Time in a collapsing world

In the end, Yaeri and Alicia only booked one room. After all, human beings are backward in all aspects nowadays, so they were thankful to find a house willing to let them stay in the middle of the night.

"Go to sleep."

Yaeri looked at the shabby bed in the room and lay down on it first as if he had given up on himself. He knew that even if he didn't want to, Alicia would not let him run away.

Alicia smiled slightly and climbed onto the bed. The two of them occupied each side, with a small gap between them. However, as time passed, Yaegiri noticed that the gap was gradually getting smaller.

"Alishia, are you trying to push me off the bed?"

"How could that be? I'm just worried that I'll fall off the bed at night. After all, this bed is very narrow~?"

The house was very simple and in quite a few disrepairs. Wind blew in from time to time through the windows that were not tightly closed. It was not cold, but very noisy. In addition, the two of them had slept in the morning, so they were not sleepy.

Alicia and Yaeri's bodies still touched, but that was all, the pink-haired girl did not take the next step.

"Li, can you tell me a story?"

Alicia stretched out a hand from under the quilt and patted Yaeki's shoulder.

"what?"

Yaeri turned her head.

"It's so boring. Li, you can't fall asleep for the time being, right? Why don't you tell me a story~?"

Alicia's eyes are still as bright in the dark, like a cat in the night.

"Once upon a time there was a mountain, in the mountain there was a temple, in the temple there was a..." Yaeri began to recite without emotion.

"So perfunctory... I want to hear a horror story~?" Alicia covered Yaeri's mouth and stopped him from chanting.

“Do horror stories scare you?”

Yaeri thought, at their level, even if there were ghosts in this world, they would be physically saved, right?

"Maybe~ I'm still afraid. Li, don't you want to experience the feeling of being hugged by a frightened and pitiful beautiful girl for a whole night?"

"..."

In fact, it's not that he has never experienced this before. When he was a child in Yae Village, he, Yae Sakura and Yae Rin all slept on the same floor.

But Yaezaki couldn't say this, she just shook her head, "Even if it's like this... I can't say it."

"Then let me talk, and you just listen carefully, Li~?" Alicia cleared her throat as if she had been prepared.

"Once upon a time, on the edge of a small town, there was a forest called 'Weeping Woods' by the locals. It is said that every night, a low weeping sound would be heard from the woods, which was creepy. Despite this, curiosity drove the young explorer Tom to find out what was going on."

"Late one night, Tom stepped into the woods with a flashlight and courage. The moonlight shone through the treetops, casting mottled shadows. He walked deeper and deeper, and the trees around him seemed to be whispering, and there was a faint cry in the wind."

"Suddenly, Tom's flashlight went out and it was pitch black. He tried to turn it back on, but it was no use. Just then, the crying became clearer, as if it was right next to his ears. Tom felt a chill and he began to regret his decision."

"He turned around and tried to flee, but found himself lost. The crying was getting closer and closer, Tom's heartbeat was speeding up, and he could feel something approaching. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them suddenly, only to find himself standing at the edge of the woods."

"Tom ran back home in shock, and he vowed never to go to that woods again. The next day, he asked the old man in the town about the source of the crying. The old man told him that a long time ago, a woman disappeared in the woods, and her family went to the woods every night to look for her. The strange thing was that although those family members would come back every time, slowly, no one could find their traces anymore."

"Tom was a little scared and ran back to his home. At night, when he was about to heat up a pizza in the microwave, he found that the microwave in front of him was covered with wood grain. When he turned around, everything in the house had turned into wood."

"Tom hurried to open the door, but the door handle was fixed and could not be opened. Even the window had turned into wood. As a last resort, he ran back to bed, closed his eyes, and hoped that all this was just a dream."

"But at this moment, Tom's wife asked: What's wrong with you?"

"Tom replied: I'm fine, I just had a nightmare."

"But just after answering, he realized that he had no wife and no one else in the family, so who was sharing the bed with him?"

Alicia spoke vividly, and her tone was deliberately eerie, but after waiting for a long time for Yaeiri's response, she turned around and found that he had fallen asleep without realizing it.

"Really? I was telling a horror story..."

Alicia snuggled up to Yaeri. Even though the cold wind was still blowing outside the window, for some reason, she felt an unprecedented sense of peace when she smelled the faint scent of cherry blossoms on the pink-haired boy.

……

The next day, Alicia and Yaeri woke up, had breakfast in this small shop that could barely be considered an inn, and then set off.

"Li, the hotel owner's son came to see me just now. Guess what he said?"

The two found a new carriage, and in the carriage, Alicia said with a smirk.

"Praising you for being beautiful? And confessing my love for you?"

Yaeri said directly that there was no need to explain Alicia's beauty, but he had overlooked one thing.

"No, no, no, that kid was asking me for your preferences. Although he praised me, he really cares more about you~?"

“…This is outrageous.”

"That's right, Ming Ming Li is so beautiful, why is that only that kid recognizes her?"

Alicia nodded in agreement. Yaeri's current appearance was also thanks to her to a certain extent, so Alicia thought that praising Yaeri for her beauty was the same as praising herself for her beauty, so there was no problem.

"..."

It took another day for the two to cross six towns and arrive at an abandoned house, which hides a narrow passage leading underground. After opening the dusty lid, they soon heard Aponia's voice in their minds.

"Go ahead, I will lead the way for you."

So under the guidance of Aponia, the two bypassed the complicated passages and found the deeply hidden [Paradise of the Past] device.

The palace-like hall, the unattainable dome... everything looks so tidy, obviously someone comes here to clean regularly.

"Eden is the one who comes here the most besides Aponia. Is it her credit that this hall is so clean~?"

Alicia looked at the familiar scene in front of her, as if she had returned to the past when people with different personalities gathered together to chat.