Let's try not getting ourselves killed. (part 3)

// The Protagonist finally makes an appearance. //

Location: Academy Park

Time: Evening 12:00am.

As Tori was on her way to meet Baster she was soon called out by an unfamiliar voice.

“Hey, little girl!” Tori felt agitated being called little but given she was still 12, she tolerated it.

She turns towards the direction where she was called out to and saw a young man with a floating golem beside him. He had brown hair and brown eyes a very common look that wasn’t too daunting nor attractive his stature and height were bigger than her taking in consideration of the difference in age.

He had a confident expression in his face as he then asked her…

“Your alone today?

Where did your sister go?” he asks.

Tori was puzzled by his question, She asks.

 

“uhh…. Who are you again?”

He then displayed a shocked expression as he then said.

“How cruel of you…

We only met two days ago in the entrance ceremony of the academy and you already forgot about me.”

Tori made a pause and tried to recall it.

After a few moments…

. . . .

“Ah, your that crazy guy who was trying to hit on us....”

 

His expression brightens when she recalled him...

 

Despite being scowled by many of the students.

There was only one guy who approached them in a friendly manner.

Tori and Talie described him as either crazy or stupid.

For not completely reading the mood of those around him.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.

But why exactly are you walking on your own, today?”

She then said in reply.

“I’m on my way to meet my step-brother actually…

My sister did something on her own so she’s not present at the moment.”

He then displayed a bit of confusion as she said those words.

“Uhm… which one are you?  Talie or is it, Tori...”

Tori then said in retort and amusement. “You're asking that now?”

“Well you two look extremely alike, 
Even the other students find it difficult calling either of you...”

Tori and Talie wore a matching style of hair where they tied it up and placed it close to their front shoulders as it expresses a gentle yet calm look.

Their intention was...

”That’s the point… to confuse them.”

 

He then showed a surprised expression and asked. “Why?”

“You do realize which family we came from?” she shrugged.

he nods.

“Yeah, the BlackRose Family.”

“Then you are aware of the incident 3 years ago?”

“Yeah, I was actually present during that incident. 
Though, there are odd rumors about your family planning that whole thing in an attempt to remove competition by reducing the heirs.”

“You….

You're not the least bit angry or afraid of us?
 Despite hearing all that?”

He puffed his chest and showed a confident smile.

“Of course not, because all of that is complete non-sense…” 
Tori flinched as he said those words.

“Why do you think that is!?” Tori desperately asked in surprise.

“Because there’s no way your own family would be crazy enough to put their own children at risk like that… 

I mean...

If someone thinks about it.

Wouldn't it be dumb to actually do such a thing?

Not to mention the amount of backlash from it is abhorrent enough.”

 

Tori retorts.

”Your not the least bit suspicious of us,

Even with the fact that only three of us remained unscathed?
 I find it quite difficult to believe.” 

He then coughed a bit and displayed a firm yet confident smile.

Then he asked.

“You two are 12 years old right?”

“Yes…”

“It was explained to most nobles that Talie was able to use magic at the age of 9.”

 

“That’s true.”

“This academy usually takes in students at the age of 14-15.

when they are able to use an ark seal multiple times without exhausting themselves in a single-use.

It is a strict rule of the academy to have them trained in this place to become reliable explorers or to discover their own talent.

Due to the difficult events, they put up...

They personally choose who is capable of handling it before allowing them to join.

To make it fair and give the others a fighting chance."

Tori nods as he continued...

"But the fact that you guys came here at such a young age of 12.

 

Is evidence enough that you two are rare talents that showed them something that can break that barrier."

"Such as…” Tori asked.as she gave him a wry smile…  Then answered.

“Showing them exceptional magic that surprised them enough to earn yourselves to be in this place.

Something that your fellow classmate of the same age could never perform.

 

Like performing magic without an Ark-Seal.” 

 

". . ."

Tori went silent, his analysis was spot on.

She couldn’t deny it.

Everything he had said was a fact.

 

He then whispered to her.

“Let me show you something.”

He then turned his shoulders towards her and pulled his uniform to show her an injury he received from the incident.

A deep and long scar with burn marks around it.

“This is the wound I received during the incident.

My vision was blurry at the time but I couldn’t see it properly.

But…

I saw three figures standing where the prince stood. 

 

After hearing the voice of a young girl shout.

 

 Suddenly, a beautiful light that seemed like a canvas came out from where they stood.

