“Compared to me, that is forever insignificant. Move, Noah. I have to clean the carpet now.”


    When she procrastinated in her spot he seemed to be pretty annoyed, and he hugged her and Muell at once and threw them down on the sofa.


    “And stop worrying. After all, aren’t the next three months your half-forced vacation?”


    A warm hand lightly swept one cheek to soothe Noah’s difort. When she reluctantly loosened her face, Kyle patted her on the head and immediately turned his whole attention on the carpet.


    The carpet, which had been cleaned of all its dust, was rolled up and ced on the living room wall.


    “Be frank with me, Kyle. Doing chores is actually your hobby, right?” Noah asked.


    “I have never called it a hobby in a grandiose. It’s just that if something is mine, I like to touch it with my own hands,” Kyle replied.


    “Isn''t that what you''re saying?”


    “It’s different. I like using things with my own hands. I mean, it''s not necessarily limited to cleaning.”


    “It’s the same thing.”


    “You are included in there, Noah.”


    “…so it is different.”


    She acknowledged it from the look on his face but wondered something strange. Then what he’d said earlier was that it’s better to touch with your own hands?


    She wasn’t some pet. However,e to think of it her treatment by him didn’t seem any different from the pet he was raising. But as the satisfaction level of her livelihood was so high, she decided not to raise any particr objection.


    Kyle, perhaps having nothing else to tidy up, looked around the house to check before approaching the sofa where Muell and Noah were sunken in. He pushed down the sofa with one foot without using his hands. The dumbfounded Noah grinned at him.


    “Heyy. No matter how stronger than me you are, you can’t pu… Whoa!”


    As soon as she said that, the sofa made a cking noise and started to move backward.


    The sofa seating one adult female and one child made a heavy dragging noise. Noah turned pale, mumbling, “You''re using your strength on nothing…”


    “It’s because no one can handle it.”


    “…no one?”


    “Who might it be?” His purple eyes nced at her then shifted down with a smile.


    While she btedly understood hisment one beatter and tried to find somewhere else to look, Kyle did not forget to sweep the white dust under the sofa and mop it up. And after that, he shifted his eyes elsewhere that needed cleaning.


    Muell, sitting on her knee with a bag of candy, tapped her.


    “Noah? What is ‘handle’?”


    “…uh, it’s nothing. Cover your ears, Muell.”


    Noah red at Kyle while Muell covered both ears.


    “From earlier you’ve really… Can’t you be cautious about your words and actions with a child around?”


    “I don’t think I really said anything I wasn’t supposed to,” said Kyle.


    “Well, you did. You’ve said a lot of really foul words.”


    “You took them as foul, Noah.”


    Just like that, her nagging didn’t give him any sense of attack. After carefully lowering the curtains, he winked at her as he locked the door.


    Contrary to her dissatisfied head, her body reacted first. As she stood up unconsciously and approached him, a warm robe fell over her shoulders.


    Her sight waspletely blocked when the hood was thrown up. Noah had already gotten used to Kyle trying to wrap her up, so she stood there obediently when he packed a short kiss on her lips. It was apanied by a low whisper.


    “First is Maobiana. Right?”


    “…right.”


    Below the hood covering half her face, she could see Muell smiling and reaching out to her. Under his feet was a ck magical orb big enough to swallow all three of them.


    Noah smiled at him as she grabbed his tiny hands. Before the pale heat on her cheeks cooled down the waves of magic that began to ripple engulfed her from head to toe.


    ***


    Maobiana was quiet after having been away for so long. The mine, which Noah looked down on as she climbed onto Muell''s back and flew up above, was dark without a single light, and in the winding valley, only a yellow light emitted by the sparse fairies shone faintly, and soonpletely disappeared.


    As they went through thes over the Maobiana sky, the same universe that they had treaded on the other day greeted them


    Kyle muttered as he scanned the surroundings, “We''vee all the way to the path of the other world.” His eyes were mixed with different colors. Noah dragged his hand as she began to cross the infinitelyrge space.


    “This kind of experience can be done only with me.”


    “All of the time I spend with you is like that.”


    The serene way he spoke was lovely. Kyle continued as he pulled his hand away from Noah and readjusted it back.


    “Actually I’ve been curious. About the ce you originally lived, Noah. Because there is so much that I don’t know about you.”