Two weeks have passed since the school year began.
Per year, there are four semesters.
The first semester ends at the end of February.
The month of March is vacation.
I feel happy that, unlike my previous life, my new school life is more fun.
The only drawback, or rather the only problems I have, are two.
The first is that Lily has been hanging out with me a lot.
That prevents her from going to events where she needs to socialize and win over the capture targets.
The second problem was that a girl was bothering me.
In fact, right now she's glaring at me.
A beautiful blonde girl with cherry-red eyes and large breasts was looking at me as if I were a plague.
It was a combined class of the pointy-mustache professor.
They divided us into groups of two; I ended up alone in the second group. My friends weren't here.
Not even Cid; it's curious how he seems like a normal boy.
I've been secretly observing him to find a weakness and destroy him.
It seems he doesn't have one, but at the same time, he doesn't look like someone who could threaten the peaceful life I desire.
He's currently in Amy's situation: avoid his bad future and not kill him.
I like him; I hope that doesn't happen.
Getting back to this girl...
"What am I supposed to do here?"
It turned out she was Elize, the villainess.
I had forgotten about her.
No, lie, I hadn't.
I tried, but I couldn't.
(I wondered what became of her after that farewell?)
Her eyes didn't seem to leave my sight.
It scared me a lot.
"Hey, I asked you what I'm supposed to do here."
We were recreating a magic circle in a grimoire.
Grimoires are books created with magic for students to learn about them.
"I don't know. Maybe you should abandon it like you always do."
(Huh? What is that supposed to mean? I don't understand it.)
Anyway.
"If you don't want to help me, we'll both get bad grades."
"That's fine with me; I'll sink with you."
(This girl was becoming irritable.)
(Well, I don't blame her.)
(I told her I would go to her birthday party, but I never went.)
(So I'll tolerate it for now.)
"Fine."
In the end, we got bad grades.
◇◇◇
"Listen up, we're going to a dungeon."
We were in the class of the big-bottomed teacher.
As always, it was a visual spectacle watching her large, fat bottom as she walked.
We had been divided into groups of twelve.
It was a shared class.
In my group were other background students like me, including my friends, Cid, and for some reason Lily.
While another group had the capture targets and Eli.
(She was still giving me dirty looks as always.)
We ventured into the dungeon.
◇
"This place stinks."
Said Derrick as we walked through a narrow, smelly cave.
In the game, dungeons only served to gain experience; their background was that they are monster nests.
There's no greater mystery than that.
I asked Lily if she didn't want to go with the other group.
"No, actually, they asked me to join you since I had no one else to be with."
(You know, they're your potential boyfriends.)
"Huh?"
(Wait a moment, what did she say?)
(They rejected her?)
(That can't be; it goes against the game's events.)
"Did they tell you why?"
"You're in the way."
"That's what the cold-eyed boy told me."
(Damn Lambert, just like in the game, you're a pain in the ass.)
(I don't understand it.)
(Isn't this part of that game?)
(Something strange is happening here.)
(The romantic events should be happening every so often, but Lily seems to barely know them.)
(In fact, yesterday she was supposed to have an encounter in the library with Jake, but he never showed up; I was there spying on her innocently and never saw him.)
(Things like that were happening daily.)
(I'm getting terrified.)
(If Lily didn't get together with the capture targets, it will really be bad when the goddess Alexia tells her that the power of her love can awaken the true power of the spear.)
"Everyone, watch out!"
Cid shouted; as I realized what it was.
We were surrounded by a group of giant ants.
Everyone was scared except me. That's because I hunted ants while doing my errands as a D rank.
Cid drew his sword and acted like a brave leader.
"Prepare to fight!"
Just as he said, the ants came to bother us; they wanted to kill us.
But we are many, so...
"Hiiiiii!"
"Nooooooo!"
Some students, including my friends, ran away.
Only a few of us remained.
A girl had a rifle.
She shot at these things.
