Hajime and Saito had covered their eyes with their hands and kept their eyes tightly shut. When they realized that the people around them were muttering something, they slowly opened their eyes. They were dumbfounded at what they were seeing.

"Um… Saito?"

"Yeah Hajime?"

"You're seeing this too, right?"

"Yeah. I am."

"Okay. Just making sure I wasn't going mad."

"If you were, that means I was going mad too. So in a way, I glad you're not going mad, but at the same time I wish I were. Cause that would mean that where we are is just a product of some mass hallucination event."

The first thing in their line of sight was a massive thirty-two-foot-long mural, depicting some kind of androgynous person who was faintly smiling, wreathed in a halo, and had flowing blond hair behind them. In the background were plains, lakes, and mountains, and the figure was reaching their hands out wide as if trying to grab it all at once. As breathtakingly beautiful as that work of art was, the pair could feel a chill run down their spine as they gazed upon it, as if that painting represented something sinister.

Trying to look at anything else, Hajime and Saito realized that they were standing in a vast chamber, the entire room sculpted in a kind of gleaming and smooth material similar to white marble. Massive columns with sculptures carved into them raised high all the way to the dome ceiling. Its grandness made the Sistine Chapel look like a local modern art museum.

Hajime and Saito realized that they were standing on a white stone plinth in the deepest recesses of the room, surrounded by thirty or so people in white robes with gold embroidery. At their side were what looked like bishop's crosiers, with the tips opened into a fan shape and with several flat discs hung from the end. They were kneeling with their hands crossed about their chest, as if praying.

The other students were also shocked and taking in their surroundings, Kaori and Sakura were slumped on the ground, but appeared not to be injured.

Eventually, one of the priests stepped forward toward the students. He was in his seventies and was clearly the head of the church, as his white robes were even more lavishly decorated than his fellow priests, and he wore a richly decorated monk's cap that was eleven inches tall. If it wasn't for his deeply wrinkled face and aged eyes, Hajime and Saito would've mistaken him to be in his fifties. His staff jingled as he walked, clear soothing tones reverberating throughout the halls all the while. As he reached the edge of the plinth, he spoke.

"Greetings brave heroes. It is my great pleasure to welcome you to Tortus. I am Ishtar Langbard, the pope of the Holy Church. If you would please follow me to another room where it be easier to converse." Ishtar greeted the students (plus teacher) in a polite manner and gestured them to follow him. Still anxious, everyone pursued the old man.

The new room was just as grand as the previous one, much so that even the students inexperienced to such luxurious décor realized how lavishing the furniture and the tapestries hanging on the walls were. The room's layout was obviously a banquet hall, with four long and polished wooden tables, big enough and with enough chairs to hold the entire class plus the three celebrities. Aiko Hatayama and Kouki's group of four claimed seats at the head of each table, Sakura, Yukiko, and Ryosuke sat nearest the head of each table, their followers arranged themselves around them, and Hajime and Saito sat next to each other at the very end of theirs.

Since everyone was still reeling from their precipitous arrival in a completely different Earth, and Ishtar promised that everything will be explained shortly, no one started to freak out. Plus, Kouki's max-level charisma kept everyone calm. Although Aiko-sensei silently wept as a student did her job.

After everyone finished getting seated, Ishtar clapped his hands surprisingly loud for such brittle looking hands and then a beautiful sight for every boy to lo and behold came in: several maids pushing carts full of refreshments. Also, these weren't your phony baloney, run of the mill maids outside of the certain Eden of electronic stores, nor the rare but most commonly found European maids that are old and plump and had on such dull-looking outfits. They were the bona-fide young and beautiful maids that wore black dresses with long skirts and frilly white headwear and aprons that encompasses the average teenage boys' fantasies.

Even though they still had no idea what was going on, the appearance of these rare gems drove almost every boy to longingly gaze at their graceful movements as they served each student drinks, their insatiable curiosity and latent libido hindering their inhibitions. The only boy to not be affected by this was Ryosuke, who was both used to having maids cater to him, and he only had eyes for Sakura. As all the boys were enamored by the maids, the girls in turned looked at the boys with a hell-freezing glare. Hajime and Saito were ready to ogle at their respective maids serving them drinks when they felt an arctic stare piercing each of their backs, causing them to look straight ahead. Looking at each other, realizing they both felt this strange and sudden sensation. The pair risked glancing at the direction it came from, only seeing Kaori and Sakura beaming happily at them. They both silently agreed to chalk it up as brief lapse in sanity.

"Now then," Ishtar began as everyone was given their refreshments. "I am sure everyone here is exceedingly confused as to why you are all here, and rest assured, all will be explained. I only ask that you hear me out until the end." His explanation was so basic and unwarranted that it felt like it came straight out a fantasy book template. To sum up, this was the world called Tortus:

There exist three main races: the Humans the reside in the northern half of the continent, Demons in the southern half, and Beastmen far to the east within a massive forest.

Humans and demons had been at war for hundreds of years. What demon lacked in the sheer numbers' humans had, they made up for in each one possessing immense strength, surpassing that of most humans and balancing out the metaphorical scales, until recently. There are reports of frequent demon movements, but the more stressing was the reports of demons taming monsters, animals which have undergone a magical physiological change due to absorbing mana. Though humanity still remains unsure how exactly it works. After which, they apparently become stronger and are even capable of using magic.

Only a handful of people are able to effectively tame monsters, and they are only capable of controlling one or two at a time. But now things have changed. Now that demons are capable of controlling monsters, the number advantage the humans had over them have been rendered irrelevant, thus a crisis that threatens the survival of the human race is at hand.

"The one responsible for summoning you all here is our god Ehit, the guardian deity of the human race, creator of this world and the one true god that the Holy Church serve. Lord Ehit must have heard of our plight, realizing that humanity was in danger of annihilation, and so he offered us you heroes, who comes from a world in higher power than our own, therefore you all contain strength and power that surpasses our own…" Ishtar paused for a moment before continuing tentatively. "At least that is what Lord Ehit shown me in a divine revelation.

"Nevertheless, I ask of you to please help save humanity by defeating the demons, as Lord Ehit has willed you all." He seemed to sink into a trance as he said that, as if he was reliving his vision. According to Ishtar, over ninety percent of this world's humans worship the god Ehit, and those blessed with his visions were given high-ranked positions in the church.

So much for separation of church and state, Hajime and Saito thought as they realized how twisted this world might be if they happily believed without question the "will of god," and how dangerous strong beliefs like that could be. Just then, Aiko-sensei got up and protested Ishtar's words hotly.

"You can't possibly be serious! You kidnap these kids, leaving their families worried sick about where they are, and you expect them to go fight in a war?! Unacceptable! As a teacher I can't condone this! Send us back to our world this instant!"

Even though every word she said dripped with fury, Aiko Hatayama, the mid-twenties social studies teacher, was very popular with her students. She stood four and a half feet tall, had baby face features, green eyes and neat bob cut hair. Her childlike appearance and her tendency to overburden herself for the sake of her students (which usually ends in cutesy blunders), have made her endearing to many, thereby creating a large gap between how hard she tries and how helpful she ends up being. So large that her own students see her as more as a child that needs protecting than an adult that needs to be respected. Matter of fact, the reason she teared up when Sakura came over to the classroom and asked to stay while giving her a simple apple was because that was the most respect that she had ever been giving to by a student. Apparently it didn't matter that Sakura wasn't even attending their school, let alone her class. Thus, people have started to call her Ai-chan, much to her chagrin from being called a familiar nickname when she is trying to be a respectable teacher.

So, even though she's objecting to Ishtar's irrational forced summoning in order to look like a proper teacher, the students saw her no differently, thinking things like, "Ai-chan's at it again, trying so hard," as she attempted to rip Ishtar a new one. Even Saito had to both applaud her tenacity to stand up to a high-ranking church official yet look at her as if she's a little girl learning how to stand up to her parents. Unfortunately, what Ishtar said next made everyone's blood freeze solid.

"I am sorry that you feel this way and I understand your indignation… but I am unable to return you to your world at present." The room fell death silent; the oppressive atmosphere filling the room like smoke and was felt by everyone present, unable to process what Ishtar said.

"Wh-what do you mean…you're unable?! You were the one who sent us here, weren't you?!" Aiko screamed loudly.

"Lord Ehit summoned you here, as I stated earlier. We were merely in the room to greet you all and offer our prayers to him. As humans, we do not possess the power to interact, nor interfere with other worlds, so whether or not you may return to your world is entirely up to His will."

"N-no way…"

Aiko slumped back into her chair, so completely and utterly stunned that the strength in her body vanished. As the truth of Ishtar's words sank in, the students them began to panic.

"We can't go back?! You've gotta be screwing with us!"

"Please don't do this to us! There has to be a way back somehow!"

"This isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real. It's all a dream, it's all a dream, it's all a dream…" Almost all the students fell into a panic. Sakura was on the verge of fainting, Yukiko was a tad unnerved by this news, and Ryosuke was a minute away from retching. Hajime and Saito were of course also pretty shocked, but as they were otakus who have read and watched countless different anime, movies, and light novels that has this same premise, both of them could think of several different outcomes far worse than this. For example, they could've been summoned as either slaves or unintelligent monsters.

That's why, to some extent, they were able to stay calm. As for the rest, something like this was completely foreign to them and it showed. Ishtar sat quietly as the students panicked. The pair could tell that in the deep recesses of his eyes, there was a hint of contempt, saying something like, "These people were chosen by god. Why are they not rejoicing?" Just when the thought of a rebellion was at hand, Kouki got up and slammed his fist into the table, earning the attention of most of the students. When he was sure all of the students were listening, he began speaking.

"Everyone, there's no point complaining to Ishtar. He wasn't the one who brought us here and there's nothing he can do about it now. We were summoned here to help save humanity from being annihilated. Even if we have the choice to leave right now…I for one wouldn't take it. I couldn't live with myself if I turned my back on these people who so desperately need our help. And maybe, once we succeed, we'll return back home… right Ishtar-san? Is it possible?"

"Correct. Lord Ehit is not unkind to his chosen heroes. He will surely reward you for your selfless deeds."

"And you said that we have gained amazing powers? In fact, I've been feeling a lot stronger somehow since we've arrived here."

"Also correct. Because you come from a higher world than ours, your powers should be comparable to a dozen men. Even more possibly."

"You see? If we can use our powers to help this world and be able to go home, then all the more reason to fight! So just you wait! I'm going to fight! Not just to save us, but to save everyone!" Kouki clenched his fist and as tightly as he could, displaying his resolve. His signature sickeningly dazzling smile paired with his noble intentions gave Saito a bit of a stomachache. Nevertheless, the students ate it up, his overflowing charisma regained even the most despairing of the students their composure. They looked at Kouki with wonder, as if he was the personification of hope. The female students also had adoration mixed into their gazes. Saito could feel his stomach tightening from the display.

"Be strong Saito," Hajime encouraged as he patted his friend's back.

"Heh. Figured you'd say that. Still, I'm not gonna let you go off on your own… So, I'm with you, bro."

"Ryutarou…"

"Even though I'm pissed that we don't have a choice in this, there's no getting around it… I'll help too."

"Shizuku…"

"I-I'll fight too, since Shizuku is going to."

"Kaori…"

"I don't know if I'll be able to fight, but I want to help these people too! So I'm help in any way I can!"

"Sakura…"

"Well… guess I'll help too. Although this situation is extremely unreasonable."

"Yukiko…"

"Alright. If Mitsurugi-san's going to do this, I will too."

"Ryosuke…"

The usual group of friends and the three celebrities all supported Kouki's declaration, after which the rest of the students started to agree as well, swept up in the flow. The only person who wasn't cheery was their teacher, who was running in between her students, trying to convince them to stop. Alas, even her somewhat authoritative insisting was no match against the infectious wave of charisma coming out of Kouki Amanogawa.

Soon enough, everyone was willing to fight this world's war, but fight in a war was never that easy. Most students didn't know what it was actually like, much less want to fathom it. It may have been just a way to escape the reality of the situation to preserve their sanity. Saito and Hajime considered all of these factors as they observed Ishtar out of the corner of their eyes. He had a rather unnerving, satisfied smile on him that Saito mentally noted. Ishtar have been mentally jotting down notes as he gave his explanative speech, specifically about which words Kouki reacted to. He realized that Kouki had a great sense of justice when he quickly reacted to his telling of humanity's tragedies, and he also empathized the cruelty and brutality of the demons to see how he'd react.

It was pretty clear to Ishtar that over all the students summoned, Kouki had the greatest influence, seeing right through his character.

Saito and Hajime pretty much that the highest-ranking church official would be the most astute, but they kept a mental note to watch out for him.

"Hey, Mr. Gandalf!" Saito spoke over all the excitement, getting Ishtar's attention with a name familiar with a certain film franchise. Everyone else turned to face him, either confusion by what he called the pope, and annoyance for calling out in the first place. Ishtar regarded him as if he just realized he was there, apparently not giving attention to his nickname. Hajime, and even Kaori and Shizuku stifled their laughter as they both got the reference and admired Saito's tenacity to call the leader of the church such a name. Along with another one in the crowd that Saito couldn't see but could definitely tell it was them. Saito was a little unnerved by the sudden attention he was receiving even though he was the one who called out, but he still continued.

"I guess we're all on board on fighting and all, but until half an hour ago, we were ordinary high school students living in peaceful Japan. We might have some amazing powers and all, but most of us don't have any martial arts training, nor any knowledge on how to use the magic here. How are we supposed to fight against monsters and Demons?"

Most of the students hated Saito for killing the good mood they have a while ago, but the slight return of the unsettling atmosphere shows that he did raise a very good point. Only a handful of students had any martial arts training, and magic only exist in fiction in their world, so fighting against those who can use both is a major problem. However, Ishtar prepared for that.

"Excellent question. Fear not though. We have people in the Heiligh Kingdom that will receive you and train you," Ishtar answered. The kingdom mentioned sat at the foot of the divine mountain, where the Holy Church's head temple they're currently standing in resides.

The kingdom apparently has close ties to the Holy Church since, according to legend, Sharam Barn, a progeny of Ehit, founded the kingdom. Out of all of the human kingdoms in Tortus, Heiligh has the most vibrant history, evidenced by the Church's most sacred temple being a proverbial stone's throw away from it, showing just how deep the religion connection ran.

Getting ready to go to the kingdom below, Saito and the others got up and headed to the temple's front gates. As they walked through the grandiose triumphal arches that composed the man gate of the temple, they were met by an infinite sea of clouds. It was amazing that no one even felt airsick being up here so high.

"You think magic is what's keeping the area habitable?" Saito asked Hajime.

"Most likely." Hajime responded as both the pair and everyone else all stood in wonder as they stared at the clear blue sky and the dazzling waves of clouds in the sunlight. Ishtar looked on proudly as the others gawked and urged them to keep moving.

They them came upon a massive white circular pedestal that was surrounded by a fence. They walked through the lavished hallway similar to the stone from the cathedral and stepped onto the pedestal. Engraved on it was a magic circle, and on the other side of the fence was a steep drop to the clouds below, which in turn made most of the students huddle as close to the center of the pedestal as physically possible. But as curiosity overcame their fear, they looked timidly at their surroundings. As the same time, Ishtar began to chant:

"Faith is the key that opens the road to heaven—Celestial Path."

As he finished chanting, the circle emitted a blinding light. Then the entire pedestal began to glide towards the ground diagonally as if it were a cable car attached to an invisible cord. Ishtar's chant must've somehow caused it to move. The students clamored as they witnessed real life magic. They got excited again when they passed through the clouds.

When they made it through the other side, they could make out what was directly below them: a huge city, or rather a small kingdom. Loads of buildings and houses dotted the city in a large circle, and at its center was a huge castle that look as if it were jutting out of the mountainside. The capital city of Heiligh. It seems that the magical cable car/pedestal ran from the Holy Church to a roof of one of the castle's towers via an aerial pathway of some sort.

Saito caught Hajime's eye as they both were smiling sardonically as the same though crossed their mind. All these extravagant theatrics pretty much set up the "God's disciples arriving from the heavens" bit. With the display so grandiose, no doubt the most zealous of Ehit's believers would worship both everyone summoned here and the priest that brought them down here. They can tell this was uncannily similar to pre-war Japan. When religion and politics has close ties to one another, and because of those ties, led to a tragedy of worldwide proportions. It was likely that this world was more twisted than ancient Japan, considering that there existed a deity powerful enough to interfere with other worlds. The pair wouldn't even be surprised if this one literally revolved around God's will.

Tortus, and everyone's chance of returning home, rested in the palm of His hands. As the outline of the capital grew more outlined, Saito felt an incomprehensible sense of unease well up inside him. He could see it in Hajime's eyes too. He then placed his hand on Hajime's shoulders and said, "Let's just focus on working with what we got. The other stuff is future us' problem."

Saito decided to shake off the oppressive thoughts and remind both himself and Hajime that right now it what matters now, clearing away enough of both of their unease. Hajime smiled at his friend's word and nodded his head, Saito giving a warm smile in return.

As they finally landed atop of the royal palace, Hajime, Saito, and the others were escorted to the throne room. All the hallways were just as grandiose as the temple. Along the way they passed knights, servants, maids, and government officials, all of them gazed at the students with a mix of astonishment and admiration as they passed. Guess they were aware of the students' identities.

The sense of unease slowly returned to Hajime and Saito, but they effectively ignored it as they hurried down to the end of the procession with the students.

Ishtar and the summoned heroes arrived at a pair of massive double doors with beautiful engravings adoring it. One of the two guards that were standing in attention at each side announced loudly of their arrival. Without waiting for a reply, they swung the doors open.

Ishtar casually walked inside, with perfect ease. With the exception of Saito, the three celebrities, and Kouki and his friends, who appeared unaffected by the splendor around them, the students meekly followed the pope.

They walked along the long and wide red carpet that ended at the end of the wall. They arrived at a large throne and standing in front of it was a man that looked to be middle-aged who radiated a regal aura. Obviously, he was the king of Heiligh. Next to him was a woman who looked slightly younger than the king, most likely his wife and the queen.

Next to her was a boy and a girl, both with blond hair and blue eyes. The girl looked to be fourteen or fifteen while the boy was about ten years old. On the left side of the carpet were soldiers all clad in gray shiny armor and uniforms. On the right were civil officers, also lined up, making it a total of thirty people in the room. Well, maybe thirty-one. For a brief second, Saito thought he saw a shadow move near one of the knights. He was at first confused, but he decided it was probably a trick of the light.

Ishtar then left the students and ended up beside the king. At which he offered his hand to the king and then revelry took it and kissed it with the slightest brush of his lips. Clearly the pope was more important than the king.

"So, God really does rule the kingdom." Saito mumbled as he sighed inwardly. Hajime elbowed him slightly as a sign to keep quiet.

A flurry of introductions came after that. The king's name is Eliheid S.B. Heiligh, his wife is Luluaria, and their son and daughter are named prince Lundel and princess Liliana, respectively.

Then came introductions from the knight captain, prime minister, and the other important bigwigs. Note that the whole time, the little prince never took his eyes off Kaori and Sakura, showing that their charms work in other worlds too. For a brief instance, Ryosuke looked a little unnerved by the little kid for drooling over Sakura, but he didn't dare show it.

After everyone important was introduced, a huge feast was laid out in the students' honor, granting them the chance to try out dishes of a parallel world. Wasn't really that different from western meals. Though the pink sauce and rainbow-colored drinks served to them were delicious. Price Lundel spent most of the meal talking with Kaori and Sakura, and the boys stared at them worriedly. Ryosuke stared gingerly at the young prince, making sure he wasn't doing anything to Sakura.

"Are you hoping that the prince will take the brunt of their jealousy instead of you?" Saito said as he popped a piece of food into his mouth.

"…. A little. But I doubt a ten-year-old has any chance at wooing Kaori. I guess you're not worried about him with Sakura either." Hajime answered after thinking a bit.

"Why would I? We're just friends." Saito answered nonchalantly.

"Ah. Right." Hajime said with a little sarcasm.

After finishing their meal, the students were introduced to instructors that were going to train them. In return for their efforts, they would be fed and clothed by the palace. They were chosen from the ranks of active-duty knights and court magicians. Guess the king wants the students and the kingdom to have a strong bond for the war to come.

Once they were finished with the introductions, they were all led to their individual rooms. Hajime and Saito were certain that they weren't the only one who was stupefied at the huge and swanky canopy bed they found in their respective room, though Saito could already imagine Sakura unintentionally insulting the kingdom by commenting how small it is compared to her own bed and apologizing to whoever lead her to her room for her rudeness, Yukiko immediately being put off by its glamor but the moment she sat on it she passed out in exhaustion, and Ryosuke worried if this bed was comfortable enough for Sakura to sleep peacefully in.

As for the two, for the hectic day they've experienced, they immediately took off his clothes until the only thing left was his white shirt, he wore underneath his white-collar shirt, his underwear, and his socks. He them belly flopped on his bed and sank into it like it was warm tofu. As all the tension and unease from today drained out of him, he felt asleep instantly.


The next day, all the students arrived at Heiligh's coliseum for their training. All the students were handed a five-by-seven-inch silver plate with a magic circle engraved in the back. Confused at the objects they were handed, the knight captain, Meld Loggins began explained their purpose.

"Not complaining, but why is such a high-ranking figure like the knight captain training us? Wouldn't he have a lot of responsibilities to do?" Saito whispered to Hajime.

"Guess it would look bad for the kingdom's image and lives if we heroes were trained by some amateur." Hajime theorized.

"Huh. Good point." Saito agreed with Hajime's guess.

"Also, he did say, and I quote, 'It gives me a reason to push all the boring paperwork onto my vice-captain!' and laughed heartily."

"Wow. Poor guy." Saito remembered the vice-captain clearly from last night's dinner. And after giving a prayer to the poor overworked man for his easygoing boss, he continued listening to Meld.

"All right kids. Looks like all of you got your plates, right? They're called Status Plates. Per their name, they take various parameters and quantify them for you. The work great as identification too. So long as you got them, you'll be fine even if you get lost, but hang onto them, got it? Good." Everyone was thinking the same thing, but no one was courageous enough to say it, except for one boy.

"You talk a lot more casually than the bigwigs. How come?" Saito blurted out. Everyone's thoughts were in complete unison as they said, "How does he always say what we're thinking?"

Meld simply said, "We'll be comrades-in-arms fighting on the battlefield, so don't see the point in being stiff with each other. So, feel free to talk casually with the other knights." Good to see that he had such a friendly attitude. Much more pleasant than having someone older than them showing such formality.

"Anyway, there's a magic circle on the back of the plates. Use the needles I passed out to prick your finger and drip some blood on the circle. That will make you the owner of the plate. After that, say, 'Open Status' and you'll see your Stats inscribed. How these things work, your guess is as good as mind. Apparently, they're Artifacts from way back in ancient times."

"Artifacts?" Kouki asked, stumbling on the unfamiliar word.

"Artifacts refer to powerful magical items that we've long been unable to reproduce due to losing the technology. They were supposedly made during the Age of Gods, when the creator's descendants still walked the Earth. The plates are from that era as well, but they're so common that even average citizens have one of their own. There are other Artifacts that are considered national treasures. It seems that the Artifact that makes these Status Plates still exist, manufactured under close supervision with the Holy Church.

Nodding in affirmation from Meld's explanation, they all gingerly pricked their fingers. Sakura had a bit of trouble doing it, as she was a little squeamish around blood. Ryosuke and Kouki were about to offer to help, but Yukiko beat them to it. She pricked her friend's finger so quickly that Sakura didn't even have time to flinch. Ryosuke and Kouki awkwardly retreated and pricked their own fingers as Sakura thanked Yukiko. After Hajime and Saito rubbed the blood on the magic circle, the plate briefly lit up. All the other students' plates did the same. After which, their plates started to change color like ink on wool, turning Hajime's sky blue and Saito's pitch black.

"Whoa." The pair both exclaimed, along with the other students as their own plates changed color as well.

Captain Meld continued explaining the plates after everyone finished. Apparently, each person has their own distingue color of mana, and when the information is put into each person's plate, it displays the color to match. Because their mana and the status plate shared the same color, it made identification even better.

So, my mana's black? That's… unnerving. Saito thought as he saw that Hajime's was such a pretty color. Hajime saw Saito's plate color and looked at first stunned, then he looked at him mournfully with a tinge of guilt, since he thought that he was lucky that his mana wasn't black. Saito paled as he looked around at the others staring at their own colors. Kouki's was, of course, pure white. Ryutarou's was dark green. Kaori's was a very light purple. Shizuku's was the deep blue of lapis lazuli. Sakura's was bright gold. Yukiko's was ice blue. Ryosuke's was amber.

Why am I the only one with such ominous looking mana? Saito thought as he started at it with a bit of unease.

"I know your all impressed at your plates, but don't forget to check your Stats." Captain Meld reminded, smiling wryly. Brought back to their sense by his voice, they gave a brief look at Meld and looked hurryingly at their Stats.

Saito did the same and looked at his Stats. On it was—

SAITO HIRAGA

Age: 17

Male

Job: Slavemacer

Level: 1

Strength: 50

Vitality: 50

Defense: 50

Agility: 50

Magic: 50

M. Defense: 50

Skills: Slave Crest Creation • Superior Swordsmanship • Close-Combat Proficiency • Magic Circle Appraisal • Image Composition • Non-Combat Job Inheritance • Language Comprehension

—The above information. Saito grinned like a madman as he realized he just became like a video game character. Everyone else was also absorbed in reading their plates. Though he was a little alarmed by his Job, Slavemacer. Was it what it sounded like?

"Did everyone get to see their Stats? Good. Not all explain it from the top. First there's your Level. As your Stats grows, your Level does too. The highest is 100 and once you reach that, you're at your limits as a human being. In other words, one's current Level represents the full potential realized. Reaching 100 means that you've unlocked all of your latent potential and have reached a capacity that you cannot grow past. It's rare for anyone to reach that high though."

"So, it wasn't completely like a game since you increase your Level by first increasing your Stats and not the other way around." Hajime said to Saito.

"Well, this isn't really a video game. So different rules to go by." Saito figured.

"Your Stats will natural increase the more you train, plus you can use magic or magic-imbued objects to raise them. Also, people with high magic Stats will naturally grow faster than those without. No one really knows why, but it's theorized that a person's mana assists in the growth of the other Stats. Later on, we'll get you guys items from the treasury that correspond to each of your Stats. Our weapons are yours for the taking! Nothing less for the heroes who will save our kingdom, after all."

Judging by Captain Meld's explanation, one's Stats don't just magically increase by killing a monster. Guess the class is going to have to get stronger the old-fashioned way.

"Next up, Job. That displays your natural aptitude and is linked directly to your Skills box, determining the type of Skills you can learn and use. It's rare for anyone to get a Job. They're split into two different categories: combat-based and non-combat-based Jobs. Combat Jobs are very rare, with one every thousand—or depending on the Job, ten thousand—people possessing one. Non-combat-jobs are rare too, but at least one and every hundred have one. Some of them are so common that one in ten people have them. They're mostly production related jobs."

Saito looked at his Job. It could be rare, but it sounded really shady.

"What'd you get Hajime?" Saito asked, curious at what job his friend had. Hajime showed him and here what was written—

HAJIME NAGUMO

Age: 17

Male

Job: Synergist

Level: 1

Strength: 10

Vitality: 10

Defense: 10

Agility: 10

Magic: 10

M. Defense: 10

Skills: Transmute • Language Comprehension

"Synergist. Guess that means you could 'synergize' things? Though what does that mean?"

"You got me." Hajime shrugged, not knowing what his class is for. Hajime looked at Saito's plate and raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"No surprise that your Stat's are higher than mine, but Slavemacer? That sounds a little…"

"Criminal? Yeah, I know… Well I guess they have to be special in some way. Remember that Ishtar said that our world is superior to the humans here on Tortus in terms of power, so we have greater abilities than they do. If it's rare for people here to get a Job in general, then of course we got one."

"Yeah. Your probably right." Hajime's lips curled into a smile. There wasn't anyone that couldn't be happy at being told they had special talent.

However, what Captain Meld said next made the pair's smile vanish and replaced with a cold sweat.

"Next… well your Stats are self-explanatory. The average for most Stats at Level 1 is around 10 or 20, with fifty being the max. But your all heroes, so your Stats have to be way higher than that! Got to admit, I'm pretty jealous of you all. Oh yeah, and don't forget to report Stats to me so I could find out how to best train you all.

"The average Stats for a Level 1 were around 10. With 50 being the maximum. Saito repeated that in his head. Hajime's were a perfect 10 while his were 50. His Stats were five times higher than Hajime's, but they were still considerably lower than what most expect from Ehit's chosen heroes. Saito could tell his friend's mind was going into overdrive and ice-cold sweat was dripping down his back. And he was right.

Huh? Doesn't that mean that my Stats are totally average…? Like completely and utterly mediocre? I don't have any godlike cheat powers? My power Level isn't over 9000? Wh-what about everyone else? Maybe everyone else is just like this at the start… Hajime clung to the last silver of hope as he stealthily looked at the other students. Alas, none of the students were breaking out in a cold sweat like Hajime. Instead their eyes were sparkling as they looked at their Stats.

So me and Hajime are commonplace. Well that kind of sucks. It's definitely worse for him, but my Stats aren't really much to look at either. And my Skills don't sound very combat-like. Wasn't expecting to have unlimited power, but I bet that the others have near god-tier abilities. And I still don't get this Slavemacer Job I have. Please for the love of all things animal eared, tell me it's not what I think it is! Saito thought that as he looked at his own Stats.

Kouki was the first to show his Stats to Meld. On it was this—

KOUKI AMANOGAWA

Age: 17

Male

Job: Hero

Level: 1

Strength: 100

Vitality: 100

Defense: 100

Agility: 100

Magic: 100

M. Defense: 100

Skills: Elemental Affinity • Elemental Resistance • Physical Resistance • Advance Sorcery • Swordsmanship • Superhuman Strength • Armor Proficiency • Foresight • Increased Mana Recovery • Detect Presence • Detect Magic • Limit Break • Language Comprehension

The guy had so many cheat Skills that it should've been illegal.

"Whoa! Triple digit Stats at Level 1?! And most people usually get two or three Skills! This is way beyond normal! You really are a hero!"

"Well, you know how it is…" Kouki blushed and scratched his head as Captain Meld praised him. It should be noted that Captain Meld was at Level 62 and his Stats were all in the 300 range, making him one of the strongest humans alive. But Kouki was already a third of the way to Meld's Level and he's just a Level 1. If his growth rates were on par with his Stats, he'd surpass the captain in no time.

Next, Sakura meekly showed her Job and Captain Meld's eyes nearly popped out of his skull. Her Job was this—

SAKURA MITSURUGI

Age: 17

Female

Job: Magus

Level: 1

Strength: 10

Vitality: 10

Defense: 10

Agility: 10

Magic: 500

Magic Defense: 500

Skills: All Elemental Affinity • All Elemental Resistance • Superior Sorcery • Increased Mana Recovery • Detect Presence • Detect Magic • Foresight • Language Comprehension

"Magus?! This is the second highest Job for a magic user to have! And you're magic Stats are proof of that! You're just as powerful as the Hero!"

"R-Really?! Th-thank you sir…" Sakura was embarrassed at how much praise she was getting. It's not surprising though. Her upbringing is what girls would kill for to have. Not only she surpassed Kouki in terms of magic Skills, but she started off with incredibly high Levels of magic than anyone has ever had. Trainers will be tearing each other apart to teach her, or even be taught by her. Ryosuke puffed out his chest and rubbed his nose haughtily as if he expected nothing less from Sakura.

"Oh. I forgot to mention. Because your Skills are the innate talents that you were born with, there's no way to increase them. However, there is one exception: Derivative Skills. Those you get from a lifetime of polishing your inherited Skills, surpassing your limits in your respective fields. In layman's terms, it's like discovering the trick to something you've always been struggling to do before. With that, you can increase your proficiency with it." Meld added that info on the side.

Hajime and Saito were right on the money that the overpowered abilities weren't just unique to Kouki or Sakura, that everyone else's were overpowered as well, despite not being on par with the Hero or Magus. And everyone else were combat-based jobs.

The pair looked at their own plates at the word—Synergist and Slavemacer—that filed their Job box. From the names alone, they both found it hard to believe that either Job was suited for combat. In fact, Saito's sounded extremely immoral. Though Saito did have a lot of Skills, two of them even made for combat (thought he didn't really feel very happy about it) but all of them were either more cheat-like than Kouki or were essentially useless.

How can I have two combat Skills and yet I have this one that must let me gain only other non-combat Jobs? This feels a little contradictory.

Hajime had it worse though. He only had one Skill. Language Comprehension doesn't count since every summoned being had this. Hajime's stiff smile started to vanish from his face. Even Saito's own smile started to wane.

When it was Hajime's turn to show his Stats to Meld, a few seconds after reading it, his smile froze. Guess all that hype he gained from getting such OP allies backfired on him. He muttered, "Am I misreading this?" And began rapping his knuckles on the plate and shone some light on it. After a while, he returned the plate to Hajime with a complex expression.

"Umm… How do I explain this…? A Synergist is basically some sort of blacksmith. Perfect if you're opening a smithy, but otherwise…" Captain Meld muttered a poor explanation of Hajime's Job. After solemnly getting out the way, Saito handed his plate to Meld. After a second of reading it, his face looked appalled. He looked at Saito and at the plate a few times before muttering, "Good lord…" in a low voice. He cleared his throat and gave back Saito's plate with a cautious look.

"…Wow. You must have the weirdest luck. I mean your Skills and Stats are really impressive for a Level 1. You even have Appraisal Magic, which is an extremely rare Skill to have. But your class is… well… A Slavemacer is basically what it sounds like. You can make magic circles that bind to any person with mana that is lower or equal to your own. I…can't tell you the method how, but people who end up with that class tend to be involved in some shady stuff. And the color of your mana…is often an omen for bad luck." Apparently Captain Meld also believed the wives tale because Saito noticed that he was slightly farther away from him than before.

