I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Theraclede Under Threat

WE DON’T HAVE dueling classes until noon, so it’s all going to be regular classes this morning.

“Hm!”

“Woof!”

Someone’s excited. Having fun with the classes?

I could see why Fran was excited, but why Jet?

“We have Cooking today!”

Ah, of course.

Say, Fran?

“Hm?”

Do you know what other classes you have?

“Hm…?” Fran tilted her head and gave me a blank stare, as if to say, “No, but what does that matter?” She didn’t mean anything bad by it, she just genuinely believed that she didn’t need to remember what she was taking.

You must have caught a glimpse of the other subjects if you know you have Cooking today. Do you really not remember?

“Hm.”

Well, this was Fran we were talking about. Students would be doing the cooking in Cooking class—could Fran really be satisfied by what they made? Given this was Special Combat, they were probably going to cook up simple meals for the battlefield or the outdoors…not exactly meals that would please her palate.

Do you know what Cooking class is about?

“We’re definitely eating something,” said Fran, proudly puffing out her flat chest as she told me this glorious fact.

I then proceeded to tell her what Cooking would actually entail. Her face gradually darkened as it dawned on her that it was nothing like she expected. Jet’s tail also drooped. He was hoping to get some tasty table scraps, but student cooking was dubious at best. Fran and Jet dragged their heels the rest of the way to school.

“Morning!”

“Morning…”

The guard didn’t stop us this morning, greeting Fran with a smile.

Not many others greeted her, since she wasn’t known throughout the school yet. Some of the girls from the locker room recognized her, however, and they gave her a slight nod.

“Good morning, Fran.”

“Morning.”

Carona was already in the classroom by the time we got there. Fran sat next to her. They weren’t quite friends yet, but they were on friendly terms.

Jet was the size of a small dog that day. He plopped himself down next to Fran’s seat. Powerful monster though he was, the cuteness of his form captivated the females. Even Carona was smiling at him.

“Jet is so cute…”

“You think so?”

“I do,” said Carona. “I can’t be afraid of him when he looks like this.”

Jet was still holding out hope for table scraps at the Cooking class. Hence the puppy form—he figured it’d help him beg.

The first class of the day wasn’t Cooking, though. No—in this class, students learned about the diverse races of this world.

“Good morning. I shall begin by saying that you honor me greatly by gracing my classroom, Black Lightning Princess. You really have evolved…”

The lecturer was a deer beastman by the name of Holial. He bowed respectfully to Fran, but was a little over-familiar in the way he came up to shake her hand. Still, the admiration in his eyes was genuine. He clearly felt blessed to meet an evolved Black Cat.

“Since you are here today, let’s talk about evolution. Until last year, it was said that Black Cats were the only beast tribe unable to evolve, but that has been proven false. Lady Fran, you were the one who provided that proof!”

Wait, didn’t Winalene know about Black Sky Tigers? Why hadn’t she told others about their evolution?

Over the course of centuries, no one had been able to figure out the evolution requirements of Black Cats. In fact, not a single Black Cat had managed to evolve. Eventually, people just concluded that it was impossible. Still, I found it strange that Winalene would have remained silent about the Black Sky Tigers.

Was it an effect of the divine punishment visited on them? It seemed absurd that the people of the Beastman Nation would have so completely forgotten about Black Sky Tigers. Maybe there was some kind of supernatural seal on their memories, or an enchantment that prevented the spread of any information about Black Sky Tigers. The gods had a great deal of influence over the people of this world, after all.

But the curriculum had changed, starting this year, when it was discovered that Black Cats could evolve—into one the Ten Ancestors, no less—once they fulfilled certain criteria. Fran could only smile. The public image of her tribe was getting better.

“You changed the course of history itself! And the rest of you are very fortunate to be classmates with Lady Fran! There aren’t that many beastmen attending the Academy, and the ones that do aren’t evolved. Have you seen what her evolved form is capable of?”

Carona and the others gave him a knowing smile. For them, Fran was a fearsome instructor rather than an historic figure. Still, they had to admit that they were fortunate to know her in person, even if that came with the unique experience of getting beaten up by Fran in her evolved form.

However, Fran was drawn to something else that Holial had said.

“There aren’t many beastmen at the school?”

“Not really, no.”

How could a school of this size be lacking beastmen? Then again, we really hadn’t seen that many on campus. Were beastmen discriminated against in this country? In this school?

“Why’s that?”

“Simply put, this is the Magic Academy. Beastmen aren’t good with magic.”

Not discrimination, then. Beastmen weren’t exactly the best at magic.

“Beastmen with magic like yours are exceedingly rare, Princess,” continued the professor. “I myself do not possess it.”

“But you’re a teacher here.”

“One does not need magic to teach academic subjects.”

For subjects unrelated to magic, the only ability the faculty needed was the ability to teach.

“To elaborate, most beastmen do not have a lot of mana. This is a racial tendency—we have even less than the average human or dwarf.”

I’d known dwarves were bad at magic, but not that beastmen were even worse.

This world was home to a multitude of races. Elves and magi were well versed in magic. While inferior, humans, dwarves, mermen, and ogrekin could still use magic. Beastmen, insectoids, and birdmen weren’t very good at it.

“There is also the matter of temperament,” he continued, “and this is the bigger hindrance.”

“Temperament?”

“Yes.”

Fran tilted her head, but I knew what Holial was getting at.

“Magical training is very dull. There is much tedium involved and you don’t get to see visible progress for large swaths of time.”

“Hm.”

“Being generally impatient, most beastmen fail to acquire magic.”

And that was the root of their incompatibility. Not all beastmen were impatient, but most did fit that stereotype. Those beastmen who could use magic tended to be innately talented, learning it quickly or based mostly on instinct. I guess you could say their instincts were sharper than most.

The Beast King and Mea came to mind as models for this type of beastman.

“Also, most beastmen end up going into the combat professions. They begin training at age five or six, most of them apprenticing by age ten. They start working by age fifteen at the latest. This is why education never quite enters the beastman consciousness. Anything they need to learn must be immediately useful and practicable in their chosen field.”

If you wanted to be an adventurer or a soldier when you grew up, more training hours were definitely beneficial.

“There is also the problem of geography. Mages occupy a higher social standing here in Belioth, in the same way our neighbors treat their adventurers. There is no discrimination here, but most beastmen naturally gravitate toward Granzell.”

Might as well start your career in Granzell where the grass was greener for adventurers.

But it wasn’t like beastmen had zero aptitude for magic. In fact, their main advantage lay in the fact that each tribe had their own affinities for particular types of magic.

Unlike humans, who had affinities for several types of magic, a beastman’s affinities were set. A Blue Deer like Holial would be drawn to water, earth, and forest magicks. These affinities allowed beastmen to shorten their training time.

“Still, our limited mana pool makes it difficult for us to perform as mages,” said Holial. “However, we make great Spellswords.”

All that being said, magic acquisition was still difficult for beastmen. Can you imagine Fran or the Beast King doing the same dull routine over and over again? Impossible.

Holial carried on with his lecture after the detour into the magical affinities of beastmen and returned to the subject of evolution. “All right, Carona. What is the one race in the world that cannot evolve?”

“Humans, sir.”

“Correct.”

Holial proceeded to sum up their previous lesson, probably for Fran’s benefit. His summary sounded like natural and cultural anthropologies mashed together with mythology and folklore. It was a strange tale, but it was the true telling of the genesis of the world.

Put simply, after the gods were finished creating the world and the nature upon it, the Great Gods worked together to create humans. These humans were then used as a template by the gods, who each created their own races to be their mortal servants. 

Beastmen and insectoids served the beast god. Elves served the forest god, and the land god was attended to by the dwarves and ogrekin. Each race had special powers bequeathed upon them by the gods, allowing them to evolve.

Though it might seem that humans missed out on these gifts, the Ten Great Gods who created them made them balanced all-rounders with no glaring weak spots. Combined with their reproductive capabilities, they were the greatest race to walk the earth. They couldn’t evolve because they didn’t need to evolve.

That last bit was a little controversial, though. And it wasn’t like the human king ruling over Belioth was going to start bellowing “We humans are the greatest jack-of-all-trades race in the world!”

On the other hand, you had the common Beastman Nation belief that magic was prissy and unreliable, and the great and mighty beastmen had no need for it. Holial smiled bitterly as he recalled how each tribe would declare itself the greatest of all.

“Now, let’s talk about evolution. First, the humanoid races will naturally evolve given enough levels. There are also mutations, which we will discuss alongside this subject.”

Ogrekin didn’t evolve, they mutated. While evolution could be achieved solely by leveling up, there was also a mutation that occurred when certain conditions were met. At least, that was how I understood it.

“Evolution works the same for beastmen, dwarves, elves, even drakes.”

But sometimes, individuals would undergo evolution or mutation and gain special powers. Urslars was a Calamity Ogre, a race so rare that it was practically mythical. While not always the case, these special evolutions were usually stronger than their regular counterparts.

“There are outliers, even among these special evolutions. These are usually referred to as divine regressives or ancestor regressives. Some researchers even use the term ‘quasigod.’”

Quasigod? Sounded intense…

“As the name suggests, these evolutions are believed to regress a being to the state in which their race was originally created by the gods. Although these beings are technically considered regressions, for the purposes of today’s discussion, we shall treat them as evolved. As far as I know, the high elf is an example of a divine regressive.”

The biggest difference between a divine regression and a normal evolution was a change in race. An elf might evolve into a wood, leaf, or grass elf, but they would still be an elf. An increase in stats wasn’t enough to be considered a divine regression.

Things were different in Winalene’s case. She had not only become a high elf, but apparently a Demigod?!

Wow, she’s actually a god, said Fran.

Wait, seriously? Winalene?

Surprised as we were, Fran and I were also slightly off the mark. Demigods weren’t quite gods but beings whose powers were second only to the gods that made them.

“This is all personal conjecture, of course. There aren’t many of them in recorded history. I am only going by the literature we have and the headmistress’ account.”

Having gotten used to Fran’s presence, the class was asking questions now.

“What other divine regressives are there besides high elves?”

“Good question. To my knowledge, a dwarf becomes an Elder Dwarf and a magus becomes a God Magus. We don’t know any who are still alive or whether they even existed, but there is enough evidence to suggest such a thing is possible.”

“What about unconfirmed races?”

“There is the Shinryu, the divine regressive of the drake. Any detailed accounts of these were lost with the destruction of Goldicia, but traces of evidence can be found in the oral tradition of drake cultures.”

Shinryu. The name sounded familiar. Back in the capital, Velmeria had had a Skill called Shinryu Form when she was possessed by Fanatix, the Sword of Mad Faith. The Skill had given her tremendous power. Had it turned her into a Shinryu?

“As for beastmen, there is a being called the Godbeastman in the traditions of the older tribes.”

Fran’s ears perked up at that. “Godbeastman?” 

“Yes. A being of supreme power whose strength transcends that of the Ten Ancestors. It is said that they can defeat a Godsword with their bare hands.”

The class didn’t seem as convinced as Holial.

“What…?”

“Come on, Teach, that’s crazy.”

The Academy had classes on Godswords, so they knew what the weapons were capable of. The students probably thought Holial was tooting his own race’s divine regressive horn.

