Translator: Reflet

  Editor: ryunakama

  “Get back, Aoba! Haaah!”


  Akiha took out her katana, slicing the man in front diagonally up.

  Aoba, who was screaming during all this, felt Youran pull her by the hand.

  “Run, Aoba!”


  “Yeah, b-but!”


  “Just leave this to me and go on ahead!”


  Akiha had the enemies stopped in their tracks.

  Four enemies in front of them, minus the one who was already cut down, so now there were three.

  They had ski masks and other equipment on them, almost like some sort of special forces.

  “Shingetsu-sama! Over here!”


  “Kohaku-san!”


  “You get in first, you youngsters!”


  The other girls were all there, peeking out at Ruri and Taiyou.

  Sakura guided them one by one into the elevator.

  “Is this safe?”


  Youran asked Sakura.

  “It’s a secret route with independent electricity that isn’t on any map.”


  “Okay. Everyone in? Akiha!”


  “Go on ahead.”


  Akiha yelled, in the midst of a hard fight.

  She was brawling with the three special force men, katana in hand. They were nearly even-matched.

  “There’s no way you can catch up! So hurry up!”


  “Yeesh!”


  Akiha was in offense mode. She pushed the enemy back and then rushed into the elevator with all her might.

  “Kuh!”


  Someone attacked Akiha from behind, and she groaned. But she used the momentum to her advantage and leaped into the elevator.

  “Sakura!”


  “Yes!”


  The door shut in an instant. Knocking sounds could be heard outside.

  Apathetic to all of that, the elevator descended.

  “…Phew.”


  Someone let out a sigh of relief.

  That breath spread through everyone there, and everyone felt relieved.

  “Sheesh! Stop overdoing things, Akiha!”


  Aoba fiercely reprimanded her friend.

  “But…”


  “There’s no way we’d leave you behind when you say something like that.”


  “Something like that?”


  “Did ye not realize? Ye said to leave it to ye and go on ahead, ja.”


  Akiha stared blankly, then spoke again.

  “Ooo, fantastic.”


  “No, not fantastic!”


  Aoba slapped Akiha.

  Akiha stared blankly at her, unable to even react to what had just happened.

  “Stop doing that. I will put a stop to it if you ever say that again.”


  “But there would be less to sacrifice if one person held them off, right?”


  “No, Natsuno-kun would be sad if even one of us were gone.”


  “No, he’d be sad if everyone were gone.”


  “We just have to make sure everyone survives.”


  “But that’s just—-”


  “Okay, okay.”


  Kohaku broke in.

  “That kind of debate will rage on to the ends of the earth without pause. Leave it for later, ja.”


  Kohaku, the eldest of the group, managed to bring everything under control. Aoba and Akiha still had something they wanted to say, but decided to pull back for now.

  “Sakura, this—-shelter? What’s going to happen?”


  “We’ll continue ten levels underground. The operators can only control the elevator from inside this little box, so it’ll be fine once we get down to a certain level.”


  “Where are we headed?”


  “It’s another independent source of electricity with enough materials to help ten people last a month.”


  “Okay.”


  “Welp, Master and Ruri are on this island, and I’m sure they detected the danger, so it probably won’t even take a day.”


  “Indeed, jana.”


  “””How do we let him know we’re here?”””


  “Come to think of it, my phone has been out of range for a while now. Aoba, what about you?”


  “Same here.”


  “Shingetsu-sama?”


  Everyone turned to look at Youran.

  She had her own order-made, specialized phone, which could call anyone anywhere in the world.

  “I dropped it when we were attacked.”


  “Is that right.”


  “But that’s not even a big problem. Once he sees he can’t contact us, Danna-sama will send Hera our way, jaro.”


  The mood was about to get immediately dark, but Kohaku livened things up again.

  The level up fairy, Hera.

  She was the joker in many ways, having not originated from this world.

  More reassured of the situation, everyone breathed sighs of relief again.

  The elevator reached the bottom.

  The doors opened to reveal seven simplistic private rooms and one living room.

  This was clearly made to match the seven brides in the Natsuno household.

  “Mhm, living here for a bit could be fun—-”


  The moment Youran said that with a smile,

  They heard a thud.

  Everyone turned around, surprised.

  It sounded as if something had dropped onto the ceiling of the elevator.

  They immediately rushed out of the elevator.

  “What’s going on?”


  Youran asked, and Sakura shook her head.

  “They jumped down. They gave up on trying to get the elevator back up and decided to just jump down holding on to the wires.”


  “But that’s—-”


  “That does sound like a rather obvious blind spot, jana. Next time ye’d best make it so that the shutters close once the elevator goes down, jana.”


  “They’re coming! Everyone get back!”


  Everyone immediately retreated when they heard Akiha’s cry. Akiha, who had learned the basics from Ruri, gripped her katana hilt and readied herself for a counterattack.

  “Hey, that’s cheating!”


  Looking at the men who had broken the ceiling to jump down, Akiha jumped to the side and clung to the wall.

  Immediately after, the sound of gunfire clamored throughout.

  The submachine guns opened fire, scattering around large amounts of bullets.

  “Kyaaa!”


  “Sakura! Are there any other exits?”


  Akiha asked.

  “Technically, there is one.”


  “Use that exit to escape. I’ll hold them off.”


  “Akiha!”


  “Kohaku-san!”


  Akiha called Kohaku’s name in a loud voice, the name of the young elder who knew that the debate would continue to the ends of the earth.

  “…At least make sure you don’t give up till the end.”


  “Of course!”


  Akiha responded as she swung her katana around in order to prevent any of the assailants from leaving the elevator.

  Aoba resisted, but the other brides held her down and forcibly took her off.

  Akiha regripped the katana as she listened to the voices of the girls getting away.

  She pushed the attackers back with a slash, but a bullet grazed her cheeks. As she flinched, a different enemy emerged and scattered bullets everywhere.

  Akiha dodged to the side and hid in the shadows.

  She had managed to halt their movement near the elevator, but ended up losing that point.

  The gunshots momentarily ceased.

  Peering out slowly, Akiha saw five enemies in the elevator, exercising caution as they refilled each other’s magazines.

  “I guess this is it, huh?”


  If she didn’t manage to push them back before they came out of that narrow area, Akiha would be forced to deal with five enemies and their refilled machine guns, which was ludicrous.

  Small, single shot guns were easy enough to deal with, but she couldn’t do anything against machine guns.

  Right when Akiha was bracing herself,

  The men disappeared!

  More accurately, the elevator the men were on flew back up at an impossible speed.

  “W-What just happened?”


  After hearing an ear-splitting metal screech, she momentarily heard gunshots above, but they soon faltered.

  “Ohello!”


  “Hera? What just happened?”


  “Ah, well, the elevator wouldn’t move so Taiyou-chan tugged on the wire and swung it all the way up.”


  “…Oof.”


  Akiha’s eyes were wide open.

  And then she began laughing.

  “This shelter’s messed up in so many ways.”


  She would continue to laugh until Taiyou and Ruri came down.