“Th-that can’t be—”
“In other words, you drew a losing hand, as befitting an E-Class hero.” She idly played with her hair as she continued. “And I have to say, your stat modifiers are absolutely abysmal. There’s no hope that they’ll improve much even with leveling—it wouldn’t surprise me if you improve even slower than a completely average human.”
Then…why did you call me a hero? You bring me here, you call me a hero…then you throw me away, just like that?!
“B-but wait! Isn’t disposal a little too—”
“Ugh.”
I was interrupted by a sound of disgust.
“This is pathetic.”
It was Kirihara.
“You’re wasting my time. I could be doing anything else right now, but I have to listen to you? We left you alone when you were skulking around in the background, and this is how you repay us?” He let out an irritated sigh. “Just get this over with already. Everybody’s waiting on you. The girls are tired, see? I feel sorry for them—
don’t you?”
The girls looked positively enthralled by his words.
“K-Kirihara-kun!”
“He’s so kind!”
“It’s like he knows exactly what we want before we even have to say it! So considerate!”
“Who does that Mimori-kun think he is, anyway?! He needs to read the atmosphere in here!”
“Ha, he can’t read the atmosphere—he’s practically made of air himself!”
“Pfft! You’re right—that’s hilarious!”
“Quit whining!”
“Just get it over with!”
“We’re tired, so stop wasting our time!”
“Don’t you know when to give up?!”
The boys had joined in at some point. Oyamada was grinning. Then someone stepped out of the crowd and started coming toward me.
It was Yasu Tomohiro…with compassion in his eyes.
“You okay, Mimori?” he said, placing both hands on my shoulders.
“Y-Yasu…”
His eyes narrowed.
“Hold on a second there, Mimori. Listen to what you’re saying.”
“Uh, Wh-what…?” I stuttered.
“It’s Yasu-san. You’re an E-Class, bottom of the heap. I’m an A-Class. Show some respect.” The compassion had drained from Yasu’s eyes, and a new expression was rising—he looked at me like I was scum on the bottom of his shoe, like he knew with total certainty how superior he was.
***
When was it again?
Oyamada had just beaten Yasu up. I’d happened to see the very end of it—Yasu was on the ground, then Oyamada spat on him and left.
I plucked up the courage to go over. Yasu was covered in mud—I remember thinking that Oyamada had gone too far this time.
“You should really talk to a teacher or somebody higher up about this. Somebody other than Zakurogi.”
He didn’t reply.
“C’mon, I’ll go with you. This is too much, even for Oyamada. I mean, I’m scared of him, too, but I’m also…angry. He can’t keep getting away with this.”
I reached down to him, trying to help him back onto his feet.
“Let’s get this over with, Yasu.”
“Why does it have to be you?” Yasu snapped. He slapped my hand away. “Nobody looks down on me, Mimori! Especially not you!”
“Wh-what…?” I was stunned.
“You think you’re above me?! Screw you! I’m better than you, at least!”
That was when I realized.
I’m air.
I’m an NPC.
I’m not at the top or the bottom—I’m not even on the ladder. Nobody cares if I’m around or not. I’m barely even noticed, just part of the background.
But Yasu wasn’t like me. He was at the bottom of the school pecking order, but he was still very much a part of it, and he never stopped thinking about his place in it.
“You’re not better than me! I don’t need your pity, got it?! It pisses me off! Just go die already, Mimori! Get out of my sight!”
That might have been when I first noticed it.
The hierarchy of everything.
***
Yasu leaned in close to me.
“It’s just what I expected,” he murmured. “I knew it…I just knew a change was coming, y’know? I knew I was due for a comeback. I was gonna go to a first-rate college, get a job at a top company, and succeed at life—unlike these morons. At least half of them are below me already. They’re short-sighted idiots, oblivious to the bigger picture—get it?”
He’s like a different person…or is this the real Yasu Tomohiro?
I’d only seen this side of him once before.
