The cold words from the captain shocked me, leaving no time to calm my startled heart before he spoke again in an icy tone.

“I briefly forgot… whose person you are. That’s all.”

I had thought that the current captain might trust me a little more now, since we had relied on each other and fought monsters together this time.

The captain was saying that it was all just my own delusion, that he had simply forgotten for a moment who I was.

“Do you really… still distrust me even now? Do you think I’m not your person, Captain?”

“…I’d prefer if you didn’t make me repeat myself.”

“……”

It felt like something was crumbling inside me.

Unlike before the regression, it seemed I was nothing more than a spy sent by the enemy to the current captain.

Well, I suppose we haven’t spent enough time together yet for him to trust me.

It seemed like it would take about 5 more years for complete trust to form.

I fully understood that fact in my head, but I guess my heart still ached no matter what.

The voice that slipped through my lips was a little damp without me realizing it.

“I understand. I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable. I’ll be careful not to show an informal attitude towards you in the future, Captain.”

“……”

“And you told me to act as I please without needing your permission… But as the vice-captain, at least on the surface, I can’t arbitrarily carry out operations on my own. Please allow me to go to the rift.”

The captain remained silent for a while.

He could have just said ‘go’ and that would be it, but it seemed he wasn’t inclined to even do that.

However, I couldn’t enter the rift arbitrarily without permission, so I stood firm and waited for his answer.

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to have any intention of tormenting me by making me stand there endlessly, and soon his lips parted.

“You may enter the rift. If you want to go to such a dangerous place alone and die, I have no right to stop you. As long as you don’t do anything that harms our unit members, I don’t care.”

“Thank you. I’ll prepare right after dinner and leave. The Marquis Territory isn’t far from here, and the rift itself isn’t very dangerous, so I should be able to return by tomorrow morning.”

After that, the captain didn’t say anything more.

Having achieved my initial goal, I also left the tent without lingering any longer.

Time was tight.

I hurried with preparations for the expedition afterwards, and was able to leave for my next destination, the Parmart Marquis Territory, by the evening.

On the way to the Parmart Marquis Territory, heavy rain poured down.

It was unexpected.

Even though I came back from 5 years in the future, it’s not like I had memorized all the weather from before the regression.

For that reason, by the time I arrived in front of Rift No. 1 in the Parmart Marquis Territory, I was completely drenched.

The wet clothes sticking to my skin felt quite unpleasant, but I didn’t bother changing.

Time was tight and they would dry quickly once I entered the rift anyway.

However, the reason I couldn’t enter the rift right away was due to a urgent call that came from behind at that moment.

“Vice-Captain!”

It was Karl’s voice.

Startled, I turned around to see Karl getting off a horse, looking like he had rushed here.

The guy smiled brightly in a state of being soaked by the rain like me.

Then he opened what seemed to be a new umbrella and held it over my head.

“Ah, what a relief. You haven’t gone in yet.”

“Karl? Why are you here? Did you follow me?”

“I heard you were going into the rift alone again, so I hurried after you. It’s dangerous to go alone, so let’s go together.”

“I’d like that, but…”

I couldn’t readily tell him to come along.

The words the captain had said to me were still lingering in my mind.

– “You may enter the rift. If you want to go to such a dangerous place alone and die, I have no right to stop you. As long as you don’t do anything that harms our unit members, I don’t care.”

The captain said he wouldn’t care about me as long as I ‘don’t do anything that harms the unit members’.

Those words also meant that if I ‘do something harmful’, he won’t just stand by and watch.

Unlike me, Karl was clearly the captain’s person… Taking him in would surely get on the captain’s nerves.

Even if that weren’t the case, I also didn’t want to force my subordinate into taking risks, so after some contemplation, I shook my head.

“Thanks for coming all the way here. But I’m going into the rift alone.”

“What? But…”

“I’m more comfortable alone. This rift doesn’t seem very dangerous either.”

