Fifth Chapter
The Storm Begins
The always lively students gathered in the cafeteria commons to fill their stomachs.
Oblivious to all else, they believed somewhere deep inside that today would just be another day.
However, with their assumptions so easily broken, the students stopped eating, as if they’d forgotten their hunger. Pale faces, unable to hide their shock, lined the tables.
Even after lunch, the Institute bustled with conversations about the upcoming live combat training in the form of an extracurricular lesson. It was only inevitable, as the students had never seen a Fiend in the flesh.
And today, more people than normal had crowded around Tesfia and Alice, the reason for which was later revealed during the usual training session at Alus’ laboratory.
“We don’t even know if we can form our own groups. We got a little ahead of ourselves, didn’t we?” Tesfia remarked.
“That’s true,” Alice said. “I wasn’t sure what to think about that.”
The two winced and smiled wryly.
That said—there wasn’t much composure in their expressions. Seeing how troubled their classmates looked must’ve rattled their nerves. On top of that, they’d finally become aware of the reason behind their training, as a clear goal was now in sight.
While they weren’t able to casually crack jokes, they’d become proficient enough at their training to be able to hold a conversation in the middle of working on their mana control.
From what Alus could tell, they probably continued training even after returning to their dorm. Their hard work was paying off.
They no longer needed to pinch each other to move their mana, and the fact that they had no trouble doing this, despite chatting while they did so, was proof they were getting the hang of it. Their mana movement was still sluggish, but they were progressing astoundingly fast.
“Apparently, there will be more information as we get closer to the day,” Alice said.
“Rather than rushing to form groups, it would be more constructive to train on how to defeat Fiends.”
Hearing Tesfia say this, Alus had to hold himself back from saying ‘That’s rich, coming from you,’ settling instead for smiling bitterly. Of course, the two girls couldn’t see his expression, due to the mountain of books between them.
“Well, the principal’s the one who will decide on the groups of five, anyways,” he told them.
“—!!” But the two were only surprised for a moment.
“Sir Alus!” Loki intervened, in a reproachful tone of voice. It wasn’t like he’d been told to keep quiet about it, but she seemed to see it as leaking information, regardless of how trivial it was.
“What does it matter?” Alus’ words conveyed his opinion that his talk with Sisty wasn’t something that needed to be kept secret. Nor did he feel obliged to keep it hidden.
“But... How do you know that?” Tesfia gave Alus a doubtful glance, but Alus, on the other side of the mountain of books, shrugged it off. He wouldn’t flinch over this, even without the barrier in place.
“Because I heard about it from the principal. Use your head a little, will you?”
“... Urk!”
Though he couldn’t see her, Alus imagined Tesfia grinding her teeth in mortification.
“Al, I wonder who you will group up with?”
“Who knows?” Alus answered Alice’s question. “But the other people in whatever group I end up in won’t have anything to do.” Sisty hadn’t gone as far as to tell him the groupings. Well, he didn’t need to know, nor was there any point in finding out. It was unnecessary noise that might even get in the way of his actions during the exercise, in the worst-case scenario.
“If anything, won’t Al’s ranking be revealed if he takes part?” Tesfia asked, as if Alus had forgotten about what he needed to keep confidential.
“Do you really think I’d screw up like that? ... But wait a moment. In that case, I could just be a spectator instead. It would be a good chance for you to learn how harsh the Outer World is. Hee hee.”
Tesfia responded to Alus’ disquieting statement with, “That would be unfortunate for us too...”
However, Loki laudably declared, “There’s no need for Sir Alus to go through such trouble.” And in the event Loki would take over for Alus, the students likely wouldn’t have a chance to experience the harshness of the Outer World either.
In reality, it had already been decided that Alus wouldn’t take part in the extracurricular lesson, but he chose to pretend like he was still participating.
During his duel with Tesfia, she had been remarkably sharp and noticed that Alus was holding back. That said, if he got serious, it would be impossible to completely conceal his true capabilities.
Of course, if he could just be a spectator, he wouldn’t have anywhere near as much trouble on his hands. That’s right—the principal might let him take it easy sometimes... but in return, some of the students in the extracurricular lesson might not return safely.
“You have a terrible personality,” Tesfia said flatly.
“I’m sure everyone around you would talk poorly about you, Al. You would just let everyone except yourself fight any Fiends you’d encounter, right?” Alice asked.
“Hmm...”
Like Alice said, if Alus didn’t fight, there was a high chance that the people around him would see him as a coward who’d lost heart before the Fiends.
A Single Digit’s true worth only came into view in the Outer World where the Fiends ran rampant. So Alus being thought of as a coward behind his back, despite being the strongest Magicmaster, would be utterly humiliating.
Alus shrugged, then hung his head and let out a sigh. In the end, he’d get caught up in trouble either way. “Looks like it’ll be a pain regardless. In fact, what are the Magicmasters in charge of the defenses even doing? Wipe out those weaklings during your regular patrols, will you?”
But even if all Fiends in the area were wiped out, a different location would just be chosen for the extracurricular lesson. And when he thought about it, the military was shorthanded because he had left it. He couldn’t deny that truth, but it still didn’t sit right with him.
Seeing Alus’ fed-up expression, Tesfia began feeling anxious and posed him a question. “I don’t think you’d go this far, but... you wouldn’t pretend not to see a team member about to be killed... would you?”
“...” Alus said nothing.
“Hey!! That would be a problem too! Do you even need to lower people’s trust in you like that? You can’t be serious...” Tesfia was dumbfounded, but in the next moment her expression sobered.
That’s right. Alus had two faces. And one was the cold, merciless face of an emotionless battle machine. Tesfia remembered the look.
“No, I’ve never once wanted to earn their trust.”
That wasn’t the answer Tesfia was looking for, and she responded in a somewhat heartbroken tone, “That’s not it. I mean ours!”
“... Hm?” It was as if she was questioning if he didn’t value their blossoming (or so she saw it) bond. “No, I don’t need that either,” Alus swiftly and casually said in his usual blunt fashion... going against her expectations.
Suddenly, the girls’ expressions changed into astonished and depressed ones. Even Loki, next to him, couldn’t hide her dejected face at his careless words.
Feeling the suddenly gloomy atmosphere, Alus realized he’d been too harsh and scratched his cheek awkwardly. These kinds of things made it clear to him that words were a difficult thing to use. Either way, this was an atmosphere he was unused to.
Maybe, deep down, they all wished for Alus to be acknowledged by everyone. Or, perhaps his way of speaking that purposefully isolated himself, allowed them to catch a glimpse of the wall that remained inside of him. Though he himself might not even be aware of it...
Meanwhile, Loki wasn’t particularly interested in the level of trust between Alus and the two girls. If anything, it’d be more convenient for her if there was none. But when she saw Alus’ slightly bitter expression, her chest started hurting, which showed on her face. It seemed that Loki was very sensitive when it came to Alus.
Ignoring the general mood of anxiety, Alus tore up the note in his hand, rolled it up and flicked it away. Flying in a beautiful parabola, it struck its mark right on Tesfia’s forehead.
Tesfia twitched, and looked over at Alus with her mouth open.
“You can say stuff like that after you’ve slain a Fiend. For now, you can just try not to wet yourself.” Alus had a tendency to change the atmosphere, but as expected he couldn’t say anything sensible.
“S-Sheesh! I can’t believe you!” Thanks to Alus’ provocative and uncalled-for remark, Tesfia’s face turned red, and she had an angry outburst. But now she wasn’t as serious as before.
In that sense, the atmosphere between Tesfia and Alus was different from the anxiety the girls were feeling before. This kind of back and forth was an everyday occurrence.
