The Guild Master Whose Hobby Was Helping People Found Himself Surrounded by the Strongest, Overly Attached Members - 52-53

Chapter 52: I’m Way at Disadvantage in This Another World

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Gravity returned, and the shock of the landing hit me. A sound like the air flipping over brushed my eardrums, and my sight suddenly brightened. I noticed the contrast of light and shadow, the flow of the wind, the hardness of the cobblestones.

“What the… Where is this?”

Spread out before me was the town I had been walking through until moments ago — Vestia.

Stone houses. A general store with a round roof. The frames of stalls lined along the central street. And in the distance I could even see the arches decorating the square for the Thousand Lantern Festival.

But… There were no people. The festival day streets that should have been so crowded were hushed, as if time itself had been mown away. The stall cloths fluttered in the wind, and there were no footprints on the road. Only afterimages of the noise flickered in my mind, making the place all the more terrifying.

…Is this the place I’ve been teleported to?

The town’s structure was identical. The layout, the shape of the roads, the scenery, everything matched. But this emptiness and silence were far removed from reality.

A copy of the world alone… Or a different layer?

It suddenly felt a bit sci-fi. I had thought this was a fantasy world, but it seemed such abilities also existed here. …Seeing the sheer absurdity of SS-rank things, I could almost accept it — which was terrifying in its own right.

As I was thinking that, footsteps sounded behind me. When I turned around, I saw the leader walking from the depths of a narrow alley. He kept his posture, walked straight, and showed no sign of being on guard.

“Surprised?”

The leader stopped and tilted his head slightly.

“This is Vestia itself…But technically, it’s a different space.”

“Yeah… I know.”

When I answered, he reacted as if he had taken an interest in me for the first time.

“Oh? How do you know that?”

“In my hometown there were many people rich in imagination. Making you into an un-hateable anti-hero or into a worthless bastard with no sympathy was a piece of cake.”

“…Are you crazy?”

Being called a madman by a sketchy guy like this actually made me pretty irritated.

“Anyway, this is my private otherworld. I like using it as a teleport destination. It’s also handy for disposing of corpses.”

“…That is convenient, I suppose.”

The mystery of the thieves I had chased vanishing was solved. The leader himself probably didn’t have much innate aptitude for magic. His staff — that thing must have powerful teleportation magic recorded on it. Whether he had stolen it on purpose, inherited it for generations, or acquired it through a sheer coincidence — I didn’t know.

What was clear was that having that staff had allowed their thieving trade to flourish. It was easy to escape, and if they brought troublesome people here, then they could…

“That face says you understand.”

When the leader waved his staff, a purple light ran across the hollow space at the center of the square. Something rose up from it. A human silhouette. It shimmered like particles and then fixed on one of the underlings. Another one appeared in the same way.

“…!”

“This time, you better work properly, okay?”

At that, the underlings, flustered, raised their weapons.

“Now then, shall we begin? If you disappear here, we can start our work over on the other side without anyone noticing.”

A wind blew. An empty wind swept through the hollow street. It felt as if the world itself were telling me, “There is no escape.”

Is there even an exit to escape this other space…?

For now, it seemed impossible to escape without using that staff. That didn’t mean stealing the staff would be easy either. The leader was stronger than me in the first place, and the staff was indispensable for their business. He would have ingrained ways to avoid having it taken by enemies.

To be honest, this situation was practically a checkmate for me, but…

“Checkmate only becomes final when you give up.”

I took a deep breath and stared hard at the leader. Even if the world fell into the enemy’s hands, there was bound to be at least one path to victory. All I had to do was find it and pull it out no matter what.

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Chapter 53: I’m Way at Disadvantage in This Another World 2

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The tip of his shoe skimmed the cobblestones and a thin, sharp sound tore through the air. I dropped my body low and twisted to the side; a vacuum blade scraped past the side of my cheek and cracked the wall behind me.

Wind magic?

The attack that had erupted from the tip of the leader’s staff carried clear intent to kill. It wasn’t a warning. It had been aimed to finish me from the start.

Immediately after, two lackeys came running from the alleyways on either side. Those who had been wavering like particles mere moments ago now had solid flesh and bone. One wielded a sword, the other an axe. Their movements were messy but there was no hesitation.

So they weren’t the kind to take me down together.

If the leader intended to kill together with his underlings, their motions would show doubt. Even under orders, few were willing to give up their lives so easily. Right now they were focused only on taking my blind spots and encircling me. There was no trace of fear or panic in them.

“Damn it…!”

An axe came down. I leapt back on instinct, but my timing was slightly off and I couldn’t fully avoid it — the blow clipped my shoulder. The impact reverberated through my body and my breath stopped for a heartbeat.

Strange. My movements feel sluggish.

Forcing myself up from a knee, I scanned the surroundings. The enemies in front of me hadn’t changed. The two lackeys — same equipment, same appearance as before. Their movements didn’t seem improved. If not them, then the cause must be within me.

Is this an effect of the teleport magic…?

I couldn’t put it into words yet, but my senses felt subtly misaligned. The hardness of the ground. The resistance of the air. The direction of gravity. Everything felt just a bit off. When I tried to dodge, my footing landed about half a step out of place from where I expected.

If I don’t get used to this space, I might not even beat the lackeys.

The leader showed no sign of closing in. From the far end of the square he calmly waited for an opening in my magic. He used the lackeys to wear me down, then intended to finish me with sorcery. It was a classic tactic — and the most troublesome.

I backed away slowly, careful not to miss the three of them. I had no weapon. If I engaged them head-on like this, a gap would open before long and it would be over. Before that happened—

“―Are you planning to run?”

Before I could even form the thought, the leader spoke it aloud.

“Just a bit, I forgot something and need to go back. Mind watching the shopkeeper for me?”

“That would be troublesome… We don’t have time, you know.”

“Hmm… That sounds rough.”

With those words left behind, I turned my back and bolted. I burst from the edge of the square onto the cobbled street and rounded a corner. Magic for pursuit shot after me from behind, but slipping into the shadow of buildings let me narrowly avoid it. Shards of light whizzed past my ear and white sparks scattered across a brick wall.

Something’s off.

There was a faint oddness left in the leg I had driven off with. But I couldn’t stop. As I ran through alleys, I tried to analyze things as calmly as I could. My body lagged more than it should; the contact under my feet felt unexpectedly shallow. The sense of grounding with the earth felt thin.

An effect of the teleport, or some property of this space…? Or is there something wrong with the world itself?

Every bit of information that normally wouldn’t register felt just slightly skewed. That was why my movements didn’t line up.

“…Hm?”

When I emerged onto a familiar street, that feeling of wrongness hardened into certainty. The bakery on the corner and the neighboring general store — their positions were reversed. In real Vestia the bakery was on the left and the general store on the right, but the scene before me was flipped. Left and right were reversed.

I’m not at an age to be misremembering this, surely.

A few meters farther, letters on a signboard on the wall appeared mirrored, written so they read right-to-left like a reflection. It looked blatantly unnatural.

Not a perfect reproduction, then…?

It made sense that I had slipped into a layer one notch off from the real world. The leader had said it was a “different space” after all. But this space wasn’t strictly “perfect.” It wasn’t that some unknowable alternate layer naturally existed.

It was more like someone had used magic to create an alternate layer and was exploiting it with a staff. In short, it was manmade and unfinished. That imperfection showed up here as distortions.

If that’s the case—this distortion might lead to an exit.

I had no certainty. Still, choosing not to gamble wasn’t an option. Left as I was, I’d just be killed quietly, alone.

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