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TLN: Yeah, the prologue doesn’t really do much. Thankfully, the free preview for this LN online includes the first chapter as well, or at least, part of it, I think? Either that, or the chapter cuts off at an abrupt spot. Anyways, this should give a better picture of what the LN is about.
This is still a teaser BTW.

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Day 1, Classroom

I read books. That’s my usual lunch break life. Don’t call me a loner! Well, you wouldn’t be wrong if you did.

However, I’m impressed at how people can just talk incessantly for on and on, and continue to talk for on and on. All that can be said is that I’m a second year high schooler. Nevertheless, I’m a guy that fiddles around with his phone and doesn’t really have many relationships. I sit in the center of the class, so I can’t settle down and read because I get noise coming at me from all 360 degrees.

I don’t know how classes are divided or if it would be easy to ask that question, but what I do know is that the students that are having difficulties are gathered into one building to form a class, and that the girls will gather around the window near the corridor of where the sports elite boys are. All of them are famous enough people to become TV celebrities.

Being in the middle means crowding around the mess of straight-A students, kinda famous artistic girls, sons of politicians, and sons of actors. In front of me are the problem children, the group of delinquents that seem to want to stand out by making an uproar with their loud voices. Near the window are the gyarus, the group of amateur models that sing with their booming voices.

Then in the back are the isolated, bullied otakus that are quietly whispering amongst themselves to an extent. I have no idea what they were thinking when they put the delinquents and bullied kids into the same class. It’s noisy. It’s annoying.

I read books. I think it’d be okay if I say that I’ve been reading books since I was a child, endlessly reading through picture books. I was told that if I kept reading like I was, I would gain bad eyesight, but it didn’t get to the point where I needed eyeglasses. Due to that, the expression of my eyes looks pretty bad, and I haven’t done anything about it yet!

Let me say it again, it’s noisy. I cannot focus on my book at all. Why does an ordinary person like me have to be in this class of problematics? It’s noisy, ah~ noisy, noisy.

Hmm…? Is there something here…? Something’s here! What is this sensation? Eh!

Suddenly, the floor of the class begins to shine. Overlapping discs and mysterious letters written on geometrical shapes interlaced with the luminescence…wait, this a magic square! Ah…is it really that? Well, going by the orthodox development, I don’t seem to be wrong. If this was instead a sudden math test with figure problems, then the math teacher would pop out from somewhere at any moment!

While thinking so, my body began to move. The door from behind wouldn’t open. It wouldn’t break from kicking it. I threw a nearby chair at the window. It didn’t break. Yup, this is going along the standard routine so far. I lunged towards a locker in the back of the classroom, and used that momentum to run up the locker with the aid of a tall cleaning tool. Right above is an inconspicuous hatch used for ceiling inspection. I used my momentum from running up to throw myself into the hatch. Alright! I then burst into the area above the ceiling. Got it!

The shine of the magic square from behind continued to strengthen, then in the end, the inside of the classroom turned pure white. Having crawled into the attic, I was only slightly separated. Oh? After all~ what happened just now was a transportation into another world, right? Light novels, anime, and manga are filled with transportations into another world, but they’re not supposed to be real. Wouldn’t there have been cases all over Japan about being transporting to another world already? I make my way through the attic somehow. With this, I should be away from…woaaaaah~.

Yikes~, it actually happened! The cliche development! I’m in a pure white room!

I don’t suppose I need to say this, but what would be even more cliche is if it were the expected world of swords and magic. What if it took a twist and turned out to be a space war, or a sci-fi realm in the near future? It’d be unpleasant if it were a bizarre, horror-like world. However, do magic squares appear in sci-fi? Perhaps sci-fi and magic really do go hand-in-hand? No no, that can’t be it. This will certainly turn into a dark historical moment tomorrow, where the public will crowd around about how “people got transported into another world.” Going by the cliche, there would be someone who says something embarrassing like “I’m a god. Go to a world of swords and magic for me, haha.” I was pretending that this is a magic square, but it’s actually more geometrical…so, what kind of world is this leading to? A mathematical world? I do not want to get transported there!! I don’t feel like I’ll be able to win against my formidable enemy, prime factorization.

