Pochi and Tama’s Expedition
The royal academy spring field expedition is a tradition that has been carried on for two hundred years. Military engineers release weak monsters into the mountains in advance to test the mettle of students who wish to enroll in the knights’ school. The reasoning behind it claims that you can see a person’s true colors in times of crisis, but personally I find it barbaric. (Ninth Defense Squad Secretary, Rik Boppan)
“Fuh-fuh-field triiiip!”
“Field triiip?”
The gleeful singing of children’s voices rang out from within the horse-drawn carriage.
It was part of a long procession of carriages that had left the royal capital early that morning for the town of Mimani, where the royal academy’s spring field expedition would take place. Less than half a day’s travel away from the royal capital, Mimani was famed as a wellness resort for pedigreed nobles. There were several hunting halls and a disproportionately high number of shops and inns for the town’s small size.
“Damn, how are they still going? They’ve been singing nonstop since the crack of dawn.”
“Hey, I’m not complaining. It’s better than those kids who gripe about their butts hurting every time the carriage shakes or demand that we stop ’cause they’re getting carriage-sick.”
“Ha-ha-ha, true. This isn’t so bad by comparison.”
The escort soldiers disguised as coachmen chatted among themselves.
“Not much to do, though.”
“Yeah, well, Marquis Kelten’s granddaughter is with them.”
“The knights on patrol must’ve put in a lot of extra effort to impress the military minister.”
The older soldier nodded at the younger one’s words.
Clearly the knights had gone a bit overboard: They had yet to see a single rabbit near the road, never mind a bandit or beast.
“It’s better if we don’t have to fight anyway.”
“Yeah, since officially the knights’ school students are supposed to protect the spring field expedition on their own.”
As if taking care of the knights’ school students wasn’t enough, the spring field expedition was dragged down all the more by applicants for the school. On top of that, they even had to guard kids from the preschool.
It was essentially just a hiking trip with all the dangers already removed, but every few years there was a case of a student straying from the path or falling off a ledge. And of course, many students got sick or simply too tired to keep hiking.
If anything, carrying kids who dropped out on the hike was practically the knights’ school students’ primary role.
Eventually, the carriages stopped in the square of a small village at the foot of the mountains, near the town of Mimani.
The students would disembark from the carriages here and break up into two groups: the team heading partway up the mountain through the ruins to deliver supplies to the fortress and the team guarding the prospective students on the trip to Mimani.
The latter would finish out their journey on an easy hike that even the low-stamina preschool kids could manage in half a day.
“Everyone off the carriages! Break up into your groups! Team leaders, once you’ve taken roll call, report back to me!”
The burly teacher barked out orders, sending the knights’ school students briskly breaking into groups in neat lines.
While the prospective students tried to break into teams, too, they were a clumsy mess compared to the current students who’d been trained in group action. Noticing this, the teacher shouted at them.
“Cadets! Let’s see some hustle! Look for your team leader’s flag and get moving on the double!”
“Where do we line up, sir?”
“I dunnooo…?”
The preschool students hadn’t been given any particular orders, so they were milling around in the area where they’d gotten off the carriages.
“Once their teams are in order, I believe we’ll be moving in our carriage groups.”
“Cyna, you’re so smart, sir.”
“Thankeeee?”
It was Marquis Kelten’s granddaughter Cyna, whose straight red hair was tied up in a sleek ponytail, who answered Tama’s question.
Her mature composure made it hard to believe that she was younger than they were.
“Lady Cyna, my name is Marion, a teacher at the knights’ school. I’ll be accompanying your team today. Please let me know if you need anything, ma’am.”
A young woman who appeared to be a new teacher greeted her stiffly.
“Thank you, Miss Marion. But I’d appreciate it if you treat me the same as any other student, truly.”
“Y-yes, of course, ma’am!”
Cyna suppressed a sigh, as her request clearly hadn’t quite gotten through.
“I’m Pochi, sir!”
“Tama is Tamaaa?”
Her friends Tama and Pochi, who may or may not have noticed her plight, cheerfully greeted the teacher.
The sight made Cyna break into a smile more fitting for a girl her age.
“Is that her?”
“Must be, if Mari’s over there.”
As a group of smirking boys clad in the armor of knights’ school students approached, Cyna replaced her natural smile with one of artificial politeness.
“Hello again, Lady Cyna. I’m Barry, second son of Baron Zorgon. You may not remember me, but we were introduced at His Excellency Kelten’s reinstatement banquet.”
“Oh yes, I remember.”
Aside from his face and name, all Cyna remembered was that he was a braggart who made terribly dull conversation, but she kept her smile fixed in place as she seethed inwardly.
As a direct descendant of the Kelten family, which stood at the top of the military factions in the royal capital, Cyna had been thoroughly educated from a young age.
“We will be guarding your team today, so you have nothing to be afr—”
“Aah, it’s Sherin, sir!”
Pochi interrupted the smirking boy, Barry.
“Cool armooor?”
“Hello, Pochi and Tama! I didn’t know you were coming on the trip.”
“Oui oooui?”
“We’ll share our snacks with you later, sir.”
The daughter of the former Shiga Eight swordsman Mr. Gouen knew Pochi and Tama through Lulu, who was instructing her in building stamina.
“Cadet! Who gave you permission to chitchat? Prepare the luggage for departure.”
“Y-yes, team leader!”
When Barry shouted at her, Sherin hurried over to check the luggage.
The other cadets saw this and joined her in their clumsy attempts at the unfamiliar proceedings.
“Honestly, this year’s cadets are a bunch of good-for-nothings.”
“Is that so…?”
“No they’re not, sir!”
“Sherin works haaard…?”
While Cyna brushed off his comment, Pochi and Tama protested at once.
“Shut up, plebeians!”
Pochi and Tama turned teary-eyed.
“Sir Zorgon, these two are my friends.”
“R-really? Sorry about that, then. You can call me Barry.”
Quailing at Cyna’s cold rebuke, Barry tried to save face.
“And another thing. Tama and Pochi are both honorary knights. They are not plebeians.”
“Nobles? These demi-humans?”
The word demi-human in itself wasn’t discriminatory in the Shiga Kingdom, but Barry loaded it with a derisive tone.
“They are animal-eared folk. And you ought to apologize to them.”
