Return, Gift

"By the way, what's your name?" I asked Milim after she calmed down. Although I know her name, I still need to ask as a polite gesture.

"Me? My name is Milim Nava. You shall remember my name, Muahahaha!" Milim started her introduction followed with chuunibyou styled laugh.

"Then, my name is Adam Cordett, while next to me is Astraea… Cordett. Please take care of me." I introduced myself and Astraea as the latter smiled silly since I introduced her with a family name.

"O-oh. Please take care of me." Milim looks bewildered as she is not used to polite greetings.

"Milim, now that the world is destroyed, do you want to come with us to a different world?" I proposed to her.

"You can do that?!" She looks delighted. She must have thought that my world was filled with powerful individuals.

"Of course, after all I'm The Great True Dragon God. Muahahaha" I said smugly at her who nodded along with my play.

"Cough.. Focus." Astraea reminded me with a pinch on my thigh.

"Anyway, don't get your hopes up, because the world where I came from is an ordinary world without any powers but…" I said disappointing her as she deflated like a balloon but got up again as I prolonged my words.

"But…." Milim stared at me with expectation in her eyes.

"But there are different sweets around the world. Like this!" I said. Conjuring a lot of cakes that I copied from Miyamura's bakery on a newly made table.

"...What is this?" Milim stared at the cakes with a bewildered expression.

I slowly get up and walk towards her while carrying a slice of triple chocolate cake.

"This, Milim, is called The 'Triple Layer Chocolate Cake'. Before you say anything, let me explain this to you. This is a food, a sweet dessert, that has a very delicious flavor that can make you addicted to it. Its deliciousness you never found in your life can be found in this small piece of cake." I explained the cake to her with all my soul. She's basically flooding the tatami with her drool.

"Now, Milim, say 'Ahh.'-.. Hey! Not the spoon too! Give it back!" I fed her a bite of cake with my spoon but she bit the entire spoon into her mouth. Fortunately or unfortunately, I got half of the spoon back after some effort to pull it from her mouth..

"W-what is this?! I-I-It's delicious! More-more!" She exclaimed loudly. Basically jumping on the spot while shaking my shoulders.

"Of course, what's on the table is yours, but don't eat the spoons and plates. If you want more you can find it in my world. There is a lot of food that is more delicious than that." I said with a smug look on my face. 

"What?! More delicious?! Let's go now, Adam!"

"Okay, okay, be patient. Before going back to my world. I need to place a seal on yours and Gaia's power. I don't want an accident to happen because of your power. So you need to learn to play with ordinary humans. Then I need to make your physical body become smaller so that you can go to school with me, while I make Gaia become like a dog. 

This seal and changes will cancel itself if there is an emergency. Lastly, as a compensation for sealing your power, I will accompany you if you want to fight and invite you and Gaia to another world if I found an interesting one. Is that alright, Milim?" I proposed to her as I want her to be more humane. While she is near me, I can take care of her, rather than living in this broken world.

She nodded without hesitation. Looks like she's happy that she got a friend who can play with her aside from Gaia.

"Fufufu.." I heard a chuckle from Astraea.

"What is it, Astraea?" I asked, puzzled by her chuckle.

"Nothing, It's just I'm happy that you're having fun." She responded softly as her gaze was more affectionate than before.

"H-haha, is that so, then I guess I am having fun. And got a new sister." I turned my head aside, unused to her lover-like gaze. Though I admit that I'm having fun and got myself a new family or friend.

After that I use my ability to make myself look like my previous self before evolution. I want to make myself grow more gradually, becoming my after-evolution humanoid self as time goes by. So there's no need to worry about suspicion from my parents and other people.

Then I make Milim become her smaller self around my age. Then Gaia becomes an energetic husky that accompanies Milim around.

I sealed all their powers to look like an ordinary person except some auxiliary skills that have no combat power or visual impact such as [Milim's Eyes].

"Done. Are you ready, Milim?" I asked Milim who started to get bored in the stomach space.

"Of course. Let's go! Wuuuu!." She held my hand and started shaking it while her other hand held a puppy Gaia who looked energetic as ever.

I nodded at Astraea who started to activate dimensional shift. As blinding light filled our vision. The surroundings began to change to my house, precisely where I left before, The dining room. The universe is still frozen since I haven't restarted it. 

"Before I restart the time, I'm going to give you common sense about this world. I don't want you to cause too much trouble, okay?" I said to Milim who looked around the house curiously. 

"Umu. So… where's the cake?" Milim asked me with her eyes full of innocence.

"Uhh, we're going to find cakes tomorrow. But first, I need to hide you in my space, then tomorrow I can bring you to my house and act like you were a pitiful child abandoned by your parents who previously adopted you. 

Don't worry about anything else, you just need to act pitiful, then I will take care of the rest." I said to Milim who looked disappointed that she cannot eat cakes right away, though she nodded in agreement after some thought.

"Oh, before I forget, I want to give you a welcoming gift. Here." I created something on the spot. It's a tear-shape made out of glass-like material about the size of my palm. Inside is a floating life-like miniature of her father laying in dragon form and her mother leaning against the dragon's body while carrying a pink-haired baby affectionately.

After that I shrink its size to the size of a pendant and make it into a locket before linking it with a silver chain.

"See this, this is your-" I was interrupted by Milim's cry as she hugged me tightly while bawling her snot and tears.

Waaaaa….

'I guess it's easy for you to recognize them with your eyes,' I thought. I wanted to adopt her as a sister because she is naturally cute. More than that, I wanted to adopt her because of her parents, who made me realize how beautiful and sacred love is that it can break the boundary, be it hierarchy, species, power, etc. There are no boundaries in love as we create the boundaries ourselves.

