The day after my successful retry at taking Layla out on a date.
With summer vacation around the horizon, the heat and humidity felt in the classroom was almost in proportion to the excitement the students felt. We were told to keep the AC set to the weakest possible setting out of concern for global warming and such, but, like, what was the point if the room would still be hot, you know? It was whatever to me though.
“Man, the places in Kyoto where you can train to be an Awakened One sure are pricey, aren’t they?”
“Rather than Kyoto, I’m planning on going to Nagoya. I have relatives who live there, so I asked them if I could stay with them for a bit”
“In the end, I guess the training events held by the Society of the Sage is the most accessible.”
“My cousin apparently Awakened in one of those training events. I’m not kidding”
“And they thoroughly explain stuff there too. People also say that it’s guaranteed to be safe, what with doctors on standby in the site.”
“Plus, they have this information desk lady who is not just a great beauty but also an elf! Here, look at a photo of her. She’s tall and so cool too!”
A beautiful elf woman?
My ears perked up a bit upon hearing that, but then the image of that self-professed holy knight popped in my mind, so I stopped imagining stuff then and there.
I mean, that pervert is a top-class beauty and she has a great figure to boot, I won’t deny that…but her preferences, man…
“Those Society of the Sage sure are getting popular, aren’t they?”
“Right?”
While we were gathered around Kumai-kun’s desk, we listened to the chatter of our classmates.
There were naturally many of our classmates who were making and discussing plans like going to the beach or going to the mountains, but this time, at least half of the class was talking about Awakening training. A good number of that half was also talking quite favorably of the Society of the Sage. That was what I felt, at least. And while I’m at it, I would say it was mainly the girls who did so.
These topics were always present in our classroom, but I felt like its frequency and the number of people who brought it up had risen. That was probably just how much everybody wanted to Awaken.
While I understood those feelings, I wasn’t onboard with relying on some new faith to realize them. Not that I would voice my opinion to the class, of course. If I said anything under the present mood of the class, I would be ostracized by everyone for sure. I would imagine even Aihara-kun couldn’t say that out loud, so what more for people like us? Plus, if it were ever exposed that I was already an Awakened One, just imagining the attention that would be directed at me—someone unpopular unlike Aihara-kun—well, it filled me with so much dread.
“Mm?”
Speak of the devil and he shall appear. I got a message from Aihara-kun.
This is just an aside but wasn’t he at least nervous of being found out that he was sending a message with his phone? Like, he was currently surrounded by members of the Group A. How could he send a message without even looking at the screen and while laughing with them? Was he really the same kind of human as us?
But whatever. I decided to check the message. After knitting my brows, I showed my phone’s screen to my two friends.
<<The Magic Tool we talked about seems to be popular among the second years. I’d like your help searching the school later, after our classes.>>
“…I’m in”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Alright”
Seeing them nod, I sent Aihara-kun a message of our participation.
Aihara-kun had apparently tried to gather some information on the subject, but being a freshman, it was unsurprisingly hard even for him to investigate the other year levels. For our part, we searched places like the gymnasium and the school’s rear yard, but we found nothing that might be a Gate-hiding Magic Tool.
I saw no other alternative but for us to provide assistance here. After all, if an overflow were to happen here or nearby, our houses and maybe more would be at risk.
The distance between the house my family lived in and the school was more than the minimum permanent dungeon danger zone of 2 kilometers, sure, but it was only by around 200 meters. That was no guarantee at all; simply a margin of error. Kumai-kun and Uoyama-kun were under similar predicaments.
Beyond the house itself, there was, of course, the lives of my parents. Thankfully, my father normally wasn’t at home during daytime. As for my mom, I had told her that if push came to shove, she should go to my room and evacuate in my Otherworld there. Furthermore, Layla had installed a simple barrier in our yard, so it shouldn’t be so easy for our home to be invaded by monsters.
I would tell myself that my parents should be safe with all those in place, but then images of the Minotaur and the Fire Drakes would flash in my mind and cold sweat would soon run down my back. If any monster like those were to appear, the Otherworld and the barrier would be like a drop in the bucket. I would count myself lucky if those precautions could even buy me a sliver of time.
And if a monster worse than even those were to appear…
“…Why the gloomy face, Kyotaro?”
