Chapter 11: The Reason He Is Here
There was a pain-relieving medicine in the pouch that Sena had given me.
I almost sighed at how overprotective she was, but this time, it turned out to be just what I needed.
Using the painkillers and Potions, I managed to quickly carry out the treatment, shooing Milan and Fio out of the room as best as I could.
“Good job, it’s all done.”
As I announced this, Maro, as if her strings had been cut, simply said, “Thank you so much,” and fell asleep, beads of sweat glistening on her forehead.
After leaving her to rest, Milan rushed over to me, exclaiming, “Is Mom okay?!”
I explained that she was fully healed and handed over a few Potions. When Milan, with tears welling in her eyes, tried to return them saying, “I can’t take these!” Maro, despite her injured leg, insisted that she had been overworking herself and was suffering from insomnia due to anxiety. She instructed that for the next few days, I should make sure to give her a Potion whenever she woke up.
“Roh-nii-san, why are you going this far for us…?”
Rubbing her eyes with her sleeves, Milan asked me.
“Why, huh? Well, when you grow up, if you see someone in trouble, you should help them out, right? That’s just how life is.”
How shallow my words sounded. Throughout my life, my grandfather taught me to walk with my head held high, saying it would benefit me in the long run. I still found it a bit difficult to grasp what that truly meant, but one thing was clear.
We should live in a way that, when we look back, we won’t regret having lived embarrassingly. Therefore, my choice this time was ultimately for my own sake.
But still, I couldn’t help but think. What would she, who once cherished everyone I knew and wished for their happiness, have said in response?
The one who could answer my questions was no longer here.
As the night wore on, a faint blue moonlight shone through the window. It was a time when children should be tucked into bed.
However, the kids, perhaps worried about their mother or caught up in the unusual circumstances of my stay, were reluctant to sleep.
“Maro’s sleeping too, so you guys should get to bed soon.”
““Aww!””
I had been playing board games with the Milan sisters until they decided to sleep, but they showed no signs of winding down.
Instead, they were wide-eyed, eagerly asking, “Hey, hey! Tell us about your Labyrinth explorations!” “We want to hear!”
“Stories, huh? What kind of story do you want to hear?”
“Then, I want to hear about the boss monster you faced during your exploration!”
“Even if I say ‘boss monster,’ there are way more that I haven’t conquered.”
“But Roh-nii-san has conquered some, right? With all that money you have!”
The assumption that being wealthy meant being a Labyrinth conqueror was incorrect, but pointing that out seemed unnecessary.
Besides, what brother could refuse such eager requests? No one, certainly! Wait, that’s not right! I wasn’t even their brother!
“Alright! I’ll tell you about the last Labyrinth I conquered. But you have to promise to sleep after that!”
As I told them, they responded cheerfully, ““Okay!!””
Do they really understand…?
“The monster I faced in the Blade Labyrinth was a troublesome one that moved incredibly fast every time it glimmered.”
I recalled the depths of the Blade Labyrinth, speaking with vivid detail.
“It moved at a speed that you couldn’t even follow with your eyes.”
When it came to Eris and Ryuguin, I decided to change their names and obscure important details.
“Then, it had one arm cut off with a ‘Buzun!’ sound.”
As I reached a tense moment in my story, Fio eagerly urged, “And then what?!”
It seemed that Fio was particularly engaged, and I found it hard to notice that Milan was starting to give me a side-eye.
“So, my disciple used his ultimate technique to slice that strongest swordsman monster in half. And at that moment, the swordsman monster said, ‘Impressive.'”
I ended my animated storytelling with gestures, but I noticed that while Fio was squealing with delight, Milan was increasingly giving me a skeptical look.
Once I finished my tale, Milan carried Fio to the bed. As I prepared to sleep, taking out my sleep set from the Magic Bag, Milan approached me again.
“Hey, Roh-nii-san,” she called out.
“What is it? I told you to sleep since we made a promise.”
“It’s about the story you told earlier…”
“The story?”
“I know that Roh-nii-san is a really good person, and you weren’t trying to deceive us. And I understand that you were just trying to make the story interesting for Fio.”
I was completely baffled by what Milan was saying.
“Huh? What do you mean by that—”
“That story, um, the one you just told, it’s about the Hero Ryuguin and his legendary tale, right?”
At Milan’s question, I was left speechless, overwhelmed by shock.