The next morning, as soon as the sun peeked over the horizon, I woke up. I had actually slept a lot over the past two days, and today I was too excited, and too worried, to stay in bed. I got up and woke the others myself. The old man and the rest waited at the gate to see us off. Aoi and Midori stood beside me. I glanced at Midori and had a feeling she was about to mess something up.

  “Like we said, okay?” I muttered, pulling her closer. “You teleport us first. Then I’ll summon Aoi and—”

  “Yeah, yeah,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Just tell me when…” Then she shot me an awkward smile. “Oh, by the way, there might be a tiny problem.”

  “What kind of problem?”

  “When I was last there, Celestia didn’t exist. It was just empty land. The city just moved there after the war.”

  “...So?” I asked. “Why does that matter?”

  “Well, I don’t know what’s there anymore. If there’s a river, we might drop into it. If they planted a tree, the landing won’t be fun.”

  I stared at her, already tensed up. “Why are you telling me this now and not before?”

  “Because I just remembered,” she said calmly. “But don’t worry, it doesn’t mean something has to be there. We could still land in an empty spot. I just thought… you should know.”

  “Well, thanks, but knowing that doesn’t help at all!”

  It felt like trouble had already found us before we even got there, and all my excitement had already left. I looked at the old man and the others and gave a small bow. “Thank you for everything you’ve done so far—”

  Midori grabbed my chin, forcing my head up, and stared at me hard. I nodded, lifted my head, and met their eyes.

  “So, take care until we meet again,” I said. “And I hope our next meeting will be in your homeland. See you until then!” I raised my hand.

  “Farewell, young—”

  The old man didn’t get to a proper finish. Midori, clearly hating long goodbyes, grabbed my hand and teleported us away the next moment.

  

  The moment we landed in the new spot, a loud crack of wood echoed, and we fell from a good height. I slammed face-first into something soft as we hit the ground.

  “You… shameless brats! Go find another place!” a loud, screechy old woman’s voice rang out, nearly deafening us.

  I peeled my head free from where it stuck and looked around. Midori had landed on a pile of hay, and I had landed right on top of her. Ah, so that was the soft thing... We were in a barn, and it looked like we’d crashed through the roof without permission.

  At the door stood a hunched old woman, hands on her hips, a bucket knocked over beside her. She glared at us, furious. I looked back at Midori, she was lying under me, rubbing her head, dazed. Somehow, I was holding her hand. We were on piles of hay in a barn… it looked awful, really awful. No explanation could save our asses.

  I jumped up, grabbed Midori, and yanked her to her feet. She grumbled as I pushed her toward the door.

  “Hey, stop pushing!”

  “Shut up and keep walking. This is… a matter of survival!”

  For a moment, my eyes slid to the old woman. She was reaching for the pitchfork by the door. I really hoped she wasn't thinking what I was thinking. And just as we were almost out, it happened.

  

  “Get out before you corrupt my cows too!” she screamed as she stabbed my butt with the pitchfork.

  “Ouch!” I yelled, rubbing my backside, and ran for my dear life.

  We ran down the village road like idiots, the old woman screaming behind us. We didn't look back. When I thought we were far enough, I stopped. Midori pulled her hand free. We were both gasping.

  “Where… are we going?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said, rubbing my sore butt. “Anywhere she can’t kill us.”

  Then it hit me. Aoi. Right. We forgot her. I didn't waste another second. I focused and summoned her. The moment she appeared, she frowned and stared at us like we had just committed a crime.

  “Why did this take so long?!” she snapped.

  “We forgot you,” Midori said between breaths, not missing a chance to poke her. “You know... because you’re not that important.”

  “That’s not it,” I said fast before this escalated. “There was a small accident during the landing. That’s… all.”

  Aoi clearly didn’t buy it. But we were in no shape to explain anything, and I had no idea how to do it without starting a hair pulling war. I just wanted that embarrassing moment buried deep with my other sad memories.

