“What are you saying, Shizu…?”

“I’m saying the invasion is happening now,” Shizu said. “And we need to leave.”

“You still haven’t explained the part how brandishing a knife at a child helps you achieve that exactly?”

In the midst of the distant chaos that engulfed the city, we stood locked in a tense standoff. Shizu held her knife at Takeshi's throat with an icy detachment, unaffected by his pleas and terrified sobs. She could've been holding a struggling animal for all the emotion she showed. The look on her face was stone-cold, none of the joyous smiles or sparkles in her violet eyes from earlier could be seen.

Was this the real Shizu? Or was the real Shizu the girl that had been so happy that she almost cried when I gave her that bracelet as a gift?

Neither of that mattered at the moment. The only important thing on my mind now was to ensure Takeshi’s safety.

“Well, you won’t leave Lunaris, Ryuji,” Shizu said, a hint of bitterness underneath her tone. “Even though this city will fall. So the only way I know how to make you leave is this.”

I stayed silent, weighing up my options.

“You want to stay back and defend this city to save its people?” Shizu continued, and shook her head. “That’s impossible, Ryuji. This isn’t a game. I saw their army coming with my own eyes. We can't win.”

“When did I say my plan was to die defending this city?” I chuckled with a grimace. “You must really think of me as an idiot, Shizu.”

“Your plan is to stay back to help evacuate as many people possible,” Shizu stated. “That’s not a plan. That’s suicide. And I’m not going to let you die.”

“Hah, so that’s what you’ve been thinking inside your head all along. If so, why not tell me earlier? You decide to wait for right before the invasion to kidnap a child and blackmail me with their life? That's what you call a plan?”

“Because I know you,” Shizu replied. “And I know you wouldn’t listen to me.”

“I would had at least considered your opinion, Shizu. But with this, you just destroyed every last shred of credibility I had for you.”

“Even if you considered my opinion, the result would still be the same. In the end, you wouldn’t listen to me. I… I’m only doing this because I love you, Ryuji…” Shizu said with a wince. “I’m trying to protect you…”

“I don’t need you to protect me. I’ll only say this once, Shizu — let go of Takeshi.”

“Ryuji… please… just come with me…” Shizu pleaded. “I… I won’t hurt the children… We can just save these children and leave the rest of the city to die… Why do you need to risk your life for strangers you don’t even know…?”

Another explosion rocked the city in the backdrop, causing the ground to rumble and shake. The night air was thick with screams and now beginning to emit flashes of vivid colours from different spells being cast. Time was ticking past.

"Why?" I said. "Because I have the power to help. Because I can. That's why. And so do you, Shizu."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Shizu suddenly shouted, her voice tearing with frustration. "We owe these people nothing! I don't know them! I don't want to know them! Why should I care if some strangers I know nothing about die? You're the only one I care about, Ryuji!"

"Shizu..."

"People die every day," Shizu said bitterly. "It will hardly make a difference."

"In my past life, I was a bystander, someone who wilfully turned a blind eye to everything," I said, reminiscing of my life before isekai. Faint memories that I had buried deep down of me sitting in a classroom and watching as a classmate was bullied began to resurface inside my mind.

"I'm sick of living like that, Shizu," I said, clenching my teeth. "I'm sick of pretending I can't see anything. I'm sick of justifying to myself afterward. That's why I... I'm never going to live like that again!"

Shizu fell silent, staring at me with a pained expression. She was trying to understand, but she couldn't. Our upbringing were too different. We were two people living in separate worlds.

“Well then,” I let out a heavy sigh, then slowly raised my index finger in the air. "I guess in the end, this was always the only way."

“R-Ryuji…!” Shizu said, tightening her grip on Takeshi. “Don’t…”

" [ Blue Flame ] ," I muttered.

She watched anxiously as a small ball of blue flame materialised itself into existence on the top of my index finger, releasing a gentle gust of wind. It was a technique that I had recently picked up. By concentrating and compressing my mana into one tiny space, I could increase the power and intensity of my spell by tenfold — in this instance, creating the hottest fireball spell possible: the blue fireball. But currently, I could only cast one the size of a marble ball.

"I may not be able to beat you, Shizu, but..." I trailed off.

Then gradually, I raised my hand higher, pointing the finger at… my own temple.

“R-Ryuji?!” Mieko gasped from below me.

“Have you gone mad, Ryuji?!” Norio exclaimed, tugging at my leg.

Shizu stared at me with a horrified expression on her face, her grip on Takeshi loosening without her notice.

“W… w-what are you doing, Ryuji…?” Shizu asked in a quiet voice that broke out at the ends.

“Me?” I chuckled, keeping the blue flame steadily pointed at my temple. I could feel its intense heat searing at the sides of my skin, making me start to sweat. “Just doing something that I should had done at the very start of this conversation so we could skip all that pointless babble.”

Simply by casting a glance at Shizu’s deathly pale face made me knew that I had won.

