“All fifty gathered!
Over!”
Elia submitted the attendance report to Keisha.
Keisha looked at her with a satisfied face and asked:
“Are you in good physical condition?”
In Elijah's ears, those words sounded like he was saying:
“Are you ready to undergo any gruesome training and endurance?”
To make me confirm this myself...
What a cruel person!
Elia muttered secretly, but from the outside she answered in a loud voice that showed military discipline:
"I'm fine!
Thank you!"
When she returned to her place and stood in line, Keisha ordered:
“Then we will start training.”
I wonder what kind of hell awaits us today too?!
Wow~ just thinking about it is exciting~
Of course there was no real reason to feel excited, but doing this “mental victory” gave her some resolve to endure.
Moreover, even though she had read the original novel, the boring training parts had been omitted so much, that she had no idea what they would do today.
'Even if I knew in advance, Keisha wouldn't spare anyone.'
As she diligently practiced self-hypnosis, recalling someone saying, “The last winner is the one who has fun,” Keisha instructed them:
“Everyone follow me.
Today we will train elsewhere.”
The moment she heard those words, her self-hypnosis was completely shattered, and Elijah's face wrinkled mercilessly.
'Ah... today I'm in real trouble.'
When Keisha went somewhere other than the training ground, it meant private training.
For the record, in the original novel, special training meant training so insanely intense that death would have been easier.
Elijah sighed and Keisha continued.
•
Soon, they came to a clearing in the palace's densely wooded forest.
Keisha stopped walking and said to them:
“This is today's training.”
“……?”
Kesha added to the confused boys:
“Here, all you have to do is stay still for half a day.
You are free to do whatever you want.”
Upon hearing the word “freedom,” the boys’ eyes widened.
“Then, I will come back when the training is over.”
After Keisha finished speaking, he returned towards the training ground, and the boys' faces lit up.
"Wow!
It's a break!"
“Well, we ran so hard yesterday...”
“We just have to sleep!”
As soon as Keisha was out of their sight, they started laying all over the place.
Lennox approached her and said in a comforting voice:
“El, looks like today is a rest day.”
“Lennox, don't relax.”
When Ilya spoke sharply, Lennox's relaxed face froze slightly.
Rest day?
Absolute nonsense!
It can never be like that.
A crazy and tough training, nothing compared to the intensity of yesterday, must be waiting for them.
The only ones standing in a state of readiness and anticipation were Axion and Yusar.
Lennox, after listening to Elijah's words, also assumed a stiff posture and began to carefully observe his surroundings.
•
Soon after.
rattle - rattle -
Then, a suspicious sound was heard from among the dense trees in the forest.
"Ah, Elle!
What the hell is this?!"
Lennox shouted, his voice filled with terror.
Creatures the size of a small dog, completely black and with hideous and frightening shapes, crawled out of the trees.
Elijah's eyes widened.
'These are demonic beasts!'
They are lower-grade demonic beasts, but they are dangerous enough to pose a major threat.
'Ah, this human Keisha!
He releases demonic beasts on just the second day of training…’
Worse still, they were without weapons.
One, two, three...
The demonic beasts were crawling endlessly from deep within the forest, like a swarm of ants, rapidly approaching the clearing in which they were standing.
“Ahhh!”
The faces of the boys who saw the demonic beasts for the first time in their lives turned pale.
"What is this?"
“H, let's run away!”
The boys started running as fast as they could, as if running away with their heads, towards the training field.
But before they had even crossed a hundred metres, they suddenly fell backwards.
It seemed as if an invisible force had pushed them.
“What the heck is this…?!”
When they looked closely, they found a transparent wall like invisible glass had been erected around them on all sides.
It was a magical barrier set up to prevent them from escaping.
That Keisha, of course, would not be surprised to do something like this and more.
At that moment, a demonic beast pounced on one of the fallen boys and bit his side hard.
“Ahhh!”
With a horrific cry of pain, blood flowed profusely from his side.
“Ahhh!”
“Save me!”
The demonic beasts attacked the boys one after the other.
Horrific screams exploded from all sides.
The scene was pure chaos, a living hell.
“E, El...
What are we going to do...
We're all dead...”
Lennox, who saw the scene, was also trembling violently, holding her training uniform tightly.
"No, Lennox.
We're not going to die."
"Yes?"
“Look carefully.
