The Iron Stakes and the Spider's Web
I remembered learning it that way when I was young. The Japanese Empire had driven iron stakes into the ground to sever the spiritual veins of the Korean Peninsula! A wicked plot to suppress the nation's vitality! …Of course, most of those stakes were later proven to have been used for land surveys or building barracks, and the rumors eventually faded. Still, why would there be iron stakes in a place like this?
Deep in a damp, overgrown mountain where almost no one would ever set foot. No matter how you looked at it, this wasn't a spot for surveying land or constructing anything. So what on earth were these stakes driven into the ground for, lined up in a row…?
Song Byeong-o, who had come up beside me, muttered under his breath.
Hmm. We've already reached the edge. Shall we explore somewhere else?
At those words, I asked him,
“The edge?”
“Yes. That over there is a barrier, isn't it?”
“A barrier?”
“Goodness… You seemed quite experienced earlier today, yet there are surprisingly many things you don't know.”
Song Byeong-o adjusted his glasses and explained.
“You don't even recognize a mana barrier? They've set one up around the Bukhansan training grounds to prevent the magic beasts released here from escaping outside. You probably wouldn't know since you've only lived in the city, but barriers like this are quite common in rural mountains and fields.”
A barrier, huh. Focusing my mana perception on the iron stakes after hearing that, I saw that mana indeed flowed between them in thin waves, spaced roughly ten meters apart.
In the 21st century, creating a barrier anywhere simply required placing a single artifact at its center. But since mana engineering hadn't advanced enough yet, physical mediums like these were necessary to form a mana barrier. Moreover, the mana barrier engraved on these iron stakes wasn't some sophisticated spellwork. It was crude, almost like a makeshift mosquito net formed by generating mana waves. I'd expected some secret conspiracy, but it was nothing more than a fence to keep the training area's magic beasts from being released outside…
“Tsk. So it's just a barrier…”
I felt strangely deflated, sinking into a slight sense of disappointment, when a voice called out.
“Ara, Shirabayashi-san.”
When I turned around, there stood a black-haired female student. It was Renka.
…You again? We keep running into each other far too often for it to be coincidence…
But Renka paid no attention to my wary gaze. She glanced at the iron cages my squad and I were carrying and spoke as if impressed.
“Your squad's results are impressive as expected, Shirabayashi-san! Though of course, I anticipated as much.”
Behind Renka, the students in her squad were lugging two iron cages each like pack mules. The magic beasts crammed inside were all charred black, scorched, or torn in half.
…At a glance, it was obvious Renka had caught all of them by herself.
I said, dumbfounded, “You've caught quite a lot yourself. Especially since it doesn't even count toward your grades.”
“Grades or not, one must always do one's best in any given task.”
She smiled sweetly again.
…I was doing this to restore my status window, but was this girl some kind of bloodthirsty killer who simply enjoyed hunting magic beasts for the thrill of it…?
As I shuddered inwardly, she spoke to me once more.
“We were about to head back down. Would you like to return with us, Shirabayashi-san?”
It was true. Renka had filled even the extra cages she'd brought, so no matter how much she enjoyed hunting, there was no need to continue the training. But I still felt some lingering regret and shook my head.
“No. We're going to catch a few more.”
“I see. Even so, we've been sweeping the outer areas as we moved along—”
This time, Renka continued with an expression that suggested she found it strange herself.
“I'm not sure if it's only the areas I've passed, but there are hardly any magic beasts around here. We've also encountered fewer other students. I suppose most of them must have headed down already.”
What Renka said matched what I'd seen on my way up. Had nearly all the magic beasts released on the mountain already been caught? In that case, maybe we should just head down and rest. The squad members looked exhausted too…
As I pondered this, Renka took a step closer.
“By the way, Shirabayashi-san.”
She glanced past my shoulder at the squad members and lowered her voice to a soft, gentle whisper that only I could hear.
“You've ended up in the same squad as him? That student who insulted you this morning—Murasama or Murakami, was it?”
I glanced behind me. Murasaki was standing at a distance, glaring at us with clenched teeth.
…Of course he would. It was probably resentment from getting slapped by Renka this morning.
I told Renka, “It just sort of happened.”
“Ara, that must be troublesome. Looking at his face now, I imagine there was already discord between you two.”
“Well, yeah, there is, but…”
But…
‘Wait, why is this girl so interested in me?’
She was sharp, too. Terrifying. I couldn't figure out why she was acting this way toward me. She clearly had something to say, so I asked her directly, growing frustrated.
“What exactly are you trying to tell me?”
“Hehe… Do you know, Shirabayashi-san? The squads assigned now remain unchanged for the entire year.”
What?
“The current squads will be maintained throughout the year. The semester exams and everything else will be done with these same squads.”
So it wasn't just for this preliminary training exercise. That could be seriously problematic. I'd have to spend an entire year with this dysfunctional mess of a party…?
Reading the concern on my face, Renka smiled brightly and continued in a confident tone.
“However, if I ask the academy on your behalf, things could be different. If you wish, Shirabayashi-san, I could have you transferred to my class and my squad.”
Was something like that even possible? No matter how much influence she had as a member of the noble class, class representative, and top entrant, could she really manipulate academy operations? Terrifying!
“What do you think? I believe this would be a good opportunity for you, Shirabayashi-san. Would you take my hand?”
