Re-Tale of a Hero - Chapter 4. Encounter

“UOHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Against a lesser dragon of this caliber, he just had to fight as he usually did. Coming to this conclusion while flying above the Lesser Sky Dragon, he coated his sword with magic and struck it down.

There was a considerable amount of power packed behind the slash, and the Lesser Sky Dragon plummeted to the ground with a thunderous roar that shook the earth.

Seeing the lesser dragon struggling on the ground, Al felt relieved, glad that the unfamiliar structure hadn’t been harmed. However, he noticed a woman approaching him from behind, and he sighed in resignation.

(A scolding it is…)

Knowing that he would be scolded later on, he had charged forward by himself without relaying any orders to his subordinates. Being scolded was but a matter of course, but that didn’t mean he looked forward to it.

“Al, you know what I’m about to say, right?”

“…Yes, Ryiru-neesan.”

“You’re now our vice-captain. If anything happens to you, it’ll affect the morale of our troops. And how would I explain to your father, who’s recovering from an injury? Lucius would be sad as well.”

“Yes ma’am…”

As his father and brother were brought up, his already petite figure grew even smaller. Nonetheless, the scolding continued.

“True, if you hadn’t forward, the building would’ve been damaged. Having said that…”

Faced with endless scolding, Al responded with either a “Yes ma’am” or an “I’m sorry ma’am”. Meanwhile, his figure continued to shrink.

Other members of their group wearing matching armor approached them, with one performing a salute.

“Everyone has arrived.”

“Good. As soon as the preparations are complete, we will get to subjugating the Lesser Sky Dragon.”

“Understood.”

She relayed her orders to the saluting individual, and after confirming that she was being assisted by magic, she braced herself for the upcoming fight against the Lesser Sky Dragon.

“Al, you are to investigate whether that building is dangerous. If you deem it safe, enter the building and continue to inspect it.”

“I will, Neesan. Be careful in the fight.”

“You too.”

After exchanging some words, Ryiru and her teammates commenced their attack on the Lesser Sky Dragon which was still struggling on the ground.

Putting it behind, Al activated the wings attached to the back of his armor and flew toward the building. As he got closer, the details became clearer.

(It’s around 20 meters wide, 100 meters long, and 30 meters high… Judging from the windows, it should be four stories high, but whether there’s a basement or not remains to be seen. As for the people inside…I don’t sense much magic from them, so I guess they’re normal humans? Most of them appear to have fainted, so they shouldn’t be that strong.)

As Al flew around the building cautiously, he caught sight of a boy around the same age as himself by the window of the second floor.

After contemplating his next move, Al decided that it wouldn’t be too dangerous and called out to the boy on the second floor.

(First impressions are important. I must smile and show a friendly attitude…)

“Hello there.”

“…Hello.”

*****

–Shortly after Al shot down the Lesser Sky Dragon, Kaito and Tina were quietly evaluating Al’s performance in the classroom.

“Quite a decent strike.”

“He must be holding back.”

“He must be trying to take us into consideration.”

The distance between the Lesser Sky Dragon and the Tenou Academy amounted to a mere 100 meters. If the boy had struck the lesser dragon with all his might, boulders might have flown toward them as the lesser dragon crashed onto the ground.

“As for the people in the back…they seem mediocre save for one.”

“We’ve yet to learn which time period we’re in, so I can’t really tell how strong they are relative to others, but at the very least, they shouldn’t be a threat to us.”

“Based on that magic armor, some time must have passed.”

Magic armors were equipment aimed to improve the user’s physical abilities as well as magic defense. They existed even when Kaito was active, but they were for ground battles, not for aerial combat.

There had been ongoing research in regards to magic armor that could allow its wearer to compete with monsters such as the Lesser Sky Dragon, but they hadn’t reached the point of actually flying in the sky.

“You’re right. Magic armor aimed at aerial combat was still under development back then.”

“I remember someone saying that he drew inspirations for the wings of the magic armor from Earth’s planes. But turns out they were actually based on what he saw in a game.”