That said, it usually started because Alus teased her, or was too harsh. It was a verbal tit for tat. Alternatively, the cause would be Alus trying to be tactful when it didn’t suit him, and he’d slip up.
However, Tesfia usually couldn’t fight against Alus and, after an outburst or two, she’d end up silently focusing on her training. Even if he threw some abusive language her way, it wasn’t bad enough to make her run off. Most of the time she unhappily kept quiet.
Eventually, she’d end up asking for hints in her training, and Alus would conclude that she had a self-centered personality.
Alus couldn’t understand that part of her, but at the same time there was something familiar about it. Rather than seeing them as a male and female, calling them bad friends stuck together was probably going too far... but in any case, this kind of relationship was limited to him and Tesfia.
Leaving the now-enraged Tesfia aside, Alus continued to change the topic. “For the time being, you should prepare for live combat against the Fiends. For better or worse, this is something you have to try to get a feel for.”
The girls were so focused on the ‘live combat against the Fiends’ part that they overlooked the implication in his expression.
“Does that mean moving on to the next step?” Tesfia quickly reacted.
In response, Alus wordlessly and casually threw something her way. It was the stick he’d broken in two before. And the other half was thrown to Alice. The two cautiously but hurriedly caught them.
“Normally this wouldn’t be until a little later, but you should be able to manage it now.”
Tesfia’s and Alice’s expressions suddenly lit up. They’d been acknowledged by Alus, or at least their efforts had paid off, and satisfied smiles of joy appeared on their faces.
However, in the next moment, the characteristic psshhh sound of mana dispersing sounded out.
The two awkwardly looked at each other with an ‘Ah.’
Regarding them, Alus thought to himself that maybe it was still too early, as he rested his chin in the palm of his hand.
* * *
It was the day before the extracurricular lesson.
The tension that had been rising in the Institute day after day was at its peak. That prickly atmosphere was mostly coming from the grim-faced freshman students. Ever since the extracurricular lesson was announced, they’d been booking up the training grounds after school every day.
Of course, the first-years had the lowest priority, but that didn’t stop the large number of reservations from the anxious students.
Physical damage in the training grounds was converted into mental damage, but in the Outer World a serious injury would be life-threatening. Despite their resolve, the novice Magicmasters had never experienced a situation like that, which was why they devoted themselves to their training.
They weren’t even sure that concentrating on training was the correct decision or not, but they couldn’t help themselves. However, apart from the training grounds, there wasn’t anywhere else where the open use of magic was allowed, resulting in complaints from those who didn’t get a spot.
The Institute responded by establishing a temporary special permit area. That said, as Fiends varied in shape and characteristics, there wasn’t much point in training against other people, so the temporary area was enough to silence the protestors.
The groups had been announced a week ago. After that, students could be seen everywhere discussing strategies and combinations. Seeing how the situation had calmed down, it seemed that the students had—albeit forcibly—resolved themselves to face the dangers.
On top of that, their lessons had been changed. Now, all the lessons were about battles against Fiends and their characteristics. The students who had been serious, but still somewhat relaxed, were fully into it now as they realized their lives were at stake.
Since Tesfia and Alice had some of the highest ranks in the first-year class, they didn’t end up in the same group. Moreover, it appeared that the average rank of the five members had been prioritized when forming the groups. The principal had also ranked the groups, and assigned the more worrisome groups with more competent supervisors.
By now, the students were either visibly tense, or they hid their unrest behind a calm appearance. In any event, the confusion from before had been somewhat alleviated.
Rather than feel relieved, Alus figured that the upperclassmen supervisors hadn’t ever seen a Fiend before, either. The students had felt threatened at first, but as they’d never come into direct contact with a Fiend, that sensation had gradually weakened. If anything, it was difficult to maintain tension with preparations and the passage of time.
Another aspect was group mentality.
By forming into groups, people had a tendency to divvy up responsibility and goals, thinking that someone else could do something even if they themselves couldn’t. This was a trap that beginners easily fell into.
In the Outer World, this kind of negligence was fatal. In basic training in the military, that naivety got thoroughly eradicated.
Those immature enough to overestimate their abilities, or who were overly ambitious, would have their inadequacy beaten into them by the Outer World.
Then again, by the time they understood that, it was often already too late.
“There won’t be any training today,” Alus said, as the usual four, excluding Felinella, gathered at a table in the cafeteria.
Whenever Alus joined Tesfia, Alice and Loki, they would get stared at for some reason. While indifferently wondering why, Alus hoped this wouldn’t become an everyday ordeal, as he continued, “Tomorrow you’ll be using up a lot of stamina.”
He’d suddenly made this proposal, but Tesfia and Alice obediently accepted it. They must have felt the same way. Unlike their simple mana control training, training to hold back the mana repulsion using the stick required a lot of mana.
“Agreed! I want to have a final meeting with the other members of my group, too,” Tesfia said.
“Yes, I need to do the same,” said Alice.
It seemed they understood Alus’ intentions as well. Alus felt he’d done what he could when it came to refining their training. It would all be made clear tomorrow, but he believed they exceeded expectations.
When lessons for the day came to an end, not a single student in the class went home... apart from Alus and Loki.
Alus said, “Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.”
“Yes.”
Like the other students, Tesfia and Alice remained in the main building. The two had probably noticed that while Alus and Loki were initially assigned to groups, the principal had later removed them.
Which was why Alus was on his way back with Loki. The only thing planned for today was finalizing the details for tomorrow with the principal later on tonight. In fact, Alus had been meeting with the principal almost every day up till today. And according to his own thinking, they’d discussed everything they needed to.
He personally felt like he’d been set up, but since it was part of a deal, he’d gotten serious about it partway through. But even then, they couldn’t be perfectly sure. In the end, the safety of the extracurricular lesson would depend heavily on the students’ capabilities. Like he’d told Sisty when this whole thing first came up, at best he could just reduce the number of casualties.
Loki should be aware of the importance of her own role as well. He could expect solid work from someone experienced like her.
His only point of concern was that the reinforcements that had been formed didn’t look like they’d be of much use. The reinforcements had been drawn from the more capable upperclassmen that weren’t selected to be supervisors. That said, more than ninety percent lacked any experience.
People like Felinella, who were as experienced as active-duty Magicmasters, were exceptionally rare.
“Loki, I’ll take care of cleaning up the mess. You don’t leave your post,” Alus said once more for emphasis. He’d said the same thing in the past. By the way, by ‘cleaning up the mess,’ he meant making up for whatever the reinforcements couldn’t handle.
Loki was expressionless as usual as she replied, “Understood,” and cast her eyes down. It seemed she wasn’t feeling very tense.
Well, in reality, the chances of meeting a high-classed Fiend in the area of the extracurricular lesson were low. Even in the one-in-a-million chance of a large-scale Fiend invasion, one of the detectors set in place could locate it. As the effective range covered a good 20 km out from the defense line, it would be possible to cancel the lesson and retreat.
In that sense, while preparations weren’t perfect, they were as good as they could be.
* * *
Before anyone knew it, it had become Loki’s job to open the door to the laboratory.
Since they lived together, her mana had been registered in the console. She placed her hand on the panel, allowing her mana information to be read and identified, resulting in the lock opening. The door then slowly slid open.
By the way, Loki always had a happy, deeply moved smile on her face whenever she opened the door to Alus’ rooms. Alus once asked her the reason for this, but what he got in response was, “This is only my natural role!” This was said in an elevated tone, with the follow-up, “That ‘naturalness’ is what makes me happy.”
Of course, this made no sense to him.
The laboratory itself had changed a lot this past month, almost all of which came from Loki living there.
It started with a simple partitioning of a corner of the laboratory. The bedroom, with Alus and his personal belongings, was a little cramped for two. After Tesfia’s persistent arguing, Loki’s personal room was built.
