Maydare Volume 1 Chapter 9 - Potions Class Field Training II (Part 1)

 Makia reunites with a certain someone who is acting pretty weird to say the least

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I was speechless for a while, my face frozen in shock.

“You, is there...something wrong? You don’t look so good.”

“Ah…”

The girl calling herself Airi called out to me. With that, I could finally breathe.

Even though she was tied up, the soft look of concern for me in her eyes was exactly the same as it was back then.

“Maybe you’re feeling sick?”

“N-no, I’m...fine…”

Nero and Frey tilted their heads with strange looks at my meek face.

...I mean, what? What’s going on? 

This was my classmate from my previous life, Tanaka-san?

Tanaka-san...weren’t we killed together on the roof that day…?

However, this didn’t seem like a rebirth like me, but rather, the Tanaka-san of that time herself.

Also, she doesn’t realize that I was her former friend, “Oda.”

I wonder if I should reveal my previous life and say something like, “It’s been a long time…”

No, even though I had my past life memories, I was already a completely different person. It would only add chaos to an already chaotic situation. I’d better not do that.

“Anyways, if you’re kidnapped, you might as well run now. I’ll untie you.”

Having said something respectable, Frey took out a dagger from his inside jacket pocket and tried to cut the ropes that bound Tanaka-san, but it seemed that they couldn’t be cut easily because a strong binding magic was cast on it.

But Tanaka-san was as laid-back as ever.

“Don’t be reckless. It’s okay. My ‘knights’ will be here soon to save me.”

“Knights?”

“Officially, they’re called ‘Guardians’, but...it’s because I’m the ‘Savior’ who was summoned into this world.”

My heart skipped a beat at those words. Did this girl just call herself the Savior?

“You guys should be the ones to get out of here quickly. When the villains come back, the side characters are the first to get killed.”

“Villains…?”

“Side characters?”

“There are many who want to take advantage of the Savior’s special powers, and many enemies who fear those special powers. Well, stories always come with villains, and the hero is expected to get kidnapped, so there’s nothing you can do about it. My first maid was also an assassin...it’s a common development. It’s important for a story to have ups and downs.”

“...”

We were taken aback by Tanaka-san’s words. We couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

“Come on, get out of here. If you’re with me, you guys will be the ones they come after. And don’t worry, protagonists like me don’t die to begin with.”

Tanaka-san smiled, urging only us to escape.

It had been bothering me quite a lot since a while ago, but she seemed to think of this world as if it was some kind of “story.”

And, she seemed to be convinced that she was the “protagonist” of this so-called story.

It was true that Tanaka-san had always had this sort of tendency to daydream.

She loved books and manga, and was even writing her own novel. It was a story about an ordinary Japanese girl who was summoned to another world, where she found her place and fulfilled her special role.

She wanted to be someone’s special existence. The real world was boring.

As she told me that she wanted to go somewhere far away, to the world of stories…

“I know what’s going to happen next. It’s a traditional development for a story. When the protagonist is in trouble, the knight will definitely come running. I’m waiting for that.”

“H-hold on a second…!”

I panicked. It was a little scary that she was convinced that she was the protagonist of a story.

“No, Tana...Miss Airi! This world, Maydare, is not a world of ‘stories.’”

“Huh…?”

“There’s no such thing as ‘it will definitely turn out this way.’ Your Guardians might not be able to find you here. That’s why you have to escape right now!”

I implored her, but her expression immediately turned cold.

It was an expression I had never seen before on Tanaka-san’s face.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t think a Side Character C would say something like that...Could you be…”

My heart skipped a beat. No way, was my true identity exposed?

Tanaka-san’s eyes were searching me. I felt like there was a sharpness in them that was quite different from how they used to be.

It was at that moment.

The door opened violently, and with the thumping of footsteps, men in black masks covering their eyes rushed in.

And then, the three of us were seized and pinned down to the floor.

“Who the hell are you brats! Did you break the lock spell and come in here!?”

“Oi, they’re Lune Ruschia students.”

These were probably the bad men who kidnapped Tanaka-san...no, Miss Airi. 

They were wearing black masks, but I could tell that they were in a great panic.

“Take their weapons and tie them up.”

