It was still a bit early for dinner, so Tooru drove his kei car and decided to stop by the sheet-metal shop he frequented.

On the outskirts of the city, near a low mountain a little way down the national highway, stood a building with a rusted sign that read Arai Sheet Metal. Corrugated steel walls and roof, and an entrance just wide enough for a large truck to squeeze through.

He parked the car in an open spot on the lot and headed toward the building, where the owner was staring at a mobile terminal. It would have looked more fitting if he’d been hammering metal with a mallet, but he was probably just bored. Not many people would go out of their way to bring work to a place like this.

“Hey there. Hayasaka here.”

“Huh? Hayasaka… oh! You are Hayasaka! Gahaha! You’re being called ‘worksite bro,’ right?”

Letting out a coarse laugh, the owner deftly moved his thick fingers over the mobile terminal and turned off the screen. He might even have been more used to operating it than Tooru was.

“Uh… how do you know that?”

“C’mon, even an old guy like me watches streams these days. TV’s boring as hell. I watch more anime on streaming, too. But man, you’ve gotten yourself into something wild, haven’t you!”

The owner kept laughing without restraint.

There was no refinement in that laugh—but no contempt either.

“Huh? A dwarf.”

Peering past Tooru’s back, Tia spotted the owner and tilted her head in puzzlement.

“Ohh, you’ve even got that ‘dragon slayer’ with you. What’s this, you shacking up with a knockout like her? Huh? You here to show off?”

“Hey, hey, Tooru! Why is there a dwarf in this world? Wait, come to think of it, there was a cat beastkin kid at your apartment too!”

“Huh? What’re you on about, missy?”

“I heard that this world only had humans, and no magic. I don’t really know how much stuff from outside dungeons exists here.”

“Ah… it’s a pain to explain.”

With a sigh and a shrug, Tooru decided to just get his business done first.

That decisiveness seemed to catch both Tia and the dwarf owner off guard—they both stared at him blankly—but Tooru didn’t pay it much mind.

“Uh, so, you know that rebar blunt weapon of mine? I lost it, so I was hoping you could make me another one.”

“…Yeah, I can do that. Something like that’s easy enough. But listen, kid…”

“What is it?”

“I think that’s kind of awful, you know! How can you completely ignore someone who’s obviously got a ton of questions and just put your own business first?!”

Rather than sounding angry, Tia seemed more taken aback, and the owner nodded along in agreement.

“Look, she’s your partner with circumstances right? You oughta be a little kinder to her…”

“Haaah…”

Tooru thought that not complaining despite having half his soul used without permission was already pretty damn kind, but come to think of it, he hadn’t actually talked things through with Tia about that matter. For now, she wasn’t getting in his way, and without her, he probably wouldn’t have been able to escape the dungeon at all.

A whole life, or half a soul.

If he had the choice, Tooru would pick the latter.

Not that his life was worth much to begin with—nor his soul, for that matter.

◇◇◇

During the 1999 “World Fusion,” it wasn’t just dungeons that appeared on Earth. A continent emerged to the east-northeast of Australia—provisionally called the Atlantis Continent at the time, a name that ultimately stuck—and “other world” manifested in various places across the globe.

Near one mountain village, demi-humans known as gnomes appeared. In a former coal-mining town, dwarves emerged seemingly from nowhere. Near depopulated rural areas, beastkin showed up.

They had undergone the so-called isekai transfer.

Perhaps some people from this side had been transferred to the other side as well, but amid the global chaos caused by the World Fusion and the Chain Stampedes, cases of people who should have been there but weren’t were far too numerous to count. Too numerous.

In any case, now that a quarter of a century had passed, the various demi-human races had adapted to life on Earth. Some, like the dwarf master craftsman, even ran sheet-metal shops and such.

People adapt.

They adapt to suddenly appearing other world, and to a daily life in which dungeons exist.

Demi-humans were no different.

In this world of advanced science and technology, they had learned to fit in.

“Hooh, I see. In that case, maybe someone who knows about me might’ve been transferred to this world too.”

“Maybe. But if there were rumors about a swordswoman capable of slaying a dragon, they’d have reached even the backwater I was living in. If we could pin down when you died, then perhaps—but…”

“Hmm… by the Light Calendar, it was around year seven hundred eight. By the ancient elf World Tree Calendar, about four thousand five hundred and… something? I don’t remember the exact number.”

