The Forest Where Monsters Lurk (5)
I somehow managed to patch up the Spear Saint, who was a wreck of wounds from head to toe.
Nearby, the Sword Saint stood watch with arms crossed. Franc disinfected the injuries and wound fresh bandages around them, while Laeli sat on the ground for a moment, consolidating everything into a single bag.
Having her haul two packs at once — mine included — was a worse idea than just dumping it all into one.
...If the Saintess and the Archmage were here too, this would basically be the Hero's party, wouldn't it?
A Hero's party without the Hero.
So this kind of thing actually happened.
Anyway. I had something I needed to do.
I walked over to the Spear Saint, who had been treated well enough to sit up, and said,
"A thank-you."
"...What?"
"You should say thank you."
Shouldn't she be grateful to Franc, who'd just finished wrapping her leg?
When I pressed her on this perfectly obvious point, the Spear Saint clutched her head and refused.
"I-I don't want to."
"You don't want to?"
I casually lifted my dagger. The Spear Saint curled into herself even tighter.
...This is actually pretty fun.
I'd never gotten to see this side of her before the regression.
The Spear Saint muttered with a look of utter, world-ending injustice.
"It's... your fault..."
"Mine? And the reason is?"
"I used up all my strength dueling you... That's why I twisted my ankle."
She really was the Spear Saint, through and through. Even now, she was showing off that same pigheaded personality.
I considered smacking her one more time, then decided to let it slide. Just this once.
The more she acted like this, the more thoroughly she'd get her character education from me later on.
How completely had the Hero's party fallen apart because of the Sword Saint and the Spear Saint? The Sword Saint had looked fine on the surface, but the inside had been filthy — coiled and rotten like a snake twisted around itself. And the Spear Saint might as well have been a social misfit.
Having watched it all firsthand, I wanted their thoughts and personalities to improve as much as possible.
...Maybe it was repeated hardships like today's that had made them that way.
They'd already had terrible personalities. Those just got worse.
Franc didn't seem to care one way or the other whether an apology ever came. Even wrapping the bandages had the air of someone simply doing what needed to be done. There was no effort to talk, person to person.
"Shall we start the explanation over from the beginning?"
The Spear Saint had ended up joining us, so I went through everything we'd already discussed, from the top, all the way through.
After hearing it, the Spear Saint mumbled,
"So the only option is to join up with the Hero..."
"Okay, I get that we're joining the Hero — but how do we find her?"
Laeli raised the important question.
It was true we didn't know where the Hero was. But there was an indirect way to find out.
"The monsters and demons are all flocking to one place."
"Then it's obvious."
Why else would the creatures be gathering? Because the Hero was there.
Laeli startled.
"Then isn't she already in danger?"
"It's not something to worry about yet."
Laeli's concern was that a considerable number of examinees might already be dying. There was no need to worry just yet. Among all those demons, the real ones were only watching.
There were plenty of beings that had been hiding their Magi until now, only to suddenly reveal themselves the moment that barrier appeared. Mid-rank demons, of course... and in the worst cases, I could see Magi that looked like it belonged to high-rank demons.
High-rank demons?
That was a different story entirely. Even if the current Hero went all-out, she wouldn't be able to win against one of those, would she?
At this point, something felt off. How had more than half of them gotten out alive? It would be a miracle if the Hero survived alone.
Was the Hero going to have some kind of great awakening here?
It was certain that the Demon King had laid groundwork at the Academy — but I had no idea what form that had taken. I'd only become an officer in the Demon King's army well after the Hero had graduated.
Since I had no idea what might happen, I needed to be prepared. Prepared, if it came to it, to use black magic even in front of the Hero.
They'd managed to fend off one wave of monsters.
They were all just examinees — and yet the most talented people from across the nation had gathered here. There had been casualties, but they'd held the line.
That didn't mean the situation had improved. The atmosphere was as bad as it could get, and there was no hope to be found. They were trapped in a forest with no idea how many monsters and demons were lurking inside it.
"What if we shoot magic high into the sky? Wouldn't the examiners come?"
Some people suggested this, but the Hero shook her head, saying it was meaningless.
"It would be blocked by the barrier."
Someone asked what on earth she meant by that.
"A barrier? What are you talking about?"
The Hero sighed. She was torn over whether she should explain this or not. Telling them wouldn't give these people any hope at all.
But she had no choice but to speak. If she wasn't going to talk, she shouldn't have brought it up in the first place. With every examinee's eyes on her, she couldn't simply close her mouth.
"A barrier suddenly appeared, covering this entire forest. It is a barrier that is nearly impossible to break through physically from the outside."
The words the Hero spoke were truly despairing. It meant they could not be rescued from the outside.
That left only one last hope.
Someone spoke, desperate.
"H-Hero, you can do it, right?"
"...Do what, exactly?"
"You can save us, can't you? Right?"
The Hero could not speak.
If she were alone, she was confident she could endure any hardship or danger. She had the divine protection granted by God, and a blessed body. Even if she came close to death, she had one chance to come back to life.
But could she save everyone else?
She alone was not enough to protect this many examinees. The monsters were attacking from all sides, and she could only hold one front.
The Hero desperately wished. If just one person — if a strong fighter who could cover an empty flank would join them. Then she would gladly handle the rest. Even if her bones shattered, she would hold the line, support them, and endure.
That small difference would determine whether half the examinees here died, or whether most of them survived.
And it wasn't as if there were no examinees with that kind of capability. Asel, Reinhardt, Franc... and that man as well.
Argal.
