Chapter 18
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Howl of the Magic Wolves
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Awoooooooo—
Elin froze right there on the spot.
She reflexively reached for her old wooden staff, but of course it wasn’t there.
She hadn’t brought it along, figuring she wouldn’t need it.
She hadn’t even imagined a situation like this.
As Elin’s face drained of color, Isel shouted.
“Elin!”
Isel knew full well that yelling wasn’t the smartest move with a wolf nearby.
But staying silent wouldn’t keep it from chasing them down, either.
‘Better to shout, then.’
Isel grabbed Elin’s dazed shoulders and locked eyes with her.
“Elin, calm down. Don’t panic. Breathe in slow—deep breaths.”
Startled back to her senses by Isel’s shout, Elin stared hard at her.
“W-what do we... what do we do? This has to be someone’s sick joke... Even so, this is the capital, isn’t it? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Isel swallowed a groan at the sight of Elin rejecting reality.
It wasn’t an unreasonable thought.
By all common sense, wolves wouldn’t linger in a place frequented by people.
‘But what if it’s real?’
Better to overreact now and sheepishly laugh it off later than to deny it and face the worst.
Isel had no clue what to do herself.
She had no clue, but...
“So!”
Genius or not, a student was still just a student.
In a real crisis like this, raw talent meant nothing—what mattered was practical skill you could use right now.
Instinct told her Elin wasn’t fit for combat, so Isel drew her sword.
If she started floundering too, they were done for.
Isel took a deep breath and steeled her resolve.
‘I’ve got to handle this.’
“Get it together. No need to freak out—stay calm. We’re heading straight back to the clearing. We’ll link up with any stragglers we spot on the way. Got it?”
“I...”
“Don’t worry. Wolf or not, if we stick together, we can take it. Nothing to be scared of—just stay calm. Blind panic’s what’ll get us killed.”
Elin stared blankly at the firm, almost gruff words.
But moments later, she nodded.
“Good. It’s urgent, but not do-or-die yet, so no time to dawdle. I’ll take point—follow close. If you spot anything behind us, call it out right away.”
“Yes.”
Even as she spoke with such conviction, Isel’s own anxiety churned inside her.
She shoved the dozen questions swirling in her head to the back burner.
Why were there wolves? She could puzzle that out after they escaped.
Right now, only the present mattered.
Everything else was irrelevant.
She consciously clenched her teeth.
Otherwise, weak words might slip past her lips.
Screams echoing from somewhere.
Sobs and wails bursting from those who couldn’t contain their panic.
Questions erupting everywhere, mingled with other shrill voices.
It was chaos. Total disarray, the forest thrown into pandemonium.
“Over there...”
“It’s fine!”
She snapped without thinking.
Not what she’d meant to do.
Maybe it was her sharp temper showing through—there was a moment’s hesitation, but then Isel widened her eyes and glared.
Elin started to speak but swallowed her words, her throat bobbing.
The sounds layered over one another, impossible to make sense of.
How many wolves? Who were they targeting? Who was hurt?
The panic spread like the cries echoing through the woods, fear blanketing the ground thickly.
Without a sound, without rumor.
The moment she looked back, all that met her was a fog of noise blotting out the path ahead.
Her breath caught in her throat.
How many of them were actually keeping calm?
Elin gritted her teeth and forced out more words.
“There are people that way. If we’re linking up, we have to go.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
No staff in hand, but a genius was still a genius.
As they moved, Elin chanted spells on the fly and pinpointed students one after another.
Pushing through the underbrush, they found a trio—a mix of boys and girls—gripping their blades, poised to strike.
As the bushes rustled, they’d clearly decided to attack.
Isel called out from a safe distance.
“Don’t attack!”
“...People?”
The tension eased, and Isel glanced around.
They were all shaking.
Someone had to take control of this mess.
‘But who?’
She gritted her teeth inwardly.
No point asking if they were okay.
They obviously weren’t—might as well skip the empty platitudes.
“We’re heading to the clearing. What about you?”
“We have to find the professor...”
“How do you plan to find the professor in this forest—with wolves around? You confident?”
She growled low, and one of them clamped their mouth shut.
“No better plan? Then join us. We’ll head to the clearing first and gather everyone. The professor will come once we’re grouped up.”
“What about rushing out and calling for backup?”
Isel swallowed her irritation.
“We can’t just abandon the others. Better to stick together than get picked off one by one. We can call for help after.”
No quick decisions came amid the hesitation, until a small burst of flame shot into the sky overhead.
Silence fell, then someone murmured through clenched teeth.
“From the clearing.”
“...The professor?”
The group turned hurriedly to Elin.
“How do you...”
Then they recognized her and fell silent all at once.
Top of the entire first-year class.
The undisputed pinnacle among prodigies hailed as once-in-a-generation talents.
Peerless—that word was made for Elin.
“That mana residue—it’s the professor’s.”
No one argued.
Truth be told, only someone like Elin could identify a mage from a single tiny flame like that.
Isel shot a glare around the group and summed things up.
“The clearing’s safer than this forest where anything could strike. The professor’s there, and that flame’s a signal to gather.”
With their tacit agreement secured, she added one more thing.
“We’re heading to the clearing. You...”
“...We’ll join.”
“Good.”
From there, they scooped up every group they encountered on the way to the clearing.
They’d gathered about ten people when they finally broke into the open space without incident.
But the scene before them wasn’t exactly encouraging.
Elin clapped a hand over her mouth.
Isel wasn’t much better off.
Groans, crying, vomiting, wounds and blood, the acrid tang of bile hanging in the air from somewhere.