“Kumai-kun…”
“Geez, man. Even though you’re quite the optimist in oddest of times, but oh boy, you also tend to overthink stuff from time to time.”
He shrugged his shoulders and said so with a smirk.
“No helping it, I guess. Time to share some good news!”
Good news? What can it possibly be? Like, is that new faith finally getting investigated? Or did the JSDF develop some awesome, powerful weapon?
“Truth is…I’ve finally determined the dungeon that Kurumatani-san frequents…!”
Kurumatani-san, Kurumatani-san, Kurumatani-san… Who was that again? Is that the 20-year-old girl that this old-faced gorilla is interested in? By the sound of it, she still doesn’t know of him, and they still haven’t talked face to face. Alright, that does it.
“Alright, I’m reporting you to the police”
“I’ll come with you…”
“I can’t believe the two of you are that heartless. Don’t you feel any hesitation at all on getting your friend arrested?”
““I’ve always thought he would do something like that someday””
“Stop it, please!”
We thought it was better to practice now on being questioned by the police.
Don’t worry, Kumai-kun…even after you get arrested for being a stalker, we’d still be friends!
“I’m telling you guys, I haven’t violated any laws. I might be pushing the limits of ‘toeing the line’, but still, I’ve never crossed it!”
“That actually scares me more…”
“The pointless shrewdness only makes me feel more annoyed.”
“Do you two hate me or something?”
“If we did, we wouldn’t have held back on reporting you”
“…sorry, I just didn’t know how to react before”
“It is what it is. You need only apply yourself further”
“Hehehe”
What’s with the bit? Are you two suddenly trying to become a comedy duo?
“Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I am one step closer in my path to romance. I’ve also been able to determine the accounts her little sister use for social media sites. And! I also confirmed that Kurumatani-san is currently single. She’s apparently living by herself right now though, so getting her address is proving to be difficult.”
“Serious question here dude: are you sure you haven’t broken any laws yet?”
“In the present day, there have been many precedent on how it is possible to harass someone without ever making any direct contact with them.”
“Oh quit it. Don’t you have any trust on me, huh!?”
I mean, you’re a pervert, so…
“I mean, you’re a pervert, so…”
“You’re making me cry, dude. Actually, why don’t I make you cry!?”
I am opposed to this violence! As a pacifist, I will not yield to the unjust use of force!! We mustn’t forget about the spirit of friendship! We humans have language, all so we could talk and understand each other…ahh, my bad, I forgot you’re a gorilla.
Kumai-kun was getting excited, going all ooh ooh ahh ahh, so I decided to use Uoyama-kun as a shield.
You won’t have an easy time breaking through this defense! For this is the power of friendship!!
“Hold on, why are you casually using me, the frailest of us, as a shield???”
“Prepare yourself, Uoyama…I’ll end this with a single blow”
“End what? My life!? No, I won’t allow it. I’ve already decided that if I’m going to go, I’m going out while being sexually pleased by tentacles!”
“…you know what, sorry”
“We-well, good luck with that, I suppose”
I subtly distanced myself. I just didn’t get him sometimes…
While we were goofing off like that, the bell signaling the start for homeroom rang. Soon enough, although a little later than usual, our teacher entered the room.
In response, the students all hurried to their seats. I was one of them. And so, while I was wondering where to search after school or whether to speak with our teachers about it, my day in school started as usual.
Or so I thought.
I felt a change in the air. A discomfort assailed me too, like a chill suddenly mixed in with the hot air in the room which the weak AC was unable to do anything about. I knew this discomfort. I was familiar with it. I had gone through this experience THREE times before, after all. No matter how unperceptive I was of magic power, I was dead certain about this.
As the teacher’s words passed from one ear to the other, an intense rotten smell made its way to me. It was a stench so awful that it couldn’t be only of rotten flesh though. It was the stench of what used to be flesh, bones, and viscera. I was familiar with this as well, thanks to a request I had accepted and completed before.
I then heard the sound of footsteps, only it was odd, like uncovered flesh making direct contact with liquid and splashing it. Curious, I turned to look in the direction of the sound. The source was near the rear door of the classroom.
There was no sound of the door opening or closing. The thing was just there, suddenly and without following logical chain of events. Some light brown, tattered cloth covered its entire body, with only the area around its eyes somewhat exposed. I saw dark green skin and its eyeballs were turbid.
