You've Been Kidnapped (1)

Does consciousness remain in a severed head?

It was a question I'd once stumbled across on some internet forum, and I'd just found my answer.

"Hhhk— hhhk— hhhk!!"

It does.

The severed head rolled across the floor, the world pitching and spinning, every sense churning together in a nauseous smear. I couldn't even tell whether I was dreaming or awake.

"Fuck. Fuck!!"

But the consciousness was definitely still there.

"Hahh……. It's an illusion. It's all an illusion."

Only after groping at my neck several times did I claw my way back to sanity.

And in that same instant, a system window bloomed before my eyes.

I'd used the Preview by accident, but in the end, it had worked out in my favor.

And of course it had.

Because I'd just obtained information I never could have imagined.

"Three Apostles……."

I took the words Vulkan had muttered and started piecing together what was going to happen. Two possibilities fell out of that, one best case and one worst.

First, the best case.

That would be if the Apostles Vulkan had sensed were me, Yeonhwa, and Number Six. If those were the three who'd gone looking for him, I could talk Yeonhwa around and unravel the whole situation that much more easily.

And the worst case?

That would be if the Apostles he'd sensed were me, Number ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Six, and some other Number who was not Yeonhwa.

If it goes that way, I'll have to protect Vulkan and Rania from two Apostles.

And that wouldn't even be the end of it. Of the Six Apostles of the Evil God, the only one with any connection to Number Two was Yeonhwa, the Fourth. If any of the others found out I wasn't Number Two?

They'd report it to Number One on the spot.

My double-agent career would be over before it even started, and both the hype-man extra Eugene and the named boss Number Two would become targets of the cult.

Meaning I'd have to face two Apostles — the cult's strongest fighting force — without revealing who I am.

I'd even have to hide my identity from Vulkan, all while fighting a battle I was supposed to be fighting to protect him.

"……That's way too hardcore."

A sigh escaped me on its own. But what was I supposed to do about it? This was a world where, if you didn't get a happy ending, nobody survived.

"Don't want to die? Then I do it."

I got up off the floor at once.

"It's not even nine yet."

The original plan had been to slip in during the ten o'clock guard change and meet Rania then. But the situation being what it was, I had to see her as soon as possible, even if it meant forcing things a little.

Can I actually pull that off?

A bad feeling crept in from the very first step, but there was nowhere left to retreat.

"Let's go."

And so I arrived in front of the girls' dormitory, and started walking toward the guards.

Alright.

Focus.

"Ha— hawa— ahem, hrm!!"

From this moment on, I am—

—a Veteran High School Girl-chan.

Rania Vulcanus.

House Vulcanus, the count's family to which she belonged, was widely known as a famed lineage of the sword. That, however, was only half the truth. The founder of House Vulcanus — the original Vulcanus himself — had not been a knight at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all, but a blacksmith. That was how the house motto had come to be what it was: The hottest fire yields the hardest iron.

And Rania Vulcanus was the one who practiced that motto more faithfully than anyone alive.

"H-how many hours has it been already?"

"I heard she came out at four in the morning?"

"Huh?! She went in at ten last night!"

"How does she even do that every single day……?"

Ten thousand swings. An hour of meditation. Drills in the family sword art. Two hours of meditation to cultivate her Aura. Then ten thousand swings again. From four in the morning until ten at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠night, she took up her sword and did not skip a single day.

……No. That's not quite right.

There had been days she'd skipped, hadn't there.

There had been days, once, when she had rested.

But, Father.

I cannot rest any longer. I have to grow strong as quickly as I can, graduate from Zion, and succeed you as the one who protects our house.

……Even so.

She staggered.

"……It is hard, I'll admit."

A colossal wavering, over in an instant — the kind no one else would even notice. But she did not fall.

She drove her feet into the earth.

"……I will become the hottest fire."

"I will become the hardest iron."

She barely managed to plant herself on the ground, and her fire-like eyes flashed the way they always had.

"Only then can I protect everyone."

Rania settled back into her stance.

"Hahh……."

She hadn't even finished the ten thousand swings that were supposed to start the day. And so, the moment she swung her sword again—

Clang.

The practice blade snapped.