At the command of the man who seemed to be the leader of the group, our rings and tools were taken away from us, and we were tied up with ropes, just like Miss Airi.

“What should we do with them?”

“Gag them and turn them over for now. They’re first-years. If they can’t chant incantations, they can’t do anything.”

Then a piece of cloth was wrapped around our mouths and we were roughly rolled around the place. The leader man took out a gun from his breast pocket and pointed it at Miss Airi, not caring about us at all. 

“This is a weapon from a foreign country.”

He said with a sneer on his face.

“Well then, my lovely Savior. If you accept our proposal, you will not be inconvenienced any further. However, if you don’t accept it, then you’re just a hindrance. Please consider your life forfeit.”

“As I told you over and over, I will not do what you terrorists say. Trying to make me abandon the duty of the Savior…!”

“Shut up, brat!”

The leader man was enraged and reflexively shot his gun. It grazed Miss Airi’s sidelocks and pierced through the wall behind her.

But Miss Airi didn’t move. Her strong-willed eyes irritated the man more and more.

“What Savior! I don’t believe in people from other worlds in the first place! We can’t leave this country under the care of a king who clings to some suspicious legend…!”

The man kicked an old chair, and it slid to us who were obediently in the corner. His gaze slowly moved towards us.

“I see. Right...let’s kill the students there one by one. That should change our kind Savior’s opinion.”

“!?”

Oh no. At this rate, we would be killed one by one like side characters, just as Miss Airi said. We had no rings, our mouths were sealed, and we couldn’t use any magic worth mentioning.

The leader man first looked down at me, the weakest-looking girl in the group, his frame hanging over me. It was to strike fear into the other person.

But I pretended to be afraid of the man’s gaze and looked away, making brief eye contact with Nero next to me.

“Beautiful young lady, what is a student of Lune Ruschia doing in a place like this?”

“...”

“Now, how shall I kill you. I think it should be painful and brutal enough to break the heart of an impertinent girl from another world. Poor thing, because you came to this place…”

While thrusting the gun into my chest, the man’s other hand touched my cheek.

An ordinary girl would be terrified enough to cry, but I was actually waiting for this moment.

Because, my skin was…

“Gyaaaaah!”

The man suddenly screamed and immediately withdrew his hand, twisting his body in pain.

“My hand, my hand…!!”

His fingertips were horribly burned, and there was dark smoke rising from them.

I was blessed by【Fire】. When I got excited, my skin became hot enough to burn.

Lately, I’ve been able to control this power more and more, so I can also consciously burn anything that touched me.

The man was indignant as he looked at me again with his face twisted in pain.

“What the hell did you do? What is this——!?”

But I was looking up at him too. Thanks to the high-quality Pon eye drops, my witch’s eyes were tinged with a much more conspicuous magical power.

As though he was being glared at by a snake, the man stiffened.

Right after that, the ropes that bound us were removed. When the enemy was distracted and there was an opening, Nero broke the rope’s binding spell. Frey kicked off against the wall next to him, retrieved our tools that were quickly taken by the enemy, and threw my ring to me. 

I caught it, took off the cloth that bound my mouth, and bared my teeth into a grin.

And then I chanted a magic incantation.

“Mel vis makia——Ropes, rampage!”

I used the ropes that bound us, made them dance violently, and hit the enemy like whips.

“Uwaaaah!”

The enemy men curled up their bodies at this attack, now unable to do anything except for protecting themselves.

“Gyaah, are you gonna whip us too!?”

“I said I was sorry, Frey. I just can’t control it finely.”

Since Nero cast a protective wall magic, our bodies were protected from the attack as we headed for Miss Airi who was alongside the wall. Nero had already untied her ropes.

“Let’s go, Miss Airi. We can’t stay here.”

“But…”

“Nobody’s going to find this place unless we do something ourselves!”

“...”

Miss Airi looked like she wanted to say something, but she sighed and followed us, perhaps thinking that her knights won’t be able to rescue her splendidly in such a chaotic situation. 

“Hurry! The protective wall magic is going to wear off soon.”

At Nero’s call, we hurriedly left the hut.

And then we ran and ran and ran, and escaped. While still having no idea where we were, or who were those guys.  

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