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Translator: penny
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: 1.4 Rune Academy
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A mysterious tower had suddenly appeared in the spot where Tokyo Tower once stood, earning the nickname 'Rune Tower'.
This Rune Tower... in simple terms, was a tower that spawned monsters.
About thirty years ago, Rune Towers appeared simultaneously in the forty most advanced cities around the world.
And they began spewing out monsters.
The monsters emerging from the Rune Towers were impervious to humanity's pinnacle of scientific weaponry, thanks to some 'inexplicable magic' that defied all principles.
Guns, missiles, lasers—nothing worked.
The original game Rune Academia was an eroge, so its lore wasn't particularly detailed.
It was just something along the lines of 'modern weapons didn't work on monsters.'
Probably just a setup to elevate the value of 'Rune Holders'.
A cliché you'll find in any modern fantasy.
But what happens when that logic gets applied to reality?
The world descended into chaos, racking up billions of casualties in mere months.
One country even nuked an entire city district, accepting massive losses and civilian deaths, but still couldn't destroy the Rune Tower.
And so began a long, horrific world war against the monsters.
Humanity regressed to the Iron Age, wielding spears and axes to fight back.
Every inch of land became a battlefield, global trade ground to a halt, riots erupted in every nation, and a worldwide food crisis swept over everything.
It took less than a year for the global death toll to surpass a billion.
Ten years later.
Japan's population had plummeted to less than a third, humans living like cockroaches, hiding from monsters.
Even in that era, hope was born.
Among the children born after the Rune Towers appeared, some possessed special abilities.
'Rune Holders'.
Kids with unique powers, straight out of superhero movies from a peaceful era.
Their abilities varied wildly, but unlike conventional firearms, these powers did work on the monsters.
And that wasn't all.
These kids grew stronger by killing monsters.
Just like leveling up in a game.
Once the world learned this, Rune Holders became humanity's beacon of hope.
But for some, that hope was pure despair.
It meant ripping ten-year-olds from their parents' arms and shoving them onto the front lines.
The moment ethics was put to the test.
Humanity chose survival over morality.
Children were brainwashed to fight monsters from the moment they learned to speak.
The second they started walking, they were taught how to battle monsters.
For parents of rune-bearing children, those runes were no blessing—they were a curse.
Rune Holder parents had to send their kids to war with hearts torn asunder.
The children fought, killed, and died.
──Another ten years passed like that.
Atop the sacrifices of billions of humans and millions of Rune Holders, humanity reclaimed its territory from the monsters.
The first nation to retake its land was none other than Japan.
Brainwashing education, kamikaze tactics, banzai charges—Japan had been familiar with such things long before monsters roamed wild.
Their obedient populace, unaccustomed to protests, played a role too. Being an island nation kept foreign monsters at bay.
And the biggest reason? The original game was Japanese. But let's skip that.
In any case, they offered up their children as the state commanded, even viewing it as an honor.
Parents who hid their kids became targets of bullying. Reporting them was seen as a civic duty.
Having driven out the monsters by piling up countless children's corpses, the very first thing Japan did was erect walls named 'Academies'.
The 'Rune Academy', built encircling the 'Rune Tower'.
Rune Academy and its special districts served as Japan's forward base against the Rune Tower and its monsters.
Under the guise of sending 'Rune Holders' with special abilities to a 'special school', Japan was deploying them as frontline sentinels.
Gather these gifted kids around the Rune Tower, have them hunt the monsters that emerge—or proactively storm in and slaughter them before they do.
With that system in place, people no longer had to live in fear of monsters.
Cities were rebuilt, infrastructure restored, and birth rates rose again.
Less than a decade after devastation, cities regained their former glory.
And so, a fragile peace finally dawned on Japan──
──or so humanity thought, only to get slapped in the back of the head once more.
Without any warning, monsters exploded out of the Rune Towers in massive numbers.
Japan alone faced around 100,000 of them.
This event would later be known as the 'Great Catastrophe'.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
『Daddy...』
A melancholic thought reached me.
I turned to see Hina gazing up at the Rune Tower, eyes brimming with tears.
I'd lost my parents in the Great Catastrophe too, but so had Hina's father.
My parents and Mr. Kurosaki were first-generation Rune Holders.
Those born naturally after the Rune Towers appeared were called first-gen.
Children of first-gen Rune Holders had a high chance of being Rune Holders themselves.
Yuuki and I were second-gen, born to first-gen parents.
During the Great Catastrophe, it wasn't an exaggeration to say Japan's first-gen Rune Holders were virtually wiped out.
If the adult first-gens failed to hold the line, us second-gen kids had to step up.
With our lives as hostages, our parents had no choice but to fight to the death.
And fight to the death they did.
...But the defense failed.
The first-gen were annihilated, leaving only a handful of survivors.
Under Japan's wartime special laws, even us young second-gens had to be thrown into the fray.
The draft criteria: male Rune Holders who'd been in Rune Academy elementary for at least a year.
Yuuki and I, second-years in elementary, barely scraped by the cutoff and got drafted.
...And in that desperate war, most drafted second-gens perished.
Yuuki and I were the miraculous survivors.
If we fell, Naiad sis and Hina would be dragged to this battlefield.
That single resolve—to prevent that at all costs—drove us to fight the monsters.
Truth be told, I'd possessed this body right in the thick of that war.
