The World Is Mine For The Taking-Chapter 1167 - 178 - The Bandit Ambush (3)

"Waaah?! Whattt?! W-What the fuckkkk?! What did you do to me?!"

The scream tore through the air, sharp and panicked, cracking in the middle like something fragile being snapped in half. It took a moment for it to fully sink in, even for him. Amakawa-kun’s gaze slowly dropped downward, his breathing hitching as his eyes finally locked onto where his foot used to be.

Or rather—where it no longer was.

The cut was clean. Too clean. There was no mangled flesh, no jagged bone sticking out like something from a horror movie. It was almost surgical, as if someone had simply decided that his foot didn’t belong there anymore and removed it with absolute certainty.

"W-What have you done, Miss Shredica?" I asked, my voice coming out thinner than I expected.

She turned to look at me, her expression genuinely puzzled. Not annoyed. Not offended. Just... confused, as if my question itself was strange.

"A simple cut like that can be reattached in no time at all," she said, brushing it off like she’d merely knocked over a cup of water. "So there’s no need to worry."

She continued speaking as if this was all perfectly normal, as if she hadn’t just sliced off a student’s foot without hesitation.

"Obviously, I can’t have a hero being incapacitated. Much less by me," she added. "Though it will still take some time before he can walk properly again."

Her voice wasn’t sharp. It wasn’t cruel. If anything, it was disturbingly calm. That calmness made it worse.

I felt a knot tighten in my stomach. No matter how rational she made it sound, no matter how casually she explained it, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she shouldn’t have done something like this. Not like that. Not so easily.

I didn’t say it out loud. I couldn’t. With the tension in the air, with everyone watching, with the fight still looming over us, speaking up felt like pouring gasoline on a fire.

"Y-You bitch! What have you done?!" Amakawa-kun screamed, his voice breaking as panic finally turned into rage.

"You still don’t understand," Miss Shredica replied immediately.

She didn’t raise her voice. She didn’t even look angry.

"Do you want me to cut off your other foot," she continued, tilting her head slightly, "so it finally gets through to you?"

"Ngh..."

The sound that left his mouth wasn’t a word. It was a reflex. His body flinched before his mind could even process it, shoulders tensing, breath catching as fear finally punched through his fury.

"Good," she said. "At least you understand how to behave."

Her eyes swept across him, cold and assessing, before widening to include the rest of the group.

"I hope this becomes a lesson. All of you are still trash," she said bluntly. "Some people might call you diamonds in the rough. I don’t. Not until you prove your true potential with your own hands."

Her gaze sharpened, cutting deeper than her blade had.

"Trying to squeeze something out of a situation through coercion? That’s nothing but trash behavior."

Then she straightened, her presence alone pressing down on the boys like an invisible weight.

"Now then," she said. "All of you. If you don’t want to fight me—then come at me."

The silence that followed was heavy.

She was clearly inviting them. No—challenging them.

But not a single one of the boys moved.

Their faces were pale. Some looked away. Others clenched their fists but stayed rooted to the ground. None of them wanted to be the next example. None of them wanted to find out how "simple" another cut might be.

Miss Shredica turned away from them, clearly losing interest.

"Miss Chiaki," she said, looking directly at me now. "Since you are a healer hero, you will reattach the foot yourself using your magic."

"...Huh?"

"You haven’t been able to train properly lately," she continued. "This will be good practice."

My ears rang. For a second, I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly.

"There’s no need to worry about infection. Healing magic acts as detoxification as well," she said, still far too calm. "Just place it back on the stump and make sure it’s aligned perfectly."

My brain stalled.

No—more than that. It felt like something inside me had outright short-circuited.

Me?

I had never healed anyone before. Not like this. Not something so severe. Healing cuts, bruises, fatigue—that was one thing. This was an entirely different level.

But Amakawa-kun was bleeding. A lot.

There was no time to hesitate.

"O-Okay," I said, forcing the words out. "C-Calm down, Amakawa-kun."

My hands were shaking as I picked up his severed foot. It was heavier than I expected. Warm. Real. Horribly real.

"I’m going to kill that bitch," he muttered through clenched teeth. "I fucking swear, I’m going to kill her."

His eyes were unfocused, wild, teetering on the edge of madness. But right now, that didn’t matter. What mattered was the blood soaking into the ground beneath him.

I pressed the stump against the foot, my heart hammering so loudly it felt like it might drown out my thoughts. I took a breath, focused, and activated my healing magic.

Almost instantly, something changed.

The flesh began to knit together, threads of light weaving skin back into skin as if guided by invisible hands. Muscles reconnected, nerves realigned. Bone followed, sealing itself together with a dull, unsettling solidity.

In moments, it was as if nothing had ever happened.

No scar. No seam. No sign of damage.

"Nghh... haa..." Amakawa-kun panted, his body sagging as the adrenaline drained from him. His mouth opened like he wanted to say something else, but the blood loss had taken its toll.

For now, rest was all he could manage.

"Kashiwagi-kun," I said, turning to him. "Can you help Amakawa-kun and let him rest for a bit?"

He was the only one I trusted to handle this without making things worse.

"Alright, Sensei," Kashiwagi-kun replied.

He carefully lifted Amakawa-kun and paused for just a moment, glancing back at us before heading toward the tent.

Watching him go, I couldn’t help thinking that Kashiwagi-kun was the only one who genuinely wanted the class to move forward. Even so, differences kept dragging him back. He couldn’t become a leader—not after losing the girls’ trust.

At that moment, the only thing holding the class together was morality itself.

If that snapped, everything else would follow.

I told myself I had to keep things stable. I had to make sure nothing happened. That everyone stayed in line.

That belief was naïve.

Even as the only adult among these heroes, I was still painfully naïve.

Thinking I could hold everything together was nothing but foolishness.

I knew it had already fallen apart from the very beginning.

There was no fixing it.

***

It was finally the morning of the incident.

Or at least, that’s what I thought.

I jolted awake to the sound of metal clanging violently against metal, the noise echoing from every direction.

"Huh...?"

My head was still foggy as I sat up, confused. Something felt wrong.

Then it hit me—it wasn’t morning.

The sky was still dark. The sun hadn’t risen. Dawn was nowhere near.

The light spilling into my tent wasn’t sunlight.

It was fire.

"Huh...?"

I stepped outside, and my mind went completely blank.

The village was burning.

Flames licked at wooden structures, smoke curling thickly into the sky. Magic knights were engaged in combat—but not against monsters.

Against people. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

And those people were holding guns.

Real guns.

Some of them wielded flamethrowers, fire roaring from their nozzles, adding to the chaos. The sight was so surreal, so violently out of place, that my body forgot how to react.

I couldn’t even blink.

"Sensei!"

A voice snapped me back into reality.

"Come with us. Quick!"

It was Asada-san.