Then I felt like I was embraced by its light as the pain in my head and body started to become numb. 

The feeling of being healed.

Sadly, I couldn’t keep myself awake at the time and fell asleep for some reason.

 

But there was one thing I could never forget...

The voice of the girl during that day 3 years ago.

That same voice I am hearing now..."

 

Tori paled as he heard it from him.
He then approached in aggression as she slowly walked a few steps back as he spoke.

" I can garner a guess that you were responsible for the strange light that saved everyone.”

Tori's expression darkened, she was feeling stomach cramps from hearing it.

As she tries to find an excuse to escape.

"I-"

The young man, of course, didn’t fail to notice it and presses further as he advanced toward the young girl helplessly being cornered.

 

“So, was everything I've said correct?

That you were the one who did it?

The person they call the missing Saint.”

Tori tried to use her best poker face,

Tori’s Exe.has stopped responding.
TORI.EXE HAS STOPPED RESPONDING! 

"i..." her mouth was trembling.

As she was about to try and deny it a voice familiar voice.
Then came from the distance beside them.

“Oi!?, Tori!

Where have you been!”  his annoyed expression was written on his face.

Tori then cried out his name. “Big Brother!(Onii-chan!)” as she ran towards him with a wide hug.

As she gripped Baster’s clothes and restored her composure,

She then turned to the young man and spoke in quick succession as she bowed to him.

 

“I’m deeply sorry, but I fear you mistook me for someone else.

There’s no way a 9-year-old like me, could possibly use such powerful magic.

 

Surely even you can understand that no child is capable of doing such a thing!”

She denied it whole-heartedly.

 

Baster was confused as he then turned towards the young man with a shocked expression on his face.

He then noticed the golem and took a deep breath.

[This man…

Isn’t he the protagonist!?

What is he doing here with Tori?]

“Ah… such a shame then….”

He then politely bowed to greet Baster.

“You must be Baster. I’ve heard about your family circumstances.

If you don't mind, don't hesitate to ask me for help. Well then, I'll be off now...” he politely said.
Then turned his eyes to Tori and gave her a wink.

 

After that, he left the scene...

Tori was holding Baster’s arm as it shook from pressure…
She deeply gave a deep sigh of relief as he went away.

 

Baster then asked.

 

“What the heck happened!?”

Tori replied. “Let’s talk about it when Talie is here…”

She said while holding her chest as she still felt it beat like a drum from panic.

___________________________________________________________________

Baster's Pov:

In the story, there are two protagonist.

Milim Welt and Fenris Welt.

The player gets to choose which among them is the main character.

Their appearance was completely different from one another.

But in this world there are two of them.

The two protagonists always have a golem with them that provide information, assistance in combat and many more that made their lives easier from their day to day lives.  It was the assistant in the game that gave you a lot of options to do...

Where did they get such a convenient tool?

Because both of them came from a family of Magi-Artisans.

Special craftsmen capable of creating a mixture of magic and technology and those golem they both have are the latest AI ARC-TECH they have ever developed.

Those robots are basically the most reliable cheat in the game I wish I started out with...

It has most of the functions of your daily necessity in life.

Alarm, Combat, Cleaning, even scouting for information.

They also have a lot of upgrades available that makes them even better than they already are...

But that would require investigating ruins to find lost tech that utilized these machines...

 *Sigh* Too bad I don't have one
 I would have rushed to obtain the upgrades for myself.

As for the protagonist skills it can be summed up in multiple forms.

They can go long-range, mid-range and even close combat based on what they have trained for...

With the AI assistance,
they can fight in melee while firing a floating rifle controlled and manipulated by the AI.

Or have them control swords instead to make more than one swing whilst attacking with the floating weapons.

but it does have downsides.

 

Constantly using it, drains energy which causes it to become disabled throughout the fight.
But that doesn't change the fact that they are extremely useful while active.

Not to mention the protagonists are capable of using any of the elements.

Curse you, lucky protagonists...

And your broken characters suited for gamers to abuse.

But that's not the problem right now...

 Right now...

 Tori is feeling a bit dispirited for some reason...

 "Hey, Tori... Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

 

 "When Talie is present. I don't want to explain myself twice."

[Well that is true...

It doesn't seem to be a topic she wants to talk about twice.]

Tori then asked to change the topic.

"Where exactly are we going?"

"Where else..." Baster gave her smile.

...

...

...

"These... these are..."