Fran and I disagreed. I had seen Velmeria fight Urslars and his Godsword to a standstill, and although Winalene had yet to reveal the extent of her powers, we felt she could easily take on a Godsword user.

If this Godbeastman is as powerful as Winalene and Velmeria…

“Hm. They could definitely beat a Godsword.”

The student’s overheard Fran’s whisper, and so did Holial.

“Can you tell us more, Princess?” Holial asked.

“Hm. When I fought Winalene, she was at least as strong as a Godsword user.”

“You’ve…seen a Godsword before?”

“I’ve seen Urslars fight with one.”

“I see. So you’ve seen both a Godsword and a divine regressive!”

The classroom’s murmurs grew louder. Fran’s encounter with an unleashed godsword came as a shock to them and they pelted her with questions.

I thought Holial would be upset with the way we’d derailed his lecture, but he happily joined the students in their barrage. Considering these subjects were literally the stuff of legends, I couldn’t blame the guy.

At last, Holial’s class ended and it came time for the class Fran was waiting for: Cooking. Which wasn’t held in the kitchen or the cafeteria, for some reason. Instead, we found ourselves out on the turf in our uniforms.

The typical blue slime vinyl sheet was spread out on the grounds with monster carcasses laid out on top of it. The creatures looked like one-meter-long raccoons, but their furs were frazzled and messy. They stank, too, vaguely smelling of rotten eggs.

This was a monster called the Skunk Raccoon. Its meat had a hideously horrible odor and wasn’t really worth cooking. Adventurers took its crystal and venom sacs and discarded the rest of its carcass. Its fur was of such poor quality that it didn’t sell for much.

Also, you had to carefully prepare and cook it to make it taste even halfway decent. Ugh, was this our main ingredient for today?

A large woman stood in front of the slime sheets. Her name was Yafi and she used to be an adventurer.

“Today, we’re going to simulate cooking a monster you just killed on the field!”

We weren’t just going to cook it—we would need to carve it up, too.

“Use your knowledge of butchering skunk raccoons to cook it. You are free to make any dish you want!”

I knew it. They’d really given us an awful ingredient to work with.

“You’ll split up into teams and work to prepare your raccoon! Make sure there’s enough for the whole team!”

This was practice for emergency situations, like if you happened to lose all your foodstuffs out in the field. Adventurers would need to hunt down game and cook it on the spot, no matter how bad the taste. Sensing disaster, Jet slinked away into the shadows.

“You must be Fran. What shall we have you do? Do you have experience carving or cooking monsters?”

“I’m used to both.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Hm.”

“I expected nothing less from a solo high-rank. Where shall we put you, then?”

Carona volunteered. “Will my group suffice?”

The other members of her group looked pensive but welcoming.

“All right. Fran, you’re with them.”

“Okay.”

“And don’t feel like you need to hold back. You are free to use whatever seasonings and spices you have in your arsenal.”

“Really?”

“Sometimes, you may end up in the same party as people you disagree with. Even so, that is no reason to hold back on using your supplies.”

“I see.”

“Unless you can learn to cooperate with these people, you can’t call yourself a first-rate adventurer.”

Yafi had a point. Some quests required multiple parties to work together. Solo adventurers who were masters of a certain location would need to temporarily party up.

“Also, I would like to get at least one decent meal out of this ordeal.”

And there was the real reason! Still, I wasn’t going to do anything that day. Carving aside, the food would definitely end up delicious if I had any input on its preparation. I wanted Fran to give it her best shot on her own steam.

“Let’s do our best, Fran.”

“Hm. Of course.”

“These are our teammates.”

“I-I’m Rels. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Marchess.”

“Osleth. Good to see you.”

Rels was tall, gaunt, and lanky. A magus who was in Mage class and not Special Combat.

Macho Marchess looked very stern. The opposite of Rels, he was a tank. He looked like such a musclehead that I couldn’t believe he could use magic. Maybe he dressed this way on purpose, to catch enemies by surprise.

Finally, the nice guy waving his hand at Fran was Osleth. A bit older than everyone else, he was in his early twenties. The Magic Academy didn’t have an age limit, so you had these age gaps from time to time. I wondered which age group actually progressed through the ranks faster.

This was Carona’s cooking group. I wondered if they were also her adventuring party—the one we’d seen in the guild—but that wasn’t the case.

“We are not allowed to form our own parties when taking on guild quests,” she explained. “The odds of forming a party with your old classmates after graduation are pretty slim, after all.”

You could lose out on adaptability if you kept teaming up with the people you were used to. To prevent that from happening, Special Combat students rotated their parties on each quest.

“I know you have Disassemble, Fran, but how are you with cooking?”

“Hm…okay, I guess? Nothing compared to Teacher, though.”

“Your teacher? What kind of person is he?”

“Teacher is the strongest. He can do anything.”

“I-I see. But he must be quite something if he made you who you are today.”

If Fran was crazy, Carona must’ve been thinking her teacher had to be crazier. Hey, powers aside, I’m much more reasonable than Fran is! I’m not the crazy one in this relationship!

“So, how shall we do this? We don’t mind following orders.”

“All right.”

To think that Carona would let Fran take the reins despite not knowing how she cooked…she was quite the gambler. Then again, maybe letting the highest-rank adventurer be in charge was common practice. Her friends didn’t seem to have any objections, either. If anything, they happily agreed, Osleth in particular.

“Boy, am I glad to have you,” said Osleth. “No one on our team can cook, you see.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh. I can cook a little bit, but everyone else is terrible at it. Unsurprising, considering they’re nobility and all.”

Our other teammates were children of minor nobles. None of them were completely destitute, so they each had a servant or two. Though they had been working hard since joining the Academy, cooking was not their strong suit.

Meanwhile, Osleth was the son of a military captain—a commoner. He had been helping his mother in the kitchen from a young age and had no problems cooking.

“Not that I’m great at it, but I’m at least better than these three are. I have the Skill unlocked, too.”

It was decided that Fran would be team captain and Osleth her lieutenant. The other three would help where they could.

“Do we have seasonings?”

“Yes. Each team has their own supply.”

“Lay it all out. And the cooking utensils, too.”

“Very well.”

Yafi said we were free to use whatever seasoning we wanted, but Fran wanted to make the best of what the team already had.

“What about us?” asked one of the nobles.

“First, we’ll secure our main ingredient. We have to get the best one.”

“But they’re all similar sizes of the same monster. Can it really make that much of a difference?”

“There’s a clear difference in freshness. Some have been left out for longer.”

“How do you tell?” asked Carona.

“The smell, fur, cloudiness of the eyes. Tongue color, too.”

“I see.”

Fran took Carona and the others to pick the best of the skunk raccoons. After inspecting them, they found a young carcass that was relatively fresh and soft. It didn’t smell as bad as the others, either.

The other teams chose the bigger, less smelly raccoons. The problem with the bigger ones was that the older a raccoon got, the tougher and stinkier its meat became. The few corpses that didn’t stink were actually traps laid by the school—those raccoons had been cleaned with their own poison gas, which got rid of the smell, but the poison seeped through to the meat and made it taste horrible. The poor souls.

Before Fran started prepping the skunk raccoon, she first considered the team’s available seasonings and the dish they would make.

“Fran, are you sure we don’t need to start carving up the raccoon?”

“Yeah, the other teams have already started on theirs…”

Fran shook her head. “Don’t worry. A monster this size won’t take long to carve.”

“Good to hear.”

“We’re in good hands.”

Carving up the skunk raccoon would only take three minutes if Fran gave it her all, but the same could not be said for the other teams. They were having an awful time of it. With no understanding of the monster’s anatomy, their work was slow and clumsy. Prepping the whole thing would probably take them thirty minutes.

Then again, I guess we owed our superhuman carving speed to the blessing of Disassemble. The students were actually doing better than I had when I first came to this world. I felt nostalgic for all the spilled blood and guts when I’d first started trying to harvest materials.

“Is this all the seasoning we have?”

“Huh? Yes…”

“Hrm.” Fran grunted doubtfully at the sight of Carona’s inventory. It wasn’t a sound she made very often.

Not that I blamed her. The only seasonings on the table were rock salt, peppers, and two kinds of herbs, along with a seasoning oil containing diced mushrooms and salt. This was all the group had.

The seasoning looked amateur, and the aromatic herbs weren’t very aromatic (or tasty). These had all been picked in the nearby fields and turned into seasonings in previous classes.

“You’re not allowed to buy anything for class?” asked Fran.

“We can, but we don’t know anything about spices.”

Everything they had cooked so far tasted fine as long as it was tossed with herbs, seasoned, and properly cooked. But this approach wouldn’t work for the skunk raccoon. The meat would be burnt to a crisp before you could get rid of the smell.

“Okay. We’ll figure out the seasonings.”

It looked like Fran would have to resort to using her own.

“Do you have something that would work?” asked Carona.

“A lot of things, actually.”

“Right. You have Pocket Dimension, after all.”

With that, Fran and her team started carving up the raccoon.

Although she could have sliced and diced the whole thing instantly by herself, Fran took the time to explain her methodology to her team as she worked. This was a place of learning, after all, and Fran knew she couldn’t do everything by herself. But as they were in the middle of carving, a cry broke out from one of the other teams. Everyone started covering their noses.

“Hurgh!”

“What is this smell…?!”

“It stinks, it stinks, it stinks!”

“Aaaaah!”

That team had accidentally damaged the raccoon’s venom sac. While not lethal, the poison stank to high heaven.

You’d think that this was the cause of the skunk’s stinky flesh, but not so. The skunk raccoon had chemical compounds in its blood which made it immune to its own poison. Those compounds produced the antiseptic smell in the raccoon’s flesh.

The poison, on the other hand, had a sulfuric smell. It spread everywhere when the venom sac was punctured and acted like tear gas.

Our team wasn’t looking so hot, either. The three boys aside, Carona’s expression was unbecoming for a girl of her stature. 

Even Fran’s face twisted when she got a whiff of the gas. But she quickly blew the smell away with a wind spell and put up a barrier around them to keep it out.

“Y-you saved us.”

“Th-thanks…”

“Talk about a stink that can raise the dead…”

“Man, everyone looks terrible.”

A riot was breaking out around us, but Fran wasn’t one to care. Now that the smell around them was gone, she resumed her carving lecture.

“First, you stick the knife in here.”

“Huh? Oh, right.” Carona and the others remembered that they were trailing behind the other teams and focused on Fran’s lesson. It helped that the screaming of their classmates was blocked out now.

Undistracted by the chaos outside, Fran’s team finished carving the carcass in about ten minutes. They didn’t do anything silly like puncture the venom sacs, either.

“It’s amazing how you carved that.”

“I-it’s so clean.”

“Anyone can do it once you know how. Also, what do we do with this?”

“Perfectly salvaged crystals must be submitted to the teacher.”

The teachers would take the crystals to the Adventurers’ Guild as payment for the lessons. The carcasses were provided by the guild, after all.

“We’ve prepared the meat, but how do we cook it?”

“It s-smells kind of w-weird…”

“Color’s bad, too.”

“And it’s all…fibrous. How’s this gonna taste?”

The team looked apprehensive about the meat in front of them.

Fran nodded in agreement. “Hm. It stinks and it’s bad. Grilling isn’t gonna work.”

“Oof…what do we do with it then?”

