I spend the rest of the day letting everyone know about my new plan to leave earlier and preparing what I can. I bring the human's sword to one of our artisans to get the hilt replaced by something simpler and less decorated, so that I don't look like I stole it from some rich guy, even if that's what I did. Having a human-made sword will help me be more convincing when I pretend to be human myself. I manage to get the making of my wyrmscale armor sped up, and my mom promises to get me my new travel clothes before it's time to leave. Everything seems to be going smoothly.

The only issue is Xarem, who was hit very hard by the announcement of my imminent departure. I don't see him at all the next day, or the one after. I hope I'll at least get to say goodbye before I leave.

During that time, I go back and visit the human a few times to see if I can learn anything useful, but he seems to have run out of things to say about the new Hero, and he doesn't appear to be interested in any other topics. Still, I manage to learn that his name is Virrun, a detail I should probably make sure to remember, just in case. We'll have to get rid of him eventually, but I'm unsure of how to do it. I don't want to kill him, after all, so that complicates things. The Elder might have an idea.

On the third day, I finally find some time to rest. A lot of people are working hard to make sure I can leave in just a few more days, and I myself still have some food to prepare, but everything should be ready in time. I don't want to tire myself before I even leave, so I sit on one of our tree's roots, rest my back against the trunk, and close my eyes.

The sound of the wind in the leaves, combined with the echoes of distant activities throughout the village... This is what home sounds like. I want to make sure I remember this as clearly as possible while out on my travels.

As I take the ambiance in, I hear footsteps approaching. With my eyes still closed, I greet:

"Hey, Xarem. It's been a bit, sorry for having dropped the news on you like that."

"Oh, it's fine. It's just that... There's something I wanted to make for you before you left, so when you told me you were going sooner than expected, I tried to get it done as fast as possible."

I open my eyes and look at him.

"Something you made me?"

"Yeah, but... I won't give it to you here. There's this place I stumbled upon while hunting a while ago, and I'd like for us to go there together. It's a bit far, but I promise it's worth it!"

"Oh? Now I'm curious. When did you want to make it happen?"

"Any time before you leave, really. Could be today if you're not too busy."

"I should be able to make some time. Should I bring a weapon?"

"Yes, it's pretty deep in the forest, so we might come across wild beasts. I have some things to prepare before we go, how about we meet up at the edge of the village near my house in a couple hours?"

"Okay, see you there!"

I wave goodbye as he leaves.

Is this a date? It's totally a date! Wait, no, he just wants to properly say goodbye to his childhood friend who's going on a long journey, there's no reason to assume there's anything romantic about it. That being said, I never managed to figure out who he fell in love with. He doesn't seem to be spending that much time with any Rai'ila. If anything, I'm still the one he's mostly with, just like when we were kids.

In that case, maybe I can still... yes, I'll go and make myself as pretty as I can, and see how he reacts to it. I climb up the ladder to the house, where I make sure to properly clean myself and style my hair.

A few hours later, I reach the edge of the village, where Xarem is waiting for me. I'm wearing a black and white dress my mom made for me, and I braided some strands on the right side of my head in such a way that a black ribbon goes through them, creating a contrast with the white around it. I put on a bit of makeup, but to avoid causing it to clash with my clothes, it's also black. Hopefully all of this gets some kind of reaction out of him.

When he sees me, his jaw briefly drops, but he very quickly goes back to smiling. I'm disappointed, I wanted to get a bit more for all the effort I put into this outfit.

"You look really good, Erina... but is this the best outfit to wear to go into the forest?"

"Don't worry, I can fight perfectly fine in this, and I made sure to not neglect the most important part."

As I say that, I point to my feet and show him that I'm wearing thick boots we generally go hunting with. They clash with everything else, but I can't risk cuter shoes causing trouble outside of the village.

"I see. Well, if anything happens, I'll make sure to protect you! Let's go, then."

We head out, the deep forest ahead of us.