“…Apologize? Me?”
“You referred to two noble family heads as ‘plebeians.’ It is only common courtesy, is it not?”
Barry looked perplexed at first until he slowly realized from Cyna’s explanation that he had no choice. “Sorry for calling you plebeians,” he muttered sourly, then excused himself to Cyna and went back to the group of team leaders.
Watching as Barry sharply scolded the team members and prospective students, young Cyna screwed up her face, thinking that perhaps team leaders should be chosen by their level of maturity and not just their skills with swords or spells.
“Fuh-fuh-field triiip!”
“Fun fun field triiip?”
Walking along the carefully maintained mountain path, Pochi and Tama sang their field trip song.
The knights’ school students walked in tight formation before and behind the preschool course students. The prospective students of the knights’ school were positioned at intervals among them.
The teachers and escort soldiers walked with the preschool students.
“You two are still full of energy, I see.”
“Pochi always has energy, sir!”
“Tama toooo?”
For two girls over level 50, a particularly high level even in the whole of the Shiga Kingdom, walking on a paved mountain path was no harder than a stroll through town.
Cyna was relatively high-level for her age but still only in the single digits.
The same applied to the knights’ academy students who were there to guard her. Even Barry, the highest level among them, was only level 7.
“You’re falling behind, Cadet Sherin!”
The team leader Barry now shouted at Sherin.
“…Y-yes, sir.”
“If you can’t even make it to the ruins with such a light burden, you’ll be marked a failure for sure.”
“I-I’ll try harder.”
Sherin gritted her teeth and kept walking despite the torrents of sweat.
Even with stamina-building lessons from Lulu and Nana, the young girl still had difficulty carrying some ten pounds of baggage on top of her leather armor and wooden sword and shield.
“We’ll heeelp…?”
“Have a stamina-recovery potion, sir.”
Tama supported Sherin’s backpack from behind, while Pochi gave her a potion in a small vial.
But Sherin stoutly refused.
“No…if you help me…it wouldn’t be…training…”
“That’s the spiriiit…?”
“You’re such a hard worker, Sherin, sir.”
Hearing her serious tone, Tama and Pochi stopped their meddling.
While keeping an eye on her progress, the pair carried bags for Cyna and some of the other low-stamina children, resuming their enjoyment of the hike.
“It’s the ruins!”
“We finally get to take a break!”
The knights’ school students spotted the ruins beyond the trees.
“Keep it up, kids! It’s just a little farther to the ruins.”
The supervising teacher, Marion, used a voice-amplifying magic tool to call back to the line, eliciting cheers from the children.
Pressing onward through the trees that lined the mountain path, they emerged in front of the ruins of a shrine to the ancestral king Yamato.
After a short break, the current and prospective students of the knights’ school began cleaning up around the ruins.
The preschool spring semester kids weren’t obligated to help, but when Cyna took the lead—the Keltens were loyal to the royal family—the other children followed suit.
“Why, there’s someone here.”
In the midst of her cleaning, Cyna spotted someone deep in the ruins.
“Ooh! It’s Hikaru, sir!”
“Hallooo?”
Pochi ran over, and Tama waved excitedly.
It was none other than Hikaru—who was really the ancestral king Yamato in the flesh, awoken after a long sleep.
“Is this a friend of yours?” Cyna asked.
“Aye!”
Tama nodded.
“Oh? If it isn’t little Tama, Pochi, and…erm, who’s this one?”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Cyna, of Marquis Kelten’s family.”
“My goodness, how polite. I’m Hikaru. You must be a descendant of Tekkah, right? Uh-huh, you have the same intensely earnest look in your eyes.”
Hikaru returned Cyna’s polite curtsey.
“H-how do you know our family founder’s name?”
“Hmm? Oh, y’know…we go way back.”
Hikaru looked wistful.
“Whatcha doooin’…?”
“Visiting graves,” Hikaru answered Tama.
“Visiting graves, sir?”
“Loyal retainers who helped the ancestral king Yamato found the Shiga Kingdom are buried here, you see.”
Cyna was the one to answer Pochi’s question.
“Yes, such precious friends are resting here…,” Hikaru murmured.
“Group up! We’re moving out!”
Hikaru’s comment was overshadowed by the team leader Barry shouting from outside the ruins.
“Hurry uuup—?”
“We’d better go, sir!”
“Lady Hikaru, please forgive our rudeness, but we must be going.”
Hikaru waved as the children hurried toward the exit.
When they disappeared outside, Hikaru turned back to the graves within the ruins.
Her face in profile wore a mixture of deep sorrow and a longing nostalgia for the past.
“We’re running a little behind.”
“Yeah, at this rate, we’re gonna lose to the team bringing supplies to the fort on the peak.”
At the front of the group headed along the mountain path toward the town of Mimani, the team leader and his vice leader conversed in low voices.
“Guess we have no choice. Should we take the other route?”
“Yeah, that’s probably our best bet.”
“Won’t that be too tough for the cadets and preschool kids?”
“They’ll be fine. It hasn’t rained lately, and if any of the brats can’t walk, we’ll make the commoner students carry them.”
Barry steamrolled over the objection.
“Oh, all right. Those extra points for getting to our destination first are too tempting to pass up. I’m sure the commoners won’t complain.”
“All right, we’re taking a shortcut up ahead!”
With his vice leader’s approval, Barry made an announcement to the rest of the group.
“Now, wait just a minute, Zorgon!”
“What is it, Mari—I mean, Miss Marion?”
Barry narrowly avoided using the students’ nickname for their teacher.
“Don’t you ‘what is it’ me, mister! There was nothing in the itinerary about taking a shortcut!”
“Right, I guess you wouldn’t know, since you’re a new hire, miss. They use this shortcut almost every year, see.”
“B-but—”
“Besides! As team leader, I’m in charge of giving the orders. I thought you were only supposed to take charge in case of an emergency, right?”
“W-well, I suppose so, but…”
Taking advantage of the newbie teacher, Barry convinced her to back down.
In truth, they were allowed to use the shortcut on the summer field expedition since it was only knights’ school students, but the spring field expedition with inexperienced trainees wasn’t supposed to do so.
“Let’s move out!”
“It’s more slippery than the main path. Watch your step!”
