Instant Death

“For some reason, I feel like running away…”

After their encounter with Shinozaki Ayaka, Yogiri and Tomochika returned to the royal castle.

Having crossed the castle’s gates, Tomochika said that with a gloomy expression on her face as they headed towards the residence in the royal castle grounds.

“It’s certainly quite hard to say, huh?”

Perhaps Tomochika was worried about the terribly angry looks on the castle’s gatekeepers’ faces?

They seem to know that Yogiri and the sage candidates have some kind of relation to the incidents that have been happening since the other day, and have no intention to hide their resentment.

The streets and the castle have sustained an enormous amount of damage. I know this was one of the sage candidates’ doing, but I couldn’t do anything to interfere. No wonder these people are so flustered.

— It was Shinozaki, wasn’t it? Wouldn’t it have been better to just deal with her?

That’s what Yogiri thinks, but if he was to begin using his powers to settle matters that are unrelated to him, there would be no end to it.

“You should use your power as much as you like, Yogiri. That way, if there’s someone you don’t like, you’d just kill them! But I think you did just fine. Still, you don’t have to be so rational about everything! I just wish you’d think about how you can put your power to use without being limited by your own thoughts and beliefs, or customary things like justice.”

That sounded like something that Takato Asaka, his own foster mother, had told him once in the past.

The streets are littered with dead bodies. That cannot be allowed. The one responsible for this must pay somehow.

That punishment may surely be seen as justice, but Yogiri can’t stop seeing it as just something that he has to do. ƒ𝔯𝗲𝗲𝙬𝒆𝚋𝐧oѵℯl.𝒄𝑜m

In the end, the fact that several strangers had died on the streets didn’t sway Yogiri’s heart to that extent.

“Still, so many innocent people have been dragged into this… you could see it as taking revenge for them, but…”

“So it’s okay if someone from the class dies, huh?”

“Ah, it’s not that… I don’t think that it’s okay if they die, but… the kids from the class did do something terrible, so…”

It seems that Tomochika is having trouble taking a clear position in the matter.

As for Yogiri, he doesn’t really care what happens to those guys from the class.

In that situation, using a decoy would mean the same as to murder them, so there’s no reason to complain.

But what if more people get involved, and Ryouko or Carol end up getting killed?

It seems he cannot overlook this after all. It doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s being coldhearted, nor that he’s staying neutral. He just wants to be there to protect those he cares for.

“Well, if it ever looks like any of those guys from the class is about to get killed, I’ll stop it. After all, I can’t just ignore them.”

“That’s right!”

Tomochika happily agreed. She seemed to think that way as well.

『But wasn’t that a very strong person? There shouldn’t be any problem as long as it’s a youngster, but you might not be able to cross swords with someone as strong…』

“I haven’t thought about crossing swords or anything like that against a beam to begin with!”

『But as expected, not even Dannoura can shoot beams yet…』

“I’m surprised that she even tried to fire off a beam!

We had that conversation as we walked towards the residence we were using as a base.

At the precise moment that we arrived, the door of the residence opens and a girl student comes out.

It was a gentle-looking petite girl.

“Ah, Tomo-chi! I was looking for you!”

Yogiri remembered that this girl’s name is Jogasaki Romiko.

According to his memory, Tomochika and Romiko sat together at the tourist bus, and they quickly got along.

“Did something happen, Miko-chi?”

Romiko calls her ‘Tomo-chi’ since they seem to have become close friends. Tomochika calls Romiko ‘Miko-chi’ for the same reason.

“Akino-san says that everyone in the class will be gathering to have a talk.”

“Everyone? That’s weird.”

Something like that has never happened before.

Plans and such are often discussed between the leaders of each class, and then the leaders communicate their decisions to the rest of the members.

“We should go quickly. Akino-san was getting kind of tense.”

So there was no time to sit around doing nothing.

Yogiri and the others headed towards the conference room.

＊＊＊＊＊

The conference room was in a residence given to the sage candidates.

All of the surviving students had gathered there.

They were sitting around a large table.

“Very well. We don’t have much time, but I’d like to start by explaining our current situation.”

Akino Sora spoke up and opened the discussion. She was the one leading the meeting.

She seemed to have been some sort of idol in the previous world, but since Yogiri had no interest in idols or anything of the sort, he didn’t know that until Tomochika explained it to him.

