Hunting Class (1)

Rattle-rattle—

Feeling the faint tremor of the train seep up through the armrest of my seat, I gazed out the dim window. The night had long since turned pitch black, and beyond it, the sun was beginning to rise.

Which meant I would probably have to head straight to class the moment we reached the platform.

Well, I did strip the place bare, after all.

For as long as the train schedule allowed, I had started from the very top floor of the Demon King's Castle and scraped together every piece of precious metal and expensive-looking furniture I could find. I had been so ravenously hoarding that my already-lean backpack nearly burst at the seams, and I'd barely caught the train—but for supplementary income, it was a hell of a haul.

At the very least, I should be able to pay down a decent chunk of my debt to my master.

Or maybe afford one more elixir.

"……So we're just one step away, huh."

Who would've thought a Human-Shaped Snow Ginseng would come out of that place. My inner energy had surged so dramatically I could have thrown out my entire original plan.

Even splitting a top-grade elixir down the middle with Cheon Yuha, I hadn't expected the effect to be this potent. It was a magnificent elixir—truly more than a mere First-rate martial artist deserved.

Even if my cultivation veers off course again, it'd still be better than letting it go to waste, wouldn't it?

That was how much inner energy the Snow Ginseng had granted me—that I found myself nursing such greedy thoughts without even realizing.

Even so, it wasn't tempting enough to fight over with the future absolute master of the age, Cheon Yuha. She might chuckle and laugh along as usual, but that girl was no pushover.

It was a huge thing—one that would absolutely wreck her if she consumed it alone, without any compensation.

"I wonder if you'll ever appreciate this delicate consideration of mine."

Murmuring to myself, I looked over at Cheon Yuha, fast asleep in the seat ahead, blissfully unaware of anything. Not a trace of worry on her face, she was dreaming the deepest of dreams, utterly at peace.

Well, she had served as my guardian even after taking the elixir, and afterward had helped strip the Demon King's Castle down to the last doorknob with tireless diligence. She'd earned her exhaustion.

Picturing the backpack brimming with precious metals and artifacts, I shook off my lingering reluctance, looked at the fool before me, and let the corner of my mouth curl up.

"Good work, dummy."

And so ended a journey that had passed like a single night's dream.

I had been in the finest mood, all set to slip back into everyday life—but on my way to school, I was suddenly seized by the student disciplinary committee right in front of the academy gate.

……I had no memory of doing anything wrong, and I hadn't been causing trouble either.

Cheon Yuha and I were thus hauled into the faculty office wearing baffled expressions, where we each had a document shoved into our hands.

I ran my eyes quickly up and down the mysterious paper.

The text at the very top read as follows:

For a moment, I doubted my own eyes. I read it through a second time, yet the string of digits on the page refused to change.

It would all be resolved if we simply did the service, but this was a row of numbers one couldn't help but recoil from.

No, seriously—how many zeros is that?

Feeling a weight settle over my heart, I let out a sigh, then suddenly remembered Cheon Yuha and turned my head. I wondered—surely even the daughter of the Heavenly Demon Cult would find such an astronomical sum crushing.

"……Ah, ah, ah, aaah."

Tremble… tremble…

Cheon Yuha had, at some point, become a vibrating statue, her eyes stretched wide open.

She didn't read the notice properly.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Just as I was shaking my head at the hopeless girl, the Death Knight homeroom teacher held out two more sheets of paper. These looked less like disciplinary paperwork and more like invitations to a banquet.

"This came from the Mage Tower. It's also where you two are to serve your community sentence."

"Huh? The Mage Tower?"

"You apparently scored nearly perfect on the pop quiz in the first Grand Magic class. The professor's quite fond of you—says it's rare for a fist-swinging type to do that well. I'd wager he's the one who recommended you."

"……Aha."

Well of course, getting beaten half to death on a battlefield teaches you magic whether you know it or not.

Unable to actually say that, I accepted the invitation in a daze, without even getting a proper explanation.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Opening the letter, complete with gold leaf and a wax seal, I found it written in an elegant hand as follows:

And that was it.

Monday. The cursed day on which a new week inevitably begins.

Here and there, cadets could be seen dragging themselves along the school path for the first time in three days. Even if the average warrior had reached the Peak Realm—a superhuman, in other words—the mornings were not kind to them.

The only reason they were moving their feet at all was that missing a mandatory major lecture meant expulsion.

The same went for Class 3, the Shurado. Except there was markedly less of the languid atmosphere hanging over it than in other classes.

Screeeech—

If anything, the classroom seats filled with unusual speed today. Students poured in one after another, and even as they sat down and traded small talk with their classmates, they kept sneaking glances toward the back door.

That charged, meaningful air hung thick across the entire room. When, exactly, would the main event arrive?

