Chapter 4 – 1.4 Rune Academy

A mysterious tower that suddenly appeared in the place where Tokyo Tower used to be, aka “Rune Tower”.
This rune tower…… Simply put, it is a tower that creates monsters.

More than 30 years ago, Loon Towers appeared simultaneously in 40 of the world’s most developed cities.
And, it started spitting out monsters.

The monsters spit out by the Rune Tower were blocked by military weapons, the essence of human science, due to ‘magic of unknown principles’.
Guns, missiles, and lasers. Nothing worked.

As the original ‘Rune Accademia’ is a game, the setting was not that elaborate.
There was only a description of ‘Modern weapons did not work on monsters’.

It must have been simply a setup to increase the value of ‘rune holders’.
It is a common cliché in modern fantasy.

But what if this principle is applied in practice?
The world fell into chaos, with billions of casualties in just a few months.
Some countries even blew up the entire city with nuclear weapons at the cost of enormous damage and loss of life, but it is said that they could not erase the Rune Tower.

Thus, a long and terrible world war against monsters began.

Humanity returned to the Iron Age and fought monsters with spears and axes.
All lands became battlefields, world trade stopped, riots broke out in all countries, and a global food crisis struck.

It took less than a year for the world death toll to cross the billion mark.

10 years since then.
An era in which Japan’s population fell to less than 1/3 and humans lived in hiding from monsters like cockroaches.
Even in such times, hope was born.
Among the children born after the Rune Tower was created, there were children with special abilities.

‘Rune Holder’.
Children with special abilities like superheroes in movies made in a peaceful era.
Although the abilities were different, the special ability worked even for monsters that did not work with firearms.

And that’s not all.
Those children became stronger when they killed monsters.
Just like leveling up in a game.

After the fact was known to the world, rune holders became mankind’s hope.

But that hope was also despair for some.
It was because it meant to take a child who was only about 10 years old from the arms of his parents and send him out to the battlefield.

The moment when ethics are put to the test.
Humanity has chosen survival over ethics.

Children were brainwashed to fight monsters from the moment they learned to speak.
When he started to walk, he taught him how to fight monsters.

For parents of children born with runes, runes were a curse, not a blessing.
Rune Holder’s parents had to send their child to the battlefield with gut-wrenching feelings.

Children fought, killed, died.

──Another 10 years like that.
At the cost of billions of people and millions of rune holders, humanity regained its territory from monsters.

The first country to recover the land was none other than Japan.
Brainwashing training, kamikaze, and banzai assaults were familiar to the Japanese long before monsters became rampant.

The obedient nature of the people, ignorant of opposition, also played a role. There was also the advantage of being an island country where monsters from other countries did not come over.

Most of all, the biggest reason is that the original game is Japanese, but let’s skip this.

In any case, they gave their children as the state dictated, and they considered it an honor.
Parents who tried to hide their children became the target of Ijime. Reporting such a person was also taken for granted.

Like that, the first thing Japan did after driving out the monsters by piling up the corpses of countless children.
It was to build a wall named ‘Academy’.

‘Rune Academy’ built in the form of surrounding the ‘Rune Tower’.
The Rune Academy and the special area are Japanese outposts against the Rune Tower and monsters.
In the name of sending ‘rune holders’ with special abilities to fight monsters to ‘special schools’, Japan sent them out as frontline guards.

Gather children with special abilities around the Rune Tower and let them hunt the monsters that pop out from there. Or, before they come out, attack from this side first and have them hunt.
With such a system in place, people no longer had to fear monsters.

People built cities again, restored infrastructure, and gave birth to children.
The city, once destroyed, regained its former glory in less than 10 years.
And just like that, a peaceful era finally arrived in Japan——

── Humanity who thought that was once again hit in the back of the head.

Without any warning, monsters exploded out of the Rune Tower.
The number is about 100,000 in Japan alone.

This situation would later be referred to as the ‘Great Disaster’.

“Dad….』

A depressing mind is heard.
When I turned my head, Hina was looking up at the Rune Tower with tears in her eyes.

I also lost my parents in a catastrophe, but Hina’s father also passed away at that time.

My parents and Mr. Kurosaki were first-generation rune holders.
Rune holders born naturally after the appearance of the Rune Tower are called the 1st generation.

Children of first-generation rune holders had the same high probability of being born as rune holders.
Yuuki and I were second-generation rune holders born to first-generation parents.

It is no exaggeration to say that Japan’s first-generation rune holders were virtually wiped out during the Great Disaster.

If the first-generation adults fail to defend, the second-generation children have to go to the front and fight.
As long as our second generation was held hostage, our parents had to fight monsters even at the cost of their lives.

So our parents fought for their lives.

…… However, the defense failed.

The first generation was wiped out leaving only a handful of survivors.
In accordance with the Japanese Wartime Special Act, the second generation, who were still young, had no choice but to be put on the frontlines.

The condition for conscription is that you must be a male rune holder who has been in the elementary school of Rune Academy for more than a year.
Me and Yuuki, who were in the second year of elementary school at the academy, narrowly missed the cutoff and were drafted.

…… And in a hopeless war where most of the second generation of conscripts also died.
Yuuki and I miraculously survived.

If we lose, Naiad-nuna and Hina will be brought to this battlefield.
We fought the monsters with one mind that such a thing should not happen.

In fact, it was in the middle of that war that I possessed.
With my eyes wide open due to the NTR terrorism, I poured out my overflowing anger at the monsters without knowing the context.
It was the moment when Knives, the coward who had been hiding behind Kurosaki Yuuki’s back, awakened.

『Ugh. You can’t cry. The blonde bully is watching too!』

…… It’s Hina.
It’s nice to be bold, but why are you staring at me there?