(Since I'm a guardian among the shadows, I must act like a background character.)
I was preparing to run away when something unexpected happened.
"Nooooo!"
From above, a large spider kidnapped Lily.
(This was bad. It was dragging her to its lair.)
Cid and the others fought against the ants.
I just said.
"I'll be back soon!"
And with those words, I jumped upward to look for her.
◇◇◇
Elize's group was in another direction.
"Aah, Aah, how boring this is."
Bellange complained since they had been walking for several minutes and hadn't found any monsters.
"I agree; this is too calm."
Jake supported him, then Oscar came.
"I don't want to agree with you, but it's true. We haven't found a single monster."
"Maybe they're afraid of us?"
The one who said that was Regulux, while pointing at the person going ahead.
Lambert had his sword drawn.
His aura was sinister.
"Your Highness, I ask you not to joke about that. I'm protecting you; if by chance something happens to you, I won't forgive myself."
Everyone saw Lambert's killer aura grow with each step he took.
Elize was near the prince to cover him.
She was dressed like everyone.
Classic adventurer clothes with leather shoes and a sword.
Her hair was tied in a ponytail.
Regulux told her.
"Elize, would you mind giving me some space?"
"But Your Highness, I—!"
She obeyed reluctantly and walked a few steps behind him.
They continued like that without problems.
◇◇◇
I had arrived at a place that was the spiders' base.
I was laughing out loud.
"Is this a joke, really?"
Their base was a huge spider headquarters.
And not just any kind.
They are the queen spider type.
They all measure seven meters long and seven meters wide.
They are very large.
More than I could imagine.
The spiders were black, with body hair on their legs and their large rear ends.
Their red eyes saw me as a snack.
I found Lily; she was being wrapped in a web and also asleep.
"Damn spider!"
With those words, a magic circle shone beneath my feet.
Electricity slowly coursed through my body.
It really hurt.
I could feel it touching my body, but she is more important.
I ran at great speed among them, but their legs and bodies were so agile that they prevented me from getting close.
One of them hit me; that hit was so strong that it scraped my skin and blood gushed out profusely.
I ran without rest between the spiders' legs.
I couldn't stop.
One of them pierced my leg.
The pain was unbearable, but I had to endure.
Finally, I reached Lily.
I hit the spider very hard and proceeded to open the web to take Lily out.
I could feel her breathing; she was still alive.
I took her in my arms and, still with the pain in my legs, ran to the exit, but it was being blocked.
(This is bad.)
(At this rate, my only option will be to abandon her and flee.)
(But that won't happen.)
I tried to escape through the base's openings, but they wouldn't let me; the place was well protected.
I ran so they wouldn't catch me, but it was useless.
One of the spiders shot its web at my legs.
Lily fell.
(This is bad.)
(At this rate, we're both going to die.)
(If only Amy were here... no, if only I were stronger.)
(I wouldn't run away so pathetically again.)
"Fire magic: ascending pillar of flames!"
A mysterious voice came from the distance.
At that moment, a great pillar of fire burned the ceiling.
The spiders were instantly burned.
I observed the figure; it was a man covered by a cloak. He had a beautiful sword with flames on it.
The man took a step, and somehow reached us.
"I didn't expect there would be kids here; I was assigned to finish a nest of queen spiders, but I didn't imagine there would be students here. Someone is going to get a big lecture for this."
The mysterious figure removed his cloak and covered me and Lily with it.
"Cover yourselves well; it's going to get very hot, and I don't want anything to happen to you."
For a brief moment, I saw that the man had hair similar to a flame.
After being completely covered, I heard the following.
"Fire magic: burning spiral of the sun god!"
Then, through the cloak, I could feel an enormous force that heated everything around us.
The heat was so much that I wanted to cry.
Only seconds passed.
The cloak was removed, and he immediately inserted a gelatinous thing into my mouth and Lily's.
"You're lucky I brought pills to withstand the pressure with me."
