Chapter 1710 - 237 - The Moral Regret (8)

I entered the tent where Asada-san was staying.

When I stepped inside, I immediately saw her curled up into a ball.

She looked incredibly small like that.

It was difficult to connect the girl sitting there with the person I had seen trying to survive everything that had happened since we arrived in this world. Right now, she didn't look like someone who had any strength left to fight. She simply looked exhausted, frightened, and desperate to return to the life that had been taken away from her.

"Asada-san?" I called out softly.

She slowly raised her head and looked toward me.

Her eyes were red.

Really red.

It was obvious that she had been crying for quite a while, and there was no point in pretending otherwise. She looked like someone who had spent a long time trying to hold herself together before finally reaching the point where she simply couldn't anymore.

"S-Sensei..."

She quickly tried to wipe away her tears when she noticed me looking at her, but I had already seen them.

There was no reason for her to hide them from me.

"I heard about what happened," I said gently. "It's not your fault, Asada-san. Sakai-san is already okay, and she's been brought back from the brink of death. You don't have to keep worrying about her anymore. If that's what you wanted to know, then she's okay now."

Asada-san made a wry expression after hearing that.

"That's not... exactly what I wanted to know," she said quietly. "I mean, I already knew that."

She lowered her eyes.

"What I'm really wondering about is the fact that right now... I feel like I shouldn't even be worrying about her, considering that I'm the person who did this to her."

"Asada-san..."

"If I hadn't hesitated..." she continued. "If I wasn't the kind of person who backs down so easily whenever things get difficult, Ayaka would still be okay. She wouldn't be lying in that bed right now."

Her voice became quieter as she continued.

"I should have been there instead."

"Asada-san, don't talk about yourself like that," I said.

I couldn't just sit there and listen to her blame herself for everything.

"Of course, what happened to Sakai-san was something I never wanted either, but I also never wanted something like that to happen to any of you. Still, you don't have to be so harsh on yourself that you'd actually wish you had been the one lying in that bed."

She became silent after hearing that.

It seemed like she was beating herself up over what had happened, and judging from the expression on her face, she couldn't seem to forgive herself.

I understood why she felt guilty.

From her perspective, she had hesitated at the worst possible moment, and someone she cared about had ended up paying the price for it. I could understand why she kept replaying that moment in her head and imagining how things could have gone differently.

Even so, guilt wasn't going to change what had already happened.

It certainly wasn't going to make Sakai-san recover any faster.

More importantly, blaming herself wasn't going to undo the damage that had already been done, and I didn't want Asada-san to become another casualty of what had happened.

"I don't want to be in this world anymore," Asada-san finally said.

Her voice was trembling as she spoke.

"I want to go home... I miss my mom and dad... I miss... Tsubasa..."

She started crying again.

I immediately rushed over to her and hugged her.

She didn't resist at all.

Instead, she simply held onto me while her tears continued falling.

I seriously thought these children shouldn't be fighting.

They should be studying.

They should be thinking about their futures and worrying about ordinary things instead. They should be deciding what they wanted to do after graduating, complaining about school, arguing over stupid things with their friends, falling in love, making mistakes, and experiencing all the ordinary things that young people were supposed to experience.

They shouldn't be here.

They shouldn't have been dragged into a war that they had never asked to participate in.

They weren't soldiers.

They weren't obligated to fight.

Yet somehow, they had ended up in a completely different world and were now being placed in situations where their lives could be at risk.

That wasn't something they should have had to deal with.

"Stop fighting already..." I said quietly.

I tightened my arms around her.

"Just stay with me inside the castle, please. You don't have to keep doing this. Just let Leon-san be the one to handle everything. He's capable enough to deal with it."

"Morishita-san, and most likely even Kashiwagi-kun, want to stay," she replied.

My eyes widened as soon as I heard that.

"Why?" I asked. "Why would they want to do something like that?"

"Sensei, I don't think..." Asada-san hesitated before continuing. "I don't think you'd be able to convince them to go back to the castle, because they seem to think that they want to see for themselves what happens in this world."

I remained silent.

"They think that in order for us to go home, they have to see this through until the end."

I gulped.

I knew for a fact that what they were doing was meant to help all of us find a way home.

I understood that much.

They weren't doing this because they wanted to abandon everyone.

They wanted to find a way back to our original world just as much as I did.

Even so...

This wasn't a good way to do it.

They shouldn't have to risk their lives just to find the answer.

There had to be another way.

There had to be some other solution that didn't involve them throwing themselves into danger.

"I want to go home," Asada-san mumbled.

Her voice had become incredibly quiet.

"I can't stay here..."

She clung to me as she continued crying.

"Please, someone... save me."

I hugged her tightly.

For a moment, I didn't know what to say.

I didn't know whether I actually had the ability to fulfill the promise I was about to make.

I didn't know how we were going to return home.

I didn't know how long it would take.

I didn't even know whether the path waiting ahead of us would be safe.

Still, I couldn't leave her with nothing.

I couldn't simply tell her that I didn't know what to do, because she already knew that the situation was hopeless enough without hearing it from me.

Someone had to give her something to hold onto.

" I'll bring you home," I told her.

I made sure my voice was firm, even though there was plenty of uncertainty inside me.

"I swear... I'll do it."

As the only adult among them, I would bring them all home.

Whatever happened from this point onward, I couldn't simply stand by and watch them continue throwing themselves into danger.

They had already been dragged into enough.

If being the only adult meant that I had to take responsibility for all of them, then I would accept that responsibility.

I didn't know whether I was strong enough.

I didn't know whether I was capable enough.

I didn't know whether I would actually be able to keep the promise I had just made.

Still, I couldn't let that stop me.

They needed someone to believe that going home was still possible.

They needed someone who would keep believing even when the situation looked hopeless.

For their sake, I had to be that person.