When I Fell Madly in Love With the Heroine, the World Changed. - Chapter 23: The Angry Knight.

—-“Wha hah hah hah.”

Kenya and Kaguya arrive at the edge of the slum.

“No… lies!!!”

Kaguya’s vision was filled with bloodied corpses.

Some had been people crushed by the rubble.

Many of them have lost their original shape.

When Kenya saw the scene, he became speechless as he stood still.

“What the hell is this?”

I’ve never seen such a scene.

I’ve only seen such hellish scene only in movies.

But the scene in front of me now is so clear.

It was too red, too real.

“–!”

The smell of gunpowder, the smell of smoke.

The smell of death that pierced his nostrils made Kenya vomit.

The woman who smiled cheerfully at him until now. The uncle who said good morning to him every day despite his strong face.

Let’s play! and the children who looked up to Kenya like an older brother.

All of them died there just the same.

“What and why is this happening ……”

And the gunshot rang out once again.

Swallowing in a mouthful of dirt, Kenya looks up, and when he looks in that direction, he turns pale.

“Over there is the …… orphanage!”

These are the children I slept with and played with every day.

Kenya desperately tries to move forward, shaking his legs.

Kaguya, too, with tears in her eyes, understands what she must do now and moves her feet.

She has run to the orphanage.

It was as if her mind and body had become disconnected and she could not move properly.

The orphanage was destroyed.

And in front of it, lined up were trembling children and an aunt holding them in her arms.

Before them are two KOGs.

“I’m telling the resistance. Surrender, all of you. Otherwise, all the children here will die!”

A woman’s voice is heard over a huge loudspeaker.

Yumir Asgar. One of the imperial princesses.

Out of breath, Kenya saw it.

For a moment he didn’t understand what was happening, but then he heard the voice and understood what was about to happen.

“Stop …… you stop itttt.”

With a breathless voice, Kenya saw and understood the scene.

Because the machine gun on KOG’s shoulder turned on the children.

Then it begins.

‘Three, two, one.’

They’re death countdowns.

“Stop it, stop it!!!”

Kenya shouted, and the children who heard his voice looked at Kenya.

Takeru, who had been pestering Kenya to play with him every day, is actually a lonely boy.

Midori, a spoilt little girl who ate her dinner on Kenya’s lap.

And the girl who held Kenya’s hand and called him Papa.

And Azusa, the little girl who cried every day.

As if asking for help, she extended her hand towards here.

“0. Farewell…”

With the sound of a gunshot, she was pierced by a lead bullet.

“Aaah!”

“No, Kenya! No!”

Kaguya hugged and stopped Kenya, who was about to run to the children.

“E-Everyone! Kaguya! Let go of me!”

“No, Kenya. Please, please. You can’t, we have to run away.”

In Kenya’s line of sight are the children who have been shot.

Some are still breathing.

“Big brother….”

The hand is reaching this way.

If we treat them now, we might still be able to help them.

Everyone is reaching this way.

They are reaching out for help.

I have to grab it quickly. I have to hold it quickly and reassure it.

“They’re like cockroaches, so stubborn. We have to get rid of them.”

But his hand stops moving.

The gunshot rang out once more.

“Ah, ah… ah!”

“—-Kenya!”

“Nnnn!!!!”

Kaguya desperately clamps down on Kenya’s mouth as he screams right then and there.

Desperately, she pulled Kenya and slowly fled from the spot.

The two of them had tears in their eyes. Their eyes were red, as if they were smeared with blood.

The girl was still walking straight, while the boy was trembling, as if he had lost his mind.

What made them different was the difference between preparedness and experience.

One had already been through hell. The other had enjoyed peace.

I knew.

I felt like I knew.

This world is hell, but I didn’t understand it enough.

I didn’t realize that lives could be lost so easily.

What I had enjoyed until yesterday was a temporary peace on a thin thread.

“I thought I saw something, but well, let’s go, Gillian.”

“Yes!”

***

“…Dad!”

“You’re here!”

Isshin and the others wait in the warehouse.

Kaguya and Kenya arrive there.

Isshin hugs Kaguya.

Kaguya is relieved that her father is safe, but quickly leaves and asks what’s going on.

“Isshin-san, please lend me the KOG. I’ll kill them all.”

“Kenya-kun..”

