Chapter 5: The real first arc (2)

After we left the school, the students group themselves up while making sure their group do not have too many people. Most of them are numbered between three to six.

Needless to say, all of them invite the student council duo to join their group, but they decline and choose to come with me and Mashiro. I got more looks of contempt for this. Sakuya and Ichika also notice those looks.

‘My, you’re getting more and more popular, Akira-kun.’ Sakuya says while chuckling.

‘In a bad way, you mean.’

Ichika is busy glaring at those students, which make them drop their gaze and look somewhere else.

‘Don’t bother, Ichika.’

‘But…’

‘It’s fine. It’s not like they’re straight up bullying me. Come on, let’s go.’

‘All right, if you say so.’ Ichika says reluctantly.

‘Now then, where should we go? Your big sister would like to check out the shopping district.’ Sakuya suggests.

‘This is not a shopping trip, Sakuya-senpai. Besides, it’s already evening. All the shops are closed.’ I remind her.

‘I know. But I had a hunch that they will appear there. So let’s go go go ~!’

I look at Ichika. ‘I honestly don’t how you manage to keep up with her.’

‘I had practice.’ she says with the eyes of a dead fish.

‘Shouldn’t we go after her?’ Mashiro asks us.

‘Huh?’

Mashiro points at Sakuya, who’s already way ahead of us.

‘Well, looks like we gotta run.’ I tell the others.

‘Indeed.’ Ichika agrees with me.

‘...Pardon?’ Mashiro’s face is exactly like her name, white as a sheet.

When we caught up to Sakuya, we have already arrived at the shopping district. Ichika and I are still fine after all the running, but it can’t be the same for Mashiro, who is wheezing heavily and look like she is about to faint.

‘You okay there, Mashiro?’ I couldn’t help but ask.

‘Promise me…this…never…run…again…’ Mashiro says between breaths.

‘Perhaps you need the ten kilometers jogging training after all.’ Ichika says.

‘Wasn’t that punishment… paid off by… Akira?’

‘Wait a second, why do I have to pay for the violation of rules that you committed?’

‘Because you’re…my accomplice?’

‘Since when? And what do you mean, accomplice? You're the one who came into my room!’

‘Oh yeah, we haven’t talked about Mashiro-chan’s punishment back then, since we got distracted by Akira-kun.’

‘Me?’

‘Well, how about this?’ Sakuya goes to Mashiro and princess carry her. ‘Mashiro-chan will be the student council’s mascot. You main job is to recharge the members’ energy by letting them pet and hug you. As a reward, you get all-you-can-eat snacks.’

‘I’m in as long as the snacks are not made by you.’

‘...Mashiro-chan, I think you spent so much time with Akira-kun that you start to sound like him.’

‘Can we proceed with our patrolling, please? We are wasting time here.’ Ichika pleads.

‘Oh yes, I’ve almost forgotten about it.’ Sakuya says while putting down Mashiro. ‘Let’s go then.’

Maybe it’s because of how quiet it is, but the shopping district during nighttime gives out an eerie atmosphere. There are lights from the second floor of some of the shops,indicating that there are people living here.

This kind of place is more vulnerable to vampire attacks since it’s so secluded. I wouldn’t be surprised if vampires did show up here.

‘You would think that with the recent attacks, people will make sure places like this is well guarded.’ I grumbled.

‘Welcome to the world of adults, Akira-kun.’ Sakuya says with an unusually serious tone. ‘People with money will rather ensure that busy cities are protected to ensure the growth of economies. The police, the knights, even the Church are all funded by them, so they go wherever those rich people want them to.’

‘Meanwhile, people who can barely make ends meet are left for dead, since they do not contribute much to the economy. It is truly vile.’ Ichika adds with a disgusted tone.

Mashiro looks at Sakuya. ‘Is that why you wanted to come here, president?’

‘Of course. We are, after all, the only organization that’s not funded by private individuals, so we are free to act as we please.’

‘Those said private individuals won’t be happy that we’re going against their wishes.’ I point out.

‘Ah well, you can’t please everyone.’ Sakuya says rather regretfully.

Just as we are almost done with patrolling the entire district, we hear a scream from somewhere where we just patrolled. At once, all of us minus Mashiro wasted no time in bringing out our weapons and rush towards the scream.

