn’t figure out the cause of the slump, the only thing I could do was try anything.
Maybe opening the crack to the past consud a lot of spiritual energy, and it’s impossible to open it repeatedly in a short ti.
Under that assumption, I decided to feed and let Sylvia sleep well first.
"Hey... I want to eat at that restaurant..."
"That place is for couples to enjoy drinks and dinner. Even if your mind is that of an adult, I can’t let you drink alcohol in that body."
"Ah, I know. I won’t drink; just the food will do..."
It was strange.
Sylvia had always seed like soone who preferred soju with grilled pork belly, but now she was asking for sothing more refined.
After we ate at the restaurant, Sylvia tugged at my sleeve and pointed to another place.
"Master. Over there..."
"Say it with words."
"How about we have tea at that café?"
"...?"
She never drank tea, so what could this be about?
I was curious and almost asked her, but then I saw her excited, flushed face and couldn’t bring myself to question her.
Maybe I’ll just go along with Sylvia’s wishes for today.
We had tea and a light snack, and after a pleasant little ti, we headed out.
"Ahh... It’s been so long since I’ve had such a relaxing ti."
"It’s been too relaxing. I did tell you not to worry, but..."
"Ah, yes. You’re right. We need to find a way to leave here. I haven’t forgotten. Of course."
"By the way, Sylvia, I ca up with a hypothesis. Could you check it for ?"
"Of course, tell ."
"When you opened the crack in ti... didn’t you swing your sword with so strong desire?"
"Ah, yes! That’s right!"
"Maybe the crack is opening in response to your strong desire."
"...!"
Sylvia flinched, clearly surprised by the sharp guess.
"It seems plausible. At that ti, I realized from your words that I would regret not swinging my sword, so I impulsively did. The desire I had in my heart was certainly... I wanted to beco a Swordmaster as quickly as possible and return to the original state."
"Then it’s definitely the difference made by desire..."
"Ah? But when I swung my sword just now, I was certainly thinking that I had to split the crack."
"At that ti, your desire wasn’t as strong. You were satisfied with living here alone, relying on each other for more than ten years, and subconsciously didn’t want to return. Isn’t that right?"
"Th-th-th-th-that’s not true!? What nonsense are you talking about?"
[The evil god, 'Kali,' strongly criticizes your knight for such thoughts, saying they couldn’t possibly be true!]
Sylvia suddenly turned bright red and reacted violently.
I was just joking, but she overreacted like this?
When I gave her a doubtful look, Sylvia fanned her red face, snorting in disbelief.
"Ha! Do you think you can prove that?"
"Well, let’s see you try swinging your sword again."
"Okay, okay! I’ll show you that it’s useless, so you’ll believe !"
"After hearing that, swing it again. If the crack doesn’t open, you’ll have to handle all the paperwork from now on."
"Ugh."
With a deep sigh, Sylvia seed to lose strength in her arm.
The sword she had lifted dropped to the ground without even being swung.
It wasn’t even a swing.
Her arm just dropped, and the sword fell with it, and the sword’s path scattered strangely in the air, creating an unusual phenonon.
"...!?"
It was the sa scene as in the office.
The air was splitting, and a crack began to form.
Finally, success.
"See? If you have a strong desire, it opens."
"..."
[The evil god, 'Kali,' shows support, having expected this result.]
At that, Sylvia was left speechless.
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