Barry yelled orders, and the vice leader added a warning.
“Smells greeeen?”
“Lots of signs of prey, sir.”
Tama and Pochi looked around excitedly.
This game trail appealed to the pair more than the carefully maintained mountain path.
“Is it safe to be traveling on such a rough trail?”
“But of cooourse?”
“We’ll keep everyone safe, sir. I don’t sense any monsters anyway, sir.”
Tama’s and Pochi’s seal of approval brought a smile back to Cyna’s face.
“Come to think of it, I believe my brother did say that they took a shortcut through the woods during his knights’ school summer field expedition, too.”
Cyna’s words helped alleviate some of the other children’s concerned expressions.
Barry’s team, on the other hand, was struggling on the trail.
“Dammit, this is harder than I thought.”
The game trail was full of twists and turns and occasionally overtaken entirely by weeds. They cut these aside as they proceeded.
If Satou were here, he likely would have pointed out that they had deviated far off course. Unfortunately, they weren’t so lucky.
“Hey, Barry. Did you take a wrong turn somewhere?”
“Normally we’d be able to see the creek by now.”
“Don’t blame me! You there, scout! Go see if the creek is up ahead!”
“Huh? By myself?”
“Just go, dammit! That’s an order!”
Barry sent one of the commoner students ahead to scout.
“The brook is that way, sir!” Pochi pointed.
“Don’t go making stuff up! That can’t be right!”
Barry laughed off Pochi’s proclamation.
It couldn’t possibly be in that direction, at least according to his mental map.
“Where’s the damn scout?!”
It took about half an hour for the scout to return as Barry waited irritably.
“I didn’t see a brook anywhere.”
The scout looked exhausted, yet Barry and his friends berated him.
“Did you even look?”
“So you kept us waiting for nothing?”
“We must have gone the wrong way last time the path broke off. Let’s retrace our steps, Barry.”
“Tch. Fine.”
Accepting his vice leader’s suggestion, Barry brought the team back the way they had come.
Some of the students and children complained or looked nervous, but Barry silenced them with angry shouting.
“Pochi, can you tell which direction the creek is in?”
“That way, sir.”
Pochi sniffed the air and pointed Cyna toward the creek.
“Then it’s safe to assume that we took a wrong turn not at the last place the path broke off but at the one before.”
Cyna relayed this information to Barry by way of Miss Marion, only for him to ignore the advice, leading the party astray on the game trail even as their evening shadows grew longer.
“Meeeew?”
“What’s wrong, sir?”
“No bug sooounds?”
At Tama’s observation, Pochi listened closely.
“You’re right, sir!” she cried.
One of the nearby knights’ school students sneered at the pair.
“Are you stupid or what? Of course the bugs would stop making noises when we’ve got such a big group trampling around.”
“Whoever calls someone stupid is the one who’s stupid, sir.”
“Shut up, stupid!”
Pochi’s tail rolled up, and she hid behind Cyna.
As strong as she’d become, she still had trouble handling verbal abuse.
“Uh-oooh?”
Tama scrambled up a tree and looked around.
“Hey, you! You can play climbing trees after we get back!”
The same student who’d insulted Pochi yelled at Tama, but she paid no attention to him, preoccupied with a sense of imminent danger.
“Pochi, what’s gotten into Tama?”
“She’s looking out for enemies, sir.”
As Pochi explained to Cyna, Tama deftly slid back down the tree.
“I can’t see ’em, but something’s coming from that waaay?”
Tama pointed in the opposite direction of where the group was headed.
“What is coming exactly?”
“Probably monsters, sir,” Pochi responded to Cyna. “All the bugs on the mountain are scared, sir. There must be lots of monsters coming, sir.”
“O-oh no!”
When Pochi and Tama had said they didn’t hear insect noises, they didn’t just mean in the immediate area—they meant the entire mountain.
Cyna brought Tama and Pochi to relay this serious situation directly to Barry and the others.
“You think there are monsters?”
He looked at Cyna doubtfully, then sighed to his friends with blatant mockery.
“Lady Cyna, this area is perfectly safe. The valley on the other side of the fort may be dangerous, but it’s virtually impossible for any monsters to get past the fort and the barrier posts to come all the way here.”
“But—”
“Besides, even if monsters did appear, you’ve got a dozen future knights on your side. I promise to protect you with my life, Lady Cyna.”
Barry smugly put on the air of a knight in shining armor.
“Monsters! There’s a monster here! It’s alone!”
A cry rang out from the rear of the group.
“Let’s go!”
“You’ve got this, Barry!”
Barry drew his sword and ran toward the monster with his friends.
Tama and Pochi came along, too.
“So the trial this year is a little mantis… Talk about small fry.”
A toddler-size praying mantis–like monster emerged from behind the trees.
Barry seemed to think it was a monster sent by the military engineers as a test at the academy’s behest.
“We’ll heeelp?”
“Pochi will help, too, sir.”
“Outta the way!”
“You don’t need help, sir?”
“If we needed help from brats like you, we could never call ourselves knights!”
“Yeah, if that day ever comes, we’ll become your servants or henchmen or whatever you want!”
“No kidding.”
Barry and his friends jeered at Pochi.
Running up behind them, Cyna frowned indignantly at their rude attitudes.
“Cadet, get these kids out of here!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
Shrinking back from Barry’s shout, Sherin led Tama and Pochi away from the front lines.
“Are they okaaay…?”
Tama looked back worriedly: Barry and his group had yet to land a solid hit on the lone little mantis.
“The knights’ school students and us cadets have the same mission—to get you preschool kids to the town safely.”
If they let a preschool student battle or get hurt, Sherin explained to the pair, they would all fail their mission.
“Faaail…?”
“Yes, I wouldn’t be able to join the knights’ school.”
“Th-that’s not good, sir! Pochi will cheer you on from behind, sir!”
“Tama toooo?”
Clenching their fists, the two stood by and watched as the knights’ school students fought and eventually defeated the little mantis.
“That thing was tough.”
“I thought it was gonna steal my sword with its scythes.”
The students wiped their brows as they stood over the monster’s corpse.
“There really was a monster, then.”
“Of cooourse…?”
Tama nodded at Cyna.
“But there’s still a bunch more coming, sir.”
“R-really?!”
