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At my words, the knights stopped in their tracks.
They simply couldn't believe it.
"Is that true?"
"Hard to believe."
Whispering among themselves, the knights pushed one of their own toward me.
"Hey, why me?"
"You're the youngest."
"Damn it."
"Just do a quick test. The sun's already gone down."
The young knight grumbled as he stepped up in front of me.
The sunset cast a red glow across his plate armor.
"Since we're going together, we need to test your skills... or so they say."
He raised his sword, and I gripped the sword slung across my back.
"Whoa, you lifted that with one hand?"
The young knight glanced back over his shoulder.
"With strength like that, I think we can just take him along."
"Don't slack off. Test his skills quickly."
"Tch."
Clicking his tongue, the knight faced me again.
"All right, come at me."
Perhaps because there were no onlookers around, or because they were academy knights, he spoke casually to me despite my noble status.
Other nobles would probably have made a fuss about it.
But I didn't particularly care. If anything, this was more comfortable.
More importantly, he didn't seem to believe me at all. He wasn't even holding his sword properly, and his stance was completely loose.
"Well then, here I come."
After giving a knight's salute,
Thud!
I kicked off the ground, my foot charged with mana.
Swish.
The startled knight's face rushed toward me.
At the same time, I swung my sword.
Whoosh.
The sound of the greatsword cutting through the air rang across the forest.
"What?"
A stunned voice cried out right in front of my nose.
At that moment, the greatsword was hurtling straight toward the knight's neck.
Damn it, aren't you even going to block?!
Even though I was swinging with the flat of the blade, at that speed, his neck wouldn't remain intact if it hit.
Ugh.
I abruptly brought my sword to a halt.
Clunk.
The blade barely stopped right beside the knight's neck.
Thud.
Overcome with shock, the knight collapsed to the ground.
Good lord, he was so pathetically weak. Stopping the sword proved harder than swinging it.
I looked down at the fallen knight and let out a sigh.
He was far weaker than I had anticipated.
The other knights didn't seem much different.
I had miscalculated. These were knights belonging to the academy.
Since I had used the ducal domain's knights or the royal knights as my benchmark, this kind of outcome was inevitable.
Even excluding the Royal Knights, the Duke of Gracia's order of knights was among the best in the Kingdom.
Because I had judged them by the standards of such elite knights—
I almost sent a knight to the afterlife by mistake.
"I think this should be enough for the test."
The knights, who had been staring at me wide-eyed, barely managed to nod.
"As expected of a noble."
"What kind of inherited ability allows him to be this strong at that age?"
"He has the skill, so that must be why the Headmaster allowed it. There was no point testing him."
The knights seemed consumed by an inferiority complex.
'No matter how well I do, it all gets attributed to an inherited ability.'
They were different from the territory knights I was used to seeing.
Still, I could understand them. In my past life, when I envied the rich, I wasn't any different from them.
"Whether it's an inherited ability or sheer effort, your skill is more than sufficient, so there's no problem. In any case, welcome aboard."
The middle-aged knight who appeared to be the leader of the party spoke up.
The grumbling knights fell silent at his words.
"Then, since we have enough people, we can split into two groups."
The knights nodded at his proposal.
There were 5 knights remaining. With me, that made 6, which meant we could move in two groups of three.
"Is it all right to split into two groups?"
"It can't be helped. We stayed behind to search for people, so even if it's dangerous, we need to hurry and search as many areas as possible."
Though they complained with grim expressions, these were men who had risked their lives to rescue others.
After conferring, the knights split into two groups.
I ended up going with the middle-aged knight who seemed to be the leader and the youngest knight, who had sparred with me.
The remaining three knights saluted the middle-aged knight before quickly disappearing into the forest.
"Let's head out as well."
The middle-aged knight took the lead, and the two of us followed behind him.
Walking beside me, the young knight scratched his head and introduced himself.
"I made a complete mess of things back there, but my name's Axel. The man up ahead is Senior Knight Miro."
"I am Alex."
I introduced myself once more.
"I had no idea you'd close the distance so quickly. If I'd been prepared, I wouldn't have gone down so pathetically."
He seemed deeply regretful about the earlier duel.
At his words, Senior Knight Miro, who was leading the way, offered a stern warning.
"Lowering your guard is part of your skill level, too."
"I know that, but still..."
Knight Axel shrugged.
Remarkably, Knight Miro strode briskly through the dark forest without even stopping to look for trail markers.
"Do you happen to have a specific method for locating the stragglers?"
"What do you mean?"
"You don't seem to be actively searching for anyone."
At my question, the senior knight walking ahead answered.
"Earlier, I checked which direction the other teams had come from. For now, we plan to head in a direction they haven't checked. The Headmaster told us the maximum radius within which people could have been scattered during spatial teleportation. Once we reach that perimeter, we'll search in a wide circle."
I thought he had some special trick, but he was using a simple yet methodical approach.
"So that's why the other knights went in the opposite direction."
"If we each search in a circle around the starting point, we should eventually find them."
"Provided they're still alive."
Knight Miro threw cold water on Axel's hopes with those words—or perhaps he was just being realistic.
"More than that, I think our own survival comes first."
Knight Axel scanned our surroundings with a grave expression.
We hadn't traveled that far, yet night had already fallen.
Although the moon and stars shone in the sky, the dense canopy and thick vines rendered the deep forest pitch-black, making it impossible to see an inch ahead.
"I assume you know how to channel mana into your eyes?"
"Yes."
As I replied, I channeled mana into my eyes.
The dark surroundings came back into clear view.
Rumble. Rumble.