“Just go die already, Mimori! Get out of my sight!”
Was that the real him?
He continued his murmured tirade.
“Oyamada’s awful, of course, but Kirihara isn’t much better. They’re both so conceited. And all the self-important idiots pretending to be good people—I hope they get sick and die. Only people worth a damn in this class are Ayaka, Hijiri, and Itsuki. The rest of them are all trash. Bottom of the freaking barrel.”
He was even calling the girls by their first names now—I could remember how he used to nervously stammer out “Sogou-san.”
“Aaah…that felt good,” he said in my ear, then he turned his back on me and stepped away with a wave.
“All right, then. Give it your best shot, I guess—you don’t have long to live, trash hero.”
I stood there in silence. Now I understood. Yasu was ecstatic and just needed to tell someone. He couldn’t talk to the rest of the class, but Mimori Touka, E-Class hero, was about to leave forever and then die. Nobody would believe me if I tried to expose him—anything I said would just be the last bitter cries of a loser who couldn’t accept his fate. Yasu had used me as a safe outlet for his gloating.
“What’d you say, Yasu?” Oyamada asked with a sneer.
“I offered to hear his last words,” Yasu said casually, “but it’s no use—he wouldn’t even listen. He’s more hopeless than I thought.”
I just stood there, frozen in place.
Wh-what the hell? What did I do to deserve this…?
None of this made any sense. It was absurd. I felt indignant rage building inside me, ready to erupt.
The Goddess turned her palms toward the magic circle.
“Let us begin the ceremony.”
The ground underneath me started to glow.
It’s no use. Nobody’s coming to save me, and there’s no way this coldhearted Goddess would show me mercy.
The guards surrounding the magic circle readied their bows, and the hooded figures raised their hands in my direction and lowered their heads.
“If you try to escape the magic circle, my guards will kill you.” The Goddess smiled in warning. None of my classmates moved to help me—nobody dared step out of line with armed guards surrounding us, and Kirihara, top of the hierarchy, had practically condemned me himself.
It’s more than just that—who would risk their life to save a background character? Nobody. Who cares if the NPCs die? This is the story of the chosen heroes’ quest to defeat the Demon King. They don’t need Mimori Touka for that.
THUD.
The Goddess threw something at my feet.
“What’s this…? A leather pouch?”
“That,” she said, “is your unique item. When heroes are summoned, a unique magic item appears alongside each of them. That shoddy little pouch is yours.”
I turned the flimsy thing over in my hands.
“My…magic item…”
A restless murmur rose up from class 2-C—this was the first any of us had heard of magic items. But, as usual, the Goddess had an answer prepared.
“Not to worry! While you were still asleep after your summoning, I collected the items from you for safekeeping—they’re waiting for you in the next room. I’m sure they’ll prove extremely effective once you
get your hands on them!”
This Goddess…she knew exactly what she was doing. If we’d woken up from summoning with powerful magical items in our hands and decided to rebel, that could have caused problems for her. That’s why she took them away from us—as a precaution.
The Goddess laughed.
“These magic items are just one more reason to love hero summoning! Well, anyway,” she said, her gaze falling back to me and my pouch, “I did try pouring a bit of mana into it, but it seems all your sad little pouch is good for is giving off light.”
“Light?”
“It’s a lamp, I suppose? The ruins are dark, so it should prove useful to you in the very near future. There’s a mana conduit crystal attached to it so you can pour mana into the bag. If you manage to make it up to the surface in one piece, you could sell this and make enough to live on for a while! Wonderful!” The Goddess had her arms stretched wide again as she turned back to the others.
“Did you all witness what just happened here? I offered Too-ka Mimori mercy! Even the lowest of the low should be given a chance! I am a compassionate Goddess, kind even to the weak. I will even stoop to bless an E-Class hero as I dispose of it!”
She turned back to me.
“But the rest of you have no need of my compassion! You are all better than Too-ka Mimori! Each one of you is powerful in your own right!”
