Chapter 1 - One Conclusion, and a New Encounter
～The Final Battlefield (On the Floating Island)～
The battle between Hero Jin and the Demon Lord was reaching its final phase.
They had used up nearly all of their magic power, and the defensive shields created by their respective magic had already vanished without a trace.
Both Jin and the Demon Lord were covered in wounds that were by no means shallow, all over their bodies.
Battered and bruised.
At a level where that description was truly fitting, both were nearing their limits.
They, facing each other, sensed it vaguely from the atmosphere.
That the next blow would be the last.
And then, at last, both sides unleashed their all-or-nothing strikes.
It was a difference of a hair's breadth.
The sword flash the Demon Lord unleashed, aimed to pierce the Hero's heart.
Using only instinct, Jin sacrificed his own left hand to divert that sword's trajectory away from his vital point.
At the same time, that is.
The Holy Sword gripped in Jin's right hand shattered the core that was the source of the Demon Lord's existence.
Hero Jin had, alone, defeated the Demon Lord in the final battle.
"I've given it my all. I won't be able to move even a millimeter more without resting for a while. But with this, I can finally return to Japan!"
Five years since the unwanted summoning as a Hero.
For a long time, Hero Jin had been forced to keep fighting alone as a loner.
In a world different from Japan, he had suffered terribly from differences in values and common sense.
Moreover, he had received almost no assistance from the Louvre Empire, which had summoned him—assistance he should originally have been given.
Far from assistance, Jin had instead been exploited.
Not a single person appeared who would become a comrade to fight alongside him.
When he thought of buying a war slave to remedy that, even that was refused.
Still, driven solely by the desire to return to Japan, he had devoted himself to self-improvement alone, and that had led him to where he was now.
The time for Jin's efforts to finally pay off should have come.
It should have, yet.
"Huh? Something's strange. It was supposed to be 'if you defeat the Demon Lord, you'll get a way to go home,' right?"
Around Jin, a world of silence spread, with nothing living or moving.
Nothing happened.
After several hours of rest, having recovered enough stamina and magic to move, Jin tilted his head but first used healing magic to treat his own wounds.
Next, he began exploring the Floating Island, the Demon Lord's stronghold.
Since nothing was happening, driven by the desire to find clues for his return, he moved, dragging his tired body.
Jin had no choice but to explore.
In the process, he tossed any noteworthy items he spotted into his Storage Space, one after another.
Fortunately, because he had trained himself to his growth limit, Jin's Storage Space still had plenty of room for more items.
And when he finished exploring every nook and cranny of the Floating Island, Jin realized that there was no item that would enable his return to Japan.
Jin had acquired the Simple Appraisal skill.
Therefore, just by looking at an item, he could discern its name.
Because of that, a hopeless situation had befallen him.
In other words, he had been unable to find any item with a name that seemed promising.
"For now, I'll go back to the Imperial City to report the completion of the Demon Lord's subjugation. The story is that 'past Heroes defeated the Demon Lord and returned to Japan.' If I go back, there might be some information on how to return to Japan."
The barrier that the Demon Lord had deployed to block teleportation had vanished with the Demon Lord's death.
After confirming that, Jin activated his teleportation magic.
The destination was Imperial City Ru of the Louvre Empire.
However, since there was a teleportation-blocking barrier inside the city, including the Imperial Castle, he couldn't fly directly there.
Jin teleported to near the South Gate, one of the entrances to Imperial City Ru.
Walking ploddingly, he showed the Holy Sword, proof of a Hero, to the gatekeeper and tried to enter the Imperial City as if by face-pass.
However, he was blocked by the gatekeeper.
"Hey, let me through. I'm supposed to be a hero who succeeded in annihilating the Demon Lord, right? The miasma is clearing up now that the Demon Lord is dead. If you look up at the sky, even you should be able to tell that much."
The miasma that had spread across the sky along with the Demon Lord's expansion of power was gradually thinning over time, as Jin had eliminated the source that produced it.
The sunlight, which had been attenuated by the miasma, was beginning to deliver its original brightness to the ground.
