CH 328

“Chapter 328: The Last Adventure”

After enjoying a slow walk through Bay Road, we finished our date in our usual diner.

It was the first time I had been alone with Meirir ever since I gave her the ring. It’s still on her finger.

Normally, my friends would be following us to have some teasing material for later.

None of that today. I guess that’s their way of reading the mood.

– Cheers to your return. (Meirir)

– Thank you.

I took a sip of my barley wine. A perfect drink to relax after work, but certainly didn’t taste good now.

– Wine here is amazing. (Meirir)

– Yeah. Bay Road has changed a lot, but this place is still the same. Makes me realize this is where I belong.

The store is filled with cheerful and loud chattering from fishermen.

Sometimes it drowns out our conversation, but I don’t mind. I don’t want this kind of atmosphere to ever disappear.

– …Meirir-san, we need to talk…

– Yeah. What is it?

Meirir smiled at me while waiting for my next words.

She was determined to respect whatever decision I took.

– I’m leaving from Bay Road.

– …That’s okay.

That is to say, accepting Nayuta’s offer and becoming her friend.

– I can’t change your mind, right?

– Right. I’ve thought about it hard during these past few days.

I especially thought about how we would fare in a battle against Nayuta and Zenya if every single one of my friends teamed up against them. The conclusion was always the same.

– I want to be here forever with every one of you. I’d rather die than become a friend of those two. (Takaya)

– But… we can’t win no matter what we do. (Meirir)

– Exactly.

Kouya, Ralph, Raviola, Rizerotta, everyone tried hard to investigate Nayuta’s ability and how to deal with it. But the more they tried to understand it, the more they realized that it was impossible to overcome.

– I don’t want to go. But more than that, I don’t want you all to get hurt. And for that, I have to accept their deal.

Nayuta cares about me. Which means I must be important to her.

Maybe there are still several secrets hidden in this world.

About the reincarnations, about skills, about Nayuta and Zenya, and about their abilities.

– I’m really sorry to do this right after I’ve had you all on the edge of your seats for months, but I’m going away again, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to come back. But I’m going.

– That’s okay. If that’s your decision, then I won’t stop you. I don’t care what the others say, I’ll respect your determination.

– Meirir-san…

– Takaya, let’s go outside for a bit. The weather is nice.

After paying the bill, Meirir and I walked out of the store.

She pulled my hand and took me to a lighthouse built on a small hill in District Fourth.

– …The night sky is so pretty. (Takaya)

– Right? Sometimes I would come here to pray to the stars for your return.

The stars are different from the ones in my world. They faintly illuminate the terrain we’re on.

All of this could disappear if I take the wrong decision.

– Takaya… promise me something.

– What is it?

– Promise me you’ll come back to Bay Road. Promise me that no matter how long it takes, we’ll see this scenery again together. 10 years, 20 years, I don’t care. Everyone in Searat will be waiting for you.

– …I promise to return.

For Meirir.

The first person I fell in love with in this world.

– Takaya.

– …Yeah?

– Can we stay like this a little longer?

– Sure.

After accepting her promise, we held hands and kept looking at the sky for the rest of the night.

※※※

And then, the days passed until we reached the deadline.

As they had announced, Zenya and Nayuta were waiting for me at the Searat headquarters.

– You’re here! I take it that means you’ll accept my deal.

– That’s right. Shijyou Nayuta, I will become your friend.

– Hehe. I knew you’d say that. Thank you, Takaya-kun. You’ll be the middle cog for us Administrators.

Nayuta grasped my hands firmly.

– I’ve accepted your request, so please honor your part of the deal. Don’t lay a finger on the people from this world.

– Of course. In fact, I might’ve overdone my threats. As long as I have you I’m happy.

We hadn’t fully given up yet, and it was printed on our faces. But Nayuta was still smiling.

She knew any resistance was pointless.

– Well, let’s go. To our place at the border. (Nayuta)

Nayuta, Zenya and I were enveloped in a white light.

I have no regrets. I’ve come to terms with my decision.

I just have to look ahead.

Our destination: The Border.

―――――――――――――――――

Thank you folks so much for making it this far! We’ve reached the end of Another World Awakening Transcendental Create Skill.

As for what you all must be wondering: “Is this the very end of the novel?”

The last message from the author implied that he’s still working on it (Although that was on December 2020). The novel is still listed as “Ongoing” and he hasn’t expressed any wish to stop. As you can tell from the title of this last episode, there must be one more arc before the end. However, he’s currently on a break after focusing on another of his works. Purely my assumption, so take it with a grain of salt, but I guess he’ll come back to this novel once he’s done with that one. However long that takes I have no clue.

TL;DR: Novel isn’t done, but author will likely take long before coming back to it.

Now, onto the thing no one asked for: My opinion!

I really liked this novel! Which is a surprise. The first 30 or so episodes looked like a big cliched isekai with the usual whoopsie scenes and other eye-rolling tropes, but the more it went on the more I started to like the author’s direction. Or perhaps I just grew fond of it, I don’t know. Everything from the Harukawa Akito arc onwards was pretty good, even if some parts felt unnecessarily drawn out. Chapter length was a bit all over the place though, in the sense that (as an example) there could be one 3000 words long chapter in a battle, and the next chapter would be 200 words long and it’s just a couple of thoughts plus one character moving slightly. This is mostly what pushed me to do daily chapters, as I felt like waiting several days just for a chapter readable in 15 seconds might’ve left a bad taste. There were obviously some plot holes to be filled in. To mention a few, what extent can Takaya’s abilities actually reach? This was specially put into question during the Shiori battle. Why were they isekai’d into this world and why do they all include a death during a trip? Does Nayuta constantly mentioning a “game” mean something or is it just a metaphor? But I don’t want to delve too deep into that knowing the story isn’t over yet and there’s a lot of room to explain these things. Also, the concept of “Levels” was drilled in during the beginning, and then it became a bit of an afterthought by the end.

I know I mostly mentioned negatives, but I truly enjoyed the novel. Not everything has to be a groundbreaking masterpiece and sure enough this was a solid read. The concept of skills is nothing new, but the ones described in this story were pretty cool. I also LOVED the diverse amount of characters introduced.

Anyways, enough rambling. Those were some of my negatives and positives of this novel. Thank you so much for reading! <3

– WildKendal