Chapter 26
Seeing Flia nestled tightly in his arms, Ian felt his mind go blank.
‘Why... is El here? And why am I here?’
Yesterday, the three of them had been drinking...
He’d carried the drunk El to the tent. Arin had gone inside earlier, saying she was sleepy.
Drunk El was so cute...
‘No, that’s not the point.’
He’d been tired too, so he’d closed his eyes for a moment.
Then he’d dozed off... and when he woke up, Flia was in his arms.
He was even hugging her tightly enough to make her look uncomfortable.
‘I should move away first, right?’
Just as Ian thought that and tried to pull away,
“Mmm...”
Flia murmured in her sleep and wrapped her arms around Ian’s waist.
“?!??!!”
W-whaaa?
Feeling his mind go blank once more, Ian was at a loss for words.
‘C-calm down. El’s only talking in her sleep. So don’t think anything weird...’
-Squish.
The third mental shutdown.
The thought Ian had been desperately trying to suppress vanished as Flia’s enormous breasts pressed against his chest.
After that, all sorts of lewd fantasies came to mind.
‘...It’s her fault for sleeping so defenselessly.’
After rationalizing it to himself, Ian stopped trying to hold back his thoughts.
Then, suddenly,
“Hng...”
A lewd moan from somewhere brought Ian back to his senses.
When he looked at Flia in his arms, he saw her slightly flushed face and...
her stomach. More precisely, his own manhood was pressing against the spot where her uterus was.
“...!!!!!”
Wh-what have I done?!
Ian rushed out of the tent, replaying what he’d just been doing in his mind.
He’d been hugging a sleeping beauty tightly and rubbing his... ?
“That was a perfect crime!!!!”
“Ah?! What’s wrong?!”
“Ah... sorry.”
I woke her up.
...
After apologizing to Arin, Ian headed to the riverside he’d seen yesterday to cool his head.
A place where a very clear, cold river flowed.
‘I can’t sense anything nearby, so...’
Ian took off all his clothes and dove into the river.
“Whew... It’s cold.”
After diving straight into the river, Ian shivered for a moment at the chilly water, then submerged his face as well.
‘I’m going crazy...’
But even in the cold water, he couldn’t forget what had happened earlier.
‘El’s stomach... It was so soft... No, that’s not the point!’
-BANG!
With his head slammed against the riverbed, Ian kept dousing himself in cold water, like an ascetic trying to banish worldly desires.
“Haa...”
Then he heard a voice.
“Who’s there...?”
Startled, Ian turned around and saw...
“Gasp...!”
None other than Flia, watching him with a flushed face.
Or, more precisely, she was staring at his manhood...
“...”
“...”
“...Sorry!”
“Wait, El?!”
After a brief silence, El’s eyes met his, and she started running away at full speed.
She was moving so fast he wouldn’t even dare try to follow her.
But even if he could have caught up, Ian wouldn’t have chased her.
No—he couldn’t have chased her.
The sight of El blushing as she gazed at his proud manhood, then bolting at full speed when their eyes met, seemed so lewd and cute to him that...
Ian simply couldn’t follow her.
...
“I’m back...”
“You’re back... Ah?! Why’s your face so red?”
“It’s a long story...”
Ian returned to the tent and sat on the ground with a vacant expression.
-Grrr.
‘Even in a situation like this, I’m hungry...’
As he sat there spacing out, thinking about something pointless,
“Here.”
“Is this... a rice ball?”
“Yes. There was a little rice, so I tried making some.”
“...Thanks.”
“Hmph. It’s left over from the ones I made for El. It’s not like I wanted to give one to you or anything.”
“Haha...”
The rice ball Arin handed him was quite delicious.
Maybe it was because it had Mircow meat in it, but even the rice itself was delicious.
“This is good. You made it well.”
“...Hmph! Of course! This much is easy!”
If that’s the case, maybe you should lower the corners of your mouth that are curling up before you say that.
Ian kept that thought to himself and ate the rice ball.
It was quite large, but he ate so much that it was nowhere near enough to fill him up.
‘I’ll just ask for another.’
Thinking that, Ian walked over to Arin.
“Hey, Arin. Can I have another rice ball...”
“...”
The problem was, he hadn’t expected El to be back.
The moment their eyes met, Ian felt his face redden as he saw El’s face turn red too.
...This is awkward.
