The Way Back (1)
The Way Back (1)
Even though I'd experienced it several times, seeing the corpse of someone I knew—someone I was close to—was still incredibly hard to bear.
Even if time turned back and they came back to life, the shock I'd felt at the moment I saw the corpse wouldn't simply disappear.
Besides, there was no guarantee I could bring her back.
Because of that, on top of the shock of an acquaintance's death, I felt a tension that gripped my heart.
"Are you all right?"
"Are you the only two who survived?"
The knights urgently questioned the two surviving students. Overjoyed that both were alive, they forced themselves to answer.
"W-We are the only two left. Professor Katrin held out until the very end, but..."
The female student, Bria, answered in a cracked voice.
"Her wounds were too severe. We tried to treat her with potions and bandages, but it didn't work well."
The male student, who seemed relatively uninjured, added an explanation.
When I looked at him again, I realized I recognized him.
He was the student who had delivered the Freshman Oath. His name was Ride.
While the knights tended to the surviving students, I examined Katrin's body.
The wound on her flank, which had been wrapped in bandages, was as severe as they'd said.
Judging by her numerous other injuries, it seemed there had been a fierce battle.
All the confidence I'd built up through my growth until now drained away completely.
If Katrin, whose skills were no different from mine, could die like this... then I had no way of knowing when I might die in these Seal Grounds, either.
"We must send a signal and move to a safer location."
At Senior Knight Miro's words, Knight Axel pulled a cylinder from inside his shirt.
He lifted it overhead and struck its base with his palm.
Thunk.
A beam of light shot out of the cylinder and burst in the sky.
Bang!
It was a signal flare.
"Now that we've signaled for rescue, they'll come to the assembly point. We'll move to the cave we saw on our way here. We'll hold out there until sunrise, then head straight to the assembly point."
Senior Knight Miro spoke as if expecting me to understand.
And understandably so, since the two knights had witnessed my prowess on the way here.
"It would be difficult to carry her body along, wouldn't it?"
At my question, the senior knight shook his head.
"Since I know where the cave is, I'll take care of her body and follow right behind you."
At my words, Senior Knight Miro and Knight Axel nodded.
But Bria and Ride didn't understand.
"Uh, come to think of it, why is Alex here?"
"I'll explain later."
I put Bria's question aside for now.
"Huh? Even so, we should go together..."
The senior knight cut Ride off and urged the party forward.
"He'll be fine, so move quickly. This place is dangerous as well."
The knights led Ride, who kept pausing as though worried, and disappeared in the direction we'd come from.
Left alone, I gave Katrin's body a thorough examination.
I checked each of her wounds, unwrapping the bandages to examine the injury on her flank once more.
It wasn't as if I had the skills to perform a proper autopsy, and there were no particularly suspicious circumstances.
It was simply hard for me to accept that she had died so easily.
After checking everything, I stripped off enough of her outer garments to feel sorry for the deceased, then used my greatsword to dig into the ground and bury her in a shallow grave.
I then set up a large stone and carved marks into nearby trees to designate the spot where she was buried.
Fortunately, perhaps because my senses had sharpened, I felt confident I could easily find the spot again.
After lingering by the grave for a brief moment, I gathered her belongings—her shield and sword—and set off after the party.
By the time I reached the cave, not much time had passed since the knights who'd left ahead of me had arrived.
It was a shallow cave beneath a modest rocky hill, with a passage that stretched barely ten meters inward.
Even though it wasn't particularly tall, its location beneath a rocky hill meant we only had to defend one entrance. Thus, even a shallow cave was vastly safer than sleeping in the middle of the forest.
It was ill-suited for a long stay, but more than enough for a single night.
Before I arrived, the knights and students had been camouflaging the cave entrance with bushes and tree branches.
Ride and Bria, who were carrying branches, looked relieved by my early arrival.
"Are you all right?"
At Bria's question, I nodded.
Perhaps because some time had passed, Bria and Ride seemed to have calmed down.
I helped them finish camouflaging the cave, after which we set the watch order and decided to get some sleep.
"Daybreak is near, but let's sleep even for a short while. Once dawn breaks, we'll have to keep walking."
First, we excused the two students from standing watch, given everything they'd been through.
They tried to excuse me from night watch as well, but I volunteered to take a turn.
After a brief back-and-forth, I ended up with the relatively easy first shift.
After me, Knight Miro would take the next shift, followed by Knight Axel for the final watch.
There wasn't enough time before sunrise to warrant three full watch shifts, but since everyone was utterly exhausted, we decided to delay our departure a little.
It was a bit chilly, but still tolerable enough for knights or ability users to sleep without a fire.
I walked over to the pile of branches we'd used to camouflage the entrance and took up my watch.
Ride lay down first, while the two knights set their swords beside them and quickly fell asleep.
Bria lay down as well, but before long, she got back up and came over to my side.
She sat beside me as I leaned against the stone wall and stared out into the dark forest.
"I knew it would be dangerous, but I never dreamed my squad would end up like this. And Professor Katrin... I felt as though, no matter what happened, she would never die..."
She spoke softly while gazing ahead.
She wasn't looking for an answer. She was merely venting.
After rambling about this and that, she even brought up my story.
"I heard from the knights that the Headmaster included you in the search team, Young Lord. Given your skill, Young Lord Alex, you're more than qualified to join, but being acknowledged by the Headmaster is truly amazing."
Perhaps because she'd sparred with me several times during Knight Faculty classes, she had no doubts about my participation in the search party.
As I listened, I waited for a brief pause in her conversation before asking a question.
