And so Shun settled down in Sirin's home. With Shun's presence, Dalia could finally feel at ease going to work at the factory in the city.
One thing she hadn't considered was that instead of Sirin taking care of the disabled Shun at home, it ended up being Shun who took care of Sirin.
But this was something Shun was already quite used to. After all, taking care of Kiana back then had been similar. Except for eating a bit more than Sirin, Kiana's various living habits were very much alike.
Sometimes he even had trouble telling whether the person in front of him was Sirin or Kiana. Although in a sense, Kiana was also a continuation of Sirin.
But Shun knew they were two different people. Even if Kiana was the continuation of Sirin's life, she was ultimately not Sirin.
However… what was he supposed to do? "Choose one, and the rest shall cease to exist." Only one of Kiana or Sirin could exist, but… his future self seemed to have already made a choice.
How had he made that choice? Sirin… she had, after all, saved Shun's life. How could his future self bear to let her die?
The current Shun could only answer: "I don't know." He had raised Kiana as his daughter for six years. Sirin had treated him as an important family member and saved his life.
He couldn't choose. He couldn't give up either. But fortunately, the current Sirin was still very young, the real Kiana—and the current Bianca—had only been born not long ago. There was still plenty of time left for Shun.
"Aunt Dalia, welcome back." At night, in the living room of Sirin's house—well, it was hard to call it a living room; basically it was just the area right after the entrance.
Because Shun generally stayed up much later than Sirin, he had the chance to run into Dalia when she returned from her weekly break.
"Actually, I still prefer you to call me Mom, just like Sirin does." Dalia sighed as she spoke. Shun had already been living here for nearly half a year. The longer they spent together, the more she liked this sensible child.
Not to mention that he had indeed brought some different, positive changes to the family. Although she was a bit more tired than before, the children's lives had indeed become much better than before.
During this time, Sirin's complexion had become much rosier because her nutrition had caught up, and she had grown a little taller too.
"But Aunt Dalia, you know I'm not a child." Every time Shun said this, Dalia would just brush it off with "uh-huh, uh-huh," so after a while Shun stopped bothering to explain.
"Come on, if you're not a child, are you Conan or something?"
"?" Suddenly hearing this familiar character name come from Dalia's mouth left Shun somewhat stunned.
"Ah, it's a character from a manga in the Far East. When we have free time, we also have some entertainment activities."
That made sense. In the current timeline, Conan had definitely already been created. It wasn't strange for Dalia to see comic books in the city.
"By the way, how has Sirin been these days? Sorry about that. I said I'd let Sirin take care of you, but in the end you've been the one taking care of Sirin all along."
"It's fine. I'm already used to it, and Sirin isn't troublesome. She's very obedient." Shun wasn't lying. Sirin really listened to Shun very well—she never went west if he told her to go east.
She even proudly called it "a big sister's care for her little brother," but in reality even Dalia treated her as Shun's little sister. Only she still thought of herself as Shun's big sister.
"I see. That's good then… Oh right, I've actually been thinking about sending Sirin to school. What do you think, Little Shun?"
Because of the maturity Shun displayed, Dalia would sometimes consult him for his opinion when discussing important matters.
In fact, many of Shun's suggestions were genuinely useful. If nothing unexpected happened, before long their family would be able to move into the city and open a small shop to take clothing orders.
"School? If Sirin can go to school, of course that's a good thing, but the tuition in the city…" Actually, Shun wanted to say that letting Sirin go to school might not be as good as him teaching her.
"We don't have to worry about tuition. A church-sponsored school recently opened in the city that allows children to enroll for free. It's a pity you don't meet the conditions, Little Shun, otherwise I could have sent both of you to school." Dalia said with deep regret.
"Ah, school… I'll pass on that." Even being sent to a Far East high school as a light male protagonist would feel torturous to him, let alone elementary school. If he really agreed to go to elementary school, Theresa would probably laugh him to death.
However, the "not meeting the conditions" Dalia mentioned was probably because he was disabled. Which normal school would accept a disabled person?
Shun didn't think much about it. Since the tuition was free, he might as well let Sirin go to school. If he didn't consider the things that might happen in the future…
"Alright. Since you also agree, Little Shun, I'll go look for a house to rent in the city in a few days. Once we settle down in the city, we'll send Sirin to school."
As for Sirin's dream of becoming a tailor… Dalia still felt that going to school had a better future. She might not respect her child's dreams enough, but she definitely wanted Sirin to live a better life.
It was another weekly break. In summer, Siberia rarely went without being covered in white snow, which was why Sirin was able to push Shun all the way into the town.
"From today onward, we can live in the town too! I always feel like my luck has gotten better ever since I met you, Little Shun."
Sirin bounced along the dirt road. Sitting in the wheelchair, Shun felt like yesterday's leftovers were about to be shaken out of him.
"Sirin, push the wheelchair properly. Otherwise I'll wheel myself. Don't roll me into a ditch."
Sirin's family lived in the region east of the Ural Mountains. The level of urbanization here wasn't high. Although it was called a town, to Shun it looked like nothing more than a small settlement.
But traveling from the mountain valley where Sirin's house was to the town still required walking a very long distance, and the road along the way wasn't easy either. So the two of them had set out early. A hunting rifle borrowed from the village was also hanging on the back of Shun's wheelchair, just in case bears or tigers appeared on the road.
"Wait, Sirin, stop for a moment." Shun's sharp hearing told him that a not-very-large but quite elite unit was passing ahead.
The footsteps were heavy but uniform. Yet they didn't seem to be equipped with heavy weapons? Strange. Did the warlords around here have this kind of army?
"What's wrong, Little Shun?" Sirin stopped the moment Shun spoke. When getting along with Shun, she could always do this without thinking—listening to him was always the right choice.
After hearing the sounds gradually fade into the distance, Shun let Sirin continue forward. What had just happened was only a small interlude; neither of them took it to heart.