ch1-ch20 · 001-ch1

The Middle-Aged Adventurer Who Returned from Another World: Nothing Changes, Even Back in Japan

Kumaki

Chapter 1

West of the Tuare Kingdom lies a vast forest.

About two days' walk from the trade city of Hexaria, this forest remains largely undeveloped. Though some surveying has been conducted, the deep interior is a land where primeval woodland spreads and unknown monsters run rampant. The Tuare Kingdom, seeking more land, pushed forward with development of the forest, but the monster numbers were high, and progress was slow.

Then one day, a great rumbling echoed through the entire region, forest and all.

As a result of the rumbling, a cliff near the forest entrance split open, and a mysterious ruin was discovered deep within.

A ruin built by someone's hand… a dungeon.

The adventurers were stirred up by the discovery of a new dungeon.

With this newly discovered dungeon, they could expect ancient weapons and magical items—and perhaps even high-quality ore or gemstones.

Adventurers vied with one another, diving headlong into the dungeon.

And so, the adventurers who dove in weren't able to find any great treasure, but they did notice that the crests and architectural style inscribed on these ruins differed from anything previously known.

As a result, a formal investigation by researchers was launched.

The one contracted as the escort for this investigation team was an adventurer named Sai.

Clad in light armor of demon-beast leather reinforced with magisteel plates. Long, dark-brown hair. A veteran adventurer past the age of forty.

In his younger days, he was a monster-hunting specialist known as a "Hunter," and he carried the career distinction of having conquered over twenty dungeons.

That was why he'd been sought out for this scouting role.

According to the adventurers who had gone in beforehand, there was supposedly no danger—but even so, there was always the chance, however slim. Ruins of an unknown style could harbor unknown dangers. Traps could change from one day to the next. Nothing would be surprising.

On top of that, there was a noble researcher among the investigation team. He seemed to be an easygoing noble, apparently, but if he so much as took a single injury, the Adventurer's Guild would catch hell from the House of Lords or thereabouts.

And so, paving the way for the researchers to conduct their investigation smoothly was the job of Sai and the rest of the escort party.

Several hours after this investigation team entered the ruins, a few things had become clear.

"These ruins—buried as they are underground—were originally a tower."

"A curious notion, but the likelihood is high."

The researchers were staring at the excavated outer wall of the ruins.

Though large sections remained buried in earth, there were what could only be described as window frames—apparently opened for ventilation—and the structural supports were not the kind used to hold up ceilings in caves; they looked like something built as a tower.

Assuming it truly was a tower, why was it buried underground?

The first thing that came to mind was land subsidence, but a forest spread above these ruins.

Just how many hundreds of years had it been buried? Continued investigation would likely shed light on it.

While the researchers were discussing these matters, it was Sai who called out.

"Hey, esteemed researchers! Lower floor's been secured."

The researchers nodded as Sai poked his head out from the stairs leading below.

"Ah. Apologies."

The researchers came over to Sai and fell in behind him, descending the stairs.

"This floor doesn't seem to have traps, but there were a few busted-looking control panels."

"Control panels?! You didn't touch them, did you?"

The researcher grew slightly agitated at Sai's words.

In these ruins, carelessly touching something could be the end of you. There was always the possibility of traps or any number of problems. If Sai had laid hands on the instruments, a lecture was guaranteed.

"No way. Didn't touch a thing. Just got the sense that's what they were for—adjusting something. I'll show you."

So saying, Sai led the researchers to the control panels.

Just as Sai had said, there was an array of instruments and a great many buttons.

All of them, however, were coated in dirt and grime, heavily corroded.

"You… you realized these were control panels?"

There was no telling what specifically they controlled or how they were operated.

They were a style never seen in any ruin before. Not just in Tuare, but a set of machinery unlike anything found in any known ancient ruin.

And yet a mere adventurer had taken one look and recognized them for what they were.

The researcher expressed honest surprise at Sai's guess.

"Lucky guess. I've been at this adventuring thing a long time, after all."

