Chapter 28
I hoisted the unconscious second-place student onto my back and headed toward the sounds of fighting.
I couldn't just leave her here, and judging by the sounds, the academy side seemed to be at a disadvantage.
As expected, when I reached the battlefield, the academy's safety personnel were slowly being pushed back.
They had to fight while protecting the cadets, and the White Heaven Cult had them outnumbered.
-Clang!
“Hup!”
“Aah!”
What surprised me was that Ian and Arin were fighting together to protect the other cadets.
Ian made sense. He was strong, after all.
But I was surprised by how well Arin was holding her own.
If Arin fought a silver-armored soldier one-on-one, she'd lose nine times out of ten.
She seemed to know that, too. Rather than confront them head-on, she was slipping in to cover Ian's openings.
She knew her limits and was helping him in just the right way...
Impressive.
Even so, there was no denying that the academy side was being pushed back overall.
Which meant...
“You've held out well so far.”
Leave the rest to me.
I casually tossed the second-place student aside and charged toward the silver-armored soldiers.
My first target was the ones Ian was fighting.
“Peekaboo.”
“…!”
“E-El?”
I swiftly cut their legs out from under them and moved on to my next target.
-Shhk!
There was no need to kill them, so I focused on subduing them.
Cutting their legs was enough to take them out.
That'd never fly in 21st-century Korea, but here, I could get away with it!
But none of these guys were screaming. Did they not have tongues?
Curious, I knocked one of them down and pried his mouth open.
Just as I expected. He had no tongue.
Hmm... Had they cut them out to prevent information leaks?
Who knows.
Well, mages could extract information from brains, so I'm sure they'd manage somehow.
I tossed him aside and was about to attack another silver-armored soldier when...
-Whoosh!
With a sharp sound, the legs of every silver-armored soldier were severed.
The academy personnel in the same area were left untouched.
“Uncle, don't you think you're a little late?”
“I suppose I am. This was my mistake.”
Uncle Luke walked toward us slowly, his Aura Blade hanging at his side.
His face was completely rigid... Wow. He was seriously pissed.
“Whew. The information reached me far too late. They had a large-scale communications-jamming spell in place.”
“Ah, I see.”
No wonder. He really had taken a while to get here.
“I did manage to subdue the one who seemed to be the ringleader.”
“Who?”
“Well... the runner-up in the overall rankings.”
I pointed to the unconscious second-place student beside me, and Uncle nodded.
Uncle must have sensed that something was off, too.
“She has no mana at all. We can assume it's some kind of side effect.”
That's right. The second-place student had no mana at all now.
Considering even ordinary people had a little mana, it made no sense for her, the academy's second-ranked student, to have none.
Besides, she'd been releasing an enormous amount of mana along with ominous divine power just a little while ago. Whatever she'd taken must have caused this side effect.
Whatever it was, she probably wouldn't be able to use mana again.
“Give me the full story. What happened?”
“Well, you see...”
After I explained what had happened in detail, Uncle said he understood and took the second-place student with him.
Maybe he'd interrogate her or read her memories.
But I doubted they'd find anything.
How did I know? Well... if they gave someone a drug with side effects like that, they must have planned to use her as a disposable pawn, right?
They wouldn't have given a disposable pawn any useful information.
“Ah! El! You're safe!”
“El! Are you hurt anywhere?”
Once Uncle and I had finished talking, Ian and Arin came running over to me.
“Haha. Thanks for worrying about me. I'm fine. What about you two?”
“We're not seriously hurt either!”
“Really! You had me worried!”
“Sorry, sorry.”
As I said that, I hugged Arin, who'd thrown herself into my arms. She turned her head away as if sulking.
Even so, she didn't loosen her arms around me at all. It was cute.
Is this what having a little sister would feel like?
Looking around, it didn't seem like many people had been seriously injured.
The safety personnel had protected the cadets well, and they hadn't suffered any major injuries either.
Good. Could I say the incident was over?
…
“Another failure...”
In the Round Table Chamber, ‘Loyalty’ muttered to himself.
