“Are you coming with me?” I ask Brendu at my side.

  “Of course, let’s go together.” She decides to walk a few steps behind me. I can’t see nervousness on her face, only countless thoughts running through her mind.

  I’m really nervous, my hands are sweating, my head keeps imagining a thousand different situations. The walk from the garden to the main door feels eternal and, at the same time, way too short—every step means I’m closer to seeing them again. Only six months have passed, yet it feels like years to me.

  I don’t use my mental ability to calm myself down, that would be cheating my own feelings, and it wouldn’t be fair. I’ll face everything without using Thundersnow.

  “I’ll wait at the door, you can go greet them first.” Brendu tells me a few steps before we reach the entrance.

  I reach the end of the hallway, and from the door I can see the carriage a few dozen meters away, with only a short path of grass and the entrance between us. As I take a few more steps, I finally see Uncle Camux and his wife—both of them look surprised when they notice me and raise their hands to greet me.

  Aunt Liza shouts something; I can’t understand her from this distance, but I can guess what she’s saying—she’s calling the others. It only takes two seconds to see Arisa pop out first from the other carriage, she turns to say something, then Sol’s head appears, and Marga struggles to look through the window.

  The three of them jump down from the carriage as fast as they can. They’re all already at Sapphire rank now, their reaction speed and movement are fast—extremely fast. Before I can even react, they rush at me. I could have dodged them, but the thought never even crossed my mind.

  I accept their hug—or rather, their tackle. The four of us fall into the garden together. I hear Marga complaining to Arisa about using too much strength, Sol just shakes her head, and Arisa bursts out laughing. I don’t move, I just take in the sight in front of me.

  “It’s been a while. How have you all been?” I ask the three women piled on top of me, their faces now very close to mine.

  “Good, we’ve all been doing well.” Sol is the first to answer.

  “Yeeeees, living together has been super fun.” Arisa is next, wiggling her whole body like a worm just to get a little closer.

  “We’ve had an amazing time together, it just would’ve been better if you had been there with us.” Marga says last.

  They’re all still just like I remember them, their personalities almost unchanged. Physically, though, I can notice a slight difference—they all look a bit more mature now, their teenage features fading as they’ve grown into women.

  Brendu takes a few more steps toward us, and her presence makes us all lift our heads. Everything around us feels different, as if the world had muted every sound—right now, all I can hear is my own heartbeat.

  “May I join you?” The princess’s face isn’t the one she usually wears when socializing with nobles, not the expression she’s practiced countless times over the years. Right now her face looks natural—she’s just being herself.

  “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Princess.” Sol is the first to stand up and greet her.

  “It’s been quite a while, Brendu.” Marga stands up at the same time. I knew they had already met during some noble gatherings.

  “Hello, Princess, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Arisa takes just half a second longer to stand up. I could clearly feel how much she wanted to keep hugging me—she didn’t want to get up at all.

  “Yes, we can finally meet face to face, Arisa, Sol. You’re right, Marga, it’s been a long time since the last time we saw each other.” Brendu replies.

  The baron and his wife take an alternate route when they notice Brendu’s presence—they clearly don’t want to get involved in this. I stand up and dust myself off a little, and my movements draw the attention of the four women around me.

  I look at each of them several times. They all stay frozen in place, not moving a single centimeter—only their blinking gives any sign of life. What’s going on? Why isn’t anyone saying anything? I can’t help but wonder.

  “Is there something strange about me?” I ask. No one answers.

  A few seconds later, something finally happens—the four of them burst out laughing at the same time, as if they had planned it beforehand. What the hell?

  “It’s a shame you can’t see your own face.” Arisa holds her stomach from laughing so hard.

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  “Technically, he could with his ability.” Sol is the next to speak.

  “That just makes it even funnier then.” Marga is almost crying from laughter.

  “I’ve never seen you make such a funny face.” Brendu wipes a couple of tears from her eyes as she speaks.

  I have no idea what my face looked like. I rarely pay attention to my own body with my ability, much less to my expressions. I feel like an idiot right now.

  “Don’t feel weird, Maki. Technically, we’re friends now—we’ve talked a lot over the last few months.” Brendu takes out that device that looks like a cellphone; she had told me about a new instant-messaging feature.

  It has many flaws—it consumes a large amount of energy from cores if used for too long; it’s easy to block the signal with runes or certain mana abilities; sometimes messages don’t arrive or take too long; you can’t use it in the middle of nowhere, and if a Ruby-rank notices it, they could block the signal easily. Still, under the right conditions, it works just like a phone from my old world.

  “Yes, Brendu has given us lots of advice about school and life in general.” Sol is the first to reply.

