ED: Thankfully, this chapter didn’t require me to double-check something in my notes, the Internet, a dictionary, thesaurus, etc. every other line, so I managed to do most of it on my phone. There’s still part 3 coming.
Translator: Rihn
Editor: Zioming
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Short Story 8: What Went on Behind the Scenes as the War Began (Bottom)
Author’s Note: In a way, it’s a story about Jin’s past.
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Including me, Shippouin-senpai and Igarashi-senpai, there are currently 17 women living in this mansion, and although we belong to different school grades, classes and after-school clubs, we all act together as comrades. What exactly do I mean by ‘comrades’? Simply put, we are all people who call themselves ‘followers of Shindou Jin’. (ED: They should call it Jinto)
Back in our home world, every single one of us has been saved by Shindou-sama at one point or another. When we were tormented by overwhelming despair, fear and pain, Shindou-sama randomly swooped in and saved us without much effort. Is it any wonder then that our overflowing gratitude has transcended love and reached the level of devotion?
And as a result, it wasn’t that hard for the 17 of us to find each other. Basically, if there was someone else who also looked at Shindou-sama with something more than love in their eyes during the school appeal, there was a 100% chance they were one of us…
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Let me tell you a story about how this one girl was saved by Shindou-sama. …It’s pretty obvious at this point, so I guess there’s no point in hiding the fact that it was past me
When I was in middle school, I was poor to the point of not being able to afford my daily school necessities. It’s not that uncommon of a story, really. In short, the company run by my parents was on the verge of bankruptcy, so we were saddled with debt and forced to live in extreme poverty.
And when there’s only a single poor person around, an interesting concentration of what one would call malice appears. Naturally, what I mean by that is that I was bullied in class.
Looking back at those days now, I still think things were pretty rough back then. Like, do you know just how stinky an old rag used to wipe milk off the floor can really get?
My spirit was slowly worn out by poverty and abuse, until I finally ran out of the will to keep on living. One day after class, I found myself having already climbed over the rooftop fence and getting ready to jump.
Without thinking much, I let go.
But I didn’t die. By chance, and I really do mean, by an astronomical chance, Shindou-sama, who happened to be on the floor below, noticed me jump.
“Woah!?”
“Kyaa!”
He grabbed me by the legs through an open window as I fell down. Oh, and by the way, my scream back there was the result of my skirt flipping up, and something that shouldn’t be shown in public being suddenly put into full view. My underwear, you see, …had gone missing after swimming class.
Shindou-sama pulled me up and calmed me down as I began to cry, and he patiently listened to my story. When my stomach growled loudly because my lunch that day hadn’t been enough for me, he gave me an unopened sweet bread roll that he had in his backpack. “My childhood friend gave me an extra one, so I had some left over,” he said.
After listening to everything I had to say, Shindou-sama scratched his head and said “Well, I guess this is a chance for you to start anew.” and handed me a piece of paper. A piece of paper that is commonly known as a lottery ticket.
He said he got it from an acquaintance of his, and that he was looking for a chance to give it away. I later learned that Shindou-sama generally avoided playing lotteries that involved cash prizes, because he would always win in games of chance. In other words, he didn’t want to take away everyone else’s potential winnings. Who in the world thinks like that?
He said that, rather than just winning the lottery himself, he decided to tie the ticket to a balloon and send it flying somewhere. Shindou-sama sometimes does childish mischievous things like that without a single care. And so, when he opened the school window to let the balloon fly out, I came flying by instead. Just how many coincidences had to come together in order to make such a thing happen? Even thinking about it now, I still can’t wrap my head around it.
They sent me home early, and, starting from the next day, I took a break from school for a while. Then, on the day of the lottery, the lottery ticket I received naturally let me obtain the grand prize. But I understand now, that what I received from Shindou-sama was much more than just a prize in some random lottery. Suddenly, business at my parents’ company picked up and our lives began to improve overall. It was as if the goddess of fortune had suddenly smiled upon me thanks to my involvement with Shindou-sama.
As a result, it did not take me long to become a follower, once I had a chance to calmly look back on all that had happened.
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And something similar can be said for all our comrades.
For example, when Shippouin-senpai was in elementary school, she was kidnapped because she’s a daughter of a business group’s president. After obtaining the ransom, the kidnappers tried to kill her in order to tie up loose ends, but the very moment the man’s blade drew close to Shippouin-senpai, Shindou-sama came crashing through the roof above, knocking the blade away and KO’ing her would-be killer in the process.