The plan had been to use a pill from ‘Purity’ to make a student go berserk, then send in the cultists ‘Sacrifice’ had created to cause as much damage as possible.
In particular, when he heard that ‘Purity’ had managed to drive a student as talented as the academy's second-ranked cadet berserk, he hadn't doubted the plan would succeed.
But the result?
The woman they'd driven berserk had been subdued without causing much damage, and the other cultists hadn't fared much better.
“Whew... But we did gain something.”
Though it had seemed like an utter failure, Loyalty didn't despair.
Because he'd obtained some extremely important information.
“A mere academy cadet couldn't stop that rampage. So there can only be one answer.”
‘Loyalty’ muttered with a chilling smile.
“El. That cadet is the youngest-ever Swordmaster, Flia Jegen Whitewolf.”
…
Naturally, that was the end of our outdoor training exercise.
Then why had we collected the orbs?
“Any teams that brought back orbs, turn them in! I'll give you the promised rewards.”
-Hooray!!
So that's what we'd been collecting them for.
To my surprise, several students cheered when Cain announced there'd be a reward.
We'd collected five orbs in total.
We hadn't managed to collect all of them, but... would this be enough for a pretty high-tier reward?
“You brought back five orbs? Impressive. Here's your reward.”
Cain held out two sheets of paper.
One was a ticket that let us commission a weapon of our choice directly from a top-tier dwarven forge.
And the other was... a three-night, four-day pass to the Manarian Hot Springs?!
“M-M-M-Manarian Hot Springs?! Is this for real?”
“Of course! It took quite a bit of effort to get it.”
The Manarian Hot Springs are a hot spring resort fed by a mana spring in a place called the Mana Forest.
Don't make the mistake of thinking it's just a hot spring.
The Manarian Hot Springs are considered the world's finest resort, and simply soaking in them significantly increases your mana.
The amount gained varies from person to person, but three nights and four days should be more than enough to fill your mana reserves.
The most amazing thing is that, unless you're Master-class, the percentage of mana you gain is about the same no matter your level.
Apparently, it's around 3–5%. That may not sound like much, but it's an enormous increase.
Considering even 0.1% more mana is significant as you advance, this is an incredible jackpot.
I'd even been there once, just before becoming a Master, after paying a fortune.
If we put that ticket up for sale on the black market, it'd probably fetch the price of five decent-sized mansions.
That's how precious it is. You can't even buy it with money in the first place.
Even in the original story, you had to grind for days just to get in there once.
But... why was there only one ticket?
It said one person could bring a guest, but that still meant the three of us couldn't all go, right?
I looked at Cain with that question in mind, and he gave an awkward smile as he said,
“Well... it was hard to get more than that.”
Ah, so that's why there was a dwarven weapon commission ticket too. We weren't supposed to choose one—we were supposed to take both?
One of us was supposed to settle for the weapon.
“Ah! Then could I have the weapon commission ticket?”
“Of course, but... are you sure?”
Dwarven weapons were valuable, but they couldn't be more valuable than a ticket to the Manarian Hot Springs, could they?
“Of course. I know it's a rare experience to visit the Manarian Hot Springs, but I'm still weak. It might make me stronger right away, but it'll make it harder for me to keep growing stronger in the future.”
That's true. Arin still had limitless potential to grow.
She even had the potential to become the first Shield Master.
If Arin went to the Manarian Hot Springs now, it'd probably be harder for her to increase her mana capacity later.
“...Then I won't refuse. Thank you.”
“Me too. Thanks, Arin.”
“Yes!”
Besides, I already had a weapon from my family, and the one I was using now was a fine sword in its own right.
And Ian was the Hero's son, so he had a top-tier weapon too.
Actually, Ian was on the verge of becoming a Master, so he absolutely couldn't let this opportunity pass him by.
Fortunately, Ian accepted it gratefully instead of letting the opportunity slip away.
Whew. I was worried about how I'd convince her if Arin suddenly offered to give it up, so that's a relief.
“I'll gladly accept it, Professor.”
“All right. Enjoy your trip. I'll count you as present at the academy while you're away.”
They even counted it as attendance.
The academy really was competent.