Chapter 5
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: The Reason I Must Grow Stronger
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The Blue Gate vanished the moment the boss monster fell.
However, Silberion had no spare energy to focus on that right now.
'...My power... it's returned, if only by a minuscule amount.'
He hadn't noticed it while caught up in the heat of battle killing the hobgoblins, but he could feel that the power he had lost had come back, even if just a speck smaller than a mote of dust.
He had felt it almost certainly when he slew the Hobgoblin Champion.
'...I thought it would take at least centuries of training for my power to return.'
In terms of the world he had come from, Silberion's current strength was at the very entry level of Sword Expert.
That put him on par with any common knight you could find scattered across the kingdom.
'Earth hasn't been long since the Great Cataclysm, so it's only natural...'
The accumulated knowledge from the world he had known was pitifully sparse compared to Earth's current state.
Only a mere ten years had passed, after all.
There was no helping the sheer scale and density of knowledge that had built up here.
'...So in the end, I have to operate as a hunter?'
Of course, by Earth's standards, the power he currently possessed was still top-tier.
But one could never predict how the world might turn.
Normally, he might have just trained in the yard, but now that he knew killing monsters restored his power, hunting them down was a far better choice than solitary training.
It would recover his strength and keep his battle instincts sharp.
'At least there were no civilian casualties.'
Finishing his thoughts, Silberion looked around.
Apart from the hobgoblin corpses, there were no other bodies to be seen.
People who hadn't managed to escape earlier were emerging from buildings one by one, surveying their surroundings.
"W-We... we survived..."
"Waaaaaah!!!"
Overwhelmed by relief at having survived, some collapsed right there on the spot, while others wept and wailed loudly.
They were all ordinary civilians, so it was only natural they'd be terrified.
'The association will handle the cleanup.'
With that in mind, Silberion turned to leave.
"Um, excuse me...!"
He felt a tug on his clothes from behind and turned around.
There stood a young boy holding out an unwrapped stick of candy.
"Th-Thank you for saving us! H-Here, a gift!"
"......"
The sight left him momentarily stunned.
How long had it been since someone offered him such pure gratitude?
"Thank you."
Silberion gently ruffled the innocent child's hair as he accepted the candy.
He didn't particularly like sweets, but since the boy had mustered the courage to give it, he had to take it.
He unwrapped it immediately and popped it into his mouth.
The sweet grape flavor filled his mouth, sending a sharp tingle through him from the long-forgotten taste of sugar.
With that, the boy dashed off toward his parents.
"......"
Watching him go, Silberion savored only the candy's sweetness.
Not long after, association staff arrived to begin cleanup.
They checked the damaged and destroyed areas and immediately started restoration work. Aside from a few people with minor injuries from falls, there were no victims.
"Silberion."
"Ah, I figured you'd come."
Selenne and Grommel had already finished speaking with their handlers and left.
They hadn't directly slain any monsters, only helped evacuate civilians, so a brief chat was all it took—no need to linger.
"You get caught up in something like this right after returning..."
"Don't worry. It was a good light warmup."
"...If blocking a gate counts as a warmup, then the scale of your warmups is way too big."
She spoke in a flustered tone, but Silberion had only stated the facts.
It had been just the right amount to loosen up.
Nothing beat real combat for shaking off stiffness.
Live battle was the best way to awaken dulled senses.
Humans changed the moment they steeled themselves for death.
"In any case, you blocked a Blue Gate without any casualties—that's a major accomplishment on record."
"...Accomplishment?"
"It's just a record, really. The upside is that the better your record, the more you can demand from the association."
"......"
"Things like expanding your residential area or activity range become possible. Or if you need specific items, you can request those too. It's all about building trust."
Not every returnee was specialized in combat.
Thus, combat-specialized returnees were especially valuable.
He'd heard from the association that some countries treated returnees like weapons.
Both the association and the nation sought to coax them toward their desired paths.
'Well, the returnees probably know that.'
Even knowing it, they went along because simple tasks granted everything they wanted.
"In that case, I have one request right now. Is that alright?"
"Already...? Well, as long as it's not too demanding, sure."
She was a bit flustered by the sudden ask, but she was willing to hear it out.
Providing conveniences benefited the nation and association too.
"As you can see, my armor is in ruins."
"...Ah! So you want new armor?"
"Yes. I can't keep wearing these ragged scraps forever."
The armor Silberion wore now was in such bad shape that even flattery couldn't call it good.
Singed and dented as a baseline, it was covered in claw marks, tears, and burst seams.
And he didn't even have a sword.
"I'll look into some artisans right away, then."
"How long do you think it'll take?"
"Hmm... If I push it, I can find one within a week."
A week.
It wasn't that long, but for Silberion—who planned to dive into gates starting tomorrow—it felt eternal.
'...Guess I'll go without equipment for now and buy my own once I have money.'
He looked every bit the adventurer now, but it seemed the best option currently.
"No, I can't wait that long."
"Ah, I see..."
She hurriedly made a call somewhere, then hung up looking dejected.
Seeing that wouldn't change anything, though.
With the gate incident resolved, the three returned home.
"Honestly, I had no idea you were that strong."
"Yeah, when you were pummeling hobgoblins with your fists, I thought my eyes were playing tricks."
Selenne and Grommel were having an afterparty at Silberion's place, catching up.
"What kind of life did you live to fight that well?"
"I just hammered away among drunks all day and came back. Never taught a lick of fighting."
"......"
Silberion listened to their grumbles while sipping a glass of carbonated water.
Every returnee had lived in another world before coming back, so there were bound to be incomprehensible parts.
Better to understand than shun or reject them.
Antagonizing them gained nothing.
"Still, glad we all came back in one piece."
"True. Honestly, we're lucky our bodies returned intact..."
She shuddered and shook her head, as if loath to imagine otherwise.
Their gathering grew merrier, and it wasn't until nightfall that the two headed home.
Only after clearing the table of their reminiscing traces could Silberion finally sit.
"Hoo..."
It had been an eventful day.
He'd gone out for fun, only for a gate to break out—and he'd ended up sealing it.
Even Seoul, walled in, wasn't perfectly safe.
Gates were handled relatively well here, but they still appeared the same as anywhere.
'Power is indispensable in this world too, huh.'
Choi Yunha, his handler from the association, had given him the broad strokes on needing to use his power.
Other countries even wielded returnees as weapons.
This world and that one—neither was truly peaceful.
'Looks like I need to build my strength.'
Without it, he'd be devoured someday.
But he had no intention of being leashed by the association.
Take what he needed and slip away as fast as possible.
Lingering to help might just get him chained.
'...To reclaim my power, I'll have to keep raiding gates.'
Just like awakened hunters cleared gates, he'd do the same as a hunter.
Money was secondary; smashing monsters was the fastest way back to his original strength.
Even small gates wouldn't make him complacent.
Besides, the only gate he'd experienced was one unstable one.
Gates connected parts of other worlds to Earth, like passages.
Who knew what alien landscapes might await.
'A new world.'
Excitement outweighed tension.
From the day he was knighted, the unknown had sparked anticipation, not fear.
That was Silberion's nature.