Would he really come to help? Or would he reveal his true nature and attack them alongside the demons?
That worry crossed her mind.
"Let's just go back. We haven't even gone that far into the forest."
Another examinee argued. It hadn't even been a day since the exam started. If they went back the way they came, they could get out of the forest quickly.
The Hero spoke firmly to the one who had suggested it.
"We cannot."
The Hero could feel the Magi lurking behind them. At minimum, dozens of mid-rank demons. A bomb she could never stop on her own. If they collided with that head-on, they would all die.
"Why the hell not? We should at least get to the barrier and try something! You want us to go deeper into a forest when we have no idea what's in there?"
"..."
This time, the Hero found it hard to give them the reason. Dozens of mid-rank demons following behind them? The moment she said that, everyone might collapse. It wouldn't just be a drop in morale — it would shatter completely.
She had no idea what to do. She was a savior who had not yet accumulated all her experience. A Hero who had not even received the Holy Sword. She was not yet an adult who should be leading anyone. She did not know how to give them hope.
And yet she had to lead the examinees. She could not simply let them all die.
As always, the Hero's duty pressed heavily upon her shoulders.
In the end, she told them something that was not the whole truth.
"I can sense more dangerous beings behind us. It seems they have cut off the path back."
"Ah... this can't be..."
She had phrased it as gently as possible, but despair burst out among the examinees. In a situation with not a shred of hope, only bad news kept coming. It was only natural. Some were already pessimistic about what lay ahead, wondering if they were all going to die.
The Hero muttered inwardly. If I had known it would be like this, I should have stopped the exam. Or I should have been more proactive and recruited S-rank companions who could overcome this situation.
But regret came too late.
"First, let us move. Nothing changes if we simply stay still."
The only thing she could do was give everything she had to get out of this place.
"You okay, Mikaron?"
Blash, who had barely survived the monster attack, asked with concern for his injured friend. The wound was on his leg, of all places. He was barely dragging Mikaron along, an arm slung around his shoulder for support.
"Urgh, I'm dying. Seriously."
"Just hang in there a little longer. The Hero's here, so something will work out."
The only remaining hope was the Hero. Historically, it was always the Hero who saved the world from the Demon King and reigned as the strongest on the continent. No matter how young the current Hero was, no matter that she had not received the Holy Sword, that kind of trust still existed.
With a number of people injured, rest stops kept cropping up along the way. On top of that, they had just come through a fierce battle. Trying to rush would only have made things worse.
Blash sat down and examined Mikaron's leg. The bandage was soaked through with blood seeping from the wound. They needed to change it.
"Mikaron, your bandage..."
"S-sorry. I threw them all away."
"You've got to be kidding."
Blash had used up all his own medical supplies long ago. He'd thought Mikaron was joking when he said he'd dumped things because they were too heavy — but Mikaron had actually done it. There were no bandages left to use.
"...I'll go borrow some."
But not a single person would lend him medical supplies. There were many injured, and even those who weren't had no idea what might happen next. Even when Blash promised gold coins, no one would hand over a single bandage worth mere coppers.
He was about to sigh and head back when something felt wrong.
A terror that engulfed his entire body crawled up his spine. When it reached his brain and he turned his head, there was a human-shaped figure visible on the other side.
It had the form of a person, but it was not a person.
A monster was walking out of the forest.
A crushing pressure, as if it were trampling the entire area underfoot. A formidable enemy that would take several knights working together just to face one of them.
A mid-rank demon was approaching them.
"I will face it!"
The Hero charged out at once. If a mediocre examinee carelessly engaged, they would die on the spot. Here, there was no one who could win except the Hero. It was the obvious judgment, and it had to be done.
But the enemy was not just one mid-rank demon.
Monsters that had roughly human-like forms. Lesser demons began appearing one and two at a time as well.
The Hero was locked in combat with the mid-rank demon. For examinees who couldn't even withstand a lesser demon, it was an extremely dangerous situation.
A guttural roar tore through the trees.
"Guh!"
Steel shrieked.
Blash drew his sword and barely blocked the demon's attack. Steel and a demon's claws had merely collided, and his blade was already completely notched. It was a stronger opponent than even the lesser demon from the test.
Only five examinees had ever killed a demon. And only one of those five was here. That one — the Hero — was struggling to fight the mid-rank demon.
Which meant the examinees here had no way to fight back against the demons.
"Ah."
Blash knew it instinctively. This place would be his grave. He'd dreamed of a viscountcy, and this was how he would die.
A crash. A crack. A sickening crunch.
He blocked the demon's attacks again and again, but the first thing to break was the sword in his hands. The shattered blade flew through the air.
The demon wore a sinister smile. The monster raised its hand high into the sky, ready to deliver the finishing blow to its prey.
No matter what ending Blash imagined, he was certain his head was about to fly.
If not for the bright light shining from behind.
A sharp crack split the air.
"...Huh?"
The demon's head went flying.
It happened in an instant. The demon's corpse tumbled lifelessly to the ground.
Blash turned his gaze. In the distance, about five figures were visible. From around the chest of one of them, a powerful light was shining.
He knew who that was.
The one everyone had mocked as the weakest person in this exam. The one they'd shunned, saying he relied on artifacts even after killing a demon. The one they'd assumed the Academy wouldn't recognize — and would fail — for using artifacts. That was the opponent they'd thought of.
He had taken off the head of a demon that Blash could never have defeated. In a single blow. And he had saved Blash's life.
Argal, his hand raised over his necklace, said,
Every last S-rank examinee with the skill to kill a demon. They had come here to save them.