LIGHTNOVELONLINE Book 5: Epilogue 1 Part1
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Epilogue I – Before I Realized It, I Was Standing in a Different World.
Part 1
When I was a child, my dream was to become a firefighter.
The trigger was simple: I saw a documentary on TV that featured firefighters.
I thought it was cool to see them rescuing people from buildings that were on fire.
However, that was just a childhood dream.
As I grew older, I learned about reality, and after considering my abilities and aptitude, I chose to become an office worker.
The IT company where I worked had a fire-fighting unit specializing in extinguishing fires, and I was assigned to this unit and spent my busy days without getting any decent time off.
But──
The change came suddenly.
I fell asleep on the train on my way home from work, and when I woke up, I was lying on my back in the forest.
“What the heck is going on here…?”
I woke up and looked around.
There were many trees lined up around me, and the sun was shining warmly through the trees.
In the distance, I heard birdsong.
“Where am I?”
I asked, but I was the only one here.
Naturally, there was no way I could get an answer.
…Huh?
Normally, someone would have told me right away.
Is it my imagination?
I was forgetting something important, but I didn’t know what I was forgetting.
I had that feeling.
Or rather.
“This forest looks kind of familiar…”
Was it a place I had been to before?
Why was I lying in the forest in the first place?
On my way home from work, I dozed off on the train and had no memory of what happened next.
I was dressed in my usual suit.
However, my commuter bag, wallet, and smartphone that I had in my pocket had disappeared somewhere.
In other words, I can’t call for help.
“Oh, man.”
I muttered to myself, but in reality, I wasn’t too upset.
I could handle this.
I’d been in many close calls in my life.
Compared to that, the disappearance of my belongings was nothing to worry about.
Hmm?
I’ve been through many desperate crises in my life, huh?
I don’t understand what it means, even though I said so myself.
Why am I, who was supposed to be living in modern Japan until yesterday, thinking like a soldier returning from the battlefield?
Am I suffering from Chuunibyou?
I thought I’d graduated from that kind of thing when I was a student.
As I shrugged my shoulders, I heard two voices behind me.
“Kou Kousaka. You are already awake.”
“Good morning. You seem to be alright.”
I looked toward the voices and saw two children walking toward me.
They looked to be elementary school students or older, perhaps around ten years old.
One looked serious, and the other relaxed.
They both had blue hair and green eyes that shone clear and bright.
They are obviously not Japanese.
Both of them have well-developed faces, and both of them look as glamorous as foreign child actors on TV.
I would not think that a salaryman like me would have any connection with either of them, but considering the fact that they called my name earlier, it seems that they know who I am.
What on earth was going on?
While I was confused, the two of them came close to me.
They looked up at me in a friendly manner and asked.
“How are you feeling? Are you feeling any pain in your body?”
“Your clothes are dirty. Shall I clean them for you?”
Which should I answer first?
After a moment of hesitation, I said.
“It’s okay. Everything is fine.”
Then I took off my suit jacket and brushed the dust off with my hands.
Slap, slap, slap.
Well, that’s enough for the time being.
After putting on my jacket again, I asked them.
“Sorry. Have we met somewhere before?”
“It would be inaccurate to say that we have met, but we have exchanged a few words.”
It was the serious-looking boy who answered first.
“It seems you have some confusion in your memory. You can call me Fulua.”
“I’m Zogra. And I am supposed to be Fulua’s younger brother.”
It’s a somewhat strange thing to say, but Fulua and Zogra look a lot like each other.
The only difference is that Fulua’s hair is a bit longer.
There seems to be no doubt that they are siblings.
Oh, I see.
They could be twins.
If that is the case, Zogra’s words, “I am supposed to be a younger brother,” make sense.
They may have been born on the same day, but for family registration reasons, it was necessary to decide who would be the first and second child, and Zogra may have been treated as the younger brother.
…As I was thinking about this, Zogra suddenly asked me this question.
“I wonder how much of your memory is left, Benefactor-san…”
I was dozing off on the way home from work and somehow collapsed in the woods──
That’s my understanding.
As far as I can remember, I remember sitting on the train seat.
When I told Zogra that, he looked a little disappointed.
“I see. You must have forgotten something very important, Benefactor-san.”
“I’ve been wondering since a while ago, is this ‘Benefactor-san’ referring to me?”
“Yes, that’s right. It is because of you that I am still alive today. I am very grateful to you.”
…I have no idea what he is talking about.
When I was at a loss for a response, Fulua approached me this time.
“I understand the situation. Kou Kousaka has lost all memory of his arrival in this world, hasn’t he?”
“This world? This is not Japan?”
“Yes. It would be quicker for you to experience it firsthand than for me to explain it to you. Please touch a nearby tree and think to yourself to store it.”
What is this?
I’d like to say, “What are you talking about all of a sudden? I don’t understand…” but it seems to me that the same thing has happened before.
For now, let’s just follow the directions.
I took about five steps forward, touched a stumpy tree, and muttered “Storage” in my mind.
Immediately after, a circle of light with a radius of about one meter appeared at my feet.
Inside the circle was a figure that looked like a combination of circles and triangles.
It looked like a magic circle from an anime or video game.
While I was thinking about this, the magic circle emitted a golden glow.
The next moment, the tree I was touching was enveloped in light and disappeared as if absorbed into the magic circle.
“…What happened?”
“The tree you were touching has been stored in Kou Kousaka’s [Item Box]. Please check the list.”
What he meant by list… and before I could ask, a window popped up in my mind.
Item List
・Hikino Tree x 1
The display looks like a game item screen.
It felt strange to have the list floating around in my mind, but for some reason, I didn’t feel any different.
“Next, let’s use the skill. With the current Kou Kousaka, you can skip [Dismantle] and go right to [Creation]. Make an axe out of hikino wood.”
Hey, hey, wait.
An axe is not something you can easily create.
…I would say, but I had something like a recipe floating around in my mind.
Hikino Tree x 1 → Hikino Tree Axe x 50
Can I make fifty of them?
It’s only natural since a whole tree is used as a material.
Thinking about this, I did what I always do: [Creation].
…Huh?
What did I just do?
While I was puzzled, “Hikino Tree x 1” disappeared from the item list in my mind, and “Hikino Tree Axe x 50” was added in its place.
“When you are done using [Creation], please take the axe out of the [Item Box].”
“…Alright.”
I nodded at Fulua’s words.
I had a vague but good understanding of what to do.
My body remembers.
I reached out my right hand into the void, and a golden magic circle appeared around my fingertip.
From there, I pulled out a wooden axe.
The blade was about 15 centimeters long.
It is made of wood, but it is surprisingly heavy.
…It looks easy to throw.
Somehow, I thought so.
An axe is not meant to be thrown.
It is generally used for chopping wood.
But──
In my mind’s eye, I had an image of myself throwing a wooden axe and beheading a bear.
I wonder if this is part of my lost memory.
Anyway, there are a few things I have learned.
This is a place where the norms of modern Japan do not apply, and I seem to have a mysterious power.
To put it like in anime and manga, I was transported to another world and obtained cheat skills.
And with the bonus of amnesia.
It’s like being the hero of a story.
I thought it was too much for an ordinary salaryman like me, but I still felt a sense of excitement.
What kind of place is this world?
What kind of power do I have?
Just thinking about it is exciting.
I can feel my gamer’s blood welling up, which had been dormant since I started working.
“You seem to be having a lot of fun, Benefactor-san.”
“Even though you’ve lost your memory, that part of you hasn’t changed.”
Zogra and Fulua said and smiled.
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