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Pang-pang spent some time and then came back outside.

“He’s asleep.”

Of course, it’s not surprising since we were already halfway in that mood before we came out.

Just to make sure, I peeked inside the open door again, but the heart rate monitor was still recording numbers properly. So it seems the meaning of being asleep was quite literal.

I thought it was fortunate, but my mind was still complicated.

Creating clones was probably illegal, as far as I remember. So, even before humanity confirmed this alien technology. I think it has been that way since the point where cloned sheep and dogs were being made.

Any technology applicable to animals could also be applied to humans, and I had the impression that someone would stop it before any experiments could be done.

However, I suppose those who banned it never imagined that such a situation would occur, but it has happened anyway.

I still have no idea how many humans have sacrificed themselves for such experiments. Even if there were no sacrifices, it would still be illegal, so the chairman will have to face punishment.

Things have escalated too much to let it slide generously.

Can James just let it go?

What about me?

Whether I can get away with being involved in the company under the excuse of not knowing is the issue.

“…”

And how will Pang-pang take this fact?

No matter how much she got involved in it, the chairman is Pang-pang’s grandmother. For Pang-pang, I might be virtually the only remaining relative now, so how would she accept the fact that she could end up in court and go to prison?

“Phew.”

When I went back outside after scanning the room, Pang-pang let out a long sigh.

And when our eyes met, she smiled slightly.

“So… I was a magical girl for a little while, right?”

Even though we fought against each other, well…

As I remained silent and unable to respond, Pang-pang briefly fell into thought before smiling again.

“…Thank you.”

And then she said something I never imagined.

“…Huh?”

“You brought closure to all of this. If it weren’t for you, I would have ended up being used somehow. You all saved me, didn’t you?”

That’s true, but…

What would have happened if I hadn’t been there?

Pung-pung would have pushed through her plans to the end. Not having recognized me as a possibility, she would have moved much slower than that, but she would have sought a way to win more decisively.

The chairman must have acted in her own way as well.

Ultimately, maybe the magical girls could have managed to stop it. But if it had taken a bit longer, the damage could have been greater—and above all, there’s a high possibility that Pang-pang wouldn’t have made it out safely.

I guess my children would have only known what kind of being Pang-pang was as a ‘target’ in the end.

So, um…

I feel like I might have accomplished something.

“Then… let’s go back.”

Pang-pang smiled at me as she said that.

“To Earth.”

That caught me off guard.

It meant that Pang-pang remembers what I told her.

“…You remember everything?”

“Yeah, I remember everything. My body moved on its own, but I remember what I saw and heard clearly.”

Pang-pang teased me as she playfully nudged my shoulder.

“You were kind of like a prince.”

At those words, the children’s eyes turned toward me.

First to Hae-yoon’s gaze.

She was smiling, but beyond that smile, I sensed something sticky. It seemed like there were tons of questions she wanted to ask, and I suddenly wanted to make up an excuse. I didn’t quite know what I wanted to excuse, though.

Ji-hye was also looking at me with a smile, but somehow her emotions seemed similar to Hae-yoon’s.

My feelings about Ji-hye are complicated. At least my feelings for Hae-yoon stem from admiration, so that’s not too hard to deal with, but Ji-hye… how do I put it?

Friendship that started from sisterly love and developed beyond that? Maybe the ‘fondness’ that got in the middle caused this situation. Well, it’s true that childhood friends tend to go in that direction anyway.

…Come to think of it, Hae-yoon is also more or less a childhood friend, but let’s not get into that for now.

Jua, however, didn’t show as blatant an expression as Hae-yoon or Ji-hye.

But she had a look that still mixed with jealousy. I think I’ll need to take my time to figure out Jua’s emotions slowly. I’m genuinely curious about what the source of them is.

As for the others, well…

Dalia and Delphinium looked like they were keeping their distance, casting me expressions as if they were watching a criminal, making me want to plead my case immediately.

Rose had an even greater distance, making it look like she was trying to mock me.

“…Fine.”

I decided to make Rose my target.

So, as a target for my anger. There’s no ground for that.

Honestly, I just wanted to escape this bizarre situation as quickly as possible. It just so happened that Rose was the farthest away in that situation.

Seeing my change in expression, Rose seemed to catch on immediately and took off.

