Kiraware Yūsha ni Tensei Shitanode Aisare Yūsha o Mezashimasu!

[Hated Hero, Fighting to Protect Girls]

A male student had attacked us out of nowhere.

His appearance clearly indicated he was not in his right mind.

And the burst of mana overflowed from his whole body—it was evident he was in the same state as Raul back in our first mock battle.

In the original novel, 【The Rise of the Weakest Holy Swordsman】, there was no scene where Barrett got attacked by a berserk student.

However, just because it wasn’t written in the original storyline didn’t mean that Barrett didn’t encounter this situation. In the first place, the original storyline was mostly narrated from Raul’s point of view, who was the Protagonist. Barrett’s presence in the recollection arc was honestly the same as air.

Or perhaps… this irregular event was caused by my actions completely deviating from the original storyline.

…Either way, I couldn’t just escape and let him run free.

“Roaaaaaaaaarrr!”

Releasing a beastly roar, the male student swung his sword around.

“…He doesn’t seem open to discussion.”

I pulled out the Holy Sword and held it at the ready.

I then proceeded to cover the whole sword with mana while avoiding the attacks of the male student, and eventually, a faint pale light wrapped it up. Battle preparation completed.

I couldn’t possibly cut down a student from the same school, so I tried to lightly blow him away to knock him unconscious, but—

“Gaa!”

“Wha?!”

I had no idea how capable he originally was, but he was quite fast now. Speaking of which, Raul also had had a dramatic increase in his overall abilities… was this the effect of some kind of performance-enhancing drugs?

But considering Raul’s personality, it was unlikely he’d use something like that.

After all, the guy was a sincere personified.

…Well, he was creating a harem in the original storyline, so in that sense, you could say he wasn’t sincere, though.

In any case, the Raul in this academy was not the kind of guy who’d involve himself with such dangerous things.

“And to make sure of the truth—I’d force out a testimony out of you!”

“Graaa!” The male student rushed my way, swinging his sword down at me. I welcomed him with a counterattack. Of course, I suppressed my strength and avoided his vital points. I was aiming—at his weapon.

“Grah?!”

The sword in the male student’s hand was sent flying from my blow and stabbed into the trunk of a nearby tree.

“And that, is the end of this.”

If the opponent was sane, this would have been enough to make him give up… but unfortunately, the male student’s intelligence had been reduced to that of a mere beast; he showed no signs of giving up.

“Gah! Gaaaaah!”

“H-hey… calm down!”

His condition was strange.

Somehow, he seemed to be… suffering. Froth came out from the edge of his mouth. At this rate, his life may be in danger.

“Tayte! Please go get a teacher!”

“Y-yes!”

This guy no doubt had some kind of connection with the incident of Raul going berserk. If he wasn’t knocked out soon and someone else was to come here—

“Hey, did you hear that?”

“Yeah… could it be that pervert that had been roaming around lately?”

“L-let’s hurry up.”

And of course, what you fear never failed to become reality.

From behind, three female students who had just finished their activities at the academy were approaching.

“I-it’s dangerous here! Please turn back!”

Hearing Tayte’s cry, the three girls understood that an abnormal situation was ongoing here. They started running back to escape, but that instead provoked the berserk male student.

“Gaaa… ngah!”

The berserk male student pulled his attention away from me and chased the escaping girls.

Running after those who turned their backs and ran away—the instinct of a beast.

“Not on my watch!”

I chased after the male student.

In no time, he was right behind the girls, but the moment he was about to leap upon them, I succeeded in catching up to him, and then I threw a kick on his wide-open flank with all my might.

“Goaa?!”

Scattering saliva around, he writhed in pain on the ground.

Phew, glad I was able to stop him before he managed to attack the girls, I was sighing in relief, when—

“Huh?! The Barrett Albers s-saved us?!”

“T-this must be a lie…”

“Unbelievable! He’ll surely ask for an exorbitant amount of money for saving us later!”

They sure don’t hold any punches, huh.

…But well, considering Barrett’s past behaviors, I can’t exactly offer a retort.

My face twitched unconsciously, but more importantly—this was our chance.

“You guys hurry up and get going, I’ll keep watch over this guy; though he likely won’t be able to move for a while, anyway. Please report what’s happening to the teachers.”

“Y-yes!”

“Ah, u-uhh…”

“Mm?”

“Thank you so much for saving us!” One of the girls said and bowed. Following her lead, the other two also bowed their heads.

I didn’t mean it, but it appeared that I had succeeded in improving their opinions of me.

The three girls and Tayte—making a total of four people—hurriedly headed to the teachers’ room. Tayte alone should be sufficient, but I figured with more people, the more persuasive their story would be.

“Now then…”

The male student was still writhing on the ground.

What could possibly cause him to turn this way?

Perhaps unraveling it would solve the mystery of Raul’s going berserk.