Loki was unhappy with the establishment of a space separating her from Alus, but as this was his minimum requirement, she had no choice but to reluctantly accept it. Though there were a lot of research materials and books, there was more than enough space for Loki’s created room. Alus’ bedroom was simply too small.
Normally Alus would devote himself to his research whenever he had even a little bit of time, but not today. As Sisty needed to gather the necessary documents for their final meeting, it had been scheduled for late at night. That was when Alus would usually do his research, but today he pulled out a jet-black case hidden in a corner of his bedroom.
Loki, looking on from behind, had a mystified expression.
“Geez, to think I’d need to use this again so soon.”
He’d muttered this to himself, but Loki posed him a question. “What is that, Sir Alus?” She always stood upright in an orderly fashion when she was with him, but right now she was bending over a little, peeking over Alus’ shoulder in curiosity.
“This is my AWR... Night Mist.”
There was that many-legged ogre he’d dealt with the other day, and now he’d need it yet again. Alus found the thought of having to open this case so many times after coming to the Institute unbearable.
That said, having accepted the principal’s request, he knew better than anyone that he’d need to borrow his AWR’s strength in order to do his best to assist in the extracurricular lesson.
“Will you be using it?”
“That would be the easiest way.”
He couldn’t say, Can’t you tell? With his logical personality, he thought it was clear he was going to use it since he’d brought it out, and Loki should have known that as well. It seemed more like the nature of her question was one of curiosity.
Strictly speaking, this was the second time she’d seen Alus’ AWR in person. But, the first time, the blade remained in the scabbard, and at best she’d only caught a glimpse of the scabbard and handle through the robe he was wearing. That’s why this was the first time she’d seen Night Mist up close.
Ignoring her expectations, Alus casually passed mana through the clasp. With a soft click sound, the clasp undid itself. He removed the cover with familiar motions, an eerie sensation coming from the scabbard.
Inside was a weapon connected to the scabbard through a chain.
In order to fit the chain that was connected to the handle, there was an additional storage compartment in the scabbard. Due to that, the scabbard ended up being somewhat longer than the blade.
Lengthwise, it could even be called a knife, but the blade was double-edged; so perhaps it was more apt to call it a short sword. The thin chain attached to the handle continued on into the scabbard.
“—!”
The reason Loki gasped for breath was because in the next moment, Alus had unsheathed the blade. As the blade was drawn, a soft sound rang out, followed by the imposing metallic rasp of the chain’s rings scraping against the blade and scabbard.
The blade had a black luster. And its simplistic yet elegant design, combined with its strange presence and pressure, made it clear that this was made to reliably and steadily slay Fiends.
However, that simplicity was what surprised Loki. AWRs were assist weapons intended to help facilitate the use of magic. Which was why AWRs were engraved with complicated magic formulas all over.
Yet Night Mist had not a single character for a formula on its blade. That went against common sense, even more so with it being the AWR of choice for the current No. 1.
As if reading her mind, Alus said, “The magic formulas are engraved... here.” He grabbed hold of the chain that connected the handle and scabbard, pulling on it. The chain rattled as it stretched across the floor without end.
Loki’s eyes opened wide with surprise, and she looked like she realized something. She timidly asked, “May I touch it?”
“Of course. It’s nothing that interesting, though.”
Though he sounded modest, Alus wasn’t just an excellent Magicmaster, but a great magical engineer as well.
Night Mist was the fruit of his labor as a magical engineer, and any AWR craftsmen or magical engineers who laid their eyes on it would surely be overcome with the urge to study it up close, though he himself didn’t think it that impressive.
But just the fact that it was the AWR that the current strongest Magicmaster used was enough to grab Loki’s interest. She tentatively scooped up the chain in her hands. “—! On all of these... are magic formulas engraved on all of these rings?”
“Yeah, makes it really easy to use. Of course, you need to learn all of the spells.”
As mentioned before, by engraving magic formulas into AWRs, the AWRs could assist with the use of magic. However, it was standard practice to limit it to one attribute. The magic formulas worked by identifying the attribute that made up the spell, and constructing the structural elements of it. In short, it omitted the need for an incantation.
Moreover, as the basic magic formulas required to determine an attribute were so vast, it was more effective to limit and specialize in a single one.
And since engraving the same AWR with magic formulas of several different attributes resulted in them leeching mana off each other and obstructing the activation of the formula, such practice was not recommended.
In short, the merit of having two or more basic magic formulas that determined the attribute was outweighed by the big deficit of using up more mana. Also, the magic formula used in the activation of spells was a construct of several different formulas.
For example, for the Icicle Sword spell, the ice attribute was the basis of the spell, and on top of that there would be the convergence, fixation, coordinates for the activation and establishment of the strength, as well as the process of molding the sword itself.
Tesfia being able to create that with just the basic magic formula for ice attribute spells being engraved on her AWR was thanks to her affinity and her efforts. Or rather, in the modern field of AWRs, that was the common approach and one of the answers that humanity had reached after many years of research.
The forgotten characters that made up the magic formulas, Lost Spells, also required a certain physical size. In addition, as the base formula for establishing the attribute was rather long, just engraving the foundation required an AWR with a relatively large surface area.
By the way, the merit of engraving just the basic magic formula was that a wide array of spells within that attribute could be used with a lowered burden. Of course, that merely simplified the process, and if the user was inexperienced additional parts of the process needed to be engraved as well in order for the spell to take proper form. Engraving the entirety of a spell required the attribute formula plus a little more, needing even more space.
Doing this kind of process meant that the AWR could only use a single spell, but in exchange it would not only completely omit the incantation process, but also bring out the full power of the spell. It also required that the user perfectly understand the magic formula.
But, in reality, there were very few Magicmasters that understood a magic formula to the point of bringing out its full power. So it was generally more effective to only engrave the basic attribute formula and use the AWR to assist with a variety of spells. That’s why normally no one engraved an entire formula on their AWR.
But Alus was different.
“Every link in this chain... is a different spell, isn’t it?” The typically expressionless Loki shuddered. The larger a magic formula was engraved, the more effective its support would be.
On the other hand, the smaller the engraving, the more precise the required mana control, and focusing on that in the middle of battle was as difficult as threading a needle in the dark. Not to mention, there was also the minimum size necessary for the formula, as stated before.
Moreover, once a magic formula received mana, the construction of the spell began. After a Magicmaster intentionally focused on the construction of a spell, the magic formula would take over until the spell materialized.
That said, the process for materializing might need to be retraced, and an inexperienced Magicmaster would need to chant a verse or two. Shortening that formula would result in problems occurring in the materialization process. In that case, there wasn’t much difference from incanting the entire spell from the start.
“I removed the basic affinity formula in exchange for entire formulas. In my case, there’s no benefit in figuring out the attribute.”
“But, how would the ma...” Loki stopped herself before finishing with, ‘magic materialize.’
It had been engraved like this because there were no problems. Alus being the greatest Magicmaster was proof of that, and he wordlessly stared at her.
Loki immediately apologized with an “E-Excuse me,” lowering her head. To her, doubting that the magic would actually activate was the same as doubting Alus himself, and she realized her huge slip of the tongue.
Seeing her shrink back in fear, Alus smiled wryly. If he were to be considerate and tell her ‘Don’t worry about it,’ she might become even more ashamed. So he settled for, “Well, it’s not a big deal.”
After letting Loki know her slip up wasn’t as serious as she thought, her gloomy expression let up a little. “T-That’s true.” After confirming thus that this was no problem for the greatest Magicmaster, she smiled proudly for some reason.
“Loki, I won’t tell you to get ready for battle, but you should make sure to at least be able to put up a fight. You never know what might happen.”