  “All right,” I said, looking around. “Where are we, and where are we going?”

  “I don’t know,” Midori said.

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  “Which one? Where we are, or where we’re going?”

  “Both,” she said. “Last time I came here, this was just empty green land.” She looked around again. “Now there are fields and villages everywhere. But one thing’s clear. We’re not in the city.”

  “Then let’s go to the city,” I said, then paused. “But… which way?”

  “We can ask that old woman,” Aoi said, pointing behind us. “Though she looks like she’s in a bit of a hurry…”

  “Which woman—” I stopped mid sentence, turning around.

  The crazy old woman was charging at us, pitchfork in the air. I grabbed Aoi and Midori by the arms and ran.

  “C-come on, this way.”

  “Where?” Aoi yelled.

  “Don’t ask. Run!”

  “You broke my roof! Get back here and fix it now—”

  We kept running until the woman's screechy voice faded away. Until she was just a tiny dot behind us. Then even that dot vanished. Only then did we stop and catch our breath.

  “Okay, that woman… was… scary.” I said between gasps.

  “Who... was that even?” Aoi asked.

  “Just a witch. Forget it.”

  

  I turned toward the noise. An old, bulky man was crouched by a cart full of sacks, banging a stone against a broken wheel, trying to fix it.

  “Damn it, was now really the time for this…”

  I walked toward him. “Ah, sorry, can I ask—”

  He wiped sweat from his brow, glanced at me for a second, then went back to work.

  

  “Don't you see, kid? I’m busy.”

  

  “I can see but… We’re new around here and we were trying to get to the city—”

  “The city’s that way,” he said, lazily pointing ahead. “A few hours on foot. I’m going there too, but this cursed wheel’s broken, so I can’t take you—”

  Midori suddenly appeared beside us and tried to grab the broken wheel from the old man. He resisted, but she tugged hard and finally took it. She pressed her hand to the cracks, shaped new wood, fixed it, and handed the wheel back.

  “Now you can take us, right?”

  “Y-yes, young lady,” he said. “Thank you for the help. You saved my day!”

  He jumped up, put the wheel back on the cart, and fixed it in place. Then he tossed a few sacks aside to make room for us, climbed up, and waved us over.

  “Hop on,” he said. “We’ll be there in an hour. I guess…”

  We jumped onto the cart and barely found space between the packed sacks. Midori on my left, Aoi on my right, both pushing me as they tried to make room for themselves. From the first second, it was clear this ride was going to be pure torture.

  “You all settled?” the man called. “Sorry, my load is heavy today… that damn wheel also broke because of it.”

  “Y-yeah, no problem,” I said. Then the awful smell hit my nose. “Uh, can I ask what’s in the load? It smells a bit…”

  “Yah!” he shouted as the horse started moving. “Hides. Green bison hides, and some offal. The balls of that beast sell well with some weird nobles,” he added, then lowered his voice. “They say it helps with this and that.”

  “W-whatever!” I stammered, embarrassed. “It’s okay… and the smell seems a bit faded too.”

  “Hope the flower doesn’t die from this smell,” Midori said, pinching her nose.

  “...What flower?”

  “Edelweiss, of course,” she whispered. "What else?”

  “Why did you bring it?” I whispered back.

  “I told you it’s valuable, idiot,” she tapped my head. “Maybe we can sell it…”

  “Oh, right!"

  “First thing, let’s get new clothes,” Aoi said, raising her arm to sniff herself, squeezing me even more in the already tight space. “These already started to smell like old snails.”

  “She's right," said Midori, sniffing herself, "mine also smell like freshly stepped-on worms.”

  I could never picture the smells they talked about, but in that moment, I could sharply smell the blood-like stench in the air. Not from the sacks behind us, but from the beasts right next to me.