The magic circle glowed ever more brightly, and the Goddess’s voice rose with it.
“Every one of you is a hero, but even among heroes, there is an order! I imagine some of you are worried about your rank, or that you aren’t as good as everyone else! Please, have no fear! You have all been chosen! Each one of you is extraordinary! Look! Look at Too-ka Mimori!”
The whole class turned to look at me in unison.
“He is unmistakably a hero as well…but he is different from you! All of you are D-Class or above! You are better than him! You have an innate advantage in this world!”
“Don’t worry. Even the E-Class heroes have a part to play.”
I finally understood what she meant by that.
I’m a sacrifice. The S-Class and A-Class heroes already feel good about themselves, but B- through D-Class were probably feeling inferior and unsure about their average rankings. If somebody like me is below them, though, they’ll always have someone to look down on and feel superior to. They can build themselves up.
“At least I’m better than Mimori Touka. I’m glad I didn’t get sent to the Ruins of Disposal. I’m still here. I’m one of the lucky ones.”
This is the ceremony the Goddess put together for them. One big lie. An illusion. And me as the scapegoat. That’s why she has to make it clear that I’m a hero, too—even among heroes, they’ve been chosen.
“Dammit…”
So this is my “part to play,” huh? There’re probably even worse monsters than that three-eyed wolf in the Ruins of Disposal. All I have are worthless spells and hopeless stats.
I’m going to die.
“Wait, please—!” a voice rang out.
I looked up to see Sogou Ayaka walking determinedly toward the Goddess.
“This is wrong! Mimori Touka is one of our classmates!” she protested.
“Whoa, whoa! Don’t be rude, Sogou!” Zakurogi said, stepping between her and the Goddess.
“You’re our homeroom teacher, Zakurogi-sensei! Get ahold of yourself! It’s your duty to protect the students in your care!”
“Wh-what does that matter now?! You’re a smart girl, why can’t you see the reality of what’s happening?! There’s nothing we can do to help him…” Zakurogi shot back. “A-and it’s Mimori’s fault anyway! He’s an E-Class!”
“He didn’t choose to be an E-Class! Why is everybody okay with this? We can’t let her send him away to the Ruins of Disposal, or—”
“Sogou-san, S-Class, was it?” the Goddess interrupted. “You leave me no choice.”
Her arms dropped, and in an instant she was standing behind Sogou.
“Atemi!”
She brought her hand down swiftly on the back of Sogou’s neck.
“Nh?!”
Sogou turned with a move that looked like it was right out of a fighting manga. Using the momentum from her turn, she parried the Goddess’s hand with her own.
Are those ancient martial arts techniques?
Sogou fell into an impressive fighting stance.
“I won’t be taken down quite that eas—ghhh!”
The Goddess’s fist struck like a hammer into Sogou’s stomach.
“The first blow was a feint. Did you really think that was my main attack?”
“Aah…Nggh…”
Sogou’s eyes went white as she collapsed to the ground and lay motionless.
“S-Sogou…”
I realized I was reaching out toward her. She was just doing her job as class rep, I knew that…but it still meant a lot that she’d tried to help.
At the same time, though, I never felt more pitiful and powerless than I did at that moment.
The Goddess called in a few women to load the unconscious Sogou onto a stretcher and carry her out of the room.
“She is an S-Class hero. Treat her with the utmost care, or I will subject you to a fate worse than death. Understood?”
The women nodded, terrified, and bore Sogou out of the room.
“Let us continue.”
As the Goddess resumed her ceremony, I could hear my 2-C classmates whispering among themselves.
“Sogou-san’s so kind…”
“The Goddess was kinda scary, don’t you think?”
“She took out Sogou-san in one hit…!”
“Even with moves like that, the Goddess can’t beat this Demon King guy?”
“Just how strong is he…?”
Kirihara was scowling. Oyamada had displeasure written all over his face. Even Yasu had his jaw clenched in anger.
