I reflected on my sister’s words.
Is it such a bad thing to find comfort while helping someone?
No, I didn’t think so.
What my sister showed wasn’t a sense of superiority over others. It wasn’t about feeling sorry for someone either.
She seemed to gain solace simply from the act of helping others.
Naturally, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.
Helping others is a noble act in itself.
From the moment you choose to help, you are already facing a loss that you didn’t have to experience.Â
Yet, you endure it and act as if it’s nothing.
I’m sure people will understand if, in return, you take a bit of emotional comfort.
No one has the right to criticize or belittle that.
However…
I was a little taken aback because her answer was different from what I had heard before.
The words that had once seemed so natural when we were children were now different.
That phrase, which she had sworn to never forget and practice, made me wonder why she said something so different now.
I probably won’t know for now.
“The weather’s nice,” I said, looking up at the sky, sensing that the atmosphere was getting a bit heavy.
Summer was ending.Â
The date had already passed into September, and it was finally the kind of weather that could be called autumn.
The sky was high.
The painfully blue sky was the same on both sides of this world.
Even within the Demon Lord’s territory, that blue sky could not be fully covered.
“Yeah, it’s really nice,” my sister replied.
I could hear people chatting around us, but their voices weren’t too loud.Â
Since we were outdoors, the sound didn’t reach us very well.
Even the pastor and others sitting far away seemed the same.
A brief moment of laughter rose.
I wondered what they were talking about.
“Should we go talk to them?” my sister asked.
“Huh? Oh, no,” I shook my head.
They were strangers.
Of course, right now, I had no real acquaintances here.
It would probably be healthier to fill that empty space with new connections.
But I didn’t really want to do that.
It was a seat that suddenly became vacant, but it wasn’t something that anyone else could just take.
I wanted to take some more time, create some space for myself, and slowly bring others into my life.
I didn’t want to just hastily fill that empty space.
And the first people I wanted to bring in were those who had originally been part of my life.
Like my sister, who was sitting right in front of me.
She was still the same as I remembered, but not entirely unchanged. She seemed calmer than before.
And, perhaps, a little more honest too.
There was still a distance of five years between my sister and me.
And that five-year gap couldn’t be bridged in an instant.
What was her relationship with the bakery?
She seemed like a part-time worker, but from the way she was talking about changing the menu or adding new equipment, it didn’t quite seem like that.
I still hadn’t heard everything about how my sister had spent those five years.
I didn’t know why her words from childhood were different from what she was telling me now, or what caused the change.
I hadn’t heard any of it.
I didn’t know anything about Mom either.
I had just heard about Yuri’s news, and I hadn’t learned how she had managed to turn Mr. Park Hyunseung into such a neat person.
If I were to talk to someone about it, they might say I was being overly selfcentered.
They might think it’s arrogant to rank people or decide the order in which I accept them into my life.
…But.
But still.
For some reason, I wanted to do that.
“Really?”
My sister tilted her head as she answered, and I felt a bit nervous. If she said something like, “Let’s at least talk to them,” I wouldn’t have been able to refuse.
I didn’t want to refuse my sister’s words, especially since we had just started building a relationship and were slowly getting closer.
I didn’t want to make things awkward by rejecting her.
“Then let’s just stay here,” she said, smiling at me.
“Huh?”
“There’s no need to force yourself to talk to others. It’ll just make things uncomfortable.”
“…….”
Ah, right.
No matter how much she had changed, my sister was still my sister.
A person who naturally cared about others.
Back then, she was the one who approached me and offered her hand when I was eating bread at the bakery.
“…….”
“…….”
Neither of us spoke anymore.
But there was no discomfort in the silence.
My sister hummed a little tune, tapping her fingers on the table to keep the rhythm. She looked so relaxed, her eyes always lifting to gaze at the blue sky as she hummed. Her posture, with her gaze fixed on the sky, was… unreal.
It wasn’t just because she was pretty or because I liked her actions.
Maybe… I had been thinking that I would never see my sister like this again over the past five years.
I knew the goddess was watching over me, and I knew I could return to the original world someday.
Still, I had thought I might never see this scene again.
Well, it wasn’t certain that we would be able to rebuild our close relationship when I came back.
Perhaps, it was thanks to the goddess’ guidance that I could meet my sister again like this. We were still far from being completely close, but little by little, we were getting there.
So, all the sights before me right now…
The wind-blown hair, her face shining in the sunlight…
Her deep eyes gazing up at the sky, her long lashes…
Her lips curving into a slight smile that was so pleasant to see…
It all looked so wondrous.
My sister said she was just an ordinary person—
No, that’s not it.
In my eyes, my sister was a wondrous person, one of a kind in the world.
That fact had never changed.
It wouldn’t change.
And probably, it never would.
I began to hum a little tune, quieter than her, carefully matching my notes with hers.
I didn’t really know what song my sister was humming.
It was probably just a random tune she was making up on the spot.
Part of it was like a lullaby, and part of it resembled a song we learned at school.
It was a haphazard mix of tunes, just the good parts of any song she remembered.
My sister often hummed when we were alone together.
Looking up at the darkened sky. Waiting for Mom. Sitting next to me, crouched down.
Maybe she had done it to comfort me, trembling in the dark alley, unable to see anything. We didn’t have any music players because we were poor.
But I actually liked my sister’s voice. No matter where I went in the world, it was a sound I could only hear when I was next to her.
As our voices overlapped, I noticed my sister’s eyes widen a bit before narrowing again.
Her eyes, which had been fixed on the sky, came down to meet mine.
She gave me a look that seemed like she was about to burst out laughing, but slowed down the pace of the song for me.
Our voices, mine and my sister’s, echoed softly.
It was so quiet that no one else could hear it.
But I thought that was better.
That was enough for me.
For a while, we sat quietly, singing our song together.
*
After the volunteer work was over, the cleaning was more or less finished.
At this point, my strength had become a huge help.
Now, it wasn’t just my older sister but almost everyone at the church was shocked.
“Where does all that strength come from in your body?”
One lady even asked that while lightly touching my forearm.
“You just need to work out hard every day.”
I awkwardly smiled and answered like that.
Well, it’s not something you can just achieve by exercising.
Since this body was given to me by the Goddess, I guess it’s possible to have this much strength.
It seems like the Goddess tried her best to preserve everything I’ve gained over there.
Of course, things like magic or divine power might be a bit of a stretch under the laws of this world.
But even if I were to use them, would it really be a problem?
“He’s like our pastor.”
A friendly-looking man chuckled as he spoke.
“Our pastor’s prayers really work, you know.”
“No, what does prayer have to do with strength?”
The lady who had asked about my strength laughed as if she found it ridiculous.
“Well, you know, like… supernatural phenomena? That kind of thing.”
“Ugh, strength comes from working out, and the pastor’s prayers are just for God, so how is that related to supernatural phenomena?”
“Is that so?”
I just awkwardly smiled at the two of them chatting.
“……”
If I didn’t have a religion, I wouldn’t know, but now that I have the Goddess I believe in… well, I couldn’t really tell them, “The real Goddess is someone else,” could I?
They were all people who were working hard in volunteer activities, trying to make the world a little better.