It’s sunny outside and right now, Yuriko and I are having lunch. I asked her about the circumstances of our meeting and she mentioned that I am a Prentice studying at the famed Anthedon Military Academy.

She also told me about my circumstances as one who is to be the Princess’ Knight once I graduated. She told me about how Rolando and his friends, about how they beat me down. It seems that I received a trauma to the part of the head that affected my memories like this. She mentioned that the Doctor who examined me said that recovering my memories could take some time but I should be prepared for them never coming back at all.

Well that’s a lot to take in.

I sip my soup as I eyed the tonkatsu that Yuriko prepared for me. I’m saving that for my main dish. Speaking of Yuriko, my first impression of her is that she seems to be friendly and caring but all of that are underwhelming compared to the the danger I feel whenever I actually look at her. She has no excess movements and she has no openings. How can an innocent girl like her develop such senses in a time of peace?

This woman…she’s hiding something.

“Mr. Tonkatsu, is something the matter?” She suddenly calls out.

“Erm. No, why?”

“Well, you have been staring at me for a while now.” She says as she avoids making eye-contact with me.

“I didn’t mean to stare at you, I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. Are you enjoying your meal?”

As I was about to answer, the door slams open and a dagger zooms in on my face with tremendous accuracy. It’s too slow. I catch it with my index and middle fingers and casually toss it aside.

“Captain! What are you doing with this hick?”

“That’s rude Chie, and what did I say about throwing knives inside the house?”

“Mmm. Did anyone throw a knife inside the house? I remember throwing it from the outside.”

“That’s not funny, Chi.”

It’s Chie and for some reason, she refers to Yuriko as “Captain” and to me, “Hick". Chie is a brown haired girl that sports a mid-length pixie cut. She’s not too tall but she’s not too short either and her combat senses seem refined as well. On her neck hangs a pendant that, for some reason, resembles the one Yuriko is wearing. As she notices my gaze, her deep blue eyes transformed into slits as she eyes me with venom.

“Stop staring at me, hick! You’re going to infect all of us with your stupidity! While you’re at it, stop flirting with the Captain, okay?”

“Stupidity can’t be caught, stupid. Stupid people like you are born with it.”

“People who call people stupid are the stupid ones, hick!”

“You called me stupid first so should I refer to you as Stupid-Prime from now on?”

At that she explodes and I find a flurry of knives making their way to my vital spots. I release stored energy from my body and shouted:

“Fall!”

The knives all fell down from the force of my voice but what bothered me are the girls. They’re on their bellies with a shocked look on their faces.

“C-C-Captain, you saw that, right?”

“Words of power.”

“Like that Dreadnought? The Envoy of Destruction?”

“Yes, just like Lady Belle.”

What are they talking about? All I did was release a miniscule portion of the mana I store inside my body. I don’t know how I know how to do that but it just naturally comes to me.

“What’s the big deal? I just released my mana.” I earnestly asked.

“You really a stupid hick aren’t you?” As usual, Chie is on point.

“Stop it, Chie.” Yuriko suddenly looked at Chie and her usual smile was gone from her face. Scary.

“Mmmuu..Okay Captain.” As she holds her hands to her chest.

Chie takes a deep breath and explains that infusing mana into words was nothing just anyone could do and that in the world, only this ‘Lady Belle’ could do it. It’s a form of mana control that’s required to access intermediate ranked runes. There are other ways to utilize intermediate ranked runes, sure, but doing it this way is probably the most efficient but it is also the most difficult to achieve. In about three hundred years, only Lady Belle managed to succeed in this endeavor and now, here I am.

“Is..is that so? I’ll be more careful with it then.” I humbly replied.

“It’s good that you’re a fast learner, hick.”

“Only because you’re a good teacher, Chie.”

“Hey hey. Stop flirting around Mr. Tonkatsu! You too Chie!” Yuriko says, as she pouts and crosses her arms.

“”Okay”” Chie and I reply, defeated.

‘We weren’t flirting around okay’ As I am thinking these thoughts, I sense a chill coming from the skies.

“Duck!”

I pushed Yuriko to the side of the wooden hut and shield her with my body. Just as she was about to wonder why I pushed her down, a powerful bolt of thunder wrapped in flames hits the roof of the wooden hut and the hut is instantly engulfed in flames.

“An enemy attack?”

“Yuriko, keep your head down. We’ll have to escape somehow. Chie, are you okay?”

