Chapter 10: Chapter 10

Izzy and I had a small, private wedding with just our few close friends. We decided to go with white and black rings, black for me and white for her. It was so amazing and happy. Being happy with myself and in love with my best friend who reciprocated my feelings was definitely not something I could’ve ever predicted.

Kyle ended up joining Sarrin and Rhem’s marriage a few months after that. It was super cute. We joked about him becoming a harem protagonist, but no matter what we said, we couldn’t get him to cringe. He was uncringeable.

The Cursed One attacks still happened, but they were becoming much more manageable and infrequent. Several people could easily gang up on a single Cursed One now, so every attack had fewer casualties than the one before it.

The first priority people had was contact with other cities. People from the nearest cities soon came to us as well. Some of them just wanted to move here because this was a well-known and relatively safe city, and others to begin trading. Apparently, it was also a bonus to be in the same city as me, even though my role in everything was already done.

People did still have to be careful outside the walls, though. The Cursed Ones were not yet extinct and monsters still existed, but things were much more survivable than before.

Exploratory missions started happening, and were about resource gathering and beginning to build outposts. Residents of this world had long since been growing food behind walls on pretty much every available surface they could, but additional sources of food and other supplies were very much welcome.

As more months passed, long-distance communication was re-established after many decades, though it was limited to only one enchantment per city at the moment. Very gradually, a communication network connecting all the remaining cities on the continent was created.

People also finally had the leeway to begin recreating lost technology. It wasn’t truly lost, but that knowledge had been relegated to books only a long time ago. People might have an intellectual understanding of how to make or do something, but actually doing those things is, in reality, a process of trial and error.

After a few years, a ship from one of the other continents showed up, re-establishing contact with them as well. Some of them stayed, but most of the crew returned home to add another continent to the network and bring news of how the curse was vanishing, as well as the supplies and knowledge to combat it.

Several decades ago, before communication had been cut off, it seemed that every country in the world had decided that they desperately needed to keep the population up by summoning people, and it was still continuing even on the other continents.

Unfortunately, politicians knew that with the threat of the Cursed Ones rapidly vanishing, they couldn’t get away with performing the ritual anymore, so their response to that was to rush several more summonings to “build up the numbers” before those were disabled. I felt bad for all those other summoned people, but at least they didn’t start out in the same fucked up situation that we had.

A method of preventing the use of the ritual had been developed and spread a long time ago but had never been implemented. For many years, people had been stuck in the moral conundrum of “Do I die, or do I drag complete strangers into my fight and possibly live?”.

With that excuse no longer valid, they were banned, and the politicians were forcibly removed from office. They wouldn’t have been able to stay in office all this time if they hadn’t actually been maintaining things, but all the additional bullshit they were doing wasn’t going to be tolerated now that everyone’s lives weren’t on the line. It was quite satisfying.

A lot of people, myself included, were struggling to find a place in the post-apocalypse world. There was still an endless amount of things to do, but people were now able to branch out a bit.

I’d only been a retail worker who ended up being turned fighter/survivor kind of person. I had no real skills for just… calmly living, and I didn’t even have the internet to help me find a job or give me ideas. It was when I was maintaining my gun one day that I considered getting into blacksmithing and machining.

Izzy loved watching me work, finding me extremely attractive while busy, but it was hard to concentrate when my wife was constantly sending “fuck me” vibes my way. Begrudgingly, I had her stop. Most of the time. She then began working with me, as she also found it interesting. And like me, she didn’t have any skills beyond what retail forces you to do, either.

One major thing that this world has over Earth is that people actually respect workers, and those workers are given fair pay and treatment.

If someone here had a job like a barista or a cashier, that person would be able to live just fine with that job, and there wouldn’t be any angry old people coming in all the time to complain about the stupidest bullshit, either.

Surprisingly, the internet’s usefulness was pretty much the only thing I missed about it. Information was so easy to access, but I was enjoying talking with people face-to-face a lot more. Though it’s hard to say how much of that is my now-minimal dysphoria and depression, which had so immensely dragged me down before.

It was also extremely helpful during this time that Izzy was the only other human woman I had to compare myself to. Even after everything, I was still thinking of myself as a human from Earth, and a stupid part of my brain was still clinging to those beauty standards.

But without the shaming culture I had endured on Earth and with the pretty much complete lack of care for how anyone looked or chose to dress here, it was really easy to just exist without concern for any of that. I still had some issues to deal with, but there wasn’t a single person shitting on me for me just being who I was, Cursed appearance included.

