ISEKAI NANPA ~Hitting on Elves, Nekomimi Girls, and Loli Dragons as an Unemployed Hikikomori~

Chapter 04: Climbing the Tower of Darkness

A night had passed.

A kock on the door came as Yuuki played with his smartphone in the windowless room.

Opening the door, it was Zomgoyle.

“Good morning. Come with me.”

As Yuuki followed Zomgoyle up the stairs, unsure where they were going, he sneezed.

“……Achoo!”

Zomgoyle, who was two steps ahead, stopped and turned around.

“Did you catch a cold? I did forget the towel.”

Last night, after leaving the bath, Yuuki put on his work clothes while still a bit wet.

“No. I must be tired from traveling to another world. Don’t worry about it.”

He said while his nose was running.

There weren’t any tissues.

What should I do?

At that moment, Zomgoyle’s artificial body approached.

Yuuki instinctively stepped back, but Zomgoyle grabbed his wrist.

“Do not move.”

Zomgoyle took a stiff cloth out of his apron pocket and wiped Yuuki’s nose.

“Th- Thanks.”

“Skill ‘Gratitude’ has leveled up.”

“It is fine. It is my job.”

Zomgoyle put the stiff cloth back into his apron pocket, and continued climbing the long spiral staircase.

“…………”

Yuuki followed after his back.

　＊

In the top floor room, Shion was on standby, having prepared Yuuki’s return home.

Zomgoyle, who brought Yuuki there, was waiting outside.

Within this dark space was only Yuuki and Shion.

Yesterday, there was only the magic circle lighting the room.

Today though, all over the wall were strange joumon pottery-like patterns emitting light.

“These patterns…… It looks just like the one on the entrance to the first floor……”

Shion responded while operating the altar at the center of the room.

“So you noticed. These patterns channel the flow of magical energy. The magic absorbed from the Earth to the tower transmits to the seven crystal chambers. As a by-product, we have light.”

“I see…… And what are the crystal chambers?”

“From the bottom to top floor, they’re vertically aligned to the tower’s center. Each one has a different function. The top one here’s main role is to contact the upper world. It’s thanks to the crystal we’re able to summon and send you back home.”

Shion pointed to the transparent crystal on the altar.

The crystal set on the simple pedestal, small enough to be pinched with two fingers.

“Isn’t it kind of small? You call them the crystal rooms, but that’s kind of awkward, isn’t it?”

Yuuki said something so rude, he surprised himself.

“Skill ‘Rude Language’ has been acquired.”

“Hey, that was rude.”

“Sorry. Looks like a new skill went running wild……”

“You can blame it on the skill, but that was what you, yourself, thought. Skills work by a convenient system, but are manifested by the soul.”

“……Ugh.”

“Well, it’s fine. I suppose any world has its share of idiots. Form, be it big or small, matters not to the cystal’s essence. Nobody truly understands the tremendous power it has.”

“No, I get it. With this crystal, I can be transported. Back to my home world.”

“That is right. So this is goodbye……”

While operating the small objects on the altar, Shion seemed to have casted a spell.

The patterns on the wall softly lit up, lights centering to the altar’s crystal.

The crystal amplified the gathered light and began projecting. It drew a shining blue gate.

“This is the dimensional gate. I’ll open it.”

Shion operated the small objects, and the lit drawn gate began to open. The Sugukuru Deliver Center appeared.

Yuuki saw the pallet truck that hit him and the floor littered with cardboard boxes.

“Now, go on ahead. If you head through this gate, Yuuki, you’ll go beyond space-time, return to your own world, correct time, correct place.

“Yeah. I just wanted to ask.”

“What?”

By time and place…… The moment I pass through the gate, I think I’d be under the cardboard.

“Yes. And?”

“Don’t ‘And,’ me. If I return to that moment, wouldn’t I be buried dead?”

Yuuki gave it a second of thought and opened his mouth.

“People don’t die so easily. That’s what I think.”

“……Those boxes are jam-packed with printer paper meant to be delivered to the entire country. Each and every box weighs a ton.”

“Then before going back, I’ll power up your physical defense with magic. That’s my final service to you.”

“Will that really help? ……Why are you trying to rush me back to my home world anyway?”

Fufu…… Well, I realized I was wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“I was wrong to rely on the people of your world in the first place. I have to overcome this situation on my own. I am the ultimate mage, after all.”

“Huh…… The ultimate, huh?”

Looking at Shion, who was full of confidence, he didn’t seem to need any help.

He might actually just be the ultimate mage.

Could someone like me, who couldn’t even enter society in his own world, do something?

If I stay at this place, can I help him?

“…………”　

Even when I wanted to work at the Sugukuru Delivery Center, I didn’t have half the carrying strength of my co-workers.

I was an employee who couldn’t even properly wrap a box.

Helping the lord of a tall tower who was the ultimate mage?

“…………”

Yuuki closed his eyes.

In his mind, he recalled what happened a few moments ago.

On the way to the transport room, near the landing of the top floor, Zomgoyle squeezed Yuuki’s hand tight.

“Please, help Shion.”

　＊

Right now, in that room with the dimensional gate opened, Shion was right before Yuuki’s eyes.

Yuuki made up his mind.

“……I’m not going back.”

“Fufu. What are you saying? Even if you stay, you’d just be in the way.”

“I said I’m not going home.”

Yuuki looked directly at Shion.

Accepting, the beautiful boy’s red eyes looked back.

Be it his eyes alone or some sort of magic, Yuuki felt his power. He stepped back once, then twice.

As soon as he turned around, he noticed the dimensional gate behind him.

“Now then, just walk in. If you do, you’ll finally be back home.”

Yuuki legs began moving.

One step, and another, toward the door.

At this rate, he might just get pushed in.

Yuuk once again glared at Shion.

With that, Skill ‘Rude Language’ was activated.

“Was it fun secluding yourself in this tower all this time? You’re so pitiful.”

Shion eyes stayed narrowed.