My Eldritch Horror Wife Followed Me To Another World
Chapter 118: Existence

Chapter 118: Existence

"Does that mean I’ll never be able to go back home...?" Nick finished his question, despair blanching his face.

Eo looked at him with a blank expression.

"Nick, honey...Haven’t we already crossed over once? That’s proof enough that it can be done. I...I can’t do it on my own, and not right now. But in due time, you’ll be able to go back to Earth if you want."

Nick’s eyes widened in surprise. It was such a relief that he didn’t know what to say.

He just nodded once.

Eo returned the node while giving him a careful look to try to see how he was doing. Fortunately, he seemed fine as he continued to eat the rest of his burger, and she proceeded with her answer.

"There are many dimensions like these. Some are similar to Earth’s dimension or this place. Others are vastly different. Some...I could go on and on about details of various dimensions, but you get the point, right?"

Nick nodded.

"So, you’re from another dimension?" He asked.

To his surprise, Eo shook her head, her hair swaying gently.

"Nope. I am what a dimensional being would call an outerdimensional being. I come from the place outside and in between the many dimensions. That’s what I am."

Nick frowned slightly.

"How does that work?" If dimensions were existence, wouldn’t the place outside it be like non-existence? Or was it more like homes with people and homeless people?

Eo looked at Nick for a few moments before answering.

"You’re asking me how all of existence works?"

"Y-yeah?" Nick was stunned. That seemed like a pretty big question.

Eo shrugged.

"Sure. Let’s take it from the beginning. If we do that, we might finish before the end of this dimension."

Nick’s eyes widened at the implication but also the meaning of those words. He held up a hand.

"Okay, maybe not right now. Some other time. Just...What’s the difference between a dimensional and an outerdimensional being?" Nick asked.

Eo nodded before crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair with a thoughtful expression as she considered how to explain it in a simple enough way to understand.

"One of the differences would be that only a dimensional being would ask that question."

"Alright..." Nick said. He did not know what that was supposed to mean. But it sounded wise. He couldn’t pretend not to know what she meant. That would only make him look even dumber.

Eo suppressed a smile as she saw through him. Just like how only a dimensional being would ask that question, only an outerdimensional being would understand why. It was no surprise that Nick didn’t understand.

Eventually, Eo looked at the table, and her eyes lit up with an idea.

"Alright, let’s say that this table is Existence."

Nick nodded. Eo grabbed the two plates.

"These two are dimensions."

Nick nodded. Eo grabbed a few things from around the kitchen. She put a tomato-like vegetable, a knife, a glass, a pepper mill, and a box of tissues on one of the plates.

"Now, if I ask you to pick out the things that don’t belong, which items will you remove from the plate?" She asked.

A little hesitant but mostly curious about where Eo was going with this, Nick decisively removed the glass, the pepper mill, and the box of tissues from the plate and put them on the table.

"Why those?" She asked.

"Because they don’t belong?"

"Okay. And why don’t they belong?"

"Because you aren’t supposed to eat them?"

Eo pursed her lips. That wasn’t quite the answer she was looking for.

"What about the knife?" She asked. Nick’s eyes widened for a moment.

"But you use it to eat with," He answered.

"Don’t you use the pepper mill when eating, too? And don’t you eat the pepper once you’ve ground it onto your food? What makes those different from the knife?"

"Well, I might use the pepper mill, but it doesn’t get dirty from the food, and since I won’t be eating anything but the pepper that I just ground, it will only get in the way if I put it on my plate."

"Okay, that’s a good point, but you’re missing the point of this. These are just examples. What separates what’s okay on the plate and what isn’t?"

"..." Nick frowned. He wanted to say conventions. In another household, maybe putting the pepper mill on the plate was the norm. But this wasn’t about the pepper mill.

"Okay, let’s do this," Eo said, moving everything from the plate to the table.

"I ask you to keep in mind that this is a very simplified and flawed representation to make it easier to understand. It’s not how things actually work." She looked at Nick until Nick nodded.

"So, which items do not belong on the table?" She asked.

Nick frowned.

He wanted to say that the tomato-like vegetable didn’t belong on the table. But it wasn’t like it was dirtying the table or anything. Even then, why wasn’t the dirt allowed on the table? Either it was a flaw in the representation of Existence, or it was a part of how Existence worked.

But other than the tomato-like vegetable, which was in a grey area, it seemed like everything else belonged on the table.

Seeing that Nick didn’t move any of the items, Eo spoke again.

"Why?" Why was everything fine on the table when only a few things didn’t belong on the plate? Why were the things that had been fine on the table fine on the table? And if Nick had moved the tomato to the plate, why didn’t it belong on the table?

Nick felt like he was starting to understand what Eo was getting at, but he still couldn’t put it in words.

The simplest answer would be because that’s just how it is. But that wasn’t the right answer. If he had been satisfied with that, he would have been satisfied with Eo’s answer that she is an outerdimensional being.

"Because of conventions and norms?" Eventually, he decided to go with his earlier idea, even if he knew it wasn’t quite right.