It had happened often enough before, but this was the first time since she'd come up here. Rania bit down on her lip. The cut on her face from a flying shard, the palms shredded raw against the hilt, a body already wrecked by training — none of it had mattered a moment ago, and now, one by one, every piece of it came flooding back as grief.

The truth was, I already knew.

The blade had started to warp three days ago. And she was no different. She had forced her training volume higher and higher, and her body had been coming apart by degrees. She would lie aching for hours before she could sleep, and when she woke her limbs were heavy as lead. But she couldn't stop.

The experience of being crushed beneath a vast, overwhelming power.

"Anyway, the exam's over, right?"

Consoling herself with pathetic excuses.

"……Eugene will be fine. The professor told us to stand down."

And because of that, her friend had been hurt.

"Eugene……!"

All of it happened because I was weak.

So she had simply worked as hard as she could. That was all.

"……Why did it turn out like this?"

Rania bowed her head. All the feelings she had been crushing down so carefully lifted their faces, but she couldn't even cry.

"L-Lady Rania!"

"There's a cut on your face!!"

"M-medicine — does anyone have medicine!?"

The people who'd been watching surged in around her in the space of a blink.

"I am— fine……."

Rania smiled the way she always did, out of habit. But that was as far as it went. The words caught in her throat. The world in front of her went blurry, and her nose stung until it ached. If she had been even a slightly softer person, the tears would have broken.

But fortunately, she was not soft.

"I would have you withdraw."

"Eh? Lady Rania?"

"The fragments may injure you. I shall clear them myself, so I ask that everyone stand aside."

"Ah……. That's Lady Rania for you……."

"But we should be the ones helping……."

"Just do what she says! She said she's clearing it for our sake!! That's something to brag about!!"

"Ah!"

Only after she'd gotten them to fall back could she turn around. She cut her fingertips. She picked up the shards. She swallowed her grief.

"W-what do we even brag about!?"

"That Lady Rania was worried about us!?"

"L-let's just say we're close! Students can talk casually with each other anyway!"

The ones who'd stepped back were still making a racket.

……I wish they'd just back off a little further.

Even the attention she'd once been nothing but grateful for had become a shackle. Something surged up in her chest. The feelings she'd barely gotten a hold of stirred again. Her fallen father. A house sliding into decline. The helplessness of standing before a power far too great. And—

"……Eugene."

Her only friend, wounded because of her.

Her hand tightened on the shard. A vicious pain drove into her palm, and thanks to that, she managed to hold the tears back. There was more blood than she'd expected, but it was fine.

"Ahh, Lady Rania. How can she be so kind?"

No one would know anyway.

"Ahh, Lady Rania. How can she be so strong?"

She could hide it.

"Ahh, Lady Rania. How can she be so composed?"

So she would do what she had always done.

"……I just have to endure."

The sharp pain pulled her mind back together. She put on a smile, and was just about to stand—

"CATCH THAT LUNATIC!!"

"Hawahawahawahawahawa★!! I'm not a lunatic — I'm a member of the girls' dormitory, you see★!!"

"QUIT THE BULLSHIT!!!"

A commotion erupted at the front gate. The steel doors smashed apart, and only then could anyone start to make sense of the situation—

"Hawahawa★!! Veteran High School Girl-chan has business at the girls' dorm, that's why she's here, you see★!!"

—or rather, they couldn't.

Not the guards chasing the maniac, not the girls who'd been training, not the ones clustered around Rania.

"W-what is that?"

"Is that… a skirt?"

"I think he just ripped his pants……?"

Not a single person could figure out what they were looking at. Except for one.

A mask and black robes covered everything but the legs, and still she knew at a glance.

"……Eugene?"

The moment Rania grasped the maniac's identity, the strength went out of her hand without her meaning it to. The expression she'd been manufacturing, the wounds she'd been trying to hide, the pain she'd been trying to endure — all of it forgotten for a moment.

"…Eugene."

She rose from where she sat.

"……Eugene!!"

And she ran toward the maniac.

It didn't take long for the two of them to meet.

Smack.

"Euge—!"

Struck across the back of the neck, Rania went limp.

"Hawahawau★"

Huh. That actually worked.

Anyway, here is one obvious fact, while we're at it.

And with that, the maniac vanished.

Academy Zion, the most prestigious academy on the continent.

"……High School Girl-chan?"