“In the beginning, 26 of us had arrived at this city, the capital of this kingdom.”

Originally they were only 24, and then Yogiri and Tomochika arrived as well. But it didn’t look as if she was going to go into too much detail about that.

“However, now we are only 18. Eight of us have perished at the hands of Shinozaki Ayaka.” 𝙛𝔯𝒆e𝔀e𝗯𝓷𝗼𝘃e𝚕.𝒄𝗼𝗺

Sora then read the names of those who had died out loud.

Among those names, Yogiri recognized Izumida’s, who had been in the same room with him once.

“Seems that those three eroge aristocrats have been annihilated before we even realized, huh?”

『Hey, is that the only thing you care about?』

Mokomoko said that just as shocked as Tomochika herself seems to be.

The other people from the class also seemed as if, until now, they hadn’t realized the fact that there were fewer and fewer of them. They couldn’t hide their surprise either.

“Can none of us defeat that Shinozaki?”

“That’s right, aren’t we supposed to be strong? She’s all by herself!”

Some of the male students speak up loudly as if to say that they can bring her down.

“I know that many of you have done an excellent job at the battle for the capture of hell. But I think that the main reason behind the damage being so widespread is that it was concentrated in a single point. I told them to not act on their own so recklessly, and yet…”

But it seems that they were so overconfident that they were under the impression that they would be fine.

“What about Munakata and Yatate getting killed? I heard that they couldn’t even stop her from killing Ushio even though it was happening right in front of them. They must have realized just how much of a threat she is.”

The one speaking was General Yazaki.

He seemed to want to advise against acting on our own, too.

Ushio, Munakata, and Yatate. Ushio was one of the first of the ones known as “the three eroge aristocrats” to fall victim to Shinozaki.

Perhaps he was trying to say that Munakata and Yatate shouldn’t have underestimated Ayaka so much that they ended up wandering around aimlessly on their own.

“They were killed in their own room. It seems that sneaking past our defenses is easy enough.”

Commotion spread out like fire.

Seems like there’s no time to feel relieved.

If the idea was to make everyone feel scared and anxious, then it worked perfectly.

“That’s all I have for our current situation. Now, regarding what we’re going to do from now on… The country has requested for our immediate evacuation.”

“What do they mean, evacuation? Aren’t we here because of the sage’s influence in the first place?”

Yazaki intervened once again.

The Sages have tremendous authority. The power of the king of a country alone shouldn’t have been enough to overrule it.

“Yes. It would seem that this country has already declared itself to be beyond salvation. In fact, the damage caused by Shinozaki Ayaka was so great, that they might think that there’s no point continuing to follow the Sages’ advice.”

The Mani Kingdom had urged them to leave the country today.

It wasn’t an unreasonable request at all. Even the King himself was killed by Shinozaki. One could say they were being gentle about it.

“Of course, it’s not a good plan to stir trouble with an entire country. So I think that our best course of action would be to go against hell. We have two goals. The first one is to continue our capture and bring down the devil. The other one is to turn the tables on Shinozaki in due course.”

She was not asking for people’s opinions on it. She had already decided matters about it on her own.

＊＊＊＊＊

Jogasaki Romiko hates both troublesome things and things that stand out too much.

That’s why she carries herself as an absent-minded person.

It’s easy to avoid doing troublesome things by pretending not to have heard, and people will often forgive you for forgetting to do tasks you don’t want to do.

However, she can be a bit inconsistent with that belief of not wanting to stand out. That often draws the attention of others since she then seems to be like a different person.

Romiko thinks that this is an unavoidable trait of hers.

So she hates troublesome things more than things that stand out.

Generally speaking, she employs most of her efforts in avoiding troublesome things.

That’s why even if Romiko had gained some sort of strange power when coming to this other world, she probably wouldn’t say anything about it.

If she had any fighting prowess, she would surely be sent to the front lines to fight. And that’s something Romiko definitely doesn’t want to do.

So, Romiko thought about her abilities as soon as she got her power.

“Necromancer”.

It’s a class that can manipulate the spirits of the dead.

In that case, she could just report that the power she had obtained only allows her to speak with the dead, and that would be the end of it, but…

But in fact, with that power, you can control the bodies of the dead, and borrow the power of the spirits of the dead for your own use. Such power can definitely be used for battle in many ways.

However, someone might actually know about that class, or there may be some classes that can tell what’s the extent of a necromancer’s power. Lying about it seems to be a poor plan.