I knew it, Saito thought sadly as Meld finished his explanation. He could already feel the students' looks of revulsion barring into him.

Dollar to doughnut that the boy's in Hajime and Saito's class, who all hated them, would take full advantage of this chance to belittle them. Not only were blacksmithing and slave making were not at all suited for combat, but Saito's was clearly meant for criminals. Not to mention he didn't particularly like using weapons. No doubt that they would be utterly useless in battle.

Daisuke Hiyama grinned wickedly as a he called out to the two of them, "Hey Nagumo, Hiraga. Don't tell me you're the only two out of all of us who got a non-combat-class? How's blacksmithing gonna fight a monster? Plus, you planning to enslave some girls to fight for you? Hey, Meld, is a Synergist and Slave Master or whatever a rare job?"

"The Synergist is not particularly rare. One in every ten people has that. In fact, all the craftsman in the kingdom employed have it. As for a… Slavemacer, it's pretty rare, with one in every fifty people having it, but all of them end up in human trafficking, prostitution rings, slave trading… they pretty much end up as criminals." Captain Meld said the job name and its potential careers with discomfort.

"Gimmie a break, you two. Your gonna fight with something like those?" Hiyama folded his arms cheekily as he said those words. As Hajime and Saito looked around, they could see that most of their classmates were either laughing at them or looking at them with unbridled disgust and covering themselves as goosebumps popped up on visible skin (the latter was directed at Saito). Ryosuke even subtly shielded Sakura away from Saito. Though probably not because of his Job. Ryosuke was actually a little superstitious. So much so that he carried around with him a rabbit's foot Sakura gave him when they were kids because he believed it gave him good luck and confidence on-set. So when he heard that Saito's mana was the color of bad luck, he got a little more protective of Sakura.

"Who knows? You never know until you try." Hajime said.

"Yeah. I can probably still fight without a combat class." Saito added.

"Oh really? Let's take a look at your Stats then, if your both so confident." Hiyama must've already figured out Hajime and Saito's Stats from Meld's expression, but he just really needed an excuse to bully the pair some more. He really was the absolute worst. His three cronies were pretty much the textbook thugs that picked on the weak and grovel to the strong. Their actions were so clearly malicious that Shizuku, Kaori, Yukiko, and even Sakura glared at them with distain in their eyes.

Despite how smitten they were with Kaori, they didn't seem to realize that she detests this type of bullying. Hajime and Saito lazily handed over their Status Plates. After seeing the Stats engraved on them, Hiyama burst out laughing. After he handed them to his minions, they sneered or laughed at the two as well.

"Bwahahaha… What in the actual hell, you two! Your both, like, totally average! Hiraga's only a tad higher than average, but Nagumo's exactly average! A toddler's probably stronger than the two of you combined!"

"Hyahahaha, you've gotta be kidding! These two won't even last ten minutes as meat shields, let alone as fighters!"

"And look at how black Hiraga's mana is! Hahahaha…! With mana this sinister, he was born to be a criminal!"

"And look at these Skills! Job Inheritance? Magic Circle Appraisal? That makes him both a pimp and a thief! He's a bona fide scumbag!"

Shizuku and Yukiko were gritting their teeth as they heard their taunts. Yukiko may not appear to care about Saito much, but she and Shizuku do not in any way tolerate thugs. Unable to stand it any longer, Kaori and Sakura were the ones that were about to give them a piece their mind, but before they could utter a singer word, someone else beat them to it. That someone was Aiko-sensei.

"Hey! Stop laughing at them! There will be no taunting fellow classmates on my watch! As a teacher I will not condone it! Now hand over Hajime and Saito's plates this instant!"

They boys were taken aback at their teacher's display of anger, despite her small frame. To avoid her wrath, they quickly gave back the pair's plate. Aiko-sensei then turned around and gave each of them a pat on the shoulder.

"Nagumo-kun, Hiraga-kun, don't worry about your Jobs. Especially you Hiraga-kun. You may be a bit eccentric, but I know you well enough that you wouldn't commit any crimes. So, don't pay it any mind."

"Th-thank you *sniff* Aiko-chan-sensei! Thank you *sniff* for believing in me!" Saito wept in joy as he was told that he was not some scumbag.

"Just Aiko-sensei, mind you. And besides, I have a non-combat Job too. And aside from my Job, my Stats are pretty average too. You both are not alone!"

Aiko-sensei then showed the two her pink colored plate with a "Here look!"

AIKO HATAYAMA

Age: 25

Female

Job: Farmer

Level: 1

Strength: 5

Vitality: 10

Defense: 10

Agility: 5

Magic: 100

M. Defense 10

Skills: Soil Management • Soil Restoration • Large Scale Cultivation • Enhanced Fertilization • Selective Breeding • Plant Appraisal • Fertilizer Production • Mixed Breeding • Auto Harvesting • Fermentation Proficiency • Wide-area Temperature Control • Farming Barrier • Fertile Rain • Language Comprehension

By the time they finished reading Aiko's plate, both Hajime and Saito's eyes resembled dead fishes.

"Huh? What's wrong you two? Nagumo-kun? Hiraga-kun?" Aiko asked as she shook the pair back and forth.

While it was true that her overall Stats were lower or equal to Hajime's and that she wasn't a combat-class, but she was still pretty overpowered than the two, evidenced by her high magic Stats and her large number of Skills. With a little training, she could easily reach hero status just like any other combat-class. And as a certain French statesman and military leader once said, "An army marches on its stomach," so her Job was a lot more important that either Hajime's, who's commonplace class had a multitude of others who were more experienced in it, or Saito's, whose job is suited for criminals and perverts. Overall, their teacher was just as OP as the others.

"Sensei… Why do you hate us?" Saito asked vacantly, cursing himself for having even a shred of hope. Hajime also cursed himself similarly with the same blank expression while looking at the sky and laughing hollowly.

"Oh my, Ai-chan, that was the final nail in the coffin…"

"…Hatayama-sensei. That's just too cruel."

"Huh? What do you mean? Nagumo-kun? Hiraga-kun? Are you both alright?!"

Shizuku smiled sadly and Yukiko pressed her fingers on her temple as they watched Hajime and Saito shut down, with a single yet noticeable tear streaming down the latter's face. Aiko-sensei tilted her head in confusion.

As usual, she tries so hard and yet does so little to help. The students smiled at their teacher's unchanging dizziness. When she may have accomplished her mission of stopping the two from being bullied today, Hajime and Saito smiled hollowly as they thought of the future trials and tribulations that laid ahead for them, and the inevitable treatment that was most definitely coming.


It's been two weeks since Saito was labeled as an unjustified criminal with unearned cheat Skills. Somehow his Job as a Slavemacer got out, probably thanks to either some of his fellow classmates or some noisy servants who loved to gossip. Since then, people have been avoiding him like the plague.

Like now for instance, Saito went out to the town in the afternoon after coming back from one of his non-combat Job trainers, since there was no trainer for his own Job, at least on one of high moral standing. The one the kingdom provided him refused to train him, and Ishtar didn't bother to try to hire another one due to it being "Their choice whether or not to teach you anything" or some bull-crap."

So while walking around town, he met some people with non-combat Jobs, and they offered to teach him and grant him their Jobs after helping them out with a few favors. He had just come back from his Zoologist trainer. And since he had a few hours to kill before training started he decided to take a look around town.

As he walked, the people who heard of his Job looked at him with contempt, parents kept their children from getting anywhere near him, and guards' eyes him suspiciously, and a lot of girls backed away from him in fear of getting enslaved. Saito was sadly already used to it, so he didn't pay it no mind. Really wasn't that much different from school back home.

He looked and saw a vendor selling some kind of purple fruit that looked like a cross between a pineapple and a grape: purple with a glossy skin with a rough-looking exterior and green spiny trough shaped leaves that grew on the top. He watched as a guy bought a slice of the fruit and walked towards Saito. He noticed and gave a reproachful glare. Saito ignored it and proceeded to the vendor.

The owner, a skinny-looking man in his forties with shaggy brown hair and blue eyes, gave Saito a look that said, "Why are you at my stall?" Saito just shrugged it off and asked for a slice. The vendor thought for a moment on whether to sell to him, but being an opportunist, he gave Saito his price. He noticed that the price was higher than what he gave the other guy, so he commented on that.

The vendor got a little aggressive and said, "Aren't you one of Ehit's heroes? You must've gotten a lotta money for the church to use for necessities. I'm sure it's not too much for someone of your standing, is it? If you've got a problem, feel free to talk to the Holy Church. I'm not going anywhere."

This guy was cleverer than he looked. It was no secret that he was a summoned hero. A lot of government officials were there the day they were summoned so the story has to had spread all over the kingdom by now. But he knew that Saito did have a bit of spending money given by the church in case the students wanted to go out and get stuff for either training, pre-meal food, or fun.

Saito himself has been given noticeably less than the others, in which Aiko-sensei nearly blew a fuse when pointed out. After that was rectified, he mostly spent it on training supplies, cheap ores, and snacks, the first two he stores in his backpack that he had on him the day he was summoned. In point, the vendor knew Saito had cash to spend.

Not only that, but he also knew that due to his Job being what it is, the church isn't going to do much to help Saito with a disgruntled salesman. If it were the hero or any of the others (except probably Hajime), they'd move heaven and earth to rectify such a trivial matter. So sadly, he wasn't going to get much help from them. And it looks like that the passersby's who were watching this so-called scene isn't going to put themselves out for Saito either. Overall, Saito could either buy the purposely overpriced fruit, or just walk away empty handed.

Saito sighed inwardly and decided to pay the man what he asked for. He may not have been that hungry, but he wasn't going to crumble underneath the prejudice of his Job. Just because he had a criminal class doesn't mean he was going to act like one. The vendor looked a little unsatisfied despite being handed the money. He was probably hoping that Saito would get violent so that he would have an excuse to kick him from his stand or call the guards on him, but since he was still a salesman, he reluctantly took the money and gave Saito a slice of the fruit.

The slice was similar to a regular pineapple. It was noticeably smaller than what the other guy got, but Saito thought it pointless to mention it. As he headed back to the castle, he noticed that it really did taste like a grape, soft and sweet, yet refreshing. After going inside, he strolled down the luxurious hallways just admiring the detailed handiwork.

Soon after, he ran into someone unexpectedly alone: Sakura Mitsurugi. She was wearing the clothes the church gave her in place of their school uniforms: a simple white cotton shirt and red and white striped gym shorts with leather guards that covered her shoulders, chest, and kneecaps. Not sure why she needed those since her Job isn't a melee type, but Captain Meld said that it was standard.

When she noticed Saito, she smiled happily and ran towards him, and she ended up tripping on herself. Before she fell, Saito managed to instinctively catch her. As athletic as she was, when she became too excited, she ended up having two left feet. Looking a little embarrassed, she straightened herself out and gave a warm smile to her savior.

"G-good afternoon Saito. And thank you for helping me there. I got a little overexcited." Sakura greeted bashfully after nearly faceplanting on the ground from tripping over air.

"Hey Sakura. And I should be thanking you. Watching you trip over yourself was awfully amusing." Saito teased playfully.

"I-It wasn't on purpose. Like I said, I just got a little too hyper and—" Sakura needlessly explained herself, her expression clearly flustered.

"Calm down Sakura. I was just teasing." Saito quickly explained that he was simply joking. Hearing that, Sakura relaxed a little, but she pouted very adorably.

"Don't be mean, Saito."

"Heheh. Sorry. My bad. Anyway, guess you managed to get away from the other's obsessive guarding. Ever since we were given our Jobs, they've been treating me like some kind of predator."

"Yeah. They've all been a bit…much. Especially Ryu-kun. He's always been such an avid believer of good luck charms. Which is why we should probably talk somewhere more private so to avoid a misunderstanding. My room is nearby." Sakura gestured to that door on the right and went towards it with Saito following. When they went inside, Saito noticed that it was a just like his own room. He took off his pack as it was a little heavy from all the things that were inside.

"And here I thought every room was unique in some way. Although yours is a little a little messier than I expect—mmmph!" Saito got interrupted by his comment about the similarities of all their rooms by Sakura suddenly leaping and pushing him onto the bed. Saito was at first a little taken aback by this unexpected attack, but as soon as Sakura lifted her head off his chest and saw that her eyes were filled to the brim with longing, he knew precisely what was going on and smile.

"Just couldn't wait any longer, huh? Saito teased.

"No." Sakura simply answered with an uncharacteristically seductive grin.

"Did you lock the door?"

"Yes."

"Put sound blocking magic circles in the room?"

"Yes."

"Are we going all the way?"

"As much as I want to… but we don't have protection."

"Oh right…Alright. I can settle for this..." Once they finished their short conversation, they then began kissing. Deeply and passionately pressing their lips against one another as if their having a competition. They only stopped to take off their leather guards to make it easier to move in and immediately continued.

It got so intense that started French kissing, their tongues moving in each other's mouths as if fighting for supremacy. As they kissed Saito rubbed his hands along Sakura's back multiple times, eventually moving "south towards the equator." As he fondled her derriere, she got even more intense and started rubbing her breast into Saito's chest, each of them getting more and more excited the more time passed.

Time and reality were irrelevant to the two. The room could burst into flames alone from the heat that emitted from these two and all they would focus on was each other. At one-point Saito got into a sitting position on the bed and held his arms around Sakura's waist as she put her hands around his neck to keep him from retreating. After ten whole minutes of nonstop kissing, they finally ceased, heavily panting with flushed faces, a single thin thread of saliva the only thing linking their mouths together.

They looked passionately into their eyes, each of them brimming with desire. As much as they wanted to continue, they both knew that couldn't risk going any further right now. The magic that Sakura used to block the sound was only meant to last for two hours, and if they went over the line, they needed more time. So instead, despite their arousal, they laid back down on the bed, strictly cuddling. Sakura nestled her head and her hands onto Saito's chest on his right and Saito put his right arm around her waist.

"After the two weeks I had, I most definitely needed that." Saito panted, still exhausted from the make-out session.

"I know. After being away from you that long, I was going to go insane." Sakura also panted, agreeing with Saito's words.

If someone were to walk in here right as they were making out, they would immediately figure out that two of them were not just friends. Saito and Sakura were secretly a couple.

They've known each other since they met while in their first year of middle school, but they started going out on their third year during winter break. Since then, only a handful of people knew of their relationship: On Saito's side, he told Hajime, his parent's, and his sister. On Sakura's side, Yukiko and her parent's knew. There were others outside of their closest friends and family who also knew. The reason for all the secrecy was because of her upbringing. She's an extremely sheltered child.

Being the only daughter of her two older brothers, she was raised to be pure of heart, body, and soul. SO there were a lot of things that were kept from her. Sexual content especially until middle school, where she was only taught what kissing was, her own anatomy and how it produces children, and to let the man handle the rest.

And speaking of men, her parents are extremely strict of the boys she's allowed to be friends with. In fact, there's only two boys her father approves of: Kouki, whose own currently deceased family member was a friend of Sakura's family, and Ryosuke, whose own is sponsoring a clothing company owned by the Mitsurugi Group and he's absolutely loyal to Sakura.

Another fact was that there was no other boy who had the courage to ask a girl way out of their league. There were only two boys who confessed to Sakura during her first year in middle school. The first one had to have various test run on him. Family backgrounds, total yearly income, medical records, blood samples, school records, test scores, future goals, web history, emails, phone calls, text messages, choice of friends, probably even their shoe size due to that old adage. Anything that they could find on him they used to judge whether he was good enough to date Sakura. Before he could find out though, he got so overwhelmed that he immediately took back his confession and started avoiding her as much as possible.

The second boy was a lot worse. His father is a partner in one of Sakura's dad's companies, so while he got through the background check okay, he was a bit of a pervert. He made the mistake of trying to peep on Sakura while she was in her house's personal hot springs. Before he even had the chance, her guards caught him and he and his family were transferred to a branch company out of the country, never to be seen again.

So, Saito found it very unlikely that her family would approve of a boy whose parents had a child just after graduating high school, went from living in poverty to being a middle-class Shōjo manga artist and voice actor, are avid otakus who raised their two children in that lifestyle, with one of them being a lazy child prodigy who treats their precious daughter so casually to date.

But they didn't know that A) Sakura was actually the one who confessed to Saito, and he just agreed, and B) They've already had sex. Lots of sex. If they found out about that, Saito would most likely be castrated and sent to live with the monks. So, it was imperative that their relationship stays a secret for at least a while.

"So, now that I've had my fill of you, please tell me more about your week." Sakura asked Saito.

"Total hell. It was bad enough that I was getting avoided by all my classmates because of my Job, but because of my Skills, they take measures to make sure I don't copy their abilities, like I'm going to steal them and make them useless. It doesn't even work like that."

"Really? How does it work then?" Sakura asked her boyfriend with genuine interest.

"Well… where do I start?" Saito then began explaining how his Skills worked.

To understand how his Skills worked, one had to understand how Tortus magic worked. It wasn't like waving a wand a certain way, saying some nonsense words, and then instant magic like in the movies. There are a lot of specific steps.

First, one has to draw a magic circle. A magic circle contains inscriptions of the spell you want to use, based off the various natural elements: fie, water, earth, air, ice, lightning, light, and dark. There are spells that aren't directly natural elements but still fall under the same category, like healing and barrier magic are under the element of light. Depending on the type, complexity, and area of effect it had, the would need more details in the inscription it needed, thus increasing the size of the circle.

For example, if someone wanted to use the generic Fireball spell found commonly in RPGs, it would seem pretty easy to cast, right? Think again. They would have to inscribe the basic element, it's strength, range, span, and mana absorption (which will be explained later). Other parameters like the duration of the spell have to also be added into the inscription as well. Overall, the magic circle would have to be around three inches in diameter.

Next, they have to pour their own mana into the spell. To do that, they would have to chant an incantation. The incantation is basically the conduit for one's mana to flow into the circle. An incantation was proportionate to the amount of mana poured into power, and in turn the amount of mana that is poured into the spell increases its effectiveness. So, the longer the incantation, the more mana is poured into the circle, and the more power the Fireball spell has. Mana absorption helps regulate the amount of mana that is needed for the spell, so that they didn't end up putting too little or too much into it, keeping it from turning into a small spark or a huge inferno, depending on how much mana one has.

After that, just simply say the name of the spell and it activates, launching the Fireball at whatever its been inscribed to launch at. There are a lot of steps to make such simple spells, and even more powerful ones require an extensive amount of time to cast, but there an exception to all of this: Magical Affinity.

Depending on one's own natural constitution, Magical Affinity allowed them to not only shorten the inscriptions, but also take out the element portion of the spell, and instead use a clear mental image of the element. So, for someone who has an affinity for fire, the fire element for the spell Fireball can be taken out of the circle in place of their own mental image.

However, Saito doesn't have a magical affinity. So normally, he would need to not only inscribe the basic five properties, but also its trajectory, spread, and even its conclusion for whatever spell he wanted to use. The circle would have to be over six feet in diameter to work properly, making it completely impractical in combat.

There are alternate ways to use magic without having to draw a circle. There are two different types of magic circles: disposable-type and mineral-type. The former are magic circles drawn onto slips of special disposable paper. The advantage of these that they allow a variety of different spells, but they were low in terms of power and were generally a one-off. The latter are minerals engraved with magic circles, these were bulky and had a limit to what they could cast, but they could be reused and were far more powerful than the paper. Ishtar and his fellow priest had staves that were engraved with this type.

For a normal person, it would be impossible to use magic effectively in combat without those things, but Saito had Skills that helped a little bit. His Magic Circle Appraisal allowed him to break down the components of a spell all the way down to the magic circle, giving him insight on how it works and how to use it. And thanks to his eidetic memory, he's able to memorize every detail of the magic circle, allowing him to effectively replicate the spell without having to adjust many details.

Then there's his Image Composition. It allowed him to create magic circles just by imagining it. In conjunction with his Magic Circle Appraisal, he was able to use magic in combat. Thought Saito came to learn that there were some drawbacks to his Skills.

Firstly, he still needed time to imagine the proper inscription for the spell. Secondly, he needed a physical circle to channel his mana into. Thirdly, the more complex and powerful the spell was, especially one he hasn't used before, the more time he needed to imagine the spell, and the bigger the magic circle needed to be. And lastly, because he doesn't have a magical affinity, there were a lot more details he needed to add to the spell.

So if he wanted to use an advance Level spell, he would need a full five minutes to recall the magic circle needed for the spell along with all of the necessary inscriptions, and then cast it. And even then, it wouldn't be nearly as powerful as someone with a magical affinity for it due to his low magic Stats and mana. So magic in combat was a challenge alone for Saito. And he doesn't even have an Artifact for his

There's also his Non-Combat Job Inheritance, which is pretty self-explanatory. Saito can receive the Job of anyone with one. First Saito had to draw his own magic circle of the spell, which was already on a calligraphy pen he was giving by one of his trainers, since there were no Artifacts for Slavemacers (and even if there was, they'd never give it to him), then by holding the pen with Saito, saying the name of their Job, and he instantly gets it. One could tell by the name alone its limitations. He's strictly limited to inheriting non-combat Jobs. He asked to inherit Aiko-sensei's Farmer Job, which she agreed, and it worked without consequence, but all that did was prove that his Job Inheritance was also useless.

For two weeks, since he's been avoided by almost all of his classmates, and Ryosuke was doing his uttermost best to keep Sakura away from him, Saito has been trying to copy the Jobs of others in the kingdom and learn as much as he could from them. It was quite difficult to do since his Job came out and everyone avoided him, but so far this was the result of two weeks of training and gathering got him—

SAITO HIRAGA

Age: 17

Male

Job: Slavemacer

Level: 3

Strength: 55

Vitality: 55

Defense: 55

Agility: 55

Magic: 55

M. Defense: 55

Skills: Slave Crest Creation [+Increased Obedience Effectiveness] [+ Increased Perception Adjustment Effectiveness] [+Dishonesty Sensor] [+Pain Inflictor] • Magic Circle Appraisal • Image Composition •Inheritance (Jobs: Farmer [+Plant Appraisal] • Portion Brewer [+Potion Appraisal] • Toxicologist [Poison Appraisal] • Zoologist [+Sooth] [Monster Parts Appraisal] • Artist [+Image Desynthesis]) • Language Comprehension

All of the Derivative Skills was from using his Slave Circle Creation on some of the animals his Zoologist teacher let him use to test. He figured out that to bind living things to one's service, he has to create the magic circle for the spell, channel mana into it, and say the incantation. It only had two different spells: Control, Mimicry, Perception Remake, and Domination. Control is a simple spell that creates temporary magic circles that lets Saito give a person one or two orders, depending on the mana put into it and the size of the circle. For one command, the circle would have to be an inch wide.

Mimicry creates a physical link between the caster and the slave via an invisible stream of mana, making the latter copy the former's movement. That requires a circle at least a foot wide and will only last for as long as the caster has mana. Perception Rewrite can warp a person's thinking and behavior to whatever the caster desires, making them do or act however they want. That requires a circle a yard wide. Those who have stronger wills than the mana put into it can resist it and possibly negate it's effects.

Domination is the most powerful spell for a Slavemacer. It can bound a person or living thing directly to them and take complete control over them, making them have complete free will or a lifeless doll. That requires a circle the same size as Perception Rewrite, but more mana than Saito is capable of managing, but even then it only works on those lower or equal to Saito's own mana or strength, whether it be monsters or sentient beings. And in order for it to be even more effective, Saito had to make the person or thing ingest or absorb a small amount of his…essence

No wonder everyone looked so disgusted at me. Saito learned that it just had to be either some blood, sweat, or any other part of himself, but that didn't make it any less perverted. Saito managed to get the Derivative Skills for it after just three days of training. As impressive as it was that he got that many Derivative Skills at once, they were all very horrible. Despite that, Sakura was actually impressed.

"Wow! You managed to get this many Jobs? And you already have Derivative Skills? I haven't even gotten any yet!" Sakura exclaimed as she read Saito's plate.

"It's not really that impressive. They're all non-combat Jobs that I got by helping out some of the few people who would accept my help. Aiko-chan-sensei gave me this to make up for depressing me. The poison one wasn't my first choice, but I take what I can get. Only one Skill from the Zoologist and its commonly used to relax animals to tame them easier. It would take a lot of mana to become effective on monsters. And yeah, my Image Desynthesis Skill sounds pretty useful, but all it really does is let me break down whatever I picture in my mind into individual parts. I'm basically a walking encyclopedia with all of these Skills. Other than my Superior Swordsmanship and Close Combat Proficiency, which I personally don't like due to my dislike of using weapons, none of these are useful in a battle."

"Don't say that. Sure, they might not be suited for combat, but I'm sure you can find some way to help a lot of people with these Skills. It's amazing that you managed to get so many on your own."

"Oh please. It's nothing compared to your own Skills from your own Job. What was it again? Let me see."

"Hey wait! Don't look at it! It's embarrassing!" Saito quickly reached into Sakura's pocket and pulled out her Status plate. He managed to get off the bed as Sakura tried to get it back, but unfortunately Saito held it from her reach as she tried to jump to get it back. On it was this—

SAKURA MITSURUGI

Age: 17

Female

Job: Magus

Level: 9

Strength: 20

Vitality: 20

Defense: 30

Agility: 20

Magic: 700

Magic Defense: 700

Skills: Elemental Affinity • Elemental Resistance • Superior Sorcery • Enchantment Proficiency • Increased Mana Recovery • Detect Presence • Detect Magic • Foresight • Language Comprehension

Sakura was just as overpowered as Kouki, her magic especially. And her growth rate was just as astounding. And as he predicted, mage trainers were on the verge of killing each other trying to convince her to be their student. It took a number of guards to stop the potential bloodbath. Not only that, because of her beauty and grace, Sakura caught the eyes of over two dozen wealthy noblemen of various ages to either marry them or marry their sons. That was also an impending bloodbath.

"I remember there were a whole slew of guys that asked for your hand in marriage when they saw you, offering you their houses, entire family fortunes, personal lands. They looked completely broken when you turned them all down. I heard one guy tried to take you by force, but before the guards could stop him, Yuki froze him solid and left him there to be thawed out by the guards. Heard it took them hours to do. As expected from the ice queen herself. Hydrosophist is the perfect role for her. And whether it's in another world or back home, you leave a trail of broken hearts." Saito teased his girlfriend's talent for getting people (men especially) to instantly adore her.

"Don't tease me Saito! I don't have any choice but to reject them! I love you and you alone! There's no man that can compared to you!" Sakura stopped trying to get he played back and affirmed her desire to be with only Saito, who to her is a greater man than any noble.

Saito couldn't help but blush at his girlfriend's declaration and admiration of him, and that's exactly what she wanted. As soon as his guard was down, she managed to jump high enough to grab her plate from Saito. By the time Saito noticed, it was too late.

"Hey! That's a dirty move using your love for me to lower my guard."

"Fufufu… All's fair in love and war. I learned that from the best." Sakura smirked as she held her bounty above her face. Saito couldn't help but think that he's a bad influence on Sakura. Ever since they first met and they started spending time together, she's become more mischievous, assertive, daring, and lewd. It was only a matter of time before the sophisticated, polite, innocent, and goddess-like girl she was raised to be was but a distant memory. If her parents were here to see her as she is now, they'd either faint or kill Saito.

"Still, I feel a little guilty that I left you and Yuki to handle all those persistent guys."

"Well we both agreed that we should keep our true relationship hidden for a while. So there was no helping it."

"Yeah I know, but I mean Yuki's merciless when it comes to you, but as your boyfriend I should've been there to at least fight them off. Then again… Makes me wonder if I could." Saito's expression darkened a bit and Sakura noticed that.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I feel a little guilty for not leaving you somewhat defenseless. Though Yuki has been protecting you long before I came into the picture, so situations where guys get a little violent were no stranger to her, but I'm your boyfriend now. I should have been the one to keep those guys off you. I have just as much of a responsibility to you as Yuki or Ryosuke-kun. If I relied on the two of them to fight and protect you for me, people would most definitely accuse me of being a coward if we ever come out about our relationship.

"I never really thought about it much before back in Japan, but now we're in a world currently at war. Where the amount of power one had meant the difference between life and death. Where my pacifism and tendency to resort to negotiations aren't going to keep me and you and everyone else, we care about alive against a race that wants to kill us all. I have to change. Put to use all the martial arts I've mastered, and fight. Can I though?"

As one could see, Saito wasn't always the cheery and laidback optimist people saw him as. He had doubts, complexes that he rarely shared with anyone except Hajime, Sakura, and Yukiko. He's relied on his luck and the people around him to get him through tough situations back in Japan, but chances are they're not going to be enough. If he's reckless, anyone he cared about could end up getting killed. If his friends died while he survived after a mistake he made, how could he live with himself? Those dark thought swirled around his head for a bit before Sakura asked him, "Saito, do you remember when we first met?" Saito looked up and saw that she was standing closer than she was before, three inches from his face.

"I remember literally everything now. Especially that day. You were in quite a pickle."

"Yeah… I really was."

Saito met Sakura during the summer. Specifically, the day he graduated elementary school and he and his family returned to Japan. After a mix-up with the luggage, he ended up having to go to an electronics store in Akihabara buy a new game console. When he got there, that's when he saw Sakura being harassed by some high-school boys. Apparently she ran into one of them while holding a crepe, splattering it all over his jacket. At first they ganged up on her, demanding money to pay for the dry cleaning. But after seeing who she was and how cute she was, they instead resorted to gross flirting and tried to take her somewhere where they could "hang out."

At first he wanted to call the police, but his phone was out of battery. Due to his selfless nature, he couldn't just stand by or walk away from some thugs dragging a frightened girl away to some shady place to extort her into doing whatever they wanted. But he didn't know what to do at first. While he was an expert at martial arts, he was a bit of a pacifist. He'd use Aikido to pin down an opponent or some mystic finger-hold to knock them unconscious, but violence wasn't his first resort. He always at least tried to talk his way out of trouble. So that's what he ended up doing. It ended with Saito having to give almost all of his money to them to leave Sakura alone. He didn't have much left for subway fare back home, let alone a new game console.

"And even after causing you so much trouble you also helped get my phone out of the gutter after I dropped it running into those guys and put up with my whims and took me all over Akihabara. Treating me to ramen, playing at an arcade, going to the movies. With all the money you had left. You made me experience so many wonderful things that day." Here was dreamy look in her eyes as she reminisced those ordinary places.

"Hehehe. It was really nothing special. It was just my way of paying you back forgiving me a ride home. And even after that, you went the extra mile and bought all kinds of high-tech stuff for our house, including the next-gen console that wasn't even going to come out for another month and hundreds of games to go with it. You even took me and my family to a fancy restaurant for brunch while the house was being renovated."

"Well I had to. After everything you did. I had to repay you anyway that I could."

"But I really didn't do anything that amazing. At least not anything that deserved all of the things you did for me since then. The surgery after my accident, tagging along and covering for every mundane place I went to, your confession, all the fancy places we went to on dates. Everything we've done together is a hundred times more than what did that day. It'd take me my entire life just to pay you back for a fraction of what we did together." Saito wasn't being modest or exaggerating. He actually felt like there wasn't enough he could ever do that could repay Sakura's kindness. The money she spent on everything she gave him or everywhere they went to had to have been staggering. Three simple acts of kindness weren't enough to warrant almost five years' worth of free meals, vacations, attractions, and new stuff. Not even the car accident he was in that gave him his eidetic memory was worth it. But apparently, Sakura thought differently. After saying all that, she put her arms around Saito's neck and brought her face closer.

"Saito, what you did for me that day meant everything to me. I told you everything about how my life was before you came into it, sharing parts of myself I don't even show or tell anyone, not even Yukiko-chan and Ryu-kun. So you know that's I'm being absolutely serious. You believe that you owe me a dept you can never repay, but for me it's the other way around. I'll never forget that day as long as I live…because it's the day I began my path towards falling in love with you." It was true. Before she met Saito, her home life wasn't as ideal as people make it out to be. Even rich families like her own had it's complications. Especially one as wealthy as hers, being a descendent of one of the Big Four Zaibatsu. So to her, the day Saito came into Sakura's life meant more to her than every piece of yen her family had. And one couldn't imagine how much that was.

"And it's okay if you prefer not to fight. One of the reasons why I became so infatuated with you was because you didn't immediately resort to it like Ryosuke and Kouki always did. Senseless violence was never something I've been fond of. And I'm weak with blood, so the thought of killing anything makes me nauseous, even if it is monsters. Plus I'm not a skilled fighter compared to you or Yukiko-chan. So, I won't think any less of you. If you want to change yourself for my sake or for your own, I'll support you. I swear on my life, as a daughter of the Mitsurugi Clan, I'll be there by your side all the way." Saito felt his heart and mind become brighter and lighter as Sakura said all of that. He looked deep into her eyes and knew she meant every word. With all of his talents and gifts, there was one flaw that has hounded him and his family since before he was even born: his luck. Whether good or bad, he always ended up into trouble. But now, he felt like the luckiest man alive for falling in love with this girl.

"Yeah. Thank you for that, Sakura. Add that to the infinitely long list of things I owe you for."

"Well…you can pay me back right now…" Sakura then pushed herself even closer to Saito. So close that he could feel her bulging mounts on his chest. Even though they've already done the deed, Sakura was never usually this assertive. Even in bed she often let Saito take the lead. Their hot and heavy make out session must've flipped a switch in her. Even Saito couldn't help but blush a little at how she was acting. If her parent's could see the seductive and ravenous look on her face right now, they'd have a heart attack. Nevertheless, Saito held her tightly around her waist and pulled her even closer to him, their lips were on the verge of contact.

