Re;A Hero’s Fantastic blessing-filled Life! EX

Arc 1 - “Despair’s Door”

Chapter 4 - “Malicious Presence”





“Wait——”

Even though he said that she still decided to attack.

With swords in both of their hands, they clashed. The boy— Justice, primarily focused on defense, with almost every swing trying to block his opponent’s sword. His opponent’s beautiful red hair moved as elegantly as she did with her sword.

As she parries off all of his attacks, he immediately blocks her counter-attack with his sword. After a few clashes with their swords, she decides to back off.

“Wheew. I didn’t know you were able to learn from your father this fast. . . . You’re still nowhere near his level, though.”

“But still, you need to focus more on offense than defense. And, if you don’t. . . this might happen——!”

Her sword begins to glow multiple colors, all of the colors had a reddish tint. She appears right in front of Justice. It may have looked like teleportation to regular people, but no. It was simply Kristi’s extraordinary speed.

With one slash, Justice’s sword is sent flying away meters from him.

That speed petrified Justice and even Darkness, who was watching by the sidelines.

Taking advantage of this, Kristi kicks Justice. With a thump, he falls down.

“A— Sorry! I got carried away!!”

She offers him her hand and helps him get up.

“You just wanted to kick me didn’t you?”

“Maybe.”

“Can we just move onto Magic, please?”

“Kay. You know how to visualize Magic, and all that stuff, right?”

“Yeah. Don’t you have to visualize yourself opening your gate to let Magic through?”

“You know more than I thought you did. Since I only use Fire Magic, we’ll focus on that more. Imagine yourself opening a door, to let Fire Magic through. After that—— are you ready, Darkness?”

She shakes her head up and down, looking eager.

『 Goa 』

Her arm manifests a blaze of fire. Her arm was burning, but it didn’t look like her arm nor her Royal Guard Uniform was getting burned. With one step she fires the blaze at Darkness. Even though it was one of Kristi’s weaker moves, it shined like the Sun.

Justice didn’t know if Darkness could even survive the attack.

After the blinding light is gone, it is revealed that Darkness is still standing. She had bruises, but none of them looked severe. What was weirder, was that she was smiling, looking as if she wanted more.

“Woah. . .”

Similar to the past timelines, Justice spends the day relatively the same, with minor differences. He didn’t visit Beatrice a second time at the Library to question her about love. But as he’s laying on his bed, he thinks about visiting her later.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door. . . . again.

“That must be Meili.”

When he opened the door, he didn’t see Meili. In fact, he was more surprised at who he saw. It was the overseer of the Forbidden Library. The girl who always stayed there. Beatrice.

“Wh— You’re here?”

“Yes. Come back to the Forbidden Library with me, I’ve done a little bit of researching about the ‘Return by Death’ topic.”

When following Beatrice to the door that connects to the Forbidden Library, Justice spots Meili, walking in the opposite direction from them, looking a little frustrated.

Realizing that Justice was staring at her, she responds with a smile. While she keeps on walking, Justice stops walking.

“M——”

“Why are you just standing there, I suppose? The Library is here, I suppose.”

They enter the room. Beatrice sits down on the seat she always sits on and lets Justice stand around. For Beatrice, it was most likely her third or fourth time leaving the room that day. But for Justice, it’s been his fifth. With Return by Death just restarting the scenario each time.

“Beatrice, why did you walk over to my room, instead of just connecting the Forbidden Library it?”

“The girl, the blue-haired one that your father saved today, I could sense a malicious presence from her, I suppose. I went to your room so I could scare her off. I would feel bad if you died before I had told you the information I collected, I suppose.”

“Thanks, but if you don’t mind me asking, why are you doing this?. . . I thought you hated me.”

“Truth be told, I don’t know why I’m doing this either, I suppose. Perhaps it’s because of the thing I’ve been oppressing since long ago, I suppose.”

“. . . .You can sound really dark and broody sometimes.”

After a few seconds of silence, Justice saw a book flying his way. Miraculously, he catches it, which is followed by Beatrice scolding him for ruining the moment.

Beatrice, about to say something, gets interrupted by the Forbidden Library. The Forbidden Library, itself. The entire place looked as if it was warping—— it looked like the reality in the room was being warped.

“What’s happening?”

“Someone is trying to mess with my Door Crossing and get in here. But. . . I don’t know who— or what, it is. It’s most likely someone looking for you. I suggest that you leave, or else they’ll keep interfering with the Library and just irritate me, I suppose.”

“What about the information you collected?”

“That can wait until tomorrow, I suppose.”

Justice takes his leave after that and arrives at his room. He sat on top of his bed, anxiously awaiting his killer. To Justice, it made no sense to how someone can “request” to get into the Forbidden Library. In fact— to him, it seemed nearly impossible, so it must have been someone who is experienced in—— interfering.

Just thinking about who or what could tamper with the Library without Beatrice’s knowing, was sort of impossible. Since she had full control of it. Once again, his thinking is interrupted by a few knocks on the door.

“Now——!”

It was very late at night, and the only few people who would stay awake until then are Justice, Beatrice who stays up reading books all night, and Black Mage because he usually casts spells with long incantations to prevent monsters from attacking the mansion. So, to him, there was no doubt that it was his murderer.

What would he do? Escape through the window, or confront the killer? Justice lived on the second floor, so jumping from the window would lead to pain, which would proceed to a Return by Death. It seemed like opening his door was simply the only and — in this circumstance — best option. He heard knocks again.

“Wh— Who is it?”

He said that with a voice that sounded to be full of fear, he tried to hold back as much fear in his voice as he could, though, he couldn’t hold that much back.

There was no answer.

He opens the door, albeit, very hesitantly. The lights in the room started flickering, and eventually turned off, which limited Justice’s vision. The door was fully open, and everything was dark.

“My left——”

He moves his left arm— fast. A slice follows that, a nanosecond later. He successfully dodged one of the strikes from his murderer. He dodges the second strike which was aimed for his right leg. A jolt of fire sparks from his hand, which eventually started to cover Justice’s entire hand, he was in no pain, however.

The fire was bright enough to let Justice identify the person at the door, who was shocked at the fact that Justice avoided both of their strikes and the bright and vibrant flame on his hand.

“Meili?—— Why were you trying to kill me?”

-=Chapter 4 END=-

