The Rising of Tanaka in Another World

A few days later, Tanaka was relaxing in the tavern, having a cup of milk to cheer himself up before work. It was then that Homura, with whom he had exchanged words once, appeared. From what he could tell from her appearance, she seemed to be about to depart the town.

「Old man, thank you very much for having us here. 」

「Yeah, well, take care of yourself. 」

Homura and the tavern old man briefly bid farewell to each other. After that, Homura’s gaze met with Tanaka’s, who had already switched to serious mode.

「You’re leaving, huh… 」

Tanaka suddenly spoke up, as he stared at the cup of milk in his hand, in a solemn mood.

「Yes, this incident made me realize how powerless I actually am. I’m going to return to my root and retrain myself.」

Although she said that she realized how powerless she was, she had quite a refreshed expression, as though she’d had a breakthrough over something, on her face in contrast. They might be together only for a short amount of time, but she’d still lost her comrades. She ought to be brooding over her own powerlessness in her own way. However, Homura was about to set out on a new journey, having sorted out her mind in her own way. Sensing that, Tanaka honestly rooted for her.

「I see. I’m sure you can still get stronger. 」

「Thank you. I look forward to the day where I can work side by side with you. 」

「Yeah, I look forward to the day we can fight together. 」

Homura walked out of the tavern with a strong gait. After seeing her off, Tanaka emptied his cup of milk. After appeasing his thirst, he murmured.

「Phew, she’s fallen for me, huh. 」

「Nah, just which part of it that led you to such a conclusion? Rather, I bet she doesn’t even know that you’re E-ranked, right? 」

As the ones left in the tavern were only Tanaka, who was intoxicated with his own cool as always self, and the tavern old man, who had an exasperated expression on his face, time quickly passed.

Or not, as Tanaka finished drinking the milk, he immediately left the tavern and headed to the guild. The works in the town had settled down somewhat recently, but he still headed there just in case. If there didn’t seem to be any particularly urgent work to be done, he’d continue to hunt monsters carefreely as usual.

When he checked the guild’s request, there seemed to be no urgent work to be done today. Maybe it was a good time to return to Hazama town. Thinking about this, Tanaka was about to head out to hunt monsters as usual. However, he was caught there by Echigoya. He was led to the usual room where they began their conversation.

「Well, the works are finally settling down, aren’t they? I’m also finally relieved from my job as a temporary guild staff. Thank you so much for your hard work, Tanaka-san. 」

Echigoya explained his own situation with a smile, and thanked Tanaka for fulfilling his request.

「While doing my business in the western region, I was originally intending to continue northward till the border area, but I’ve fallen far behind schedule. I’m intending to depart as soon as the preparation is done, but what do you say about tagging along, Tanaka-san? The border area is quite an interesting place, you know? 」

To be honest, there was no particular reason for Tanaka to return to Hazama town right away. It was just that he had a little bit of affection for the place, as it was where he had settled down in for the time being after coming to this world. However, it wasn’t like he had any particular reason to tag along with Echigoya, either. However, he couldn’t deny that it wasn’t like he was completely uninterested in this interesting place he had mentioned, either.

「Hmm, I think I’ve kinda grown to miss Jodi’s exasperated face quite a bit, you see. 」

He tried to make such a joke.

「I see. Alright, I’ll tell her that in my letter then. 」

Echigoya began to write a letter, which was unknown where he took it out from.

「Stop it! Just kidding! Please don’t even joke about such a terrifying thing, pretty please.」

Tanaka imagined himself being stared at coldly by Jody. While feeling some pleasure of it, he asked Echigoya not to tell her about what he’d just said.

「Hahaha, just kidding. Leaving that aside, though, how’s it, what do you say about tagging along? I’ll even pay you a commission as an escort. 」

Apparently, he was willing not to tell Jody about it. However, he also seemed to be serious about inviting Tanaka to visit north together with him.

「Hmm, well, fine. It’s not like I have any plans, anyway. 」

As far as Tanaka was concerned, it didn’t really matter quite as much. Well, he did have gotten along quite well with Echigoya, and there was also the matter of glossing over his magic experiment. That’s why, Tanaka decided to agree to tag along with him to the north.

「That’s the way, my man. Then please hurry up with your preparations. Hahaha, I feel like it’s going to be a really fun trip. 」

Echigoya said so happily, got up and then headed out of the room to do his own preparations. Tanaka followed suit and left the room as well.

Year 5964 of creation calendar, Winter, Tanaka headed carefreely to the northern border area of the Western Region, an area which intersected with the world of monsters.

Name: Tanaka

Level: 21             Experience: 11/2100         Guild Rank: E

Vitality: 3.5e13/3.5e13     Magical energy: 4.5e13/4.5e13

Strength: 3.5e12         Dexterity: 3.4e12         Agility: 3.4e12

Intelligence: 4.5e12         Spirit: 4.5e12

Skills: Sword (2.33) Magic (1.40) Believed One (1.44) Dragon Slayer (0.51)

Equipment: Sword, Thick clothes

Money: 4161,000G