The class trial
Meanwhile, in the other world, the class lead by Tenjouin Hikaru was undergoing a certain trial.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!”
In the usual practice hall of the castle, Tenjouin was swinging his sword, alone. He was sweating from his forehead and crudely breathing
He was swinging that sword for a long while
For Tenjouin who doesn’t usually sweat while training, anyone who’d see him in that state would realize that he hasn’t been swinging his sword for only a short period
At that time, There was one person who was gazing at him with eyes full of concern.
“Tenjouin-kun…”
“… Miki.”
Tendou Miki who was watching Tenjouin a while until now, approached him. Tenjouin stopped swinging his sword and casted his eyes down.
“So you’re still worried about it?”
Hearing Miki’s concerned question, Tenjouin silently nodded.
What she meant was the incident that occurred four months ago.
One of their classmates had died.
Her name was Mitaka Ren.
She was a normal highschool girl with no outstanding traits.
She had average abilities and a considerable number of friends. Just like most of the class students.
Her only special characteristic was that she was a huge anime fan.
This truth was revealed only after she died, so it didn’t matter all that much.
“If I… If only I was watching out for her and everyone else…!!”
With a vexed expression, Tenjouin tightly seized his sword.
Ren’s cause of death was a dungeon trap.
When they were in their second dungeon exploration, she got caught into one of its traps and went out of sight.
According to the knights who were following her, she fell into a teleportation type trap that teleports its target to a random place unknown to everyone. Even detecting her position was impossible.
All that can be said about the incident was that Ren wasn’t very lucky.
Naturally, all of her classmates went to look for her, However, they got stopped by the knights from doing so.
The reason was that the dungeon was still yet to be completely dominated.
There was no way they could even tell how many floors it comprised. That’s why it was out of question they could let their precious Heros delve inside it.
“She can’t be rescued.” that was the sentence that each one of the knights stated.
“If I was stronger, such a thing wouldn’t have happened!”
“That’s not true! You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Desperately, Miki tried comforting Tenjouin who was blaming himself.
Tenjouin was the class’s center; more like a leader existence for his classmates.
His awareness of that fact emphasized the sense of responsibility that was seizing his heart.
“At that time I finally understood that this world is not a game.”
Tenjouin uttered, with a face that had attained a conclusion.
The first death after coming to this world.
That truth reached the class with a considerable shock along.
Everyone started shutting themselves inside their rooms, falling in deep thoughts.
All of them were unconsciously taking themselves as the strongest heroes who don’t lose. That’s why death was unthinkable for them.
Once they realized that was not the case, they ended up in this situation.
“I mean, I killed people too…”
Muttered Tenjouin as he gazed at the sky.
He already experienced killing people when he participated in the thief’s annihilation quest.
Once the idea that he could end up the same way as those thieves reached his mind, his body started to tremble.
Although he killed countless people, he doesn’t want to be murdered.
Such an inconsistent desire.
“Tenjouin-kun……”
Miki didn’t know how to respond to Tenjouin who was fixing his gaze on the sky and muttering alone. Her beloved person is facing a problem in front of her eyes. Miki wanted to help him as soon as possible. She wanted to become his support.
But she couldn’t find the right words to comfort him.
She refrained from saying irresponsible replies like” it will be okay” and remained watching him fighting against his sense of duty.
I want to do something for him.
As she held that wish in heart, another person showed up and approached them.
“Tenjouin-sama.”
“Princess…”
With a serious expression, Lurian walked slowly towards Tenjouin and said as she looked at him in the eyes.
“You are not strong, Tenjouin-sama.”
“Eh?”
That was the first thing the princess abruptly said.
Tenjouin clearly couldn’t grasp what she meant, but lurian didn’t stop there and continued.
“Tenjouin-sama, you are indeed the leader of our heroes and you always do your best in the foremost line. You always work harder than everyone else but still consider your surroundings. I think that is something wonderful. However, that doesn’t have anything to do with strength. Tenjouin-sama, what do you have to do right now?”
“What I have to do…”
Almost as if he was entranced by lurian’s words, Tenjouin repeated them in a low voice.
“What you need to do now is not practicing alone. That is because until now, you were not fighting alone.”
Lurian gently held Tenjouin’s hand and smiled.
“I think you already understand what I am trying to say.”
“Princess… !! Yes, I need to go!!”
Comprehending what Lurian was trying to convey, Tenjouin ran to the castle where his classmates were at.
His face didn’t show a sign of hesitation anymore; it was his usual expression.
With this, everything should be alright.
Lurian said to herself as she watched him run to the castle.
But at the time when Lurian was smiling in satisfaction, Miki, next to her was making a confused face.
“How long were you watching?”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
Lurian replied to Miki who was staring at her in an obvious way.
Normally, she should at least give her a word of thanks for what she did, however, Miki couldn’t do that.
Tenjouin who was drowning in his depressing thoughts didn’t notice anything, but Miki did.
The timing when Lurian showed up was too good.
She was definitely hiding and watching him like Miki.
But that is fine. There was no problem if it was only to that level.
After all, she gave Tenjouin the hope he needed while Miki couldn’t help him out.
At that point, Miki was indeed thankful to her.
There was one thing she couldn’t find consisting.
“Did you have to hold his hand?”
That one thing was the fact that she held his hand.
“Yes, it was necessary to grant him peace of mind.”
Lurian answered while looking at her hand. That was clearly her principal aim.
Miki who already realized that felt a bit irritated, but at the end, she gave up with a sigh.
“Well, whatever. At least you brought him back to usual.”
Miki knew well that she didn’t have the right to complain. That’s why she decided to give her a word of thanks instead of feeling irritated about what happened.
“Thank you, Luri.”
“You’re welcome, Miki.”
They looked at each other and laughed.
Despite all, these two are close friends who call each others by first names.
Maybe it was because they have the same crush.
After that, the both of them followed Tenjouin to the castle, running.
4 months after the class summoning. The class lead by Tenjouin had overcome yet another challenging trial, getting another step closer to the day of the demon lord subjugation.
—————————————————————————————
Bonus
Stalker?
“How long were you watching, really.”
“As long as you were watching him too.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“… Tenjouin-kun was swinging that sword for a long while.”
“Yes, I didn’t expect he would keep swinging it from this morning until now.”
“You were watching him from this morning!”