“Hey, I thought it was cool back then,” Kaito replied.

He faced another way, feeling slightly embarrassed.

“Chuunibyou much?”

Back when they were residents of Enefia, they used the financial resources available to a Duke[1] to conduct research and develop civilian goods such as sanitary products. They also handled and performed research on military goods such as magic armor and airships.

At the time, Kaito had claimed that he was using Earth’s technology as a reference. However, Tina was the only one who knew the truth: the designs and ideas actually came from animes that the 13 year-old had watched and games that he had played before being transported to another world.

“Research on airships must be complete as well.”

Kaito, who had initiated the research, was happy to see that it had succeeded. Tina, on the other hand, had been the chief of the research team, and she seemed somewhat dissatisfied.

“But isn’t the performance kind of bad? Considering the materials used, its performance should be three times higher if they had followed my design…in fact, it deviates greatly from my design.”

“Maybe it’s based on a design for mass-production. Your design was for one-offs after all. They must have reduced the performance for the sake of mass producing them.”

“Reduced the performance, you say…”

Tina raised her eyebrows, still not convinced.

She analyzed the equipment from a distance, and taking into account the breakthroughs in materials and technology that Enefia must have experienced, the winged magic armor’s offensive and defensive abilities were far worse than she had anticipated.

Not only did they deviate from her design, but they also made the armor’s performance far worse, which displeased her greatly.

Conversely, if it had turned out better than she had expected, she would’ve been in a great mood.

What they didn’t realize was that the development of the winged magic armor was delayed immensely with the disappearance of Kaito and Tina. They had been central to the research, and with them gone – and with Kaito bringing his magic armor back with him – the development team had to start over. Not even the other demons understood the designs left by their former lord, and they had to design everything from scratch.

The battle commenced while they were talking. Sensing that the silver-haired boy was flying toward them, they wrapped up their analysis of the magic armor and concealed their magic power.

After making several rounds around the school building, the boy started to observe the windows, upon which he caught sight of Kaito and the others inside the classroom.

Their eyes met, and after some hesitation, the boy drew closer to them.

Kaito sighed.

(I can already tell this is going to be a pain in the ass…)

And the boy didn’t betray his expectation.

“Hello there.”

“…Hello.”

“I’d like to ask you a few questions. First of all, how did you guys arrive here?”

“About that…we don’t know.”

Kaito replied to the silver-haired boy’s question while pretending to be a little hesitant.

He was really clueless as to how they had arrived, and since it would be weird to remain calm in this situation, he pretended like he was panicking a little.

“You don’t know how you arrived here? From the amount of magic power flowing out, we thought you teleported here through some magic…”

“Magic power? Teleport? Huh? What’s up with those fantasy-sounding words?”

This time, he pretended as if everything related to magic was foreign and fiction to him.

“Fantasy?”

“It’s a word we use to describe things like magic and magic power…”

“Is there no magic back where you guys are from?”

A certain explanation seemed to have come to mind as the boy asked while letting out a deep sigh.

“Yeah, things like that shouldn’t exist…”

90% of what he had said were lies, but the boy failed to notice this.

Kaito had polished his acting skill while he was Duke, and the boy attributed anything strange he said to being confused after the sudden teleportation.

This was when Sora, who had been in a daze until now, came to his senses.

The Lesser Sky Dragon was now in a predicament, so it had withdrawn its aura of intimidation to focus on its battle.

“Does magic exist here?”

Though he had been unable to stand up due to fear, he seemed to have kept up with the story.

“Huh? Yeah, it does, but…”

Sora had been paralyzed by fear until then, but he let out a yelp of excitement, causing the boy to back off a little.

What a lively fellow, Kaito thought.

To resume their conversation, he told Sora to calm down.

“For the time being, shut up.”

“It’s magic, magic I tell you! I have so many questions I’d like to ask! …But before that, nature’s calling.”

And with that, Sora took off.

Now that the lesser dragon had withdrawn its aura of intimidation, the tension had left him.