"You know, for a girl who easily throws money away like it's going out of style and is generous to a fault, you can be pretty greedy when it comes to this stuff." That was also true. Sakura's avariciousness knows no bounds when it came to wanting more of Saito.

"Come on, don't tease me. You know I can never get my fill of you…" Sakura blushed herself at how bold her line was. Saito was on the verge of risking an early pregnancy due to the tent that was starting to pitch in his shorts. The heat radiating off these two were coming it waves, so intense that it could melt a frozen hell. The brought their lips closer and closer, about to have another intense kissing session…

Jiggle jiggle jiggle. Suddenly, the sound of a jiggling doorknob startled the couple, making them freeze in place. Then, a voice came from outside.

"It's locked? Hello? Is someone in there? This my room, you know." It was a girl's voice. And she was saying something that didn't make sense.

"Wait. This isn't your room? You said it was." Saito asked quietly as to not let the girl know he was in here, not realizing the sound proofing magic was still in effect.

"I thought it was. The bed looked the same so… come to think of it, it does look a little messier than I remember." Sakura also didn't realize her magic was still working and quietly said that as she realized all the clothes lying around.

"You're noticing this now?! It's one thing if you're seen in here, but if I'm seen in a girl's room, everyone will wring my neck!"

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK "Hellooooo? Anyone in there?" The girl called out again.

"Just hide under the bed and keep quiet. I'll handle the rest." Saito obeyed, grabbed his backpack and his own protective training gear, and got under the bed. Underneath it he saw Sakura release the chains and went to open the door. It was indeed a girl, a short girl with short brown hair tied in pigtails. She was short enough that Saito could see her face. She had a bit of a baby face like Aiko and light brown eyes. She was wearing a yellow t-shirt and brown skirt with her school loafer. It was Suzu Taniguchi. One of Saito's classmates.

"Mitsu-chan? What are you doing in my room?" Suzu asked curiously.

"Oh. Taniguchi-chan. This your room? I'm so sorry to intrude. I thought it was mine." Sakura made quick glanced towards the bed to make sure Saito was properly hidden, so fast that Suzu didn't even register them.

"Oh really? Well they are all kind of similar. But why did you lock the door? And what happened to my bed? I just made it this morning before I went off to hang out with Eririn." As she talked, she went inside and looked around. Saito held his mouth as tight as he could as to not make a single peep.

"Well when I thought it was my room, I took a little nap before training started. I locked the door so I wouldn't be disturbed." It was both amazing and a little frightening how easily Sakura could lie.

"Fufufu… Never took you to be slothful Mitsu-Chan." Suzy snickered at the thought of Sakura sprawled on the bed with disheveled clothes. Sakura felt embarrassed being mocked, but at least Suzu bought the story. Saito watched as Suzu made her way to the large wardrobe on the right side. Then she did something that nearly made Saito's heart leap out of his chest: she started to take off her clothes, starting with her skirt. The brief second when he saw Suzu in her frilly white panties made Saito go, "Hmm!" Which made him close his mouth tighter and his eyes too. Luckily, Sakura exclaimed at the same time, so the half-naked Suzu only heard her.

"Y-your changing?!"

"Hm? Of course I am. Training starts in about an hour. Something wrong, Mitsu-chan?" Suzu asked.

"N-no. Nothing's wrong. More importantly, are you sure you're comfortable changing with me here?" Sakura asked. She didn't bother to cover Saito's view of Suzu. She trusted him not to look at another naked girl other than her.

"We're both girls, aren't we? What, does the sight of my bare skin make you excited? I never figured you'd swing that way." Suzu teased as she removed her shirt. Saito may not be looking, but the sound of clothes being taken off was pretty distinctive. The thought, "How did I become victim of a lucky perv trope?" was the first thing that popped into his head, but he made sure to keep even his thoughts quiet. The pervert sleeping within him was begging to peek, but the rationalist in him was beating the former with a stick, reminding him that he has a girlfriend who is way cuter than Suzu and who he has sex with on a regular basis. There was no way he was going to look no matter how much he secretly wanted to.

I see nothing, I hear nothing. I see nothing, I hear nothing. I'm one with the Force, the Force is with me, I'm one with the Force, the Force is with me… Saito chanted the weird phrases in his head as many times as he could. When he heard the sound of leather straps being put on, he knew that Suzu was fully clothed, so he opened his eyes and saw that she was putting on her chest guard.

"Please don't say stuff like that. Weird rumors might spread."

"I'm just teasing Mitsu-chan. Although, I'm not sure I should tell you this, but there is a rumor that Yukiko is secretly in love with you."

"D-don't be silly! Yukiko-chan is my best friend! She's like a sister to me! If she had romantic feeling for me, I would've known! Or rather she would've told me!"

"Again, just teasing. Geez, you're even more fun to fluster than Kaorin. Have you seen my knee guard? Oh that's right! I threw it under my bed!" When he heard that Saito's stomach felt like a pit of serpents were slithering inside it along with Sakura's. He suddenly realized that weird hard sensation he's been feeling since he went under the bed was not in his pants, but the leather knee guard Suzu owns. He knew that it was hers since his were in his pack already.

Suzu began to move towards the bed. Saito considered doing some kind of instant knockout technique he learned from a movie to save himself until Sakura said, "Wait Taniguchi-chan! I'll get it for you." Suzu managed to stop in her tracks from what Sakura suggested.

"Really? You'd do that? I don't want to trouble you."

"No trouble at all. Let's say it's my way of apologizing for entering your room without permission." Sakura them hurriedly came over to the bed and kneeled down. Sakura mouthed, Where's the guard?

Saito then carefully raised his body up, grabbed the guard, and slowly laid back down, all without making a peep. But just as he handed it to Sakura, he knocked into his bag and something fell inside of it. The couple's faces stiffened as the noise came. Suzu then said, "What was that sound?"

She was about to kneel down before Sakura quickly said, "I have to say that you have such a pretty figure for your age Taniguchi-chan. I assume boys are always complimenting how attractive you are?" That was enough to make Suzu blush heavily. Sakura knows that Suzu had an inferiority complex about her stature since she's so much shorter than the rest of her female classmates. Sakura took advantage of that to fluster her long enough to grab her gear from Saito and give it to her. Truly a sinister move on Sakura's part.

"Y-you're just saying that Mitsu-san," Suzu stammered. "Especially since you've got… these!

"Kyaaaaaa!"

Suzu quickly got over her embarrassment and suddenly groped Sakura's modest but plump breast. Sakura tried to wiggle Suzu off, but Suzu was holding on for dear life. Saito watched the whole display while holding his nose, keeping it from bleeding all over the ground. After thirty seconds of groping and screaming, Suzu finally relented and proceeded to head to the door.

"How about we head to training together?" Suzu suggested.

"Oh sure." Sakura agreed, and Suzu headed out. Before she left though, she gave a sign to Saito, first waving to get his attention. After a few seconds she gave the sign: both her hands opened wide, a cross made with her two index fingers, and then three fingers with her right hand. After repeating it again, she left out the door.

Saito got the message. She held out all of her fingers, then made a multiplication sign, and finally held out three fingers, which meant ten times three, which was thirty. Meaning that he should count to thirty before leaving to make sure they were gone. After doing what Sakura said, Saito quickly got out from under the bed and got out of the room. He looked around the halls to make sure no one was around and gave a five second sigh of relief as he managed to get out of there alive.

"That was too close. Can't believe for a few minutes I was a harem protagonist. Well, at least no one saw me. Now I should see how Hajime's doing. He must be at the library again." Satisfied that he made a somewhat clean getaway, he headed off towards the kingdom's library to fetch his friend. As he left the hallway though, a lone figure peered from behind a nearby wall, signifying the potential danger Saito was about to be in.


Saito found Hajime just where he knew he'd find him. Reading a book in the library. Specifically, a book titled "Monsters of the Northern Continent, a Picture Book." Clearly a picture book about monsters. Hajime noticed Saito walking towards and smiled but still looked sullen. Hajime's training must not be going well for him either, most likely not at all. For two weeks, he's been using the break time in between training to read books in hopes of making up his lack of strength with knowledge. He practically lived in the library. Saito took a seat next to Hajime just as he sighs and throws a book onto the desk rather hard. The librarian who just happened to be passing by saw the display and gave a glowering glare to him. Hajime jumped, clearly frighten, and apologized quickly. Hajime caught Saito's look of amusement and gave him a vexed pout.

"Guess training's not going so well for you, huh?" Saito asked his sullen friend.

At that, Hajime then took out his status plate, activated it and showed his results of two week of training—

HAJIME NAGUMO

Age: 17

Male

Job: Synergist

Level: 2

Strength: 12

Vitality: 12

Defense: 12

Agility: 12

Magic: 12

M. Defense: 12

Skills: Transmute • Language Comprehension

"Wow. Looks like we both drew the short straw." Saito said as he looked over his friend's pitiful Stats.

"Don't be coy. Your Stats are probably around 70 by now. And you probably have a lot of Skills and Derivatives to go with it." Hajime complained. Of course he knew that wasn't the case. He just needed someone to vent his frustrations to. Saito saw through Hajime's act though.

"You and I both know that know that's not true. While my Stats are higher than yours, my growth rate is pretty weak. All that training and I've only gone up one Level. The only Artifact that I have is this single pen, which isn't even an Artifact. Not very effective in a battle if you ask me. Not to mention that I don't have a single combat-based Job from my Job Inheritance because of its limitations. I spent two weeks looking for people with Jobs in-between training and spent so many hours helping them out to gain their trust because—in case you've forgotten, almost everyone in this kingdom hates me. And just like you, I don't have any magical affinity. I can replicate our classmate's magic with my Magic Circle Appraisal, but because I don't have my own magical affinity, it takes time for me to concentrate and create a magic circle in my head. And I still need a physical magic circle for the spell. And you know how I am with fighting. So me and you are both having a rough time."

"Yeah, I know. It's just frustrating. All that training and that's all I've got to show for it. My low Stats make fighting nearly impossible, I have no magical affinity so I can't rely on magic either, and my only skill, Transmute, only allows me to either transform the shape of various ores, or forge them into alloys, making it effectively useless. There's also the fact that there aren't any useful Artifacts for Synergist, so I only have these gloves inscribed with the circles for it instead. After training, I've managed to learn how to make protrusions and pitfalls in the ground, and they get bigger the more I trained, but…"

"You'd have to pull a FMA to do it—directly touch the ground in front of your target to activate it. And running towards your enemy and then squatting down while putting your hands on the ground…"

"Is tantamount to suicide, so even my only Skill is impractical in combat. I'd hope I could at least increase my knowledge as a last-ditch attempt to be of some use, but even that prospect looks dim. I bet you already memorized all the books in here."

Saito tapped his head as a sign that Hajime was right.

"All in here. At least the important-looking stuff. The only good thing that came out of is that I managed to gain more Appraisal Magic."

"More Appraisal Magic?! No way! How'd you get more of those?"

"From reading and memorizing all of the books I could find."

"You got high-level magic Skills just from reading? Your memory and luck are something else. I don't know whether to be impressed or jealous." From what they were taught, Appraisal Magic was generally far more complex than offensive magic, thus requiring larger magic circle in order to activate. Because of that, only certain academic facilities and large institutions had appraisal magic circles. However, people with Appraisal Skills could appraise anything within their analysis field with a small magic circle and a simple incantation.

"I'm just kidding. I got them from training with those who had the Jobs. It's amusing how easily I can trick you, Hajime." Saito laughed a little as he watches his friend glare and pout at him.

"Geez, you're such a jerk. You'd know I'd kill for the Skills you have? And it's even more so useful thanks to your eidetic memory."

"Seriously, don't be jealous. The only reason I have them is because of all the work I had to go through to get then. You're not the only one working hard to improve. And the only reason I have this eidetic-sensory memory is because of that truck accident and the experimental surgery I went through. Not a way I imagined getting a superpower. And in certain cases it's a doubled-edged sword. While anything I experience is imprinted into my brain and body, I can't ever forget it. Which means that the memory of me and my uncle at the Magical Girl Valentine's Day convention will forever haunt me until the day I'm put into the ground."

"That's…fair. I commended your fortitude for being able to live with that memory. And no offense, but your uncle is…very strange." It was true. Saito's uncle was also an avid otaku, but he took it to a very strange Level. At least to most people outside of Saito's family.

"None taken. All of my family members are strange, including me, so it doesn't bother me. Amway, me earning Appraisal Magic doesn't change how almost everyone else views me. They still see me as a felonious waste of space.

"Just like me, minus the felonious part. So I guess were both wastes of space to our classmates." Hajime and Saito gave a heavy sigh in perfect unison. It was amazing how often they did that.

"If there's one silver lining in all of this, we're paying more attention in class than we use to back home."

"I guess. Though its mostly in part of my desire to go on a journey or something since I'm going to be useless here."

"Oh? Where would you go?"

"I'm thinking the land of Beastmen would be best. Can't say you've been to another world without having seen a single pair of animal ears."

"But unfortunately, their territory is supposedly deep within the Sea of Trees, which is nearly impossible for humans to navigate due to some magic. Plus they're highly discriminated everywhere, so aside from a few slaves here and there, not many are seen outside of their homeland, the Haltina Woods."

"Yeah, that true."

"Mind telling me why?"

"You don't remember? I thought you remember everything."

"I do, but I like hearing you explain it. I find your voice soothing."

"Don't be weird, man. But fine. Apparently…"

Hajime then started to explain what he learned. According to legend, each of the gods, starting with Ehit, formed the foundations of the world with magic. The magic that is used today is apparently a deteriorated version They used. It was from that people believed magic itself is a gift from the gods, and the Holy Church strengthened that belief by saying it was true. Demi-humans are the only sentient race on Tortus that couldn't use magic, so they're believed to be wicked creatures that the gods abandoned.

"But don't monster use magic?" Saito asked as he realized that monsters are able to use magic as well as humans with even needing a magic circle.

"Apparently they don't count. To people here, they're seen as natural disasters, so the notion that they've too received "God's blessing" never was put into thought. They're just wild beast to them." Hajime explained, clearly disgusted.

"Wow. What a convenient interpretation." Saito said sarcastically, also clearly disgusted.

"Tell me about it" They made sure to talk quietly so no one would hear them.

"Humans aren't the only ones though. Demons also discriminated against the Beastmen, even though they worshipped a different God." Hajime continued his explanation.

"Demons. From what we learned, they're a race with a higher magical affinity than we humans, so they're able to cast spells with greater power and shorter incantations. Every citizen in Garland, the demon kingdom in the center of the southern continent, were gifted with powerful offensive magic, even the children. They were pretty much bred as soldiers. The only disadvantage they had was that they're fewer in numbers compared to human." Saito recalled what he learned from class.

"Yep. So thanks to the teaching of the Holy Church, the humans here in Tortus see the demons as their mortal foes because they worshipped a different god and vice versa, and both sides despise the Beastmen because they're 'godless vermin.'"

"I wouldn't be surprised if the just wanted to be left alone, considering this war is between the humans and the demons."

"Yeah. So since the Sea of Trees is possibly a no-go, maybe I'd head to the western ocean instead. If my memory's right, that's where the city of Erisen is. If I can't get my fill of animal ears, I'd at least want the chance to see some mermaids."

"Mermaids. Those type of fantasy creatures are every man's dream." Saito's eyes shined like sapphires at the thought of meeting mermaids.

"I thought that you were solely a cat ear lover." Hajime accused Saito of abandoning his ideal fetish.

"Oh? And I supposed that you aren't disappointed that you won't get to see bunny ears."

"T-touché." Hajime admitted defeat.

"But you're onto something there. I'd be pretty nice to taste the seafood there. But the thing that ticks me off a little is that the seamen are the only group of Beastmen that the kingdom sheltered since they supplied eighty percent of the kingdom's seafood supply. So because they feed you, they're no longer a godless race?" Saito pointed out the unfairness of that fact.

"I know right? Hajime agreed. "So Erisen's definitely where I'd go, but to get there from here, I'd have to cross the Gruen Desert. Can you imagine how hard that would be crossing a desert?"

"I don't want to. But for a desert, it has some interesting waypoint markers there."

"The oasis Dukedom of Ankaji and the Grand Guren Volcano, the latter being one of the seven Great Labyrinths of the world."

The Great Labyrinths refers to seven of the most highly dangerous locations in Tortus, scattered all over the world. There are currently three that are documented: The Great Orcus Labyrinth, which laid to the southwest right between the Heiligh Kingdom and the desert, the Haltina Woods is believed to be one too, and the aforementioned Grand Guren Volcano.

The remaining four have yet to be discovered but are believed to exist due to evidence found in ancient books and other such manuscripts. Two of them remain unknown, but the two that are theorized to be there are in the Reisen Gorge, a massive tear in the earth that divided the northern and southern continents, and the Frost Caverns in the Schnee Snow Fields, which was in demon territory.

"So the desert is also a no-go if I go alone."

"What about the Hoelscher Empire? That militaristic country full of adventurers and mercenaries that was formed three hundred years ago during some larger war between the humans and demons by some mercenary group. It's east of the kingdom so no need to cross a desert and it's not too far. They have demi-human there." Saito recommended that after remembering another lecture they had.

"As slaves. I couldn't bear to see those poor animal-ears suffering in slavery." Hajime pointed out that flaw with remorse in his voice

"Oh yeah. Good point. So I guess you wouldn't approve of me going there to get some slaves." Saito realized his friend's point and also rejected the idea of putting his Slavemacer Job to use.

"You'd do that?!" Hajime exclaimed, but quietly as to not incur the wrath of the librarian.

"Of course not. I was joking. And even if I wasn't, since Beastmen can't use magic, their use in battle is pretty limited to close combat depending on which species I was able to get. I might as well be using them as cannon fodder. Though I could just train them to fight to strengthen them up. Although if it's a weak creature like a rabbit-man, it might take a while and who knows when we'll be shipped off to fight. The poor thing might end up getting completely butchered." Saito denied Hajime's accusation and explained why it would be impractical to bring a demi-human to battle so casually it was frightening.

"Please don't think stuff like that. But enough about where I'd go. If you had the chance to travel, where would you head to?" After imploring his friend to not say such morbid things, Hajime asked where Saito would go if he had a chance to travel. Saito pondered this for a bit.

"Hmmm… well I'd definitely would want to check out everything we mentioned, but the place that most interest me is Fuhren, that independent merchant republic. Its wealthy, so the vast amounts of money that place makes plays a big part in its neutrality, which means that it won't be attacked anytime soon. Plus, they said anything your heart desires can be bought there, so I'd like to see what they had." Saito was pretty much an opportunist person. If something interested him, he'd do anything he could to obtain it. Nothing illegal, of course, but you'd be surprised at the lengths he would go to in order to get something he really wanted. He took various odd jobs to save up for stuff like video games, manga, light novels, premiere movie tickets, and dates with Sakura. One of them had to do with the previously mention Magical Girl convention. He's regretted every minute of that.

"Huh. Interesting. But it really just an idea to run off somewhere. If we ever want to go home, we need to stop averting our eyes and face reality." Hajime respected Saito's choice but also know what they're talking about is only a fruitless endeavor to avoid the truth. They had to go back home, and to go home, they needed to win this war.

"Yeah, your right. Speaking of, isn't it almost time for training?" Saito agreed with Hajime's advice, but then he realized that it was almost time to head towards the arena for training lessons.

"What? Oh crap!" Hajime realized that too and then headed out the library, with Saito in pursuit. Luckily, the library was a shirt distance to the palace, but the hustle and bustle of the capital was clearly visible even from such a short travel. As Saito and Hajime walked between the merchants peddling their goods, children playing in the street, and their parents angrily scolding them, the sounds all mingling with one another. The capital was truly a quaint and peaceful city.

"You know, if the war doesn't end up happening, maybe we could convince the church to send us back." Saito said kiddingly.

"Hehe…I wish." Hajime said as he chuckled at the impossibility. Good thing he had Saito alongside with him. It kept him from thinking of the ensuing despair that awaited him once they arrived.

When they arrived at the training grounds, Hajime and Saito saw that there were already students there, either chatting with each other or getting some early training in.

"Huh. We're surprisingly early." Hajime noticed.

"Yeah." Saito looked around as he answered and found Sakura talking to Suzu and some other girls. Sakura noticed Saito was here and discreetly waved to him. As Saito waved back, the girls noticed he was there and gave a menacing glare. Suzu blushed and hid behind one of the girls. They then dragged Sakura as far away from Saito as they could. Saito was at first confused at the display, then the memory from before he met up with Hajime came back. A feeling of dread filled his stomach and made him sweat buckets.

Don't tell me, Saito thought of the possibly but then shook his head quicky, pressing the thought down to avoid the idea.

"Did something happen between you and Taniguchi, Saito?" Hajime asked as he noticed how more hostile the girls were acting. In fact, he noticed that a lot of the girls here were staring daggers at Saito.

"…Sort of. So chances are if what I think happen has occurred, I'm going to end up dead soon." Saito theorized with a shaken expression.

"…By any chance did it involved you and Mitsurugi-san?" Hajime guessed.

"…. Yeah. Luckily Suzu-chan didn't find out about us, but it's a long story that we'll both likely find out soon. Let's just train."

"Uh… sure." Hajime was pretty curious and nervous about what happened before Saito arrived at the library but seeing as if would be better if he didn't know right now, he agreed and they both took out the slender longswords they've been given. Hajime then horizontally swung his sword at Saito and he easily blocked it in return. Hajime tried swinging vertically, diagonally, and even tried hitting Saito with the flat end of the blade. Nevertheless, Saito easily blocked and dodged each one. Thanks to his Superior Swordsmanship, derived from his innate talent of mastering anything he learned in such a short time, he rarely ever had to train. He actually managed to beat one of the knights in a sword fight, and he was one of his best fighters. That actually managed to garner a few amazed looks from his class, but it quickly returned to glares when Captain Meld said that Saito's free to skip weapons training if he wanted to. One the bright side, it gave him more time to work with the people who gave him their Jobs.

Hajime was about to go for a straight thrust when something hit him square in the back. He stumbled a few steps and was about to fall on Saito. Saito quickly managed to dodge the blade that was a split second away from impaling him in the chest and was prepared to catch Hajime in case he fell, but luckily, he managed to keep himself from falling. Saito sighed in relief as his friend didn't end up becoming a kabob. He and Hajime then frowned as they realized who were the perpetrators. As it was always, Daisuke Hiyama and his merry band of hoodlums (Hajime called them the Petty Four).

Ever since they started training, the Petty Four took every chance they could to terrorize the pair. Other than their depressing Stats, this was half the reason they hated training.

"Yo, Nagumo. What do you think you're doing? A weaking like you has no business hold a sword, don't you know?"

"Geez, that's pretty harsh, Hiyama. Then again, your absolutely right… Gyahahaha!"

"Why bother coming to training every day? If I were you, I'd hide in my room all day!"

"Say Daisuke, I got an idea. How about we help the sad sack with a little training? Matter of fact let's bring Hiraga along too. He might learn something from us helping his friend."

"Huh? Come on Shinji, don't you think your being a little too nice to them? But what the hell, I'm a nice guy too. Wouldn't hurt to train the poor two."

"You hear that Nagumo and Hiraga. We're being super nice guys today. Be grateful that we're giving you our precious time to train you two weaklings." They then put their arms around Hajime and Saito's shoulders in a false gesture of kindness and dragged the two of them to a secluded area of the arena. Most of their classmates noticed but pretended they didn't see anything, but Sakura noticed and, with a look of panic, went off to look for the only people that can stop the four.

"D-don't worry about us. We'll be fine my ourselves, so don't waste your time on us." Hajime tried to politely refuse, but he and Saito knew that it was pointless.

"Huh?! I'm going out of my way to help your sorry ass and you have the nerve to say you don't need it? Unbelievable! Where's my thanks, you little weaking?!" Daisuke then punched Hajime hard into his side. Hajime groaned as he felt Hiyama's fist slam into his soft flank.

"Please just leave Hajime alone, guys. We really should get back to the field to train. Captain Meld might punish us all if we're late." Saito pleaded with the group as well, even mentioning the captain in hopes of appealing to their common sense. Unfortunately…

"Are you threatening to rat us out, wimp? You sure got a lot of guts for someone who doesn't even fight!" Kondou then punched Saito hard in the gut. He almost felt the fruit he ate this afternoon come up as he groaned to the feeling of his stomach being compressed.

Ever since they came to this world, Hiyama and his thugs were getting increasingly more violent. Boys in puberty driven by their hormones tended to go made with power once they had it. Of course that was never easy for those who fell victim to their power-hungry induced aggressiveness. There wasn't anything Hajime could do to fight back, and if Saito did, they'd stop picking on him and only focus more on Hajime, probably making it worse for him, so they both were forced to grit their teeth and try to bear it.

They soon brought them to a secluded corner of the training grounds where they wouldn't be seen. While Kondou held Hajime's arms to keep him from moving, Hiyama thrust Hajime down into the ground.

"Come on, get up. It's time for some fun training." Hiyama, Kondou, Nakano, Saitou, and a bound Saito all surrounded Hajime at those words. Hajime and Saito both bit their lips in frustration.

"Gwah?!"

As soon as Hajime tried to get back up to his feet, something crashed into his back. Saitou had hit him with the sheathe of his sword. He flew forward and groaned in pain and was met with another attack.

"Hey now, be careful where you sleep. You might get burned! Incinerate all that stands in my path—Fireball."

"Hajime! Look out!"

Saito knew that Nakano had an affinity for fire. A few seconds before Nakano finished his chant, Saito warned Hajime. As Nakano fired his spell, Hajime frantically rolled to the side, barely avoiding the fire. But Hiyama predicted this and sent another spell in his direction.

"Rend my foes, Oh wind—Wind Sphere." The clod of hardened wind hit Hajime just as he was getting up, causing him to double over in pain as he was blown back. He once again crumbled to the ground and then vomited. The reason Saito couldn't warn him of that was because Kondou covered his mouth with his free hand to stop him.

"I just remembered that Hiraga could copy our magic. Should we cover his eyes?" Nakano realized Saito's abilities and pointed it out to Hiyama.

"Nah, it doesn't matter. He can't use the magic he sees without a circle to channel it into anyway. Besides, the pussy doesn't even like to fight. He wouldn't raise a finger to save his friend if we held a gun to his head. He'd rather us talk about our feeling than throw punches." Hiyama laughed at Saito's lack of will to resort to violence. Saito's nails dug into his fist as Hiyama taunted him. He managed to shake off Kondou's hand off his mouth.

"That's not fair you assholes! Your magic is enhanced by your affinities and your Artifacts. You could kill him if you use those types of spells like that." Saito was right. Even though the spells Hiyama and his cronies used were weak ones, they still hit like a pro boxer's punch. And the Artifacts the king gave them increased their power, which meant that if they messed up, they could end up killing Hajime.

"Shut up you wimp or your next! It's his own fault for being so damn weak! Look at him. He's not even trying to fight back." Hiyama threatened menacingly while calling out Hajime's weakness as he kicked him in the stomach. Hajime was desperately trying to keep his stomach from emptying.

Saito could see Hajime biting his lip, cursing his own powerlessness. They both knew that even if Hajime wanted to fight back, he believed he was too weak to accomplish anything. He knew because he felt the same way. As long as they've known each other, they've both shared the same aversion to violence. They both even had trouble truly hating people. Saito may get annoyed every once in a while, but it never gotten to the point that he wanted to hurt them. As for Hajime, he always folded when he was backed into a corner, especially when it looked like it would devolve into a fight. While Saito was always able to talk his way out of confrontations, Hajime just hoped it would end as long as he toughed it out. Some found them brave, others a loser or a coward. They both didn't know what they were.

"You know what, Kondou, let him go. I want to see if he has the guts to save his friend." Hiyama decided to test Saito's resolve and ordered Kondou to release him. Surprised, Kondou let Saito out of his grip. Rubbing his arms to sooth the ache, he looked at Hiyama with a frown. After a few seconds, Saito walked towards Hiyama. Clenching his fist. At first, Hiyana was actually getting tense, wondering if Saito was actually going to hit him. He prepared his fist for a throw down, but it never came. Saito walked right past Hiyama and in front of the kneeling Hajime. Saito then raised his hands to his shoulders to shield his injured friend.

"Saito…don't…" Hajime tried to beg his friend to not get hurt for him, but the pain made him unable to talk properly. Saito looked back at his friend and simply smiled, assuring him he was okay with this.

"Ghahahaha… are you kidding?! You have the chance to run away or fight back, and you waste it on protecting this loser?! I can't tell whether your brave or just stupid!" Hiyama laughed at Saito's attempt at selflessness, but Saito didn't care. He still stood there.

"I'm a little of both. I'm not going to stoop to your level and I'm not abandoning my best friend. You can do whatever you want with me but leave him alone." Saito was adamant about not fighting back or running away. After his talk with Sakura, he didn't feel ashamed about his aversion to fighting anymore. He knew that soon he was going to have to change his thinking soon when the war began, but for right now, he was going stand up for himself and those he cared about in his own way, the way that makes him who he is.

"Fine then. Take this!" Hiyama then launched the same wind spell, directly at Saito's face. He felt the solid air ram into his face, causing him to buckle over in pain. His nose was broken, and he felt the blood flowing from his nose. Even so, he still got up and continued protecting Hajime, so could only watch his friend get beaten in his place.

"Tch. You just don't know when to give up!" Hiyama then grabbed his sheathe and hit Saito in the stomach as hard as he could. Saito doubled over again and ended up retching out the fruit anyway. Just as he about to get up, Hiyama slammed his foot into his back and knocked the air out of Saito, as he struggled to breath in. He decided to continue Hajime's hazing disguised as training while Saito was getting kicked constantly by his friends.

Just as the pain began to become unbearable, Hajime and Saito heard a girl's angry voice and one's cold voice.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"Just what is going on here?"

Hiyama and the others paled when they heard those voices. It was only natural, since the voices belonged to Kaori, the girl who they were all smitten with, and Yukiko, the girl they were afraid of. They weren't the only ones though, as Kouki, Shizuku, Ryutarou, Sakura, and Ryosuke were with them.

"What on earth did you do to them?" Ryosuke said as he looked at the pair with genuine concern.

"Ummm, please don't misunderstand. We're just helping out with Nagumo's training and then Saito tried to attack us and…"

"Nagumo-kun!"

"Saito!"

Kaori and Sakura ignored Hiyama's excuses and each of them ran over to the pair. Hajime was still huddled over and coughing while Saito held his stomach and tried to keep more blood from dripping out of his nose. When it came to each girl's respective boy, Hiyama and the others were irrelevant.

"Training, huh? Seems a bit one-sided to be considered training, wouldn't you say Yukiko-chan?" Shizuku uttered in an icy tone.

"I agree. And you say that Saito was the one who attacked first? Then why is he the one that looks the most injured out of the four of you? Didn't you read is Status Plate. He could've taken you each out easily." Yukiko said that with an even colder tone, her eyes looking like they could freeze hell in an instant.

"W-we were just…"

"Save your breath. Nagumo-kun and Hiraga-kun may be unfitted to be in a battle, but they're still our classmates. Don't you dare do this again." Kouki interrupted with a calmer tone.

"Get out of here and go work on your own damn training!" Ryutarou roared.

Hiyama and his crew stammered as they tried to make excuses, but ultimately, they smiled awkwardly and retreaded hastily. Kaori and Sakura used healing magic on Hajime and Saito, respectfully, and they felt the pain receding gradually. Saito's nosed even stopped bleeding and the swelling stopped.

"Th-thank you, Shirasaki-san. You saved us."

"Y-yeah. Got here just in time."

Hajime and Saito smiled painfully. The girls shook their heads and their eyes filled with tears.

"When I saw Hiyama and his friends drag you off, I went to find Kouki-kun and the others as fast as I could. I didn't see where they took you, so we pressed the students to tell us where you were. To think in all that time they did this much…" Sakura explained how that managed to find them as her eyes welled up with tears.

"Do they always do things like this to you? If so, I'll… "Kaori glared scornfully at the direction the Petty Four ran, but Hajime quickly stopped her.

"No, no, it's not always this bad! We're both find, so please don't mind me!"

"Yeah, don't worry about me either Sakura. The pain's gone thanks to you, so no need for tears." Saito also assured Sakura who was on the verge of crying.

"But…"

"But I wished I'd…"

Kaori and Sakura didn't seem fully convinced, so the pair smiled and said, "We're fine, really." At those words, the two girls reluctantly gave in.

"Nagumo-kun, Saito-kun, if anything like this happens again, please, for Kaori and Sakura-chan's sake, tell us immediately." Shizuku said that with a sidelong glance at Kaori, a strained expression on her face.

"We're lucky that Sakura found us in time before things got worse, otherwise…" Yukiko momentarily looked worried, but then she quickly returned to her stoic demeanor.

Hajime and Saito were about to thank them for their concern, but then the resident hero had to spoil the mood.

"But you know, Nagumo, Hiraga, you both really need to put in more effort. You both will never get stronger of you use your weaknesses as an excuse. Nagumo, I hear that you're spending your break time at the library. And Hiraga, apparently your strolling around town helping people. That's good and all, but if I were in either of your shoes, I'd spend every waking moment training to get stronger. You both really need to take this seriously. Hiyama and the others probably did this to fix those frivolous attitudes of yours."

Oh brother, Saito thought to himself as Kouki finished his lecture. He was momentarily in disbelief at what Kouki said, as if the beatdown they got was partly their fault. Then he remembered that this was just his nature. He had the belief that all people were inherently good and fitted that through his worldview.

To Kouki, it was unfathomable that some people are cruel just because they can be. That there was a method to the madness, like "Maybe the problem lies with the person they were attacking" or some other baseless idea in order to fit into his perspective.

Saito and Hajime were easily tired by his naïve thinking, but they didn't hate the guy. His words never contain any ill will and were always sincere. Hajime may have given up on trying to contest him, but Saito would on occasion point out his complaints. It was a fruitless battle to convince someone of their own righteousness, but Saito hasn't given up…yet.

