Back in my previous world, New Years was filled in the snow of winter, embracing every person with winter's cold embrace, but the New Years in this world has a weather that's supposed to be warm and close to spring, but my body is currently being strangely wrapped in an unpleasant coldness.
I don't need to think about the cause, for the cause of this is the entity that appeared before me. This chilliness I feel is too cold, as if my soul was frozen.
On the way home from my date with Kuro, I encountered this woman with a strange atmosphere, asking me if I'm a Hero.
I have to make a reply, but my body just shakes and doesn't move properly, even though my instincts are telling me that I have to reply and that she isn't someone I should ever defy.
[...I repeat... Are you... the Hero?]
As if my continued silence was off-putting, the woman changed her tone to a slightly stronger one and asked me the same question again.
It was as if I was being strangled by an invisible hand, pushing me down with an oppressive, suffocating feeling.
[...I'm an... otherworlder, but... I'm not….. the Hero.]
[...I see.]
The woman nodded to the words that I barely managed to squeeze out, without showing any particular reaction.
The silence is heavy. I feel as if the air itself has weight.
The trembling in my body grows even stronger, wanting to get rid of this hellish feeling as soon as possible.
After a few moments of silence, the woman holds out her hand to me to shake my hand.
[...I'm... Isis... Isis Remnant... Nice to meet you.]
[ ! ? ! ? ]
The moment I looked at the held out hand, what rose in my hand was an intense sense of discomfort.
A feeling of fear... Far greater than my mind can tolerate, and I feel like nausea was rising from the pits of my stomach.
I have to escape, escape, run away, run... my instincts were intensely screaming at me.
The hand that is supposed to look white and beautiful, looks like the sickle of the Grim Reaper.
I mustn't hold that hand. If I were to hold her hand, I would die. Don't defy her, don't go against her, don't take my eyes away from her... One after another, they resounded in my head like an alarm clock waking me up from sleep.
[.......]
Seeing me like that, the woman slightly lowered her eyes, and at the moment I saw that, a single emotion appeared in my heart.
Deep sorrow and intense loneliness... A feeling of solitude so intense...
Those were the emotions that were read by my Sympathy Magic. As soon as I understood that, a thought arose in my mind different from the one I had before.
I don't know the logic for this thought, nor do I have a clear reason or basis for it. But for some reason—— If I were to run away here, I feel like I would regret it for the rest of my life.
[...!?]
My body naturally moved... And I found myself slapping my cheeks with both of my hands.
The bizarre fear that still assaults my body hasn't disappeared. However, the thoughts that were coming to my mind are about to become something completely different.
Get your head out of your ass! Go think about the situation more seriously this time!
What did this person ever do to me? Did she do any harm to me or had she ever directed her hostility towards me? No, she didn't... She had only asked me if I'm the Hero, and then, introduced herself and asked for a handshake. She didn't do anything strange.
I stare into the woman's red eyes, which seems somewhat startled, and as I reach out to accept the handshake... an intense sense of discomfort assaulted me again.
Clenching my teeth within this dizzying fear and discomfort, I still tried to desperately move my hand.
I don't have any basis for my actions, nor do I have any reason why. I don't even know why I'm so desperate... However, I feel like I have to hold this person's hand... right here, right now.
If I had been in the same situation before I came to this world, I would have definitely run away.
However, when I came to this world and met Kuro... I understood that even a single goodwill could save a person's heart. I've learned how glad I am to have her reach out to me, even if I'm hiding deep within the darkest depths of my heart.
For this reason, if I'm the only one who can reach into the depths of this person's heart at this moment in time, then... There's no way I can run away from here.
Kuro had mentioned it before, how my body will naturally try to adapt to non-hostile magic power... If I were to attribute this unspeakable fear I'm feeling from the magic power that the woman before me was clad in... Then stop shaking there like an idiot, and get on with adjusting with her magic power!
I don't know if it had been answered because of my scream within my heart... Clenching my teeth so hard that my lips were bleeding, I desperately tried reaching out... Little by little, for every centimeter I'm closer to her hand, I feel like the discomfort I'm feeling softens.
The trembling of my hand gradually diminishes and slowly, as if the world had been in slow motion, I reached out for the woman's held out hand.
How much time passed? Anyway, my hand reaches the hand of the woman who had spent a ridiculously long time waiting for me to hold it out the whole time.
Grasping her cold hand, I closed my eyes once and... with a smile on my face, I spoke.
[...My name is Miyama Kaito. It's nice to meet you. Isis-san.]
