Chapter 1. Finally Going Home
Chapter 1. Finally Going Home
Late at night, a campfire crackled and spat flames into the dark.
A quiet interlude after the battle.
"Wow, it's really over..."
The appearance of those seated around it was, to put it mildly, far from clean.
Blood, dust, and grime had thoroughly fouled their clothes.
"Hoon, are you really planning to leave?"
"I have to. This place is way too boring."
"You lived here for thirty years—won't you miss it at all?"
Kyle Everheim.
The man who casually tossed out my name like that was none other than the crown prince of the Everheim Empire—soon to ascend as emperor—and, simultaneously, the most renowned mage on the continent.
"Kahaha! That face doesn't belong on a fifty-year-old!"
"...Don't bring that up."
Luther Tarbin.
A giant of a man, even bulkier than me, bursting with muscle.
A warrior who had united the unruly barbarians and reigned as their chieftain.
"Hmph Young. Fifty years old is barely out of diapers."
"By that logic, you're basically a grandma..."
"Hey!!! I told you not to call me that!"
Seris Arter.
A high elf, regarded as the greatest among her kind.
The elven queen who answered the World Tree's call and followed our journey.
"Hero, where will you go now?"
"I'm going home."
"..."
Laila Everheim.
A Saintess whose healing was on a level that neither alchemy nor magic could begin to rival.
The woman who had first joined me, following the revelation of the Goddess who summoned me here.
"Finally, I can go home..."
A sigh escaped me as the weight of everything being finished settled in.
"They said the carriage from the imperial palace will arrive by tomorrow morning. Let's get some sleep now."
At Kyle's words, each of us drifted into reminiscence about the past or turned our thoughts toward what lay ahead.
Silence wrapped around us, and only the sound of dying embers crackling softly remained.
And within that silence, the Saintess alone stared fixedly at one person.
---
Song Hoon.
A life spent day by day in a nice officetel near the university, bankrolled by my comfortably well-off parents.
A life where, whenever I got hungry, I'd order delivery, sprawl on the bed in nothing but my underwear, and dutifully fill every single hour of the day with shorts, reels, internet streams, web novels—you name it.
Then I got summoned to another world.
And of course, wearing nothing but my underwear.
"Huh, what is this...?"
What do you mean, what? It wasn't a dream—it was reality.
I even got thrown in jail for strutting around the streets in nothing but my underwear.
Of course, it was quickly sorted out after I claimed I'd been robbed and was shown leniency.
Since I couldn't communicate, that whole process was absurdly difficult too.
In the beginning, I did all sorts of things just to keep myself alive.
I cleaned outhouses, gathered and hawked herbs, hauled carts.
When that still wasn't enough to get by, I tried hunting, brought down monsters, and even found myself in the middle of a war.
'Ten damn years...!!'
People say that age tempers your actions and words, but what I ended up with was just an overgrown brat whose expiration date had been extended by a decade.
Even so, perhaps some hidden talent had finally bloomed, because physically I was exceptionally gifted.
One day, when life—this constant uncertainty of whether I might die tomorrow—had grown unbearably hard and grueling, I found my way to a temple.
Even without being religious, I understood why people sometimes seek out cathedrals, churches, or temples when life grinds them down.
"Hero..."
"Me? Why am I the Hero?"
"Because I summoned you as the Hero."
A brilliant light enveloped me, and a tall, slender beauty materialized before my eyes, calling me the Hero.
"Please... save this world."
To a web novel veteran like me, this was a well-worn cliché.
A Goddess bestows a mountain of cheat abilities upon the Hero, or hands him a holy sword—some game-breaking weapon that cleaves through anything.
But unfortunately, it was neither.
Instead, the Goddess whisked me off to an isolated place and trained me for fifteen years.
"So you're telling me to train until I'm forty-five...?"
"Do not worry. I have taken measures to ensure your mind will not break, and your body will neither age nor fall ill."
'Crazy bitch... Easy for you to say, isn't it...'
"I can hear you..."
"Sorry..."
And just like that, I was kicked out into the world at the age of forty-five.
If this were a martial arts novel instead of fantasy, people would have called it senility, making a debut at that age.
'Would that make it a late debut, then?'
'...'
'I told you to stop eavesdropping whenever you feel like it.'
'Yes.'
Anyway, when I asked this bottomless pit— I mean, the Goddess, why she only revealed herself after ten years had passed, she said it was because the allies destined to aid me hadn't been born yet.
"Then why did you summon me so early?"
"Because you needed time to build up your strength."
"What the hell..."
"The people of this world adapt naturally and swiftly to mana. But you, Hero, hail from another dimension to begin with."
In other words.
It meant that it would take a long while to convert a diesel vehicle like me to run on gasoline, in a world where only gasoline existed.
