“Aaagh! P-please don’t kill me! I haven’t done anything to you! Y-yes! I can tell you where the commander is! S-so please spare my life! I AM BEGGING YOU!”

“...”

“I-I have a kid at h-home! She’s a three-year-old! I am begging you! Plea-”

SLASH!

Sound of a blade cutting the atmosphere itself filled the surroundings, deathly silence followed the blood-curdling scream that accompanied the slash. A moment later, the body of a man in his prime fell on the ground with a grotesque sound of blood spouting accompanying it. Needless to say, he was the man begging for his life mere seconds ago.

“Daughter… Huh?”

Today was the day the class was scheduled to depart from Masquara to journey towards Rahan to have a much-anticipated meeting with the person referred to as ‘leader’.

Currently, Aki was accompanying Vinayak in surveying the animals which Shainaq borrowed from the military for the class’ travels.

“So these creatures are called ‘Mufad’, huh?”

Vinayak said with wonderment in his voice.

“Seems like it.”

“I didn’t have the chance to notice these babies when we traveled from the cave to Masquara because of all the confusion and chaos, but looking at them now… This species is the physical embodiment of what would happen if a horse, a donkey, and a camel had a threesome.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

“How do they even pronounce the name? It sounds like ‘Mufad’, but I don’t know, I think I am missing an alphabet somewhere in there. When the maids say it, they sound different, or they just… I don’t know man, it’s weird.”

“We’ve gotta work with what we’ve got… Vinayak, tell me, are you going to invite Ohori-san to travel with you?”

“Well… If I can… I mean, if she doesn’t have a problem with it… Then, sure.”

Vinayak said with a bitter smile. For the past year, Vinayak had been desperately trying to strengthen his relationship with Umi, needless to say, all his attempts were either ignored or outright rejected. However, Vinayak, as a proud man of culture, never wavered and continued to pursue Umi with all his heart.

“So you’re ditching me? Who am I supposed to sit with?”

Aki matched Vinayak’s bitter smile and asked in a sarcastic tone.

“Uh… Yeah… About that… Sorry…?”

Aki sighed with resignation. Though Aki sighed, he wished for Vinayak’s romance to be fulfilled from the bottom of his heart.

Good luck, Vinayak.

...

Around the same time, Vinayak and Aki were having their little back-and-forth… In a certain room on the second floor of the building used by the students as their residential complex.

“Akio. Seriously. Calm the fuck down.”

“But how can I~?”

“You’ve been like this for the last ten days…”

“Yeah~ I regret not realizing this reality earlier and wasting twenty whole days doing nothing~”

“What do you mean?”

Akio’s cheerful smile and unending enthusiasm abruptly disappeared, leaving no traces of their existence on Akio’s being.

“Umi… I have no restrictions on me anymore. I don’t have to worry about getting beaten if I break the curfew by even a second. I don’t have to be cautious around my step-brother, fearing that he would violate me while I sleep. I don’t have to live a life waiting for the day that I would be the next sacrificial pawn in the game of chess that is my family…”

Akio and Umi, two the brightest and most beautiful women of their generation, conversed while laying on the same bed, covered by a thin blanket.

Umi’s eyes widened and her hands reflexively covered her lips. She hastily turned her neck and stared at Akio, her bloodshot eyes seeking an explanation. However, all that she saw was a side profile. A very lonely one. A very painful one. What she saw was the side profile of a person who had been enduring hell for most of her life, but still managed to brighten everyone’s day with her cheerful attitude, more accurately, a cheerful facade.

Umi was rendered speechless and continued staring at her best friend, who, at this moment, appeared like a stranger than anything else. Akio turned her body in Umi’s direction, meeting her gaze with an unwavering resolve vividly visible in her eyes.

“We’ve been best friends for a very long time, but I have never talked about my family circumstances, or about any personal matters for that matter, have I? Well, he knows. Muranaka Aki, that is. He understands everything there is to understand about me. You might be pondering that why would I confide all my secrets to him, who was a stranger at that time while keeping all those close to me in the dark… All I can say is that… He saved me. Unintentionally and without any ulterior motives, he rescued me… This is a bit too sudden, huh?”