Actually, why is nobody here? Was I neglected? Don’t summon me, then! It’s usually customary to welcome someone in and provide hospitality, but…

 

I’ve got free time now. They might as well summon a bookstore while they’re at it, I wonder if Amazon delivers all the way to here?

Oh, there’s an old man? He’s looking over here. Is he wandering around? If you can’t find your house, it’s best that you don’t go along to another world, you know? Don’t tell me that this is the beginning of a story about an old man with dementia getting transported into another world?!

‘Why are you here in such a place?’

Old man, was there something you ate?

‘I did not eat anything!’

You can read my thoughts?!

This seems to be that, a demented old man claiming to be god was summoned into the white room, it seems?

‘What’s going on?! You’re finally here now!’

It seems he’s an old man with a short temper. Ah~ he’s gone senile to the point of yelling.

‘I’m not senile! Take I’m what saying seriously!’

Senile people would deny that they’re senile in front of others, right? Well, people who aren’t actually senile would say that as well.

‘Enough! Don’t meddle around! Why are you here!’

Yikes~ why did an old man decide to bring himself here. Furthermore, he’s peering into someone’s thoughts without permission and lashing out by saying ‘Don’t meddle around!’

No doubt about it, this is a story about a wandering, demented old man causing trouble in another world. The subtitle would be “Demon Lord, have you paid your rice taxes yet?” Yup, I feel that it would garner high praise.

‘*sigh* Are you actually listening? The others have already been transported to another world, you know? Why weren’t you in the room that I was summoning?’

Well~I didn’t know that the place I was at was any different from the room you were summoning us from.

‘I called you all not per individual, but as a group. I thought that would be enough to gather everyone, but you’re the only one who was in a different spot from the summoning location.’

Eh~, it’s not my fault though. I just had an idea of what was going on.

‘Do you have an explanation?! Why in the world…did you escape from that confined room?! Why was there an opening on the ceiling?!’

Pfft. Who knew such a prideful, all-mighty deity would overlook a maintenance door, haha.

‘So you do know who I am! I wasn’t told that there was a door on the ceiling of that room, it’s strange that you know about it!’

So basically, fleeing to that spot was fine. Wasn’t it quite unfair that I was overlooked?

‘I’ll say this, I was able to summon you all because your wavelengths and total values were compatible. If even one person escapes, it won’t work out. In the end, one person was just barely caught in the boundaries of the dimensional barrier by going to an unthinkable spot…’

Did you read my mind already? Is it futile to get Amazon here~? Are you not able to summon a large bookstore~?

‘I can’t just suddenly summon something that large. Furthermore, if I have to summon another bookstore each time a new book comes out, won’t all the bookstores in your country be gone? Think about the employees you would trouble!’

He pointed out the faults in that. Furthermore, he can read deep into my mind. However, you should think about my troubles too! You’re being pretty partial towards all the bookstore employees. Do I get a kind of special treatment as well? I want some too!

‘I’m sorry, but the sending of a group or individual with compatible wavelengths and total values from your world to another world is a divine command. It is not me who selected you people.’

Damn. I don’t get what total values mean, but in the worst case scenario, this means I can’t read books! Those people were only hindrances to my reading and would swarm together as they hung out. I get it, I was called to the other world to beat them up!

‘That’s not it! Don’t just arbitrarily decide to beat your school friends up! That completely has to do with your personal grudges.’

I should clear away these grudges…

‘Listen to me!’

Ah~, they’re probably moving forward already, right? I’ve been taking to this old man for a while now. Anyways, he’ll probably say “I’m a (self-proclaimed) god. Go to a world of swords and magic for me, haha,” right?

