Chapter 41
An Academy Field Trip Is Guaranteed to Be Attacked (5)
“Miss Isabel, are you really going alone?”
“Yes! Don’t worry. There’s something I need to prove. Hehe.”
“Prove...?”
“You’d better brace yourself. Even you could fail if you let your guard down for a single moment, Miss Yuri...!”
With a terrifying smile, Isabel dashed deeper into the forest. For all practical purposes, she had become the first person to make a move.
Most of the students were still standing around the clearing, watching one another warily, so Isabel’s actions immediately drew everyone’s attention.
She had run into the forest alone the moment the exam began?
That would have been impossible unless she had something she trusted in. Not only were unknown assailants waiting in the forest, but she also had to remain wary of her fellow students as she moved through it.
The students exchanged glances, then gradually gathered into groups of three or four and began making their way deeper into the forest.
Ivan, who had been watching the scene from above, also began to move.
“Ivan, where are you going?”
“There’s something I want to see for myself.”
“Hmm...? Very suspicious. Who is it? What little punk managed to catch the attention of our ‘little’ Ivan?”
Enrique snickered and shrugged.
When Ivan turned away without answering and prepared to leave, Enrique spoke again.
“Don’t interfere with the children’s exam. I’m sure they’ll manage perfectly well, but you’re a little too heavily armed.”
“I’m preparing for the unexpected.”
“When you say you’re preparing for the unexpected in Pritchenkaya, it sounds like a coup is about to break out. Relax your shoulders, disciple. That’s paranoia.”
“Perhaps.”
Ivan had no intention of wasting his time trying to persuade this stubborn old relic from a bygone era.
If he had to choose the three academy events most likely to be attacked, they would be as follows:
The entrance ceremony, field training, and the festival.
They had even designed an exam curriculum that practically begged terrorists to come and attack, yet the reason they could remain so carefree was that they lacked common sense.
Ivan was an exceedingly practical man, so he only attempted things that were possible.
Teaching common sense to someone more than a century old did not fall within the realm of possibility.
Without another word, Ivan leaped onto a tree and disappeared beyond the forest.
“He’s gotten kind of... irritating lately, hasn’t he...?”
Enrique felt a surge of annoyance as she recalled the expression Ivan had worn.
“What in the world does that man actually do?”
Isabel muttered as she ran through the forest.
Everything she had learned in Ivan’s classes appeared vividly before her eyes.
There are no straight lines in nature. Anything that gleams in a straight line at the angle sunlight strikes during the day is a trap.
It was exactly as he had said.
Isabel had already dismantled six booby traps and continued running without hesitation.
And there was one more lesson.
If a well-trained operative is given sufficient time, no trap will ever exist independently. So imagine this: when you evade a trap, where will you naturally move?
Trap funneling.
Along the cleanest route for evading an ambush trap, there would always be a second trap.
That lesson had also been perfectly accurate.
It seemed the operatives who were said to be Enrique’s disciples were sufficiently trained even by Ivan’s standards.
Every time Isabel dismantled a trap and mapped out an escape route in her mind, there was inevitably a second trap waiting along it.
After running for some time, Isabel heard a rustling sound nearby.
“Is someone there?”
A student.
Isabel crouched inside the bushes and silently gripped the hilt of her sword.
Soon, another rustle sounded, and a student appeared.
What was his name again?
Alain?
He was probably another freshman from Thales, just like her.
And that boy had a fairly solid network of acquaintances.
Yet he had appeared alone?
Impossible.
Isabel smiled coldly and scanned the surroundings.
Sure enough, she spotted a wavering shadow some distance behind Alain.
Someone appeared to be hiding behind a tree, but concealment that clumsy was worse than not hiding at all.
All it did was put the target on higher alert.
Isabel could not help but snicker.
Whenever she saw something like that, she was reminded of just how exceptional that man was.
This was why she could not bring herself to date children.
The instant the thought crossed her mind, she flinched in surprise.
No, what did she mean, date?
I’m simply grateful to him. That’s all!
At the very least, a confession was something one received, not something one made.
No matter how progressive the world had become, that much had been proven by its long history.
According to the courtly etiquette of Thales, there was only one situation in which a woman confessed first.
When the woman’s father approached the man in order to arrange a political marriage.
Unfortunately, Isabel did not have a father.
Maximilien had already been missing for four years.
Therefore, Isabel had no choice but to obey the history and traditions of Thales.
Of course, if Ivan confessed first, she might consider it.
She was even perfectly willing to consider it positively.
But confessing first? That’s going too far. Even if it’s that man, I’m far too good for him. I’m the Hero’s daughter, a noble, beautiful, and young.
Normally, whenever Isabel began spouting such nonsense, Echidis or Yuri would have appropriately put a stop to it.
Unfortunately, neither of them was currently beside her...
“Hey, looks like no one’s here.”
“That’s strange. I definitely heard something.”
As Alain grumbled, a group of students emerged from behind the trees.
They were familiar faces.
Alain’s group.
Five of them.
That was too many to deal with head-on without taking damage.
However, Isabel tightened her grip on her sword and quietly climbed a tree.
Training to counter ambushes could, conversely, be considered training in how to carry out ambushes.
After all, in order to defend against an ambush, one first needed to understand how ambushes were performed.
