I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 1

by Namekojirushi

  “Okay, send me back to my world.”

  “Already?!”

  “Yeah.”

  I’d said it a lot already, but I didn’t have time to waste. To get back to my old world, I needed the person who summoned me here, in other words, Harissa, to do another ritual to send me back. It was pretty simple.

  “All right, go ahead and do it.”

  “You’re really leaving already?”

  Yeah, that’s what I’ve been saying.

  Why didn’t Harissa want me to go back? The hero she’d summoned, or at least, the person who was supposed to be a hero, had defeated the Demon Overlord. All she had to do now was tell the king and receive her pardon. She didn’t need me here for that.

  “Stare...” R was staring at me so hard she literally said the word “stare.”

  Wh-What had gotten into her?

  For now, I decided to try and persuade Harissa. “Why don’t you want me to go home?”

  “Well, um... I haven’t told the king yet, and... if we defeated the Demon Overlord, I’m sure there’s going to be a celebration. S-So you need to be there.”

  “No, I kind of cheated when I beat the guy. I don’t need a celebration. And I want to get back as soon as I can.”

  “Is there someone waiting for you in your home world, hero?”

  “Huh? Oh, yeah...” I was pretty sure that Iris and Satsuki were both waiting for my help.

  “I see...” Huh? Why did Harissa look so sad?

  “Jesus...” R was rolling around in mid-air. She looked just like my dad did when he was trying to open a stuck lid.

  “I understand. I’ll send you back to your home world.”

  “Great, thanks.”

  “But first, please take this.” Harissa handed me a loop carefully woven from red thread.

  “A red bracelet?”

  “This is a magic item called the Red Thread. Do this, and...” Harissa took out a thread from the bracelet and wove it around her pinky finger. “The Red Thread has the power to connect people. If you put it on your body and make a strong wish, you can always come back to Aburaamu.”

  “Hmm...” So it was a one-way ticket to this world, huh?

  “Why are you giving me this?”

  “In the end, I wasn’t any help in defeating the Demon Overlord. But if you ever find yourself in trouble back in your own world, I want to help you.”

  “You helped a lot, Harissa. So don’t worry about it.”

  “What are you talking about?!” Harissa shouted. It was probably the first time I’d seen her mad. “You don’t know how grateful I am to you! If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been executed. You fought the Demon Overlord when I was too pathetic to do it. You’ve done so much for me that I could never repay you.”

  I nodded, feeling a little overwhelmed.

  She must’ve been crying from yelling too much, because she wiped her eyes. “If you’re ever in trouble, use the Red Thread. I promise I’ll help you.”

  “Got it. Thanks.” After all that, I couldn’t just give it back to her. So I took the bracelet and thanked her.

  Harissa drew the complicated magic circle needed to send me home on the floor of the study. I didn’t know what the pattern in the center meant, but it was just big enough for one person to stand in.

  “It’s a lot smaller than the last one, huh?”

  “Summoning someone is hard, but sending them back is easy.”

  “Hmm... then the most important part of being a summoner is the summoning part, then.” I decided to say something to her that I’d been thinking for a while. “Hey, Harissa, are you sure you’re not actually a really strong sorcerer?”

  “H-Huh? N-No way! I’m a failure...”

  “But if the ritual you used to summon me was a secret of the royal family, it had to be really complicated, right?”

  “Well, yeah...”

  “See? You’re probably really good at summoning spirits or whatever. Making a spirit obey you once you’ve summoned it is mostly a matter of being tough and intimidating, right? I mean, I don’t know anything about it specifically, but... I think what you lack is self-confidence.”

  “Self-confidence?”

  “Yeah. You were the only sorcerer in the party that defeated the Demon Overlord, after all. From now on, be more confident, and stop thinking of yourself as a failure.” Hmm... Why did I decide to lecture her like this? I wondered, but I actually knew the answer.

  The real reason I’d decided to beat the Demon Overlord was that I wanted her to be able to fight. I wanted her to have the courage to believe that she could be happy, and to fight, instead of just giving up on everything and thinking that she deserved to be miserable. If she couldn’t do that, she could never live a normal life.