Though there is always a bottom line in love. There's no way for humans to love a dog, or a dakimakura, or an inanimate object as a soulmate… right?

Joke aside, I want repay Veldanava for his power and their 'teaching' by getting rid Milim's tragic end from madness and loneliness in a broken world. I wanted her to be happy as much as her parents must have wanted her to be.

I patted Milim's back as I thought about how admirable her parents are.

"There, there, let it out." I said while hanging the necklace around her neck. "This necklace around your neck is indestructible and is bound to you so you will not lose it. I made this a gift for you because I don't want you to forget about your parents even after you get old as I admire them from the bottom of my heart… And truthfully I wanted to adopt you as my little sister for some specific reason."

After some time, Milim managed to calm down despite her sniffling red nose and watery eyes. 

"Thank you, Adam. It's been a long time since they passed away, and I thought I had already forgotten about them… But after seeing your gift, I realize that maybe I miss them much more than I imagine,

And maybe… I want to try to become your sister too, maybe it will be …fun." she said with a calm and mature tone, unlike her usual child-like behavior.

"U-uh, you're welcome." I stuttered as I stared at her wide eyes because her tone doesn't match with her small body which is a little smaller than mine. "Cough.. Now then, that's done, now I'm going to transfer you."

"Yoshh! I can't wait for tomorrow, I want to eat lots of cakes! Adam, don't forget to make some cake for me in that white space." She excitedly returned to her usual self, making me sign in relief.

"Don't worry, there's Astraea that will entertain you there." I reassured her.

After that, I transferred to Milim and Gaia again. Not forgetting to link stomach space with my vision and placing some manga so that they won't get bored. I'm sure Milim and Astraea would have fun without me… right?

---

-Milim's POV-

In Adam's personal space, I sat down. Watching the pendant affectionately, more precisely at my parents miniature inside it. 

I'm embarrassed as I cried in Adam's arms without any image as The Great Milim Nava like I used to. Though I feel some kind of relief as finally I can let my heart out since I always feel lonely in Cardinal except for Gaia who always accompanies me. 

'But a new family huh? I guess it's not bad. As long as Adam is beside me, I'm sure nothing bad will happen and it will be more fun.' I thought, already becoming dependent on him.

"What up Gaia? Do you want to see it, I know you must be right?! See that is my father, a true dragon, who created you. And this is my mother, she has pink hair-" I halted my explanation as I realized Astraea looking at me with a big sister-like gaze which made me dumbfounded as I forgot about her presence. 

"Astraea! Do you want to see it too?!." I trotted towards her excitedly as I continued my ramble. "My mother has pink hair like me, but she is taller than me, then…"

I want to be closer to Astraea. Since I consider Adam as a brother and friend, why not consider Astraea as a sister as well. The more family, the merrier.

At our first meeting, I was intimidated by Astraea's gaze, which seemed to assess me like a judge weighing the advantages and disadvantages of a tool, with her value determined by Adam's benefits. I feared that if my presence posed a threat to him, I might be modified or eradicated. Fortunately, that did not happen, as it seems that from her gaze towards Adam, she wouldn't take such action since Adam wouldn't approve of it.

After some inner monologue, I kept talking with Astraea who changed her attitudes towards me since Adam and I decided to become family. After some talking I read some 'holy scripture' with black and white drawings in it and sometimes look at the screen to see what Adam is doing.

---

-Adam's POV-

Unfreezing the time in the universe, I marveled how time works. While I can use Omniscient to understand the principle of how time works and how to control it, I don't want to do that, because I have a long time ahead of me and I can slowly study it myself.

"Ni-chan, save me!" I heard Eve's scream as she ran from upstairs towards me.

'I missed her.' I scooped her into my arms as I hugged her tighter.

"Yosh, yosh, I saved Eva-chan from the tickle monster." I patted her back chuckling slightly.

"Ni-chan?" Eve looked at me with a confused expression. Maybe she noticed my change of mood. 

"It's okay, I just miss Eva-chan." I kissed her forehead gently before I lowered her next to Mama who finished watching TV.

"What happened to you, Adam? You look like you haven't seen us for years." Mama asked me with concern.

'I miss Mama too.' I thought.

"It's nothing, Mama. I just thought that I was lucky." I said to Mama with a gentle smile, though right now my smile is more genuine than before.

"Aww, Mama lucky to have you too." Mama hugged me, putting my head onto her bosom. Thankfully, after I evolved I don't need oxygen anymore.

I heard a panting breath coming from the stairs.

"Mouu, Eva-chan is too energetic." Miharu came to the living room with sweat on her face, tired playing with Eve who still has a lot of spare stamina. 

'I missed Mi-chan too.' Who would have thought that right now I can feel longing towards my family and friends, while in my previous life I got nothing to miss. 

'I will treasure them.' I reaffirm my thoughts.

"Are you tired Miharu? If you are tired, how about we study together tomorrow?" I asked Miharu worriedly. I started teaching her privately since she started kindergarten.

"No, no, I'm just tired of playing with Eva-chan, I still have spare energy to study with you." She denied me without hesitation.

"Well, we should start right away so as not to waste any time. Eva-chan, do you want to follow Oni-chan and Miharu Ne-chan to study?" I invited Eve. Usually if I go to study alone or with Miharu, she always follows me asking me to teach her. I guess she is a studious one.

"Hmmm, okay!" Eve thought for a while before agreeing.

"Hmph!" I heard a sound coming from Miharu who was pouting her mouth.

"Sigh.. What's wrong, Mi-chan?" I asked her, knowing full well that she is upset that I can't be alone with her. Though her bad mood usually only lasts for 5 minutes before returning to her usual self.

"Nothing." She said while turning her head away.

"Then let's go to study."