Aiko Hatayama, 25 years old. A high school teacher.
For her, being a teacher wasn't just about teaching a subject to her students and making sure they kept their grades and their appearances up. Of course, those things were important as well, but what Aiko valued more than anything was being there for the students. More concretely, that meant she wanted to be someone outside of their family that her students could rely on whenever they were in trouble.
This resolve had first formed back during a certain incident in her own high school days, but that was a tale for another time. Regardless, it was both her creed and her pride to be someone other than their parents that the students could rely on. If she couldn't uphold that simple principle, then she felt she had no right to call herself a teacher.
Hence why the current situation was one Aiko was extremely displeased with. Not only had they suddenly been thrust into a different world, while she was still reeling from the shock of such an incomprehensible event, it was her student that had calmed everyone down. Then before she knew it, her precious students had begun preparing for a war despite their tender age.
No matter how she tried to persuade them, the students had already been swept up by the current created from their own determination. Her pleas fell on deaf ears, so they marched off to battle despite her protests.
If I can't stop them, then I'll at least be there to fight by their side! But even that hope of hers had been crushed when she discovered her job was useless in combat. Instead, because of how rare and valuable her skills were, she was ordered to go to various towns to improve their farming conditions and create new plots of arable land. She tried to argue back, but both her precious students and this world's priests urged her to go. And because she couldn't deny the fact that she was the only one capable of doing the job, she ended up reluctantly agreeing.
She spent her days fretting over her students, knowing she was powerless to help. Escorted by the church's templar knights and the Heiligh Kingdom's imperial guard, she traveled to various towns and undeveloped areas to improve their soil or create new tracts of farmland. Then, when she was finally able to return, she learned that one of her students had died in battle.
Aiko blamed herself for not insisting that she tag along. She had gone on about her lofty ideals for what a teacher should aspire to, but in the end hadn't she just let herself get swept up by the flow?
Though, even if Aiko had been there, it was doubtful the end result would have changed. However, whether she could have helped or not, the incident served to open her eyes to reality.
She saw how some of the students had become too traumatized to continue fighting, and that many of the nobles and priests were trying to cajole them back onto the battlefield anyway. She swore to herself that she wouldn't ever let herself get swept up by the flow again, and stood up to the nobles and priests. She used her unique position as a bargaining chip, which served her well as both a sword and a shield when it came to negotiating, and demanded that the kingdom stop pestering her students to fight.
In the end, she was successful. The priests and nobles stopped pressuring the students to return to battle.
Ironically, however, her desperate struggle for their sake only endeared her to the students even more. And while none of them would ever return to the Great Orcus Labyrinth again, a good deal of them decided to gather their courage once more and at least guard Aiko while she ran around the country fixing its land.
It wasn't just for her sake, though. They also wanted to honor the sacrifice of the classmate who'd died protecting them, and they felt guilty being the only ones to remain safe in the castle while their classmates fought on in the labyrinth. More than anything, though, they wanted to shake off the shackles of fear that had chained them down for so long, so it wasn't solely because Aiko had fought on their behalf.
Aiko understood this as well, and she was at least glad that some of the students were beginning to overcome their fear and step out of the palace once more.
But at the same time, she didn't want to let them put themselves in danger, which was why she tried to stop them from coming along with arguments like "You shouldn't have to fight," and "It's okay, the knights will protect me," among others. However, her protests only served to fire up the students even more, and they all exclaimed "We'll be the ones to protect you, Ai-chan," in unison.
In the end, she was overwhelmed by their enthusiasm, so she ended up getting dragged into their pace once more.
Incidentally, the knights assigned to guard Aiko had also tried to convince the students to remain at the castle, but the students hadn't taken kindly to that at all. There was a reason the students mistrusted the knights. And that reason could be summed up in a single sentence.
"Like hell we're going to let some random nobody take Ai-chan from us!"The students were more worried about the knights assigned to guard Aiko than they were about meeting bandits or monsters on the road. Their fears weren't entirely baseless. Every knight assigned to Aiko was oddly good-looking. And in truth, the kingdom was hoping to tie Aiko down to their country, so the knights really were a trap. The student that had figured that out had shared the information with everyone else, which was why they'd formed a "Protect Ai-chan from the hot guy troop" defense force.
But the students had made one grave miscalculation. And that was that the hunters had become the hunted. This was what they had told the students when they'd tried to persuade them to stay home:
Templar Knights Commander, David Zahler: "Don't worry. I'll protect Aiko. I promise you, I won't let even a hair on her head be harmed. After all, she's my ang— Er, my everything."
Templar Knights Vice Commander, Chase Domino: "I'm prepared to give my all for Aiko-san. Hell, I'd even throw away my faith for her if I had to. So don't worry, we'll keep her safe."
Imperial Guard Joshua Augus: "Meeting Aiko-chan must have been fate. How could I possibly let my fated partner die?"
Imperial Guard Jade Hatto "I swear on my life that I will keep her safe. Not as a member of the Imperial Guard, but as a man."
At that moment, the students had realized their mistake. What on earth happened!? Is it just me or are they the ones that fell for her instead!? They unanimously thought things along those lines.
Originally, they had intended to keep Aiko from falling for one of the knights, but after hearing how they'd all fallen head over heels for her, their goal had shifted to a protective desire to keep Aiko safe from the knights' advances.
But the students couldn't help but wonder... just what had happened between Aiko and the knights for them to become like this? That was too long a story to mention, but suffice to say Aiko's natural sincerity, cuteness, and tendency to fall flat on her face whenever she tried to do something played a large role in why the knights were now smitten with her. The tales of Aiko's adventures with her merry band of knights were numerous enough to fill a whole book on their own... Quite a bit happened. Quite a bit.
