Vivid orange hair even in the shadow of the dusky sunset.

Rota was wandering around the Golden Street located in the center of the academy city with a gloomy expression.

“…I want to die.”

Golden Street.

The most blessed land in the academy city.

The place closest to the central World Tree, where only the most prestigious high schools are located.

The street with the most splendid buildings and facilities in the academy city was shining.

Was it because the street’s light was so dazzling?

The shadow of a small cat-eared girl carrying a backpack larger than her own size.

Walking alone dejectedly while twitching her twin tails, somehow looked even darker.

Cat ears visible without her hat on.

The orange cat ears on top of Rota’s head were also drooping.

“…”

Trudge…

Trudge…

Powerless footsteps.

-Ahahahaha!

-Hehehehe—

High-end restaurants and boutiques scattered around.

The laughter of the Golden Street girls coming from there.

Those greenhouse flowers living without any ambition or dreams.

She had secretly sneered at them until middle school, those who just got into prestigious schools because they were born to good parents.

In the end, Rota was worse than them.

Rota was running away because that laughter from afar sounded like it was mocking her. Away from the light of the sunset and Golden Street, towards the central area where ordinary schools were located.

“…”

It’s miserable.

After an argument with her senior, she ended up throwing down her withdrawal form and running out. And if anyone living in the academy city heard about today’s events, they would surely shout that she was crazy.

Rota despaired, wavering between endless regret and pride.

“…Ugh.”

<Public Bana Boarding School> where Rota attended.

Although it was one of the three most renowned schools in the academy city, known as a ‘magic prestigious school’, shamefully, she hadn’t been admitted purely based on her abilities.

The senior’s eyes full of contempt during the entrance interview were still vividly remembered.

-Your <Magical Ether Transmission Research> from middle school is… um… how should I put it…

-Haah… I’ll just be honest.

-It’s a delusion. A phantom that’s been refuted for hundreds of years.

-Transferring ‘magic skills’ to others? Ha…

-Can you move your blood with someone else’s heartbeat?

-…Magicians are ultimately beings who manipulate the whims created by God.

-If you don’t have talent from the start, you’re not even allowed to touch it.

Then the senior in charge of the interview glanced at a corner of the application form and carelessly added:

‘Well, since you’re a member of <Nerthus Company>, we’ll let you pass, so you can go now.

4 years.

When Rota was young.

The time it took to write the wonderful thesis.

She had boldly promised her deceased older sister.

1 minute.

Unrelated to anything Rota had done.

The family name written in a corner of her personal information.

The time it took for the interviewer to see those few characters.

Rota’s desperate 4 years lost to just 1 minute.

Even though she was a small and dull collateral branch that her family didn’t care about, in the end, the weight of the family name crushed Rota’s life.

Everyone at school knew this, so they always ignored Rota.

That’s why she ran away.

Turning her back on the street lights, she set out to find a new school that would understand her.

“…”

When all the sunset light and laughter from Golden Street had passed behind her back.

When she arrived at the outskirts alley of the central area where damp darkness enveloped her face and silence pounded her ears.

Twitch

Rota’s two cat ears perked up.

Vrooom―!

Vroom―vroom―

Woooong―!

Suddenly, the sound of engines roaring could be heard from somewhere. It was a vulgar and loud, cheap engine sound that could never be heard in the Golden Street with its strict noise regulations.

“…?”

Rota turned her head towards the source of the sound, and squinted as dazzling lights suddenly entered her eyes.

“Ugh…?!”

Vulgar violence of light.

No matter how much she tried to block it with her hands, that light pierced into Rota’s eyes like violence.

And what she heard was the voices of delinquent students wandering without school affiliations.

“Huh? Th-that!! Hey!! That’s the uniform of <Public Bana Boarding School>!!”

“Huh? Oh!!! It’s a big catch!! What a jackpot after catching only small fry!”

“Kyahahahat!! We couldn’t find any Union students lately because of the official notice, but look at this!”

“If she’s from Golden Street, we could make some good pocket money besides the main job!”