“I’m sorry about that guy…”

His cheeks were twitching, but Kaito saw this as an opportunity. Thanks to Sora stirring up a storm, the silver-haired boy’s wariness seemed to have diminished considerably.

“Ahaha… Well then, sorry to ask this, but can I meet with the person with the greatest authority here?”

“You can, but…”

Kaito looked around. When it came to the person with the greatest authority, it had to be Tendou, the student council president and the granddaughter of the school’s principal. However, she too had fainted from the Lesser Sky Dragon’s intimidation and was lying down.

(Let’s try to wake her up…)

With that in mind, he walked up to her, but the moment he got near Tendou, he stiffened up.

(This…)

She had fallen in such a way that he could see a certain piece of fabric that should’ve remained hidden inside her skirt.

(White, huh? The president’s a beautiful girl with long, black hair, but she’s surprisingly pure…not to mention those big breasts…)

Apparently, she matched Kaito’s tastes. Moreover, as she had fallen on her stomach, her voluptuous breasts were sandwiched between her body and the ground, resulting in a sight for sore eyes.

(I want to keep her like this for a while, but…)

If he stared for too long, the others would notice.

“President Tendou. Are you okay?”

Even though it was a pity, he called out to her and shook her shoulder.

“Mmmm…”

Seeing as she was about to wake up, he called out to her again. It wasn’t too long before she slowly opened her eyes.

“Where are we….A-Amane-san!”

Surprised that the first thing she saw was a male classmate’s face, she tried to get up.

“Huh…my legs feel weak…”

Kaito didn’t find this strange and lent her a helping hand. Though Sora had been able to stand up and move about, it definitely wasn’t normal. Usually, people wouldn’t be able to stand up after being affected by a lesser dragon’s intimidation.

“Please don’t push yourself. Your legs must have given out.”

“My legs have given out? Also, why’s everyone either sitting down or collapsed on the floor?”

Guessing that she was having a minor episode of amnesia, Kaito slowly helped her recall everything that had happened after being teleported here.

“Please calm down. First of all, how much do you remember?”

“I can vaguely recall a strange magic circle floating outside the school as homeroom was being held, and then…”

Tendou looked through her memories and gradually remembered what had happened. Her face then turned pale, and she began to tremble before letting out a scream.

“Kyaaaaa! What happened to the dragon!? Where are we!? What happened to us!?”

Though it wasn’t ideal, Kaito held Tendou’s trembling hands and reassured her, secretly transferring some healing magic to stabilize her mind and keep her calm. He had measured the boy’s ability up close and had come to the conclusion that he wouldn’t be able to sense what he was doing.

“There’s no need to panic. You see that person over there? His teammates are dealing with the dragon right now. As for where we are…I’m not too sure either.”

It was then that Tendou finally realized there was a stranger wearing armor inside the classroom. As for Kaito holding her hands, she still didn’t seem to notice.

“Umm, who is he?”

“…I haven’t asked yet.”

With a wry smile, Kaito asked for the boy’s name.

“Excuse me, but may I know who you are? My name’s Amane Kaito. I’m not good with formalities, so you can just call me Kaito.”

“And I’m Justina Misteltin.”

“Greetings, my name is Alphonse Blau Weissritter, the second son of Viscount Weissritter. I work as a knight. You can call me Al.”

(Weissritter! Is he a descendant of Lux? Since he mentioned Viscount, some time must have passed since I left.)

It was a pleasant surprise to meet a descendant of a former friend, and his eyes almost popped out, but he went unnoticed as Al’s attention was on Tendou, who was introducing herself.

“Excuse me for not standing up. I’m Tendou Sakura, and I’m the student council president of Tenou Academy.”

And with that, all four were done with their introduction.

“Now then, would you mind answering some questions?” Al politely asked.

“We’d be happy to as long as they’re questions we can answer.”

And with that, Al began questioning them.

[1]: Made a mistake in the previous chapter. The place that the school teleported to is actually Kaito’s Dukedom, not some random Duke’s.