episode_0148

Chapter 148: Sibling Love

Before boarding the train, we said our goodbyes to Leona, who had come to see us off.

“Everyone from the Academy. You’ve worked hard. There were many difficulties, but this experience will become a valuable asset for your future, so don’t be too disheartened!”

Leona, who had been panting beneath me just yesterday, was nowhere to be seen, as she exuded her usual dependable and stern aura.

That memory felt like a mirage.

But her glances, darting towards me ceaselessly even as she spoke, proved that it wasn’t just my imagination.

Leona, who had been talking with Sara, finally approached Regina.

“Then, stay healthy until we meet again. And let me know if you need help.”

“…And?”

Regina stared intently at Leona, as if asking if that was all.

“And? Is there something else you want to hear from me?”

Leona tilted her head, unable to imagine that I had recorded our tryst on a chip and sent it to Regina.

Regina’s face contorted as if even that expression was detestable.

Of course, she quickly returned to a blank expression.

“It’s fine if there’s nothing. I get the gist.”

Regina, who nodded as if she understood the situation, subtly glared at me.

Through Leona’s reaction, she had realized that I had acted on my own.

I just grinned.

At my blatant provocation, Regina gnashed her teeth, then whipped her head around with such force it seemed to strain her neck, and advised,

“…Be good to your husband.”

“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. Okay.”

Leona replied awkwardly.

The mention of her husband seemed to rekindle her guilt. She had certainly enjoyed herself yesterday far too much to claim she had done it unwillingly.

It was to the point that later on, she was thrusting her hips on her own even without me moving.

A married woman’s peak libido was immense.

“Well, I’ll be going now. See you later.”

“Alright. Goodbye!”

Regina turned away, and the entire squad, including me, followed her onto the train.

Afterward, when we arrived at our designated seats, Isis, who was sitting beside me, kept glancing over before subtly asking a question.

“By the way, Ruan, that girl we met earlier. Was her name Deborah? What did you two talk about?”

“Deborah? Hmm… I just told her we should see each other more often from now on. We’d grown a bit distant lately.”

“Did you two fight?”

“No. We just somehow stopped talking. Well, it should be fine now.”

“I see…”

Isis’s face subtly clouded over, looking strangely deflated. She suddenly blurted out something unexpected.

“H-have you perhaps started dating?”

“Huh? What are you suddenly talking about?”

“No? Did one of you confess, but the other didn’t accept right away, making it awkward, and then you started dating, so it cleared up?”

She confidently recited her own theory.

Feeling like it would lead to unnecessary misunderstandings, I shook my head, exuding an even more unenthusiastic air.

“No, I haven’t.”

“I-is that so?”

“Yes. If we were dating, I’d say so. Why would I lie?”

“But what if you decided to keep it a secret…”

Even as she spoke, she pressed on with a persistent gaze, as if she hadn’t yet ruled out that possibility.

It was truly absurd.

‘What’s wrong with her? Is she jealous?’

Anyone who didn’t know us might think she had a crush on me and was anxious because I got a girlfriend.

Well, there was no way Isis would do that.

Even if we had engaged in a certain act once, that was purely her sacrifice to save her precious younger brother, not a romantic progression between a man and a woman.

Unless Isis had suddenly developed a taste for incest, the possibility was zero.

“Anyway, it’s not like that, so please stop thinking strange things.”

“It’s not a strange thought…”

“That’s enough. I’m going to sleep now.”

“Already?”

“Because I’m tired. Wake me up in the evening.”

Having sex like crazy with Leona until dawn today had left me incredibly fatigued.

Physically, thanks to the Phoenix’s regeneration, I was fine, but mentally, it was different. Excessive pleasure could burden the mind.

I ignored Isis’s grumbling and fell asleep.

*

“Ruan, wake up! Hurry!”

“Hmm… what’s─”

Crash!

In the late dawn, even before I could rub my eyes and get up from Isis’s sudden call, a shock struck the train.

Screech!

With a sound like twisting metal, the train tilted precariously, and my body defied gravity.

It was a rather familiar sensation.

‘A sinkhole?’

The trigger that threw me into this cursed world. Even if not the direct cause, it was the origin that dragged me into an endless vortex of pain.

For a moment, the fear of death enveloped me, but the subsequent impacts shattered my prediction.

Bang! Crash! Rumble!

My vision spun wildly.

The train, presumably rolling down an incline, spun around, throwing its interior into chaos.

“Aaaah!”

“W-what is this!”

“Damn it!”

All the surrounding students were startled by the sudden calamity, yet reacted quickly.

Amidst the chaos, I was pulled by a hand beside me and ended up burying my face in a chest.

“Ruan, hold on tight!”

Isis had hugged me.

It was always my impression, but her chest felt incredible.

Still, this wouldn’t do.

With persistent reluctance, I pried Isis’s hands off.

“Ruan, stay still! The impact is coming soon!”

“That’s why I’m doing this. This time, I’ll protect you.”

“What? Ah!”

I hugged Isis tightly.

