image [https://i.imgur.com/kiHUgbr.png]image [https://i.imgur.com/yZGBsDv.png]
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Debt always accrued throughout life. Whether it be filial piety or an act of gratitude, whoever helps someone along the way must pay them back.
“Yodomi, did you catch the meeting agenda for today?"
“Yes sir. I’ve written it down on the board for everyone to see,” I responded to one of my coworkers in the office. Stacks of papers swamped our desks in unending amounts as people frantically passed by each cubicle. I rolled in my chair back to my desk and picked up a folder.
“I see…” He scratched his chin. "Well I need those quarterly reports on my desk by three PM."
“But sir, the project needs a few more days—”
“It gets done when it’s done. I don't want the chief yelling at me and shoving more documents down my throat. Don’t care how it’s done, Mister Kaizenji. Overtime or pushing the work to someone else, our hardest-working employee can do that at least right?”
I glanced at the floor for a second before putting on my resolved face. “Yessir. I will get it done today then.”
“Lifesaver. I’m clocking out now.” My colleague stood up and checked his phone and wallet. “You’re doing great, the chief’ll be more impressed by your ethic. I’ll be sure to pay for drink at the next get-together.”
Him and I did go to the company’s drinking parties, except that he would always sit the farthest from me. Well, that didn’t matter. I had to work hard to earn respect. My associates in tow always vouched for me to earn the chief’s praise—doing all their load’s work so I needed to keep my image as the model worker. That was our office culture every single day since I applied here.
And I didn’t detest it. I earned this job, and I knew for one I secured my future.
My mother saw great promise in me since I was little. She told me she divorced my father because he had low standards of me, and I would go on to do better things. He was just a country bum who courted my mother out of adolescent stupidity.
“Don’t be like your younger brother who slacks around all the time without a clear goal in life,” she said to me in my first year in high school. Kawari was always a klutz. No talent, no ingenuity, no work ethic. My mother found potential in me and raised me with all she had. I was indebted to her.
“Mister Kaizenji, can you please proofread this document before it goes out?"
“Of course.”
“Don't forget to submit our timesheets by the end of the week, Yodomi."
“On it, sir.”
“You messed up on this recorded date. I need those expense reports ASAP for reimbursement. Print a new one."
“Alright.”
“Chief wants to see you in the office.”
“Really? Thank you everyone for giving me this opportunity.”
Even until now, unlike Kawari, I'd managed to keep my job for nearly six years. I moved out of our mother’s apartment from Toshima to Ebisu. Although quite the train ride away I made sure to visit my mother. She paid for both my brother and I’s tuition, so the least I could do was to keep in touch and thank her for getting into a good university and landing a job.
One day I got off from the train station in Mejiro. It was late evening after working unpaid overtime again. Yawning with my briefcase, I passed Innen Bridge and the solemn roads around it. Across the bridge I saw my mother’s apartment in the distance. However in the crosswalk, a semi-truck flashed hazard lights as a couple people gathered around someone on the floor.
“Yodomi. Save your brother.”
I speed-walked to the scene while people worried stood. Then I finally noticed who was on the floor.
The truck driver attempted to lift Kawari off the road. “Oi, young man, please help me lift him! Anyone please call an ambulance!”
“Kawari…”
My younger brother was unconscious and out like a light. I almost stepped back from shock. I couldn’t even believe it was him who’d been hit. The old man and I carried him on our shoulders to the arriving ambulance a few minutes later.
I found myself sitting in Kawari’s hospital room. My briefcase sat next to his on the table. My mind couldn’t do anything to comment. My younger brother now slept before me in a hospital gown with an IV tube. I leaned forward and pressed my hands against my forehead. Kawari wasn't in the right financial state to press charges against the truck driver. I didn’t want to care so much about him but here I was. My mother reminded me time and time again that he’d been to many interviews and not one company hired him. He underperformed and failed to meet the expectations.
“It’s strange that he didn’t shatter any bones after the collision. The femur should’ve been severely damaged yet…” The nurse informed me about his condition. I too thought how peculiar he’d sustained little after a truck rammed him at normal speed. “Well, thank goodness he is alive. And we have a caring, handsome older brother here looking after him.”
She excused herself from the room and smiled at me. I gave a hard stare at her utter lie. My gaze went back to Kawari sleeping peacefully. “I guess I’ll stay here for a while.”
I couldn't help but reflect on our vastly different paths in life. My thoughts drifted back to our childhood in Hakone. Kawari had a knack for finding joy in the simplest of things. He'd chase after butterflies in the field, his laughter ringing out like music. Meanwhile I dug my head in a book and took kendo, only determined to make something of myself. Our mother's voice echoed in my mind, urging me to be the best I could be, to avoid the pitfalls she believed had ensnared my father. She sacrificed so much to provide for us, and I felt an unshakable obligation to repay her for her unwavering support. A filial debt.
