Episode 25 Midterm Exam (6)
Abel and her crew arrived at the pond with surprised expressions.
The eyes looking ahead trembled greatly. No one was willing to speak first.
The place that used to be a forest was now a barren plain with the trees swept away in disorder, and Leon and his crew lay sprawled on the ground, looking completely exhausted.
What on earth happened? No, I wondered what had to have happened in the first place to make it turn out like this.
The last time I visited the Wolf class, a small female student who had only briefly shown her face came running to me asking for help, but the situation seemed to have already ended, and there was no sign of the devil.
“If you came to help, come quickly and help me!”
As he stared blankly at the scene for a moment, Speed Weapon shouted nervously. In an instant, Abel came to his senses and headed towards the puddle.
Her crew members followed behind without saying a word. Abel approached Speed Weapon, who was lying with his back buried in the mud, and opened his mouth.
“What the hell happened?!”
Instead of answering, Speed Weapon pointed to the puddle with her eyes. Her crew members standing next to her turned their gazes at her words, and they all looked startled. One of the crew members trembled.
“Hey, what is that?”
A scaly corpse with its head cut off. Only the shoulders and below were floating on the surface of the pool, but even that alone was enough to tell what it was. The cold corpse of a demon.
In front of the corpse, Rachel was seen supporting Kang Geum-ma, who was barely catching his breath while gushing blood. At that moment, Abel’s head snapped up.
When I first saw him, there were no visible injuries on Kang Geum-ma, but he was unable to control his breathing, and every time he exhaled, he was spitting up bloody phlegm. His eyes were on the verge of turning cloudy, as if he was on the verge of death.
Abel, who felt something was wrong upon seeing that sight, shouted to a female student in the same group. She also did not understand the current situation, but human lives were the priority.
“Activate the healing series protection right now!”
The green-haired assistant was startled by the unusually excited tone, then extended his staff and manifested a protective spell.
Something fluorescent, like cotton candy, began to wrap around Kanggeomma like a blanket. Then, his black eyes, which had been losing focus, slowly began to change color.
Rachel hugged Kanggeomma with tears and snot running down her face, rubbing her face against his ample chest. Leon and Speed Weapon also slowly got up.
Abel narrowed his eyes and looked back and forth between Kang Geum-ma and Rachel. It was not a situation where he could be childishly nitpicking, but a strange emotion was rising inside him and tickling his insides.
‘Is it really necessary to stick so tightly to each other?’
Abel sighed deeply and pressed his temples. He wondered how he should understand and accept the events that had suddenly occurred.
Shaking off his fleeting thoughts, Abel turned his gaze to Leon. Looking at him now, Leon, although not as good as Kanggeomma, did not look in good condition either.
Still, somehow he managed to act quickly, and through the torn sleeves of his clothes, he could see the fine skin healing and new skin growing. Abel spoke to Leon in a cold tone.
“What is that?”
“Can’t you see it? It’s a mine, a mine.”
In the meantime, Speed Weapon shrugged his shoulders and snatched the question away in an instant. His face had become haggard in an instant, but he seemed to have a lot to say.
“Who doesn’t know that it’s Mine’s corpse?”
“Well, even if I tell you, you won’t believe me.”
The lips were moving as quickly as a magpie’s beak, as if the mouth was quivering.
Leon, standing behind him, scratches his cheek with an embarrassed expression and flashes a flawless smile.
While his crewmate, Kang Geum-ma, was wandering around the edge of death, his crew leader, Leon, seemed to be doing his best to maintain class and refinement. Looking at Leon, Abel felt his heart burn.
Certainly, when looking at the scars carved into Leon’s side, it seemed that he too had wandered through the underworld many times in a short period of time. However, that did not mean that the anger that had once flared up would easily subside.
‘I’m unlucky.’
Not wanting to waste time on something useless, Abel frowned and quickly turned the subject of the question back to Speed Weapon.
“I’ve already contacted the academy, so the instructors will be here within an hour.”
“… Instructor, those damned bastards… … . You said you surveyed this fucking island in advance, so why is there a mermaid popping out and making a fuss?”
Speed Weapon muttered nervously, his sharp eyes furrowing. Abel asked back blandly, his arms crossed.
“Okay, so what happened? Explain.”
“Are you giving orders now?”
“Why are you so twisted? I’m asking you for a favor, please.”
Speed Weapon snorted once and then raised the corners of his lips slightly. His lips parted as if he had been waiting.
“Let me explain.”
* * *
“So what you’re saying is that the Mermaid suddenly appeared and Kanggeomma fought her alone and won?”
“Well, that’s what happened.”
Speed Weapon nodded with a smirk, as if satisfied with his explanation.
Abel and his crew, who had been listening, looked back and forth between the corpses of the swordsman and the mermaid without saying a word. The glossy dark blue hair flowed pleasantly from his shoulders.
It was a story that was hard to believe, but given the circumstances, what Speed Weapon said seemed to be true. There was no reason for them to lie.
Although it was an unbelievable story, all the circumstances before my eyes gave weight to the fact that Speed Weapon’s explanation was true.
However, it was too much of a heroic story to be easily acknowledged.
A first-year student from the Academy defeats a mine that appears without warning? It’s more realistic than the folk tales or stories you hear from your grandfather before going to bed when you’re young.
However, I felt a strange sense of unease as the fierce battle between the two was visible as the dense forest was completely destroyed.
If I had only heard it, I would have laughed it off as a lie. But now I was witnessing the scene with my own eyes.
Abel grew up as a genius from birth.