"Thanks for the advice, Kouki-san, but it kind of hurts to take advice from someone whose Level is already eight points higher than ours and whose Stats are already in the 200 range after two weeks."

For reference, this is Kouki's current Stats—

KOUKI AMANOGAWA

Age: 17

Male

Job: Hero

Level: 10

Strength: 200

Vitality: 200

Defense: 200

Agility: 200

Magic: 200

M. Defense: 200

Skills: Elemental Affinity • Elemental Resistance • Physical Resistance • Advance Sorcery • Swordsmanship • Superhuman Strength • Armor Proficiency • Foresight • Increased Mana Recovery • Detect Presence • Detect Magic • Limit Break • Language Comprehension

"That's only because I train hard every chance I get. I'm sure that even you could get to my Level if you work harder." Kouki, of course, ignored that his Hero Job gave him an edge over even his other overpowered classmates, let alone the non-combat classed and average Stats Hajime and Saito.

Hajime gave Saito a look that said, "Why do you try?" Saito simply shrugged.

"You know Hiraga-kun, I actually remember from when we were training back at the Yaegashi dojo. Both me and Shizuku do." Ryosuke and Kaori's eyes were the only one to widen after hearing what Kouki just said.

"Huh?! No way! You really trained there? Why didn't I know about this?!" Kaori was honestly appalled at how she didn't know about this. Shizuku usually told her everything.

"Calm down, Kaori. It was just a few weeks before we met. So you couldn't have known about it."

"Okay… But why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Well I guess I just never got around to telling you. There wasn't even much to tell. I mean he was only there for a week." As Kaori pouted a little at how she was the only one among the four that didn't know that shocking piece of information, Kouki revealed another startling revelation.

"How can you say that Shizuku? In that one week, he managed to beat two instructors, me, and Yukiko. He even managed to put you in a corner." Once again, Kaori and Ryosuke's eyes widened. Saito worried that their eyes would pop out of their skulls.

"I-In just a week? N-no way…" Ryosuke was at a loss for words. He knew that Saito was good at martial arts, but not that good. He knew Shizuku and Yukiko were amazing fighters from all the tournaments he watched. They were totally unbeatable. But hearing that Saito managed to beat Yukiko and corner Shizuku with just a week's worth of lessons was indescribably appalling. Kouki then continued on.

"You had the potential to outclass even Shizuku. To compete in tournaments and be undefeated. But you gave up only after one week. It would've been easy for you to protect yourself and Nagumo-kun against Hiyama and the others. But you just let them beat up your best friend and yourself. I know you have your misgivings about fighting and you probably have a good reason for it, but you can't use that as an excuse anymore. Not when your life depends on whether or not you can fight back. How are you ever going to protect anyone with that kind of thinking?"

I know that already. You don't need to remind me. Saito was already aware of how talented he could've been at swordsmanship, or anything for that matter. And he could've easily taken out Hiyama and his goons with ease. But he didn't. Unless he was really backed into a corner, solving conflict with violence was never something he resorted to. And as for his talents, Kouki didn't know what it was truly like to be able to do anything. He was fortunate to have both the looks and the charisma for people to admire how talented he is. Saito… wasn't so lucky. So hearing him say that brought back his feelings of doubt. So he just silently listened to Kouki's speech.

"And you should also try to learn more intermediate or advance-level spells. Just because they're easier doesn't mean that you can just skip them. With your Skills I'm sure that you can—"

"Kouki-kun, stop it!" Before Kouki could finish, Sakura unexpectedly ordered him to cease his lecture. Everyone was taken aback at how she was vehemently did it, even Yukiko who has known her the longest and has never seen her look this exasperated.

"You're right. Saito is talented. He's able to do things that would take normal people years to fully master. Even more so with the eidetic memory he has. He could join any club and master it in just a week. He could memorize any piece of information just by looking at it. He could make top of the class without even studying. He's guaranteed to go to any of the top colleges if he wanted to. I've seen him literally fight a guy twice his size with just one hand. He's probably the most talented human being in the world. Including this one. Can you even comprehend how terrible that sounds?" Kouki was already taken aback at how adamantly Sakura was confirming his every word but was even more confused by what she said last.

"Huh? What on earth are you talking about, Sakura? Do you know what some people would give to have the talents he has? I admit, I never really felt like that—"

"That's exactly my point! You can't understand! None of us do! Not you, me, Shizuku-chan, Yukiko-chan, or Ryu-kun! I know how narcissistic it sounds, but the five of us, whose looks and charisma make us able to get along without any trouble, can never understand what it's like for someone like Saito, who has none of that!"

Where is she going with this? Except for Saito, everyone thought the same thing. Understandable because it was more like she was insulting Saito than covering for him. But then her meaning became clear.

"People who are popular can get away with having talent because they are popular. People aren't bothered by how talented they are because that's what they expect. Their perception of you is already set just by looking at you and what you do. They think things like, 'Well that's to be expected. They are who they are,' or, 'Not a surprise. He just looks the part.' But when someone like Saito is doing it, it's only, 'How is someone like him better than me at this?' or, 'What a showoff. Just because he think's better than me means that he can gloat about it?' Are you understanding what I'm saying?" Unfortunately, he didn't. As usual, his inability to see the bad in people alluded him.

"Well…maybe if he just understood the other person's side—" Sakura got even more heated at those words.

"What's there to understand?! They're the ones who are being inconsiderate! They accuse him of being things like a showoff, lazy, or reclusive, when they don't know what it's like to have talents like that! Being able to master anything means that nothing's ever a challenge! It becomes boring and you don't feel the same feeling of satisfaction as someone who has worked tirelessly to polish their skills. People accuse you of not taking it seriously or grow jealous of how much attention you get from others. They either avoid or bully you for it. And having an eidetic memory like his means that you can remember literally everything. He could recall every little thing he feels, tastes, touches, sees, and hears like it was happening right this second. Even the bad ones. Normal people have the benefit of being able to suppress bad memories or experiences, especially traumatic ones. But Saito has to live with that his entire life, never being able to forget it and seeing it and feeling it replay in his mind and body as if it just happened yesterday. And it's even worse considering he had to survive a traffic accident to receive it. He must remember every little thing about that day. The feeling of a seven pound truck slamming into you after going twenty miles per hour, the feeling of your skull nearly cracked open as your bones breaks, the amount of blood flowing out of you, the sight of that man who died in it, the feeling of your head and skull being stitched back together even after being put under anesthesia. He experiences every second of every day of it. He's probably still feeling all of the pain Hiyama did to him even after I healed him. He had to train himself to suppress as much of it as he could. I could never live with something with that. Could you? Could anyone? Saito's the only one who knows what's that's like! But its also why he can't bring himself to hurt people! He wouldn't use violence to solve conflicts like you and Ryu-kun! He doesn't want people to feel the same thing he constantly feels!" As Sakura ranted about how awful Saito's eidetic memory really was, there was an expression of guilt on her face. As if it was her fault somehow. Nobody was able to say a word as she stared silently at the ground before taking a deep breath in and out to calm herself.

"My point is, choosing not to fight isn't an excuse for Saito. It's the way he is. And it's because of how talented he is that he can find a way to fight without having to cause pain. And he doesn't need to learn stronger spells if he doesn't want to. I had to learn only advance-level magic from my trainer, and it took me almost an entire day to master it. Saito could do it in an hour. But he sticks to easier spells because they are easier, and they're the only ones he could get because no one in this kingdom trusts him to learn with higher Level spells thanks to his Job. They think he'll use them against them or to kill someone. Or that his luck with end up backfiring the spells and cause an incident. Saito has no choice but to make do with what he can get. To improve and master those skills in order to be even a modicum of use to a kingdom that despises him. That makes him more selfless than even you Kouki. So please, don't just accuse him of something you don't understand." Sakura began to tear up a little as she finished. Yukiko gave her a sideways hug to comfort her. Kaori muttered, "I can't believe he's been living with something like that for so long…" to herself. Shizuku looked at Saito with a sympathetic look in her eyes. Ryutarou simply said, "Damn, that's just…" and kept quiet. Ryosuke turned around, so he wasn't able to tell what look he was making, but the shaking must've indicated how much anger he had towards those who hurt him. Hajime also looked down with a sympathetic look in his face, but also a tinge of guilt for some reason.

"But…I really wasn't trying to insult him. If he had jus told us what he was really going through then…" Kouki was still unable to admit he was in the wrong here, even after listening to everything Sakura had to say. She was going to chastise him again, but Yukiko stopped her before she could.

At his words, Shizuku covered her mouth to stifle a sigh and Yukiko simply held her hand to her temple and apologized to the two, at least Shizuku did.

"Sorry about that. Kouki means well, I promise."

"Ahaha, yeah. We know. No worries." Hajime smiled and replied with the same reassuring tone he always used. He got up and brushed the dirt off his clothes.

"Yeah, it's really no big deal. Any of it…" Saito also brushed off his clothes and assured them of both Kouki's words and of the speech Sakura gave.

"Saito…I'm sorry for telling them all of that. I didn't mean to reveal something so personal." Sakura apologized to him solemnly, but Saito didn't mind what she said.

"Don't worry about it Sakura. I've come to terms with it. It's really not that big of a secret to me. So I don't that you told them." Sakura still looked a little guilty, but she wiped her tears and accepted his words.

"Okay. If you say so."

"Alright, might as well get ready to go train." Saito was also about to get up, but before he could, Ryosuke said something that made his heart sink.

"By the way, Saito-kun. Is there a reason why you were in Taniguchi's room this afternoon?" Saito froze in place when he heard that. Sakura nearly jumped when she did. She realized that everyone was acting a lot more hostile than usual to Saito, but she didn't know why.

So Ryo-kun saw?! Sakura thought dreadfully. Everyone turned to Ryosuke in shock as they made sure they didn't mishear.

"Wh-what?!"

"Are you kidding?!"

"No way!"

"Oh?

Kouki, Ryutarou, Kaori, and Yukiko all exclaimed at what Ryosuke said.

"Yeah. I was heading towards the training grounds when I saw Taniguchi and Mitsurugi-san leaving a room. I admit I ended up reflexively hiding from the two, but a few seconds after they left, I saw Saito come out of the room. When I asked Taniguchi about it, she was shocked and highly embarrassed, cause apparently, she was changing into her training clothes while Saito was hiding, possibly underneath the bed."

As Ryosuke explained, Saito could feel the hostile glares piercing his very soul, making him break into a cold sweat while his heart was beating like a bongo drum. Sakura's was the same way, cursing herself for being so careless.

So that's what was going on, Hajime thought as he quickly realized what happened.

"Hiraga, is this true?"

"Your normally so well-behaved. How could you do something so detestable to Suzu-chan? Even though you already have…"

"You better explain yourself quick."

Ryutarou and Kouki glowered at the kneeling Saito. Kaori was the only one who didn't want to believe Saito was capable of such an act and quietly revealed something important but trailed off as she realized what really happened. Shizuku caught the nervous look that Sakura was making, and she also quickly realized what happened, blushing at how reckless they were. Kaori and Shizuku are actually the only ones in the popular group of four that know Saito and Sakura are dating, having found out by a very humorous misunderstanding.

"I-I-I swear it was just an accident! I accidently dropped a vial I had bought for my potions training and it rolled into the room. I went it to get it and I checked under the bed to see if it was under there. I managed to get it, but then I heard someone come in and kind of froze." Saito hastily explained himself as he lied as convincingly as possible.

"Then why do you have a pair of panties in your left knee guard?" Ryosuke pointed at Saito's knee and everyone looked down to see a pair of white frilly panties hanging out from the bottom.

What the...?! How the hell did these get here?! Saito broke into an even colder sweat than before as he felt the menacing glares of everyone except for Hajime and Sakura.

"I-I swear! I have absolutely no idea how these got here!"

"Even if you are telling the truth, that doesn't give you right to enter a person's bedroom without permission. You should be ashamed of yourself for having the audacity to peep on one of your own classmates, let alone steal female undergarment's. I wanted to believe you weren't capable of such things after what Mitsurugi-san just said but seeing that you're trying to make excuses instead of owning up to what you clearly did, I see now you can't be trusted around anyone. Please kindly stay away from Mitsurugi-san, or any of our classmates for that matter, and never associated with anyone ever aga-"

"Ryosuke-kun. I'll handle this." Yukiko coolly interjected Ryosuke's accusation and directly faced Saito with her arms crossed. He slowly looked up and faced the blank-face Yukiko. He managed to calm himself and bravely faced her intimidating posture. She began her interrogation.

"Sakura was also in there by accident. Was it before or after when you hid under the bed?"

"After. I felt her laying down on the bed and heard her fall asleep."

"Why didn't you just get out while she was asleep?"

"I was worried that if I got out from under the bed and opened the door, I would wake her. She's a heavy sleeper, but I didn't want to take that chance."

"How do you know that she's a heavy sleeper?"

"She invited me to a stroll around the park and she fell asleep on the bench for an hour while I was playing my game (He actually knew that from all the times they've…done it. But there was no way he could say that. Especially not to Yukiko).

"When Suzu came in and started changing, did you see anything?"

"…Yeah, I saw her panties, but I immediately covered my eyes after that and waited until she was done." Saito hesitated to answer that, but he knew honesty was the best course of action here.

"Did you see anything else?"

"I saw Suzu groping Sakura playfully, but that was normal for her."

"How long did you wait to get out? And did you really not know about the panties in your knee guard?"

"Thirty seconds just to make sure they were gone. And no I didn't."

"Where did you headed to after that?"

"The library since that was where Hajime was."

"And you swear that this whole thing was just an accident?"

"On my life as an otaku." After she was finished, Yukiko stared at Saito to analyze his facial expressions. After ten whole seconds, occasionally looking at Sakura's expression, putting two and two together, she gave her answer.

"Alright. I believe you. But you better apologize to Taniguchi-chan and clear this whole thing up before things get ugly."

Saito sighed in relief as she said that. Sakura did the same. Kouki and Ryutarou were still a little unsure, but they didn't question it. Shizuku and Kaori smiled in relief as well. Hajime gave a subtle thumbs up at his friend's declaration of innocence, in which Saito returns as well. But the only person that was unsatisfied was Ryosuke.

"Natsumi-san, as much as I respect your decisions, how can you believe him so easily? There's no way he could just be there by accident. And even if he was, we should go tell someone and make sure he's punished for this. I can't forgive anyone trying to peep on Mitsurugi-san." Ryosuke still talked in a calm tone, but he vehemently apposing letting Saito off the hook.

"Ryu-kun, please don't—!" Sakura was about to plead for her friend to stop, but Yukiko did it for her, except that she didn't plead.

"Ryosuke-kun. I said I believe Saito and his punishment is a public apology to Suzu and that's it. Is that a problem?" Yukiko gave her signature icy glare to Ryosuke. Everyone, even Shizuku, was frightened at the intensity of the glare. The color in Ryosuke's skin drained like tea being poured. Seeing there was no defying her decision, Ryosuke shook his head quickly.

"…No. If you say that you believe him…then I trust you.

"Appreciate it. Now let's go or we're going to be late." Everyone agreed instantly and headed off together. Kaori and Sakura shot worried glances at Hajime and Saito, but Hajime pretended to not notice since, as a man, he found it somewhat shameful for him to be doted on by a girl his age. Saito didn't mind though, since Sakura was always a bit of a worrywart, so he's used to it. As they walked back, no one heard it, but Ryosuke's clicked his tongue in anger.

As they arrived at the training, Hajime sighed for the umpteenth time today. Saito placed his hands on his friend shoulder in both sympathy and agreement that the road ahead was looking grim. He then immediately went towards Suzu, with the girls protecting her from him, understandably. Saito then immediately prostrated and apologized to Suzu.

"I'm very sorry for entering you room without permission Suzu-chan! And I'm also sorry for seeing you in your panties! I swear that it was an accident and I promise that I will be more careful next time! Please forgive me!" The girls were pretty stunned at Saito's display, so they didn't say anything. Suzu bashfully looked at Kouki and his friends, and them Yukiko and Sakura. All of then nodded, confirming that he meant every word.

"I-It's okay, Saito-kun! When I thought about it, it didn't seem like you to peep, so I forgive you. Please raise your head!" Suzu frantically forgave Saito and everyone relaxed, though they still were still wary of him.

"Also, I swear I have no idea how they ended up in my knee guard, but…" Saito then handed Suzu the panties he somehow ended up with. Every immediately started to prime their hateful glares, but then…

"Huh? These aren't my panties." Suzu was at first shocked at seeing her panties in Saito's hands, but when she got a good look at them, she realized that she didn't recognized the panties.

"What? Really? Are you positive they're not? You had a lot of clothes scattered around the place." Saito was pretty taken aback at what Suzu said. Including everyone else.

"I admit I can be a little messy, and my memory isn't as good as yours is, but I don't remember owning a pair of panties like these. The design is a little different than the ones I buy. And they still look a little too new to be mine."

"Really? Then where—" Before Saito could finish his sentence, everyone suddenly heard a loud sound of someone clearing their throat. It was Captain Meld. Apparently, he was just about to begin training until Saito's apology. Now that things were settled, he then got everyone attention, with an awkward look on his face that vanished quickly as he began giving today's lesson.

Normally after training was done, they were giving free time before dinner, but Captain Meld held them back afterwards for something. All the students looked at him with curiosity, and then he was sure they were all paying attention, he announced loudly, "Tomorrow, for your practical training, we're going on an expedition to the Great Orcus Labyrinth. I'll provide all the equipment you'll need for it, but don't think that this will be the same as the monster hunts you do outside the capital! Get plenty of rest and prepare yourselves! That's all—dismissed!" The captain left as soon as he finished, keeping his announcement brief.

Hajime and Saito looked up at the sky as they stood in the back of the line of chattering students, and each of them thought the same thing: Very grim indeed.


The Great Orcus Labyrinth. One of seven of the Great Labyrinths. A massive dungeon said to have over a hundred floors. And the deeper one went, the stronger the monsters were. Despite its hazard, it was a popular training area for adventurer, mercenaries, and troop recruits alike, since it helped gauged the relative strength of monsters on each floor they go down. It was especially useful when one wanted to harvest Mana Crystals.

Mana Crystals are the cores of monsters, making them what they are. And the stronger the monster, the bigger the core. Mana Crystals are a vital component in making magic circle. spells can be activated just by inscribing it into a magic circle and activating it with mana, but powered mana crystal would increase its effectiveness when engraved within the circle. Without it, it would only be one-third as strong.

The reason for that is because Mana crystals allowed mana to travel more efficiently within a circle, so they're very high in demand by both the common folk and the military, as they are imbedded into magical tools as a power source.

However, monsters with high-quality magic stones also had highly powerful specialized magic. Specialized means that they could only use one type of spell since they had neither the intelligence nor the capacity to use magics circles or chants. Even so, the fact that they could use magic without a circle, or a chant made for a very powerful asset, making it the number one reason why they should never be underestimated.

Hajime, Saito, their classmates, Captain Meld, and a few of his knights arrived at Horaud, an outpost town that primarily existed to catered adventurers and the like who wished to brave the Orcus Labyrinth. They also had a state-run inn at the town for soldiers-in-training, which is where the students were staying.

Saito and Hajime were glad to see a normal room for once, so they dived right into their own beds with a relieved sigh. Since ever room had at least two people in it, Hajime and Saito were lucky to be roomed together.

"Ahhh… This is more like it. The beds back at the palace were nice and all, but this feels more like home." Saito felt so nostalgic laying on a normal bed that wasn't bigger than he was.

"You said it, man. This so much more comfortable." Hajime agreed wholeheartedly at these sleeping arrangements. They spent a few minutes taking in the homely feel of the room. The they began to talk.

"Hey Saito, when we were touring the city during our free time, what'd you get from that shop?" Hajime asked as he remembered Saito went into a weapons shop and came out with something he put into his bag.

"Oh yeah. Give me a sec…here it is!" Saito spent a few seconds digging around in his already stuffed backpack and pulled out what he got: it looked like the hilt of a sword, except that it didn't have a blade. It was just a long cylinder-shaped metal hilt with a hollowed-out hole at the top. The pommel was a circular oval and also metal.

"…Isn't that just a blade hilt?" Hajime paused blankly as he looked blankly at it before asking what the object was.

"Well the blacksmith said the Synergist who made this died before finishing the weapon, only making the hilt and a magic circle embedded into it. He gave it to me for free since it was just gathering dust."

"Okay… well does it even do anything?"

"Watch. Unlock." Apparently that single and basic word was a chant, because when Saito channeled mana into the blade's circle, a small rectangular hole slid open, big enough for a large pebble to fit inside. Apparently, something was meant to go into that opening. Saito then canceled the spell and the opening closed back up.

"See? Pretty cool, right?"

"I'm…not sure what to say. That thing doesn't even have a blade. You can't fight with that."

"I'm sure I'll make some use of it one day. For now, I'll make do with the shortsword." Saito put the so-called weapon into his backpack and pulled out his PSP.

"Your game? I thought ran out of power days after we came here." Hajime noticed Saito was holding his treasured game console his late grandfather gave to him when he was a kid. It was old and worn out due to Saito repairing it with the bagful of spare parts he bought to replace the broken ones. Keeping it functional has become a ritual to Saito.

"It did. I'm just looking it while I look through everything I bought." His game was already low on power when they arrived in Tortus. After beating the game he was playing for the fiftieth time, it died. And due to modern electricity being unavailable in this world, he had no viable way to charge it, unless Saito wanted to fry it with lightning magic trying to regulate control and completely destroy it.

Hajime decided to read the picture book he borrowed that talked about the monsters that lived in the lower Levels of the dungeon. Saito was tinkering with some spare parts. Hajime shot a couple of guilt ridden looks at Saito a few times, and Saito tried asking, but Hajime always said that it was nothing.

After a while, they both decided to go ahead and get as much sleep as possible. The fact it was still fairly early didn't bother them, since even in another girl, their ability to sleep anywhere regardless of the situation. And by early, they meant the kind of early that back-to-back all-nighters considered early. It was pretty late out for those with either normal sleep schedules or the people of Tortus.

But just as they were about to doze off, they were broken out of their stupor by a knock. They were both pretty taken aback that someone was here this late. Hajime and Saito feared that the visitors were Hiyama and his friends. They looked to see if either of them was brave enough to get the door, but then the voice on the other side alleviated their fears.

"Nagumo-kun, Saito-kun, are either of you awake? It's me, Shirasaki. Can I come in so we can talk a bit?"

What on earth? The pair had the same thought as Hajime stiffened up and rushed to open the door. He quickly unbolted and opened the door to reveal Kaori… in nothing but a cardigan over a pure white negligée.

"…What in tarnation?"

"…What the dickens?"

"Huh?" Hajime and Saito were so shocked they both unintentionally slipped into weird accents. Kaori looked at the pair blankly, so she must've not heard them right.

Hajime composed himself the best that he could, and said to Kaori,

"N-nothing. Anyways, what's up Shirasaki-san, what's brings you out here this earl—late, I mean? Do you have a message for one of us?"

Hajime quickly corrected himself as he asked the most likely reason she's here, trying not to look at her as much as possible. He might've been an advocate for 2D, but he was still a teenage boy. Even as something as modest as a negligée was too much for his hormones to handle. As for Saito, he has already experienced the intense and ecstasy-induced feeling of sex with Sakura, so Kaori's clothing didn't bother him. Although he had to admit she looked pretty stunning.

"No, I was hoping we could talk for a bit, Nagumo-kun…I'm not being a bother, am I?" Kaori bluntly refused and gave an unexpected reply, with pleading puppy dog eyes for effect. Saito never pegged Kaori as a master of manipulation. He was genuinely impressed.

"…Come on in." Hajime, falling victim to its three-hit combo, opened the door wide to let her in.

"Thank!" Kaori didn't hesitate to enter, and she plopped herself at a table near the window.

"Maybe I should wait outside." Felling like a third wheel, Saito decided to head out and wait. Hajime shot him a "please don't leave me alone with her" look, as if being alone with a beautiful girl in nightwear was terrifying. Though for someone inexperienced with girls like Hajime, it was pretty nerve-wracking. Luckily, Kaori said,

"Oh, you don't have to leave, Saito-kun. Rather, you should hear this too."

"Oh really? Alright then." Saito was surprised that Kaori wanted Saito stay too, although he couldn't help but wonder why she didn't take the chance to be alone with Hajime. Even so, he then sat back onto the bed.

Still somewhat confused, Hajime instinctively started brewing some tea. Brewing might've not been the right word though. He just dumbed some black teabag into a pot of water, boiled it with magic, and called it a day. He made enough of the crappy tea for the three of them. Once it was served, he sat across from her.

As Saito sipped it, it tasted more like water than tea to him.

"Thanks Hajime." Saito casually accepted Hajime's tea despite finding the taste lacking.

"Yes, thank you." Despite the terrible quality, Kaori still accepted it graciously. As she gently brought cup to her lips and sipped, the moonlight shone over her, illuminating her figure, and making her black hair shine in the silver light, wreathing her like a halo.

Hajime stared, captivated by her mysterious aura, purely platonic of course. He finally returned to his senses by the sound of a clink, the sound of Kaori putting the cup back on the saucer. Hajime attempted to pacify himself by gulping down all the crappy black tea down in one gulp, nearly choking from the sudden abundance of liquid pouring down his throat.

"That was rather embarrassing." Saito commented as he took another sip.

"Shut up." Hajime meekly said as he recovered.

Kaori chuckled as she watches Hajime sputter, Saito's cheek, and Hajime's weak threat. In order to distract himself from the shame, he quickly started talking.

"So, what is it that you wanted to talk about? The dungeon trip tomorrow?" Kaori nodded, affirming Hajime's question and gave an uncharacteristically grim expression.

"I want you… to please stay here when we go to the labyrinth tomorrow. I can convince the instructors and out classmates, so please, don't go!"

Her tone grew more and more heated as she spoke, and by the end, she was leading towards Hajime closely. For his part, Saito was a little puzzled for her desperate pleas. He would understand if it were one his classmates telling Hajime to stay behind because he would be a burden, but Kaori was different. She was practically begging for him to stay. Saito could that she was adamantly terrified about something. What could've spooked her enough to beg Hajime to stay behind?

"Umm… I realize that I'd just be extra baggage to the class, but…I don't think they'll let me back out after coming this far."

"That's not it! I'm saying that you'll be a burden or anything!"

Kaori hastily tried to correct Hajime's misunderstanding. When she realized that she got too heated, she placed her hands on her chest and took a deep breath, calming herself down.

"I figured that wasn't the reason, but then why do you want him to go? Is it because you had some kind of vision of his demise?" Saito tried to ease the tension in the room with a mildly dark but witty joke.

"That's not very funny Saito." Hajime criticized Saito's joke disquietly.

"Yeah, I know. Sorry for the ill-mannered joke Kaori. I was just...kidding." Saito tried to apologize for the dark humor, but when he saw the frightened look on Kaori's face, his face turned from a smile to a look of unease.

"Wait…did you actually had a vision of Hajime?" Saito was hesitant to ask, but he did. So Kaori continued talking.

"Well…yes and no. I just had this really bad feeling. I was sleeping just a moment ago and…I had this sort of dream, and…you were in it Nagumo-kun. No matter how many times I tried calling for you…you wouldn't hear me… And no matter how much I ran…I couldn't reach you. And then…" Kaori faltered as she was afraid about what came next, but Hajime pushed her to continue.

"Then what?"

Kaori bit her lip and looked at Hajime with tears welling up in her eyes.

"…You vanished…"

"I see…"

Silence filled the room. Hajime stared at Kaori, whose head was hanging again. He then looked at Saito, who was in turn looking at Hajime with a hint of worry. Then he drank the rest of the tea and set it down.

"You really are bad at bad at making tea, Hajime."

"…I know your trying to ease the tension in here, but please don't poke fun at my lack of tea making skills. It took a lot for Kaori to tell us this, especially to me."

"Trust me, I know. That… definitely sounds like a sinister dream. It may be a nightmare, it may be a vision. Either way, the instructors and our classmates won't just let such a flimsy reason prevent him from going."

And there's no doubt our classmates would condemn him from going, Saito only thought that because Kaori doesn't know that the class hated the two of them, and there'd a whole slew of trouble if she did know.

"Depending on how it turned out, he'd have nowhere to go. So, sadly, he had to go."

"…Yeah…your right. And it'd be selfish of me to ask you to stay with him?"

"Actually, if we did get permission, I'd be okay with staying with him to keep him company or to head back to the kingdom. But…Sakura's going into the dungeon. She'd be safe with Kouki-kun, Yuki-chan, and Ryosuke-kun, but still…"

"Don't worry. I understand." Kaori knew that it'd be upsetting to Sakura if she didn't have Saito down with her because of her own worries, so she knew that it was selfish to ask, but she was still pretty shaken by her nightmare. Hajime then spoke as gently as he could, trying his best to reassure Kaori.

"Shirasaki-san, it was just a dream. There's no need to worry. We'll have Captain Meld and some veteran knight with us. Not to mention the rest of our classmate, especially Amanogawa-kun, have some pretty broken Skills."

"Ridiculously broken. I'm a little more worried about our enemies down there. They're in for a rough day." Saito added.

"Exactly. You probably had that dream because you've been seeing how weak I've been lately." Hajime's words only seemed to make Kaori more worried.

"But…if your still worried…then…"

"Then what?"

Hajime looked embarrassed, but he still looked her in the eyes and muttered—

"Will you protect me?"

"Eh?"

Hajime must've been embarrassed as a man to be asking that. In fact, when the moonlight lit the room, Kaori and Saito could clearly see his face reddening.

"Shirasaki-san, your Job is Priest, right? That's make you efficient in healing magic if I remember right. So even if I get hurt, or mortally wounded, you'll be able to heal me. So, if you're protecting me, I'll be fine no matter what happens, okay?" After that, Kaori didn't take her eyes off of Hajime for a while. Hajime knew he couldn't take wane from this situation, so he didn't take his gaze off of her either, even though he most likely dying of embarrassment.

To anyone else, Hajime was probably being a total scumbag by relying on Kaori to protect him instead of getting stronger himself. But Saito knew what he was doing. Saito had read about humanity's greatest fear is the unknown. Kaori was afraid that something was going to happen to Hajime, but she didn't know what it was. Seeing that, Hajime was giving her the confidence to handle anything that came at him, regardless of what it was. Saito knew that Hajime was simply easing Kaori's worries.

The pair looked at each other for a few moments, and then Kaori broke the silence by smiling.

"You never change, do you, Nagumo-kun?"

"Huh?" Hajime's head tiled quizzically at what Kaori said, and she chucked.

"Nagumo-kun, you met me for the first time in our first year of high school, right? The truth is, I've known you since the second year of middle school." Hajime's eyes were as wide as dinner plates as he heard that. He looked like he was trying relentlessly to remember when he first met her, but he looked like he came up empty. He looked at Saito to see if he remembered. Saito simply shrugged.

"I know your confused... You were kneeling on the ground, so you didn't see me."

"Kn-kneeling?!"

Hajime was squirming in embarrassment as he racked his brain trying to remember when he was in such a pathetic state, and how Kaori could've seen him like that. The moment he heard the phrase "kneeling on the ground," Saito realized what she was talking about. Something that Hajime told him about that happened to him during that time.

"Ohh… So that's how you knew who he was. You were there?" Kaori nodded at Saito, meanwhile Hajime was even more confused.

"What?! You know what she was talking about?!" Hajime asked his friend in a panic, a hilarious number of expressions filling his face

"You don't remember? Well I guess I wouldn't want to remember prostrating in front of a bunch of a delinquent getting spat at, poured juice on, and stepped on until they gave up."

"Was I… that unsightly? I'm sorry you had to see something like that, Shirasaki-san."

Hajime wanted to melt to the floor. Having a girl like Kaori witnessing him in such a state is the epitome of humiliating. Equivalent to having your antsy middle school dark past brought back up, which Saito often brought up when he felt like teasing Hajime. Hajime wore the same awkward smile that time when he was staying over, his mom found his porn collection and casually and neatly organized it on his shelf.

However, Kaori looked at him with not an ounce of disdain in her eyes, but with kindness.

"That's not true. It wasn't unsightly at all. In fact, when I saw you, I thought you were such a brave and kind person, Nagumo-kun."

"…Huh?" Hajime couldn't believe what he had heard. No one would think something like that after seeing him in such a state.

Kaori doesn't have some kind of weird fetish for that, does she? Hajime thought, rather rudely.

"Rather uncharacteristically unkind of you to think that Hajime. For shame." Saito knew from his expression what he was thinking and scolded him amusingly.

"How do you always know what I'm thinking?! And if that's not it, then you just tell me already?!" Hajime demanded Saito to tell him what Kaori was talking about, while the girl in question looked confused about what Hajime was thinking about her. But even though he asked Saito, Kaori was the one that told him.

"The little boy and his grandmother. You did all that because they were trouble, right?"

At that, Hajime finally remembered what happened during middle school. Remember Hajime telling him about the time when a little kid bumped into a delinquent and spilled his Takoyaki all over his clothes. The leader snapped and stated yelling at the kid, making him cry and hie grandmother cower.

Hajime was just passing by at the time and he wanted to ignore the commotion, hoping that either the situation would resolve or someone else would handle it. However, even when the grandmother gave them money as recompense, they still continued to torment them. It gotten to the point where one of the delinquents stole the grandmother's wallet. That's when Hajime started to act.

Hajime was thinking about what he could do, as someone who hated violence. He only knew cringey killer moves that he practiced from actions shows, and he wasn't confident enough to try and reason with them without it ending up a beatdown. Saito was good at those. He wasn't sure what he could do. Then he remembered what Saito once told him when they were younger that if he ever got into a situation that could end up ugly: either apologized on the victim's behalf and beg for mercy or make the situation as uncomfortable as possible that the thugs would just run away in embarrassment.