...
The silence, which seemed like it would last forever, ended when Arin intervened.
“...What’s this? Did something happen between you two?”
“Nothing.”
“Mmm... Nothing happened.”
Thank goodness. I thought we were going to have to stand like that forever.
Just then, someone’s voice rang in my head.
[Haha! Did everyone have a good night?]
Judging by the voice, it was Professor Cain. What was he planning this time...?
[Just sitting around and holding out wouldn’t be fun or dangerous, would it? So I’m giving you a new task!]
“A new task?”
“I don’t know what it is, but I doubt it’ll be anything good... I was planning to eat, drink, and have fun all week...”
...Is Arin actually here on a camping trip?
[The task is simple! Somewhere in the forest where you’re hiding right now, ten orbs that emit mana have been scattered. They could be up in a tree or in the den of a powerful monster! Find them!]
...This isn’t Find the Dragon Balls. What the heck is this...?
[The more you collect, the better the prize! Good luck, everyone!]
“But what are the prizes?”
He should at least tell us that!
“Hmm... I guess we have to do it, right?”
“I guess so...”
Ian and Arin spoke in resigned tones.
Well, it wasn’t like they could just refuse.
The problem was that this forest was enormous.
He’d run around and checked earlier, and it really was huge.
To find the orbs emitting mana... he’d have to concentrate.
Unless they were emitting a lot of mana, but that didn’t seem likely.
He couldn’t sense anything nearby right now.
“Besides, the fact that there are only ten...”
“Probably means they’re letting students fight each other.”
Class A had thirty students. Three per team. Naturally, that made ten teams.
And there were ten orbs, too. You might think everyone could just take one, but the rewards got better the more you collected, so...
They were blatantly telling the students to fight each other.
“Let’s find all ten ourselves!”
“That’s what we’ll do.”
[Oh, right! The more orbs you collect, the more mana they emit, so be careful! That’s all!]
Cain’s voice suddenly rang out.
...You should’ve told us that earlier!
“Sigh... Let’s head out and look. We’ll search around here together, then meet back around lunchtime.”
“Sounds good! See you later!”
“Yeah. Be careful, both of you.”
“You too, Ian.”
If I were good at detection, I’d just find them all and come back, but I wasn’t very good at it...
I could sense everything nearby, but covering such a huge forest was difficult.
Still, my range was much wider than the other students’. I’d find them easily, right?
...
That’s what I used to think.
“...I seriously can’t find a single one.”
Even after running around and putting in some real effort, I hadn’t found a single orb.
Could I really have run around this long without finding even one?
On top of that, the time we’d agreed to meet was getting close.
Haa... I guess I should head back.
...
“...So, they were easier to find than you expected?”
“Yes! I searched for about an hour, and found them right away!”
“I found three.”
...No wonder I’d sensed a lot of mana on my way back.
They said they’d gone in the exact opposite direction from me and found them easily.
Arin had found two. Ian had found three.
And me, a Swordmaster? Zero.
“I’m useless...”
“E-El? That’s not true!”
“Y-yeah! Thanks to El searching that area, we don’t have to go there!”
I couldn’t find even one, even though academy students had managed to find them easily...
And I was supposed to be a Swordmaster...
“I’m sorry for being useless...”
“Ah! I told you, that’s not it...!”
“El? That’s absolutely not true...”
“Is it here?”
While I was feeling dejected, a group of students approached us.
Nine of them... An alliance of three teams.
Looking closer, I could see several top-ranked cadets among them.
There was no need to ask what they wanted...
“Did you come for the orbs?”
“That’s right. You’ve collected quite a few, judging by all the mana I can sense. We’ll leave you one. Hand over the rest.”
“How very kind of you,”
Maybe Ian’s biting sarcasm had offended him. The man who seemed to be their leader frowned and said,
“Seems you don’t understand unless we spell it out... You think you can beat all nine of us?”
“Of course.”
I answered the leader’s question.
“I’ll take care of them. I haven’t found any orbs, anyway.”
I had to make myself useful somehow.
“...You’re saying you’ll take on all nine of us by yourself? Not some random nobodies, but the elite of the elite?”
“The elite of the elite? That’s quite an exaggeration. I’d be confident even if ninety of you showed up.”
You might be top-ranked in the academy, but to me, you were nothing but fledglings.
“All of you, bring it on.”