"Try to stand still!"
"Argh!"
Inri tightened the bandage on Kurone's hand and, saving the remaining pieces, used healing magic to ease the pain.
Despite mastering an advanced degree of healing magic, the girl was not like her countryman — she even had less mana than an ordinary human. All she could do at the moment was renew the bandages destroyed during the battle.
The chief priestess served only as a support, for Kurone himself used his knowledge of medicine to examine himself. The young man's face twisted when he said he had dislocated his wrist, and, without warning, Rory reattached it — a sickening sound like a "crack" echoed throughout the carriage.
Presently, the group that had come to rescue the children was divided into two carriages — the one used by Edward and the one brought by Kurone dressed as a maid.
Aboard Kurone's carriage were Inri, Rory, the Black Beast, Noah and Elisabella. Noah and the princess were reluctant about the idea of going in a different carriage than Sophia, but soon gave in.
Sophia, Brain and Ana were in charge of the second carriage, which carried the children.
‘I can manage.’ The marquise tried to reassure the maid. The reason Inri was so tired was because Sophia was fully restored. Ironic.
Ana, who was not much help — to say nothing — volunteered to be the marquise's carriage copilot, since Brain had no driving experience.
Noah drove the carriage in silence, but every few minutes he looked behind him to check the marquise's safety.
"I'm going to rest for a while!"
Inri lay down beside the little white-haired girls, who were sleeping peacefully in the back of the carriage.
"Aren't you tired too?" Kurone asked the golden-haired girl.
Elisabella had remained silent for the moment, staring as Kurone was healed by Inri.
The girl, about sixteen years old, looked restless.
"Ah!"
"Ihhh!"
Kurone's sudden shout startled the girl, who reflexively put her hand over her chest.
"I'm sorry! I forgot that you... I mean, you're the princess of the kingdom!" He shouted, bowing exaggeratedly.
The girl's face turned red. She tried to speak, but her vocal cords made no sound. That was the problem with living as a reclusive princess: social phobia.
Kurone sat on his legs and touched his forehead to the wooden floor. It was too much for the young man, who a few days ago, shot the princess coldly — even though she wasn't the real thing.
"N-No need to apologize!" The girl tried to stand her ground. "J-just tell me, what is your name?"
"Kurone, my name is Kurone Nakano."
"Kurone…" Elisabella looked at the young man as she fixed the name in her mind. 'Kurone' was indeed a peculiar name. However, 'Nakano'...
Ever since she had entered the carriage, Elisabella had not stopped looking at the young man. She waited until this moment, when he was alone, to build up courage and speak:
"Kurone Nakano, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure... I mean, as you wish, Your Majesty."
"N-No need to be so formal!" Elisabella cried out in panic, but quickly covered up her flushed face. "Well... This may sound strange, but... Y-You are... a... a...?"
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"A....?"
"You're an E.T. aren't you?"
E.T.? An alien? That wouldn't be an ideal word to describe Kurone Nakano.
- I-I don't quite understand...
- A-Actually, I've been studying this for a long time... And, you have the same characteristics as an alien, you know...
Really, he was like an alien. An abnormal head, a flying saucer, and phrases like "take me to your leader"? Identical. Although, technically, she was the leader of Andeavor. I also could not disagree with the fact that she had a large head, which was hidden by bangs.
"Just to be sure, what do you mean by E.T.?"
"It's-it's an abbreviation for Earth Transmigrant. This idea was rejected several times, my club and I didn't give up... We managed to gather a lot of material about the ‘Earth Transmigrants’... These are people who came from another place... a world different from ours… from ‘Earth’."
To a person from this world, this seemed like just any idea coming from an occult club, so it was rejected. But this girl was right. Kurone was a stranger — in both senses — from another world.
Should he tell the truth about his home world?
If he told everything, maybe the girl would have some idea how to send him back to his world. But she would also run the risk of becoming national news throughout the kingdom. "They are among us, your neighbor might be an E.T., be careful!". There were no bicycles in that world, so Kurone could not escape a group of E.T. hunters.
The young man looked at Elisabella and reflected for a few minutes. Finally, after glancing at Rory, who was sleeping peacefully — the little girl was snoring like an orc — he said:
"My name is Kurone Nakano." He stood up as he spoke. "I am 20 years old. My family name is written with the ideograms of ‘inside’ (中) and ‘field’ (野), and is the only thing my father has given me since I was born. I come from a country called Japan, which is in a far away world. I was a medical student until I was run over by a truck... Well, that's basically it."
Elisabella was paralyzed. She blinked several, several times until she assimilated everything that was said. Was this real? Was she in front of — and talking to — a real E.T.?
"Now it's my turn to ask you, what do you know about E.Ts?" Kurone questioned the girl, who took a long time to answer.
"Almost everything I know was taught to me by my sister, she wrote a book before running away from home..." Elisabella twisted her face in a pained expression, but soon recovered. "According to what she wrote, the E.Ts are brought by the Great Goddess from a distant world, the ‘Earth’. Most of them have black hair, slanted eyes, strange names... She even created a small writing system used in the names of the E.Ts. There is a lot of information, if you want, I can lend you the book."
"Does this book mention anything about how to send the ETs back home...?"
"I didn't see anything like that, but my sister was researching a way to open a passage from our world to the Transmigrant world. She probably ran away from home to continue her research without the obligations to the kingdom."
It might be an impression, but Elisabella made a frantic expression whenever she mentioned her sister.
If their relationship was like that of Kurone and his sisters, it was certainly painful the day he woke up and couldn't find his sister.
The imagined scene also made the young man himself sad, remembering his sisters. How would they have reacted upon receiving the news that their precious brother was dead?
‘Hello, is this the Nakano household?’. Probably the one who answered the phone was Raika, ‘Unfortunately Mr. Kurone Nakano was…’
Kurone gritted his teeth and tried to push the scene away. Surely he would be back soon. There was no reason to be sad. When he returned, he would skip class and desperately run home — being careful with trucks — and hug all three of them. Sure, he would get a lecture from the youngest one for missing college, but that didn't matter. In fact, I would be happy to receive this scolding.
"Are you all right?" Elisabella called out to the young man.
"Y-Yes... Why the question... I'm fine…"
"It's just... You were crying."
Elisabella couldn't say anything either, because, almost imperceptibly, a few tear drops were running down her face.