In other words, Isabel, who had received direct practical training from Krasilov’s finest field operative, now possessed skills that ordinary university freshmen could not hope to counter.
First, one.
Isabel covered the mouth of the man at the rear of the group and immediately pressed her blade against the back of his neck.
“Mmph... Mmph?!”
“Shh. This blade is sharp.”
“M-Miss Isabel...?!”
“Now, now. If you don’t stay quiet, you might get hurt.”
She took the orb from the nameless classmate’s chest and immediately struck him on the back of the neck.
“Ghk!”
“Huh? That man always knocks people unconscious like this.”
“An attack...! We’re under attack! She took my orb!”
“Oh, that’s cheating. Once you’re eliminated, you’re supposed to stay quiet.”
Isabel grumbled and raised her sword.
The classmate she had struck in the neck writhed in pain, but thanks to his shouting, the remaining four were already charging toward her.
“Isabel...! You ran off alone, and now you’re attacking us first! Are you brave or just stupid?”
“Oh, Alain. Have you decided we’re close enough to speak casually now?”
Isabel grinned and raised her sword.
Well, four was better than five.
She decided to look at the positive side.
She had never liked the way every one of them forced themselves to beam at her whenever they saw her, either.
And more importantly...
What kind of stance is that?
Their attacking postures, the momentum of their charge, and even their sloppy routes that failed to coordinate with one another.
Every last thing about them was laughable.
Compared to the entrance train, where she had risked her life fighting terrorists, and Ivan, who had attacked her as if every training session during the past week were a real battle, this was downright boring.
She curled her lips into a smirk.
Seriously, whenever she thought back on anything, it was always that man.
This was becoming a real problem.
“I wonder if five orbs will be enough to take first place. I really want to rank first this time.”
Isabel smiled broadly and charged to meet them.
Time passed.
Roughly two hours after the exam began, half of the students had already received failing scores and were being escorted out of the forest.
In other words, the number of students assigned to each of Enrique’s disciples had decreased, causing their attacks to intensify even further.
Rumble...
Deep beneath the ground, the earth began to tremble.
“Eek?!”
Yuri lost her balance and fell while running.
She immediately rose, gripped the hilt of her sword, and scanned the surroundings.
However, no one was there.
She could sense no sign of an incoming attack.
“What is this?”
***
Rumble...!
The shaking intensified.
It grew heavier and heavier, making the trees throughout the forest sway as leaves rustled and fell from their branches.
Enrique frowned and immediately leaped atop a tree.
“...What is this?”
***
Rumble...!
As the ground shook, Ivan kicked off a tree and jumped.
He leaped to the very top of the tallest tree and surveyed the surroundings.
The entire vast forest was trembling.
“Where is it?”
Even in the face of the sudden earthquake, Ivan was not surprised.
An attack occurring had always been a fixed constant.
He was not so delicate that he would be startled whenever events unfolded according to common sense.
Where was the target?
Ivan scanned the area with cold eyes.
The range was too broad.
He had already identified Isabel’s and Oskar’s positions, but the direction of the earthquake was not limited to where they were located.
The entire forest was shaking.
“Ha. So that’s it.”
Ivan soon let out a quiet laugh.
He had spotted a familiar pattern.
It really was the dwarves.
Exactly as expected.
Ivan rapidly surveyed the forest.
If one did not panic at the sudden earthquake and instead observed the entire battlefield from a broad perspective, certain things became visible.
An earthquake was ultimately a wave.
The location that could be called its epicenter would naturally shake the most violently.
Therefore, if one reasoned it through...
The shaking trees themselves became excellent markers.
If he could determine the degree of their movement, he could identify the epicenter.
As he had once reflected, a forest was essentially an irregular maze.
It was a complex structure formed by trees growing randomly and intertwining with one another as they matured.
If one ignored that form and analyzed each shaking tree as an individual object...
“A spiderweb.”
A long epicentral line stretched outward in a circular, web-like pattern.
It was the signature assault method of the Fifth Brave General’s Engineering Corps, the Web Makers.
It had been a long time.
Ivan almost felt nostalgic.
It was an exceptionally orthodox form of assault, and it reminded him of the old Tunnel War.
The scale was far smaller than it had been back then, but nevertheless...
RUMBLE—!!
With a deafening roar like a landslide, the entire forest suddenly collapsed.
Trees toppled into one another, the earth overturned, and deep tunnels were exposed beneath the ground.
Everything above them became entangled in the collapsing soil and was swept downward.
Dust and shattered timber burst upward with a heavy reverberation.
Amid the clouded battlefield, Ivan heard the screams of numerous students.
I’ll leave rescuing the students to Enrique.
Enrique would understand the situation the moment she saw it.
Dwarven assaults would be familiar to her as well.
Moreover, most of the students were carrying location-tracking magical tools.
That meant rescuing them within the critical golden window should be possible.
Since this was outdoor training—specifically an ambush-response exam designed to resemble real combat—priests would also be standing by.
Even if the students suffered significant injuries, they could be healed.
Ivan immediately leaped down from the tree.
Oskar is closer.
Assuming either Isabel or Oskar was the enemy’s target, he would head toward the nearer one first.
Ivan mapped the route in his mind and threw himself into the darkness of the deep tunnel, whose bottom could not be seen.
The battlefield was close, the objective was clear, and he was sufficiently armed.
An officer of the Annihilation Unit required no premise beyond that.