A New Life

The next day, the three of us woke up early in the morning to tidy up the house for the visitors.

Margret and Patricia said they would arrive in the early afternoon, so the three of us agreed to wake up early to clean the house. Since yesterday was too tiring for us to do anything.

[I'll handle the kitchen and living room!]

Shouting with too much enthusiasm for this early in the morning, Sazzy ran to the kitchen.

"If that's the case then I want to clean the rooms and the hallway."

Saying that, Oliver looked towards me for my opinion. After I nodded my head, he headed to the kitchen to grab a cloth.

I was left with cleaning the toilets and the store room.

Taking one of the leftover rags from the kitchen counter, I picked up a pail and filled it with water from the sink. Then carrying that pail and cloth to the store room, I started wiping down everything.

There were many things in the storeroom that were spared from being trashed by the intruder. Like the stove from the first stream I did around 4 months ago. Or the luggage bags we just used to travel around with.

Carefully moving everything out of the store room, I wiped down shelves with the rag. I then placed them back.

Then for the toilets, it was much easier since there were toilet specific tools to use. The toilet was also much smaller than the store room.

Wiping my sweat as I finished up, I exited from the furthest toilet and walked over to the kitchen. Sazzy was lying on the sofa, tired out. While Oliver was still wiping the corners of the hallway.

I dumped the dirty water into the sink and washed the rag. Pulling up my alternative terminal to check the time, it was quite close to when the two were supposed to come.

And as if reading my thoughts, I heard a very familiar excited voice.

"Alex! We came over!"

Appearing from the glass windows, Jenny opened them and hopped into the house. Oliver at that time had just finished cleaning the hallways and was washing the rag.

"Did you two just do a clean up?"

From behind Jenny, Margret showed herself with a smile.

"Sorry for the short notice. We also had to deal with a short notice ourselves."

Sighing, she pointed off to her side and I walked forward to see what she was referring to. Outside, standing with a large black bag the size of her body, Linda stood with a grin on her face.

"I've come with your future security system!"

Beside Linda was Patricia, her expression one of helplessness.

"Sorry for bothering you."

Apologizing for her chief, Patricia bent over to take the big black bag from Linda's shoulders. Together, the whole group entered from the glass windows.

"Have you started cooking?"

Jenny hopped up to the stoves, but paused when she saw nothing on them.

"We just finished cleaning. If you don't mind waiting for a while, I'll cook breakfast right now!"

Smiling as Jenny perked up again and skipped to sit on the new couches, Margret shook her head at her child and offered to help out.

"If you two are busy with that, then I'll get Patricia to start installing your security system!"

Linda practically dragged Patricia to the store room.

"Sorry for the ruckus. Patricia and Linda appeared yesterday and she said she wanted to surprise the two of you."

Taking a pot, the two of us decided to cook some simple noodles with Red wood clam. Margret had brought the ingredients herself.

"Actually, other than a homecoming visit, we also wanted to tell you something."

Margret looked back and confirmed that Jenny was playing obliviously with Oliver at the sofa. She then lowered her voice to a whisper.

"I want to apologize for the break in. In fact, Jenny had told the intruders about the poison jar. She had accidently seen it, and told it to someone who asked her. So, the break in was partially our fault. Is there anything we can do to apologize."

Margret slowed in her movements as she talked.

"You don't need to give anything. If the intruders were on the planet and asking about me, they were probably planning to break in regardless if Jenny had said anything or not. It's not Jenny's fault."

Consoling Margret, I smiled at her.

"Besides, Jenny has been such a ray of sunshine. She didn't do it on purpose, so it's fine."

Margret smiled back at me.

"Thank you. Actually, Jack wanted to come as well to apologize. However, he's currently off the planet working. He said he'll come by once he returns to apologize."

"Tell him he doesn't need to. It's fine. Nobody was hurt."

While we were talking, I heard Linda's voice turn louder as she exited from the store room.

"We're done with installing the security system!"

"Sorry for doing this without your consent."

Patricia apologized from behind Linda.

"It's fine, it's fine. Besides, it's free right? Who doesn't like free things?"

Linda 'answered for me' and plopped herself onto the couch.

[It isn't even your house.]

Grumbling from beside me, Sazzy shot her a glare.

I heard Patricia sigh.

I guess our security system issue is fixed now.

Hearing the noisiness behind me as Linda joined in with the children, I heard Margret sigh once more.

"Oh right. What do you think about Ivan? Rumor has it that he met you yesterday and fell face first into love."

Ivan did?

Turning my attention back to the food, we plated the dishes.

"Did he?"

Margret chuckled from beside me and took several plates into her arms.

"Yep! I heard he even gave you his number. Ren and Jim were spreading it all over the village when they came over last night for a drink."

[Those two!]

Sazzy exclaimed from beside us even as she stared greedily at the dishes in our hands.