Thoroughly, so her body wouldn’t be exposed to the outside. So that not even a hair’s worth of impact would be transmitted to her if we collided with the ground like this.

Isis’s resistance was natural.

“Ru-Ruan. No! Let go!”

“I don’t want to.”

“I said let go!”

Logically, Isis would have higher durability stats than me, so this act could be considered quite inefficient.

But not everything works efficiently.

It’s better for me to get hurt protecting Isis than for Isis to get hurt because of me.

Anyway, wounds can be regenerated with the Phoenix’s power, and above all, the Fortress of Iron will block the initial damage.

As I suppressed Isis’s resistance, a deafening roar assaulted my ears.

Screech!

It seemed the coupling connecting the train cars had been damaged. As expected, the cars had separated, and I could see the rest of the train receding into the distance beyond the window.

Isolated and rolling down the incline, we soon crashed to the ground with a dizzying sensation of falling.

Slam!

The whole world was turned upside down.

Despite having nullified the damage, an immense impact shook my body and stole my consciousness.

I rolled around wildly inside the train car, then couldn’t withstand it any longer, was thrown out through a broken gap, and tumbled across the ground.

My vision instantly blurred.

But I clenched my teeth and held on with a desperate will, and soon I was fine.

I looked around.

‘A forest?’

Trees sprouted everywhere. It was so dense that sunlight couldn’t reach the ground. Only where we had fallen was the sky wide open.

As I was assessing the situation, Isis opened her eyes, pulled herself out of my embrace, and checked on me.

“Ruan! Are you alright, Ruan? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Oh, yes. I’m fine. Let’s check on the others first.”

We weren’t the only ones who had fallen.

The train cars had separated, so we were apart from others, but at least our squad was together.

Isis nodded, flustered.

“Oh? Ah, yes!”

It seemed she was so worried about me that she hadn’t given a thought to the other squad members. It wasn’t my place to say it, but Regina was truly pitiful.

Did she perhaps read my thoughts?

Bang!

The train door violently burst open, and a disheveled Regina emerged.

“Isis. You’re safe.”

“Ah! I’m glad to hear you’re safe too, Regina-nim. How about the others?”

“…Behind us.”

At her subtle gesture to the rear, I looked inside and saw Abel and Veronica. The remaining three extras lay as cold corpses.

“Three people…”

Isis bit her lip hard, feeling a sense of responsibility as she was effectively the current squad leader.

Her lip split, and blood trickled out.

Regina took out a potion, sprayed it on her arm, and calmly offered advice.

“Isis. This isn’t the time. You know that, don’t you?”

—Screech!

No sooner had Regina finished speaking than monsters appeared from among the bushes, as if they had been waiting.

From the Steel Moles I had seen before to creatures I had never encountered, their types were diverse.

“M-monsters, why here!”

In this place, far removed from the Western Front, monsters appeared. Abel cried out in shock at this illogical situation.

Isis, who seemed to have regained her composure, drew her spear and said coldly.

“Come out.”

“…”

Silence fell for a moment.

As everyone was bewildered, unsure who she was addressing, Isis shouted decisively.

“I know you’re there! Come out!”

Her voice was filled with certainty. As if her will to not let things pass was conveyed to the other party, a woman soon revealed herself.

With green hair and green eyes, dressed in a plant-made dress, she resembled a forest dryad.

“Oh my. How did you manage to tell? I was perfectly assimilated with the forest.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. You, you’re a member of the Dark Cult, aren’t you?”

“Does that show too? You’re right. I’m a member of the Dark Cult. My name is Selina. You’re quite perceptive, aren’t you? Too perceptive women aren’t popular with men, you know.”

“…”

Isis showed no reaction to the provocation.

She did glance at me for a moment, but that was just a natural action.

When there was no reply, Selina huffed, as if deflated, and slowly looked us over.

“Anyway, what a nasty coincidence. I didn’t expect to run into you all again.”

“…We’ve met before?”

“Precisely, we haven’t met. But you did interfere with my work a bit. Remember the Steel Moles you met in the mountains?”

“Steel Moles, you say…”

“Yes. Those Steel Moles. They suddenly broke free from my control and ran into the mountains. I was going to retrieve them, but I happened to run into an ugly man, so I had no choice but to leave them. What a shame.”

So, Selina’s words meant she came to the mountains to catch the escaped moles, but happened to run into Jimmy and deliberately left them behind to eliminate him.

No wonder, Jimmy’s tracks led up a tree; it must have been Selina’s doing.

It was then, as she was excitedly briefing us on what she had done.

Beep-beep-beep!

A signal sound rang from within Selina’s embrace.

She flinched, then clicked her tongue regretfully.

“Ah… it seems this is as far as I go, doesn’t it? I’m out of time. I’m sorry, everyone. Please just die now.”

Snap!

Simultaneously with Selina snapping her fingers, a strange wave of demonic energy spread out, and the monsters’ eyes turned blood red.

Eyes that previously showed no intelligence were now filled with madness.

—Screech!

—Roar!

The creatures, now in a frenzied state, let out roars and simultaneously charged at us.