As soon as he finishes explaining the situation, Kenya asks Isshin.

The meaning of this is that he is going to fight.

“I still didn’t understand. The world. The war.”

His fists were tightly clenched and trembling.

But Kenya was so calm that even he couldn’t believe it.

He let go and repeatedly asked himself why.

The only conclusion he came to was.

“I thought that killing people was a bad thing. But now all I feel is the desire to kill every one of them.”

Kenya is dominated by rage.

He was taught that revenge was wrong in a peaceful world. That it is wrong to retaliate.

He should have learned.

But.

Even now, when I close my eyes, I can see in my mind’s eye the hand that was extended to me that I couldn’t grasp at that time.

His fists were tightly clenched and trembling.

But Kenya was so calm that even he couldn’t believe it.

“I can’t hold them back anymore, only with their deaths. To everyone who died,–Azusa,–I can’t face them.”

“Kenya..”

Kaguya holds Kenya’s hand.

A hand that is clasped so tight that it hurts.

“—Got it. Go. Kenya.”

“Dad!”

“Go take your anger out on them. Is revenge wrong? There are no japanese in this country who would seriously say such a thing!”

Isshin’s strong words.

And when he looks around, the soldiers look at Kenya with the same burning eyes.

As if to tell him that we feel the same way.

“We have been deprived. We have lost our country, our families, our loved ones. And even now, we still haven’t got them back. …… So go! Kenya-kun.”

“Yes.”

Kenya was about to head towards the KOG on shaky legs when Isshin approached him.

Isshin approaches and strongly claps Kenya’s shoulders with both hands and brings his face close to his.

“But, don’t forget one thing.”

Isshin slapped Kenya hard on the chest, slapping him hard to remember.

Just like that time, just like the night on the day Kenya first killed a man on the KOG.

“What is that thing inside you, remember.”

Kenya came here every day.

Not only does he want to protect Kaguya. He now also wants to protect the people here.

Somewhere along the way, he began to vaguely feel this way.

Have my feelings changed? That’s right.

Living together, eating together, laughing together, sleeping together.

We spent those days together and everyone treated me as if I were family.

It was comfortable.

I wondered what a close-knit family would be like.

I felt like a little brother or sister to the children who looked up to me as a big brother.

And the uncles and aunts who looked after me like my mother and father.

Everyone who laughs at every little thing with you.

This is what a family is like, how warm it is.

That’s how I felt.

That’s why I wanted to protect them.

That’s why I hate them so much I want to kill them.

This is not a fight to kill. This is a fight to protect. What is it you want to protect? What is still alive!”

Kenya had the flame of revenge in his eyes.

But with those words, that flame wavers.

Ahead of his gaze is a girl who is holding Kenya’s hand tightly and trembling.

The girl with red eyes, who has been looking at Kenya anxiously and weeping.

Kenya sees this and remembers it.

Why did he come to this world, and what was Kenya’s purpose in this world?

— Kaguya

Kenya remembers.

What is inside of you?

“Breathe in. Take a big breath and turn your head!”

“—Yes.”

The blood rushes to his head, which was about to be overwhelmed by anger.

The blood circulates oxygen throughout the body, calming Kenya’s mind.

Yes, remember.

Why did I come to this world and why did I want to fight in this world?

“Excuse me, Isshin-san. I’ve calmed down a little, and I remember now. I came to this world to protect! Everyone, and-”

Kenya looks at Kaguya.

He looks straight into her eyes and continues to speak.

“You.”

Isshin saw this and nodded.

It’s okay now, this boy is no longer driven by anger.

He is firmly in control.

That he could turn the very energy of his anger into power.

If he can remember that one important thing in his heart is supporting him, he’s safe now.

“Go, Kenya-kun. It’s all taken care of.”

Kenya then boarded the KOG.

He gripped the controls tightly and silently suppressed his anger.

‘What I am going to do now is definitely a battlefield.

There is a danger to your life. You could die.

Kenya was just a high schooler, a recluse, from a peaceful country.

But not now, I understand and am aware of the meaning of this power.

If.

If there is a reason I came to this world, maybe it is.

It’s ‘to fight’.

To fight against unreason.

There is a burning anger in his eyes.

“I’m going. Isshin-san, everyone. And Kaguya.”

His bright, burning eyes do not reflect the slightest trace of fear.

“Activate KOG!”