“Whatever we can. For starters, we’ll use this.” Fran took out an assortment of curry powders I had blended. There were several varieties, each made to suit the ingredient and cooking method with matching aroma and spiciness.

When in doubt, use curry. I remembered hearing something about how special forces operators always had curry powder on their person. No matter how bad the ingredient, sprinkling curry powder on top would make it better.

“What’s this?”

“Curry powder Teacher made. It’ll make any ingredient taste amazing. It’s the pinnacle of cooking.”

“I see. So the name of the dish is ‘curry?’”

“Hm. It is the ultimate dish.”

“Sounds amazing. It’s got a unique aroma. Is it a blend of different spices?”

Osleth was the only one who tasted the curry powder. To those uninterested in cooking, it was just another exotic spice blend.

“Wait,” said Carona. “Curry, you say? Isn’t that the new dish taking Granzell by storm?”

“Teacher made it.”

“Are you telling us that your teacher is also the Master of Curry? I heard that he is actually a master chef…but did he not also teach you adventuring?”

“Teacher is perfect,” said Fran, looking very proud. “He teaches me everything—cooking, combat, magic. Absolutely everything.”

“Goodness, is that so? Is he a renowned adventurer?”

“He’s not an adventurer. Teacher is Teacher.”

“I see…”

As we were talking, Osleth finished his assessment of the curry.

“I can’t quite figure out how to use this thing. Do we just use it as a dry rub?”

“That can work, but we’ll do something else today.”

Fran decided on their dish, but their method of cooking was different compared to the other groups. While the others cooked their meat in a frying pan over a campfire, Fran made a stove out of earth magic.

She took her dwarven-made knife and pan out of her Pocket Dimension. First-rate stuff—in price and performance, they were the equivalent of Earth’s specialty showcase products. The spices and milk she used for preparing and deodorizing the meat were also first class.

Fran also used fire, wind, and water magicks to create a pseudo-pressure cooker to tenderize the meat till it’d melt in your mouth. The pressure cooker looked simple, but adjusting the heat and maintaining pressure took fine work. No one here could tell, of course, but if a master mage saw it, they might think it was a waste of mana and effort.

They carried on cooking, with Fran giving orders.

To think that Fran would actually cooperate in the kitchen…! Before, she would’ve done everything by herself. I was so touched by her growth that I felt like crying. If only I had eyes!

Fran’s team finished their cooking and submitted it to Yafi. She looked impressed with the array of food they had cooked up.

“Well, well, well. Not a whiff of raccoon musk on this one! Why, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you didn’t use skunk racoon meat at all!”

The porcelain serving ware they’d served up their dishes on made it look like it had been prepared in a real kitchen, not outdoors. The other teams were equally surprised.

“What did they make?”

“Beats me…”

“It looks good, though. And they made it so quick…”

But the cooking wasn’t the only thing that impressed the students.

“Did you see how fast she carved up that thing? It was unreal!”

“I eavesdropped on her advice. It was super useful.”

“That’s a pro adventurer for you…”

“And she totally cooked it all with magic.”

“Man, I hope I can be as good as her someday…”

The gulf between their abilities was clear, even when it came to field cooking. Exhausted, the students looked at Fran enviously. Their fatigue was both physical and mental, after all that stink. About half the teams had damaged the venom sac of their skunk raccoon while carving it. Having to smell a stink strong enough to knock you out wears on you after a while.

“This looks delicious.” The tone of Yafi’s voice said it all: nothing had been good so far. The dishes had all been variations of salt-grilled skunk raccoon smothered in herbs and the occasional salty skunk raccoon soup. What’s more, half of them were tainted with punctured venom sacs, making the flavor a moot point.

And yet Yafi ate them all for the sake of grading her students. Even Fran was looking at her with some respect.

The only dish that looked halfway decent was made by a team that usually did well in Cooking. The cook was a handsome, dark-skinned young man with platinum blonde hair who had come from another continent.

Azalea, the desert kingdom, was well-known for using a variety of spices in its cooking. This time, the young man had made Azalea soup and tortillas filled with grilled meat. It looked a bit like curry soup, but upon closer inspection, it was more of a spicy stew. The filling of the tortilla was thinly sliced meat reminiscent of a kebab. 

Both used spices and coconut milk to cut the smell, but it wasn’t perfect, since they hadn’t properly bled the meat when butchering the carcass. Yafi merely called it “Acceptable.”

Now it was Fran’s turn to step up to the plate.

“Here goes.”

“Hm.”

“Did you tenderize the meat before mincing it? And is this cheese on top?”

“I took as much fat from the rib as I could, tenderized it until it was really thin, then added some special spices before grilling it.”

Basically, she’d made a Salisbury steak with curry powder and then melted some cheese on top of it.

“And how does it taste—” Yafi cut the patty with a fork and slowly put it in her mouth. After a few chews, her eyes widened. “Delicious! I’d pay to eat this! Such a complex flavor…spicier than Azalean cooking, but…I can’t stop eating it!”

Yafi launched into an unexpectedly detailed analysis. I’d thought she was just a former adventurer who got stuck teaching the kids outdoor cooking, but she actually knew her culinary stuff.

“Is this jerky?” asked Yafi. “You made it in such a short time.”

“It was made with magic.”

“You sure are handy with it. Your use of marinades and spices really brings out the meat’s unique flavor. It would be perfect with a beer.”

“I made a pâté out of it, too. You slather it in this crêpe and eat it.”

“Another strange dish. And—goodness, it’s also delicious. I can’t believe it.”

Fran managed to mask the odor by turning it into paste and using spices, which was the benefit of maxing out your Cooking. She picked dishes that I had made in the past and reproduced them here.

“And lastly we have this strange soup…it is soup, isn’t it? It’s rather gloopy.”

“This is curry, the greatest dish in the world.”

“S-sounds intimidating. Let’s have a bite, then…”

Fran’s final dish was curry with a ton of fillings. She didn’t have rice, so she just replaced it with more soup. The spicy red curry was cooked in the pseudo-pressure cooker until the meat and vegetables inside it were tender.

Yafi took another bite, and her eyes went still wider with surprise. “Such complex flavor! It’s spicy, but I could keep eating it until it was all gone…”

She had only eaten a few bites so far, saying she wouldn’t be able to grade on a full stomach, but Yafi was clearly hooked. Fran’s team definitely scored well.

“L-let’s have some, too.” Carona and the others had resisted eating Fran’s cooking until Yafi graded it. They’d allowed themselves one single bite each after they’d finished cooking.

“Hm.”

“F-finally.”

“It looks great.”

“Let’s eat!”

“Woof, woof!”

Jet emerged from the shadows to get his portion, but he looked like he was playing his excitement up a bit, probably because he didn’t want to hurt Fran’s feelings. Try as he might, he was betrayed by the way his tail wagged. Fran wasn’t upset with him, though; she didn’t look like she was enjoying the food, either. To a curry lover like Fran, the results were unacceptable.

Still, her teammates thought it was great. Fran might not have felt it was good compared to my cooking, but it was really far above your average meal.

Meanwhile, the rest of her classmates were eyeing us with envy. In this class, you were required to eat everything you made, and the other teams were having to force their awful food down their throats.

The Azalean hunk was the first to speak up. “H-hey…do you mind if we have a bite of your leftovers?” Being a good cook himself, he was interested in this new dish.

“Sure.”

“Really?! Thanks!”

At once, everyone raised their hands.

“What? Then I want some, too!”

“And me! Don’t forget me!”

There wasn’t going to be enough to go around. To those poor souls who lost the rock paper scissors battle…better luck next time!

At the end of the trying Cooking class, Fran’s team got a high score. They’d made the most and the best out of what they had.

After Cooking, Fran went to the cafeteria for lunch, as did Carona and the others. The meal they’d had at Cooking class wasn’t going to be enough for athletic students like them. As for the other students, they needed to wash the stink out of their mouths.

As everyone happily ate their school lunches, Fran took out her own meal.

The Academy allowed students to bring their own food if they wanted to. Students who didn’t live in the dorms usually brought food in from outside. Fran’s meal was, of course, curry. She wasn’t satisfied with the skunk raccoon curry they’d made earlier. Still, to think that she would wash the taste of curry out with more curry…

Is it, uh, good?

“Hm. Now this is the stuff.”

“Woof!”

Fran nodded to herself as she scooped more curry into her mouth. Jet was in full puppy mode, making a mess of curry around his muzzle.

Carona watched them with great interest. “That’s the same curry we cooked in Cooking class, right?”

“Hm? It is, but it’s different.”

“So…it’s not curry?”

“It’s curry, but nothing like the one we made. This is the real deal. That last one was terrible.”

“Really? But it was delicious.”

“Hm. Try some of this.”

“Oh? Th-thank you. If you’ll excuse me…” Carona reservedly brought her mouth to the spoon Fran had stuck out. “D-delicious! You’re right, this is nothing like the one from earlier!”

The day was full of surprises for Carona. The curry Fran made in Cooking class might’ve been tasty, but the ingredients weren’t great and it didn’t pair well with curry powder. Compared to that, the one Fran was eating was made with the finest ingredients and no compromises. It truly was the ultimate curry.

Fran looked very proud when she saw how impressed Carona was. “Heh heh.”

“Did your teacher make this?”

“Hm!”

“Are you sure he’s an adventurer? Maybe he used to be a chef.”

Fran was very pleased by all the praise for curry, that greatest of dishes. She took another plate of curry from Pocket Dimension and set it before Carona.

“M-may I? Really?”

“Hm.”

“Thank you so much!”

Carona smiled and thanked her, her eyes shining with gratitude. Although she’d finished her cafeteria meal, there was room for more.

“Let’s eat.” She used her cutlery with a noble’s grace—but she was a very enthusiastic noble. Her spoon moved without pause, scooping up curry off the plate.

“I-is it really that good?” asked Osleth. “Do you mind if we have a taste?”

Coming from Cooking class together, we were sitting at the same table as Osleth and the boys. They couldn’t hold back their hunger after seeing Carona’s enthusiasm, and Osleth finally asked if they could try some.

Fran was usually stingy about sharing curry, but friendship had sprouted between them after their short time in cooking class. She readily gave everyone a portion, complete with pickles on top.

“This is great!”

“Super tasty!”

“Nom nom!”

But if she was liberally giving the boys curry—

“Gulp…”

“Slurp…”

Despite eating their fill, the classmates from Cooking in the cafeteria were starting to look like a pack of ravenous animals. They glared at Fran’s table with murder in their eyes. Having eaten far worse fare than Carona and her group, they longed for delicious food.

In fact, the aroma of the curry had attracted the attention of the whole cafeteria, not just her classmates.

“Hrm…”

“Ruff.”

Although Fran and Jet could laugh while surrounded by monsters, they were really feeling the intensity of the starving students.

“I guess…you can have this.”

Fran, no—

“Uooooooh!”

As soon as Fran took out a pot from Pocket Dimension, the students let out an earth-shaking roar. It might as well have been a war cry.

Th-they’re gonna riot!

Fran didn’t even have enough time to hand the curry out. We were on the verge of a curry-induced riot! I was ready to put the pot away, but Osleth, Marchess, and Rels organized the crowd into a line and served them their curry.

“This was kind of our fault, anyway. We’ll handle it.”