When we reached the scene, we see a woman trying desperately to fight off a hairless humanoid that’s all skin and bones.

‘Stop right there!’ Ichika shouts.

The creature looks at us and snarls, then pounces at us, or more specifically, at me. I react by kicking its face hard. Just as it falls to the ground, I pierce its throat with Gáe Bulg.

It could only make some kind of gurgling sound when it dies, since I punctured its throat. After it stops twitching and confirming that it’s really dead, only then I pull out my spear.

‘Are you all right?’ Sakuya asks the woman while helping her up.

‘Yes, thank…thank you…’

After she had calmed down a bit, we escort her back to her house. All this while, the poor woman couldn’t stop thanking us, and her tears are keep on coming.

The woman’s family runs a shop that makes Japanese sweets, and she gifts us with lots of those even though we tried our best to decline. In the end, all of us got a bag full of sweets.

‘I shall come back here one day and accidentally overpays her, and runs away before she could give me change.’ Ichika declares.

‘Count me in.’

‘Me too.’

‘Me three.’

Before we go back to the Academy, Sakuya calls up a cleaning team to remove the vampire’s corpse and clean up the scene.

‘You did an excellent job back there.’ Ichika compliments me.

‘But all I did was kick and stab.’

‘While being absolutely calm. In a fight, being calm is very important. Even an easy fight will end badly if you are flustered and lose the ability to think.’

When we got back, Sakuya tells me and Mashiro to go back to our room and get a good rest, while she and Ichika will have a brief meeting with the the other groups to ask about their encounters, if any.

The next few days were pretty much the same. Going to school during daytime, and patrol different places at night. Sometimes, nothing happened during our patrol, but there are also times when we managed to kill a few vampires.

Now, it’s not that I don’t know how to stop this vampire pandemic. All of them are spawned and controlled by a huge intelligent S Rank Destroyer. If we could take him out, the vampires will die out. The only problem is, I don’t know where his nest is. In the anime, he just appeared out of nowhere and started attacking a city.

I don’t want to wait until then, since it would mean more body counts. Sadly, there’s nothing I could do. Or so I thought.

One night, we are out patrolling as usual. As per usual, we were patrolling a secluded area. And then, I saw a vampire up ahead.

The others are eager to kill it the moment they saw it, but I stop them, since this one looks different from the others we have killed so far. Its all blobbed up and reddish, which is a far cry from the usual vampire with only skins and bones. I realize that it must have just fed.

I signal the others to stay quiet and follow it from far. After a trip that made us pass through more secluded areas and a forest, it went inside a cave. There it is. That must be the entrance to the boss vampire’s nest.

‘Mashiro, summon the Destroyer that can turn us invisible, and summon another one that can hide our scent and presence. We’re going in.’ I ask Mashiro.

‘Shouldn’t we call for back up first?’ Sakuya asks.

‘We’re not attacking right now, just scouting first.’

Mashiro summoned the Destroyers I need, and we go inside the cave. It was not long before we found the blobbed up vampire, and we follow it to see where it goes.

While following it, we saw lots of its brethrens. I’m guessing the number is roughly several hundreds. I’m really glad the Destroyers Mashiro had summoned are doing a good job, or we would have one hell of a fight.

They are either just squatting at the floor, sleeping, or fighting with each other. And when I said fight, I meant fight to the death. Those we saw fighting did not stop until one or both of them are dead.

Along the way, we reach a forked road. I sense an immense pressure coming from the left, so the boss vampire must be there. Thankfully, the vampire turned right.

Eventually, I start to smell something metallic. It took my brain a while to process that it’s the smell of blood. The smell is so strong that I feel like puking, but somehow I manage to hold it in.

At the end of its journey, the vampire crawl to a huge cavern with a pit full of blood. It then starts to make a retching sound, and puke out the blood stored in its body into the pit. Watching it doing it make me want to puke myself, so I just turned around.

After it’s done, the vampire left the cavern and went somewhere else. I’ve seen enough, so I signal the others to leave, and I made sure to mark down the route to the pit stealthily with rocks I picked up on the ground. If I’m not mistaken, the pit of blood is the key to defeat the boss vampire.

We hastily went back to the Academy, and Sakuya goes to the broadcast room to tell every single students and teachers to gather up at the assembly hall, no matter their ranks.

