“Lord Duran, you won’t be joining us?” I asked, feeling a bit disappointed.

I had very few male friends. That had been the case in that world and this one. I didn’t get along with most guys. Nowadays, my rapidly growing status made it difficult for me to call most people a friend. There was Prince Edward, but he was extremely busy, and there would never be a time we could just hang out. As for Pait, while we were on good terms, I’d be hard-pressed to call him a friend. He was somewhat moody most of the time and was more focused on doing his job as a diplomat than having friendly conversations.

I found myself missing Otto for a bit. When I had first come to this world, I had seen him as a cruel noble. However, both he and I had changed greatly in the last 9 months or so. Had it been so long? I didn’t know the exact time, as the days and months in this world didn’t follow my world exactly, but it was closing on a year.

Of course, at this point, I could return to Earth any time I wanted, but then I would be leaving far too much behind. There was very little for me on Earth. Perhaps, when things were calmer, and the threats of the fae, the imperial cloud meadow, Twilight, and the demon king were all dealt with, I’d bring the girls to my world and have them meet my mother. I wondered how she’d react to seeing them. Shao had met my mother. When she had gone to our world to track down her past, she had also visited them. She had been vague about how mom was doing though. She could only say that mom was doing well.

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That told me all I needed to know though. I had disappeared less than a year ago. Had my mother truly missed me, would she be doing so well after such a short time? Since she was doing so well, Shao’s words only reinforced what I had already seen for myself, that my family had moved on and that my true place was here. I wasn’t angry with her, and while it did make me a little sad sometimes, she was my mother. I had been a continuing burden for her for twenty years, and I was glad that with me gone, she could finally move on. Someday, I would make it up to her.

Perhaps, I would use some of the products from this world, make a fortune in that world, and become extremely wealthy by exchanging goods between the two worlds. I could then share that wealth with my mother, and allow her to live the rest of her life whatever way she wanted. That felt like a completely different direction to take my story though, so it’d wait for another time and place.

“I regret that I cannot.” Duran gave the predictable answer that I had already guessed at. “The tribe is still in disarray. I need to stay in Dioshin and help keep things from falling into chaos here. However, I do have a task that I would like you to do for me.”

“Hmm? What’s that?” I asked.

“I would like you to speak to the soothsayer. I’d like her to divine the future of Dioshin!”