Dormitory Scramble (3)
A rat beastman cadet, bound hand and foot.
Chris Edmer.
He was a second-year from Topaz Dormitory—a spy dispatched to fracture the freshmen from the inside and abduct them, all to keep the dormitory from being seized.
"Forehead flick."
"Aaagh!"
"You're overacting, senior."
Whatever thrashing he had taken had peeled his mask half off, and his hair stuck out in every direction.
"Damn it! How did a mere scrap of a freshman see through this perfect disguise?!"
Ethan crouched down and fixed Chris with a steady stare.
"Among the freshmen, other than Sera and Iska, not one of them ever spotted me and spoke first."
"H-how did you notice even something that detailed...!"
"As squad leader, knowing who your people are and looking after them is only natural... ahem. Though I doubt you'd understand even if I explained."
Ethan's hand came to rest lightly on Sera's soft shoulder.
"Ethan?"
Sera's long ears flushed a faint pink.
"Unless someone is my woman—my teammate—spotting me isn't easy, Senior Chris."
At Ethan's smooth, almost flirtatious line, Sera clapped both hands over her mouth.
"...Hic."
Her face began to burn red as a beet.
"Th-that... Ethan, I... I..."
Sera clutched the hem of her leather skirt in both hands and twisted where she stood.
Of course, Ethan had no idea he had simply left out the word "teammate."
"Are you feeling unwell?"
"Th-hehe... nooo... that's not it..."
"If you're sick I'll take you to the infirmary. Drop out of the assault."
At that, Sera's expression hardened at once.
"No!"
"..."
"Y-you took all my food! I'm definitely clearing this dormitory!"
Iska, who had been nodding off in the back, jerked awake.
"Oh! Oh... you're amazing as always, Mr. Ethan."
"Securing the person of an enemy who has infiltrated the rear is basic warfare."
As every gaze swung toward Ethan, Sera, still flushed beside him, pouted alone.
"I knew too, you know..."
In truth Sera had noticed long before. Elves had sharp senses and a fine feel for qi. She had simply hesitated to speak, afraid of being branded a racial bigot the same way Ethan was.
"Sera Barakin. I am not a racial discriminator."
"But you are a thief discriminator."
"That isn't discrimination. It's only natural..."
"Oh, just drop it!"
In the end, only Ethan—bigoted to the marrow—had been quick enough to collar the senior cadet.
"Skin mask... fairly well made, but nowhere near enough."
Ethan carefully folded the animal mask Chris had used for his disguise and tucked it into his coat.
"...But."
Ethan cocked his head.
"Senior, you're a beastman. Why disguise yourself as the same beastman race?"
"..."
"You didn't put much thought into the disguise, did you?"
Chris lowered his head a little and blinked, looking as though he were turning something over in his mind.
Ethan rose and issued orders to his team.
"While we figure out how to put this senior to use, we're heading out on recon."
He tapped the exterior map of the dormitory spread across the ground.
"Iska has flight, so aerial recon."
"Yes."
"Sera has ranger experience—loop through the forest and check for a back entrance."
"Okay, got it!"
"I'll approach as close as possible from the front and confirm how the personnel are distributed."
Ethan called out in a near whisper.
"Dismissed!"
They scattered at once in every direction—
"...Huh?"
—leaving only Chris behind in the dark of the forest.
"Hey... juniors?"
Awooo—
From far off among the trees came the howls of magical beasts.
Grrr.
Bushes rustled; something like the breath of a predator seemed to drift on the air.
"H-hey juniors, take me with you!"
Chris screamed and bolted in the direction Ethan had gone. Even bound hand and foot he bounced along like a pogo stick—movement that made one think he had at least learned his footwork well.
Ethan had sent Iska and Sera to reconnoiter the rear of Ruby Dormitory. Iska, the angel half-blood, used her flight for aerial surveillance. Sera brought her gift for eerie, silent infiltration to the ground work. He had strictly ordered Iska not to come within a few meters of the dormitory fortress itself.
By the time Ethan returned to the rendezvous, Iska was already back with her report.
"The air defenses are thorough—aerial infiltration is nearly impossible. They rotate shifts carefully and search the sky as well. From the faintly visible magic circles, basic perimeter wards seem to be in place too."
Sera added her own analysis.
"Underground passages and bridges are pretty much all sealed. I checked the drains and sewers that link to the cafeteria, but iron grates bar them—no way through. Breaking in that way during the assault period will be hard."
Ethan nodded as he took it all in.
Hmm. I really do have a good eye for people.
Satisfied with the intelligence, he marked the exterior map.
"So the main gate and side gates are sealed with barricades. The moment you enter, alert senior cadets spot you."
For an infiltrator, high ground was everything. From below you had too many angles to watch and no idea where fire would come from. From above, you could pop out, strike, and vanish again—unilaterally thrashing whoever was lower down.
Why else had Mongchon Earthen Fortress been raised? People piled dirt on dirt for the advantage of raining arrows from higher ground, and before they knew it a hill had formed.
"We'll have to infiltrate with the high ground completely taken from us."
