Chapter 0
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: The People Welcoming Me
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The wind blows, pushing at my back as if urging me to hurry up and go.
"Arsius. Are you really going back?"
The saintess's voice, sounding so pitiful, was enough to shake my resolve, but it was truly time for me to leave now.
"I have to. You lot were the ones who promised to send me back after I took down the Demon God."
"But... that... pi, pillar husband! You said you wanted to be a house husband. So why not get engaged to me... and stay together?"
She bows her head, as if trying to hide her flushed face. Seren was plenty good enough as a woman that such a life might not have been so bad.
"Sorry, Seren. Even so, it's been ten years since I last saw my family. I have to go now."
Still, rolling around like a dog in some remote backwater for a full decade was more than enough to purge any lingering attachment I had to this world.
"Then let me come with you...! I'll follow you!"
- Saintess, you mustn't!
- If you do that, our empire could be in peril, Saintess...
They weren't about to hold me back now that I'd even slain the Demon God for them. If they had tried, I would've wrecked the place. Unfortunately, I could see that the empire really would fall into chaos if the saintess vanished too.
"They're begging you this much, so just bear with it. Besides, it'd be rough for you, wandering off alone to a strange place with no one you know."
"Ah..."
I give a gentle stroke to Seren's head as she bows it, lost for words.
"Well then. Thanks to you, I had a pretty good time while it lasted, Seren."
"Arsius...!"
- Arsius-nim, safe travels!
- Hero-nim...!
- Arsius-nim, thank you!
"By the way. It's Ansiu, not Arsius. I've been telling you guys for ten years now. Seriously."
I turn away from them and head toward the reverse-summon gate. The mages, preparations complete and waiting for me, bow their heads in reverence.
A faint smile tugs at my lips at the sight of them showing me respect right up to the very end.
Well then, farewell for real.
With those final words, I step through the gate.
The acrid tang of exhaust fumes hits my nostrils. Familiar skyscrapers, hazy in my memory just moments ago. Steel vehicles weaving between them, blaring horns.
Relief washes over me at the unchanged scene. No trace of fantasy anywhere, just like ten years back. I'd worried the world might've gone to hell in my absence, but what a relief.
And there to greet me as those thoughts run through my head—the people welcoming me back. In their hands, shiny objects gleam like mirrors reflecting my image.
It would've been nice if they'd been camera flashes of encouragement.
But no, what welcomed me were the blades of over a dozen people aimed right at me.
- A humanoid monster...? Team Leader...!
- Everyone, stay sharp. Don't let the gate-spawn's appearance fool you.
"Uh... that's a perfectly normal human right there."
- Team Leader! That monster's talking or something?!
- I said don't fall for it. Stay in formation, everyone. Subdue it fast.
I let out a sigh at the blades closing in to take me down, my words falling on deaf ears.
Ah, this is not good.
Unwarranted complacency. Looks like Earth went sour while I was gone.