"Ah, that's right."
When I woke up, there were no villagers but only the ceiling of the cabin.
Dream–I know that. A convenient dream that is born from my desires.
Still, I was happy to meet the villagers after such a long time.
I checked the time and it was 4 o'clock in the evening. Did I take a nap for a little over two hours?
Carol and Destiny are also asleep on the next bed.
Before getting up, I checked the map of the ship that was placed in the room.
There are a lot of private rooms here, and there are four restaurants at the end of the corridor. There is a snack corner, and Japanese-styled and western dishes.
There is also a karaoke box and a public bath for the kids. Its quite large.
Although it's a different class in speed compared to the Bullet Train and airplane but the ship is the best in terms of comfort.
However, a cruise has one magor problem.
"Yoshio ... I'm feeling sick in my head."
Carol has a bad complexion after waking up from the bed.
Ah, sea sickness. I got worried. Its fine but not good.
I gave her the medicine for sea sickness.
"Okay, let's go up to the open deck and breathe some fresh air. It seems that if you stay in a narrow place then you will feel even more uncomfortable."
"Outside? Yeah, I want to go."
I threw the etiquette bag into my pocket just in case, then pulled Carol's hand and left the room.
Sea breeze blows as soon as I open the door to the deck.
Some people don't like this unique scent but I don't hate it.
You can feel refreshed just by looking at the landscape where you can see the horizon without any obstructions.
I hope that Carol's discomfort can be relieved a little. When I look to left, there is nobody there.
"Yoshio, Yoshio! It's sooooooooooooooooooo full of water! 』
There is a problem with the vocabulary but thats her impression.
Even though she was weakly holding my hand a while ago but now she was running around on the deck. Did curiosity and surprise outweigh seasickness?
"Its dangerous, you can't run that much."
That said, there is no one other than us visible in the area.
I sat on the bench and gazed at the sea.
I have left my home and now am heading towards Hokkaido. Its an action which I cannot have imagined for a human who hardly left his house in ten years.
Sometimes it feels like that I am someone else.
I used to spent most of my day in front of the PC, refusing to interact with my family. Who could have imagined that I could be so active?
...I am more surprised about this situation than anyone else.
It just takes a little courage to go a step further. However, many people find the step to be too heavy.
But as long as you can take a step forward, you feet would naturally mover further and further.
It took me ten years to take a step, but I don't want stop again.
Slowly and cautiously, but I don't want to stop again.
"This is also thanks to everyone."
I take out the smartphone and check if the screen has connected.
I contacted the President of the cleaning company and told them that I was traveling to Hokkaido. He told me that there were no problems with work so please enjoy.
When I contacted Mr. Yamamoto, it seemed that he was strangely fine from the beginning of the new year, and he seemed have a lot of motivation to work. It should be manageable even if I don't help.
At the same time, not only did I feel relieved to hear the Presidents story but at the same time, I feel lonely that there will be no problem even if I am not there.
"This is the spirit of the company."
... Its supposed to be packed like livestock at work though.
~~
Though the rush to home happens on January 4th, the ferry is relatively vacant as very few people use it to return home.
The other customers were small families, single customers or elderly couples.
How do they see me and Carol from their end?
A dull man with a cute blond child.
Husband who has a foreign bride? It doesn't matter how old she is. I don't think my genes after mixing can produce such a cute child.
There might be a little possibility if the bride was ultra beautiful.
Reasonably, a beautiful foreign bride is remarried who already had a child. This is it!
Carol might have not noticed the strange eyes on her as she is just a child.
While assembling the excuse for the emergence purposes, I noticed the incoming call history of the smartphone.
"From whom, so much"
When I check it, my mother, father, sister and Seika.
Email and SNS are also there...
Since I have only started using the smartphone recently, I often miss the notifications of incoming calls.
Since its troublesome to call everyone, I write a SNS to the group of my family and Seika. [2]
"I'm on the ferry right now. Destiny is fine."
I talked to my family about going to the village in Hokkaido. However, I asked Seika to keep Carol a secret. The extra prying from my family is troublesome.
The family believes that I am traveling only because of the current situation with Destiny. I guess they will be angry later if they knew the truth.
I feel depressed about thinking about returning home, but for now I should give priority to the Villagers and Carol.
"Let's see this together. Yoshio!"
Carol comes, grabs and pull my hands.
I raise my heavy waist and approach the railing of the deck.
My hesitation was blown away just by looking at the vast ocean.
"I'll tell mom and dad and everyone what I saw here! "
"I see. So you have to look around at lots of places"
"Yup!"
The distance with Carol has shrunk considerably in the last few days.
At first, we were just friendly towards eachother but now they are good friends and their language has become closer as well.
"Hey, Yoshio! That, that!"
Carol who was laughing innocently a while ago, was now suddenly frightened. She grasped my clothes and pointed behind me.
Looking back at the familiar deck, there was a monster.
Translator and Editor Notes:
[1] Here
[2]"SNS" is an abbreviation for "Social Networking Service". SNS is a language peculiar to Japanese and refers to social media services such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in English. It is often used in Japanese news and business, and is often pronounced as "SNS, a so-called social network service."