Chapter 6

'It would be great if I could take that thing to get home.'

Then Nain suddenly realized something.

'Right! Why didn't I think of this first earlier?'

He hurriedly pulled out a return scroll from his pocket. It was a high-grade teleportation scroll with arrival coordinates set for the front gate of the Academy. Though it accompanied severe nausea and mild headaches, it was a magical tool he occasionally used whenever situations weren't favorable.

"Please. Please work...!"

Nain muttered a wish to no one in particular and tore the scroll forcefully with strength in his hands.

However, the magical tool that should have had numerous magical formulas intricately intertwined showed no movement at all. It just became a long torn piece of paper.

"..."

Well, things wouldn't go as smoothly as he wanted them to. Nain clicked his tongue and crumpled the now-useless scroll, throwing it into the trash can by the window.

What is this?

He really wanted to cry, but he wasn't confident he could stop once he started. If tears burst forth once, he might end up crying all night long, so he barely managed to keep his mouth tightly shut and endure it. His tensed jaw became bumpy like a walnut.

He decided to sit on the bed in the middle of the cramped room and calmly organize his thoughts.

'First. Here, people like me are defined by the term dimension wanderer.'

The existence of a definable term meant there had been others in the same situation before him. And indeed, they said that was the case. He'd need to learn more details, but perhaps some people had safely returned home? ...He hoped that was the case.

'Second. The protective spirit seems to have returned to the spirit realm, and the return scroll doesn't work.'

Return scroll unusable. That meant he couldn't return home through conventional methods. He couldn't distinguish whether the scroll was defective and didn't activate at all, or if it was a distance problem.

...He suspected it was more likely that coordinates simply couldn't be set for this place, making it ineffective, rather than it being defective. Nain bit his nails nervously.

'Third. Then would other magical tools also be ineffective here?'

Fortunately, since he had left without unpacking all his luggage from the Academy, the number of magical tools Nain currently had in his spatially expanded pouch was considerable. There was plenty to experiment with.

However, if he carelessly activated magical tools containing large-scale magic in such a small room, the entire room would be left in shambles. The location wasn't suitable.

'Let me rest a bit today.'

I'm sleepy. Nain lay down lazily and let out a long sigh. This place was safe. So he could rest first to recover his strength, and it wouldn't be too late to check later.

* * *

-Title: There were a lot of people at Rusty Square today, does anyone know what happened?

Curious

[Comments]

-There were several ambulances parked there too, was there an accident?

-I saw while passing by in a car earlier, looked like someone had collapsed

⤷ㄷㄷ

-Guys, check the disaster alerts... there's been a message since 9 o'clock;

⤷Ah don't turn off disaster alerts lol that's disaster insensitivity. What are you gonna do when something really big happens??

⤷They keep sending notifications for trivial thingsㅠㅠ

⤷⤷No.. without the awakeners stationed around us, it would spread into a real disaster in an instant....;;;

⤷⤷But aren't gates part of daily life now? It might have been a disaster ten years ago, but now it's not really a disaster;; There are hardly any casualties nowㅠㅠ Honestly I don't even know if it's that dangerous...

-What lol it really wasn't a big deal

-I heard Ash came today, anyone see him

⤷Damn I should've skipped school to go see

⤷Ah it's right in front of my company but I keep missing him, damn boss can go die

⤷⤷why so angry

⤷⤷Then does it look like you wouldn't be angry at a company? That damn boss bastard keeps nagging, that's why everyone's hair runs away, ah fuck... You guys don't work at companies, it changes your constitution. Going to write my resignation ㅂㅇ

[Awakener Management Center]

As of 08:56 today, a corridor-type gate closure alert has been issued in District 11. Agents dispatched are handling the scene. Even if you discover strange substances on the road, please refrain from contact.

☎Gate substance contact reporting number is 7711

* * *

Nain fell asleep as if fainting without washing or changing clothes. He thought he had just closed his eyes for a moment, but already a new sun was shining outside the window.

He couldn't tell if he had slept or not. His whole body felt heavy like waterlogged cotton. Even when his eyes met with a stranger who had entered by opening the door without permission, Nain couldn't come to his senses and only slowly blinked his drowsy eyes.