“A… kio…?”

Teardrops gushed down Akio’s cheeks, trickling on the multi-colored bedsheet, drenching it within minutes. Umi didn’t speak, nor did she make any movements, not that Umi didn’t want to, it was just that while tears continued to spew out of Akio’s eyes, her pupils never lost their intensity, paralyzing Umi, not permitting her to take any action.

“Today, we leave Masquara and travel to Rahan… At first, all that I experienced resembled a dream, a fantasy that I came up with to help me escape my daily life, and honestly, it was very tricky to distinguish it from one considering how often I fantasized running away from home. The lectures, the training, the pain, the laughter, the smiles, the tears, and of course, his presence right beside me…”

“…A beautiful dream, I reasoned. I will wake up soon enough, I accepted. Only to be proven wrong. It did take time for me to recover, but when I did, I realized… That I am not an ‘Ayuzawa’ anymore, I am ‘Akio’, one of the twenty-six people who were provided with the opportunity to travel to another world, unbridled by their families… And when I realized this… The feelings which I believed would never come to fruition in this lifetime, the feelings which I buried deep inside my heart to avoid hurting both of us, to let him live his life without any difficulty… They overflowed. The dam that restrained them was eradicated…”

Umi, who was a bit bewildered, still incapable to accurately process the information, snapped out of her state when her hands were tightly grasped by Akio.

“Umi… I love him… It’s not a sling or a mere attraction, it’s genuine love…”

Akio's eyes were frenzied, an unfamiliar look for her. Akio had been in love with Aki for a considerable amount of time, and Umi had been aware of this fact as well, however, Umi had never witnessed this sort of look in Akio's eyes.

“…I need to grow stronger… Everyone has presumably discerned that this power, this [blessing], is much more powerful than it has been perceived to be. The human race in this world is vastly underdeveloped than in our world, and it is because of the existence of this almighty power. If, as Shainaq said, people in our world were to discover this power, we would’ve never created half of the items which currently exist in our world. As they say, there is no free lunch.”

“In the hands of these people, this power may be akin to a gun or a small-scale bomb, but in our hands, with our abundant knowledge and adaptability, this power can surpass the power of intercontinental ballistic missiles from our world.”

“Akio…”

Umi, who firmly believed that she was the most familiar with the person sitting in front of her, somehow failed to recognize the crazed and obsessive look in her best friend’s eyes. Deep down, she was frightened, it may be a mere chill, but the sensation of dread slithered inside her heart as she looked at Akio talking with a wide grin and face covered in tears.

...

“Orihime-san… Haven’t you been a little absent-minded recently?”

Orihime, while not being as beautiful as Chisa or Akio, was relatively popular and had many admirers. The problem was, all her admirers were males, while the women had instinctual jealousy towards her because of her lascivious and voluptuous breasts.

At the moment, she was relaxing with her group of companions in the garden, enjoying the morning breeze. Yes, she was enjoying herself. On Earth, though there were times when the morning breeze felt better, she never truly enjoyed it, more accurately, she couldn’t enjoy any aspect of her previous world which would normally be appreciated and adored by the appreciated populace. However, it all changed when she arrived in this world. Like Akio, the restraints placed on her were overwhelming, though Orihime’s circumstances were better than Akio’s, she felt like a fish in a fish tank. Trapped. Unable to truly ‘live’.

“What do you mean, Susumu-san?”

Wada Susumu. A slender girl with no features worth admiring. Well, except for her family's wealth.

Susumu is a petite girl with height barely reaching one-fifty-centimeters. Her facial features are rather average, and her intellect was even more so, at least for the class school she was attending.

