Chapter 86

Chapter 86. Stranded

After arriving at the clearing, we sat down and rested.

Seeing that the professors and knights were also resting, it seemed they had placed some kind of device around this clearing, or perhaps around that wooden box, to keep monsters from approaching.

Behind us, students also gathered in the clearing one group after another with their professors or knights.

There had been a few slightly dangerous moments, but it seemed field training would end like this.

Time passed, and as the sun came to rest on the tips of the trees, darkness began spreading in every direction.

When are we leaving?

Because we ended up resting longer than I had expected, I looked around.

As I examined the surroundings, the expressions of the teachers and knights had grown serious.

I inclined my ears.

“What happened?”

“One group still has not arrived.”

“Are they not far too late?”

Who has not come?

I checked to see who was missing.

Several students were nowhere to be seen, and among the professors, there was one person missing as well.

Katrine. Professor Katrine was nowhere to be seen.

Only then did our group members realize that something was strange.

“It seems something happened.”

At Valea’s words, everyone looked around.

“It seems there is still one group that has not arrived.”

I told them the reason.

“Pardon?”

Everyone was startled and examined the people around them.

“Bria is not here.”

Valea looked over the people and realized that one of her friends was missing.

“My God, Mirisa!”

Piar realized that his cousin was gone.

“Uh, Katrine is not here.”

And the princess also spoke to me in a startled voice.

Just as the princess said, Professor Katrine’s group was nowhere to be seen.

“Please wait a moment. I will find out what happened.”

Professor Niel, who had been resting with us, went to where the headmaster was.

Knights and professors were gathered around the headmaster.

I tried to infuse mana into my ears and listen to their conversation, but I could not hear it well. It seemed they had wrapped a barrier around themselves with mana.

The group members grew restless. In particular, the princess’s complexion had turned pale.

It seemed the princess knew something.

What would happen if Professor Katrine’s group was even later? Would they keep waiting like this? Night would fall soon.

While I was thinking that, the professors and knights gathered around the headmaster returned to their respective groups.

Professor Niel also returned to our group.

Everyone looked at Professor Niel’s mouth, but she used the headmaster as an excuse.

“The headmaster will speak.”

No sooner had her words ended than the headmaster spoke in a loud voice.

“One group has not yet arrived and remains stranded. We continued waiting, but since night is approaching, it is difficult to wait any longer.”

As the headmaster said, the sun was sinking beyond the trees.

Since this was a deep forest, it would surely grow dark quickly.

“For safety, we will leave behind part of a search party composed of knights, and the rest will return to the academy.”

It was as expected. They could not have everyone spend the night here because of a single group that had not arrived.

The correct answer was for the others to return first, while the search party found the missing group, brought them here, and then returned to the academy.

But what in the world had happened? For Katrine’s group to fail to arrive. No matter how lacking the group members were, Katrine alone should have been more than enough.

The students grew noisy at the sudden accident.

“Can we not wait a little longer?”

One student asked, but the headmaster shook his head.

“The duration of the relic that prevents monsters from approaching is almost over. After a little while, monsters will gather here.”

The headmaster immediately urged the students.

“The sealed grounds at night are far more dangerous than during the day. Everyone, prepare to transfer.”

Everyone wore worried expressions, but they had no choice but to obey the headmaster’s words.

However, the princess was different from them.

“I will stay too.”

“You cannot.”

Professor Niel immediately rejected the princess’s request.

“Even if you speak to the headmaster, it will be useless. We cannot leave behind a young student who awakened only recently in the sealed grounds. Moreover, you are royalty, Princess. No one will permit it.”

Unlike before, Professor Niel spoke firmly.

Rather than because she was a young student, she was saying it would not be permitted because the princess was royalty.

More importantly, I did not know why the princess was being so stubborn.

I understood that she was worried about Katrine, her aunt, but surely even she knew that she would be no help at all if she joined the search party.

“But even if the search party finds them, they cannot return quickly, can they?”

At the princess’s words, Professor Niel’s face stiffened.

What does that mean? If they find them, they can just return with the headmaster, can they not?

No, wait.

“Do you mean there is a cooldown—no, a waiting period before teleporting?”

At my question, the princess nodded with a pale face.

Everyone was startled by the princess’s answer.

“When will it become possible?”

“We came here in the morning and are returning now, so can they not come again tomorrow morning?”

Valea and Piar, who had a friend and cousin who had not arrived, asked urgently.

“He says that returning is not a problem because it merely returns the mana that brought us here to its original place.”

Unlike before, Professor Niel kindly explained even to the other students.

“However, once we return, all the mana gathered in the magic circle will disappear, so he said it would take about a week?”

Counting on her fingers, she wore a regretful expression.

“It will not be easy for the knights who remain behind to spend a week here either.”

At Professor Niel’s words, Piar also pleaded urgently.

“I will stay too.”

“No. You will be no help at all, so I cannot permit it.”

With a firm expression, she spoke to all the group members.