“Everyone! Attention, please! Take a good look at this hero before he is disposed of! This is what comes to those without power, the losers and the dropouts! But you, you are the winners! Look at him with pity, and think hard about the terrible fate that awaits him!”
The Goddess urged them on.
Don’t want to end up like him? Get strong. Do your duty to me.
“Screw…you.”
Almost without realizing it, I had my arm raised and pointed at the Goddess. She raised an eyebrow and looked down at me.
“My, my.”
I held my hand out toward her, imitating the movements from when she’d burned the three-eyed wolf to a crisp. Target locked.
“P-paralyze!”
I threw my only weapon at her. I had no idea if it would work. I just…snapped. I had to do something. All my rage was pushed out in that one word.
“That was quite rude of you,” the Goddess said calmly. “Did you really think it would work?”
No effect.
“Aah…” My arm fell limp to my side.
“Let me put this in a way that even an E-Class hero will understand,” the Goddess said with narrowed eyes. “I keep a protective ‘Dispel Bubble’ around me at all times…which makes me completely immune to status effect spells.”
Pity. Contempt.
“And there it is. The loser hero’s final moments.”
The magic circle began to rumble.
I know it’s coming…any moment now I’m going to be teleported.
“Dragonic Buster.”
A sudden surge of white. Light like a thick laser beam shot past me, barely missing my shoulder. I twitched around to see a hole open up in the wall behind me with a massive boom!
“Huh, looks like mine works, though.”
Kirihara had used his unique S-Class skill.
Was he trying to hit me…? I can’t even tell.
“Mimori’s skill was so lame, I wondered if mine was similar. But it looks like it does a lot of damage even when I’m half-assing it. Sorry I broke your wall.”
Kirihara looked
down at me with disgusted indifference, like I was a gross stain he couldn’t get out.
“Get out of the way already, E-Class trash.”
“—!”
I know…I can’t expect anybody to go against the Goddess for me. There’s nothing any of you guys can do. But…that’s really the last thing you have to say to me, Kirihara? I’m your classmate, sentenced to death. And that’s it?
“Amazing!” one of the hooded figures exclaimed. “Such power, and at level 1, no less! You’ll be an exciting hero to watch, Kirihara-dono!”
“Huh?” Kirihara said, seeming distracted. “There’s this message saying my skill level went up or something.”
“Unbelievable!” another hooded figure cried. “Leveling up after a single use?! Your stat modifiers are a sight to behold! Nothing like this pathetic E-Class hero!”
The light around me grew stronger and stronger. Time was ticking down. Tears started welling up in my eyes. I clenched my fists hard at my sides.
“What the hell…”
Oyamada started cackling.
“Oh, so the crap hero’s given up already?! Ha ha ha!! That’s karma for you, huh?! Shouldn’t have tried to start somethin’ with me on the bus! It’s a shame I don’t get to watch your miserable ass die, Mimori!”
It wasn’t just tears—all kinds of emotions welled up inside me. Fear…and anger.
“Leave your worldly worries behind and enter into a peaceful sleep, Too-ka Mimori…” the Goddess said with a self-satisfied air.
I raised my head and opened my eyes.
The faces of my classmates were smug and superior, their voices mocking and abusive. They were all against me—well, maybe not everyone, but I had no time or ability to tell between friend and foe. All I saw when I opened my eyes were people looking down on me.
No…not those two. They’re not a part of this.
“What do you think, Aneki?”
“Scum. All of them.”
The Takao sisters swiftly turned on their heels and headed toward the door.
“Let’s go, Itsuki. I understand what the Goddess Vicius is trying to do, but this is all in terribly poor taste.”
“I feel bad for Mimori, but we don’t have the power to stop the Goddess now. So, like, bye! I don’t want to watch, so we’re going to the next room, ’kay?”
“Wh-where do you two think you’re going?!” one of the hooded figures called after them. The Takao sisters ignored him, so the guards started moving in their direction.
Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells Vol. 1 Page 4