Flotol is silent and the majority of the houses no longer have lights coming from inside. A good portion of the villagers must be asleep by this point, a wave of guilt came over me as I came to this conclusion.

  That wave turned into a tsunami when I saw that all the windows in our house were still alight, mom and dad definitely didn't sleep, I expected that but what the hell is Laself doing awake at this time?

  No... No, I can't find someone to blame right now— and it's even worse under the lens that Laself is someone I technically have power over. — I've long since moved past that mindset. I won't lash out at Laself after my mother scolds me, and I won't blame her for anything.

  Everything is solely my fault, and just because she's reliant on me— something that I am more than aware of. — doesn't give me the right to yell at her just because I'm frustrated, I helped her out without strings, emotionally or otherwise.

  Okay... I'm past this. I'm past this.

  The reminder now done, I picked up the courage to face my family and prepared to confront them.

  I released a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and pushed open the door.

  Expectedly, everyone is waiting for me. Even Laself, who looks worried, at the sight of this, I scolded myself for getting senselessly angry at her earlier. Good, I should feel guilty, that's the healthy reaction here...

  "Mom, dad." I start. "Sorry, I got caught up on a monster?" I can't tell them the truth, if I do that they won't be able to sleep. Or hell, they'll get nightmares of me actually dying in that forest. "I wanted to hunt it down but I guess I failed..."

  The sound of a sigh made me flinch, it didn't sound angry nor disappointed, just... Tired? I gave everyone a second glance and saw that their reactions were fairly tame, they didn't show signs of stress or anything similar, just... There? I guess? Even then I wouldn't call them stoic.

  "We've been waiting for you." My mother stood up, walked over, and hugged me. "You aren't so irresponsible to get yourself killed—" she says that like dying is a minor offense or something! "— but Rontress, don't stay out this late, do you know how dangerous it is out there?"

  "Yes?" My mind is blank, I am speechless, and there's nothing I can realistically come up with that'll make me feel at ease right now. "Mom, I thought you'd all be worried about me?"

  "No, of course not." She patted my back, then my head. "I let you hunt down aberrants, it's just... This is the first time you decided to stay out late and we didn't know what to do. Your father suggested we search for you but we know that would have only made things worse."

  "Yeah, it would have." My smile was bitter, then my eyes went to Laself again and saw that she's worried. My father is like that too, Howaph and mom on the other hand...

  You know what? No, I'm not dealing with this.

  "Have you guys eaten yet?" They all shook their heads in response and for some reason, my eyes started to sting. "But why?!"

  Was that me? I think that was me. My voice suddenly cracked and my vision became blurry, like I was looking through the window of a car while it's raining heavily outside. I inhaled and my lungs stuttered when taking in air, shaking like leaves caught in the middle of a storm.

  "Rontress..." My mother's voice turned hesitant and her trying to reach for me was the same, her hands stilled halfway through and she looked like she didn't know what to do. "We waited for you."

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  "By starving?!" My gaze landed on the guilty expression my mother was wearing and I inhaled deeply, moments later, I was calm again. "Sorry." I murmur. "You all shouldn't have done that, I would have just cooked my own food, you know?"

  It's not like it's unfamiliar for me to go home in an empty house and prepare my own meals anyway, my past life consisted most of that even. Having a family waiting for me was possible but I didn't want to worry my original parents, and these ones apparently do.

  "Guess I have no choice huh?" I smile bitterly, but it's also laced with affection. "Sit down, I'm gonna cook something."

  "R-right. And you're okay now?" My mother asked, I nodded. "Okay then, I believe you, and... Tell us if we don't have to wait for you."

  "It's fine if you wait, just make sure to eat okay?" I shake my head as I open a drawer, there should be a few leftover goat milk in here... "You're all sitting down, doing nothing, and then not eating? Don't make yourselves suffer like that."

  "Just so you know, I won't eat." Howaph suddenly said.

  "M-me too." Laself nodded shakily next to him.

  "I wanna taste your cooking, and if you're going to cook every time you go home late then I wanna wait for that."

  My eyes stung, I don't know if Howaph is purposefully making up a reason for why he wouldn't eat or if he's genuinely eager to taste my cooking but hearing him say he wants to wait for me... Or even just my cooking, it reminded me of what happened earlier.

  One day, and I hope this day never comes, would he just continue to wait?

  "Sure, Howaph. I promise I'll cook for you every time I come home late." My smile was bright to hide the blatant lie in my reply. "Just make sure that you prepare what you're going to sell tomorrow while waiting for me okay?"

  "W-we didn't do that..."

  "It's fine." I wave Laself off. "Take a break for the time being, I'll do the same too, maybe a few days off from going to Ghorise wouldn't hurt us."

  "But then what are we going to do during that time?" My mom asks.

  "I dunno, as for me? I'm planning on training with my new teacher until I get a new class." I responded casually. "Oh, and I guess I'll occasionally go to Ghorise to check on the progress of the store, which you two should be doing right? That's what you'll be doing."

  "Then Laself and your brother can come with us, it is going to be their store."

  "That's fine too." I nodded, it wasn't a bad idea all things considered. And the two of them can use the opportunity to understand the town better, also meeting other shop owners will only be beneficial in the long run.

  No one spoke up after that decision got made and I focused on making condensed milk. Goat milk is technically one of the better milk types that can be used for this, as seen by how it easily boiled and bubbled shortly after I put it on top of the hearth.

  Stirring it is a pain in the ass and adding half a jar of sugar into the pot made my mother wince but it'll be worth it, it's been so long since I made a proper cupcakes that I'm biased about everything else right now.

  Once the milk got viscous enough, I proceeded to heat up our oven by fanning the burning charcoal I had prepared while cooking the milk. Once it got hot enough, I moved on and made the cupcake batter.

  A tray was soon inside the oven, and then I moved on and cooked our actual dinner.

  What's so great about living in a medieval world is that people aren't picky with what they eat— like my brother and his weird tastes. — so cooking nothing but vegetables is considered fairly normal here, whereas back on earth some of my friends would go and say "WheRe'S tHe meAt?!" Or something like that.

  Stir frying crushed eggplants, tomatoes, radishes, made Laself look at the food eagerly even. Knowing that my father and Howaph will be eating this, I decided to add a few eggs for their sake.

  And that's essentially our dinner, vegetable omelette, with a fancy desert in the form of the cupcakes.

  Mom did grab our leftover lettuce as well as brined fish and added that to our meal though, that somehow made the entire thing feel more complete.

  Dinner came and went, no one asked what I was actually doing in the forest that made me stay out this late, and soon enough, the living room became empty.

  "It's fine, Laself, I'll wash the plates, this is my payment for staying out so late and making you all worry." I didn't face her, scared that I wouldn't like her current expression. "And we can take a small break from selling stuff, it's fine, okay? You should head upstairs."

  "Of course, see you tomorrow, Rontress."

  "Goodbye." And I'm sorry, but I can't say that because I know we'll only get into an argument about how she's going to say it's not my fault and me rebuking her and saying that it is.

  Transmuting papyrus into its magical counterpart felt too tiring that night so after what felt like forever, I finally slept early. No more midnight rendezvous here, nope.