  “She also kept us informed about you. You’re so old-fashioned, only sending weekly letters—you could’ve bought a phone.” Arisa points at me, scolding me.

  “We won’t deny that the letters are a lovely gesture, though—we’ve kept every single one.” Marga defends me a little from Arisa’s accusations.

  “I never received a single letter from him…” Brendu looks a bit sad as she says that.

  “You can’t complain, you lived with Maki for months.” Marga pouts.

  “Yeeeees, we missed him a lot.” Arisa pouts as well.

  Sol claps her hands to get everyone’s attention. “We can decide who missed him more later. First, we need to fix this. Look at his face—Maki looks completely confused and lost.” They all look at me again, and a few seconds later, they burst out laughing once more. Apparently, I’ve been playing the clown today without even knowing it.

  “Did you think we would hate each other and that there’d be a huge problem when we met?” Marga’s question goes straight to the point.

  “Maki, we’re adults. We can adapt to different situations if we have to.” Arisa puffs out her chest when she finishes speaking.

  “We won’t deny it was a bit shocking at first. We assumed something like this could happen, but we never expected it to happen in the first few weeks—and with a princess from another kingdom. It took us several days to process it, and in the end, we simply decided to accept it. It helped a lot that Brendu reached out to us.” Sol finishes explaining.

  “Our fear at first was thinking Brendu would want you all to herself—that really would’ve caused a huge problem. We barely slept the first night thinking about that. Once we calmed down, we realized something: you would never allow that. All we could do was accept the new reality—we had no other choice.” Marga takes a deep breath after saying all that in one go.

  “It never crossed my mind to distance you from them, and I can say for sure you wouldn’t have allowed it. That’s why I decided to improve my relationship with all of you. Being honest from the beginning saved us a lot of time. Little by little, we built trust, and now we’re friends.” Brendu finishes the explanation.

  Everything is clear now. Many doubts are gone, and a few new ones appeared—I’ll ask about those later. First, I need a glass of wine. I can finally relax; all those thoughts about awkward situations and endless, uncomfortable conversations were pointless. None of that happened, and none of it will.

  I worried myself for days for nothing. My concentration during training and even in moments of rest suffered because I kept thinking about how to fix something that was never broken. I can’t complain—this is far better than any other outcome. I’m truly happy if they’re all happy and can be friends.

  “I’m happy if you’re all happy.” I keep my thoughts to myself—I don’t want to say something that embarrassing out loud. “I’m not old-fashioned, I’ll buy that phone as soon as I can.” I try to change the subject before being cornered with unnecessary questions.

  I need to find out who created those technological devices. They’re combining magic with technology—I’m sure it’s someone reincarnated or assimilated. Naming it the same way as in my old world can’t be a coincidence. My intuition screams that I’m right, and if there’s one rule I live by, it’s following my instincts—they almost never fail me.

  I need to learn their origins and everything I can about him or her before meeting them. I don’t want to be careless and reveal such shocking information without knowing whether they’re a good person or not. I could put everything around me at risk with even the smallest mistake—this is knowledge I’d rather keep hidden for as long as possible.

  It hurts not to tell the four girls walking in front of me anything about my true origins. They couldn’t decide which of them would be the lucky one to walk hand in hand with me. When I suggested flipping a coin, they flat-out refused and chose to walk together instead, leaving me alone.

  I expand my Personal World to sense everyone’s reactions at the party—I want to see who’s the most surprised. The first one to notice the four girls is my grandmother; she must’ve been using her ability to sense the ambient mana around us to follow our movements.

  Grandma Rita discreetly taps my mother’s shoulder. She turns to look at us and opens her eyes wide. The group of women follows her gaze, their reactions similar. In less than two seconds, everyone has noticed us—most look surprised, some confused, and a few just act as if this is completely normal.

  My parents are the first to come over to greet the three girls—they’ve been seen as family for a long time now. It takes longer than expected to greet everyone; some didn’t know them, so I formally introduce them as my girlfriends. I’m sure my face is as red as a tomato—I’m a bit embarrassed by all the comments.

  Most people congratulate me sincerely, but they don’t miss the chance to tease me either. Many of the jokes focus on how I should be careful not to make them angry—that could lead to the destruction of my family or my own death. All the girls laugh and deny that possibility, but I see it in their eyes—a small, dark glint. Those looks send a chill down my spine. I really hope that joke never becomes reality.

  “The night is going to be pretty long…” My voice comes out in a quiet murmur.

  “Did you say something?” Brendu, sitting next to me, asks. The other girls turn their eyes to me and stop talking.

  “No, I didn’t say anything.” After I answer, they give me a suspicious look, then ignore me and go back to talking among themselves.