This alarmed reaction came not from Cyna but from Miss Marion, who’d been watching the students battle.
“Pochi wouldn’t lie, sir.”
“From which direction?”
“Over theeere?”
Tama and Pochi pointed in the direction the little mantis had come from.
“We need to move, everyone! Preschool students, drop your bags and run!”
“Miss Marion, what’s going on?”
“Zorgon, you take the front. Make way to the clearing up ahead!”
“Wh-why?”
Barry seemed unnerved by the teacher’s sudden intensity.
“Do you want to be attacked by a swarm of little mantises in the middle of the forest?!”
“B-but there can’t be a swarm here. The knights cleared—”
“Little mantises incoming! A bunch of them!”
Just as Barry was protesting that it was impossible, he was interrupted by the voice of a scout who’d run up ahead of his own accord.
“Get moving, Barry!”
“R-right!”
When the teacher commanded Barry by his first name, he automatically started running, and the other students and children did the same.
“It’s dangerous to go alone, sir.”
“We’ll heeelp?”
“Don’t worry about me, girls! Lady Cyna, take these two with you! I can’t use my Wind Rod if they’re in range.”
As Miss Marion shouted desperately, Cyna took Pochi’s and Tama’s hands and led them away.
They broke into a run to match her pace, and Miss Marion followed behind them, using her Wind Rod to scatter the little mantises.
Soon, they were through the forest into the clearing on the mountain slope where the students had gathered.
Miss Marion looked around.
“Up theeere?”
“It’ll be safe on that boulder, sir.”
Tama and Pochi pointed at a large stone monument of some kind in the center of the clearing.
Narrow steps wound up to the top, possibly so it could be used as a lookout platform.
“Get the children to the top of the boulder! Cadets, guard the stairs! Anyone who can use Earth Magic, make walls around the perimeter!”
The children fearfully scrambled up the steps at Marion’s command.
Some of them got frozen with fear on the way, making for a slow evacuation.
“Team leader, send up the signal flare!”
“B-but that deducts a ton of points from our grade…”
“Would you rather have your report card displayed on your gravestone? There were at least ten little mantises back there. The entire swarm is probably several times larger.”
Miss Marion admonished Barry for still being fixated on his grades in such a situation.
“They’re heeere?”
“Lots of them, sir!”
The little mantises emerged from the trees—nearly thirty of them.
“W-waaaaah!”
“Mommy, I’m scaaaared!”
On top of the rock, the preschool children started screaming and sobbing.
This spread to the cadets and even some of the knights’ school students.
“It’s okaaay?”
“P-please don’t cry, sirs.”
Tama and Pochi tried to comfort the children, but to no avail.
Even the stouthearted Cyna was too focused on keeping her own composure to worry about calming the others.
“Get it together! You’re supposed to be knights in training!”
Even as she scolded the students, Miss Marion’s hands and knees were shaking.
Because the swarm of little mantises surging out of the woods was still growing larger.
“We’ll make a threefold circle formation to protect the stairs. Knights’ school students on the outside line, cadets on the inner lines.”
The students moved according to Miss Marion’s orders.
Glancing up at the signal flare Barry had finally fired, Miss Marion called out to the students.
“When the soldiers at the fort and in Mimani see the signal flare, they’ll come to save us! All we have to do is make sure everyone survives until then!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Pochi and Tama, who’d been forbidden to fight, could only cheer until their voices were hoarse. Little did Cyna or Miss Marion know that if the pair of them lent a hand, they could wipe out the swarm in a matter of moments.
“Uh-oh! Mari, grab that one!”
“Call me Miss Marion!”
Miss Marion was using her Wind Rod to keep scattering the swarm of little mantises, while at the same time cutting down any monsters that made it through the ring of students with her sword.
“Oh no—!”
“It got through!”
Before Marion could finish off the first one, another little mantis broke through in a different spot and headed for the ring of cadets. She couldn’t use the Wind Rod inside their formation.
“I’ll be right there to help you! Focus on defense and buy time until then.”
Looking pale, the prospective students took on the little mantis.
The ones who swung wildly and missed or backed away in fear were still better off than the ones who stood trembling on the spot. One even swung his sword so wildly that he hurt another cadet instead.
“Gaaah!”
One of the cadets got sent flying by a little mantis, leaving an opening for it to reach the second ring of mostly female cadets.
If it got through this line, the children on the rock would be in danger.
Most of the cadets were frozen in fear.
But one girl still managed to move.
“Lesson from Miss Nana! Always keep your eyes on your opponent!”
Sherin shouted in a shaky voice to give herself courage.
With her small shield, she managed to block the little mantis’s attack.
It was enough to knock her petite frame backward, but it stopped the little mantis’s movements long enough for the other cadets to knock it down.
“Lesson from Miss Lulu! Even if you fall, get right back up!”
Sherin pulled herself unsteadily back to her feet and readied her shield again.
The little mantis had managed to push through the cadets and close in, but Sherin stood firm with her shield, even as her eyes filled with tears.
“Stop them in their tracks, then sweep the legs!”
Sherin used her short sword to sweep the little mantis’s middle legs.
It staggered backward, and the other cadets descended on it, with Miss Marion arriving just in time to deal the finishing blow.
“Huff…huff… Miss Lulu, Miss Nana, I did it…!”
Sherin slumped to the ground as the fear and exhaustion finally caught up to her, but her tear-streaked face was full of pride.
“Très bieeen?”
“That was really, really great, sir!”
Tama and Pochi praised Sherin’s efforts from the top of the boulder.
With the children’s hard work, the little mantises soon began to retreat.
“Looks like they’re running away scared now.”
“Woooo! We wiiiin!”
Barry and his friends shouted in triumph.
Miss Marion, who’d probably worked hardest of all of them, collapsed onto her back with exhaustion and relief.
“Wee-woo wee-woo?”
“Nurse Pochi is here, sir!”
Wearing paramedic armbands, Tama and Pochi rushed around to the injured students and cadets, handing out stamina-recovery potions and salt candies for calorie and electrolyte restoration, applying bandages, and so on.
The bandages were soaked with diluted magic potions to effectively stop bleeding and disinfect wounds.
Satou had given them the potions, watered-down versions of his own personal brew, to give out in case of emergencies.