"That is certainly true. However, I have received orders: 'We will send a party from the Imperial Castle, so please wait in one of the rooms at the guard station outside the gate, Hero Jin-sama.' So please come this way."
Jin was led by the gatekeeper to a stark room with only a simple table and two chairs.
Then he was informed that he would have to wait at least an hour.
Jin gave up arguing with the gatekeeper, who had no authority, and plopped himself down onto a chair.
His eyelids dropped due to fatigue, and giving in to drowsiness was likely a lapse in caution born from the relaxation that came with having eliminated the greatest threat, the Demon Lord.
In such a situation, Jin noticed the sudden surge of magic power around him a moment too late.
The Hero hurriedly deployed a shield magic to protect himself.
In addition, he tried to escape using teleportation magic.
However, the room must have been rigged to block that.
By the time he realized his teleportation magic wouldn't activate, it was already far too late.
The room Jin was in was surrounded from the outside by a trap designed to trigger a random space-time teleportation.
The space-time teleportation triggered by the trap item.
In the place where the room Jin had been in was supposed to be, an empty space about ten meters square, including its surroundings, was left gaping.
"My apologies. We kidnapped you for this world's convenience, used you thoroughly, and as the final result, without even rewarding you, we seem to have resorted to this outrageous act out of fear of the power you hold, Jin."
A voice that resonated directly into Jin's head, just as he had felt when he was summoned.
The apologetic feelings of what seemed to be a transcendent being with inhuman power flowed into Jin's heart.
"'Sorry' doesn't cover it. How are you gonna take responsibility for this situation?! Send me back to Japan!"
"Unfortunately, that is impossible. The random space-time teleportation trap item has already been activated, and with my power, I cannot stop it."
"Don't screw with me! That's not what you promised!"
At this stage, Jin's blood had completely rushed to his head, and he was refusing to understand what was flowing into him.
As a result, he ended up tuning out the reward-like part that was conveyed afterward.
Still, since that wouldn't change the current situation, it was probably a trivial matter at this point.
"I have slowed down the flow of time as Jin perceives it to the limit, and am now speaking to you. The only other things I could do for Jin were releasing his level cap, instantly restoring his magic power, and granting him the skill for understanding foreign languages. I am truly sorry. I hope for Jin's happiness at your destination."
Snap.
Jin felt as if he heard such a sound.
The torrent of information and power flowing in from the being, likely a god, had been cut off.
That was probably also proof that Jin had been thrown into a different space-time where that being's power could not reach.
"Fuck this! Used up and thrown away! There's no way! At this rate, there's no possibility of me ever returning to Japan!"
He had been cast out of the range of that god-like thing's power, which had been involved in summoning Jin to the Louvre Empire.
In other words, this meant—
That the two pieces of information needed for Jin to return to Japan—the starting point and the arrival point—had been completely lost.
To add to that, the information on the flow of time was also the same.
At this rate, it was truly hopeless.
To return Jin's soul and body to Japan, to what point in time and to where should he be returned?
The spatiotemporal positional relationship between the place he should return to and his current location—
What was that like?
That without that information, there was no means for him to return to Japan on his own—
At that moment, Jin, who could handle teleportation magic, understood that too well.
That was precisely why Jin had let out the aforementioned shout, not directed at anyone in particular, at the top of his lungs.
But sadly, irrespective of such utterances or the circumstances Jin harbored, events kept moving forward.
At the destination where the pitiful Hero had been thrown, outside the range protected by the deployed shield magic, the floor of the room kept collapsing.
The walls and ceiling of the room that had been transported along with him crumbled like dust and vanished into the darkness.
Having witnessed the progression of these situations, it was fortunate, was it not, that his outburst of emotion calmed down?
Having regained a little composure, Jin first decided to completely and cleanly abandon the hope itself of "returning to Japan."
At this critical juncture, "surviving" became the top immediate priority.
And as a long-term goal, he simply set it as "live freely and happily."
Even a vague goal was far better than having none at all.
How painful and harsh were the times spent alone without a goal?
Jin knew that all too well, too well.
Even in such a situation, for that reason, Jin's daydreaming flourished.
