Side: Taiki
"Man, it's hot again today."
I spent another day at the Magic Academy, taking classes at a relaxed pace and enjoying my lunch break.
Still, to be summoned to another world, forced to play the quintessential handyman known as the Hero, and before I knew it, end up as the "Hero King"...
...What kind of symmetrical docking anime is this supposed to be?
Anyway, while I was busy rebuilding the country, I received a summons from Yuki-san, who, like me, had come to this other world, though he had a completely different role.
That's how I ended up here as a student at the Academy.
It's such an outlandish school, but even so, it feels strangely nostalgic to me.
"I used to go to school like this too, didn't I...?"
I'm looking out the window at the students running through the courtyard, which provides a shortcut to the cafeteria. A teacher stepped out from behind them and called out, "Brush the dirt off before you go into the dining hall!"
Our school back home didn't allow shoes inside, so running through the courtyard like that would've gotten you scolded.
Even so, you just couldn't stop. If you didn't hurry, all the seats in the cafeteria would be taken. It was weird, considering the food wasn't even that good. I'd fool around with my friends, buy cheap plain udon or bread at the cafeteria, and eat lunch together.
Ever since I followed Yuki-san to the Academy, every day brought back various memories.
Things like, "There was a teacher like that," or struggling to drag myself out of bed in the morning, getting restless before exams, or only getting genuinely fired up for PE class...
"...I guess those memories really do stay with you."
It's been nearly four years since I came to this world.
Was I too busy every day to look back, or was I unconsciously trying to forget...?
If I'd stayed in my original world, I'd probably be a college student in my prime... Well, I wasn't too fond of studying, so maybe I'd be working instead... Though with just a high school diploma, that might be tough... Maybe I'd be attending a local university somewhere?
"...Um, Taiki-sama?"
"Hm?"
Hearing my name, I turned around to see my wife, Airi, holding a bento box and sitting down beside me.
For some reason, she had a somewhat troubled, sad expression on her face... Since she was holding a bento, I assumed she came to eat lunch together like usual, but I couldn't understand why she looked like that.
Since coming to the Academy, even though our bodies here are fakes, the two of us have been able to relax together as a married couple. Although we have work to do with Yuki-san and the others, he makes sure we get proper quality time together. When I was a king, I didn't get that luxury... what a pain...
Wait—that's not the main issue right now.
Why does Airi—usually smiling when we eat together—look like this?
"What's wrong? Did something happen, Airi?"
"...No, I just thought we could eat lunch together."
No, with that face, she was definitely hiding something... was she tired from adjusting to life at the Academy?
Wait.
Could it be some new kind of bullying!?
Yeah, our group stood out after taking down the Headmaster and all that. It wouldn't be surprising if some idiot was trying to pick a fight.
If it were Yuki-san's wives, they'd probably blow the instigator away, but Airi isn't a combatant. She has virtually no battle experience and was originally an innkeeper's daughter..
...Could some weird guy be hitting on her!?
Damn it, this might be even worse than bullying in Japanese schools!
This is no laughing matter—Yuki-san can handle NTR, but I can't!!
"Are you okay!? Is someone bullying you!? Don't worry, you don't have to listen to anything some weirdo says! I'll protect you, Airi, so don't hide anything from me!"
"N-No, it's nothing like that. I'm fine."
"Really? Some arrogant noble idiot isn't hitting on you?"
"Yes... Sigh. Making Taiki-sama worry about me... I'm a failure as a wife."
"That's not true. Then why do you look so troubled?"
At my question, Airi lowers her eyes for a moment, apparently struggling with what to say.
But she soon seems to make up her mind, raises her head, and speaks.
"...The way Taiki-sama looks at the academy has become a little painful for me to watch... Lately, you've been talking about your student days so happily. It made me realize just how deeply your original world remains in your heart, and how important it was to you. Spending your days with quirky teachers, schoolmates, and your family... We stole that ordinary life away from you."
So that was what this was about.
It wasn't Airi's fault to begin with. The ones responsible were those stupid members of royalty.
They were the ones who thought they could just summon a Hero as a convenient handyman to fix their problems.
I gently hugged Airi, who was looking up at me on the verge of tears.
"Don't worry about it... though I know telling you that won't completely fix it. I won't pretend I don't hold any resentment at all. But Airi, meeting you and everyone else isn't something I view as a bad thing. Fortunately, people like Yuki-san from my homeland are here too. We'll cooperate and figure out a way to get back."
"...D-Does that mean... you will leave this world?"
Tears began to spill from Airi's eyes.
Ah, crap.
I didn't mean it like that, but to her, 'returning' sounded like a one-way trip... Well, I wouldn't have thought of it any differently either if Yuki-san hadn't pointed it out.
For now, I'll do what Yuki-san did to me:
Holding my middle finger against my thumb, I aimed right at Airi's forehead—
Flick.
"Ow!?"
Startled by my sudden action, Airi blinked in confusion, placing both hands over her forehead.