As a child, and especially after the encounter with the venomhound, I was extremely scared of the deeper parts of the forest. Because of the way the leaves would block sunlight and cause those areas to be very dim, even in the middle of the day, they felt like a different world to me, one I wasn't supposed to venture into. As an adult, however, I found myself entering that previously forbidden place again and again to hunt, and I grew more confident with each outing.

Now, I'm even going on a date there. Of course, it helps me feel a lot safer to have Xarem at my side, but I'm proud of the progress I made. I didn't let my childhood fears paralyze me and stop me from growing as a hunter and as a person.

With only the occasional ray of light piercing through the canopy, I even came to appreciate the eerie beauty of this part of the world. This is my home, just as much as the village and the safer part of the forest around it are.

It's strange to reflect back on how much I changed in less than a decade. There's the obvious, such as my race and even gender being different, but on a deeper level, I'm a monster now. I'm not sure of the full implications of that yet, but... If someone had told me, back when I was the Hero, that I would turn into a monster and fully accept it, I would probably have taken it as an insult.

I grew in ways that wouldn't have been possible if i had remained human, and I'm grateful for that. I died relatively young, but I still have my whole life as a Rai'ire ahead of me.

My next step into this second chance at life is my investigation among the humans followed by the congress with the other monsters. The more I learn, the better position I'll be in to make sure future children won't have to die.

Future children... I look down at my body, then gently rub my belly. Can I get pregnant? The Rai'ire are strongly associated with death in Rai'in culture, but with my body being like this, I should still be able to give birth, right?

I take a look at Xarem, who's ahead of me and busy making sure we don't go off the path he found. Before my rebirth, and even for a while after, I would have been disturbed by the idea of having an intimate relationship with a man and getting pregnant as a result. But now... I guess this new body is having a pretty big impact on my thoughts. I'm surprised by how calm I am about it. Well, it's not like this is a new realization, I've had a few years to get used to the idea that fairly big parts of me would change as a result of me having become a monster. I didn't count on ending up in a female body, but... I think I like it, now that I got used to it.

It's not like I have much time to worry about my future domestic life right now, I'm leaving for a months-long journey in just a few days, and there's no telling where that will lead me. As the Hero, I never got to establish any kind of serious relationship with a woman due to how busy I was with the war. I figured I'd wait for the Monster King to be dead to start focusing on that, but that didn't quite work out for me. Hopefully, things will play out a bit differently this time.

We're now climbing up a hill. The terrain is more rocky, so I have to be careful with my steps. Xarem grabs my hand and lifts me over obstacles a few times during our ascension. After a while, we arrive at the top, where there are no trees. From here, I can see the forest stretching out in all directions, bathed in the orange light of the sunset. A large sea of green leaves forming waves under the effect of the wind.

It's so beautiful! I never got to see the forest from an elevated position, and I had no idea this hill was here. This is our home. Countless generations of Rai'in lived here, and it's our turn to take over and protect it.

I notice that Xarem is more focused on me than on the view. When I turn towards him, he says:

"I'm glad you like this spot. You... you had a really beautiful smile just now."

I look away, a bit embarrassed.

"Well, it is a very nice place. Thank you for showing me."

"I figured getting here might take a while, so..."

He drops his bag on the floor, then takes out some food before continuing:

"I figured we could have a picnic."

Sharing a dinner, just the two of us, at the top of a hill with a gorgeous view... This is too romantic to not be a date! I'm trying my best to hide my outburst of emotion.

"Sounds good! Let's do that!"

As my inner excitement levels keep rising, Xarem puts down everything we'll need. He brought some meat and vegetables that taste good even if they're cold, so we fill our wooden bowls before sitting on the blanket. I take a moment to calm down and appreciate the scenery once more before taking my first bite.

As we eat, we reminisce about our childhood. How we met, then became fast friends. How we would get in trouble together with the Elder. The games we played, sometimes just the two of us, sometimes with other children joining in. Our exploration of the safe part of the forest, and our first attempt at creating a map of it that lead to a mess of a drawing we couldn't read anymore. Despite the hardships, we shared a lot of good moments.

After finishing our meal and cleaning everything up, we find ourselves sitting next to each other, looking at the stars slowly appearing in the sky. After a bit, Xarem hands me something wrapped in a piece of cloth.

