Act 1-2.1 : Childhood Friend and The Hero of Light
Kuroki couldnât comprehend what his eyes were seeing.
  (What in the world are they doing here? And why are they heroes?)
As far as he knew, Shirone and the other girls were on a trip to Reijiâs vacation villa. They left as soon as the summer holiday began.
He had also departed at the beginning of the holiday, but not with them. He had been traveling alone.
That was as far as he could remember.
ăWhatâs the meaning of this? Why are Shirone and Reiji in this world too? ă
Knowing that Shirone was right beside Reiji hurt him deeply.
The Akamine Family had taken him in due to his parentsâ circumstances. Kuroki didnât know what the circumstances were, he only knew that his parents and Shironeâs were acquainted.
Truthfully, Kuroki didnât want to know why he was adopted. It was enough that he received so much kindness from the Akamine Family and that he met Shirone.
They grew up together, being raised as siblings. During their childhood, they often ran around the mountain together. They learned swordplay together in the Akamine Dojo.
That Shirone, his childhood friend, was in that image, fighting. And it wasnât that long ago, according to Modes. Reiji and the group of ladies were chatting happily, perhaps because they had just exterminated an entire army.
Kuroki almost cried tears of blood when he saw the most prominent beauties of his high school surrounding Reiji. And they seemed to enjoy being with him.
Kuroki was jealous of Reijiâs popularity.
ăUhmâŚă
A voice right beside him startled him from his thoughts. He turned and saw that Modes was right beside him, staring intently at his face.
ăFumufumu⌠I see nowâŚă
Kuroki wondered what Modes saw in his expression. Despite his efforts, he couldnât get any information from Modesâ expression.
Nevertheless, Modes nodded at him as if he saw something and continued with his explanation.
ăLet me continue our story, Kuroki-dono. That Hero appeared suddenly around one year ago.ă
  (One year ago? But thatâs impossible! The last time I met Shirone was one week ago⌠Right?)
Kuroki doubted what he had just heard.
ăThe armies of the Goddess were nowhere close to defeating the armies of Nargol, up until the moment when they started raiding Nargol territories.
Naturally, Iâm not going to wait for them to come and kill me, so I sent my demons and demonic underlings. Unfortunately, they were no match for that Hero. In the end, he nearly annihilated our most elite group, the Order of the Dark Knight.
That was five days ago. By my estimation, theyâll arrive in this palace by tomorrow.ă
Modes explained the situation to Kuroki with an extremely vexed tone.
ăI have no doubts that the Hero and his companions are strong enough to rival even the Gods. It seems that eight of them were summoned, including the Hero, but only six of them raided Nargol.
Well, numbers aside, my problem lies in how to stop them. Thus, this Modes came to a realization.
 (I just needed to summon someone who could defeat the Hero. Someone from the spirit world.)
Having said so, Modes stared at Kuroki.
ăAnd youâre that very existence, Kuroki-dono.ă
ăEh, w-wait a minuteâŚă
Kuroki shook his head and then pinched the area between his eyebrows. Inside his head, he screamed in frustration at Modesâs stories.
(What in the world is this mess about?!)
ăPlease Kuroki-dono. Please save me from that Hero. ă
Modes was so desperate he lowered himself into a bow towards Kuroki.
ăEven if you ask me to do thatâŚă
Kuroki was astonished at how the situation was progressing.
Back in school, Reiji had been somewhat like a celebrity. 180cm tall, with a well-ordered face. His light brown hair seemed blonde under the sunlight, a trait that probably came from his mother.
He excelled in both martial and literary arts, on top of being rich. Not to mention, he was very popular with the ladies.
Reiji was the textbook definition of a manga protagonist.
Despite his fame amongst the girls, he was hated by the boys. Not because of his fame, but because of his attitude toward anyone who wasnât female.
He was kind only toward women.
Also, he had the strange ability to encounter cute girls while they were in trouble. Many were saved by Reiji thanks to that strange ability.
No wonder so many of them fell in love with him.
On the other hand, he never saved boys.
In spite of his kindness toward women, he was especially strict toward males. That was the reason for his low popularity amongst his gender.
The number of youths who got NTR-ed by Reiji was simply too many to count.
However, since Reiji did not force anyone to like him, no one could raise a complaint. But that did not mean the boys would just accept the situation with their heads lowered.
All the girls that those boys liked⌠They all claimed to only love Reiji.
His childhood friend, Akamine Shirone, was amongst those girls. He couldnât help but wonder if Reiji seduced her because she was cute.
Or maybe Shirone herself was the one to go after Reiji? Either way, he had no means of knowing the truth.
Kuroki didnât want them to be together, and he had told Shirone about it, only to instigate a huge quarrel between them. It was fairly recent and marked the end of Kurokiâs first love.
He was just an average teenage youth. He was completely at a disadvantage against Reiji and his foreign genes. Without any other choice, he gave up on his first love.
And yet here he was, summoned by this monster to repel his rival in love.
The task was so impossible that Kuroki felt like crying.
He knew how powerful Reiji was in a brawl. He didnât want to fight him and be beaten into a pulp.
It had happened before with the captain of the Karate Club. The boy had tried to enact revenge on Reiji for stealing the girl he liked.
As a result, the captain was admitted into a hospital with a broken jaw bone that required three months to fully recover.
Meanwhile, Reiji came out of the fight completely unscathed.
He didnât know what happened afterward. He suspected Reijiâs parents had pulled some strings behind the scenes to prevent any after effects from the incident.
The matter was never revealed to the public, but it was a kind of open secret among the students in their high school.
There was also that time when martial artists came to challenge Reiji, some with even bigger bodies than his among the adults.
But none of them could beat Reiji.
Kuroki had been one of those martial artists. Reiji might have forgotten about him, but Kuroki had been defeated by him once.
He didnât want to remember that miserable moment. He was already on the verge of crying.
(What the heck is he doing here? Weâre the same age, but weâre complete opposites.)
The ordinary Kuroki was being pitted against the genius Reiji. It was a mismatch, and he already foresaw the result.
He must not fight Reiji.
Moreover, Kuroki was a pacifist. Fighting was the last thing he ever wanted to do. He truly felt troubled by the situation.
ăPlease wait a minute, Your Majesty! ă
Kuroki turned toward the voice of the person forcing their way through the crowd of monsters. It turned out to be the man wearing full jet-black plate armor.
The man had dark skin and a nice face, looking more like a Yankee displayed as a knight.
A pair of goat-like horns grew from the sides of his head, indicating he wasnât human.
ăOh, Lord Runfeld! Howâs your injury from fighting the Hero? ă
The man called Runfeld bowed respectfully to Modes.
ăThank you for your concern, Your Majesty. However, I believe we should not borrow this manâs power. We suffered an embarrassing defeat, yes, but our Chivalric Order of Dark Knights is still able to fight. Please, give us an order to dispatch our soldiers.ă