“He’s right.”

“Wh-who knows what might happen if we let them be?”

The Special Combat class aside, other students fell in line. Curry provisions proceeded to be handed out in an orderly fashion.

“It’s hundreds of times better than cafeteria food!”

“Hundreds? Not even close!”

“You’re right! It’s thousands of times better!”

Fran looked sadly at the empty pot of curry as praise erupted all around her. The kids loved it. However, there was someone in the cafeteria who wasn’t so pleased at the turn of events, and it wasn’t Fran or her group.

“’Scuse me, beastgirl. Mind if we have a chat?”

“Hm?”

“Mind telling me what you’re doing without my permission?” The man sounded like a common street thug. Above his bulging eyes and throbbing veins sat a white chef’s hat. “The name’s Noritz and I do the cooking here. Mind if I ask you a few questions?”

Uh-oh. He looks pissed.

Head chef Noritz looked like he was ready to throw down, but it turned out that he was genuinely curious about curry. He’d sounded mad, but all he really wanted was a taste of Fran’s curry. It isn’t cute when a middle-aged man tries to be roundabout.

As much as he wanted to eat the curry, he was still upset by the sudden ruckus and hurt by what the students had said. Still, the unique aroma had drawn his attention to the new cuisine.

All these conflicting emotions had forced him to be roundabout.

“Ahh. It’s delicious! And you’re using a ton of spices, of course!” Noritz analyzed the curry Fran gave him as he ate it. “Yeah, there’s no beating the original. You’re two to three steps ahead of the commercially available recipes.”

“You know about curry?”

“Of course. I bought my recipe from the Lucille Trade Association. It caught my attention since it was developed by a silver-rank chef instead of gold.”

Noritz was also a member of the Chefs’ Guild. While not a large organization, most chefs from large restaurants were members. He had bought the curry recipe upon learning that it was developed by a silver guild member.

“I was shocked. But the cost of making it according to the recipe…”

Noritz’s number one focus when making a meal was nutritional balance followed by volume. Flavor came last. He wasn’t trying to make bad food, but he had to work within the constraints of his budget.

He might have managed something if he were only making curry for a single household, but he literally had thousands of mouths to feed. Whatever adjustments and compromises he made, however small, would compound rapidly.

“How much did it cost to make this, by the way?”

“It was—”

Noritz held his head in his hand when Fran told him of the cost and all the ingredients that went into it. Monster bone broth, liberal amounts of monster meat, magical plants, and that wasn’t even half of it. They weren’t items that would fit the budget of a school cafeteria.

Noritz had tried to make his own cheap and cheerful curry, but he just couldn’t get it right. Cutting back on expensive spices changed the flavor so much that it tasted like mildly spicy soup.

Spices were expensive in Belioth—or rather, they were much cheaper in Bulbola. Using the prescribed amount of them would hike up the cost pretty fast.

Fran sympathized with Noritz as she watched him fret. After all, he really just wanted to feed the students delicious food.

“Can’t we help him, Teacher?”

Hmm…

Noritz’s problem was that he was trying to reproduce the recipe he’d gotten from Bulbola. He was fixated on it being the only version of curry.

“I have an idea,” said Fran.

“What? You mean you’ll help me out?”

“Hm.”

“Hey, thanks! So what do we do?”

“Lend me your kitchen.”

“All yours!”

Did you think of something, Fran?

We’ll see the spices they have so you can make something delicious out of them!

She’s throwing it on me?!

Hang on, I don’t know what seasonings they have—

Don’t worry! I know you can do it, Teacher!

I felt the full weight of Fran’s trust. Well, I wasn’t going to let her down!

After checking the pantry for ingredients, I began guiding her as she cooked. It wasn’t the smoothest process, but I thought it turned out pretty good. Fran and Jet had first dibs, and it was very well received.

Then came time for Noritz. “This…is curry, but it isn’t. It’s cheap, but still tasty.”

“That’s mapo curry rice,” said Fran.

“Mapo? Funny name.”

“It’s a little different from curry but it’s good.”

We made mapo curry that used fewer imported spices and more pepper. Peppers were actually pretty cheap in this country, since they grew everywhere.

Noritz hadn’t thought to use it as a substitute ingredient in curry. It just never crossed his mind. He didn’t think that a lot of cheap pepper could replace exotic spices. Besides, they smelled different.

I honed in on locally available peppers and sauces, adjusting the sugar and seasonings to make a mapo style curry. It had a different kind of spiciness from regular curry, a sort of ethnic flair. The students would love the novelty of it.

“If you change the seasoning and consistency, you can put it in steamed bread or stuff it in a roll.”

“I see! And you can put whatever filling you want in it! Now this is a revelation!”

We then taught him curry fried rice as well as how to incorporate curry into his pre-existing menu. With Noritz’s skill, he’d be able to make the cafeteria even better.

“Thanks. I’ll show those punks what cafeteria food is made of. Now, about your compensation…”

“Hm? I don’t need any.”

Fran had only wanted to make it up to him for the commotion she caused. Besides, it was also good for the students. And if she asked for payment, all the belt-cinching and budget-pinching Noritz had been doing would be for naught.

When she told him that, Noritz cried that he would pay for it out of his own wallet.

At the end of a heated negotiation, it was decided that the Academy would draft an introduction letter to a trade association they were in touch with for Fran. Good timing, since we needed a lot of pepper down the road.

We finished our business at the cafeteria and left. That was when we ran right into an unpleasant encounter.

“Wha…!”

It was a boy with brown hair, three or four years old. He was smiling as he ran into the cafeteria, excited for his food, but he stopped when he saw Fran.

“Oh…”

They stared at each other. His smile faded and turned into a glare. His eyes brimmed with rage and a hint of fear. His gaze…seemed familiar.

They kept staring one another down until a woman accompanying the boy touched his shoulder. “Come on, Romeo. You’re blocking the way.”

“S-sorry.”

“We’ll go inside and get you some food, okay?”

“Okay.”

The woman (probably his caretaker) bowed an apology to us. The boy, Romeo, continued glaring at Fran.

So that’s Romeo.

“Hm…”

Look, don’t worry about it, Fran.

Those eyes… I’ve seen them somewhere.

Whose, Romeo’s?

“Hm.”

Apparently, Fran wasn’t bothered by Romeo glaring at her.

Do you remember where?

“Hm…”

This was our first meeting with Romeo. Had Fran mistaken his fear and hatred for the emotions of someone she’d fought in the past?

“But where…?”

A few days had passed since Fran came to the Academy.

Although Fran was still feared as an instructor, the students were getting used to her as a fellow learner. They exchanged greetings when they saw her, maybe slipping in a request that she take it easy on them if she was teaching dueling class that day. They ate the new and improved lunch menu together and assisted each other during classes.

As for Fran, she seemed to be enjoying the student life. She didn’t just nap through classes, either. She was fully attentive during classes involving spirits and magic, though she still dozed through the classes that didn’t interest her.

Look, I tried my best to wake her up at first. But when she started using Skills to block me out, I ended up letting her be. The last thing I wanted was for Fran to hate school because I wouldn’t stop hovering over her.

It wasn’t just boring classes leaving her dissatisfied, though.

You know you can’t go all out, Fran. This is a school, after all.

“Hm…”

“Woof…”

Fran and Jet were getting frustrated over not being able to use the full extent of their powers.

There’s going to be an excursion for Survival class soon. You might be able to beat up some monsters.

“Really?”

No promises. If nothing else, you’ll be able to spar with Jet outside of town.

“Ooh, I see.”

“Bark, bark!”

So make sure to hold back during the next dueling class.

“Hm!”

“Woof!”

It was actually a custom for the Special Combat class (along with some other classes) to go on an excursion this time of year. The destination was the ridges of Lake Vivian. There, students would be able to practice aquatic combat.

For those from Belioth, it was a good opportunity to visit a local landmark. For those from the outside, it was a rare opportunity to train in a unique environment.

Fran would be the chaperoning instructor.

Looking forward to it.

You’ll be working as a bodyguard, too.

The adventurers of Lake Vivian would also be on payroll, though the students themselves were pretty sturdy. They wouldn’t be in any immediate danger, surely. We’d take a carriage there. Three days to get there, three days to stay, three days to get back.

And once that ends, so will your job as instructor.

“Hm…” Fran looked slightly glum at that. Academy life wasn’t just drudgery; it had its fun moments. As much as she wanted to get it over with, part of her was going to miss it.

Fran?

“Yeah?”

If you want, you could work full time at the Academy. Make it official. You can just enroll as a student, too.

This was Fran’s first experience with school, her first time interacting with lots of people her age. If Fran found a place for herself here, staying was an option.

But Fran shook her head. “I’m…good.”

Are you sure?

“Hm. It’s fun here, but being an adventurer is more fun. Besides, I can’t get stronger if I stay here.”

You can get smarter. It’s a bit roundabout, but it’s just as valid a way to get stronger.

“Even so… I thought about it when we were talking about evolution.”

The lecture?

“Hm. After hearing what Holial said, I thought it’d be really nice if everyone could evolve.”

By “everyone,” she meant all the other Black Cats. Fran was still fighting for the sake of her tribe, fighting to lift their curse. Hearing Holial’s lecture had renewed her resolve.

I’m guessing you’re ready for whatever comes.

“Of course.”

The path to lifting the curse would not be straight and narrow, but wild and paved with thorns. The Black Cat tribe would need to defeat an S-Threat or greater Fiend on their own. This was the requirement.

So far, no Black Cat had been strong enough to help with the cause. The Black Cats of the Beastman Nation would have started training by now—they were probably out hunting Fiends this very moment. But it would take time for that training to bear fruit. What’s more, an S-Threat Fiend wasn’t something you could simply defeat by power leveling. You needed to be strong in every sense of the word, with experience coursing through your blood and training stamped into your very flesh. How long would it take for the tribe to get there?

Fran would either have to go at it alone or look for help from the weakest of the beast tribes. Then again, there had been outliers like Kiara. She’d become powerful through an Extra Skill called War God’s Favor. Perhaps more Black Cats with her power level would begin to appear.

Regardless, we couldn’t rely on a bunch of mights and could-be saviors.

“I have to get stronger. Much stronger.”

Can’t argue with you there.

Either alone or with others, Fran would have to get even stronger than she already was.

Anyway, let’s go shopping today. We need to stock up on peppers, too.

“Hm.” Fran gathered herself and got ready to leave the school. Adults dressed in ostentatious formal attire passed by, neither students nor instructors.

The mood of the Magic Academy was a bit different that day, and we had the entrance ceremony to thank for that…not that it was all that big of a deal there. After all, new students enrolled in the Academy once every four months, so they didn’t feel the need for much fanfare. Only the students and a few teachers participated. Even Winalene wasn’t in attendance. Mundane stuff.

Fran was told that she didn’t need to attend, either. She could have if she had wanted to, but of course, she declined. Fran was the type to fall asleep during her own entrance ceremony, so I can only imagine what would happen if she attended someone else’s. No need to throw a wet rag on some freshmen’s first day.

The ceremony had ended and the teachers were now leading the new students on a tour of the Academy. The excited chatter of freshmen brightened the campus air.

Freshmen are always so optimistic, no matter what world it is.

They’re like this in your world, too, Teacher?