  I wanted her to find happiness, instead of giving up. Was that just me being a show-off? Well, it probably didn’t matter. It wasn’t like I was going to see her again. It wouldn’t matter if I embarrassed myself a little before I said goodbye.

  The sending circle filled with light— and just before I went back I thought I heard her whisper, “I hope I can see you again someday, my hero.”

  Chapter 3: I’m Just a Human. Can I Stop an Interstellar War?

  When the light disappeared, Iris’s face was right in front of me.

  “Mmm... UWAHH!”

  “Eeyah!”

  Our faces were so close to each other that we both screamed and jumped back at the same time.

  Wh-Whew... Just a little more and our faces would’ve touched. I won’t say where.

  Either way, if Iris was here, that meant I was back to my own world. I took a moment to sigh in relief, and then in the next instant Iris jumped on me and pushed me down. I moaned in pain.

  “Rekka, where have you been? I was really worried!” If I told her I went to another world, she probably wouldn’t believe me.

  “Sorry, some stuff was going on.”

  “What do you mean, ‘some stuff was going on’?! I just cleaned your clothes, and now you’re all messy again! The warp’s almost over, so we need to get ready to meet my dad!”

  “The warp’s almost over?” I checked my wristwatch. It was a little before 4:00 PM. I’d been away from Earth for almost three hours.

  “Looks like you made it back by the time you wanted,” R said, as she adjusted her military cap.

  She was as expressionless as ever, but I could tell she was a little ticked off. It felt like she’d been that way since a little before I came back to this world?

  Anyway, just like she said, I’d made it back at the perfect time. I needed to persuade Iris to send me back to Earth as soon as the warp was finished.

  But Iris grabbed my hand before I could bring it up. “Come on, quick. Let’s get changed in my room.”

  “No, wait!”

  Her arms were far stronger than you’d think from their tiny size, and I was dragged helplessly throughout the ship.

  “The first thing you need is a bath. Come on, get in.”

  “No, listen to me. I need to tell you something important first—”

  I wanted to tell her about Satsuki as soon as possible, but before I could, she locked me inside the bathroom. It was a weird-looking bathroom, too. There was no tub and no shower.

  “Okay, I’m going to wash you.”

  “Huh? But I’m still dressed...”

  I could hear her fiddling with some controls outside the bathroom. Then the ceiling opened up a little and a flood of white gas came pouring out.

  “Hey, wait— NYGAAH!”

  Suddenly, a strong centrifugal force spun me around in the center of the room and covered me with the gas. I spun for a few dozen seconds, until I wasn’t sure which way was up or down anymore, and then finally released.

  “Okay, we’re done. You’re all clean now,” Iris said, as she came inside.

  I felt like I was about to throw up. “Now I know what it feels like to be a shirt in a washing machine.”

  The white gas must’ve
been some kind of cleaning agent, because all the dirt and grime that had accumulated on me and my clothes in the other world was gone now. That shower had worked, even if it wasn’t very pleasant.

  “Next, we need to choose your clothes. I’ll get you a nice outfit that really tells everyone you’re my lover.”

  “No, wait!” I was dragged down another hallway. This time she took me to her room.

  There was a round bed with pink sheets, a big chest of drawers, and a makeup stand. One wall was piled high with stuffed animals that didn’t look like they were from Earth. Where in the universe could you find a creature that looked like a cross between an octopus and a giraffe? Wherever it was, I hoped I never ran into it. There were a lot of other things, too, but there was room for all of it. The place might have been bigger than my living room.

  “Now, then, what would be a good outfit for you?” Iris started to hum as she grabbed clothing out of her dresser.

  A dress, a dress, and then another dress. What was she planning on having me wear? “I-Iris... Listen to me.”

  “Hmm? What is it?” Iris stopped going through her clothes and looked at me.