Apparently, he had been playing on top of the cliff above, when his foot suddenly slipped, causing him to fall all the way down. And the very place where he landed just happened to be on the roof of the very shack the kidnappers were hiding in. What’s more, there was another man present at the time, who proceeded to pull a gun on Shindou-sama, but no matter how many times he pulled the trigger, the gun wouldn’t fire, giving Shindou-sama enough time to throw a rock at him, hitting the man squarely on the head and knocking him out as well. It’s no wonder then that Shippouin-senpai instantly fell in love with Shindou-sama, having witnessed his heroic deeds, and it’s no wonder that she eventually reached the level of a follower as well.
As a side note, the experience of being kidnapped as a child has led Shippouin-senpai to dedicate herself to practising martial arts, and it seems she can now fight, and even take down up to 5 grown men at the same time with just her bare hands. As another side note, right after being saved by Shindou-sama, Shippouin-senpai quit the escalator-style school for young ladies and transferred to the same elementary school Shindou-sama went to. I can’t really blame her, given how I also took the same high school’s entrance exam as Shindou-sama, but she was quite an assertive young lady. Also, Shippouin-senpai talking about that day, with flushed cheeks and a huge smile on her face, sure is a sight to behold, despite the obvious outrageousness of the events described. Please stop. My own story is getting more and more bleak in comparison.
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But the scary thing about Shindou-sama is that, if there’s still some leeway, the coincidences won’t happen. Only if it’s at the very last moment, that you will get involved with him.
After all, if you were to be helped when there’s still leeway, you might be grateful, but you obviously wouldn’t go as far as to become a follower. But if you happened to be saved at the very last possible moment, and in an overly dramatic way at that, there’s just no way your maidenly heart wouldn’t instantly get stolen by him. We understand that, of course, …but the reality of the matter is that once you fall under his charm, there’s just no way to escape. …No, I guess we don’t want to escape to begin with…
And the terrible thing about Shindou-sama is that we can never pay him back. We, who have been captivated by him, have always strived to do something for him, but he never gave us a single chance to do so. Simply put, Shindou-sama is never troubled. And I mean, at all. It’s almost to the point of fate itself not allowing for such a thing to ever happen…
In our home world, we gathered many times to put our minds together and try to come up with something we could do for Shindou-sama, but sadly, to no avail. And since Shindou-sama is never in trouble, we have not been able to have a proper conversation with him ever since he saved us. Even Shippouin-senpai, an assertive young lady she is, has resigned herself to watching him from afar.
…Well, it’s that, and the fact that whenever we try to approach Shindou-sama, we always get intercepted by Mizuhara-senpai… I even heard that Shippouin-senpai tried her best to get rid of her at one point, but it still had no effect. What on earth did Shippouin-senpai try to do? And who is Mizuhara-senpai to be able to just brush her off? It’s all a major mystery. (ED: Mizuhara Saki, a.k.a. Sword Saintess – Shindou Jin’s childhood friend, currently active in Sanokia Kingdom)
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Time flew, and on that fateful day, all the people at our school were summoned to another world at the same time.
That in itself was fine. None of us minded it. If it had just been Shindou-sama’s class that had been summoned, then that would obviously have been a major problem, but since it was the entire school, even the teachers, there was no reason for us to complain. After all, when I later asked all my comrades: “If you could choose between staying in our home world, and following Shindou-sama to this one, which would you pick?”, they all chose the latter without as much as a single complaint.
However, we committed a grave sin on the day we were summoned. The sin of turning hostile against Shindou-sama…
We soon realized that the hostility was unusual. It was simply not plausible for us to harbour hostility toward Shindou-sama while in the right state of mind.
We immediately tried many things, and as a result, we figured out that if we did not look directly at Shindou-sama, we would not feel hostile towards him. The same seemed to be the case if we weren’t standing in a group with other heroes, or we looked at him from a distance.
Soon after, Shindou-sama was kicked out of the royal castle of Eludia Kingdom, but we didn’t know if it would do him any good had we followed him while in that state. Rather, we might have ended up dragging him down because of said hostility instead, so with that in mind, we chose to stay behind, a hard decision, to say the least.
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After that, we gathered as much information about Shindou-sama as we could, while working as heroes. After all, it’s not that difficult to hear news about him. If there’s a major rumour going around about something that isn’t related to heroes, it’s usually related to Shindou-sama instead.
Based on our investigation, it seems that Shindou-sama is active mainly in Kastal Queendom and Estia Kingdom. And there are many rumours that match Shindou-sama’s character to the letter, so it’s almost certain.