Thus, the students had now been separated into three groups. The hero's group that continued fighting through the labyrinth in order to gain experience for the war to come, the group that chose to remain in the castle, and now the group that would serve as Aiko's bodyguards.
The de facto leader of "Protect Ai-chan from the hot guy troop," henceforth called "Ai-chan's bodyguards," was Yuka Sonobe. Her friends, Miyazaki Nana and Taeko Sugawara, along with Atsushi Tamai and his friends Noboru Aikawa, Akito Nimura, and Yukitoshi Shimizu, made up the entirety of their seven person group. Many of them still hadn't fully recovered from their trauma yet.
It was about two months after the Empire's messenger, the emperor himself, had come to visit Heiligh.
Currently, Aiko's group was en route to the lakeside village of Ur so they could improve the soil in the area. Their carriage rattled noisily as it plodded down the bumpy road, each pebble and pothole adding another bruise to the students' rumps.
"Are you feeling alright, Aiko? If you ever get tired just say so. We can stop for a break anytime."
"I'm fine, David-san. Besides, we just stopped a few minutes ago. I'm not so weak that I'd get tired that quickly."
David was fretting over Aiko, but she seemed to be doing just fine. The inside of the carriage they were in was quite spacious, so it wasn't as rough a ride as it could have been.
"Fufu, the captain's always clucking over you like a mother hen, isn't he, Aiko-san? Though up until recently a single day's travel was enough to leave you completely exhausted, so I suppose his concerns aren't totally unfounded... I'm a little worried about you myself, honestly. Whenever you get tired, just let us know."
"I'm terribly sorry for causing you so much trouble last time. That was my first trip in a horse-drawn carriage, and... well, I'm used to it now, so it should be fine. Thank you for worrying about me though, Chase-san."
Aiko blushed slightly in embarrassment as she thought back to what had happened the first time she'd ridden in a carriage. Chase fidgeted restlessly for a moment before surreptitiously trying to grab Aiko's hand. However, a cough accompanied by a stern glare from one of the students stopped him short.
More specifically, from Yuka Sonobe, who was sitting diagonally across from Aiko.
Since Yuka and the others were still technically "Ehit's messengers," the knights had prepared a separate carriage for all of them, but they'd insisted on riding with Aiko. They could hardly leave her alone in a carriage full of handsome men after all.
Yuka's no-nonsense haircut and sharp features made the glare all the more intimidating. She hadn't been a delinquent or anything like that back in japan. In fact, she had been a rather diligent student with an unexpected interest in fashion, but her blunt personality had often led her to be misunderstood by others. And she still cut quite the imposing figure with her arms and legs crossed and her eyebrows furrowed. Enough of one that Atsushi averted his gaze, despite the fact that her glare wasn't directed at him.
There were eight people in total inside the carriage. Most of the platoon of knights was riding outside, but the commander and vice commander had argued earlier that they should be riding in the carriage with Aiko. A few of the other knights made up pretexts to sit with Aiko as well. It seemed none of them wanted to be away from her for even a second.
"Oh my, what an angry glare. A beautiful face like yours shouldn't be marred by such a grim countenance." Chase smiled handsomely at Yuka, his teeth dazzling a brilliant white. It was a smile radiant enough to make any normal maiden blush, but Yuka only looked at him like he were a particularly putrid pile of trash.
"Ai-chan-sensei's right here and you have the nerve to call another girl cute? Ai-chan-sensei, this guy's obviously a womanizer. Make sure you're careful around him, okay?"
Yuka turned the conversation into an opportunity to drive her point home. As far as Yuka was concerned, someone who'd call another girl cute when he was in the presence of the woman he'd fallen for couldn't be any good. Worse, even though they knew it was their duty to seduce Aiko, they still used their good looks to flirt around with other girls. In Yuka's eyes, they were just a bunch of playboys.
"S-Sonobe-san, there's no need to be so antagonistic. And I'm happy that you're finally calling me Sensei, but could you please drop the chan part? Isn't Aiko-sensei good enough?"
"No. The Ai-chan part is important, Ai-chan-sensei. The students are all in agreement on this."
"I-I don't understand, why? And all of the students agreed to this? Is this what the current generation of students really think? I need to try harder to understand you guys... I must become a teacher who's respected and relied on by the students!"
Aiko's self-directed pep talk was so adorable that Yuka and Chase momentarily forgot their quarrel. Aiko herself didn't seem to realize it was because of moments like these that her students all called her "Ai-chan." The road to becoming a respected teacher looked to be a long one.
Four days after that particular incident...
Even Aiko had realized that the knights' aggressive advances must have had something to do with the church or the king's schemes, so she ignored them more often than not. Unfortunately, because of this she failed to realize that a portion of them had actually fallen in love with her for real. In the scant four days it had taken for them to reach Ur, there had been an untold number of cycles where one of the knights would try and profess their love, find themselves being glared at by Yuka and the others, and then the whole situation diffusing because of something Aiko said.
The party began hammering out a plan for fixing Ur's soil situation while they rested in the town's inn. Needless to say, even the simple act of formulating a plan gave rise to multiple situations that would have been perfectly at home in a romantic comedy.
Then, when Aiko finally got started, rumors of the "Aiko the Fertility Goddess" began to spread in the city of Ur as well, causing Aiko no end of embarrassment. But there was a certain incident that put all of those things in the back of her mind. One of her students disappeared.
Aiko began searching frantically for her precious student. Not knowing that a shocking reunion awaited her. A reunion that would end in a conclusion no one wished for.