arc03 · 078-ep72
Episode 72: Homecoming
After school, I got in touch with Mio and Sakurai-san to let them know I'd be heading back to my parents' place for the weekend.
If I—marinated in the dungeon every single day as I am—suddenly up and vanished, I'd get call after frantic call, no doubt.
I didn't have anything in particular to bring, so I just changed clothes, packed the bare minimum, and rode the train back to Gunma with my phone in hand. No dungeons back home, after all. First proper time off I've had since the injury, too.
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"I'm home."
"Ohhh~! Welcome home, big bro!"
"Hey. You been doing okay, Suguru?"
"Super okay! I've been training hard at all kinds of games so I can beat you!"
"I've been training too, y'know—mostly in the dungeon!"
"What's that got to do with game skills!?"
"Heh. You sure about that?"
"Huh? It does!?"
"Dynamic vision, reaction speed—stuff like that should've shot way up."
"Whaaat, no fair! That's against the rules! Cheating, that's straight-up cheating!"
"Wahaha. Don't you go underestimating adventurers."
He's brand-new to middle school, but he's still every bit as attached to his big brother.
A bit childish, sure, but the kid's got energy to spare. He never even balked at my training lunacy—he used to swing a wooden sword right alongside me. Well, Suguru gave up on it pretty quick, though.
"Welcome home. Dinner's still a little way off, so go wash your hands and wait."
"'Kay. I'm home."
Mom, for her part, didn't remark on anything—just flicked a glance at my face for a second, then headed back into the kitchen.
I wonder what she makes of all this. She's never been big on showing emotion, so I haven't got a clue.
"Oh, that reminds me—Dad's off today?"
"Yep. He's had the whole Golden Week off. Not that he's gone anywhere or anything~"
"Huh. Well, our family's never done anything in particular for Golden Week anyway, so I guess that's par for the course."
"Pretty much. It's been quiet with you gone, though."
"Was I really that loud?"
"Hmm… loud in your actions?"
"The heck's that about."
"No idea."
So my training came off as noisy, huh? All I ever did was go running, pump some iron, shadowbox imaginary opponents, swing a wooden sword around…… No—actually, watching all that right in front of you, it might genuinely get noisy……
"So apparently my room's turned into some kind of workout room. For real?"
"Dead serious. It's basically a whole gym now. Isn't Dad in there using it right now?"
"What on earth happened in not even two months……"
"Seems like the lack of exercise had been weighing on him for a while."
"Huh."
"Maybe he figured that with you home, he'd get roped into working out alongside you?"
"Like hell I'd do that. Dad would keel right over."
"Wahahaha."
Maybe he pictured our chubby dad doing intense exercise, because Suguru laughs right out loud. Though honestly, watching that man move with any agility probably WOULD be hilarious.
"Guess I'll go have a look at the room anyway."
"Dinner's soon, so bring Dad back with you while you're at it."
"Rooooger."
Heading for what used to be my room, I could faintly hear Dad's winded breathing and the hum of a machine from inside. By the sound of it, he's on the spin bike right now?
"I'm home, Dad. Dinner's just about ready."
"…Hah, hah… I-is that so. That late already……"
Looks like he's pedaling flat-out, resting, pedaling, resting again—short intervals on repeat. That stuff is brutal, I know. Wait—he's actually gotten pretty toned. That's hilarious. Two solid months of grinding, this guy……
"Hah, hah, hah………… Whew. Welcome home, Takeru."
"I'm home. You've slimmed down a fair bit, Dad."
"See? Still on the chubby side, but if I keep this pace up, I should be in decent shape by year's end."
"What brought this change of heart on? You swore you'd never touch exercise."
"…I still can't stand exercise. But past a certain age, if you don't work out properly, you can't stay healthy."
"I see…… Time sure is cruel, huh."
"It truly is."
I toss Dad—the man drenched in sweat—the towel he'd no doubt had ready in advance, and nudge him to call his workout done. Mom used to do the exact same thing to me all the time, back in the day. So everyone could eat dinner together.