[...!?!?!?]
As I held her hand, the fear and discomfort I'm feeling finally disappeared, and I was able to naturally speak with her.
Isis-san looked stunned as she stared at me, and after nodding once, she spoke. Her voice sounds heartless, but it sounds like she's trembling, and I could also feel a hint of relief from her voice.
[...Miyama Kaito... Can I just... call you Kaito?]
[Yes.]
[...Kaito... "Let's get married".]
[Please wait a sec there, I don't know what you're talking about.]
Something's strange... Just when I thought I had finally managed to introduce myself, she suddenly asked me to marry her for some reason. It doesn't make any sense... It's as if she just leaped out of the process and burst straight to the end?
In response to my reply, Isis-san had a sincerely happy smile on her face as she continued speaking.
[...My hand... you grasped it... I felt happy... happy! ...That's why... marriage.]
[......]
Arehh? That's strange? I just felt a chill run down my back different from what I felt before... It was just my imagination, right?
I felt like I was getting a cold impression from her before, but she's now looking at me with such heat in her eyes that I think she would end up burning me.
Ummm, what should I do in this situation? I need to say something... Errr...
[H- How about... We start as friends for now?]
[........]
When I fearfully suggested so, as I carefully choose the words I say... Isis-san's cheeks turned red and she happily smiled.
[...Friends... Kaito's friend... I'm happy.]
It appears that she liked it, as Isis-san repeatedly said the word friends over and over again like she's in delirium.
Unnn. It's that... How should I say this… I guess she's one of those intense ones...
Having a little chat with Isis-san, we had a particularly casual conversation. It was already getting dark, so when I told her I need to leave soon, Isis-san had a lonely look on her face as she muttered.
[...Kaito... Where do you... live?]
[Ummm, I'm living in Duchess Albert's mansion just down this street.]
[...Can I... come to visit you... sometimes?]
[Ah, yes. Of course, you can come over anytime. I'll go tell the homeowner myself.]
[...Wouldn't I….. be a bother?]
[It's alright. You don't have to act that reserved. Isis-san and I are friends, so you're welcome to come over anytime.]
[...Ahh... unnn.]
When Isis-san timidly asked me that, I told her that she can come to visit me whenever she wants, and a really happy smile appeared on her face.
Looking at her like that, she just looks like a normal pretty woman. Seriously, I'm wondering why I'm feeling that frightened of her just now.
After happily nodding at my words, Isis-san takes out a blue flower from somewhere and holds it out to me.
[...Ummm... This is... for you.]
[Thank you very much. I'll take good care of it.]
[...Unnn.]
A flower with blue petals as clear as ice. Receiving the flower which I haven't seen before from Isis-san and after thanking her, I store it in my magic box.
[Well then, I'd better get going. Let's talk again next time.]
[...Unnn... Thank you... Kaito... I love you.]
[T- Thank you very much... Well then, see you later.]
[...See you later.]
For some reason, a strange chill creeps behind my back again. After putting that strange chill aside and bowed my head to Isis-san, who was giving me a small wave with her hand, I left the place.
Dear Mom, Dad—– There really was a lot of things that happened today. In a way, this may be the first time in my life that I've worked so hard. But because of that, Isis-san and I—— have become friends.
It was in a corner of the vast Demon Realm. A region covered by ice that hasn't melted for thousands of years, a place known as the Land of Death.
In a room within a huge castle covered in thick ice, a girl called as the incarnation of death had a happy expression on her face.
[...Kaito...]
Saying the name of the young man he met today, her cheeks blushing as if she's in love with him, the Death King, Isis Remnant, muttered to herself as she stared at the books stacked like a mountain.
[...I found him... I finally found him... I'm not mistaken... Kaito... Kaito is….. my "fated one"...]
Muttering so, Isis holds a book... her favorite book—- within her embrace.
The book tells the story of a young girl who falls in love with a man she met by chance, and as she sees herself in the girl's eyes, her cheeks blushed and she mutters the name of the man in her thoughts over and over again.
The name of the young man from another world who took her hand after the thousands of years of fear, the hand of someone who had always been walking in solitude...
The Death King, feared by most of the beings in this world as the symbol of death... Her mind was now only filled with thoughts of that young man.
//==========
The Duchess... Is going to get another visit again... Ahhhh...
~ Important Notes ~
The Death King... the one feared by most beings as she was always clad in magic power imbued in death, and because she was too lonely, the moment Kaito took her hand, Kaito just literally broke through the limit of her Affection Gauge.