Blinded by NTR rage, I'd unleashed my fury on the monsters without knowing the full context.
It was the moment the cowardly Naibusu, who'd hidden behind Kurosaki Yuuki's back, awakened.
『Ugh. Don't cry. That blond delinquent's watching!』
...Hina.
You're spirited, sure, but why glare at me there?
I almost died back then too?
I really almost died?
"...Hina. If you wanna cry, cry."
I placed a hand on Hina's head and said it.
This was originally Yuuki's line, but with Yuuki gone...
I channeled her, acting cool.
"W-who said I'm crying?!"
Thwack!
"Guh."
I'd gone and let Hina shin-kick me for no reason.
"Hmph!"
『What an idiot!』
Hina stormed off, stomping angrily.
I clutched my throbbing shin, crouching on the ground.
"Hehe. Naibusu gets it. Girls that age are sensitive."
『I should've kicked harder. Would it break his leg?』
Akane offered lame consolation. Vicious girl.
Damn it.
Don't they know it's thanks to me they're safely attending the Academy?
Japan, compensate for forced conscription!
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
We arrived at the Academy.
Haa~ I'm beat.
And even tougher stuff awaits ahead.
Will I make it home alive?
"Hey! You, blondie!"
A gruff voice, like some thug.
At the Academy's main gate, a middle-aged man with a wooden sword stopped me.
"Hi, Tanaka-sensei."
"What the hell's with that hair?! You mocking the school rules or what?!"
"It's always been like this since birth."
This ugly middle-aged trash was Teacher Tanaka.
As you can see, a total scumbag. Teaches PE.
He's also the guy the protagonist kills in today's upcoming humiliation event.
『Kukuku. I already know that. I just need an excuse to bitch at that Naiad bitch!』
Hmph. So that's what he was thinking.
Didn't know, since it wasn't in the game.
For a first-gen survivor to be this kind of guy...
No wonder outsiders with Rune Holder hatred resort to terrorism.
Eh, whatever. He's trash that'll be erased soon anyway. No need to care.
"What's with that look? You rebelling or somethin'?!"
Tanaka suddenly grabbed my hair, yanking like he wanted to rip it out.
Huh? Was this scene in the original game?
Naibusu ignored provocations like this, and Yuuki would've been the one chewing out Tanaka.
Makes sense—original Naibusu could only read minds on contact, so he might've brushed past.
But I wasn't magnanimous enough to laugh off this guy's thoughts. And no Yuuki as buffer now.
These tiny differences spawn events like this──I mused calmly, even as he yanked my head.
Level gap meant no pain, but it soured my mood.
Sis had just ruffled it too.
"Sensei! What are you doing?!"
"Let him go, Tanaka-sensei!"
Hina and Akane rushed up, prying at Tanaka.
『What the hell's this baldy doing?! Is he insane?!』
『Ugh, annoying. Why's this extra stirring trouble? Such a pain!』
Hina's thoughts were purely pissed at Tanaka; Akane was annoyed at me.
Can't like Akane, as expected.
"Tanaka-sensei! Stop it!"
With Hina and Akane shrieking, another teacher arrived.
"Akatsuki-sensei!"
Akatsuki Hiyori.
A young woman in her late twenties, already Student Director of Rune Academy High.
Stiff suit, neat updo, striking red horn-rimmed glasses.
In-game nicknames: 'Walking Rulebook' or 'Hysterical Spinster'.
Her strictness drew complaints from students, but that voluptuous figure had its secret admirers.
With my past-life memories, calling a still-20s Akatsuki a spinster felt off.
But in this world, marrying and breeding young was ideal. A national campaign to counter population crash and bolster anti-monster weapon: Rune Holders.
Average marriage age had shifted forward over a decade pre-monsters; plenty of student couples wed during school.
Hence, late-20s Akatsuki got labeled a spinster.
"Tch."
Tanaka clicked his tongue but released my hair.
He wasn't dumb enough to openly defy the Student Director.
In this world where power is authority and vice versa.
"Tanaka-sensei, I'll handle cleanup. Calm down and head inside."
『Haa~. Stuck cleaning up Tanaka's mess again. What a way to start the semester.』
"Yeah, yeah. Fine."
『Hmph. Acting all high and mighty. Just you wait. Tonight, I'll spank that fat ass red!』
Tanaka glared one last time and shuffled through the gate.
"Naibusu Winzer. Tanaka-sensei was just heated up—try to understand."
"Yessir."
"And that hair. Even if not dyed, you know it could be an issue, right?"
"Yup~."
In the game, Akatsuki teamed with Tanaka for a lecture.
But Tanaka went too far this time, putting her in mediator mode.
Fun spotting these divergences from canon.
"We Japanese value harmony. Try dyeing it black if you can. Otherwise, expect nagging."
"Got it, got it."
With justice-hero Yuuki here, it'd escalate into a fuss over suppressing individuality.
Yuuki'd be right, but Akatsuki's just doing her Student Director duty.
Most efficient conflict fix: dye my hair black.
That's Rune Academy's way.
No room for human rights or individuality in today's Japan.
So I let provocations like this go in one ear and out the other.
Worthless energy drain otherwise.
...But one person couldn't let it slide.
"Sensei! That's not right!"
Kurosaki Hina.
The sister of justice-hero Yuuki.