My Eldritch Horror Wife Followed Me To Another World
Chapter 111: Story Time

Chapter 111: Story Time

Nick looked silently at Malak.

Sosora wasn’t the only one suffering. This guy had guilt tearing through his insides like shards of glass. He could put on a good mask around the others, but it was slipping now that he was talking to someone who might have a way to fix Sosora.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple.

If the tentacle knew a way to treat Sosora, she wouldn’t have spared any effort in telling Nick to drag Sosora inside. Since the tentacle hadn’t done that, Nick could assume that the ways the tentacle knew of to help Sosora were not something it could do.

The situation was complex.

Malak...He was desperate. He might be fumbling around in the dark almost as much as Sosora was.

Telling him to calm down and stay by Sosora’s side wouldn’t work.

Nick could tell that Malak would scour the ends of the world for a way to fix Sosora.

She was blind. Her life going forward would be rough. There was no doubt about it.

The current circumstances and Sosora’s life was different, sure, but Nick knew who people who were blind and lived more fulfilling lives than those who could see. A disability could be the end of the world for some, especially in this situation.

Nick would understand if someone in Sosora’s situation gave up.

But Sosora...From what he had heard and seen, Sosora was just in a slump. She was tough.

Nick turned around and headed into the kitchen. He invited Malak to sit down while he prepared a cup of tea.

"It’s not the same, but your situation reminds me of a story. Well, it reminds me of several different versions of similar stories."

Malak just looked silently at Nick.

He wasn’t here to listen to stories, but he wasn’t going to offend Nick, not after what he had just felt when he looked at the tentacle, who was eagerly listening to Nick by the side.

"It’s a simple story, really. It’s about a man and a woman. The woman is bedridden with a sickness. Chronically. There’s nothing to be done about it. She will spend the rest of her life never stepping a foot outside her room.

"The man is upset. Naturally, that means she will never feel the warmth of the morning sun on her skin. She will never smell the scent of fresh-cut grass. She will never taste the stars on her tongue. She will never hear the sound of waves crashing against the beach and the seagull choir accompanying it. She will never see any of the seven wonders of the world. Not even so much as a rainbow.

"Such a horrible future." Nick sighed and sat down in front of Malak. But he didn’t look at Malak. He looked out through the window, his gaze distant.

"But the man, he gets an idea, you see. If he can’t take her to see, smell, touch, taste, and hear all those wondrous things, he can just bring them to her. So, he sets out on a journey.

"He traps the sunlight, the feel of grass tickling her bare feet, the smell of a field of roses, the sound of the ocean, rain in the forest, lightning and thunder, and everything else that makes him think of her during the trip. Everything he wanted to show her, he traps in a bottle.

"It takes years, decades. But eventually, the bottle is full, and he returns. The man is old. His legs and back are stiff and ache in the morning. His tanned skill is full of wrinkles.

"The woman is old. Her skin is pale and gaunt. But she’s waited. She waited for him to return. And return he did. With a smile, he gave her the bottle, the collection of everything he had brought back for her sake.

"She opens it. She sees the trapped borealis lights, the flashes of thunder. She feels the sunlight on her face, and she can smell the grass after the rain. It’s beautiful, even if they are just faint echoes of the real thing. It’s more than anything she could have dreamed of in her room from her bed, which she hasn’t left in all that time.

"She thanks the man. The man smiles. He says he’s going to let her rest and that he will come back tomorrow. He’s also tired. He’s spent all that time traveling, after all.

"They say their light goodbyes.

"The man comes back the next day.

"The woman has ended her own life."

Nick sighed and continued staring out of the window for a while. He wasn’t the best storyteller, but he hoped he did the story justice. It was one he liked, after all.

He turned to Malak, who looked at him with a complex gaze.

"I didn’t mention it was a tragedy?" Nick asked.

Malak shook his head. He was smart enough to understand most of the story and the message behind it. But he didn’t think it applied to this situation.

He wasn’t going to leave to bring back things Sosora could have seen if she hadn’t been blind. If he left, it was to find a cure.

"Why do you think the woman killed herself, Malak?" Nick suddenly asked, seeing Malak’s stubbornness.

"Because she was satisfied. She had lived a sad life waiting for the man to return with what he had promised. He delivered on that promise and showed her the world she had been forbidden from seeing on her own," Malak reluctantly shared his thoughts.

Nick smiled. A faint, sad smile.

"I think it’s the opposite."

"The opposite?"

"The woman...She spent years completely alone, waiting for the man to return. She might know what lay outside her home in theory, but had never been able to understand it. The sunlight is warm, but so is fire. What makes sunlight comfortable?

"What is outside her home doesn’t matter to her. What matters to her is what she can reach. The man might have good intentions. But he didn’t take the world to her. He showed her a taste of everything that she will never have. Suddenly, the woman knows what she’s missing.

"The man left her alone for years, only to show her how miserable her life really is. When in reality, she would have been perfectly content with her world being just the two of them."

Nick leaned in close and looked Malak dead in the eyes.

"I know it’s not the same.

"But I want you to think long and hard about what your priorities are, Malak. Do you want to help Sosora? Or do you want to ease your guilt?"

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