Vol. 1 - Ch. 9

Volume 1 - Ch. 9; The Former Hero Becomes a Teacher"First priority was to secure the hostages."

I confirmed this by saying it out loud. Even when I was a hero, I had no experience with hostage rescue missions. The Demon King's army never took hostages, so most of our missions were just brute force operations.

I took the stairs down to the 7th floor and headed towards the central hall. Using my detection skills, I avoided being found by wandering members. I never knew heroes were good at undercover investigations.

I chose a room adjacent to the hall and went in. It would have been foolish to enter through the front door of the hall; there seemed to be a security guard there too. I stood in front of the back wall of the room. Behind it was the hall where the hostages were gathered. I timed my magic and activated it.

"Excavation."

In that world, it was a peaceful magic used to dig tunnels. But when I, a hero, used it, it became a siege weapon that could make a huge hole in most structures. With a "boom," a hole was made in the wall, large enough for a person to pass through. Sᴇaʀᴄh the n0vᴇl(ꜰ)ire.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Without a moment's hesitation, I charged into the hall, activating my "Sense Acceleration" and "Fast Movement" skills. The "Sense Acceleration" skill prolonged the time it took to experience the world. By speeding up the senses, everything appeared to move more slowly, as if in slow motion. To avoid slowing down my own movements, I used the "Fast Movement" skill in combination, allowing me to move normally in the slowed-down world.

I looked around the hall. There were eight members of Crimson Twilight, all carrying machine guns. Come on, this is Japan. Several of them fired at me... or rather at the hole. My appearance should have been invisible due to "Optical Camouflage" magic, but they must have sensed something and decided to attack.

Their quick judgment was undoubtedly from training. Bullets the size of my fingertips flew towards me slowly. I dodged the bullets with ease and cast a "restraining" spell on all the members. They all fell down like sticks, frozen in place.

To be honest, I'd killed many bandits in "that world," so I had no hesitation in killing people now. But still, this is Japan. I'd have to think about it for a bit. As time in the world returned to normal, I looked around.

The hostages were seated on the floor in a group in the center of the hall. At a quick glance, Souto did not appear to be among them. Instead, I found two members of "Crimson Twilight" mixed in with the hostages. Such egregious tactics! I restrained the other two with magic. It all happened in just a few seconds.

Reacting to the detection skill, the other members sensed something was wrong and rushed into the hall. Of course, they all stiffened up and dropped to the floor.

Further reaction to the sensor. This was not a member. It was the one-man army, the main character of the movie. I moved to the other end of the hall to see what would happen.

A figure entered through the door of the hall. A small person dressed entirely in black, wearing a balaclava and a headset. He certainly looked like a Special Forces soldier, not someone who just happened to be here.

As soon as he saw his members on the floor, he opened fire without hesitation. Yes, he had a submachine gun, with a rod-shaped suppressor attached to it. Calmly and precisely, he finished off the members who had fallen to the floor. From his point of view, the members were just lying there alive, so maybe his judgment was right.

After dealing with even the members among the hostages and looking around, he left the hall. "Target Alpha clear. However, we have confirmed the phenomenon of CT agents collapsing due to a mysterious seizure. We also observed a destruction mark about 2 meters in diameter on the wall of α’s room. The causal relationship between the two is unknown. Please investigate the cause, including the presence or absence of other intruders. We will remain vigilant and proceed to objective β."

He reported into the microphone in his headset while hiding in the shadows of the passageway. The voice sounded familiar. Oh no, not again? Was this the same pattern?

Feeling a little fed up, I followed him... no, her. She, dressed in all black, headed for the basement. Indeed, there were still remnants of "Crimson Twilight" in the basement.

A guard was on the stairs leading to the basement, but she shot him dead in an instant. However, the sound of a person falling was impossible to ignore. Soon, two members of the group came to check on the situation. As soon as they saw the body of their comrade, they immediately retreated to the back.

They’d strengthened their defenses. It would be difficult to attack from the front. She headed down the stairs without a care. At the end of the stairs was a door leading to the second basement floor. In front of her lay the corpse of what appeared to be a security guard, likely the work of Crimson Twilight. I sensed that four members were waiting behind the door.

Just as I wondered what she was going to do, she took out something that looked like a small spray can from a pouch on her waist. She pulled out the pin and threw it in the back... wait, was that a grenade?! The door blew open, and gunfire could be heard from inside. She threw the same grenades as before in succession. The gunfire was silenced as the series of grenades exploded.

She entered the floor through the entrance, her movements quick, perhaps anticipating a counterattack by survivors. Indeed, there were survivors, but they were put to sleep by my magic. "Sleep" was one of the few magic spells that could be used through walls.

She still finished off the members, likely already unconscious, one by one, like a total professional. "Target beta cleared. No problems with the underground vault; all 18 CT agents have been dealt with. Our mission is now complete."

She contacted someone again. Upon hearing the response, whether the mission was deemed complete, she replied, "Roger that. I will return home."

"Whew, there were some irregularities, but I'm glad the casualties were kept to a minimum... I guess. If I get too crazy, I'll just get scolded again."

After finishing the call, she suddenly changed her tone and removed her eyepiece, presumably to wipe the sweat off her face. "But what was that all about? Something must have happened that caused the CT agent to go off the rails. I’ll find out later when I ask the hostages."

The one who appeared had light-colored hair and a pretty face. Her twin-tails were untied, but there was no doubt about it. It was definitely "Souto Kagari," a student in my homeroom class.