  It took at least half an hour, but it felt like forever. The ride was pure hell. Every bump and dip tossed us around, nearly swapping places. Every jolt made me worry Aoi or Midori would start a fight. Somehow, by sheer luck, we made it to the end without falling off the cart and tumbling onto the road.

  “Whoa!” the man shouted, stopping the horse. “All right, we’re here. And this is where we split. I’ll take the lower gate. You head for the main one.”

  “Thank you so much!”

  “No, I should thank you for fixing the wheel!” he said as he prepared to steer the cart toward the path on the left. "Take care!"

  We got out of the cart, brushed ourselves off, and then turned to head towards the city gate.

  “Huh… this is huge!” I almost shouted.

  “It sure is,” Midori said, still covering her nose.

  “I can’t say I’m impressed,” Aoi muttered, though her eyes told otherwise.

  I expected big stone walls and clean stone work, but I didn't expect a gate this huge. This was a capital level gate, no doubt. It also reminded me of what Midori once said back when she was a monster. Turns out there was actually a gate even a giant turtle could pass through. Still, embarrassing as it was, I would rather have her and Aoi next to me like this, in their boosted ecchi heroine form.

  We walked toward the gate and were met by two heavily armored, imposing middle-aged guards. They immediately crossed their halberds in front of us, demanding attention.

  “Identity cards, please.”

  “…Identity cards?” I asked, frowning.

  “For security. No card, no entry.”

  “What do you mean no entry? Of course we’re—”

  Midori lunged, but I grabbed her just in time and hissed, “Seriously? From the first second?!”

  “Our cards were lost,” Aoi stepped up boldly, sending every ounce of her charm toward the guards. “We fought a slime boss. It melted them.”

  “That’s impossible!” the guard snapped. “Those cards are protected by a special spell—”

  Before he could finish, Aoi stepped right into his personal space. She cut off his words and his breath. Her shoulder brushed him, her fingers lazily moved on his chest without shame. I could only wish the guy good luck in my head, having seen this dangerous move before.

  “The magma slime too? Did you see it up close before?”

  The guard shook his head, cheeks reddening.

  "It was a huge boss,” Aoi whispered, “and dangerous…”

  “Y-yes, I suppose you’re right,” the guard stammered, tapping the gate as if to call for help. “Open the gate, we have arrivals!”

  A small side door, just big enough for people, swung open in the huge gate.

  “Go on,” he said, then turned to the guards inside. “They need new cards.”

  We went inside. From the building next to the gate, a huge old guard stepped out. He looked us over once, then pulled out a small note paper and a pen.

  “You,” he said, pointing at me. “Name?”

  “Ha-Hayato.”

  “Alright, Hahayato. Family name?”

  “No! Just Hayato. Hayato Fujimura.”

  “Fujimura…” he muttered as he wrote my name. Then he turned to Midori. “And you?”

  “Midori.”

  “Family name?” He already looked tired. “Can you people say the whole thing at once?”

  “...Family name?” Midori whispered to me, confused. Fair enough. She didn’t have one.

  “Fujimura,” I said, without thinking.

  “Are you siblings?”

  “Not actually,” I muttered, glancing at the two beside me. “But you could call it… family.”

  The guard looked Midori up and down for a few long seconds, not even trying to hide it, then turned to me, clearly confused.

  “So… it's hard to believe, but are you two married?”

  “What? No—”

  “Yes!” Midori almost shouted, cutting Aoi off.

  “And you?” the guard said, turning to Aoi.

  “Aoi Fujimura,” she said, lifting her chin and shooting Midori a side glance. The air smelled of pure revenge.

  “So you’re also—”

  “Yes. I’m his wife.”

  “...What?!” I shouted, looking between them, far more confused than the guard himself.

  “All right, let’s finish this quickly. You, their husband,” the guard said, pointing at me. “Race?”

  “H-human…” I stammered, still shaken from what had just happened.

  “Human?” he asked, frowning. “So, those tiny horns on your head… did a bird flying by drop them there?”