I Became the Golden Sun That Steals the Academy’s Aircraft

69. Hero

Just a few days ago, Demeia Academy was attacked on a large scale by a rebel group named New Resistance. They neutralized all the protective magic of Demeia Academy, which they were confident would never be breached, and began an indiscriminate act of destruction with as many as 100 giant soldiers.

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At that time, a parade commemorating the Lion King’s birthday was in progress, and many people who were watching were caught up in the ruthless terrorist activity.

Dorothy was no exception. She was watching the parade with Glinda and was also at the scene of the tragedy.

Even now that I think about it, the situation at that time was like hell.

People who had been laughing, chatting, and enjoying the parade just a little while ago were turned away from the world by a single air raid. There were people crying here and there with their limbs running away, and the cries of a child who had let go of her mother’s hand that was holding her tightly could be heard here and there.

Dorothy, who was separated from Glinda due to the confusion caused by her bombardment, gritted her teeth and held a child smaller than herself in her arms. She wanted to fight against the people who were committing indiscriminate massacres, but it wasn’t something she could do right now. All she could do was run away with her motherless child in her arms.

She raised her mana, spread her barrier to prevent her child from getting hurt, and began running desperately. As she was evacuating to a place away from the bombardment, she joined those who had not yet been evacuated.

They were in a state of panic in this ridiculous chaos, and Dorothy consoled them and struggled to escape somehow.

However, it is clearly starting to reach its limits. It was difficult to avoid the bombardment of over 100 giant soldiers with only one body. Dorothy and her academy cadets who could handle her mana were fine, but it was difficult for her to move while protecting common subjects who could not handle her mana.

In the end, she had no choice but to hide in a half-demolished building and wait for her situation to calm down. She might have survived if she had run away alone, but her Dorothy pride and her nobility would not allow it. Even if she survived that way, Dorothy Flamma Hart would be as good as dead.

“It’s okay. Everything will be fine.”

As the child in her arms shivered at the sound of her pounding, Dorothy gently stroked her head as her second brother had done for her. As her kind voice reassured me that it was okay, I felt my trembling stop little by little.

The situation was not very good. Although they said they were hiding in a half-destroyed building, they were no different from a candle in the wind in the face of the overwhelming firepower of the giant soldiers. It was clear that the moment a single magical weapon or iron bullet landed here, it would literally be over.

Dorothy tried to find a way to overcome the current situation, but even with her brilliant mind, she could not find a way to solve the current situation. Even if her giant spirit soldier was in front of her, it was the same.

She was an aspiring knight in training, but she was not actually a high-level knight who flew and crawled across the battlefield.

How much time had passed since she bit her lip and waited for the situation to get better?

Appreciating her body, it felt like hours had passed. Dorothy, who was in a state of high alert, suddenly realized that the indiscriminate sound of gunfire had stopped.

Sensing that something had changed in her situation, she cautiously looked out her window.

She was able to find the Academy General-Purpose Colossus that was dealing with dozens of Colossi.

The giant soldier in question was cooking the attackers’ giant soldiers with graceful movements. By moving only as much as needed, unnecessary movement lines were drastically reduced. He began to take down the giant soldier with restrained movements, as if he would not allow even a single artillery fire.

Dorothy was so impressed by the unidentified giant pilot that she forgot about the current situation. She almost thought that this would be exactly what it would look like if the art of manipulating giant monsters was turned into an art.

But the overwhelming appearance did not last long. At some point, the giant soldier was moved in front of the half-destroyed building where they were hiding and the magic barrier was deployed to its maximum. I didn’t know the pilot’s intention at first, but soon I learned why the pilot was like that.

Did you know we were here?

As the bombardment rained down, Dorothy’s expression hardened. Other than that fact, I couldn’t explain why the giant god soldier in front of me was behaving like this.

And her thoughts were correct. The giant soldier, who had not tolerated even a single hit until a moment ago, was now receiving all the fire.

I was convinced when I saw that the magic barrier had spread widely and even surrounded the building where they were.

Dorothy clasped her hands in sorrow, admiring her actions of protecting her people, even disregarding her own life. No matter how excellent her manipulative skills were, it was clear that she would not be able to last long if she was beaten one-sidedly like this.

Her magic battery was not infinite. No one could know how long her magic barrier would endure.

One thing is certain: if things continued like this, the Giant God Soldier pilot, who could be considered a knight among knights, might die. Perhaps that is the time when the remaining power in the mana battery reaches zero.

Dorothy felt anxious. Her nervousness doubled as the magic barrier began to shake under the intense bombardment.

Now it’s over. The moment that barrier disappears, the giant soldier pilots in front of them and themselves will be oxidized by concentrated artillery fire.

She looked behind her. People saw her face turning black from her fear. In her arms was a child crying in fear.

In the end, the giant soldier whose magic battery ran out reached its maneuver limit and stopped. The barrier that had blocked the cannonballs until now disappeared, and all kinds of magical weapons from dozens of aircraft flew in terrifyingly.