After they are here, Sakuya tells them about the things we saw in the cave. Next, I tell them about the plan I have come up with.

‘I think the pit is some sort of portal, so that the vampires’ leader could recharge himself without the need of fresh blood. So, I’m thinking of using the pit against him.’

This plan might not work, but it’s the best bet on killing the boss vampire without too much bloodshed on our side. Thankfully, the teachers are convinced that the plan is good, so they started calling the people we need for this plan to work with their phones.

As a result of the call, a lot of wholesalers and managers of grocery stores and supermarkets have come to the Academy with their trucks full of sacks which contain salts. Their workers are also here by riding various sorts of vehicles.

The teachers hastily brief them on what to do when we reached our destination. After the briefing, my team got on a van used by people of the Academy, and Sakuya instructs the driver the route to the cave. Everyone else got on their respective vehicles and follow the van we are riding.

The moment we reach the cave, the students and the teachers got off their vehicles and went inside first. The lower ranks are to eliminate as much vampires as possible, while the higher ranks are to fight and stall the boss vampire himself. I have marked down the route to his room or whatever as well and told Sakuya and Ichika the symbols I used, so they won’t have any problems in finding it.

I don’t know how much time has passed since the raid has begun, but the number of vampires have started to dwindle.

‘Someone go tell the volunteers to come in with the salts!’ I shout.

‘Hey, why are you the one giving the orders?’ someone complains.

‘If you want the operation to succeed, then stop asking questions and MOVE!’

Thankfully, that got some of the students to action, and they went to the volunteers.

‘All right, as soon as they are inside, we’ll be protecting them with our lives! Keep the vampires away from them at all costs! IS THAT CLEAR?’ I continue to shout.

‘SIR, YES SIR!’

As per briefed, the volunteers are to carry as much sacks of salts as possible and go to the pit. They will then pour those salt into the pit. I’ve always heard that undeads are weak against salt, so I hope this works.

Not long after the pouring begin, I heard a loud inhuman shriek from somewhere further the cave. Since I’m busy protecting the volunteers at the pit, I sent someone to check on the boss vampire.

‘President Morifuji who was fighting the leader told me that its strength has started to decrease all of a sudden.’ the student reports.

‘Great, that means the plan’s working! Is everyone there still okay?’

‘Apart from suffering light to serious injuries, there were no deaths yet. Also, Takuto is there, despite being told to retreat by the teachers.’

‘Ah, just leave him.’

Yuuji will live due to the plot armor enjoyed by main characters, but I don’t have the same privilege as he does. That’s why I’m here fighting the grunts instead of the big man himself.

Suddenly, a volunteer who was pouring salt into the pit alerts me that the blood inside have stopped decreasing.

‘The leader must have stopped transporting blood into his body. No matter. Mashiro!’

Mashiro nods and summons the Destroyer that can use teleport magic. She then has him link the pit with the boss vampire and forcefully teleports the blood to his body.

Mashiro is supposed to be fighting the boss vampire like the other high ranks, but I told her to come with me for this exact reason.

A mere minute later, we hear a loud wail, and then an explosion that goes ‘Splat!’, like some meat have exploded. Following the explosion, all the vampires nearby turned to dust.

With Mashiro following closely behind me, I go to where the fighting was, and found the area covered with blood and chunks of meat.

I don’t see any bodies lying on the ground, so it means that everyone made it, although this also means that Yuuji is alive as well. He is the only one covered in blood, so I’m guessing everyone else created a force field to protect themselves from the red liquid when the boss vampire went boom.

In the anime, the boss vampire manage to kill three S Ranks and five A Ranks before finally got defeated by Yuuji (because who else). Seeing zero dead bodies now is indeed a huge victory for us.

‘Good job, Akira-kun! Your plan worked!’ Sakuya comes over and tells me.

‘It’s nothing. Everyone else contributed more than me.’ I say modestly.

‘Nonsense. If not for your plan, many of us might have lost their lives.’ Ichika says.

‘She’s right. You’re the hero of this operation.’ Principal Morifuji who happened to be nearby tells me.

‘Oh, uh… thank you, sir.’

‘For now, go back to the Academy and take a good night’s rest. You deserved it.’

‘Yes sir.’

And so, I force my overworked body to move so that I can leave the cave. Along the way, a lot of students came over to pat my back and tell me ‘good job’ and all sorts of positive stuff that made me want to cry from being overjoyed.

