Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter SS6

Dreams of Family 

The pleasant aroma of grilled meat and soy sauce wafted through the air. There was a forty-odd year old lady standing in the kitchen, an apron wrapped around her waist and her hair tied back in a ponytail. 
The woman, Sumire Nagumo, was busy skillfully preparing a meal. She raised her head up to the ceiling and yelled. 
“Hajime, Dear, it’s feeding time!” 
After a brief silence, a pair of footsteps could be heard heading down the stairs. 
“Can you please just call it dinner like a normal person, Mom?” Hajime Nagumo displayed an annoyed face as he entered the kitchen... There were dark bags under his gentle eyes. He took a peek at what his mom had made while helping her set the table, and his eyes began to sparkle. 
“Awesome, you made Hamburg steak today. No wonder the house smelled so good.” 
Hajime’s father, Nagumo Shuu, popped in with his two cents. He was a slender man with short, cropped hair. Like his son, he too had bags under his eyes. 
The pair finished setting the table and eagerly dug into the meal Sumire had prepared for them. They stuffed their mouths with Hamburg steak and white rice as if they were starving men. Sumire giggled as she watched them eat and muttered words of disagreement. 
“No, I think feeding time suits you two just perfectly.” 
“Well, did you two manage to meet your deadline with that debugging?” 
“Mmmgh... Mmnch... Yeah, somehow. That game’s really cool.” 
“Gulp... It better be. The future of my company’s riding on that game. Do you have any idea how much we poured into development? I’d be out of a job if it game wasn’t cool. Though I guess if I lost my job I could spend all my time playing games trying to figure out where I went wrong.” 
“Dad, they call those people NEETs.” 
“Not a NEET, son, a shut-in. Shut-ins that can make a living for themselves are what we call winners in life.” Shuu riposted brilliantly. Such was his philosophy. The mother was no better in that regard, however. 
“Indeed,” she replied. This was the result of having a father who ran a game company and a mother who was a shojo mangaka. Their mindsets weren’t exactly normal. 
In fact, when they had learned that Hajime was being bullied at school, their advice, if it could be called that, had just been along the same lines. 
“Do what you want. If you want to transfer, transfer. If you want to fight back, fight back. If you want to become a shut-in, become a shut-in. Hell, get yourself expelled for all I care, I’ll hire you. It doesn’t matter if you’re a high-school dropout or have 10 PhDs, the ones making money in the end are the winners.” 
Hajime was of a more practical bent, though. 
“It’s important to have backup plans to secure financial stability, so school’s super important.” Only in this household would you find a child telling their parents the importance of staying in school. 
But, well, I’m glad Mom and Dad are like that, because it would have been awkward if they made a huge deal out of the whole thing. 
Meanwhile, his parents were having a truly absurd conversation. 
“I’m starting to think our son’s got some lolicon tendencies in him.” 
“He certainly does like loli characters.” He quickly brought his thoughts back to the present and gave his parents a glowering glare. 
“Hey hey, no need to glare at us like that. You’re the one who added a blonde loli mage to the game, not me,” said Shuu. 
“So, that doesn’t make me a lolicon. You’re a grown man, you should be able to tell the difference between games and reality,” Hajime replied. 
“True, you’re into animal-ears too. Especially rabbit ears. I’m glad my son grew up to be a patrician of such fine taste,” Sumire also chimed in. 
Hajime sulkily returned to his dinner while his parents grinned at him. They ganged up on their only son like that pretty often. 
“I guarantee you you’d party up with a loli if you ever got summoned to another world. Just remember, attacking underage girls is still a crime. I’m sure even other worlds have laws against sex with children. They’ve been cracking down on it in games here recently, even.” 

“Don’t just go around making your own assumptions. And can you please stop calling me a lolicon?” 
Fed up with his parents teasing, Hajime got a little testy. Realizing he went a little too far with his teasing, his father apologized while laughing. 
“But you’re a healthy young boy, so I’m sure you’re interested in all those fantasy worlds with swords and magic. Isn’t going on adventures with a cute heroine, falling in love, and finally defeating the gods or the demon lord or whatever something you dream of?” 
“That does sound like the kind of thing a lot of guys would like. And those reincarnated into another world and summoned into another world light novels are getting pretty popular recently. I wouldn’t want our son to get summoned, though. What would we do if he couldn’t ever come back.” 
Sumire sunk deep into thought, taking the idea of Hajime being summoned rather seriously. Both of them had an overactive imagination, which Hajime supposed were just occupational hazards. He smiled awkwardly while watching them seriously worry over his potential disappearance into another world. 
“I don’t think I have what it takes to save the world anyway.” 
Shuu wasn’t happy with his son’s self-deprecating attitude. 
“You could at least pretend to be the strongest in your head, you know?” 
Hajime’s smile grew even more troubled, but he responded with confidence. 
“I’m sure all I’d be capable of is making it back home. And if I found someone important to me, I’d probably just bring them back too. I might not be able to save the world, but I’d definitely come back.” 
“......” His parents suddenly brought their heads together. He shrugged his shoulders to hide his embarrassment before continuing. 
“Besides, I only like other worlds when they stay inside books and games.” For once, his parents didn’t bully him, and simply smiled kindly. 
“That’s right. Staying safe is more important than saving the world. But if you were strong enough to save it on your way back, you might as well, right? Hmm, maybe I should make a game that has a protagonist like that...” 
“Oh, that does sound like a good idea. There’s a kind of surreal aspect to it when the protagonist’s only interested in going home but he beats the demon lord and the gods and all that along the way.” 
Their creative urges got the better of them, and their conversation turned toward how they could use this idea in their works. While he might sometimes lament that his parents only ever thought about their hobby-jobs, he too was their son, and started contributing ideas of his own to their discussion. That was just another day at the Nagumo household. 
With a faint groan, Shuu opened his eyes and looked up at the moonlight streaming through the window. 
“...What’s wrong, dear?” 
“Sumire... I had a dream about Hajime. It was about when we were talking about other worlds a few days before he disappeared.” 
Sumire propped herself up on the bed and reassured her depressed husband. 
“He’ll come back home... I’m sure of it. No matter where he went, even if it is another world, I’m sure he’ll find a way home.” 
“Sumire...” 
“Trust me. He normally just tries to get by without rocking the boat, but if there’s something he really believes in, then he’ll chase after it with all his might. That’s why I know he’ll be fine.” 
“...You’re right. I’m sure he’ll be fine.” 
The two of them huddled closer together, thinking about their son who’d vanished along with an entire class full of students. 
Around the same time, Hajime groggily opened his eyes deep within the abyss. He stared off into the distance, his features illuminated by the light of the fake moon. Yue sidled closer to him, her gaze questioning. 
“I was having a dream about Mom and Dad. I can’t believe all those ridiculous things we joked about really came true...” 
“...Hajime, it’ll be okay. As long as we’re together, we can do anything. We’ll return to your world for sure.” Yue smiled reassuringly at Hajime, her voice full of conviction. He patted her head lovingly, then nodded back. 
“Yeah, you’re right. We’re going to make it back for sure.” 
For just a moment, an image of his parents hugging each other flashed through Hajime’s mind. They were hugging each other sadly, both of them thinner than he remembered. For some reason, they both looked up when mentioned his resolve, as if they’d heard him. 
The image of his parents smiled a little, and it seemed like they’d gone back a little to their old selves... Or so he thought, anyway.