Chapter 266: A Complete Return.
Chapter 266: A Complete Return.
A brief loss of consciousness.
And then, I soon came to.
Of course, I had no way of knowing if I had actually been out for a long time.
Especially not in a pitch-black place like this, where it was impossible to tell how much time had passed.
…Is this the Otherworld?
If it was a void where it wasn't just dark, but difficult to even tell if anything existed at all, then it was almost certainly the Otherworld.
Realizing this, I blankly looked around and saw the octopus and the ferret, neither of whom had woken up yet.
I was usually the one waking up late, but this was the first time I was the first one up.
Now that I was awake, I wanted to do something, but there was nothing I could do in the Otherworld on my own. I stood there blankly, scratching my head as it suddenly began to itch.
Then, a crucial thought occurred to me.
…Then who is maintaining the Protective Barrier?
I didn't have a clue how to do it.
The octopus was out cold, his tentacles limp and trailing.
Un-ho was sprawled out with his limbs pointing straight toward the sky, as if he’d been hit by total paralysis.
…Wait, aren't we screwed then?
The moment that thought crossed my mind, I realized I had stood up immediately and judged that we hadn't been swept away by the Otherworld yet.
I didn't know if it would work, but I grabbed my two companions with both hands, closed my eyes, and braced for whatever might happen.
Ten seconds.
Thirty seconds.
One minute.
Even though that much of my internal time had passed, I didn't feel anything changing, so I quietly opened my eyes.
And I realized that truly, nothing had changed.
In my hands were the two unconscious idiots.
And presumably, I hadn't lost anything either.
Given the nature of the Otherworld, there was a possibility I’d forgotten that I’d forgotten something, but for now…
What was going on?
I looked around.
Something caught my eye.
White solid lines were rotating around us.
And in the gaps between them, there were etchings of black—a shade subtly different from the void of the Otherworld if you looked closely.
White and black. That color scheme reminded me of someone….
Could it be The Queen’s Protective Barrier?
After-sales service?
I suppose if she had just sent us off without something like this, it wouldn't have been the "safe return" she claimed.
The Queen seemed to have a personality that was strangely obsessed with keeping her word or following her own rules.
Though, it wasn't an absolute trait; she seemed perfectly willing to scrap everything if she decided she didn't feel like it anymore.
Well then, should I wake the kids up?
I could just leave them until they woke up on their own, but to be honest, there was no guarantee this barrier would last long.
This was a barrier provided by that Queen.
Who could guarantee there wasn't some twist or trap hidden somewhere in it, just like her personality?
"Hey. Wake up."
And so, I began to pummel Al’shel, whose skin felt slimy, perhaps because he had eaten so well.
I controlled my strength so it wouldn't actually hurt, delivering a rhythmic succession of slaps to his face.
Slap. Slap. Slap.
"Guh. Ack. Blegh."
Every time I slapped him, strange noises and multi-colored mucus sprayed out.
It was disgusting, but after a few hits, I found the right angle and force to ensure the slime didn't splatter on me.
Consequently, my slapping speed increased even further.
And I gained an unexpected benefit.
This was surprisingly satisfying.
Maybe because he’d eaten so well, the mucus on his skin wasn't sticky; it flowed smoothly like fragrant oil.
Because of that, rather than the scratchiness or unpleasantness of hitting someone's skin, I felt only the pleasant sensation of hitting a punching bag with gloves on.
"Guh. No, wait. What. Ack."
Gradually becoming absorbed in the act, I waited for the octopus to wake up.
The hand delivers the blow.
What returns is the joy of impact and the tactile feedback.
And the beautiful screams of the octopus.
How could this not be enjoyable?
The speed of my slaps gradually increased.
As I opened my eyes to the joy of repetition, I continued The Cycle for my own sake.
"No, ack. If you have something to say, please, pfft, use words. Gah."
The sounds coming from him changed slightly.
Perhaps the instrument's tone had shifted because I’d picked up the tempo.
If so, what would happen if I hit even faster?
With that thought, I focused even more, on the verge of falling into a trance, when—
Grab.
With the sensation of my hand being caught by a strong force, I stopped.
