The Assassin's Strike
The crack of shattering bone—!
The fake Adelia’s nails shot straight for my throat.
Sanctuary Deployment (E)
Automatic Defense System Online!
Clang! Clang! Crash!
A transparent barrier wrapped around my body, throwing off sparks of flame as it blocked the nails. It held for exactly three strikes. On the third blow the barrier shattered like glass.
“Huh?”
I seized the opening while he was caught off guard and snatched the Guardian’s Dagger I’d left beside the bed.
Clang—!
I barely managed to parry his nails with the blade. A dark, crimson aura rose from their tips like heat haze.
Demon…?
This wasn’t some simple doppelganger. It was a demon assassin with transformation powers straight out of the original story. Wasn’t he supposed to be watching Adelia at the academy ahead of the invasion? Why the sudden move? There was no time to wonder.
“Urgh…!”
The force behind the blow was at least A-class. For someone who had only just crawled up from F-class to E-class, it was overwhelming. My arm shook as if it would snap. The Guardian’s Dagger had only let me block once more by sheer luck.
“Oh? Not bad for an F-class, are you?”
The fake wearing Adelia’s face smiled with a grotesquely split mouth.
“But this is as far as you go! Goodbye, Roy.”
His nails drove toward my heart. I was dead.
At that exact moment—
Thud!
His movement froze as if time itself had stopped. Someone had grabbed the back of his neck from behind.
“Who the hell…”
A voice like it had crawled up from the bottom of hell—chilling, seething with rage.
“Dares to try and kill my Roy?”
An unbelievable grip crushed the assassin’s throat. It was the real Adelia.
“You… bastard… ugh…!”
“Get lost.”
Whoosh—! Boom!
The assassin flew like a sheet of paper, smashing straight through the window and tumbling outside.
“Were you scared?”
Adelia asked me shortly.
“Wait here. I’ll kill him and be right back.”
Swish!
Without the slightest hesitation she leaped out the window.
With trembling hands I crawled to the shattered frame and looked down. An unbelievable scene was unfolding in the clearing in front of the dormitory.
Boom! Crash!
Adelia’s figure flashed through the air like lightning. The assassin scattered like black smoke and counterattacked, but everywhere her aura touched, the ground overturned and trees exploded into splinters.
“How dare… how dare you lay a hand on him?!”
With Adelia’s roar, silver-white mana detonated. The assassin desperately burst black smoke screens to flee, but every time her sword sliced the air, a deafening boom rang out as if space itself was warping.
Emergency bells wailed across the entire academy. Students poked their heads out of every dormitory window.
“What the hell? Someone’s fighting!”
“Crazy—look at those mana readings! Isn’t that the hero Adelia?!”
Amid the tremendous noise and shaking, the assassin finally melted into the black smoke with a sharp pop and vanished. Adelia stood panting, visibly trying to swallow her rage.
Pop.
She flew back through the broken window and into my room. The moment she landed she rushed at me and hugged me with crushing force.
“Roy!”
Thud.
The momentum sent us tumbling to the floor in a tangle. Adelia’s elastic body pressed flush against mine. The soft sensation and her signature scent washed over me. I grew dazed, almost drunk inside her embrace.
“Haaang… Are you okay? You’re not hurt anywhere?”
Her voice shook as she asked. But I couldn’t answer—my face was buried between her full breasts.
“C-can’t… breathe, Adelia…”
The moment I mumbled and tried to lift my head, my lips and hot breath brushed a sensitive spot on her chest.
“Eek! Kyaaaak!”
She let out a piercing scream and shoved me away with all her strength.
Roll, roll.
I tumbled across the floor.
“Y-you pervert! Where do you think you’re talking while touching?!”
Adelia clutched her chest, face flushed crimson. Even her ears had gone bright red. The heroine of the novel, blushing in my room. The whole situation still felt like a dream. But that was beside the point.
“No… you were the one who hugged me…”
I put on a wronged expression. Adelia stared at me in disbelief, then let out a long sigh of relief.
