Almanfi refused anything I asked regarding Zenith, so I was forced to carry her out of the Labyrinth. I had to waste my mana using gravity magic, seeing as how my thirteen year old, non-muscular body is unable to support the weight of an adult female body. Not that I hated it, really. It was a quick leave, though I made extra sure to steer clear of monster corpses. I don't need any of them desecrating my mother's body or clothing just to wash off later.

When we finally saw the open sky again, it was dark. Certainly late, but not midnight at all. We left here pretty early in the morning.

"It seems we are done."

What? I looked over to Almanfi, looking up at a random direction in the sky. Though, if I knew any better, he was probably looking in the direction of Perugius' Chaos Breaker.

In a burst of light, he left. I was left there, dumbfounded. I probably look like I've seen a ghost. To be fair, it's not like I specified anything more than just wanting to go to the Begaritt Continent and saving my mother. He didn't really have an obligation to help me, either.

I was still kind of hoping he'd be willing to help me a little more. I really should've thought things through..

Other than that, this probably means me and Perugius are probably on acquaintance terms again, at least. I'm not sure if I could've ever called him my friend in the past. He was the only person I ever really talked to back then, after everyone else was gone, though it was mostly just for getting information on Hitogami. Sometimes we'd just talk about the good ole' days.

I owe him a lot, I'm not sure if he'd care enough to take anything I have, though.

I continued my walk back to the town. The Teleportation Labyrinth wasn't located far, but it was still a decent distance. Any monsters that attacked were handled quickly. Zenith didn't wake up the entire time. That was probably for the best.

When I made it back to the inn, I rented out for another night before entering the room. Everything was left untouched, much to my slight surprise, but not to my complaints.

I laid Zenith down onto one of the two beds in the room. She was still sleeping soundly. If it remains the same as my past life, she'll wake up tomorrow, with no memories. That revelation still hurts.

I don't think I can leave tomorrow's problems to tomorrow's me, though. What should I do now?

There's a lot I can do. I should probably get Zenith to Paul, first. She's in constant danger if she's around me, knowing that Hitogami will be trying to watch anything I do.

..But she'd also be in danger anyways without me, too. Everyone is. I don't think Hitogami is below spiteful killing, anyways. It's certainly not below me.

I was grinding my teeth. Why did things have to be so complicated?

No; if anything, she'll definitely be mostly safe with Paul and Lilia. I'm certain.

But what about after that?

There's a lot I wanna do.

I wanna see everyone again. I wanna relive my memories with them, and create new ones too. I had no doubt that I'd cry if I ever see any of them again.

But I can't do that. Hitogami is still around.

As long as he's around, they're in danger. Especially if they're around me. I have to kill him before anything else. Before I can think of ever seeing them again.

I looked over to my desk. The diary was still there, untouched.

I walked over to it, pulling the chair back and sitting down.

Before, The diary was filled with the disgusting writings of an old man hellbent on revenge. Its contents held people that were murdered or violated. It was all gone, now. Replaced with.. Whatever you can call me, now.

I turned to a blank page, and started writing.

I saved my mother

I'll be escorting her to Millishion, where the rest of my family is. I'm not sure how they'll react this time around to learning that my mother doesn't remember anything.

I think I'll just tell somebody else to tell them. I'll cry an ocean's worth of tears if I see any of them again.

I can't afford to be selfish like that, either. I can't afford to be selfish at all.

Not when Hitogami is still around. He needs to be gone.

…

Hitogami didn't appear in my sleep that night.

Other than that, I was woken up by my inn's roof being blasted through. I guess anyone would wake up after that, though.

An assassin?

I shot up instantaneously, reflexively looking over towards Zenith to see her unaffected. I exhaled a breath that I didn't know I was holding when I saw her unharmed.

I looked over to the area where I presumed whatever shot through my roof to be to find nobody.

"Lord Perugius requests your attendance."

I looked to my other side to see Almanfi standing there, as strict as ever.

"..I see.. But—"

As soon as I responded, he left in a flash of light. My bitter complaints will have to remain unannounced, for the foreseeable future.

Grumbling incessant curses, I got myself prepared in my usual outfit to at least look presentable, which took about five minutes. Then, I went over to Zenith's bed.

Somehow, she was still sleeping.. Not that I particularly minded, really. I pulled the blanket off of her and used Gravity magic to make her and myself less susceptible to the world's gravity. I walked out of the inn with Zenith on my shoulder, ignoring the unusual looks I was getting.

When I felt the sun's (or, well, whatever star this world orbits) and looked up to see Perugius' castle not so far away.

"Earth Lance."

A flat-topped piece of the earth rose from under us, and propelled us forward a great distance. I didn't have to use any wind magic to propel us any further thanks to the Gravity magic, and so we made it to his castle relatively unharmed.

It still would've been easier with those magic tools, though..

We reached the castle unscathed.

…

Doors opened, and I was once again graced by his presence as I walked into his throne room for second time since my time traveling.

"Hello again, Lord Perugius." I said, bowing as gracefully as I could remember. "I must thank you for your assistance in regar–"

"What will you do now?" He asked.

I smiled awkwardly, trying not to let any frustration show at being cut off.

"Well.. I was planning to escort my mother to the Millishion continent to bring her back to my father."

"And then?"

I was silent. Rather, I didn't know.

Admittedly, it's not something I thought about. Perhaps I was too preoccupied with saving my mother to think about it.

"Greyrat."

I was brought out of contemplation by the hero before me. Reluctantly, I looked up.

"I have no doubt over your ability of magic, or the fact that you are somebody from the future," he began. "However, no individual simply decides to go back to the past. So, I will ask you; why are you here?"

Author here. You probably have a few questions.

Firstly, Where Have I been?

Well, uh, somewhere. But not here by any means.

Why haven't I updated in so long?

Truthfully, I don't have a good answer for this. The short answer; I gave up? Kind of. It's more like I came to the realization that I had no idea where I wanted to take the story after saving Zenith (again), and then gave up. But I'm back now, with something of an idea. But I'm kind of back, with an idea, more or less. No guarantees, of course, but I'll try.

Anyways, sorry. You were probably hoping for a longer update and ended up getting the shortest chapter so far, instead. I can assure individuals that do look forward to this story that I haven't stopped by any means, and I have a few ideas planned (but still in the works). No guarantees, of course, considering the 6-7 month break I took.

Oh, yeah. Should I cross-post this? I have both a Wattpad and AO3 account I could post this too, but haven't.