Chapter 25: Midterm Exam (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 25: Midterm Exam (6)
Abel and her teammates arrived at the clearing, their faces etched with alarm.
Their eyes trembled as they took in the scene. For a long moment, no one could find the words to speak.
The area, once a lush forest, had been transformed into a desolate wasteland. Trees had been swept away in total disorder, and Leon and his teammates were sprawled across the ground, looking utterly drained.
What on earth happened here? Abel wondered. No, what could have possibly happened to leave things in this state?
Earlier, a petite girl she had briefly met in the Wolf Class had come running for help. But by the time they arrived, the situation seemed to have already concluded; she couldn't sense the presence of any magical beasts.
"If you're here to help, then get over here and help already!"
As they stood there in a daze, staring at the carnage, Speed Weapon shouted irritably. Snapping out of it, Abel hurried toward the hollow.
Her teammates followed without a word. Approaching Speed Weapon, who was lying with his back pressed into the mud, Abel spoke up.
"What exactly happened?!"
Instead of answering, Speed Weapon gestured toward the pool of water with his eyes. Her teammates’ gazes followed his lead, and every single one of them flinched in unison. One of them asked in a trembling voice:
"W-what is that?"
It was a scale-covered corpse with its head severed. Though only the part from the shoulders down floated on the water, its identity was unmistakable. It was the cold remains of a Majin.
In front of the corpse stood Rachel, supporting Kang Geomma by the shoulder as he struggled to catch his breath, coughing up mouthfuls of blood. For a moment, Abel felt a dull throb in her head.
At first glance, Kang Geomma didn't seem to have any conspicuous external wounds, but his breathing was ragged. With every exhale, he spat out blood-flecked phlegm. His eyes were on the verge of turning cloudy, as if he were hovering on the brink of death.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Abel shouted to a female student in her group. She didn't understand the situation either, but saving a life came first.
"Manifest your healing Blessing right now!"
Startled by Abel’s uncharacteristically sharp tone, the green-haired teammate quickly extended her staff and activated her Blessing.
A fluorescent, cotton-candy-like substance began to wrap around Kang Geomma like a blanket. Gradually, a spark of life returned to his unfocused black eyes.
Rachel, with tears and snot streaming down her face, clung to Kang Geomma, rubbing her face against his broad chest. Soon after, Leon and Speed Weapon slowly pushed themselves up.
Abel narrowed her eyes, looking back and forth between Kang Geomma and Rachel. It was childish to care about such things in this situation, but a strange, ticklish emotion began to well up inside her.
Is it really necessary for her to be stuck to him like that?
Letting out a deep sigh, Abel pressed her fingers against her temples. She didn't know how to process or accept the sudden turn of events.
Shaking off her fleeting thoughts, Abel turned her gaze toward Leon. Now that she looked closer, Leon didn't look to be in great shape either, though he wasn't as bad as Kang Geomma.
Still, he seemed to have received some quick treatment; through the tears in his sleeves, she could see the gouged skin knitting back together as new flesh sprouted. Abel spoke to Leon in a cold tone.
"What is that?"
"Can't you tell by looking? It's a Majin. A Majin."
Speed Weapon intercepted the question, shrugging his shoulders. Despite his suddenly haggard face, he seemed to have a lot he wanted to say.
"I'm asking because I know it's a Majin's corpse."
"Well, you probably won't believe me even if I tell you."
His lips twitched rapidly, moving like the beak of a crow-tit as if he were dying to talk.
Behind him, Leon scratched his cheek with an awkward expression, though he still maintained a flawless smile.
Even while his teammate, Kang Geomma, was at death's door, Leon, the team leader, seemed focused on maintaining his dignity and refinement. Looking at him made Abel’s blood boil.
Judging by the stab wound carved into Leon’s side, he too must have crossed paths with the underworld several times in a short span. Even so, her rising irritation didn't subside easily.
How obnoxious.
Not wanting to waste time on useless things, Abel frowned and redirected her question back to Speed Weapon.
"I've already contacted the Academy. The instructors should be here within an hour at the earliest."
"...Instructors, those damn bastards... They said they did a preliminary inspection of this godforsaken island. So why the hell did a Mermaid pop out?"
Speed Weapon crumpled his sharp eyes and muttered irritably. Abel crossed her arms and asked calmly.
"Forget that. Tell me what happened. Explain."
"Are you giving me orders now?"
"Why are you so twisted? I'm asking you. It's a request."
Speed Weapon snorted and let a slight smirk play on his lips. His mouth opened as if he had been waiting for this.
"Fine, I'll explain."
* * *
"So, what you're saying is that a Mermaid suddenly appeared, and Kang Geomma fought it alone and won?"
"Well, that's pretty much it."
Speed Weapon nodded, grinning as if satisfied with his own explanation.
Abel and her teammates listened in silence, their eyes darting between Kang Geomma and the Mermaid's corpse. Abel's lustrous, dark-blue hair flowed smoothly over her shoulders.
It was an utterly unbelievable story, but given the circumstances, what Speed Weapon said appeared to be the truth. There was no reason for them to lie, after all.
Though it was hard to fathom, every piece of evidence before her eyes lent weight to the truth of Speed Weapon's account.
Yet, it was a tale so heroic that it was difficult to accept readily.
A first-year Academy student taking down a Majin that appeared without warning, all by himself? The folk tales and legends her grandfather used to tell her before bed felt more realistic than this.
However, the sight of the once-dense forest completely decimated served as a chilling testament to the fierce battle between the two.
If she had only heard about it, she would have laughed it off as a lie. But she was witnessing the aftermath with her own eyes.