I was dragged in then and almost died?
Really, you almost died?

“…… Hina. Cry if you want to cry.”

He put a hand on Hina’s head and said.

This was originally Yuuki’s line, but now that Yuuki isn’t there.
I imitated Yuuki and pretended to be cool.

“Ooh, who cries when they cry!”

Puck!

“U.”

I got kicked in the shin by Hina for no reason.

“Huh!”
“I’m really stupid!”

Hina stomps as if angry and leaves first.
I was curled up on the floor clutching my sore shin.

“Whoops. Knives understands. Girls of that age are delicate.”
“Hit a little harder. Would you break your leg that much?”

Akane offers comfort that is not equal. Toxic year.

Damn.
They didn’t even know that they were able to attend the academy thanks to who they were!
Compensate for forced labor in Japan!

* * *

Arrived at the academy.

Haha i’m tired
A lot more tiring things await in the future.
Will I be able to return home alive?

“Hey! A blonde there!”

Is it a lamb? A voice so harsh.
A middle-aged man holding a shinai at the academy’s main gate stopped me.

“Hi, Sensei Tanaka.”
“What is the shape of your head! Are the school rules ridiculous? He?”
“My hair has been like this since I was born.”

This ugly middle-aged man is Sensei Tanaka.
As you can see, it’s garbage. My subject is physical education.
He is also the main character to be killed in today’s humiliation event.

『Keukyu. You already know that. I just need an excuse to fuck that bitch Naiad!”

Huh. Were you thinking like that?
I didn’t know because it doesn’t appear in the game.

The first generation of people like this barely survived.
It is understandable that the outsiders commit terrorism due to hatred of rune holders.

Well, it’s garbage that will be erased soon anyway, so there’s no need to worry about it.

“What are those eyes? Are you rebelling now! He?!”

Tanaka suddenly grabbed my hair as if pulling it out.

What? Was there a scene like this in the original game?
In the game, Knives didn’t even pay attention to each of these disputes, rather, Yuuki, who was with him, got angry and refuted Tanaka-sensei.

Well, originally, Knives could have just passed by because he could only hear his mind her when he came in contact with him.

But now, I wasn’t broad-minded enough to read that person’s thoughts and laugh at them. Also, there is no Yuuki, who is now acting as a buffer.
A small difference like that creates an event like this——I thought calmly while tearing my hair out.

It didn’t hurt because there was a level difference, but the mood wasn’t that good.
My sister touched my hair after a long time.

“Teacher! What are you doing!”
“Please let go, Tanaka-sensei!”

Hina and Akane side by side tear Tanaka-sensei apart.

“What are you really doing, you bald head! Aren’t you crazy?!”
“Ugh it’s frustrating. Why is this bridesmaid doing something again? Annoy people!』

Hina is genuinely irritated with Tanaka, and Akane is rather irritated with me.
After all, I can’t like Akane.

“Tanaka-sensei! Stop!”

While Hina and Akane were chattering, another teacher came.

“Sensei Akatsuki!”

Hiyori Akatsuki.
Even at a young age in her late twenties, she is a female teacher who is in charge of the student dean of the high school department of Rune Academy.
In a tight suit, well-groomed hair, and red horn-rimmed glasses are impressive.

Nicknames in the game are ‘Walking Rulebook’ or ‘Robber Hysteria’.
Due to his strict personality his, there are complaints among the academy students, but at the same time, there were also students who secretly liked him because of his voluptuous body his.

Actually, for me, who has memories of my previous life, it is a bit awkward for Akatsuki Sensei, who is still in her 20s, to be called an old maid.

However, in this world, it is considered desirable to marry and give birth at an early age. This is because of the rapid population decline and the nationwide campaign to increase the number of rune holders, anti-monster weapons.

Currently, the average age of marriage has been advanced by more than 10 years compared to before the monster outbreak, and there are not a few student couples who get married while attending the academy.
This is why Akatsuki Sensei, who is in her late twenties, is already called an old maid.

“Sheesh.”

Tanaka clicked his tongue but let go of his hand holding my head.
It seems that even Tanaka is not an idiot to the point of openly disobeying the head of the student body.
Because this is a worldview where power is power and power is power.

“Tanaka-sensei. I’ll take care of the aftermath, so please calm down and go inside.”
『Ha~. To think I had to go after Tanaka-sensei again. What is this from the first day of school?”

“Yes yes. It’s not like that.”
“Huh. Pretending to be good wait I’m going to pat her big ass tonight!”

Tanaka glared at me until the end before going inside the school gate.

“A student of Knives Windsor. Tanaka-sensei is also excited, so please understand.”
“Yeah.”
“And that head. Even if you don’t dye your hair, you know that it can be a problem, right?”
“Yeah~.”

In the original game, Akatsuki-sensei joins Tanaka-sensei in preaching.
But this time, Tanaka was too rampant, so he took the position of mediator.
Is it going like this again? It’s also fun to find differences from the original.

“Because harmony is important in Japan. If possible, dye your hair black. Otherwise, there will always be people who nag you.”
“Yes, yes, I understand.”

If Yuuki, the hero of justice, had been there, he would have caused another commotion.
It is not right to forcibly unify one’s innate individuality.

Yuuki was right, but Akatsuki-sensei was just saying what he was supposed to say as the head of the student body.
Because the most efficient way to eliminate the cause of the conflict is to dye my hair black.

That’s the Rune Academy way.
There was no time in Japan today to discuss human rights or individuality.

So, I tend to listen to this argument with one ear and pass it over.
It’s just a waste of time and energy to listen to each other.

…… But there was one person who just couldn’t get over it.

“Teacher! I think that’s odd!”

Hina Kurosaki.
She was the younger sister of the hero of justice, Yuuki.