In the living room, Mom and Suguru were setting the table.
……It's been a while since I last saw this sight.
In my past life I mostly ate alone, so a dinner table like this—the very emblem of family togetherness—never quite sat easy with me.
Well, I've got plenty to report today anyway, so I'll make a conscious effort and talk. A lot.
"Right, then—shall we all eat?"
Dad switches off the living-room TV—the one that's probably left running around the clock.
That probably means he intends to hear me out.
They likely never imagined I'd come home without some errand attached.
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The dishes spread across the table leaned heavily toward things I like.
They must have put real thought into the menu.
Before, they wouldn't even have thought to do that. It was just the way things always were.
All this time, neither Dad nor Mom ever said a word to me about any of it—and I never said a word to them either. That's why I assumed they were the ones holding me at arm's length…… Maybe they were simply waiting, saying nothing, all along.
"See, the thing is—I came home today because there's a lot I want to talk about."
"I see. You're staying tonight and tomorrow, yes? Then talk until there's nothing left to say."
"Hey, hey, big bro—talk about what? High school? Dungeons?"
"All of it. I'm telling you all of it."
The present. The past. And the future, too.
Why I'm such a dungeon-crazy lunatic. Why I'm aiming for the strongest.
That I carry 【Plunder】—a skill the whole world despises.
That I'm a reincarnator.
Honestly? That scares me far more than any monster in the dungeon ever could—but I've decided to face it head-on.
And if the end result is that they can't accept it, well, that can't be helped. At the very least, I came here resolved for that much.
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I didn't want to bring up heavy talk over dinner, so to start things off, I decided to begin with how things stand now.
"So, turns out I made C-rank adventurer. Solo, that is. Apparently I'm the youngest there is."
"Whaaat!?!?"
"…Volume down, both of you."
"But Mom, C-rank means he's a pro!? Of course we're gonna be shocked!"
"That's true enough, but why solo……? Don't adventurers normally form parties?"
"That's right. It's dangerous, Takeru."
In stark contrast to the two of them letting their shock show, my mom just keeps cruising at her own pace—and it cracks me up.
"Well, see, I meant to team up at first, but my starting skill turned out to be one of those duds nobody wants anything to do with."
"Huh……? But you trained so hard and everything?"
"Oh? So you're on team 'whatever you did before entering the dungeon decides your starting skill,' huh, Suguru. I'm a die-hard member of team 'total random'—so I've made my peace with it, more or less."
"All that aside—isn't it dangerous?"
"It is. That's the part that matters."
"I mean, dangerous, yeah—but partying up doesn't make it any less dangerous. If anything, solo might actually be safer for me right now."
"Is that so. I can hardly picture it, but if you say so, I suppose it's fine."
"…………As long as you come home alive, that's all I need."
"Big bro, that's insane! Solo adventurers are basically an endangered species these days, aren't they!?"
"Not in the shallow layers they're not. Though at C-rank and up, I'll grant you don't see many."
My parents seem mighty hung up on the safety question.
Well, fair enough. Solo all on its own already puts you outside the norm.
"And so—now that I'm C-rank, the money I'm pulling in is no joke either. So you don't have to keep sending me money anymore. Figured I should tell you that much."
"Is that so? ……Purely for reference, might I ask what kind of money we're talking?"
"Let's see… these days a single day of exploring nets me somewhere north of a million yen. And since I'm in there every day, simple math puts it at around thirty million a month?"
"Wha—!?!?!?"
That's on a school day, mind—the real take is probably a touch higher. And the deeper the floors I push into, the more I stand to make, so it's only going up from here.
Hear the number on its own and it really is outrageous.
As a man who lived a past life as an ordinary salaryman, I understand all three of their reactions completely.
Adventurers, huh. What a dream of a job.
Notice
I haven't been managing to keep up with my writing lately, so starting from the next chapter, I intend to switch from daily updates to four days a week—Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.
To everyone who has been looking forward to the daily updates, I am truly sorry—but as soon as my stockpile builds back up, I'll return to daily updates. Thank you for your patience and support.