>>6034730A short shower and a gifted, bit too short, change of clothes later you find yourself facing an old contact. The first ever Stranger you hunted on your own. The man that you had to argue be left alone, A man lost in a strange world with no real ambitions and on the verge of dying. He would have if you didn’t help, but that’s a different story than the one you’re living with now. With a wave of his hand, the Stranger materializes two cups of coffee, one for each of you, “So, you’re a father now?”
“Yeah, best decision I ever made,” He says with conviction that you’ve never seen in him before, “You’re still an inquisitor?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.”
“That’s the same thing you told me last time.”
“Hasn’t really changed since then.”
“Last time you showed up covered in blood too.”
“Last time I had to cut through a cult to stop you from being sacrificed.”
“Eeh, thanks for that,” The man says as he scratches the back of his head.
“It was a long time ago,”
“No really thanks, I would be able to enjoy all of this,” He gestures to the shack around you, it looks well lived in, “If you hadn’t helped me there and with the Inquisition.”
You didn’t do as much as you could have, “So, you’re still living here? I’d have thought you’d move.”
“You know the stipulations of my contract with the Inquisition,”
“Run away then, didn’t take you one for enjoying life isolated from everything. Where was it you’re from, Berlin?”
“Bremen, and you’re right I probably would have tried if not for,” He gestures out the window to the lake, and you get the message.
“Right, and how did that happen?”
“You see when a man and a woman,” You did your finger in your burning coffee and flick it towards the man, “Hey! Fine, I got lucky meeting an adventurer one day who stumbled upon my cabin. She thought I was some sort of hermit wizard.”
“Were you?”
“I’m not thirty now and I wasn’t then!”
You share a small laugh, “So I guess your plan to be the protagonist of a monster girl harem isekai is out of the window?” He copies your move and flicks his drink at you.
“One out of two parts of the plan isn’t bad,” He says before thinking for a bit, “Hey, how come you never came back?” He questions all of a sudden, you aren’t prepared for the question.
You were scared, you want to say. Scared of connections to your previous life, scared of the Inquisition, scared of hurting one of the first people you could claim as your friend even more. You’re not strong enough to say that however and settle for an easy lie, one that’ll make him think less of you, “I’m so busy I guess I just forgot about you, sorry,” You say and watch as his smile dims. You coward.