The hospital room remained silent except for the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor. I stayed overnight, then another, and finally they predicted he would wake up today. I rubbed my eyebags at the news. I could finally go back to work, but I was sure my coworkers would yell at me for missing three entire days. Contemplating whether I should buy a flower vase, I stood up and prepared to leave.
In the final minutes before leaving I went over to Kawari’s bedside, and tucked the sheets tightly over him. Using our father’s only speck of wisdom, Kawari would be okay.
I approached the hospital’s sliding doors, eager to visit our mother. But since I was three days late, should’ve at least bought her a present. However as soon as I stepped outside I no longer saw the morning sun.
A large room plastered with bookshelves greeted me. A grand parlor decked with a round table, and lustrous curtains caressing the midday sunlight. My feet stepped onto wood. I looked up to see a woman sitting at the table with a book in her hand. We paused and locked eyes for a moment.
“Kyah!”
“Huh?”
To my surprise someone tackled me right after she screamed. A man pressed my head onto the floor as my brows began to bleed. His grip tightened on my shoulder and head.
”Ro neo chioki? Neoro éyu chioki sonéyu so Biyu Ribiékosu?!” He shouted in a language undecipherable to me. What was going on? Where was I? My face felt like it would explode through the wooden floor. I pressed my hands down and prepared for a counter.
The woman dropped her book and teacup and ran to the man. “R… royubiso, Nari Gayuo!”
They argued for a couple of seconds before the man sighed and released me from his grasp. I rubbed my neck and shoulder as I stood up, straightening my tie and fixing my suit coat. My expression turned into a scowl. Was this a dream? How did I manage to end up in this fantasy world?
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Chioki okayuchi?” That woman came towards me and ran her fingers on my bleeding eyebrow. I stepped back in shock. Not that much for touching me, but the fact that she and the man both had animal ears of dog and cat respectively. Who were these people? I stumbled back while the dog-eared woman advanced towards me and pressed her finger at my wound. “Soyuimisu.”
A game-like screen appeared in front of her, whispering more words. Her long brown hair fell onto my chest as she tiptoed to match my height. Her fingers pressed on my eyebrow and the stinging sensation vanished. She healed me? What kind of sick joke was this? I excused myself and tried to walk back through that same door. The man, or bodyguard, blocked my way and glared at me. I noted the sword at his hip.
“This is some dream conceived from three days’ fatigue…” I said to myself, glancing all about the room. My feet staggered forward before I collapsed.
[System Announcement]
Yodomi
Level 0
By the time I’d woken up my mind began to make sense of things compared to yesterday. I was in a bedroom, while the bodyguard walked in and began making me a drink. He bitterly looked at me while serving the cup. The drink became bitter too. At any rate, I was lucky to have ended up at a place where the master of the house had generosity.
The master of the house, that woman, found me stretching in front of the window. Outside I could see spires and terrace houses galore. This was another world. I had to come to that conclusion. My colleagues would be mad at me for my absence.
“Ro neyuso'ese chiokiri nuyunasu?” She then pointed to herself. “Nachi nuyunasu… biese ‘Kahokayo Biyu’.”
I couldn’t understand a thing and shook my head. Only when she spoke more slowly did I realize what she meant. I pointed to myself. “Nachi… nuyunasu…My... name... ‘Kaizenji Yodomi’.”
[System Announcement]
Lingual Cognizance UP
0 >>> 2
+2
The master of this residence was Kahokayo Biyu. And now that I became level-headed I knew the fact that I had trespassed upon her property, part of the reason why her guard tackled me so fast. But before I could do anything, I needed to get rid of this language barrier somewhat.
⁂
[System Announcement]
Lingual Cognizance UP
10 >>> 1035
+1025
After spending some weeks within the Biyu Residence I’d learned a fair share of this region’s language. And I was able to make a conclusion about this world.
When someone learned a word in another language, their LC would increase and they would never forget the word. As if the meanings had been ingrained into them with a hammer. Once I knew that characteristic it only took a day for Biyu to tell me new vocabulary enough to read a children’s story. Still struggled with grammar, though. She’d been thoroughly teaching me the country’s language, Koronese, which I began to use on a daily basis.
She asked me one day while I mopped the floor, “Where are you from, Mister Kaizenji?”
I rubbed my forehead and leaned on the stick. “Not here. Different world.”
“Hmm.” Biyu scratched her chin while running her hand through the bookshelf. “‘Another world’... Do you perhaps know, Mister Gayuo?”
Her bodyguard shrugged his shoulders. “I have never heard. He appeared out of thin air through this door.”
I gripped the mop harder. Was there any way I could return back? For now all I could do was housekeeping and maintenance. Because I had trespassed, I broke one of the laws in this nation, Koroné. Since there was no way Biyu could keep me here for free unless I worked, I volunteered to help around the residence. No person was nice enough. People had to work their stay.
⁂
[System Announcement]
Lingual Cognizance UP
1039 >>> 2301
+1262
I was busy tidying up the courtyard’s front gates. Leaves from the bushes and trees piled up during the time of year, so I went out of my way to clean it up with the broom. By this time I grew out my hair, eventually tying it into a ponytail to make it presentable. Wiping the sweat off my forehead I noticed Biyu walking down the street of the capital wearing a red coat.
