Chapter 5

There are none so blind as those who choose not to see. I hadn’t seen my life for what it could be. I did no better seeing what my Isekai really was. I saw Truck-kun as my friend and hero. I saw only what Nyarin wanted to show me of herself. I was blind.

I had hoped the town would be more lively, or more full of inexplicably grateful maidens. Nyarin first took me to an outdoor market among ancient stones worn by generations. A crack ran through the empty marketplace, cut by Truck-kun’s magic.

The marketplace looked like it had been an amphitheater millennia before, built by some great lost civilization. Colorful stalls stood empty. And there were no catgirls. Not a single one. Well, Nyarin was with me.

“Noticing our city was built atop ancient ruins? I can tell you how the old gods founded the old city.”

“Nah,” I said, taking a bite from the lizard-on-a-stick she bought for me using coins from a purse provided by the king, “where are the catgirls?”

Her tailed drooped down as her excitement from mentioning their history deflated. “I think they’re responding to the disaster.” Nyarin said, hanging from my left arm while my right was busy with gecko-kebab.

“Disaster?”

“Let’s go to a park frequented by my kind. Maybe the people there won’t be bothering with what happened to the dragon.” She winced, ears going back protectively as the mountain north of town began collapsing again.

“Did anyone get hurt?” I asked, taking another bite of what tasted like tuna but looked like an electrified and blackened mini-dragon.

“The spell spared the living. Many houses were damaged, the city wall, the southern sewage cistern. Oh, and the monastery that stood for centuries as the last bastion of light and truth in dark generations of decadence and ignorance. And the bath houses.”

“Oh no, the bath houses?” Those were always a good idea in an Isekai.

“People might also be working to clear the dragon carcass that fell north of town, reportedly killing only livestock.”

“Like cows or sheep or something?”

She pointed at the skewered-dire-newt as I took another bite. “Mostly these.”

“You ranch these things?” I said, chewing carefully. I considered the inefficiencies in their logistics, wondering about their supply chains and credit systems. Optimizing this stuff would be child’s play.

I shook my head, pushing away years of habits from a job that hadn’t made me happy. I came here to be anything but a negotiator and business data guy. I was a happy hero now, searching for inexplicably grateful maidens.

“Their eggs are valuable,” Nyarin continued, mottled orange, white, and black ears eagerly twitching, “they don’t require much upkeep. Would you like to try building an idyllic little ranch together?”

“No,” I said, more forcefully than I had intended. I didn’t like those ‘make a farm’ Isekai much anyway.

Her ears wilted again. We walked to the park promising random catgirl encounters.

The park was empty. Everyone was busy with dragon disaster duty. Stupid Truck-kun.

I tried describing to Nyarin my ideal catgirl. Like Nyarin but younger, maybe blonde instead of calico. No, wait, pink hair. Pink was best.

I explained bust, waist, and hip measurements to Nyarin who listened with rapt attention. Basically Nyarin’s measurements were perfect. She asked if I’d need to measure her to be sure.

“So, it’s 36, 24, 36?” she asked.

“You’re such a quick learner!”

We tried a couple of taverns. The first was split in half, threatening to collapse at any second. The tavern owner asked if I had any magic to mend the building. Broken tavern meant no beer which meant no customers and no tavern catgirls.

A big city without tavern catgirls was unacceptable. But I didn’t know much magic, and this was not a problem for beans. However, I did know someone who knew plenty of magic.

“Back to the castle!” I announced. “My new mission is to learn magic from Truck-kun and restore this city to its original, unharmed, and perky glory.”

We walked back to the castle as the sun came low. People recognized me as we walked. “Thank you mi’lord for slaying the dragon. My children will yet see a day where…” and blah blah blah. Boring.

“They don’t seem mad about all of the damage.” I commented.

“Oh, they wouldn’t. For generations our fair town suffered under dragon’s evil. Light damages with no loss of life in exchange for the destruction of the dragon destined to destroy all of creation is a blessing we happily receive.”

Nyarin took in the bustling city, ears twitching this way and that, as the people reacted to an unexpected but apparently welcome disaster. “In our most desperate hour, we’ve been saved by a hero.”

She quietly grabbed my arm, blushing as we walked back to the castle. I took another bite from the roasted reptile.

“What was your last world like?” she asked.“Will you be wanting to go back?”

“My world was boring. Terrible jobs that gave no fulfillment.” We walked past a aqueduct where washerwomen were wetting laundry in the shallow running water by hand.

“That sounds terrible,” Nyarin said.

“Things aren’t better here for my love life, at least not yet.” I said as the two of us walked down a cobbled road, her holding my arm as the yellow sun slowly gave way to the early oranges and reds of a clear sunset only barely dappled with clouds.

“The women in your world didn’t appreciate you?”

I had been about to take another bite of skewered salamander. I wasn’t hungry anymore. “That wasn’t the problem. Not at first.” I passed the unfinished scaly snack to a hungry street urchin. “I don’t want to talk about… that.”

Nyarin looked at me like I’d turned purple, ears swiveling as if she was trying to solve me like a puzzle.

I sighed. My fingers itched to finish a couple of daily tasks with my level 80 mage. I wanted to forget what had made me sad. I didn’t want to remember when my life had fallen apart. Did a medieval capital city have wifi?

“Slay any dragons in your last world?” Nyarin said cheerily, pulling me from my thoughts.

I laughed. “I battled spreadsheets and emails. It was a salary job. I’d go drinking with the guys from work. I nearly got let go once. It paid the bills. But there was no adventure.”

“What is a ‘spreadsheet’? Or a ‘he mail’?”

The novelty of a new language was wearing off. They didn’t have words for fun things. I described an arcade to Nyarin, but I had to use Japanese words.

Isekai shows and books focused on fun adventures, infatuated girls that fell into the hero’s laps, or cool magic.

But after the show, I could use my modern Japanese toilet. The castle facilities were unspeakably lacking. Not everything in another world was pink-haired maidens and arcane light shows.

Nyarin looked down, ears flat as she asked, “do you want the other hero to take you to another world?”

I shook my head. “Dammit, not another Isekai. I’m going to make this place work.” I slapped myself, hard, on both cheeks. It was sudden and violent enough to startle Nyarin, whose eyes widened and ears popped forward, extra attentive.

“I’m getting depressed. This is an Isekai. I get to be happy here. C’mon Nyarin, let’s learn enough magic to make this town fun again.”