Book 9. Chapter 2
Aiko’s Disappearance
Prologue of fourth arc.
The event happened sometime later.
Three weeks had passed since the time Kouki’s party had received shock from the reunion and the complex feelings because of to the separation in «Post Town, Hol-ad».
Currently, there was one thing Kouki’s party must immediately deal with: to kill people. They wouldn’t be able to fight anymore as long as it was not dealt with, so they returned to the Imperial Capital. It was necessary for them to experience “murder” if they wanted to participate in the war against the Demon race. They would only be liabilities in the war if they could not overcome it.
To begin with, they wouldn’t be able to think about it properly since not much time remained. The event that occurred in Ul had already reached their ears. It was obvious the Demon race’s movement had became more active since they themselves had also been attacked, and everyone could guess the war was drawing near. Therefore, as quickly as possible, Kouki’s party wanted to overcome this problem by all means.
Currently, Kouki’s party were doing battle practice against the Knights commanded by Meld. Ryuutarou, Kondou’s party, and Hiyama’s gang; those who were already prepared for it actually repeatedly asked themselves if they could really do it after seeing Hajime shoot the Demon race woman’s head. There wasn’t much time left, but they would be broken if they were forced to murder, so Meld and the Knights were also looking for a solution.
Towards the gloomy them, a small, good news had arrived.
It was the return of Aiko’s party. Normally, Kouki’s charisma would be able to pull the classmates together. However, the hero was depressed, which made everyone depressed, too. The reason for them not to be broken from the severe defeat and the current problem was thanks to Suzu’s mood making which followed by the prudent people such as Shizuku and Nagayama. Even so, their minds swallowed by uneasiness forced themselves to look more than welcoming to the adult they were familiar with and trusted. Everyone truly wanted to meet the teacher who always did her best for her students.