"Oh my. You're already awake?"

"..."

At the voice, Nain belatedly gasped in surprise. People who had barged into his room without warning lifted him up and pushed him into the bathroom. Pushed by their hands and entering the bathroom in bewilderment, Nain was flustered once again.

Instead of a bathtub with water prepared in advance, the bathroom only had a narrow space made of glass prepared. Absurdly, it was barely big enough for one person to enter.

He felt like he was being treated as an unwelcome guest. Seeing that they prepared a guest room the size of a booger and a bathroom without even a bathtub, it seemed the owner of this mansion wasn't as well-off as expected.

But that was understandable. What more could he expect?

'I'm alive and well, so that's enough.'

Having a place to lay his body prepared, and even being able to wash might be a blessing for now.

Fortunately, the content he had seen in the book he fell asleep reading yesterday came back to him vividly. The ceramic jar was a device for handling waste. The water inside this wasn't for drinking.

...The fact that they had written about that meant someone had already tried it. Nain stared into the toilet bowl for a while, then felt a bit queasy and looked away.

If you lifted the silver rod called a faucet upward, water would flow from here. Without even taking off his clothes, he fumbled with the temperature control device inside the glass booth, and suddenly water poured from the shower head attached to the ceiling.

"Ahhh!"

"Are you alright?"

The water temperature was frighteningly cold, so he screamed involuntarily, and a helpful voice came from outside the door. Though it was bewildering, since he could handle this much by himself, Nain answered that he was fine while taking off the clothes stuck to his skin.

Whether this kind of magic wasn't yet widespread, the manually operated water temperature control device was extremely sensitive. There really was no middle ground. If you went even slightly over a certain line, scorching hot water would pour out as if it would cook you, and if you turned the device handle to the opposite side in surprise, ice water would pour out.

In this situation, even trivial things wouldn't go his way, making him feel unnecessarily miserable. Nain began a meaningless battle of wills with the shower head with his mouth tightly shut.

Alternately tempered by cold and hot water, Nain thought that if he were a sword, he would have become very strong.

When Nain, with his skin reddened, finally managed to put on the unfamiliar clothes that looked like pajamas and came out, a man was waiting for him.

"Is this the dimension wanderer?"

"..."

"Hello, nice to meet you for the first time. I'm Kedrick, the interpreter Esper assigned to guide you."

A man who appeared to be in his mid-to-late thirties extended his hand. Nain, who had been staring down at that hand, lightly grasped it and shook hands.

"I'm Nain. Please take care of me."

"...What?"

"That's my name. Nain Elrowin. And I don't think interpretation will be necessary."

"That's right. The language... communicates."

Flabbergasted Kedrick shifted his gaze behind Nain and asked the woman standing there.

"Excuse me, but is this person definitely the dimension wanderer?"

"Um, yes... This is the assigned room."

The woman also shook her head with a troubled smile as if she didn't understand either. Why was the dimension wanderer speaking the language fluently without needing interpretation... The two people exchanged puzzled glances.

"I borrowed the dragon's authority."

Nain opened his mouth despite the annoyance.

"What?"

"Ah. To be more precise, it's dragon language. Dragons are beings called the source of ancient magic and also transcendent beings."

"...?"

Looking at their faces just staring silently, they didn't seem to understand.

What's with these people? Why don't they know basic common sense that even children would know? Nain provided a more detailed explanation.

"Since it's transmitted in the form of meaning rather than sound, dragon language penetrates all languages. Under the authority of transcendent beings, you can understand any language as long as it has a proper system."

"...?"

What is he talking about? Kedrick couldn't say anything and just moved his lips with a stupid expression.

...Do you understand what he's saying? He exchanged silent glances with the woman standing behind Nain. The woman also shook her head slightly with a dazed expression. Eh, I don't know either.

The awkward silence lasted only briefly before Nain looked back and forth between the two people and asked.

"Dragon language. ...You don't understand this?"

He frowned. It was an expression of pity for people who couldn't understand such simple words. Nain became dejected. No matter how hard he explained, it was useless if the other party couldn't understand. Was this how professors felt when dealing with first-year undergraduate students who knew nothing?