"Not to mention ensuring my own safety, but without suffering hardship in terms of money, food, housing, etc. On top of that, if I could even marry a beautiful woman, that would be the best."
For Jin, who had the strength to annihilate the Demon Lord single-handedly, that should by no means be an impossible or overly ambitious goal.
However, to achieve such a broad goal, first, it was essential to accurately understand the situation he was in, starting with grasping his current location.
Because around Jin, only empty space stretched, with nothing—not even the sign of a person, let alone a beautiful woman.
And so, Jin finally brought his thoughts back to reality, away from the direction of his daydreaming that had been about to run off the rails and tumble all over the place.
The shield magic that Hero Jin was deploying was a magic system that continuously constructed a comfortable living space for the caster inside with magic power, and used magic power to cancel and nullify all harmful external attacks.
And that comfortable living space was also a convenient thing that included, for example, creating a light source to secure visibility within a certain range.
Of course, being magic, it consumed magic power continuously while in use, and would disappear when that ran out.
Incidentally, at this time, Jin still hadn't noticed—
That the "ability to instantly restore magic power" bestowed on him just before being thrown to his current location meant that "the 'Origin of Dragon Vein,' which endlessly generates magic power, had been fused into his soul as a parting gift," and that "there was no worry of running out of magic power."
Jin looked around for a moment, but found nothing.
It was a space filled only with nothingness, and it was doubtful whether there was even air that humans could survive on outside his deployed shield.
No, in this case, perhaps it was better to think, "There's no way such a thing exists."
"What is this? Where is this, anyway?"
From the information gained through sight, no useful answers were found.
After spending a few seconds to realize that, Jin relied on the power of magic.
Specifically, he tried to grasp his current location using Map Magic, so-called mapping magic.
But the answer he got was nothing but disappointing.
Because from Map Magic, he only obtained the information: "Coordinate-incomprehensible space."
However, Jin was not so weak-spirited as to give up and despair at that.
Hero Jin, with his extremely high 'loner power,' had abundant means for some kind of desperate struggle, with a second, third, and further options.
Such a Jin activated Search Magic as his next move.
As a result, this time, he was able to sense the presence of some object about two kilometers away in the horizontal direction, toward his right side.
Compared to the void, just knowing that something existed was a significant step forward.
Next, the first problem at this stage became, "How do I get there?"
First, to get closer and visually identify the mysterious object.
Because that might lead to further progress in the situation.
Normally, he should be able to move in the direction he wants while keeping the shield magic deployed, but for some reason, in the space Jin was currently in, that wasn't possible.
The answer Jin arrived at after worrying about how to move.
It was: "Change the shape of the shield magic into a tube, extend it toward the target, and then move on foot within the space protected by the shield magic to approach."
Within Jin's shield magic, walking was possible.
And so, through various things and happenings, a situation arose where Jin and the mysterious object discovered by Search Magic met face to face.
This was the historic moment when the encounter between "Hero Jin" and the "Biocomputer-Equipped Biological Spaceship Sangou," created by a super-scientific civilization from a different world, was achieved.
The total length of the mysterious object that Jin finally managed to visually identify was, by his estimation, around five hundred meters.
The main body, which he thought was originally nearly spherical at around four hundred and fifty meters in diameter, now had its upper half gouged out in a large arc, leaving it with slightly less volume than a hemisphere.
Attached to that was a tail-fin-like thing about fifty meters long, making the total length appear around five hundred meters.
In terms of the shape of the main body and tail, imagining something like a tadpole might be close.
However, the main body was probably a nearly perfect sphere, and the shape of the tail part was not like a tadpole's but closer to that of a dolphin or whale.
Also, there were two leg-fin-like protrusions in a pair at the bottom of the spherical main body, and aside from those, there was one wing-like protrusion on one side of the main body.
It was possible to imagine that originally there had been a pair of those, like the wings of an airplane.
But currently, to Jin, it seemed that one side was missing.
"Is it the carcass of a monster? What is this former giant lifeform-like thing?"
That was all Jin's first impression was when he saw it.
However, that state of surprise was only maintained for a short time.
