Heroine-Saving System: Reborn In A Third-Rate Manga As The Protagonist-Chapter 108: The Storm

"Thanks for the coffee, C8." Sousuke said.

He was the second-in-command of the operations running on Familiar Isle... Haruki’s right hand when the Dean wasn’t present, which today meant he was the one responsible for everything.

His actual job was monitoring the Familiars that occasionally fought amongst themselves and stepping in only when a battle started affecting the ecosystem of the terrain.

In decades of doing this job that intervention had been required twice.

He also handled the feeding schedules because at the end of the day the Familiars here were monsters, and good quality monsters didn’t come from nowhere.

Several decades of taming, controlled crossbreeding, careful selection of traits until the perfect forms settled with unique abilities, stable temperaments and the kind of Familiars that students could actually bond with without getting killed in the process.

Even then the feeding was kept deliberately low... and it became even lower before the student batches arrived each year.

The Familiars were smart enough to understand the arrangement.

They would trade their young or their older members as contracted Familiars in exchange for the food brought by students, and within a year that food supply would be exhausted.

Whatever Familiars hadn’t been taken would then compete with the ones that had been popular enough to eat, and the whole ecosystem would reset for the following year.

Sousuke had watched this cycle run twenty-three times and he had never once needed to intervene in it.

"I can’t believe Boss had us handle something this easy." Sousuke said, watching the screens in front of him.

The monitors displayed different sections of the forest from above, the cave formations, the mountain range, and Ehen the open fields.

"You’d honestly expect these students to throw some attacks or tantrums or something..."

"Are you wishing for that?" One of his teammates asked from behind him.

"I’m equally surprised though. It’s past breakfast and nothing has—"

A crack split through the already fractured face of the mountain on the monitor and Sousuke stood up immediately.

"What the..." He caught himself. The machines were in place for exactly this.

Several devices had been installed in the mountain specifically to push the creature back inside if it ever started to surface.

He had checked them himself two days ago. "Right, we set up the machines to handle this. They’ll—"

"ALERT! MANA FIELDS HAVE BEEN DEACTIVATED. MAIN GENERATOR AND BACK-UP GENERATOR DESTROYED. PLEASE REMAI—!"

The intercoms cut off and the monitors went dark.

The control panel at the top of the tower went with them, every screen dying at once and then the power to the entire building dropped and left them standing in a room that had no light and no equipment.

"What the hell is going on?!" Sousuke shouted.

Every machine in the tower was gone... including the systems regulating their battle suits.

The suits dissolved off their bodies into blobs of slime that hit the floor and spread.

On the mountain visible through the window, the rock face split open and one enormous tendril reached out from the crack.

"Move out! Neutralize it before it comes all the way out!"

...

A commoner was sent flying through the air and hit one of the tables hard enough to fold it in half.

"Ha!" The noble standing over him was from Omni Academy’s B-Class. "A commoner from ALI’s Class 5 is trying to lecture me about rules? My family suppressed ten generations of farmers before you were born!"

The scene around them was the same in every direction.

The moment external mana had flooded back in, the upper ranks had moved on the lower ranks immediately, and it had become a brawl within sixty seconds.

Common students, noble students, ALI and Omni Academy mixed together... it had stopped mattering which school anyone was from.

"Shut the fuck up." A commoner from Omni’s C-Class stepped in and drove a kick into the noble’s face, catching him clean and sending him stumbling backward into the counter hard enough to crack the surface and saliva hit the floor in a wide arc.

The noble’s eyes darkened completely. He swept his arm outward and the serpent Familiar uncoiled instantly from his neck.

"Kill this commoner!" The serpent launched forward and a giant bear Familiar came in from the side and hit it mid-lunge, the impact folded the serpent sideways and sending both the noble and his Familiar crashing into the far wall in a single collision.

The noble hit the wall at an angle that crumpled him and he slid down it leaving a dent.

Tables and chairs were broken across the whole floor.

Familiars were being summoned into an already enclosed space and every new summon added to the damage... there was a familiar that had been blasted through a window, another one flattening what was left of the counter, and a water technique from a noble going off in an enclosed room and soaking everything and everyone within fifteen meters.

It was a free-for-all that had stopped caring about rank or school affiliation ten minutes ago and was now simply everybody hitting whoever was closest.

Itsuki stepped into the center of it and raised both hands.

"Stop! All of you, this is a sanctuary and—"

He moved immediately as a Familiar cleared the air beside him.

It kept going and hit the wall where he had been standing and splattered completely, it was dead.

He looked over at who had sent it.

Shion was standing behind Hayate and eyes had gone full crimson.

The boy in front of her was clutching his chest... his Familiar was dead and the soul damage from the severed contract was working through him.