Even with modern combat knowledge, Ethan found himself wondering how anyone was supposed to get in when the defenders had sealed the entrances this thoroughly. And one capture meant you were out. What senior thief cadets would ever smile warmly and say,
Our dear juniors! Please take our warm, cozy dormitory and give us a haunted-house temporary dorm instead!
and simply hand the place over?
It was a natural fortress, an impregnable citadel. He should have known from the start, the way it looked like some theme-park stronghold...
"With only the exterior map we can't know the inside either. Hmm..."
The dormitory assault had stalled.
A brief silence settled.
"Wait a second."
"Did you think of something?"
Ethan's gaze fell on Chris, sprawled beside them. Their eyes met. Chris's went wide; he shook his head hard.
"Why are you looking at me like that! E-even if I'm a bat of a bastard! Even if you threaten me, I absolutely do not have any interior map of the dormitory! Even if it kills me!"
Ethan patted Chris's shoulder and spoke.
"Iska Aelos."
"Yes?"
"That mushroom you left half-eaten last time. Do you still have it?"
Iska opened her pack and drew out a mushroom that flickered with an uneasy fluorescent glow.
"This?"
Chris's face went ashen.
"Th-that's a Mad Glow Mushroom...! Where did you even get that poison...!"
"Relax. That friend over there ate one and came back three hours later."
"It's three days, Mr. Ethan. And I don't die from eating something like that..."
Gurgle.
"Hic!"
"What's that rumbling?"
The sound had come from Chris's belly as he twisted.
"N-no, that's just because my stomach's not well!"
Ethan switched, for the first time, into exaggerated honorifics.
"Oh my, our senior cadet must be so hungry, and we juniors went and ate something delicious without realizing. You must be starving, Senior Chris."
"Ugh... aaagh!"
"Come on, open wide~."
The Mad Glow Mushroom rose in Ethan's hand.
"Ack! Agaaagh!"
Deep in the forest, the senior cadet underwent a merciless reverse hazing. His screams struck between the quiet trees and carried far.
Three days later.
The fourth day of the Dormitory Scramble.
Most of the cadets had already been captured by the seniors. The scramble was entering its final stretch.
Northwest of the dormitory wing stood the student council building. In its underground operations control room sat equipment forged with the empire's finest craft. Within a frame of stone, a magitech vision-sharing array had been installed.
Agaaagh—
"...What's that screaming?"
"It sounds like a gray wolf's howl."
Ethan, who had spent days threatening Chris with mushrooms at every opportunity, seemed determined to wring out information until the very last day of the scramble.
"Didn't anyone feed those animals?"
"I don't know, ma'am."
"Tsk. I'll have to take a look at whoever the animal-science professor is."
Lena Croix spoke while adjusting her clanking hard leather armor.
"How many teams have taken a flag so far?"
"It looks as though no one will manage it this year either."
"Well. Freshmen who haven't even finished first semester, let alone second—snatching a flag right at the start was never going to be easy."
Masked voices reported under the stone arch of the ceiling.
"Hall 1, Teams B, C, and D. Captured."
"More than half the teams from Halls 2, 3, and 4 have been captured."
Lena Croix stroked her chin.
"This year Sapphire Dormitory came out strongest... they never reached the central hall, but they advanced as far as the forge. A four-year record."
"Correct. Excellent cadets."
Team A of Hall 4—Caion Valterr's team—had, under careful strategy, broken the eastern side gate and nearly reached the center. They had all been taken by seniors before they could enter the central hall, but even that was an exceptional mark for novice cadets.
"Cadets still free?"
"Almost... none, it seems."
Lena Croix yawned and stretched.
"Good. Then let's wrap this scramble up quickly..."
"Wait a moment!"
"What is it?"
The masked figure seated before a blue crystal turned.
"Hall 1 Team A is... moving toward the western side gate of Ruby Dormitory."
"What? West?"
Lena Croix's eyes lit.
"The west side of Ruby Dormitory is packed with mechanical traps, isn't it? Worst difficulty on the map?"
"Correct."
"I thought there was only a single suspension bridge that way... completely sealed with traps, no?"
"Th-that's right. We even warned the cadets there's no gate there and that they could die or be badly hurt—an unassailable route."
Lena turned her gaze to the vision-sharing screen. Four red dots raced toward the dormitory's western side gate. Her eyes narrowed.
"What... are they trying to do?"
Ethan Cass. Leader of Team A. The first cadet in Thief Academy history to evade the headmaster's hand techniques. And the one who, for nearly three full days, had not moved from the same spot at all.
"Keep close watch. Leave the spirit vision-share on at all times. If anything happens to the cadets we intervene at once."
"Yes!"
The red dots Lena Croix watched reached the western side gate and began to fan out in different directions.
She snorted softly.
"Figures."
Booby traps that detonated at a touch. Spirit traps that laid curses the moment a string was cut. No matter how much of a sensation freshman Ethan Cass had been—
"Absolutely impossible."
There was no chance cadets would approach the skybridge thick with such elaborate advanced traps.
"Unless they have the physicality to break through Thief Academy passage traps barehanded, that is."
Lena Croix grinned and shook her head.
Western forest of Ruby Dormitory.
Under the shade of the trees, Ethan's party sat huddled close. Ethan spoke with grim resolve.
"We're going to break through the traps of the western side gate."
Sera, Iska, and Chris all let their mouths fall open.