Putting the dishes down and calling the children plus Linda to come eat, Margret sat next to me. A fire seemed to light in her soul at the gossip and she wouldn't stop trying to sell Ivan to me.

Patricia was in the corner typing away at her alternative terminal. It seemed that even when Linda dragged her here, she still had work to do. Linda was happily playing with the children.

When the sun set, Patricia and Linda were the first to go.

"Thank you for your hospitality today. Chief said yesterday that she wanted to give you a security system."

Patricia bowed in apology as the main culprit, Linda, smiled innocently at us. The two then left.

"Yesterday? I thought it took several days to travel to Media Luna?"

As the pair left, I asked Margret.

"Near our village there is a teleportation device. It connects to all of the tribes nearby as an emergency measure. It can also only be accessed by the chief, so that was how she got here so soon."

Margret shook her head as she casually complained about Linda's casual abuse of power.

"Although there is a fine for using it inappropriately, Linda still uses it casually. I think she looks at the fine as a really expensive entry cost."

Then after talking for a while, Margret and Jenny also left.

Waving her hands excitedly, Jenny shouted goodbye as they walked back to their village.

[Today sure was a busy day!]

Lying on the couch, Sazzy sighed as she closed her eyes.

Oliver yawned and excused himself off to bed.

Left practically alone, I headed to the sink to clean up. Although Margret had tried to help in cleaning up after the meal, Jenny didn't exactly make it easy.

Taking the sponge, I scrubbed the dishes clean. Suddenly, I heard a voice from behind me.

[I'm back.]

Turning around, I saw Ava for the first time in days. She was a little bit more determined, and her eyes seemed sharper than I've ever seen them be.

But the moment she came face to face with me, she froze. And then she avoided my gaze.

[...Could I ask where Oliver is?]

"He went to bed early. Since there were quite a lot of guests today."

Although she asked, even after I had answered her, Ava didn't move.

[Hey. You know about the first time we met. Could we restart that?]

Taking a step towards me, Ava stopped and seemed to hesitate for a while.

[I said some stupid things. And since you are Oliver's sister, I would really want to at least be on okay terms with you.]

Another awkward pause as I turned off the faucet and dried my hands.

"You're not the only one. We did get off to a rough start, but I do want to be on good terms with you. After all, you are the one who will most probably be the closest to Oliver from now on."

I held out a hand as a sign of a handshake. Ava smiled as she stretched out her own hand and shook mine.

[Nice to meet you. I'm Ava, Oliver's system.]

"Hello. I'm Oliver's sister, Alex."

Shaking hands for a while, we let go as Ava smiled.

[I'll be going to check on Oliver now. Good night.]

As Ava waved goodbye and headed into the room, Sazzy sat up from her place on the couch.

[Did something happen?]

"Well, it did. But you can say we put it past us."

Sazzy stood up as I headed over to my room.

[By the way, what do you think about Ivan?]

I paused with my hand at the doorknob.

"Are you also trying to hook me up with him?"

Joking with Sazzy, I opened the door to my room.

[It's alright to fall in love in this world. 20 years is a long time, and spending that time with someone would make the time feel better. Besides, being given a new life means being able to do things you have never done before. You could give dating a try.]

Sazzy followed me into the room and I sat on the bed.

"But I only have 20 years, To drag someone into a relationship with a deadline is something that feels wrong."

Sazzy stared at me with her large eyes and smiled.

[It isn't wrong. Just because you have 20 years doesn't mean you should plan everything out so that it ends in 20 years. The world doesn't work like that, and it never will. Someone will surely accept that fact, and spending 20 years with someone shouldn't be overshadowed by the end of that relationship. I think there was one phrase that summed it up nicely. 'Life is sweet because it is short' or something like that.]

Smiling carefreely, Sazzy then left me with my thoughts as she disappeared from the room.

Sweet and short, huh.

Pulling up my alternative terminal, I looked at the message I had sent Linda the second I had received it. It was a request to help Oliver and I distance ourselves from the anti-Colonists. In response to that, Linda had said she would take care of everything and I didn't need to worry. She even sent a 'thank you for your service' sticker together with a goofy smiling sticker.

My finger hovered over the keyboard, and I hesitated for a second. But in the end I still typed it out.

"As long as it won't endanger us, I will still be keen to help. "

A short while passed, and a 'Linda is typing' line appeared in the chat. Then she sent a group chat invitation.

Accepting it, I was taken to a medium sized group chat named 'Mothers'. In it were some familiar names, like Margret, Helen, Patricia and Pansy.

Although on the main message page, there was a history that indicated Pansy had left the chat once 10 years ago.

Looking at the cute icon of the chat, a drawing of a mother and child, I clicked on it and was immediately redirected to the description of the chat.

'For those who have someone depending on them.'

Smiling, I closed my alternative terminal and shut my eyes.

Maybe things would turn out differently in this world.