Chapter 21
“Haa, haa, haa….”
Cheonmu Hunter Academy practical exam. Somewhere in the forest inside the dungeon.
A girl was running desperately, gasping for breath as she fled.
‘Kerrrk, kehhek!’
‘Kehhek!’
‘Kek, kerrrk!’
Close behind that girl came a group of three goblins.
As long as they did not panic at the sight of monsters, an ordinary Hunter Academy applicant should have been capable of handling two goblins.
But the problem was that the girl being chased by the group of monsters was not an ordinary applicant.
With her face covered by a veil, Kim Isabel was fleeing from the monsters. Since she was in Healing and Support, she could not guarantee victory even against a single goblin.
That was why she had paired up with an appropriately skilled combat student to take the practical exam, but an ‘accident’ had occurred in which they let go of each other’s hands right before entering the dungeon. Since she could not fight monsters alone, fleeing from the monsters that had chased her from the moment she entered the dungeon had been her only choice.
‘Kehhek!’
“Haa, haa, haaa….”
Kim Isabel was breathing so heavily that even her fatigue showed through the veil covering her face.
Although she had used a considerable amount of divine power to restore her stamina, she could not do anything about the mental fatigue that kept piling up.
-Thump!
“Ah…!”
As a result, she failed to see where she was stepping, and her ankle caught on an old tree root. At the same time, Kim Isabel’s body pitched forward.
-Splutch!
“Aah!”
She did not even have time to worry about the pristine white nun’s habit becoming dirty with dust. If she did not get back up as quickly as possible, the group of goblins would pounce on her.
Although being a hunter meant risking one’s life to fight monsters, she did not want to die while taking the practical exam at a Hunter Academy.
-Twist.
“Aah!”
However, Kim Isabel could not get up as quickly as she wanted and collapsed onto the ground once more.
She seemed to have twisted one ankle when she tripped over the tree, and there was no way she could get up and run away in this state.
‘O almighty Asclepius, please grant me a miracle of healing….’
In her haste, Kim Isabel imbued her ankle with divine power and healed the sprain.
True to her abilities, which had earned her the title of ‘Saint Candidate,’ she succeeded in healing the injury within a few seconds. However, those few seconds she spent falling and treating the injury were more than enough to put Kim Isabel, who had barely been evading the pursuit, in danger.
‘Kerrrrrk!!’
“Aaaaaah!!”
Just as Kim Isabel encountered a goblin wielding a club as thick as her forearm and began crawling away across the ground with a scream—
“…Shadow Ball!”
‘Kehheek!!’
One of the goblins that had leaped at her from above was struck by a dark-magic spell from somewhere and sent tumbling away.
“……Huh?”
Kim Isabel stared in bewilderment, unable to understand what had happened.
-Wham!
‘Kehk!’
-Wham!
‘…Kek!’
Immediately afterward, she could only stare blankly as two more dark-magic spells flew in and took down the other goblins one after another.
“…….”
‘……Kkeh.’
‘…….’
The three goblins trembled violently, either dead or on the verge of death, before going limp.
Her relief at escaping the threat of death lasted only a moment. She cautiously turned her head to see who the mage who had saved her was and found a pair—a tall, slightly thin man and a much shorter woman.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“…….”
The tall, slightly thin man was holding out a hand to the fallen girl and asking if she was all right.
And behind him, a short, large-breasted woman with purple hair was cautiously looking at her.
Black mana characteristic of dark magic flickered at the ends of the purple hair, so it was not difficult to guess that she was the mage who had saved Kim Isabel.
“I helped because it looked like you were being attacked by monsters, but I didn’t do anything unnecessary, did I?”
-Shake, shake.
Absolutely not. He was closer to a lifesaver who had rescued her from being killed by the goblins.
Now that her life had been saved, it was only natural for her, as a human being, to thank him. She tried to open her mouth and express her gratitude to the man in front of her, but—
“Th-thank…. Th-tha, tha….”
Although she knew in her mind that she had to thank him, she could not force the next words out of her mouth.
…The ‘man’ holding out his hand in front of her was just as terrifying to Kim Isabel as a monster.
“Ah, sorry. I guess the monsters really shocked you. Take a moment to calm down.”
“…….”
-…Nod.
Although she had been extremely rude to the person who had saved her, the man did not make a big deal of it. Instead, he considerately backed away to give her space.
The only way she could express herself to him was by cautiously nodding her head.
“…….”
She felt ashamed that she could not even properly thank someone who had helped her.
If they had not been there, she might have been the one lying on the ground by now instead of those monsters.
Although her life had been saved, another wave of self-loathing left her depressed. Then the purple-haired woman who had been standing behind the man approached her cautiously.
“Hey, why are you alone…?”
“…There was an accident before entering the dungeon, and I got separated from my companion.”
“Ah, I see…. Judging by your clothes, you’re in Healing and Support, right…?”
“…Yes. I’m Kim Isabel, an applicant in Healing and Support.”
“I-I see…. I-I’m Cha Eun-joo, and I’m in Magic….”
“…….”
“…….”
Cha Eun-joo had seemed about to continue the conversation, but when she could not find any more words, the two naturally fell silent.
The only sound was the knife of the man a short distance away as he butchered the fallen goblin with a pocketknife.
Since the person in front of her at least seemed to be a woman, Kim Isabel cautiously opened her mouth to express her gratitude.
“Thank you for saving me earlier.”
“Uh, y-yeah…?”
“If it weren’t for your magic, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to withstand the goblins’ attack. There’s no way someone with only healing abilities could defeat goblins.”
