Heroine-Saving System: Reborn In A Third-Rate Manga As The Protagonist-Chapter 70: Fate Of Amagi Koya

There was a tap on the table of a dark meeting room. The sound was slow and deliberate... each knock landing in the silence like a verdict.

The people seated around the table were each giving off strong presences that sent caution into the wind, it was the kind of pressure that made the air itself feel heavier.

On one end of this meeting table was a black haired mature woman who looked like the female version of Numb with a beautiful cold face and bountiful breasts.

Her hair had been pulled back behind her glasses with practiced elegance and next to her stood Pale Sword who had a skeptical look on her face with her arms folded and her beautiful eyes scanning the room.

At the sides of the room, there were even more members of the Order lining the walls on each side... each of them knelt with their weapons drawn and resting across their knees and their heads were bowed but their bodies were ready for any movement.

On the other side of the table was a beautiful silver haired woman with silver eyes. Her beauty was unparalleled... there was simply no way to describe it, even the goddess herself doubted whether this woman was human at all.

She sat with the kind of effortless composure that only came from being born at the very top of everything.

Hakua wore a silver dress that amplified her curves and wore a white cross that glowed on her neck in a necklace and she exhaled.

Behind her was a singular woman with blond hair, her hair however was far much brighter than that of Koya... it was royal blond, while Koya’s could be referred to as commoner blond.

"Tell me Princess... why have you come here?" The Boss of the order stated, her crest was in the shape of a star and it was on the side of her cheek... It was silver. "About that boy?"

"Yes." Hakua stated. "I believe the Order won’t simply let him off the hook after murdering several of your "children" so I came here to tell you otherwise."

’Pale... did you check it out?’ Mio asked as her astral form floated behind Pale Sword... the only other person that knew about Pale was the boss which was why Pale was the one that usually stood beside the Boss.

’Yes I have. That girl, Tachibana Misora and Hakua Shirogane are one and the same... She’s using a high level transformation spell and even a blocking spell while in the Academy to prevent us from figuring it out.’ Pale Sword thought. ’I guess a literal contender for Koya’s love is the Princess herself, huh? Well, we’re cooked.’

’Again... it’s not like I love him. It’s only you that does.’ Mio said firmly and Pale Sword rolled her eyes with the exhaustion of someone who had heard this exact denial too many times to count.

’Sure... Of course, whatever you need to tell yourself.’

"Yes you’re right, however I don’t plan to do anything." The Boss said, making Hakua’s eyes widen and not only that but Pale Sword too... she was honestly going to fight for him but to hear it straight from the Boss was scary.

"Huh?" Even the blond that followed parted her lips, she didn’t understand... The Order was known for taking revenge.

"Amagi Koya, Age 18 with his parents MIA leaving him and his younger sister living alone... right?" The Boss raised up an eyebrow and Hakua stiffened.

’Don’t tell me she knows...’

"Yes that’s right." Hakua said. "What are your plans for my knight?"

The way she stressed the word ’my’ made the tension in the room thick enough to cut through.

Several of the kneeling members along the walls shifted slightly without meaning to and Pale Sword gritted her teeth though she didn’t say anything aloud. If there was anything she genuinely hated with a passion, it was the trope of the true female lead... which was herself being overshadowed and suppressed by a wannabe female lead who simply happened to have strong political influence and better timing.

It was infuriating on a structural level.

"Simple, I plan to keep him for myself." The Boss stated while tapping her hand against the table in that same slow rhythm. "As you know... During the last Mega-raid, I lost two of my direct children... and also my husband. Numb was the last one however that fool wasn’t fit for taking over at all... Just a simple rumor of me supporting Pale Sword and he didn’t even have the confidence to look me in the face but he went after her."

The tapping stopped and the silence that followed was heavier than anything she had said.

"And he died to her too... I can’t believe such a being came out of my womb. Seventeen whole years of constant investments, resources, training, connections... all for this result. How very disappointing." Her voice didn’t crack as she said it the way someone would comment on a failed business venture.

Hakua looked at her... this woman didn’t care about her son at all, all she cared about were the resources she wasted on him.

Well she couldn’t be one to judge, she would be the same if her child had done the same, not that she had one.

"So?" Hakua raised an eyebrow.

"I want him to be mine..." She said. "I need another generation of children and his genes are amazing. Being such a hunk at that age, he’s better than my Ex-Husband... not to mention that he can use multiple kinds of magic and has a strange set of skills plus a good healing factor."

"What?" Hakua blinked. "What was she talking about?"

Pale Sword averted her eyes, she hadn’t noticed but if the Boss said it, she wouldn’t be lying.

The Boss swiped her hand over the table and a holographic screen with the fight between Numb and Koya appeared on the screen... It wasn’t the one available though.