Once they finished the first aid treatments, Tama and Pochi returned to the top of the boulder.
“Damn, they’re running like hell. You can’t even see ’em anymore.”
“Yeah, true…”
As Barry smugly nudged his vice leader, the latter suddenly frowned.
“…Why did they run into a different part of the forest than where they came from?”
“Who knows? Maybe their leader went that way.”
Barry shrugged off the vice leader’s question without a second thought.
“Round twooo?”
“The second wave is about to arrive, sir.”
Tama and Pochi reported from above.
“Second…?”
Miss Marion looked up to see where Tama and Pochi were pointing, turning toward the direction where the swarm had first appeared.
“S…soldier mantises!”
The teacher screamed as she saw a far more dangerous monster emerge.
Standard military training taught that defeating a soldier mantis required several full-fledged knights or an entire squad of soldiers.
If she truly put her life on the line, Miss Marion could still defeat only one or two at best. Working with the knights’ school students, they might be able to bring down four.
But it was eight soldier mantises that appeared from within the woods.
Even if they all evacuated to the top of the boulder, there was no telling how many lives would be lost before reinforcements arrived.
“Maybe it’s for the best that I won’t live to see how it ends, though…”
Miss Marion sent the cadets to retreat to the top of the rock and kept only the best fighters among the students on the ground, moving the rest to the stairs.
The soldier mantises invaded the clearing, their compound eyes fixating on the students.
Most of them seemed not to regard the students as a threat; all but one went about devouring the corpses of the little mantises.
“Cannibalism…?”
“The little mantises must have been running from them.”
A few students whispered among themselves to fend off their fear.
“It’s coming! Stay focused!”
The one soldier mantis that didn’t take an interest in the corpses charged toward the students.
“Wind, strike my enemy! …It’s not working?!”
The Wind Shot from the teacher’s Wind Rod glanced right off the soldier mantis’s carapace, slowing it for only a moment before it resumed its charge.
That alone was enough to prove how much more dangerous it was than the little mantises.
“Damn it…!”
Miss Marion slashed at the mantis with her sword to fend it off, but it fearlessly swung its front scythe leg at her.
“Th-the Knight’s Shield!”
The sturdy steel-enforced Knight’s Shield was pierced in a single strike by the mantis’s pickax-like talon, much to the horror of the watching students.
Swiping the impaled shield away with one scythe, it used the other to mow down Miss Marion.
“Gah!”
Marion used her sword to deflect the blow, but the blade bent under the sheer force and was knocked out of her hands. The students screamed as their teacher was sent tumbling across the ground.
“W-we’re in trouble. What do we do, Barry?”
“Huh? What do we do?”
Barry, who was supposed to be the team leader, only repeated the question in a panic.
“Front lines, ready your shields!”
About half of the students obeyed the vice leader’s command.
The other half stammered things like, “B-but they’ll just get ripped up like paper,” and hid behind their comrades.
As the soldier mantis stared down at them, it seemed to Cyna that the monster was sneering.
“Here it comes!”
The soldier mantis trampled the students easily.
No lives had been lost yet, but there were too many bruises, broken bones, and cuts to count.
“W-we’re gonna die. We’re all gonna die…”
Barry cowered behind his friends, his eyes turning hollow.
“Barry! What are your orders? You’re supposed to be team leader!”
“Y-you do it! I’m stepping down as leader. That’s it—I’ll escape while you’re all getting— No, wait. That would look bad. Oh, I know! I’ll get help. I’m not running away. I’m going to report this situation.”
“What the hell are you saying?!”
“I-I’m too important to die here, that’s what!”
The vice leader grabbed Barry’s arm, and Barry knocked him away with his sword.
“You…” The vice leader stared at the blood dripping from his hand. Barry ignored him and ran away as fast as he could.
“W-wait up, Barry…!”
“Take me with you!”
Barry’s hangers-on started running after him, and a few students followed.
The soldier mantises looked their way for a moment but didn’t seem to care enough to chase them.
“Dammit…! We’ll have to protect everyone on our own!”
“Yessir!”
The remaining students looked on the verge of tears as they responded to the vice leader’s shout.
“At this rate, we’ll all be killed…”
Looking down at the battle from atop the boulder, Sherin clenched her fist when she heard Cyna’s whisper.
She ran down the stairs to where the teacher’s bags sat at the boulder’s base and pulled out the voice-amplifying magic tool.
“Guards, I know you’re watching me! Please! Come save everyone!”
But even after Sherin cried out with the magic tool, the watchers in the shadows of the forest didn’t stir.
They were certain that this monster attack was the work of the Vistall Duchy rebels who were after Sherin. Assuming that their goal was to kidnap Sherin while the monsters kept the group occupied, they were waiting to round up the kidnappers as soon as they appeared. To these men, their mission must be more important than other people’s lives.
“Please…someone, anyone, help us…”
Sherin pleaded from the bottom of her heart.
“Okey-dokeeey?”
“Roger, sir.”
Tama and Pochi, who’d followed Sherin down the steps along with Cyna, gave a salute.
They’d apparently been holding back all this time so that Sherin wouldn’t get a failing grade.
“Tama! Pochi! You can do that?”
“But of cooourse?”
“Easy-peasy, sir.”
Tama and Pochi moved to pull out their swords from their Fairy Packs, only to realize they’d left their rucksacks on top of the rock, and they flailed around in a panic.
Then they picked up some swords dropped by fleeing students and struck a cool pose as if nothing had happened.
“…Are you quite sure you’ll be all right?”
“Aye!”
“O-of course, sir!”
The two of them reassured the worried-looking Cyna.
Pochi glanced at Tama tensely.
“Tama, thirty percent, sir.”
“Aye.”
Tama and Pochi pressed buttons on the power-limiter bracelets they wore on their wrists.
Originally designed so that they could play with children in Labyrinth City without worrying about hurting anyone, these bracelets had gradually become more advanced, to the point where they could be adjusted to four different power levels.
It was in percentages instead of a simpler to understand “off, low, medium, high” because of Arisa’s obsession with a particular battle manga when she was young.
Unleashing a small amount of their full power, Tama and Pochi ran toward the monsters.
“Goodness…”
Tama sped past the soldier mantis, and its leg sliced apart at the joint.