"By the way, what exactly happened?"
"Ah, I told the knights, but I suppose you couldn't hear it."
She explained what had happened throughout the previous day.
She told me how they'd followed the light signal only to end up in a strange location, and how that place had turned out to be a nest of demon beasts where they had to fight an overwhelming number of monsters.
She recounted everything in order, from losing her squad members one by one to the eventual death of the wounded Professor Katrin.
Her body seemed to tremble slightly as she spoke, but I didn't stop her.
Instead, I asked her:
"If you're not going back inside right away, could I ask you a few more questions?"
"Yes. I came out because I couldn't sleep anyway. Ask away."
Despite the expression on her face, she still seemed unable to escape the trauma.
Then again, having seen acquaintances die right before her eyes while she fled, there was no way she could be completely fine so soon.
For ordinary people in my previous life, this would have been a lifelong trauma.
At any rate, since she gave me permission, I asked about the things that had struck me as suspicious.
"You said you followed the pillar of light, yet failed to reach the rendezvous point?"
"It's truly strange. I can't understand it either. Partway through, Professor Katrin mentioned that the direction felt odd, so Leonel, Professor Katrin, and I climbed up trees to check."
"She said it was odd?"
"Yes. At first she didn't say anything like that, but as we went farther, it seems she found it increasingly strange."
"Hmm... Then were you traveling in that same direction from the very beginning?"
"Ah, no. Midway through, we strayed off course, so we climbed the trees to check and adjusted our direction."
"When was that?"
"Oh, right. It was shortly after we found the Skeleton."
"Could you go into a little more detail?"
Knowing that Professor Katrin and I were close, Bria recounted everything in as much detail as she could.
She told me everything, from how the corpse belonged to a knight affiliated with the Ride family to the battle against the demon beasts, including the students who had fallen.
"If Ride hadn't gotten separated at the start, maybe one or two more people could have survived. Ah, I don't mean to blame Ride, though. Surviving and returning all on his own is amazing in itself."
After voicing all her lingering regrets as well, she finally succumbed to exhaustion and returned to her sleeping place.
Shortly after, it was time for the next watch. I woke Senior Knight Miro and went to sleep myself.
"Everyone, wake up!"
I felt as though I'd closed my eyes only a moment ago when someone shouted for us to wake up.
Fearing that demon beasts had invaded in the middle of the night, I hurriedly opened my eyes, only to be met by the glare of the sunlight.
Everyone got up and made do with dry rations for breakfast.
The trained knights looked completely fine despite their brief sleep, and Bria and I, as students of the Knight Faculty, were also in decent physical shape thanks to our enhanced physiques as ability users.
Fortunately, Ride seemed fine as well, so the group decided to set out immediately.
Before we left, the two knights spoke in low voices.
"Do you intend to hold out at the assembly point until it's time to return?"
"No, that's not what I mean. We need to meet up at the assembly point with the knights who searched elsewhere. Once we've regrouped, we'll move somewhere we can hold out."
At Knight Miro's words, Knight Axel's expression darkened.
"Will they still be alive?"
"Who knows."
As they spoke, the two knights glanced over at me.
Though I overheard their entire conversation, I feigned ignorance.
Frankly, the fact that we had been able to sprint safely through the Seal Grounds last night was entirely thanks to me.
I was the one who located the students, and I was the one who detected approaching demon beasts in advance and warned them.
Even if my swordsmanship wasn't bad, I could confidently say that my ability to detect demon beasts alone meant I was pulling more than my own weight.
We began moving back toward our starting point.
Looking at it again, the Seal Grounds at night and during the day were completely different places.
Once the sun rose, dozens of demon beasts no longer poured in, nor were there monsters launching sneaky ambushes.
Simply because I could sense demon beasts in advance, we could easily slay any monster that approached.
Nobody slacked off.
Not only the knights but Bria also joined them in striking down demon beasts, while Ride threw the monsters into confusion.
I helped whenever we fought demon beasts, but at other times, I stepped up front to lead the party.
Since we didn't have yesterday's pillar of light to guide us today, we had to navigate to our destination by sight.
Fortunately, because they had me—who remembered every path—we were able to move toward our starting point without difficulty.
By pressing on like that, we reached the area near our destination, the clearing, before nightfall.
"I recognize the way from here."
Everyone nodded at Knight Miro's words.
I, too, stepped back and rejoined the group.
"Good work."
As I stood beside him, Ride addressed me.
During the entrance ceremony, he'd treated me with awkward respect, but after learning that I was a bastard, he spoke to me informally like this.
Well, it wasn't particularly strange. Even though he wasn't the official heir, he was still the eldest son of a high noble, so he had more than enough standing to speak to me without honorifics.
"You worked hard as well, Young Lord Ride."
"We haven't even arrived yet."
"It won't be long now."
"Besides, we still have to hold out for another week."
"That's true."
"Ah, come to think of it, I heard you found the remains of a knight from your family yesterday, Young Lord Ride."
"...Ah, right. It was a fortunate thing."
Silence fell for a moment.
"Still, I'm glad you were able to rejoin us after getting separated."
"I can only feel apologetic."
His replies came more slowly and grew shorter with each one.
"By the way, that pouch on your waist is something I haven't seen before."
"...I was wearing it all along."
At my question, Ride visibly flinched.
Huh? I only brought it up because I ran out of things to say... What's going on?
I was about to ask another question, but Young Lord Ride's expression had stiffened.
And on top of that, as I looked around, an unexpected situation unfolded right before our eyes.