Chapter 26 Return to the Apartment of Resentment and Petty Jealousy
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”…Huh!? W-where am I…?”
I opened my eyes, and there it was—my familiar home. It was a single room in a 50-year-old, two-story apartment building. Though located in the city, the rent was a ridiculously cheap 30,000 yen a month. The catch? The nearest station was a thirty-minute walk, making the location absolutely terrible.
The cramped 1K room was still draped with several pieces of hanging laundry, exactly as I’d left it before my dimensional leap.
”Perfect! We managed the teleportation successfully, didn’t we!”
Seeing this nostalgic, stale scene, a fleeting illusion crossed my mind: had everything been nothing more than a dream? But the sound of Ami-chan’s voice, right beside me, and her very real appearance instantly shot that idea down.
”But…why exactly did we teleport to my place?” I muttered, a wave of familiar, heavy air washing over me.
”Because this is the space most saturated with Shou’s dirty, little ego, making it the easiest place to interfere with! Why else?” she chirped, sounding amused.
”Eh…what do you mean by that?” I squinted at her.
”You’ve spent years nursing all sorts of negative emotions in this space, haven’t you? You know how Japan has all those places where people’s curses and grudges tend to accumulate? It’s just like that, you know,” she explained, all matter-of-fact.
Was she talking about some kind of spiritual spot? If so, I wanted to vehemently protest! My apartment might lack cleanliness, sure, but it was absolutely not a building where someone had died!
I had been kicked out of my family’s house and worked part-time, spending countless nights in this room agonizing over things. Like why guys who had worse grades than me in high school were living better lives. Or how that guy who skipped university and got a shotgun marriage was filling his SNS feed with his ‘fulfilled real life,’ getting tons of Likes.
Or my childhood friend, Miyako-chan, who married my younger brother and was constantly posting photos of her baby. I remembered the jealousy I felt when I saw her picture that read, “Made a meal for my husband coming home from his business trip ♡” and thought, Is my little brother getting homemade meals like this every single day?
Wait, didn’t I lose consciousness around then and wake up throwing up in the bathroom? I think I was obsessing over the idea that that happiness was supposed to be mine. Even now, I still occasionally get messages from former classmates about class reunions. But they don’t reach out because I’m their friend. They summon me, the clearly inferior one, just so they can enjoy the superiority of knowing how much better they are as adults compared to me.
I’d spent so many sleepless nights in this room because of those emails and social media posts. Couldn’t even afford to drown my sorrows in booze. All I could do was scroll on my phone, play games, read novels, or masturbate to my favorite images and pass out. Then I’d wake up to work the part-time job, scraping by every single day.
I’d run this life—full of suffering, mostly—within these walls for years. How many times had I thought about my brother and my former classmates while I was wasting the remainder of my life here? Honestly, I thought about it almost every single day.
To call this place a spiritual spot because of that was too much. I was about to open my mouth and argue when Ami-chan continued, her voice light and unbothered.
”As a rule, the back-and-forth between the worlds will only happen between the Great Phantasmal Soulstone Room and this apartment.”
”Is that…how it is?” I asked, feeling exhausted already.
”Yup. Well, depending on how I seal the magic, I might be able to change the exit point on this side. But the entrance on the other world’s side is absolutely fixed to the Great Phantasmal Soulstone Room,” she declared.
She went on about “environmental settings” and “theoretical numbers for load and body protection,” but most of it went right over my head. I figured as long as I knew the entry and exit points were fixed, it would be fine.
My eyes landed on my smartphone, which was lying on the floor with the charger still plugged in. Oh, right—I’d forgotten it that day. Considering I fell into the river and was then teleported to another world, I was glad I hadn’t had it on me.
I’d been missing for a whole month. I figured I must have a ton of calls and messages waiting for me… I turned the screen on. The only missed calls were from the manager at my part-time job.
”…………”
Not a single call or email from my family or the police. Not even spam mail. Nothing. But the manager had been calling me about once every three days. Ami-chan, looking at the screen, gave a voice of confirmation.
”Yep, yep, the time difference is exactly one month! Glad there’s no lag between here and there! But, Shou, your manager has been calling a lot, hasn’t he? It was a restaurant, right?”
”A-ah…”
For the past two months, I’d been working at a 24-hour donburi (rice bowl) shop. My shifts changed daily. I even did the single-person operation (one-op) shifts late at night, so a single, unannounced absence like mine must have been a huge burden on him.
He must be furious… Sigh. But since he’s dating a high school girl, I hoped he’d have the kindness to forgive me with a wide heart.
”I should probably call him back. I have to tell the manager I’m quitting, anyway.”
”You’re probably already fired, though,” Ami-chan noted, deadpan.
I dialed the number, and he picked up on the very first ring. Fast. He must have been right on his phone.