"Ah, now I recall. You're that adventurer, aren't you? The one who distinguished himself at the Talc Ruins."

The Talc Ruins were ruins discovered along the coast of the continent where the Tuare Kingdom lay.

During the investigation of those ruins, a researcher had accidentally touched an unknown button, activating the ruin's machinery. Seawater had flooded the interior, and numerous aquatic monsters had poured in, causing a catastrophe.

Sai had handled it with his characteristic quick thinking, saving many of the researchers and receiving a commendation.

"Haha. Something like that. Anyway, please continue with your investigation."

Sai scratched his head and laughed, trying to brush it off.

Back then, I managed to deal with it using knowledge from when I was in Japan…

Sai muttered to himself in his mind.

He had handled the situation by recalling things like ocean-disaster movies he'd seen as a child.

He remembered how surprised he'd been—never imagining childhood memories like that would ever prove useful.

Yes. This adventurer Sai was a person from another world.

By some twist of fate, he had been transported from Japan to this other world—thirty years ago now.

An adventurer in his forties who had long since resigned himself to burying his bones in this Tuare Kingdom, with no hope of ever returning to Japan. While adventuring was his primary work, he also put effort into helping with the guild's administrative tasks and working as an instructor training newcomers.

A forty-something living an unremarkable life in this world.

"Oi! Escort party! Check out the floor below!"

A portly researcher bellowed in a loud voice.

A noble researcher. His voice was loud—the voice of someone accustomed to giving orders.

"Well then, I'll take my leave here."

"Thank you. I'll be counting on you going forward."

After this exchange with the researcher, Sai regrouped with the rest of the escort party.

The escort party this time consisted of five, including Sai.

The composition: two Fighters to fight on the front lines if monsters appeared; one Wizard and one Healer providing magical support from the rear; and one Ranger acting as intermediary—sometimes fighting monsters, sometimes scouting for traps and the like within the ruins. In this composition, the role of the Ranger was filled by Sai.

So it fell to Sai—as befitted a scout—to descend the stairs first.

At this moment, the escort party was taking the situation rather lightly.

"If this is a tower, then next up should be the first floor."

"Yeah, no more floors going down."

The female Wizard nodded at Sai's words.

They had reached this conclusion because, looking downward, the spiraling staircase came to an end at the next floor.

"Doesn't seem to be any traps, and no monsters either. The way here had a fair number of monsters, but inside the tower seems safe."

"Perhaps some warding spell is still in effect. If that's the case, monsters shouldn't be emerging so easily."

The Healer, raised in the church, murmured that.

"That said, it's an old ward. Could break at any moment, so stay alert, yeah?"

A Fighter chimed in with support.

The easygoing, friendly chatter continued.

And so, the first floor of the tower buried underground. There, the escort party saw something strange. At the center of the room, they spotted a large black dot.

The black point had no shadow, nor even any sense of three-dimensionality.

As a natural phenomenon, certainly—but even among man-made things, so black a point was without parallel.

"Huh? What's that?"

Perhaps because her eyesight was poor, the Wizard narrowed her eyes.

Maybe she still couldn't see it well, or maybe she wanted a closer look—either way, she stepped one pace ahead of Sai the scout.

"Hey! Don't step forward!"

"Huh?"

The next instant, the Wizard's body was about to be sucked in.

Sai recognized this type of pull.

He remembered being caught by it in a dungeon he'd delved in the past.

"Teleportation!"

Sai grabbed the female Wizard's body from behind as she was being sucked toward the teleportation trap, and—with the technique of a rear throw—hurled her forcefully back up to the floor above.

A situation where she could have been flung anywhere. He hoped they'd forgive a few injuries.

That was his thought as he flung the Wizard.

But in her place, Sai—having stepped forward—was now being pulled into the black point.

"Gwah…!"

Sai drove his favorite blade forcefully into the floor, trying to resist the pull.

"H-Hey!? I'll get a rope or something—!"