“Missy, that’s more than two hundred years before we got transferred here.”

“Two hundred years! Wow… then the Kingdom of Guidorin—was it already gone?”

“Never heard of it.”

“Huh… time really is cruel, huh.”

“Don’t say that. You’re a spirit haunting a sword, using half of someone else’s soul to incarnate in the living world. Time’s been real generous to you.”

Tooru blurted that out without thinking, but Tia and the shop owner both gave him looks that said Is this guy for real? Apparently, he’d just racked up some serious non-sensitivity points.

“Anyway, boss. You’re done with the work already, right? I’ll send the transfer, so forward me the bill.”

“Yeah, sure. But hey—you don’t really need a toy like this anymore, do you?”

Saying that, he handed over a blunt weapon made by welding together five thin lengths of rebar.

Feeling the familiar weight, Tooru shrugged with a wry smile.

“Maybe not. But I’ve been using this thing for three years now. Losing it was just bad luck, but since there’s still someone who can make it, I want to keep one on hand.”

“I didn’t mind—wasn’t busy anyway. If the worksite bro here decides to become a proper explorer, I could even make you a real weapon… though I can’t top that cursed sword of yours.”

“No idea what’s gonna happen from here on out.”

“As a spectator, I’ll enjoy watching. Do your best, worksite bro. And you too, ghost missy.”

“Hey, dwarf old man, don’t call me a ghost.”

Tia replied with a soft giggle, and it seemed like in just thirty minutes or so, she’d grown closer to the shop owner than Tooru had in three whole years.

Not that it mattered.

◇◇◇

After that—

They left the dwarf’s Arai Sheet Metal shop, drove around aimlessly for a bit, then headed to a suburban shopping mall and had dinner at a chain hamburger steak restaurant.

He’d half expected it, but watching Tia neatly cut her hamburger steak with a knife and fork and bring it to her mouth with perfect posture, her movements were unmistakably refined even to a casual observer.

He remembered her saying that when an ordinary village girl had been swinging around a holy sword, she had been discovered by the royal family in no time.

She must have been drilled in etiquette until it was etched into her bones.

Come to think of it, even when she sat in the passenger seat of the car, once he showed her how to use the seat belt, she put it on properly and sat upright. Even while gazing out the window, her movements never lost their grace. Well, her mouth was fairly noisy, but still.

“This is delicious. I’ve never eaten a dish like this before, but it’s really good.”

Smiling brightly as she ate a plain 200-gram hamburger steak, Tia looked genuinely happy—and, as expected, unmistakably elegant.

He’d never cared about the beauty of someone’s manners in his life.

As Tooru ate his Japanese-style hamburger steak with chopsticks, he found himself watching Tia’s cheerful, delighted expression. He figured he probably wouldn’t get tired of it even if he watched her for five hours straight.

There were plenty of things he should have been thinking about.

Even so, thinking about all that felt like a hassle.

So—not that it was the reason, exactly—he ordered a parfait for dessert.

“Wow! What’s this?! Ahaha, this is amazing! Tooru, this is delicious too! Wow, it’s so good!”

Tia happily spooned up the parfait, her face lighting up like a child’s.

He’d known this was how it would go, and now that it had actually turned out that way, he realized there was something there beyond simple satisfaction. Letting out a very unrefined “heh,” Tooru chuckled.

Watching a beautiful woman eat a parfait with pure delight, he’d thought, Must be nice, being so carefree—and that thought made him feel painfully small-minded.

Hayasaka Tooru—when faced with a beautiful holy-sword wielder, couldn’t be kind without reservation. In the end, he always turned inward, thinking about himself.

“Ehehe… I feel a little bad for you, Tooru, but to think I’d get to eat something this good. When I manifested in this world, I never imagined it. I thought I’d just keep fighting. Especially as I am now, I figured I wouldn’t do anything except fight.”

—Thank you, Tooru.

When Tia said that and smiled, he couldn’t bring himself to look at her straight on.

◇◇◇

After finishing dinner at the hamburger steak restaurant, they headed straight home. When Tooru checked the internet on his terminal, he found that S City was up in flames far more fiercely than he’d expected.

From Tooru’s perspective, it had been more like, That’s about what you’d expect from people who like to throw their weight around, but apparently, to the average viewer, it had been an outrageously ugly spectacle. So much so that Sadoyama—who had slammed an old man to the floor—was being showered with praise.