It’s over now.

It was only then that Dorothy gave up. Just before she died, she said that life flashed past her like a flash, but she didn’t really do that. She just couldn’t believe that she was going to die like this.

The moment Dorothy accepted her death, a huge golden magic split the sky.

***

Dorothy opened her closed eyes.

The one who saved her at the moment of her death was her Gilbert, whom she disapproved of so much.

Gilbert suddenly appeared, cut down the barrage with a single sword, and then had a conversation with the person riding the stopped giant soldier. He told us to leave this place with full communication magic and evacuate the people.

Surprisingly, the person on board the Colossus was Brianna, whom she respected, and following her lead, she was able to escape safely.

The detailed situation was later revealed in detail through a recorded magic video released by the imperial family. Gilbert, who remained in his seat, showed off his skills by defeating as many as 23 giant soldiers without retreating an inch.

It was not a feat that a new academy cadet could accomplish at best, but he did it so naturally. He even sacrificed himself to protect the cadets and visitors who were unable to evacuate during the battle, and as a result, he was able to successfully prevent an attack on the academy that would have left numerous casualties.

After watching all of her videos, she couldn’t help but reflect on her own attitude until now. Not only did Gilbert, whom she had ignored and despised, save her life, but he also showed her the knight she admired so much.

Perhaps I was stuck in a narrow-minded way of thinking and was denying the changed appearance of Gilbert. He said people don’t change easily, but the Gilbert this time was definitely not the Gilbert she knew until now.

Dorothy acknowledged that fact, groomed herself early in the morning, and prepared to meet Gilbert. He wanted to express his gratitude for saving his life and apologize for looking at him in a crooked way all this time.

However, I couldn’t easily go to see him because I was worried about what I had been doing. That was the reason why I was putting all the blame on his head.

“Hey Anna. My head now…”

“Miss. I’m sorry for what I said, but if I keep going like this, I might not be able to see my first master.”

Anna pointed out one fact to Dorothy.

That was the reason why she was going to see Gilbert in the first place after a few days had passed.

As she successfully prevented the attack, she rarely met Gilbert, who had become a celebrity at the Academy.

His heroic deeds were witnessed by many people at the time of the attack, and his fame rose steeply and vertically as he was used as imperial propaganda for various political reasons.

Of course, Gilbert was often called here and there, and he was having a very busy day after receiving Seraphina’s request and order to do his best to calm down the clutter at the academy.

Dorothy was also well aware of this fact, so she conveyed through Anna that she would visit early in the morning. Fortunately, he didn’t refuse, so he got up early in the morning and got ready, but Dorothy, whose conscience was prickling, couldn’t go to Gilbert even though she had already finished preparing.

“I should go, right?”

“Miss. Is it difficult to meet the first master?”

“Ha… Anna. There’s something I’ve been doing all this time. Ever since I found out that my eldest brother was acting like a bastard, I’ve never been friendly to him.”

He remembers that when he was very young, he and Gilbert had a good relationship. At that time, Gilbert took good care of his youngest sister, Dorothy, and he got along well with his three siblings, including Glinda.

However, from the moment Gilbert started walking down the path of becoming a fool, the close relationship between the three siblings cracked, and in the end, they became what they are now.

“So you said you wanted to apologize for that.”

“But… Isn’t that too obvious? Honestly, until this incident, I only said things that doubted my brother’s true intentions. I didn’t think he would really change his mind.”

Dorothy lowered her head and spoke gloomily.

It was rather strange to believe that people can change in an instant, based on common sense, but Dorothy, who was strict even to herself, felt something similar to self-loathing at the fact that she did not believe the words of her eldest brother, let alone Gilbert, who had sincerely reformed.

It was such a shameful thing that I couldn’t trust my family, who had really come to their senses and started walking the right path, even though I had hoped so much for them to come to their senses.

“I went on and on about how my eldest brother needed to change his behavior, but when I saw that he had actually changed, I couldn’t believe him. How dare I have the shame to go see him.”

“Miss. There isn’t just one reason why you’re going to see the first master. You told me that you wanted to share my apologies for the past time. Was that just an excuse to make you feel at ease?”

“No. No. Huh. I understand. Anna. The time for complaining like this is over.”

Dorothy slapped herself and stood up. She could hear Anna’s nagging behind her that she should be more careful, but she ignored it and left her room.

The meeting place was not Gilbert’s room, but the physical training center. Gilbert accepted Dorothy’s request to meet her early in the morning and told her to come to the gym instead through Anna.

After hearing her words, Dorothy was once again surprised, because the Gilbert she knew was someone who had never trained before. There were many times when I thought that it was an extreme waste of talent because my body was naturally perfect for such a subject.

He couldn’t help but be surprised when he told me to come to the fitness center early in the morning.

Dorothy arrived at the fitness center accompanied by Anna, took a deep breath, and then went inside. At the corner of her fitness center, she could see her oldest brother, Gilbert.