“……”

Karl, who usually readily responded to my words, was oddly quiet now.

With only the sound of rain pattering on the umbrella echoing loudly, his lips finally parted.

“Why do you always try to bear it alone?”

“What?”

“I don’t believe you when you simply say you’re more comfortable alone. You’re just afraid of putting someone in danger, aren’t you, Vice-Captain?”

For a while, I couldn’t make any reply to Karl.

It was a remark that accurately pierced through my deep inner thoughts that even I wasn’t aware of.

Yes, I didn’t want to put my precious people in danger.

That’s why when Ernant called me to the Imperial Palace to kill me before the regression, I went alone.

I hadn’t expected him to go as far as poisoning me, but I had anticipated that something would happen that day.

To prevent others from getting involved, I went to meet Ernant alone.

Entering the rift alone and getting hit by the monster’s cold attack, and stubbornly coming here alone this time, were all because I was a coward.

A coward who feared losing those close to me.

“…You’re right. I’d prefer if unit members other than me enter the rift as little as possible. You, Elma, and the captain too.”

“Why go that far…”

“I’ve had a dream before.”

Karl’s green eyes wavered for a moment.

Gazing at those eyes, I opened my mouth.

“In that dream, I lost you. I buried your corpse with my own hands. I stroked your cold cheek and cried, for a long, long time.”

“Are you talking about the dream you had before?”

“Yeah. That dream was so vivid… I don’t want to experience that ever again. I didn’t just lose you either. I lost you, I lost Elma… and in the end, I lost my own life too.”

The me before the regression was that much of a miserable failure.

I lost comrades in the process of fighting monsters, got betrayed in love, and in the end, even lost my life.

To avoid repeating that past, I had to become strong on my own.

I had to become so strong that I could close all the rifts spread throughout the empire.

But Karl seemed dissatisfied with my determination.

“You don’t want to experience the sorrow you felt in that dream again? Then shouldn’t you rely on us all the more?”

“…?”

“If you keep taking the lead alone under the pretext of protecting us and end up leaving us first… what will become of us after that? What about us who will be left behind without your protection?”

Karl reached out his hand.

His touch was so careful and gentle that I didn’t even think to avoid it.

Only when his fingertips touched my cheek did I tremble slightly.

“……”

“……”

We had often pinched or touched each other’s cheeks while playing around, but this time it felt a bit… different.

It was like a touch filled with a slightly different emotion.

So I was a little flustered, but quickly brushed that thought aside.

There was no way Karl, who had stayed by my side like family, would harbor any other feelings for me.

Meanwhile, the guy gently caressed my cheek and opened his mouth.

“I wish you would rely on me a little more.”

“…But if you follow me into the rift, the captain won’t just sit still, right? Did you get his permission before coming?”

“Ah, you don’t need to worry about that part. As soon as I said I’d follow you, he readily gave permission as if he’d been waiting for it.”

“He willingly told you to go?”

Karl immediately nodded at my surprised question.

“He must have been worried about you deep down.”

It was a bit unexpected.

The captain’s attitude I saw earlier was fierce.

He said he didn’t trust me and acted like he didn’t care whether I lived or died.

But he so readily sent Karl, one of the key members of our knight order, to me.

“Really? You really got the captain’s permission before coming?”

“I told you, yes. Do you want to go back and ask if it’s true?”

“No need. Let’s just enter the rift.”

Karl promptly nodded, causing the raindrops that had collected on his red hair to fall onto his cheeks.

For a moment, I thought they looked like tears, but contrary to that thought, he showed a bright smile.

“I get a little nervous every time I enter a rift… Would it be okay if you held my hand?”

“…You can be such a child sometimes. Just this once.”

“Thank you, Vice-Captain.”

Karl tightly grasped the hand I held out.

I thought it would be cold since he said he was nervous, but unexpectedly, his hand was warm.

It even felt hot to the touch.

Holding that hand, I stepped into the world beyond the rift together with Karl.

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.