Volume 1 - CH 2

Chapter 2 : Childhood Friend and The Hero of Light

Kuroki couldn’t comprehend what his eyes were seeing.

(What in the world are they doing here? And why are they heroes?)

As far as he knew, Shirone and the other girls were on a trip to Reiji’s vacation villa. They left as soon as the summer holiday began.

He had also departed at the beginning of the holiday, but not with them. He had been traveling alone.

That was as far as he could remember.

「What’s the meaning of this? Why are Shirone and Reiji in this world too? 」

Knowing that Shirone was right beside Reiji hurt him deeply.

The Akamine Family had taken him in due to his parents’ circumstances. Kuroki didn’t know what the circumstances were, he only knew that his parents and Shirone’s were acquainted.

Truthfully, Kuroki didn’t want to know why he was adopted. It was enough that he received so much kindness from the Akamine Family and that he met Shirone.

They grew up together, being raised as siblings. During their childhood, they often ran around the mountain together. They learned swordplay together in the Akamine Dojo.

That Shirone, his childhood friend, was in that image, fighting. And it wasn’t that long ago, according to Modes. Reiji and the group of ladies were chatting happily, perhaps because they had just exterminated an entire army.

Kuroki almost cried tears of blood when he saw the most prominent beauties of his high school surrounding Reiji. And they seemed to enjoy being with him.

Kuroki was jealous of Reiji’s popularity.

「Uhm…」

A voice right beside him startled him from his thoughts. He turned and saw that Modes was right beside him, staring intently at his face.

「Fumufumu… I see now…」

Kuroki wondered what Modes saw in his expression. Despite his efforts, he couldn’t get any information from Modes’ expression.

Nevertheless, Modes nodded at him as if he saw something and continued with his explanation.

「Let me continue our story, Kuroki-dono. That Hero appeared suddenly around one year ago.」

(One year ago? But that’s impossible! The last time I met Shirone was one week ago… Right?)

Kuroki doubted what he had just heard.

「The armies of the Goddess were nowhere close to defeating the armies of Nargol, up until the moment when they started raiding Nargol territories.

Naturally, I’m not going to wait for them to come and kill me, so I sent my demons and demonic underlings. Unfortunately, they were no match for that Hero. In the end, he nearly annihilated our most elite group, the Order of the Dark Knight.

That was five days ago. By my estimation, they’ll arrive in this palace by tomorrow.」

Modes explained the situation to Kuroki with an extremely vexed tone.

「I have no doubts that the Hero and his companions are strong enough to rival even the Gods. It seems that eight of them were summoned, including the Hero, but only six of them raided Nargol.

Well, numbers aside, my problem lies in how to stop them. Thus, this Modes came to a realization.

(I just needed to summon someone who could defeat the Hero. Someone from the spirit world.)

Having said so, Modes stared at Kuroki.

「And you’re that very existence, Kuroki-dono.」

「Eh, w-wait a minute…」

Kuroki shook his head and then pinched the area between his eyebrows. Inside his head, he screamed in frustration at Modes’s stories.

(What in the world is this mess about?!)

「Please Kuroki-dono. Please save me from that Hero. 」

Modes was so desperate he lowered himself into a bow towards Kuroki.

「Even if you ask me to do that…」

Kuroki was astonished at how the situation was progressing.

Back in school, Reiji had been somewhat like a celebrity. 180cm tall, with a well-ordered face. His light brown hair seemed blonde under the sunlight, a trait that probably came from his mother.

He excelled in both martial and literary arts, on top of being rich. Not to mention, he was very popular with the ladies.

Reiji was the textbook definition of a manga protagonist.

Despite his fame amongst the girls, he was hated by the boys. Not because of his fame, but because of his attitude toward anyone who wasn’t female.

He was kind only toward women.

Also, he had the strange ability to encounter cute girls while they were in trouble. Many were saved by Reiji thanks to that strange ability.

No wonder so many of them fell in love with him.

On the other hand, he never saved boys.

In spite of his kindness toward women, he was especially strict toward males. That was the reason for his low popularity amongst his gender.

The number of youths who got NTR-ed by Reiji was simply too many to count.

However, since Reiji did not force anyone to like him, no one could raise a complaint. But that did not mean the boys would just accept the situation with their heads lowered.

All the girls that those boys liked… They all claimed to only love Reiji.

