Chapter 62: The Demon Raid (1)
"Well, now that you've gotten a little more comfortable on the horse, I think we can start riding...."
Vernon spoke casually, despite the fact that some of them hadn't even gotten on their horses yet, a brazenness that was outrageous.
He glanced around the room.
"And now for the main part of the class: the race."
-Race?
-Some of us are riding horses for the first time today?
-What... sense does this make?
-She's going to kill me with a hind kick!
-This is crazy.
Vernon, unsurprisingly, ignored their outcry.
"The rules are simple: each of you will ride your own horse around the corner of the unnamed forest at the end of this stretch of vegetation and back here again. Of course, I'll give extra credit to the first one back. Any questions?"
No one had any questions, as the rules were as simple as the number of hairs on Vernon's head.
Of course, at that moment, I felt a familiar sense of déjà vu and recited the centerpiece of the new sub-episode.
[Horsemanship].
Because the new subplot that takes place during this class is quite important.
'It's a standard, fun episode where a demon swoops in during class and traps the entire class in an unnamed forest, and the main character naturally shows their leadership talent.'
For reference, what I do now is simple.
To recap the main characters in this episode. The most important thing here is their basic attributes and origins.
Demons.
They lust for power, so they forcibly infuse themselves with demonic blood to gain strength and become half-demons. In other words, they are duplicitous beings that transcend humanity.
It is still early in the game, so there are no powerful demons here, but later in the Inner Lunatic, there are devils with powers comparable to demons.
Still, they're nothing compared to the top-tier demons, the Archdukes, but still.
"Well… Nox, why don't you come with me, I mean, it's not that scary, but you never know… You know, the forest can be pretty dangerous...."
Ugh.
Behind me, Talia reined in her horse and followed carefully.
You can tell she's scared.
I'm just going to come right out and say it…
I don't know why she's bothering to sugarcoat it.
'By the way, she's got arachnophobia, forest trauma, ... and a whole bunch of other things that bother her. It's a lot of work, anyway.'
I realized that it would be hard for me, too.
But what the heck, I'll have to sell it.
Besides, I have to drag Talia along for now.
The story that follows is directly related to the main story.
Characters that can play a role here. The more allies you have, the better. After all, you can't control all the variables by yourself.
In other words, you're going to have to lend a cat's hand.
"Do you mind if I come with you?"
…I didn't mean for you to come.
One more lump.
Eleanor de Rivalin. What is it with her? I don't know about the others, but it's hard to lie in front of her, so it's not like she's a hard act to follow.
Turbuck. Turbuck.
(teobeog. teobeog.)
"...."
"...."
"...."
"Me, too!"
Eventually, with Fel joining in, a party of three [joint math] was formed.
Wow.
Should I clap or something?
'Shit.'
I curse under my breath as I ride across the plain.
The Horse seems pretty excited, but its owner is not.
It's a strange feeling, I realize, walking in the midst of two reapers who want to kill me. It's not exactly a feeling I want to know about, but it is.
After running for about two hours.
Suddenly, I heard Carl's crying.
"Carl?"
He looked a little panicked.
Luckily, he wasn't scared, but his demeanor seemed to warn me to be prepared for something. He shrugged his shoulders and gave me a signal as if to tell me I was in danger.
'That's a bad sign.'
He was fine when we roamed the Chasers.
Even on those rugged plains, he hadn't shown any signs of fear.
I immediately slid off his back and began scanning the area.
They were running fast, and I honestly didn't care.
After all, I was at the top of the entrance exam, so there's no reason for me to go back to first place.
Grades don't mean anything in this sub-episode anyway.
The race?
What the hell does that matter when the demons are coming for me?
"What's going on?"
Eleanor asks, startled by my abrupt behavior. She's the type of person who doesn't necessarily care about the first place because her interests align with mine.
Only Talia looked worried, wondering if we should hurry.
I said calmly.
"Something's coming."
Actually, I didn't just sense something and then stop.
