I am back – Chapter 1

“This is how the world is.”

The oldest memory I have of that person.

Most of the wealth, which had been plagued by various unfortunate events, had disappeared, and I had suddenly moved to a semi-basement with my single mother. That’s when she said that to me.

In my memory, she… was she still in middle school? I found out not long after that she was three years older than me, even though she still hadn’t completely shed that youthful look on her face.

At that time, I was still an elementary school student. Smaller than my older sister, I would look up at her as she wore her school uniform and willingly took care of me, always thinking she was so mature.

No, even now that I think about it, she seemed to have become an adult earlier than others. She was always mature. Even when I was going through the age she had already experienced, I felt the same way. Even after I grew taller than her later on, I never thought I had caught up to her.

Her family, who lived right above the semi-basement I was in, wasn’t in a good position either. At least I had a mother who always cared for me, but her parents were always shouting and fighting. Sometimes it got so loud upstairs that I couldn’t sleep. Occasionally, exhausted from her parents’ fighting, she would come down to our house to rest.

So, there was nothing she had that was better than me.

But she was always bright. At least, she tried hard to look that way.

In my memories, no matter how tough it got, she would smile brightly at me and take my hand to go here and there together.

We would help an elderly lady collecting scrap on the street, and when we saw a Salvation Army kettle, she would drop in a thousand-won note.

“Why do you help people so much?”

One winter, I asked her that while she was putting a thousand-won note into the red kettle.

That must have been all the money she had in her pocket. A thousand won wasn’t much, but it could buy something sweet at the neighborhood store to put in her mouth. Knowing her, if she bought something, she would share half with me, and I found that quite frustrating.

Maybe she sensed my feelings. After pondering for a while, she answered with a slightly embarrassed look.

“…It’s just how the world is.”

“How the world is?”

At my follow-up question, she rolled her eyes again. We stood in front of the kettle for a while. The volunteer next to us, ringing the bell, seemed intrigued by our conversation.

“Yeah, it’s how the world is….”

Noticing that, her face turned red. Embarrassed, she hesitated a bit before managing to add softly, “Because it’s how the world is, it’s good to help each other….”

She said that in a whisper.

In this world, it’s good to help each other.

Even though I could barely understand the things adults said when I was a child, I knew exactly what her words meant.

She always helped me, even in tough situations. When my mom went out to work and I was left alone at home, she would deliberately come to take care of me and play with me. Even in my carefree childhood when playing with her felt so good, I vaguely realized that it wasn’t easy for her.

No matter how difficult the situation, just living while helping each other was a tremendous source of strength.

“Got it.”

In this world, we live in this way.

That’s why it’s good to help each other, after all, we all have to live in the same world.

Of course, not many people genuinely think like that. I didn’t know it as a child, but now I do. In living in this world, there’s no disadvantage to not helping others. On the contrary, helping others doesn’t guarantee anything in return.

How did she realize that fact at such a young age? I still don’t know. Maybe it was because she was such a kind and wonderful person.

Holding my hand, she felt like a hero from a comic, and I stared at her face for a long time. She seemed immensely embarrassed as if she was shy about having said that, glancing away from my eyes. Her face was flushed.

I took out five hundred won from my pocket and dropped it into the kettle just like her.

Clink! Did it just hit the other coins inside?

And that memory of that day became the most important moment in my life.

*

I blinked.

The sight before my eyes was a majestic temple. The pillars were filled with extremely intricate carvings, none of which looked the same as if they had all been hand-carved. It seemed to depict a scene from mythology or perhaps summarized human history.

Those magnificent pillars weren’t just one, there were countless of them. The columns, soaring up to the high ceiling at regular intervals, supported the temple’s roof so wide that the end wasn’t visible.

I had seen this scene before.

When I first died. Before crossing over to another world, I had received powers from the goddess of this place and went to the other world.

I had asked for help to save a world in danger, and I did my best to cooperate with my allies to defeat the Demon King.

…Though it seems I ended up dying once more in the process.

“I sacrificed again.”

A voice echoed.

It was a familiar voice. I had heard it before when I first came here.

As I turned my head, a beautiful woman came into view.

With skin as white as porcelain and pink hair, she wore a white dress intricately embroidered with golden thread, clicking her footsteps as she walked toward me.

“Are the companions alright?”

“Yes, thanks to your sacrifice.”

“…That’s a relief.”

Upon hearing my mumble, she frowned a little. Even with that expression, her beauty didn’t diminish at all, which made me feel like, indeed, she was a goddess.

“They will be very sad for a while, though.”

“…Is that so?”

“Of course it is.”

She let out a deep sigh and then continued speaking.

“You were the hero, after all. You were the most important person in the party. Do you have any idea how much those kids were relying on you?”

“Are they strong kids?”

The elf elders had unanimously chosen a legendary archer.

The kingdom’s best knight and the youngest captain of a knight brigade.

A genius mage who alone rewrote the history of magic.

And a saintess who always healed people with the goddess’s powers when needed.

I hadn’t met all the party members at once. While on the way to hunt the Demon King, we became closer through various incidents, ultimately turning into comrades with whom I could trust my life.

The reason I was able to defeat the Demon King in the end was all thanks to them.

“No matter how strong those kids are….”

As she spoke, the goddess then suddenly fell silent. After a moment of stillness, she smiled slightly and said,

“Well, maybe there’s no need to say any more here.”

Nodding as if she understood something on her own, she continued.

“Right, they will eventually overcome it. Because they are strong kids, just as you said.”

“Is that so?”

I felt a twinge of regret for not being able to say a proper farewell. …I just hoped my choice wouldn’t leave them too wounded. I had already departed that world, but they still had work left to do. The Demon King was defeated, but there were remnants of the demon race, and the contaminated lands needed to be purified.

They needed to rebuild the places that were left empty as people departed, creating villages, and tilling long-abandoned land to produce food.

Well, even if I were still alive, those worries wouldn’t be mine to bear. That was for the kingdom’s leaders and those who had always held important positions.

“Just now you thought, ‘I was worthless except for catching the Demon King,’ didn’t you?”

“…No, I didn’t think that much.”

I protested against the goddess as she looked at me sideways.

Of course, I did think that.

The goddess sighed deeply again, running a hand over her face.

“Why is it that those who come over from other worlds all have the same way of thinking….”

“Was there anyone else besides me?”

“…”

The goddess pondered for a moment before replying.

“Well, I did see someone before I came here. There was a goddess who saved the world but then tried to hide away in a hole in the ground to get away from people’s attention.”

“…Is there more than one goddess?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, right?”

Scratching the back of her head, the goddess said.

“Well… let’s just say that bringing this up will take too long.”

“No, it sounds like a super important story—”

“Oh, it’s just a story you don’t have to worry about.”

She waved her hand as if to dismiss the matter.