I began reading the letter Karen had left behind.
(Lina, Lani—by the time you read this letter, I will already be gone, and I will have left the capital. Today is January 1st, so you must stay at home, okay.
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave you like this. Next, I'll tell you the whole truth.
Escorting merchants was only the surface reason. The truth is, I have become the Brave, and I am going to defeat the Demon King.
Lina, do you remember the day after my birthday this year, when we came out of the dungeon? You said you felt that something about me was different.
Your feeling was right. I really did change.
That day, I stepped into a teleportation circle and was sent to Level 100. There, the Criminal God—who was imprisoned inside a stone statue—told me that I had been chosen as the Brave.
At that moment, I truly wanted to refuse. But I didn't have the right to refuse. That's why I began planning everything that happened today. By the way, when I went out to see you that day, I had already been in the dungeon for several hours.
Back to the main point.
Before accepting the power, I asked the Criminal God to delay notifying the temple—to move it to the day after your birthday—because I didn't want to miss celebrating your birthday with you.
I also asked her to tell only the king about this matter. I didn't want the world to know that I am the Brave. The Criminal God agreed to all of it. That's why the king came to our house—for this reason alone.
As for defeating the Demon King, I never intended to take you with me. I only want you to stay somewhere safe, not to follow me into danger.
I know it was wrong of me to decide this without asking you first. I know you would have said you wanted to go with me. That's exactly why I chose to tell you only after I left.
I could have chosen not to tell you at all. But I didn't want to hide this from you for the rest of my life. Hiding it from you would have filled me with guilt.
In order to let you stay in the capital, I planned for you to start working. Everything happened suddenly—but also smoothly. Miss Jessica happened to resign, and I thought you could take her place.
After that, you already know what happened. I succeeded in getting you the job. All that was left was finding a reason you could accept—and words alone wouldn't be enough.
I originally thought the King would summon me, and I was prepared to let Lani know as well. I didn't expect the king to come personally, bringing his entire family. That gave me an idea—to wait until Lani took her nap. That's why they stayed until the evening. That part is my fault.
After Lani fell asleep, and to avoid involving too many people, I brought the King and the Sword Saint under the apple tree and made three requests of the King.
First: to conceal my identity.
Second: to find three companions—a knight, a merchant, and an assassin.
Third: if anyone causes trouble for you, including nobles, someone will record what they say as proof that you are acting defensively. Still, it's best to carry a recorder with you. Audio recordings are safer.
Yesterday was the interviews for those three companions. Although a Saintess barged in along the way, I don't need her, so I sent her away.
That's about everything. You probably understand now.
But don't worry. I won't be in danger. I'm only going to dungeons in other countries to collect the Brave's power.
Now I need to entrust something to you—please take over my work for a while. I'm sorry. I know it's a lot, and I'm putting you through trouble.
You don't need to worry about the fields or the livestock. The fields are being taken care of by stone golems, and I've already slaughtered all the livestock. I've stored the ingredients in the cold storage—you just need to remember to put them into the storage hole.
I've also spoken with the guild master. He'll look after Lani. And the cake I promised you as compensation—I put it in the fridge.
Now that household matters are settled, there's something important I need to say.
You must be careful of the people from the temple.
Yesterday, they tried to make me submit to the temple—that's why the Saintess interfered. I managed to avoid them without speaking to them.
If the temple can't make me submit, they may come looking for you instead. They're a group of brainwashed puppets, and they might do anything to force me to submit. You must be careful. If something really happens, I will erase them.
Lastly, I hope you'll continue living just like you always have.
Two years just sounds like a reasonable number. I might even be back in less than a year.
If you want to watch movies, go ahead. Don't worry about me—I'll make it up to you later. Just remember not to watch horror movies. If you really want to, wait until I come back. I'm afraid you'll end up sleeping in the movie room and won't dare to leave.
And one last thing.
Yesterday, I didn't reject you. It's just that those words couldn't be said at a time like that. So when I return to your side… let's sleep together every day.)