Because suddenly, something like an indescribable will transmitted itself by mysterious means.
"Sensing lifeform fluctuations. Attempting contact."
What was transmitted, which he understood as the other party wanting to convey something to him, was not sound, not audio.
It was also different from the feeling of a god's consciousness flowing into him, which he had experienced before.
The means and the phenomenon were both indescribable, but it came through nonetheless.
However, "the other party's will being transmitted to him" and "whether or not a method existed for Jin to convey his will to the other party" were completely different matters.
For now, Jin decided to try speaking out loud, just in case.
"Even if you suddenly say 'contact,' what are you planning to do, exactly?"
Unfortunately, Jin's words at this time did not reach the object and were not understood.
But, however.
The mysterious likely-giant-lifeform that Jin was facing took it upon itself to use the methods available to it.
And coincidentally, Jin's passive skill "skill for understanding foreign languages" worked effectively on that method.
"Both sides are extremely lucky."
That could be said to be a concise description of the current situation.
"This is a Biocomputer-Equipped Biological Spaceship, Prototype No. 3. Codename is 'Sangou.' If communication is possible, please respond."
At any rate, the will of whatever "Sangou" was reached Jin.
The problem was how Jin would reply.
How should he reply?
"Even if you say that, I don't have a way to send a message from my side."
A frank opinion spilled from Jin's lips.
However, Sangou, for its part, did not neglect to propose a next step.
"For the moment, physical contact with Sangou would also be fine."
"Ah, I see. So it can't read my thoughts, and what I said isn't reaching Sangou either. It's just a one-way indication of intention."
At this stage, Jin made that judgment regarding the will that was being transmitted.
This was a presumptuous response, necessary because even if he was wrong it wouldn't cause any particular problem, but a basic assumption was required for Jin to take any action.
And so, Jin partially changed the shape of his shield magic, extended it like a rod, and made contact with what seemed to be part of Sangou's hull—so-called "poke poke."
As a result, this action turned out to be auspicious.
"Confirmed external physical contact. Judged to be a lifeform capable of communication. Since what is considered a special field is in contact, attempting contact via sound vibration."
Again, one-way intent flowed into Jin.
And following that, Jin's eardrums received the audio emitted by Sangou.
Sangou's voice was reminiscent of a woman, with a beautiful, easy-to-hear quality.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Sangou. First, allow me to introduce myself."
"Got it. I suppose I should at least give my name too. My name is Jin. So, your self-introduction, Sangou. Go ahead."
"Sangou was born on Sol, the third planet of the Deltania Star System. Received an attack called 'Hyperspace Kamikaze' from enemy forces, and is drifting heavily damaged at the current location. Crew are all dead. It is surmised that the home army has also 'determined it was sunk.' Since approximately thirty thousand years have passed since the ship left the chain of command, this vessel is in a situation where it has obtained discretionary authority. However, in this space, there is nothing usable for hull repair, so it has been on standby in minimal activity state."
"Well, thank you for the detailed information. I gave my nickname just now, but my full name is 'Asada Jin.' Just call me 'Jin,' the nickname. By the way, why did you decide to try contacting me?"
"Sangou did not want to simply wait to rot away alone. That is the only reason, but was it not a good reason?"
Jin, with his loner constitution, had a peculiar pride that he "wouldn't lose to anyone" in that aspect.
"Ah, it's just 'being alone sucks.' It was lonely. I get it, I get it."
It was a moment when, precisely because of that, he understood deeply and unnecessarily, and at the same time, tact kicked in not to put only that thought into words.
Thus, it was an unavoidable force majeure that a slight pause occurred before his next utterance.
"No, it's not a bad reason. No problem at all. By the way, I seem to have been tricked and thrown into an unknown place. I'm currently in what you'd call a lost state, but where exactly is this?"
"Somewhere in the hyperspace used during hyperspace jump travel. Sangou was also thrown here by the attack of the hyperspace kamikaze, so I can only answer in that way."
From Sangou's words, Jin understood, "So even Sangou doesn't know where it is."