“I am always ready for combat.” A reassuring answer. Well, as she’d overcome harsh missions in the Outer World, it seemed this had been just unnecessary worry on his part.
Next, Loki pulled out a throwing knife AWR from her waist.
“...”
That action in itself wasn’t all that surprising. But... right now she was wearing her Institute uniform. And she didn’t look like she was armed in the slightest. In other words, her uniform must’ve been adjusted to allow her to hide knives. Perhaps he should have noticed that sooner?
But Alus was ignorant when it came to clothing—especially women’s clothing. Taking a closer look, there appeared to be a hidden pocket attached to her skirt. That certainly wasn’t a standard issue Institute uniform. Maybe nobody ever brought it up due to Loki’s ranking...
Just when did she have the time for that?
Alus would have liked to prepare himself for tomorrow, but in reality he had no need for it. So he used the time to head over to the principal’s office early.
“Al, Loki dear!”
On the way, they met up with Alice who was on her way back to her dorm. She was planning on coming over to them anyways, so Alus couldn’t understand why she’d bother shouting.
“Looks like you stayed behind for quite a while,” Alus said to her. That was unexpected. In his view, just voluntarily staying behind was putting in considerable effort. In fact, this was around the time Alice’s training at Alus’ place would normally end.
“Everyone else is still there. Fia is keeping at it, too.”
So that was why. The two were always together, so Alus had begun to think of the two as a set. If anything, seeing Alice alone like this was a rare sight.
“She must have some pretty bad luck.” This extracurricular lesson was fairly trivial to Alus. So a meeting on it dragging on like this must mean that either Tesfia hadn’t been blessed with good teammates, or their group couldn’t be controlled.
“Haha... even if you say that, today’s the day before the lesson. I think everyone’s pretty much the same,” Alice said, with a wry smile. Not asserting herself was so like her. “As someone in the 4000s, Fia can’t leave the others be. Everyone’s desperate and really passionately discussing things. But Fia’s group doesn’t seem to be meshing well with their supervisor.”
Alus nodded understandingly. Tesfia was stubborn, and once she’d decided on something, she wouldn’t bend. If she was dealing with someone she couldn’t see eye to eye with, the situation would only get worse. “Then this is a good opportunity for her to learn of my hardships.”
Behind him, Loki nodded in agreement.
Alice flashed a bitter smile and tried to change the topic. “Where are you two headed?” As Alice knew he was working with the principal, there was no need to hide it.
“To the principal’s office.”
“... Could it be about tomorrow?”
“There’s a lot of work for us to do too, but that’s nothing you need to worry about.”
“Hmm... I see. Then try not to keep at it too late, you two. We’ll be getting up early tomorrow.”
“That’s up to the principal, but I’ll keep it in mind.”
Alice seemed to sense something, and got a worried look. Alus felt a little bad about it, but he couldn’t go into details with her.
“Sorry for taking your time. Let’s do our best tomorrow... Loki dear.” Alice was about to cheer on Alus in her usual familiar fashion, out of habit. But she had realized that saying that to the current ranked No. 1 might be considered rude. Unable to take back what she’d already said, she changed her target over to Loki instead. However, shortly following that, Alice realized that Loki didn’t need to be cheered on either.
“...”
“...” “...”
Loki didn’t go so far as to tell her that this was none of her business, but an awkward silence fell over the three.
Even Alice, who was the reason for this complicated atmosphere, hesitated to start a new topic to change the mood.
Alus found that unusual, considering how innocent she was. Well, that was just how anxious she must be feeling. Unlike the frank Tesfia, while Alice was considerate of others, she had an overly-sensitive side to her.
“Well, if anything happens, I’ll help you out,” Alus muttered to her, as he passed by her. When it came to fighting power, the two should be decent. And they shouldn’t find themselves struggling against low-classed Fiends. But even then, the girls themselves were anxious. No matter how much Alus encouraged them, it wouldn’t rid them of their fear of battle against an unknown foe. That’s why the current No. 1 offering to help meant a lot.
In truth, he’d been forced to accept a lot of trouble. Having a little more trouble on his hands wasn’t going to change much by now.
But even then—
“... T-Thank you!” Alice smiled brightly, as if she’d been waiting for him to say this.
After giving her a nod, Alus and Loki hastened their pace.
Alice stared at their backs. There was no longer any anxiety to be seen in her face. That might just be a temporary thing, but her overhanging gloom was gone for now.
But Alus wasn’t done. When he was far enough away, he gazed into the darkness and said, “Because this might be the last...” with an emotionless expression.
* * *
“But we should be able to do something too, Principal.”
“It’s already been decided. It can’t be changed now.”
At the principal’s door, hearing quarreling coming from inside, Alus hesitated for a moment.
He was going to knock, but shortly after that he reconsidered it, opened the door without waiting for an answer, and stepped inside. Sisty had already been working him hard enough. He no longer had to be considerate enough to knock.
As a result, he entered at the same time as Sisty’s answer came. But unlike the normal approvals, this one time she told him to wait outside—creating an awkward situation.
In accordance with standard manners, Alus was to blame for this, so he clicked his tongue at the problematic situation before him. He figured he could just wait inside the room in a corner... by doing that, he hoped that the troublesome guests before him would read the atmosphere and hurry up with their business, but that proved to be a naïve hope.
Inside the principal’s office was Principal Sisty, himself, Loki, and five other people.
The male student who appeared to be the leader of the group stood a step ahead of the rest, facing the principal on the other side of her desk.
The glances cast at the intruders that were interrupting this discussion were full of displeasure.
Feeling like things were about to become a pain in the ass, Alus retraced his steps in an attempt to leave.
“You... What business do you have with the principal?” the leader said, with contempt in his eyes. A mere student asking Alus what his business was instead of the principal was incredibly impolite. But Sisty didn’t rebuke him.
Alus bluntly replied, “It’s private.”
Next, Sisty spoke out. “Could you wait a moment?” she asked, indicating the sofa inside the office. In short, she was pretty much saying it was Alus’ fault for being rude, so he deserved to be caught up in this too.
With no other choice, Alus nodded and sat down, Loki following suit.
The group had a visibly surprised reaction when they saw Loki. Nobody went so far as to raise their voice, but they’d never expected that the girl with the second-highest rank in the Institute would be together with Alus.
In an attempt to recover the tense atmosphere, the leader restarted the dialogue.
Alus and Loki quietly listened, but the other members of the group were sneaking peeks at Loki with dumbfounded expressions.
Perhaps realizing this, the leader spoke up in a loud voice. “Principal, we want you to put us into the reinforcements. We will get everyone through the extracurricular lesson without a single casualty!”
“As I’ve said countless times, it’s too late to make any changes now.”
Backing up their leader, one of the remaining four group members opened his mouth. “With all due respect, this is not just the opinion of the five of us. There are many more second- and third-years who agree that this exercise is too harsh for the first-years.”
“There should be no problems with you being supervisors.”
The claim the group was making was on point in terms of efficiency. In other words, rather than working independently as supervisors, they would be able to work better together as a group of reinforcements.
However, this went against the meaning of the extracurricular lesson. If efficiency were to be prioritized while allowing the first-years to get the bare minimum of experience, then having Alus move against the Fiends would be far more certain.
“This matter has already been decided.” A measure of anger was mixed into Sisty’s voice. Her phrasing was strict, and it had enough of an impact to make the students shrink back for a moment. She was trying to cut away all their resistance with that one statement, as if to say that she was tired of dealing with kids.
... However, the group didn’t back down from their attempt. Next, they turned their attention to Loki seated on the sofa.
“Ms. Loki. As you are a first-year student, there is something I’d like to say to you.”
