The sun had completely set.
Ruina’s lavender-colored hair gently fluttered in the wind, catching the bright moonlight.
Her orange eyes, shining, held the starlight within them.
After finishing the dinner that Kael had prepared, Ruina stepped outside and spoke as she was greeted by him.
“Well then, I’ll head back now. It’s getting cold, so you should go inside.”
“Isn’t it too dark to go back now? If you’re okay with it, you can stay and sleep here.”
He said that again.
Ruina almost nodded unknowingly to Kael’s words but barely held back and shook her head in response.
“You know that elves can see clearly in conditions like this. Plus, even if monsters or bandits show up, it’s no problem. Don’t worry, go back inside.”
“Okay, then… be careful on your way back.”
Kael, who knew about Ruina’s abilities, nodded in agreement and waved his hand before disappearing into the cabin.
After Kael had completely vanished inside the hut, Ruina exhaled a warm breath, her heart still pounding.
“Phew…”
She could still feel her heart racing, the tension not quite fading.
Ruina clearly understood what this feeling was—this emotion that was making her heart beat faster.
“Really… I almost said I liked him without even realizing it.”
Love.
Since elves like Ruina don’t often experience feelings of love in their long lives, she had wondered if it was just a misunderstanding when she first felt this emotion.
But now, she was sure this emotion was indeed love.
When did she first start liking Kael?
As Ruina turned away from Kael’s cabin and began walking, she murmured to herself the answer to her own question.
“Maybe… it was since the war.”
The demon war, where hundreds of thousands of humans sacrificed their lives to push the demon race out of human lands.
Ruina first met Kael during that war, fought by his side, spent time with him, and learned what love felt like.
“Of course, it’s a one-sided love.”
Unfortunately, the problem was that this love was not mutual—it was a one-sided love that Ruina alone harbored.
If she wanted to win this love, she would have to gather the courage to confess her feelings.
“But… I’m too shy to do it right now.”
However, Ruina didn’t have the courage yet to express her feelings with sincerity.
Some might worry, thinking that if time passes and she doesn’t speak up, she might never get the chance.
But Ruina, who had been through the war and stayed close to Kael more than anyone else, didn’t worry much.
“There’s plenty of time, so it should be okay.”
After all, both she, an elf, and Kael, despite looking human, had a lot of time ahead of them.
Elves live forever, as long as they don’t lose their lives, and Kael, though appearing human, had not aged in essence.
She didn’t know the full reason behind that yet, but she knew Kael shared the same immortality as her.
And the reason Ruina believed they had plenty of time wasn’t just because both she and Kael would live forever.
Another reason was because, after the war had ended, she knew that there was no space for a woman in Kael’s heart right now.
“If I confessed now, it’d be a hundred percent failure.”
If a woman tried to enter Kael’s heart now, she’d be swallowed by the deep hole created by the war.
So Ruina planned to take her time, gradually getting closer to Kael.
At least until the hole had healed and she could stand on solid ground.
“If I take it slow, maybe once a month… no, is that too often?”
Having learned the location of Kael’s future home by gathering information from the kingdom and nearby villages, Ruina thought about how often she should visit.
Then, a goofy smile appeared on her face.
“Hehe… the idea that I’m married to Kael…”
Of course, Kael probably still thought of them as nothing more than friends, with the title of “married couple” being just a formality. However, the fact that she and Kael were “mom and dad” to their child made Ruina’s heart feel full.
Now she understood why married people often have children—it brought a sense of fulfillment.
And as Ruina was smiling with glee at the thought of being married to Kael, she regained her serious thoughts after arriving at the village along the dark, quiet road.
“Ugh, this is tiring.”
Back during the war, I could sleep only three or four hours a day and fight all day without feeling tired, but now that I’m doing things other than combat, I feel even more exhausted than I did back then.
However, now that I have finished shopping for baby… Elia’s supplies, and Ruina, the unexpected guest, has returned,
there isn’t much left to worry about.
