The World Is Mine For The Taking-Chapter 1165 - 178 - The Bandit Ambush (1)

Hasegawa Chiaki’s POV

It happened on our twenty-eighth day in this place. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Twenty-eight days since we were thrown into a world that didn’t care who we were before. Twenty-eight days of fear, exhaustion, and pretending we were stronger than we actually were. And on that day—

One of our own was kidnapped.

***

It happened the day before the day I was supposed to begin.

Looking back now, the signs were already there. The cracks had been forming for a while, spreading quietly, slowly, like fractures in glass that you don’t notice until everything finally shatters.

The tension between the boys and the girls had been unbearable lately. It wasn’t just awkward silence or the usual discomfort—you could feel it in the air, thick and heavy, like a storm waiting to break. The girls had completely stopped acknowledging the boys. No greetings. No small talk. Not even a glance. And the boys noticed. Of course they did.

It felt like they had already drawn invisible lines on the ground, dividing themselves into separate camps. Us versus them. Boys versus girls. Former classmates turned wary strangers.

As their teacher, as someone who was supposed to guide them, I wanted to scream at them to stop. I wanted to tell them that fighting each other was the worst possible thing they could do right now. That in a world like this, where everyone else saw them as tools or entertainment, they only had each other.

But I couldn’t ignore the truth either.

The boys had already destroyed that trust. They had betrayed the girls in ways that couldn’t simply be brushed aside with apologies or excuses. I understood why the girls were angry. I understood why they were afraid. Still, watching everything fall apart like this made my chest ache.

This wasn’t right.

The people of this world had twisted them, manipulated them, pushed them into situations no one their age should ever experience. And what disturbed me most wasn’t just what happened—it was how little anyone here seemed to care about the aftermath. The way the class was unraveling, the way bonds were snapping one by one, as if friendships were disposable.

When I thought back to how they used to be during my lessons on Earth—laughing, teasing each other, working together—it felt unreal. Back then, they were just students. Kids who complained about homework and exams. Friends who trusted each other without hesitation.

Now?

Now they barely existed in the same space.

It was depressing. Painfully so. Just a few months ago, they were inseparable. Now, they passed each other like strangers on the street. Worse, I could clearly see hatred beginning to replace familiarity.

If this continued, they wouldn’t just be strangers anymore.

They’d be enemies.

I wanted to stop it. I truly did. I wanted to pull them together and force them to talk things out, to remember who they were before this place broke them.

But before I could—

"Hey, Sensei..."

Amakawa-kun’s voice cut through my thoughts. He was standing too close, his posture relaxed in a way that made my skin crawl. There was a grin on his face, one that didn’t reach his eyes.

"It’s honestly kind of cute, you know?" he said. "Seeing you hang around with us like this."

"Cute?" I frowned slightly.

"You do know we haven’t been with a woman for quite a while, right?" he added, tone light, almost playful.

"Don’t joke about that, Amakawa-kun," I said immediately, my voice firm.

"We’re not joking," he replied without missing a beat. "I think I’ve been pretty clear about that." His lips curled into a smirk. "You really have no idea what we’re thinking right now, do you? Do you seriously think we’re just messing around?"

He leaned back slightly, eyes gleaming.

"Because we’re not."

"Stop it, Amakawa-kun," Kashiwagi-kun snapped, stepping in between us. "You’re already talking to the girls like that, and now you’re doing it to Chiaki-sensei too? What the hell happened to you? Where did your humanity go?"

Amakawa’s expression darkened instantly.

"Shut up, Kashiwagi," he said flatly. "You don’t get it. You really don’t." His voice dropped. "I’m serious. You’ve cockblocked me more times than I can count."

Kashiwagi-kun looked at him calmly.

"Do you really think I wouldn’t kill you over something like that?" Amakawa continued, eyes locked onto him. "Dying over something stupid like this wouldn’t be fun, would it?"

This wasn’t banter. This wasn’t frustration.

This was real.

My heart pounded as I realized how far things had gone.

"S-Stop it!" I shouted, my voice breaking through the tension before I could stop myself. "You can’t fight each other like this! We don’t even have allies anymore! Why—why can’t you all just get along?!"

The words burst out of me, raw and unfiltered. I had reached my limit. Weeks of stress, fear, and helplessness exploded all at once. I didn’t care anymore how it sounded.

"Sensei!"

The girls rushed toward me, panic written all over their faces.

"We told you not to come to the boys’ side again!" one of them said urgently. "We don’t know what they might do to you if you stay here!"

"Hey!" one of the boys shot back immediately. "Don’t you think that’s a pretty fucked-up thing to say?"

"Yeah," another added, his voice sharp. "You’re lumping all of us together like we’re trash. Don’t you think you’re partly to blame for this too?"

"What do you mean?" one of the girls snapped.

"I mean," the boy continued, frustration spilling over, "if you girls would just put out, everything would be fine. All of us would be happy. Isn’t that obvious?"

My stomach twisted.

"And you’re suspicious of us?" another boy chimed in bitterly. "How do we know you girls didn’t do the same thing? For all we know, you fucked some of the male knights in the castle."

"It’s not impossible, right?" one of them pressed on. "Maybe you got the same treatment we did. So why are you ignoring us like this? Why are you putting up walls?"

That was it.

The girls snapped.

"How dare you blame us for this when you’re the ones who destroyed our trust first!" one of them screamed. "After all the trashy things you did in the castle, you still have the nerve to talk like that?!"

"And don’t you dare say we went through the same things you did!" another shouted, eyes blazing. "We didn’t! We stayed together the entire time! We didn’t have the time or the mental capacity to even think about that shit! Don’t lump us in with you!"

The argument erupted into chaos. Voices overlapped, anger feeding anger, words turning sharper with every second. The air felt suffocating, as if the space between them was tearing apart something that could never be repaired.

"You human pieces of trash."

Sakai-san’s voice cut through the noise, cold and steady. She stepped forward, her glare sharp enough to make even the boys hesitate.

"Touch Sensei, and it’s war," she said. "Don’t get arrogant just because you’ve been through expeditions. Don’t forget—we’re heroes too."

"Oh yeah?" Amakawa-kun replied, turning to her with that same twisted smile. "Then why don’t we settle it right now?"

His eyes roamed over the girls.

"Boys versus girls. Let’s see who’s actually stronger."

The smile he wore now was nothing like the one he had back on Earth. That kind, harmless grin was gone. In its place was something ugly. Something that made my skin crawl.

"And if I win," he added casually, "you’ll be my plaything for the rest of the expedition."

"What’s going on here?"

A woman’s voice sliced through the tension like a blade.

We all turned.

Miss Shredica stood there, her expression dark, her scowl so intense that the entire area seemed to freeze in place.