Chapter 87

Chapter 87. Search (1)

At my words, the knights stopped walking.

It was because they found it hard to believe.

“Is that true?”

“That is hard to believe.”

The knights whispered among themselves, then pushed one person toward me.

“No, why me?”

“You are the youngest.”

“Damn it.”

“Just check roughly. The sun has gone down.”

The young knight grumbled as he stood before me.

His plate armor was dyed red by the sunset.

“Since we have to go together, we need to check your ability…… or so they say.”

He raised his sword, and I gripped the sword on my back.

“Wow, you are holding that with one hand?”

The young knight looked back.

“With that much strength, I think we can just take him with us.”

“Do not try to be clever. Hurry and check.”

“Tsk.”

The knight clicked his tongue and stood before me.

“Now, come at me.”

Perhaps because no one else was around, or perhaps because they were academy knights, he was speaking comfortably to me despite the fact that I was a noble.

Other nobles would probably have said something.

However, I did not particularly care. This was more comfortable for me instead.

More importantly, it seemed he did not believe my words at all. He was not even holding his sword properly, and his stance was loose.

“Then I will begin.”

After taking the opening stance—

THUD!

I kicked off the ground with a foot full of mana.

Whoosh.

The knight’s startled face rapidly drew closer.

At the same time, I swung my sword.

WHOOOOOSH.

The sound of the greatsword cutting through the air rang through the forest.

“What?”

A startled voice came from right in front of me.

At that moment, the greatsword was surging toward the knight’s neck.

Damn it, he is not even blocking?

I was swinging with the flat of the blade, but if he was struck at this speed, there was no way his neck would remain intact.

Ugh.

I hurriedly stopped the sword.

Clunk.

Right beside the knight’s neck, the sword barely came to a stop.

Thud.

The knight was so startled that he sank to the ground.

Good heavens, he was this weak. Stopping the sword had been harder than swinging it.

I looked at the knight sitting on the ground and sighed.

He was far weaker than I had expected.

Looking at the other knights, they did not seem much different.

I had thought about this incorrectly. They were knights affiliated with the academy.

Since I had been thinking based on the standards of the ducal territory’s knights or the royal knights, this result had been inevitable.

Even setting aside the royal knight order, Duke Gresia’s knight order was one of the top knight orders in the kingdom.

I had judged by the level of those knights.

I had nearly sent one knight to the afterlife by mistake.

“I think that should be enough for the test.”

The knights, who had been looking at me with startled eyes, barely managed to nod.

“As expected of a noble.”

“What kind of inherited ability lets him be that strong at his age?”

“The headmaster must have permitted him because he has ability. This test was pointless.”

The knights seemed full of an inferiority complex.

‘No matter how well I do, it all becomes because of my inherited ability.’

These knights were different from the knights of the territory I had seen.

But I could understand them. My past self, who had hated rich people in my previous life, had not been much different from them.

“Whether it is an inherited ability or effort, his skill is sufficient, so there is no problem. In any case, welcome.”

The middle-aged knight who seemed to be the leader of the group spoke.

The knights who had been grumbling closed their mouths at his words.

“Then, since the numbers match, we can split into two groups.”

At his words, the knights nodded.

There were five knights remaining. Including me, that made six, so if we split into two, we would move in groups of three.

“Will that be all right? Splitting into two groups.”

“We have no choice. In any case, we remained behind to find people, so even if it is dangerous, we have to search as many places as quickly as possible.”

Though their expressions were poor and they grumbled, these were people risking their lives to save others.

After discussing it, the knights split into two groups.

I ended up moving together with the middle-aged knight who seemed to be the leader and the youngest knight who had sparred with me.

The other three knights saluted the middle-aged knight and quickly disappeared into the forest.

“We should depart too.”

The middle-aged knight took the lead. We followed behind him.

The young knight walking beside me scratched his head and told me his name.

“This is a mess, but my name is Axel. The man in front is Senior Knight Miro.”

“I am Alex.”

I gave my name again as well.

“I never imagined you would come in that fast. If I had been prepared, I would not have been beaten so shamefully.”

It seemed the spar just now still felt very regrettable to him.

Before I could answer, Senior Knight Miro, who was walking ahead, warned him.

“Letting your guard down is part of your ability too.”

“I know that, but still.”

Sir Axel shrugged.

Strangely, Sir Miro was walking quickly even inside the forest, without searching for a path.

“Is there perhaps a way to find the stranded group?”

“What do you mean?”

“I do not see you separately searching for people.”

At my question, the senior knight walking ahead answered.

“I checked which direction the other groups came from earlier. First, we will move in the direction they did not come from. The headmaster told us the maximum distance people could be scattered during spatial teleportation. We plan to move to that distance, then circle around as we search.”

I had thought there might be some other method, but they were using an ordinary yet steady method.

“That is why the other knights went in the opposite direction.”

“If we move in a circle around the starting point, we should be able to find them roughly.”

“If they are alive.”

Sir Axel spoke, and Sir Miro threw cold water on it. Or perhaps I should call it realistic.

“More importantly, I think surviving ourselves comes first.”

Sir Axel looked around with a serious expression.

We had not moved very far, but night had already fallen.

Stars and the moon hung in the sky, but because of the dense trees and vines, the inside of the forest was so dark that we could not see an inch ahead.

“You know how to put mana into your eyes, do you not?”

“Yes.”

I answered while pushing mana into my eyes.

The dark surroundings began to appear again.