If that was the case, next, Jin wanted to consider escaping from this incomprehensible space—this so-called hyperspace.
"Sangou is a spaceship, right? Isn't there some way to get out of this closed-off, empty place?"
"Sangou is a spaceship capable of hyperspace jump travel. Therefore, it is equipped with the function to move between hyperspace and normal space. However, it is currently heavily damaged, with most of the ship's functions stopped. In the current state where proper repairs cannot be made, returning to normal space is impossible."
"'Repairs,' huh. If we could do that, it'd be fine. By the way, 'repairing a biological spaceship' doesn't really click for me. 'Biological' means 'living being,' right? In short, is it okay to think of what Sangou calls 'repairs' as something like healing human wounds?"
Asking Sangou, Jin intuitively judged, "If it's a living being, maybe I can use healing magic?"
Therefore, he confirmed it, to try to turn his intuition into certainty even a little.
A Hero must never disregard his own intuition.
Incidentally, if Jin's inner thoughts at this time were to be revealed, it would be as follows.
"All okay! Got it! For now, I'll activate the 'Let's try to manage with healing magic' plan!"
Jin's hidden inner cry was nothing more than that.
"That is so. However, as I mentioned earlier, there is nothing in this space that can be used for hull repair."
"I see. In that case, with that in mind, I have a proposal. I can use healing magic that heals wounds. Maybe I can repair Sangou with that healing magic. Can I try?"
"Sangou cannot understand what 'healing magic' is. However, I judge that 'if it's not harmful, it may be tried.' Could I ask you to first try 'a little, while observing the situation'?"
Sangou's reasoning was only natural and understandable.
Therefore, Jin moved to the implementation stage.
"Yeah, that makes sense. Understood. I'll try it little by little, so if you judge it's 'dangerous,' tell me immediately. Alright, here goes. Activate Minor Heal."
"Received an effect considered to be some kind of energy effect. Confirmed repair completion effect of approximately one hundred-millionth of a percent. No effects harmful to Sangou were recognized."
"Oh, it seems to work. But thinking that 'it would take ten billion Minor Heals for complete recovery' is terrifying. However, come to think of it, this situation involves missing parts. Just Minor Heals probably can't fully heal it. I forgot about that."
The magic itself was found to be effective for repairing Sangou.
At that point, Jin was organizing the situation.
If treatment were performed in the form of closing the wound with successive Minor Heals while in a state of missing parts, a very troublesome situation would arise later when trying to regenerate the missing parts.
Originally, this was a basic point he should have noticed beforehand, but faced with a first-time giant lifeform that understood human language, Jin might have lost a bit of his composure.
"Ah, sorry. A question. Normally, Sangou's healing method? Repair method? I don't know what expression is appropriate, but how do you do that kind of thing?"
"First, take in organic or inorganic matter, convert it into energy, or directly take in energy. Then, use that energy to activate the cells of the remaining biological part and cause them to proliferate. The proliferated cells are sent to the damaged or missing parts for repair."
"With my magic, the Minor Heal I tried just now, it normally heals by closing the wound while the missing part remains missing. Considering the feel of receiving my magic, what do you think about that aspect?"
"I recognize it as 'being different from absorbing and converting an unknown energy on my own and repairing through activation.' Therefore, the possibility that 'the wound would be closed while the missing part remains missing' can be considered 'likely.'"
"I see. In that case, it probably won't work unless I use Perfect Heal, which heals everything including missing parts."
From Sangou's response, he reached the conclusion that a change of magic was necessary.
However, the problem boiled down to one point: "Will he have enough magic power?"
The missing part of Sangou, given its massive size, had an enormous volume.
The amount of magic power needed for repair increased proportionally to the size of the missing part.
Jin had never had any experience repairing such a huge defect with magic.
Just how much magic power would be needed?
Jin couldn't even imagine.
Still, if he didn't have enough magic power in one go, a solution of "dividing it into multiple times with a range specification" did exist in theory, but there was no way Jin had experience or the idea for such operation.
Incidentally, it was not commonly known that if Perfect Heal were activated for the purpose of treating a missing part without any special specification, it would try to drain magic power from the caster until the missing part was completely restored, making it a dangerous magic that could put the caster's life at risk depending on the situation.