“Haa… Thank goodness. I really thought you were going to die.”
“Same here. Thanks for saving me.”
I stood, brushing off my clothes, then grinned.
“By the way… earlier.”
“Huh?”
“When you saved me you called me ‘my Roy,’ didn’t you? You said it again just now, and it was pretty intense.”
“……!”
Adelia’s whole body went rigid. Her pupils shook like she’d been hit by an earthquake.
“Wh-what…? When did I ever…”
“I definitely heard it. ‘Who dares to kill my Roy!’”
“Th-that was…!”
Her face burned red as if it would erupt like a volcano.
“Y-you misheard! Am I crazy?! Don’t spout nonsense like drinking the soup before the stew, you extra!”
She yelled and smacked my face with a pillow.
“Ow! Why are you hitting me!”
Knock knock knock!
A sharp knock sounded from outside the door.
“This is the dorm supervisor! There was a loud noise—Roy! Are you in there?!”
This was bad. If they found a female student—especially the hero—in a male student’s room at this hour, it was all over.
“Hide, quick!”
When I spun around in panic, Adelia had already vanished from the room.
“Y-yes! Coming!”
I opened the door. The supervisor stood there with a deep frown, peering inside.
“I came because of all the noise. What happened, Roy? Why is it always chaos with you?”
She clicked her tongue at the broken window.
“Ah, sorry. I had a nightmare… fell out of bed. I was thrashing around and broke the flowerpot too…”
“Does thrashing break windows?”
“Well… I have pretty rough sleeping habits…”
“Sigh. Be careful. There are many eyes watching. You’ll be billed for repairs tomorrow.”
The supervisor scanned the room with suspicious eyes, but fortunately found nothing and left.
“Whew…”
I locked the door and breathed a sigh of relief. She must have gotten away safely.
That was when—
Tap.
A white hand suddenly rose over the broken windowsill from outside.
“……Fuck, that scared the hell out of me!”
I jumped and rushed to the window. Adelia was hanging precariously from the third-floor sill.
“Hey! What are you doing there?!”
“Ugh… the supervisor wouldn’t leave the hallway, so I hid. Move over, quick!”
She grabbed the sill and leaped inside. Normally she would have landed light as a feather, but the tension of sneaking in must have thrown her off—her toe caught and she lost balance.
Adelia fell straight on top of me.
Thud!
Even through her thin sportswear, the softness of her skin and the curves of her body pressed against me with vivid clarity.
“……!”
My body—specifically my lower half—reacted physiologically without any input from my brain.
Twitch. Something hard pressed insistently against the sensitive skin on the inside of Adelia’s thigh.
“……?”
Adelia’s movement stopped dead. Her eyes widened, then her face flushed so deeply it looked ready to burst. She had clearly felt the full texture of that ‘thing’ pushing against her.
“Just now… what was that? Something hard twitched underneath…”
“N-no! That’s…!”
Cold sweat poured down my back as I desperately babbled.
“It’s the Guardian’s Dagger! I just shoved it in my front pocket and it must have shifted! Haha, it’s legendary grade so it keeps asserting itself, you know? Haha… ha…”
“……Hmm. The dagger moves hotly?”
Adelia narrowed her eyes and stared at me. When she reached out as if to check for herself, I frantically pushed her back.
“A-anyway! It’s dangerous, so go back quickly.”
“No.”
“Huh?”
“I’m not going. What if that thing comes back? I’ll stay with you. I’ll protect you.”
In the end I spread a blanket on the floor while Adelia took the bed.
“……Isn’t the floor hard?”
Her voice drifted down from the bed.
“It’s fine. This extra finds the floor comfortable.”
“Liar.”
Rustle.
She scooted to the edge of the bed and patted the space beside her.
“Come up, extra. There’s room now.”
“Ahem…”
I pretended I couldn’t refuse and climbed onto the bed. A warm presence pressed against my back. Adelia snuggled close and wrapped her arms tightly around me.
“Sleep well… see you soon…”
Her breath tickled the back of my neck.