‘…I do not say ‘haha.’ Also, my status isn’t self-proclaimed! Anyways, the others have already finished their preparations and are moving out. If you don’t hurry, you’ll soon go into this other world alone, you know? Will you be able to join the others who have already set out? We need to hurry with your preparations or you’ll get left behind.’

Ah~. So the others are together. Cliche isn’t it, haha. If we’re heading to the Middle Ages, then there are no books, not to mention large bookstores, are there? It seems there really is no choice but to summon an Amazon postman.

‘The Amazon postman won’t be able to return! The other world will be full of postmen! It’s going to turn into an other world full of bookstore employees and postmen!’

Are you really going to say no to me wanting to read books? Is it not okay if it’s just employees and postmen?! How about summoning a group of novelists in one spot?

‘Stop this! Just to be clear, I’m not going to do that!’

Anyways, your old-man-explanations were long, so they went in one ear and out the other. Make your explanations simple. Just explain things like the kingdoms, the language of this other world, any demons, and so forth. If your talk turns out to be long, it’s fine to just write it down on paper, right? I want something to read, so how about you show us your literary talent, old man.

‘What’s left are the preparations.’

What are these preparations? Is it like knowing how much a snack is, or if there’s a problem with the bananas over there?

‘Choose your skills…first come, first serve.’

“Old man―――!”

‘Call me a god! Who’s an old man? You’re speaking out loud for the first time instead of talking with your thoughts, and your first words are ‘old man’?!’

If there were 43 people and the cheat skills are given on a first come, first served basis, there won’t be any left! The good ones would probably be taken already. This is the worst. This must your doing, old man. In any case, I didn’t see them yet, so…

‘Choose your skills. Do it quickly, I didn’t think there’d be a day where a god would get so worn out…’

Finally giving up on making a retort, he began moving forward the discussion on his own accord. How selfish~. Ooh~, I don’t see many…huh? Before my eyes was a floating black panel with large amount of text popping up. Is a tablet not good enough for the job here? As expected, the old man groaned ‘I told you not to meddle around~I told you not to meddle around already~.’ Maybe he’s begun reciting some kind of poem? Ignoring the senile old man, I read the large amount of text. I went through it in one go. There’s a lot here, but…most of it is faded out. Does that mean I can’t take them?

On the top it says “Allocate Points(P) to Status- ‘One point per increase’, or ‘Roll Dice (10P to roll 2 dice)’.” I have 50P. It’s routine to only raise luck, but its base value is 10. Even if I allocate all my points to it, it’ll just be 60. This is tricky. I don’t know how much the max value will increase by leveling up either. The ‘One point each’ part is the only one written in grey. The dice is…not worth it. It costs 10 points, and with two dice, there will be an increase of 12 at best and 2 at worst. The chances here are too low.

Second is “Weapons, Armor, Items- 5P~50P.” There are single-use items like potions which are 5P. Then there’s weapons and armor that range from 5P to 30P. Then there are sets that go for 50P. I’d like medicines, but using up points for them is inefficient. I should aim for recovery magic. It’s scary suddenly starting out without any weapons, but there’s not a single weapon or piece of armor left. It seems the others have already claimed all of them. Isn’t this unfair for me, who’s last?

With more than 100 items being taken, what’s left was “Item Assortment (Villager A)- 50P.” These ones are already taken, but the ones for “Monk Knight,” “Great Sage,” and “Heavy Warrior” are also 50P. Those sets are a bargain for their price. All that’s left for me is “Villager A, 50P.” This price is too disastrous! It’s contents are just things like a wooden stick and cloth attire. Then finally, a villager’s diary is also included. Not worth it. What’s also left is “Contact Lenses: Improve your eyes- 30P.” I certainly do want contacts. Having bad eyesight is a disadvantage. If it was 5P, I’d have the leeway to take them so that I can improve my sight, and it might even have an effect on the bad expression of my eyes. Though, 30P is way too much! No wait, perhaps they’d be necessary for those with really bad eyesight? It’s likely that this other world doesn’t have modern eyeglasses. However, 30P is unreasonable. I’d only have 20P left.

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