Return

In the sky, Ciel rubbed his forehead. 

"Brother."

Erin looked at his expression that indicated that he had a headache and rubbed his fluffy hair. 

"Don't make a fuss."

Theresa hovered above them, mimicking the eldest. 

/Yeah Cici, don't make a fuss~ Isn't it just getting a grandfather? Don't be so hung up about limiting your social circle! If you continue being like this, you'll die old and lonely again!/

It was just like Theresa to have her advice sound like mockery. Especially when she used that childhood nickname he disliked. 

He pinched the doll. 

"You still want your ears?"

/If you want to pull, pull. It's not like a damaged doll will affect me in any way./

Erin snatched the doll away. 

"Don't damage her. You'll regret it later."

Feeling the commotion on his back, Verdalite bent his long neck to look over, seeing the doll being cherished by both brothers. 

"That wasn't with you guys before, was it?"

Ciel huffed. 

"No, she was always with us."

Theresa snickered. 

/Quite literally with you guys all the time. Delmira is a pretty good monitor device. Even better then the surveillance cameras in my lab./

Ciel was speechless. If he was out of his mind, then his sister was insane. What kind of person uses a god as a monitoring device? Does this count as heresy?

Ah well, they were never religious anyway. 

He worried sincerely for his current guardian's mental sanity. When Theresa came back to life, how much more headaches would Jadiel have?

But since the question he had for god was unneeded anymore because both his siblings were here, was that priest he tricked a favor from still needed?

Theresa gave him a reminder. 

/By the way, you should still give that staff to the church. The summoned saintess still needs it./

Ciel nodded. 

To him, the staff was trash anyway. There was no need to keep it if he could trade it for something more useful. For example, a few favors from the church. It was a good thing he didn't directly tell Michael that he would trade the staff in exchange for a route to the church. 

Ciel felt around his space ring, confirming he had all his valuables with him, including that old, trashy looking sacred staff. 

Azar, who had been sitting cross-legged at the top of Verdalite's head, walked over and tapped the brother's shoulders. 

"Behind us."

"Huh?"

Simultaneously, both boys looked behind them. 

The first rays of the sun were starting to show, casting a mix of gold and scarlet hues across the dark sky. A loud roar reverberated across the mountain, causing the air to vibrate, as a majestic turquoise dragon took flight, followed by a similar sized dragon with gold scales matching the matriarch's hair and a smaller turquoise dragon. 

Following the family of three, small crowds of winged reptiles took flight, their scales reflecting the first glows of the sun, creating a kaleidoscope of vibrant colors in the sky. 

Looking at the brightening sky that was suddenly like a rainbow colored prism, Ciel widened his bright blue eyes, glad that he hadn't put on his blindfold yet.

His hands moved and a small square-shaped stone appeared in his hands. 

Click click click. 

Pictures imprinted on his recording stone acquired. 

Examining the images floating above the stone when infused with mana, Ciel smiled happily. Now that he thought of it, wasn't there another fun place he hadn't introduced to his brother yet?

"Erin, I'll take you to a good place later."

Having inherited both his past life and current life's memories, Erin immediately knew what he was talking about, but it was Theresa, who could only be heard by the two of them, who voiced his guess. 

/Ah, that blacksmith's place in the black market?/

Ciel grinned. 

"The owner is a great mechanic. I think you will get along with her later. She likes children too." 

Theresa drooped. 

/I won't be a child, after we discovered that it took a few years for a newly formed body to accept our past life's memories. Delmira decided to make my new body a teenager so I could immediately remember everything./

Ciel looked surreptitiously at Azar and Verdalite, both of whom had sharp hearing. The topic was going towards a conversation where he couldn't act like he was talking to Erin anymore.

Erin handed him the doll back, motioning for him to store it back into his ring.

"Let's talk about this later."

Ciel nodded, stuffing Theresa into his ring. Just as he was about to do the same with his camera, Erin stopped him. 

"?"

Erin forcefully turned Ciel's head around.

"Wah!"

The mountain–no volcano was sprouting out a red meteor shower!

Ciel quickly activated the camera with his mana, clicking away frantically. 

"Azar, Azar!"

Too tired to nitpick about how Ciel addressed him anymore, Azar rotated his body to face them. 

"Hm?"

"Did volcanic eruptions cause meteor showers?"

If Theresa were here, she would've mocked Ciel for not paying attention in science class back in their old world. It was a pity that both brothers were too excited to remember their sister.