"I had one of my spies amongst the upper classes take a full meta-video." She said as they zoomed in, in the first burst that had knocked Numb off the roof... right at the first dodge, his leg muscles had veins in them. "Now let me use the mana sensors and show you what I mean."

Koya’s legs were suddenly see-through and the mana sensor was activated as a gradient formed over it... it grew redder and the leg muscles inside of Koya grew stronger as his blood pumped faster.

The video resumed and the rate of his heart amplified even more as he dodged it and hit Numb on the face.

"Here. There’s an energy that came out of nowhere at all... it isn’t mana but he’s using it to enhance his physical output beyond what mana alone should allow." She turned off the sensors and paused it there as the hologram faded, her fingers lacing together on the table. "So... not only does he have Blood magic which has been lost in time, he could possibly have other kinds of magic. I’m honestly expecting him to be a dual mage... which is unheard of in the current age and he’s using that strange energy on top of all of that. He’s also hot and he clearly likes women with big breasts based on the way his eyes track Saki’s chest in the footage." She waved her hand dismissively. "That’s the end of it... I don’t really care if he’s your knight or anything. I’m getting my hands on him before that succubus clan does... Not even the White King knows what they’ll use him to do and frankly neither do I, but it won’t be anything good."

Hakua’s face gradually darkened. The Order and the Tsukishiro clan were two sides of the same coin in this regard... the Boss planned to use him to maximize her genetic legacy for the next generation of Order children, while the Tsukishiro clan would most probably use him as breeding cattle for their own dynasty.

Either way, Koya ended up as a resource rather than a person... He was much better pledging his life to her and becoming her Knight to fight her father.

"You’ll do no such thing."

"Your royal authority will work on anyone that’s not me... I don’t really care about the White King or your relation with him. All I want are my gains, if you can give me a whole Supercity with people inside to turn into members of the Order, I will retract my statement." She said and was met with silence.

Despite being the White King’s daughter, dealing with Supercities was insanely off-limits for her.

"And I will also send a member of the Order’s Top 10 that’s not Pale Sword to deal with him." She said. "Genes can be extracted from the blood stream and placed into me directly but to have the privilege of taking me in bed... he will have to kill a member of the Top 10."

"That’s damning... we all know that all of the members of the Top 10 are at the very peak of Blue or Red and he’ll die." Hakua said however the Boss clicked her tongue.

"Once again, I don’t really care like you do... Unless you want to fight for him, Let me make it easy... I’ll have the member of my choosing to fight that woman behind you, if she wins... then I’ll leave him alone but if my "child" wins, we will ensue with the attack and you can even watch. It’ll happen on Monday." She said and Hakua nodded.

"I agree to these terms. Veronica... you will be my sword for now, do not disappoint me." She said and Veronica nodded without hesitation.

"I understand my lady..."

"Come forth now, my child." The Boss said and out of the shadows came a figure... a man with black hair and two daggers at his waist. "You will be my sword."

...

On Monday, it was a wonderful afternoon with clear skies and a cool breeze however it was not the same for Hakua who was now in the mansion where the Lady in charge of the Order, otherwise known as Hakai, resided.

She was in the living room seated on an expensive couch, her silver dress replaced with something more casual and Hakai was also in the living room wearing an oversized shirt that swallowed her figure, looking far less like the terrifying head of an assassination organization and far more like someone’s older sister.

The same was with Mio who was black haired now, her Pale Sword form dormant. So now another person in this room knew that she had another entity living inside her body... Hakai had made her tell the Princess.

All three of them were here today for one reason... to watch Koya face against the member of the Order’s Top 7 known as Shadow. It was a generic name but the man’s strength was brutal and absolutely genuine.

Veronica would have won the preliminary fight against him but it seemed like she was jealous that Koya was to take her position as Hakua’s knight and had deliberately lost the fight, letting Shadow advance instead.

It made her enraged but Veronica was willing to take as much punishment as possible to make sure he died... Hakua would have killed her but she didn’t have the authorization to kill her half sister.

She sighed at the memory as Veronica came out of the kitchen carrying a tray of cookies with a pleasant smile on her face and set them on the table between the three women. The television lit up showing a live feed of the Outer Zone from multiple camera angles and even an automatic drone.

"It’s finally time..." Hakai said, reaching for a cookie without looking away from the screen. "The fate of Amagi Koya hangs in the balance today."

...

Koya walked to a part of the Outer Zone he hadn’t been aware of before... a section that felt deliberately isolated, the kind of place where sounds went to die and no one would hear what happened.

He had expected a confrontation like this to come eventually, but what he didn’t expect was that they would start this from Saturday.