  Ugh... it was hard to talk about it when she was staring at me that way, but I didn’t have a choice. Satsuki was in danger right now, and Iris’s problems could wait a little. Dealing with Satsuki was more urgent.

  I steeled myself and began to speak. “Once this warp is over... I’m sorry, but can you turn us around and go straight back to Earth?”

  “What?! Why?” Iris was angry, just like I thought she’d be.

  “You see...” I told her that my childhood friend, Satsuki, was being chased by a wizard named Messiah back on Earth. I figured that telling her about the Namidare bloodline, or the mix-up at the abandoned factory, would just make things complicated, so I didn’t mention any of that.

  I explained things as carefully as I could, and I think I got across the point that Satsuki was in more immediate danger than she was. I thought that Iris would agree and send me back to Earth, but...

  “No,” she refused.

  “Wh-Why?!” I asked.

  But the space princess just turned away from me in a huff. “Because you’re choosing this Satsuki girl over me, right? So no.”

  “No, I’m not choosing anyone. I just have to save her.”

  “I want you to save me, too. Why won’t you meet my dad?!”

  Um... so what was going on here? Did Iris think I was just going to save Satsuki, and not save her?

  “I’ll pretend to be your lover, too. But Satsuki’s in more danger right now, so I want to save her first.”

  “That means you care more about your Earth girl than about me!”

  No, it doesn’t!

  Iris shook off my hand and jumped onto the bed, then hid herself beneath the covers.

  “I hate you, Rekka!” She screamed from under the sheets. I started pacing. I had no idea what to do.

  Why was this happening? I told her that Messiah was after Satsuki, right? I could pretend to be her lover anytime, so obviously Satsuki needed saving first!

  As I tried to figure out what I did wrong, R swam by in mid-air, staring at me with cold eyes. “You really don’t understand how women think, do you, Rekka?”

  There was nothing I could say.

  Iris seemed to be seriously pissed off. She was buried under the sheets and refusing to come out.

  “The ship will now exit warp. There will be slight turbulence. Please be careful,” said an electronic voice from the ceiling.

  This was bad. I wanted to head right back after the warp, but I couldn’t imagine Iris helping me like this. I needed to get her back in a good mood somehow.

  “Um... I’m sorry. Don’t get mad. Come out.”

  SMACK! Her tail, the one part of her that was sticking out of the sheets, slammed into the bed.

  Dang. Maybe that was a bad way to put it.

  “Exiting warp.” The electronic voice informed us that our time in warp was about to come to an end.

  There were no windows in Iris’s private room, so I didn’t get to see what it looked like when we exited warp. Instead, I felt a heavy impact in my stomach.

  “C-Come on. Help me out here. I want to get back to Earth as soon as I can.” I pulled on the sheet that Iris was covering herself with.

  “No! NO!” She grabbed onto the sheet and wouldn’t let go. For a moment, I felt like a mother trying to get a kid out of bed in the morning. Since she was stronger than I was, I collapsed first, though.

  I didn’t have time to screw around anymore. I needed to get back and save Satsuki as soon as I could.

  I stood up off the ground again and started to shake her. “Come on! Seriously! Please! I’ll get down on my knees and dogeza if I have to!”

  “What’s a dogeza?”

  “It’s a man’s ultimate weapon!” At least, that’s what my mom had told me. Come to think of it, why was she the one who’d taught me that, instead of my dad?

  Iris poked her head out of the sheets a little and looked at me cautiously. From the look on her face, there still wasn’t much room for negotiating.

  “I promise!” There was no time to worry about appearances now. I activated my ultimate weapon. I dropped down to my knees in a sudden, exaggerated movement, and smacked my head against the floor.

  Iris must have found this bizarre, because her body twitched in shock.

  “I promise I’ll save you after I save Satsuki! So please, just let me save her first! Messiah might be doing something terrible to her right now! So please! I’m begging you!” And then I stopped. Now it was just a question of whether my feelings would reach Iris.

  She was silent for a while. I could feel her looking down on me from the bed. I remained stock-still.