Alus was surprised they knew about Loki, but her ranking being what it was, it was only natural. She was already a celebrity at the Institute. As proof of that, the group’s behavior toward her—a freshman—was very polite. That was just how much influence and respect the high-ranking students had among the Institute students. If Loki sided with them, not even the principal could ignore them. Their goal was painfully obvious.
The silver-haired girl sitting next to Alus looked his way questioningly. And he returned her gaze with a fed-up look as if to say ‘Handle it however you like.’
After closing her eyes a moment to think, Loki stood up with a determined expression. “I understand. This might certainly be too harsh for first-year students. However, I believe the principal has already considered this and put proper measures in place. That said, it’s not as if your point is without grounds. So why don’t you please start by telling me of your achievements.”
“Uh—!”
It was a crazy and unexpected question, but to Loki, confirming this was only natural. If they were claiming that they’d be able to do good work, it was only reasonable for them to show proof of it. Of course, this was just to deal with them. Which was why Loki didn’t ask for their ranks, but for their achievements.
And even if they did have any, there was no way they’d exceed Loki’s own, meaning that she had an absolute advantage over them.
“Well, no, but in the Institute we’re all high...”
“That’s enough. Thank you,” Loki interrupted the speaker with exasperation. That’s right... that was enough. For starters, no matter how good they might be, they were still just students. Just the fact that they needed to tack on ‘in the Institute’ was all Loki needed to hear. “This is out of the question. What makes you think you can do good work when you don’t have any experience? You say such strange things.”
“Urk...!”
They were just wasting Alus’ time without anything to back up their claims. Faced with such immaturity, Loki decided not to mince her words. Her thoughts were simple, and her cold eyes stared at her one goal. After all, Alus still needed to confirm the final details with the principal after this.
That must have looked like derision to the group. Their eyes turned grim, but Loki didn’t care. “Please take your leave.” Following up on that cold stare, she urged the group to leave in place of the principal.
“... Hmph, you’ll regret this.” The leader turned back to the principal, as if about to start the discussion again. “—!”
... And the principal responded by gesturing with her hand, indicating the way out. “This is a matter that has been decided on my authority. There’s nothing you can do to overturn it,” she said, as a finishing blow.
“... Excuse us.” With that, the students stomped out of the room with hateful expressions. As the leader closed the door, he stared at Alus with a fierce look, but Alus brushed it off as usual.
“Hahhh...” Sisty sighed heavily. She leaned over her desk haphazardly, not even trying to conceal how exhausted she was.
Alus gave her a sidelong glance as he put his hand on Loki’s head. While things hadn’t gone the way he envisioned, the results were the same—that annoying group had left—so this was his way of praising her. Receiving a happy smile from Loki, he turned his attention back to Sisty. “Who were they?”
“Second and third years.”
Of course, that wasn’t what Alus wanted to hear, so he rephrased his question. “I understand that they want to join the reinforcements, but why?”
“For their careers, perhaps? Defeating Fiends will increase their rank, after all. Their final rank when they graduate will influence their military service.”
“So that’s how it is.”
That was something hard to understand for Alus and Loki, who’d been in the military ever since they’d been aware of their surroundings. “But it still doesn’t make sense. The role of the reinforcements isn’t to actively defeat Fiends.”
“It seems they must have misunderstood it.”
“They probably wanted to pretend to be heroes,” Loki said.
If Loki was right, that was a grand undertaking. Alus entertained the thought of having them receive their heroic posthumous promotions in the Outer World. But when he heard what the principal said next, he had a premonition that things were going to become bothersome.
“Perhaps. The truth is that they are all from well-off families.”
“I see.”
That referred to nobility, renowned or long-established families. People from those types of families all shared a fixation with rank. They had most likely been taught from childhood to earn a rank that wouldn’t bring shame to their family.
That also explained the arrogant attitude before when the leader had asked Alus about his business here. Surely there weren’t many that personified the nobility that Alus disliked as much as them.
They were a truly irritating kind of people... and probably, or rather definitely, a future source of trouble.
Alus didn’t mention the premonition he had. It wouldn’t make a difference now.
The principal had already gotten the top brass to approve their suggestions for improvements, and accepting that previous group’s suggestion wouldn’t have posed a problem with them either. But they’d already been considered for that position before, and the conclusion had been a resounding ‘no.’
If those supervisors were allowed to join the reinforcements, the load on Loki, who would be in charge of dispatching them, would increase beyond what Alus could approve. She would be responsible for considering their abilities and dispatching up to 80 groups of reinforcements. That’s why making adjustments on the fly, on-site, was easier and more realistic.
Moreover, if they were to do something suspicious, the situation would only become more complex. In short, it was an unacceptable option.
Concluding that any further thought on the matter was pointless, Alus moved on to the main topic. “About that issue, I’ll get to work on it in the early morning.”
“Yes, please do.”
He was referring to cutting down the number of Fiends to reduce the risk of students running into any overly-powerful opponents.
Some might wonder why not just do it today, but that would be a fool’s errand. Fiends were very active at night. As the sun set, the wavelength of the Fiends’ mana changed drastically, attracting fellow Fiends and creating a chain of Fiends calling for more Fiends.
It was this nature of theirs that was the origin of the saying, A dozen Fiends lurk near one in the open.
If a single one found prey in the night, it would get excited and summon more of its kind... swarming in from every which way.
Also, Fiends had a tendency to gather when they smelled the blood of another of their kind. This tendency was weaker when the sun was still high. The reason was said to be the mana mixed in with the blood and other bodily fluids, but no one really knew for sure.
Either way, if Alus were to go hunt Fiends today, even more of them would gather the next day after smelling the blood and feeling the mana wavelengths. Which was why he would wait until the morning. “You’ll be the one bringing the equipment, right?”
“Yes. Preparations are already complete. They’ll be brought in the early morning.”
“I understand.” Having thus confirmed the important details, Alus posed Sisty a question. “What about my combat uniform?”
“It’s done, of course.” It must’ve been by her feet, as she ducked down to bring up a case and place it on her desk.
Alus thought the case was too secure-looking to just contain items of clothing.
“Go ahead,” Sisty said, turning the case so that the clasp faced him.
Alus undid the clasp and cautiously put his hand on the case. He was dealing with Sisty, so it wouldn’t be strange for there to be some surprise waiting within... but it turned out to be needless worry. That said, when he looked inside, he hesitated as to how to react. “...”
The first impression he got was... Well, he’d been the one to ask for it, so if he wanted to complain, he was barking up the wrong tree. But even so, he should be allowed to say something.
“Talk about bad taste.”
“...!” In contrast to Alus, whose cheeks were twitching, Loki stood on her tiptoes to peek over Alus’ shoulder, and when she did her eyes sparkled.
In the case was a black cloth with a white mask on top. There were two round holes for the eyes, and below, a larger hole for the mouth. It was an elliptical mask that was like a ghost’s face from a horror show.
“You think so? You seem to be the only one here that doesn’t like it. Our taste comes out on top with a two to one vote.” Astonishingly enough, it seemed Sisty really believed this was fine.
Considering her words, Alus didn’t need to look at Loki’s expression to find out her opinion. As someone born and raised in the military, he didn’t have the qualification to speak for her tastes. The only clothes he had were plain, focused solely on function over form. But what was he to think about this? And if he could believe Sisty, he couldn’t understand Loki’s tastes if she liked this.
He started off by taking the mask and knocking on it to check its durability. It appeared to be made of the same material the military used for shields. In terms of pure strength, there was nothing to complain about. It was a blank mask. By wearing it, it hid not just the face, but all of the emotion on that face. The wearer would go beyond even Loki’s doll-like expressionless face, and into the territory of a complete lack of anything that could be called an expression.
