Ambush at the Clearing
I walked with my teammates through the endless stretch of trees.
Crunch. Crunch.
Perhaps because this was an artificially created space, not even the chirp of insects or birds reached us. This eerie forest held nothing but the sound of our breathing and the soft tread of boots on dirt—no other noise mixed in at all.
And in the end, someone who could no longer bear that silence finally spoke up.
"This is weird. It's way too weird—!"
Enri's voice rang out loudly through the heart of the deep woods.
"Keep it down, Enri. What are you doing yelling like that? What if another team hears us?"
Angela scolded her, but Enri refused to back down.
"Then good! Angela, don't you think this whole situation is completely wrong?"
Faced with Enri's desperate cry, Angela couldn't argue back. She turned to me with a weary look instead.
Elizabeth, who had been quietly listening to their exchange beside us, called my name.
"Young Master, it is indeed a little strange."
"……."
"No matter how you look at it, spending more than two hours moving without encountering a single other team simply should not be possible."
"……Yeah."
I admitted she was right.
If my memory served, Class A had sixty students in total. Even excluding the team we had already taken down, that meant at least thirteen teams should still be inside this subspace forest. Yet in this relatively narrow space, we hadn't found so much as a trace of anyone else.
I forced down the deep sigh that tried to escape.
Ah, seriously. The foreshadowing payoff is insane…….
I had thought we were lucky—two hours ago. The moment the exam started we clashed with the first team, and I had been sure this selection match would wrap up quickly.
I was underestimating my own damn luck…….
If we ended up timing out or getting disqualified for leaving the field, it would be a disaster I couldn't even bear to watch with my eyes open.
As party leader, I finally made the call.
I slowly came to a stop, and my teammates halted with me, looking up with expectant eyes.
Don't look at me like that. I never saw this coming either.
Unable to dodge their sparkling gazes, I pulled out the map I had been holding and pointed with a finger.
"From here to here—that's the path we've taken so far."
We had been circling mostly along the outer edges of the forest.
"We stuck to the outskirts to move as safely as possible, but honestly, at this rate there's no answer."
Beatrix's uneasy advice, plus the ominous feeling I had been sensing from the center of the forest for a while now, had made me deliberately avoid that area. And this was the result.
Only one option remained for us.
[Hoh. After dodging like a coward all this time, you're finally going?]
Beatrix, who had read my thoughts, spoke with a mocking tone.
……It's not like I have a choice.
[Even knowing there's danger there?]
That's exactly why I have no choice.
I met the girls' eyes squarely and tapped the exact center of the map.
"We're heading here."
In the end, we set our course for the center and started walking again.
"Everyone, hurry! At this rate the other teams will all get eliminated!"
We had been on edge, scanning our surroundings for so long that everyone was tired, yet Enri still brimmed with energy.
With no sign of other teams, we could have rested somewhere suitable, but we kept walking without a break.
Of course, every member of the party was a hero aspirant with far greater stamina than ordinary people.
But the real reason was Enri's insistence: "If we're going to rest, I'd rather rest properly back at the dorms."
Everyone agreed with her, so Enri walked at the front with a bright expression, occasionally glancing back to make sure we were keeping up.
Elizabeth and Angela smiled at the sight of her, but I couldn't let my guard down until the end.
It was hard to put into words, but something beyond the five senses—a sixth sense—kept sending me signals.
……There's definitely something.
If the map was accurate, a fairly wide clearing existed at the center of this forest.
Moving toward a place like that was clearly a risk, but any teams still remaining would inevitably gather in the center just to find opponents.
Whether I wanted to go or not, we had no choice.
How much longer did we walk through that dim forest where sunlight barely reached?
In the distance, a bright light began to appear.
"We've arrived. There's an open clearing ahead. Everyone, enter carefully."
"Understood."
"Yes!"
"Got it."
With Enri in the lead, we advanced slowly.
As we stepped out of the dark woods, bright light poured down from the sky and blinded us.
The moment everyone squinted against the glare, warnings of danger slammed into my senses like a storm.
[It's coming.]
"Everyone, watch ou—!!"
Fwoosh!!
In the blink of an eye, a spear forged of blue flames shot toward us.
"Enri?!"
"Kyaaaah—!! Enri!"
My teammates' screams rang out.
"Cough. Wh-what…?"
Blood poured from Enri's mouth as she stared down at her own body in disbelief, unable to comprehend what had just happened. The spear of blue fire had melted through her shield, pierced her armor, and buried itself in her chest.
My mind couldn't keep up with the sudden attack; my thoughts froze solid until Elizabeth and Angela's screams snapped me back.
The skill-forged spear vanished, and Enri, already losing consciousness, began to collapse. I sprinted forward and caught her before she hit the ground.
[She's not dead. Somehow it missed the heart.]
Confirming she was still breathing, I opened my inventory, pulled out every recovery consumable I had, sprinkled them over the gaping wound, and forced some into her mouth as well.
"Damn it!"
Thankfully the bleeding seemed to stop, but it was far too early to relax.
The wound was too large; this was nowhere near enough.
She needed proper treatment.
While the entire party reeled from the sudden assault, a voice laced with laughter drifted from far ahead.
"Keh-keh-keh. What the hell? I missed."
I lifted my head and looked at the one responsible for Enri's condition.
"……Jack Richmond."
He gazed at us with open mockery and scattered something across the ground.
Coins marked with numbers.
The ones rolling across the dirt numbered well over ten at the very least.
"You're too late, aren't you?"
"Everyone, hurry! At this rate the other teams will all get eliminated!"
Enri said that and glanced back over her shoulder.
She saw Lady Elizabeth smiling as if she found her adorable, and Angela offering a helpless little smile of her own.
Beside them stood Young Master Taylor Winchester, wearing a troubled expression.
The moment their eyes met, he returned to his usual blank face as if nothing were wrong—but that only made Enri's spirits sink a little.
Young Master is truly an amazing person, but sometimes he thinks too much… or maybe he's just far too considerate.
There was something Enri had learned after entering the academy.
That the famous descendant of the Black Hero, Young Master Taylor Winchester, was a man of deep thought who never acted carelessly toward others and always knew how to show consideration—a truly wonderful person.
On the day of the entrance ceremony, when a sudden major incident broke out, he had risked himself without hesitation to save people. That heroic sight was something she would never forget for the rest of her life.
After everything ended, when William Grants—whom she knew a little—praised Winchester's greatness, she had found herself agreeing completely.
As a child, Enri had grown up receiving endless scorn and contempt from other nobles simply because she was from a fallen house.
The period when she awakened her talent and took the academy entrance exam had been the absolute peak of that treatment.
That was why the man who shattered her prejudice that all nobles were arrogant shone all the brighter in her eyes.
By staying at his side she had also grown close to the magnificent and beautiful Lady Elizabeth Spencer.
She had even received a shield and armor of a price she could never have dreamed of.
Together they had overcome threats and grown faster than anyone else.
Is someone like me just not reliable enough after all……?
As a fellow hero aspirant, she deeply respected the way Young Master Winchester always tried to handle so many things alone.
But if the role of party leader Taylor Winchester was to hold the center of the team, then the role of protecting the team belonged solely to the guardian—Enri.
The words he had explained to her before they entered the dungeon came back to her.
In a party, a tank—that is, a guardian—is like a fortress wall. No matter what enemy you face, you have to block that threat from the front lines. The moment you break, the party breaks with you. Always remember that.
Even if she couldn't manage it yet, she wanted to become the kind of sturdy fortress wall of a hero that he could lean on without worry whenever he was tired and worn out.