Hajime was skeptical that something as humiliating like that would ever work and wrote it off as a joke at the time, but it was all he had to work with. So he braced himself and prostrated in front of the thugs and begged for mercy. It was so unbelievably embarrassing to everyone involved: Hajime, the thugs, and surprisingly the people he was apologizing for. He also made up some cringeworthy story about the grandmother's life and made the situation even more uncomfortable. Eventually, Saito's advice worked just as planned. The thugs couldn't stand it anymore and they ran off.

"It's easy for those with strength to solve things with violence. People like Kouki-kun can easily fling themselves into trouble and just fight their way out of it… but those who are weak don't often have the courage to stand up for others, much less bow in their place… Back then, I was always scarred… I always made excuses to myself about my inability to help people saying things like 'I'm not strong like Shizuku-chan,' so when I'm in trouble, I always waited for someone to come save me instead."

"Shirasaki-san…"

"Kaori-chan…"

"That's why I think you're really the strongest one out of everyone here, Nagumo-kun. I was really happy to have met you again… I wanted to be more like you… I wanted to talk to you, learn more about you. Though every time I tried, you were always asleep at school."

"Ahaha… Sorry for that." Now that he finally realized why Kaori hung around him, why she held him with such high regard, he blushed and smiled awkwardly.

"That might be why I'm so worried. You might end up doing something reckless for someone else's sake, just like back then… But if you're putting your faith in me…" Kaori gazed at Hajime with resolution shining in her eyes.

"Then I'll protect you, Nagumo-kun."

Hajime looked at Kaori's eyes and accepted her resolve.

"Thank you."

Hajime smiled bitterly at the exchange. Their gender roles have completely reverse. Both he and Saito had to admit that Kaori would make a good hero. Though they guessed that would make Hajime the heroine now. Seeing as Hajime was struggling about how to feel about that, he pitied his friend as all Hajime could do was smile.

"And Saito-Kun. Do you mind taking out your pen?" Kaori addressed Saito now.

"Huh? Oh uh…sure." Surprised by the sudden request, Saito then fished through his bag and took out his calligraphy pen. When he handed it to her, she wrote something down onto several sheets of paper that was stacked on a table in Hajime and Saito's room. After she finished, she handed them to Saito. When he looked at then, he saw that it was a magic circle. He then used Magic Circle Appraisal to see what the spell was.

"'Infiltrate—Can send mana into another's body. Blessing—A beginner ranked healing spell. Light Wall—Generates a wall of light. Holy Shield—Creates a barrier of light attribute… By Odin beard! What's with all of these light spells?" Saito exclaimed with another weird phrase in a strange accent the sheer amount of magic circles Kaori made for him while Kaori simply smiled.

"They're for you to memorize. It's easier for you to cast beginner-ranked magic with your Skills, right? And I couldn't decide on what spells to give you, so I used all of the beginner-ranked spells I could think of. Though I wish I could've given you more." Kaori honestly felt like she didn't give Saito enough.

"I can't tell whether you're being modest or being serious. These are more spells than I know what to do with. Why did you give me these? Did you felt bad for me since I can't use any magic of my own?"

"Well yes, but that's not the main reason. This is my way of saying thank you. If it weren't for you and the advice you gave him, I'd probably never gotten to know Nagumo-kun. I'm very grateful that you became his friend. And… for all the times you helped me learn more about him." Kaori blushed and whispered that last part, so Hajime didn't hear.

"Heheh. Well if anything, I'm lucky to have a friend like Hajime. I'm not nearly as great as him." Saito wasn't being modest or condescending. There were times that he wished that he were a little like Hajime. But that was for another time.

"No that's not true! I think you're a wonderful person! Sakura-chan's very lucky to have someone like you as her boy-" Kaori got very defensive and tried to give Saito a confidence boost, only to end up saying something she shouldn't have. She quickly covered her mouth to avoid saying any more, but the damage was already done.

"I-I'm so sorry Saito-kun! I didn't mean for Nagumo-kun to hear that! It was an accident I swear! I promise I won't tell anyone else about- "Kaori frantically tried to apologize for nearly blabbing about Saito and Sakura's relationship, but Saito quickly cut her off.

"Don't worry Kaori. Hajime already knows about me and Sakura."

"Eh? Really?" Kaori had a puzzled looked at first and then she turned to Hajime for affirmation. After awkwardly scratching his cheek, he confirmed.

"Yeah. I've actually known for a while." Knowing that she didn't rat out her friend's secret, Kaori sighed in relief.

"Phew. That's comforting… In more ways than one."

"More ways than one? What do you mean?" Hajime repeated what she was last since he didn't get it. Kaori then realized her blunder and blushed bright red.

"I-I-It's nothing!" Kaori hastily dismissed her last sentence and then changed the subject to something else. The three of them talked for a while about trivial things before Kaori said goodbye to the pair and headed back to her room. After a few seconds of silence, Saito broke it by mentioning the last conversation.

"I can't believe you actually had the guts to do my 'prostrate and makes things awkward' tactic. When you told me about it, I couldn't decide whether to be impressed or ashamed that I gave you such a terrible idea. I admit, it was mostly just a joke." Saito felt really bad that he gave Hajime such an embarrassing strategy that he admitted it was mostly an attempt at humoring him.

"So it was a joke?! You jerk!" Hajime exclaimed at the realization.

"Stop complaining. If Kaori found that heroic, you did the right thing after all, even if others wouldn't think so. 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder' and all that." Hajime still looked a little irritated, but he looked like he understood.

"I guess… Still, at that moment I just went with what you told me to do. If you were there, you would've handled it better than I could've while not making a complete fool of yourself. Shirasaki-san should be admiring you instead. I'm not anything special." For as long as they've known each other, Hajime admired Saito. Not just for his talents and luck, but for his confidence and selflessness. While also a little jealous. He wasn't charismatic and popular like Kouki, and he had a similar aversion to violence like Hajime, but Saito still did the right thing and had the confidence to do it without sacrificing his beliefs that violence only leads to more violence. In the rare instances that he did fight, he was never proud of it. Hajime wanted to be more like him, so he tried emulating what Saito would do, even if it was just a joke. While he has given him a sense of courage, Hajime didn't have anything remarkable about him that he could offer Saito. He felt like he was mooching off of him.

"You're giving yourself little credit Hajime. It doesn't matter which one of could've done what better. The fact is you've done it. Your braver than you think you are. And there are things I find remarkable about you… Things I wish I had." As Saito assured his friends about his inferiorities, Hajime was shocked there was something that Saito has always wanted from him. Hajime asked him what that was, but before he could answer, someone knocked on the door. Hajime and Saito were once again started by the arrival of another visitor.

"Saito-kun. It's Yukiko. We need to talk."

"Natsumi-san?" Hajime was surprised that she wanted to speak with Saito of all people. Saito went to the door and opened it. It was indeed Yukiko. And what she was wearing wasn't as entrancing as Kaori, but it was still pretty showy. It was a simple black tank top and matching silk shorts, but they fitted tightly on her body that it was easy to see her figure. Not to mention that she was showing a certain amount of cleavage that was harmful to the average teenage boy. In fact, when Hajime saw her, he blushed to his ears turned away bashfully. Saito, of course was unaffected. She didn't look at all bothered by what she was wearing.

"Yuki? What's up?"

"Don't call me that. And Sakura wants to talk to you. Do you need a minute?" Yukiko was referring to if he needed to wear something over his attire. As an aside, was only wearing white T-shirt and sweatpants. Hajime wore the same thing. Saito didn't seem to mind what he wore, so he said no. He was about to follow Yukiko to where she and Sakura were, but them Hajime said, "Wait a sec. I want to give you something." After Saito and Yukiko stopped, Hajime grabbed Saito's calligraphy pen and gestured Saito to hold it too.

Realizing that he wanted to give him his Job, Saito hesitantly grabbed the pen. Hajime said his Job and as the pen glowed sky blue, Saito immediately felt that same feeling he had earlier when he was given his other Jobs, like the knowledge of how it worked was imprinted into his head.

"But…this is your Job. And you know about my talent. If I use it, I might end up..." Saito actually avoided asking Hajime for his Job. They never talked about it, but despite how low their Stats were and how many Skills they had compared to the rest of their class, they both knew that Saito was stronger than Hajime. He was smarter, stronger, and more talented than Hajime ever could be. He knew that Saito could put more use into his Synergist Job than he ever could. But anytime Hajime tried to bring up the subject, Saito evaded it. That's because he didn't want to inherit Hajime's Job from him. He was a whiz when it came to building stuff. He managed to keep his PSP alive for years on end. So Synergist would've been a perfect Job for him to inherit. But if he used his Skill, he would end up overshadowing Hajime.

He's been working his hardest to make use of his one Skill, trying his earnest to be just as useful as the others. But if Saito took his Job with his Inheritance, and made full use of it, he would end up being on the same league as everyone else. That's one of the reason's why he was so lax sometimes with training. The only reason he fought one of Captain's Meld's knights in the first place was because they took notice of Saito's skills and wanted to duel him. Saito could tell by the way the knight was fighting was that he was trying to purposely get himself injured to give them an excuse to make everyone hate him more. But he ended up managing to simply disarm him. So if he ended up becoming as useful as everyone else, Hajime would be the only black sheep left. He couldn't do that to him. But then Hajime said something that alleviated his fears

"Saito, I know that you can put my commonplace Job and lone Skill to good use. You've always been more talented than me. So I okay with giving it to you. Don't feel guilty if you end up overshadowing me. That just means I'll just have to keep working harder. Who knows, maybe I'll end up surpassing you." Seeing Hajime's grin as he said that made Saito smile back and he thanked Hajime for giving him his Job.

"Challenge accepted. You have a lot of catching up to do if you're going to be at my level."

"Heheh. Looking forward to it." Hajime responded to Saito's declaration with a determined look in his eyes. Then Saito went off with Yukiko. After they left, Hajime sunk back into his bed and furiously worked his mind. He had to find a way to rid himself of his "worthless" stigma. He knew that he couldn't rely on Kaori forever, as if he was some protected princess. And he couldn't rely on Saito all the time either. Hajime renewed his own resolve as he fell asleep.

As Saito and Yukiko left the room, another figure was hiding in the shadows watching them leave. In fact, he had been there since Kaori left for her own room. No one saw it… but he had made a horrifying expression.


Yukiko and Sakura's room were only one floor down from Saito and Hajime's room, but it gave them time to talk a little. Emphasis on little.

"…So what does Sakura want to talk about?"

"Don't know."

"…You nervous about the expedition in the morning?"

"No."

"Well…I am a bit."

"Understandable."

"I guess your Job makes you confident."

"My Job doesn't have anything to do with it."

"You don't like your Job?"

"I don't care about it."

"Then your just used to this?"

"You could say that."

"I probably won't be much use to anyone."

"Doesn't matter to me if you were."

"That's pretty cold."

"Should I care?"

Saito asked questions and Yukiko gave short and blunt answers. Their conversations were similar to questionnaires. Saito expected this. The only people she had full conversations with were—if going in order of importance—Sakura, Shizuku, Kaori, Kouki, Ryosuke, and lastly, Saito. She occasionally interacted with Hajime, but it was always brief. Though everyone knew her as an "Ice Queen," there was a time when she was just a little bit more energetic, sociable, and warm compared to how she is now. Saito is the only one who knows this though, when he met her during middle school. They got along pretty well back then. So he always wondered why she suddenly changed.

Then he realized that she became like this after he and Sakura started dating. Did that had something to do with it? He decided to ask.

"Yuki…ko?" He wanted to say her nickname. But he decided to be serious with her. Surprisingly, she stopped in her tracks, making Saito stop as well. He didn't see it, but she was surprised he called her by her actual name. Taking it as a sign that she was listening, Saito continued his question.

"Do you… hate me for dating Sakura? I'm asking because back in middle school, we got along pretty well. You were a little introverted, but you were more spirited and kinder when we hung out. Now, you barely say anything to anyone, you always kept to yourself, and your haven't done…that in months. Is it because of my relationship with Sakura? You don't have to tell me if it is, but… I just want to know."

There was a moment of silence between the two that stretched for what felt like an eternity. But then Yukiko broke it with her answer.

"Your relationship with Sakura has nothing to do with it. This is something I decided for myself. As long as you make Sakura happy, my feelings about you are irrelevant." Yukiko's tone was completely stoic and unchanging. She didn't even turn around to face him.

"…Oh. Okay. Good to know." Saito wanted to pry a little more, but he thought I'd be better if he didn't. Getting her mad wouldn't be good for his health. He was about to move when he noticed Yukiko was still standing still. After waiting a few seconds, she sighed and turned around to face Saito, her face still as stoic as usual. She then held out her hand and simply said, "Hold out your hand."

"…Why?"

"Just do it."

Confused, Saito did as she asked. She then took out an oddly cute pink rabbit pen and wrote down on the palm a magic circle.

"Where did you get that?" Saito asked as Yukiko drew.

"I had it on me when we were summoned."

"And you just carry it around with you?"

"I was planning on giving you this on our way to the room, so I brought it with me."

"Oh." Though he had questions about how that pen looked, he held his tongue. He didn't want to risk that pen going somewhere he wouldn't like. Yukiko then finished writing down the magic circle design and the incantation for it on his forearm.

"You should be able to memorize it with you eidetic memory. Make sure that you do."

"Umm… thank you, but why did you give me this?" Saito was understandably confused since Yukiko didn't really have much of an opinion of him.

"Assurance." Yukiko simply said.

"For what?"

"It's a soldier's responsibility to expect the unexpected. If we end up getting into trouble and you get hurt…Sakura will be heartbroken. So don't do anything stupid." Yukiko really did prioritized Sakura over anyone else. She's been her protector since they were kids. Always keeping her safe from bullies and lovesick boys from other schools. The relationship they had was comparable to a knight and a princess, just like Shizuku and Kaori. There were even rumors that Yukiko is in love with Sakura, and she hates Saito for stealing Sakura away from her. Yukiko knew about these rumors, but she never confirmed nor denied them, so it was just a theory.

Even though they've grown distant, and it wasn't yet clear how Yukiko felt about him, Saito still considered her a friend. So he smiled and said, "Thanks, Yuki."

Her face didn't change, and she didn't say your welcome, but she didn't told Saito off about her nickname. They then continued walking and soon, the reached their destination.

"I'm heading to Shizuku-chan and Kaori's room, so take your time. Their room is next door, not to mention there are people already asleep, so whatever it is you two are going to do, make sure to soundproof it with magic." Saito felt a little embarrassed about getting the okay to have sex with his girlfriend by her best friend, but he agreed to her advice. Before she went into the other room, she said, "And by the way… I don't care if you call me Yuki when we're alone. It just annoys me when you say it in front of others."

After saying that, she went inside. Saito was pretty surprised that she was okay with her old nickname. He always figured she hated it.

"Guess she's not as cold as I thought." Saito blissfully thought that idea as he went inside.

When he went it, he was greeted with a glorious sight. Sakura was sitting on her bed wearing nothing but a black silk nightgown so short and tight that he could see every nook and cranny of her curves. The moon shone on her like she was an angel coming down from the heavens, illuminating her black nightie and turning it into a silver color. The fact that black completely contrasts with her personality made it even more alluring. Saito could already feel the blood rushing to his lower self as he stared at his beautiful girlfriend.

"Where…did you get that?" Saito struggled to get his words out as if he forgotten how to speak, or think, or even breath. Sakura, looking slightly embarrassed as her boyfriend stared at every inch of her body, explained.

"Well…the day before we left Heiligh, I went to a little boutique to find nightwear. I saw some lingerie and I thought, 'How would Saito react to this?' So I looked around and then the owner saw me browsing and asked if I was looking for something for a… 'special night.'

"As embarrassed as I was, I said yes. She told me that it was a popular trend for a girl to wear the color of their lover's mana, so when I told her what your color was, she looked a little apprehensive, since black mana was a bad omen, but she picked out a bunch of black colored lingerie and recommended me this. Does it…look okay?"

Despite how entranced he was at her look, Saito managed to hang on to every word she said. Though it took every ounce of his willpower to keep himself from Lupin Diving into the bed and going to town. So he managed to take a deep breath to calm himself down and said without hesitation:

"You look sexy as hell." He was a little proud of himself for saying that while looking straight at her. She blushed heavily from the sudden compliment, but her wide smiled proved that she liked it.

"So does this mean that you…" Saito secretly hoped that her getup meant what he thinks it meant, and to his luck, she nodded. Saito acted cool on the outside, but his inner self was dancing to "Party Rock Anthem" in his boxers. He was not only going to have sex after two weeks (which probably didn't sound so bad, but for those who often did it, going that long without it was comparable to an eternity), it was going to be without protection. He has been wondering what that felt like since they've first done it. But then a thought occurred to him.

"What about protection? Is it a…safe day?" Saito's inner self cursed himself for possibly blowing his chances, but then Sakura gave good news.

"Don't worry about that. I managed to find…these." She got up and pulled out of a paper bag two small glass vials of a pink liquid.

"They don't have a name yet, but they're a little like contraceptives back home. We drink it and then we can…make love for an hour and not get pregnant. Though, depending on the quality of the potion, it can range from eighty-five percent to ninety-eight percent effective."

So just like regular condoms back on Earth? Ironic. Saito though as he realized that despite how scientifically more advance Earth was compared to the primitive medieval-like, but magic filled world of Tortus, their medical practices were similar when it came to preventing unwanted pregnancy.

"But with my luck, those odds will probably mean nothing. My parents were safe doing it and mom got pregnant with my sister on the first try."

"But I made sure to get the best quality potions, so we're okay." Sakura assured Saito that they were good to go on safety.

"Great! It'd be pretty bad for us to have a baby right now. In more ways than one."

"More ways? Oh right. Because not only we're still in high school and people will find out that we're dating, but it'd be better if we had a baby in our own world instead of this one. That makes sense." Sakura quickly understood why it'd bad to get pregnant now, but Saito said something that surprised her.

"Actually, that last one is only half-right. It'd be bad to have one here since we're at war. Other than that… it wouldn't be such a bad thing." Sakura looked straight at Saito after hearing those words, her face bright red. Saito caught her eyes and blushed as well.

"I mean, don't get me wrong. I still want to go back to Japan, but in the slight chance that this war drags on for a while, probably up to our twenty's, and if we come out about our relationship, and obviously get married, then we could think about…having some. Then again, we'll have to convince Ishtar to keep you off the battlefield for a while. I'll probably need a job to afford baby things in case the church won't support us, but I'm not sure anyone will hire me because of my Job. Being in a slavery ring is not a good career choice. Maybe I could practice more with the Skills I got and sell my products as a merchant, though I hope I can earn enough to support a family. Nah, it's better that we wait. Having your parent's blessing will be important so they won't end up disowning you and …Sakura. Why are you…?" Saito stopped when he saw that Sakura had tears streaming down her eyes. Saito was shocked to see her cry like this so suddenly. When she realized, she hastily wiped her eyes.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me…no, actually I do." Sakura tried to wave off her tears but then she realized that she wasn't going to fool himself.

Saito felt a little bad for possibly being the reason for making her cry like that. So he began to apologize.

"If it's about the baby thing, I'm sorry about that. We haven't even told your parents about us, so it's way too early to talk about getting married, let alone having kids. I'm probably scaring you with all of—" Before Saito could finish, Sakura cut him off.

"That's not it. Well, yes, I'm scared, but not because of what you said. I'm happy that you're thinking that far ahead. But I'm also scared of going in the dungeon. I've gotten use to fighting the monsters on the surface, but this is different. There are just too many things that could happen. What if a pathway collapsed and we end up trapped in there? What if we get lost? What if stronger monsters appear on the floor we end up on? And…I'm worried you'll get seriously hurt again. You'll end up feeling more pain that you already do. If we make one big mistake, we'll end up…" Sakura tried to finish her sentence, but at the end she was shaking and on the verge of crying again, but Saito pulled her into a hug, surprising her.

"I'm not gonna lie. I'm a little scared too. With my weak Job, my pacifistic nature, and lack of combat spells, I'm not sure if I'll be of much help. I can't promise you nothing bad is going to happen. Things never turn out the way they plan. We could end up in some serious trouble if we're not careful." Saito's words were not cheering Sakura up much, but he couldn't lie to her. The old adage, "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong" applied no matter what world they were in. It was even worse for some like Saito, who had an extremely shaky relationship with lady luck. So he couldn't confidently assure her that nothing will happen, but he wasn't going to make her depressed.

"But there's no need to worry. We have Captain Meld and his knights to watch over us, Kouki-san and the rest of my class are OP as hell, not to mention Yuki, Ryu, and even you are powerful. You're a Magus, and Yuki's a master Hydrosophist, and whatever Ryosuke's Job is I'm sure its powerful too. He's kept it secret from everyone for some reason, even from you of all people, but I'm sure it's just as powerful as else. Aside from me and Hajime, of course. Even if we run into trouble, our class will be able to pull through. I may not be as useful as everyone else, but I'll do my best with what I have. That way…we can protect each other."

"Huh?"

Saito decided to take a page out of Hajime's book and said that. If Sakura was afraid of the unknown like Kaori, more so because of her inability to take certain actions on her own thanks to her lack of confidence, then he needed to assure her of her own strength.

"You remember our promise? That we'll be by each other's side and all that other stuff? Well let's make another promise on top of that. Even though here you have more power than I do, even if you still believe you're not brave enough to fight, let's both grow strong enough to protect each other. Okay?"

Sakura was visibly stunned that Saito was relying on her to protect him, despite how faint-hearted she was. She wasn't as strong as Yukiko, or as confident as Ryosuke, but Saito, the boy who has done a lot for her, who she has sworn her heart to, was entrusting his life to her. All the anxiety she felt was still there, but it was buried under the resolve Saito has filled her with. If Saito believed in her, she couldn't afford to be afraid.

"Alright. I'll do my absolute best." Saito acknowledge the firm resolve in her eyes with a nod. Sakura then felt an idea pop into his head.

"Let me see your pen."

Saito then gave her his pen with a curious expression, since it was impossible for her to give him her Job due to how rare it was. Sakura then took out a piece of paper out of her desk and dipped the pen in a bottle of ink that laid on it. She then carefully wrote down something on it. After she was done, she handed the paper to Saito. He took it and saw that it was a magic circle. He could tell from how the inscriptions looked that it wasn't a too complex spell. Saito then took out his Status Plate and used his Magic Circle Appraisal Skill to read what the spell was—

v Light Beam

A beginner light spell. It generates a small ray of light. Requires a conduit to channel the light through.

"Huh." Saito said as he read the description.

"Kaori told me when I ran into her in the hall how she gave you magic circles to memorize. I wanted to give you something more beneficial, but this was the only one I could think of that would be remotely useful to you. My trainer only taught me advanced-level magic, so I had to pull that one out of a book. Sorry if it's not useful."

"Don't worry about it Sakura. Beginner's magic is easier for me to use anyway, so no harm done. I'll find some use for this spell. Thank you."

"It's my pleasure. Now… drink up." Sakura blushed as her lover praised her, then she handed him the vial of pregnancy prevention potion with a bit of a seductive tone. Saito gladly took it and they both drank it in one gulp. While Saito took off his clothes, Sakura placed sound blocking magic all around the walls. After that, it was an hour of indescribable bliss as the two lovebirds made love.

An hour later, Saito came out of the room completely satisfied. He made sure to light a special candle that instantly eliminated odors from the room that Sakura bought along with the lingerie. They went at it pretty intensely, but luckily Sakura brought replacement sheets and towels to clean up the mess. He looked at Sakura, sleeping peacefully with a flushed face. She always fell asleep after their "sessions". Saito then knocked gently next door to signal Yukiko that they were done and headed back up to his room. Though before he entered, he thought about the Skills he gained, specifically Hajime's. Then he thought about how lax he was during training. He knew that if he was going to protect those he cared about, he had to stop relying on his natural talents to do the work for him. He had to get stronger and better with his Skills, just like Hajime has been doing.

"Guess it's no sleep for me tonight." Saying that, Saito headed outside to train. But Saito wasn't the only one awake, as another figure was in their own room… with a horrid appearance.


The next morning, everyone headed to the plaza that serves as the entrance to the Great Orcus Labyrinth so early the sun still had yet to rise. The students were all filled with half anxiety and half novelty. Hajime, however, had a more complicated expression. He was somewhat excited and nervous about this expedition, but as soon as they arrived at the entrance, some of that excitement faded away.

Hajime expected a deep dark cavern of unknown depth leading down, which was standard in most RPGs. Instead it was likened to a museum. Led by a gray stone block path with five tall pillars lined on each side, there was a possibly thirty-foot-tall rectangular structure carved into the cliff surrounding the town, made entirely out of stone, with a metal gate with circular door handles which led to the entrance. It even came equipped with its own receptionist.

A young woman in uniform was checking in with the people going in and out of the labyrinth with a smile. Apparently, she was there to check the Status Plate of anyone who was going inside in order to keep track of casualty rates. Since there was the threat of war coming, the government wanted to avoid losing too many men, so they implemented a policy as a countermeasure. There were numerous merchants lined outside of the entrance, all competing with one another to show off their goods. It was almost like a festival.

It was popular here for merchants because shallower labyrinths with less floors didn't attract much attention unlike those that have numerous floors like the Orcus Labyrinth. The people gathered here ranged from cocky and confident adventures that most likely will not see the light of day, to criminals that operated in the standard back alley and other disreputable establishments. The government didn't want to waste resources handling those kinds of problem, so they enlisted the help of the adventurer's guild to keep control of the area. Since the merchants were selling goods all the way down to the receptionist desk, it made life easier for the adventurer's going down the labyrinth's depth, in a sense. Hajime pulled himself together as he and his class, who were gazing at the structure like people from the countryside looking at a metropolis for the first time, followed Captain Meld to the entrance in a single file line.

Before they got to the entrance though, the receptionist spotted Meld and his knights and suddenly ran towards him. He stopped and all the other kids followed suit. When she reached him, she started talking and pointing towards the entrance of the labyrinth. Hajime couldn't hear much, but it sounded like there was someone making quite a commotion at the entrance. When she finished explaining, Captain Meld followed her to the direction she pointed at with a somewhat agitated look on his face, with the class following him. When they got closer, Hajime realized there were a lot of adventurers crowding over near the right side near the receptionist desk. When they spotted Meld, they quickly parted out of the way to make room. When they arrived, the classmates that were in the front snickered and muttered to themselves with displeasure. Hajime, overwhelmed with curiosity, went ahead of the line, and headed to the front. What he saw surprised and embarrassed him at the same time. It was Saito, sleeping with his back against the wall with such a peaceful looking face it was almost laughable.

He looked a little dirty and disheveled. His hands were caked with dirt, ink, and for some reason, animal bites. Around him were several vials of potions and other elixirs of various colors, some of them nearly empty and some completely. There also various wood carvings of different anime and movie characters that Hajime recognized and books about plants and poisons strewn all over the place. There were also papers with formulas of said poisons scattered around him. What was weirder were the large round rimmed glasses that he was wearing with magic circles etched into the glass, making him look like a certain wizard from a movie series. Hajime wondered why he wasn't in the room when he woke up in the morning.

Was he out here all night training? Meld noticed that Hajime was next to him and then explained what the receptionist told him, not taking his eyes off Saito.

"Apparently, people saw him coming from the outskirts of town looking like this. He then took out a bunch of stuff and started mixing potions, carving wood, reading books, making formulas, and tinkering with some strange machinery until he passed out. Receptionist said he's been here since and hasn't been able to wake him up."

"I…I'm so sorry about this. I guess he came out here to train. Sometimes when something motivates him, it's all he wants to do. And when he reaches his limit, it's nearly impossible to wake him up. Not even splashing cold water could wake him." Hajime apologized for his friend's behavior as if it was his fault. It was kind of Hajime's fault since Saito picked up the skill to sleep in different environments from him, perfected it to where it was similar to him being in a coma, rarely being able to wake up until his body recovered.

"I see." Captain Meld simply acknowledged Hajime's explanation, but to test it, he took out his canteen, opened it, and splashed the contents onto Saito, soaking his head. Even after that, he didn't even stir. Meld clicked his tongue in frustration and was preparing to punch him in the head as hard as he could. Luckily, Sakura hastily stopped him before he got too close by blocking his path.

"Wait sir! Please don't hurt him! What if you end up hitting him so hard that he may never wake up?!" Sakura panicked at the prospect of her boyfriend getting critically injured by their own instructor.

"Relax. I'm only gonna hit him hard enough to wake him. I know my own strength." Captain Meld nonchalantly assured Sakura that he wasn't going to hurt him too much, but that obviously didn't make her any less worried. At that moment, Yukiko got out of line and casually walked up to the lightly snoring Saito, everyone watching what she would do. Sakura was wary of what the cold, merciless Yukiko would do to him, but she simply stood over him, and said three words:

"Han shot first."

Everyone else looked confused at what she said, wondering what it meant. Sakura and Hajime, of course, knew instantly what that meant. Saito was a big fan of a certain movie franchise from where that phrase originated, when the aforementioned character shot a villain to death when the latter was threatening to kill him. The original version had the character shoot first while the updated one had the villain shoot and miss, then the character shot next. There was a heated debate about the change. Hajime knew that the moment someone said that he would react instantly. And sure enough, the moment Yukiko finished saying that, Saito jolted right up and yelled, "It was self-defense!"

Still dazed, Saito looked around and quickly realized where he was. He gave a big yawn and asked, "Oh right. The expedition is today, right?"

"If you knew that, you shouldn't have stayed up all night. And are those glasses…?" Yukiko also noticed the strange glasses and pointed at them.

"Huh? Oh right. These are some replica Harry Potter glasses I bought back on Earth. I had the idea to carve the magic circles for my Magic Circle Appraisal Skill into them so I can use the Skill without having to look at my Status Plate every time I see a spell. It was extremely tricky, and I wasn't able to add my other Appraisal Skills, but it worked. I now have glasses that can copy magic almost instantly and can be used during battles. And I hereby christened them…Status Lens!"

Saito held them into the air like they were the Holy Grail. One would expect grand applauds for making such an invention that could change the way Appraisal Magic was used, but the only person who vehemently clapped was Sakura. Shizuku and Kaori stifled their laughter because of Saito's dramatic presentation. Kouki and Ryutarou looked only mildly impressed, giving looks that said, "What's the point if they only work on Magic Circles? And that name isn't very original." Yukiko pinched the bridge of her nose and hung down her head, probably cringing on the inside. Hajime was genuinely impressed that Saito came up with that, but he was visibly embarrassed for Saito, so it didn't show. Captain Meld's Knights were confused as to who Harry Potter was. Everyone else just stared blankly at Saito, not saying a single word.

"Heheh… I wasn't expecting thundering applauds, but I least thought I would earn a little more praise from someone other than Sakura. Thank you, by the way." Saito sheepishly laughed off the awkward silence as he hoped someone would just kill him now.

Captain Meld then walked up to Saito, looking very menacing with his towering frame. Saito could already feel a bead of sweat dripping from his forehead as the captain stood over him. Sakura, even though she kept Meld from whacking him, ran and hid behind Yukiko, quacking in her boots. Saito didn't blame her. He can be pretty scary. He braced himself for a solid whack in the head that may leave him seeing stars, but instead, he lifted him to his feet and proceeded to roughly brush off the dust and dirt off of his clothes. Saito felt his legs buckle from Captain Meld's strength each time he wiped his clothes. After he was done, he gave him a short but sweet lecture.

"Since you were training out here instead of goofing off, I won't clock you. In fact, I'm pretty impressed at how dedicated you were to train this late. But make sure next time to prioritize your health over your training. A soldier who hasn't taken proper care of either isn't fit to be on the battlefield. Got it?" Saito was pretty surprised at how sincere Captain Meld's lecture was. He was sure he was going to have a large cartoonish welt growing out of his head when he saw him. Hajime, Kaori, and especially Sakura looked relieved that he wasn't going to get punished. A lot of the other students looked annoyed that he got away with staying up past curfew, especially Ryosuke, who looked a little irritated for a second before returning to his natural handsomeness. Yukiko was stoic as usual.

Would it kill her to smile at least little bit? Saito thought to himself, even though it was likely never going to happen. Nevertheless, he looked straight at Meld and responded with a firm, "Roger!" Meld gave a smile and a nod to his resolve and patted him on the head.

"By the way, Yukiko-chan. That phrase…wasn't it from that movie Saito likes? How do you know that?" After Sakura asked that, Yukiko's face tensed up a bit, though not many saw it. Then she calmy answered the question.

"One of my little brothers is a fan of this stuff and I happened to remember it. Since Saito-kun is an avid movie buff, I knew he'd react to it. That's all." She looked a litter tense when explaining how she come to know of that famous controversial debate. The only people who weren't convinced of that was Shizuku and Saito, who both knew the truth about Yukiko. Hajime had his suspicions, but he decided not to dwell on it too much.

"Now with all that training you did, you must be tired. And good thing you came out here with your gear. Drink this, clean all this up, and head in line." Meld then gave Saito a yellow potion that restores stamina and ordered him to get in line. Saito obeyed and hastily stuffing all of the stuff in his bag. But before he got in line, Shizuku grabbed his arm and stopped him. Wondering what she wanted from him, she said, "Let me see your pen. And that bottle of ink. Also lend me your back."

Saito did as she asked and handed her his pen, a bottle of ink, and turned around to face his back towards her. She then picked up an empty sheet of paper and used Saito's back as a table to write down a magic circle and an incantation. When Saito read it using his ridiculous looking magic circle enhanced glasses, it was called Shroud, an intermediate spell that masked a person's body by covering it in shadows.

"Um… this is intermediate-level magic. You know I can only use beginner-level magic. Are you making fun of me or something?" Saito wasn't much of a skeptic, but Shizuku has actually played a few jokes on him when he was training at the Yaegashi dojo. So sometimes it was hard to take her generosity seriously.