By the way, when I took a forehead flick from Yuki-san, I was sent flying about 20 meters... My Hero-enhanced physical abilities should be pretty damn high by now, but that guy really is in a league of his own. Even Yuki-san himself was genuinely surprised by it.
Anyway, I'd better clear up Airi's misunderstanding.
"Who said I'd go back to my homeland on a one-way ticket? I have a precious wife and friends here."
"B-But then, you wouldn't be able to return..."
"Well, that's the natural assumption."
Indeed, what Yuki-san said was extremely ordinary.
Something anyone could think of, but everyone assumed was impossible.
"We just have to make it possible to travel between this world and my homeland."
"Eh?"
Airi's eyes widened even further, her mouth open in shock.
"But... I was told that was impossible..."
"As things are right now, yes. But in the future, it might become possible."
"Eh, eh?"
Right, it's only impossible for now.
And Airi's shock was completely natural.
Since "impossible" is the default, my words sounded like nothing more than an absurd fantasy.
And yet, we humans have continually turned those fantasies into reality.
In fact... Yuki-san once said that every living creature itself is, in its own way, a fantasy brought to life.
No.
Airi and I—and the entire world—should already have known this.
We lived while striving toward our dreams.
The nature of those dreams differed among humans, animals, insects, plants, microorganisms, and every other form of life, but everyone was pursuing something that had once sounded like fantasy.
Microorganisms strive to build bodies that can withstand new environments; plants seek better ways to reproduce; insects adapt their bodies to fit their habitats; animals move faster, farther, and more efficiently; and humans reach for realms deemed impossible for mankind.
These are just random examples, but every single individual envisions their own dream of evolution.
"Hey, Airi. Do you know what an airplane is?"
"Ah, yes. It's a device that allows humans to fly without using magic, right? I heard that such vehicles exist in Taiki-sama's world."
Airi was still confused, so I reminded her about the airplane I had told her about before.
The culmination of a dream held by two brothers who were laughed at by countless people who said that humans flying freely through the sky was nothing more than a fantasy.
A legend that turned the impossible into reality.
A dream that didn't remain merely a dream.
"Yeah. That's right. But you know, even in my world, people didn't originally believe humans could freely fly through the sky."
"Eh?"
"Things like gliders, which simply glide downward through the air, and balloons already existed. But people said that a machine flying through the sky was scientifically impossible."
"Is that so?"
"I mean, there are birds and other creatures that fly, so if we imitate them, shouldn't we be able to fly too?"
"T-That's true, but is such a thing really possible?"
"Well, airplanes are already completely normal in my world. We've developed the structures and systems necessary for machines to fly. That's why I think: if there's something capable of unilaterally summoning us here, there must be a way to go back too. Then it shouldn't be strange if we could go back and forth between the two, right?"
"...When you put it that way, it sounds perfectly normal. Why did I assume it had to be one-way?"
Airi tilts her head adorably as she thinks about it.
I had felt the exact same way... No, I had understood the reality of it even more deeply, which was why I had argued with Yuki-san.
There was no way that pulling someone in and returning them to the exact same location could be accomplished with technology on the same level.
Furthermore, it was unknown if this world was even on the same planet. How could anyone even estimate how to aim for a planet in an ever-expanding universe, riding an orbital path, rotating, and constantly changing its coordinates?
That was why I had said to Yuki-san:
"Please don't say such unrealistic things. Something like that is impossible!"
Perhaps because meeting Yuki-san had heightened my sense of nostalgia, hearing him suggest traveling back and forth made me dwell on its impossibility, causing me to lash out at him for spouting such naively sweet words.
And after getting sent flying by his forehead flick, I was told this:
"Taiki-kun. We humans have always turned unrealistic impossibilities into possibilities."
"What are you—!"
I was about to argue back.
But then Yuki-san said something that left me speechless.
"Humans flew through the sky. We went into space. We reached the bottom of the ocean and the microscopic world. And now we've even come to a world where magic exists. So tell me—where exactly is the impossibility?"
That's right.
Humans have always turned the impossible into the possible.
While this might feel like a completely different level of difficulty, giving up right from the start was wrong.
"Have you ever heard the saying, 'Where there's a will, there's a way'?"
It sounded familiar.
It was supposed to be a saying from someone in ancient Japan.
However, if asked who said it, I'd only tilt my head.
"It originally came from Takeda Shingen, but Uesugi Yōzan is the one who's more famous for it. He was a lord in Yamagata, Dewa Province during the mid-Edo period... well, the details don't matter. His words mean exactly what they say: If you act, it can be done. If you don't act, it won't be done. A simple set of words."
That much I understood.
Just as Yuki-san said, it was literal. If you don't start anything, nothing can ever succeed.
But that wasn't where it ended.
"If it were just that line, it would be no different from "Boys, be ambitious" or "Where there's a will, there's a way." But did you know there's a continuation?"
Since I didn't know it, I shook my head.