“Th-thank Seonho for that…. If it weren’t for Seonho, I probably wouldn’t even have noticed you running away, Isabel….”
“…The ‘Kim’ is my surname, and ‘Isabel’ is my given name.”
“Oh, s-sorry…. I thought Kim-i was a two-syllable surname….”
Seeing Cha Eun-joo cover her face in embarrassment, Kim Isabel thought she was rather cute.
She also seemed to have an exceptionally delicate heart for someone who had just effortlessly felled three goblins with magic.
“Is that person over there named Seonho?”
“Yeah. Even the fact that I can use magic like this right now is thanks to Seonho…. I-I probably wouldn’t even have thought about taking the practical exam if it weren’t for Seonho….”
“…I see.”
Judging solely by the dark magic Cha Eun-joo had displayed earlier, she seemed to be quite skilled. If she relied on someone enough to speak of him that way, just how strong was he?
Since a ‘strong man’ was that much more dangerous to someone already afraid of men, Kim Isabel’s wariness of Lee Seonho rose another level.
“Could I thank that person too? If possible, I’d like to tell him myself, but I’m not used to men… people who aren’t women.”
“Ah, yeah…. B-but aren’t we the same age…? Why have you been speaking formally this whole time…?”
“I’m sorry. I grew up in a church orphanage from a young age, so it became a habit. Is it uncomfortable for you…?”
“Oh, no, it’s not that, so you don’t have to apologize….”
This person named Cha Eun-joo was probably a kind person.
That must have been why she had used magic without hesitation to save Kim Isabel when she was in danger.
‘If possible, I’d like to become friends with her.’
…It was probably an overly ambitious desire for someone who had already been forced to give up on the practical exam.
She grew depressed again at the thought that the time she had spent facing the threat of death might end up being meaningless.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
…Who would have guessed that the one being chased was Kim Isabel?
I spotted something white passing through the forest, so I hurried over to check, but I never expected it to be her.
In the original story, Kim Isabel appeared near the end of the practical exam, and the one chasing her was not mere goblins like these but a single massive owlbear.
‘Was this scene in the original skipped over? Or has the story gone slightly off course?’
Perhaps the difference in the timing of Cha Eun-joo’s and my entry into the dungeon had caused a small snowball effect.
Since this was a transfer-type dungeon, it was entirely possible that changing the entry time or order had sent us to a different location from the one in the original.
I would have to regard this as an unavoidable variable. Even I could not perfectly control the random elements of 『Surviving Hunter Academy』 while carrying out my plans.
‘But if things have changed this way, the event where Kim Isabel meets Han Sora might be thrown off.’
In the original, Kim Isabel, unable to do anything against the owlbear, fled until she encountered Han Sora and Seo Woojin.
Faced with the huge monster, Han Sora lost her concentration and failed to land a proper strike, while Seo Woojin dropped the knife he was holding and immediately fled alone.
However, Seo Woojin soon steeled himself and returned to face the owlbear, buying time. Thanks to Han Sora and Kim Isabel, who momentarily developed feelings for him after seeing that, they barely managed to win the battle. That was the original plot.
So, according to the original plan, Cha Eun-joo, Han Sora, and I were supposed to defeat the owlbear before Seo Woojin fled and returned, making that cowardly idiot look even worse, but…
‘Considering the variables, I should also account for the possibility that things may not return to the original storyline completely.’
Perhaps Han Sora and the protagonist would not meet, or perhaps they would encounter other applicants instead.
In that case, Cha Eun-joo would effectively have to face the owlbear alone, which made things somewhat dangerous at this point. Han Sora was the only one capable of dealing effective damage to an owlbear with physical attacks rather than magic.
If that happened, we would have no choice but to run with everything we had. I had no intention of sticking to the original plan if it meant putting my woman in danger.
‘Even if things have changed a little from the original, the owlbear will probably still show up.’
The owlbear had been manipulated by the people behind the scenes who were targeting Kim Isabel, not by the academy.
For now, since we had run into her like this, I would have to keep her with us until the practical exam ended. Since her fear of men meant she could not speak to me directly, Cha Eun-joo could relay anything that needed to be said.
Although this situation could put Cha Eun-joo and me in danger, there was no way I could leave Kim Isabel behind a second time.
Sending away a stranded Healing hunter was morally out of the question in the first place, and Kim Isabel was also one of the women I was after.
Besides that, another problem had arisen. It concerned what to do with the bodies of the three goblins I was currently processing.
‘Three makes dividing the materials a little awkward.’
If there had been only two, Cha Eun-joo and I would have taken one heart each and prepared to hunt the final monster. But with three, one of us would have to fill the last two slots in a pouch.
It made no sense to throw away materials we had gone to the trouble of hunting, but if I put them in Cha Eun-joo’s pouch, she would not be able to store the owlbear materials at the end. Since the academy had distributed these pouches, putting things in was easy, but taking them back out was not something we could do freely.
On the other hand, putting the materials from Cha Eun-joo’s kills into my pouch would look a little strange. She probably would not care, but I still had to pretend to be considerate about these small things from time to time if I wanted to keep her trust intact.
[9/10]
[9/10]
I’ll put one in each for now. And the remaining one…
“…So, you don’t have to worry. Seonho may be a boy, but he’s kind, and p-pure too….”
“Eun-joo, could you come over here for a moment?”
“…Ah, okay!”
I could pretend to consult Cha Eun-joo and then suggest putting it in Kim Isabel’s pouch.
She probably wouldn’t refuse an offer to receive free points, after all.