Project Necro is an official initiative by Re:Library.

“…What the heck is this?”

I was standing in the middle of a town that had a medieval feel—though it had more of a village-like atmosphere than a typical town. I thought this was the town square in that frontier town where I’d been standing just a moment ago… but its size had expanded several times over, and the square, buildings, and streets had all become much wider. The scale was so different that I couldn’t quite be sure.

“…Reiji-san, what happened?”
“Ah, Ayame, you’re here too?”

A silver-haired young man, a head shorter than me, stood beside me. He wore sharp, bluish-tinged metal armor, a cloak covering only his left side, a shield strapped to his back, and a slender sword hanging from his waist. It was the familiar look of Sol from the game, but somehow the texture felt strangely more realistic.

“Yeah, I remember getting sucked into some weird magic circle… By the way,”
“Hm? What’s up?”
“I’m getting this weird sensation down there…”

Ayame fidgeted around her groin, looking embarrassed… Wait, in her avatar, I should call her Sol.

“Ah. Well, that’s just how a guy’s body is… Huh?!”

I almost let it slide—there’s no way they’d implement something like that in the game, right?! I mean, I have one too, and since it’s a sensation I’m used to in real life, I didn’t notice it at first, but what the heck is this?!

“It’s there, so what can I do? It’s really hard to move around like this… And besides, this…”

She scooped up a handful of soil from the flower bed and let it trickle down.

“…It’s surprisingly realistic. There wasn’t a feature like this before, was there?”

I tilted my head, watching the fine soil from the flower bed drift slightly in the wind and fall diagonally, and looking at Sol’s hand, still covered in it. Just to test it, I pinched a bit myself and brought it close to my nose—it definitely smelled like soil. I have absolutely no idea what kind of calculations would be needed to recreate something this lifelike. From a game to reality. From a game to another world. Yanagi’s hobbies include reading entertainment novels, and I’ve often seen plots like this—this situation is exactly like one of those. I pulled out the knife sheathed at my hip… which, in the game, was just a prop and shouldn’t have come out… I took off my gloves and lightly scratched my fingertips.

“…Ouch. Also this… it’s blood.”

The sharp pain and the slimy sensation on my fingertips only served to reinforce just how abnormal this situation was.
As I was doing that, I suddenly sensed eyes on me. Glancing around, I saw people standing at a distance, watching me and occasionally whispering to each other… Well, I suppose it’s only natural that people would be suspicious if two grown men suddenly started messing with dirt or cutting their own fingers, but then again, the game’s NPC AI would never react like this.

“Hey, Sol. Let’s move for now… Hey?”

I glanced over at Sol beside me. His face was pale, and he looked completely distracted, muttering something under his breath.

“…Ah, for the time being, let’s head somewhere deserted for now, okay?”

Seeing him nod, I took Sol by the hand and led him outside the town gates.

.

“…Damn, this place is huge… What is this? It feels ridiculously realistic, too… Hey, what do you think of this?”

The street was wide and long, filled with a diverse crowd of people; some of them eyed us suspiciously as we walked by, armed as we were. The snow underfoot was slippery in places, just like in real life. It took us about ten minutes to reach the town’s edge—a journey that would’ve been instant in the game—and we stopped near the wall, in a spot where no one was passing by. Feeling suspicious that Sol hadn’t said a word since we set out, I looked over at him.

“…Hey, what’s wrong?”

There stood Sol, his face pale and looking like he was about to cry. He’d never shown an expression like this in the game, and I furrowed my brow at the seriousness of the situation. Wait, Sol… Ayame-chan actually makes faces like this quite often in real life. At times like this, she usually…

“…What about Onii-chan?”
“…?!”

That single sentence shook me so much I almost wanted to punch myself. That should have been the first thing I thought of. Yet, I’d been so flustered that I hadn’t even noticed it.

“If the reincarnation was complete, Onii-chan should have been rolled back to Level 1, right…?! The fact that I’m still ‘Sol’ means he’s still in that ‘Iris’ appearance, with pure support stats!!”

Hearing those words, my head went cold as if someone had dumped ice on it. He’d always built his stats on the assumption that he’d be fighting alongside us. His STR was at the base value, and his VIT was kept to the bare minimum because he’d always been fighting alongside Sol, an excellent tank. Even though he’d been reincarnated three times, those stats were backed by high growth rates, and his Level 1 performance was only slightly better than the base values. Even if the enemies around here weren’t particularly strong, they’d still be a serious threat to him. To begin with, it’s unclear whether his original stats even apply in this world. If, in the worst-case scenario, he only possesses the physical abilities her appearance suggests, then “Iris” is nothing more than a physically frail and fragile girl. First and foremost, he has almost no useful attack skills. Why was I so leisurely and confused? His situation should be far more dire than ours.

