Epilogue

Erda, the city located at the very center of the continent.

And the Lunatic Guild, firmly rooted in the heart of the city, functioning as a form of order by its very existence.

As always, today too was a peaceful day without any notable incidents or accidents.

The continuation of a calm daily life where yesterday and today, today and tomorrow flow similarly.

However, just one thing.

The scene inside the Lunatic Guild headquarters was gradually changing.

It wasn’t entirely unrelated to the fact that the summer vacation at a certain academy far away had just begun.

Strictly speaking, there was only one person who attended the academy among those coming and going to the guild headquarters…

But that single existence alone was enough to cause many changes.

“Hello~!”

A bright voice greeting everyone she encountered could be heard throughout the guild headquarters.

What could be seen was a young girl who seemed to have grown slightly taller during the time apart, yet also seemed the same.

However, the golden badge attached to the child’s chest was impossible to ignore.

Above all, because she was making her eyes sparkle as if asking everyone to inquire about her badge.

“Hey, Lua. What’s that badge?”

“Oh, actually, I—”

The scene of people asking about the badge as if playing along and the child eagerly revealing that it was a badge only given to top students at the academy was repeated countless times.

She continued to show off her badge for a long time, boasting about being the top student at the continent’s best academy.

In return came sincere praise or encouragement.

The child also responded with brief thanks, adding that she would work harder in the future.

Like that, only after engraving the existence of the badge in the minds of almost all guild members in the headquarters.

“I’m here~.”

She stepped into the office where her most beloved person was, after knocking a couple of times.

The scene that unfolded was the usual mountain of paperwork.

And Guild Master Asha being nagged as always by the person who was both her secretary and vice guild master.

“Lu-Lua…!”

The expression that appeared on Asha’s face upon seeing the child was a desperate look, as if facing a savior.

However, before she could ask the child to restrain her secretary.

-Kiss.

“…Hehe.”

The child who had run over quickly snuggled into her arms and kissed her cheek, saying she had missed her.

Since some point — specifically, right after returning from a month-long trip alone with the child, though Asha herself hadn’t realized it — the child had become more expressive with her affection, making Asha both happy and slightly bewildered.

What followed was a young voice with arms wrapped around Asha’s neck, telling her not to torment her sister too much.

“Will you take responsibility if Sister Asha’s health deteriorates, Sister Tana?”

“My goodness, who will worry about my health that has already deteriorated because of you two?”

However, as always, she dismissed it lightly.

She had known for a long time that arguing with the child, unlike her usual self, would only result in stress.

Afterward, moments that had been repeated countless times continued once again.

The only difference from before was the interspersed childish whims of the child, wanting Asha to finish work quickly and spend time with her.

When Tana first heard this childishness, she tried to stop the child, saying that work and personal matters should be strictly separated.

“Then, let me help too. With Sister Asha’s work.”

But at some point, it was the child who offered to help with their work.

Of course, the desire to help with work could be seen as commendable, but the prejudice that wondered how a child could possibly help led to testing the child.

“Twin Horn Birds have a habit of not leaving their eggs. So I think we should concentrate our personnel around the nest.”

“This Laruna Workshop has an unstable supply. I think it would be better to make a new contract with the Piker Workshop next door.”

A few weeks ago, they finally discovered that the child’s processing ability was superior to that of most adults.

Even if we accept that most of her knowledge about monsters came from her former tutor.

The ability to immediately see through the contracts between various workshops with entangled interests and suggest better solutions inadvertently impressed her.

So, they finally allowed the child to help with Asha’s work.

However, the resulting scene was slightly different from what Tana had in mind.

“Then, now let’s review the proposal for training ground maintenance…”

“I’ll do it. Sister Asha, continue with the documents you were looking at.”

“Then, the report on the managed dungeons—”

“I’ll take that too.”

In this way, a non-competitive competition between Tana, who was trying to make Asha work, and the child, who was trying to reduce Asha’s workload, began to occur almost every day.

…How did it come to this?

After learning that the child had sufficient ability to help with their work, she had thought her own fatigue might decrease a little.

But the child was so focused on making things easier for Asha that the absolute amount of work Tana herself had to handle hadn’t changed at all.

“Did you perhaps only learn how to process paperwork at Itar Academy?”

“It’s been ages since I quit being the President’s secretary. There aren’t even professors who teach such things.”

The work finally ended after about an hour.

Why did the child, who fled from the office with Asha as soon as she confirmed there was no more work to be done, look slightly annoying?

No, thinking back, it was closer to an uneasy feeling than annoyance.

Just as Asha in the past had willingly committed any act for the child, now the child too was willingly committing any act for Asha.

Of course, there was nothing wrong with valuing each other.

“…My intuition feels bad.”

A sense that the rational Tana had never particularly believed in foretold something ominous.

And at that exact moment.

Whether it was a coincidence or not, the child who had just entered the house.

“Um, Sister Asha. Do you want to take a bath together after a long time? I have a few things I want to tell you.”

“Shall we?”

With a request to chat while relieving fatigue in warm water, she led Asha to the wide marble bathtub.

Asha nodded without suspicion, only curious about what the child wanted to talk about.

Like that, slowly disheveling her clothes until finally, wearing nothing, she gradually put her feet into the warm water along with the child.

Soon, the child’s small back gently leaned against her chest.

She faced the child’s slightly flushed face, perhaps because her whole body had become languid from the perfectly temperatured water.

The child’s conversation, which began while being completely embraced by her, was nothing more and nothing less than ordinary casual talk.

“So, Rea completely blew away the forest area with her newly developed storm magic this time. Brother Reiner had quite a hard time restoring it.”

“That Reiner isn’t defeated by just that much. He needs to struggle more.”

“Then, should I tell Rea to blow up the President’s office instead of the forest next time?”

“That doesn’t sound bad.”

Simply because she enjoyed the child telling her about what had happened during the time they were apart.

As always, while gently embracing the child.

Sometimes playing pranks like slightly tickling between the soft armpits.

Unconsciously fiddling with the ears that had drooped from being wet, they just conversed for a long time.

After a bit more time passed, they came out of the bathtub, and after thoroughly washing the child from head to toe.

In simple pajamas, she lay down on the same bed with the child as always.

Sure enough, two small hands hugged her tightly like a big teddy bear.

“Do you like me that much?”

“Yes, I like you. Just being together with you makes me happy.”

Like that, the young voice rubbing her forehead area against her chest and speaking of vague hopes for the future.

“I want to be happy with you forever, no matter when.”

“Yes, I’d like that too.”

After more small murmurs, her eyelids gradually closed, and she fell asleep comfortably.

Only then did she slightly raise her body and turn off the still-lit lamp.

What filled the vacancy left by the disappearance of all artificial light were the small starlight of the night sky.

And in the very center of those small lights, softly sending down a soft gray light through the wide window.

A round illumination named Moon (Lua).

Right after, while briefly taking in both the soft moon in her arms and the moon beyond the sky simultaneously in her view.

“Mmm… Long, happ…”

She unconsciously smiled at the child’s sleep-talking that suddenly came to her ears.

The answer she eventually returned to the child, who was breathing lightly with small snores, was of a kind that might have already been fulfilled.

“Yes, let’s live happily for a long, long time.”

Just as the endings of many fairy tales she had read as a child.

If there were a book containing her story with the child, the last page too.

Would end with “And they all lived happily ever after.”

As the leader of people who are crazy (Lunatic) enough to stare at the Moon (Lua) all their lives.

At the same time, as a family member of a young child.

Earnestly.

Perhaps, lightly.

She wished.

It was just a story from one day among the calm, ordinary days that would continue eternally, no different from usual.