As she took a small bite into the food as the sweet taste enveloped her tongue a cold freezing sensation can be felt as she touched her head as it ached in delight.

"Ice cream...

I figured you haven't tasted anything like this.

Truthfully, I wanted to show this place to talie too.

But where did she go exactly?"

Tori shrugged...

"She suddenly left without telling me anything about it.

That person is full of mischief, but when she does them.

It's very doubtful she let herself get caught."

Baster replies, "As expected of a former thief."  Tori nods in reply.

___________________________________________________________________

// The protagonist Pov (Male), //

The incident 3 years ago...

On that day, everything went in flames.

An incident that unfortunately killed youths.

It was also the day a miracle occurred that powerful healing magic spreads from the citadel.

While also said to reach towards the outer city causing the flowers and plants to grow faster and bloom.

But, I know what I saw back there...
 After that explosion...
 Everything was Blurry.
My sister was injured the same way as I am but we were fortunate enough to not be... 
To close to the prince when he made an appearance. 
But as for what I heard and saw...

It was something I would never forget.
 A voice of a young girl cried out these words.

 

「Mend the soul, the body and the mind in the name of your Lord!」
「Come Forth and Bring us your Blessings!」
「Seraphim!」

  Only one of my ears were working properly while the other side ached in pain.
My vision was blurry but it slowly recovered,

As I gazed at the light and tried to stand...

My numb arm soon ached in pain as I soon realized too late... that it was in terrible shape.

A deep cut and a burn wound as I fell down again.

While on the ground I moved my head and gazed at my surroundings,

I then saw a young girl.

She had green hair and green eyes.

Moving around the place, checking on everyone.

I thought she was going to heal me but...

Oddly, did she just went for my pockets?

In the middle of a crisis like this? What was she doing...

She then gazed at me then said.

"Oops."

She reached her hand to my head and I suddenly felt sleepy all of a sudden.

When I woke up,
the medics were already working,
checking up on everybody.

 

As they scanned my body using magic.

They soon found a piece of metal lodged deeply into my arm as I felt it ache as I moved it.

The doctors had no choice but to cut my arm open again and remove it.

But still, what a strange dream that was...

After three years, that odd dream suddenly came into a reality.

During my class, two girls with green hair a pair coupled with emerald eyes suddenly joined...

Was it a dream? I pinched myself, but I felt a sudden tug of pain.

Then they spoke and introduced themselves.

 

「uhm, Good morning.」

『Good morning. 』

「My name is Tori. 」

『And my name is Talie』

 

『Together, we are the twins of the BlackRose family!」

 

As soon as they introduced themselves like some kind of circus performance.

Everyone had angry, murderous expressions in their faces.

Some broke their pencils and others scowled to no end.

As for myself, their voice was something very familiar that caught my attention.

 

I wasn't very sure of it yet...

But I had to speak to them again.

 

"Hello, cuties."

I tried to greet them during lunch break, everyone still scowled at them but I paid it no mind...

Then two displayed a shocked expression.

"Can I join you guys?" he asked.

One of them giggled but the other gave a wry smile.

But then food flew towards the two girls as one of them used an ark-seal to shield us from it.
A black shell that I have never seen before came out from it.

Then one of them spoke.

『Are you seriously hitting on us?』 the young girl asked.

Her voice I definitely heard it before, it was on the tip of my tongue.

The other girl then said with a worried expression on her face.

『Please stop, everyone might hate you if you try to mingle with us.

This will only end poorly with you if you get drawn into our problems.

 

Let us pretend we never had this conversation.』

 

It was a cruel rejection yet at the same time a kind one.

 

Both of them bowed and swiftly fled...

"Ah..." I tried to reach out to them.

But I could only sigh.

Other student's reactions to me, was like.

"What is wrong with him?"

"Did he just try to befriend those monsters?"

"What an idiot, he got dumped so fast.
That's what he gets for being cocky."

To me, that didn't peculiarly matter...

But what is up with these distorted views.

I soon had AL my golem do research on what is happening around them...

After data was gathered AL gave me the result of his work within a day.

It then spoke in a robotic tone.
*Master, these girls are apparently in debt.

Somehow they survived despite the constant harassment of the pirates on their airship but if this continues on...

They will undoubtedly sink...*

 

"How much is their debt now?"

 

*It is 1/4th of devouring their island.
I believe they have at least 3 to 4 weeks left.*

 

It was then I decided to lend them a hand if I could...