"I. Am. Awake."
Al’shel, his cheeks swollen and his skin turned red with rage, stared at me.
"Oh, you're up? I was wondering why you were taking so long."
"I woke up a long time ag—no, never mind."
'You wouldn't admit it anyway.'
Hmm, that mutter bothered me, but I decided to let it slide.
"Right, now that you're up, check our surroundings. I'm going to wake Un-ho."
"An explanation of the situation would be… hmm. No. I've figured out the gist of it."
…If he was going to be like that, he should have just kept his mouth shut.
I gave him a slight glare that conveyed that sentiment, but Al’shel had already turned his back to me and had long since begun drawing Magic Circles in the air.
Nothing for it, then. Time to wake Un-ho.
I approached Un-ho, who was unconscious in that bizarre pose with his limbs outstretched.
I grabbed the scruff of his neck and lifted him up.
The soft fur and excess skin stretched downward as he dangled in the air.
"Mmm. Fruit-Meat…."
It seemed he wasn't unconscious but simply sleeping.
Un-ho let out a weird mumble in his sleep.
Hmm, had everyone been out longer than I thought?
Or perhaps Un-ho had woken up once and immediately fallen back asleep.
He was the kind of easygoing fellow who possessed that kind of nerve.
Even if my guess was right, I didn't intend to scold him.
Regardless, I began my move to wake him.
After giving the furball a light shake up and down, I spoke.
"Hey, Un-ho. Wake up. We're going home now."
"Mmm. Wake me up when we get there…"
The Kid was completely out of it.
So, I put more strength into it and shook him violently.
"Wake up, or I'm throwing your Food Ingredient Generator into the Otherworld."
For the record, I had confirmed that the object was rolling around next to Un-ho.
Seeing the state of things, that would have disappeared too if not for The Queen's barrier.
I wouldn't go so far as to thank her, though.
At any rate, my words were quite effective; Un-ho suddenly began to vibrate.
"Poyooo! Not my food generator!"
Letting out a shriek, Un-ho quickly slipped from my grasp and landed on the ground.
He scanned his surroundings rapidly.
Soon, he spotted the box, which was about the size of his own body, and clung to it with his whole being as if it were the most precious thing in the world.
"Waaaah, you're safe, my food…"
What kind of Otherworldly sense of naming was it to call a Food Ingredient Generator "Food"?
Since he was guilty of oversleeping, I wanted to say something, but since he was finally awake, I decided to leave him be and turned my gaze back to Al’shel.
"…."
And my eyes met Al’shel's.
His eyes and expression were frozen cold, as if he had seen something he shouldn't have.
In contrast, his hands and Magic Circles were moving busily, but he couldn't hide the emotions tucked away inside.
"Something you want to say?"
Spit it out, man.
Or do you want another slap?
"No, I just thought you've become quite kind to Lord Un-ho."
Hmm. Kind, he says.
Hearing Al’shel's words, I briefly reflected on the past.
Sticky Rice Cake Un-ho.
Dumpling Filling Un-ho.
Junkyard Un-ho.
Abomination Un-ho.
Roadside Chewing Gum Un-ho.
Hmm.
I suppose I had treated Un-ho quite harshly.
It was his own fault, so it wasn't my problem, but still.
"Well, he's been through a lot. So it's fine to treat him a bit better."
Ronia had said something about it too, so I should leave him be until my anger levels exceeded their limit.
'Then why did you slap my cheeks…'
"What was that?"
"It's nothing."
With that, the conversation ended.
* * *
How much time had passed?
Un-ho and I, tired of watching Al’shel work, turned on the Food Ingredient Generator and began eating the food it produced.
"This came out tasting a bit like apple juice."
After trying various combinations of drinks about a dozen times, I finally produced something similar to the fruit wine I’d been looking for, though not quite it, and sipped on it.
"Wow, I want to try that too!"
Un-ho, who had been sipping a blue drink, seemed interested in the apple juice I’d made. He supplied mana to the Food Ingredient Generator, pulled up my recipe, and began to gulp it down.
"Wow, it really tastes like apple juice! The color is a bit off, though."