Every single one of them was waiting. Whether they'd heard it from a friend or picked it up through the academy's internal community, they had all known for some time now.

The Korea-Japan Match.

A fight had broken out among the freshmen over a dispute regarding official club status. If that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had been all, it wouldn't have spread this far and wide.

No—everyone was longing for a spectacle.

Cheon Yuha, young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult. Kujo Kisara, next Grand General under the direct command of the Emperor. The unwritten hierarchy of the Combat Department's first-years currently divided into Three Heavens and Five Emperors—and among them, the one they called the sky: one of the Three Great Powers.

All eyes were fixed on the clash of heroes destined to command the coming era.

Cheon Yuha of Class 3, Shurado, versus Kujo Kisara of Class 4, Chikushodo—head to head, once and for all!

Word had long since spread throughout the entire first-year Combat Department. It had reached even the upper years—this was an event drawing that much attention. Which meant this was no longer a matter at the level of mere clubs.

The 101st Korea Hometown Association versus the Imperial State. It was no longer only their fight.

The Heavenly Demon Cult and the Imperial military—the representative armed factions of their respective nations. This wasn't simply a duel between the leaders of two clubs or two classes. Seen from above, it was a proxy war waged for the honor of nations and the interest groups behind them.

It had erupted early in the semester, drawing even more fervent attention—a contest entangled with honor and pride on both sides. A true war of annihilation.

And dozens of cadets, driven by the single desire to catch a glimpse of one of the two principals, Cheon Yuha, waited for her entrance. What kind of mood would she arrive in?

Battle-ready, spirit roaring to a boil? Or composed and unshaken as always?

……Thump, thump.

Every one of them waited, quietly brimming with expectation.

Then, at 8:51 a.m. with class fast approaching—the homeroom teacher had not appeared, and neither had Cheon Yuha. Several cadets let out sighs soaked in disappointment. Cheon Yuha's sole friend of two, the elf Elenor Andersen, on the other hand, had her brows knitted into a deep frown.

……No, why isn't she here.

Biting at her fingernail, she kept scrolling through the message log on her terminal. Since the text yesterday morning saying they'd boarded the train, there had been no contact whatsoever. Twenty-four hours of total radio silence already.

……Don't tell me that secret weapon she took along pulled some kind of stunt, did he?

Or perhaps the two of them had gotten into some accident together. In truth, those were the only two people missing from the classroom.

As the minutes dragged on, the anxiety in Elenor's chest grew and grew, until just before it could fester into something poisonous—

Ding!

Out of nowhere, a message from Cheon Yuha arrived.

"Haaah."

Gulping down a huge breath, Elenor clutched her terminal and hungrily began to read. Or rather, she intended to—but the message was so short it was over in an instant. Three syllables in total.

Elenor blinked.

"……Huh?"

What.

After we'd received the disciplinary notices from the homeroom teacher, the Basic Combat Instruction Theory class proceeded with the theory of proper combat in the forest. What creatures dwelled in the woods, what traces of their lives and combat methods could be gleaned from them, what strategies were correct when facing them—a lecture followed by debate sessions under set conditions.

And the very next day, Tuesday, a practical exercise in the forest had been announced. This time we would be divided into ten groups of five, and the class would consist of hunting monsters in the academy's hunting grounds.

I was assigned to Group 2, which meant I was separated from Cheon Yuha, who led Group 1. It would have been nice to be on the same team, but I wasn't particularly disappointed. That's how good my group placement turned out to be.

Our group's roster read as follows:

There should have been one more member, but he'd been expelled after being caught smoking and drinking in the dorms—a violation of school rules. And so, with one person short in both Cheon Yuha's Group 1 and our Group 2, an unfortunate situation had arisen. Considering that group assignments would remain fixed for the entire semester, it was a considerably unfavorable hand.

But with Elenor Andersen as our group leader, it hardly mattered at all.

In my past life too, the hunting class was a total breeze.

As befitted an elf—a child of the forest—she flew across the hunting grounds as though they were her own kingdom. A guide and a living radar in one package: she was already overwhelming on ability alone. In combat, she covered the group with long-range sniping, and since she was also the strongest in close quarters, all we had to do was watch her back and she'd clear out everything by herself. If you were just competent at scurrying along behind her and picking up the leftovers, you'd find yourself first in the hunting class before you knew it.

On top of that, her personality was fairly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠easygoing. A truly perfect leader for a group.

Thank goodness I'm on her team again this time.

I'd been grinning at the thought of riding along for once—fewer headaches, after all, was always better. But was the butterfly effect at work here too?

"Don't get in my way."

Elenor Andersen said, her face twisted with disdain.

"You give me the creeps."

This girl—for some reason, she'd suddenly turned rotten with attitude.