117. The Hunt Begins
117. The Hunt Begins
It was the second day of the Hunting Festival, the day the real hunt began.
All those who had decided to participate in the hunt, the highlight of this festival, gathered in the clearing at the entrance to the Black Forest, which would serve as the hunting grounds.
With all participants assembled, it was quite a spectacle to see so many people who normally only crossed paths gathered in one place.
The Swordsmanship Research Club, which had a history of past victories, the Lemnos team with two members from the Five Pillars participating, the rare solo participant Russell, and the Magical Engineering Research Department that had shown up with golems—all sorts of people were gathered, waiting for the Hunting Festival to begin.
"Let's just do as we practiced."
That was what was said, but Rio's complexion didn't look very good.
Before, all they had to do was the assigned task, but this time the conditions were different.
It wasn't just about carrying out the assigned work and being done with it regardless of the result—they had to aim for the top.
They had to fight, defeat, and seize victory from people who had been blessed since birth.
There was no physical fatigue, but the mental burden was considerable.
"Relax, sunbae."
"Uh... is it that obvious?"
"Your complexion is bad."
"Don't shrink back. We're not lacking anything compared to the other teams!"
"That's right. We can definitely win."
They were easing Rio's considerable tension when a team subtly approached and stared blatantly at her face.
It was a deeply unpleasant gaze that looked down on people.
"Wow, a real filthy beggar. Guess they joined trying to win."
"Hey, why are there only three of you? Couldn't find one more?"
"So shabby..."
"Watch your damn mouths."
Riber, unable to take it any longer, put his hand on his sword hilt.
He had heard recently that Rio was struggling with relationships with classmates, but this was the first time he'd seen it directly.
The Hunting Festival was about to start soon, and they were upper-year students, but he didn't care.
If he were the type to care about such things, he wouldn't have held back when Amy was the target either.
If he thought of it as reducing a rival team by crushing all four of them in a duel before the Hunting Festival started, it was a gain.
As he tried to draw his scimitar, the sword hilt became heavy.
"Thanks... but don't react right now."
Rio placed a hand on the sword hilt and stopped him.
"They like it if you react. There are too many people here for them to do anything worse, so just ignore them. Anyway, once the Hunting Festival starts, we can compete without any problems, so let's just ignore them for now."
So accustomed to such harassment, Rio sunbae's expression didn't change at all.
Even though they were right beside her, calling her names and mocking her wildly, she didn't even spare them a glance and simply ignored them as if it were happening to someone else.
Saying they couldn't do anything worse because there were many people... did that mean she usually suffered worse than this?
"She's right. We just have to wait a little anyway. Once the Hunting Festival starts, we can fight without any problems, right?"
They held him back from both sides, but Riber wanted to handle it immediately.
That was because the Headmaster hadn't even appeared yet, so there was no telling how long they'd have to wait.
At that moment, someone appeared behind the 3rd-year students.
-Peok!
"Argh?! Who is it!!"
"You all look pretty fun; mind if I join in?"
Hera, the vice-leader of the Swordsmanship Research Club, appeared wearing a short cloak and a grim smile.
"Ugh, what business does the Swordsmanship Research Club have here..!"
"We're about to start soon and you're doing shit like this... do you think the Hunting Festival is that easy?"
"Agh, agh, AAAAAGH!!!"
As Hera spoke sharply and grabbed his collarbone with one hand, he screamed as if the world were ending.
It was an incredibly precise control of force.
If she had applied just a little more pressure, his collarbone would have shattered right then and there.
The 3rd-year, who had been in agony for about a minute, fled the moment Hera released him.
She didn't miss the sharp glare he sent back as he retreated.
"What a bunch of nobodies, right?"
"... Thank you."
"What for? I hate seeing that kind of thing too."
As Hera laughed heartily, Rio bowed her head.
Rio pretended it was nothing, but it seemed to have bothered her greatly.
"I've seen you before, so I know. You're my brother's friends, right? I wondered why Atlas was borrowing golems and stuff, and it turned out he took them for you guys to use.
Everyone, do your best. I'm not going to miss out on winning this time either, but... I want to replace the Swordsmanship Research Club's facilities one last time before I graduate."
Hera was about to say more but was cut off mid-sentence.
"Eek, looks like it's starting... well then, you guys do your best too!"
It was because Gordon, the academy Headmaster, had finally appeared to announce the start of the Hunting Festival.
-There are things that must be emphasized once more before the Hunting Festival begins.
Perhaps because so much had happened, the Headmaster was in a fairly haggard state.
He was still well-groomed and tried not to show it, but the deep fatigue shadowing his face couldn't be easily erased.