My magical accomplishments aren't that great yet.
That was the moment I thought.
Ziying…!
(jiiing…!)
'Magic… No, this is some kind of unsettling energy.'
The ground began to react with an unidentifiable force. This is not a good sign. It meant the sub-story had finally begun.
I immediately realized.
The monster had started to move.
I quickly slapped him twice on the back.
It was a signal to go back to where it came from. Even if I could revive him with my magic, I couldn't let this cute little guy die.
'It's best if I don't reveal that Carl is undead for now.'
I nod and stare straight ahead.
Eleanor tilted her head as if she didn't understand.
"What? What do you mean….?"
A blank look. Imitating Nox, I speak in a calm voice.
"You'd better be careful. Otherwise, we're all going to die here."
"Hhhhhhh!!! What do you mean?!! Die, die, die, die…?"
"Exactly! What do you mean, Nox-nim, please explain!"
I was generous enough to give them some advice, and their reactions were priceless.
But of course, I don't have time to elaborate.
Koo-koo-koo-koo!
Out of nowhere, an explosion. A pure white line of magical power wrapped around the vegetated ground, engulfing all of the cadets.
It was the beginning of the second sub-story.
-What the hell!
-Is this… a magic circle?
-But we didn't talk about this! Where's Instructor Vernon?
-He's not here! There's no one here but us!
The voice faded, and the cadets all fell unconscious.
They don't know yet that this is the work of a demon.
At best, they'll be a little confused.
But I do.
I know how terrible and despicable these creatures can be, and how in some ways they can be more terrifying than the devil himself.
* * *
[Devour the humans of Eldain].
[Destroy all the ungrown sprouts].
[Do so, and perhaps one day even you, a lowly mortal, will receive the power of the Archduke].
Unknown place. A small whisper echoed into the pitch-black darkness.
Suddenly.
Two reddish orbs flashed and then it took on the form of a man.
He was a minion of an unnamed demon.
He was once a ragtag mage named Ludwig, expelled from the Academy of Eldain and unable to make a name for himself in other academies. {1}
[Eldain… I love it! I couldn't be happier…! I will dispose of those scum who didn't recognize me…!! I will!]
Ludwig hated Elidane.
Because they didn't recognize him.
He believes that his whole life was ruined because they abandoned him.
It didn't matter that it wasn't true. The psychology of someone who hates the world is simple: it's not their fault, and they think the world hasn't recognized them properly.
Indeed, the expulsion from Eldain had brought Ludwig to rock bottom.
Not only was I called trash and discarded by my own family, but my talents never blossomed as I traveled across the continent.
It was all the fault of a professor who diminished my self-esteem.
-I will have my revenge. Somehow…!
Just like that, Ludwig was left with nothing but stubbornness and arrogance.
A being appeared to give him strength. A being who lured him in with an invisible but sweet whisper to give him his soul.
Demons.
The embodiment of what the world calls pure evil, a greedy entity that stood at the opposite end of the spectrum from humans and watched them.
Of course, pushed to the limit, Ludwig joined hands with him.
And....
Finally, he drank the demon's blood and became a fiend.
Those who swear absolute loyalty to demons. Those who have given up on being human.
He had voluntarily sold his soul.
[I will kill them all… and I will get revenge… on everyone who made me like this....]
Krrrr….
A harsh, animal-like cry erupts from the human form. Unsurprisingly, it belongs to Ludwig.
His voice echoes through the woods, causing all manner of beasts and creatures to scurry away. There is a lonely silence in this nameless forest.
The voice echoes in Ludwig's ears once more.
[Remove… the seeds of Eldain].
He staggers to his feet at the repetition of the whisper in his head.
He places his hand on the pure white circle of magic he's been preparing for days and activates it.
It was an enormous magic sphere.
Soon, the sprouts of Eldain would be trapped in a giant dome and sent here.
Ludwig bared his white teeth and smiled.
* * *
Ludwig.