“If we go to war with Kastal, in the worst case scenario, we may end up facing Shindou-sama.”
I still remember the day when Shippouin-senpai gathered us all to tell us that Eludia Kingdom was going to wage war against Kastal Queendom, and said those words to us. I remember feeling pretty much dead inside, and even Shippouin-senpai looked pale at the time.
After that, we all discussed different ways to avoid antagonising Shindou-sama ever again, and as a result, we decided to leave Eludia Kingdom, bringing along all the heroes who also opposed the war. We did our best to win over as many people as possible, so that those who remained in Eludia would be in the minority, and in the end, I think we were able to save most of the people who opposed Eludia’s way of doing things. I mean, to begin with, Eludia Kingdom’s destruction was decided the very moment they chose to touch Kastal Queendom, where Shindou-sama is based. There was no reason for them to keep riding a sinking ship.
I don’t know how Shindou-sama feels about heroes in general, but I would like to believe that he does not hold a grudge against them, given how they haven’t all perished just yet. I intend to have the heroes who remained in Eludia Kingdom serve as a test sample to measure Shindou-sama’s response. In that sense, just as Shippouin-senpai has said before, it may have been ‘just right’.
I sincerely hope that Shindou-sama won’t judge all heroes as ‘unnecessary’…
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“Now that the matter of Eludia’s war has been settled, we can all concentrate on our main objective.”
“Yes, Kino-san. After you rest for a while, I would like to ask you to also assist us, if that’s alright with you.”
I nodded quickly, as it was the obvious thing to do. To tell the truth, I don’t even need a break, as I would much rather join them right away.
Right now, more than half of my comrades are on a certain mission. An important mission called ‘The search for a way to discard the heroes’ blessings’.
Back when we were first trying out various things, we felt that the reason for our hostility towards Shindou-sama was almost certainly due to the influence of the blessings. Since then, we conducted various tests trying to confirm it, but the only thing that seems to have changed in us after we came to this world are said blessings, and therefore, we judged them to be the enemy. If we cannot approach Shindou-sama with confidence as long as these blessings exist, it is only natural that we eliminate them.
“According to the information Kino-san has managed to gather, when a hero dies, they emit a kind of a white haze.”
“And when another hero absorbs it, it seems their own blessing gets strengthened.”
I nodded once again. It was an unexpected boon that I was able to obtain that information during my recent mission.
“It is not unlikely that it is the source of the powers granted by the blessings. And if it comes out when you die, …that would mean the blessing itself disappears at that time as well.”
It is a pretty wild theory, but it does seem probable. But it is certainly no easy thing to verify.
“…In the future, it might be a good idea for us to look for ways to resurrect the deceased as our side objective. Since this is a world where magic exists, it is not impossible for such a thing to exist as well.”
“I agree. If it goes well, it might even become something we can present to Shindou-sama. Even if it’s him, I’m sure he ain’t come up with a way to raise the dead just yet.”
Igarashi-senpai said jokingly, but Shippouin-senpai’s expression looked peeved.
“Igarashi-san, let me ask you this: Do you really think that Shindou-sama has not yet reached the realm of resurrecting the deceased? Do you really think that someone as loved by fate as he was, back in our home world, where there was no magic, could not do even that much in a world where magic does exist?”
“…He can probably already do it.”
It certainly seems like he could. No, if it’s Shindou-sama, he can probably do it with ease by now.
“To tell you the truth, I think the best thing to do would be for us to put aside our shame and ask Shindou-sama for forgiveness, and then ask him to erase our blessings. Most likely, Shindou-sama already has multiple ways to accomplish that.”
No matter how ridiculous the story may sound, the mere fact that the other party is Shindou-sama makes the possibility of it not zero. We would know it the best after all.
“Well, it should be possible…”
“But we ought to keep that as our last resort. Right now we have not yet accomplished anything, and we can not bear to act in a way that only puts a burden on Shindou-sama.”
All the girls in the room nodded in agreement. To have my life saved, but give nothing back, and now even cause more trouble for him? I absolutely refuse to do that.
“So, in order to be able to stand in front of Shindou-sama with a pure body, we must destroy the blessings at all costs. Is that clear?”
“”””””Yes!””””””
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Author’s Note: It’s a common ability of people who put all their status points into ‘luck’ to never get hit. At higher levels, they can even get hit without it causing damage to any of their vital organs. You might think it’s better to not get hit to begin with, but I’d argue it takes more luck to be hit and still walk away unscathed. Of course this story was about Jin’s past, so he chose not to be shot at, at all.
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