ch81-ch100 · 097-ch81

Chapter 81

"You've been living in a really amazing place, Sai-kun..."

Those were the words that came out of Cyril after teaching her all sorts of things about this world — following the unexpected (?) circumstances that brought her to live at Sai and Hexaria's house in Japan, Earth.

When they were in Hexaria, it was still fine.

She was, after all, a developer, the foremost authority on magical engineering, and a woman with a solid understanding of science.

Also, having heard stories about Earth from Sai over their long time together had paid off.

Thanks to that, she was able to adapt to this world called Earth in a short period.

In contrast, Cyril was a woman out of her depth when it came to such things.

Of course, as a Special Class adventurer, she was well-versed in the magical engineering necessary for combat and adventuring — but she only used it because it was convenient. Her fundamental nature was firmly in the "might makes right" camp.

She seemed to feel a lot of discomfort and confusion toward the utterly unknown civilization of Earth.

As Sai's junior disciple and the homeland of someone she cared about, she was making an effort to adapt — but it seemed she was still struggling with a lot of things.

Still, for the time being, she had to adapt whether she liked it or not. Sai planned to support her as much as possible and help her adjust little by little.

"So, what've you been doing this whole time, Sai-kun?"

"Sending messages via the magical communicator to various places in the other world. Lots of people are worried about Cyril-nee."

First, he sent a message to the Adventurer's Guild in the Beast Kingdom, jointly from Sai and Hexaria: "Special Class adventurer Cyril has come to an other world called Earth. She is currently with us. Due to mana constraints, teleportation is difficult, and returning to the Beast Kingdom will be impossible for the foreseeable future."

It seemed that Cyril's Forced Summon (teleportation) had already become an issue on the Beast Kingdom's end — apparently her husband had been raising a fuss.

But when they heard she was with Sai, they were relieved.

Through the guild, a message came from Cyril's husband: "We apologize for the trouble."

In return, they replied that they would do their best to get her back as soon as possible.

"My darling's a good guy, but I'm worried he might get (sexually) attacked while I'm not around."

"Cyril-nee's 'good guy' is well-known over there too. He'll be fine."

Next, he contacted the Adventurer's Guild in the Trade City.

A little while ago, since Sai was on Earth and unable to return, the guild had consulted them about finding a substitute instructor.

Because of that, they'd asked one of Sai's disciples — an adventurer named Canaan — to fill in. But apparently it had turned into a big commotion.

"I told you to prepare a handsome young man, so I got one of my handsome acquaintances ready for you."

"I did say prepare a handsome man! Not a hero! What's the point of sending a hero!?"

That was the kind of thing he got yelled at about. Incomprehensible.

It seemed that among the younger staff who'd recently joined the guild, there were many who didn't know Sai's history. They'd been surprised when Canaan explained it to them.

Uncle's history was, if you got down to it, past glory — something he hadn't talked about much. But that had apparently been a mistake.

Anyway. If it was Canaan, he'd handle the education side properly. Sai trusted he'd do an even better job than he could.

By the way — at a later date. The guild's receptionist sent a consultation titled "Seeking: How to Win Over Hero Canaan." Sai quietly pretended he never saw it.

Uncle wasn't equipped to handle romance consultations.

◇

"So, Sai-kun, what's your situation right now? What've you been doing over here?"

"How should I even explain this..."

It really had been a while since he and Cyril last met.

When was the last time?

Even in the other world, the Trade City where Sai lived and the Beast Kingdom where Cyril lived were quite far apart. Lately, their relationship had been limited to dropping by when one of them happened to be in the area.

He wanted to talk about everything since the teleportation, but it would be better to just share the current situation first.

He also wanted to organize his own tasks while talking.

"Let me start from the smaller things..."

Recently, Sai and Hexaria had been busy with all sorts of things day by day.

First, Hexaria's lectures on magical power and magical engineering.

They operated on a basically weekly schedule, and the plan was to continue until around June.

Sai participated in these as an assistant.

"I heard the gist of it, but this world really doesn't understand a thing about magical power, huh."

"Their non-magical technology is incredible, though."

"Yeah. I'm seriously surprised. To have developed this far without any magical power at all. Big sister is impressed."

"The situation is really different from the other world. Monsters never even appeared in this one."

"Lucky. No monsters? That's paradise."

"Instead, they had lots of wars between humans."

"Huh. But once you get strong, you naturally want to test yourself, right!"

"Haha, it's not really at that level..."

A dry laugh slipped out.

Trying to explain modern warfare — with missiles being exchanged — to someone from another world wouldn't get through.

It would just turn into a conversation about why there's no arrow-deflecting formula, or what happened to the reflection formulas.

Next was Sai's instructor work.

Young adventurers who didn't even know how to train their magical power — he had to teach them at least some of the basics. Actually, if he didn't, things were probably going to get bad going forward.

With atmospheric mana increasing. There were already reports of evil spirits getting stronger. Then there were the demons as well. If mana kept increasing, the magical essence within the mana would cause monsters to appear too.

If they didn't get stronger, they were absolutely doomed.

"Sai-kun teaching magic control training and recovery magic and stuff... I see. In the other world, even kids do that stuff, but it's not common knowledge over here, huh."

"Yeah, exactly. When they get hurt, they normally just put on a band-aid or bandages and let it heal naturally? They've never had the know-how for magical power, so they have no idea how to use it."