Plus, the conversation right before this happened—Yanagi’s… Iris’s demeanor was anything but normal. What if… what if this is the case… My thoughts kept spiraling toward the worst possible scenarios.

“…Sorry, I was losing it. First, let’s meet up with him. Do you know which direction he went?”
“Yeah… this way. Let’s hurry.”

We checked our direction with a compass and hurriedly left the spot.

.

The leg strength and stamina of this body were incredible; the scenery was streaming past us in the rear in the blink of an eye. We’d already been moving for over two hours—and had been running for about half that time—but I didn’t feel particularly tired. My earlier concern—that this world’s physical abilities might not reflect the game’s stats—had been disproved, but that wasn’t exactly reassuring for us. After all, if his stats from the game were being reflected, then after the level reset, his physical abilities would likely be far below those of an average person in this world, let alone on par with them.
However, even though we were pushing forward at that pace, the abandoned temple we were looking for was nowhere in sight. And this despite the fact that, in the game, we’d have reached it in about five minutes at this pace. Just how vast was this world? My anxiety only grew. *“We should’ve just followed him,”* the thought flashed through my mind, but saying that would only put even more pressure on Sol, who was running beside me—I absolutely could not let those words slip out.

Just then, as my gaze swept past, I thought I caught a glimpse of a human figure among the trees to my left. It looked like a well-built man in his prime. I felt like I recognized the face, but I couldn’t place it.

“……Reiji-san?”
“Sorry, I think I saw…”

This wasn’t the time for that—we had to secure Iris as soon as possible. But something was really nagging at me. I just couldn’t shake the feeling, so I stopped in my tracks. With a puzzled look on his face, Sol followed me back to where I’d seen the figure, but sure enough, there was no one there—maybe I’d just imagined it. Instead, however, there was something out of place in the forest…

“What the hell is this… a page from a book…?”
“Brand-new paper… What’s this doing here?”

It was pure white, completely blank paper. There were signs that it had been torn off at the base. Just as we were exchanging glances, there was a clang—the sound of something hard colliding in the distance.

“…Did you hear that?”
“Yeah… a metallic sound. Sounds like someone’s fighting.”
“…Let’s take a little detour. You good with that?”

I just couldn’t shake the feeling. It was as if I were being guided by something—a premonition of some sort was swirling inside me. It seemed Sol felt the same way; he nodded once, followed me, and we hurried off toward the sound.

.

“Hey, Scott the Coward. Where do you think you’re going, huh?!”
“Because you ran off, we can’t join in the fun. How are you going to make it up to us, huh?”

Of course, they’d figured out right away that I was trying to escape to call for help. I didn’t notice the four pursuers until I was just about to reach the road, when I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and the sensation of something hot flowing through me. By the time I realized an arrow had pierced me, I’d already tripped and fallen. When I got back to my feet, I was already surrounded—they clearly had no intention of letting me get away. They just wanted to get this hassle over with quickly so they could go back over there and indulge in their base pleasures. Faced with the harsh reality that I was nothing but a trivial obstacle standing in the way of that, I clenched my teeth so hard my molars cracked.

“…I may be a coward, but there are times when I’ve got no choice but to fight… I can’t die—I can’t possibly die here…!”

I raised the dagger I apparently still had in my hand. My hands and feet were shaking, but if I didn’t get through this, that girl will… I couldn’t let that happen. This time… this time, for sure…!

“Ah, what are you trying to prove? You “sold” her to us because you care about yourself the most.”
“But! That’s exactly why! …I can’t do it myself, so that’s why…!”

I couldn’t die. My left arm, pierced by an arrow, was numb and wouldn’t move, and I couldn’t do a thing against four of them with just this one short dagger, but still… I needed to call… some help…!

.

Just as I stepped a little way into the woods, I heard people fighting. It looked pretty dangerous: four men pointing weapons at a battered, desperate-looking middle-aged guy who’d taken an arrow in the shoulder but was still fighting back with all his might. I… didn’t know the details, but trusting my instincts, I instantly decided to come to the latter’s aid.

“Hey, you old guy! Get out of the way!!”