I chased after Rose—

And for some reason, the three girls were also chasing after me.

And in that moment, I realized my choice was extremely wrong.

In any situation, fleeing without resolving the problem in front of you doesn’t seem to be a wise choice.

*

There were various opinions about how to get to Earth.

First, we thought about taking the spaceship back and then coming back to take people with us to handle the situation.

But doing that, who knows what could happen in the meantime. Sure, if we’re really quick, we could make the round trip in under an hour, but that’s just considering the travel time.

Bureaucrats usually tend to be slow with any action, so the already precarious chairman could die during that time.

Shouldn’t we do our best to ensure she’s treated and testify?

So we decided to carry the whole space station with us.

Well, that’s only natural, but we can’t just ‘snap’ and move it all the way to Earth’s atmosphere. If we make a mistake, this massive space station could just plummet into Earth’s gravity.

Also, there’s the issue with the satellites floating and flying all around in the thermal layers and the ships coming toward Earth.

“Let’s go to the Lagrange point.”

Cherry said something I couldn’t comprehend.

“…Just know it’s a good spot to park a huge structure in space.”

Jua said that as she pointed to the screen with her finger.

She drew the sun, and then the Earth orbiting around it. Then she put a dot around the Earth, drew a line from Earth to the sun, and marked two more dots at 60 degrees apart from that line, and then drew lines again.

“It’s a point where gravity and centrifugal force cancel each other out, so anything around here won’t fall toward the sun. It would be good for long-term observation. And it’s about the distance manageable with a warp point in this modern age.”

Aha!

I didn’t understand at all.

But decided to nod as if I got the gist of it.

Anyway, we’re planning to park at a suitable spot and then return to Earth with just the spaceship. That way, it wouldn’t be a burden to send someone from Earth… that’s the idea.

Ultimately, since we need to round trip through the warp point anyway, there’s not a huge difference from making the trip back and forth from here. But the ‘psychological distance’ cannot be overlooked.

After all, Earthlings are slowly getting used to the vast concept of the universe.

Going back to the control room centered on infrastructure, I arranged the generator I brought along.

“You know how to generate energy, right?”

Cherry said.

“This time, we’ll need much more energy than ‘hope.’ The scale of the facilities we need to move is enormous.”

Cherry continued her explanation calmly.

“If we accumulate energy with the generator over time, it could be different, but right now, we have a reason to move a bit urgently.”

“I have something to tell you about the generator.”

Following Cherry’s words, I opened James’ compartment.

“Originally, the generator should have only used despair energy. But you modified it so that it can also use hope.”

“Does that mean it has to be modified again this time?”

James shook his head.

“No. Your generator is very likely ‘already’ changed.”

“What do you mean by that…?”

“It means it has become ‘your’ generator from the start. As the person who designed it originally, I’m not entirely pleased with it, but you’ve always wielded that weapon as needed.”

“So, you’re saying that if I need it, I can use any kind of energy to power it? Got it.”

After hearing some celestial terms that gave me a headache, plus already being very tired, I pretended to understand James’ words.

In short, it’s just that I can run it with love.

Love.

It sounded like a very impressive word, yet oddly enough, it’s also an energy that I could generate just by kissing the kids.

Well, it’s true that you have to love to kiss after all—

I received Ji-hye’s circuit and wore it on my wrist.

I had already received a kiss baptism not too long ago, so I transformed easily.

Once again, it was white.

To me, as if it was the most natural thing, the three of them approached.

…Love, huh.

At this age, saying that must be easier than saying ‘I like you.’

The feeling of love is heavy. It can evoke despair, and even hope. It can be a source of life for humans, and a cause of death too.

The three of them, in that sense, say they love me.

Do I even deserve that?

Hae-yoon would probably say, of course I do.

Ji-hye would say that qualifications are not something to be considered from the start.

As for Jua… um, I think she might want to get to the bottom of it.

I closed my eyes.

What can I do?

Honestly, I still don’t know anything. Even with past life memories, that sensation remains an unknown territory. Quite embarrassingly.

In that case, it’s just a matter of taking a bit more time to understand it slowly.

Yeah. To put it that way, our lives can now be said to have truly begun, right?

Since I’ve already cleared all the stumbling blocks to love.

With the power of love, I shall now—

It’s time to go back.

Back to our home.

 

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