These creatures avoid attacking vital points.”
The demonic beasts seemed to be tearing apart the cultivators mercilessly, but they were meticulously avoiding vital points during their attack.
When the victim is no longer able to fight, they stop attacking and rush towards another target.
“Suggestion magic has been cast on them.
To attack while avoiding vital points.”
But even if no one dies, that doesn't mean they won't feel pain.
In fact, the boys who were attacked were bleeding profusely and could not even move their bodies properly.
If things get worse, someone could be left with a permanent disability in a limb.
Of course, for Keisha, this would have been no problem at all.
“What a crazy person…”
Illya muttered, clenching her teeth.
In order not to become disabled in any part of her body, she had to somehow drive away those demonic beasts for half a day.
And that, with bare hands and without weapons.
While she was racking her brain to think, she heard a loud crack coming from there.
bombing!
She turned her head to find Axion breaking a thick branch with his bare hands.
Would he break that with his bare hands?
Is he a monster?
Then he started swinging the broken branch forcefully like a sword at the demonic beasts in front of him.
Whistling and rustling sound!
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
With every time he waved the branch, five or six demonic beasts would fly through the air at once.
'What an amazing skill!'
Elia was then watching the scene in amazement, oblivious to herself.
Two bangs in a row!
Upon hearing the sound of successive explosions, she turned her head in the opposite direction, to find Yusar throwing small bombs towards the demonic beasts.
Since he was so prepared, he obviously always carried those bombs just in case.
'Move without panic, that's what's expected of the two most prominent characters in the original story.'
But the demonic beasts showed no sign of diminishing.
Rather, it was increasing.
I wondered where all these demonic beasts came from, but that wasn't the point now.
She, too, had to immediately confront the monsters rushing towards her.
Then, a way came to Elijah.
A way for her, without weapons, to confront these enemies.
Sobbing, Lennox said, "El...!
What are we going to do...!"
Illya looked at Lennox, who was groaning in fear, and whispered:
“Lennox, there is a way.
Just do what I tell you.”
"deer?"
Lennox looked at her with a face wet with tears, while Illya quickly scanned her surroundings.
This place is the palace forest, where predatory monsters sometimes appear.
The barrier placed by Kesha extends a radius of 30 metres.
With a space like this, a magical trap must have been set up somewhere.
That trap that put Axion into a coma.
And Keisha, until now, does not know about the existence of the magic trap.
Setting traps is the servants' job, not his, and Keisha was always at the forefront even before this unit was formed.
‘Even when he came here, he only visited the main building of the palace to meet Lavinia.’
His misuse of this trap as a tool of punishment was something that would happen later.
So, if you find at least one trap and stay close to it, you can safely eliminate those rushing monsters.
But finding the traps set while avoiding all those many demonic beasts was not an easy thing for her to do alone.
She looked at Linux and instructed:
“It might be scary, but walk around and look around carefully.
There's definitely a place where the ground looks like it's rippling like a mirage.”
“El, what is that…?”
"There's no time to explain!
If you find it, tell me.
No matter what happens, stand near that place.
Then you'll be safe.
If I find it too, I'll call you to come to me.
Understood?"
Lennox looked at the approaching demonic beasts with a face filled with terror, then nodded.
"…Understood."
Lennox nodded determinedly.
"Let's go!"
They started looking around, escaping from the demonic beasts.
But, no matter how much they searched, there was no trace of where the trap had been set.
'Is it possible that there is nothing...?'
That was the moment I started to panic.
“Sharp shout!”
Three or four demonic beasts rushed towards her, and she rolled with all her might to avoid them.
biting!
The monsters' sharp claws scratched the place where she had just been standing sharply.
At the moment when she was about to heave a sigh of relief,
"El, here!
I found him!"
Lennox was waving to her from there.
When she looked closely, she saw the ground in front of Lennox rippling.
You have already found the right place.
Elia turned her body towards where he was standing, and ran with all her might.
Then Lennox called out in a sharp voice:
"El!
Look behind you!"
She turned back, only to find that the demonic beasts that had been following her had already caught up with her.
The gap between them narrowed in the blink of an eye.
The demonic beasts pounced on her.
Its hideous jaws opened wide.
There was no escape.
'Shit, is this the end?'
Sharp cracking sound!
With a sharp sound, the heads of the demonic beasts flew out.
Axion was standing in front of her.