Shion had already covered the distance between herself and the target before Itsuki finished registering that she had moved, driving a strike through the boy’s skull with enough channeled mana that the detonation sent everyone within range off their feet except Hayate who she managed to defend.

The room resumed fighting about four seconds later.

A Mega Bunk door hit the tower window from the outside and put a crack through it.

’They’re fighting in the Bunks too.’ Itsuki thought. He scanned the room and Miyuki wasn’t here. ’Where did she go...’

"MIYUKI!"

An intense wave of water expelled outward from inside, cutting through the air and into the skin of several students and even sending some flying.

The Class 1 nobles added themselves to the chaos.

From above, Mirei watched all of it with her wings folded and her tail flicking once.

"Humans and their unnecessary scuffles." She muttered.

She was more human than succubus by bloodline proportion and she despised that on days like this specifically.

The romance system alone was exhausting... the amount of effort one party had to invest while the other simply existed and received it and then the fighting over the smallest slights, turning every small offense into a full production with Familiars and techniques and broken furniture.

It reminded her of the pet men back at the mansion competing with each other just to get close to the women there.

Theater... all of it was theater.

’I wonder what Koya-kun is doing.’ She thought, watching a lightning spell take out a section of the counter below.

She wasn’t going to go looking... she was fairly sure Ryouma and Takeru both had eyes on him given everything that had been circulating since yesterday.

’They’re fodder but I don’t want him dead yet.’

She flew out through the broken window before another technique came through it.

...

"So many good shots." Ichinose muttered under her breath.

She had installed the hidden cameras days ago while everyone was still settling into the Bunks and nobody was paying attention to what she was doing.

Main tower base, Mega Bunk lounges and several small units aimed at the mountain from a tree branch at the right angle.

The drone feed had the tendril footage running live and the quality was clean with the crack in the mountain face and the thickness of the things coming out of it.

It was pure content. Right now, she had two and a half million viewers and the number was still moving.

’Now it’s time for Koya-kun to push them past ten.’ She thought.

She had positioned herself far enough back that she wasn’t visible in any frame and the newest drone she had purchased from the city before all of this started had a long-range audio and visual pickup that could hold a target from a significant distance without appearing in the shot.

She had it locked on the wide clearing in the grass where the numbers were about to matter.

Ryouma was standing with both hands in his pockets staring at Koya from across the clearing and Takeru was beside him.

Miyuki was not walking freely since Takeru had her by the arm and behind them were several students from Omni Academy’s B-Class.

Their defense suits had dissolved into slime blobs the moment the mana fields dropped and what Ryouma was wearing underneath was something casual but...

Koya was wearing a full suit with the jacket, tie, and even the price tag was still visible on the inside of the collar.

It had cost four million crowns, right there in plain sight.

"You know..." Ryouma said, looking at him. "I find it hard to believe you’re a commoner. How does a measly commoner afford an Manaweave suit?"

"Does it really matter?" Takeru said, not waiting for an answer.

He had Miyuki’s wrist and was already moving her toward a nearby tree.

"Don’t worry my love. This will be over quickly." He nodded at the B-Class students and they produced rope from somewhere and tied Miyuki to the tree.

She kept crying and her eyes kept looking at Koya.

"Now." Takeru stepped forward. "I hope you don’t think we heard these rumors about you and simply ignored them."

「Wait is this actually true tho?? 👀」

「LMAOO bro really out here stealing another man’s girl 💀💀💀」

「Nah he’s being framed clearly, look at his face 😭」

「Chat is he actually innocent or nah bc I can’t tell 😭🙏」

"What are you talking about?" Koya blinked. "How could I do that if she was with Itsuki the whole time?"

"I-I don’t know! But you’re forcing Miyuki to spend time with you! A spineless man with no woman of his own so he goes after the woman of another man!" Takeru’s voice climbed and Koya’s eyes drifted past him to the mountain on the horizon.

Three tendrils had come out now with each one thick as a tree trunk reaching out from the crack in the rock face.

The thing that owned them hadn’t appeared in the manga and he genuinely had no reference for what was about to come out of there.

"Are you even listening to me?!" Takeru snapped.

Ryouma stepped up before Koya could respond.

"What about me? You’re out here being all lovey-dovey with my sister! They’re saying you leave her room late at night!"

Koya dragged a hand down his face slowly.

"What? I couldn’t be caught dead with Akari." He said flatly.

She had a nice body and that was the end of the list... He had no time for someone who had been spoiled since childhood.

He missed the Akari from the manga honestly but he would not be caught dead doing anything with her.

"Fucker! Are you saying she’s not attractive enough for you?!"

He was actively resisting the urge to look sideways at where Mio was completely concealed in the treeline, gripping a dagger from her storage ring with both hands and a very specific look in her eyes.