“I’m not happy about it, but I guess I have to thank you,” Alus said with a sigh. The principal had given him an outfit to keep his identity from being exposed. Taste aside, it did fulfill its purpose, which Alus was grateful for.
After handing the mask to Loki, Alus pulled out the black cloth—the robe—underneath. It was plain and reached all the way down below his knees. As for the material... he already knew what it was. This was equipment provided by the army, something Alus and Loki had used before. But very few Magicmasters used it.
It was made from a special grade anti-magic fiber that was extra strong, but it was hard to move in. It was difficult for most normal Magicmasters, so they avoided using it. Only eccentric or skilled Magicmasters favored it.
By the way, both Alus and Loki preferred using it. Of course in Loki’s case, the primary reason was because Alus liked it.
“We’ve checked everything we need for tomorrow, and I’ve gotten what I wanted, so we’ll take our leave here.”
“Yes, of course. I’m only going to show myself a little in the morning, but I wish you good luck.” Sisty casually waved at him, as if she wasn’t worried in the slightest. She had a bright and cheerful expression on her face, as if a weight was off her shoulders.
It took everything Alus had to keep himself from asking Sisty if she understood the severity of the situation.
It’s going to be impossible, even with me and Loki, to keep any casualties from happening, you know.
Alus and Loki defeating all of the Fiends on their own would be one thing, but they had to let the students move freely and accumulate experience. He didn’t want her to have excessively high hopes for him.
That said, considering the missions he’d been on, the difficulty of this one was below average. That’s why the only thing he felt was bitterness over getting caught up in something so troublesome.
* * *
Not much time had passed before Alus and Loki returned to their quarters. They hadn’t even spent an hour at the principal’s office.
For this exercise, a couple of teachers would remain at headquarters. Their primary role would be monitoring. They’d detect Fiends outside of Loki’s 1 km detection range.
Loki also had the job of commanding the reinforcements, and the fact that she was a spotter had already spread among the teachers. With her Triple Digit ranking, no one objected to her role.
On top of that, the teachers would receive temporary access to the military’s surveillance system, which they could use to get a general grasp on the situation.
However, while the detectors could identify high-classed Fiends, they weren’t suited for locating weaker ones. This was ultimately just a tactic for the worst-case scenario, and in order to keep track of the students’ locations, there was an emergency signal device with a locator chip in it.
By the way, the detection of lower-classed Fiends had to be relinquished due to how the sensitivity of the detection magic worked on the detectors. And in any event, the barrier projected by Babel should keep the low-classed Fiends from approaching in the first place.
In order to be ready for tomorrow, Alus and Loki went to bed earlier than usual. It was an early bedtime, but fundamentally within their usual rhythm.
Preparations were complete. They were convinced that even the extracurricular lesson tomorrow would be just another peaceful day as they closed their eyes.
Apart from not having any time for his research tomorrow, Alus had nothing more to worry about. To him, even an accident would only add spice to his usual routine.
Unlike those two, however... most students were far away from having sweet dreams. At best they’d have a shallow sleep with anxiety as a pillow.
That held true for Tesfia and Alice, too. As proof of that, they were talking about this very topic right now.
“Let’s do our best tomorrow,” Tesfia said, for the umpteenth time. Most people would be able to tell that she was just trying to make a show of courage. Lying on their beds, the two gave each other words of encouragement.
“You too, Fia. Make sure to finish them off. And if you go up against more than one, consider splitting up and temporarily retreating.”
“I know. You take care too, Alice.”
Even in the faint darkness, the two put on somewhat forced smiles for each other.
However, Alice had something on her mind that kept her from feeling sleepy. She was worried for her best friend.
Tesfia’s group had a lot of uncertain elements. In order to get a decent average, the group that included the top ranker of the first-years was balanced out with classmates with lower rankings. The same could be said for Alice’s group too, and with her supervisor being a four-digit ranker not much higher than Tesfia, Alice’s group was lacking in terms of fighting power.
However, her group wasn’t as unstable as Tesfia’s. The reason was the supervisor.
Tesfia had an upperclassman supervisor around the same rank as herself, but this one didn’t have a good reputation at the Institute. His name was Cabsol Denvel, a third year. He was very proud of his noble lineage and looked down on underclassmen. The fact that he completely ignored Tesfia’s opinions, despite having only a slightly higher rank than her, was another cause for concern.
I wonder if she’ll be okay, Alice thought, gazing at Tesfia with a worried look.
“When you slay a Fiend, make sure you move away from there right away,” Tesfia said, referring to the fact that Fiends reacted to their own kind’s blood.
She was behaving as if she was Alice’s older sister, but Alice obediently took her advice to heart, answering, “Yeah. We have to make sure to identify the core, too.”
The two nodded at each other, as they reconfirmed the topics that they’d reviewed many times over.
When it came to exterminating Fiends, it was standard practice among Magicmasters to never let your guard down until a Fiend’s core was destroyed, though there were differences among the species. As there were Fiends that had exceptional regeneration abilities, judging their remaining strength by how they looked was unreliable.
No matter how much they’d reviewed the theories, it was still a fact that they’d never encountered a real Fiend, something that weighed heavily on Alice. There were also the worries she had about Tesfia’s group.
Wanting to believe she was worrying over nothing, Alice spoke with a cheerful expression on her face. “It’s okay. Al said he’d help if anything happened.”
“... Really? Oh, I see... Well, I’m sure he won’t have to make an appearance!” Tesfia said with bravado. But she no longer sounded as anxious as before.
Of course, if Alice were to point that out, she’d deny it immediately. Having always been by her side, Alice could see the change in Tesfia from her trust in that boy. Geez, you’re not being honest, Alice thought to herself, while smiling. “That’s true. We’ve been training for this time, after all.”
“Yeah. I’m sure it’ll be easy. It’s a path any Magicmaster has to go through!”
Hearing her best friend’s powerful declaration, Alice smiled once more.
Seeing that, Tesfia put on a big smile as well.
They weren’t making light of the lesson because it was part of the curriculum. If they were to say that they weren’t scared of their first extracurricular lesson, it would be a lie.
But they’d been trained by the greatest Magicmaster...
That truth wrapped their hearts in a transient relief, and prevented the creeping unknown fear from reaching them.
* * *
The time was still too early to call morning.
Alus and Loki opened their eyes at almost the same time. For these two, an alarm clock was unnecessary.
After getting out of bed, they promptly got into gear, not exchanging any words until they finished their preparations.
“What should we have for breakfast?”
“It can just be something simple. Sorry.”
Loki looked at him like it was far too late for that, and moved to the kitchen. Preparing food was already her job. This was something she did because she wanted to. Alus had no memories of discussing the division of chores.
He glanced outside the window. Though he couldn’t tell the weather in the Outer World from inside the barrier, he felt like it would be a clear day today. The reason he might have felt like this was because he was feeling great now that the sun was finally starting to rise.
After a little while, they had a simple breakfast, but even so, it was well-balanced with nutritional values taken into account.
Once breakfast was done and they’d had a short tea break, Alus scooped up his robe that was on a hanger and put it on. “Let’s go.”
“Yes!!” Loki’s brisk voice answered him.
His robe fluttered in the early morning wind as he opened the door, and the two left the laboratory.
That creepy mask was already firmly on his face as well. Alus was less than enthusiastic about it, but knew it was necessary.
Unlike Alus, Loki had no reason to hide her identity and wore her usual uniform. While it was unclear if she’d have to take part in combat, she could still use that altered uniform if that happened. She shouldn’t have any problems, since the students were allowed to procure and wear combat uniforms on their own.
Of course, the Institute’s uniforms functioned well enough for that purpose. The material used was exceptional. It didn’t interfere with the wearer’s mana conduction, but resisted foreign mana. Not using it would be a waste.
