Published: March 21, 2026
I’ve been holding this back, so there’s a bit more than usual.
I think I was probably the first to notice the abnormality, not Mr. Zeal, not the hero, and not Kyousuke.
I later learned that once a wind mage reaches a certain level, they can subconsciously sense things like this—what’s commonly called “wind reading.”
It’s like an intuition or a bad premonition: when something that affects your life or death is nearby, you just sort of know.
“This forest feels off, doesn’t it?”
It was just as I was about to say that.
I’d meant to consult Mr. Zeal about the unease I’d felt since we entered the forest. The others didn’t seem to notice it, but it was too unsettling to chalk up to paranoia, so I wanted to ask him and get his judgement.
Since I was in the same party as Mr. Zeal, I thought this was my chance and was about to bring it up.
But I was too late.
“Nanase-kun, be on guard. They’re at some distance, but we’re surrounded.”
Mr. Zeal, scanning the area with the natural motions of someone really just looking for food, murmured to me.
At the words that we were surrounded, my body stiffened.
As a wind mage I’m of course a back-line fighter. I’d never directly faced enemies head-on, human or demonic beasts. As a man I’d sometimes admired front-line fighters, but the most I’d done was stand behind the hero and Kyousuke and cast long-range spells.
None of the monsters we’d fought so far had been strong enough to dodge attacks from a hero and a samurai and send the back line into a crisis.
Because of that, unlike close-combat front-line fighters, I wasn’t used to receiving killing intent directed at me.
“Eek!?”
On edge, wondering where an attack would come from, a hand touched my shoulder and my body jumped a few centimeters.
Following the hand led me to Mr. Zeal, his face unusually severe.
The hand gripping my shoulder tightened.
“Calm down. If you don’t want to die, steel yourself to do whatever it takes to survive and use anything necessary to stay alive.”
Mr. Zeal stepped in front of me with that stern look, drew his sword, and took a stance.
His back was broader than I’d imagined.
“Use me so that you can survive!”
Hearing that, my tense hand finally loosened.
Not the distant, polite tone he usually used, but messy and natural Mr. Zeal’s voice reached my chest.
I’m not strong on my own like Akira is.
I don’t have the charisma to lead everyone like the hero.
I don’t have a special skill like Kyousuke.
I’m not good at cooking, I can’t always be the life of the party, and I can’t heal anyone. I don’t have anything special.
But I want to live.
I don’t want to die.
…I want to go home.
I want to wake up, get scolded by my parents, rush off to school, do stupid things with friends, study, eat dinner—just live an ordinary life.
So to grab that life, to seize it, I have to fight.
Maybe because the killing intent was directed at me, my hands, which had been ice-cold, warmed and grew hot.
Probably like what Akira did on the first day they came to this world, I finally made up my mind to fight in this world.
Not because others told me to, but by my own will.
“Yes!! I’ll act to avoid dying! So tell me what to do! How can I survive?”
I lifted my face, gripped the staff that assists in casting, and met Mr. Zeal’s eyes.
He widened his eyes at my sudden change and then smiled, pleased.
“Good resolve. Then, at once…”
He whispered in my ear and I nodded immediately.
It was something I’d never tried before, but from experience as a wind mage I knew strong emotions could sometimes become power when casting.
No longer the passive me, with morale up I could definitely do it.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes. Completely.”
We prepared to fight the enemies. It felt like a lot of time passed while getting ready, but the enemies still hadn’t appeared.
Even if the killing intent I felt earlier was from fear, isn’t Mr. Zeal’s search range a bit much?
Well, maybe it takes that level of power to be Vice Captain of a kingdom’s knights order.