“So you used to watch this stuff?” Edlyn hugged a cold cola like a small moon, sprawled on the couch like a sun-drunk cat, eyes on the TV’s tiny stadium glow.

“Nice shot!” Eli’s cheer popped like a cork, and he sprang from his chair like a coiled spring. “That kick was sick!”

Edlyn curled her lip like a leaf in wind, seeing nothing to hook her, like a pond without ripples.

With that weak leg, she thought she could’ve shattered the guy like brittle clay, a heel cracking a dry riverbed.

Boredom pooled in her chest like dusk, and she yawned like a sleepy fox, ready to drift back to her room like a cloud.

Eli sensed her mood like a change in the weather, whooshed to her side like a shadow, and wrapped her up, pinning her to the sofa like a quilt.

Edlyn nuzzled him by reflex like a cat brushing a hand, her voice soft as warm milk. “What are you doing?”

“You’re bored, right? I’ll play with you,” Eli smiled like a spring breeze and twined a silk strand of her hair, breathing in like tasting rain.

“No.” She turned her face like a shy flower, his breath warm on her cheek like a rising dawn, heat blooming under her skin like peach blush.

He dipped his head like a hawk stooping, but she pressed a palm to his mouth like a feathered fan, and he sighed, gaze flicking away like a tossed pebble. “Seriously. Don’t people here know it’s rude to ruin a mood?”

Snuggled against him like a swallow at the eaves, Edlyn traced circles on his chest like ripples on a lake. “Alright, alright. Go take a look,” she said with a honeyed smile like lantern light. “You said something similar just appeared in this world, right? It’s not good to ignore him.”

“Mm? I was just a regular citizen here,” Eli chuckled like low thunder, toying with her hair like silk thread. “At thirty or so I got isekai’d as a Hero. Guardian or not, what’s it to me?”

“You menace.” Edlyn laughed like a silver bell and tapped his chest like a playful drumbeat. “Stop babbling. Someone’s waiting.”

“Fine, fine. When my lady commands, I obey,” Eli snapped his fingers with a crisp crack like flint, a suit blooming on him like nightfall, and he vanished like smoke.

A young man who looked twenty-five lounged with hands behind his head like a lazy crane, eyes on the sun like a golden coin.

Weirdly, the sky dimmed the next heartbeat like an eclipse, shadows sliding across rooftops like spilled ink.

Seeing it, the young man sighed like wind over reeds and pinched the sun with a gesture, sketching a fake eclipse like drawing a curtain.

“This isn’t great, you know?” Sun Yu said, exasperation hanging on him like wet clothes, as Eli appeared before him like a ghost from mist. “Every time I come to you, you make a mess, and cleanup’s a pain.”

Eli arched a brow like a drawn bow. “You know a spring night’s worth a thousand gold, right? I haven’t come out swinging already, which is mercy like cool rain. What more do you want?”

“Ahem. Enough chatter. Business,” Sun Yu smiled thinly like a knife’s edge and painted light in the air like ink on silk, weaving a picture out of energy like spun glass. “Your past glitched a little, and anomalies from your world keep bleeding into mine. It’s a big problem. Go fix it.”

The image showed the time after Eli chose to go abroad and met Edlyn, memories flickering like old film.

Eli frowned at it like a storm over hills as a colossal magic array flowered in the sky like a steel mandala, sealing world information like frost over a pond.

“My past, huh? Did that bunch punch through time?” Eli rubbed his chin like feeling stubble, thoughts ticking like beads.

“Whatever it is, fix it fast,” Sun Yu said, voice tight as a bowstring, rubbing his temple like grinding grit. “I’m damping the ripple feed from your world every moment, which is hell like hauling stones. Keep this up and some idiots will pry a rift open, and more dumbasses will hop worlds.”

“And you said a spring night’s worth a thousand gold, so guess what? I haven’t slept in ages, like a desert without rain, you brat!”

He might not beat Eli in a brawl, but as near-peers his aura flared like a banner, and he refused to wilt like a trampled reed.

“Alright, alright. I’m curious what happened back home anyway,” Eli nodded with a sunny smile like a break in clouds. “So. See yourself out.”

He gestured politely like opening a gate, urging the man to get moving like a breeze nudging a sail.

Sun Yu shot him a glare like a thrown dagger, flipped him the finger like a rude flag, and vanished like a snuffed lamp.

Eli chuckled helplessly like water over stones and weighed the info in hand like a cold coin, thoughts settling like snow.

Fine, it’s a way to kill boredom, like tossing pebbles into a lake to watch the ripples bloom.

Edlyn at home was nearly bored enough to meditate, like a monk staring at incense smoke, so a task would do nicely.

He could even revisit that tsundere little Demon King, like rereading a favorite, thorny poem.

Eli grinned wickedly like a fox, the thought gleaming like a hidden knife.

Edlyn half-dozed on the couch like a cat under eaves, and her voice threaded across distance like a silk line. “I heard that. Planning a celibacy arc again?”

“Wife, my bad!” Eli blurted like a kid caught stealing jam, guilt rushing like heat.

They packed with quick hands like birds weaving nests, then returned to their original world like a tide turning, Eli syncing with the local laws like a key to a lock.