Silence. All I can hear are the flames licking the wooden hut’s debris. I then realize that the walls are covered in blood and some sort... of soft, squishy matter.

“B…blood?...Chie?”

As Yuriko looked around, searching for her friend, I realize that I was staring at her the entire time. Yes, blood was all over the walls and that matter seemed to have been flesh. I see Chie’s roasted corpse on the floor, missing a few parts. She must have taken the brunt of the mana attack. I try to shield Yuriko from this sight as she comes close to me but to no avail.

She closes her eyes as she offered a prayer to her deceased friend. I was expecting some crying or screaming but this is..different. Is my understanding of the relationship between people muddied by my memory loss?

“Mr. Tonkatsu.” She says as she gives me a gaze filled with resolution.

“We are under enemy atta –“

I activate my mana once more and willed myself to knock her out. Without knowing how I did it, I found myself standing behind her as she falls down, unconscious. I knocked her out with a chop and try to hide her somewhere safe. With the way things are going, she’s probably going to commit suicide to avenge her friend and I can’t have that.

I’m carrying her with me as another barrage of spells hit our last location, which was the hut. I run with all of my might and notice that we have travelled a fair distance as I can barely hear the spells exploding here and there. I might actually be pretty fast. I find a suitable spot to hide Yuriko and place her there. I can only pray that when she wakes up, she thinks of herself and run to get some help. It starts raining around me and I can feel tension building in my chest. I have decided to fight against the invaders. I myself will avenge Chie and I will destroy those who…

Woah woah woah. When did I get so violent? I calm myself down as I ran towards the source of the spells.

Woosh.

I pass by trees and plants at a blazing speed. Movement seems easy enough. I jump and land on a sturdy looking branch as I jumped from tree to tree, trying to conceal my movements. Moving fast is good and all but it’s noisy and wasteful of energy. My body responds to my new-found way of traversing the jungle as though it tirelessly did this in the past. Seems as though I’ve had some training for guerilla combat.

“That’s convenient” I said as I thanked Lady Belle in my head.

A few moments pass and a few almost crashes later, I sense a presence erratically moving around a few feet away from me. I hastily hide myself in a tree and mask away my traces. It’s bizarre how all of this is natural for me.

“Did you find them?”

“No sir! But it seems as though we got someone with our bombardment spells, sir!”

“Good. Keep searching.”

“Sir!”

The officer leaves and left behind is the soldier he was speaking to. I can’t recognize his uniform but they seem oddly familiar for me. I decided to question him.

I waited for him to drop his guard and crept up behind him, but funnily enough, I step on a branch and he notices my presence.

“Kyaa! Freeze!”

“Did you just actually say “kyaa”?”

“No I did not. Do not move!” As he aims his sword towards me.

“For a coward, you sure know how to handle that sword.”

That wasn’t a lie. He’s really familiar with a sword but I think I can beat him.

I harnessed the mana inside my body and released words of power.

“Drop your sword!”

His grip refused to part with the sword so his sword, along with his entire body hit the ground with a shocking thud. I notice trees falling down around me. Did I do that?

I collected the soldier and transported him near the hut which they mercilessly destroyed. I tie him up in the nearest tree and slapped him, to wake him up of course. That and I felt like it.

The force of my slap seems to have dented his full-faced helmet and is now holding his face in an awkward angle. Seems as though I crushed his jaw, too.

The soldier screams in agony as he realizes what just happened and I again gathered mana and released new words of power.

“Silence.”

The soldier immediately stopped shouting and by the looks of his shoulder movement, I say he’s trying to grasp his throat.

“Now soldier, what’s about to happen can either be pleasurable or painful but all of that will depend on you. I have a few questions that maybe you can answer. Satisfy me and you’re free to go but lie to me or even think for a second that you can fool me? Well, you’ll just have to find out what happens right? Nod if you understand.”

The soldier nods with enthusiasm. Coward.

I nod back at him and he gives me a smile. I remember Chie’s mangled, bloodied remains and anger begins to cloud my judgment. Why does he get to smile? Huh? I release new words of power directed towards his pinky finger.

“Break”

His finger slowly bends backward as it slowly breaks itself. The soldier can’t even cry out in pain and after the ordeal, he looks at me as though asking ‘Why did you hurt me?”

I smile at him, cracked my knuckles and began the…interrogation.

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Author's notes:

I'd get mad too if someone interrupted tonkatsu time.

Hi everyone, Alizoned here. How do you like the story so far? Let me know what you think!