However, she had a brilliant background as a descendant of Aaron Nibelung, the disciple of the proto-hero Balor Joaquin, and so Abel did not stop there, but literally worked hard to develop her talents and reach this position.
Abel, lost in thought, muttered bitterly.
‘If it were him… … .’
None other than Kang Geum-ma.
It’s a bitter feeling deep down inside to dismiss him like that. I didn’t know that the difference in skill between him and me would be this big.
Now, he couldn’t help but think that maybe he was just an ordinary person. Kanggeomma had defeated Mine alone at a young age.
Of course, he too was in a state of death due to the backlash, and his body was in tatters, but still, the dead one was Mine, and the living one was Ganggeomma.
I frowned involuntarily in a sense of extreme discomfort, but I was inwardly impressed. It was a very complicated and subtle feeling.
Abel shuddered without realizing it. It wasn’t a shiver of fear, but something mixed with awe and awe. Abel sighed deeply and covered his face.
There was a brief silence. Speed Weapon, observing Abel’s expression that seemed to be gloomy for some reason, spoke absentmindedly.
“You said you contacted the Academy earlier, right?”
“… Uh, uh.”
Abel nodded his head hesitantly. Speed Weapon stroked his chin for a moment, then hardened his expression and continued speaking.
“I think it would be better not to tell the instructors too much about what happened at the scene.”
“why?”
“Didn’t the instructors clearly say that they had surveyed this island in advance?”
“Oh, right.”
“Isn’t that a bit strange? Even though Scopulis Island is large, this pool isn’t that difficult for the cadets to find, and yet the mine popped out. The story doesn’t quite add up.”
Abel couldn’t say anything back. Speed Weapon continued to speak even though there was no answer.
“This is just my guess, but… … .”
“Speed Weapon, are you saying that there could be a spy from the Mine side hiding within the Academy?”
Leon, who had been listening with an indifferent expression, cut him off. He had spoken indirectly on purpose, but he was able to grasp the exact meaning of what he was saying.
A look of confusion spread across Speed Weapon’s face at his exact identification, but he calmly hardened his expression and responded.
“I’m not saying that’s necessarily the case, but I can’t rule it out.”
Abel’s mind was already saturated with various thoughts. Certainly, this area was neither sealed nor a hidden dungeon. It was a place that students who had taken enough tests could find.
If you think about it, if it weren’t for the speed weapon and the strong swordsman, Leon’s crew would have all died screaming at the hands of Mine during the first midterm exam.
However, the thought of ‘Why?’ does not go away. During the 700-year truce between the demons and humans, there were certainly frictions, big and small.
However, the Demons have never gone so far as to directly attack the students of Joaquin Academy. Moreover, there is a clause in the Non-Aggression Pact that states that touching the students of the Academy could lead to the outbreak of war.
‘no way…….’
Abel’s delicate fingers covering his mouth trembled. The worst case scenario that could come to mind when pruning away useless reasons here and there.
Clearly, it was most likely just the impulsive actions of this one mermaid, but for some reason, only the worst-case scenario vaguely lingered in my mind.
Speed Weapon glanced at her expression. Her face was pale and tired, and she was having a hard time hiding her various emotions.
“Abel, I understand what you’re thinking, but it’s too far-fetched to think that far. What I’m saying is that it’s not bad to suspect that there’s a spy from the Demon Clan among the Academy’s internal staff. It’s too early to jump to conclusions based on this incident alone.”
Speed Weapon, who had been listening to him, tried to guess what Leon was thinking. Leon nodded his head with an expression that made it impossible to tell what he was thinking.
“Then, we need to get the words right. Assuming there’s a spy in the Academy, if they hear that Geomma alone took out Mine, they could become a target.”
“Well, that’s true. But that doesn’t mean we should just keep our mouths shut when that kid has done all this for us… … .”
Speed Weapon scratched his head as if he felt uneasy. Then Abel added.
“How about consulting with our grandfather?”
“What, Your Majesty!?”
“In a way, I think that’s the best option. My grandfather is personally acquainted with the headmaster of Media Academy, and he seemed to know something about Ganggeomma because of the previous placement test.”
To be sure, Siegfried was not an internal member of the academy, and because of his uniquely isolated nature, he had no significant interpersonal relationships with anyone except for the academy director, Media.
Above all, he was one of the Seven Star Heroes who defeated the 6th Corps Commander Basmon half a century ago and was known as the strongest man in humanity.
That is why the only person more trustworthy than the nobleman who was at odds with the Demon Clan the most was the academy director, Media, who was also a Seven-Star hero. If Abel spoke to the academy director, it would inevitably reach the academy director’s ears.
There are quite complicated procedures for the Academy cadets to directly meet the academy director. However, they can bypass such procedures through the inspection. I thought that would be the best option for Kanggeomma.
After a moment of thought, Speed Weapon quietly nodded in agreement.
“I think that’s the best option for now. Leon, what do you think?”
“Well, considering everything that’s happened so far, I think that’s the best option. But… … .”
“but?”
“Let’s think about that later. That’s not what’s important right now, right?”
Abel and Speed Weapon opened their eyes wide at the sudden question. Then Leon smiled and gestured to Chloe, who was sleeping soundly like a baby bird.
“It seems like one healer isn’t enough.”
“ah.”
Speed Weapon, whose exclamation mark appeared a beat late. He shook off the dirt on his clothes and took out his recorder. Only then did his haggard face begin to show signs of vitality.
“Then this speed weapon should come out.”
Saying the lines I always wanted to say.
“Treatment is my specialty.”