’It’s really stressful doing this and trying to stop her from attacking at the same time.’ Koya thought.

"Oi, me first." Takeru shoved Ryouma aside with one hand.

He squared his shoulders and looked at Koya with hatred and a bit of honor on his face.

"For this battle I am staking everything... my pride, my clan’s name, all of it on the line. If you win against me, you may take my fiancée from me and keep her as your own. I want this witnessed."

He glanced back at his B-Class entourage to make sure they had heard it and they had. "However you should know that my clan’s abilities are far beyond whatever a commoner can project. Just because you managed to use fire on the level of the Kagutsuchi and wear a nice suit doesn’t mean—"

Koya had already stopped listening.

He was looking at Miyuki instead... The blue-haired girl had stopped crying at some point during the speech and was watching him from the tree with a little bit of joy in her eyes.

’She really wants out of this engagement that badly.’ He thought.

Takeru noticed his eyes had moved and activated Frame Step.

The world shifted into discrete frozen images... there was one still frame and then the next, the gap between them where Takeru existed and everything else didn’t.

He covered the three meters to Koya’s back in a single step and drove the dagger forward at the base of his neck with the trajectory of the attack locked and the speed producing nothing readable in the air between start and destination.

He didn’t even leave a blur or a trail, it was like he simply existed behind Koya however Koya’s body moved sideways before the step completed.

It was not a reaction to what he saw but rather a reaction to what he felt.

Danger Sense fired the moment Takeru formed the intent to step, registering the killing intent before the body began to move.

By the time the frame step placed Takeru behind him, Koya was already mid-dodge since he didn’t pause time but slow it down as he was moving between frames.

The body that should have been there was a foot to the left and the dagger cut through empty air.

Koya skidded away and stopped, he was already upright again.

Takeru stood with the dagger extended into nothing and he blinked slowly.

"Y-you dodged my frame strike?" He said.

There was silence... Ryouma had gone still... The B-Class students had gone still and even the viewer count on Ichinose’s stream paused its climbing for three full seconds.

「BRO WHAT 😭😭😭」

「HE DODGED A FRAME STEP ARE YOU KIDDING ME 💀💀💀」 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

「This man is not human bro I’m sorry 😭🔥」

「CHAT HE LITERALLY MOVED BEFORE IT HAPPENED???」

「Koya is an actual MONSTER what is he 😭🙏🔥」

’It’s really strange to have someone appear behind you without moving there.’ Koya thought, standing straight and rolling his shoulder once. ’I’ll win this... with a little bit of effo-’

Suddenly, a small beat of wind touched the back of his neck and though that was normal. The back of his head suddenly felt naked...

Koya’s eyes dropped to the ground and he saw that the blade had caught his hair.

He reached up slowly and touched the back of his head.

The ponytail was gone and what his hand found instead was hair that ended above his collar... it was not short enough to be a crop but nowhere near the shoulder-length he had woken up with that morning.

Takeru had missed the strike and caught his hair on the way past.

In his past life he had been overweight with naturally slow hair growth and a receding hairline.

Short hair had never been something he chose, it was something that happened to him by default and something he had no control over.

It had also made everything else about how he looked feel worse than it needed to and in this life he had long hair with an actual hairline.

It was one of the first things that had actually looked right on him...The ponytail and the length of hair reaching his shoulder... he had liked it.

He had not said that out loud to anyone but he had liked it and now it was on the ground in front of him in a loose cluster of blond strands.

A wave of murderous intent left his body.

It spread outward in every direction like pressure from a rupture, covering the clearing, reaching the treeline, and even touching Miyuki at the tree and making her breath stop and her eyes go wide and her crying start again.

Takeru took a step backward without deciding to and Ryouma had stopped moving.

The B-Class entourage behind them had collectively shifted three steps back without a single one of them noticing they had done it.

「Common Skill: Murderous Intent (E) → Common Skill: Murderous Intent (D)」

"I..."

The intent doubled... It had weight now and the others could notice it.

Miyuki had stopped crying again and right now, she was holding her breath.

「Common Skill: Murderous Intent (D) → Unique Skill: Killer’s Intent (C)」

"I will..."

The second upgrade hit and the intent doubled in a single step.

Mio had lowered the dagger completely and she had taken a half-step back even though she was on his side.

"KILL YOU!"

He had not lost control like this once since arriving in this world.

The rage came out fully and what followed was a wave of murderous intent that hit everything in the clearing like a physical force as Koya moved in the direction of Takeru.

The Hollowblade materialized in his hand as he closed the distance between them however Ryouma made a sign while gritting his teeth and a wave of blue fire burst forth, consuming him completely.