“The young master would like this one too~”

“That tiny thing?”

“Huh? Wasn’t that guy looking for ether? She looks like she’s from a prestigious Union school. The kids who go there have ridiculous amounts of ether, right?”

“Ah, I see.”

‘Young master…?’

It was simply an honorific for someone, but to Rota, it sounded ominously foreboding.

Beyond the violence of light piercing her eyes.

When dozens of delinquent students pounced on her.

“Catch her! Catch her!”

It was chaos where she could barely discern what was in front of her.

At least, that’s how it felt to Rota.

“Let’s grab her and bolt towards the outskirts road of the central area!! This is our last job, so let’s go all out and then disappear after this is over!!”

“Not going the way we were headed?”

“Didn’t they say there’s another Union school that way? If it’s Union school grounds, <Gjallarhorn> gets especially worked up! It’s a headache if they show up!”

“The school there was closed… anyway, it’s ruined so they don’t care about it.”

“Things are going well today!”

The vulgar voices of delinquent students.

A sense of helplessness at being caught.

Lingering regret.

Feeling fear.

Obscured vision.

Darkness.

“Kyaa―?!”

Along with something being put over her head, Rota’s memories were cut off.

* * *

At the time when the evening sun was shining.

On the way to visit the shopping district after finishing grueling training.

We were walking side by side.

“Phew…”

“…”

Alvit had her hands in her uniform coat pockets, giving me sidelong glances with arrogant eyes.

“Really… Senior, really… Why are you… so incompetent…”

“Tehe―☆”

“Stop that before I really hit you!! Seriously!!”

Wow, she might actually hit me soon.

I’m so scared☆

This is thrilling.

I smiled brightly while indulging my junior’s petty tantrum.

By the way, when I had destroyed about 3 more practice swords, training was stopped due to budget issues.

‘The swords were cheap practice ones to begin with, so that’s probably why.’

I need a blacksmith from Tak Village too.

A neighborhood blacksmith, but one that casually churns out SSS-class legendary weapons like the Blue Dragon Crescent Blade, Eighteen-foot Serpent Spear, and Twin Hook Swords. A shop where an SSS-class legendary hidden powerhouse world’s strongest blacksmith is in seclusion.

But unfortunately, no hidden powerhouse SSS-class legendary blacksmith appeared in the game.

‘Should I start with the Peach Garden Oath first? The Yellow Turban Rebels are about to stir up trouble soon.’

While I was contemplating whether to swear an oath of sisterhood with three people and have tea under a peach tree after finding the next junior, we were able to hear SSS-class great news at the shopping district we visited after being asked to come back in the evening.

“Thank you!”

“Thank you―☆ Yay☆”

“Haha, don’t mention it. I’m glad I could give this to you folks from <Central Prism Academy>. I felt bad about only giving you discarded bread while always receiving help. From now on, please make sure to take this in the evening.”

An exceptionally clean mechanical body.

Friendly optical fiber eyebrows.

A polite and cultured voice.

This dwarf wearing a bread hat was the bakery owner with whom we had formed our regular begging partnership. Very thankfully, he had prepared a lunchbox for us separately today, not the unsold discarded bread.

A standard but never-boring exemplary sandwich

With vegetables and ham between white bread, thinly spread with sweet jam.

It was sitting demurely between sheets of oiled paper, exuding a brilliant appearance.

Ah.

How gracious.

At this moment, the bakery owner looked like an SSS-class angel descended from heaven.

I don’t know if angels exist in this world setting.

If they don’t exist, I dare declare.

This person is the SSS-class hidden powerhouse angel descended upon this land.

Alvit held that lunchbox preciously to her chest, bowing 90 degrees at the waist to express her gratitude again.

