Chapter 23
As Emily and Kira lined up in order, a male student with dark brown hair approached from the opposite Swordsmanship Department side. With short hair and freckles on the tip of his nose, he nodded slightly and greeted Emily and Kira.
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Jake Lindell. Please call me Jake.”
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Emily Adesio.”
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Kira.”
The three exchanged light greetings and gathered closely to line up. The training ground was quite noisy with Magic and Swordsmanship Department students gathering in their teams and exchanging greetings. Emily, who had found her team members relatively early compared to other teams, was looking around while standing in line.
Then she suddenly stopped when she spotted Lord Eden looking up at the temporary bulletin board among the students busily coming and going to find their team members. His side profile from afar looked neat, as if his sweating appearance from earlier had been an illusion. His straight jawline, soft-looking black hair, and fair skin made it difficult to take her eyes off him.
Looking at him, Emily thought that perhaps Lord Eden was prone to body heat. After all, she had felt his hot body temperature when she accidentally brushed against his shoulder on that rainy day.
“Miss Emily, come this way.”
“What? Ah, yes!”
Emily, who had been staring blankly at Lord Eden, turned to Kira at her words. The line had moved slightly to the right without her noticing, so Emily, who had strayed a bit from the line, hurriedly ran to stand next to Kira.
Realizing that she had been staring at Lord Eden without even knowing it, Emily felt embarrassed and rubbed her inexplicably warm cheeks with her palms.
This is beyond her control. Just as one’s gaze is naturally drawn to beautiful things, it’s only natural that her eyes are drawn to him because his appearance is so dazzling.
Emily secretly whispered excuses that no one could hear, trying to soothe her fluttering heart.
The Swordsmanship Department teacher standing in front of the temporary bulletin board raised his voice for attention as the students took their places.
“Attention, we will now conduct a joint practical exam. The content of the exam is simple. Find a magic orb in the forest and return. One per team is enough. Once you pass through the forest, the class is over, so return home immediately.”
As the large, gruff Swordsmanship Department teacher finished his brief explanation, Violet from the Magic Department handed out butterfly-shaped papers to the students with a worried expression.
“We’ll put up a wide-range barrier to prevent monsters from invading the forest. But there are still wild animals, so be careful, and if you find yourself in a dangerous situation, just put magic into the mark I’m handing out now. The teachers will find you quickly.”
She emphasized this several times, seemingly uneasy about her students who were still freshmen. Along with the marks, she also handed out magic devices for tracking assignments, one per team.
“Alright, then let’s begin now. Off you go!”
As Violet was hesitating to send the students off due to her concern, the Swordsmanship Department teacher waved his hand and started the students. Amidst the crowd of moving students, Lord Eden stood for a moment looking towards Emily, then set off with his team members.
“Let’s start moving too. The sooner we find it, the more advantageous it will be, so we should hurry.”
“Yes, Lord Lindell.”
“Ah, please call me Jake.”
“Yes, Lord Jake.”
The three exchanged brief greetings and lined up close together, hurrying towards the forest so as not to fall behind. All the students seemed to have similar thoughts, being conscious of other teams and trying to reach the forest as quickly as possible.
“I’ll cast a mana detection spell as soon as we reach the forest.”
Before departure, Violet had given each student a transparent magic orb that would activate a mana detection spell when filled with mana. Kira, who had relatively more mana, said she would use the detection spell first and calculated the formula.
Emily and Jake nodded and stood at the starting point of the forest path. Trees lined both sides of the path, their branches intertwining, filling the surroundings with lush leaves. As they walked underneath, the hot summer sunlight was blocked, making it feel somewhat cooler.
-Woong
As Kira infused mana into the magic orb in her hand, it glowed faintly and a small resonance was felt. The response wasn’t very strong, suggesting that the magic orb they were looking for was at some distance.
“We might need to walk a bit further into the forest.”
Kira looked into the forest after checking the response of the magic orb she was holding. The three decided to walk a bit further. Other students were also moving into the forest, looking at their magic orbs. Emily and Kira followed Jake as he walked steadily forward.
-Thud thud
The three were walking between large trees. As they went deeper into the forest, the path became increasingly rough, and dense branches enveloped the sky.
-Woong
“Still no response?”
Jake, who was cutting away branches blocking the way with his sword, turned to ask Kira. Kira, walking behind Jake, looked at the magic orb and answered.
“Actually, there were weak responses from two directions. Which way should we go?”
“From which directions are the responses coming?”
“Straight ahead and to the left.”
“…Hmm, let’s go left. The path straight ahead is rougher than here. It’s near the stone monument, quite a secluded place.”
“Stone monument?”
Emily reacted to Jake’s words. She remembered the stone monument she had seen when she got lost during a class a few weeks ago.
“Yes, you know the Academy was established 300 years ago, right? I heard that back then, monsters overran the whole world. The stone monument is a barrier against monsters, said to have been left by the great magician who helped establish the Academy.”