"Don't worry about that."
It was a bit strange for something that was a deep, near-black purple to taste like apple juice.
But if the aroma and taste were apple juice, I could tolerate the color.
Just as I was thinking that and taking a swig—
'I need to finish this quickly so I don't have to see that sight anymore…'
I heard that mutter again, the one that had been going on for a while now.
But I ignored it this time as well.
To be honest, I did feel a bit guilty.
But what could I do?
Both Un-ho and I were completely incompetent in this situation.
So I had to just laugh off that kind of grumbling.
While Al’shel toiled and the two of us enjoyed our luxuries—
"I found it. There was a hole much closer than I expected."
Al’shel withdrew all his Magic Circles and stared intently at a specific spot in the Otherworld void.
"Oh? Really? How long will it take?"
"About five minutes. She really did teleport us right next to it."
'I chose the difficult path for nothing. If I had used a short-range search from the start, I would have found it immediately.'
Al’shel wore a bitter expression as he spoke.
So, The Queen had dropped us right next to The Hole, but you, Al’shel, thought that couldn't possibly be the case, so you wasted time doing wide-area reconnaissance, coordinate searches, and hole detection?
Honestly, the thought that he was an idiot crossed my mind.
But when I put myself in Al’shel's shoes for a moment, his judgment seemed somewhat reasonable.
This was that Queen, after all.
The Queen who had etched traumas into us that we didn't even want to remember.
If I, who had only met her briefly, felt this way, what kind of emotions and memories would Al’shel have—he whose home and kin had been slaughtered by such beings?
It was only natural that he couldn't trust her.
So.
"Well, good work."
Instead of a rebuke, I gave Al’shel a pat on the shoulder and raised my hand as a signal to move.
"If it's five minutes, let's get there quickly and rest. We need to wrap up this journey where the survival rate was absolute garbage."
It really had been a long ordeal.
The Shadow Keeper. The Demon Train.
Zess. The Star Race.
Dam.
The Magic Kingdom. The Guardian Corps.
The Queen.
The Deep Otherworld. Grix.
It was a journey that had taken us much further than I had expected.
By leaving my world and stepping into the Otherworld, I had learned so many things I hadn't known before.
My own inadequacies.
The vastness of the Otherworld.
The truly powerful.
And the entities that existed far beyond.
In a way, it was a journey where I received more than I thought I would when I set out, prepared to stake my life.
The journey I started simply to gain information had yielded far more than I sought, and I had received answers to new questions that arose along the way.
Of course, even more questions had been born from those answers.
But those were mostly my personal questions.
Humanity, which had been wandering through the fog knowing nothing, now possessed a small signpost to move forward.
Though I didn't know how far the information restrictions The Queen mentioned would apply, I would be able to share at least some of it.
That was certainly a harvest for the sake of many.
And I personally had many realizations as well.
Enough to break through the physical and mental limits I possessed.
Enough to overturn the prejudices I held.
I had experienced much; I had unearthed the errors in my ideology and been awakened to the problems with my sense of justice.
It would be fair to say my purpose had become clearer.
I hadn't known how to change the world.
I thought, childishly, that I just had to hit the clown in front of me.
That was merely the crime of a mentally ill person.
I thought, like a mad revolutionary, that I just had to threaten safety with massive damage.
That was the thinking of a despised terrorist.
I thought, like a seasoned politician, that I just had to awaken new thoughts from within.
That was the path of a rejected idealist.
What is the reality?
The mentally ill person is merely a mockery.
The terrorist is merely a shock.
The idealist is merely a debate.
Of course, something changes.
The mentally ill person sows a seed.
The terrorist gives birth to a faction.
The idealist shows progress.
But it is too slow.
Like Dam on the Demon Train.
Someday, we might witness the moment that balance collapses in an instant.
So.
Let us open the door.
A new door.
Like the Magic Kingdom.
Where everyone can exert basic power.
The door to the world.
That is the way for us—for humanity—to survive.
The actions I have built up are like climbing stairs.
Now, it is time to take the next step.
One step, one step at a time.
Toward survival.