"Uwah. Hexaria mentioned you were teaching exorcism magic and purification magic too, right?"

"Demons... they're called demons in this world, but some of them are apparently running wild."

"You come to an other world, and the trouble stays the same..."

"I guess it just means troubles are the same wherever you go."

The beings called demons in the other world. In Japan, they were called demons — malicious entities from Kakuriyo (called the Demon World in the other world). Fighting against them.

Unfortunately, against enemies driven by malice, with fundamentally different values, trying to "work it out through conversation" or "negotiate" was, in Sai's assessment, impossible.

There were cases like the tengu Majin Ginreibo, where conversation on equal footing was possible. But there were also cases like hungry ghosts, attacking without intelligence. Even with opponents you could negotiate with, you had to show your strength first before you could even stand on the platform of dialogue.

That said, Japan had the Exorcist Alliance, so Sai didn't plan to stick his nose in too much.

Plus, lately he'd been training young exorcists like Hiyori at the university, and under Sai's guidance, they were growing stronger by the day.

Of course, if dangerous demons or Majin appeared, the plan was to act as needed — but there were also Majin like Ginreibo, who cooperated with humans, emerging as well.

He'd do what he could within his means.

"I see. An organization for dealing with the Demon World... Kakuriyo? That might actually be pretty handy."

"True. In the other world, it's either the knight order or adventurers who handle that."

"...Tell me more about Taimaren? later. I want to look into whether we can create something like that in the Beast Kingdom."

"Got it."

So many things had truly changed before and after the year 2000.

The occult — things like demons — had become real, existing threats.

The occult had bared its fangs. And speaking of supernatural matters, there was one more thing.

Investigating the reason dungeons were created on Earth — no. On the planet itself.

A great hero from the other world had become a living spirit as a Floor Boss, and a "Forced Summon" had been performed.

Brad seemed to have his own circumstances, but the Forced Summon that called Cyril was magic said to be "absolutely impossible for an ordinary person."

The involvement of a god from the other world was highly likely.

"If a god is involved, that does change things quite a bit."

"Yeah, it does."

Sai had noticed it a little while ago too.

From how conveniently things were progressing.

From when Hexaria said she was "being watched" in Shinjuku Tower.

Creating a tower-type dungeon, and being someone Hexaria herself could detect — the number of beings capable of that was extremely limited.

Which meant he had no choice but to suspect the existence of a god.

If it was a god of Earth, that would still be manageable.

But if it was a god from the other world, that changed everything.

The gods of the other world casually descended to the surface without a second thought.

All of that factored into the conquest of Shinjuku Tower.

This was also essential for creating the teleportation circle to send Hexaria and Cyril back to the other world. Currently, they'd reached the twenty-fifth floor and were about to challenge the unprecedented twenty-sixth floor.

When he got that far in his explanation, Cyril made an exasperated face.

"Honestly. Sai-kun, you really do get involved in everything. That's definitely Brad-shishou and Janis's influence."

Janis was the person who had taught Sai the fundamentals of scouting.

There were many people who had taught Sai adventurer know-how, but the two who had influenced him the most were the ones Cyril had just named.

"A scout should be an all-rounder. That's what I tell anyone aiming to be one."

"You really haven't changed at all, Sai-kun."

"It's not like going back to Japan changed who I am."

"But still, don't go sticking your nose into too many things, okay? You've already got the kind of personality that takes too much on as it is."

Sai wasn't sure how to respond. He was trying to figure out what to say when Cyril narrowed her eyes slightly.

"...So, Sai-kun, what are you going to do?"

"What do you mean, what am I going to do?"

"Hexaria and I will go back to the other world once we reach the thirtieth floor and can use the teleportation circle. But what about you, Sai-kun?"

"......That question."

When returning to the other world, would Sai go back with them?

Honestly, it was a question Sai had been deliberately avoiding.

To put it bluntly.

If necessary, he could just teleport between Earth and the other world.

Since Hexaria had created a path between the other world and Earth (Japan), as long as there was a teleportation circle (which required enormous magical power), going back and forth between both was possible.

"This world has your home here, and between you and Hexaria, you'd probably manage somehow, but there are limits."

That was true.

Things he wanted to do, things he should do on Earth.

Things he wanted to do, things he should do in the other world.

He couldn't just take the best parts of both.

Because a person's life was too short to have everything.

He could spend one month on Earth, the next month in the other world... that might be possible, but both sides could end up half-baked.

Being half-baked as an adventurer was bad enough, but being half-baked as an instructor was even worse.

He had to decide where to plant his feet.

"I'm your big sister, Sai-kun, so I'll say something harsh — but you need to figure out what you're going to do with yourself by the time we reach the thirtieth floor, okay?"

"Yeah..."

There really was so much he had to think about.

Another worry had been added to Sai's list.

"Don't overthink it. Just follow your heart. Big sister will support you."

"That sounds very Cyril-nee, but aren't you talking to me like I'm a kid?"

By the way, Cyril already had several children.

"Ahahaha. It's been so long since I got to chat with Sai-kun. I just want to do the big sister thing."

"Honestly..."

Thinking about what to do with himself.

At this age, he never expected to be made to think about something like this. But in the end, no matter where you were, worries like these never ran out.

As they were talking about all that, Hexaria poked her head out from the workshop, where she'd been in the middle of research.

"Well, being next to each other hasn't changed."

Sai's murmur was heard by no one — carried away on the wind.

================ Thank you very much for reading.