I finally remembered the name of the fiend that appeared in this episode and attacked the student. Well, not that important, but whatever.
"You must have fallen into a magical trap. There's a lingering reverberation of magic."
All around me are fallen students. I cross my fingers, hoping to give a hint to the so-called elite units who have come to their senses.
But the response I get back is panic.
"What's going on? If it's a trap… did you or Instructor Vernon set it up to test us again?"
Eleanor, being the rich girl she is, had her own happiness circuit running. She thinks this is all some kind of test or lesson.
But in a game called Inner Lunatic, this is the kind of situation that forces you to keep your eyes peeled and your ears open. It's a harbinger of things to come.
In other words, it's the perfect time for a dead ending.
"No, it's an outside intrusion."
"What makes you so sure?"
Eleanor asked in a wounded tone.
Maybe it's because I immediately dismissed her opinion.
But I didn't.
"Look at this mess of a ritual. It's a very unstable technique that focuses more on the trigger than the safety of the target. Do you think an instructor in Eldain would use such a flimsy formula to test his students?"
There is no contradiction in my words.
Of course, in terms of cause and effect, it's just a guessing game. But no one knows the real story.
I'm the only one who has beaten the game on this filthy difficulty level twenty-seven times, at least as far as I know.
"…You're not wrong; the formula is definitely twisted."
The first black-robed unit to appear spoke up.
A boy's. A boy who still has a lot of youthfulness left in him.
Unsurprisingly, it's a unit I'm very familiar with.
'There you are.'
One of the scions of the same dark family, the most prestigious that once held the entire East in its grasp. Leon von Marvas of House Marvas.
Incidentally, House Marvas is the owner of the Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead, which I once used to reanimate Carl. They are a family of Necromancers.
And Leon von Marvas is the genius behind the revitalization of the family's somewhat stagnant fortunes. He is a monster in the same mold as Paracelsus.
The difference is that he specializes in magic and Paracelsus in swords.
"I see the Dark Houses are trying to run things."
It was Echidna von Zeynos who interjected with a sour look.
She was the eldest daughter of a prestigious family that served the Empress.
Hajiya, this was not a situation for her to be sarcastic about. She was the eldest daughter of the House of Zeinos, a family known for their holy attributes.
This situation would not be pleasant.
'Echidna, the Snake of Greed. She's clashed with me before. I must be careful. She's dangerous in more ways than one.'
It's not that she's evil.
It just means that when the deep rift between the Dark and Holy Houses comes into play, things can get messy, and it's best to avoid them.
"Think calmly, Echidna, there's nothing wrong with what they say."
"Princess Penelope…!"
Echidna clamped her mouth shut. Fortunately, the Princess interrupted her.
-Well, come to think of it, you certainly do have a freakish sense of formulas…!
-You're right; it's too inefficient!
-You're the one who learned magic earlier than us, right?
The Princess's brilliance was incredible.
Watching the way her words swayed the audience, it was almost painful to watch. Damn.
This is why you need to be on your best behavior.
"Outside forces have intervened. And from the way they're acting, it's unmistakably…demonic. They ambushed us."
I said calmly. But the audience quickly froze.
They're probably speechless with shock. I'm sure I would be too.
But what the hell?
If I stay like that, I'm going to get screwed.
"I'm thinking the same thing. I don't know why, but… I smell blood around here."
Luckily, Paracelsus, the commoner, agrees with me.
By the way, there's a reason they say it smells bloody.
That guy. He's a baboon.
'Crazy asshole. He's used up all his moral traits. What an asshole.'
I flashed Paracelsus a moderate glare of contempt.
He watched me for a moment, then flicked his head away.
That's the real thing.
The Princess looked around.
Seeing that the commotion had died down, she paused to catch her breath.
"Anyway, we need to be calm for now. Everyone, please follow my instructions."
"No. That's not a good idea."
I quickly interrupted. The Princess. She's going to give me instructions?
That could never happen.