'Hmm... I didn’t completely get it, but that sounds about right.'
After being tossed out into society, the first one I met was Laila—before she became the Saintess.
Laila, a young girl who had lost her parents and been raised in a convent, followed me as if possessed the moment she saw me.
'Looking back, it's strange... A rough-looking man tried to leave with a little girl, and not one person there raised an objection.'
Next, I met Kyle.
I stormed the imperial palace myself and dragged Kyle out with me.
Back then, I was in a real hurry, thinking I needed to get home fast.
Of course, since the Goddess herself delivered a revelation, the unprecedented incident of 'crown prince kidnapping' never officially came to pass.
Around that time, as rumors spread, Luther—who had already united all the barbarians—came to us on his own, saying he wanted to become even stronger.
Finally, Seris arrived because the World Tree, her mother, told her to go.
'Were the World Tree and the Goddess some kind of relatives?'
Anyway.
The expedition force assembled to subjugate the Demon God ultimately spent five years slaughtering the demon race, the Demon King, and the Demon God without exception.
In the process, my arm got severed, my body got pierced clean through, and at one ridiculous point, Kyle and I combined only had a single functioning eye between the two of us.
Thanks to Laila, who was essentially an elixir dispenser, wounds healed at terrifying speed as long as I was still breathing.
'Hero... the treatment of the Saintess was a little...'
But it hurt like absolute hell, owing to the deeply scientific healing process of cell division and regeneration...
Still, the fact that it was all completely over was an indescribable relief.
---
The next day, a luxurious carriage—so enormous and ornate it could have passed for a house on wheels—arrived from the imperial palace to collect us.
That night, countless lanterns rose into the night sky above the imperial capital, and festivals erupted in full swing everywhere you looked.
Inside the palace, the grand banquet hall glittered under the brilliant light of chandeliers, and nobles clad in magnificent attire raised their glasses to toast our return.
"Oh my, is that the Hero?"
"Hero, your forearms are so..."
"Even from the side, you look so sturdy..."
I could hear the chattering voices of noble ladies singing my praises and flattering me.
Ha, this damn popularity.
Thinking I might as well regale them with tales of adventure and sweep them gracefully across the dance floor, I turned my head.
"Gasp!"
"H-Hero...?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry...! I'm already...!"
They glanced around and promptly slunk away.
No matter how scary I look, isn't it a bit much for them to bolt the instant they see my face?
"Reacting that way to someone's face... don't you think?"
I glanced at Laila, who was standing next to me practically grinning from ear to ear.
"Not sure what you mean?"
"Right..."
While I was flirting with Laila, Kyle, Luther, and Seris made their way over.
When I confessed my troubles, they all burst out laughing.
"Kahahak! Where else are you going to find a man as sturdy and magnificent as you!"
Luther's advice, who fundamentally believes that muscles were the answer to everything, was not remotely helpful...
"Kehehe... Hoon, a refreshingly handsome man like you is plenty attractive. Don't worry. Should I even introduce you to my younger sister?"
When a typical romance-fantasy alpha male says something like that, my brow naturally furrows.
But I was someone who had to return to Earth soon.
If I took a wife here and then went back to Earth, what sin would the wife left behind have committed?
So, I should coldly shoot this down...
"Is she pretty...?"
"She is pretty. I'm not just saying this because she's my sister—objectively, she is very beautiful. With you, I could entrust her... Never mind. Forget I said anything."
Kyle glanced behind me and hastily cut himself off.
A guy who offers to introduce you and then takes it back was the worst kind...
When I looked back too, I saw Laila still grinning and Seris quietly holding a wine glass.
"Hey, are you really planning to go back?"
"That's right. My parents are probably searching for me desperately."
"Do you have a wife or lover waiting there?"
At Seris's question, everyone's ears perked right up.
They probably expected some sweet romance from another world, but unfortunately, there wasn't one.
"Just as I thought!"
'This little...!'
Just then, the crowd gathered around us murmured and parted neatly in two.
And through the gap strode the emperor—Kyle's father and the highest authority in this land.
The emperor requested a handshake, drew me in close, and whispered cautiously.
"Hero, I am deeply regretful that you are leaving..."
"Well, what can I do? My hometown isn't here. And I have precious family there."
"If you were to marry my daughter and make your life here, considering this place your hometown... Ahem, no. I spoke out of turn."
Just like Kyle, if this gentleman plans to offer an introduction, he ought to follow through properly.
"Well, be that as it may... To the heroes who protected the continent, I propose a toast. Everyone, raise your glasses!"
Now look at him, smoothly changing the subject...
And so, beginning with the emperor's toast, we drank like we were the Demon God incarnate and went through what felt like a year's supply of liquor that night.