(This story borrows and remixes some historical elements just to look cool. It isn’t really about real history or culture, and “beautifying” certain figures is totally normal here.)

A long, long time ago, when the world was still in the age of steam and steel, people were chasing after shiny gold coins with everything they had.

And out of that era, the strongest empire in history slowly began to rise.

The empire that embraced industrial revolution changed overnight.

Factory after factory stabbed into the sky of every city.

A lot of people managed to secure a living in those days, and their standard of life shot up.

But at the same time, as the empire’s beating heart, this city sank deeper and deeper into a suffocating despair.

A tiny handful hoarded more and more wealth.

The majority suffered more and more.

The gap between rich and poor had never been so clear.

People at the very bottom, unwilling to rot away, began walking the road of crime in search of some twisted form of salvation.

Meanwhile, out in the East—once prosperous and glorious—things were getting worse and worse.

So bad it felt completely hopeless.

The story, though, happens to me—Tsubaki Juxi, the one reading this very book right now.

That’s right. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Industrial Revolution.

“This book really can drag you back into that gloomy world… it’s pretty nice, huh…”

Where there’s oppression, there will be heroes.

“That’s right, a hero’s about to make his entrance. Just you wait for me!”

I pictured myself hiding on top of those towering city walls, becoming the guy who punishes evil and protects the people down below.

Fighting for the peace and dignity of those at the bottom.

As for the final goal… hehe.

Of course it’s the ultimate one: build my own resistance group.

A group with one clear purpose—wipe out that rotten dynasty rampaging unchecked.

First, there are two main camps: Heroes and Nobles.

My origins as a Hero are unknown, but our purpose is obvious.

We pursue knowledge, truth, and power, we value reason, and we’re here to build a new order.

We have our own beliefs, our own way of doing things—

just like warriors have that unyielding style etched into their bones.

Politically, nobles are usually the politicians, the ones in power.

They chase order, stability, and predictable knowledge, firm believers in what can be known,

and they’ll lie, deceive, even enslave the people to keep it that way.

The Hero camp, on the other hand, is born from the lowest of the low.

Every single one of them seeks faith in freedom.

I believe in that instant you jump from the city tower—

that heroic aura that crushes everything, that feeling of pure freedom.

The rebels rise up for freedom and independence.

They’re agnostics, pioneers who believe anything is possible.

And I… am the leader of them all.

This is a fantasy straight out of Juxi’s own head.

That savage, brutal era was named the “Heroic Century” by a boy called Tsubaki Juxi…

and I am Tsubaki Juxi!

Right when I was halfway through my wild daydream, Yukari’s trash-can smack sent me flying back to reality.

“What’s wrong with you? All you ever do is read novels instead of doing something useful!

The AC at home’s broken. If you’re hot, remember to call customer service!”

“Yes… Yukari-nee.” I muttered, pouting.

After tanking that one hit and then a whole combo of verbal abuse, I finally calmed down a little.

It was an early day in June.

People on the streets had only just switched into summer clothes.

School was already over, but I was still standing on the rooftop of the school building, wrapped in the slow-falling dusk.

In front of me stood a girl from my year.

Her name was Shinran Yu Nai.

We’d known each other since first grade—your textbook “childhood friend.”

Now we were second-years in high school, looking about eighteen.

She wasn’t that tall, only up to my shoulder.

Her long hair was tied up on both sides with red ribbons, sticking up like bunny ears.

Her big round eyes were as naturally pure as a little rabbit’s.

Her neat black uniform and dark blue skirt swayed slightly in the wind.

She was tiny and delicate, seriously adorable.

Definitely a beauty.

She was very cute.

People around us kept sneaking glances her way from time to time.

Can’t blame them—Yu Nai’s half foreign.

With her blonde hair and blue eyes, she stood out no matter if it was at school or on the street, always in the center of everyone’s attention.

But her gaze right now was terrible.

I don’t know if I was the reason.

“Yu Nai-nee, I… I’m thirty minutes late. I’m sorry!”

She was glaring up at me from below.

Not just glaring—her eyes held more than a little contempt.

On top of that, her eyeballs were shot through with blood vessels, and that so-called “look that could kill” was probably about this intense.

The mood was awful too.

The moment she laid eyes on me, the veins at her temples popped.

She was panting like a tiger, as if her expression was saying,

“Hey, you’re a grown man, how can you be such a wishy-washy mess?!”

She was radiating an absolutely ferocious aura.

“Hey, why are you only showing up now? I’ve been waiting for you a whole hour!!!”

“An hour?!”

I don’t buy it.

Her, wasting an entire hour bored out of her mind here for me? Hah.

Is she really the type to waste her time on me?

Mm, no matter how you look at it, she’s just too nervous.

So nervous she looks scary.

With that tiny hand of hers she angrily pointed at me and declared something weird.

