“What’s goin’ on…!?”
“It’s bad, it’s bad…!!”
Meanwhile, Shian and the other hero prospects woke up to agonizing cries in a hellish picture.
They were all pale with despair, making the confidence they had before the event feel like a lie.
Shian was fidgeting on a chair, unable to stop biting his nails.
Yes… Much like how Koumaru and Zaraki felt flustered after their plans were disrupted, they were also at a loss as to what to do after the story went in a direction they did not expect.
(How did this happen? We didn’t help Ryuuga or anything…!!)
They chose the route where Ryuuga died and the guards retrieved the jewel, but he survived Zaraki.
With Ryuuga’s death avoided, two routes remained. Everyone lives, or the combat miko leave.
In one route, Zaraki got a power up from the jewel that sealed Raiha, and a fight against him awaited. Of course, to save Raiha, they had to beat Zaraki, the boss of this scenario.
Shian and the others struggled with the gigantroses meant to buy time, so they had no chance against someone far more powerful. Even with their game knowledge, the overwhelming difference in their stats made it impossible.
…But there was another problem.
They knew that at this rate, they had to follow the route where everyone lived.
“This is bad. The way things are going…!”
“Ryuuga will kill Koumaru…! Then we can’t save Raiha!!”
There was one condition to follow the route where all five exchange students were saved.
Ryuuga’s favorability… It has to be above a certain mark to follow the route where everyone lives.
If they did not meet the condition, Ryuuga would prioritize taking down his enemy over rescuing Raiha, and would chase Koumaru.
In that case, the main character and the others would be unable to harm Zaraki with their attacks. Zaraki would defeat them and flee the country.
This route was not a game over, but being beaten by Zaraki meant the centerpiece heroines, the combat miko, would leave the party forever, so that was a route Shian and the others wanted to avoid no matter what.
“D-did we raise Ryuuga’s favorability?”
“Not a bit! You know that!”
They were planning to let him die to avoid going through the route where everyone survived and Raiha would not join any of their harems, so no one bothered to raise favorability with him.
He was always with Yuugo, and Yui was put in danger because of Egos, so it became hard to even talk to him.
And now, that decision left them cornered.
“We all lost favorability because of Egos! It’s that bastard’s fault!”
“Dammit…!! He’s not here and he’s still bothering us…!!”
Shian and the others understood the situation, and shifted the responsibility to Egos, but… that was no solution.
Panic, annoyance, and despair raged in their hearts, and Shian got up and spoke as he looked at the others.
“We have to work together…! We can’t lose the combat miko! Help me!”
“Okay, but what are you gonna do? Without Ryuuga, we can’t beat Zaraki even if we gang up on him.”
The hero prospects were very aware of the game’s story, so while they agreed with Shian, they questioned what he would do.
Shian responded with bloodshot eyes.
“We don’t need Ryuuga, we need the Loong King Fang. We have a chance if we get that weapon.”
All they needed was Ryuuga’s magic item, the Loong King Fang. Shian asserted that they did not need its user, and explained his plan.
“Ryuuga should chase Koumaru. We’ll ambush him… Attack him all together, and steal the katana. Then we’ll rush back to Zaraki. How about that!?”
“I-it could work…!!”
“Yes! If we have his weapon, we don’t need Ryuuga to damage Zaraki! This trick would work!!”
…It should be said that even with the Loong King Fang, their chances of beating Zaraki were zero.
As stated before, there was an overwhelming gap between them. Not to mention that people who normally tried to kick each other down would not be coordinating very well at all.
Shian’s proposal reeked of pointless struggle, and was not a good plan at all.
They believed in it, and decided the only way was to commit the evil deed of robbing Ryuuga of his katana, but this spoke more of their desperation than anything else.
“Okay! The time is now! We’ll go around and ambush Ryuuga!!”
“““Yes!!”””
The hero prospects hastily executed Shian’s idea.
They made use of their game knowledge and anticipated the route Ryuuga would take to go after Koumaru, and rushed out of the academy to take the Loong King Fang.
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….I can’t wait for these idiots to be gone
I can’t wait to see them get what’s coming to them.