Did it mean he had worked himself to the bone, using other professors to prepare the Hunting Festival for two weeks?
-The 'Ring of Confirmation,' the score-calculating artifact issued to everyone, will forcibly activate spatial movement magic if it leaves the owner's body or is damaged.
If you feel you are in danger, immediately remove the Ring of Confirmation and throw it aside to withdraw from the area.
If everyone understands... then now the Hunting Festival begins!!
With the Headmaster's declaration, a magic circle spread across the entire clearing.
Dazzling magical light flashed, and a moment later, everyone in the clearing was swept away.
—————————————
The moment they realized they had entered the Black Forest, several teams concealed themselves.
They applied chemicals they had prepared to their bodies to mask their scent and changed their colors to blend in with the Black Forest.
There were teams that actively sought out prey, but those teams either had extremely capable hunters attached to them or were teams confident in their stamina.
For ordinary students, moving about in the open had too many drawbacks.
After all, magical beasts had far superior senses compared to ordinary animals.
Even ordinary animals smell you from afar and run away if you move around openly rustling and wafting scent—how much more so for magical beasts with superior senses?
Even if one didn't simply aim for the top ranks, achieving a good score in the Hunting Festival added bonus points to grades, so at the very least, a futile elimination was to be avoided.
Anyway, since suitable magical beasts had been released all over for the Hunting Festival, one could quickly find prey with just a little searching.
As she fiddled with the ring, the total score acquired so far appeared.
The 'Ring of Confirmation,' the artifact the Headmaster had emphasized at the start, was given to each student. When a magical beast was hunted and the ring was held against it, the kill was recognized for that team and the score was added.
The score varied depending on the danger level of the magical beast.
The score displayed on the ring was 2.
It was the result of hunting two magical beasts as soon as they landed.
While they crept along, holding their breath after finding tracks of another magical beast, the student at the very front spotted something.
"Hey.. hey, hey, look over there."
The place he pointed to was a spot beyond a fairly distant hill.
"A person..?"
"Already too late, huh...."
In their eyes, they saw one student boldly standing alone in the open.
A female student with curly black hair and a large stature... it was Lucia Russell, one of the hotly talked-about Five Pillars.
"Whoa... is that a Horn Wolf? There are three of them..."
"She caught three Horn Wolves by herself? And she's a swordsman at that?"
At her feet, three large wolves that appeared to have been slain lay on the ground.
She was bringing the ring to each one, registering the scores.
The wolves, which already looked more than twice the size of Lucia's body, had horns on their heads, making them truly fearsome creatures.
Horn Wolves were skilled pack hunters and could cast powerful magical attacks with their horns. Normally, it took four academy students to face a single Horn Wolf that had been separated from its pack.
Lucia had hunted three such Horn Wolves all by herself.
From all appearances, she seemed to have taken no damage at all.
"We've drawn a blank... Hey, let's move to another spot."
"Wait a moment."
The student who had been at the front sensed someone approaching, motioned the others to crouch down, and signaled for silence.
After holding their breath and waiting, a team similarly composed of 2nd-year students appeared.
The two teams were from the same class.
"What, it was you guys... ah, we drew a blank too."
As if the tension had been relieved, they laughed casually.
Even though rivals had met, the atmosphere was good. The reason was that they'd agreed beforehand to cooperate just enough for everyone to earn bonus points, rather than competing fiercely.
"Do you know how many points are needed for the bonus?"
"Isn't it 10 points?"
"Ah, hell, so we need 9 more points..."
"We have 8 points."
"What are you bragging about over a mere 1-point difference?"
While they exchanged information, David, the student who had been at the front and staring beyond the hill, seemed to reach a conclusion and spoke to everyone.
"Hey."
His gaze was still fixed on Lucia Russell.
"There are eight of us gathered... with this many, don't you think we could take down one swordsman?"
"Are you seriously crazy?"
The former hunter on the same team said this.
He meant she had caught three Horn Wolves alone, so what could they possibly do?
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"Let's not do anything pointless and just fill up our scores... Fighting a student doesn't lead to anything particularly great."
Fighting among students wasn't all that efficient.
It was fine in terms of eliminating a rival, but not very efficient.
There were too many teams participating in the Hunting Festival to eliminate everyone one by one like that.
There were no bonus points for students fighting each other, nor could they steal each other's scores.
But David's eyes were incredibly serious.
Even though there seemed to be no benefit.
"... Didn't you hear that there's a bounty on the Five Pillars?"
"Who's got the nerve to do that?!"
To have the audacity to place a bounty on the Five Pillars... was it someone from the Titan family?