Project: Alternative

Chapter 8: A good Coder is a fair Coder (Jun)

"Let's eat. We can't start the day with an empty stomach", I told her and we headed to the first floor of the inn.

Our breakfast was simple, which was bread and eggs. Milk was also served. Thanks to magic, the milk was cold like how I wanted it. I wonder how Suisei thought of her meal. Was she disappointed that there was no rice?

We ate in silence... This was bad. I had to entertain her... But how? I wasn't exactly a talker and we had nothing in common.

"How many people were sent to this world?" she asked.

"We got eight more people to save. It's lucky that I requested the Admin to find you first. If I didn't, you wouldn't be here", I answered.

"Requested the Admin to find me first?"

"Oh. When I found out that you were among the people that got sent, I asked the Admin to prioritize looking for you."

"You specifically asked for the Admin to look for me?"

Oh crap... That sounded really creepy.

"I-I'm a really huge fan and I didn't want to think that you were helplessly out there. I know it's sort of bad to favor one person over another since I am a Coder but I will gladly break my ideals for you", I said.

And that was great. I even made myself sound creepier. Good job, Jun.

"Why me? I'm nobody special", she asked.

"That's right. Your codes are exactly like a normal human's. You don't have any special abilities and I could name better singers than you... But what matters is that you saved my life. An existence that is not special and completely average managed to save a Coder's life", I answered.

"I saved you?"

"That's a story for another time. Now let's go and buy some supplies."

While Suisei was shopping for clothes and other necessary things, I stocked up on food and other necessities. Mithra's bag was really convenient. Another code it had was that it would "freeze" the time of the stored object. For example, I could store an ice cube in it and when I take it out ten hours later, it would still be frozen. Although it only worked on non living creatures. If I store a living creature in Mithra's bag, it would age normally.

I went outside and was heading to the store where I left Suisei.

"Please let go", a woman's voice said.

My vision went red as I saw two men were pulling Suisei. Before I knew it, I used a magic known as Force Push and knocked them away.

"Inazuma-kun?" Suisei asked as I stepped in front of her.

"Bastard... Don't you know who I am?" the man asked.

"A dead man", I answered as a magic circle appeared above me. A beam of white light shot from it and grazed the man's cheek.

"Saber Light... That's good magic and you did it chantless. But it's not enough", the other man said and unsheathed his sword.

"You got guts for picking on the Silver Duo. We are A-class adventurers! You have no chance against us!" the man with the bleeding cheek also unsheathed his sword.

They were grinning. I could hear the voices of the crowd as they placed bets on who would win. It didn't matter if the people thought that I wouldn't win. What mattered right now was that they harassed Suisei. I'll engrave fear on their souls.

The crowd turned silent as the faces of the two men turned pale. Countless magic circles appeared all around us and made a dome surrounding the two men. I could understand why they were afraid.

Saber Light was a B-class magic. It would shoot out a beam of light that had the same penetrating power as a bullet if not stronger. It could even go through thick mithril armors, which was really tough. The most that an average mage could use was around 2 or 3 Saber Lights at once. It was the first time that they saw a dome filled with Saber Lights.

All the Saber Lights shot at once and lightly grazed the two men. I made sure to flex that I could kill them anytime I wanted by having the Saber Lights barely miss them.

Blood flowed from the light cuts all over their bodies. The knees of the two men buckled and they immediately bowed with their heads touching the ground.

"W-We're sorry!" they said.

"I thought I told you. You guys are dead men", the magic circles glowed as I placed even more power in the Saber Lights.

"Wait!" a voice shouted.

I looked at the source and saw a silver-haired woman.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill these two trash," I said.

"They already surrendered. According to the laws, death by duels is only acceptable as long as the other doesn't surrender. The moment they do, it's no longer a duel and it will become a crime", she answered.

"They attempted to harm Suisei. Do you think I care about the law? If there's someone who would even dare to harm her, whether you are a hundred or a thousand, come at me with the resolve to die", I said.

The two men shrieked as the magic circles began to glow. One even wet himself. The silver-haired woman drew her mace and was about to attack me but I summoned more magic circles in front of her.

"Jun! Don't kill them", Suisei told me.

"Ok then", I said and the magic circles disappeared.

The silver-haired woman looked confused.

"Are you really the same guy from earlier?" she asked.

"Did you see me leave?" I asked back.

"No... It's just that you were oozing with killing intent but after that blue-haired girl's words, it just vanished."

"Suisei doesn't want me to kill so I won't. Is that too hard to understand?"

"N-No... It's... Never mind."

I looked at the two men and they fainted from fear. Pathetic.

A beeping sound entered my mind as a violet screen appeared.

[Korone Inugami ID found. Location: Rizuru Village]

Ah... I forgot that Koro-san was also sent to this world.

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A/N: I'll be taking a short break now that Jun's part is over. It's because I am getting busy with a collab project called Hololive: Project Convergence. I'll be back soon enough.