’Ah, Shimizu-san!? What’s up, man. You just disappeared, and no one could reach you; I was worried, you know!’
”Uh…ah, yeah, sorry. I got caught up in a bit of a t-t-trouble,” I stammered into the receiver.
The manager’s voice actually sounded sincerely worried. He didn’t sound angry at all.
’Huh, are you alright? Should I keep your shifts open for a little while, just in case?’
”About that… I know it’s selfish, but I’d like to quit. I don’t know when I’ll be able to work again, and I don’t want to cause you any more trouble,” I mumbled with self-pity.
Huh…? Was the manager actually being considerate of me…? The way he was talking, it sounded like I hadn’t been fired yet, even after a month of being a no-show.
What should I do? I felt a little happy. It had been years since anyone had shown me this much consideration. Just a little while ago, I thought of him as a younger, high-school-graduate ‘party boy’ who had a better life than me. But if he was this nice, then maybe that’s why the high school girls were all over him.
’S-su, gotcha… that’s a bummer, but I understand you gotta do what you gotta do, Shimizu-san. I understand. Your pay for last month is—”Agh! Ooh!“
”………!?”
Wait… did a woman’s voice just come through the phone…?
The manager must have covered the microphone, because his voice was muffled and heavily distorted.
’Oi! Keep it down… dammit. I know, I know, I accidentally answered when you called because I was fiddling with the screen while we were taking a video, but still—’ [distorted] [distorted]
Uh… wait a minute… did I just hear him say something incredible…?
”M-manager…? Hey, hello…?” I whispered in panic.
’A-ah. Sorry, Shimizu-san. Your pay has been transferred, so please check it. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me again. I’m sorry, but I have to go now,’ he rushed out.
Ah… it seems he was in the middle of a ‘friendly time’ with the high school girl. And he was filming it, too. That also explained the mystery of why he answered on the first ring. If he was already fumbling with the screen, an accidental answer was definitely possible.
”Did the call finish?” Ami-chan asked.
”Y-yeah…” I mumbled, feeling deflated.
What was this feeling? I think the manager genuinely was worried about me. That’s why it was so hard to let my jealousy turn into pure hatred for the guy, even though he was hooking up with a cute high school girl while talking to me.
I figured Cleonora’s existence had a lot to do with it. My fragile sense of self-worth—the manager might be sleeping with a cute high school girl, but I was sleeping with a princess from another world—offered a tiny bit of comfort.
As soon as I thought that, I realized how empty it was to try and one-up him based on the women we’d been intimate with. That, too, showed exactly where my pride and ego lay…
Sigh… I decided to stop thinking about it. “Okay, let’s check my account balance…” I sighed.
I opened the app, and sure enough, my part-time wages had been deposited. My total assets were 200,000 yen. Rent, plus utilities for gas, electric, and water, came to about 50,000 yen. Adding in food, that didn’t leave me with much financial breathing room.
I shared my grim financial situation with Ami-chan, hoping she would come through on the financial promises she had made earlier.
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Summary:
Shou returns to his squalid, self-loathing-filled apartment from the other world. His companion, Ami-chan, reveals his intense negative emotions make his room a fixed teleportation anchor. He checks his phone and is called back by his part-time manager, who is surprisingly concerned but accidentally reveals he is in the middle of filming intimate activities with his high school girlfriend. Shou quits his job, checks his paltry 200,000 yen bank balance, and desperately seeks financial help from Ami-chan.
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Character Insight:
Shou’s self-esteem is entirely wrapped up in comparing himself to others; his isekai experience only serves as a temporary, petty ego boost. He is so consumed by jealousy of his younger, less educated manager’s happiness and sexual life that he misses the human connection, only feeling a hollow, competitive ‘win’ because he slept with a princess. Ami-chan views his suffering with a detached, almost scientific curiosity.
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Behind the Scene:
This chapter establishes the core mechanics of world travel: the apartment is the fixed exit point, anchored by Shou’s years of resentment and toxic introspection. It highlights the stark contrast between his fantastical adventures and the crushing reality of his mundane, financially precarious life. The manager’s accidental revelation is a punchline meant to immediately puncture Shou’s small moment of being ‘cared for,’ driving him back to despair and desperation.
Notes:
• Ami – A palm-sized fairy-like being from a world separate from both Earth and the isekai realm. She has light blue hair tied in a ponytail, mischievous blue eyes, and tiny wings that flutter behind her. Her outfit consists of a provocative high-cut leotard and a short jacket that looks like a miniskirt from the back, leaving her legs bare. Despite her playful appearance, she is actively searching for a contractor who can protect her from dangerous pursuers in exchange for the powers she offers.
• Cleonora – The second princess. Have a yellow blonde hair. Usually styled as hairbun.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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