Since birth, Abel had always belonged to the category of "genius."
But for her, there was the brilliant foundation of being a descendant of Aaron Nibelung—the top disciple of the Hero of the Origin, Balor Joaquin. Because of that, Abel had not stopped there; she had reached this point through bone-shaving effort to bloom her own talent.
Lost in thought, Abel murmured bitterly.
If it's him...
If it was Kang Geomma and no one else.
Even so, the thought left a stinging sensation deep inside her. To think the gap between his skill and hers was this vast.
She couldn't shake the thought that perhaps she was just an ordinary person after all. Kang Geomma had faced and defeated a Majin alone before even reaching the age of twenty.
Of course, he looked like a tattered mess on the verge of death, likely due to the backlash, but in the end, the Majin was dead and Kang Geomma was alive.
She frowned at the intense sense of incongruity, yet she couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration. It was a complex and subtle feeling.
Abel found herself shivering involuntarily. It wasn't a tremor of fear, but something mixed with thrill and awe. She let out a long sigh and covered her face with her hands.
A brief silence fell over the group. Observing Abel’s somewhat somber expression, Speed Weapon spoke up nonchalantly.
"You said you contacted the Academy earlier, right?"
"...Yeah."
Abel nodded half-heartedly. Speed Weapon rubbed his chin, thinking for a moment, before his expression hardened.
"For now, I think it's best if we don't tell the instructors exactly what happened here in too much detail."
"Why?"
"Didn't the instructors say they did a preliminary inspection of this island?"
"Yeah, they did."
"Doesn't that seem strange? No matter how large Scopuli Island is, this hollow isn't exactly a difficult area for students to find. Yet a Majin appeared. The story doesn't add up."
Abel couldn't offer a rebuttal. Even without a response, Speed Weapon continued.
"This is just my guess, but..."
"Speed Weapon, you're saying there might be a Majin spy hiding within the Academy, right?"
Leon, who had been listening with an impassive face, cut him off. Even though Speed Weapon had tried to speak in a roundabout way, Leon had grasped the point exactly.
A flash of fluster crossed Speed Weapon's face at being read so accurately, but he quickly composed himself and replied.
"I'm not saying that's definitely the case, but we can't rule out the possibility."
Abel's mind was already saturated with various doubts. Certainly, this area wasn't particularly secluded, nor was it a hidden dungeon. It was a place students taking the exam could easily stumble upon.
Come to think of it, as Speed Weapon said, if it hadn't been for Kang Geomma, Leon's entire team would have met a gruesome end at the hands of a Majin during their very first midterm.
But the question of 'Why?' wouldn't go away. During the 700-year truce between demons and humans, there had certainly been minor and major frictions.
Even so, the demons had never been so reckless as to directly lay a hand on a student of Joaquin Academy. Furthermore, the non-aggression treaty explicitly stated that attacking an Academy student could be grounds for war.
Could it be...
Abel's slender fingers, covering her mouth, trembled slightly. When she pruned away all the useless reasons, only the worst-case scenario remained.
Surely, the most likely possibility was that this was the impulsive action of a single Mermaid. Yet, for some reason, only the worst-case scenario lingered faintly in her mind.
Speed Weapon glanced at her expression. She was pale, her face clearly struggling to hide a multitude of emotions.
"Abel, I know what you're thinking, but that's going a bit too far. My point is just that it wouldn't hurt to consider the possibility of a demon spy among the Academy staff. It's too early to jump to conclusions based on this one incident."
Having said that, Speed Weapon looked to gauge Leon's thoughts. Leon tilted his head with an unreadable expression and spoke.
"Then we'll need to coordinate our stories. If we assume there's a spy in the Academy, Geomma might become a target if they find out he took down a Majin by himself."
"Well, that's true. But after what that guy did for us, it wouldn't be right to just keep our mouths shut entirely..."
Speed Weapon scratched his head, looking conflicted. Abel chimed in.
"How about we consult my grandfather?"
"What, the Sword Emperor!?"
"I think that might be the best option. Grandfather is personally close with Principal Medea, and he seemed to know a bit about Kang Geomma because of the placement test."
Indeed, Sword Emperor Siegfried was not a member of the Academy staff, and due to his notoriously reclusive nature, he had almost no significant relationships other than with Principal Medea.
Above all, he was one of the Seven Star Heroes who had subjugated the 6th Corps Commander Basmon half a century ago, a man hailed as the strongest of humanity.
Therefore, other than the Sword Emperor—who was more antagonistic toward the demon race than anyone—the only person more trustworthy would be his fellow Seven Star Hero, Principal Medea. If Abel spoke to the Sword Emperor, it would inevitably reach the Principal's ears.
There were complicated procedures for Academy students to meet the Principal directly. However, going through the Sword Emperor would bypass all that. It felt like the best choice for Kang Geomma's sake.
After a moment of deliberation, Speed Weapon nodded in agreement.
"I think that's the best move for now. Leon, what do you think?"
"Hmm, considering everything that's happened, I agree that's the best course of action. However..."
"However?"
"We can worry about that later. That's not what's important right now, is it?"
Abel and Speed Weapon blinked at the sudden question. Leon smiled and gestured with his chin toward Chloe, who was sleeping soundly like a baby bird.
"It looks like one healer isn't going to be enough."
"Ah."
The realization hit Speed Weapon a beat late. He brushed the dirt off his clothes and pulled out his recorder. Finally, vitality began to return to his gaunt face.
"Then it's time for Speed Weapon to step up."
He uttered the line he had always wanted to say.
"Because healing is my specialty."