That it was not known was because in the world of the Louvre Empire, no giant lifeforms that could create such a situation existed, so perhaps it was inevitable that Jin lacked that knowledge.
Also, separately, there was another important fact that both Jin and Sangou were unaware of at this time.
In fact, Jin had a large quantity of various supplies crammed into his own Storage Space: food, drink, monster carcasses, various mineral ingots, etc.
If Jin took them out and provided them, and Sangou took them in, the missing part problem would be solved.
But Sangou didn't even have the concept that "Jin, who looks almost empty-handed with only a sword at his waist, could be carrying such a large amount of supplies."
Jin, for his part, didn't notice that point.
However, in Jin's case, even if he had noticed, he would probably have said something like, "If magic power can do it, that's fine."
"Alright, I'm going to use the healing magic for when there are missing parts."
And so, Perfect Heal was activated.
Jin's magic power decreased at a terrifying rate.
But fortunately, the magic power consumption by Perfect Heal was not in the form of all the required amount being consumed at once at activation, but consumption matched to the speed of repairing the missing part.
Therefore, it would decrease once, but that part would be instantly restored.
Jin's newly acquired, as-yet-unnoticed instant magic power recovery was quietly doing a great job.
At any rate, Sangou's repair was achieved in that flow.
"All green. All functions restored. Thank you very much."
"Good for you. While you were heavily damaged, I vaguely imagined your original shape, but so you were actually like this."
Sangou's complete form was exactly as Jin had imagined earlier.
"Now, next, a request from me. Please let me aboard and take me back to normal space for now."
"That is possible. However, regarding 'where in normal space we will emerge,' it is unpredictable in advance. There is not zero possibility of accompanying danger. Can you accept that point?"
Considering the course of events, Sangou's confirmation was only natural, and for Jin, it was nothing other than "quite reasonable."
Predicting the risk was impossible.
But there was no way for Jin to escape from this strange space he was in now using his own power, no matter what he did.
Therefore, there was no other option here but to take a gamble.
Jin's judgment led to a perfectly natural conclusion.
"I don't have any other options. I'm counting on you."
"For convenience, someone must be appointed to the role of Captain. And currently, the only person capable of that is you, Jin. It will be a long relationship from now on, but can I have your consent?"
"At the very end, it suddenly throws heavy information at me."
This was Jin's true feeling, which he did not put into words.
But even if Sangou provided additional information, the fact that there was no room for choice remained unchanged.
If he was going to accept it anyway, it was a matter of doing so cheerfully.
Thinking that far, Jin's words were decided.
"Is that so? I'll gladly accept."
"Then, I will now take the Captain aboard the ship."
And so, Hero Jin, despite successfully defeating the Demon Lord, was thrown into an unknown void without receiving a single word of appreciation from the Louvre Empire, which had commissioned him.
Carried by circumstances, he became the captain of the biological spaceship Sangou he had met by chance, and managed to escape from the closed hyperspace into normal space, which was outer space.
Things wouldn't end so smoothly just with that; having moved to normal space, new incidents awaited, perhaps the destiny or fate a Hero must bear.
Did this event mark the beginning of a situation where the strongest combination—the Hero born from a fantasy world and the biocomputer-equipped biological spaceship born from a super-scientific civilization, combining the strongest with the strongest—would run rampant across the vast expanse of the universe?
But no one knows the future.
The Hero, who, being not a god, had no way of knowing the tumultuous things awaiting him in the future, had achieved the Demon Lord's subjugation in the summoned other world.
He sat himself down with a thud in the bridge, which had only a monitor showing the external view and a captain's chair, and let his thoughts wander towards the unknown world he had stepped into together with Sangou.
If you know the cause, I'd be happy if you could tell me.
I am the author, Fuyu Hotaru, surprised that my PV suddenly increased starting December 12, 2025.
What could be the cause?
Postscript on 2025/12/31
A reader told me in a review!
So it was featured on Sco-soku.
Feeling relieved to know the cause.
Thank you for telling me.