The moment Rita's elegant back disappeared from the shop's entrance, the soft click of the closing automatic door was like a button being pressed in the two Shus' hearts, deactivating an alarm.
In the office, two sighs, as if having lost all support, sounded almost simultaneously.
Shu, who had finished watching the show, leaned back, his spine sliding down the back of the chair, and finally slumped into the office chair in an almost molten state. His arms hung limply at his sides, his eyes staring unfocused at a non-existent stain on the ceiling.
[Shu], who had seen Rita off, was more direct. He turned around, took two steps, and his upper body "thudded" onto the desk covered with design drafts and Homu disc covers. His cheek pressed against the cool paper, and he didn't move, like a doll whose soul had been drained.
"I'm really burned out..." [Shu]'s muffled voice came from the desk, indistinct.
"Mmm..." Shu closed his eyes, not even having the energy to tease him.
The air was filled with the fatigue of having survived a disaster.
They lay there, their thoughts like kites with broken strings, drifting aimlessly.
He, Shu.
The strongest warrior of the Fire Moth, the founder of the Fire Moth, the captain of the First Exploration Team, the one who had defeated multiple Herrschers...
Logically speaking, he should still be fighting on the front lines at this time. Even if there was no battle needed in the current "front line" of Sapphire City, Shu should have stayed there as a deterrent force.
But what about now?
And what had his main work been for the past seven days?
Handcrafting yellow-skinned cloth bag rabbits and merchandise for a certain beautiful girl... discussing support designs with teenage fanatic fans... listening to a small-looking headmaster expound on her philosophical understanding of children's animation...
And accepting a commission from a perfectly smiling head maid for a custom-made figure with detail requirements comparable to military blueprints, but with an unknown and impure purpose...
Is this reasonable?
Even Gu Chu would say this is unreasonable.
It's not that he was belittling himself.
His accidental split, his overpowered strength, the mysteries surrounding him... these were supposed to be grand propositions concerning the fate of the entire world.
But now, the first thing he worried about when he opened his eyes every day was "whether today's figure orders can be 'kneaded' out on time," "whether the stock of Homu discs is insufficient," "whether Mei will come in the afternoon to check if certain details of the Kiana merchandise are accurate"...
Wow!
This kind of life is really—
Shu twitched violently, raised his hands in protest, and bounced up for a moment before falling straight back. He then let his long legs, stretched straight along with his arms, shoot up into the air, and then slowly fall.
Looking up from the documents to take a breath, [Shu]: "..."
Had this imposter forgotten that he was still in the form of "Stelle"?
Shu felt that his current life was really terrible.
But strangely, this "terrible" was not accompanied by the bone-chilling anxiety and suffocating urgency of before.
How strange...
Shu carefully felt his current state.
He was really tired, like having run an obstacle course with inexplicable rules, or played a tense and exciting game of Wataru.
He was also mentally exhausted. After all, he really needed to make sure that his persona hadn't collapsed, and he had to deal with various sudden interpersonal "crises."
But... the pressure...
That feeling of carrying a boulder, of being on the verge of rolling down a mountain into eternal damnation... why had it faded?
He had indeed been on tenterhooks for the past few days...
But compared to the previous situations... what was this?
Not even as good as a single hair of a Chariot-class—
He was just trying to protect a little secret in front of acquaintances, maintaining a harmless disguise.
The shop might close down, the disguise might be exposed, and the worst-case scenario... would probably be being invited by Otto for "tea," being stared at by his friends with complicated gazes, or having to give up this little shop that he had poured his heart into?
It was like a person pretending not to know his friends for a prank. Even if he was found out, he would just be pointed at...
And there was a high probability that these things would become their future jokes.
Hmm?!
Being discovered by Kiana that he had made a super-detailed Kiana figure?!
That's still too terrifying, isn't it!
...
Hiss...
After this fleeting thought, Shu was stunned to find that when he was thinking about the "worst-case scenario" just now, the first thing that came to his mind was actually this!
Not the fear that another being with equal combat power would hurt them, nor the worry about how Kiana and the others would treat the two of them after discovering his other self...
...
When did it start?
This change had happened silently, in these noisy seven days full of various trivial troubles and small achievements.
He was like a cold, hard rock, its sharp edges slowly worn away by a continuous gentle stream, and its surface even beginning to be covered with a little moss.
He was still vigilant, his heart still pounded every time he had close contact with an acquaintance, and he still tossed and turned at night because of the problem of his split.
But it was undeniable that the details of the shop's operation, the ridiculous details of dealing with people from all walks of life, and even the quarrels with his other self...
These "trivial matters" that were originally insignificant in his life, or even wouldn't have existed at all, had been densely woven in, occupying his attention and diluting those grand worries about survival and destruction.
He now...
seemed to be really enjoying this chaotic daily life a little?
Even if it was built on lies and disguise, even if it could shatter like a bubble at any time.
But this feeling of being needed, of being drawn into the current of ordinary people's lives, of being busy for a specific and small goal... it actually brought a long-lost sense of security.
Or rather, a sense of being "alive."
The hero who had completed his great journey had finally found himself in the small starting village...
So... from which moment did he start to feel that even if Mei or Bronya discovered that "Stelle" was Shu, it wasn't a completely unacceptable thing?
He thought in confusion, trying to trace back that vague turning point.
Was it when Mei said she wanted to join the fan club?
Was it when he saw Yae Sakura's slightly shining eyes when she received her first salary?
Or was it even earlier... when he and his other self clumsily hung up the shop's sign and saw the first customer walk in?
Just as he was trying to grasp that elusive insight and examine this "dangerous" relaxed mentality of his—
"Knock—knock—knock—"
The office door was knocked again.