I let out a groan as I sat in the chair and looked at Elia, who was lying on the thickly layered blankets on the bed, babbling while staring blankly at me.
“Why doesn’t the baby cry much?”
I was sure newborns were supposed to cry all the time, but was I mistaken?
From the moment I first found her in front of the cabin until now, Elia had never cried even once.
For a baby, that seemed strangely unusual.
Even earlier, on the way back, when she had to relieve herself, she didn’t cry but instead made a bit of loud babbling noises to express discomfort.
So, it was fair to say that she had never cried at all.
Wondering if there was some problem I didn’t know about, I checked Elia’s physical condition and the mana inside her body, but I couldn’t find anything particularly wrong.
Only after confirming for about thirty minutes that Elia was in a normal state did I finally lie down beside her.
Flop—
“Sigh, why is there so much to worry about?”
I hadn’t even grown that attached to her yet,
but there were so many little things that made me anxious, so it was impossible not to worry.
The fact that I was literally raising Elia now was one thing, but considering my personality, the more time I spent with her, the more attached I would become.
At this rate, what would happen to me in the future if I was already this concerned?
I had never raised a child before, so I didn’t know, but was this how one became a doting father?
As I lay there, staring at the ceiling, a sudden thought crossed my mind.
“……What do I do with my life now?”
Until now, I had been too busy adjusting to the Marika continent, getting used to my own body, training my disciples, and fighting in the war, leaving me no time to even entertain such thoughts.
But now, everything was over.
The body that had once belonged to just a game character had now fully become my own.
The war had completely ended.
I had decided not to take in any more disciples after the war.
On top of that, thanks to my extraordinary achievements in the war, I had been granted a noble title—though it was just a barony in name only— as well as a cabin and its surrounding land.
And I had also accumulated enough wealth to last at least 50 years, even if I lived a little extravagantly.
Socially, I was more than secure.
And so, as I pondered my worries aloud,
I found myself lost in thought.
“Maybe I should start farming?”
The land where my cabin stood had barely any rocks beneath the soil and was quite fertile—perfect for farming.
Besides, even though the village wasn’t far away, I still found it annoying to go there too often.
Since I had plenty of time, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start growing my own food.
I nodded to myself, deciding to visit the village soon to buy some crop seedlings.
“I should start by making a small field on the left side. And… I should also build a training ground behind the house.”
Farming and raising Elia were important,
but even in peaceful times, I needed to keep my body trained so it wouldn’t become dull.
This was the Marika continent.
A chaotic medieval world where anything could happen at any time.
And from what I knew, in terms of the timeline,
I had only just finished the prologue of the game’s story.
The war with the demons that had ended just a month ago was nothing more than a brief background explanation in the game—
a single line of text describing past events before the player even selected their character.
This might be my reality now, but from what I knew, the real story of Marika’s continent
wouldn’t begin for another ten years or so.
“Well, a lot has already changed, so who knows if that even matters anymore….”
Because of my presence, so many things had already changed.
For instance, the war, which took over seven years in the game, had ended in just three years because of me.
It wasn’t just a butterfly effect—
I had completely derailed the predetermined path of the world.
In other words, this was no longer a world that simply followed the game’s script.
This was my reality now, a world where I had altered the past to create an entirely new future.
As a result, aside from a few major events,
there was almost no chance that the things I remembered from the game would happen exactly as they did.
However, despite all that, this continent was still as dangerous as ever.
That’s why I needed to continue training my body, preparing for whatever situations might arise.
I didn’t have a long-term goal yet, but I had at least set a few short-term ones.
As I looked at Elia, who had fallen asleep beside me, my eyelids grew heavy, and I slowly closed my eyes.
“For now, I should just sleep and think later….”
I would only be able to sleep lightly anyway,
so if Elia cried or babbled, I’d wake up right away.
There was no need to feel anxious about something going wrong while I slept.
With that small reassurance, I let myself drift into sleep, though it wouldn’t be a deep one.