Re-Tale of a Hero - Chapter 3. Transported

Tenou Academy High School Division

-The Tendou Zaibatsu was a company founded by the Tendou Family, a prestigious family that had existed for nearly a thousand years. The company had a rich history and had been in operation since before World War II. During the years when Japan experienced rapid economic growth, it expanded its market into a variety of fields, becoming one of the world’s leading conglomerates.

Tenou Academy, one of Japan’s largest academic institutions, was established with the investment of the Tendou Zaibatsu, and its curriculums extended from kindergarten all the way to graduate school, with over 5000 people working hard every day to become valuable resources that could lead the country into the future. Tenou High, as its name implied, was the academy’s high school division.

Though the school had a relatively short history of around 30 years, it had been built using cutting-edge technology supplied by the Tendous, a world-famous conglomerate, and under its support, various advanced training facilities were established. Hence, there were quite a lot of applicants every year.

As the school had been founded by the Tendous, one of Japan’s leading families, many children from all walks of life attended the academy. There were many influential figures among the students’ parents, and many graduates became giants in their respective fields as well.

However, the school building of Tenou High was no longer in Japan. For some reason, it was now near the lake of a certain meadow.

The light coming from the mysterious magic circle(?) eventually subsided, and the students of Tenou Academy looked no different from how they were before. However, though their appearance hadn’t changed, they were all shocked and confused.

“Where in the world are we?”

“Let us go home!”

“And how do you suppose we do that!?”

Amidst the confusion, many students screamed and yelled. However, it wasn’t just the students who were confused. The teachers were as well.

“Calm down!”

For example, a teacher was yelling to the students to calm down, not realizing that he was yelling out of the window. Later, it was also revealed that several teachers had fainted.

Kaito and Tina were the only ones composed in this chaos, and they whispered to one another, trying to make sense of the situation.

“Where are we?”

“I’ve used <Search>, and it seems like there’s nothing but small critters within two kilometers.”

“Are we in Enefia?”

“No idea.”

“The mana stored within individuals can differ, but the mana in the air is the same for all worlds, so I guess that’s to be expected…”

“Any landmarks that strike a chord? As the hero, you must’ve traveled far and wide to various parts of Enefia, including several continents.”

“No clue. Topographies can change over time, and the similarities might be purely coincidental.”

“So there’s no way of telling.”

“That’s right.”

Sora, who had gone to the classroom on the opposite side of the hallway, returned excitedly as they ended their conversation.

“Kaito, this has to be that, right!? The trope that’s trending recently, a different-world-summoning!”

“How should I know? In the first place, how’re we supposed to know whether this is another world or not?”

“Magic?”

“You know how to use it?”

“Nah.” Sora replied bluntly.

He wanted to use magic to determine whether this was a different world without actually knowing how to cast magic. He must be talking out of his ass due to the excitement, Kaito concluded. However, even with magic, they didn’t know where they were.

“Haaaa. Why are you so high-tension then…”

“Well, I just looked outside the window from the classroom directly across from ours, and guess what! There was a huuuuuge lake and trees so unbelievably tall there’s no way this could be Japan! How can anyonenot feel excited about this? Heck, Kaito, why aren’t you excited!?”

“A huge lake and tall trees!?”

“Hmm? Tina-chan, you interested? Let’s go see them together! Come along!”

“Don’t pull me!”

Sora pulled Kaito’s arm and forcefully brought him along, with Tina on their trail. The classroom across the hallway was likewise in a state of chaos, but Sora and Kaito ignored it and headed for the windows, upon which they bore witness to what Sora had stated.

“This…”

“It’s amazing, isn’t it!?”

Excitement blinded Sora as he didn’t notice the strange behavior Kaito was exhibiting.

As soon as Tina arrived, she also looked outside the window, her eyes filled with curiosity.

“Impressive! I haven’t seen trees this big in a long time!”

“Right!? Kaito, what’s wrong?”

“N-nothing. I was just in a trance.”

“No surprise there. When I first saw this scene, I also became speechless.”

(Has Tina not noticed?)

Thinking so, Kaito winked at Tina, but she didn’t seem to take note of it at all. She appeared genuinely fascinated.

(This is hopeless. What a useless demon lord…)

He had reached a certain conclusion in his head.

(We must be near the dukedom…In fact, that right there is the Sacred Tree of the duchy! You even jumped into the lake once and claimed it was too warm! How come you’re still oblivious to where we are!?)

Thinking so, he let out a sigh, imagining all the troublesome things that they’d have to go through in the near future.

The trio decided to return to their classroom which was previously in chaos. Although they could hear some people sobbing, it had regained a semblance of calm. Apparently, Amamiya had recovered from her confusion and instructed everyone to stay calm.

“Where have you three been!?”

“Sorry, we were curious, so we went to the classroom across the hallway…”

Sora felt guilty to have left the classroom without permission and obediently apologized.

“Fine, you three should take a seat as well. Anywhere’s fine.”

“Okay.”

Since they were told that they could sit anywhere, they sat down beside the window. When they looked around, they found students sitting in various places.

After confirming that they were seated, Amamiya, despite seeming unsettled, gave instructions to everyone. It seemed her pride as a teacher was keeping her together.

“For now, I’ll be leaving to check with the other staff about our current situation. Tendou, I’m sorry, but I’ll be leaving the students in your care.”

“Understood.”

“In the meantime–”

‘–This is an announcement to all teachers. We will be holding an emergency staff meeting, so please come to the first conference room. In the meantime, students should remain inside their classroom and not leave during the duration of the meeting. I repeat. An emergency meeting–‘

The announcement interrupted Amamiya’s speech, but she nodded as she was just about to say the same thing.

“That’s the gist of it. Once again, don’t go outside.”

Amamiya left the room after saying that, and Tendou replaced her at the podium.

