"...Um."
Rei was the first to speak.
"It's Pierre, right? Can I ask you one thing?"
"Anything at all."
"Should Mr. Manager... go back to that world now? Someone like him, staying in a little house like this—"
Rei's voice trembled.
"It's a waste, isn't it. Really."
The living room went quiet.
Pierre was silent for a while. Then he looked at me.
"That isn't for me to decide, nor for you. —Kashiwagi. It's for you to decide."
Everyone's eyes gathered on me.
I quietly set the tray down on the dining table. Then I slowly raised my face.
"Pierre," I said.
"I caused you, my mentor, a great deal of worry. Vanishing that night without a word. I'm truly sorry."
I bowed deeply.
"It's all right. You fought more than enough."
"But,"
I raised my face.
"I'm not going back."
I said it firmly. In a voice so free of hesitation it surprised even me.
"In that world, I was able to make millions of people happy. But there wasn't a single person who worried about me. I was empty the whole time. I couldn't lean on anyone, either."
I looked at the four of them.
"The other day, I came down with a fever and collapsed. Embarrassing, I know."
"Hey, we told you it's not embarrassing."
Mahiru pouted at me right away.
I laughed.
"And then these girls—made me a rice porridge that was salty, with the rice all gone soggy. They cooled my forehead. They told me, 'Lean on us.'"
My voice went a little hoarse.
"It was the first time in my life. That someone took me in like that. ...My place is"
I looked around the living room. The creaking hallway. The fireplace. The dining table. Komugi. And the four of them.
"here now."
Pierre gazed at me for a while. Then his eyes grew damp.
"...I see."
Just that.
"I see. I'm glad."
With that, his lined face broke into a smile from the bottom of his heart.
"Now I can retire with peace of mind too. Ever since the night you disappeared in such a state—it's weighed on me the whole time. Whether my finest pupil had managed to find happiness."
Pierre stood up and turned to face the four of them. Then he bowed deeply.
"Young ladies. Please, go on taking care of him. He's good at giving—but he's a man who's poor at receiving. Sometimes he pushes himself too hard. So I'd like you to notice for him."
The four of them nodded firmly.
Yume puffed out her chest and said:
"Leave it to us. We're already keeping an eye on everything about Mr. Manager."
"Yeah, yeah. If he pushes himself again, we'll make him rice porridge again."
"Come on, Rui. That's not exactly a threat."
"What, was my rice porridge that bad?"
The living room was suddenly wrapped in laughter.
When Pierre was leaving, he turned around at the front door.
"Kashiwagi. If someday you want to go back—you can come back anytime. The world is always waiting for you. Remember that much, at least."
I shook my head. And smiled gently.
"No. My place is here now."
Beside me, the four of them were laughing. At my feet, Komugi was wagging his tail.
Pierre looked at the scene as though it were dazzling.
"...Ah. You've truly found a good place."
With that, he disappeared down the snowy road.
That night, I stood in the kitchen for the first time in a while.
"Everyone. Any requests?"
"Plain rice porridge!"
Mahiru was the first to speak up.
"I want to try the taste where it all started for you, Mr. Manager. The one that made the king cry, earlier."
"...That's just plain rice porridge, you know."
I laughed and rinsed the rice. Into the clay pot went the rice and plenty of water. On low heat, simmering gently. Cooking it slowly, slowly.
The grains swelled plump and came apart in the water. Simmering down into a silky white. A tiny pinch of salt. That was all.
A bowl without any adornment at all.
I ladled it into bowls and passed them around. The steam drifted up and lit the four faces softly.
"Thank you for the food."
The four of them each took a spoonful.
"...Oh."
"Whoa."
"How, when there's nothing even in it..."
"...It's warm."
Their eyes were growing wet.
Perfectly ordinary plain rice porridge. But it was surely the same taste as the bowl Tomi had set in front of me that rainy night, when I'd collapsed by the roadside.
Not to make anyone money, or to impress anyone. A bowl just to keep the life of the precious person in front of you going.
I sipped the plain rice porridge from my own bowl. The warmth seeped slowly through my body.
Tomi.
I finally understand. Why you chose me. What you wanted to leave me.
It wasn't a legend, or skill. It was just this—being here, like this. Sharing something warm with someone. Being able to say "Welcome home" and "I'm home" to each other. Small, ordinary days like that.
"Hey, Mr. Manager," Rei said out of nowhere, having finished her porridge.
"In the end, we still haven't asked. The thing we've wanted to know all along."
"What would that be?"
"Your first name. How do you say it? It's on the nameplate, but we never knew how to read it."
I was a little surprised. Come to think of it, I'd never told anyone.
"...It's Amane. Amane Kashiwagi. So that I could light up everyone, all around. My mother gave me that name."
The four of them exchanged looks. Then Yume grinned.
"That's a nice name. ...Hey, Amane."
What she called me had changed. Not "Mister," not "Mr. Manager."
"Can I call you that from now on? Amane?"
I let my droopy eyes crinkle and smiled.
"Yes. I'd be happy to."
A winter night, the snow stopped. The light of Nightlight was just a little warmer than usual, quietly lighting up the place I come home to.