“Oh my goodness…”
Pochi flashed into action, and the mantis’s long neck that none of the students had been able to put a dent in was suddenly split in two.
“Oh my goodness gracious, you two!”
Cyna clapped her hands with delight.
The students who’d been fighting for their lives just moments ago now watched the unstoppable pair with their jaws practically hitting the ground.
“She cut through that tough soldier mantis leg with just an ordinary iron sword.”
“That’s because she aimed for the joints. What’s really crazy is the dog-eared one, who cut off its head!”
“Dumbass! Do you realize how hard it would be to aim for that scythe-leg joint when it’s swinging around like crazy?!”
Pochi and Tama smiled bashfully at the students’ praise.
“Crap! The other ones are coming this way!”
Everyone turned pale at the vice leader’s cry.
Well, not quite everyone.
“Don’t worry, be happyyy…?”
“Bugs are just bugs no matter how many, sir.”
Tama and Pochi shot toward the approaching soldier mantises.
“Swifty death to evil, sir!”
“Monsters die if they are kiiilled…?”
Not a soul in sight made any comment on Tama’s and Pochi’s oddly off-kilter phrases.
The two darted around the soldier mantises, felling one after another.
“Dooone?”
“Too easy, sir.”
Once they’d defeated all the soldier mantises, the pair automatically started collecting the cores out of habit from their labyrinth lifestyle.
“Soldier mantis cores are worth twenty meat skewers, sir.”
“Strip the shells, toooo?”
“Of course, sir! If you get them off in one piece, they’re worth fifteen skewers, sir!”
Evidently, they assessed the value of things in meat skewers.
“There’s something on its head, sir.”
“A screeew?”
Tama and Pochi retrieved metallic parts that had been driven into the monsters’ heads.
Though they didn’t realize it, these were monster-controlling magic items that had been smuggled in from the Weaselman Empire.
“So we’re saved…?”
“Yeah, those two defeated all the monsters.”
“Oh, thank goodness!”
Once they learned that the threat had been eliminated, the students slumped to the ground, while the children started crying out of relief.
“Uh-oooh?”
“That’s no good, sir.”
Tama and Pochi panicked at the chorus of crying.
They couldn’t decide whether to offer the children candy or break out their precious reserves of jerky.
“Not to worry. Just let them cry themselves out.”
Cyna came over to the pair, along with Sherin.
“Thank you, Tama and Pochi. I am ever so proud to call you my dear friends.”
“Nye-he-he—?”
“That makes Pochi proud, too, sir.”
Tama and Pochi wriggled with delight at the open praise from their friend.
“Thanks so much, you two. You saved us all.”
Sherin bowed her head to both of them.
“Don’t worry, be happyyy?”
“We only did what was natural, sir. We should worry more about treating the injured, sir.”
At that, Sherin stood up to go to the aid of her teacher and upperclassmen.
“Once they’ve been treated, perhaps we should move along as soon as possible,” Cyna suggested.
“Yes, I’ll have the other cadets help, too.”
Sherin broke into a run.
But a moment later, that optimistic atmosphere was shattered.
“AIEEEEEEE!”
Someone let out a scream.
It came from the direction in which Barry and the others had fled.
“Are there monsters over there, too?”
Cyna looked anxious.
There was a series of small explosions, and several shadows flew through the air.
Their outlines clearly belonged to black-cloaked men, not young boys.
“What was that? Barry and the others can’t use Fire Magic.”
The vice leader’s observation was correct: The Fire Magic user and the men in black cloaks were the guards who’d been assigned to watch Sherin.
“Look! It’s Barry and the others! They’re all there!”
Barry and his hangers-on came half running, half tumbling out of the forest.
Behind them was a giant tiger with red and black stripes. If anyone with the “Analyze” skill were present, they would see that it was a level-48 airwalk tiger.
“Meeeat?”
“Looks tasty, sir.”
Tama and Pochi licked their lips when they saw the airwalk tiger.
“That monster is toying with my upperclassmen…,” Sherin murmured.
The airwalk tiger, with the same nature of any catlike creature, was playing with its fleeing prey.
Perhaps this was fortunate, though. That was probably the only reason Barry and his friends were still alive, despite being pursued by a monster far more powerful than they were.
“Tama, Pochi…please save them.”
Sherin asked the pair to rescue the very boys who had constantly teased her.
Of course, it was only because she had no idea how powerful the airwalk tiger was that she could make such a reckless request.
“Aye-aye, siiir?”
“Leave it to us, sir.”
Tama and Pochi readily agreed.
“C-can you really fight that beast?!” Cyna cried in alarm.
“But of cooourse…?”
“It does look a little strong, though, sir.”
“Hundred perceeent?”
“Yes, sir. Full power, sir.”
“Aye-aaaye…”
The pair turned off their power-limiter bracelets and dashed toward the monster, kicking up dust in their wake.
“H-heeeeelp!”
Barry and his buddies came running with tears and snot streaming down their faces.
The airwalk tiger caught up to one of the boys and batted him with a huge front paw, sending him tumbling to the ground next to Barry.
Distracted, Barry tripped and fell.
“Tama, take care of that one, sir.”
“Aye-aaaye…”
Tama caught the boy who’d been sent flying and splashed him with a magic potion.
“N-no… NOOOOO!”
The airwalk tiger’s front paw swung down toward Barry’s face.
Unable to crawl or run away, Barry instinctively shut his eyes, freezing in place and preparing for the worst.
But the final blow never came.
“Wha…?”
Barry opened his eyes and gaped in disbelief.
“No way…”
The boy couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Standing above him, stopping the fortress-crushing claws of the airwalk tiger, was a dog-eared girl even smaller than he was.
“To the rescuuue…?”
A force grabbed him from behind and tossed him to safety.
Barry looked up to complain about the rough treatment, only to find that he’d been saved by a cat-eared girl.
“Y-you two…”
“It’s Pochi and Tama’s turn now, sir.”
“Oui oooui!”
Pochi and Tama spoke without even looking over their shoulders.
To Barry and the other boys, their tiny backs loomed larger than life.
TYIGGGGGEZR.
With a roar, the airwalk tiger unleashed a turbulent storm of attacks.
“Hiya! Hah! Yaaah! Sir!”
“Mew! Mya! Nyooo?”