After finishing the letter, I clenched it tightly in my hand, my heart filled with both joy and anger. So Karen really was a Brave after all. No wonder he'd reacted so strongly back then when I asked the god about it and denied everything so fiercely. I never expected even the gods to be helping Karen—how unfair.
And so that's why he had been so eager to get me working, all so I could stay in the capital. Well… maybe that wasn't a bad thing. Otherwise, I probably would've become lazy again.
And on top of that, he had even asked a god to delay things just to celebrate my birthday with me. He really was too good to me. I shouldn't have made things hard for him. I should just listen to him and behave.
And it's not like I want to watch horror movies or anything! …I just wanted an excuse to cling to Karen. Ah—how bold of me!
So yesterday really wasn't a rejection after all, just like Lani said. And that last line—wasn't that basically a proposal? It was, no matter how you looked at it.
Hehe, how special. It felt like a proposal meant just for me. I'm so happy. Tonight I'll go to Karen's room—no, our room—and sleep there.
But after rereading the letter a few more times, my mood slowly sank. In the end, my anger overwhelmed my joy, and I couldn't help shouting out loud.
"Why didn't you write whether your companions are men or women?!"
"...Huh? Big sis, what's wrong?"
"Little Lani, I'm sorry. I woke you up."
It was all Karen's fault for not being clear. I'd woken Lani up from her sleep. I couldn't stop worrying about whether those three companions were women. What if they fell for Karen?
Since Karen needed them, he wouldn't ruin the atmosphere. I really hoped they were all men. All men… please let them all be men…
"Big sis, what are you holding?"
Still half-asleep, little Lani pointed at the letter in my hand. I flopped onto the bed and told her.
"It's a letter big bro wrote for us."
"I wanna see!"
The moment she heard it was from Karen, little Lani perked up, her tail wagging back and forth—just like Sally's ponytail, swaying whenever she got excited.
"Mm, here you go."
"Why is the paper all wrinkly?"
"Because I squeezed it too hard just now…"
While little Lani focused on reading the letter, I rolled around on the bed under the blanket. I was so conflicted—worried and scared on one hand.
I hoped Karen would hurry up, hunt down the Demon King, and come back to me before those companions—who I didn't even know were men or women—noticed how charming he was.
On the other hand, I was so happy and excited, wanting to share my joy with someone. But the only one I could share it with was little Lani. So I poked my head out from under the blanket and asked her,
"Little Lani, is there anything you don't understand? Do you want me to explain it?"
"Big sis, who is this Criminal God? Did she commit crimes?"
"Um… she only said she was a disciple of the Goddess of Time, Timeos. She didn't say anything about crimes."
"Then big bro learned about her when he became a Brave?"
"Probably. That god was in a hurry to leave, so I only managed to ask one question."
"What was it?"
"I asked whether big bro was a Brave. He denied it really intensely, and the god denied it too."
"Big bro and the god teamed up together. That's mean!"
"Yeah, very mean! But I've already forgiven Brother. He did it for our sake, so we can't hate him, okay?"
I placed my hand on little Lani's head and gently stroked it. Then little Lani shouted loudly,
"I won't! I like big bro the most! I like big sis too!"
"I like you both the most too!"
I shouted back, then pulled her into my arms and rolled around together with her. After a while, I got tired and stopped. I couldn't wait any longer, so I asked her eagerly,
"Lani, did you see the very last sentence?"
"Not yet."
"Then hurry up and read it!"
I was so excited that I immediately shoved the letter in front of her. After reading it, Little Lani tilted her head and asked me in confusion,
"This sentence isn't strange. Why are you so excited, big sis?"
"Because that's a proposal. It's big bro proposing to big sis."
"I don't get it."
Don't get it? Well, that made sense. Little Lani was still little—marriage was a long way off for her.
"Then you'll understand when you grow up. Hehe~"
"Sis is weird… hm!?"
Just then, Lani's stomach let out a loud "gurgle~," startling her. I'd been awake for a long time too—it was definitely time for breakfast.
"Let's wash our faces first, then go eat."
I put the letter away into my storage hole, climbed out of bed, and walked toward the door. Lani followed behind me, and just like that, we began our first day without Karen.