“A-anyway, don’t worry about that right now. I’ve got something more important to ask you!”

“Go ahead.”

“Uh, I-I’m going to con-confes—”

Bit her own tongue right out of the gate?

“I-It’s that kind of confession, but it’s not like I wronged you or I’ve been hiding some secret from you or some deep inner confession like that.”

“…I know that much. Please continue.”

I was already impatient, but if you drag me up to the rooftop just for a confession, I really might snap.

“The confession I mean is a l-love confession!”

“…”

“…”

That one sentence shook heaven and earth.

I seriously wondered if my ears had been shot by someone.

Don’t tell me I’m already about to hit the Good End this fast?

“Sigh, isn’t it kind of stiff to hit the ending this early?”

I let out a long sigh and squinted into the blinding setting sun, forcing myself to calm down.

“Hoo~ Got it. Then let me hear what you’ve got to say.”

“You acting all smug like that is really pissing me off!”

“Tch, then just say it already. Weren’t you the one calling me wishy-washy and saying I waste time? Listen to yourself, stuttering like crazy.”

“T-then I’ll say it—”

Yu Nai took a few deep breaths…

“S-So, what was it again?”

“Hah?”

She actually forgot what she was about to say.

I was completely done with this.

“Um… just gimme a sec, okay?”

With that, Yu Nai ran over to the rooftop door to grab something she’d left there.

What she brought back was… a broom.

She raised it up in front of her face right in front of me.

By the way, I’d played with Yu Nai since we were little.

No—calling it “playing” is too kind.

It was more like she would drag me off to do awful things, like “Invincible Flame Wheel”

(her grabbing me and spinning me like crazy),

or “Heaven and Earth Spins”

(me being forced to practice getting suplexed) and other outrageous stuff.

She kept that up until our first year of middle school.

But once we hit high school, she stopped.

Which is why the broom felt totally random now.

Even weirder, she was holding the broom like she was about to beat me with it.

“Mm, this is much better!”

“Is it? ’Cause I’m really not okay right now.”

“But this helps me hide my embarrassment!”

Also true.

Her nerves from earlier did seem to vanish, and her tone wasn’t as stiff when she talked.

“Ahhhhh! I can feel strength and courage rushing up inside me! Prepare yourself to die!!!”

“Hey, this is a confession, right? This is a love confession, right?!”

Watching Yu Nai about to lunge at me, I honestly feared for my personal safety and stepped back on instinct.

“Yeah, it’s a confession, ahhh—”

In the blink of an eye, she closed the distance between us with a neat little dash.

“W-Wait! What kind of girl confesses while holding a broom?!”

“What’s wrong with that? We promised before, didn’t we? Don’t get hung up on stuff like this.”

You absolutely should get hung up on stuff like this when you’re confessing!

Otherwise why would I say yes?!

“B-But you’re already super popular at school. You could just pick someone and talk like a normal person, and they wouldn’t turn you down, right?”

Sweat was pouring down my face as I desperately tried to reason with her.

So a girl’s confession can evolve into something this dangerous…

My youth sure is full of disasters.

“…Fine.”

Yu Nai finally set the broom aside and faced me properly.

“Sorry, let me do it over. I’ll confess properly this time.”

“Yeah? That’d be great. But this is really starting to feel like some stage performance, you know? I can’t help feeling…”

I didn’t even have the strength to roast her anymore.

If it were anyone else, things would’ve crashed and burned ages ago.

Yu Nai took a moment to collect herself, then lifted her head to look at me.

Her big eyes were shining like a rabbit’s when it sees a carrot.

Her playful ponytail swayed gently in the wind.

Under my clearly-annoyed stare, her slender hands kept clenching and releasing the hem of her skirt.

She really was cute.

Just going by looks, it’s hard to believe she’s never had a boyfriend.

Are the people around us blind, or are Yu Nai-nee’s standards just insanely high?

“U-Um, Yuu-san!”

“Yuu… How many times do I have to tell you, just call me Juxi. Plain old Juxi!”

I’d told her so many times that name embarrasses me, but Yu Nai always does whatever she wants and keeps using this annoying nickname.

“I remember back in elementary school, Juxi confessed to me first.

You said you liked me, so why do you look so disgusted with me now?”

“…Ah, that…”

Well, we are childhood friends.

Digging up old stories and laughing about them now is actually kind of nice.

But she was going a bit too far.

Taking stuff a kid said so seriously—shouldn’t her mind have matured a little by now?

“I remember in middle school, Juxi said you’d marry me.

You barged into my classroom, and the kids in my class had to comfort you for days before you calmed down.”

“That…”

This time I clutched my chest and sank to my knees.

Laughing at her for being childish earlier was clearly a mistake.

“And, and! I remember at the third-year graduation ceremony, during the class event, you—”

“Ahhhhh!!! I’m begging you, spare me! I admit it, I! Like!!!”