The stormy night finally passed.
When I opened my eyes the spot beside me was empty. Only the faint scent lingering on the sheets proved she had been there. I washed up quickly, got ready, and headed to the main gate where we had agreed to meet.
Seeing her walking toward me from afar, I couldn’t help but gasp.
“……Wow.”
She wasn’t wearing her usual school uniform. Instead she had on an active yet refined hunter outfit. A tight shirt hugged her figure beneath a leather corset that emphasized her slim waist, paired with flexible black leather pants and long boots. Her platinum hair was tied in a ponytail, revealing the elegant line of her neck.
A perfect balance of combat readiness and beauty. Faint dark circles shadowed her eyes from staying up all night to guard me, yet the face that smiled brightly at me was dazzling.
“Aren’t you too pretty? You look like a model. It really suits you.”
“……!”
My direct compliment made Adelia’s face flush like an apple. She quickly looked away. Trying to hide her embarrassment, she grabbed my collar and pulled me forward.
“Wh-what nonsense this early in the morning…”
She cleared her throat and avoided my eyes, but the red ears and twitching corners of her mouth gave her away. She tugged my collar again as if trying to conceal her shyness.
“L-let’s go! We’re late! We have to get that artifact!”
“All right, all right. Let’s go together.”
We headed into the bustling streets to find the artifact. It looked exactly like a date, but a shadow trailed behind us.
How dare she take my human on a date…?
She ground her teeth. She thought her disguise was perfect, but the pointed elf ears poking out from under her robe gave her away. Just as she tried to follow Roy, she collided head-on with someone coming from the opposite alley.
“Ouch!”
“Kyaa!”
Both women landed hard on their backsides.
“Watch where you’re going—huh?”
Iris looked up. The other person was also adjusting her deeply pulled hood.
“Oh my… sorry… wait?”
When Iris lifted her head, golden hair spilled out. It was the Saintess Yuriel.
“……Princess?”
“……Yuriel?”
The academy’s two goddesses, both in spy-like disguises, stared awkwardly at each other. After a silent truce of ‘Don’t interfere with Roy,’ they resumed their pursuit.
Meanwhile I frowned.
Characteristic: Observer's Eye has activated.
Warning: Multiple sticky, intense gazes are locked onto you.
When I looked around uneasily, Adelia beside me let out a small laugh.
“Don’t worry about it, extra. Just some bugs swarming.”
“Bugs?”
“Yeah. Really annoying flies.”
Suddenly Adelia pressed herself tightly against me. Then, as if to make a point, she slipped her arm through mine.
Squish.
“……!”
It was an obvious territorial display, pushing her chest against me. From the alley behind us came a sharp “Hup!” of someone sucking in a breath, but Adelia only hugged my arm tighter, ignoring it completely.
We had just stopped at the edge of the sidewalk when a heavy vibration shook the ground. A golden radiance approached from far down the street.
Vroooom—!
An eerie, antique carriage with no visible horses glided across the road. Every time the intricate mana circuits on its wheels and undercarriage pulsed with golden light, a majestic resonance of power drowned out the street instead of hoofbeats.
The pure white body bore the imperial family’s ‘Golden Sun’ emblem. When the carriage stopped, sparkling golden particles burst from the mana vents at the rear like glittering snow.
The door opened and a man with blinding golden hair stepped out.
Perfect features as if he had stepped out of a shoujo manga, radiating an arrogant aura. Adelia’s body went rigid. She slowly released my arm, instinctively clutched her clothes, and bowed.
“I greet Your Highness Crown Prince Helios.”
Helios approached Adelia, took her trembling hand, and brought it to his lips.
Kiss.
“It has been a while, my beautiful lady, Adelia.”
Adelia bit her lip, unable to hide her expression. Helios slowly raised his head and looked at me. His gaze was filled with utter contempt and killing intent, as if he were staring at a pebble on the roadside.
He smiled coldly and asked.
“By the way, what is this unpleasant bug standing next to you?”