The System had informed him as a Main Mission with no room for interpretation... he was meant to kill a member of the Order that was at the peak of blue rank.

Top 7 to be exact... without help.

He had prepared as hard as he could over the past two days, training his Fighting Spirit and configuring the gauntlet with every eye he had.

He had made absolutely sure that none of the girls followed him here. If anything happened to them, well... the Order had made their threat very clear. His sister and Nami were on the table. It was quite a situation to be in on a Monday morning.

’Well, I’ve done as much as I can to prepare.’ He thought while reaching the designated location, exhaling slowly.

His hair had been tied into a ponytail behind his head and his gauntlet was on his right hand with the slot empty for now. He looked at his opponent that emerged from the shadows of a collapsed building ahead.

’System, find a way to defeat this guy...’

「Analyzing...」

He looked at the person who had emerged, he was a bit shorter than Koya but his hair blew in the wind, he had blue eyes that were like crystals and a blue crest above his forehead... then Koya threw something at him.

It was a needle and it shot through the air, stopping before it touched the person in question.

"So you managed to get the blood of a Queen Broodminder and turn it into a poison." The guy commented as Koya activated his skills once more. "You used the same method against Numb... don’t you ever learn?"

The needle shot through the air in the direction of his head at an amazing speed however blue mana coiled around him and he leaned his head out of the way, making it collide with the wall behind.

’A four-liner can move like that?’ He thought with surprise.

Koya sighed... this was Speed Blitz which was the ranked up version of Speed Burst, instead of going in a straight line or curving, he could use Speed Blitz to affect his own body’s momentum increasing his reflexes and body movement plus the activation time was lesser and it cost even lesser mana to use.

"Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken." Koya commented as he waited on the System, he didn’t feel confident at all.

「Analysis complete... The only way to beat this member is to make him exhaust his mana however that’s impossible since all Blue-liners gather from the air automatically.」

’What are the chances that I will win at this level with all of my skills?’ He thought.

「You have a 2% chance of winning. Trait: 「Fate」is working in the background... He just got cucked by another member from the Order, having his girlfriend stolen from him so he’ll redirect that anger onto you instead」

「Reanalyzing chances of victory with emotional volatility factored in...」

「You have a 1% chance of winning.」

’Well... fuck.’ He thought. The System had genuinely just made his odds worse by telling him more information.

Shadow began coiling shadows around himself, the darkness responding to him like a living thing... it gathered at his feet, climbing his legs, spreading outward across the floor in every direction like ink dropped into water.

"Amagi Koya, I swear on my honor as the Top 7 of the Order’s assassins... for bringing shame to Numb’s name that you will die a gruesome death today." The man announced and he tapped his feet against the ground with deliberate calm. "Shadow Realm, come!"

The shadows swallowed both of them whole.

Koya opened his eyes to see a world made entirely of darkness... not the darkness of night but rather something that absorbed light rather than simply lacking it.

Below him was a bottomless void of shifting shadow and he was falling toward it, accelerating, the ground infinitely far below.

Above him, Shadow stood on nothing and was perfectly still, watching him fall with the patience of someone who had done this many times before.

A drone hovered beside Shadow, its camera lens pointed down at Koya.

"Shadow, what did I tell you? No use of shadow—" Hakai’s voice came through the drone’s speaker.

"Fuck off." He said, sticking his hand into the drone and tearing out the voice module with a single pull.

Sparks scattered into the darkness. "He disgraced Numb... so I will kill him and make sure that nothing remains of his body. Boss, you can say what you want... but you will watch me kill him."

With that, he snapped his own fingers. The shadows in the realm responded instantly... coalescing from every direction, every angle, above and below and from the void itself, all converging on Koya as he free-fell through the darkness.

They came as tendrils, as walls, as crushing masses of concentrated shadow.

"Damn." Koya muttered under his breath. He raised his gauntlet with a new blue eye slotted in its center and snapped with his second finger.

The psionic wave didn’t just push outward... It detonated.

A massive radial blast of invisible force expanded from Koya in every direction simultaneously, shattering the tendrils of shadow, punching holes through the walls of darkness, collapsing the realm’s internal structure like a building whose foundations had been pulled out from under it.

The Shadow Realm cracked apart around them and they were returned to the surface... standing in the Outer Zone street exactly where they had been and the darkness receded like a tide pulling back.

Shadow blinked and looked at the gauntlet Koya had raised up. For the first time, something crossed his expression that wasn’t contempt.

「You have a 15% chance of winning with the help of the Gauntlet」

"Die." Koya snapped his fingers again without hesitation and the psionic blast triggered a second time... a radial shockwave that spread outward in every direction, destroying the buildings around them in a cascade of collapsing walls and shattering glass.