His childhood friend, Akamine Shirone, was amongst those girls. He couldn’t help but wonder if Reiji seduced her because she was cute.

Or maybe Shirone herself was the one to go after Reiji? Either way, he had no means of knowing the truth.

Kuroki didn’t want them to be together, and he had told Shirone about it, only to instigate a huge quarrel between them. It was fairly recent and marked the end of Kuroki’s first love.

He was just an average teenage youth. He was completely at a disadvantage against Reiji and his foreign genes. Without any other choice, he gave up on his first love.

And yet here he was, summoned by this monster to repel his rival in love.

The task was so impossible that Kuroki felt like crying.

He knew how powerful Reiji was in a brawl. He didn’t want to fight him and be beaten into a pulp.

It had happened before with the captain of the Karate Club. The boy had tried to enact revenge on Reiji for stealing the girl he liked.

As a result, the captain was admitted into a hospital with a broken jaw bone that required three months to fully recover.

Meanwhile, Reiji came out of the fight completely unscathed.

He didn’t know what happened afterward. He suspected Reiji’s parents had pulled some strings behind the scenes to prevent any after effects from the incident.

The matter was never revealed to the public, but it was a kind of open secret among the students in their high school.

There was also that time when martial artists came to challenge Reiji, some with even bigger bodies than his among the adults.

But none of them could beat Reiji.

Kuroki had been one of those martial artists. Reiji might have forgotten about him, but Kuroki had been defeated by him once.

He didn’t want to remember that miserable moment. He was already on the verge of crying.

(What the heck is he doing here? We’re the same age, but we’re complete opposites.)

The ordinary Kuroki was being pitted against the genius Reiji. It was a mismatch, and he already foresaw the result.

He must not fight Reiji.

Moreover, Kuroki was a pacifist. Fighting was the last thing he ever wanted to do. He truly felt troubled by the situation.

「Please wait a minute, Your Majesty! 」

Kuroki turned toward the voice of the person forcing their way through the crowd of monsters. It turned out to be the man wearing full jet-black plate armor.

The man had dark skin and a nice face, looking more like a Yankee displayed as a knight.

A pair of goat-like horns grew from the sides of his head, indicating he wasn’t human.

「Oh, Lord Runfeld! How’s your injury from fighting the Hero? 」

The man called Runfeld bowed respectfully to Modes.

「Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. However, I believe we should not borrow this man’s power. We suffered an embarrassing defeat, yes, but our Chivalric Order of Dark Knights is still able to fight. Please, give us an order to dispatch our soldiers.」

Runfeld requested Modes.

After his request, Runfeld glared at Kuroki.

「Moreover… He doesn’t seem capable of defeating that Hero.」

(You’re so damn right, bro.)

Kuroki unintentionally agreed with Runfeld.

He didn’t expect that Runfeld would draw out his sword and slash at him in a challenge.

「Let me test your power! 」

「WOAH! WAIT A MINUTE! 」

Kuroki quickly sidestepped to dodge that attack. Unfortunately, Runfeld was relentless in his pursuit and charged again. The attack was avoided once more thanks to Kuroki’s brilliant footwork.

「HA! 」

And then, when Kuroki bent his knees slightly, his body moved as if sliding along the ground as he dodged every single one of Runfeld’s attacks.

(How is this possible? I’m… Moving faster than usual.)

His body felt lighter than usual. Kuroki reached out and grabbed Runfeld’s wrist after dodging dozens of attacks. With one move, he disarmed Runfeld and flung him away.

Runfeld was too slow to react and ended up kissing the cold floor.

「GUHA! 」

「Ah, sorry! 」

The moment he realized what he had done to his opponent, Kuroki reflexively apologized. But that did nothing to dissuade Runfeld. He refused to give up.

Stretching his left arm, Runfeld aimed his palm at Kuroki and unleashed a flickering black flame.

「F^CK! 」

Modes noticed what he was doing and tried to stop Runfeld, only to be ignored. The black flame traveled toward Kuroki.

「Wait a minute, Runfeld-dono! THAT MAGIC IS…!」

「EAT MY BLACK FLAME!!!!! 」

As the black flame rushed towards Kuroki, it grew larger. If Kuroki wanted to dodge the flame, he’d have to run toward the crowd of monsters.

With how close the flame already was, he couldn’t dodge.

(Crap, I won’t be able to dodge this one!)