Renka's proposal made me waver for just a moment. It was true that, even if it was only for now, this squad would stay together for a whole year. It was definitely uncomfortable. This wasn't a squad you could expect teamwork from—it was more like a powder keg…!
But—
“No.”
“Hehe. I thought you'd say th—… Pardon?”
Renka looked flustered by my firm refusal. Had she really expected me to crawl under her wing?
‘That's never going to happen.’
I'd decided this very morning that I must never get involved with her. No matter how dysfunctional this squad was, it would still be better than joining hers. That arrogant Murasaki aside, if Lee Yuha and Yang Bok-ja stayed on the same team, there was no guarantee they wouldn't clash eventually. But looking purely at individual abilities, it was a reasonably well-balanced squad.
“There's no need. I'm satisfied with my current squad.”
“……?”
And no matter her reasons, doing as she said would only lead to trouble.
‘This is basically her asking me to become her lackey.’
She must have seen that I had some ability and was trying to recruit me to her side. Looking at the squad members standing behind her right now, they were clearly just pack mules. If things went well, I'd be her henchman. If not, I'd be just another burden. And considering this girl's unpredictable personality, one wrong move on my part could easily lead to a horrible end…
After hearing my resolute answer, Renka seemed to ponder something for a moment. Then she looked into my eyes again, smiled sweetly, and said,
“I see. But if you ever change your mind, the offer stands anytime. Well then, I'll be going.”
She gave a slight bow, then spun around as always, her long black hair whipping behind her as she walked away.
‘……’
“Shirabayashi-kun is truly amazing! How do you know Lady Shimazu? And you even call her by her first name…!”
On the way down the mountain, Yang Bok-ja chattered excitedly beside me. Aikawa, walking a step behind, clasped her hands together and said,
“Th-this is the first time I've seen someone from the noble class so close up…!”
She spoke as if greeting some precious dignitary. Close up, though…? Renka had only spoken to me, staying at least ten meters away from you two.
Whether Yang Bok-ja and Aikawa were making a fuss or not, Murasaki spat on the ground and muttered,
“Tch! That arrogant noble bitch…”
Yeah, I felt the same way.
We had no choice but to descend the mountain. I still hadn't gathered nearly enough mana stones to restore my status window… But between what Renka had said and the fact that it seemed all the other students had already gone down, there was nothing more we could do.
About an hour of walking later—
“…Hold on.”
I stopped the squad members. I'd suddenly sensed mana from somewhere. We'd been walking near the weakly emanating mana of the iron-stake barrier, so I nearly missed it. But this was clearly different from the barrier's mana. It was the distinct mana signature of a magic beast. And it wasn't far away.
Thinking we might get lucky and catch one more, I pushed through the underbrush toward the source of the mana. What came into view was a narrow ravine and…
“That's…! I've seen it in the illustrated guide. It's definitely a magic beast called an onigumo…!”
Song Byeong-o said, holding his breath.
What we saw were medium-sized magic beasts crouching on either side of the ravine, spinning enormous webs. As far as I knew, they were monsters called Devil Spiders. Now apparently called onigumo, they were equivalent to mid-tier B-class monsters by 21st-century standards. They were absolutely not something a freshman should be expected to handle.
No matter how practical this Hunter Academy was, they wouldn't create a situation on the very first day where students' lives were in danger. This had to be an unexpected accident. A magic beast that had broken through the barrier from beyond the training area.
‘No wonder the barrier seemed flimsy.’
Having slipped through such a weak barrier, the creature must have found the small magic beasts that were its prey in abundance and decided to settle in.
But then Aikawa, who had been squinting at the beasts, suddenly cried out in a small, startled voice.
“L-look closely! Those things hanging there… aren't those students?!”
What?
Looking more carefully at the spiderwebs stretched across the ravine, I saw that what was wrapped and hanging there wasn't only small magic beasts. There were much larger, longer shapes… In other words, things roughly the size of humans, also cocooned in the webs.
There were roughly twenty of them. Scattered across the ravine floor below were student caps, clothing, and weapons. They were definitely students.
‘So that's why we weren't seeing any other students…!’
“Sh-should we call for a professor…? Even now…”
Aikawa asked, but I shook my head. These Devil Spiders—or rather, onigumo—didn't kill their prey immediately. They wrapped them in webs and drained their life force through the silk. The students currently trapped had likely been having their energy siphoned for several hours already. The longer we delayed, the more dangerous it became.
“That would be too late. By the time we go get a professor and they make it here, who knows what might happen to them,” Song Byeong-o said.
“But… then what do you plan to do? That is not a monster students like us can handle!”
He was right. Even by 21st-century standards, Devil Spiders were monsters difficult for Hunter Academy freshmen to face. By current standards, they were upper mid-tier magic beasts. For ordinary students, confronting something of that rank would be impossible. The captured students were proof of that.
But it wasn't completely impossible.
Because I wasn't an ordinary student. I was a veteran hunter from the 21st century.
I declared firmly, “We can take that thing down.”
“H-how exactly…?”
“Everyone, gather around.”
The squad members stared at me with bewildered expressions. I turned to Lee Yuha and Yang Bok-ja, who were still keeping their distance, and spoke with a serious face.
“First… you two. Hold hands.”