The pair parried the attacks even faster than the tiger could move, but the brittle iron swords and their short statures could only stand up to so much.
Tama and Pochi were knocked back, landing on their feet near Barry and the others.
“Run awaaay?”
“She’s right, sir. Leave this to us and escape, sir.”
Without their usual equipment, it would be difficult even for these mithril explorers to fight a nearly equal opponent while also protecting people behind them.
“B-but!”
“We gotta…”
The boys’ hesitant stammers were drowned out by the clash of metal on metal.
Pochi’s iron sword snapped, one of the shards leaving a small scratch on her forehead.
“Hurry up and run, sir. Quick, while we hold it here!”
“Dammit, fine, let’s get outta here! …Use this!”
Seeing the dark look on Pochi’s face, Barry shouted at his companions. Then he tossed his short sword to Pochi before leading them to run away at top speed.
“Whoopsie, sir.”
Pochi caught the short sword and drew it from its scabbard.
It was made out of a mithril alloy.
TYIGGGGGEZR.
Tama, who’d been keeping the airwalk tiger occupied, landed in front of Pochi.
“Snip-snaaap?”
The tiger had broken Tama’s iron sword, too.
“Leave this to Pochi, sir.”
Pochi’s short sword glowed with red light.
“N-no way!”
“A little kid like that?”
“Is this for real?!”
The knights’ school students who were watching the fight all clamored in shock.
“It’s ‘Spellblade,’ sir.”
Pochi’s short sword was surrounded with red magic power.
It was a secret technique known to precious few, said to be usable by only the finest warriors in all the Shiga Kingdom.
“Tama toooo?”
A red blade of magic burst out of the broken stub of her iron sword.
She took advantage of iron’s tendency to repel magic power and created “Spellblade” where there was no metal.
“Tama’s so skilled, sir.”
“Nye-he-he? One mooore…?”
Picking up the broken sword Tama had tossed aside, Pochi created a second “Spellblade” sword.
TYIGGGGEZR.
Wary of the pair’s swords, the airwalk tiger howled and ran up into the sky.
“Get back heeere…?”
“‘Spellblade,’ GO, sir!”
Red beams zapped toward the tiger from their blades: Spellblade Shots.
“…Huh? What the—?!”
“The ‘Spellblade’ flew?”
“Is that a spell?”
The knights’ school students didn’t appear to be familiar with Spellblade Shot.
“It blocked them, sir.”
“Wind barrierrr?”
The airwalk tiger went higher, alarmed that its wind barrier had broken.
TYIGGGGEZR.
Wind blades flew from the airwalk tiger.
“Swoosh-swash-swiiish…”
“Uh-oh, sir!”
Tama dodged the wind blades by a hair with acrobatic elegance, while Pochi jumped out of the way with comically exaggerated movements.
Frustrated as its attacks were all dodged, the airwalk tiger cloaked itself in purple lightning.
“Tama, it’s all crackly, sir!”
“Aye…”
TIGGGGEZR.
“Table fliiip?”
Pochi used one of the Earth Magic walls that lay scattered on the ground to block the lightning attack.
“Yeeeek, sir.”
“Cracklyyy?”
The aftershocks of the attack reached the pair in a form not unlike static electricity, making them both squirm ticklishly.
“Counterattack, sir!”
“Aye-aye, siiir?”
Leaping out from behind their cover, the pair ran along the ground, firing Spellblade Shots.
The airwalk tiger kicked through the air to dodge the red orbs.
“Hiyaaa, sir!”
With Pochi’s shout, the red shot changed directions and hit the airwalk tiger in the side.
“Fusion attack, sir!”
“Okey-dokeeey?”
Pochi and Tama did a double jump into the air, where Pochi used Tama as a launching pad to shoot straight toward the airwalk tiger.
TYIGGGGEZR.
The monster fled even higher into the sky.
“Not so fast, sir!”
With the help of her “Skywalking” skill, Pochi ran through the air.
Unlike “Skyrunning,” which allowed free movement through the air, Pochi’s “Skywalking” could only make enough platforms for five or six steps.
But luckily…
“Gotcha, sir!”
Pochi managed to catch the airwalk tiger by the tail.
TIGGGGEZR.
The monster thrashed around, but Pochi kept a tenacious grip on its tail, dragging herself up onto its back.
“You’re not getting away, sir!”
Pochi’s short sword gleamed with dazzling red light.
TYIGGGG-GWGYA.
Sensing danger, the airwalk tiger tried to cover itself with lightning, but it was stopped short by a red blast of magic from the ground that hit it squarely in the forehead.
“Nice assist, sir.”
Pochi peeked down at the ground, where Tama gave a thumbs-up.
“Time for my special attack—Vanquish Strike!”
Pochi’s special move struck the base of the tiger’s neck at point-blank distance.
It easily cut through the airwalk tiger’s defense barrier, tearing into its metallic fur and steely sinews, and finally piercing through the thick bone that protected the brain stem.
“…Too shallow, sir.”
Pochi could tell from the feeling in her hilt that it wasn’t enough.
Unlike her usual Magic Sword, this mithril-alloy short sword didn’t have a high enough degree of magic power permeation.
GWGYAAAAA.
The airwalk tiger’s body twisted around in the air in reaction to the unexpected damage. Still in a precarious position from using her special attack, Pochi lost her balance and went flying.
“Aaaaaah, sir!”
With a nonplussed scream, Pochi dropped toward the ground, slowing her impact with “Skywalking.”
But because the airwalk tiger had been so high in the sky, she ran out of “Skywalking” uses while she was still only partway down.
“Uh-oh, sir…”
Pochi flailed around in midair until Tama swooped up to retrieve her, looking like a flying squirrel in her pink cloak.
“Gotchaaa—?”
“Thank you, Tama, sir.”
“No worriiies—?”
The pair beamed at each other.
GWGYAAAAA.
Her ears pricking up at the howl behind them, Tama tossed Pochi toward the ground.
Several wind blades slashed the air between them—attacks from the airwalk tiger.
It was high-level enough that even a special attack to a vital point wasn’t enough to kill it.
“That was close, sir.”
Pochi landed on the ground, and a bag dropped down next to her.
“It’s Pochi’s Fairy Pack, sir.”