Pretty much. The only difference is the crazy age gap.

The age demographics were all over the place. Ten years old at the youngest, over twenty for the oldest. Most of them were around Fran’s age, ranging from twelve to fourteen.

It was the kind of age gap you would see in a part-time school, the only difference being that the kids and adults shared the same classroom. It was like if grade-schoolers were classmates with university students. This wasn’t a strange arrangement in this world, however. The adults weren’t embarrassed and the kids didn’t think it was weird. That being said, they still congregated with their own age group, just like on Earth.

The eyes of the freshmen gleamed with wonder as they took in all the marvels of the Magic Academy.

As we watched them pass, one of them called out to us. “Fran?”

“Hm?”

“I knew it was you!”

Fran turned around and gave the person a rare look of surprise. “Carna? What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question.” Carna, the girl we’d encountered while crossing the Granzell border, stood before us in an Academy uniform. Apparently, she was a freshman too. “Did you not attend the entrance ceremony?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“I didn’t see you inside. But you must have enrolled—you’re here, after all.”

“Hm. I did.” Even if Fran’s enrollment would be a temporary affair. “They said I didn’t need to attend.”

“Is that so?”

“Hm.”

“Either way, I’m glad to see you again. I thought you had a sudden change of heart since I didn’t see you at the ceremony. That was the only explanation, I thought—your abilities are, of course, more than enough to get you in.”

Fran and Carna weren’t on the same wavelength. Mainly because Carna thought Fran was a freshman like her.

We’d only told Carna that the Magic Academy was our destination. Considering that they were the same age, her misunderstanding was understandable.

“I look forward to studying with you,” said Carna.

That figured. But then—

“Oh…? But your uniform is quite different from mine.”

“This is the Special Combat class uniform.”

“Special Combat?” Carna repeated. “Is that not one of the Advanced Classes…?”

“Hm.”

“Are you not starting with Fundamentals? Even if you skip that, there is still Basics to go through before you get to Practical…”

Carna finally realized Fran’s strange circumstances.

We explained a bit, and she finally understood that Fran wasn’t a freshman.

“I see. I didn’t think that you would be an instructor here, although your abilities more than qualify you for the role.”

“This entire time, you wanted to come to the Magic Academy?”

“Huh? Well, yes…” Carna had kept her destination a secret because she didn’t know whether she would be accepted by the Academy. Rejection was always a possibility. “I have my, ah, circumstances…”

Hmm. Circumstances that could have gotten her rejected by the Academy. Circumstances she wouldn’t tell us even if we asked.

But Fran wasn’t interested in that. “Where’d the other two go?”

“You mean Dianne and Shera?”

“Hm. Those two.”

As ever, Fran didn’t bother remembering the names of Carna’s servants.

“Shera is looking for a job in the city. Once I graduate, we will return home together.”

It would take years before Carna graduated. Shera would be paying quite a bit for accommodations in that time, so she was looking for a job in Ladyblue to cover some of the costs.

“What about the knight?”

“I don’t know about Dianne. Her task was to get me safely to this place. But she said she would also be staying in Ladyblue for the time being.”

“I see.”

“I know she’s a knight errant, but she hasn’t decided on where to go yet. I don’t know whether she’s gone off today, either. Apparently, she couldn’t come to the ceremony because she had an appointment.”

Either way, I was glad she wasn’t around.

“Oh, I must be going now,” said Carna. We could hear the teacher calling for her. “I apologize for taking your time.” She started to hurry back to the group, then stopped. “Um…!”

“Hm?”

Carna paused for a moment, a thoughtful look on her face. “We’ll see each other again, won’t we?”

“Hm. See you around.”

“Yes! See you again!” Carna smiled with relief when Fran nodded and waved at her. She must’ve figured that she was bothering her since Fran hadn’t smiled once during the conversation. But Fran was just as happy to meet Carna again as vice versa.

Looks like you got another friend.

“Hm.”

Hopefully it would ease Fran’s mood. She’d been acting more irritable lately, sometimes even getting aggressive for no reason. She went overboard during one of her dueling classes till a student cried, pulverized some out-of-town adventurers who picked a fight with her…some real random acts of violence. She must have had a lot of pent-up frustration at that point. Hopefully she could vent more outside of school hours.

You don’t have classes today, so how about we go to town and get some good food?

“Hm.”

“Woof, woof!”

I was really grateful for Jet at times like this. His barking said, “Good food? Awesome!” and his levity was infectious. I could feel Fran’s steps getting lighter.

By the time she was in town, she was set on walking and eating.

“We’ll check out the west side today!”

“Bark!”

We had yet to set foot in the western quarters in Ladyblue.

Girl and wolf happily walked the unknown roads of Ladyblue. Getting lost was a given in this town, and they made the best of it every time. In fact, they got lost at every opportunity, taking every unfamiliar alleyway.

They knew from experience that delicious food waited at the end of these strange paths, even if finding their way back was difficult. As they enjoyed the fruits of their latest expedition—freshly baked waffles—they suddenly came to a halt.

“Weird mana signature.”

“Grr!”

A gigantic and aggressive mana signature had spiked up in the distance. We looked up and spotted a fountain of reddish-black mana bursting into the sky. From here, we couldn’t get a clear picture of where or what it was.

Fran Air Hopped to the rooftops to get a better view. We could hear shouting from afar now, and it did not sound like a good time.

“Let’s go!” shouted Fran.

“Woof!”

Fran and Jet chased after the mysterious mana. It was going to be dangerous, but there was no stopping them. Their eyes blazed, dead set on venting their frustrations on whatever was causing trouble.

They ran over the rooftops together, scaring the living daylights out of residents poking their heads out their windows to see what the commotion was about. Eventually, Fran reached the site of the anomaly: a small square in Ladyblue that was packed with people.

Fran looked confused as she gazed down at the square from twenty meters overhead.

“What is that thing…?”

“Woof.”

I felt the same way.

People cleared the square, unveiling three monsters standing in the center, all bipedal humanoids…and not the kind that could blend into a crowd. They had animal heads with muscular bodies, and stood three meters tall. They were also covered with fur. How could such monstrous beasts have snuck into the city?

The one standing closest to us was a man-bird covered with black feathers. Its head was that of a rooster, its arms were transformed into wings, and its legs and feet had been reshaped into talons. The only thing human about the chicken man was its muscular body.

There was a race of birdmen in this world—a type of beastman that could acquire avian features when they awakened—but this man-bird was clearly a monster. I could even sense a crystal within its body.

To the right of the man-bird was a man-bull of similar size, bipedal and covered in red fur. Crowning its head were a pair of one-meter horns. Though it was similar to a Fiend called the minotaur, a minotaur had human limbs. This creature had hooves for hands and feet, and lacked the Malice of a Fiend.

Behind them stood a monster more foreboding than the rest. Unlike the others, this one wasn’t covered in fur or feathers. Its skin was smooth, and it looked like a statue of a woman clad in armor. Although this knight moved slowly, its mana far surpassed the others.

At first, I thought it was a golem monster in the same vein as a Gray Golem, but its appearance and internals were not the same. Similar, maybe, but this thing was clearly superior. Where on earth had it come from?

“Huh…?”

Fran?

Fran also thought something was wrong with the golem. Unlike me, she focused on the creature’s face. “I think…I’ve seen that face before…”

Huh?

I looked at the golem’s face again. The face of a woman without defining features…and yet it did seem familiar. But how? Was I just seeing things? The face on the golem was feminine, but its features were so scrambled that it could’ve belonged to anyone.

Now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

“Let’s go save him!”

Next to the monsters was a man who’d failed to get away in time. He stood still, face twisted with fear. Anyone would be frozen stiff if monsters suddenly started showing up in a city center. But there was something odd about him, too.

Fran, wait! Something’s not right!

The man’s fear wasn’t just directed toward the monsters. I perked up my ears to hear his mutterings.

“Why is this happening…? I don’t wanna be a monster…but I have to or he’ll think I’m a traitor…aaah, no! Why is this happening?!”

Traitor? 

The man cursed someone under his breath. With a final vengeful scream, he thrust his hand into his gut.

Mana slowly gathered around his palm, initiating a change within the man. A crystal broke through his stomach, peeking its face out into the world. The man pulled his hand out of his belly to reveal his prize: the bloodied crystal.

“Gaaaaah!” With a painful cry, a torrent of mana surged out of the crystal. Reddish-black, just like the one we’d seen when we sensed the anomaly.

The ominous mana twisted the man’s body, breaking and snapping bones into place as he expanded in size. His clothes and adornments ripped away from him.

Ten seconds. In a mere ten seconds, a new monster was born.

“Shhhqueak!” The man-rat shivered as steam rose from its body.

“He turned into a monster!”

“B-bark!”

Did the other monsters go through the same thing? Were there others like them in the city? Maybe this situation was worse than I’d expected…

Identify…?

I thought of getting whatever information I could, but no dice. The results of Identify were scrambled. No name, no stats. But I’d seen this happen before, when I Identified Fanatix in the capital. Were they remnants of the Fanatix replicas? They looked like monsters, though, and they didn’t repulse me the way the replicas had.

These other monsters were similarly scrambled. Man-bird, man-bull, golem. I couldn’t get a read on any of them.

“What should we do, Teacher?”

Hmm…

What now? Attack? Fighting there would cause a ton of collateral damage if we weren’t careful. Lead them somewhere deserted? I doubted the monsters would give us that luxury.

“SQUAWK!”

“Eeeek!”

The man-bird had locked onto an escaping civilian. It snapped its head toward him and lunged, strands of slobber dripping from its open beak. Its eyes were filled with the instinct to slaughter. It might have been human once, but it had lost all its reason.

“Look out!”

“SQUAWK!”

Fran jumped and fell between the man-bird and its prey.

“BAWK!”

“Tsch!” Fran deflected the man-bird’s kick with me. The kick was so pointed and impressive as to be beautiful. Apparently, the man-bird had Kick Mastery. It flapped its wings to regain its balance and attacked again. The combination of the monster’s abilities and martial arts was horrifying.

Fran grabbed the fallen man’s collar and pulled him up by the neck, circulation be damned.

The kick hit a tree behind her, tearing into its trunk and roots. Very sharp indeed, but that wasn’t all: the area surrounding the talon began to blacken, turning into stone.

Careful, Fran! This thing’s no ordinary chicken man!

“Hm.” For some reason, Fran nodded happily. Was she getting excited now that she finally had a real challenge? As she’d grown stronger, so had her tendencies as a blood knight.

“Jet, toss—I mean, take him to safety!”

She was about to tell Jet to toss the poor man, too! She was only focused on fighting the monster in front of her.

Fran tossed the now-suffocating man to Jet and readied herself again. The man-bird roared upon seeing her prepared to fight.

“Caaaw!”

The man-bird chased Fran to the air with bloodshot eyes. Those wings didn’t look like they could carry its weight, but a little magic went a long way. It made a beeline for Fran, but it wasn’t fast enough to catch her.

“Squawk!”

“Too slow.”

“S-squawk?!” The man-bird looked pretty surprised that she’d dodged, probably having expected her to be easy prey.

Fran threw the man-bird off-balance by deflecting its attack with me. She slashed downward, aiming to open up its left rib. Fran was planning to finish it then and there, but the man-bird dove, narrowly escaping death.