"Of course not you idiot. Kaori told me how she gave you an excessive amount of spells, so I figured you might need it just in case. I know it's intermediate-level, but you deserve at least one stronger spell. And it's a harmless one, so no one would complain. Just call it thanks for tolerating my friend's pestering." Explaining her reason—whispering the last part as to avoid anyone overhearing, Saito smiled and thanked her. He then got in line behind Hajime and the group continued to the labyrinth. As they walked, Saito drank the potion. He felt his fatigue gradually fading away as he drank. After polishing off the last of it, Hajime took the chance to asked him, "So exactly what were you doing out here? I figure it was training, but what kind?"

"Nothing unusual. Just tried my hand at practicing the Jobs I got from my Inheritance Skills, and the spells the girls gave me. Also brushed up on some old martial arts and sword techniques I still remember."

"And how'd you do?"

"Well I've gotten a pretty great handle on your Transmute ability, and the other spells I've learned how to handle. Still trying to figure out Sakura's Light Beam, but I got a good handle on all of the spells from Kaori and the Freeze spell Yuki gave me.

"She really gave you a spell?"

"I was just as surprised as you are. Anyway, I was always good at martial arts, so no change there. The Potion Brewer and the Toxicologist Skills are improving, along with the other Skills."

"And?" As soon as Hajime asked that, the look in Saito's eyes hollowed, an obviously sign that it was a wasted effort on the stat raising part of his training. And sure enough—

"No change on any of my attributes." Saito said blankly with a barren smile that matched perfectly with his eyes.

"…I see." That's all Hajime could say in response to his friend's fruitless hard work. It was distressing how similar they were in regard to their inability to grow as powerful as the rest of their class.

"Well, it's a bummer that I wasn't able to get stronger, but I can't say that I didn't expect this. If two weeks of training didn't help me, it's no surprise that a single all-nighter couldn't. This just shows that we need to keep trying our best. 'Maximum Effort!' or something like that." Once again, Saito managed to recover quickly from failure and made a trademark movie reference. It actually made Hajime laugh out loud a little. It even made someone in the front try to stifle their laughter. Of course a lot of people were mildly annoyed at the pair's banter, but they didn't care.

"You're really something else, Saito. When you get knocked down, you get right back up. Sometimes I wish I could be little more like you."

"Heh. Believe me Hajime. You're more amazing than I am."

"…You said that before last night. What is it about me that you admire so much? Is it the same as what Shi-you-know-who said last night?" Hajime didn't want to say Kaori because of the people in front of them might hear and he'll be murdered.

"No it's something else. But tell you what. If we make it out of this alive, I'll tell you about it. Deal?"

"…Sure. And in return…I'll tell you something I've been hiding from you. But don't say stuff like that. You'll raise flags."

"A flag? Why Hajime Nagumo. I never expected you to be an anime troupe conspiracy theorist."

"I'm not. I just get unnerved when you say stuff like that. It's sinister."

"Oh? Would you rather me say, 'Even if you fall into the depths of hell, I will follow you,' or something like that?"

"Now you're just being creepy." So Saito and Hajime's banter continued as they headed inside the labyrinth.

Once inside, the lively atmosphere that surrounded most of the class vanished. In front of them was a passage little over sixteen feet wide. Even though there was no obvious light source anywhere in the cave, it was dimly lit with enough light to see without a torch or a magical item. The truth was that there are several minerals known as Green Glowstone buried into the walls that lit up the passage. In fact, the entire Orcus Labyrinth was an excavated vein of the ore.

The party all lined up into ranks and gradually progressed through the labyrinth. After a few uneventful minutes of walking, the passaged soon led to a wide plaza. Either twenty-two or twenty-six feet high above the class was a domed-shaped ceiling. As the students looked around in curiosity, cracks suddenly appeared in the walls, coming out of it were gray creatures resembling furballs. They looked almost exactly like rats. Almost meaning that they had the same beady eyes, gray fur, and spiral shaped tail as a regular rat, but these ones had gleaming dark red eyes, stood on their hind legs, and had a muscular physique. The only area that didn't have fur was their chest, which had a corded chest and an impressive yet disturbing eight pack, like they were showing off how buff they were.

"Alright kids! These are called Ratmen. They're quick on their feet, but they're pretty weak creatures. Kouki, your team's up front while everyone else keep back. I'll have you switch in from time to time, so keep sharp and don't lose your cool!"

Like Captain Meld said, these Ratmen were rapidly scurrying at them with an alarming amount of agility. Everyone in Kouki's group, who were in full view of them, grimaced at the full sight of them—especially Shizuku. There were pretty gnarly looking.

As soon as the Ratmen were in ranged, Kouki. Shizuku, and Ryutarou charged at them to attack. Meanwhile, Kaori and her two close female friends, the energetic and childlike Suzu Taniguchi that Saito accidentally saw in her panties, and the short black haired, diligent-looking, glasses wearing Eri Nakamura who sometimes unnerved him by how quiet and inverted she was, began chanting their spell. It was a standard formation that Captain Meld drilled into them. Kouki swung his bastard sword so fast that everyone's eyes couldn't register its movement. Scores of them fell just from that one swing. His sword is one off the Artifacts that was held in Heiligh's treasury, with the rather cliché title, "The Holy Sword." It had the light element blessed into it, capable of simultaneously weakening an enemy that is hit with a light spell and while increasing one's own physical strength. For such a regally named sword, it had a way of playing dirty.

Ryutarou had the Job Monk, a hand-to-hand close quarter combat class. His Artifacts were a pair of unbreakable gauntlets and greaves capable of releasing powerful shockwaves with each hit. Not a single monster rat got through him as he took a stance and pummeled them with punches and kicks. He was practically an armored heavy knight, with the exception of him fighting bare handed.

Shizuku was, of course, a Swordsman, fitting for a girl with such a samurai-esque atmosphere. If she wasn't skilled enough with the sword back in Japan, it was greatly enhanced after arriving in Tortus. She wielded a blade that was cross between a katana and a shamshir, and with it she used her quick-draw skill to cut down the rats with minimal effort. Her Skills have become so refined since coming here that she's earned the adoration of many of the knights. After a while when everyone was busy watching Kouki and the others fight, the girls finished their chants.

"Flames blacker than pitch, swirl about thine enemies! Burn until naught but ashes remain—Spiral Blaze!"

In perfect unison, they conjured a huge whirlwind of flames that enveloped the Ratmen and, as they failed around unable to escape the flames pouring down onto them, they were reduced to ashes. Every Ratmen that appeared had been annihilated. The other students didn't even get a chance to fight. The Ratmen truly were weak, especially against the Hero's party.

"Wow, good job! Now the rest of you are up next, so don't get too comfortable."

Captain Meld reminded the class to not lower their guard, even though he was visibly impressed by their prowess. Though he couldn't prevent the students from getting jovial from their first monster elimination expedition, so he just shrugged and let them smile happily.

"Oh, and one more thing…no need to worry about this now since this just training but next time, try not to go overboard and kill the monsters in a way that preserves their mana crystals. That display was too over the top."

Kaori and the others blushed as they were lectured about getting too overexcited.

When they got to the fifth floor, it was the celebrities' turn to show off their strength. They ended up in a cavern similar to the first floor one, but instead of a dome shaped ceiling, it was a flat circular one. And instead of Ratmen, there were five-foot tall giant black tarantulas with two razor sharp pinchers on the front of their legs in place of their…well, legs, and the top of their bodies were shiny and metal-like. Their multitude of eyes were blood red and were staring right at the three. Sakura was quacking in her boot at the sight of them. Bugs weren't something that she was used to seeing in real life, especially ones as big as a person.

"Those are Armored Spiders. A bit stronger than the Ratmen and their skin is more durable, but they're slower and less agile than them, so be careful!" Meld explained what the creatures were and let them have at it. Ryosuke was first. He took out his Artifact, which appeared to be a simple longsword, but instead of a regular grip, it was replaced with a silver-gold hand mirror. A lot of people wonder what a weapon like that had to do with his Job, as he avoided displaying it in front of others for some reason. Apparently today was different, because after taking it out, he held the mirror part of the sword to the slightly slow approaching spider and chanted his spell.

"Blind thy enemies with radiance—Flash!"

A blinding light filed the room as Ryosuke's spell activated. When Saito's vision adjusted, he saw that the spiders were shrieking and writhing in anguish. Ryosuke used light magic to blind the spiders to incapacitate them. Up next was Yukiko. She put her Hydrosophist to good use as she chanted her spell.

"Encase my foes in an icy prison, forever unmoving—Crystal Coffin!"

Ice gathered around the still dazed spiders like moss gathering around a rock. By the time the spiders realized what was happening, they're legs were completely frozen. The temperature dropped so suddenly in the room that people actually started shivering. Yukiko's Hydrosophist Job is seen often enough. In fact, there was another girl in Saito's class that had it. But she trained it so hard and so much that her Stats for it were astounding. Crystal Coffin was a high-ranked spell that would usually take a longer incantation to cast. But Yukiko activated it with just a few verses. It was even more enhanced with her Artifact, a small pale blue staff with a snowflake ornament on the top. A bit flashy for someone like Yukiko, but it was effective. Saito wasn't the only one who noticed how much it looked like a fairy wand. Thought everyone else found it pretty, it took everything Saito had not to pass out or vomit. He still had PTSD from the last time he saw a magic wand shaped like that. Hajime saw how sick Saito looked and understood what caused his reaction. All he could do for his suffering friend was pat his back softly.

"Alright. Your turn Sakura." Yukiko urged Sakura to finish them off. They obviously not only incapacitated them to make it easier to kill, but to keep Sakura calm. Still grimace at their appearance, Sakura quickly began her incantation.

"Strike from the heavens and smite thy enemies with brilliant light—Thundergod's Destruction." It was a simple lightning spell that casted a bolt of lightning, but in the hands of Sakura, who had the highest magic Stats out of everyone here, in addition to her Artifact, it was equivalent to an intermediate-ranked spell, possibly a high-ranked. When the spell came out of her silver wand, a loud crack rang through the room. When the dust settled and the ringing stopped, all the spiders were electrocuted to death. The class was nearly blinded, nearly frozen, and nearly deafened at the same time thanks to their spells. It was clear how powerful the three were.

"Nice job! You managed to coordinate your attacks perfectly to incapacitate and kill those spiders in a way that preserved their crystals. You guys must be really closed to manage that Level of teamwork. And Ryosuke, I see that you've master you Job, Mirror Meister. I heard that's a tricky Job to use in combat. I was curious about why you didn't want me to announce to anyone your Job and why you never showed anyone your abilities, but I guess you wanted to surprise everyone with it. But next time, try not to keep everyone in the dark about your abilities so that they can prepare for it." Captain Meld gave each one a bit of advice and each one responded to it.

"Thank you so much for the praise, Captain Meld"

"Thank you sir."

"I appreciate it. The showman in me just wanted to wow everyone with my powers." Sakura, Yukiko, and Ryosuke thanked Captain Meld for his kind words. Yukiko noticed that Ryosuke's signature celebrity smile looked less dazzling and a little hollower. She was curious as to what go him down, but she decided not to try and pry.

After that, they went down further into the labyrinth.

After a while, they made it to the twentieth floor, the floor that separated skilled adventurers to ranked ones. The deepest Level anyone has reached was sixty-five. Since one once has been able to reach that far in in years, anyone who made it past the first twenty-floors is classified as a highly skilled fighter. Whoever made it past the first forty is considered superhuman.

With Kouki as the leader, the overpowered class were able to persevere despite their lack of combat experience. The only real danger was the traps that were scatted withing the labyrinth, with some of them being lethal.

The most common and effective countermeasure for those was an item called Fair Scope, which was handy for reading the flow of mana that came from traps, since they were magic based. The drawback is that they're limited in range, so only in a skilled user's hands were they effective.

Captain Meld made sure to warn the class to never enter a room that hasn't been checked for traps.

"Alright everyone, this is where it gets tough. Monsters will no longer attack you one species at a time and will coordinated with other monsters to attack in large groups, so be on guard. Once we reach the twentieth floor, were done with training for the day, so let's end it on a high note!" Captain Meld's voice echoed throughout the room.

Until now, Saito and Hajime have done nothing of importance. Though they both once taken on one monster for each of them the knights weakened for them. Hajime trapped one in a pitfall and stabbed it to death, while Saito also trapped the other in a pitfall thanks to Hajime giving him his Job—which he inscribed a non-inscribed magic circle for it in a pair of gloves he crafted—and poured a vial of poison only fatal to monsters he made himself down there to quickly kill it. Other than that, nothing of note happened to them.

The whole time, the pair were just standing in the rear, being protected by the knights without getting to join anyone's party. It was quite pathetic. However, fighting the monsters with their Skills/inherited Skills raised their magic Stats a few, and the combat practice raised their Stats enough to raise them a few Levels, so it wasn't completely useless.

"Does this make you feel like a leech too, Saito?" Hajime resignedly asked his friend.

"You too, Hajime? I thought I was the only one." Saito responded with an equally unenthusiastically tone.

The knights sent two more weakened monsters for each of them their way. They both sighed as they approached them with Hajime placing his hands on the ground and transmuting the earth around it, immobilizing it in a pitfall in the case that it was still hostile, while skewering it with his sword, and Saito used his Sooth ability on it to the point that it passed out and Saito then used Freeze to lower its body temperature until frost gathered around its body, peacefully freezing it to death. He poked it with his shortsword a bit to make sure it was dead. When it was, he sheathed it.

"Well, at least my Transmutation Skills are growing a bit."

"Same with my other Skills. Let's just keep at it."

"Yeah." Hajime and Saito swallowed a mana pill and wiped the sweat off their brow in perfect unison. They didn't notice that the knights were staring at them in awe.

Honestly, they didn't expect much of the pair. The reason they sent monsters to the pair was because they were having such an easy time during the expedition that they decided to send some (weakened) their way, since they looked bored.

At first, they thought they would flail their weapons helplessly for a bit. Instead, Hajime effectively used his Transmutation Skill to restrain the enemy before killing it, a tactic the knights had never seen before. They figured Synergist were only good for blacksmithing, hence the reason they never thought they were useful in combat.

As for Saito, that had the impression that he was a cruel and sadistic person thanks to his Slavemacer Job. And that he's not putting much effort into training his Skills. But's they see that he's trained his spells and his Inherited Skills not only rendering the enemy's movement by combining different spells but killing them in a way that both preserved their Mana Crystals and without using his physical weapon.

Hajime spent a lot of time diligently training his single skill, Transmutation. He hypothesized that it could shift the ores in the earth as well, thus creating the pitfall trap. Saito also spent time studying different recipes and uses for his poisons and Transmutation Skills respectively, while also practicing his control of the beginner-level spells he was given by Kaori, Sakura, and Yukiko memorized, hence the reason for his all-night training session. Although since Hajime had such trouble taking down even a weakened monster, and Saito using a method of killing that spared the monsters any pain but took more time and effort, they were surrounded by their classmate who were leagues away in terms of strength, they still thought of themselves as weak.

This was the first time either of them showed their abilities in front of anybody. They made fools of themselves facing off against the monsters outside of the capital, and this was the result of their efforts to improve.

While the two took a short break, Hajime and Saito glanced at the front lines. Their eyes met Kaori's and Sakura's, respectively. They were smiling at them. They were taking their promise to "protect" him quite seriously. Hajime looked away, embarrassed that she was watching over him this whole time, while Saito, when he was sure no one was looking, blew an air kiss at her like some cliché couple. Kaori pouted a little when Hajime looked away and Sakura blushed furiously at her boyfriend's bold gesture of affection, even though they've already had sex several times and should be used to this. Shizuku saw the whole scene out of the corner of her eyes and chuckled softly.

Whispering softly to the two, she said, "Kaori, why do you keep staring at Nagumo-kun like that? And Sakura-chan, are you really embarrassed at that after what you two have done? Don't you both know it's wrong to pick up guys in a dungeon?" Shizuku said that in a teasing manner, but Kaori blushed and heatedly rounded on her while Sakura blushed and pleaded with her.

"Oh, come on, Shizuku-chan! Don't say things like that please! I'm only checking up on him to see if he was okay!"

"Shizuku-chan, be careful! People will get the wrong idea if you talk like that! I was just making sure Saito was okay too!"

That's basically trying to pick him up then isn't it, Kaori? And why are you getting onto me when Saito-kun's the one doing risky things like that, Sakura-chan? Shizuku thought, but not wanting to make the two mopes, she kept quiet. Though she didn't hide the hilarity in her eyes and Kaori pouted and said "Jeez" while Sakura blushed an even deeper shade of red after seeing her expression.

Hajime and Saito watched the display—Saito being amused—when Hajime felt someone's gaze on him and straighten up on reflex. Saito noticed his friend's reaction and asked, "Something wrong, Hajime?" With a cautious look on him, he explained his problem to the only person who would understand, probably.

"Well…Since this morning, I've been feeling this hate filled gaze on me. This isn't the usual hateful gazes from our classmates though. This one is dripping with it, with a completely different Level of intensity. And every time I try to look for it, they apparently calm down. It's getting pretty bothersome. I don't know if I did something to someone. All I've been doing is my best to make myself a little less incompetent, so I don't know what's going on." There was a part of Hajime that thought Saito was going to say something like, "Maybe they're thinking, 'The hell you think you're playing at, trying to act all helpful and shit!' or something" and laugh it off like he usually does. Instead, Hajime was taken aback when he said, "Yeah. I've been feeling that too." Saito then explained what he was talking about.

"I'm not sure whose doing it. Maybe it's the same person your feeling. But it like they want to burn a hole through my head with just their intense glare. And weirdly enough, it happened every time I so much as glanced at Sakura or vice versa. I don't know what I did this time to earn this much ire. Maybe someone's still bitter about me getting away scot free from the 'bedroom incident.' If this keeps up, there might some credibility to Kaori's prophetic message of the future."

"That's only for me though, and don't describe it so dramatically. But we shouldn't dwell on it so much. It's only going to make us paranoid."

"I guess… but at least we have our respective girls watching out for us… Though at the cost of our man cards."

"Yeah… Don't remind me. We're basically those helpless heroines in anime now since we asked Shirasaki and Mitsurugi-san to protect each of us. How shameful." Hajime and Saito shared a harmonious sigh as they mulled over how weak they really are.

After a while, everyone continued exploring the twentieth floor.

Each floor of the labyrinth spanned a few miles in every direction, so it took a team of dozens two weeks to a full month to fully search and map out a new floor.

But since every floor until the forty-seventh is mapped out, there was no danger of either getting lost or running into a trap.

The deepest room on the twentieth floor was like a limestone came, but instead was made of ice, in which the icicles constantly melted and created a mixed topology. Behind it were stairs that led to the twenty-first floor.

After making it this far, their training was done for the day, which meant they had to head back up to the surface. The bad news was, they had to walk all the way back up. Unfortunately for the class, Teleportation magic hasn't existed since the Age of Gods. Just as the students begun to relax, a protrusion came out from the walls, making them unable to get in formation, and instead forcing them into single file.

Eventually, the two leaders of the march, Kouki and Captain Meld stopped in their tracks. Confused, the students got in battle stances as they scanned the area. It seems like that encountered a monster.

"It's camouflaging itself. Keep an eye in your surroundings!" Captain Meld shouted out a warning to everyone.

In just a second, the aforementioned protrusion began to change color and began to move. The creature apparently shaped itself into the wall. In truth it was a dark brown colored, stood on two legs, and beaten its chest hard. The thing looked like a gorilla and was capable of camouflaging itself like a chameleon.

"It's a Rockmount! Don't let it hit you! Its arms pack a hell of a punch!" Captain Meld's warning reverberated through the cavern as Kouki's and Sakura's party began to attack. Yukiko quickly froze the Rockmount's feet to immobilize it. As it tried to break out of the ice, Sakura then chanted Fireball at the creature and, instead of hitting the gorilla, Ryosuke got in its path and prepared to deflect it.

"Ryu-kun! Get out of the way!" Sakura yelled at him to move out of the way, but he didn't. People were bewildered at what he was doing, but Ryosuke looked confident. He adjusted his sword in a way that the Fireball hit the mirror part of his Artifact. As soon as the Fireball hit the mirror, it disappeared into it like a water drop into a lake. It was then the sword glowed red.

"I saw you leer at Mitsurugi-san, you damn dirty ape! I won't stand for that!" Apparently Ryosuke mistaken the Rockmount looking at Sakura with lecherous intent, causing him to fly into a sort of rage. Even though his anger was understandable, Saito couldn't help but cover his mouths, hiding his laughter at that insult.

"What are you doing you fool?! Stop!" Captain Meld tried to warn him, but by the time he realized Ryosuke's plan, it was too late.

Apparently, this was the true potential of a Mirror Meister. They can manipulate mirrors inscribed with magic circles to send messages to others with linked mirrors and reflect spells back onto others. One of the special abilities of his mirror sword is that it can absorb spells into its mirror and throw it back at the target with twice the strength. So the simple beginner-ranked Fireball spell turned into an intermediate ranked one at an instant. Ryosuke then chanted, "Increase thy power twofold and return to mine foes—Counterstrike-Release!" And then slashed downward at the bound Rockmount and a crescent-shaped arc of fire came out. Before it could hit the monster though, the Rockmount slammed his hairy fist at the ice and instantly shattered it and dove out of the way, Ryosuke's spell instead hit the wall, causing it to explode. Steam rose as that section of ice wall instantly vaporized. As the steam cleared, the Rockmount was nowhere to be seen. Everyone wondered where it went, and then they got their answer. Seemingly out of nowhere, Ryosuke sensed something and turned to his right, and was hit by an unseen force and was about to slam into the wall until Sakura hastily used a spell.

"Shield thy body—Fortify!" Sakura had to shorten the incantation as Ryosuke was moving too fast for her to finish the full chant, but when he slammed into the wall, he didn't end up splattered on the ice and none of his bones didn't break, so the spell that coated one's body with mana from the caster to create a barrier around them to lessen damage worked like it was supposed, though Ryosuke ended up having the air in his lungs forced out of him.

"Ryu-kun!"

"Takahara!"

Sakura and Kouki exclaimed as the boy slid to the ground. Sakura managed to keep him from getting knocked unconscious, but as it was a rushed spell that she halfway finished at the last second, it only protected him from a bit of damage from the Rockmount while still taking a moderate amount of it. As she had let her guard down to cast the spell, the Rockmount revealed itself right in front of Sakura. She was petrified at the sight of its hideousness.

"No! Sakura-chan!"

"Sakura-chan!"

Sakura-chan! Move!"

"Mitsurugi-san!"

Kouki, his friends, and an injured Ryosuke called out to Sakura to run.

"Oh no!" Saito tried to run towards her as the monster raised its fist to punch her, with Sakura still unable to move. But before he could, Yukiko quickly finished her chant.

"Blow away with rapid force— Rapid Blizzard!" Despite its shorten verse, Yukiko's pack quite a wallop as the Rockmount was pushed away by a torrent of icy air seconds before its fists connected with Sakura. It managed to stay upright by blocking the spell with his arms, but at least Sakura was unhurt. Saito breathed in relief as Yukiko managed to save her. As the Rockmount charged for Yukiko and Sakura, whom the former was holding the latter as she thanked her graciously and frantically while clinging to her clothes, Ryutarou quickly got in front of the girls and repelled the beast with his fist.

Meanwhile, Kouki and Shizuku shuffled to either side in order to flank it. But due to the rough terrain, they were unable to properly surround it. Sakura took this chance to chant a quick healing spell to Ryosuke, which after he was healed, he staggered to get up and limbed back to the formation, but he was alright. The Rockmount must've realized that it couldn't get pass the impenetrable wall that was Ryutarou, so it fell back, took a deep breath, and then,

"Graaaaaaaaaaaah!" A second later, it roared so ferociously that it shook the whole room.

"Guh?!"

"Uwaaah?!"

"Kyaaaah?!" Even though the shockwave of the roar didn't hurt the students, it made them all ridged from fear. That was the special magic Rockmounts can do: Intimidating Roar, which was a mana-infused roar that can paralyze anyone who heard it. Kouki and the others took the brunt of it, so they ended up unable to move a single inch. Even though they were stunned, the Rockmount didn't take this chance to attack. Instead it sidestepped them and picked up a nearby boulder, which he hurled over Kouki's group. And man did that rock flew! It sored straight over the unmoving front liners and headed straight for the target: Kaori's group.

Sine there was no space to dodge, the group pointed their magic circle-engraved staves to blow it to kingdom come. But before they could, they stopped midway through their chant as they realized the boulder was hairier than it was supposed to be, shocking them to the point that they stopped chanting. Turns out the "boulder" the Rockmount threw was actually a second Rockmount!

It somersaulted through the air and spread its arms wide, resembling the notorious Lupin Dive down to the bloodshot eyes and the heavy breathing. The only thing missing from this uncanny imitation is the gorilla screaming, "Kaori-chaaaaan!" As it dived straight at her. The display was so disturbing that Kaori, Suzu, and Eri all forgot to keep chanting and instead scream in terror. Before it could do anything, Captain Meld managed to get in front of the girls and quickly sliced the Rockmount in midair.

"Oi, what were you all thinking doing this in a middle of a fight?" After Captain Meld chastised, the girls quickly apologized. Though one couldn't blame them for panicking like they did. The sight of that Rockmount as it came at them was awfully disturbing. The girls were still pale in the face. In fact, a certain hero completely snapped as he saw how shaken the girls became. That person was none other than Kouki Amanogawa, the class's resident stylized hero of righteousness.

"You bastard… You'll pay for hurting Kaori and the others… I won't forgive you!" Clearly, he must've mistaken their fear of how spine-chilling the Rockmount looked for fear of nearly biting the big one.

How dare you frighten a girl like that! As Kouki flew into a rage for that rather cliché reason, the pure white color of his mana began illuminating out of his body, and the sword bean to glow in tandem.

"Soar unto heaven, O divine wings—Celestial Flash!"

"Stop you idiot!" Kouki ignored Captain Meld's orders, raised his sword high over his head, and just as finished the last verse of his chant, he swung down with all his might. He unleashed a dazzling curved blade of light, so powerful that nothing could escape it. It's last act of resistance was for nil as the Rockmount was sliced cleanly in two. The only thing that stopped the spell of light was the wall when it crashed into it. There was some loud rumbling and pieces of the wall rained down. Compared to the spell Ryosuke used to try and take down the Rockmount, Kouki's was far more powerful, as expected from the hero.

Kouki sighed deeply and turned to the girls with his signature ladykilling (albeit cheesy) smile, since the big bad gorilla was vanquished. Just as he was about to say, "It's alright now," a large fist came down on his head. The culprit was Captain Meld, who was smiling with a vein pulsating from his temple, clearly angry.

"Hobwah?!" Kouki reacted to the sudden surge of pain with a weird yelp.

"You damn fool! I get that you were angry, but don't use spells that powerful in narrow passages like this! You've could've brought the whole cave down on our head! That goes for you too Ryosuke! And watch how you get in the way of spells! One wrong move and you'd have ended up burned!"

Kouki's complaint died in his throat as Captain Meld laid it into him, so he apologized awkwardly. Ryosuke could only sheepishly apologized to as he was still dazed from the Rockmount's punch.

Then suddenly, Sakura noticed something in the wall and tapped Kaori's shoulder, causing her to look at what she was pointing at.

"…What is that? It's so sparkly…" At her words, everyone looked at the direction the girls were looking at.

The strange object was a mineral emitting a pale blue glow, resembling a blooming flower jutting from the wall. All the girls were entrance by its beauty.

"Oh, that's a glanz crystal. And a big one to boot. That's pretty rare. Basically they're a type of raw gemstone. Not really special in regard to having special properties, but because of their luster and radiance, they're pretty popular with the noble women and their daughters. They're made into rings, pendants, earrings, and other jewelry as gifts. Lots of girls are overjoyed when receiving glanz jewelry as a gift, being one of the top three jewels used and proposal rings and all."

"That's so lovely…"

"Yeah…" Hearing Captain Meld's explanation, Kaori and Sakura blushed and were further entranced by the beauty of the stone. They both then stole a glance at Hajime and Saito. Sakura blushed harder than Kaori since she recalled Saito's plans for marriage from last night. Despite how quick it was, only Shizuku, Yukiko, and two others noticed this.

"Right then! I'll go and grab it for us!" Hiyama suddenly ran forward after saying that. Though he wasn't the only one.

"I'll get it first!" Ryosuke ran quickly after Hiyama while saying that, seemingly recovered from his injuries. Both swiftly scaled the debris of the crumbed, each trying to get to the crystal first as fast as possible. Captain Meld hurriedly went after them.

"Hey! Don't you two run off on your own! We're not sure it's safe yet!" However, neither of them seemed to not have heard him, as they were close to the crystal. As they were climbing, Saito felt something was off about the crystal. "If it was too good to be true, it most likely is" was one of many golden rules he lived by. As he realized that, he sensed something weird radiating from the crystal. Peering closer at it with the Magic Circle Appraisal skill he has, he noticed there was a strange magic circle inscribed in it. The spell it contained didn't look like anything he's seen before, but he could tell there was something wrong with it.

Confirming his suspicions, the knight next to him, who was using his Fair Scope to scan the area around the crystal, suddenly went pale a second later.

"Captain! It's a trap!"

"What?! Stop!" As quickly as Captain Meld and his knight's warning came, it was too late. The second Hiyama and Ryosuke's hands touched the glanz crystal, a magic circle appeared and glowed in the center of the circle. It was a trapped placed there in case there was anyone dimwitted enough to touch it.

Similar to the day everyone was summoned, the circle glowed brighter and grew big enough to cover the entire area.

"Crap, retreat! Everyone, get the hell out now!" Captain's Meld's words set everyone into action, trying to get to the exit…but it was too late. Light filled the room until it was anyone was able to see. They were hit with a momentary sense of weightlessness. As they all felt the atmosphere shifted, they fell to the ground with a thud.

Hajime groaned from the aching pain of landing on his butt. Saito wasn't so lucky, as he fell flat on his back. As Hajime helped him up, he looked around. The rest of his class were still on the ground, but Captain Meld, his knight, Kouki, and the other vanguard fighters were already on their feet scanning their surroundings.

"Dammit. The crystal must've had a Teleportation magic circle in it. No other modern-day mage has that kind of magic. It'd be pretty remarkable if it hadn't sent us here." Captain Meld talked out loud to himself as he looked around.

Saito and the others were transported onto a huge stone bridge. It was one hundred and nine yards in length and fifty yards wide, more than the size of a single football field. The ceiling above them towered sixty feet high, and below them was not a river, but a pitch-black abyss with no visible end, like it was the pit to hell. Though the bridge was more than big enough to fit the whole class and some knights, there were no railings, so if someone were to slip near the edge, there was nothing to stop them from plummeting to their demise. Fortunately, they were all teleported to the middle of the bridge, with one end led a passage downward to the next floor, and the other had stairs upward, leading back to the previous floor.

After confirming the situation, Captain Meld barked out the order, "Everyone, make a break for the stairs! On the double!" His voice boomed like a cannon, and the students hurried to follow his orders. But it wasn't called one of the Great Labyrinths for nothing. It was not going to that easy to escape.

Magic circles started to appear on either side of the bridge, each one dark red with a torrent of mana emanating from them. The one on the passage side, was thirty-two feet wide. The stairway side had circles only three feet each, but there were countless of them.

All of then resembled the color of blood, giving off an ominous aura. After pulsating once, monsters started to appear out of them. The stairway side had a legion of skeletons wearing armor plates and helmets wielding swords. Saito remembered from the books he read about monsters in the Orcus Labyrinth that they were called, Traum Soldiers, monsters originating from the thirty-eighth floor and deeper. Their eyeless sockets glowed with a small dot of light, the same color as the circles, and moved around like real eyes do. In seconds, the stairway side were swarming with the creatures, with more still coming. But what Saito saw on the other side made the skeletons look like the cheap plastic dolls displayed during Halloween. From the passage side came out a monster equivalent in size to the circle it emerged from. It was a monster in the form similar to Triceratops, but instead it had glowing red eyes and some kind of metal helmet on its head. It also had wickedly sharp claws and fangs that it was clicking together, and the horns jutting out of its helmeted head sprouted flames.

Everyone was staring at it with unbridled terror, with Captain Meld's terrified whisper was clearly heard throughout the area.

"Dear god…it's…a Behemoth…"

When Captain Meld, the reliable pillar of strength, started breaking into a cold sweat from that thing, a wave of apprehension washed over the class. If he was even a little bit frightened, they really were up a creek.

Kouki realized he was up against something way too strong, so he asks Captain Meld for anything he can tell him about it. Unfortunately, the beast known as a Behemoth wasn't patient. It sucked in its breath and let out a guttural roar that signaled the start of the battle.

"Graaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

"Huh?! The roar brought Captain Meld out of his haze and he began making orders to everyone.

"Alan, take the kids and clear the path of those Tram Soldiers! Kyle, Ivan, Bael, cast a barrier. We have to stop that thing no matter what! Kouki, you need to get out with the others too!"

"Please wait Meld-san! That dinosaur thing looks dangerous! We can help too!"

"Don't be an idiot! If that's things a Behemoth none of you stand a chance against it! The monster's from the sixty-fifth floor and not even the legendary adventurer, who was considered the strongest in the world, could fight it! Now get out of here! I refuse to let any of you die here today!"

Kouki faltered at Captain Meld's intense gaze, but he stood his ground and refused to leave his side. Captain Meld was about to yell at him until the beast roared again and started to charge…right at the retreating students.

The kingdom's strongest warriors, who swore to do everything in their power to protect the summoned heroes, chanted together and attempted to form a barrier.

"Grant thine sanctuary to your beloved children, O God! Reject all malice and let this be a holy ground that denies thine enemies' passage! Hallowed Ground!"

