Employment Ice Age of the Dead Chapter 2

 Chapter 2: The Employment Ice Age Uncle Summoned to Another World Defeats the Demon King

「I said 'I'm home~' but not even a ghost came out to greet me. Maybe that really is a little lonely. Should I try developing a sixth sense?」

Savoring the satisfaction of a job that let me clock out on time, I got off the bus near my place, picked up some half-price side dishes at the neighborhood supermarket and headed back to my second-floor unit in an old apartment building.

Sipping cheap happoshu from the sale bin, I dug into the gyoza and salad I'd been lucky enough to snag. My future as a lifelong bachelor was all but sealed but I still had to look after my health so I made sure to eat my vegetables.

I'd forgotten the pickles I'd made in bulk a few days ago were all gone. That was careless of me.

I cooked for myself more often than people might expect but today I'd managed to grab some half-price dishes so I was giving myself a rare break.

My pay was low but I saved steadily, so on my days off I'd buy cheap ingredients in bulk and cook up side dishes for dinner and boxed lunches to bring to work, then freeze them for the week. That was my routine. I do drank but right now I had a stockpile of happoshu so I was working through a can a day. Drinking too much at my age was bad for my health so I limited myself to a few proper drinking sessions a month and only went out drinking a few times a year.

Eating out cost nearly twice as much for the same things thanks to the rising cost of living.

On top of that, even when I invited my friends who had families, they were all so tied up with school fees for their kids, nursing care costs for aging parents and saving for their own retirement that they could rarely join me anymore.

There was also the fact that 『Shinmei-cho』, the town I'd moved to for this job, had none of my family or friends in it. Loneliness was supposedly bad for your health but making new friends at my age wasn't easy.

That was probably why I ended up letting Shirai-san into the janitor's room.

「Ah, that was good. All right, time to sleep.」

Managing to get by at all probably made me better off than some, but I'd started to feel like life had lost its edge. That said, I wasn't at an age where I could push myself anymore.

The plan was to keep working as a janitor for as long as I could and then live off my pension and savings after I retired. I had no family to care for me so if I ever needed nursing care I'd need to set aside money for a facility too.

The 『twenty-million-yen retirement problem』 had made headlines but whether I could actually save that much was anyone's guess. Maybe I should start investing... but the thought of losing money made it hard to commit. Just keeping savings in the bank meant losing value to inflation.

Being an irregular worker from the Employment Ice Age generation came with plenty of money worries.

「It's all pretty bleak, but I've been preparing so I just have to believe it'll work out somehow.」

Not that I was about to become one of those so-called 『invincible people』 who snap and go on a rampage. I'd just given up on a lot of things in life.

No, "given up" wasn't quite the right word, either...

At any rate, I had absolutely no desire to throw everything away or end it all. I'd simply set aside what society called a normal life and was getting on with things, finding my own small joys along the way. That was probably the most accurate way to put it.

Getting the half-price gyoza had been a stroke of luck since they were usually popular enough that you couldn't get any. The sale happoshu wasn't as bad as you'd think, either. And on my days off I'd wander around town for some exercise.

There were small pleasures everywhere if you looked, and I'd come to enjoy solitude. And going to work meant I could talk to Shirai-san.

「Got to trim the branches in the courtyard tomorrow. Good night.」

I was apparently still healthy enough to fall asleep quickly after that. The next morning I woke up with no memory of any dreams, but something felt off.

「Oh! You must be the hero summoned from another world. We sincerely apologize for the sudden summons. However, this world is being destroyed by the Demon King and the only one who can defeat him is a hero summoned from another world. We will reward your achievement greatly. So, would you please defeat the Demon King for us?」

「...Yes?」

「Oh! You'll take on the task!」

「（No! That's not the kind of 'yes' I meant!）Um, you see...」

「A hero from another world is born!」

「「「「「「「「「「Long live the hero from another world!」」」」」」」」」」

「Whaaat?!」

When I looked around properly, I found I wasn't lying on the futon in my cheap apartment but on a red carpet spread across the stone floor of a castle. Surrounding me were soldiers and nobles straight out of the fantasy manga and anime I'd watched years ago, along with what appeared to be a king seated on an ornate throne.

「Um... where am I, exactly?」

I had to go into work today so I couldn't afford to be off defeating a Demon King in another world and a scrawny Employment Ice Age uncle like me didn't seem like someone who could do it in the first place. So could they please send me back as quickly as possible so I could get to work? And as for the hero to defeat the Demon King, couldn't they please summon someone younger instead?

That was what I'd been meaning to say but the king and everyone around him were so overjoyed that it gradually became harder and harder to get the words out.

There was no way I could defeat a Demon King. If I didn't refuse right away, it'd be just like those times I couldn't bring myself to quit a black-company job... but could I actually say it?

「So it really wasn't a dream after all... What's the date and time right now?!」

I was a nobody bachelor from the Employment Ice Age generation, a non-regular janitor at a private high school. It had been almost summer break. I'd been asleep in my apartment when I was suddenly summoned to another world. It was the kind of thing you'd only see in manga or anime but unfortunately it was real, not a dream.

The king of that other world had asked me to defeat the Demon King who was trying to destroy the world. I hadn't been able to refuse and it took five years but I did it.

At first I'd thought it was absurd to ask a man pushing fifty, but defeating demons and monsters made my level rise and my body grow lighter and I felt as if I were growing younger with each fight. The gray hairs that had started coming in hadn't gone away, unfortunately... but I'd gained more muscle, my belly had flattened out and my skin had gotten clearer.