"Takeda Shingen said: "Where there's a will, there's a way; where there's no will, there's no way. How fleeting is the human who abandons a task that could be done, calling it complete." And Uesugi Yozan put it even more clearly: "Where there's a will, there's a way; where there's no will, there's no way. In all things, failure occurs only because people do not act." Do you understand what that means?"
"Is it that people fail because they give up?"
"Well, that's roughly it. Technically there are nuances, but ultimately, those who succeed never gave up until the end. Those who failed simply quit midway. It's only natural."
Just as Yuki-san said, it was completely natural.
"Well, just like you think, this is probably going to be on a completely different level of difficulty from anything we've done before. But if we give up, that's the end of it. I'm not saying you have to get results immediately, either. And even if we do eventually find a way home, wouldn't it be lonely to say goodbye to your wife and friends forever? You haven't even lived out your natural lifespan yet."
"...Yes."
I realized that even if a means to return were found, I couldn't bring myself to leave immediately.
There was too much I had built here.
"Then what we should do is make traveling back and forth possible, right? That way, everyone's happy."
"...That's pretty greedy."
I had thought that was an outrageous dream.
There was no way things could work out so conveniently... Up until now, I had even sacrificed subordinates to rebuild a rotten kingdom.
Yuki-san should have known that too, so I wondered how he could say such a thing.
Yet even my sarcastic remark about being greedy didn't break Yuki-san. He countered effortlessly with a pleasant smile.
"What's wrong with being greedy? Aiming for a dream and grasping it—that's what everyone does. Yielding to reality, compromising, and lowering the bar is important too. But this impossibility isn't something to compromise on. Well, there'll be plenty of opposition to something like this, though. That's precisely why it gets your blood pumping, doesn't it?"
"Turning the impossible into possible...?"
"Yeah. Every guy has dreamed of firing a Kameha-me-ha at least once, right? We can do magic here. Surely something like teleportation might exist too."
"Well, it's magic here, not Ki, though."
Right, it didn't have to be a magic-based approach. It could be scientific, or maybe a technique like Ki from another world might exist.
Or maybe we could blend every piece of technology and knowledge we possess.
"So, that's how it is. Rather than giving up before even trying, let's just give it a shot."
"Haha, man, I really can't match you, Yuki-san."
"Well, I'm just parroting what my close friends used to say. Those guys were even more incredible."
And right then and there, the two of us stayed up late talking about every idea we could think of to connect the worlds.
In the end, we both got scolded for returning home late.
* * *
"That's... an incredible story. No, I suppose it makes sense when put that way."
Before I knew it, I had recounted the conversation with Yuki-san to Airi, who was nodding repeatedly in deep admiration.
"So yeah, that's how it is. There's no way I'm leaving you behind, Airi. Since we'll be able to travel back and forth, I'll definitely take you to meet my parents. I'll even show you around the school I used to attend."
"Yes! I look forward to that day... No, I will lend my strength so that day will surely come!"
Airi replied with a bright smile.
Yeah, that smile alone made adopting a positive mindset completely worth it.
Though, even if we can travel back and forth, my main life will probably remain here... After all, I dropped out of school, so finding a job back home would be harder than for a regular person, and if I introduced Airi to my parents, they might think I kidnapped her and hand me over to the police...
Wait.
Wouldn't it be better if I don't go back?
"By the way, Yuki-sama and the others returned to Weed today. Did something happen?"
Airi asked, looking over at Tori and the other doppelgangers currently at the Academy in empty-shell, autonomous mode.
"Ah, right. Apparently, because a sea was created, they're having a grand beach opening."
"The sea?"
"Ah, that's right, Airi doesn't know what the sea is like. Yuki-san said once he finishes evaluating his wives, he'll show us around too, so let me look forward to that."
"It seems like we're always indebted to Yuki-sama and the others."
Just as Airi said, I really felt like we were constantly in their debt.
I used to think it was only natural because Yuki-san was older than me, but that wasn't the entire reason. It was simply because he was such a capable person.
"You're right. That's why we should do our job properly around here."
"Eh? What do you mean?"
Airi looked at me in wonder as I stood up.
"It seems one of the remaining Holy Sword wielders is up to something in the Monster Forest. I got a message from Aslin-chan's Ta-chan."
"...May good fortune be with you in battle."
"Yeah. Kirika-san and the others are with us, so there's no need to go out of our way to call Yuki-san and his group. Just send them a heads-up. My level is more than enough to handle this. And..."
"And?"
"The scale of our dreams is different. There's no reason for me to lose to someone who lowered the bar on their own dreams."
"Yes!! I believe in you, Hero-sama!!"
With my wife cheering me on, if I lost now, Yuki-san would tease me endlessly, and I'd be mortified myself.
Now then, time to go to work as a Hero.
Let's show those easily despairing former heroes the strength of never giving up on one's dreams.
Where there's a will, there's a way. Where there's no will, there's no way. In all things, failure occurs only because people do not act.
Now, let's go make that dream a reality!