There were no students to be seen upon leaving the research building. That was likely because of how early it was. But lights could be seen from afar over at the main building where the teachers were. It seemed they were hard at work making preparations.
The time was just past 0400. The extracurricular lesson was to start at 0900. Considering the time to prepare, there would be no problems if the support personnel were in their designated locations in the Outer World just before 0700.
By the way, the two were, for some reason, on the roof of the research building.
“I’ll run over to headquarters as a warm-up. What about you, Loki?”
“I will accompany you.”
Alus jokingly said, “Don’t fall behind,” and kicked off the roof.
Loki couldn’t tell what his expression was behind the mask, but she was sure the edges of his lips were raised like they usually were when he was jesting.
Before long, the two were at the barrier closest to them. This wasn’t something your run-of-the-mill Magicmaster could do.
Alus was breathing perfectly normally, as if all that high-speed movement really was just a warm-up. Loki kept her breathing in rhythm, and her body was just slightly warmer than usual.
There were teachers in charge of monitoring the student groups here and there along the way, but with Alus moving so fast, nobody caught a glimpse of his masked visage. Some seemed to notice Loki’s uniform, but by the time they checked again she was far away.
The two then slowly stepped through the barrier created by the mana emitted by Babel.
As they went through, they felt the characteristic mana of the barrier stimulating their bodies. But Alus and Loki had been in the military for a long time and were used to it.
In the next moment, the scenery changed, as if they’d stepped into a different world. Even the color of the sky changed.
Alus took a deep breath. “This place is really great.”
As expected, there were no clouds in the sky of the Outer World, and the sublime sun peeked over the faraway mountain ridges. The clear air filling Alus’ lungs was as refreshing as always.
Hearing him say this, Loki’s expression eased into a smile. “With this weather, there shouldn’t be any problems with the detection radius.”
“Yeah.”
“What should we do? Currently... there are 23 Fiends within 1 km of us.”
“Well, why don’t we help reduce the work for the early subjugation forces?”
“I understand.”
Of course, Alus could detect them too; but he wasn’t going to be boorish and say as much.
By the time the two arrived at their destination after taking the long way, the teachers and reinforcements were preparing at the headquarters.
Even though he was wearing a mask, he might be identified if he was with Loki. That’s why Loki handed over the device she received at headquarters, and Alus headed straight out to work.
From here on, they’d go their separate ways.
“How is the sensitivity, Sir Alus?”
“No problems,” Alus said into the mana radio attached to his ear.
Loki’s voice, responding with an “Understood,” sounded somewhat exhilarated.
This device functioned by sending mana wavelengths and then converting them into sounds. It employed a crystal with a unique audio frequency and was called a Consensor.
“I’m currently 6 km northeast.”
“Understood. There’s no reactions to high-classed Fiends within the range of detection.”
“Got it. I’ll get to eliminating any as soon as I can confirm them as well.”
“Please do.”
“I’ll leave that side to you.”
A short pause. Then: “Please leave it to me. I will do the best I can,” Loki said, with a voice full of resolve.
With that, their communications ended for now.
To Alus, the low-classed Fiends around here were nothing but small fry.
But if he were to carelessly wound them and spread their blood around, there was a chance that more Fiends would gather even though it was daylight hours, so taking care was necessary.
So he chose to bring down the Fiends by either sniping their cores, or destroying them altogether. In other words, destroying the entire Fiend’s body. All that work amounted to a warm-up for Alus.
Low-classed Fiends tended to have physiques similar to small animals. There were, of course, exceptions, but few such irregularities were reported to have been discovered here. Even the largest Fiends here were human-sized at best, which meant that destroying the Fiends altogether was quicker than tracking down their cores.
It was a bit violent, but a Magicmaster of Alus’ level would never fail to destroy the cores of low-classed Fiends.
As such, Alus got to work eliminating Fiends as he refreshed himself on the sensation of pulverizing cores. With their cores gone, the Fiends crumbled away one after another, and after he passed the thirty-kill mark, he received a message from Loki.
“Thank you for your hard work. The extracurricular lesson will begin now.”
“Understood,” Alus responded. He rolled his shoulders once before staring up at the sky. As expected, this hadn’t been enough to serve as a real warm-up for him. But the sky was as clear as it had been at dawn.
* * *
The students were currently gathered at the starting spot, an open space just in front of the barrier.
While they were barely within the barrier’s reach, another few steps and they’d pass through it into the Outer World. They were at the boundary line.
The extracurricular lesson was planned for all three class year groups, with the first-years going today, the second-years tomorrow, and the third-years the day after that. They would all depart from here.
Amongst them was Principal Sisty, who would signal the start.
Most of the students were getting ready for battle. They were wearing their Institute uniforms or training outfits, with some even wearing training outfits underneath their uniforms.
As for Tesfia and Alice, they were wearing their uniforms as usual. They were already gathered with their groups, and could be seen discussing or making final confirmations.
Tesfia’s group consisted of herself, two five-digits and two six-digits, and the four-digit third-year, Cabsol Denvel. He was the eldest son of a distinguished family, and his sense of rivalry flared up against Tesfia to the point where he’d often interfere in their talks and plans. The reason Tesfia’s group took so much longer than the others was in large part due to him.
As for Alice’s group, there were four other five-digits. While they were five-digits in the 60000-70000 range, they were still better than Tesfia’s group members. Of course, when it came to battle, there wasn’t much difference between five-digit rankers, but telling them that now was pointless...
They would come to experience that first-hand.
Moreover, second-year Senniat Fokmil was the supervisor for Alice’s group. Though she was senior to Alice, their ranks were similar, so Alice found it easy to be relaxed around her. Not only were they the same gender, but Senniat was good at looking after others, so the first-years looked up to her.
“The extracurricular lesson will now begin.”
The students all turned to look at the principal.
“If anything should happen, reinforcements will come running. The supervisors have also been equipped with emergency devices, so do please show off the results of your everyday training.”
Principal Sisty didn’t give them a tedious speech. As such, it was a very short speech, but the students had already heard all of the essentials before.
Finally, the principal sounded off a buzzer to signal the start of the extracurricular lesson, and the students crossed through the barrier.
But then—they stopped.
Their first impression of the Outer World could be summed up in the word ‘stunning.’ For the vast majority of them, this was the first time they’d seen the sights of the Outer World.
Before them was magical and grand scenery on a scale they’d never seen on the inside. The striking breath of fresh air from Mother Nature, sparkles that only real sunlight had, the warm colors, the sensations and moisture of the constant wind, and most of the varied smells that filled the world. The students felt all five of their senses being stimulated.
In fact, perhaps due to the impact, none of the students moved out right away.
The same was true for Tesfia and Alice.
“... Amazing!”
“Beautiful!”
They were so enraptured by the experience that they could only express themselves with such general words. Maybe there weren’t any words that could accurately portray how they felt.
There was an abundance of greenery, with not a single modern building as far as the eye could see.
What overwhelmed Tesfia and Alice the most were the tall trees. Unlike the forests inside the barrier, which seemed somewhat artificial, those that had been growing free in nature had a majestic appeal to them.
Even the upperclassmen supervisors weren’t exempt from the impressive scenery as their eyes opened wide. They probably felt like they’d been sent to an unfamiliar world.
Returning the over 400 students to their senses, Felinella clapped her hands once, loudly. Being one of very few students with Outer World experience, she was participating as a supervisor. “If you’re all bunched up, you’ll make good targets for the Fiends.”
It was clear from her tone she was only half-threatening them, but it was enough to return the students to reality.
Everyone soon grouped up and spread out in all directions. Their goal was the headquarters that had been set up in the Outer World.
