The Abandoned Saint I Picked Up is a Side Character in an Otome Game and Turns Out to Be the World's Strongest Mage. I Plan to Rescue the Heroine Who Couldn't Achieve Her Happy Ending in a Dungeon. - Chapter 1

It was raining that day.

As I walked down the main street of the royal capital after finishing work, I noticed a girl with long black hair sitting at the edge of the road, hugging her knees.

Her uniform was from the Royal Academy, where the noble children of the Kingdom of Andarencia studied, but it was tattered and filthy.

At first, I pretended not to see her and walked past.
But for some reason, I couldn’t shake her from my mind. I stopped and turned back.

“Hey, what are you doing sitting there?”

“…Please leave me alone.”

She lifted her face slightly at the sound of my voice but quickly looked down again and fell silent.
How rude, considering I had kindly spoken to her.

But then I caught a glimpse of her golden eyes, and I knew.

“Your name… is Ariel, isn’t it?”

“…!”

The moment I said her name, her shoulders trembled violently.
I was certain now. This girl’s name was Ariel—the heroine of the otome game Under the Shining Starry Sky.

“How do you know that…?”

“You’re the awakener of Light Magic. There isn’t a magician alive who wouldn’t know of you. Though, in my case, I learned about you in a slightly different way.”

To put it simply, I have memories of my past life.

That said, I don’t remember everything clearly. I can’t recall my name or what my parents looked like.
What I do remember is that I was a university student who loved playing games.

The game I ended up playing—recommended by a childhood friend when I had nothing else to play—was Under the Shining Starry Sky.

It’s a fantasy story set in a medieval European-style world, complete with magic and monsters.
The plot is fairly standard: the heroine awakens to the rare power of Light Magic on her fifteenth birthday and enrolls in the Royal Academy of the Kingdom of Andarencia, where the love interests reside.

At first, the heroine is looked down upon as a commoner, but through sheer determination, she earns the recognition of the love interests and her rivals.
Ultimately, she falls in love, awakens her Light Magic into Sacred Magic, and is celebrated across the kingdom as a saint.

Yet here was Ariel, the heroine of that story, staring at me with frightened eyes.

“A magician…?”

“…It’s a bit insulting to be feared like that.”

As you might have guessed, I was reincarnated into the world of Under the Shining Starry Sky.
I realized it when I was about five years old, as the geography, place names, and the names of the king and prince in my country matched the game’s setting.

That said, I’m nothing more than a mob character, a side role with no relevance to the main plot.
For the past twenty years since my reincarnation, I’ve lived freely, doing whatever I pleased.

As a result, I became a magician.

Magic is a power exclusive to nobles. It’s the source of their pride and authority.
Magicians, who imitate that power without noble blood, are seen as threats and nuisances by royalty and aristocracy.

Because of this, magicians are generally treated as criminals and enemies to be eradicated.
To be fair, many magicians are indeed unhinged, so it’s not entirely inaccurate.

Ariel, still wary, tried to flee but suddenly froze and lowered her head again.

“You’re… a magician, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Then… I have a request. Please… kill me.”

Hold on. That’s quite the heavy request.

“You can do whatever you want with my corpse. Just… please, kill me.”

“Wait, wait. Sure, human corpses are excellent experimental materials for magicians, and some might want that, but I don’t do those kinds of experiments. I usually test things on my own body, for the record.”

“Are you… okay in the head?”

“You’re the last person who should be asking that after just begging me to kill you!”

“If you’re not going to kill me, then just leave me alone. I don’t care about anything anymore.”

Ariel muttered, her face devoid of life.

I could only speculate, but it seemed likely that Ariel had failed to reach the happy ending in Under the Shining Starry Sky.
If her favorability with any of the love interests had been high enough, she would have inevitably ended up in a relationship with one of them.

The only scenario where she didn’t was if her favorability with none of them reached the required threshold, triggering the bad ending.
In that bad ending, Ariel gets expelled from the Royal Academy and vanishes soon after.

A few days later, a girl’s corpse is found in the slums of the royal capital, and the game transitions to the credits.
Though the game never explicitly confirms that the body is Ariel’s, the description leaves no room for doubt.

If I were to leave her as she is now, nothing would change.

In Under the Shining Starry Sky, the world doesn’t collapse just because Ariel fails to marry one of the love interests.
Well, if she awakened her Sacred Magic, the Demon King would resurrect—but that’s just a setup for a triumphant event that leads to her union with a love interest.

A guaranteed victory event. That’s why I had been enjoying my life in this otome game world as a magician.

Even if Ariel were to die here, it wouldn’t affect me in the slightest.

Still, I wasn’t heartless enough to abandon a mentally broken girl in such a state.

“Stand up.”

“Are… are you going to kill me?”

“No.”

“Then leave me alone—kyah!?”

I scooped Ariel up into my arms and started walking.
Her rather… generous chest brushed against my arm, but it was purely accidental.

“W-what are you doing!?”

“Shut up. Bite your tongue, and I’ll drop you.”

Thanks to my knowledge of the game, I knew exactly how Ariel had been treated at the academy when she failed to gain favor with any of the love interests.

Her belongings were likely hidden or stolen regularly.
She would have been bullied during magic classes and physically beaten.
Even when she managed to achieve good grades through her efforts, jealous peers would accuse her of cheating, leading to punishments for crimes she didn’t commit.

It wasn’t a one-time event. It happened over and over, every single day.

For the player controlling Ariel in the game, it’s easy to persevere through adversity and repeatedly choose options that lead her to rise above it.

But Ariel wasn’t a game character here. She was a real girl living in this world.
A girl who had simply happened to awaken to Light Magic.