At her house, she was a princess, and she was raised like one. And as such, although her averageness had been made evident on many occasions, her princess-like attitude never fluctuated, instead of growing even worse with time. She tagged along with Orihime because somewhere in her heart, she was aware that she didn’t deserve being in Akio and Asahi’s group, on the other hand, she sneered at the existence of foreigners who had a group of their own. You could say that the only option for her was to hang out with Orihime and others, however, to her, she had ‘settled’ for Orihime and them.

Akio-Asahi, Masahiko, Orihime, foreigners, and finally, Aki-Vinayak. These were the five well-established groups in the class, well, more than half of them maintained their positions because of one reason or the other, which were far from their sentiments, however, they had no leeway to complain, because, for some of them, it was because of their family, for others, it was about survivability.

“You’ve been loitering around too much… And we don’t like it.”

“Hmm~? ‘Loitering’, is it? I just can’t seem to understand what you are implying, Susumu-san.”

Orihime had a lazy smile on her fair face, her eyes, however, were not as laid-back.

“Those two. I don’t even want to take their names. Those two loners are beneath us, and you are spending time with them, excessively I might add.”

Orihime’s eyebrow slightly twitched, but her smile didn’t waver.

“And? What about it?”

“It doesn’t look good! Are you not the one who insisted that Muranaka was to be despised? Are you not the one who publicly expresses her resentment against him? Are you not the one who dislikes those two from the bottom of your heart?”

Orihime’s eyebrows knitted together in a frown, however, her eyebrow's abruptly relaxed. Orihime started heartily giggling, her unrestrained breasts jiggling under the robe she was wearing.

“Fufufu~ That person certainly is detestable… He delivered it to me straight, no mercy at all. Then again, I guess it’s okay, it isn’t like all hope is lost… Also, he helped me out a little.”

...

The training field. Previously recognized as the lovely garden with an abundant amount of comely flowers.

SMASH! SMASH! SMASH! SMASH! SMASH! SMASH!

Stone tablets were crushed one at a time. A single man impressively maneuvered at high speeds in and around the training field, throwing punches, kicks, chops, etcetera, at the stone tablets which stood motionless. His appearance was exceptionally handsome while his build was a commendable asset. His side-part styled red hair reached his right ear, making him look like a modern idol.

“Masahiko!”

As soon as Masahiko’s actions came to a halt, a plump and healthy boy trotted towards him with small steps and a cloth in his hands.

Ishikawa Nobu, his height reaches a limited one-sixty-centimeters, while his notable belly hangs outwards, giving him a very Humpty-dumpty-like image. Having said that, he is still a good friend of Masahiko since the Ishikawa family often has business the Hayashida family when they require transport vehicles and such. In addition to that, Nobu is a very reserved and dependable person who despises the idea of spreading other’s secrets. And as such, Masahiko often confided to him about things he couldn’t tell anyone else.

“I forgot to ask you… Why the hell are you training today? Don’t we depart in a couple of hours?”

Nobu questioned while handing Masahiko the towel and a jar filled with what seemed to be this world’s lemonade.

“Heh~ I just had something on my mind. I thought I’ll calm down after busting some rocks.”

Nobu’s ample cheeks parted as he smiled.

“What happened?”

Masahiko perceived that Nobu didn’t have any malicious intent, and there was no other person to share his thoughts with.

“It’s about Ayuzawa…”

“Ara~ Love, is it?”

Nobu crossed his arms and rested them on his belly, seemingly interested in the subject.

“I’ve tried to approach her multiple times in the last month… However, it just isn’t working out…”

“Um-hmm…”

“Having said that, her lack of interest isn’t the problem since she never did show interest in me…”

Is he serious?

“…The problem is… That she is spending too much time with that little shit…”

“By little shit, you mean Muranaka, right?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t Vinayak always present in the vicinity when they converse? And it isn’t just Ayuzawa-san, you know? The whole quartet has been involved with those two, so it may be a possibility that Ayuzawa-san is just tagging along while the one trying to get closer to them is Ayashiro-san. It isn’t a secret that Ayashiro-san is quite intrigued by Muranaka and holds great interest towards him.”