“I should not say this, but all of you must remember it clearly. The Royal Academy is not an educational institution like a scholastic institute. It is a place where you learn the duty of nobles, and a place where you will witness death. You must become accustomed to the death of your comrades as well.”

The professor was telling us to be prepared for the deaths of the students and professor who had failed to arrive.

The students were shocked by her words, and I was no different from them.

I had already known that this world’s academy was completely different from the schools I knew in my previous life.

I had known that it was not an ordinary school, but a place closer to a military academy, and that it was far more dangerous than I had expected.

However, this was the first time I truly felt it.

Starting with the headmaster, even the professors did not take the death of students and faculty during training as seriously as I had expected.

They were all awakened people and nobles who would lead the nation, but they were also personnel who could die during education.

‘Still, the princess would be an exception.’

Having realized that she could never remain, the princess looked at me with an earnest expression.

I immediately understood what she meant.

She could not ask me with words, but with that kind of expression, there was no way I could fail to understand.

I let out a sigh.

It was not because of the princess’s request.

I could not let Katrine die, even if I did not know about anyone else.

If I had only one life, I would have refused, but it seemed all right to listen to this request at least once.

I was also curious about what had happened.

I turned and walked toward the headmaster.

“You too? I said it is not allowed!”

Professor Niel shouted from behind me. It seemed her original personality had slipped out.

People were preparing to transfer.

Under the guidance of the professors, they stood in their assigned positions just as they had when we came here.

And several knights were standing some distance away. All of them had grim expressions. They seemed to be the people chosen as the search party.

I stood before the headmaster, who was sitting on the closed box while regulating his mana.

He opened his eyes and looked at me.

“What is it?”

“I intend to join the search party.”

At my words, he furrowed his brow.

“What is your name?”

“Alex de Gresia.”

When he heard my name, he let out a sigh.

“I wondered who had come to trouble me, and it was you.”

He looked behind me and shook his head.

“Since the princess wishes it so strongly, it cannot be helped. Join them.”

The reason the princess, who had not even awakened yet, had been evacuated to the academy was because the headmaster before my eyes was on the princess’s and Queen’s side.

He was the one who had accepted Katrine as a professor, the one who had accepted me into the academy under the Queen’s sponsorship, and the one who had buried the matter of the lecturer who killed herself during the entrance ceremony.

And among the faculty, only Katrine and the headmaster knew that I was something like the princess’s hidden guard.

That was why he could let me join the search party.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“I am joining the search party.”

“What?”

After finishing my conversation with the headmaster and moving elsewhere, Manuel shouted at me.

However, I merely waved a hand vaguely at him.

The princess could not bring herself to meet my eyes.

She only bit her lip tightly and tugged at her trousers with both hands.

It was not because of the princess, but she seemed to be blaming herself more than I had expected.

I decided to leave her be. If she thought that way and rewarded me generously later, that would be good.

Valea was looking at me as if she were envious.

What in the world was there to envy?

And Piar was looking at me and the search party knights with an earnest expression.

It seemed he was very worried about his cousin.

The other students were also staring at me in surprise.

That was because it was obvious I was heading toward the search party.

Leaving the people’s gazes behind, I arrived before the knights standing some distance away.

“I have joined the search party. I am Alex.”

At my greeting, the knights looked utterly bewildered.

A student joining the search party. Even I thought there was no way they would understand it.

“The headmaster permitted it. The princess requested it as well.”

Before the knights could say anything, I spoke first.

Everyone looked bewildered, but they could not say anything.

The headmaster and the princess. As expected, they were good backing.

A short while later—

BWOOOONG.

Along with a bright light, the people vanished.

I had not known when I transferred myself, but seeing it from outside, the way they moved was extremely fascinating.

‘It did not look like instant teleportation, but more like they were being carried along by mana.’

They moved so quickly that it seemed as though they had vanished, but when I examined the mana left behind, it seemed they had moved rapidly along a path connected by mana.

‘Is that why we felt motion sick?’

I had not grasped it properly yet, but if I investigated a little more, it seemed I might obtain interesting results.

After everyone disappeared, the knights rose.

They began walking toward the forest and opened their mouths.

“I hope we can return alive.”

“It will not be easy, will it?”

“To be honest, if they could not return with the others, we should assume they are dead.”

Their conversation was saturated with gloom.

“Do we have food?”

“We have a week’s worth. No, since one more person joined us, six days’ worth.”

A middle-aged knight who had been looking at the backpack carried by his comrade turned back to look at me as I followed them.

“Why did you come to a place where you may die?”

At his words, I grinned.

“It is similar to the knights. I am bound as well.”

It was something I said vaguely, but the knights smiled bitterly at my words.

That was because they had thought of their own situation.

“How skilled are you? Surely you will not drag us down?”

Another knight asked.

I answered him.

“I was certified by a knight of my territory. Mid-level knight or above.”

At my words, all the knights looked at me.

I shrugged.