Well, wouldn't be cool if Merle gave you a small little side quest to go back to Earth? Yeah, I know it's far fetched but oh well, just thinking here. But you will notice in creating your wizard that Merle talks about lands where magic is not believed so maybe it's Earth. I think it'd be cool to go back to Earth for a little mini side quest... What do you guys think?
when merle said "a very distant realm. a place where they do not believe in magic", it means he brought YOU from earth to save the spiral and the only wizards on earth are movie stars and illusion masters, so they dont believe in magic (but i do, ever noticed cool tricks like tennis balls attracting water?)