“I see... So you really are going to go back.”
We were on Mizgarz, the morning sun shining down on us. We’d landed the Argo on solid ground, and the hero’s party and Virgo, who had an inscrutable expression on her face, were currently disembarked.
Sei stood in front of all of them. Now that the Goddess’s script was no more, heroes weren’t required anymore. This world no longer needed tales like that. All there should be were people building their own futures with their own wills—not stories but reality. So, there was no reason for him to stay in this world. He had his own life on Earth and dreams he wanted to fulfill.
“Yeah. The other world really does suit me better,” said Sei.
It wasn’t as if he had no ties to this world. If he were to be honest to himself, there were things he wanted to say to the girl in front of him. However, their life spans were just too different. As a heaven-winged, Virgo would go on to live hundreds, even thousands of years. On the other hand, Sei would only live to be a little past eighty at best. Even if he were to just announce his feelings under the assumption he would get turned down, Virgo would be the one getting hurt on the off chance she said yes. Therefore, Sei decided the best thing for him to do was keep his unfulfillable feelings locked up inside him. Though in his mind, the chances were much higher that he would just be rejected anyway.
“The problem is your strength though. You might look weak compared to Lufas and others like her, but if you went back to Earth as is...”
Sei was currently level 55. This was thanks to the effect of a small amount of mana—well, what Lufas considered a small amount, anyway—Lufas had neglected to collect when claiming the Goddess’s planned gift to Sei of the ouroboroses’ mana.
Of course, to Lufas and her peers, that amount of mana would make no difference, being barely perceptible. However, the same would not fly on Earth. Where on Earth would you find a person able to run faster than a cheetah or a student with more sheer strength than a bear? Even his stamina and vitality were far removed from human levels at this point.
If, for example, some criminal were to try to stab Sei with a kitchen knife, his skin wouldn’t even be pierced so long as he concentrated on his defense. Even if he were shot, basically all that would happen was that it would hurt. That was how superhuman he was. The people he was comparing himself to were just too far beyond that. Sei was already well past the line of being superhuman. If he felt like it, he could sweep the gold medals at the Olympics many times over. It wouldn’t be tough to take the top spot in the world in combat sports either. He might even be able to take top spot in all of them and start an invincible dynasty.
If I were to go back to Earth with this power... Should that really be allowed?
“It shouldn’t be a problem. This was the strength you built up yourself in this world. There’s no need to be ashamed of it. Take it as a gift for your deeds,” Lufas said, seeming to not care about Sei’s worries.
“Um... Are you sure?” asked Sei.
“Don’t worry about it. If you had power, you would never abuse it. Right?”
Lufas hadn’t said this thoughtlessly. She’d said all that because she was speaking about Sei. If it were someone like Debris instead, Lufas would have simply ignored his wishes and returned him to level 1, by force if she had to. She had declared that it would be fine because Sei was the one with the power.
From start to finish, he had never taken the easy way out. He was a hero who never stopped searching for the correct path. He could be trusted and sent home as he was.
“Not to mention, didn’t you want to be a police officer?” asked Lufas. “That power would be useful to you then. Might as well have the strength to arrest violent criminals, right? Just go be the best policeman there is.”
“Ha ha ha... After a fight like that, there’s no way I could call myself the strongest.”
Sei laughed reservedly as he looked over to his friends whom he’d traveled with all this time. There were Gantz, Jean, Friedrich, the female knight gorilla, Kross, Petto, and Sargess, not to mention the dog monster at his feet. All of them seemed somewhat sad and lonely after realizing they were about to part. There were also the three adventurers—Richard, Nick, and Shuu—as well as Alfie and the ranger squad.
Now that I think about it, this is a pretty diverse group that doesn’t seem much like a hero’s party. I remember I thought it was some sort of prank when we first met, but now that it’s all over, all I have are good memories.
Yeah, good memories... Probably... Should be.
“Well then... Everyone, thank you all so much for everything.”
“Yeah. Be well on the other side,” Jean said.
Jean immediately laid his hand on top of Sei’s when he offered it. The others placed their hands on top of Jean’s as well. Virgo was the last to put her hand in, and for just a moment, she locked eyes with Sei.
“Sei... Take care of yourself, okay? I...” Virgo hesitated. “I won’t forget you.”
“Yeah, I will. I...won’t forget you either,” Sei replied.
The two of them seemed loath to separate their hands. Seeing this scene, Lufas snapped her fingers, and a crack in space appeared in front of Sei. It was a gate leading to Earth, though it was no simple gate. It also led to the past, thanks to a combination of Lufas’s and Dina’s skills. Sei would be dropped off in Japan in 2015—in other words, the time right after he had been summoned. Though Sei had only spent less than a year in this world, he would regain that year in youth as well when he went back. At his age, several months was a long time, after all.
“Once you pass through that gate, you will go back to the days before coming to this world. You’ll also be where you were when you were summoned, so don’t worry about being suddenly dropped off in some foreign country,” Lufas explained.
“Sorry for relying on you for so much.”
“Don’t worry about it. You ended up involved in all this because of us in the first place, so sending you back safely is the least I can do.”
Sei chuckled a little after hearing what Lufas had to say, before he turned to face the gate. However, he turned back to look at Virgo just once, reluctant, before he seemed to have gathered his resolve and ran into the gate. This was probably his first love as well as his first heartbreak, and while Sei faintly realized this, Virgo had most likely gone through this parting with no knowledge of her feelings.
Watching the two of them, Dina whispered, “He was a good kid,” in a low voice.
“Yeah. He was useless in a fight, but...” Lufas paused. “He was a true hero, unlike me, who can only solve things with violence.”
What Minamijuuji Sei had accomplished was small but very, very important. Though he didn’t have the power of Lufas or the Thirteen Heavenly Stars, things would not have gone this well if not for his choices. He almost assuredly had no idea of this, but every one of his decisions from start to finish had been the opposite of what the Goddess had wanted. Even Lufas and Benetnasch had had times where they had acted as the Goddess wished, so comparatively, he had done amazingly well.
“You don’t seriously intend to allow this love to just fizzle out like this, do you?” Dina asked.