Azar looked on calmly as pieces of flaming ashfall crashed into the invisible barrier he had created. Then, he looked at Ciel's shining eyes as he continued to save images of the eruption. Erin wasn't taking pictures, but his excited eyes weren't much different from Ciel's as he stared unblinkingly at behind them, as if wanting to imprint the scene in his eyes.

"They do."

As he said this, he silently re-installed the noise cancellation to the barrier he had just taken down after it had blocked the eruption's sounds, blocking out the faraway reptiles cursing out at the annoying pieces of flaming rock raining down on them. 

Hearing the conversation on his back, Verdalite was confused. 

"Huh? Volcanos don—"

Azar calmly narrowed the barrier's range down to surround only Verdalite's back, blocking out his next words.

This one also needed to be silenced.

***

The journey back on a dragon was faster than traveling back by caravan. As they neared the city, Verdalite let them down, transforming back into a human. 

"Looks like Jade is quite attached to you two. Well, I'm not too surprised."

When the two looked at him blankly, he tilted his head in the direction of the city gates. There was a small handful of figures standing impatiently at the entrance. 

Upon seeing them, Lanae immediately pounced, tears at the edge of her eyes. Hugging one boy with each hand, she spun them in place. 

"You're back! You had no idea how worried I was!"

Ciel choked, she was squeezing him so hard his eyeballs were going to pop out of his blindfold. 

Lilian hurriedly snatched him from Lanae. 

"Stop, Ciel's bones are so fragile, you want to break him?"

Gently cradled in Lilian's embrace, Ciel looked at Erin, whose eyes had become even blanker than usual. It seemed that he was used to Lanae's bear hugs. 

(Erin: With which eye did you see that I'm used to this? I'm dying, save me.)

In the end, it was Mason and Ivan who wrestled Erin out of Lanae's hold. Meanwhile, Kierra and Jadiel looked the brothers up and down. 

"Huh? Why do I feel like you two have become closer after returning? You both also look happier."

Ciel clung onto Erin cheekily. 

Well, in his past life, Theresa and him were almost spoiled rotten by their older brother, it was normal for him to be happy about this brother coming back. As for that annoying sister of his, um, after the initial excitement cooled down…

His ring flashed, and the doll appeared unexpectedly in his arms. Theresa floated out excitedly.

/I've figured out how to exit from the ring using mana! A-achoo! Cici, were you thinking something bad about me?/

Ciel changed his thoughts. He missed his sister as well. He was glad she was back. 

He hugged the doll, talking to Jadiel and Theresa.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Kierra saw their proximity and smiled without a word. 

No one talked about how the doll suddenly appeared in Ciel's arms. Well, except for a dense fool called Mason.

The gray eyed man pointed to the doll in surprise. 

"Ciel, where'd you get that doll from? It looks like one of the plush toys young nobles like to play with."

Ciel patted the fluffy fur without looking up. 

"I didn't get it anywhere, it was given to me." 

"Huh?"

Ciel gave a narcissistic grin. 

"A girl saw how cute I was, and gave it to me."

In a way, it was the truth. However, Mason ruffled his hair, confused. 

"Eves outside have access to expensive toys like these?" 

Ivan silently covered his forehead and chopped down on the top of Mason's head. 

"Stop talking. You're making this more complicated than it has to be."

"F*ck! You big bear, you need to learn how to pull your punches!"

Jadiel took one look at the fight about to begin and turned away, swiftly plucking Erin up from the ground. 

"Erin, I heard from Azar that you're injured. Let's hurry back and let Lilian check your injuries ok?"

"No, Erin is with me—"

Ciel blocked out the surrounding noise as he smiled blankly.

It was pure chaos. 

The moment Ivan and Mason had started fighting, Kierra had fished out a bag of dried fruit from her pouch, watching the show. Meanwhile, Jadiel and Lanae were fussing over Erin's injuries. Ciel wasn't free from this either, he just had to be in Lilian's arms—and Lilian was the one who nagged him the most. 

But despite the noisiness, Ciel was pretty happy. 

As Lilian's words went through his right ear and straight out his left ear, he stared at the lively scene around him. 

—It was a stark contrast to his lonely life in the last world after his siblings had left him. 

He didn't care about the novel's inconsistencies with the real world anymore. Being reincarnated in this world, novel or not, was truly a blessing.

This time, he would properly protect the ones close to him.