“I see… I didn’t know that. You know so much, Lord Jake!”
“Haha, it’s nothing. Actually, I’m a failing student who hasn’t graduated for five years. I’ve just picked up various stories from being at the Academy for so long.”
Jake scratched the back of his head sheepishly in response to Emily’s words. At that moment, Kira, who had been looking down at the magic orb, raised her head.
“Lord Jake, it seems the magic orb is closer in the straight ahead direction than to the left. I don’t think the teachers would have placed the magic orb in such a dangerous place, so how about we go in a little further?”
“Hmm… Alright, let’s go in a bit, but if it seems dangerous, we’ll turn back immediately.”
After pondering for a moment at Kira’s words, Jake nodded. He agreed with Kira’s opinion that the teachers wouldn’t have placed the magic orb in a position that would put students in danger. Indeed, as the three walked, the tracking magic orb Kira was holding emitted an increasingly strong light.
-Woong woong
“Miss Kira, the intensity of the light has become brighter. It seems to be nearby.”
“You’re right. It seems to be around here.”
“Wow, could our team be the first to win?”
The three looked around the forest, searching for the hidden magic orb. Luckily, they hadn’t encountered any animals so far, and as not much time had passed since the start of the test, Jake began to feel excited with anticipation.
“I think it would be faster if the three of us search separately. Let’s look around without getting too far from each other.”
However, contrary to expectations, the magic orb was hard to find. After circling the same area several times, they dispersed to different positions at Emily’s suggestion to search the surroundings separately.
Lord Jake examined the area while cutting through dense branches with his sword, and Emily looked down between large tree roots at knee height. As she was examining corners where the magic orb might be, Kira, who was holding the tracking magic orb, tilted her head and moved alone into the undergrowth.
“Oh, Miss Kira. It’s dangerous to move alone.”
“Something seems odd. I can feel traces of mana from three places, but it’s extremely strong from just one place.”
“What?”
As Emily turned to Kira with a puzzled expression, Kira moved forward, still looking suspicious. Feeling uneasy, Emily, who had been crouching in front of an old tree root, got up and walked towards Kira.
“Miss Kira, it’s dangerous to move into the inner part alone. Let’s move together.”
As Emily approached Kira, who was standing in the undergrowth bending over to examine below, suddenly a black shadow appeared and disappeared behind Kira’s back.
-Thud
“…Ah?!”
At that moment, Kira’s body, which had been bent over, swayed and leaned forward.
“Miss Kira!”
Startled, Emily ran to grab Kira’s arm, but suddenly the flat ground beneath Emily’s feet gave way, and her body tilted to the side. And Kira, who was about to fall forward, instead caught her foot on a tree root and fell to her knees with a thud.
And by sheer coincidence, Emily’s body tilted in the direction Kira was about to fall.
“…Huh?”
Just as Emily’s vision suddenly tilted, Kira’s face, sitting on the ground and looking up at her blankly, flashed before Emily’s eyes. Behind that, the face of a familiar female student with a surprised expression appeared briefly, and then her vision became a mess of swirling soil and branches.
“Miss Emily!”
Kira’s scream echoed in her ears, and Emily rolled downwards.
-Splash
Emily’s body felt like it was floating for a moment, and then the next instant, she fell onto a muddy ground.
“…Huh?”
As she came to her senses lying spread-eagled, she found wet mud sticking thickly to her arms, legs, and hair. When Emily looked up, the height was lower than she had thought. It was a height she could have easily landed from if she had just jumped down, but she hadn’t seen it because it was surrounded by bushes.
“Why is there mud…”
Moreover, the mud below seemed to have absorbed all the impact of the fall, as there were no injuries. Except for her messy appearance and the unpleasant heaviness, she was fine.
“Miss Emily! Are you alright? I’ll come down right away!”
“Ah, I’m fine, Miss Kira. The height is lower than I thought, so I’m okay.”
Kira called out to Emily in an urgent voice, probably unable to see below due to the undergrowth blocking her view. At Kira’s voice, Emily, who had been lying on the muddy ground, got up.
“Miss Emily! Thank goodness! You’re safe!”
“Yes, I’m fine. Don’t come down, it’s all muddy down here! I’ll climb up, so please wait a moment.”
Emily, roughly brushing off the mud clinging to her entire body, got up and moved to climb back up. However, the mud seemed to be deeper than she thought, and with each step, she felt her feet sinking deeper.
“Why is there mud on such a sunny day…”
In fact, the mud on Emily’s body had already started to dry, changing color. Puzzled by the presence of soft ground only in a certain area on such a hot day, Emily tilted her head, when suddenly the ground beneath her feet sank, causing her to stumble forward.
“Gasp!”
It was a distinctly different feeling from before. As she sank up to her thighs, goosebumps covered her entire body. And just as she thought something was wrong, Emily’s…
