Chapter 21 – The Evil Dragon Leaps into the Past with Her Sons 【Part 2】

That night, after my mother had interfered with the boss subjugation.

While I was feeling down, my mother came into my room by walking through the door (after destroying it).

Her eyes were sparkling.

…I had a horribly bad feeling about this.

Because whenever my mother’s eyes looked like that, trouble was sure to follow.

As soon as Karma entered my room, she grabbed my hand and…

“Let’s go!”

…is what she said.

“Go…? Go where?”

“Isn’t it obvious?!”

Karma pulled me by the hand, stomping out of the room.

stomp, stomp…

She left me there for a moment and went into the room next door.

“Coming in!”

CRACK…!

“Could you please not just casually destroy the door to enter a room?!”

The room my mother had entered was the one next to mine—Sheila’s.

A moment later, Karma came back to me with Sheila in tow.

“Awooo… Whaaa tiiime is iiiit…”

Sheila had changed into her sleepwear.

She had a cute, triangular nightcap on her head.

“Wake up, Sheila. It’s time for an adventure.”

“An advenchure…?”

As Sheila dozed off, Karma activated her All-Destruction lightning and said, “Wake up.”

“Huh?”

BZZZZT…!

With that, only Sheila’s sleepwear was destroyed by my mother’s skill.

…Which meant, what happened next?

With only her sleepwear destroyed, Sheila was left standing there in her underwear.

“Wh-?!”

My face turned beet red as I averted my eyes.

…It was cute, white underwear. N-Not that it matters. Saved (to my brain).

After destroying Sheila’s sleepwear, Karma immediately used her All-Creation skill to dress the rabbit-girl in new clothes.

“Huuuh…? Karma-san? Ryuuji-kun?”

blink…

The shock of it all had woken Sheila up.

“What is everyone doing up so late at night?”

Sheila tilted her head, a question mark floating above it.

“Sheila. Ryu-kun. Let’s go.”

“I’m asking, go where…?”

My eyes met my mother’s.

They were sparkling like a child’s.

“Just to a few hours in the past.”

… ……… ………Huh? H-Huh?!

“Wait, what did you just say?”

“There’s no time to repeat myself! Let’s gooooo!”

Karma activated her All-Creation skill.

“HAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!”

A ridiculous amount of magical energy began to gather in front of Karma.

The immense power eventually coalesced into a single knife.

Karma took the skill-made knife in her hand.

“Aaaand! Yes, yes. It’s complete!”

Karma nodded to herself, knife in hand.

“Mom, what’s that?”

“This is a magic knife that can travel through time and space.”

“Time…? Space…? Wait, what?”

I couldn’t quite grasp what my mother was saying.

“Some small-fry Dimensional Demon or whatever showed up a while back saying, ‘Please let me help you conquer the world in the Demon Lord’s stead!’ and was being super annoying, so I beat the crap out of him, and he gave me this as an apology. I didn’t need it, so I threw it away. I just recreated it.”

For such a long speech, I had no idea what she was talking about…

My mother was about to do something crazy again.

That much, I understood instinctively.

“Oh, knife! Grant me your power! Hyaaaaaahhhhh!!”

Karma raised the magic knife and swung it down into empty space.

Swinging a knife at nothing shouldn’t cut anything.

…or so I thought.

VMMMM…!

With that, the empty space itself was cut.

“Huh? Whaaaaat?!”

The space my mother had traced with the knife was now torn open.

squirm, squirm…

A mysterious dimension peeked out from the tear.

“Here’s a full set of equipment. Got it? Good? Alright, let’s-a-go!”

“W-Wait! Mom?!”

Karma grabbed our hands and stepped into what could only be described as a rift in space.

woosh…

A sensation similar to floating washed over me.

I felt a powerful force, as if my body was being twisted.

And then… the sensation suddenly stopped.

“……… Where… is this?”

I opened my eyes and looked around. It was a place I recognized.

“Wait a minute, aren’t we inside that dungeon?!”

That’s right… it was the dungeon where the Kongo Kabuto had been.

We were right in front of the boss room.

“Did you use teleport?”

Karma shook her head at my question.

“I did not. Teleportation is merely for moving through space.”

My mother was saying something strange… which was normal, but my mother was saying something strange.

Teleportation was moving through space.

We had just moved from the space we were in a moment ago to the space in front of the dungeon boss’s room.

Was that not moving through space?

But my mother said it wasn’t.

“We, your Mother and I, have transcended space-time and returned to a few hours in the past.”

I just stared blankly, dumbfounded. “Returned… to a few hours ago?”

“Yes. In layman’s terms, it’s time travel.”

…It was all just too much. I crumpled to the floor.

“Um, umm, um, Karma-san?”

Sheila raised her hand and asked my mother a question.

“Why did we come to the world of a few hours ago?”

Sheila’s ability to adapt to this is insane, I thought, but I nodded along. It was a good question. “It’s simple. It’s so you two can defeat the dungeon boss one more time.”

Karma stood before the boss room door and looked at us as she spoke.

…Her eyes were serious.

“Your Mother has realized something. I realized that I was the one who interfered with the previous boss battle.”

It was true. Because my mother had been glaring at it, the terrified boss monster had basically thrown the fight for her son.

As a result, we had beaten the boss with ridiculous ease, but…

“I’m sorry. I know winning like that… doesn’t really feel like a victory, does it?”

Karma’s shoulders slumped dejectedly.

“…Wh-What’s with you, Mom? Do you have a fever?”

She’s actually making sense… I started to think, but stopped myself.

“Your Mother is perfectly fine. Thank you for your concern. May I have your permission to lose consciousness now?”

“Read the room!”

I really wished she wouldn’t joke around during serious moments.

“Be that as it may. We have arrived in the world of a few hours ago. Therefore, on the other side of this door, the Kongo Kabuto is waiting.”

“…………”

I started to ask why she would do all this, but then I understood.

My mother was trying to make amends.

“I want you to have a do-over of the boss fight that your Mother ruined.”

“Mom…”

She seemed to truly regret her actions.

“Ryu-kun, I’m so sorry. I never meant to get in your way. I thought that rather than just apologizing with words, it would be better to show my sincerity through my actions, which is why I leaped into the past.”

Right, that was it.

It wasn’t like my mother had done it with any ill intent.

I already knew that… Everything my mother did, when you boiled it down, was for her son’s sake.

She just had a tendency to go overboard for her son; she didn’t have a single shred of a desire to actually hinder me.

I knew that. The love contained within my mother’s actions… it always got through to me.

“Mom…”

I walked toward Karma.

She cowered like a frightened child.

“Thank you.”

I gently wrapped my arms around my mother’s body.

The embarrassment of Sheila watching was overwhelmed by the gratitude I felt for my mom.

I ended the embrace.

“I’m heading in.”

Letting go of Karma, I turned around.

With Sheila following me, I passed through… the door to the room where the dungeon boss waited.

“Nngghhhooo… my shon… my shon hugged meee… I’m sho… happyyyy…”

It seemed one of us was ascending to the heavens back there, but she’s probably still alive, so it should be fine.

…Actually, I need her to be alive. It’d be a problem if she wasn’t.

I have to survive, come back, and say, “I’m home.”