"This is the gift I wanted to make before you left. It took me many tries to finally succeed, so it kept me busy for a while, but... Well, it's not perfect, but I hope you'll like the result."

I grab it and gently unwrap it, revealing a bracelet made of a white alloy with a black inlay going all around it. Xarem is... giving me a piece of jewelry?

The Rai'in don't have wedding rings, but they do have a custom that reminds me of them. When a Rai'enu is interested in a Rai'ila, he makes a piece of jewelry specifically for her and offers it as a gift. We all know what this means, so the Rai'ila accepting the item and putting it on means that she accepts the Rai'enu's advances, while a refusal is a polite way to reject them. The opposite can also happen, with a Rai'ila offering the gift, but it's not as common.

And this bracelet is for me?

I look at Xarem, completely stunned.

"Is this... what I think it is?"

"Yes, it is. Even before we transformed and became adults, I... Well, it's embarrassing to say, but I started hoping that one of us would end up being a Rai'ila. I wanted to become a Rai'enu, of course, but I thought that if it was to be with you, I probably wouldn't mind being a Rai'ila instead. But then, I transformed before you, and ended up like this, so I lost hope. You would become a Rai'enu too, and that would the end of that story. But then I saw you, after we rescued you from that cave, and... My heart skipped a beat, and my hope was rekindled."

"So... for all that time, you wanted to be with me?"

"Yeah. And I felt bad about it at first, I thought maybe you would be sad that you became a Rai'ila... or a Rai'ire, in this case, and I started feeling guilty about it. Maybe my selfish wish was granted, transforming you like this. But you quickly got used to it, and it didn't seem to bother you. If anything, you looked perfectly happy with the way your body turned out, so... I thought, why not? Maybe I can love you after all."

So when he talked about having fallen in love, it really was about me. I didn't want to assume anything, so I stopped myself from jumping to any conclusions, but... I'm so happy!

"Honestly, I'm glad I became a Rai'ire. It wasn't that hard to get used to it, and my mom took good care of me early on. I already had no regrets, no wish that things had gone differently, but now..."

I remove the bracelet from the cloth, then pass it around my wrist and adjust it so it doesn't fall off before continuing:

"... I have a reason to actually be happy about my transformation."

He's staring at my wrist, a smile slowly forming on his lips. After a bit, he reaches out and grabs my hand, then passes his fingers over the bracelet, as if to make sure it's really there and to confirm he's not hallucinating. As it slowly dawns on both of us that our feelings for each other are mutual, I gently get closer and, taking advantage of Xarem's surprise, drop a quick kiss on his lips, stunning him again.

As I move back and look at his blank expression, I start laughing. He brings a hand to his mouth and touches where I kissed him, then snaps out of it and, with a large grin, grabs me and gives me a vigorous hug.

After that, we lay down on the blanket, staying close to each other as we look at the stars, our fingers locked together, an occasional kiss finding its way to one's cheek or lips.

It's very late when we finally come back to the village. We get to Xarem's house first, and he says:

"My parents are on a hunting trip right now, so the house is empty. You could spend the night here, if you want."

It's not difficult to decipher what he's actually offering. With a grin, I respond:

"I would love to. Thanks for inviting me."

Both filled with anticipation, we climb up the ladder and make our way inside his home.

Once inside, we remove our boots and drop our weapons in the lobby. Xarem then puts one arm against my back and the other under my legs and lifts me up before carrying me to his bedroom. There, we kiss for a while longer, then start undressing each other.

Now both naked, we keep cuddling and kissing, feeling each other's body in ways we never experienced before. With us being this close, I can feel all of his warmth, and his naked skin rubbing against mine causes waves of emotions I had never felt before to erupt in me. At that moment, all I can think about is how much I love Xarem. The way he looks and smells, his smile, his large body, the way he protects me and makes me feel important... I love all of it! I want to stay in his arms forever.

Despite how late it is, we end up spending a large part of the night growing closer, allowing our love for each other to carry us to places we had never visited before.