And while most of the population came from generally male/female kinds of worlds, there are still plenty that didn’t. There are even some whose forms are somewhat pliable. This all means that out of everyone who even knows about what my body was like before, not a single one of them gives a shit.

And that conversation with that girl back in Triteos gives me hope that if I do see other humans again, then they probably won’t care either.

Myself, my amazing and beautiful wife, and my three good friends all chose to remain living in the same house. We had become a family of five, divided into two sub-families who lived with each other.

———

“All packed, Izzy?” I asked my wife.

“Yeah, I’m done,” she answered. “How much time do we have?”

“We still have an hour before we need to leave.”

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“I see. Want to grab a snack from a stall, then?”

“Mm, sounds good.”

Many years have passed since we arrived at Moriste. There hasn’t been a single Cursed One sighting in a few years now, and people are hopeful that they are finally extinct.

Free of the threat, civilization began to rebuild. Places like stores, restaurants and theaters existed again. I even saw a play that had me as one of the characters. Never again. At least this world didn’t have movies yet, so no one else would have to see that.

But there were plenty of other places you could go to entertain yourself now, too. A place opened up near us that was essentially a magic arcade. The games were complex enchantments that were the magic equivalent of computer code. It was surreal playing video games again after all this time.

Izzy loved it there, and she was even hopeful that something like a streaming service would become available soon but admitted that she probably wouldn’t get back into the hobby.

The modern world was back for us, but with a different coat of paint. For one thing, magic and enchantments meant technology without pollution.

I’d heard some time ago that one of the weebs had begun creating manga, though I hadn’t searched for it. If anime conventions eventually become a thing in this world, I don’t think I’ll be going. The last one was bad enough.

We’d seen some of the other humans around Moriste, and we had the occasional friendly chats to reminisce, but they didn’t feel like deep friendships. Everyone had begun to disperse and do their own things over time.

As for me and my family, none of us showed any visible age, despite being what would be middle-aged on Earth. We were still magically aging, but all of us were past the 100 capacity threshold now, meaning we would always look like this.

My capacity had only increased to 122 since our arrival in Moriste, and with just how much longer it took to increase that number every single time, it became obvious why few people ever make it to immortality. Pretty soon, it would probably stop rising altogether unless I put in some serious effort toward it.

My opinion on immortality hadn’t changed since arriving in this world, but there was one major difference now: I would want my family with me. I don’t think I’ll even bother trying to increase my capacity if everyone else isn’t interested in doing it or if it doesn’t look like they’ll catch up in time. But that’s still like a thousand years from now, so there’s no point worrying about it.

Something strange and a bit terrifying to think about was the fact that the few really large Capacity Walls that are out there go all the way to 1,000. I’m really glad that there aren’t any records of anyone having such an absurd number. People mostly just think those walls were meant to be like an aspirational sort of thing.

If it took people more than a thousand years to reach 200 capacity, and it slowed down significantly the closer to that number you got, then just how many thousands of years would someone need to reach that high? What would even be the point of doing that? There wasn’t any merit in trying to figure out it, so I just moved on.

My efficiency had finally made it to 100%, though, which was nice. All it meant was that I had perfect control over my magic, so long as I understood exactly what spell I was using it for.

Just recently, a transcontinental railroad had been completed. Kyle, Sarrin and Rhem had already used it to take a vacation of their own, and now Izzy and I were going to be spending a long time away while managing our shop through the magic equivalent of a cellphone. Right now, it was only a list of contacts you could call, but it’s already begun to evolve into a more complex version.

There are even basic computers available, which makes sense, considering that video games also exist. The first computers in this world weren’t house-sized, though, like the early Earth ones had been.

Noting all the similarities and differences between what’s available and what we grew up with is quite fun. I’ve even begun implementing enchantments in some of my personal projects just for fun, and I’m sure I’ll be doing a great deal more when we eventually make it back.

Izzy and I had been just walking around and snacking for awhile while we waited for our train to begin boarding. When it did, we got on and got cozy.

We would finally be getting our first, real look at this world. Not just the various cities, but several landmarks, as well. Some of them had been made by people and some of them were just beautiful scenery that was too good to not stop and take a look at. We don’t even have to worry about monsters along the way because there are other people whose jobs it is to take care of them.

I kissed the top of Izzy’s head.

“What was the sudden head kiss for?” she asked, looking up at me.

“Because I love you,” I replied.

She stretched up to peck my cheek, then settled into a more comfortable position against me. “I love you, too.”

We gazed at the scenery as it began to pass by, our hearts filled with warmth.