“You may be right… It may just be a gut feeling… Ayuzawa has been acting kind of weird around Muranaka recently, I don’t know how to explain it… Satisfied? I guess? I don’t know if that’s the correct word. It’s just that she looks content when she’s with him... Like his mere presence makes her happy…”

“Well, in her defense, she is always happy when another person is happy, so it may just that and you are overthinking it.”

“You may be right…”

Masahiko wryly smiled and punched Nobu in the belly, which made the monstrosity vibrate with a visible intensity.

...

“Ordinarily, it would take us a maximum of three-four days to arrive at Rahan if we depart today. However, that is if we move on constructed paths and opt for the shortest route, however, we will not do so. We will be taking a route passing through one of the largest forests in our country....”

“...The reason I made this judgment is that I want you guys to experience actual combat instead of constantly testing your abilities against stone tablets. This could also be an opportunity for you guys to deepen your understanding of [Lord’s Blessing] and take the first step in discovering the true brilliance of [Lord’s Blessing].”

Shainaq lifted one of his hands and enveloped his palm in a blazing flare. Looking at Shainaq’s hand produce fire out of seemingly nowhere, Aki’s eyes shined with excitement and expectation.

It was true that the student’s manipulative ability was prodigious even among the upper strata of society, however, they were severely lacking in the two most important aspects, time and experience, and the only way to make up for the lost time and experience was to involve themselves in actual combat.

According to Shainaq, in terms of power level, the students could be said to be just a little weaker than the average North Gliblician foot soldier. However, it should be noted that they’ve had only one month worth of training, in retrospect, training after enlisting in the army takes a minimum of three years worth of time, and that’s for the lowest level soldiers. Also, all the military combatants can transform [Lord’s Blessing] into their desired form and use it in live warfare.

“Shainaq!”

Masahiko raised his voice from the back of the crowd.

“Yes?”

“How are we going to train in the forest?”

“Oh, yeah, about that, we will be battling against ‘animals’, and strive to eliminate as many of them as we can.”

“What!?”

A girl from the 'outsider' group squealed in English. Looking over, Aki recognized her, her parents operated an animal welfare organization that had a considerable influence all over America, Europe, and Asia.

“Well… You see… There is no animal welfare act or any of the sort in our world. On the contrary, the elimination of animals is appreciated and is an actual profession, which comes under the ‘Mercenary’ division. The people who eliminate animals and use their remains in exchange for money are called ‘Hunters’. I have explained this to you guys before, but allow me to emphasize this aspect again.”

“The ones capable of manipulating [Lord’s Blessing] are not restricted to Humans. The animals, birds, reptiles, or any living organism for that matter can tap into the power of [Lord’s Blessing] and make the power it’s own. The animals, being closer to nature than humans, have a better aptitude for [Lord’s Blessing] and use it for self-defense and hunting as an instinct. Having said that, most of the animals are only capable of manipulating [Lord’s Blessing], but there are some ferocious ones which have advanced and are capable of transforming and utilizing [Lord’s Blessing] in ways which even surprises the human race. For example, there is a race of snakes called ‘Yymir’, and the venom it spits has the trait to explode when it comes in contact with any material having a higher temperature than its body temperature.”

Silence enveloped the gathering. Shainaq wryly smiled and said.

“You don’t have to worry, I will accompany you and make sure to properly instruct you on how to fight the animals inhabiting the forest. Since there is no time to familiarize yourself with a weapon of your choice, we will go with swords. You can choose a weapon and combat technique of your choice after we reach the capital, so, for now, please make do with the swords provided.”

...

The students were assembled in the huge garden of the mansion, twenty Mufads stood in front of the students, five of which were reserved for the luggage. Even though Mufad were abundant in number, they were very hard to sustain, and as such, the class couldn’t take any more of them.

Mufad is a species that usually uses [Lord’s Blessing] to strengthen its legs and back, making it an ideal species for transportation and warfare.

