Chapter 65:You never came (5)

However, even so, my strange habit hadn’t completely disappeared.  

…It had gotten better. At least, I thought so.  

I no longer wandered around empty rooms searching for enemies. After all, there were already people in each room.  

Even the instincts in my head seemed to recognize that there were companions inside the rooms, so I no longer felt the uneasy urge to open every door.  

But… it wasn’t because I didn’t want to scare my companions. It was more because I felt, “It’s safe because my companions are here.”  

I knew we weren’t in a wartime situation. I also knew there was no need to worry at night inside this house. Especially in this apartment, where no one who wasn’t a resident could enter without permission.  

Still, the recurring fear hadn’t completely disappeared.  

Sitting on the edge of my bed, I took deep breaths to try to calm myself.  

But my hands were still trembling. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to hold something in them.  

Even taking out the pocket knife I always carried in my bag didn’t settle my nerves.  

Despite knowing no one was inside, I opened all the closets and lifted the bedsheet to check under the bed.  

After that, I went to the corner of the room and sat with my back against it, looking out into the room. Only then did I feel a bit more at ease.  

But the fear still hadn’t vanished completely.  

I still didn’t know what might be happening beyond the closed door of the room.  

I understood.  

Demons didn’t exist in this world.

The Demon King’s army had already been dismantled. Bandits didn’t exist here, at least not in this country.

And no thief would bother climbing this high into an apartment building. Such thieves wouldn’t even get the chance to try; they’d be stopped before they could.  

Even if someone managed to enter this house, it would be practically impossible for them to harm my companions. I could at least take comfort in that.  

But no matter how much I tried to calm my mind, a persistent voice in the corner of my head kept repeating, 

“But, what if? What if? What if…?”  

If they could come over here, couldn’t the remnants of the demon race come through as well?  

The Demon King had tried to annihilate countless lives in a single moment by using a force that opposed divine power, taking himself down with us.  

What if some of the remaining demons had developed a portal to cross into this world?  

Even if demons crossed over, I knew they wouldn’t find me. My appearance had changed completely. Even if they saw me in person, they would never recognize me.  

But even if they didn’t find me, they could still hurt others. They might randomly capture and kill people, demanding the hero’s whereabouts.  

And I no longer had the holy sword, so they might think they could deal with me now.  

And if one of those random victims was my sister…  

Slap!  

I slapped my cheeks hard with both hands.  

No. That wouldn’t happen. No matter how I thought about it, it was impossible. Even the goddess had struggled to send just four of us here by pooling the strength of countless people.  

Even if the demons managed to cross over, and even if they used magic to nullify some physical attacks, the human population of this world was incomparable to Elerelsia.

The number of people in this tiny land alone far exceeded the entire kingdom’s population in Elerelsia. A mere handful of demons would be overwhelmed in a matter of hours.  

“…..”  

But no matter how much I tried to reason with myself, my mind kept conjuring grim scenarios.  

I clenched my teeth and tried to endure.  

But in the end, I couldn’t.  

With a shaky exhale through clenched teeth, I stepped out of the room.  

*

Still, thanks to the strong bond I shared with my party members, even my anxious imagination couldn’t push me to sneak around opening their bedroom doors while they were asleep. At least, I could resolve my concerns about their safety through mental images.  

Kalia would be in her room, alert and scanning her surroundings. She always did that when I was irrationally scared.  

Dana would have temporarily erected a barrier.  

Fia would be praying to the goddess, ready to wield her divine power at a moment’s notice.  

And Arna…  

…At least with Arna, I didn’t have to force myself to conjure soothing thoughts to calm down.  

“…..”  

“…..”  

Arna had come out of her room and was now standing there, quietly looking into my eyes.  

For the record, I was standing on high alert in the kitchen, holding the largest kitchen knife I could find.

Its handle was a bit too short to grip with both hands comfortably, but I forced it into my grasp, mimicking the stance I used to take when wielding the holy sword.  

Yes, Arna always had sharp ears.  

She never missed even the smallest sound, often sensing threats and warning us long before we noticed them ourselves. Her keen hearing had saved our lives countless times.  

…………..I had slapped my cheeks earlier with my palms.  

Though the door had been closed at the time, maybe the sound had woken her. Or perhaps she had heard my footsteps pacing around the living room.

Maybe she’d even caught the faint scraping sound of the knife being drawn.  

Or maybe she had just happened to wake up because she was thirsty.  

Whatever the reason, Arna was looking at me.  

At first, her eyes widened slightly in surprise.  

But after glancing between my flustered expression and the knife in my hand, her expression shifted. Though her legs were hidden behind the kitchen table, she probably realized I was standing in a posture suited for swordplay.  

“…….”  

Arna stared at me silently for a moment before turning back into her room.  

Was she going to pretend she hadn’t seen anything?  

Even so, my mind didn’t settle. My habit might have caused her to worry about me something I didn’t want.  

But the idea that she was simply ignoring it turned out to be wrong.  

Arna soon came back out of her room.  

The clothes she was wearing were no longer the pajamas she had been sleeping in since we crossed over into this world.  

Instead, she was dressed in the Elven attire she had worn when we first came here from Elerelsia.  

A green top and well-tanned deer leather pants. She wasn’t wearing boots since we were indoors, but otherwise, her appearance was just as it had been during our travels.  

She even held a bow in her hand.  

It wasn’t the wooden bow she used back in Elerelsia, of course she hadn’t brought any weapons with her when we crossed over.  

The bow she was holding was a modern one, the kind you’d see in Olympic archery competitions.  

“You can get these on that thing called the internet. With Dana’s help, of course. Apparently, there aren’t any strict regulations about it,” Arna said, smiling as if to explain when she noticed my gaze fixed on the bow.  

That wasn’t what I wanted to ask her about, though…  

I had looked into this myself before. I’d thought about buying a greatsword for the house, but the process was too cumbersome, so I gave up.

I even considered getting a bow, thinking it might be more practical since I knew how to shoot one a little. I had searched online but never followed through.  

Recurve bows, classified as sports equipment, could easily be purchased and owned by anyone. However, buying one didn’t make me think that this unease would dissipate so easily.

For me, a bow was a second-best option my weapon of choice had always been the holy sword.

I didn’t find it strange that Arna came here to buy a bow. By Irrelcia’s standards, it would make sense for someone like Arna to feel a little incomplete without a weapon.

The important thing was… why did Arna bring a weapon out at this hour?

Of course, it wasn’t really my place to say, considering I was holding a kitchen knife in the kitchen without any intention of cooking.

“I’ll take over the watch tonight.”

“…What?”

For a moment, I was stunned by Arna’s words.

“You’ve been on watch all by yourself this whole time. It must’ve been exhausting. Don’t worry about it tonight—just rest. I’ll stand guard.”

Somewhere in the back of my mind, a thought surfaced,

 ‘We don’t really need to keep watch in a safe place like this.’  

At the same time, I let the tension leave my body. It was so sudden that I almost dropped the knife in my hand.

“Ah.”

As I knelt on the floor, I realized just how tense I had been until now. Once the strength left my body, summoning it back was almost impossibly difficult.

“…..”

Arna walked around the table, briefly placing a hand on my shoulder before pulling away. Then she moved in front of me, turning her back to me while holding the bow in her hands.  

With an arrow nocked on the bowstring, she assumed a stance as if genuinely preparing to face an enemy.  

Before her lay nothing but an empty, dark living room. The city lights trickled in through the window, but that was all.  

It was quiet, dark, and entirely unthreatening.  

Yet it wasn’t until I looked at Arna’s back, blocking my view of the room, that I finally felt the space become truly safe.