As Dorothy approached Gilbert, she could not hide her astonished expression. The physical training he did seemed like a kind of hard work, bordering on asceticism.

It is said that honing mana and deep energy is the training method preferred by knights these days, but Dorothy knew well that physical training was more important than that.

She has dreamed of becoming a knight since her childhood, and has received systematic training accordingly. Her teacher was a vassal who had walked the battlefield like her father, the Iron Blood Margrave. He always made it a habit to say that mana must be built up on a trained body to prevent it from collapsing, so the importance of this was engraved deep in Dorothy’s bones.

But even for Dorothy, it was her first time seeing such ridiculous physical training. There was no one, not even the Knights of Count Hart, who practiced such ignorant training.

“First brother.”

“Hmm. It’s Dorothy.”

Gilbert, who was sweating like raindrops, wiped his sweat as he looked at Dorothy who was standing on her knees.

Anna came to visit unexpectedly yesterday and told her that she wanted to meet Dorothy. Gilbert, who had known that Dorothy did not like him, wondered what was going on and immediately made an appointment.

However, since the attack on her academy, her free time was short, so she was called during morning training, the only time she had plenty of time.

“I heard you wanted to see me. Do you have anything to do?”

Gilbert, who wanted to speak more gently as he saw Dorothy’s hesitation, sighed. I didn’t like this damn system at all in this regard. Just as he is assisted by the system in battle, things like his speech style are supported by his character settings.

Fortunately, it was not completely mandatory, so there was no need to show an appearance that perfectly matched the character settings, but there were restrictions. That was the reason why the tone became as stiff as it is now.

“Phew. I apologize honestly. All this time, I didn’t believe that my eldest brother had changed. I also thought that he had some plan.”

Dorothy, who had been hesitating in front of Gilbert, finally came to her senses and bowed her head and apologized. He simply stated what he had done wrong without making any excuses.

“But I was wrong. My brother tried to change, and I didn’t really see it. It was my fault.”

“Hmm…”

Gilbert was lost in thought as he watched his youngest brother bend down to apologize. He suddenly said he wanted to meet me, so I wondered what was going on and it seemed like he wanted to apologize for what had happened so far.

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Although everything she had done so far was reasonable, it seemed like she had some kind of burden on her mind.

Even in Tactical Combat, she was popular for her upright attitude, and even now that it has become a reality, that personality seems to have not changed.

“And thank you for saving me. If it wasn’t for you, I probably would have died there.”

Even if she just pretended not to notice and passed on, no one would have said anything to her, but I thought that the way she bowed her back and expressed her gratitude was truly hers.

“To be honest, I didn’t know you were there. I just did what I had to do and you just happened to be there.”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that my brother saved me. Thank you so much.”

Even if she just pretended not to notice and passed on, no one would say anything, but she didn’t think about straightening her back. When Gilbert saw that, a smile appeared on his face without even realizing it.

At times like this, his stern appearance was similar to that of the Iron Blood Margrave.

“Huh?”

“That’s it. As a brother, it’s natural for me to save my younger brother. There’s no reason to be thanked for that. Of course, this was also something I had to do.”

Gilbert stroked the head of Dorothy, who was still bent over. To be clear, Dorothy became dangerous when Gilbert entered this world. Originally, only Glinda would participate in the celebration of the Lion King’s birthday.

Because he seemed to have changed, Dorothy came to the academy to find out the reason, and as a result, he ended up in danger. Rather, the person who should be sorry was none other than Gilbert, who had created such a strange setting.

Meanwhile, Dorothy, who was stroking his head, realized once again that Gilbert’s hand was bigger than she thought. Dorothy, who was smaller than other ladies of her age, felt comparatively larger.

Furthermore, although Gilbert’s touch was rough, it contained warmth. He felt similar yet different from her second brother, Glinda. Somehow, I could feel Gilbert’s appearance before he became an asshole through that touch.

“So is that all you want to say?”

When Gilbert realized that Dorothy was straightening her back and looking up at him, he withdrew his touch. He stroked his head unconsciously, but he was worried that he might offend him. Luckily he didn’t show any signs of that, but he couldn’t be petted forever.

“First of all…”

“In that case, go back and rest. Although there is nothing wrong with your body, the chaos you are experiencing for the first time may have left you officially exhausted. Such instructions do not go away easily. I will ask for Anna Dorothy.”

“I understand, master.”

Anna, who had been quietly standing behind her, left her fitness center with a dazed Dorothy in tow. Finding her Dorothy in a similar state outside, Anna cautiously called her out.

“Miss? Are you okay?”

“Ah, uh, yes”

After calling her a few times, Dorothy came to her senses and smiled as usual, as if Anna’s worried expression was nothing. Dorothy, who was walking to her lodgings with Anna in tow, glanced at the door to her fitness center that was getting further and further away.

I felt like I had realized something new.