“Th… Thank you…”

“Really! To move a girl’s heart like this―☆ To express this overwhelming gratitude☆ Even three teapots during tea time wouldn’t be enough! Wow―☆ Thanks!! Moved!! A truly heartfelt laser of gratitude―baam―♡”

“Ahaha… I-I see. Oh! Oh no… Haha, I have something to do, so I must…”

Perhaps because of the two terrifying high school girls with shining eyes, protecting the lunchbox with their uniform coats, somehow the bakery owner hurriedly went back into his shop, looking uncomfortable.

Silence returned.

We bowed once more towards the bakery, then walked out towards the outskirts road leading out of the shopping district.

A downhill slope with a view of the entire central area outskirts.

The voices of shopping district people reflecting on the day.

It was a warm sunset scene wrapping up the day.

Alvit receiving the yellow sunset light with a smiling face. She opened her mouth in a happy tone, still grinning broadly.

“Now we can eat one proper meal a day. Senior!”

“That’s truly lucky―☆”

“Phew― Just in case, I always collected bread crusts bit by bit as emergency rations. I’m glad I don’t need to do that anymore.”

“Those get a bit dry and crispy, so they’re delicious―☆ They go really well with tea☆”

“…What?”

As we were walking out of the shopping district side by side like that, we saw a group of shopping district dwarves with serious expressions gathered in the distance.

“Shouldn’t we contact <Gjallarhorn> again…”

“You know they don’t care about this area.”

“Then what should we do? Should we contact other shopping districts for cooperation?”

“Well, we shouldn’t really comment on other school districts…”

“Clara’s group might be okay.”

“Uhh, it’s unsettling.”

‘Huh? Me?’

My name suddenly mentioned in the conversation.

Alvit also seemed to have heard it and looked at me. But still, we had no idea what they were talking about.

To resolve this question, we approached the shopping district people while making our presence known.

“Hello.”

“Hello―☆”

“Hm? Oh!! It’s Clara!!”

“Clara! Are you okay?”

“Alvit, have you seen any suspicious people?”

“Huh? We’ve been at school all the time except for meal times?”

“Oh thank goodness… Really, thank goodness…”

“…?”

The group of shopping district dwarves rushing over with worried expressions.

Among them, the representative-like tailor shop Grandpa Hua Tuo stepped forward awkwardly.

“Did something happen…?”

“One of our shopping district people working outside sent a telegram saying they saw delinquent students kidnapping students on a large scale while out for delivery. We were about to contact <Gjallarhorn> in cooperation with nearby shopping districts if you might be involved…”

Grandpa Hua Tuo trailed off, looking somewhat embarrassed.

He stopped talking because he knew that students from the declining <Central Prism Academy> weren’t under <Gjallarhorn>’s protection.

<Gjallarhorn> A security force that protects the 9 academies belonging to the Union. It was a group that felt like military police, gathering combat students from each academy. By the way, they say they protect the Union, but 90% of their forces are concentrated in Golden Street.

A sudden large-scale kidnapping incident.

I seemed to know in what context these events had occurred.

‘It’s finally happened.’

The time had come to find the second junior.

I spoke to Grandpa Hua Tuo in a deliberately cheerful tone.

“As you can see, we’re fine―☆”

“Yes, yes, thank goodness.”

“But I wonder if you could tell us where you saw them―☆ I want to avoid that area because it’s so scary☆”

“I heard they were heading towards the outskirts road near the abandoned building district.”

“I see☆ Thank you!”

The shopping district dwarves saw us off with worried eyes.

Then we stood still on the way back to school.

Alvit had been restless since hearing about the kidnapping.

‘That’s right, even in the game you ended up going to rescue them alone, leaving Clara behind.’

In the game, Alvit lacked strength, so she barely managed to escape after rescuing only Rota.

Alvit soon spoke in a quiet voice.

“…Senior.”

“Why are you calling~☆”

“If I say… let’s go rescue them… that wouldn’t be okay, right?”

“Yep☆”

“…I see. I’m sorry.”

Alvit hung her head low.

“First~ Let’s go get Red Hare―☆”

“…What?”

Alvit looked at me with an expression of disbelief.

Why are you just staring with that expression?

Hurry and bring the equipment so we can make our Peach Garden Oath.