A mob like me is actually getting told that I did a good job. Words cannot describe how I feel right now.

The next day, Principal Morifuji held an assembly to talk about the operation last night. He starts by telling us that we did an extremely good job, and he is very proud of us. And then, he tells me to come up the stage.

Just as I’m wondering the reason he called me, he starts to speak again.

‘As you all know, the operation to eliminate the vampire-type Destroyers was devised by him, Kagenashi Akira. If it were not for him, a lot more would have lost their lives!’

At this, the assembly hall is full of loud applause. There are also some who cheered. Principal Marifuji let the applauding and the cheering continue for a while before he continues with his speech.

‘As a reward for his good work, I have decided to promote him to A Rank!’ Principal Morifuji declares.

More applause and cheering.

I should be very happy for the promotion. However, I’m quite uneasy, since I feel that I don’t deserve a double promotion.

‘Um, Principal Morifuji, sir? I hate to rain on the parade, but isn’t a double promotion too much? I’ll understand a chance to get promoted to A Rank, but a direct promotion?’

‘Well then, let me ask you this. What is the requirement of getting promoted to A Rank, regardless of one’s rank?’

‘By leading a team full of strangers and complete a mission?’

‘Correct. And what did you do last night?’

‘...Oh.’

‘Exactly. Formalities aside, you have indeed led all these students to eliminate the vampires. I’d say you’re qualified to get promoted.’

‘Since you put it that way, I humbly accept the promotion.’

‘Excellent! And congratulations!’

He handed me a certificate and a new ID that he pulled out of nowhere to prove that I am officially promoted to A Rank. I accepted the items with both hands and bowed to show my appreciation. It took while for the entire student body to stop themselves from clapping and cheering.

I look at where Yuuji is standing. He is one of the very few who does not clap nor cheer, and is looking at me with jealousy.

In the anime, he was the one who got the double promotion at this very stage. Now, I stole his thunder and got promoted instead.

I stopped myself from smirking. This is only the beginning of his dethronement.

After I got promoted to A Rank, I was given a new room, and my classroom was switched from Class 6 to Class 2, where the best A Ranks are gathered. I would’ve preferred Class 3 with its slightly less pressuring atmosphere, but there’s nothing I could do, so I have to suck it up.

For the room, it took me a while to come up with its design. It’s nothing extravagant, however, so it only took the constructors three days to furnish the room to my liking. When it’s finally done, I packed my stuff and go to my new room.

The wall and tiles are all white, as I like them to be simple. At one corner is where I sleep. Here, you can find a double-sized bed, a closet, a study table, and a full-body mirror. It's a lot like my old room, although the bed is bigger.

At another corner is the place where I want to use as my gaming spot. I don’t have the time to go shopping yet, but with my increased salary, I plan to buy a television, the newest gaming consoles, and a computer.

In the middle is where the constructors had been the busiest. I requested that a kitchen is to be built here, a huge one with lots of shelves to put herbs and store my kitchen utensils, a huge refrigerator, an oven, and a counter that can seat ten people with the same numbers of chairs. I also plan to get a blender, an electric mixer, and all other high-tech kitchen appliances that I could not afford in real life.

There’s also a balcony with an awesome view of the ocean. To fully enjoy it, I had a hammock hung up at the ceiling.

Sakuya, Ichika and Mashiro came to hang out at night. Naturally, the first thing they saw when they came inside my room is the kitchen.

‘I could tell that this room indeed belongs to Akira by just looking at the kitchen.’ Ichika says.

‘It’s rather huge, isn’t it?’ Sakuya comments.

‘Now he can make me more delicious food!’ Mashiro says excitedly.

Ichika glares at her for the implication of her sentence, but Mashiro just looks away.

‘Welcome to my humble room.’ I says to them while bowing.

I start to give them a tour. After we’re done, Ichika tells me not to overspend my money. I assure her that it will not happen.

None of us had our dinner yet, so I fired up my kitchen and cooked us a feast. Ichika helped out too, and it took us everything we could to stop Sakuya from going inside the kitchen.

‘Now that we had our fill, we shall take our leave.’ Ichika says when the dishes are done.

‘All right, see you tomorrow.’

And so, I’m now left alone in my new room. There’s school tomorrow, so I change into my sleepwear and go to bed.