Moreover, in its hand was a rusty sword. It was probably beautifully decorated at one point, but after the wear of time or something, all that remained of it was a weapon meant to do others harm.
This unknown intruder covered in rags raised the sword that clearly didn’t have a sharp blade. Its target was an unaware female student at the back who was staring disinterestedly at the teacher’s desk.
“—!!”
My body moved before I could even think.
I deployed my Magical Attire as I leapt toward them. I could have run toward them, but then the other students would be in the way and I ran the risk of running them over. But a consequence of jumping over was that my chair and the ground beneath it were blown away. Along the way, I used the ceiling to redirect myself toward that moving corpse in rags, toward that [Draugr].
A Draugr was a zombie-like monster that appeared in North European folktales. It was said that it would fight anyone in order safeguard a treasure in a tomb, while in some tales, it was something that would ride some boat and sail away. There were many variations to them, but we could ignore them for now. Because what mattered at the moment was that a Draugr was a C rank monster.
My punch should have been as good as a surprise attack, but the monster was still able to react to my attack with its sword. My gauntlet soon clashed against the blade, making a clang and some sparks. And for a brief moment, neither of us budged. But it was only for that brief moment. My punch overpowered the monster and knocked the sword away.
Before the Draugr could regain its balance, I grabbed it by its rags to stop its movement. Almost at the same time, I pulled out my dagger and sliced its head off.
Maybe it was because of the loud noise I made when I launched from my seat, but my classmates were startled and looking at that direction. Not all of them though as some were looking my way. One of them, unsurprisingly, was the girl who was being targeted. As for the others who looked my way…
“Teacher! This is an emergency! You have evacuate the students!”
One of them was Aihara-kun. With some rattle, he stood from his seat and put on his Magical Attire. Following his lead, Kumai-kun and Uoyama-kun also deployed their own Magical Attires. They moved to secure the other door of the classroom.
“W-what!? What are you doing!!?”
Aihara-kun walked briskly toward our shaken teacher and grabbed them by the collar. Unlike his usual self, impatience and irritation were visible on his face, totally unconcealed.
“There are monsters! The school is about to turn into another dungeon! So get out and evacuate before it happens!”
“W-what—”
“Tsk!”
I decided to look away for a moment from my confused teacher and from the bustling classroom. I directed my attention out at the hallway. But then, I noticed Aihara-kun shooting out from the other door and running to push the fire alarm button.
That was some quick thinking and quick response. And yet…
“Kyaaaaaa!!”
“H-help, somebody!”
“What the, what the heck…!?”
Screams erupted from the other classrooms one after the other. Fear and confusion were very much palpable from the screams. There was so much screaming around me that it drowned out even the fire alarm. It felt as though the screams were even shaking the whole school building.
I went out to the hallway, and looked outside through the nearest window. The moment I stepped outside of the classroom, another set of stench assailed my nose. This time, the smell of blood was mixed in along the decaying stench. But what made me frown wasn’t the smell. It was the view outside: a dark canopy was threatening to cover the summer sky above.
…suddenly, I recalled that conversion my friends and I had. It was about what would happen if monsters were to show up in school.
“Goddammit”
I stomped the hallway with my boot as I cursed under my helm. Not one bit of me ever wished for any of that to come true.
This would be the fourth time this has happened to me. Much like the other times, this was sudden and without any rhyme or reason. It was a sucker punch to the face. Absurd to the extreme.
Soon enough, students from a nearby classroom began flooding out. And behind them, a monster that held an unclean spear was chasing. I moved to intercept it with my sword. It was another moving corpse covered in rags. As I stared at its turbid eyes, I pushed the spear up with all my might and then swung my sword to lop off its torso. While I checked to see if the monster would turn into particles of magic power, I stepped over the fallen top half.
In that single step, the gruesome scene within the classroom forced its way into my view. Bodies of men and women wearing the uniform I only recently had gotten used to wearing were on the floor, scattered between the desks. Each one was bloody all over. And near them were 3 Draugrs.
Each Draugr readied the weapons they held and charged at me, scattering the desks and chairs in their way. Their lifeless movements made them seem more like a swarm of insects trying to overpower me with sheer numbers. In response, I silently called out my girls.
And so, on this hot and humid morning, one week before summer vacation, a tragedy reeking of decay unfolded.
RPGNovels 
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