I heard the breaking of bone, but I hadn’t gone all the way through. The man-bird continued plummeting until it crashed into the stone pavement beneath. It was vomiting blood, but still breathing.

Still, it was dying, and Fran readied me to finish the job.

But there was interference.

“Moooo!”

“SQUEAK!”

These guys look like muscleheads, but they can use magic!

The man-bull’s wind spell and the man-rat’s thunder spell flashed before Fran. While they lacked strength, there was enough coordination for them to be dangerous. But where was the golem? It had suddenly disappeared—

“Kyaaaa!”

“Waaaah!”

Screams and rumbling sounded in the distance.

The golem had moved from its original location and was now in front of a general store. Was there something inside that had caught its interest?

I scanned the store: there were people left inside. They probably hadn’t found a good opportunity to escape. But there was also something else…the presence of another person, vague but definite. Like someone was concealing themself with manatech. Perhaps a noble in disguise.

“Goooooh!”

This is bad!

The golem had ducked its head to force its way through the door. The people inside were in danger.

“Come on, Teacher!”

Teleporting us in!

Attacking the golem from here might hurt the people in the store. We would first need to get them to safety. We teleported inside to find frightened men and women huddled up against each other. With them was a boy we recognized.

“Romeo?”

“Hn!” Romeo was there. Theraclede too, but I couldn’t sense any of his usual ferocious power. His powers had been sealed by the manatech placed on him. Theraclede must’ve been the source of that vague presence I’d sensed.

Measures needed to be taken every time Romeo left the school. With Romeo being innocent in all this, the pair were allowed to go out from time to time with Winalene’s permission. When they did, Theraclede had to be restrained…but that also meant he couldn’t protect himself.

“…”

“…”

Fran and Romeo stared at each other the way they had at the cafeteria. A strange tension hung in the air, but now really wasn’t the time. Behind us, we could hear the golem breaking into the store.

Fran, we have to move!

“Right!”

But we were faced with a problem. The store didn’t have a back door, and the front door was blocked by the golem. Meanwhile, we needed to evacuate the store owner, the two women shoppers, Theraclede, and Romeo. The door wasn’t going to fit all five.

Then we’ll have to use the back!

Unfortunately, this was our only way out. After confirming that there was nobody on the other side of the wall, I used Aura Blade to cut out a pretty perfect rectangle, if I do say so myself. I pushed it out with telekinesis, bringing down the wall of the store and the building behind it.

It looked like someone’s house. We were definitely breaking and entering, but this was an emergency. I promised to pay for the damages later.

“Everyone, this way!”

“R-right!”

“Come on!”

The people were shocked by a little girl who suddenly appeared and carved an opening into the wall. But the groanings of the golem reminded them of the situation they were in. They got up and got going.

The owner and the shoppers ran through the makeshift exit without complaint.

Romeo didn’t move, though—he kept glaring. Did he resent her help?

Theraclede, a conflicted look on his face, picked him up. “I… Thanks.”

“Hmph. Just hurry up and go.”

“Right.” Theraclede bowed his head and ran.

All that was left for us to do was defeat the golem. However—

“Gooooorgh!”

“Huh?”

No wonder we didn’t see it move!

Just when we thought we lost sight of the golem, it reappeared before Theraclede. This thing could teleport! It reached out to Theraclede and Romeo. Were they the targets? I’d thought the monsters just wanted to kill Fran!

“Ugh!” Fran immediately jumped toward Theraclede and grabbed his arm. If it were up to her, she would’ve flung him out of harm’s way so hard it’d hurt. After all, that would’ve saved him, technically. But she couldn’t do it. Not when hurting Theraclede would hurt Romeo.

She pulled him back as gently as she could and took his place. She would protect Theraclede—or rather, Romeo—even if it hurt her. Fran had really regretted harming Romeo in the first place. Maybe she wasn’t consciously thinking of making amends, but she was sure acting like it.

“Goooorgh!”

“Haaaa!”

The golem’s punch collided with Fran’s kick. The dull crash was followed by the sound of cracking, from the golem’s fist or Fran’s bones or both at once.

Fran was blown away by the force of the impact. She crashed through the store shelves before finally slamming into the wall.

“Ack…”

Fran, are you okay?! Greater Heal!

I’m fine!

The barrier had absorbed most of the damage. The impact had just knocked the wind out of her.

She got back on her freshly healed feet and started casting a spell. “Stun Bolt!”

“Goooooh!”

Fran attacked the golem to distract it, but it remained unfazed. It reached for Theraclede, completely ignoring Fran.

I quickly used telekinesis to lift the two of them up.

“M-Mister!” cried Romeo.

“It’s okay, Romeo,” said Theraclede. “Just hold on.”

“O-okay.”

Romeo yelped, startled by the fact that they were suddenly floating. This was probably all a bit too much stimulation for a three-year-old, though Theraclede had done a good job talking him down. Romeo squeezed Theraclede’s arm, and his shivering came to a halt. They looked like father and son, which was pretty weird, given Theraclede was part of the picture.

In any case, we tossed them to the front of the store. Bit of a rough landing, but they’d live. Fran had just broken her bones for them, after all, so they’d better appreciate it!

Teacher, where’s the crystal?

I can’t get a read on it!

“In that case…!” Fran readied me and flanked the golem to cut it in half. She lifted her sword and brought it down, making a vertical cut so fast you couldn’t see the sword flash.

Before the two halves could regenerate, she made another horizontal slash. Then she started dicing. She rained slashes on the golem, slowly turning it into rubble. Ten seconds later, bits of golem were scattered all over the place.

Still, the golem persisted. It walked forward, its wounds healing. The monster was more dangerous because of its immortality than because of its strength. And the creature wasn’t the only threat we had to deal with, either.

“Squawk!” screeched the man-bird.

“Kyaaaa!” Romeo cried out at the same time. 

I could hear the other monsters outside, too. We teleported away from the golem to find Theraclede and Romeo blocked off by the other monsters.

Dammit!

We couldn’t fire our spells with them so close to Theraclede, but teleport wouldn’t get us there in time, either!

Fran ran as fast as she could, but the man-bird’s talon was already descending.

“I won’t let you!” Fran kept running. As long as they didn’t die, we would figure something out. Still, we didn’t know whether Theraclede could survive even a single attack in his current state. We had to place our hope in the small chance that he could.

But then something completely unexpected happened right before our eyes.

“Squawk!”

“Ku ha ha ha! I have arrived!”

Something fell from the sky, crushing the man-bird to bits.

The monster erupted into cracking bone and sloppy flesh. Blood splattered everywhere.

“Huh?”

What?

Fran and I were startled. Neither of us saw this coming.

The man-bird had been turned to a bloody paste after it was squashed by the mysterious figure. The black humanoid swung his fist and obliterated the man-bull, and he grabbed the man-rat by the neck and lifted it off the ground. He was shorter than the man-rat, but he had no problem keeping its feet in the air.

The man-rat resisted with jolts of pale blue lightning but to no avail. The figure completely resisted shock and paralysis.

He looked human—more human than the man-bird and the others, at least—but he clearly wasn’t. His skin was charcoal-black. The horns of an ogre crowned his head and sharp fangs jutted from his lips. His two-meter body was naked, but he had no genitals. It was smooth as a doll down there.

Which was fine by him, I suspect, because he wasn’t even alive.

“An undead…?”

“Oh? You know what I am, child?”

Definitely an undead.

A Wiseogre Draugr, to be precise. An elite undead, but there was something more to it. His speech reminded me of another undead we had met in the past.

“Ah…Black Bone Brigade.”

“I didn’t expect you to know that name! Who are you, child?”

“Fran. Adventurer. I’ve fought one of you before.”

“You did well to survive the encounter! Though I must say they are unworthy of the name Black Bone if they cannot deal with a little girl such as you. Who was it?”

“Ice Man.”

At the sound of that name, a look of surprise came over the face of the pitch-black undead. He’d been grinning as he looked down on Fran, but now his face was grave.

“Oh? I didn’t think I would hear the name of my missing comrade here. I take it you defeated him?”

“Hm.”

“Ku ha ha ha ha! Well, my deepest apologies! You are no ordinary child!” A whole array of emotions flashed through his face, an unusual amount for an undead. Rage for his fallen friend, excitement in the face of a powerful enemy, and finally, joyful exuberance.

“Excellent! I will become much stronger by consuming the warrior who defeated Ice Man! I will drink your blood and feast on your flesh!”

The undead lacked the ability to sense his enemy’s strength, and he wasn’t much in the detection department, either. Although he could enhance his physical strength, his weapon arts and masteries weren’t that high. He was a musclehead among muscleheads, the kind who brute-forced his way to victory. On the flip side, he had lots of Regeneration and Enhanced Physique to make up for that.

“I shall give you the privilege of knowing my name! I am the mighty Charred Man! Eighth Seat of the Black Bones, though I suppose recent events have made me Seventh!”

Charred Man enlarged his body. Though not as drastic a change as Jet, he gained a good meter in height, making him stand over three meters tall. He already dwarfed the man-rat he was choking out. Actually, that man-rat was looking pretty limp by now. Was it dead yet?

As for the size of Charred Man, he hadn’t had any size-altering Skills when I Identified him. Was this one of the functions of Undead Manipulation? Maybe he had unique ways of using his Skill that Identify couldn’t pick up.

I’d joked about there being hidden undead before, but I didn’t think one would actually show up! The mysterious stranger—the one described as pitch black—must have been Charred Man. Surprisingly, his size and appearance matched the descriptions on the quest board pretty well.

“What are you doing here?” asked Fran.

“Scouting out the high elf! That thing’s a real piece of work! Wouldn’t want to get on her bad side!”

Huh. So after getting information on Winalene, they’d decided that it was best to stay out of her way.

“But enough talk. Have at you! Or so I’d like to say, but you—over there! Don’t think you can run!” Charred Man cast a glance at the slowly retreating Theraclede.

“Hrh!” Try as he might to conceal his presence, Theraclede was still caught. He stopped in his tracks, his instincts telling him it was fatal to proceed.

“You bastards need to get lost!” Theraclede snarled.

“Gooooh!”

Just when the golem teleported in front of Theraclede, Charred Man gave it a massive punch. At once, there was a hole where his fist was and the golem went flying into the wall of the general store. The front door was now in shambles. Charred Man was as strong as his undead compatriot Ice Man.

“Theraclede, right?” said Charred Man. “How did a brawler of a man turn into such a little wuss?”

“You know me?”

“I’ve heard the stories! Apparently, Zelyse wants you. I bet it’d piss him off something crazy if I got to you first, though! Ku ha ha ha!”

“Zelyse?”

“That’s right. These three schmucks? They’re Zelyse’s lackeys.” Charred Man dangled the man-rat by his neck.

Crystals turning people into monsters had reminded me of the alchemist, but I hadn’t thought he would be directly involved! Charred Man was part of Raydoss’ Black Bone Brigade and the monsters were servants of Zelyse the alchemist. Both were after Theraclede, but what was the relationship between the two groups?

“Is Zelyse in Raydoss?” asked Theraclede.

“Who knows? He’s been seen around Raydoss, but I don’t know where he is.”

Hm. It didn’t seem like he was affiliated with Raydoss.