“You will kill Takeshi if I don’t leave with you from this city, because you think that will save my life,” I declared casually. “But if you kill Takeshi or any of the children, I will kill myself. So either ways, for you, this really is a lose-lose situation.”

Shizu was speechless, her voice refusing to work.

"D... d-don't be crazy, Ryuji..." she finally managed to stutter.

"Crazy?" I laughed, throwing my head back. Never did I expect to hear that word coming from Shizu. "Well then I guess that makes two of us."

“There is, however, one other path forward for you here,” I told Shizu. “Release Takeshi and help me with the evacuation. I’m still not going to forgive you for pulling this stunt, but at the very least with this way, there remains a chance for the both of us to survive.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I paused for a moment to let my works sink in. Then I continued, “Now then, the decision is yo—”

Before I could even finish, Shizu dropped her knife down on the ground in a clatter and released her hold of Takeshi, allowing him to drop harmlessly on his feet.

As the children quickly scurried over to comfort the weeping Takeshi, Shizu slowly stepped towards me, staring at me with pleading desperation.

"L-Look, Ryuji..." Shizu stammered, her voice shaking with fear. "I-I let that child go... I-I don't have my knife on me anymore... I will do anything you want... anything you ask of me... so please..."

"You will listen to me?" I confirmed. "And not pull another stunt like that again?"

"Yes! I promise...! So please... put your hand down...!"

Satisfied with the look on her face, I extinguished the flames and lowered my hand from my temple.

Shizu released her breath, collapsing down to her knees. And then, the tears came, falling from her eyes as she began crying. "I-I just don't want you to die, Ryuji...! I-If you die, there will be nothing left for me...! T-that's why I did what I did...!"

"I'm not going to die, idiot," I sighed with a softened look, walking over to collect Shizu. "Hey, listen to me..."

I grabbed her hands gently to pry them away from her face so that I can look at her face directly. She gazed at me through a blubber of tears, her face red from crying.

I spoke to her softly. "We're only going to rescue anyone that we can save. If things get bad out there, I promise we will leave straight away, okay?"

"Okay..." Shizu nodded.

"Come on then," I said, picking her up from the ground. "Let's go see what we can do to help out."

~x~

Large carriages as big as buses were transporting people out of the city. Massive ques were lined up with people bickering and fighting over each other to enter one of these buses. These buses were taking the back-exit of the city, transporting the people to the next nearest city to Lunaris, which was Aresta.

"Hey, I'm a noble, let me through!" a noble in the crowd said.

He was pushed back by the crowd, "Get in line! There's no ranks in a matter of life and death!"

"Hey, you goddam peasants!" one of the knights yelled. "Let the noble through!"

"Over my dead body!" another person in the crowd yelled back.

The bickering continued, with the few knights that were there not being enough to restrain the crowd. Most of the knights in the city had already been sent to defend the city.

"Where the hell were you?" Leo ran over from the crowd, looking at me with a rushed expression. It was clear he had been busy with assisting the evacuation. "I've been trying to find you this entire time!"

"Some things came up," I replied. "But it's settled now. What's the situation?"

Leo glanced to my side at Shizu, giving her an accusing look, then back at me. "The Vasily Empire's army is currently engaged with Lunaris' defence in the east side of the city. But I'm doubtful they will hold out for long."

Several knights ran past us across the street, shouting to each other. "Where the hell are the Imperial Mages?!"

"No idea, sir. Word going around is that they might have left the city already," the other knight replied.

"Left the city?!" the knight choked back. "T-then how the hell are we to defend Lunaris?!"

I watched them hurrying away before disappearing from sight to another street. It was chaos all around us.

"Ryuji, there's probably some people that are still trapped in other parts of the city," Leo told me. "We can gather as many people as we can, and get them here safely. But I think an hour is all we have before this city falls."

I nodded. "We can do what we can."

"Ryuji," Takeshi tugged at me from below. I looked down to find his face filled with uncertainty and fear.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Promise me that you will leave Lunaris alive," Takeshi said, raising his hand to me. He extended his pinkie. "Promise me that we will see you and big sister Shizu at Aresta!"

I chuckled softly, leaning down towards him. "You're not scared of Shizu even after what she did?"

"I... I'm scared of her..." Takeshi said, glancing at Shizu then quickly back at me. "But... I heard what she said... and I'm sure she only did that because she thought it would help you, Ryuji..."

"You're way too trusting, Takeshi," I laughed, ruffling his hair. "That's going to get you in trouble with girls."

"W-well, anyways!" Takeshi said, staring at me with a renewed seriousness. "Promise me, Ryuji, that you and big sister Shizu will see us at Aresta!"

I extended my own hand, accepting his pinkie promise. "You guys are looking down on us too much. I promise we will see you again at Aresta."

"I-I want to learn how to use a sword like you, Ryuji!" Norio said, staring up at me. "So you have to teach me when you get to Aresta, okay?"

"And you have to teach me magic too!" Takeshi said.