So Romiko promptly used “Calling”.

On the bus, and among all of her classmates who were clearly confused about the powers they had received, she might have been the fastest one to use her power.

She searched her surroundings for a spirit weak enough so that they could not be sent out to battle.

Without any power, an ordinary person is useless. Though imperfect, she has been empowered by a sage, so she has to be expected to have some sort of special power.

Special, yes. But useless all the same.

Speaking of such a convenient spirit, she actually found one.

“Counter”.

When searching for a spirit, the user can know what kind of power it possesses. But the ability of a “counter” is, namely, to count. As in, to count numbers. So it’s probably useless for battle.

She quickly used “Calling” to have this spirit possess her.

With this, even if they try to use some ability to find what kind of power she has, her ability will seem to be “Counter” on the surface. It is possible that someone can use their own ability to see through her disguise, but she can’t worry about that now. That’s a problem for another time.

And so, Romiko was dismissed as someone useless for battle.

When it comes to not standing out, another, more reasonable ability would have been better, but being considered to be useless is better than being forced to fight in the middle of the battle if things go south.

— Though it turns out that that is a little troublesome.

But since coming here, everyone has been talking about “capturing hell”.

That’s really troublesome.

She didn’t know what kind of place it was, but she figured it’d be some dark, dirty, and damp place.

She didn’t want to end up having to go to such a place, and at the same time, she didn’t want to have to fight any monsters.

— Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to get rid of Shinozaki Ayaka without going through such trouble?

Romiko sent the spirit she had been using out to do some surveillance of the surroundings.

Because of that, she knew that Ayaka had gotten this close and that her classmates had been killed.

Since it was too troublesome, she simply let everything be, thinking that when things got serious someone would appear and do something about it.

Thinking about it, that problem should have been dealt with already, but it is too late now.

So she decided she’d go to hell with everyone.

But her policy stays the same. She’ll continue to pretend she’s useless until the very last second.

She probably won’t get serious until everybody else is dead.

That’s how Romiko thinks.

＊＊＊＊＊

— Was Yuugo also hiding his power? Or did it suddenly wake up?

No one knows. The only thing that’s clear is that Izumida Yuugo went on to challenge Shinozaki Ayaka.

That’s because it’s been written down on Aihara Yukimasa’s book.

Yukimasa’s class is “Reader”.

Readers are able to read and understand any text, regardless of language. That’s what everyone thought his abilities are.

But in reality, it was something different.

His true power lies in the ability to read the future of events that surround him as if they were written in a novel.

The book he always carries with him is the embodiment of his ability.

It is basically a first-person novel where Aihara Yukimasa himself is the protagonist, but people he knows also make third-person appearances in the form of short stories.

According to it, Yuugo’s true ability was far from what one would expect from the average cook.

Regarding what kinds of power cooks can have, there are many abilities that manifest an unparalleled power.

Using their abilities to discover ingredients, they can find any opponent that could be regarded as an ingredient. Using his knowledge of ingredients, they can instantly see their opponent’s traits. And using their ability to dismantle ingredients, they can easily slice up any opponent.

“Simultaneous cooking” allows them to increase their cooking efficiency by branching off into a duplicate of themselves, and their ability to deep-fry allows them to manipulate high temperatures.

Some of them seem to have the ability to use fermentation to manipulate time itself.

They have a considerable wide array of abilities.

However, they are weak when it comes to defense. Cooks have no defensive abilities at all.

— So, you can’t feel like you can take on the whole world with their abilities alone.

Pairing up with someone who has strong defensive abilities can compensate a cook’s weaknesses. Such a combination might even be able to defeat any opponent, no matter what.

Perhaps, if only he had been advised about that possibility, things could have ended up differently.

But Yukimasa did nothing.

He simply stood by the sidelines.

— But I think there are many more that are like me.

People who carelessly show off their power are soon exposed. The only way to survive is to hide that power, that way you cannot be sent out to the front lines to risk your life.

The actual soldiers should have been in disguise, like Yukimasa.

In Yukimasa’s case, being in disguise was easy.

All you need to do is write in that book of his, and reality will be altered.

You can also hide content that is not related to others, and even your own identity.

— Well, in the end, someone could say “good grief” and defeat that devil.

Yukimasa was optimistic about the situation, thinking he didn’t want to do it.