A glowing dome of light appeared and stopped the Behemoth's charge as soon as it crashed into it. The spell was four verses long, inscribed on a magic circle six feet long, drawn on the best quality paper, and was spoken in perfect unison by three people. It might've only been a one-time-use spell, and it lasts only for a minute, it was now an unbreakable shield that not even the monster could break through. Though the huge shockwave caused by the monster smashing into it caused the ground near it to be pulverized, making the stone bridge shake perilously. That sent the escaping kids into a panic, some of them falling over themselves.

Though the Tram Soldiers were significantly weaker than the Behemoth, they were still far stronger that the students have faced before. So with a giant monster and a skeleton army flaking them on both sides, the students were thrown into disarray, tossing formation out the window as they tried to make it to the stairs. Alan, the lone knight with them, tried to keep them together, but they were too terrified to pay attention.

As they panicked, one of the female students was shoved aside and fell down. As she groaned in pain, she looked up and saw a Tram Soldier wielding a sword in front of her face.

"Ah!" The exact moment she let out that gasped, the soldier swung its sword down on her head.

I'm gonna die, she thought, but then the ground underneath the skeleton swelled upward. It lost its equilibrium, swung too wide and ended up attacking the ground with a clang. The bulge then swelled forward, taking a few Tram Soldiers with it and pushed them over the bridge and into the abyss.

About six feet from the edge of the bridge stood Hajime, who was panting strongly. He managed to transmute various parts of the ground to create a stone slide in quick succession. He trained to his transmutation ability to the point that he can make complex maneuvers in seconds over a wider area than before. Though he still had to get in close proximity to use it against targets, so he was still squatting within striking distance of the Tram Soldiers' swords, which terrified him so such he shook.

Some of the Tram Soldiers managed to avoid the protrusion and were heading straight for Hajime. But they didn't get close. Suddenly, the ground underneath him froze solid, encasing their bony legs in ice. The ice wasn't strong enough to contain them for long, so they easily broke out, but it was enough. Saito sprinted towards them and squatted down and used Transmute. Seconds after they fell, the earth protruded like how Hajime did it and the skeletons were pushed towards the edge of the bridge and were thrown into the abyss as well. One of Tram Soldiers managed to get up quickly and swung at Saito, but he managed to sidestep and grab its bony arm, lifted it over his back, and threw it with all his strength over the bridge.

Saito has managed to use his Image Composition to imagine the magic circle for the Freeze spell Yukiko gave him back at the inn. He had chanted the incantation for it as Hajime transmuted the ground just in case some got passed it. After slowing the Tram Soldiers down, he used the Transmutation spell that he got from Hajime and pushed them to the edge with complex maneuvers like he did. When one of them got away from the second attack, he used one of the Judo throws he learned from one of several martial arts classes his parents took him to.

A lot of risky moves that would've taken a normal person too much time to do, but Saito wasn't a normal person. His innate ability to master anything he tried his hand at gave him the skillset to do these even more complex and dangerous maneuvers in quick succession. And since it was a simple spell, he didn't need to use much mana to activate it.

They both swallowed a mana pill and ran towards the collapsed girl. Saito saw that her foot was sprained and pulled out a healing potion and applied it in her foot, healing it almost instantly. Seeing that it was safe to lift her up, Hajime took her hand with his gloved one and pulled her up to her feet. Still in shock, she silently stared at the two as Saito worked on her leg and let herself be picked up when Hajime lifted her. The both of them smiled reassuringly at her.

"Come on, we've gotta hurry. Don't worry, as long as we stay calm, these boneheads are nothing."

"Yeah, other than us, the rest of you are OP as hell." Hajime and Saito confidently slapped her on the back and, after staring at them both for a minute, she responded with a "Yeah! Thanks!" Cheerfully and ran off.

Hajime continued creating pitfalls and protrusions to immobilize the soldiers while Saito threw special monster lure potions that he made to attract strays away from Hajime and into his traps, working as a perfect team. As they worked, they looked around at their surroundings. Their classmates were still running around terrified, swinging their weapons widely and casting spells at random directions. Alan was still trying to round them up, but it wasn't working, and more skeletons were popping up from circles each minute. If this keeps up, someone might die. Worst case, everyone.

"We've gotta do something, fast." Saito told Hajime as he witnesses the scene while roundhouse kicking a Tram Soldier that got too close.

"Yeah...we need a leader…someone to blow open a path for us…" As Hajime though while sending another soldier down to the abyss, they both came to the same answer:

"Amanogawa-kun!"

"Kouki-san!"

The pair then started sprinting towards Kouki and the Behemoth, which the latter was till ramming it's head onto the barrier repeatedly. Each hit sent shockwaves into the bridge, making it creak ominously after its continuously assaults. Cracks were forming on the barrier, making it a matter of time before the spell shattered. Captain Meld and Sakura were adding their own incantations to the spell, but it was practically putting a band aid on a cut open stomach, even with Sakura's high aptitude for magic

"It's not working, Meld-sama! The cracks just keep spreading!" Sakura was sweating and panting a little from expending her mana too much. Even one of the strongest magic users in the class had limits.

"Agh, blast it! It's not gonna hold for long! Kouki, you and the others need to retreat!"

"I won't leave you behind! We'll make it out of this together!"

"Tch, this is not the time to go on an ego trip…" Captain Meld scowled as the words left his mouth. There was not enough room to dodge the Behemoth's attack. So the only viable option was to retreat while the barrier was still active. The veteran soldiers understood that fact as they have experience, but the green-horned students were having trouble accepting the order. Captain Meld tried to explain the situation to Kouki, but he was adamant in not "abandoning" him. Not to mention that the gleam in his eyes said that he believed he could take the Behemoth head-on. Captain realized that by stoking the still wet-behind-the-ears students' confidence by praising their Skills, he unintentionally sentenced them to death.

"Kouki! Listen to the captain! We have to go now!" Shizuku managed to grasp the stakes and urged him to obey by grabbing his arm. Yukiko also tried to persuade him as well.

"Listen to her, Amanogawa-kun! We need to leave before we're all killed!" She was more vocal than she usually was, so she must've been pretty stressed right now.

"Eh, this isn't the first time we were dragged into your dumb antic, Kouki. I'm with you all the way!"

"Ryutarou… Thank you." Ryutarou's words managed to solidify Kouki's determination, making Shizuku click her tongue impatiently at the pair.

"You're letting this get to your head you big numbskull."

"Don't encourage him, Sakagami-kun."

"Shizuku-chan…Yukiko-san…" Kaori looked over at the irritated Shizuku and the exasperated Yukiko.

"Mitsurugi-san! Just let them hash it out! We need to go now! I can't let let you stay here and risk getting killed!" Ryosuke was trying his hardest to convince Sakura to escape with him. Ryosuke's number one objective was to always keep her safe, anyone else came second. But Sakura was torn between giving into her fears and run or stay behind to get the others to run with them, so she couldn't move and try to focus on reforging the weakening barrier.

"B-but, everyone else…I need to try to keep the barrier up until they—"

"Mitsurugi-chan! Listen to Takahara. As strong as you are, you're the daughter of the Mitsurugi Group. Your family will be devastated if you died!"

"B-but…Kouki-kun…" Sakura tried to protest against Kouki's orders, bust just then, two certain boys ran in front of Kouki.

"Kouki-san!" Saito screamed.

"Amanogawa-kun!" Hajime also screamed.

"N-Nagumo?! Hiraga?!"

"Nagumo-kun?! Saito-kun?!" Kaori exclaimed.

"Saito?! Nagumo-kun?!" Sakura also exclaimed.

"You need to retreat! Everyone back there needs you!" Hajime said angrily at the surprised party.

"What are you talking about? More importantly, why did you two come?! You can't be here! You both have to leave this us and—"

"This isn't the time to be saying that!" Before Kouki could imply that Hajime and Saito both would be of no use here, they cut him off, displaying a vehemence they've never express before so startling that Kouki unconsciously stiffened up, not expecting the two who generally waved off everything with a smile and a witty joke or retort to yell so crossly.

"While you're currently trying to be gallant, your classmates are losing their heads without you there to lead them! Look!" Saito grabbed his collar and pointed behind him. Kouki saw his terrified classmates being surrounded by the Traum Soldiers. Their fear made them completely forget their training, attacking recklessly and without putting a dent in the steadily increasing horde. Their high Stats have kept them alive so far but was only a matter of time until someone gets killed.

"They need someone to not only blow away the monsters, but also their fear in a single attack! The only one that can do that is you, Amanogawa-kun! Be their leader! Stop focusing on what's in front of you and for once look behind you!" After Hajime also told him off, a dazed Kouki looked at both his classmates and back at the pair, who were furiously shaking their heads, and nodded.

"Yeah, I get it now! We're retreating! Meld-san, sorry for—"

As Kouki was about to apologize for retreating without him, Captain Meld screamed out, "Take cover!" Just as the barrier finally shattered.

A colossal shockwave headed towards Saito and the others. Together, Saito and Hajime transmuted a stone wall from the ground, but it was destroyed with ease. It had lessened the force a little, but it sent everyone flying. When the Behemoth let out a roar and dust clear, it revealed Captain Meld and the three knights lying on the ground, moaning in pain. Since Kouki and the others were behind the knights and Saito and Hajime's wall, they didn't take too much damage and got back up quickly.

"Gah…Ryutarou, Shizuku, Yukiko, Takahara-kun, can you by us some time?" Kouki asked. Though the four were in pain, they stepped forward knowing they had to something to do something about the Behemoth themselves while Captain Meld and the knights were down.

"Not like we have a damn choice!"

"…We'll manage somehow."

"Don't mess this up."

"I'm trusting you to keep Mitsurugi-san safe!" After the four uttered those responses, they charged at the Behemoth.

"Kaori, Mitsurugi-chan, you both need to heal Captain Meld and the others."

"Got it!"

"Okay!" At Kouki's command, Kaori and Sakura ran over to heal the knights.

Saito and Hajime already made another wall to protect them from the battle in case it reached where they were. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't going to be very effective, but it was better than nothing.

"If this keeps up, we're all going to die down here." Saito bluntly said to his friend.

"Yeah. I know. But I may have a plan. I can do it by myself if I have to, but can you help me?" Saito saw the fear and determination mixed in his best friend's eyes as he asked for his help. No doubt it was quite possibly a crazy plan, but Saito smiled with determination to match Hajime's eyes.

"Like you even need to ask." As Hajime finished explaining to Saito what his plan was, Kouki was chanting his strongest spell.

"O holy spirit! Bring ruin to all evil with thine divine light! By the breath of God, may these darken clouds be swept clear, and the world bathed in sanctity! By the mercy of God, may this strike redeem the sins of man! Divine Wrath!"

Auroras of light poured from the holy sword. Divine Wrath had similar principles of his other skill Celestial Flash, but this one was far more powerful. Beams of light gouged furrows into the ominously creaking bridge as the light raced towards the Behemoth. Ryutarou, Shizuku, Yukiko, and Ryosuke, who were wounded pretty badly and were due to lost last longer against the monster, retreated as soon as Kouki finished chanting. The bombardment of light made a thunderous roar as it crashed right into the Behemoth, enveloping it with pure white light. Cracks them started appearing on the bridge.

"Haaah… Haah… That should have been enough."

"Haaah… Haah… Yeah, that should have killed it, right?"

"I'd like to think so, but…" Ryutarou and Shizuku fell back to where Kouki was, who was panting after using that spell. That must've been Kouki's coup de grace, using up almost what was left of his mana. Captain Meld was healed enough to stand up. The light gradually cleared along with the dust around where the Behemoth stood. And the Behemoth…was completely unharmed.

"N-no way…"

"It's not dead? How is that possible?"

As Yukiko and Ryosuke voiced their horrified expressions along with the others, the beast let out a low growl. Right then, the dark red mana that monsters share began pouring around the Behemoth. The Behemoth was staring straight at Kouki, with a glare so murderous that Kouki shivered as if he were about to die from it. Then it raised its head and its horns started glowing red hot as it emitted a high-pitched buzzing sound. The red then spread to the helmet until it was surrounding by it, glowing like a red-hot ball of magma.

"Snap out of it! Run!" After being utterly shocked that Kouki's most powerful spell didn't even scratch it, Captain Meld's shout brought them back to their senses, and then they were about to run. But then the Behemoth chose at that moment to charge. Before it reached Kouki, the dinosaur leaped into the air and hurtled towards them, like a burning meteor. Even though managed to avoid a direct hit, the shockwaves sent them flying across the bridge, rolling like toppled pins, and when they finally stopped, they were covered head to toe in wounds.

Somehow able to move, Captain Meld ran towards them as the knights were still being healed by Kaori and Sakura. The Behemoth was bracing its legs as it tried to pull its head out of the hole it smashed into the bridge.

"Can you all move?!" In response to Captain Meld's question, they only groaned. They were paralyzed from the shockwave and their internal organs were most likely damaged too. Way worse than what Captain Meld's team got.

Captain Meld turned around to call Kaori over. But the words stopped as he saw Hajime and Saito running over to him.

"You two! Get Kaori and Sakura to help carry Kouki and get the hell out of here! If you can, anyone else you can carry is fine, but he's top priority!" Meld asked to get Kouki and a single other if possible. He knew it was next to impossible to get everyone injured out of here alive, so he went with the only person whose power is essential to winning the war along with anyone else that could. Captain Meld bit his lip so hard it drew blood, lamenting the situation had come to this. But as he grimly raised his shield, he resolved to buy the remaining people time to escape and fight the Behemoth himself for as long as he could.

But instead of obeying, Hajime and Saito hastily explained an alternative option. While it could allow everyone to get out of here alive, it was an insane and reckless plan with a near zero percent chance of working. The worst part was, the two had the most dangerous task.

Captain Meld hesitated for a few second, seconds that were essential to the Behemoth. It managed to pull its head out and the helmet started to glow red. He was out of time.

"…Are you both sure you can do it?"

"We are." As they responded, Meld laughed and broke into a grin as he saw the resolve in both their gazes.

"Who would've thought that I'd put my trust in you two of all people… I promise I won't leave the two of you behind. So…don't let me down."

"Yes sir!"

"Roger dodger, you old codger!"

"Don't know where that phrase came from, but I like it!" As the three finished talking, Captain Meld walked up to the Behemoth and launched a weak spell at it. Apparently, it focused it's attack on whoever was attacking it, so when Kouki attacked it earlier, the Behemoth centered on him. The provocation worked as it now had its bloodred eyes on Meld.

As the Behemoth finished charging its helmet, it charged at Meld and then jumped. Meld's job was to keep it preoccupied as long as possible. As it came down, Meld got into an evasive stance and whispered a short incantation.

"Be swept away—Wind Wall!" After saying the spell he jumped away just as the Behemoth slammed into the bridge, pulverizing the spot Meld was seconds before. Captain Meld's Wind Wall pushed the shockwave and rubble away as it came at them. It seems that despite the destructive force the Behemoth's attack created, it didn't have a great sense of aim, with the rubble easily deflected by weak spells. It would've been a different story if Meld was focused on protecting Kouki and the others, as he would've.

While the Behemoth was still stuck, Hajime and Saito jumped onto it. The residual heat from the helmet burned their skin but they ignored the pain and Hajime gathered his sky-blue mana, Saito gathered his pitch-black mana and while the former chanted the one and only spell that he had, the simplest and most basic magic, the latter chanted the same spell his best friend in the world gave him.

"Transmute!" Together, they kept the Behemoth from dislodging its head from the bridge as they reformed the stone around it each time it moved even a little, keeping its head buried like an oversized ostrich. The Behemoth tried to brace its legs to use its weight to rip itself free, but the pair prepared for that. They also transmuted the stone around its feet, burying it three feet into the ground. As an added measure, they both hardened the stone to make sure it struggled to get out.

Even with a small portion of its body buried, its strength was truly fearsome. Its struggling created cracks in the stone, but Hajime continuously transmuted the stone to repair it—the end result being its head being unable to get free. Saito helped Hajime for a while with transmuting, but as soon as he was sure Hajime could transmute it on his own, he uncorked a blue potion he learned to make from the sweet elderly lady who he helped find her lost cat and drank it down. He felt his mana recovering quickly inside his body and he used the spell he learned from the nice Zoologist he helped carry hay for.

"Still thy mind—Sooth." His hands glowed black as he continuously used the spell meant to tame animals. Monsters, especially strong ones, were usually unaffected by the simple spell and would require a large amount of mana to be even a little effective. But the potion he drank boosted his mana's recovery rate and its power for a short time. After that, he would be completely drained. Luckily, he mastered the recipe overnight, creating a high-quality potion strong enough to last several minutes, making him able to make the Behemoth's movement's slightly sluggish. He then switched spells again and used the spell of his girlfriend's best friend.

"Chill thy foes with ice—Freeze!" To lessen the pain from the heat and to keep it from moving too much, Saito used Yukiko's Freeze spell on the Behemoth. A layer of frost covered its body and quickly melted, but Saito kept going in order to decrease the heat and slow it down and as much as possible. He switched from Sooth to Freeze to Sooth again repeatedly, using the spells such kind people gave him to use when he had no magic of his own, even after being called a criminal because of his Job.

He constantly switched between spells in order to keep the Behemoth from adjusting to them, using the Sooth longer or the Freeze longer. Every once in a while, when he felt the effects of the potion waning, he popped a mana pill into his mouth to sustain himself. While Hajime focused on burying it, Saito focused on slowing its movement. If either of their concentration broke, the Behemoth would get free. Together, they made sure that didn't happen.

"Just hang on Hajime! We'll get through this…I hope!" Saito assured Hajime, albeit a little hesitantly.

"That's reassuring!" Hajime retorted sarcastically.

Meanwhile, Captain Meld got the recovered knights, Kaori, and Sakura rounded up and managed to get Kouki and everyone else to safety. Also, it seemed that some of the students regained their self-control and started pushing the Tram Soldiers back. The reason they recovered so fast was because of the female student Hajime and Saito saved earlier, which goes to show that despite their weakness, they were still contributing significantly.

"Wait! Nagumo-kun and Saito-kun are still over there!"

"That's right! We can't leave them!" Kaori and Sakura started arguing with Meld who was still trying to get everyone to withdraw.

"This is all part of their plan! Once we clear all the Traum soldiers, and the two of them are clear, we'll make a defensive line to blow spells into the beast! They'll run back to us while we're keeping the damn monster distracted and we'll all get the hell out of here together!"

"Then I'll stay behind with them!"

"Me too!"

"No, you can't! Once we're safe, you need to heal Kouki, Kaori! And Sakura, you need to clear the Tram Soldiers with him!"

"But—" Kaori and Sakura's words were cut off by Meld's next words.

"What you two are doing is spitting on their resolve!"

"Ah—" Kaori couldn't say anything else, but despite the tears welling up in her eyes from frustration, Even though she was the same, Sakura understood.

"Kaori-chan…he's right. I'm scared for them too. But we have to do this if they're going to have a chance."

"…"

In terms of pure strength, after Captain Meld, Kouki's the strongest of all of the class. And Sakura's the strongest in terms of magic. The two of them can clear out the Traum Soldiers in order to save the other students. That way, they'll have more firepower and a greater chance of holding the Behemoth off with magic. Kouki-kun's condition is the difference between life and death for both Hajime and Saito. Once they're out of mana and can't Transmute anymore, the Behemoth will be free. Since Kaori is proficient with healing, she needed to keep healing Kouki-kun as they retreat.

"O, breath of light, grant succor to this injured soul—Heaven's Blessing!" Kaori was tearing up, but with her Artifact, a white staff, she managed to chant her healing spell, causing the staff to glow faintly and wrap Kouki in a gentle light. Heaven's Blessing is a high-level and can both heal wounds and restore mana.

Sakura was low on mana after both keeping the barrier maintain and healing the other knights so there wasn't much she could do to help heal the others. So she settled on helping Yukiko and Ryosuke.

"Be carried by the winds—Updraft!" She managed to use this basic beginner-ranked wind spell to lift Yukiko and Ryosuke up to carry them as well. Updraft usually could hold one person, but Sakura put enough mana into it to carry two at once. A feat only possible with the Magus class she possesses.

Captain Meld gripped both the girls' shoulders and nodded encouragingly to them, and they nodded back. They both looked back to see Hajime still transmuting the ground and Saito still slowing the Behemoth's movements. With the knights carrying Shizuku, Ryutarou, and Kouki, and Sakura carrying Yukiko and Ryosuke with her magic, she, Captain Meld, and Kaori retreated from the bridge.

On the other side, the Traum Soldiers were still increasing. At least two hundred were currently crowding the bridge. Because of that sheer number, a large chunk of them actually fell off the bridge. The silver lining is that due to their number, they were unable to properly spread out and surround the students, otherwise they would've slaughtered the few who managed to charge through the ranks when there were only a hundred of them.

The knights there protecting them are the only reason they're still alive, their experience making up for the students' lack thereof, but the wounds covering their bodies showed that simultaneously fighting off the skeleton soldiers and protecting the students were taking its toll.

So with the overwhelmingly increasing Traum Soldier horde weakening the knights, the students were slowly beginning to panic again. So much so that they forgot about using spells and instead swung wildly at the monsters. If things didn't change, they were all dead.

Many of the realized how dire their situation was as well, desolation painted on their faces. The girl Hajime and Saito had saved was trying her best to lead the small group of students she rallied to her side, but they were all already reaching their limit, tears in her eyes as despair crept on her too.

Everyone was on the verge of surrender, until suddenly—

"Celestial Flash!"

"Gale Burst!" A blade of pure light and a torrent of wind blasted through the center of the skeleton army, obliterating or blowing away the foes in its path. The ones that weren't instantly destroyed by Kouki's spell were either blown away by its force or Sakura's spell, falling into the depths below. Even though more soldiers rose to take their place, for a brief moment, the stairs were visible through the skeletons. The children's' hearts rose as their salvation they have been unable to see after fighting for so long with no results.

"Everyone! Don't give up! I'll clear a path for us!"

Kouki's shouts were accompanied by another Celestial Flash from Kouki and a torrent of water spheres from Sakura, mowing down another group of Traum Soldiers. The combination of Kouki's overwhelming charisma and Sakura's sincere assurance bolstered the students' weakened morale.

"You morons! What the hell got into all?! Does your training mean nothing to you?! In formation, on the double!" As the reliable and ferocious Captain Meld barked orders, he unleashed a spell that was debatably way stronger than Kouki's, destroying another group of skeleton soldiers soldier. The arrival of their pillar of support blew away the students' depression in an instant.

Their panic faded and their limbs regain their vigor, which was in part due to Kaori's healing magic. It was relatively simple mental-focus spell, normally easing one's mind, but paired with Kouki morale boosting speech.

Everyone then took position-the healers began healing the injured, the mages got back and started chanting their most powerful spells, and the vanguard got in a proper formation to defend the backline.

With the added addition of the now completely healed knights, the counterattack was underway. The combined effort of the overpowered students and the veteran knights managed to pulverize the soldiers in droves of powers, leaving no room for them to attack anyone. There were more soldiers getting destroyed than there were soldiers appearing. After that, a secure path to the stairs was revealed.

"Forward! We need to secure the area!" Saying that, Kouki sped forward, leading the way.

Though still somewhat injured, Shizuku and Ryutarou followed behind, cutting enemies down like warm butter, with Yukiko and Ryosuke covering the three.

After everyone managed to escape the encirclement, the soldiers attempted to create a meat—or rather bone wall, to close off access to the bridge. However, Kouki blew a hole between their lines with another spell. The student was understandable confused, as the path out of here was right in front of them and there was no need to keep fending the skeletons off now. They wanted to escape more than anything.

"Everyone, wait! Nagumo-kun and Saito-kun are still over there fighting off the Behemoth! We have to save them!" Everyone was visibly baffled as to what Kaori just said. Since to them, Hajime and Saito were the classes, "incompetent" and "criminal," respectively. But when they looked over on the other side of the bridge, past the thinned horde of Tram Soldiers, they saw none other than the pair.

"What on earth? What are they doing?"

"Is that monster frozen and buried into the bridge?" As more classmates called out, Captain Meld's deep voice resonated through the room, solidifying the students attention as he gave his orders.

"That's right! Those two are fending off that beast by themselves! They're the reason your sorry asses aren't pushing daisies right now! They're both not gonna last much long, so let's get to work on getting them the hell out of there! Vanguard, advance! Don't let even a single bag of bones near you! Rearguard, start preparing your long-range spells! Once they're both clear, blast at it to keep it busy!"

A lot of the students were still anxious to get to the stairs and escape. Can't blame them though since they were on the verge of getting killed minutes ago. Safety was within their reach and they wanted so badly to take it. But Captain Meld's booming, "Get moving!" Got even the most hesitant students to turn around and return to battle.

The last two to follow were Daisuke Hiyama and Ryosuke Takahara. Even though it was entirely their fault that they were in this mess, they still desperately wanted to escape. However, in the back of Hiyama's mind, he remembered the events of yesterday back in Horaud's inn.

The night before the labyrinth expedition, Hiyama was so nervous that he couldn't sleep, so he decided to go to the bathroom and feel the cool night air. Before he went back to his room, he saw Kaori in a negligee. Surprised by her sudden appearance, he unconsciously hid himself in the shadows, careful not to make a sound. Lucky for him, Kaori didn't notice him. As she walked by. Curious, he tailed her until she reached a certain room. And not just any room. When she knocked, the person that answered it was…Hajime.

As he saw Hajime, his mind went blank. Like most other guys, Hiyama was infatuated with Kaori. But since she was way out of his league to even be beside her and seeing that his potential rival is someone like Kouki, who was leagues above him, he decided to give up.

But Kaori was more interest in Hajime. Hajime. Someone who, in Hiyama's opinion, was lower than him. If he's good enough for her attention, I have to be too! That twisted train of thought permeated through his mind so much that he actually believed its viability. Since that night, his dissatisfaction with Hajime quickly warped into hatred, with him being the owner of the hatred induced glare hounding Hajime since this morning. In fact, the entire reason he tried to grab that glanz crystal in the first place was so he could woo Kaori.

As his hatred burned in him, he noticed Ryosuke was next to him as well, with the same look of hate he had on. He followed the gaze to the other side of the bridge and saw that it was directed at Hajime and Saito. He didn't know the popular actor very well and he wasn't the most intelligent person, but Hiyama was surprised that the actor was capable of making such a heinous face, and by tracing the directing of his glare to where Hajime and Saito were, and knowing that he didn't interact with Hajime enough to warrant such loathing, he quickly deduced that it was Saito who Ryosuke was glaring at.

Wondering why though, he saw that next to Kaori gazing worryingly at Hajime, there was Sakura with the same look staring at who Hiyama knew was Saito. From all the times Sakura has visited their school, Hiyama never saw Sakura romantically. Both because he was already devoted to Kaori, and if he at the time felt that Kaori was out of his league, then he had a snowball's chance in hell of scoring the wealthiest, prettiest, most talented girl in Japan. Even finding out that Sakura was just as interested in Saito as Kaori was to Hajime didn't change that fact. But soon he found out something so alarming that it made him momentarily forget how much he hated Hajime.

While he was seething with rage from seeing Kaori leaving Hajime and Saito's room, Hiyama saw Yukiko heading towards the room. He was startled by how reveling her clothes nightwear was, but he managed to overhear that Sakura wanted to talk to Saito. Curious, he followed them to the room, maintaining a safe distance to make sure they didn't see or hear him. By the time he arrived, he saw Saito entering Sakura's room while Yukiko went in Kaori and Shizuku's.

He saw that Sakura was wearing the most tantalizing piece of lingerie he's ever seen, making his heart skip several beats. He was still a high school boy after all. That's when he figured out that Saito and Sakura were an item, and that they'd already went that far. Initially, Hiyama thought he could use this information to blackmail Saito into making him his lackey. But he lost confidence on that idea after seeing how good Saito really was at fighting. If Hiyama pushed him into a corner, he'd wasn't sure he could take him in combat, even with his strong abilities. So his guess was that Ryosuke somehow found out about their relationship like he did on the same night.

Hiyama's guess was correct. Ryosuke now knows that Saito and Sakura are together. How he knows lies in his Job as Mirror Meister. Reflecting spells back at casters and sending messages through magic circle inscribed mirrors weren't the only things Ryosuke could do with his Job. After weeks of training, he discovered that he could use those kinds of mirrors to see the surrounds of wherever one mirror is placed through the use of refracting and reflecting the light between it in his Status Plate, through the use of a Skill called Looking Glass. That's another of the main reasons he never told anyone what his magic was until now. He feared that people would view him as some sort of pervert and be as caution around him like they are with Saito, especially Sakura. Ironically, this reason is exactly how he found out.

When he managed to train his abilities to a satisfactory degree, he made a magic circle imbued ornate mirror and gave it to Sakura as a "gift." He also imbued it with a magic circle that blocks out the ability to use Sense Magic to prevent her from finding out about its real function. In his mind Ryosuke wasn't doing anything perverted or immoral. He's been Sakura's childhood friend since they were kids. It was his duty as both her friend and as a man to watch over and protect her. He had no malicious or lewd intentions and simply wanted to make sure she's safe, even if she was in her own room.

Back in Horaud, Ryosuke was also still awake the same time Hiyama discovered Hajime and Kaori's late-night chat. After a while, he decided to use the mirror he gave Sakura to see if she was resting peacefully, hoping it will settle his nerves. When he activated it, what Ryosuke saw shook him to his very core. He saw Saito and Sakura just as they were having sex. He couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it. The girl Ryosuke cared about more than anyone in this world, the girl who he grew up with since childhood, the girl he swore to protect, was having her body defiled by, in his own opinion, a low-born, lazy, idiotic, otaku like Saito. These were actually the true feeling he had for Saito.

Ryosuke didn't hate him at first. When Sakura first told him about the incident with the high schoolers, he was actually thankful that Saito came to her rescue, since he wasn't able to come with her due to having a test screening that day. At first he thought nothing towards Sakura wanting to go to regular places middle-class people (in his opinion) went. But then it started happening almost every week. When she started going to Saito on the few free days Ryosuke had with her, that's when he started to get annoyed. Soon enough, Saito was all she ever talked about while on one of the outings he finally managed to get with her.

"Saito actually took me here last week." "Saito has a shirt just like that." "This is the movie me and Saito watched." "I wonder if Saito would like that figurine." Saito this. Saito that. Saito. Saito. Saito. The whole day he never heard the end of it. Ryosuke wanted to say how sick he was about hearing Saito's name the whole time, but he could never find it in himself to tell her off, so he just grinned and bear it.

But each day she came with Saito on his outings, each day she talked endlessly about him, each day she invited him to all of her tournaments, each say she saw him on the street and immediately ran to him, each say she said his name, the more and more jealous Ryosuke grew. He did his best to never show it, but it was there, slowly bubbling up day by day by day.

Every so often, he attempted to dissuade Sakura from Saito. His sincere criticisms were just passive-aggressive attempt to vent his frustrations at Saito and to subtly persuade Sakura from giving him the time of day. He actually kept Sakura away from Saito by convincing her trainers to teach her more powerful spells just because he couldn't stand seeing her run to him every time. She sometimes ended up disappearing somewhere, but as long as she was away from Saito, he was okay. It was actually Ryosuke who planted the panties inside Saito's knee guard and claimed that they were Suzu's just to get Sakura to hate him. But then Yukiko had to ruin it.

So when he saw what he saw, he immediately assumed that Saito was forcing himself on Sakura, in which case he needs to find a way to tell someone without revealing how he knew. But then he noticed in the middle of Saito and Sakura's "session," that Sakura had a face of…ecstasy. Since the mirror can't replicate sound, he can only see them and not hear them. And the longer he watched, the more he saw that Sakura was enjoying it. That's when the puzzles finally started to piece together for him.

How could I have been so blind? This whole time I thought she was just making up for that day with the crepe. This is why she always insisted on dragging him along on our personal outings. Why she never shuts up about him. Why they always left for long periods of time. Why she insisted so fervently on bending school rules just to bring him a damn bento. She began to change ever since that day. And it was all because of…him. it's all his fault. He stole my Mitsurugi-san away from me. The truth was right under my nose the whole fucking time! He thought those heinous things as his anger boiled over. Somewhere in the back of his head, he knew that Sakura was staring to see Saito in a more romantic way, but he refused to believe it. Until yesterday.

The scene of them having sex was burned into his mind like a brand. The more he unconsciously replayed it, the more disgusted he felt. The more he cursed himself for being so stupid. The more depressed he felt when he realized that his own childhood friend was taken from him without him realizing…and the more hate he felt towards Saito Hiraga. Every time he looked at him, the more he saw what he was doing to Sakura's body, the more his insides churned with intense hatred. The more he blamed Saito for supposedly stealing her away from him.

And now, as he watched Saito fight off a monster with only weak and useless spells in his disposal, Ryosuke knew that this was just going to make Sakura love him more. He hated how Saito was making Sakura look at him like that. He hated how heroic he was acting. He hated how Saito was outdoing him by trying to take down the Behemoth.

Mitsurugi-san shouldn't be looking at him like that. I should be the one over there. Mitsurugi-san should be more worried about me. Why is he all Mitsurugi-san cares about? Why did he do that to her body? Why is he taking everything from me?! He makes me sick! He's nothing but a thief! A lecher! A criminal! I hate him! I hate him so much! Sakura belongs to me! He should just disappear! Ryosuke was now clenching his fist so hard his palm was bleeding, but he didn't notice at all. His eyes were brimming with sheer loathing. His eyes filled with red. He needed to do something. He had to get Sakura back somehow. He had to get Saito away from her. His thinking was even more warped than Hiyama's.

As his thoughts got more and more intense, he felt a hand placed on his shoulder, bringing him back to his senses. When he looked beside him, he noticed Hiyama looking at him with a wicked grin forming on his lips. Ryosuke took it upon himself to remember everyone who Sakura was friendly with. But he also made sure to remember those with awful personalities who might try to do something to her. He associated Hiyama as, in his own words, "The guy who bullies Hiraga's friend.'

