Chapter 60
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: Holding the Door
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Radia was leaning against the door with weary eyes.
More accurately, it was better to say she was blocking the door that was trying to break through with her own body.
Crack. Crackle.
Thud!
“Block it! Block it! Use your bodies to hold it!”
“Don’t let it break through! Hold the line!”
“Materials! Bring more materials! Grab anything we’ve got and stuff the hole!”
“H-Hiiik!”
A monster shoved its arm through the burst hole and flailed it around wildly.
A terrified student grabbed a sword and sliced the arm off. With a piercing screech of “Kieeeek!”, blood sprayed from the severed stump.
A pooling puddle of blood.
Unlike those outside who had risked danger to assault the monsters head-on, the people inside weren’t used to sights like this. They huddled in fear.
Someone with a weak stomach started dry-heaving, but Radia paid it no mind.
She simply stared at the ceiling with empty eyes.
Radia reflected on how things had come to this.
* * *
Less than ten minutes had passed since the earth dragon appeared, and Radia was already assessing the situation objectively.
“R-Radia. What do we do now?”
Her friends, the other students from class.
Even the professor was flustered by the unexpected crisis.
‘The proper thing would be to follow the professor’s lead.’
Radia glanced at the professor.
The obvious signs of bewilderment.
He might be a professor like Professor Aiden, but he was a scholar who’d studied from books, not someone skilled in mercenary tactics.
In fact, she—the one leading the security squad—might be more suited for this.
‘Though calling it a security squad is a bit generous…’
There were hardly ever major incidents or disturbances at the university. It was more like a volunteer group handling patrols and odd jobs.
The most combat-like duty was culling the overpopulated monsters on the magic tower’s practice floors or slime extermination on campus grounds.
Slimes died easily, so thinning the magic tower’s population probably counted as her real experience.
In a situation like this, actual combat experience didn’t matter much.
What counted was whether you’d ever led people or not.
Radia let out a sigh and steeled her resolve.
‘For now, we have to do something. No time to hesitate.’
She looked at the students.
They stood around awkwardly, waiting for someone to take charge.
They didn’t want the responsibility—were scared of it—and hoped someone else would issue orders.
Then she would have to step up.
“Let’s head to the first floor and set up barricades. Extinguish all fires and draw every curtain. We don’t want to draw the monsters’ attention.”
“Th-Then what about us…?”
“Drag every desk and chair you can find and seal off the entire first-floor entrance. Every window, no exceptions. Be thorough. Set up cover points at intervals in the hallways too. Weapons…”
Radia scanned the students.
Some held swords, others didn’t.
“Professor, where are the practice weapons stored?”
“They should be… in the storeroom. On the first floor.”
Storeroom…
At least it wasn’t outside. Small mercy.
They were just training swords, but better than nothing.
“Storeroom. We’ll split up—some fetch weapons from there. While you’re at it, gather everyone from the other floors and classrooms. Quietly, no noise.”
“A-Anything else?”
“Food. Medical supplies. We don’t know how long we’ll have to hold out. Gather everything without leaving the building. Water from the purifiers inside.”
Once Radia laid out the plan, everyone moved with disciplined efficiency.
“We don’t need the desks and chairs for anything else—use them all to seal the first floor. Once that’s done, we’ll block the stairs leading up, one by one.”
She glanced below at the chaos where monsters had sent people scattering in panic.
Sporadic bloodstains dotted the road outside the building.
The students’ faces paled, their steps quickening.
Radia raised her voice.
Nip panic in the bud.
“Curtains on every window! Ignore the screams! There’s nothing we can do about them!”
“M-My friend’s still out there…”
Radia strode over and glared at the student who’d spoken up.
“If you can go out and save them, then go. I won’t stop you.”
The student fell silent like their mouth was glued shut. Radia stared them down, then swept her gaze over the others.
Anyone else have something to say?
Confirming the silence, Radia turned away.
It might seem heartless, but it was necessary right now.
Even staying inside the building offered no guarantees for their own necks.
In this situation, trying to save those outside out of needless meddling would…
‘Mean total annihilation.’
But worries didn’t just vanish.
“No matter what preparations we make…”
If that earth dragon moved, it’d all be pointless.
Barricades or whatever— one sweep from it, and they’d crumble.
Monsters would pour in uncontrollably.
Holding them off would become impossible.
‘Guess we leave it to luck…’
She squeezed her eyes shut in desperate prayer—then a voice called her name.
“Senior Radia.”
“…Isel?”
Radia looked at Isel, who’d come rushing up.
Her expression hardened.
“What’s wrong? Where’s Professor Aiden?”
Isel couldn’t be here alone.
She shouldn’t be.
The others remembered Professor Aiden too, turning to Isel with hopeful faces.
The empire’s third master.
A presence that could turn the tide in an instant.
No—a guarantee of survival just by being nearby.
But Isel only bit her lower lip, unable to answer easily.