Crack. Crack.
Crack.
Now that night had fallen, the horrific screeches of monsters echoed throughout the forest.
Indeed, just as others had said, night in the Forest of the Seal was entirely different from day.
"It's total chaos, even though we're only on the outskirts."
"It wasn't like this before. The monsters seemed stronger than before, even during the day."
"Plus, there are stragglers out here."
The knights whispered in hushed tones.
Because it was nighttime, they had to keep their voices down.
I looked down at the greatsword in my hand. In conditions like this, wielding a greatsword would be difficult.
I slung the greatsword back over my shoulder and drew a hidden dagger.
"It's too dark. Even after channeling mana, I can barely see what's right in front of my face."
Unlike nobles, knights struggled to use mana effectively.
While I could see almost as clearly as during the day, the two knights moved forward, barely able to see what was right in front of them.
I clicked my tongue as I looked ahead along the path the knights were taking.
'So this is why everyone kept talking about life and death.'
Far ahead, a monster was staring directly at us.
'It can't be helped. I'll have to be their eyes.'
"Monsters. Thirty paces straight ahead. They're ape-type monsters."
It was an ugly humanoid monster about the size of a boy. It looked just like a goblin from the fantasy novels of my past life.
At my warning, the young knight turned to look at me in surprise, but the senior knight lowered his stance and raised his sword.
"Is there just one?"
"Now there's a second. No, a third. Their numbers are growing."
It looked as though they were trying to encircle us.
"An encirclement, huh."
He reached the same conclusion as me. The senior knight had plenty of experience.
"A preemptive strike would be best."
"Yes."
"All right. Three, two, one."
With a shout of "Now!" we charged forward.
Mana flooded into the dagger. A long, sharp crimson aura surged from its blade.
Invisible to the eyes of others, it was sword aura formed purely of mana.
Thunk!
I plunged the dagger straight into the head of one of the monsters forming the cordon.
Quickly pulling it free, I thrust it into the chest of the neighboring beast.
Screech!
A monster's screech pierced the air.
It was the screech of a beast cut down by the senior knight's blade.
Unlike me, with my clear night vision, the knights swung their swords at dim, indistinct shadows.
Since they couldn't see well, killing the monsters with a single strike was difficult.
Still, there was no way they couldn't handle low-level monsters like these.
The problem was their numbers.
More monsters appeared than we had slain.
"Keep moving while you fight! If you stop, you'll be surrounded!"
It was just as the senior knight said.
The three of us charged ahead, swinging our blades wildly.
After sprinting like that for a long time, there were no longer any attacking monsters in sight.
"Haa, haa... Did we kill them all?"
Axel, who had sustained wounds to his arms and legs, spoke between gasps.
"We've escaped their territory."
The senior knight shook his head. Fortunately, he hadn't suffered much injury.
"Thank you. We survived thanks to you."
He bowed his head toward me.
He seemed to realize I had slain more than twice as many monsters as the two of them had killed combined.
"It's only because I could see well."
At my response, the senior knight nodded.
"Haa, haa... Can't we rest for just a bit?"
Knight Axel asked in an exhausted tone.
The senior knight considered it for a moment before nodding.
"We seem to have reached the distance the Headmaster mentioned anyway. We can rest briefly before beginning the search."
Knight Axel collapsed against the trunk of a tree.
The senior knight also leaned his back against another tree.
"Student Alex, you should take a rest as well."
"More importantly, how do you plan to search from here on?"
"There's no special way. We'll just have to go in a circle and look one by one. Fortunately, since your night vision is keen, you'll be a great help."
"Then, while you rest, may I scout around separately?"
Knight Miro stared intently at me before nodding.
I climbed the tree beside us.
Though it was a dark night, climbing the tree posed no difficulty.
When I reached the treetop, an exclamation of awe escaped my lips.
The sky was filled with stars, and waves of mana rippled across the heavens.
Like an aurora, like paint spreading across a canvas, mana flowed through the air.
Because it was night, I could see all the way to where the mana originated, far in the distance.
That far-off place was likely the center of the Seal Grounds, where the Demon King was sealed.
It was said to be a place so swarming with monsters that approaching it was nearly impossible.
I stared blankly at it before coming back to my senses. Now was not the time to be distracted by such things.
Standing on the treetop, I surveyed our surroundings.
I took in everything from the immediate area to the distant reaches of the forest.
Regrettably, no light was visible.
Frankly, I hadn't expected to see any light anyway. Any fire or light would surely be spotted by monsters first, drawing their attacks.
Giving up on looking for light, I observed the mana flows instead.
I looked for places where the mana differed from the area's ambient mana, or where traces of violent mana disturbances remained.
I kept scanning to see if any such locations existed.
After searching for a long while, I spotted such traces far in the distance.
Traces of violently churning mana lingered. That meant a fight had taken place.
And amid those traces, I sensed somewhat foreign mana—mana unpolluted by demonic energy. The mana of a noble.
I might have mistaken it, or it could have been traces left by someone who had already returned to the academy, but right now, following that tangled mana was our best option.
Grasping at straws was better than stumbling around blindly.
I climbed down and informed Senior Knight Miro. After pondering it for a good while, he agreed to follow my lead.
A short while later, after Knight Axel groaned and got back to his feet, we dashed toward the destination I had pointed out.
Traversing a forest at night was an exceptionally grueling and exhausting endeavor.
On top of that, we encountered monsters several times along the way.
After battling through monsters and sustaining injuries to both Knight Axel and the senior knight, we finally reached our destination just as dawn approached.
There, I found two living students.
And Katrin's corpse.