Ning arrived in front of the door to Ely's old apartment, with Ely trailing a few meters behind. She had tears in her eyes that she was desperately trying to hold back, but her emotions were getting the best of her.
Ning knocked on the door and stepped aside, letting Ely go in front of him.
The door opened slowly to reveal a man in his late 20s. He had a head full of hair, although some of them had gone gray. His beard was rough and it looked like he hadn't cut it in a few days at least.
He was wearing a thin-rimmed spectacle and was wearing a pair of sweatshirts and pants.
He looked at Ely, someone who obviously looked about the same age as him, and frowned.
"Are you really Claire?" the man asked.
"Brother!" Ely said as tears rolled down her eyes. "It's really me, Claire."
She had proved herself through the story she had said a minute ago through the intercom, but Chase still found it hard to believe.
How could he? His sister who had died about 7 years ago had apparently come back to life somehow and she was nearly old as him. That shouldn't be possible at all.
Ely moved and hugged her brother suddenly. Chase tried to dodge, but she was too quick for him.
"I'm so happy to see you again, brother. I'm so happy," she said.
Ning watched from the side with a small smile on his face. He had thought he would no longer be affected by seeing people get reunited after what he had done 100 years ago, but somehow it was still getting to him.
"I-I can't believe it. Are you really our Claire?" Chase couldn't help but ask again.
"Yes," Ely said. "Although my name is Elenora right now. I no longer go by Claire," she said. "I've lived a different life after I was reincarnated after all."
"I can't believe it," Chase said. "I'm still finding it hard to process. But you know the story. No one else is supposed to know about it."
"It really is me, brother," she said. "I'm sorry for not coming earlier. I was in an entirely different place and wasn't aware that you would still be alive."
Ely finally stopped hugging her brother and wiped her tears. "Oh yes, I forgot to introduce you. This is Ning, my husband," she said while calling for Ning to come right by her.
Ning walked forward and held out his hand. "Hello, brother-in-law," he said with a smile.
Chase gave a weird look when he saw Ning, almost as if he should have known him from somewhere, but he couldn't think of anything clearly at the moment so he ignored it.
He shook his hands and nodded. "You can call me Chase," he said. "Uhh… come on in. I will get you some coffee or tea, whatever you like."
"Anything works for me," Ning said.
"Same for me," Ely said.
Chase stopped and turned around towards Ely. "What would Claire choose?" he asked.
Ely smiled a little and asked, "Are you still trying to figure out if I'm lying or not?" she asked. "Claire wouldn't choose anything. My illness meant I couldn't consume caffeine so I had to stick with water or milk. But I'm no longer ill, so I can drink anything."
Chase smiled when he heard that. "I'm starting to believe that you might just be my little sister," he said.
While Chase went to prepare some coffee, Ely walked around the house and looked at the various things that had changed in the time she had been missing, and the things that had remained the same.
She went to her old room and saw that it was neatly tidied up. There were a dozen or so DVD cases to the side for all the old movies she used to watch on a loop, most of them were cartoon movies from her childhood.
She popped open the box and saw the disc inside. "You haven't thrown out any of my old movies?" she asked loudly.
Chase, who had been trying to make sense of whatever the hell was happening to him right now, walked out of the kitchen and arrived at her little sister's room. There, he saw an excited Ely checking through the various boxes.
"So you know about this too," he said. "Which one was Claire's favorite?"
Ely smiled and picked up one of the boxes with a dark-skinned man next to a blue genie. "This one of course," she said.
"Why is that?" her brother asked, fully knowing the answer already.
"This was the first DVD you brought for me to watch after I couldn't leave the house," she said. "Also the song about seeing the world stuck with me as something that would be my only wish if I could ever have one fulfilled. But you already knew that."
Chase looked slightly shocked. "Are you truly Claire? I still can't believe it," he said.
"You don't have to believe me right now. I'm back, and I'll be here for a long time. You can gradually believe it when you can," she said. "You should go check the coffee now, it's about to spill."
"Hm? Oh crap!" Chase quickly ran back to the kitchen and closed the stove right before the coffee overflowed.
Ely walked by the kitchen and looked at the state. "You make coffee on a stovetop?" she asked. "You haven't bought one of those fancy artifacts, I mean devices that make coffee for you?" she asked.
"I can't," Chase said while he poured the coffee into 3 white, ceramic cups. "I'm a little low on money."
"Low?" Ely asked. "Are you still having trouble with money? I thought that would change since you are an A-ranked hunter."
"It's not that I don't earn enough," he said. "I just have too much debt to pay."
Ely felt a tinge of pain in her heart when she heard that. "Was that… because of me?"