“Everyone, you may stay seated, but please listen to what I have to say. We’re currently at an unknown location, but at least we’re safe for the moment. Until we know what’s going on, let us wait for instructions from the staff who are at the meeting.”

Without a teacher to keep things under control, Tendou, who was at the podium, was flooded by the students.

“What are we going to do from now on!?”

“Will we be saved!?”

“Where are we!?”

“No, umm…”

Tendou was momentarily overwhelmed by the students who suddenly rushed to her, but she took a deep breath and calmed herself. Then, she spoke boldly before the students to ease their worries.

“As you all know, I’m a daughter of the Tendou Family, which is renowned throughout the world. As such, rescue should be on its way. If we cause a commotion here and get injured, we’ll bring more trouble to the rescue team. With that in mind, please calm down everyone.”

The words coming from a daughter of the Tendous certainly held weight, and the students reluctantly returned to their seats after a bout of whispering. Seeing this, Kaito nodded in admiration.

“Haaaa, the president’s really got it together.”

“Think it’s the result of the Tendou Family’s teachings?”

“How should I know? I’m not a Tendou.”

“You seem calm as well.”

“And so are you.”

“Well, I’m more excited than anything…in fact, I’d like to go outside and have a look.”

“Don’t. The president will collapse from anxiety.”

“I know, I know. Haaa…but I really want to go out…”

Kaito secretly observed his friend who looked like a maiden in love as he stared outside the window. He might turn out to be something, he thought.

However, he turned to Tina to settle a more important matter.

“Hey, useless demon lord.” he whispered.

“What is it, Bakaito?”

“Bakaito, my foot. You really haven’t noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

Tina tilted her head. Fed up, Kaito explained.

“We’re in Enefia. What’s more, we’re near the duchy. We must be on the shores of Lake Rusto.”

“Wait, really!?”

“You really area useless demon lord!” Kaito exclaimed with a frown on his forehead. Tina appeared genuinely surprised, and it didn’t seem like she was faking it.

Excluding the time when she first arrived in Japan, she had been playing games every day until late at night. She had been the demon lord that all demons answered to, yet she was as uncharismatic as one could be.

“What did you expect? I’ve been living in Japan for three years already!”

“Well, I was able to tell at a glance! We used to live near here, for heaven’s sake! ”

Kaito felt exasperated, but Tina didn’t seem to mind much.

“If we’re truly in Enefia, you should be able to meet your friends again, right?”

“That’s if we’re still in the same time period as when I left…”

“Nu?…Right, not only have we traveled between worlds, we did so using an unknown magic circle. It wouldn’t be strange if something went amiss. Around half of your companions are of the human race or of a mixed race, meaning they’d be dead in a few decades. Even those little girls won’t be alive if tens of thousands of years have passed…”

“Yeah…”

The two were a little disheartened when they came to the realization that their former comrades may have died.

“But it’s strange that there isn’t a single soul in the vicinity.”

“We came here with a flashy magic circle. A considerable amount of mana must have leaked out, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the people took refuge somewhere… Oh? I sense something approaching.”

“Eh! Where, where!?”

Sora had been staring blankly outside, but when he heard that something was approaching, he immediately showed a reaction. He glued his face to the window and immediately noticed a figure in the distance.

“Oh! It’s over there! There’s something flying in the sky! Is it a bird? An airship? Or perhaps a dragon, like those in fantasies?

Kaito was impressed by Sora. Their opponent was still roughly a kilometer away from them, and it would’ve been difficult to detect with the naked eye.

“Since it can be spotted from this distance, it must be pretty big.”

“It’s probably a Lesser Sky Dragon or something of that sort.”

“If it’s a Heavenly Dragon, we can try to communicate with it, but if it’s a Lesser Sky Dragon, then things might become messy here. [1]”

As if it’s heard their conversation, the creature let out a resounding roar.

“It’s immediately trying to intimidate us, so it must be a Lesser Sky Dragon. They’re really annoying despite being extremely weak. How old do you think it is?”

“It’s pointless to try communicating with a Lesser Sky Dragon regardless of its age. By the looks of it, it seems to be around 50 years old.”

“I see, so it’s a small fry among the small fries.”

There were a number of differences between Lesser Sky Dragons and Heavenly, but the biggest was whether or not communication was possible.

Whether the creature understood what they were saying didn’t matter. In Enefia, even if an entity bore resemblance to a human, if they couldn’t communicate, they’d be judged as a magical beast or a monster and become a target for subjugation.

As the two discussed how to handle the situation, the giant dragon rapidly approached them.

Sora, who was next to them, grew pale.

“Hey, Kaito. I’ve been trying to stand up for a while now, but my legs feel weak….and my hands are shaking too…”

The two looked around them, and sure enough, the other students were trembling in the same manner. Some had even fainted.

This was the result of the lesser dragon’s intimidation.

Kaito and Tina were far too strong to be affected by it, but lesser dragons were capable of making ordinary people faint with just their roars. As Kaito was about to unleash his magic, Tina whispered in his ears and interrupted him.

“Wait. It seems you won’t have to make a move.”

“Hmm?”

“Someone with a considerable amount of magic is approaching us. They should be able to take out this lesser dragon by themselves.”

Well, in that case…

Kaito no longer bothered to channel his magic.

“UOHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

This shout was accompanied by the Lesser Sky Dragon dropping from the sky.

[1]天竜 and 天龍 will be translated as Lesser Sky and Heavenly Dragons respectively. To be honest, 竜 and 龍 have the same meaning, but the author seems to be using them to represent two separate species. I was about to translate 竜 as wyvern/drake, but the author has explicitly used the word “dragon” in one of the previous chapters, so I’ve decided to leave 竜 as lesser dragon and 龍 as dragon