Returned from Another World, Earth Turned Out to Be Quite the Fantasy Too. Also, Losing Heroines, Stop Looking This Way. - Chapter 02

Chapter 02: “I’ve Returned, But Isn’t My Home the Best?”②

“Oh, you’re back early.”

In the kitchen, as usual, was his mother preparing dinner.

“Ah, yeah.”

Tears streamed down his cheek, moved by the long-awaited reunion with his family. 

He quickly wiped them away with his uniform sleeve, careful not to let his mother notice, as a pleasant aroma filled the air.

“Curry!”

“It’s curry today. Didn’t I mention it this morning? What’s up with you? You seem unusually upbeat.”

“Ahahaha, it’s just the usual, nothing special!”

“Really? Oh, right! Your package has arrived! You bought quite a lot. It’s in your room. Make sure to clean up any mess, okay?”

“Sure!”

He felt that if he continued to listen to his mother’s voice, he would be overwhelmed by tears. 

To calm himself down, he decided to go back to his room and turned away. As he was about to ascend the stairs, his mother called out to him.

“―Welcome back.”

“Yeah. I’m home.”

The feeling of truly having returned home was stronger than ever before.

He rushed up the stairs to his room, where a familiar yet nostalgically heartwarming scene awaited. 

Cardboard boxes lay on the floor, a bookshelf overflowing with comics, a desk used only for homework, and a cheap clothes rack holding jerseys, sweatpants, hoodies, and T-shirts. 

Overcome with emotion, Natsuki dove into his bed.

The folding bed, bought for ten thousand yen from a home center, was outfitted with a casually chosen mattress and down comforter.

The bed’s springs creaked as they caught Natsuki’s body. The resilience of the mattress and the soft touch of the down comforter enveloped him. It surely must have been his mother who aired the futon during the day, as it smelled of the sun.

“…This is just unbeatable. Unbeatable, Bed-chan. What’s with this supreme comfort? In that other world, even kings slept on mere planks, you know? The bedding wasn’t soft like this at all!”

Life in the other world was harsh in a word.

The comfort of the bedding was terrible, and the hygiene was far from good. 

When one hears of a fantasy other world, they might imagine a life akin to modern-day Japan, blessed with magic and spirits in a world like medieval Europe. That’s what Natsuki had thought too. 

But when actually summoned to another world, he was harshly reminded that fiction was just that, fiction.

It was the worst world, adding the dangers of monsters and a privileged class of nobles who did as they pleased, along with adventurers, the rough and tough sort, to the life of medieval Europe.

“I want to keep sleeping, but I’m looking forward to the curry, so I’ll hold off. So, let’s open up the long-awaited mail order.”

He got up from the bed and eagerly started to peel the tape off the cardboard box and open it. 

Out came the sneakers he had longed for, along with sweat jogger pants, and then a T-shirt and a hoodie.

“There were no sneakers or sweatpants in the other world, so this texture, this smell, everything is just perfect!”

Back in the other world, where his days were filled with swordplay and magic amidst constant strife, his clothing consisted of tanned hides from unidentifiable monsters or fabrics made from threads spit out by equally enigmatic creatures. Footwear was predominantly boots made of iron plates and, again, the hides of unrecognizable monsters. 

Some, however, preferred leather sandals.

As a hero, Natsuki was afforded relatively good quality gear, but to him, accustomed to life in modern Japan, the clothing of the other world was terribly uncomfortable to wear. 

“I’ll switch to sneakers and clothes tomorrow, but for now, even the school uniform feels comfortable. Time to change.” 

He had never given much thought to his uniform before, but now it felt extremely cozy. The sense of liberation he felt after changing into his room wear jersey was immense.

“…Jerseys are the best.”

He recalled that in the other world, the only soft things seemed to be the spilled guts of creatures. 

“Okay, let’s calm down a bit. I was summoned to the other world as a hero, forced into battle against the Demon King, and somehow managed to defeat him and return to Japan. That’s all good, but why did I return to just before I was summoned? I’m happy, but it makes no sense at all.”

His body and age remained as they were at that time. 

His mind, too, felt remarkably sound, not at all frayed like it had been in the other world.

“Does this mean everything’s back to how it was? Wait, then what about the magical power I had in abundance there?”

Curious, he tried to release his magical power as he had done in the other world—and succeeded without any problem.

“Wait-wait-wait, I’ve got magical power! Doesn’t this mean I, a hero who returned from another world, could go unmatched on Earth?”

When he tried to light a fire on his finger, it worked effortlessly. It even seemed smoother than the magic in the other world.

“I was planning to go to school tomorrow, but I think I’ll stay home and try out various things.” 

While he did feel nostalgic about school, his curiosity about how much magic he could use in this world took precedence.

“Natsuki! Dinner’s ready!” 

“Coming!” 

His train of thought shifted from magic to curry at his mother’s call.

For Natsuki, who hadn’t eaten or drunk anything during his six years in the other world, it felt like his first meal in six years. 

And it was his mother’s curry, no less. 

His mouth watered uncontrollably. 

With light steps, he left his room to savor his mother’s special curry.

―However, he had no idea that by releasing his magical power, he had inadvertently revealed his presence to hidden fantastical beings. 

―Or rather, he was yet unaware that such fantasy existed in this world.

Afterword

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