“You’re not allies?” Fran cast a glance at the remains of the man-bull.

Charred Man smirked. “Hah! As if we would be allies with that seedy alchemist! If anything, we hope to one day crush him!”

The kingdom of Raydoss wasn’t a united front by any means. Rival dukes and politicians engaged in turf wars, and the allies of today easily became the enemies of tomorrow.

“Anyhow, let’s get to killing! Winner gets the man! Usually, I’d prefer to fight for a princess, but here we are! Ku ha ha ha!”

“Jet, keep the golem busy!” said Fran.

Charred Man had made Fran his target. He wasn’t about to grab Theraclede and run. Meanwhile, Zelyse’s monsters were relentless, especially the golem. It wouldn’t go down even after Fran had cut it to pieces. Its teleportation ability meant it could kidnap Theraclede at any time.

“Woof!”

We’ll take Charred Man.

Identify says he’s a melee specialist. Stay sharp.

Got it.

Fran nodded and smiled. Charred Man returned her grin. The two blood knights were getting along just fine.

“Hunh!”

“Squeak…?!”

Suddenly, he flung the man-rat at Fran. He probably just wanted to keep her busy, but Fran cut through the man-rat anyway. Its body split in half, its innards spilling onto the pavement like a trash bag full of alphabet soup.

But Charred Man didn’t care about the man-rat’s survival. All he needed was for it to occupy Fran for a fraction of a second. He took out a small bottle, raised it high into the sky, and crushed it. Its contents trickled down his arm and onto his whole body.

“Ku ha ha ha! HERE WE GO!”

“It’s just like what Ice Man did!”

“Hah! KU HA HA! I knew Ice Man used the evolution potion!” He let out a maniacal laugh.

Ice Man was an undead Black Bone we’d fought at the Demon Wolf’s Garden. He had used a special potion to strengthen himself, moving up an entire threat level. Charred Man was doing the same thing—in fact, it was probably the same potion. 

Though Charred Man looked mostly the same, his strength was staggering. He was much more intimidating now, mana billowing out of him in gusts of wind. He was no longer merely a strong opponent, but a walking embodiment of death. A being whose very presence brought despair to the living.

The worst part about the potion was its instant reaction. In video games and anime, enemies took their sweet time powering up. We had run into foes who did just that in this world, but the Black Bone Brigade’s evolution potion worked instantaneously. It was the perfect enhancement item.

Charred Man readied himself, and the very air trembled. “You look absolutely calm in the face of all this power!”

“I’ve seen scarier things than you.”

“Ku ha ha! I see! Very good! That makes you worth killing!”

“You’re the only one dying today.”

“Come and make it happen!”

The two moved at the same time.

“Haaa!”

“Draaaah!”

Clang! I clashed with Charred Man’s gigantic hammer-like fist and a metallic ring sounded as I bounced off his hand. His already-formidable fist was even more resilient after the infusion of mana. It was so hard that direct contact with the blade of a sword didn’t leave a scratch. I said “hammer-like” earlier, but really, it was pretty much a literal hammer.

“Ku ha ha!”

“Hrm!”

Blade clashed with fist a few more times before Fran and Charred Man stepped back with such grace that it almost seemed choreographed.

“That’s no ordinary sword!” he roared.

“Greatest sword ever made.”

“Doesn’t sound like you’re lying. Let’s see how you handle this!” 

Charred Man bellowed and crimson flames covered his fists. The flames probably functioned in a similar way to Elemental Blade. He bumped his fists together, and the fire exploded out in a burst. 

So that was how it worked, huh? I was betting he wouldn’t just use those flames for offense, either.

“Let’s see what you got!” Charred Man exploded the flames behind him and used the force of the explosion to accelerate. But he wasn’t done. The explosions continued to pop and boom until we lost sight of him.

“Shyaaaa!”

“Hm!”

He’s coming from our side!

The chain of explosions had allowed him to make sharp curves to flank us. He slid around the battlefield, making hard turns with his side explosions and quick advances with his rear explosion. He even used smaller explosions for intricate spins and whirls.

His twitchy movement was hard to track and he was right in front of Fran before we noticed…but Fran wasn’t going to just sit there and take it.

She stuck me out as Charred Man’s fist was about to hit her, planning to use the impact to get some distance. As expected, she was blown away, but it didn’t stop there.

Charred Man’s fist exploded when it clashed with me, and Fran’s body was engulfed in crimson flames.

Fran!

I’m…fine! Fran Air Hopped as she tumbled through the air and landed safely on her feet.

“You don’t look too bad after getting hit by that! Not bad at all!”

Fran’s arms were painfully burned, but I’d healed them as fast as I could.

Charred Man smiled. “I didn’t think you could move like that, either.”

“Says the one who dodged it.”

Charred Man shrugged, unsettling plumes of black smoke from his shoulders. Explosive acceleration had come at a cost. The bursts of explosive energy had wounded him, as shown by the missing chunk of flesh in his side. The technique was a double-edged sword only usable by a regenerating undead who was prepared to die.

“Next time you’re going down! Here we go!”

“Bring it on!”

Both combatants shifted gears, initiating a high-speed battle impossible for regular civilians to track.

Black lightning and flames lit up the square and shook the infrastructure.

A melee battle would be better for Fran. Charred Man was blowing up chunks of himself every time he moved. He would rack up a lot of self-damage as the fight dragged on, and Fran would get used to his movements over time.

But the battle continued into a stalemate, and the two fighters stepped back again.

“Worried about someone?”

“No.”

“Mua ha ha ha!”

Neither Fran nor Charred Man wanted to kill Theraclede; both needed him alive. Still, there was a marked difference in how they fought. Fran was dead set on not harming Theraclede at all in order to protect Romeo. Meanwhile, Charred Man just needed him alive, and half-dead was good enough.

Because Theraclede was right beside them, Fran couldn’t go all out. But she was reaching the limits of her strategy. Although he wasn’t gravely injured, shockwaves and rubble had covered Theraclede with scratches. Romeo was definitely feeling some of it. Also, Charred Man’s explosions had set the street trees on fire. If the fight dragged on, that fire could spread.

Teacher, I’m going for it.

Got it.

“Flashing Thunderclap! Sword God Form!”

Overshadowed by the Sword God, Fran leapt at Charred Man. As always, her movement was quiet and graceful. Charred Man couldn’t react in time when she suddenly appeared before him. He had been toying with her, thinking that she couldn’t go all out.

“Gah! You little brat!”

“Hmph.” Fran easily dodged his fist and lopped off his left arm. The mana-reinforced arm had been harder than steel, but now I cut through it like tofu.

Being in Sword God Form, I was also imbued with divine element.

“You’re not moving like you were before! And I can’t heal myself!”

Charred Man tried to step back, but we cut off his legs before he could. Sword God Form allowed us to read our opponents like a book.

“Oooogh!”

“It’s over.” Fran swung me over the fallen Charred Man. Her eyes were cold, identifying him as nothing more than prey to be slain. She cut him down without passion or hatred.

But Charred Man wasn’t going down without a fight.

“Nuooooh!” He fired an explosive spell at Theraclede and Romeo, who had backed away into a corner of the square. While the spell’s approach wasn’t particularly fast, there would be no trace of them left if it connected.

Seeing it, Fran immediately deactivated Sword God Form. The Sword God was only concerned with defeating the opponent, and she knew that remaining in it would lead her to abandon Theraclede.

She turned into black lightning. Using Black Lightning Strike, she managed to step in front of the explosion and put up a barrier.

“Uaaaaaah!”

Nooooo!

I put all my energy into telekinesis and barrier, but I couldn’t absorb all of the explosion. Still, I was going to protect Fran! And Theraclede, too! An explosion of wind and heat blew over us. It was much stronger than I’d expected. My telekinetic hold dissipated and my barrier immediately broke. At this rate—

“Uoooooh!”

Then, I heard the sweaty roar of a man behind us. It was…Theraclede? But what was he doing?

“Manifest Malice!”

Is Theraclede really going to…?

The force of the explosion weakened as the Malice behind us grew stronger. While not enough to completely nullify it, we would be able to use barrier against it now.

In the end, Fran and I managed to come out of Charred Man’s explosion relatively unscathed. But behind us, Theraclede had crumpled to the ground. He had forced himself to use his Malice to save us.

“Mister!” Romeo screamed, crying within Theraclede’s arms.

“It’s all right… Besides, this is all I can do…” In his sealed state, his power could only do so much. Theraclede didn’t look like he could move now. Still, he wore a smile on his face to comfort Romeo.

“You…saved us.”

“For Romeo…” he said.

“Hmph.”

Charred Man was shocked to see us all in one piece. “The hell was that?! Fine! See how you like this!”

“Stop it!”

“Not a chance in hell!” Still lying on the ground, Charred Man conjured up countless fireballs, each primed to explode. Without hesitation, he spread his fireballs all over the square and directed them toward us. Though slow, each bomb was a force to be reckoned with.

He’s going to blow the place sky high!

“Then I’ll have to take it all down!”

Come on!

Where others would give up, Fran pushed on. She used Black Lightning Strike to destroy the fireballs, one after another, while I targeted the distant ones with spells and telekinesis. Knowing that her sword wouldn’t be enough, Fran started focusing on spellcasting. A red line trickled from her nose, probably from overusing Double Mind.

But Fran fought through her nosebleed and eventually prevailed against the fireballs.

“Urgh…”

You did great, Fran!

After Double Mind came a splitting headache from overusing it. She’d also used a lot of mana, to the point that she’d have been dry to the point of incapacitation if she didn’t have me.

Fran’s hard work had prevented our surroundings from blowing sky high. However, it turned out that we had only delayed the inevitable.

“Ku ha ha ha! Not done yet!”

Bastard!

Charred Man cast another volley of fireballs, even more than before. “Good luck cutting all those down!”

It was impossible! There was no way—

“I won’t let you! Aaaaargh!” Fran roared, just as I was on the verge of giving up.

Her emotions flowed through me. Despair first, and then the hope that overwhelmed it. Above all else soared the determination to save everyone.

What was I thinking, despairing when Fran was working so hard?

I was a sword. Fran’s sword. And a sword had no right giving up before its user!

Oooooh! 

What was this feeling? I felt strangely aware of my entire body. My human senses were dulled, replaced with the senses of a sword. It felt like I had been a sword ever since I was born.

Transmogrify.

My guard transformed into hundreds of threads and split in all directions. The metal threads, glowing with mana, looked like a meteor shower as they raced through the air. I knew exactly where each thread was, and was surprised to find that I could calmly control every last one. This might’ve been the first time I’d used such an attack without borrowing P.A.’s power.

Most amazing of all, it was effortless. The strange pain I used to feel when overexerting myself was gone. It was as if I had suddenly reached the pinnacle of swordhood.

“No way…” Charred Man watched dumbly as countless steel threads defused all of his floating bombs. Served him right! “In that case—”

“It’s over!” roared Fran. “Haaa!”

And with that, Fran rushed Charred Man and plunged me into his chest.

“Aaargh! Child…!”

She let loose a surge of black lightning, prepared to spend all of her mana if it came down to it. Her health and mana started plummeting, but she showed no signs of stopping.

“Gyaaaaaah!”

