I’ve never directly talked to a Goddess, but I think I have an idea of what her attitude is like.
It seems like the Goddess is trying to exclude me from that world.
Well, that’s how a Goddess can roam freely in that world again.
I mean, as a human, I can’t escape human lifespan, and the Goddess might try to move that world again after I die—but—
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up researching ways to stop the Goddess while I’m alive. So that a few hundred or even thousand years later, someone like me can pop up and stop her again.
Just like the Fanggriffon Emperor did in the past.
So, it’s probably better for me to stick around in this world. I suspect she’s trying to make me settle down here for good.
To ensure I don’t hold onto any regrets about that world, she sends all my loved ones here whenever she gets the chance, takes care of what I need to worry about, and even gives me a lottery win.
Of course, it’s all possibly just a coincidence.
Claire may have just used her power to come over to find Alice and me, and maybe when she prepared to go back last time, she made a little mistake.
The lottery win might genuinely be just a stroke of luck, not the Goddess’s plotting.
…….
That can’t be, right?
There’s no way so many coincidences would happen in such rapid succession. I mean, I’m not someone who buys lottery tickets every week, and the first ticket I buy after coming back here wins the grand prize? Plus, the two numbers I picked manually are the winning ones?
Give me a break. Let’s be honest, it’s basically saying, “Please just stay there.”
Unless she’s planning to bring that entire world here, I think I’d actually want to go back. It was a mistake to send them here in the first place.
If I were engaged, I might just try to go back and give up if I failed, but since there are kids who have a place to return to, I can’t give up because of them.
Even if I seem fine on the outside, how much worry am I actually carrying inside?
“Delicious…”
…..
Well, I mean, even if Mia looks so happy on the outside, she’s definitely worrying inside—
“I just want to live here forever…”
…..
[Oh my gosh]
[Are you planning to kick Mia out?]
“There’s no such plan.”
With more people around, we’re relocating, so why would I kick them out?
Now, I don’t have to worry about money anymore.
Looking at the apartment prices, it seems I could get something decent for about a billion won if it’s not too expensive.
Out of the remaining billion, if we split another five hundred million won among everyone to one hundred million each, we’d still have five hundred million left.
But since I won’t need to worry about housing anymore, that money will mostly go towards living expenses. No worries when each of us has a hundred million won to spend, no matter where we go!
So there’s really no need to kick anyone out, right?
Of course, I don’t actually plan to split the money ‘for real.’ There’s something called gift tax. If I transfer a hundred million won to someone else’s account all at once, the tax office would be on me like whoosh.
It’s probably much safer to distribute it gradually as pocket money. That way, since they all have a place to return to, they won’t be too greedy. Money from this world won’t be of any use if they take it back.
They don’t even need to be concerned about money in the first place.
[Mia-chan… what kind of life did you lead?ㅠㅠ]
[Were you starved?]
No, technically, in terms of age, we’re the same.
There’s no way I would starve her. Honestly, out of the five of us, Mia has the biggest appetite.
It was a good idea to persuade Mia to try a food challenge, but now it seems I’m being misunderstood for it. With Mia being small and skinny, her stuffing her face with food just looks pitiful in many ways.
I’ve never really starved Mia.
No, not just Mia, I’ve never let any of the kids around me go hungry. As long as I could feed them, I made sure they ate well.
What was in front of Mia was just chicken. I bought a good amount of boneless chicken to enjoy eating together.
Before going to Azernar, I had no idea how much other girls in their teens to twenties actually ate.
But now that I think back to how much my little cousin girls used to eat when they were very young, I feel a bit bad saying this, but Claire, Mia, Alice, and Charlotte eat way more than them.
Of course, I’m not eating as much as when I was a guy. Still, I get it. They burn a ton of energy.
“Mia, just take your time. No one’s gonna snatch it away from you. You’ll choke like that.”
“Uh?”
Mia usually speaks formally, but with her mouth stuffed, it sounds kind of informal.
The chat blew up with cuteness.
I thought about whether I’d have looked cute eating like that at her age, but quickly concluded that I would certainly not have been.
If I had looked that good, I probably would’ve already had a girlfriend.
I silently picked up a napkin I had prepared earlier and wiped the side of Mia’s mouth gently.
[Mommy、Mommy!]
And then you came in, and I just quietly put it away.
“But honestly, people are really watching this just for eating.”
“It’s not just eating; it’s because we have one person who eats well,” I told Alice as she was astonished.
And probably, it’s also because all five of us eating are cute girls. Typical cute European girls who can speak Korean really well.
There are broadcasts with millions of views just showing foreigners eating Korean food when they visit Korea, and I think this is a similar case.
Honestly, I might want to see it too. Well, if we’re not really talking during eating, I’d probably get bored after a few showings.
*
“……”
I ate every single piece of chicken without leaving any scraps behind. I wasn’t particularly lacking.
Actually, it might be that we got a bit more than one piece per person. Seeing everyone lying on the floor, it seems our stomachs are a bit bloated.
Still, I’m glad this isn’t my body from my thirties, but rather a teenager’s body. The bloated feeling from being too full will disappear quickly.
“Thinking about moving to another place from here feels a bit unreal.”
“You used to live in a much larger place before coming here, didn’t you?”
Suddenly, Alice teased Claire as she opened her mouth.
“It’s different here and there. It feels like I traveled with you, my sister, Mia, and Charlotte, away from where I originally lived.”
“To be honest, it’s not wrong to say that. You, and we will eventually return. If we think of it as traveling, then it’s certainly traveling.”
“We haven’t been here long, either.”
Charlotte replied with a voice filled with laughter at my words.
“But thinking of it as a trip makes it more enjoyable,” said Mia.
“Um… to be honest, I do like that we can go to a wider place. It’s a bit uncomfortable with five people living together,” Alice said.
“But, um, how do I put it. I feel like I will miss this time when we laid together like this. This is the first time I’ve ever experienced something like this.”
“……”
Everyone didn’t say it out loud, but it seemed they agreed with Alice’s words.
“Well, then, it’s no big deal.”
But at that moment, just when they started to feel nostalgic, I cut in.
“It’s not like there won’t be a living room there. After all, entering barefoot and living in both would still be the same, and even if the five of us split into two rooms, the living room would be where we’d gather most. If we miss lying around like this, we can just lay out a blanket in the living room and do it together.”
“……”
“Um, sis, I don’t think you should be saying such things right now,” Claire said with a voice filled with laughter.
“If you originally lived here and then went to Azernar, then does that mean that apartment is one of the places you really want to live in?”
Charlotte asked.
“It’s not so much that I want to live there… I mean it can be said that it’s the most optimized place to live in this city. Other places are so expensive that I can’t even dream of it.”
Of course, apartments are generally way too expensive to even dream about.
“Should I understand it like that was a dream I couldn’t achieve in this world?”
“……”
Is that so?
While getting a house was a dream for me, I guess I just wanted a place where I could settle down steadily.
“So what you’re saying is that you thought of us again this time. You’re saying you’d feel uneasy if it wasn’t a place where you can settle down.”
“……”
I didn’t know how to explain myself, so I just kept silent.
No one pressed for an answer. We just lay quietly staring at the ceiling.
But even without saying a word, the fact that someone was beside me felt so comforting.
……I began to somewhat understand what Claire had said.
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