I summoned a specific skill I used regularly that crossed my mind. Instantly, the scenery accelerated at a pace greater than ever before—no, as if from another dimension—closing the gap of what must have been at least 100 meters in an instant. With the large sword in my hand… a single-edged greatsword, which I flipped the blade around… I swung it with all my might at the man standing dumbfounded right in front of me.
My Job… the unique Job “Sword Saint” and its skill, “Godspeed Sword.” Even though the system wasn’t active, that acceleration was still intact, and the flash of the blade—charged with speed and weight—left an unpleasant sensation in my hand as something cracked and shattered, effortlessly sending the burly man flying like a baseball. The man rolled for a moment before slamming into a tree and collapsing. Naturally, I had almost no experience in my original world of actually swinging a weapon at someone in earnest, and seeing the man lying there twitching made my knees tremble at the thought of what I’d done. But I knew this wasn’t the time for that, so I shoved the thought deep into the back of my mind and shut it away.

Looking over at the other man, who was standing some distance away with his bow drawn, I saw that he had pulled his arm back as far as it would go, nocking an arrow. Then, he was struck by a bolt of lightning fired from the sword that had pierced the void—the “Stun Piercer” skill of Sol’s unique Job, “Night Lord”—he let out a muffled scream, his entire body stiffened, and he fell from the tree. Normally, this technique was used to immobilize an enemy with an electric shock when the target jumped far away, which allowed the user to protect the rear guard while reclaiming the target—but here, it seemed to possess even greater power.

“We’re here to help, old man.”

I stepped between the dazed old man and the other men. Cold sweat was pouring down my face, but I managed to keep it from showing. With the two of them taken down in the blink of an eye, the remaining two nearby grew wary and readied their weapons.

“Y-you guys are…”
“Please step back. Here, a healing potion.”
“Oh, oh…”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sol help the old man to his feet and hand him the healing potion, while I stepped forward toward the remaining group.

――The battle ended fairly quickly. It seemed my in-game stats were indeed valid, and while there were many aspects of the skill mechanics that still needed to be verified, they appeared to function without any major issues. For us, as three-times reincarnated characters who’d leveled up to a certain extent, they weren’t particularly formidable opponents… emotionally speaking, that is.

“Well, I guess that’s about it. Old man, you’re okay…”
“Sir Swordsman, sir Knight!!”
“Whoa?! W-what’s going on? Calm down, okay?”

The moment the battle ended, the old man—who had been standing back—lunged at us with a desperate look on his face. Seeing how frantic he was, I instinctively took a step back.

“F-forget that… if you’re that strong, then… that girl! I beg you, please save her…!!”

The old man closed in on us, his face streaked with tears and snot. Seeing him in such a desperate state… and hearing him say “that girl.” At those words, I couldn’t shake the unpleasant feeling that sent a chill down my spine.

.

To cut to the chase, there was no doubt that the one who got captured was Iris.
After hearing everything, the first thing I felt was intense rage.

“…You?!”

Fuming, I grabbed the middle-aged man by the collar and squeezed it tight. I was overcome by the urge to strangle him right then and there, but a gentle hand appeared to stop me, and I reluctantly loosened my grip.

“Wait, Rage. This isn’t the time for that. It’s not our role to take our anger out on him. Save that anger for a little later.”
“But this guy…!”

It was a valid point, but this guy had betrayed Yanagi… Iris—he’d sold her out just to save his own skin!

The words on the tip of my tongue froze the moment I saw the expression on Sol’s face.
Sol strode purposefully over to the man lying on his back beneath the tree—the one I’d just blown away—and swung his sword at him casually and without hesitation. In the blink of an eye, before the blood could gush out like a geyser and stain the surroundings, he swung his sword three more times in the same manner at the others who still had a breath left.

“Forgive me, but it wouldn’t do us good if they’d woken up and stabbed us in the back. You’re Mr. Scott, right? We’ll definitely save her. Show us the way.”
“…Y, yes… Please, this way…!”

Having swiftly “disposed of” them without even getting splattered with blood, all expression vanished from Sol’s sharp face against the backdrop of the blood-red snow-covered landscape; only his eyes glinted with murderous intent.
However, even in the face of my old friend’s sudden act of violence, I couldn’t bring myself to condemn him right then. If anything, I felt pathetic for having let Sol—who was, at heart, a girl—do it. No, that’s not right. To be honest, I wanted to do it myself. It was the first time I’d ever felt such intense rage—a desire to kill so deeply that I never would have imagined it in my original world. That’s right. The target of my anger wasn’t this old man—it was the people who kidnapped Iris.

I didn’t even have the leisure to match the old man’s pace. Hoisting him onto my shoulder like a sack of rice, I started running as fast as I could, relying on the old man’s instructions and his footprints.

Wait for me—I’ll save you right away… So please, just stay safe.
Before I knew it, the trembling that had come from the fear of hurting someone of my own free will had stopped.

***

The reason these two, who were supposed to be living peaceful lives, have lost all hesitation is because of their anger. This is a temporary state.