As for Tia, who had stopped Sadoyama, she wasn’t getting attacked either. Public anger was squarely directed at the prefectural assembly members, city councilors, and the mayor. It wasn’t just online news, either—the incident had even made it onto television news that very night.

“And now, regarding the situation in S City, XX Prefecture—what are your thoughts?”

When the female announcer on a news variety show tossed the question to an intellectual-comedian-type commentator, he put on a finally my turn expression and said,

“Well, the technology supporting our modern society exists thanks to explorers, plain and simple. So it’s not strange at all that explorer livestreams are more exciting than, say, our comedy shows. I, of course, respect explorers deeply. And that being said—really? That way of talking was completely unacceptable!”

He concluded emphatically, nodding toward the camera.

Incidentally, there weren’t that many clips of the worksite bro going around this time.

At most, there were things like ‘Worksite bro stifling a yawn during this worst-meeting-ever’, providing some laughs for net users—but Tooru barely felt anything about it anymore.

“By the way, Tooru. Do you think Sadoyama’s okay?”

Tia asked that, still looking satisfied even after they’d gotten home—perhaps the parfait was still working its magic.

“You probably held back, right? He’s a former A-rank explorer too. I doubt he’s seriously hurt. And public opinion seems to be on his side.”

“I kind of understand how he felt, though.”

“So were there politicians like that back when you were wielding the holy sword? You know—the type of old nuisances like that?”

“There were. Absolutely. In every kingdom, every domain, in every society no matter the race—you could almost always find them. And now they’re just… here too, in this world, like it’s nothing.”

Tia shrugged with a wry smile.

There was a hint of resignation in it—something uncharacteristic of her—and all Tooru could do in response was shrug the same way.

“Most normal people aren’t interested in power. But to keep a reasonably advanced society running, you need people in power. What was it again… I heard that a politician’s job is wealth redistribution—collecting from everyone and directing it to where it’s lacking.”

Like building roads everyone uses, laying water lines, or subsidizing waste treatment facilities. If you leave things that no one wants to do undone, society stops functioning. And people understand that… at least, that’s the idea.

To be honest, Tooru didn’t particularly want to pay taxes either.

But if everyone insisted on acting on that honest feeling, society would collapse in no time.

“I don’t want to call it a necessary evil. But it’s probably true that people like that are well suited to ‘scraping things together from others.’”

Tia let out a sigh and shook her head. The sense of futility she showed somehow made for a perfect picture—one of the perks of being beautiful.

If Tooru did the same thing, he’d just look fed up.

—And then,

While they were talking, a message arrived on his mobile terminal.

It was from Hamamatsu Nanami, the manager of the A-rank explorer clan Anthem.

“I received your contact information from Sadoyama Kouji. I apologize for the abruptness, but would it be possible for you to participate in tomorrow’s Anthem stream together with Tia-sama? Of course, even if you decline, we will still pay the agreed-upon amount for the magic cores and the dragon scale.”

The message went on with business details, asking them to come to the specified address the next morning regardless, adding that they were truly grateful and that the members of Anthem wanted to thank Tooru and Tia in person.

“So that’s the situation. What do you think?”

“Will I be on camera in one of those streams? I’m kind of interested. Viewers can post comments in real time, right? That sounds fun!”

Tooru didn’t particularly think it sounded fun—but at the same time, he didn’t feel a strong aversion to it either. He’d already been broadcasting his cleaner work as streams, leaving them fully public for anyone to watch.

Besides, Tooru—Hayasaka Tooru—had already had his face and name spread all over the internet. Worrying about a face reveal at this point was pointless.

And more to the point, right now, Tooru had nothing he needed to do.

Even if he showed up at the Sugai Dungeon as usual the next morning, they probably wouldn’t let him do cleaner work. With this much attention on him, putting Tooru back to work as a cleaner—especially in the dungeon where the accident had occurred—would be like pouring gasoline on the flames.

“Uh… yeah. Sure, why not.”

True to his words, Tooru nodded, genuinely feeling why not.

Either way, they needed to talk about cashing in the magic cores and the dragon scale, and if he didn’t like their attitude, he could just walk out.

What would happen after that?

Who cares, he thought, giving a careless shrug.

The way Tia looked at him with those guileless eyes made things just a little awkward.