One of the Fighters panicked and tried to pull something out using the Item Box magic.

But his actions were a moment too late.

The next thing anyone knew, Sai's figure had vanished from that spot.

Sai had been teleported.

Upon hearing the report, the investigation team decided to abandon the investigation of the first floor. A teleportation trap was called a teleportation trap precisely because you had no idea where you'd end up.

Being sent to the dungeon entrance would be the best-case scenario.

But there was the possibility of being flung to an unknown land, or somewhere out on the sea.

Or even sent at random to some arbitrary location.

Until Sai's whereabouts could be confirmed, entry to the first floor was out of the question.

Teleportation traps were that vicious a trap.

And so, all entry into the ruins was prohibited until Sai's destination could be confirmed. This information was disseminated along with the news that the adventurer Sai had gone missing due to a teleportation trap.

As it turned out, the place Sai had been teleported to was a forest.

However, the forest's vegetation was not that of the one west of the Tuare Kingdom.

As a result of being pulled in and teleported, Sai had struck his whole body, but there were no major injuries.

"Ow ow ow…"

That said, it did hurt a bit.

It was nighttime. The investigation had been taking place during the day, or so he thought—but before he knew it, night had fallen.

He was in a dark and dense forest, but from the slope he realized he was on a mountain.

Another thing he could tell—despite it being night, it felt slightly brighter than usual.

"Getting teleported to a mountain's fine and all, but where am I…?"

Out of all possible outcomes—the middle of the sea, inside solid rock—he'd ended up on a mountain.

In that sense, Sai had been lucky.

Still, being in a forested mountain at night, he couldn't see his surroundings well. At the very least, though, the portal he'd been teleported through seemed to have cleanly vanished.

In other words, he couldn't trace the teleportation trap back.

Which meant he'd have to make his way back to the west of the Tuare Kingdom from here.

"…Guess I've got no choice but to climb down the mountain first…"

He wanted to send word that he was alive via magical communicator, but activating the device in this darkness would be a hassle, so he'd put it off for now.

First, he should find a settlement.

Once he confirmed his location there, he could return to the Tuare Kingdom.

In the worst case, if he'd been teleported to a different continent, things would get extremely troublesome—but he'd manage somehow.

Sai was a veteran adventurer.

He was accustomed to travel and sleeping rough. This much hardly even counted as a hardship.

That said, given the hour, being alone on a mountain at night was dangerous.

Even if he could handle monsters, the possibility of getting lost was all too real.

So the choice to descend the mountain was a natural one.

As he made his way down the mountain, a dark grey road came into view.

Not a dirt road, but one paved with something like stone.

Looking closely, he could see scattered houses of some sort.

Streetlights stood at regular intervals along the road, and black lines traced along it through the air.

That scenery was something Sai had yearned for endlessly.

"…………………You've gotta be kidding me."

After a lengthy, thorough shock, Sai muttered those words.

The grey road was an asphalt street.

The black lines were power lines.

Which meant. Which meant. Which meant…!

Suppressing his surging emotions, he walked along the sidewalk beside the road.

Written on the road were the characters "止マレ" (STOP), and the cars passing by bore Japanese license plates.

"No way… seriously…?"

The buildings and signs lining the road were written in Japanese characters.

It was confirmed.

Sai stood rooted to the spot.

Thirty years since he'd been transported. A place he'd long dreamed of returning to, yet had given up on, finding no way back. He'd dreamed of it countless times, but the nostalgic scenery remained only faintly within his fading memories. Those faded memories now came flooding back all at once.

"This… this is Japan!"

As for Sai's appearance at this moment—he was clad head-to-toe in light armor made of tanned demon-beast leather with magisteel plating.

Regrettably, his favorite blade was probably still stuck in the tower floor.

The sheath, now bereft of its blade, hung forlornly at his waist.

The adventurer Sai, transported to another world. Or rather—Yamana Saito had, by way of a teleportation trap, returned to Japan.

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Nice to meet you.

Thank you for reading.

I hope you enjoy it.