"H-Hiyama-san, right? What is it? Ryosuke asked, quickly changing back to his charismatic celebrity persona.

"You hate him too, don't you Takahara-san? Hiraga, I mean. I can't stand him either since he's both that loser's friend and he act so casual around Shirasaki-san. I could use your help with an idea I just had. You in?" Hiyama asked quietly as to not let anyone else hear. Ryosuke was pretty taken aback at what he just asked him. They've never said a word to each other since Sakura stated coming over to his school. Ryosuke was about to deny what he was saying.

But he saw that face he was making and quickly realized what he planned to do. At first, he thought Hiyama was crazy to attempt that, fearing that he would be caught, and Sakura would hate him forever. But as he looked again at Saito, his hatred started to gnaw away at his reason. His mind went back and forth between hearing what Hiyama had to offer or ratting him out to Captain Meld. Then, after a full minute of deliberation, he made his decision.

Meanwhile, Hajime and Saito were just starting to run out of mana. They were both out of pills and potions. They were close to running on fumes at this point. Saito even had to switch back to transmuting with Hajime to conserve mana. It was at that point that the students began to turn back to the bridge. The pair took a quick glance ahead and saw that everyone managed to retreat safely and were priming their spells. The Behemoth was still struggling against its restraints, and without constant transmuting to keep it buried, it would be only a few seconds before the Behemoth broke free. They both had to get as far as possible in that time.

Sweat poured down their heads, their hearts beating harder and faster that have ever had before in either of their lives, and they were trembling more than a chihuahua with hypothermia. Despite all of that, Saito still had the gall to grin widely at Hajime. The latter was baffled at how he could still smile at this. Still, he wouldn't be Saito if he weren't smiling for no other reason than he could. He knows him just that well.

We're going to need impeccable timing if we're going to make it out this alive. One wrong move and we're dead. Hajime explained as calmy as he could to Saito without speaking anything else than his spell.

Yeah! This is so much fun! Saito's eyes seemed to say, enjoying the stakes a little too much. Hajime truly had the craziest best friend in the world.

Seeing cracks appear for the dozenth time, the pair repaired the ground one more time. After bolstering the restrains for good measure, and nodding to one another, they both jumped.

After a meager five seconds when they started running like the devil was on their ass, the ground below them shattered, the Behemoth roared as it broke free of its stone prison. It looked around for its captor, its eyes finding Hajime and Saito. Just when it lowered its head to charge, a barrage of spells slammed into it.

It was like a bizarre multicolored meteor shower. Its might've not hurt the beast, but it was definitely keeping it distracted.

"Last one there's a rotten egg!" Saito began putting his one week track and field club training to use and full sprinted towards the other side.

We can do this! Hajime thought as he followed Saito's lead and sprinted with his head low. Despite the multitude of spells flying inches above them, they both weren't afraid. Their overpowered classmates weren't going to miss. They were both certain of it. Within a few seconds, they were already more than thirty-two yards from the Behemoth, with Saito slightly ahead.

Hajime unconsciously broke into a smile. Any lingering doubts Saito had vanished. They were both going to make it.

But an instant later, their smiles froze in place.

Among the barrage of spells aimed at the Behemoth, one of them had a slightly lower trajectory, and it out of nowhere got bigger midair until it turned into one massive fireball…aimed right at Hajime and Saito. Someone clearly aimed their attacks at them.

But why?! For a split second, a mixture of bewilderment and shock went through their heads.

Hajime quickly braced his legs to stop. The fireball was only half a foot away from his face, but the shockwave was so strong that he was blasted back at the Behemoth. His semicircular canals were in chaos, affecting his balance, but he managed to avoid a direct hit, so there was no permanent damage.

As he staggered to his feet and tried to put as much distance from him and the Behemoth as possible, a terrible realization came to him: Saito was closer to the blast. He looked in the direction and saw that he wasn't there. There weren't any remnants of clothes or the armor he was wearing, so he wasn't incinerated by the blast. And it didn't look like he was in an angle to be blown off the bridge. Hajime started to panic, wondering what happened to his friend.

At that point, the Behemoth was getting sick of being flooded with spells. Right after Hajime managed to regain his bearings, it roared again. He glanced back and saw that it was gathering its dark red mana for the third time. Just as it finished reheating its helmet, it glared squarely at him. Suddenly, the barrage of spells stopped, and the Behemoth was transfixed on something on its horn.

Hajime was about to take this chance to try and keep running, but he saw that everyone at the other end was petrified. Horror spread all over their faces. Sakura in particular despaired over what she was seeing, and Yukiko was more visibly shocked than Hajime has ever seen her. Even Captain Meld forgot to order them to continue the barrage. With a mixture of wonder and dread, Hajime looked behind him to see what they were all staring at.

The dust made it hard to see for a bit, but he saw a figure on the Behemoth's horn. Correction…it was through the Behemoth's horn. The dust settled and when Hajime saw the figure…he felt his heart plummet into his already twisted stomach. Time slowed to a crawl, his blood was ice cold, his eyes showing a multitude of emotions as diverse as the barrage of spells from earlier.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing. No…it was more like he didn't want to believe what he was seeing. Cause that would mean accepting that his one and only best friend, the person he's known since they were kids, the person who shared his hobbies and his values, the person who never called him a "gross otaku" or a "loser" like his other classmates…the one he trusts more than anyone…was going to die.

Saito was closer to the giant fireball than Hajime was, so he got hit with a stronger shockwave than Hajime did. It caused him to fly straight into the Behemoth's horn with so much force it tore right through the center of his bag, his breastplate, and his chest, with him hanging off near the tip of it. Blood poured out of his wound in waves as he coughed and chocked on the blood in his mouth, his eyes wide with shock. He was gripped the tip of the horn, trying to pull himself free, but to no avail, as he was already too weak from both mana usage and blood loss.

Hajime was already stunned from getting hit by the shockwave, but now the sight of his best friend impaled and dying froze him in place. He could hear some of the students yelling and screaming at him to run, but he was too petrified to move or hear them. He was rapidly thinking of a way to save him. He had to do something. Anything. He couldn't let his friend die. Hajime then noticed that Saito was trying to mouth something. He couldn't hear Saito speak, but he read his blood-stained lips moving, and in slight pauses, they said one word:

"R…. U…. N." Saying his final message to Hajime and giving a weak but warm smile to the girl he loved deeply, the Behemoth swung its head to the side and threw it back again, throwing Saito off its horn. He slipped out easily and went far off to the side, completely over the bridge, and fell down into the darkness.

With a hole in his stomach, quickly losing blood, his consciousness flickering in and out, Saito's final thoughts were flashing before his eyes.

I guess…this is the end for me. Saito thought as he watched the light of the surface fade away, unable to even reach for the light he could never hope to grasp.

Hearing what his best friend's last wishes for him spurred Hajime back to reality. He quickly wiped the tears flowing out of his eyes and tried to run. Captain Meld snapped out of his daze and got the class to continue the bombardment. The still shocked class fired spells once again at the Behemoth, but using its mana charged helmet as a shield against the spells, it continued to charge at Hajime.

He was still somewhat disoriented, and his vison was still blurry from both the fireball and his tears, so he could hear only the Behemoth and his classmates screaming and yelling at him. As the Behemoth leaped into the air once again, Hajime summoned the little dregs of strength he had left and jumped to the side. With the Behemoth using all of its hate and fury, he slammed into the ground, shaking the entire bridge.

That was all the bridge could take. That final attack pushed it past the point of perseverance. Massive cracks spread all over the point of impact. It gave one last groan in protest and then... It collapsed completely.

"Graaaaaah?!" The Behemoth roared furiously as it tried to find a decent foothold to hold onto the crumbling bridge. Alas, every attempt made more of the bridge crumble, and so with one final futile effort of resistance, the beast fell into the depths of hell, its screams echoing across the chasm.

Hajime tried desperately to hold onto the bridge, but each of his own handholds crumbled away just as fast.

Ah, I won't make it…I'm sorry Saito… He muttered that to himself. He looked over to his classmates one last time. Kaori was desperately trying to run towards him, but Kouki and Shizuku were holding her arms back, keeping her in place. His classmates looked as pale as snow, covering either their eyes or mouth with their hands, except for two others student who may have looked shock, but their eyes filled with satisfaction. Captain Meld and the knights looked on with anguish as Hajime fell.

Finally, the bridge collapsed, and Hajime plunged to the depths of hell.

His outstretched hands hopelessly trying to grasp fading light. He listened to the vanishing screams of the Behemoth grow dimmer and dimmer, the sound of parts of the bridge falling into oblivion. Until finally, like the last pieces of the collapsed bridge, the darkness swallowed Hajime, and he vanished from sight.

Kaori felt time slow down as she watched Hajime fall into the pitch-black earth. Despair washed over her, clearly seen in her eyes. The memory of their last conversation back at the inn played in her mind over and over like a broken record. The three of them under the moonlight as they all drank Hajime's inadequately made black tea, finally for the first time having a leisurely conversation.

She remembered her nightmare and how it made her visit Hajime, how surprised he was to see her, how he took what she said seriously, and how he managed to put her fears at ease, resorting to just talking about anything.

She remembered how she came back to her room, feeling like she was walking on air, until she realized she came to visit Hajime and Saito in such a rather exposing outfit. She squirmed in shame and embarrassment, seconds later feeling glum that Hajime didn't react to her it at all, thinking she must not have much sex appeal. She then tried to dismiss the whole event when Shizuku looked at her with exasperation.

But the thing that she could remember as clear as day was the promise. The promise she made to him. The promise Hajime requested to her in order to quell her fears. The promise…to protect him. She played that promise over and over and over in her head as she watched Hajime get swallowed by the darkness. It was only a second after coming back to her senses that she realized that the faint scream she was hearing was coming from her, her face twisted in sorrow as she relived the reality of what just happened.

"Let me go! I need to go to Nagumo-kun! I promised him! I promised to protect him! Let me go, please!" Despite her slender frame, Kaori fought against Shizuku and Kouki's grips more ferociously than anyone thought possible. She looked prepared to dive headfirst into the pit if it meant fulfilling her promise.

She wasn't the only one though. Sakura's mind was in complete turmoil. She watched Saito, the love of her life, the boy she gave her everything to, not only die in front of her, but also get thrown off the edge of the bridge, his body swallowed by darkness. She remembered that night before they headed to the Great Orcus Labyrinth. How he talked about their future as if it were certain.

"Wait…where's Saito? …Where did he go? …He has to hurry and escape. …Did he fell? Oh no. He must be hurt. I have to go and help him. I promised him. Yukiko-chan. Please let go of me. Saito's in trouble. I need to save him." Her faced was blank and her eyes were hollow. She looked completely calm, but she was close to the edge of insanity. Tears even started to stream down her face. The shock of what she saw was so overwhelming that her mind couldn't accept reality as it was. She was in total denial. Yukiko held her arms back to keep her from continuously walking towards the edge. She wasn't fighting as hard as Kaori, but Yukiko wasn't going to risk it.

If this kept up, they were both going to hurt themselves. Though the three knew they knew they couldn't afford to let them go. They were both prepared to jump off the edge without even hesitating. Their grief overwhelmed any sense of rationality in their minds.

"Kaori, stop! Kaori!"

"Sakura! Snap out of it! Sakura!"

Shizuku and Yukiko knew precisely how they both felt about their respective friend. So much so that they couldn't think of a single thing to comfort them. All they could do was say their names in the hopes that they listen.

"Kaori! Sakura! Nagumo and Hiraga are beyond help! There's no point throwing your lives away! Please calm down before either of you hurt yourselves!" Those were the best words Kouki could think of, but they were also the worst things he could say to the too.

"'Beyond help?!' What do you mean, 'beyond help?!' Nagumo-kun's not dead! I have to save him! He needs me!"

"Why are you saying that Kouki-kun?! Saito's not dead! He's just hurt! If we get him out in time, we can save him! I have to save him! I promised him! Yukiko, I'm begging you to let me go and save him!" Sakura was now shouting hysterically, trying to pry herself off of Yukiko. But she just continued to grip tighter. It was clear to everyone there was no saving either of them. Saito was fatally pierced by the Behemoth's horn, and both he and Hajime fell down into a cliff so deep that it appeared bottomless.

However, neither of the girls were in a state of mind to accept that truth. No matter what they said, they would interpret it as even more incentive to jump down there themselves. All Ryutarou and the other students could do was watch worryingly as both Kaori and Sakura fought against their captors, completely helpless to do anything.

It was then that Captain Meld walked over to Kaori and Sakura and chopped them both in the back of their necks. They twitched once and fell unconscious. Kouki caught Kaori and Yukiko caught Sakura before they fell. Kouki glared angrily at Captain Meld, and before he could say anything, Shizuku and Yukiko interrupted him and bowed to Captain Meld.

"Sorry. And thank you." Shizuku said to the Captain.

"I…am undeserving of your thanks. But I won't let anyone else die today. Everyone, we head to the surface as quickly as possible… I'll leave the two of them in your hands."

"…Yes sir."

"Like anything you said would've stopped me from taking her myself." While Yukiko simply acknowledged his words, Kouki unhappily watched him walk off. Shizuku, after taking Kaori from him, softly said,

"We didn't have much time. We couldn't stop them, so Captain Meld did it for us. Kaori and Sakura's grief could've affected the entire class's morale, and more importantly, they've would've hurt themselves. Now, we need you to get off your butt and head for the front. You're their leader. They need you to lead them out of here…that's what Nagumo-kun and Saito-kun said, remember?"

Kouki nodded grudgingly at Shizuku's words. "You're right. You've got Sakura, Yukiko?"

Yukiko's expression was hard to read because her eyes were covered by her bangs, but she silently nodded.

"Then let's get out of here." Kouki urged the two girls and with each of them carrying their friends, they faced the rest of the class.

The class were greatly shaken. Who could blame them? They just witness not one, but two of their classmates' deaths. All they could do was look emptily at the chasm. Some students' legs gave out and they were saying stuff like, "I can't take this anymore!" Or "I'm done with this crap!" As Hajime predicted, the class needed a leader like Kouki to guide them.

Kouki then raised his voice and said, "Everyone! We need to retreat! Survival is out highest priority!" His words slowly driven the students to action.

The Traum Soldiers' numbers were replenishing slowly, so a head on battle is both dangerous and unnecessary. With the combine efforts of Kouki's urgency to move forward, and Captain Meld and his knights inspiring vigor into them, the class finally made it up the stairs.

The staircase was long, dark and strenuous. They couldn't even make out the end of the stairs. They've must've already climbed thirty floors at their current pace. Even with body-strengthening magic, and with the already present fatigue from their battle, the students were far beyond exhausted. Their willpower running on near empty.

Just as Captain Meld considered taking a short break, he saw a wall with a magic circle engraved on it. The students became hopeful as Captain Meld cautiously examined it, using a Fair Scope to check for traps.

Captain Meld found nothing to insinuate it was a trap. It's function may be to move aside the wall. Captain Meld then poured his mana into it and chanted the inscription. Like a ninja's passage, the wall started turning, until it revealed a short walkway to the next room ahead. Once they were through, they were once again in the ice cave of the twentieth floor.

"Are we back?"

"We made it!"

"We're alive…we made it out alive..."

As the kids took in the familiar scenery of the twentieth floor some burst in tears of joy while other buckled to the ground. Even Kouki couldn't help but lean against the wall, wanting so badly to sit down and rest.

But they weren't out of the proverbial woods yet. The labyrinth was still a dangerous place to let one's guard down in, no matter how high the floor was. monsters could take them by surprised, so before they could properly relax, they needed to escape.

Captain Meld buried his sympathetic emotions deep inside him, put on his commander face, and yelled at the students to stand up.

"Quit laying around, you louts! If you don't want to end up getting ambushed by more monsters, get back in formation, avoid any combat if possible, and take the quickest route back up! Come on, we're nearly there!"

Despite how badly they wanted to complain to Captain Meld to at least a few minutes to catch their bearings, his sharp glare kept them silent. Kouki managed to hold in his own exhaustion and once again took lead, with the rest following suit. The knights did a large part of the fighting when it was unavoidable, and they managed to take the shortest path back up to the surface.

Until finally, they saw the familiar main gate and receptionist. What was only just half a day felt like ages to the students since they've laid eyes on it. Relief washed all over the students as they walked outside, while some were just happy that they made it out whole, some sprawled spread eagle on the front gate. However, some of the students were depressed: Shizuku and Yukiko who were carrying an unconscious Kaori and Sakura, respectively; Kouki; Ryutarou, who was staring at them all worriedly; Eri; Suzu; and the girl Hajime and Saito saved. The receptionist's gaze was on the students for a while, until Captain Meld went to her and gave his report.

He explained the glanz crystal they discovered on the twentieth floor was an extremely dangerous trap. The bridge might've been destroyed, but it could still be functioning, so it still needed to be reported. There was also the news that Hajime and Saito died. Captain Meld tried earnestly to hide his pained expression, but a sigh managed to leak through.

None of the students felt like exploring Horaud, so they returned to the inn, some chatted with each other while instantly passed out from today's event. Kouki, Shizuku, Ryutarou, and Yukiko just managed to lay the still unconscious Sakura into bed in her own room, just after laying Kaori down in hers. All of them stared at her worriedly for a while before Yukiko requested them for privacy.

"Can you…leave us alone, please?" Yukiko solemnly asked.

"…Sure."

"You got it."

"…Alright." Kouki, Ryutarou, and Shizuku agreed to leave her alone and they left one by one, with Shizuku being the last one out, as she looked back mournfully at Yukiko. After she closed the door, Yukiko got on her bed and curled herself into fetal position. After that, she started silently weeping. Her cried weren't too loud to hear, but she cried harder than anyone thought possible for someone like her.

Anyone who would've heard her thought that she was crying for her friend who was rendered comatose for who knows how long. But the truth was that she was crying for someone else, the person that everyone who didn't knew about how close Sakura really was to them assumed that she hated him for trying to steal her precious friend away. Someone who she actually…

"…Saito-kun…I told you not to do anything stupid… Why'd you…have to play the damn hero…?" She mumbled that between sobs as quietly as she could, but her actions spoke louder than her words, revealing the truth about her feeling for Saito.

Only two people left the inn. Daisuke was walking around until he found an inconspicuous corner of town and squatted down, hugging his knees. He buried his face into his legs and sat there motionless. Had any of his classmates came by and saw him in such a state, they'd assumed that he was just depressed.

But the truth was…

"HehehehehehHee Hee Hee. I-It's not my fault. It's all his fault. Because that damn loser…g-got smug. I-It's was just divine punishment. I did nothing wrong…it was all for Shirasaki's sake. That's loser out of her way…She doesn't…need to waste time on him. That's right... I'm completely innocent. Hehehe." He cackled evilly as he tried to make whatever he did justifiable. After a while, he heard footsteps coming towards him. He looked up at a jolt and calmed down after seeing who it was: Ryosuke. His face looked disturbed and he was hugging and rubbing his arms like he was cold.

"Can I…sit here with you?" Ryosuke asked the startled Hiyama. Hiyama just silently returned to his previously position, but Ryosuke took that as a sign for "Don't care." So he sat right next to Hiyama and took the same position he was making. Ryosuke then started talking.

"…I first met Mitsurugi-san…when we were kids." Ryosuke looked at Hiyama to see if he was paying attention. He had his head up and was staring distantly at nothing, so it didn't look like he was paying much interest in Ryosuke's story. But seeing that he didn't looked annoyed, wasn't moving anywhere else or telling him to shut up, Ryosuke continued.

"My parents…were meeting up with hers to discuss some business… I got bored and decided to head outside… They never cared much about what I did or didn't do. In their eyes…I was just background noise. Nothing I did, whether it was good or bad, seemed to interest them. It was all about work, making money, and leaving me with nannies. And the off-chance I did get their attention, it was always the same thing: 'Good for you.' 'That's nice.' 'Great job.' They don't even look at me when they said that. So I figured they wouldn't notice if I ran off into the woods for a few hours. After a while, I got scared and decided to head back, but I got lost, and while I was searching for a way out, desperately calling for my parents to find me, I tripped on a tree root and twisted my ankle.

"As loudly as I cried from the pain, I feared that no one was going to find me…that I'd be stuck in those woods forever. Until…" He gazed at the air as if he were seeing a clear image of the one person he most admires:

"Sakura Mitsurugi. After a half hour of crying, Mitsurugi-san found me, covered in green and brown gunk from numerous tripping, her knees red and bruised. She told me that she was looking everywhere for me… That she was the only one to notice I was gone…. That she was so worried. At that moment, when I saw the genuine look of concern in her eyes as she asked if I was okay, I knew that she was my first… and only love. After she took me back to the house and we each got treated… I wanted so bad to confess my love for her…but I realized that I wasn't good enough yet to be by her side… That I needed to become her equal in order to do that...

"So I worked myself to the bone to become someone she could admire… someone she could rely on… I got the top grades, improved myself physically, became popular and well-liked. I even managed to audition and get parts for several commercials, modeling gigs, tv shows, anything that I could get. I clawed my way to becoming a celebrity just so Mitsurugi-san could praise me. Each of her praised gave me the strength and courage to endure. My parents even started to take interest in me. I was almost ready to being the type of guy worthy to become her equal, and finally confess my feelings… But then…he came and ruined everything."

Ryosuke's face lit up as he talked about how he struggled and persevered to his celebrity status to stand side-by-side with Sakura, and his face instantly dropped into a scowl as he mentioned Saito. Hiyama's attention was a little peaked as he saw Ryosuke's face.

"All he did was bribed some dimwitted thugs into going away, fed Mitsurugi-san slop and won her a cheap stuffed toy. I would've fought those thugs, took her to a luxury restaurant, and bought her a dozen quality stuffed animal. Anything he's done with her…I would've done ten times better. I should've been the one she talked about to others! I should've been the one that she kissed! I should've been the one she…made love to! But he took her from me! That bastard Hiraga stole my Sakura!" His voice raised higher as he talked. It would've raised to a shout if Hiyama didn't grabbed his shoulder to shush him. Ryosuke calmed down after a few seconds and continued.

"I loathed him so much. I wanted to make him pay for stealing my chance to have Mitsurugi-san. So when you told me your plan…I saw it as my chance. To free Mitsurugi-san from him. And when it worked...when I saw his body get impaled by that Behemoth's horn, it took every second of the acting lessons I endured to contain my joy and look distressed! He was dead! Mitsurugi-san was free! I can't thank you enough for giving me the chance!"

What Ryosuke said was correct. It was both he and Hiyama who threw that "accidental" fireball at Hajime and Saito.

Back when Hajime and Saito were running to the staircase, Hiyama was still deciding what to do. Then, as he caught sight at Kaori gazing at Hajime, a little devil whispered into his ear, saying, if you killed him right now, no one would ever know. And when he saw Ryosuke looking at Saito with fury, he offered him the chance to take them both down in one fail swoop.

And so, they both sold their souls to that devil. They timed it perfectly, making sure no one noticed, and Hiyama hurled a fireball and Ryosuke strengthened its power with a wind spell, combining it into a gigantic fireball to hit both Hajime and Saito at the same time. He would've used his sword's ability, but it's shape after he activated it was too distinctive. People would have recognized that it came from him. So he used a slip of magic circle imbued paper he stashed away for emergencies. And although Ryosuke was overjoyed at the plan's success, it was only for a few seconds.

"…But then, I saw the way Mitsurugi-san looked when he died… She was heartbroken… Destroyed… Whatever damaged Hiraga did to her was already done. She believed that she loved him. And now there's no telling what she might do to herself if she wakes up! What if by getting rid of Hiraga, I just murdered Mitsurugi-san?! How could I live with myself knowing I killed her as well? And what if she finds out that I did it? I can't bear the thought of her hating me! I can't! I—"Ryosuke was cut off by Hiyama slapping him hard across the face. Ryosuke rubbed his bruised cheek with a stunned expression when Hiyama grabbed his shoulders.

"Listen to me! You need to get your shit together! I-It's neither of our faults! T-Those losers had it coming! Shirasaki and Mitsurugi would've been ours if those two hadn't butted in. N-Now that they're out of the way, they don't need to waste any time on them. A-And no one's ever gonna find out it was us, as long as we keep quiet!"

It's true. There was no viable way to identify Hiyama's fireball amidst the barrage of spells. And his magic affinity was with wind.

Same thing can be said about Ryosuke. His affinity is light magic. So the wind spell couldn't be traced back to him. And it wasn't impossible for spells with compatible attributes to sometimes combine post-activation, so even if they did somehow find out Ryosuke used a wind spell to enhance the fireball's power, they would think that it was just an accident. There was no proof that Hiyama altered the trajectory and Ryosuke enhanced the power.

"You're right…It…wasn't…my fault. It…wasn't my fault. It wasn't my fault." Ryosuke repeated those words as much as he could. Each time getting calmer and calmer, getting a similarly sinister look in his face as his cohort. They've both continued to convince themselves they were safe and grinning gleefully to themselves, until a voice suddenly came up from behind them.

"Well, well. I should've known it was you two. Who would've guessed that the first murderers I'd meet in another world was my classmate and one of my favorite celebrities…? I don't know which of you is rottener.

"Huh?! Wh-Who are you?!" Hiyama and Ryosuke turned around in a panic. The person who was standing there was a classmate of Hiyama. And it was someone both of them recognized.

"Wait…I know you. You're the one who is always hanging around—" Ryosuke recalled where he has seen the figure, but before he could say, they cut him off.

"Oh! So you know who I am. I'd feel honored that you bothered to remember someone like me…if you weren't now a cold-blooded killer." The figure sneered at Ryosuke. Before Ryosuke could react, Hiyama cut in with his question.

"Wh-What are you doing here?"

"Never mind why I'm here. It's much more interesting to know what you two are doing here. So…does it feel good? Being murderers? Permanently removing your rivals of love by killing them during the chaos of our escape?"

The figured snickered as if they were watching some comedy. Hiyama and Ryosuke was in no position to talk, since they committed the murder, but they were bewildered of how this person wasn't the least bit perturbed of seeing two people die. Hiyama especially since he's known his classmate and what they're like during class. Ryosuke only knows them through circumstance, but he was equally appalled at how different they were compared to how he's seen them act. There was also the fact that despite how exhausted and shocked they looked after getting out of the labyrinth, there wasn't any sign of that now.

"…So this is what you're really like?" Hiyana muttered, utterly dumbfounded.

"…How'd you even find us?" Ryosuke muttered, as equally dumbstruck.

"What I'm really like? Please, there's no need to make a fuss about this. Everyone wears a false face now and then. As for how I found you, I just simply tailed you. But we're getting off track here… I wonder what would happen if everyone discovered your sinful actions? I wonder what two certain girls would think of you?"

"No! Please, don't tell her! I'm begging you!" Ryosuke panicked so much at the thought of Sakura discovering what he did that rational thinking flew out the window. The figure was visibly amused at his reaction. Hiyama, despite his own fear, managed to literally slap some sense into him.

"B-Be quiet you idiot! Besides…there's no way you have proof… It's our words against yours."

"Your right, I don't have any proof. But everyone would still believe me. You really think they would believe you two, the people who caused this whole mess in the first place? Takahara could probably pin it on you, saying you forced him to do it, but a certain someone might see through his lie. And you don't want to risk that, do you?"

Hiyama and Ryosuke were cornered like rats. Their captor was just toying with them at this point. Even if Hiyama wanted to tell someone about their personality, no one would believe him. They would sooner believe that they have dissociative identity disorder than believe this was they're truly like. And Ryosuke was shocked at how the figure saw though his failsafe plan to pin it on Hiyama and say he was an unwilling accomplice in his plan. But them they reminded Ryosuke that there was one person who would see through the lie: Yukiko.

He might've gotten so good at acting that he was able to hide his true feelings from even Sakura. But Yukiko's intuition was practically a superpower. Saito, Hajime, Kouki, Ryutarou and himself were the only boys she would trust the words of, but if Ryosuke made a single mistake, she would realize what he did in a heartbeat. Not only was this figure sadistic, but they were calculating. The look she gave looking down at the two of them sent shivers down their spines.

"Wh-what do you want with us?" Hiyama asked fearfully.

"Hm? Well there's no need for you two to look at me like that. You're making me feel like some kind of extortionist. I don't have anything I want from you two right now, but if I to say…I'd like you two to be my hands, feet, and eyes."

"Y-you can't mean…"

"D-Does she mean…?"

Hiyama and Ryosuke were basically being asked to become that person's slaves. Understandably, they hesitated to agree. Hiyama wanted to refuse, but he feared that the figure would tell everyone that he killed Hajime and Saito in cold blood.

Someday I'll kill you too, was the thought that silently went through his head, seeing that he was trapped between two unacceptable choices. Ryosuke was the same. He didn't want to be ordered around by anyone else other than Sakura. He was considering strangling the figure and pinning it on Hiyama. It was clear he was willing to keep killing people if it meant he could continue being with Sakura. But it seems their adversary prepared for their thoughts, so they gave them an offer they couldn't refuse.

"You want to make Kaori Shirasaki yours, right Hiyama?"

"Huh?! Wh-whatever do you…" Hiyama ceased his dark thoughts and was staring at the figure with slacked-jaw shock. The figure grinned wickedly and continued pouring her sickly-sweet words.

"Swear your loyalty to me…and she'll be all yours. I initially planned to offer this to Nagumo-kun, but seeing that you murdered him… Though now that I think about it, you're more suited to the tasks than he is, so in the end it works out…for us, at least."

"…What's in it for you? What's your endgame?!" Hiyama asked that frantically, still not able to grasp the situation.

"Heheh, if you're worried if my goals in any way conflict with yours—if you even had any—they don't. There's simply something I want…So? What's your answer?"

Hiyama couldn't stand being made a fool out of someone he knew was just toying with him, but his classmate's complete one-eighty personality change was so fearful that it overshadowed the vexatious he felt. No matter what he felt, he realized he had no other choice. So he nodded, resigning to his fate.

"…Fine. I'll listen to you."

"Ahahahaha, excellent! Frankly, I didn't really want to incriminate a fellow classmate. As for you Takahara, what are you going to do? You want Sakura Mitsurugi, right? Same deal I gave Hiyama. To be honest, I can make do with just him, but it wouldn't hurt to have an extra set of eyes. So if you help us, she'll be all yours."

Ryosuke was silently listening to their conversation, thinking of the benefits and consequence. He could try to take on and kill his blackmailer, but because of their sudden change, he didn't know what this person was capable of, so it wasn't worth the risk. The offer sounded intriguing, but what did that entail? Did it involve using magic? Would Sakura be affected in some way? He couldn't stomach the idea of anything happening to her physically, so he felt the need to refuse the figure's offer. But if he didn't accept, everyone will know what he did. And there was no guarantee that he could pin it all on Hiyama and get away scot free, so there was only one choice.

He shakily got up and began to walk away back to the inn. Before he did, he turned around and faced the figure with a still nervous but resolved look.

"…Alright. I'll go along with this too. But only because of your threat. I don't want you to do anything to Mitsurugi-san. I'll bring her back to her senses on my own."

"Hmmm… Well if you're going to help me, I guess I can agree to that. But even I figured out that Hiraga and Mitsurugi were a thing a long time ago. And with how she acted on the bridge, her heart, and especially her body is already—"

"Shut up! Those feeling for that bastard aren't real! She just needs time to realize that. I'll be your damn puppet, but nothing happens to her! If you touch her, I swear I'll kill you!" Ryosuke looked at the figure with an intensely venomous glare, but they just looked at him with amusement at his reaction, completely unfazed. It was really peeving Ryosuke off at how calm they are even when being threatened.

"Ohohoho… Such a wickedly heinous face your making, Ryutaka. There are a bunch of girls here whose fantasies of you will be shattered if they saw you. Even I'm a little shocked at how you're acting. Guess it's true that you should never meet your heroes. All right, you can try it your way. But the offer is still on the table if you change your mind."

"…Whatever. And by the way… were you going to offer this to Hira—to him too?" Ryosuke waved off her still available deal and realized that she didn't say she was going to give Saito the same deal, so with mild curiosity, he asked the figure.

"Hm? Oh you mean Saito? I was actually planning on killing him at some point. It's because of him I…doesn't matter." There was a menacing tone in the figure's voice as Ryosuke mentioned Saito, as if the thought of him alone made their stomach turn. But then it went away as soon as it came and continued its jubilant tone.

"And with that, I'll head back to the inn first. Let's get along now, Mr. Murderers. Ahahhaha. With a heartily laugh, extortionist spun around and headed back to the inn. Hiyama and Ryosuke looked watched as their living nightmare walked away and softly muttered, "Damn it…"

No matter how much they wanted to forget it, to pretend it didn't happen, the memory of their sin wouldn't go away. Especially the faces of the girls they each cared about as they watched Hajime fall and Saito die. Their expression revealed their feelings more clearly than any words ever could.

They both knew that once everyone recovered from the ordeal and calms down, the reality of what happen to Hajime and Saito will hit them. So will the depth of Kaori and Sakura's feeling, realizing that they didn't just hung around them out of the goodness of their hearts. And once they realized how much it hurt the two, they would focus their antagonism on the two people whose recklessness cause them to fall into that trap

Hiyama and Ryosuke had to tread extremely lightly from now on. Or else risk losing their place among them. They've already closed the point of no return, so there was no stopping. If they wanted to achieve their desired futures, their futures where Kaori was Hiyama's and Sakura was Ryosuke's, they had to obey their fellow student's orders.

Ryosuke looked at Hiyama one more time, who went back to burying his face in his knees and muttering, "Hehehe… I-It'll be okay. Everything will work out. I didn't do anything wrong…," before heading back to the inn, repeating, "It wasn't my fault. It wasn't my fault. It wasn't my fault" over and over.

This time, no one interrupted them.