  And in the end... she gave in first. Iris sat up, the sheets still over her head, and stared right at me. “Are you in love with this Satsuki girl?”

  “Huh? No, she’s just my childhood friend. It’s nothing like that.” I wasn’t expecting that question, so it took me a second, but I answered honestly.

  “Hahh...” For some reason, R sighed above my head.

  And then...

  “Fine. You can go back to Earth.”

  “Really?!” I leaped off the ground and looked at her face.

  She was still a little angry, but her expression was much softer than it had been a moment ago.

  “Really. But!” Iris leaned off the bed, and moved her face close enough to touch my nose. “This Satsuki girl is really just your childhood friend, right? You’re telling the truth, right?”

  “Y-Yeah!” I didn’t know why that was so important to her, but since it was true, I nodded.

  Either way, while Iris didn’t seem happy about it, she agreed to return us to Earth. Suddenly, however, an unexpected shockwave struck the ship, and the floor began to shake.

  “Eeyah!”

  “Uwah!”

  There was no warning at all, so Iris lost her balance and fell on top of me.

  “Ow...” I managed to grab her and keep her from hitting the ground, but I hit the back of my head on the floor, and my vision wavered a little. “Wait, why would a ship shake in space?”

  There weren’t waves like there would be in an ocean, right? I grabbed Iris to try and help her up... and felt something very soft in the palm of my hand.

  Um... I’ve got a really bad feeling about this. Iris was on top of me, looking shocked. To be honest, I didn’t want to look away from her eyes. More specifically, I didn’t want to look down.

  But Iris was slowly, fearfully looking down at her chest, and slowly, fearfully, I had no choice but to follow her eyes. God, please let this wonderful feeling in my palm just be an illusion.

  “Eeyah! Rekka touched my boobs!”

  My hopes, however, were quickly dashed. “W-W-Wait! It was an accident! This was an accident!”

  Iris jumped off of me and wrapped the sheets around her body, as if trying to protect herself. Her face
was beet red.

  Wait, she’s allowed to grab me, but I’m not allowed to touch her? Talk about selfish. Wait, now’s not the time for that! First, I need to tell her I’m not a pervert... wait, now’s not the time for that, either! First, I need to find out why the ship shook.

  “Iri— bwah!” Just as I opened my mouth, a stuffed animal that looked like a cross between a rabbit and a penguin smacked me on the jaw.

  “No! Stay away!”

  “Okay! Okay, just stop throwing things at me!” Even if they were made of cloth, they still hurt when a super-strong alien threw them!

  I managed to finally calm Iris down. After that, we headed for the ship’s control room. And there we saw...

  “A... A whole space fleet?!”

  I looked out the window and saw dozens of what appeared to be spaceships. Several of them were clinging to Iris’s ship, trapping us.

  “Iris. Are these the Satamonian guys you were talking about?”

  “No. These belong to the Fineritan Self-Defense Fleet.”

  “Huh?” Finerita was Iris’s home planet, right? Why would they be trying to capture her?

  “We finally caught you, Iris.” I heard a low, male voice emit from the speaker on the control deck.

  Iris’s eyes went wide. “Daddy!”

  “Daddy?!” Wait, all these ships were out here to catch a runaway daughter?

  “Daddy, why are you doing this? Why are you arresting me like a criminal?”

  “You don’t understand anything, do you? Perhaps I sheltered you too much.”

  There was a note of disgust in his voice that confused me. Was this how a dad usually acted toward his daughter? “Hey, you.”

  “Hmm? It seems there’s someone else aboard... Well, that’s fine. You can ask your questions later. For now, I’m having the Self-Defense Fleet take you back to Finerita. And then, you’re coming before the Owaria.” That was all he said before he hung up.

  I was even more confused now, but with all these spaceships surrounding us, there was nowhere to run. We had no choice but to obey.

  ▽

  Seen from space, Finerita was a green planet. When we landed on the surface, I could see grassy plains stretching out all the way to the horizon. If Earth was a planet of water, this was a planet of fields, maybe.