Raphtalia looked towards Atla. They were basically the only people on the bus, save for an elderly gentlemen who had fallen asleep in his seat.

That was sort of to be expected given the late hour that they were travelling, and if this had been some other country other than Japan, Raphtalia might have felt somewhat concerned for their safety.

But, this was Japan, and she had seen toddlers as young as four traveling on their own without any issues. People even considered it 'normal' here, even though it wouldn't be in other parts of the world.

Life had not always been like that for Raphtalia, for example.

She remembered the old days- back when wherever they went, armored guards had followed her. Scary-looking me carrying guns and rifles who were said to be there for her 'protection' and followed her to school, back home, and stayed all around their house. Iron bars had been welded onto each of the windows, and it took over half an hour for her friends to visit her if they wanted to visit to get past all of the security checkpoints around the place. It was no wonder that she had drifted away from many of them, notwithstanding the fact that she had to change schools almost every single year.

She remembered once having to have been evacuated from a mall because someone had called in a bomb threat, and people grabbing her and pulling her away, no one really explaining what was going on until later. She remembered feeling so alone, and scared, during that time.

All of that when she had just been in elementary school!

Many girls might dream of one day becoming a princess or queen, yet she had lived that life, and she could say that she would not wish it on anyone.

Compared to all of that, life in Japan was far more relaxing. She couldn't really blame her parents for wanting to leave all of that behind for a peaceful life. It was also why she felt slightly sorry for Melty because she could understand what the girl was going through- at least Eclaire was somewhat fun to hang around with.

The only real complaint she had was despite how safe it was, it was not exactly perfect when it came to issues of sexual harassment- like she had faced during her part-time job.

It was good that Mr. Naofumi- ah, maybe she should stop being so formal now? Iwatani Naofumi had came to her rescue- just like a knight in shining armor!

Well, most of the time he didn't really behave like one- but she could see he had a good heart. That was what her mother always told her to look for in a man- and why she had married her father, despite all the turmoil that had entered her life as a consequence of that decision.

Right now, her heart still fluttered at the memory of them kissing. When they had been interrupted earlier, she had almost given up on making any progress- but to think that he had then taken the initiative!

But that brought her to the person who was sitting next to her- Atla.

Why had she even offered to take the girl with her? Well, she felt sorry for her, but Raphtalia was also fully confident in her judgment- Atla's crush was just that, a temporary crush that would eventually fade.

She was glad that Naofumi wasn't the type to take advantage of such a situation, otherwise Atla would end up regretting things later on.

"We're here," she said to Atla, who followed her off the bus.

Her parents worked mainly odd jobs- her father had always had dreams of becoming a farmer, but being a farmer was not nearly as idyllic as the stories would have told you and he had mostly given up on that.

As for financial support- the 'pension' that they had gotten from her grandparents was meager and barely enough to cover expenses for one person, but that had been part of the negotiations when they had left of course, that her father would give up his rights to nearly all of the family assets.

And yet, despite all of that, Raphtalia and her family were happy. Wasn't that what was important?

"Wow, is this it?" Atla asked, frowning when she saw Raphtalia's house.

Raphtalia, despite herself, felt slightly embarrassed. If Atla could've seen Raphtalia's old house- she wouldn't have dared make such comments!

"Is that why you want to get with RocketBoy? Because you're nothing more than a gold-digger?" Atla asked. "Hoping that he makes it big while streaming, so that you can relax?"

Raphtalia sighed. "You are aware he barely makes anything..." she said. "Now come on- don't make too much noise, my parents are probably sleeping at this time."

Raphtalia had been right about that, and she went to her room to fix up another futon for Atla to use in the meanwhile. "Let's talk in the morning, okay?"

Atla huffed but seemed to fall asleep quickly enough.

Raphtalia woke up the next day feeling a bit groggy- to see that Atla was already up.

"Couldn't sleep?" Raphtalia asked her.

Atla shook her head. "I've been up for about an hour. Oh, your parents are awake to by the way- it's nearly nine in the morning."

Raphtalia was shocked that it was that late- she had overslept a bit and got hastily ready before going down to greet her parents.

"Good morning," her mother said, though there was an edge to her voice. "Do you mind explaining why you brought a girl home?"

"Oh, right," Raphtalia said. She really should've warned them or texted them overnight, but it had slipped her mind.

"Now, now," her father said gently. He was sipping on tea while watching something on television. "Our daughter is making such a huge step coming out of the closet like this... I think we should be more understanding..."

"I doubt you'd be saying the same if she had brought a boy home," her mother retorted.

Raphtalia realized that they had gotten the wrong idea about her and Atla. "No, no, please, it's not what you're thinking!" she said, her face turning red.

"Ah, so that's what's going on," her father said once she had cleared things up. "Well, it's a good thing you thought to bring her here. She could've gotten into a lot of trouble otherwise."

Atla came downstairs, and to her credit was quite polite to both of Raphtalia's parents, though she had not been so much to Raphtalia when it had been just the two of them.

"Atla, dear, thank you for joining us," her father said. "Why don't you grab some breakfast?"

"Thank you so much for having me," Atla said with a slight bow. "Ah, I think I'll join you. What is it that you're watching- it looks quite interesting?"

"Oh, this is a new anime that came out," her father said. "Really quite interesting- it's called 'If My Wife Became An Elementary School Student!'"

Raphtalia spat out what she was drinking. "Dad! Why are you embarrassing us like that?!"