One of their group couldn’t hold it in anymore and hurled right there amid the grim mood.
Isel ignored the retching sounds and approached the professor, who looked utterly drained.
“Professor, what about the rest?”
“Who are you?”
“Isel, second-year Knight Department runner-up. Professor.”
The professor clutched his head at her words.
He wasn’t exactly inspiring as the one meant to hold things together, but without him, they’d have no focal point at all.
“The rest... they’re still out there.”
“Then we have to go get them!”
“We can’t!”
For a professor to flat-out say they couldn’t...
Students were out there, liable to be attacked and killed at any moment. And all he could do was spew pathetic weakness.
Those weren’t words a professor should utter.
Never.
What was the difference from abandoning the students outright?
Her brows furrowed on instinct.
But before anger could take hold, a deeper sense of wrongness surfaced.
“Why? Why can’t you...”
“Have you seen it?”
She bit her lower lip so hard it threatened to bleed.
Seen what?
With no answer forthcoming, the professor shot her a reproachful look.
The whole situation still didn’t make sense to her.
She paused, then asked again.
“No. I thought it was just a normal wolf...”
“It’s a Magic Wolf. A monster. Right in front of me—right in front of me, the students...”
He tore at his hair in self-loathing, then trembled quietly like a broken man.
Isel felt a discordance that went beyond mere unease and unconsciously stepped back.
‘A Magic Wolf? Why a Magic Wolf?’
So those howls earlier had been from a Magic Wolf? Something no student could handle.
If they ran into one...
She shook her head sharply.
No time for that.
“Then at least head down the mountain for backup! You should’ve at least patched up the wounded!”
The professor lifted his face and stared blankly at Isel.
His expression said he had no idea what to do. No—even deeper, like he was staring into an abyss.
Isel started to press him but clamped her mouth shut.
He was holding position out of vague obligation, but directionless.
The perfect picture of someone cornered.
“We’re trapped. It’s a barrier.”
Isel could only freeze at the professor’s words.
Magic Wolves in the forest, injured everywhere, short on weapons and fighters—and now a barrier? Trapped?
Despair crept up from a corner of her heart.
She shook her head to shake it off, but once fear took root, it wouldn’t fade easily.
Tears pricked at her eyes, but she ground her teeth against them.
“Then break the bar—”
“I can’t break it. I’m... a Spellcraft major.”
This professor was useless.
Not a shred of resolve to fix things.
Just another adult too busy saving his own skin.
Isel forced steel into her voice.
“I can fight here! I know barriers! Anyone who can break one—hands up!”
Her shout rang out, but no one responded.
Most were lost in gloom, trembling listlessly.
Trembling didn’t solve crises.
She wasn’t sure how many times she’d gritted her teeth by now.
‘Hated to use this, but...’
They’d get nowhere without shaking off this funk.
She steadied her breathing and poured mana into her blade.
The intense glow drew eyes one by one, like a magnet.
Several became a dozen, then more—until everyone turned to her.
Isel drove the point home.
“I’m Isel, second-year Knight Department runner-up. They say we’ve got Magic Wolves here—I can handle them.”
Handle them? As if.
She’d have jumped in already if she could.
“I can cut down Magic Wolves.”
Even one-on-one against a single one would be a stretch.
“Trust me.”
She couldn’t even trust herself...
But she hardened her gaze.
‘Still, I have to say it.’
“No need to shake like this. Anyone else who can fight? Anyone who volunteered for Martial Arts College practicals. Barrier experts. Hands up, please.”
Hands rose here and there.
Those with swords at their waists stood, and the wand-wielding mages lifted their faces to watch her.
“Honestly, no clue if it’ll work. But it’s better than sitting here waiting for rescue. Mages—help the professor with the barrier. Everyone else...”
She scanned the group mid-sentence, but no swordsman matched her level.
Still, better than nothing.
Isel drew breath before continuing.
They couldn’t just abandon the kids.
‘That’s what I said earlier.’
What had spooked him so bad he wouldn’t go save them?
Decision made, Isel opened her eyes wide.
“We hold here.”
Knowing it was Magic Wolves meant no going back into the forest.
She could already picture an ambush wiping them out.
‘Guess we’re on our own.’
All they could do was hope the others made it to the clearing without getting isolated.
That was it.
Just as things seemed sorted, one mage spoke up.
“There’s a third-year Spellcraft major—super knowledgeable on barriers, a senior girl. She could definitely do it.”
Isel whipped around. The Magic Department student who’d met her eyes hesitated before continuing.
“She... she could definitely break it.”
Not certain. But...
Isel steeled herself.
“So where’s this senior?”
In answer, the student just stared off into the forest.
Ha...
She barely swallowed a curse and swept her gaze over the group.
“...Any volunteers? To go find that third-year senior.”
No hands went up.
Not surprising.
They’d just clawed their way out of that living hell—going back in would be pure madness.
Monsters liable to spring from anywhere.
A real fight with zero protection.
Heading into the woods was suicide.
“...I’ll go with you.”
“Elin?”
Lost in thought, Isel cut her off firmly.
“No. You stay here and help dismantle the barrier.”
“I don’t know much about barriers anyway. Wouldn’t help much. How do you plan to find her in that huge forest?”
‘How do you plan to find the professor in this forest?’
Isel’s own words, thrown right back at her.
Eyes that saw through everything, cold and piercing.
Isel found herself at a loss for words and bit her lip.
Elin pressed the attack.
“You saw me track people earlier. We move together. I’ll find the senior—you watch the front.”
The moment those words left her mouth, their tasks were all but set.