“Where’s Professor Aiden?”
Radia pressed, and Isel closed her eyes with a sigh.
“He went… to stop the dragon.”
“What? What dragon…”
Radia faltered mid-sentence.
“You don’t mean… that one?”
“Yes.”
Radia narrowed her eyes, calming the murmuring students.
The unrest spread quietly, unseen.
Her thoughts grew complicated.
‘What on earth is that professor thinking…?’
Did he judge he could block all those monsters alone?
Reckless.
Arrogant, even.
But it was also true they had no countermeasures if that earth dragon charged.
The same went for other buildings.
Even the magic tower probably wouldn’t try wrestling a dragon that size head-on.
Radia gnawed her nails.
The building with Aiden might hold.
But the others had no defense against the dragon.
If he’d gone to intercept it personally, then probably to save everyone.
To buy them time for a siege against the monsters swarming from below.
Idealistic.
Radia bit her lip.
‘That’s why I hoped he’d stay with us.’
If he could just lure that one dragon away and deal with it, there might be a chance.
Best if it never came this way at all… but if it did, that was the optimal play.
‘And those sorcerers have monsters too.’
A large-scale ritual like that wouldn’t be handled by one sorcerer alone—they’d brought plenty of mages to assist.
Radia spoke up.
“Isel, did Professor Aiden prepare anything else? Armor, maybe. His personal gear…?”
If—just maybe—he’d come equipped like he was heading into battle with all his gear, that’d be different.
He was a master, even if at the low end.
Worth banking on.
But Isel’s answer dashed all hopes.
“…He said he didn’t foresee this either. All he grabbed… was a single rapier.”
A thick veil of self-deprecating laughter settled over them.
Radia wanted to join in, but she couldn’t break now.
Isel raised her voice.
“Senior Radia, we need to go to Professor Aiden. We don’t have time for—”
Radia glanced around and shook her head.
“We can’t handle that.”
“Senior!”
“Even if Professor Aiden needs help, we can’t abandon this place.”
Everyone here was relying on her, just like before.
She couldn’t move while that was true.
‘A choice. Another choice…’
Isel fell silent, biting her lip.
Radia squeezed her eyes shut too, swallowing her despair.
Deep down, she knew going was right.
Even if it meant plunging into a deadly battlefield—Professor Aiden must have called because it was necessary.
But separately…
‘If I abandon them, can these people survive?’
Like before, the ones she didn’t choose would grab her ankle.
Binding questions, like curses.
The thought alone made her breath catch.
Like shattered glass strewn across the path—every step sharp and terrifying.
The crossroads gnawing at her mind, and time ticked mercilessly on.
The more she wavered, the more she lost.
‘But…’
‘You’re doing well. You’ve done well, and you’ll keep doing well. Have confidence. You’re a swordsman worthy of the Drake family.’
The kind words spoken that night, against the starry sky.
Warmth filled her cold lungs.
‘I, a master, guarantee it.’
She chuckled inwardly and hardened her resolve.
If a master guaranteed it, she had no choice.
She’d make it work somehow.
That was a few hours ago.
‘And then?’
Radia’s empty eyes drifted to the ceiling.
She’d started so boldly, envisioning a hopeful future where everyone survived.
Back then, too, monsters and students had clashed across a single door.
Fierce resistance.
Isel had reluctantly joined the line, intensifying the battle to a fever pitch.
Monsters battered the barricades, smashing the chairs they’d stacked as barriers.
Students used sturdy bodies as shields, ignoring spear thrusts—sometimes dying to pass the baton to the next monster.
Knight Department students resisted fiercely.
They ambushed in hallways, collapsed double-height areas as traps.
Tore down pillars, sometimes blasted them with mana, formed elite strike teams to swiftly kill monsters and fall back.
They fired practice arrows between floors, hurled javelins, used the bought time to rebuild barricades from debris.
Sealed stairwells, used monster corpses for cover.
Killed, and killed again.
The students fought tenaciously, refusing to yield even a single floor or classroom.
But inevitably, casualties mounted.
The infirmary beds were full, compression bandages running short.
The strike teams had dwindled to a shadow of their former size. Amid it all, Radia swung her sword.
Monster paths inevitably converged in one place.
Like releasing water bit by bit before a dam bursts, they had to ease the pressure before monsters reached the barricades.
Otherwise, they’d collapse.
Radia exhaled ragged breaths.
Heat rose to her throat, every breath agonizing.
She couldn’t catch her breath.
Lungs squeezed tight, she gripped her sword through gritted teeth and tears.
She’d passed her limits long ago.
At this point, it was mental fortitude carrying her body.
She had to cut down as many monsters here as possible to delay the barricade’s fall.
Every one she missed would reach the barricade and pressure the others.
Imagining that, Radia gasped for air.
‘I can’t afford a mistake this time.’
“Senior.”
Isel watched her with worried eyes from the side.