He raised a hand and slit space-time open like cutting silk, then led Edlyn through like stepping between rain beads.

Time rewound in a long pour like a river running uphill, stars wheeling backward like lanterns spun by a child.

They fell into the ancient era, when magic and Battle Aura filled the world like mist over pines, and everything rang with power like chimes.

———

This was before Eli’s group reached the Snow Kingdom, and since becoming the will of the cosmos, they rarely came this far back, like elders avoiding old battlefields.

Eli flew hand-in-hand with Edlyn like twin swallows, sweeping for anomalies in this age like hunters tracing tracks in frost.

Meanwhile, in the present line after defeating a Bloodkin named Kondley, Edlyn paused, the resolve in her eyes like flint. “Hey, Hero, I want to get stronger. I want to learn magic and Battle Aura.”

Eli blinked like an owl at dusk; before him, one tall and one small beauty stared with wide eyes like clear lakes.

He noted their sisterly features like mirrored petals and the tear moles under their eyes like fallen dew, marks that nudged their faces toward perfect harmony.

Eli smiled and said, “Sure,” the promise light as a feather, while his thoughts surged like a storm behind a calm sea.

Like hell.

With two little girls in tow, how was he supposed to flirt on the road, like a bee shackled from flowers?

He wasn’t a creep, clouds clear and moon bright; he just thought they were cute, like kittens tumbling, nothing else.

Seriously.

Eli tipped his head back against the wagon like a man under a tree, the carriage holding two sleeping girls like bundled seedlings, and noon light pooled like honey.

Last night, he’d planned to slip away in the hush like a fox through grass, feet soft and intentions softer.

But Edlyn’s sleep-talk said they had no home, words tugging like thorns, and his heart softened like wax, so he bit down and brought them along.

Hah, did you think the great Demonic Lord would turn soft like wet clay?

She would ride the Hero’s bleeding-heart nature like a current and cling tight, like ivy on a wall.

Even if nothing else, she could swindle some coin, like picking fruit from a low branch.

Right now, the Hero seemed newly awakened and weak, like a blade fresh from the quench, still soft.

Humans at this stage should rely on money, like roots in soil; at least that’s how her ten-odd human years had looked.

Either way, she’d profit, like a merchant hedging bets, win or win.

When his purse ran dry and his guard dropped like a gate, she’d reveal herself as the Demon King like lightning behind clouds and crush him in one stroke.

Ahaha, revenge arriving early was sweet like winter plums, and excitement bubbled in her chest like boiling spring.

Sensing movement inside, Eli lifted the curtain like parting reeds. “Oh? Awake, kiddo.”

“Morning, Mr. Hero,” Edlyn said with a sugared smile like candied haw, and in her heart she added, go die, Hero, like a thorn under velvet.

“Morning.” Eli dipped his chin like a polite nod and turned back to the reins like a river to its course.

With magic laid over the carriage like steady hands, they flew along the road like swallows, scenery streaking past the window like ribbons.

Edlyn pressed to the glass like a moth to lantern light, eyes bright as if stars were caught there, drinking in every odd sight like dew.

As the Demon King before, she’d only thought of war, terrain as ambush and counter-ambush like chess on stone, never this idle marveling.

Reborn, she’d lived mostly in the countryside like a reed by a quiet pond, seeing the same scenes until her thoughts dulled like worn shoes.

Now, strange vistas rolled by like painted scrolls, and her gaze shone like twin lamps.

Angela still slept across her lap like a kitten, breath even as tide.

Eli’s magic control was deft like a potter’s hand, keeping the carriage smooth like a swan on water for so long.

On that point alone, Edlyn felt a flicker of respect like a candle, honest and small.

“Mr. Hero, where are we going?” Edlyn asked, layering innocence like fresh snow, voice light as wind bells.

“North,” Eli said with a smile like a warm fire. “We’ll need clothes on the way. Edlyn, what style do you like?”

“I… anything’s fine,” Edlyn said with an awkward laugh like a squeaky hinge, bluffing through a topic she’d never studied like a fish on sand.

“Alright. I’ll pick,” Eli shrugged like tossing a pebble, unconcerned as a cloud.

Near noon, they reached a small town like a nest of red roofs, still far from the Snow Kingdom like a mountain on the horizon, and Eli chose to rest so the girls wouldn’t burn out like overtaxed candles.

He wasn’t in a hurry; after resigning as Archmage, burdens fell from him like old armor, and there was no need to rush north like a hunted deer.

Of course, he had no idea about the tasks and fate waiting down the road like stones under snow.

After checking into an inn, Eli asked around for news like a fisherman casting wide, curious about recent events in the Miter Empire.

“Huh? You’re heading to Miter?” The innkeeper polished a glass like a moon on water and stared, surprised as a startled bird.

“Yeah.” Eli propped a finger under his chin like a thinker, sipping beer that foamed like surf. “Anything happen there lately?”

“Mm… no idea,” the innkeeper said, apology soft as ash. “Miter’s far from the Draco Empire, and this is a small inn, not a messenger post.”

It was what he’d expected, yet disappointment still fell like a thin rain, cooling and dull.

“No worries.” Eli smiled like a lantern relit and slid a copper across the counter like a leaf on water.