Tama must have retrieved the Fairy Packs from the top of the boulder while Pochi was climbing up the airwalk tiger’s back in midair.
“Falling-leaf jutsuuu…?”
Still gliding through the air, Tama mimicked an air-battle technique to zigzag onto the airwalk tiger’s back.
Even as the airwalk tiger struggled, Tama used her ninja moves to stick tight to its fur.
Then the tiger suddenly changed directions and crashed into the ground headfirst.
“Tiger-drop jutsuuu…?”
Standing atop the monster as it twitched in a crater of its own making, Tama put her hands together in a ninja pose.
This was a similar move to the “naga drop” she had used to take down a flying Elder Naga in what was now Muno County.
“We’ve got you now that you’re grounded, sir!”
Pochi pulled out her precious sword from her Fairy Pack.
“‘Blink’—quick draw, Vanquish Strike!”
Accelerating toward the tiger monster, Pochi drew her sword as she used a second special attack.
A red line carved itself deep into the airwalk tiger’s neck.
“‘Blink’—Vorpal Fang!”
From the other side, Tama used her twin Magic Swords to slice the monster’s neck as well.
GWGYAAAAA.
The airwalk tiger leaped back into the sky, despite its head lolling on its damaged neck.
Its eyes were fixed not on its attackers, Tama and Pochi, but on the children watching the battle from atop the bolder.
“Oh nooo…?”
“Intercept, sir!”
Tama and Pochi fired Spellblade Shots, but the airwalk tiger ignored them and charged toward the boulder.
They hurried to give chase—but they weren’t going to make it in time.
“‘Bliiink’…”
“Dash, sir!”
Speeding up, Tama and Pochi closed in on the tiger little by little.
“Mew!”
“We’re in trouble, sir!”
Several wind blades appeared around the monster as it ran through the air.
If it used those, the children would be hurt or worse.
Though Tama and Pochi fired Spellblade Shots to intercept the wind blades, they couldn’t aim properly while running at full speed.
They had taken out only half the wind blades before the airwalk tiger reared back to fire.
Tama and Pochi looked on in despair.
“…Divine Lance!”
* * *
A cool voice echoed through the air, accompanied by a blazing ray of light that set off sparks as it sped across the sky.
A second ray joined it in scattering the wind blades; then both pierced the airwalk tiger. It was only when they stopped moving that the rays of light resolved into telephone pole–size transparent spears.
The light drained from the airwalk tiger’s eyes, and its corpse crashed to the ground.
“We’re saaaved?”
Someone approached, hopping from treetop to treetop.
“Sorry I’m late.”
“Hikaruuu?”
It was Hikaru, who’d seen the signal flare from the ruins and come to help.
“Nice saaave?”
“I was afraid we wouldn’t make it in time, sir.”
“Are either of you hurt?”
Hikaru peered at the young pair.
“We’re fiiine?”
“It was no biggie, sir.”
Tama and Pochi each chugged a small magic potion and struck a triumphant pose.
“The two of you took on an airwalk tiger this size…? You’re pretty impressive for being so small.”
The pair giggled shyly at Hikaru’s praise.
“Break it dooown?”
“You’re right, sir. We have to drain the blood quick or it won’t taste as good, sir.”
“If you’re taking that home, want me to carry it in my ‘Inventory’ for you?”
“Yaaay!”
“Yes please, sir!”
“Normally it wouldn’t fit in the opening, but with a little imagination… Ta-da!”
Hikaru pushed the airwalk tiger into the black rectangle of her “Inventory,” then fiddled with something until the rectangle expanded to fit the tiger’s enormous frame, shoving it inside.
“Pochi! Tama!”
As they went back with Hikaru, Cyna was the first to run over to them.
“Are you quite all right?”
She patted down Tama’s and Pochi’s bodies frantically.
“Fwah-ha-haaa—!”
“That tickles, sir. Tama and Pochi are fine, sir.”
Rather than worry their dear friend by telling her they’d healed with magic potions, the pair simply smiled and said they were fine.
Before long, Sherin, Barry, and some of the others came over, too.
“Thank you, Pochi and Tama.” There were tears in Sherin’s eyes. “Someday, I’ll get just as strong as you two and protect everyone.”
“You go, giiirl?”
“I’m sure a hard worker like you can do it, Sherin, sir!”
Tama and Pochi cheered on Sherin’s determination.
“E-erm…”
“We, uh…”
Barry and his friends shuffled over hesitantly.
“We’re sorry.”
“Please forgive us.”
The three of them got on their hands and knees, apologizing with their heads to the ground.
“Nyuuu!”
“Ummm…sir…”
Unaccustomed to such treatment, the duo didn’t know how to react.
They looked pleadingly toward their friend Cyna, as if surely she would come up with a clever solution.
Cyna grinned, then put on a solemn expression and nodded like a true noble.
“Come to think of it, you did say that if these two ever had to help you, you’d become their ‘servants or henchmen or whatever you want,’ did you not?”
“W-well, uh…”
“We did say that, but—”
“Well, they did save your lives. What do you think you ought to do now, hmm?”
As Barry and his buddies scrambled for excuses, Cyna gave them an ultimatum with a sunny smile.
“Kn-knights don’t go back on their word…”
“Fine, we’ll be your stupid henchmen.”
“‘Fine’? ‘Stupid’?” Cyna repeated pointedly, prompting them to correct themselves.
“Please let us be your henchmen, Miss Pochi, Miss Tama.”
With the last of their pride stripped away by Cyna, Barry and the others bowed their heads.
“Henchmeeen…?”
Tama and Pochi gave Cyna a bewildered look.
“It’s like a cross between an apprentice and a friend,” she explained.
“First we made a bestie, and now we even have henchmen, sir!”
Pochi jumped up and down for joy.
“Lots of friiiends—?”
“Let’s keep it up until we have a hundred, sir.”
“Aye-aye, siiir?”
Tama and Pochi grasped each other’s hands tightly, and Cyna added hers on top.
“There’s not much time left in the spring semester, but let’s make the most of it, shall we?”
“But of cooourse?”
“You said it, sir!”
The three besties grinned at one another, reaffirming their friendship.
Standing nearby, Barry and his friends—no, the henchmen—looked on with expressions that were difficult to describe.
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