“We will depart in thirty minutes, please familiarize yourself with your choice of Mufaad since there won’t be any soldiers to help you get through this journey. There was originally a proposal to bring twenty soldiers as escorts, however, it was revoked in consideration of the training.”

Instructing them, Shainaq made his way over to the main building to take care of some matters.

Aki and Vinayak had already handed over their luggage to one of the maids, or ‘pemali’, as they were called in the local language. When translated, ‘pemali’ would mean ‘a female commoner who works as a slave’, but the students referred to them as ‘maids’, because, well, culture. ‘Pemala’ was the male variant of ‘pemali’, which meant, ‘a male commoner who works as a slave’, these were the men dressed in black and always assisted the students in a time of need.

“Go. Father will be here looking over you."

Aki patted Vinayak’s shoulder and said in an encouraging tone. Vinayak bitterly smiled but still headed over to the quartet of girls standing about twenty meters away from them.

...

“Look. Here he arrives.”

“Ara~ So bold~ He sure is a brave guy, huh?”

“Fufufu~ Akio-chan, Misaki-chan, let’s not bother Umi-chan…”

“Nikki~! You are the best~!”

Umi jumped and squeezed Nikki tightly from back.

“Kyaa~~~!!!”

“Haha~ Sorry, my hand slipped.”

“I can understand ‘slipping’! But the ‘squeezing’ was definitely intentional.”

Nikki fumed and puffed her cheeks in an adorable fashion. If students of Mekhangham Academy were to be asked to vote for the most beautiful girl in the school, the votes would be distributed three-way, Shishidou Chisa, Ayuzawa Akio, and Ohori Umi. However, if they were asked to vote for the most adorable and angel-like girl in the school, all the students would vote for Manaha Nikki, without exception. This went to show you just how much of an angel Nikki was. A kind, honest, gentle, adorable, and lovable girl, that’s who Nikki was, a person whose smile could comfort even the most depressed.

“Sorry~ Sorry~”

“So? What will you do?”

Misaki asked with a deadpan voice.

“I… will accept his invitation…”

“Huh? If you are doing this so Muranaka and I could be together, you don’t have to do it! Just be hone-”

“Akio… That’s not it… I understood after that conversation we had… But I never really resented Khavare-kun, on the contrary, I have quite a good impression of him… It was just that my family was planning to select a fiancee for me immediately after graduating, they wanted me to marry into an influential family for political reasons… So I closed off my heart and never looked at any boy like that… However, now I am free… My family doesn’t have a leash on me anymore, they just can’t tug and stop me from doing what I want anymore…”

Her words had a hidden sense of relief accompanying them, which somehow alleviated the morale of the other three girls.

“I am cheering for you.”

Nikki said with a motherly smile.

“Thank you, Nikki.”

“Make sure he doesn’t get to look at other women, okay?”

Misaki said while chuckling. Who among these four was unaware of Vinayak’s perverted nature?

“Yeah, that guy is a perverted gentleman, make sure to not let him out of your sight…”

Umi giggled at her best friend’s accurate interpretation of Vinayak’s character.

“… Umi, I will always be with you.”

Akio said with an affectionate look. She was happy that her best friend finally came around to open her heart in front of them.

“Also, don’t make him suffer too much, okay? Poor guy has been earnestly trying for over a year, do be gentle with him.”

As Misaki said this and smiled, the other three laughed heartily.

“Uh… I apologize for the interruption, but can I borrow Ohori-san for a second?”

“Yes~”

Nikki replied with a smile while Misaki looked at Vinayak and Umi with unfiltered interest.

“Then… If you don’t mind.”

Vinayak beckoned Umi with his arm, to which, Umi replied with a faint smile.

“Sure.”

Akio silently watched as Vinayak and Umi walked off, both maintaining an awkward distance between them.

If she is going to sit with Khavare-kun, then I should ask Muranaka to sit with me, I don’t think he’ll refuse.

...

“Let’s go!”

With Shainaq’s cry as the signal, the students moved towards the capital of North Gliblici, Rahan.