Kuroki stretched out his arms in a reflex to protect himself from the black flame as it collided with his body.

To everyone’s surprise, the flame stopped at Kuroki’s palm. More accurately…

… He caught the black flame with his bare hands.

(It’s… Not hot at all. How strange. How did I stop it?)

Kuroki gawked at the surreal scene before him.

Technically, since fire wasn’t solid it couldn’t be caught by hand. However, the black flame that was supposed to consume him was gently flickering on top of his palms.

When he clenched his fist, the flame vanished.

A bit away from him stood Runfeld, who couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed either. The back flame was his strongest attack and Kuroki stopped it like it was nothing.

「No way, my black flame was….」

Naturally, Kuroki had no idea the attack was so powerful. His bewilderment was solely for the ability to stop a flame.

(What a strange sensation.)

His palms weren’t scalded. No matter how much he checked, he couldn’t find the slightest trace of a burn on his hands.

He tried recalling the sensation he felt only moments ago and Kuroki was able to reproduce the same black flame from the palm of his hands.

「!?」

Kuroki was so surprised that he closed his fist and crushed his black flame in panic.

(What the?! How did I do that?! Can I truly create that flame?)

There was a brief moment of silence around the room. Then, from Kuroki’s side came the sound of someone enthusiastically clapping.

Modes approached him while laughing merrily.

「As expected of you, Kuroki-dono. Runfeld-dono is the strongest knight in Nargol and yet, he wasn’t even able to land a hit on you. On top of that, you even mastered the black flame. Let’s go with this flow and defeat the Hero.」

(What is this black flame, anyway? Is he talking about the black flame that I created just now?)

He suddenly recalled the image of Reiji and the others that Modes showed him. They had fired light and flame from their hands.

Kuroki wondered if he somehow had awakened a mysterious power after being summoned by the Demon King.

(Urgh, my head can’t catch up with this rapid development. Am I really going to have to fight against Reiji?)

Modes nodded to himself.

He seemed satisfied that he had summoned Kuroki.

(He’s actually serious about me fighting Reiji! But why would I do that? Just refusing him on the spot seems so…)

「Uhm, Excuse m-…」

Kuroki was about to refuse Modes’s request when his brain silenced him and alerted him of something he had yet to consider.

Could he refuse? What would happen to him if he said he didn’t want to fight Reiji?

More importantly… If he refused, would Modes prevent him from going back to his world?

That was the most probable outcome, since fighting the Hero was the reason he had been summoned. Kuroki glanced at Modes and pondered about it for a while. In the end, he decided to test the waters.

「Uhm… Does that mean you won’t send me back to my world if I fail to defeat them? 」

「… EH? 」

Unexpectedly, Modes showed a surprised expression. It was the complete opposite of what Kuroki had been expecting.

「… The method to send Kuroki-dono back, you mean?」

Modes took out a crumpled piece of paper from his breast pocket and stared at it silently for a moment.

Kuroki suddenly felt an ominous premonition about the situation.

The Demon King opened his mouth and quietly read what was written on the paper. It appeared he was trying to reassure himself that he didn’t read it wrong.

The bad premonition that Kuroki felt made him risk asking Modes a question.

「Don’t tell me that you… don’t have a way to send me back? 」

Kuroki’s question created an awkward silence around the room. Even the Demon King was conspicuously silent.

He was right. It was the worst development.

「It seems that… There’s no way to send you back.」

「W-WAIT A MINUTE―――! What do you mean by that?! 」

Kuroki unintentionally raised his voice. The bitter truth that he was unable to go home was suddenly and forcefully shoved at him.

Modes bowed to Kuroki as he apologized.

「My apologies, but there’s really no way to send you back.」

Kuroki felt that contrary to his scary appearance, Modes was unexpectedly a timid person. Right then, he heard another person talking to him.

「Please wait a minute, Kuroki-dono.」

Mona, Modes’s wife, was already standing in front of her husband. She stared at Kuroki with such a pitiful expression that she looked like she could cry at any moment.

That kind of expression was a lethal weapon against Kuroki, who had no resistance to a woman’s wiles. He froze and remained silent.

「Please. Kuroki-sama. At least listen to Modes-sama’s story.」

Kuroki then looked at Modes.

「Well, Kuroki-dono. Let me tell you the reason why I ask you to protect me.」