「When your level rises, your physical ability and vitality increase, so you end up practically rejuvenated.」

「So even an uncle around fifty isn't a problem after all...」

I'd been told I could return to my world once the Demon King was defeated so I threw everything into it: leveling up, learning to wield weapons and magic, and cutting down the monsters and demons under the Demon King's command one after another, until I finally brought him down.

「We are terribly sorry. We would like for the hero who defeated the Demon King to remain in this world but those summoned from other worlds can only stay here for a limited time.」

「Please, think nothing of it.」

At first I'd suspected they were sending me back because a hero stronger than the Demon King staying in this world would threaten the king's and nobles' authority, but it seemed that people summoned from other worlds genuinely couldn't live here long. The king and the nobles all looked genuinely sorry about it.

「It may not be adequate compensation, but we shall bestow upon you a generous reward. Even now that the Demon King has fallen, this world is still in turmoil. Having you here would have been a great comfort...」

「Your Majesty, those words alone are more than enough.」

The king looked genuinely apologetic as he told me the details of my reward. If I were staying in this world, I might have been granted a noble title and lands, but any land the Demon King's forces had ravaged would have taken enormous effort to restore. Gold, silver, jewels and other valuables that I could quickly convert to cash were far more welcome.

（Selling off the gold and jewels a little at a time would be enough to live comfortably for the rest of my life. Not bad.）

Never again would I have to be looked down on by rich little brats and I'd be able to spend my days at my leisure.

（I could quit the janitor job right away and figure out what to do after. My parents weren't sure what to do with my late grandfather's house and fields so taking those and living off the land might not be so bad. Or I could buy an apartment in the city and play every day... I'd have all the time in the world to think about it.）

「Hero Kouzou. You have truly served this world well. Before you return to your own world, let us hold a grand victory celebration. And I intend to make sure your achievements are passed down to future generations.」

「I am deeply honored.」

Having worked nothing but terrible jobs until now, I could say with confidence that this kingdom was the most employee-friendly place I'd ever worked. Defeating the Demon King had been life-threatening but the support was perfect and the reward for pulling it off was enormous. Comparing it to the black companies I'd worked at in my youth, where unpaid overtime was standard and "fulfillment" was used to justify exploitation, would be an insult to this kingdom.

True to their word, a grand victory celebration was held the day before my return to my world and I received many of my rewards then and there.

And the next day.

I was finally going home.

「Hero Kouzou. It is hard to say farewell but the time you have left in this world grows short.」

「By the way, what would happen if I simply stayed?」

「When your time runs out, you would naturally be sent back to your world but the destination would be random. That is to say...」

「It'd be dangerous if I ended up somewhere terrible, wouldn't it?」

「That is precisely why we had to prepare to send you to a reasonably safe location.」

Certainly, it would be no fun being suddenly dropped into the middle of a busy road, onto a bullet train track, or for that matter into a volcano's crater or a nuclear reactor. As ever, the king proved to be a considerate employer.

「Specifying the exact location is difficult, but I have given the court mages strict orders to ensure you are sent somewhere safe. May the rest of your life be blessed, Hero Kouzou.」

「Thank you for everything.」

「Take care of yourself.」

After those final words of farewell, I stepped onto the magic circle drawn by the court mages. Returning to my world with special magic mediated by this circle was apparently enough to prevent the kind of unfortunate accident that could occur at the moment of summoning. It wasn't one hundred percent guaranteed to be safe but I was told the odds of running into some kind of accident right after returning were one in thirty quadrillion.

Practically zero. If I did run into some kind of misfortune the moment I got back to my world, I'd just have to accept it as bad luck.

（If only the king could have been my boss all along...）

I did have a boss at my janitor job, but that person was the idiot son of the corporation owner who ran the school. From what I'd heard, he'd graduated from an F-ranked university, tried working but couldn't cut it anywhere and had spent his time since playing around rather than working.

The owner had made him my boss to secure a social title and salary for his beloved son but I had never once seen the man actually work. He rarely showed up at all and when he did he just looked down on me so it made no real difference whether he was there or not.

I was from the Employment Ice Age generation but I'd graduated from a reasonably well-known university. For a man who'd spent extra years as a ronin and then failed to graduate on time from a university I'd never even heard of, looking down on me was how he maintained his pride.

（Even so, I'd been fighting in this world for five years.）

I had probably been fired long ago. It didn't bother me at all. If anything, knowing I'd never have to work as a janitor at that school again was a relief.

The only thing that did weigh on me was Shirai-san. But if five years had passed, she'd have already graduated from university by now.

（Had she been worried about me, disappearing so suddenly? Surely not. Anyway, starting tomorrow I was going to live the carefree life of the unemployed.）

Unemployed but with no money worries. In the past I might have cared what people thought but I was already a "loser" from the Employment Ice Age generation anyway. My physical ability and vitality had increased so much that my body felt light and that meant I wouldn't have to worry about my health or aging for a good while.

（Everyone dies eventually and it's just a question of sooner or later. Which is exactly why being able to live at your own pace is such a wonderful thing.）

Most people, after all, had to live out their lives being worked to the bone by their companies and bosses. While I was thinking about all that, the mage began chanting words I'd never heard before and the next moment I lost consciousness.

Translator's Notes:

- Happoshu (発泡酒) is a Japanese alcoholic drink that’s beer-like but not legally classified as regular beer