My Personal Gain Return! Even After Coming Back to Earth from Another World, I Can Still Use Magic? I Have an Item Box? Even If Earth Ends Up in Trouble, It’s All a Win for Me!

“Then let’s all meet here.”

All eyes turned to me after those words left my mouth.

“Well, yes. Borrowing Yamato-ya’s living room seems like a good idea.”
“Agreed. Since I also want to check out Dungeon B2 before we leave, it’ll be easier to use Yamato-ya as our base.”
“But we need to be careful that those not returning don’t accidentally get caught in the process.”
“Oh, like Kaoru falling into the return gate by mistake!”

“Hey, I’m not that clumsy!”

“Let’s make it a rule—anyone not returning should avoid the living room entirely on the day of departure. We need to make sure the kids understand that, right, Kaoru?”

“I’m not a kid, and I’m not falling into anything!”

Despite my protests, Lin-san’s teasing words had everyone nodding in agreement.

“By the way, where exactly will the gate lead? Are we returning to the Japan of ten years ago, at the exact moment we left?”

The question had been nagging at me.

Ten years after a meteor strike, what would Earth even look like? Even if the strike had been avoided, wasn’t humanity on the brink of collapse?
And what about the families left behind—would we be reappearing in their lives, ten years later, as if nothing had happened?

Yugo, ever the information gatherer, answered my question with surprising clarity.

“We’ll return to the exact time and place we were transported from. However, time itself won’t be rewound. The gods will return us to our original ‘point,’ but it’s not time travel.”

“Not rewound? So we’re just going to show up, ten years older?”

“No,” Yugo explained. “Our bodies will be rewound by ten years.”

That raised even more questions.

“Kaoru, stop thinking too hard! Just feel it with your body!”

“O-okay,” I stammered in response to Anessa, though I had no idea how to “feel it.”

Fortunately, as one of the stay-behind group, I didn’t need to understand the intricacies of time travel. I enjoyed isekai fantasy novels but was hopeless when it came to science fiction, especially time-slip stories.

Tau-san, watching me, smiled with the gentleness of someone humoring a child.

“Kaoru, remember when you first arrived in this world? Your status showed you had been de-aged by ten years. It’s probably the same process.”

Tau-san’s calm explanation reassured me.

“We’ll return to that day with our current memories intact, but our bodies will be ten years younger,” Yugo added.

Yugo shared more details:

*”We were so shocked by the possibility of returning that we couldn’t ask the gods everything. But here’s what we do know:

We’ll return to the exact moment and place we left.
Our bodies will be rewound by ten years.
The comet’s destruction was narrowly averted by humanity’s efforts, which apparently astonished even the gods.”*

“Wait—gods? There’s more than one?” Acchan muttered, gently patting my back.

“Well, Japan does have eight million gods,” I pointed out. “They must really care for us to intervene like this.”

“Yes,” Yugo continued. “The massive meteor was avoided, but smaller meteors will still fall. The gods even showed us a brief image of what to expect.”

“So even if you return, you’ll face a disaster,” Anessa said, pouting.

“The gods made it clear,” Yugo replied. “Even with the challenges, the choice to return or stay was ours to make.”

Anessa’s expression was conflicted—excitement at reuniting with her family mixed with sadness at leaving her companions.

“Hey, load up your item boxes with as much as you can carry,” I suggested. “Disaster supplies will be essential for surviving on Earth.”

“But there’s no guarantee our item boxes or even our statuses will work back on Earth,” Yugo countered, biting his lip.

“True,” Tau-san agreed. “Before coming here, we were just regular humans. We might lose all the abilities and tools we’ve gained in this world.”

“Still, if you’re taking your memories, who knows what else might come with you? It’s worth a shot!” I insisted.

Everyone gave me a look of amused exasperation, but I doubled down.

“We’ve got ten days. Fill those boxes! If it works, great. If not, nothing lost.”

Para-san, with his strong voice, backed me up:

“Kaoru’s right. Do everything you can now. When you return, you shouldn’t regret what you’ve left undone. And we don’t want to regret not preparing enough to send you off properly.”

“Exactly!” Acchan and Yama-san chimed in.

The preparation frenzy began. Some returned to the royal capital to settle their affairs, while others, like us, headed to B2 to make bulk purchases.

“Buying out entire stores? I’ve never done anything like this before,” Lemon-san said, hesitating at the entrance to a shop.

“Neither have I,” Kick added, his face pale.

“Thanks to Kaoru,” Acchan said brightly. “You’ve taken care of us ever since we got here.”

I waved off her gratitude. I wasn’t trying to burden anyone with a sense of debt. If my resources could help, that was all I wanted.

By the end of the day, our group was exhausted but satisfied. Even Tau-san and the others, initially weighed down by the gravity of their decision, seemed livelier.

“Kaoru,” Para-san said as we wrapped up, “Thanks for pushing us. You’ve made this easier for everyone.”

We returned to Yamato-ya, where Golda, the guild leader, was waiting.

“The gods sent a message, didn’t they? What’s your decision?” Golda asked bluntly.

“We’re staying,” I answered firmly.

Golda nodded, relief flashing across his face before he departed quickly.

The thought struck me: even if we stayed or left, the world would go on. This town, which had thrived in the ten years since our arrival, no longer depended on us. But we weren’t leaving. This was our home now.