"I want big sister Shizu to teach me how to cook!" Mieko added.

"Hey hey, that's a lot of promises," I laughed. "I can't promise we can do them all, but we can talk about that when we see you guys again at Aresta, okay?"

"Okay..." the children nodded their heads.

I rose up, turning back to Leo. He glanced at me with a sombre look.

"If you're serious about this, then let's do it," Leo said.

"Leo, you don't have to come with us if you don't want to," I said. "You can still join one of the carriages and head to Aresta first. Shizu and I can meet you there when we arrive."

"What the hell are you saying," Leo scowled and planted a fist on the top of my head. "There's no way I would leave you guys to do this alone. Have you forgotten already? We're a party."

"Leo..."

"Come on, enough of this sappy shit already," Leo said, turning around. "Let's go, Ryuji."

I nodded, then glanced next to me at Shizu. "You in, Shizu?"

"I will go wherever you go," Shizu said. "I... I won't let you die, Ryuji."

"Good," I said, grinning. "That's what I like to hear."

Together we began to head through the city to help the survivors we come across.

~x~

"Oh boy, you're truly an unfortunate one, aren't you?"

".....nghnn....."

"To cross path with me, the great God of War, Gunner Orivine!"

How... How did this happen?

I was lying in a bloodied heap, gazing with a blurred vision at the giant man holding a spear, standing before me atop a mountain of corpses. Amidst the corpses, I could make out a sea of red-painted armours from the Bloodhounds that were supposed to be Lunaris' most elite knight unit. My right arm was missing from below the elbow, replaced by a heap of blood that didn't seem to stop flowing.

To my left, Shizu's battered body was lying face down in a ditch, motionless and still, covered in ghastly scratches and bruises that extended all over. Her shattered knife lay next to her body, broken apart in several pieces.

The man with the spear kicked something down from below the mountain of corpses, and a burly figure riddled with wounds rolled down, his face beaten to a bloody pulp that could hardly be recognised. But even without seeing his face, it was obvious that it was Leo.

"I will admit though, at least one of you here was skilled," the man remarked, yanking a shard of Shizu's shattered blade from his chestplate. A minor trickle of blood followed. He touched the blood, staring at it with an amused smile. "This is the first time in over a hundred years that I have bled. I've almost forgotten what the sensation of pain felt like. Such an extraordinary feeling. It's a pity, though..."

He raised the blade fragment, then crushed it between his fingertips like it was candy. "When you use a mediocre tool, you yield a mediocre outcome," he said, his expression morphing into cold seriousness. "To try to battle me, Gunner Orivine, the Supreme Commander of the 15th Regiment of the Vasily Empire, with your level of gear is an insult upon my name."

"Master!" A new voice echoed from the side. I shifted my gaze to see a girl in an armoured dress with bat-like wings descending from the sky to land beside the man. "I have eradicated and slayed all the scums that I could find inside the Grand Castle."

She extended her hands, showing a decapitated head inside her grip, blood still dripping from the dismembered spine. A plump face twisted in a horrified expression with a large hooked nose. "I believe this is the one they call Lord Gael, the Lord of Lunaris," she declared enthusiastically.

"Well done, Lilith," Gunner smiled, patting the girl on the head. "We will present that unsightly head to His Majesty as a gift."

"Ah!" the girl called Lilith suddenly uttered a cry. She raised a shaky hand, pointing to his chest. "Y-you're b-bleeding, Master...! H-how...?!"

"Oh, this?" Gunner chuckled. "Interesting, isn't it?"

With a quick motion, Lilith raised her hand towards his chest. Her eyes began to glow, followed by an ethereal light emanating from her palm. In a matter of seconds, the wound on Gunner's chest began to reseal itself, leaving only wet blood in its wake.

"Wh-who...?! Who was it that did that to you, Master...?!" Lilith asked.

"Relax, Lilith," Gunner said. "It is nothing to fret over. Simply a surprisingly sharp pebble that was in the way of my foot."

"B-but...!"

Gunner turned away, casually waving a dismissive hand. "Mere ants that are unworthy of me sparing a single thought for. I will leave them to you to do as you please as your reward."

The girl bowed her head at Gunner as he walked away. "Thank you, Master!"

Then, she turned back and glanced around, her maroon eyes searching for a moment before something piqued her interest. She walked over to the object of her fancy and leaned down with a creepy smile spreading across her cheeks, her eyes lit with a demented malevolence.

It was me.

"My my, are you still alive?" she reached a hand down, gently brushing over my cheek. Her eyes began to glow like before. "That's a lot of mana you have there. I like what I see. How unfortunate for you."

Leaning in closer, her smile widened, revealing a row of sharp teeth. "Hey... Master has given you to me as my plaything... So how about I show you the most horrible, most painful, most nightmarish experience a human being can ever suffer? Wouldn't that be fun? Oh, you needn't worry. I treat my toys very well. I won't allow you to die so easily, hehehehe."