“Good morning, Miss Biyu.” I put my hand to my chest and bowed.
“Good day! Your accent sounds better each time I see you,” she complimented me with her usual smile. “Now that you have reached proficiency in Koronese, perchance we need to talk about an important matter.”
I rerolled back my sleeves. “‘Important matter’?”
“From when you first arrived in this world. The Biyu Residence currently houses Kaizenji Yodomi, and I am afraid people have already taken notice. If you remember details regarding that day, feel free to tell me or Mister Gayuo.”
A time came where I almost walked into Biyu and Gayuo’s conversation behind closed doors in the parlor. They argued about how long I would be staying, and what they could do. I frowned in secret. I’d long overstayed my welcome in the Biyu Residence, and in this world. When would I be able to go home? How long until I could finally pay them back?
“Miss Biyu, I—”
“E… excuse me, but are you a Wawaqi?” A group of Koronézuki girls ambushed me as they compared their petite height to mine. “So the rumors are true… he’s really tall!”
“Are you sure he isn’t part D’Orientois?”
“Chi? Don’t compare this guy to savage men!”
Ignoring the crowd I turned to Biyu and stretched out my arm. But she excused herself shortly after and already entered the courtyard. I hadn’t been able to tell her that I’d been taking other hustles in the capital to earn money. Well, Gayuo spotted me working in the outskirts but I told him not to tell Biyu just yet. Just a little while longer.
⁂
At last I walked through the courtyard towards the mansion’s main building. My left hand held a Koronese book of law. The latter hand carried a packaged letter of four-thousand pawlings, the country’s currency. I self-taught myself to read by abusing this world’s Perpetual Memorization Phenomenon, as I called it, and read up on the crime I committed. As such I earned the cost of money for trespassing on private property for the past months.
When I entered the library no one was there. So I rushed over to the tea house, the grand foyer, and office study to find them vacant. Only until I checked the foyer a second time I burst open the doors to see Biyu and Gayuo coming from the front porch.
She looked at me with a tired smile and took off her red coat. “Oh, good day, Mister Kaizenji. We were out running some errands.”
“Miss Biyu.” I sped up to her and almost collided. My hands extended out the money as I bowed. “Today’s the day I repay my debt.”
“This is…” Her eyes widened while she covered her mouth.
“Four-thousand pawlings. For taking care of me here. I’ve read the Okayu Court Codex and made sure to compensate for the crime I’ve committed.” I kept my head down, my eyes on the floor.
“Please lift your head…”
She lightly brought my head up with her finger on my chin. I realized she had tears in her eyes.
“Miss Biyu, is something the matter—”
“I thought you worked so you wanted to be out in the city by yourself,” she interrupted me, “I thought you wished to investigate how to travel, and investigate how you arrived here. Even though that violation is true, I had no intention of making you pay! You should be focusing that money somewhere else, not paying me!”
“I had a debt to pay. You wouldn’t take me and give me food, let me sleep in the guest suite for no reason.”
Biyu shook her head. “Mister Kaizenji, why would I ask for more money when my family is already affluent? You are a bright man, and you have lived here for almost half the year. If I had wanted to punish you then I would have sent you to the Court. Do you understand?”
“I… I do not. How can a person not demand compensation when I have wronged someone?” I stepped back for a moment. “A debt has to be paid. Like my mother. Like my coworkers at the office. A life is built on debt!”
“Then, have you considered the notion that someone people care about others?” She placed her hand on my right shoulder and looked me in the eye. “You are not just a guest who trespassed, you are a guest with unique stories who became someone we can talk to. Even Mister Gayuo needs a bit of change. We would be honored if you would continue to stay with us, not as a guest, but as part of our family.”
Gayuo nodded behind her and cleared his throat. “Could I see the pawlings?”
“Uh, of course…” My mind was still jumbled to Biyu’s words bouncing inside me. I handed him the sack. He took it and pulled out his own money pouch and dumped his savings into mine. “Hey, what are you doing?”
“This isn’t enough to pay for your gear after you register at the Guild in Yubiyubi.” His solemn voice turned into a lively one. “How about it? Let us head to the Guild and get you registered.”
Biyu let go of my shoulders and turned to Gayuo. She put her hands on her hips. “Hold on, Mister Gayuo, you knew about this?”
“More or less, for a month. I apologize, both of you.” The bodyguard scratched his cat ears.
“I…”
She wiped her tears and pouted before looked to me. “Consider this, Yodomi, not as payment, but as a token of appreciation. We will have you register at the Adventurers’ Guild as a starting point, and help return you back to your original world.”
“I don’t disagree with that proposal.” Gayuo raised his hand to his chest. “Lady Biyu’s elder brother is affiliated with the organization and is in town this week, so it should be trouble-free. Afterall, he is the Fifth Officer of Brevity.”