From our mouths, a kind of drool came out and covered us entirely.
After wondering what happened.
I understood after seeing it with my own eyes.
The entire place had been burned.
The spiders were evaporated.
Only their silhouettes remained.
Everything was burned to ashes.
"Well, kids, return safely; I'll continue my spider hunt. Goodbye!"
The strange man left.
A few moments later, Lily woke up.
"Huh, Razel-kun? Where are we?"
Lily was still half asleep, but after a brief moment, she understood.
"Huh! What is this place? And why are you injured?"
I laughed lightly.
Lily said. "This is no time to laugh!"
And she proceeded to heal me.
A faint white light that looked like a membrane covered me.
The pain and wounds disappeared at the same time the blood vanished.
(This was the protagonist's power.)
I stood up and gave her my hand so she could do the same.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes."
She looked at the surroundings and asked.
"Did you do this?"
(As if.)
"Yes, it was me."
(Obviously it's a lie to mess with her; it's impossible for her to think I really did that.)
"If you're okay, let's go back together with the others."
"... Yes."
◇◇◇
Lily watched Razel as she walked behind him.
The thought she had was the following.
(He did all that for me.)
◇◇◇
"What a disappointment."
Bellange and the others were disappointed; they found nothing and went around in circles several times through the corridors.
Elize was happy not to encounter anything dangerous.
"Goaz!"
But that luck ended at that instant.
From the ground, a huge, petrified tree emerged.
Its branches were so thick and large that they looked like punching bags.
Bellange shouted.
"That's what I wanted!"
As he drew his jet-black spear to charge at the monster.
"So it's a monster tree, an Yggdmillennia."
Oscar uttered those words while a green magic circle manifested in the air.
"I'll be the one to finish it!"
Said Jake as he took out some kind of mini bombs.
He threw them like crazy at the tree.
Various explosions occurred.
At that moment, he was hit.
Lambert hit Jake on the head.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"That's what I want to know."
A gust of wind hit the tree while Bellange struck the branches with his weapon.
Both were useless.
The tree regenerated from the weapon strikes, while the wind attacks had no effect.
They both started to get annoyed.
"Rosenberg."
Lambert called to Elize.
"I'm entrusting His Highness to you for the moment."
"Understood."
Lambert glanced sideways at Elize, who drew her sword.
He walked very calmly.
The others told him.
"Hey, do you think you can defeat it alone?"
"Don't make me laugh."
"I won't believe what you say until I see it."
"I'll show you."
Lambert got into an attack stance.
The tree raised its large branches and brought them down to crush Lambert.
(Anyone would think that would happen, but not for him.)
"Done."
It was less than a second.
Lambert got into position and then...
"Goazzzz!"
Screamed the monster tree as it was cut countless times at great speed.
"Sonic speed slash. It's still a very weak attack."
Everyone watched amazed as in a fraction of a second, the monster fell into pieces.
At that moment, Lambert turned around.
"Your Highness, watch out!"
He shouted because a monkey-like monster was approaching from behind to attack them.
Elize realized too late; at the moment she noticed Lambert was running, the monster bit the prince's right arm.
"Your Highness!"
Elize shouted as she stabbed the monkey.
It instantly turned to ashes.
Regulux writhed in pain from his expression.
Elize tried to help him, but he...
"Don't come near me!"
He shouted at her for some reason.
"Why can't you do anything right?!"
Lambert arrived to check the wound.
"It's not deep, but the bleeding won't stop."
His look of hatred turned to Elize.
The other students who did nothing also looked at her annoyed.
The other three approached and sighed when they saw her.
"You can't do a single thing right. Is it too much to ask of you?"
Elize wanted to cry; all she could say was.
"I'm so sorry. I'm really sorry, I'm so sorry."
While she apologized in pain, Razel's group arrived.
Lily saw the injured prince and ran to heal him.
Upon returning to the academy, it was reported that Elize had injured the prince, with witnesses included.