Volume 1 Chapter 1 Prologue
In the dark office, the only sound was the clack-clack of the PC keyboard.
Just the noise of typing was echoing.
"Phew, done."
Michio Tsuchida (35 years old) had been working on this week's invoices, pulling a solo Saturday shift.
"It's already 8 PM... He wants to do more, but He's made a good start. He'll come in early on Monday and finish it, so He should head home today."
He saved his work and shut down the PC.
As he stood up from his seat, he looked around the dark office, his own area brightly lit, and let out a deep sigh.
"Always feels like He's the only one doing this... let's not think about it! He'll buy some premium beer today and sleep in till evening tomorrow."
Thinking of the premium beer as a reward, he shifted his darkening thoughts to positive ones.
Leaving the office past 8 PM on a Saturday, he walked briskly down the street to the station, zipping up his light coat and hunching his shoulders.
'Premium beer♪, premium beer♪'
Michio's mind was filled with thoughts of premium beer.
"Stop it! Someone, please help him!"
As he arrived at the station square, Michio heard a woman's desperate scream coming from the direction to his left and slightly ahead.
Michio turned his head towards the direction of the voice.
There was a man with heavy makeup and long hair, smiling nastily, holding an 8-year-old girl by the neck with his left hand and gripping a 20 cm blade in his right.
The woman who had screamed was trying to get the man's attention, shouting, "Stop it! Who are you? Let go of Aa!"
'Huh, this is bad!?'
Michio looked around as he watched the scene, but the people around were either gawking from afar or quickly passing by.
'Where are the police?'
He could see someone heading to the police box to call for an officer, but it seemed like it would take some time for the police to arrive.
The man, with his muddy eyes, kept muttering nonsense while holding onto the girl.
"In 3 minutes, He's off to another world. He'll offer this child to Lord Merigas! Please, teleport him to your world!"
The man's breathing grew rough.
'Shit, shit, shit, He's got a bad feeling. He's serious.'
Michio had always faced bad things when he got this chill.
Each time the chill struck, he changed his actions.
Recently, he felt the chill at a crosswalk and rushed away just in time.
A truck slammed into the spot where Michio had been standing.
'He needs to get away faster. But, that girl... Why haven't the police arrived yet?!'
He looked towards the police box, but unfortunately, no officers were in sight, just people bustling around in front of it.
"One minute left!"
'Shit,' thought Michio as he launched himself at the man.
Michio's tackle, despite his slightly chubby frame, was more effective than expected, and both the girl and the man fell down.
He managed to separate the girl from the man, but since she fell too, she couldn't run away.
The man quickly got up and moved towards the girl again.
"Time's up, ahhh──now! She can be freeeee!"
The man raised his knife and moved closer to the fallen girl again.
"Stop it──!!"
Desperately, Michio covered the girl.
"Thud" he felt a dull impact on his back followed by intense pain.
"Don't get in the way!"
The man swung the knife down towards the girl again, over Michio.
Thump-thump, the sound of several people running could be heard.
"Thud" this time he felt the impact around his waist. The pain was numbing; it wasn't as bad as before.
"Get away from her──Lord Merigas, Lord Merigas"
Voices of several men saying "calm down, stop causing trouble" could be heard.
The man's voice could be heard; it seemed the police had finally restrained him.
"Little Aa!"
A woman pulled the girl from under him.
"Thank you, thank you so much"
As the woman's voice was heard, his consciousness began to fade.
'Thank you, really, thank you'
He heard a voice other than her mother's.
And then Michio's consciousness cut off.
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