'She's an Imperial Princess who faces assassination threats on a daily basis. At least she won't die inside the Academy, but there's no telling what might happen outside. We need to keep her as safe as possible, and the same goes for the other units. Except for those who are monsters by nature, I need to protect at least one more.'
I'll need them later to hunt demons.
However, no one understood my deeper meaning. Penelope's expression turned grim as I cut her off.
She gritted her teeth and asked.
"What do you mean, Nox von Reinhafer?"
Her tone made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Damn it. No choice but to use someone else here.
I pushed one of the boys, who had now caught up with me, in front of me and asked,
"What's your name?"
[It was Fel], my classmate in Joint Martial Arts].
"Fel, recite the manual for students to follow in case of an emergency."
"Ah, ah, ah, yes, we are supposed to protect the members of the Imperial Family first and foremost…."
Luckily, Fell had memorized the emergency manual correctly.
Hagiya, I thought to myself, for someone of his caliber, this much knowledge should be easy to memorize.
His ability to read ambient currents isn't too bad either... so maybe he can keep rolling. It's a unit that can't be discarded because of its traits in the first place.
"Okay."
I cut him off after hearing the most important part.
Now is not the time for a long explanation.
"Listen up, everyone; from now on I will command the battlefield. The protection of Princess Penelope von Arkheim is your first priority, and then we will return to the Academy as soon as possible."
The audience stiffened at my words.
-What, who's protecting whom?
-Nox is in command…? Is he the one?
-Crazy.
At that moment, I realized the one fatal flaw in Inner Lunatic.
You can hear the extras' backstory.
F*ck.
So what? I can't let it all hang out here.
You guys can fix it if you want.
* * *
Near a wooden fence in the middle of a wide open plain.
"Hmmm... are these cadets really bad at riding horses? How come none of them made it around the return point?"
Instructor Vernon was alone on the plain, arms crossed, scratching his head. Of course, he didn't have hair, so he was just scratching his bare flesh…
Anyway, Vernon was puzzled.
Hadn't he taught the same course to upperclassmen before?
Then again, it had never taken him this long to get around the turnaround point.
The plain itself is quite large, but three hours is a reasonable amount of time to go out and back. The forest itself isn't that big in the first place, so it shouldn't be a problem.
So. He was about to ask himself the question.
Suddenly, Instructor Lars burst into the room and hailed Vernon. The academy's emergency siren blared almost simultaneously.
"What the…!
"Vernon!"
"Lars…? What are you doing here, you asshole…."
"The students, the students, where are they!"
"Riding lessons on the plains, of course…."
As he spoke, Vernon felt a sudden scuffling sound coming from somewhere. At the same time, he sensed that something was firmly wrong.
It was a knight's instinct.
Sometimes it was sharpest on the battlefield.
Hmph!
The horse that had arrived was none other than a dirty handsome, irritating creature.
It was Nox von Reinhafer's horse.
Carl.
He reached out with his own back and offered Vernon a letter.
"Is this… a letter?"
Vernon's face hardened as he read it.
It read as follows
[Demon on the loose. Unnamed woods. Need your help as soon as possible].
And then the words of Lars.
This confirmed once and for all the authenticity of the letter Vernon had received.
"There has been a sighting of a magical being on the Academy grounds. Three hours ago! Furthermore, traces of a massive magical formula were observed on the plains here!"
"...Dammit."
Vernon immediately pulled on a robe. A piece of equipment worn over his armor.
He quickly mounted his horse, and he and Lars began to gallop toward the forest where the students had disappeared.
To summarize what had happened was simple.
The students had been attacked by a demon, or perhaps a fiend.
The conclusion?
Something must be done.
Only one thing was clear in their minds.
Note the moment,
most of the elite professors, including Noah, were out of town.
Noah was enjoying a specialty chocolate bar made from local chocolate, oblivious to the current situation.
It was a sad state of affairs.
{1} : 루드거는 ludeugeoneun ; chapter not exactly clear on fiend/demon/devil here, tried my best, please lmk if I missed something
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