But I was worried, even as I lay buried in his heart. Would this be enough to take him down? Without divine element, Charred Man was quite resistant to black lightning, since he was an undead. I could feel his mana draining, but we might run out of mana before he did.

Suddenly, Fran’s body started glowing with green light.

I was surprised, but soon relaxed. The light wasn’t hostile to us. If anything, it was a purifying light. The green glow coursed through my blade and into Charred Man’s body.

“Argh! Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

And just like that, it was over. Charred Man’s scream was cut off as he burned to ashes. With his body destroyed, the black lightning had nowhere to go.

Fran immediately cut Flashing Thunderclap. Together, we watched the remains of Charred Man sweep away in the wind.

Fran and I stood for a few moments in shocked silence until she whispered: Spirit?

Spirit? Did the spirit do that?

I felt them.

P.A. cut in: We have reason to believe that it was the spirit’s blessing. Which reminded me of the great tree spirit’s “well wishes.” The old woman said they would protect us from evil, but I hadn’t thought it would work to such an extent. But even with Charred Man gone, Jet’s growling reminded Fran that the battle wasn’t quite finished yet.

“Jet!”

“Grrr!”

I’d noticed because I had helped Jet with one of my steel threads, tying the golem’s legs and pulling it down to let Jet get hold of it. He held the golem’s four limbs under his paws and caught it in the shadows.

Jet, we’re coming over!

“Grr!”

Huh? You want to finish this by yourself? Are you sure?

“Bark.”

Jet was set on finishing the golem solo. But how was he going to deal with a creature that kept regenerating even after being cut into pieces?

Jet then used his new spell, Bottomless Shadow. With the enemy under his feet, he could activate the spell using his own shadow. Huh, I hadn’t considered that: all he needed for the shadows to devour his enemies was to pin them below him. The golem struggled as Bottomless Shadow swallowed it.

A minute went by, and the gigantic humanoid mass slowly sank into the shadows. No matter how tough it was or how fast it could regenerate, there was no coming back from the shadow realm once it was gone. It really was a horrifying spell.

“We won.”

Yeah!

“Grr!”

Hostile threats neutralized.

It was a difficult battle considering where and what we’d fought. If it weren’t for the spirit of the Great Tree, Fran and the city might have suffered more damage. It was too close for comfort.

“You okay, Jet?”

“Woof!”

Jet sniffed Fran as we approached him, but he seemed fine. Tough as it was, the golem had been no match for Jet.

“And…Theraclede?”

“Ruff!” Jet’s nose pointed to where Theraclede and Romeo were standing nearby.

Fran approached them, but she stopped once she got to a certain distance and began to fidget. It wasn’t like she was trying to stay out of reach of Theraclede’s blade or taking care not to raise their guard.

No, she just didn’t know the proper distance at which to hold a conversation, that’s all.

A strange silence fell upon the square. After all the explosions, the silence felt deafening.

Fran broke it with a blunt question. “You hurt?”

“No. You saved us.”

“Hmph…that’s mutual.”

“Guess so.”

It felt like two introverts trying to make conversation. Neither knew what to say.

“And…the kid?”

“Him? He’s…all right.”

“I see.”

Romeo had been glaring at her, but his expression softened when she asked about his well-being. The burden Fran had chosen to shoulder grew lighter now that she’d successfully protected him.

“You should go back to the Academy.”

“You’re right. Though I don’t know about leaving this alone…”

“Hmm.”

What now? More of Zelyse’s monsters and Charred Man’s allies might be on the way. Should we just split up here? As we stood on guard for undesirables to show up, Romeo’s caretaker returned. She had gone to one of the food stalls when the anomaly occurred. As Fran explained to the caretaker what had happened, Theraclede turned to Jet and patted his head.

“Thanks.”

“Woof.”

“Go on and say thank you, Romeo.”

“Okay. Thank you, Mr. Wolf.”

“Woof!” Jet gave Theraclede the cold shoulder, but he was a big friendly dog with Romeo. He gave him his most lovable face and fluffed his head with his tail.

Romeo’s smile finally returned. After all the terrible things that had happened today, it was a real relief. It’s nice when kids smile, y’know?

Good for you, Fran.

Hm.

Fran looked at Romeo with the gentlest of gazes. While she still couldn’t forgive Theraclede, she wanted to protect Romeo. She heaved a great sigh of relief and finally surveyed her surroundings.

“I’m worried that someone else might have gotten hurt.”

The ruined buildings themselves were the least of our problems; the real worry was that people might be trapped inside them. We followed Fran’s lead and launched a search and rescue. As expected, we found injured people in the houses and went around healing them.

As we did so, the city guard arrived to investigate the commotion. This was going to take a while. Even though we did what we had to do to protect Theraclede, we’d still fought in a city square, causing heavy damage. I mean, just look at the gouged pavement and broken glass scattered everywhere!

The guardsmen hesitated, wondering if they could or should arrest Fran.

Fortunately, Fran’s new position came in handy. The Academy’s dueling instructor carried a lot of weight here and they immediately rolled out the red carpet for her. They listened to everything she said and believed her. They probably would’ve dragged a chair out of the rubble if she said she was tired.

Besides, there were still the remains of the humanoid monsters as well as the testimonies of the people in the shop and Romeo’s caretaker. The caretaker turned out to be someone pretty high up in the Academy and she promised that any repairs would be paid for out of the school’s coffers, easing the minds of the upset civilians.

All in all, the whole thing was finished in about an hour. Someone from the Academy would come by later to calculate the damages. What a relief. I’d figured we’d be stuck there all day.

We would still have to be present during the Academy’s examination of the monsters, but that was still a few days ahead.

Fran and Jet walked toward the Academy, the burning sunset lighting up their features. Fran’s face seemed strangely sadder than usual, and I wondered if it was just a trick of the light.

Fran?

Hm? What?

I…

Fran had been restlessly longing for a difficult battle, and she’d gotten what she wanted, along with a little redemption in the eyes of Romeo. At first, I’d thought it was just the blood knight in her wanting a good challenge. She hadn’t come across one ever since she completed her training.

But maybe that wasn’t all she wanted. I didn’t know whether she herself knew, but maybe she was longing for something more. That’s what I thought, anyway.

If there’s something on your mind…you can tell me, okay?

Teacher…

Yeah?

Fran hesitated, silently making shapes with her lips. In the end, she kept her peace.

It’s…nothing.

All right.

Hm. Thanks.

Fran whispered and smiled. But there was loneliness in that smile.

A few days after the ambush…

“Here you go. Tonight’s your last night here, so I made you something extra.”

“Wow.”

“Woof, woof!”

It was our final night at The Old Evergreen.

Tomorrow would mark the beginning of our Academy survival trip. Fran would be relieved of her instructor duties at the end, so we would need to settle the accommodation bill. Hearing that, the old lady prepared an even greater feast for Fran and Jet than before.

Fran and Jet wolfed down the mega-sized pasta and grilled meat. I thought they’d slow down after eating ten people’s worth of food, but they just kept going. In fact, I was worried whether they’d even be able to walk the next day after eating so much! Hell, I was also worried about the inn’s costs at this rate.

“Munch, munch, munch!”

“Nom, nom, nom!”

The old woman smiled as she watched Fran and Jet eat. “Always great to see that appetite of yours.”

The old woman looked up. Jet and I followed her gaze, but we just saw a plain old ceiling.

But the old innkeeper saw something else. “Oh, dear. The spirit is sad.”

“They’re there?”

“Yes.”

Fran looked up at the same spot. She focused on the ceiling, squinting her eyes from time to time.

“Can you see them now?” the old woman asked.

“No.” Fran shook her head. “But I can tell that they’re there.”

“Oh? So you can feel them now?”

“Hm.” Fran sat up straight and relaxed her body. She turned off the various Skills she’d unconsciously had running in the background, paying particular attention to her detection Skills. The amount of information coming into her mind dwindled.

She diverted all the energy of her five senses into her vision. When she widened her eyes, she reminded me of a cat staring into nothing. The Ferengel-Staden phenomenon, they called it, not that there was anything to it.

I watched over Fran, remembering what we had learned a few days ago in Spiritology, one of the two special classes at the Academy that taught about spirits. The other class was the self-explanatory Lectures on Spirit Magic, which offered lectures and exercises for the development of Spirit Magic.

Spiritology, on the other hand, was offered to students who could already feel the existence of spirits but lacked Spirit Magic. It taught fundamental facts about the nature of spirits and offered exercises to improve your ability to perceive them.

Fran had taken up Spiritology. She was quite interested in the subject too, seriously committing to her studies. We’d learned that Spirit Magic was more unique than we initially thought.

First, the Skill level was not proportionate to the strength of the spirit. Spirit Magic only conveyed your ability to communicate with spirits. The higher the level, the better your perception and discernment of spirits, as well as your ability to share mana with them. But spirits were flighty beings, and your communication skills and discernment only helped if you actually got along with them.

Even at level 1, someone could gain massive power if a Greater Spirit took enough of a liking to them to form a contract. Conversely, someone good at Spirit Magic but hated by spirits would find it difficult to form a contract with any spirit. Meeting a powerful spirit you also got along with basically came down to blind luck.

These factors deeply affected elves, among whom were many powerful druids. Elves were, fortunately for them, naturally well-liked by spirits. What’s more, the long-lived race knew the gathering spots of spirits thanks to ages of experience and knowledge. Finding a compatible spirit and forming a contract with them was a mark of a great shaman. Even so, the process took so much time that the elves developed a saying about it: “You meet a spirit once every hundred years.”

Basically, even elves wouldn’t be able to use Spirit Magic if not for their extended lifespans. But that also meant it was perfectly possible for humans to form contracts with spirits.

In Fran’s case, she could already sense the spirits. All she needed to do was deepen her bond with them to one day learn Spirit Magic. The spirits of the Academy actually helped during classes to provide students an opportunity to practice their spirit perception. But even after taking the class, Fran still lacked the perception necessary to unlock Spirit Magic.

“I…still can’t see them.”

I see.

“Ruff…”

Fran stared intently at the spot where the spirit was supposed to be, but she finally slumped her shoulders and sighed. She had been sensing the spirit’s presence every day she was at the inn. But in the end, she still couldn’t see them.

Seeing her look discouraged, the old innkeeper spoke gently to her. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. You’ll be able to talk to the spirit of the evergreen one day. They already like you so much.”

“Really?”

“I’m sure of it. In fact, I guarantee it. Besides, you couldn’t even feel the spirit’s presence when you first got here, remember?”

“Hm.”

“And look where you are now. I’ve never seen a human develop so fast.”

She was right. Fran had only been conscious of Spirit Magic for ten days. If that was all it took to learn the craft, the world would be filled with shamans. If anything, it was impressive that she could feel the presence of spirits without relying on my abilities.

“Thanks,” said Fran. “We won because of you, spirit.”

That’s right. It was the spirit’s power that finished off Charred Man.

“Hm.” Fran bowed her head deeply.

Thank you. I didn’t know whether they could hear me, but I thanked them, too.

“It’s been such a long time since the spirit and I enjoyed ourselves so much. Come again any time.”

“Hm.” Fran nodded and smiled. The old woman’s words were a great comfort to her.

I may not be able to talk to them yet, but one day for sure! she said.

That’s the spirit. I hope it’s sooner rather than later.

Hm!