While they all had a somewhat pre-established route they’d need to take, their first priority wasn’t to avoid encounters with Fiends. After all, battling against the Fiends was the point of the lesson. As such, they had few restraints placed on where they could go, and while there wasn’t any reason to venture deeper in, curiosity got the better of them as they advanced farther.
The exercise had only just begun, but Tesfia could hear groups ahead that were already engaged in skirmishes against Fiends. While listening to the distant commotion, Tesfia braced herself and stepped forward.
Supervisor Cabsol followed her, which caused the rest of the group to move too.
But with no roads in the Outer World, they moved surprisingly slowly.
A while after they’d started walking—
Stop.
As they’d decided ahead of time, Tesfia in the lead raised her left hand to signal a stop. At the same moment, she raised a finger to her mouth to let the other students know to keep silent.
She heard the sound of rustling tree branches. As she lowered her posture and peeked out from behind a tree—
“...!!”
Suddenly, something fell from above.
And a black thing appeared in the corner of her eye. It had the build of a human child, but its hands were abnormally long, and its lightly-gripped fists reached all the way to the ground.
Meanwhile, its legs were unnaturally short, and it had a tail as thick as a human arm, curled up into a spiral.
In short, it had a very unsightly and bizarre appearance. Considering its center of balance, there was no way it could dash across the ground. Moreover, its darkish body and ruby red eyes only made it look more eerie to Tesfia and the others.
With that unusual coloring and odd physique, it was most definitely a Fiend.
After being taken aback for a moment, Tesfia returned to her senses and frantically scanned her memories of Fiend characteristics she’d learned in class. And when she finally remembered matching characteristics, she was convinced.
Confirming that there weren’t any other Fiends around, Tesfia whispered to her group behind her. “It’s probably a single F-class Belam. Let’s stick to the plan to go around and eliminate it.”
A Belam was one of the first Fiends introduced in class, and it was a good example of an F-class. It acted a lot like a monkey, but looked like a stunted old person with a crooked back. Their kind preferred to crowd together in trees, and they were common Fiends found near the barrier.
The group members nodded, showing they were on the same page as Tesfia. While Cabsol silently looked on, Tesfia used her hands to direct each student to their position. After that, she held her breath and silently approached her target.
Unfamiliar with the Outer World, sharp branches scratched her legs, but it didn’t register with her. Her heart was racing.
Tesfia fixed her eyes on her target so that her focus wouldn’t break even for a moment, as she slowly made her way forward.
According to the lectures, Belams didn’t often come down to ground level, but perhaps there were exceptions to everything. The appearance of it on the ground felt unnatural.
She closed in, while carefully observing... but suddenly the Belam’s shoulders twitched, and it began looking around its surroundings.
Did it sense me? But it doesn’t look like it’s trying to run away...
Shortly thereafter, Tesfia got in range and looked around to confirm that the other members were in position.
Finally, from behind a tree, she peeked out at her target.
That was when it happened.
“...!!”
The Fiend’s black fur stood on end. It rotated its head 180 degrees, and an eerie and strangely human smile-like expression appeared on its face. It followed up by letting out a low howl, stopping its gaze on a point behind it. Its mouth opened up wide, revealing small fangs within.
It was looking at one of the female students positioned behind it.
“It’s caught on!!”
They had lost the element of surprise.
As she raised her voice, Tesfia thrust her katana into the ground. Mana passed through the blade, causing the magic formula to glow. It was a feat made possible thanks to preparations taken ahead of time.
Upon thrusting her blade in the ground, ice began to spread across the surface. It drew a narrow line, heading straight for the Belam and forming a path of ice in its wake.
While it had noticed the female student, the Belam hadn’t seen Tesfia, and it took her attack directly. Before the Fiend could pounce on the female student, its legs were frozen, lodging it in the ground.
Tesfia’s magic continued freezing all the way to the Fiend’s waist. “—!! ... Attack!” she yelled.
She hesitated for a moment, as her spell had been more powerful than she’d expected. Their intention had been to freeze the bottom of the Fiend’s feet and use that opening to attack, but in reality the spell had frozen the Belam’s entire lower body, leaving it unable to move.
Though the initial attack had been more effective than expected, the attacks continued according to plan, with Tesfia stopping the Fiend and the other members launching an all-out assault.
However, with some members’ only attack spell being of the first rank, Arrow, there was a limit to how much damage they could do. That’s why their fundamental plan of action was to physically attack with their AWRs.
But despite the Fiend being unable to move, none of the students’ attacks were able to finish it off. The reason was because they weren’t used to killing, even if their opponent was a Fiend. They weren’t fully resolved to be Magicmasters and were being timid. It seemed like their first task, a rite of passage, was a challenging obstacle for these novice Magicmasters.
But after some time passed, they realized the situation they were in.
Kill or be killed.
Finally, somebody’s attack hit the Fiend’s head, causing it to let out a bizarre death scream.
Someone else followed up with another attack to the head. At the same moment Tesfia’s ice melted, and the Belam collapsed to the ground, completely unmoving.
Having incapacitated their opponent, everyone let out sighs of relief as if to say, That’s one.
However, it was too early to let their guard down. After the group turned toward Tesfia, the Belam that they thought was unconscious slowly stood up.
“—!”
Tesfia started running before she even processed the danger. Raising her katana up high, she swung it down through the Fiend’s body before it could finish standing up, cutting it in half. “Don’t let your guard down!”
A moment after Tesfia’s blade destroyed the Fiend’s core, its body crumbled away.
Alus’ training had helped her out. She wouldn’t have known how sturdy Belams were otherwise, and would’ve invited an unwanted situation due to getting high on her first win.
Words of gratitude, “You saved us” and “Thank you” came from the other group members, once the sensations of cold chills running down their spines had passed.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Tesfia.” The female student who had been behind the Belam apologized to Tesfia with downcast eyes. She felt responsible for getting noticed and creating a dangerous situation.
“Don’t let it get to you. It might just have noticed one of the other groups fighting, or the smell of blood of its kin.” The faint sounds of combat could still be heard nearby. Similar battles were likely happening here and there.
“But still, you’re amazing. Defeating it in one hit!”
“Well, yeah... thank you.” Tesfia’s words of thanks were also directed towards a certain someone who wasn’t present. What happened just now was no doubt due to the results of training under him. With just that one ice spell, she could feel that the power and effect of her spells were clearly different from when she had first enrolled at the Institute.
“Well, that was clearly just an F-class Fiend. You likely would have struggled more against an E-class, but good work.”
Seemingly having hid during the battle, Cabsol finally reappeared, giving Tesfia empty words of praise with a daring smile. His tone of voice was sarcastic, basically ridiculing her.
“Thanks,” Tesfia said, giving him a plain reply.
“But we can’t have you being unable to slay them in a single strike when they’re frozen. Do try to be more diligent,” Cabsol said condescendingly.
It seemed he was trying to point out how immature the first-years, including Tesfia, were by their inability to finish off the Belam in the first attack. However, they’d decided on an all-out attack from up close after freezing it with magic because ranged attacks lacked certainty. In other words, this plan was devised taking their inexperience into account, but Cabsol didn’t seem to understand this.
Or perhaps he said that despite knowing it.
“Thank you for your guidance.” In order to endure his arrogance and the resulting discomfort, Tesfia chose to tell Cabsol what he wanted to hear.
In the next moment, she had completely forgotten him. Her mind was already focused on something else.
I did it... I did it!
Tesfia closed her eyes, placing her hand above her racing heart and taking a deep breath of Outer World air. She had succeeded in slaying her first Fiend. She felt a sense of achievement along with her excitement... she had cleared what Alus called the bare minimum condition to be suitable as a Magicmaster.
This was the first step... Tesfia enjoyed a small happiness unbeknownst to anyone.
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