The Leisurely Established Advertising Agency in the Other World Handles Nobles, Adventurers, and Merchant Guilds with Ease
In the elevator, Taichi’s consciousness, which had been cut off the moment he touched Ayano’s hand, gradually began to awaken.
It seemed that he was regaining consciousness in the same position as when he had passed out. He was standing firmly and could feel something touching the tips of his fingers.
However, he was still surrounded by dazzling light, so he couldn’t see what was around him.
“……Wha… Happened…? Did it… work!?”
(What? Is someone shouting? No, never mind that!)
“Ayano-san! Are you alright??”
“Eh, Ito-san??”
Taichi felt relief upon hearing Ayano’s voice coming from the direction where his fingertips were touching.
As the light gradually calmed down, the silhouette of Ayano, still dressed in her earlier outfit, began to appear.
“I’m glad you’re safe…… huhhh???!”
The moment the light completely disappeared and Taichi clearly saw Ayano, he was left speechless.
There she was, no doubt about it—Ayano looked exactly the same, clothing and all.
“Uh, who are you again? You seem familiar, but…”
“How rude! It’s obviously me……!!! What?! Ito-san!??”
This time, Ayano stared at Taichi with the exact same reaction, frozen in place.
“You’re the one being rude. But hey, Ayano-san, did you really change that much just because of a little glow?”
“And you, isn’t your change a bit too extreme for just an image makeover?”
Both were stunned as they took in each other’s appearances.
“Ah, so I’ve changed too, huh…”
Taichi muttered as he examined his hands from different angles, while Ayano also looked at her own hands.
“Wait, does this mean… Could it be!?”
“Did you figure it out?”
“C-Could we be… younger!?”
“Yeah. I don’t know how I look to you, but to me, you look like Ayano-san from our college days.”
“…You look about the same age to me too.”
“Haa, I can’t believe both of us got younger…”
“That’s true… but, shocking as that is, where are we? And there’s someone behind you muttering something. Do you know them?”
“Ah, yeah, there really is someone here…”
When Taichi slowly turned around, there stood an old man in a deep maroon robe, muttering excitedly to himself.
“Heheheheh! Finally, finally, it’s done! After 50 years, 50 long years!! Now I can show those bastards and take over the world…”
“Hellooo?”
“…But why are there two of you? Isn’t the summoning supposed to bring only one person? Which one is the hero? What’s going on?”
“Hey, can you hear us?”
“No, maybe this is even better! If I managed to summon two heroes, Theodore will go down in history!”
“Nope, he’s completely lost in his own world. We shouldn’t get involved with this guy.”
“Quiet! All of you should just obediently do as I say!!”
“Ah, yeah, definitely a dangerous guy…”
“Yeah, let’s start by…”
While the old man rambled on, suddenly, a ring of light appeared in midair.
“Huh?”
“What?”
“What!?”
All three reacted with surprise as multiple rings of light intertwined, rotated, multiplied, and expanded in diameter.
Staring blankly, the trio watched as the rings of light grew in number until they eventually formed a sphere of light about 3 meters in diameter.
“Is that… a three-dimensional magic circle? But a magic circle of that scale…”
Before the old man could finish mumbling in awe, a shadowy figure emerged from within the glowing sphere.
If one were to describe the figure in a single word—
“…An angel? No, a goddess??”
Ayano couldn’t help but express it that way. The figure certainly resembled an angel or a goddess.
Standing about 2 meters tall, the figure possessed an exquisite feminine physique.
Though seemingly naked, there were no noticeable curves on their body—it was as if they were wearing a pure white latex suit.
Their face, however, was unmistakably human—and yet, too beautiful to be human. Their beauty transcended humanity.
Long silver hair framed their face, complemented by slightly open crimson eyes. Terrifyingly gorgeous, but devoid of any expression that would make their face seem alive.
Most striking of all were the large, two-winged appendages on their back. Using them, the figure hovered in the air, gently flapping their wings.
“And who might you be?”
Taichi asked, but the figure ignored him, speaking instead in a monotone voice:
‘Contract request from summoner confirmed. Payment calculated based on requested contract terms: 3,620,130,000. Proceeding to collect payment.’
“Hold on! Contract request? What do you mean by ‘payment’?”
‘The summoner may propose a contract to the executor of the summoning by paying the required compensation.
The compensation must be paid regardless of whether the contract is accepted or not.
For this contract, the specified compensation is the summoner’s remaining lifespan.
The amount of compensation is calculated based on the contents of the contract.’
Once again, the emotionless voice responded, and a ring of light appeared around the old man, who had been referred to as the “summoner,” beginning to rotate.
“What is this!? And my remaining lifespan!? I wasn’t told anything about that! Besides, I didn’t agree to any contract… Ggh, w-wait…”
As small particles of light began emanating from the ring, the old man started screaming in pain, collapsing to his knees.
Ignoring the suffering man, the ring continued spinning, drawing more particles of light into the goddess.
Unable to do anything but watch in shock, Taichi and Ayano looked on as the man’s body began to wither, as though all moisture was being drained from it.
“Da…mn, this wasn’t… supposed…”
Those were the old man’s final words.