There was no way she could endure it.

If I left her as she was, she’d probably take her own life. And if that happened, I’d feel terrible.

“Where… where are you taking me?”

“My hideout. From now on, you’re my apprentice. First, we’ll get some food—or actually, a bath. You’ll catch a cold if you stay drenched like this.”

“…I don’t understand. Why are you doing this for someone you just met? Are you planning to trick me and sell me to slave traders?”

“I’ll admit, saying ‘Sorry to deceive you’ is a line I’d like to use someday. But no, I’m just interested in your Light Magic. You’ll assist in my magical research until you die. For that, I need you alive and healthy.”

As I spoke, Ariel began to quietly sob in my arms.
The rain masked her tears, but it was clear she was crying.

I thought she’d resist more—being carried away by a stranger she had just met—but it seemed she was too emotionally drained.

As I carried Ariel, intending to let her cry it out, three figures dressed in black cloaks and hoods suddenly blocked my path.

Glancing back, I saw two more cloaked figures cutting off my retreat.

“What do you want?”

“Hand over the girl. If you don’t comply, we’ll kill you.”

The leader of the group made this ominous declaration.

Ah. These must be the ones who killed Ariel in the game.
The game didn’t detail this part, so I couldn’t be certain, but it seemed likely.

I shifted into a battle-ready stance.
Sensing my intent, the leader sighed deeply.

“Don’t bother. I don’t know who you are, but we’re trained to kill. You don’t stand a chance.”

“Uh, um, please… put me down. If it means you can escape—”

“Don’t be stupid. Look at them. They’re clearly planning to kill both of us.”

“…Pfft. Hahaha.”

The leader chuckled, unable to hold back his laughter.

“Ah, you’re absolutely right. Do you even know who we are?”

“No idea. But I’d guess you’re some part of the kingdom’s shady underbelly. Ariel, they’re planning to kill both of us no matter what.”

“Th-then… I’ll use my magic to buy you some time!”

Her words surprised me. Ariel, aside from awakening to Light Magic, was just an ordinary girl.
Well, a stunningly beautiful girl with heroine-worthy features, but still.

She had to know she couldn’t buy time against professional killers.

Even so, she was willing to fight for my sake.

“I don’t understand why you’re so desperate to save me.”

“B-because… you… you spoke to me. You showed concern for me. Isn’t it only fair that I do the same for you?”

“I wasn’t concerned. I’m just interested in your magic.”

Still… she had a point.
After all, I was meddling in the affairs of someone I’d just met.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll take care of these five,” Ariel said, her face now filled with determination.

“…Alright.”

I gently set her down on the ground.

The leader probably thought I’d surrendered.
Though his face was hidden, I could sense his smug grin.

“Good. If you cooperate, I’ll make it quick—”

“How about you die instead?”

Bang!

A deafening explosion echoed through the royal capital.

In an instant, a hole was blown through the leader’s head, and he collapsed with his eyes rolled back.

The remaining black-cloaked figures froze, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

“T-the captain!?”

“Y-you! What did you do!?”

“Is that… a weapon? Where did you even pull that from!?”

The group bombarded me with questions, but I had no intention of answering.
Instead, I swiftly dealt with three of them at once.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three more deafening explosions. Before they even understood what was happening, three of the cloaked figures were dead.

The last one fell to his knees, paralyzed with fear.

Ariel, too, looked at me in shock.

“What is that weapon? And… was that some kind of spatial magic…?”

“This? It’s called a gun. A weapon. I didn’t use spatial magic—just a trick with Earth Magic to instantly create and dismantle it. It only looks like magic storage.”

This world is pretty harsh.

Not only are there monsters, but you also risk being attacked by bandits. Neighboring villages often clash, and wars between nations are common occurrences.

In fact, the village where I was born was burned during a war, my family was captured by bandits, and my parents were killed.

Surviving in this gritty and unforgiving world—so unlike what you’d expect from an otome game—required strength.
That’s why I decided to fully utilize my advantages: my knowledge of the game and my understanding of modern technology. I’ve created all sorts of tools using those skills.

This gun is one of them.
At first glance, it’s a large revolver-style handgun with a relatively simple structure.
I recreated it from fragmented memories of my childhood friend, who was a military enthusiast and loved showing off their knowledge.

The last remaining cloaked figure, now completely alone, trembled as he asked me a question.

“W-who… what are you…?”

“Do I really need to answer you?”

I fired another bullet, and it pierced through the assassin’s skull.

The attackers were completely wiped out. I left their five corpses where they lay.
For now, the rain ensured the streets were deserted, but this area was typically a bustling part of the capital.

By tomorrow, someone would undoubtedly notice and report the scene.

As I relaxed my stance and turned to Ariel, I saw her blinking in surprise.
At first, I thought I might have frightened her by suddenly massacring those men, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

“Who… are you?”

“Ah… now that you mention it, I haven’t introduced myself, have I?”

Realizing my mistake, I quickly introduced myself.

“Right now, I go by Endo. Among magicians, I’m known by the nickname ‘Iron Shooter.’”

“Iron… Shooter?”

“Yeah, not the most creative nickname, huh? I was hoping for something cooler.”

“No…”

Ariel shook her head, and at that moment, the rain stopped. The sunlight broke through the clouds and illuminated her.

Standing there, drenched by the rain, Ariel looked at me with an expression that was neither seductive nor childlike. Her softened demeanor carried an elegance and charm that was so breathtaking I found myself captivated.

“I think it’s wonderful, Endo-san.”

“Ah, uh… thanks. Anyway, we should get out of here.”

“…Alright.”

With that, I took Ariel and left the scene behind us.