Kya-ring. Kya-ring.

Kyaa. Kyaa.

Grrrrrrr.

Now that night had fallen, the monsters’ cries rang through the forest.

Indeed, as the others had said, the sealed grounds at night were completely different from daytime.

“It is already this chaotic even on the outskirts.”

“It was not this bad before. Even during the day, the monsters seemed stronger than before.”

“And there are stranded people too.”

The knights whispered quietly.

It was because, at night, we had to keep our voices low.

I looked at the greatsword in my hand. It seemed it would be difficult to use the greatsword right now.

I put the greatsword back on my back. Then I took out the dagger I had hidden.

“It is too dark. Even if I push mana into my eyes, I can only see right in front of my nose.”

Unlike nobles, knights did not handle mana easily.

I could see with little difference from daytime, but the two knights were moving while barely seeing only what was right before them.

I looked toward the direction the knights were advancing and clicked my tongue.

‘So this is why they were talking about whether they would live or die.’

Far ahead, there was a monster staring this way.

‘It cannot be helped. I will have to become their eyes.’

“A monster. Distance, thirty steps straight ahead. It is a monkey-type monster.”

It was an ugly humanoid monster the size of a boy. It looked like a goblin from a fantasy novel I had seen in my previous life.

At my words, the young knight looked back at me with startled eyes, but the senior knight lowered his body and raised his sword.

“Is there one?”

“That is the second one now. No, three. They keep increasing.”

It seemed they were trying to encircle us.

“An encirclement, then.”

His thoughts were the same as mine. The senior knight seemed rich in experience.

“A preemptive attack would be better.”

“Yes.”

“Good. Three, two, one.”

Along with the signal, now, we ran forward.

Mana surged into the dagger. Red energy rose long from the dagger.

A sword aura made of mana, invisible to other people’s eyes.

Stab!

I drove the dagger into the head of the monster forming the encirclement.

Then I pulled out the dagger and drove it into the chest of the monster beside it.

Kiiiik!

A monster’s scream rang out.

It was the scream of a monster cut by the senior knight’s sword.

Unlike me, whose night vision was bright, the knights were swinging their swords at whitish shapes.

Because they could not see clearly, it was difficult for them to kill in one strike.

Still, there was no way they could fail to deal with such pathetic monsters.

The problem was the number.

More monsters appeared than the ones we had killed.

“Keep running while killing them. If we stop, we will be surrounded!”

The senior knight was right.

The three of us swung our swords frantically as we ran forward.

After running like that for quite some time, I no longer saw any monsters attacking us.

“Huff, huff. Did we deal with all of them?”

Axel, who had wounds on his arms and legs, spoke while panting.

“We left their territory.”

The senior knight shook his head. Fortunately, he was not badly wounded.

“Thank you. We survived thanks to you.”

He looked at me and lowered his head.

It seemed he had realized that I had killed more than twice as many monsters as the two of them.

“It is because my eyes work well in the dark.”

At my words, the senior knight nodded.

“Huff, huff. Can we rest for a moment?”

Sir Axel spoke in an exhausted voice.

The senior knight thought for a moment, then nodded.

“In any case, I think we have reached the distance the headmaster mentioned. We can rest a little, then begin the search.”

Sir Axel leaned against a tree and sank down.

The senior knight also leaned his back against another tree.

“Student Alex, you should rest too.”

“More importantly, how will we search from here?”

“There is no special way. We have to circle around and search one by one. Fortunately, your night vision is good, so it will help us search.”

“In that case, may I search separately while you rest?”

Sir Miro stared at me for a while, then nodded.

I climbed the tree beside me.

It was a dark night, but I had no difficulty climbing the tree.

When I reached the top of the tree, I could not help but exclaim in admiration.

The sky was filled with stars, and mana rippled as it crossed the sky.

Like an aurora, as if dye had been mixed into it, mana was flowing.

Because it was night, I could see even the distant place where mana flowed out.

Perhaps that place was the center of the sealed grounds, where the Demon King was sealed.

It was said to be a place so full of monsters that even approaching it was difficult.

I stared blankly at that place before coming to my senses. This was not the time to have my gaze stolen by such a place.

Standing at the top of the tree, I examined the surroundings.

From the nearby area to the distant forest.

Unfortunately, I saw no light.

To be honest, I had not expected light. If there were any, monsters would surely see it first and attack.

Then I abandoned the idea of light and examined mana instead.

A place where mana different from the mana of this place could be seen. Or a place where traces of mana having moved violently remained.

I kept examining the area to see whether such a place existed.

After searching for quite some time, I found such traces at a distant location.

Traces of mana that had moved violently remained there. It meant a fight had occurred.

And among those traces, I sensed mana that was somewhat foreign. Mana without demonic energy mixed into it. Noble mana.

I might have seen wrong, or they might have been traces left by someone else who had already returned to the academy, but right now, I had no choice but to follow that tangled mana.

Grasping at straws was better than beating my head against bare ground.

I climbed down and told Senior Knight Miro. He thought for a long time before deciding to follow my suggestion.

A short while later, after Sir Axel groaned and rose from his seat, we ran toward the destination I had mentioned.

Crossing the forest at night was extremely difficult and exhausting.

On top of that, we encountered monsters several times while running.

After defeating the monsters while not only Sir Axel but even the senior knight received wounds, we finally arrived at the destination just as dawn was about to break.

There, I saw two living students.

And Katrine’s corpse.