Chapter 4: Red Eyes, the Deadly Blade
In a dimly lit ghost town lined with abandoned factories, a shadowy figure ran, gasping for breath. It was a woman, her hood pulled low, concealing her eyes.
She swung her arms and legs with all her might, running desperately forward as if fleeing from something.
“N-No way…”
Turning a corner to escape the gaze behind her, she darted into an alley. Mercilessly, it led to a dead end. Though her eyes were hidden by the hood, sweat beaded on her face, and her mouth trembled with fear.
“Too bad, missy. Our fun game of tag ends here. Heh heh heh.”
“…!!”
The woman turned to face her three male pursuers, glaring at them.
“W-Who are you people?!”
She shouted at the men intimidatingly, but her voice and legs shook with fear.
One of the men answered with a lewd expression.
“Oh, we’re just honest workers. This is our job. Nothing personal, missy, but we’ve got orders. Sorry, but you’ve gotta die.”
“…!”
Clear murderous intent directed at her. The real fear of having nowhere to escape intensified, making her hands and mouth tremble uncontrollably.
“But, well… before we kill you, we’re gonna have a little fun with you, missy. Hehe.”
The man’s vulgar gaze roamed over the woman’s figure beneath her robe, and he laughed crudely along with the other two.
“Y-You’re not honest at all!”
The woman tried her best to act tough. However, the man’s words forced her to imagine being toyed with by these men and then killed, intensifying her fear.
Her legs shook with terror at the seemingly inescapable despair. As she tried to back away, her legs wouldn’t cooperate, and she collapsed to the ground. With her face contorted in despair and fear, she still tried to retreat from the men, backing up against the dead end.
The men approached slowly, as if enjoying her predicament.
“N-No! Don’t come near me…! P-Please…”
“Hehehe, don’t resist so much. Before you die, we’ll show you a real good time.”
The men advanced with identical, ugly grins.
“N-No, I don’t want this…”
By now, all of the woman’s earlier bravado had vanished.
Faced with the overwhelming terror before her, the woman shook her head as if desperately denying reality. She tried to back away, but the wall behind her blocked her retreat. She could no longer even maintain distance from the men.
The men didn’t stop their advance.
In the face of absolute despair welling up inside her, the woman, now unable even to cry out, prayed desperately.
“(Please… Someone, anyone, help me…!!)”
—At that moment.
“Hey, brothers, looks like you’re having quite a bit of fun there.”
“…!!”
A voice came from above her head.
It was a clear, ringing voice that gave a strange sense of reassurance.
The owner of the voice lightly jumped down from the roof of a building about five meters high, stood in front of the men blocking their way, and declared:
“Let me join in.”
The figure was a black-haired man wearing a black coat and black open-finger gloves.
And his eyes—they gleamed with a crimson light.
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“Hey, brothers, looks like you’re having quite a bit of fun there.”
The three men and the hooded woman turned towards the voice. There, standing on the roof of one of the buildings lining the alley, bathed in moonlight, was a man.
The identity of this man, who had all four gazes fixed on him, was Shion Ichinose. He stood with one hand in his coat pocket, using the moonlight as a backdrop to strike a pose, wearing a fearless smile.
Now, his eyes, which should have been black, were dyed crimson and glowed faintly.
Those glowing eyes in the darkness emitted an eerie, intimidating aura.
…However, this intimidating aura was actually just a facade. He was currently using a magic called “Bright Eyes,” which only changed the color of his eyes and made them glow.
He had simply activated this magic to look cool in this situation.
A deserted night street. Instantly killing the villains there and coolly saving the person being attacked. How many times had Shion fantasized about such a scenario?
This moment was the perfect opportunity to make that fantasy a reality.
The men who had been licking their lips while cornering their prey just moments ago now had their moods completely shattered, their bewildered gazes turning to Shion.
Finding himself in the midst of a perfectly ideal recreation of his fantasy, Shion was at the height of excitement.
Seeking even more ecstasy, he then leapt down from the roof with flair.
However, the height he jumped from was about five meters. Upon landing, his legs received a strong impact, and he was hit with pain that made him want to roll around. But he didn’t show it at all. Because right now, he had an ideal self that he had to embody.
Maintaining his fearless smile with his eyes gleaming crimson, he faced the three men who stood before him with shocked expressions and declared:
“Let me join in,” he said.
“(—Nailed it…!!)”
The situation, timing, and tone of voice—everything was perfect.
This moment was exactly the scenario he had fantasized about.
Realizing the situation he had imagined countless times, he was more intoxicated than ever before.
“W-What the hell are you?!”
“You trying to get in our way?!”
The man who seemed to be the leader, standing in the center, and the man to his right raised their voices, directing hostility towards Shion. Clearly, a confrontational structure had formed between the three men and Shion.
Up to this point, everything was unfolding just like Shion’s usual fantasies.
…However, from here on, things would be different.
In his fantasies, he was always the strongest. In his fantasies, he would instantly kill the three men and deliver a cool one-liner.
But this wasn’t fantasy—it was reality. He didn’t have overwhelming power; in fact, he was just a student who could only use C-class magic at best.
“And what if I am?”
“W-Who the hell are you…?”
Still, he didn’t lose his composure in the face of the men’s open wariness and hostility. He was still hoping to recreate his fantasy.
“Don’t get too cocky, you… We’ll teach you what happens when you stick your nose where it doesn’t belong!”
Shion had been praying that they would just get scared and leave, but reality wasn’t so kind.
As soon as the leader said “Do it,” the man standing to his left immediately generated a magic circle about the size of his upper body in front of him.
“(!)”
Seeing the magic formula inscribed in the glowing red magic circle, Shion realized it was a fire-attribute magic called “Flame Shower.” “Flame Shower” was equivalent to B-class magic by general magician standards.
Needless to say, it was a higher-level magic compared to Shion, who was only at C-class level by student standards.
However, even when faced with this, Shion remained motionless, maintaining his fearless smile. …But this wasn’t because Shion had any leeway.
As proof of this, he was currently thinking, “(Heh heh heh… I’ve got no chance of winning this. Now, what should I do~ Wahahaha),” half escaping from reality in his inner turmoil.
…Based on what he had observed of the men chasing the woman earlier, Shion had judged that they weren’t professionals, but mere amateurs.
If his opponents had been just ordinary street thugs, Shion had estimated that he could win against the three of them with his somewhat trained physique and a bit of magic.
If they had actually been just ruffians, that might have been possible. Even if he couldn’t defeat all three, at least escaping with the woman wouldn’t have been difficult.
However, one of the villains chasing the woman turned out to be a magician. Moreover, his magic was clearly more powerful than Shion’s.
The magic circle the man in front of him was deploying was estimated to be about 70 centimeters in size. In contrast, the largest magic circle Shion could deploy was only about 40 centimeters.
While the power of magic isn’t necessarily determined by the size of the magic circle, deploying and using a large magic circle requires that much more magical power. Furthermore, the “Flame Shower” that the man in front of Shion was about to activate was a higher-difficulty and more powerful magic than what Shion could handle.
From the information available, it was clear that the man in front of him fundamentally possessed more magical power than Shion and was a more powerful magician.
In this great pinch, Shion’s current expression remained frozen in a fearless smile…
There was almost no time left before the man’s magic would be unleashed. In that brief moment, Shion switched his mindset and thought.
With all the magic at his disposal, he might be able to escape from this place alone.
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