A hero who wants to help others wants to live a normal life - Chapter 10

Chapter 10   Guard’s Rampage

“Opening Again!”

Just before that flying object hit me, Inori activated her “Blessing” and moved at high speed, punching the oncoming object head-on.

For a brief moment, the object clashed with Inori’s fist, but soon it shattered with a sound like breaking glass.

Even though it was a simplified version without the chanting, a “Blessing” is still a “Blessing.” The fact that the object had held its ground, even for a short time, against Inori’s empowered fist meant it was also created by a “Blessing.” And among those present, there was only one other “Blessed” person besides us.

“You… You’re the other ‘Blessed’ one, aren’t you?”

That person—Sakura Kujou—approached us, holding a Japanese bow that radiated an intimidating aura, the proof of her “Blessing.” Or rather, she was heading toward Inori.

“Shouldn’t you be apologizing first? You almost killed an innocent person with a display of your power that you couldn’t even handle properly, and the first thing you say is that?”

Despite being someone one would typically show some respect to, Inori glared at Kujou with open hostility, questioning her.

Kujou reacted with a twitch of her brow, and the other students around her also showed expressions of anger at Inori’s attitude.

This was getting serious, I thought. But at the same time, Inori wasn’t wrong. If things had continued like that, I would have been struck, so I couldn’t muster the will to stop her.

“Hold on, Inori. Calm down a bit, okay?”

But I couldn’t just let it continue, so I took a deep breath and tried to talk to Inori.

“What? Wait for what? Calm down? I am calm. I’m calmly angry. It’s ridiculous. Maybe it was an accident just now. I could accept that. But she should at least apologize, right? Am I saying something weird? Or what? Does she think that because she’s from some high and mighty bloodline, she can hurt or nearly kill someone in an accident, or even actually kill someone, without facing any consequences at all?”

But even my words didn’t stop her. That’s how much she disliked Kujou’s actions earlier. It was understandable. If Inori hadn’t intervened, it could have been attempted murder. Even if it didn’t result in death, the outcome would have been unpredictable.

Given that Kujou didn’t offer a single apology and instead approached us arrogantly, it was only natural for Inori to be angry.

Kujou, perhaps not expecting to be spoken to like that by Inori, widened her eyes, then grimaced awkwardly and averted her gaze slightly.

From this reaction, it was clear that Kujou didn’t think she wasn’t at fault. She might have felt bad or perhaps had been more concerned about the “Blessed” than anything else. Either way, it seemed more like an issue of her “family” rather than just herself. But still, that doesn’t mean Kujou is entirely blameless.

“Enough—”

“Hey, you! That was uncalled for!”

However, unlike Kujou, the students around her couldn’t remain quiet any longer.

Just as Kujou opened her mouth to say something, one of the students next to her stepped forward, interrupting and defending Kujou.

“Huh? Who are you? This has nothing to do with you, so why don’t you back off?”

“It does have to do with me! I’m Kujou-san’s bodyguard.”

A bodyguard! She has someone like that? But, of course. If she’s from a royal bloodline, it makes sense to have a bodyguard, right?

“A bodyguard? Wow, such a fancy status. Oh, wait, you really do have a ‘fine status,’ don’t you? But so what? You weren’t the one who shot that arrow just now, were you? So this has nothing to do with you. I mean, isn’t a bodyguard supposed to prevent your princess from doing anything dangerous? Then you should have stopped her properly. No other students have bodyguards, so if that arrow had hit, someone could have died.”

“You little—”

The bodyguard student stepped forward, bristling at Inori’s words.

“Wait, Hikari. This time, it was my mistake, just as she said.”

But both the bodyguard’s words and actions were halted by Kujou.

Kujou placed a hand on the shoulder of the bodyguard who was about to move and pushed her back. Then, Kujou stood in front of us, straightened her back, and gracefully clasped her hands in front of her body, making a beautiful bow.

“I apologize for earlier. As you said, if that had hit someone else, it would have caused serious injury. I offer my apologies and gratitude for stopping it.”

When someone in such a high position apologizes like this, there’s nothing to do but forgive, right?

Thanks to Inori stopping the arrow, there were no serious injuries, and I wasn’t that angry. If just saying “I forgive you” could resolve things peacefully, then that would be ideal.

However, Inori seemed to have a different opinion than mine.

“You offer an apology without even knowing or asking for the name of the person you’re apologizing to. Please be more careful not to misfire again in the future.”

Don’t provoke her…

Sure, Inori might be right, but there’s no need to say it out loud.

“How dare you! I won’t let that slide!”

See, now the bodyguard girl is angry again.

I sighed, thinking about how to wrap this up, but the bodyguard’s anger seemed a little… no, a lot different than before.

“Reenact! No place to return to. No one waiting for me anywhere. Everything, everything burned away. The flames were beautiful in their hatred!”

The suddenness of it all left me with a foolish expression on my face. But really, who would expect someone to use a skill over something like this?

“Hikari!? What are you doing… Stop it!”

“<I, too, want to become the flames!>”

Just after the chant for the skill started, Kujou snapped back to her senses and shouted, trying to stop the bodyguard student, but it was too late. The skill was completed almost simultaneously with her attempt to stop it, and flames appeared in my vision.

“What are you doing?!”

Finally realizing something was wrong, Momochi hurriedly ran over to us—but it was too late.

The bodyguard student had already activated her skill and was now holding flames in both hands. If she truly intended to attack us, it would only be a matter of seconds before we were engulfed by fire.

But…

“—Opening Again.”

Inori wasn’t about to let that happen.

Perhaps it was just a bluff. Maybe she never intended to harm us and only wanted to intimidate us by summoning flames.

But that was just a possibility. From our perspective, it looked like the prelude to an attack, and that was why Inori moved without hesitation.

“What the…!”

With a simplified chant to activate her blessing, Inori closed the distance to the bodyguard student at a speed so fast it was nearly invisible, grabbed both of her flame-engulfed arms head-on, and twisted them upward.

“With a borrowed lighter, you can’t burn away our wishes.”

Normally, grabbing something on fire would result in burns. That’s common sense.

But that didn’t apply to Inori. Her body wasn’t so weak that it could be harmed by mere flames.

“Whether it’s pride or loyalty… If you get angry over someone mocking the person you serve, maybe you should act in a way that doesn’t invite ridicule in the first place. Or, haven’t you realized that your behavior is precisely why people look down on you?”

“Ugh—”

“At the very least, try not to be swayed by your skill’s emotions before you challenge someone.”

With a gaze and words dripping with contempt, Inori tightened her grip on the bodyguard’s arms. The girl let out a short cry and extinguished the flames in her hands. Seeing this, Inori flung her aside as if she were discarding trash.

“Hikari! Why would you do such a thing…!”

“No need for apologies. After all, it would just be a string of empty words.”

Kujou ran over to the bodyguard student, but before she could say anything, Inori spat out her words.

Though her words were technically polite, everyone present could tell there was no respect behind them.

Kujou, holding the injured bodyguard student, looked up at Inori, but what she was thinking behind those eyes remained a mystery.