Chapter 67: Night before the Festival (2)
800H5ARA month passed after the Tornado Bat incident. These days, the Academy was bustling with noise.DrCsB
6ARZUR“There are a lot of people talking about the festival.”YAyqO8
uxxzYThe reason the students were so hyped up was because of the upcoming festival.YPlv
pJRRtP“It’s a big event that only comes once a year, after all.”X5lUS
wleOg3Hearing Korin’s reply, Alicia gave a concerned look instead of one of expectation.1P8mv
B0c“…Parents and guardians will be invited as well, right?”aa0wqvu
972q“Yeah. Are your parents going to be coming?”Kkph7Qi
w1w“I think… my Sister will be the one coming.”8WHg73o
24ESpT0Even during her middle school, it was always her older sister whenever there was a parent-teacher interview.k4E
WtzCuq“Did you see Miss Lunia during the holiday?”oYpLA
DXyyQHf“No, I did not. She was busy hunting demonic beasts in the east. I had to come back when she was close to being finished.”gUB
V0xeJust like Alicia, who wasn’t really hyped up for the festival because she was still scared of Lunia, Korin was also not interested but he had a different reason. Including the last iteration, this was already his 4th festival. He was an experienced newbie who even attended the Legendary Festival that involved all the 4 great academies worldwide.ehvE
nBJ238B“By the way, shouldn’t we hurry up and make our teams?”OLU3tft
Duvm8nK“Yeah. We need to sign up for the individual, double, and group events!”U7UtG
zXOUf5“You can only attend 2.”4V4
VaWG1FY“Oh right.”hiith
TVAbJskAs expected of a knight, Jaeger preferred individual battles whereas Lark wanted to participate in the doubles event. It was understandable because individual battles were quite difficult for a mage.3fnT
gSYp1“Which one are you going to attend, Mr. Korin?” asked Alicia.FqL9
tV94“Doubles. By the way, you have to come with me.”cKB1f
9HDR“Uwek…”0WxIJ1P
MGHL“What do you mean, ‘uwek’? You’re in my fixed party, remember?”76V
PfvGAlicia had no right to turn him down.wmI
AyXWgTy“What about the group event?”GhhUBGy
Ldb9n“A lot of things are random for the group event, so it’s hard to tell right now.”zus7MZd
hx72vrKBy the way, there were always at least 1,000 people participating in the preliminaries of the festival’s group battle event. Out of them, only 4 teams of 4 people would be making their way up to the real stage.a0DGW
WrOtV“But wasn’t everything random? Even if Mr. Korin and I want to attend the doubles, the chance of us being chosen for the doubles is…”1beN5X5
RsoOr3N“We will have an announcement soon. Everyone above Grade 2 can choose to participate in one of the events except for the group battle.”FE1
QCb1“Ohh~”vO40M
eE5Alicia was in the middle of thinking about how she had no other choice but to attend the doubles, but she suddenly thought of something and asked Korin.zkFQ0Y
jYM“Why aren’t you going with Senior Marie? It’s a bit weird for me to say this but… isn’t Senior Marie the strongest?”5w3
icZUq“Senior Marie said she’ll be going for the individual event.”zniWv
zQy“Huh? She’s a mage though?”SRt
bi3aEC“Apparently she likes one of the prizes of the individual event.”SRzqeQ5
BfeMages were weak at 1 on 1 battles because most battle mages excelled at slow but strong spells that required time to cast.Kium
RYqVnb“Well, I’m sure Senior Marie will be beating everyone this year.”WQe
z2rpyUnlike other mages though, Marie had the overpowered Doggo, who could become the strongest bodyguard that offset the greatest weakness of mages.4wmMdg
Mai8nBesides, Marie herself was also physically strong enough to blow away random knights with her fists.beu
TqjtRTv“Look!”5WVGH
KfhN3“What is it?”VcN
ySNwktThat was when the lecture room turned noisy.97V
DkNfY“Look at those clothes. Is that the famous sage clothes of the east?”QFB
cm8“You idiot. That’s just what they wear in the east.”jCDY1BB
GNu“Wow. Look at her; she’s so pretty.”86rt
x8629Looking out the window, Korin saw three people walking across the Academy. Their clothes were proof that they were from the east, from the same homeland as Hua Ran.0APghL
QUlI“They’re finally here.”aQ0
tIsnGIhTaoist Sage, Kang Ryun.SrdeRmr
nJPcSword Lord, Kang Yuhua.mgzno1u
TL7lTrampling Warhound, Sa Jinhyuk.Aiq
4kQfThey were the main characters of the 3rd Arc, [Heavenly Yaksha].0jd
Cr7tL2****IN3
ZwvLAPO“…Do you seriously believe what you’re saying makes sense?”rjGlUe
iaS7Senior Professor Josephine of Merkarva Academy was flabbergasted by the request of the middle-aged man who visited from the east.rjgBbp
JyPbu7“I believe it is a rightful request as the child’s direct kindred.”akFeDk
QnPAn“Transferring a student of our Academy to Purple Hawk Academy is something we cannot permit.”NiyV
GapjqGAs soon as Senior Professor Kang Ryun arrived as the ‘judge of the preliminary group event’, he immediately requested a meeting with Chairman Eriu and Senior Professor Josephine.PSz
SXJxaThe content of the meeting was that he wanted his blood-related kin, ‘Kang Ran’ to transfer over to Purple Hawk Academy.QJV
eFzL“1 year ago, we had ourselves a terrible tragedy. Unfortunately, the one at the center of that tragedy was my own niece.”zvB446x
1ZI“…I am aware.”uODa4
X9MmC“In the midst of chaos when one of our castles was being reduced to rubbles, you took away my niece. Now that we are aware of her whereabouts, I believe retrieving her is the most natural measure for me to take.”dR60F
COh“Student Hua Ran has special circumstances. I’m sure you are aware of that yourself.”ckwjs
0L8“I simply want to regain my niece.”eU0a
ucd66“…”YKQUP38
t8En7hFKang Ryun’s argument was very reasonable because he really was Hua Ran’s blood-related uncle – he was her father’s older brother.tWv38s
fSV4hml“As you know, there is a beast lying inside the body of that child, Ran.”ZGO1q
KAYb“It is thanks to her that the body of Student Hua Ran is still alive. And that was the wish of Chairman Eriu and his long-time friend, Mister Kang Yu, the father of the student.”SSj
CyTo0s1“Hmph…! That is up to us to decide. In the first place, do you seriously think that that beast can learn social skills?”76l1
8YpGomC“Of course.”T7RT3
sjtIn truth, Hua Ran spent her first semester without any problems. She didn’t show any overly aggressive attitudes and she did have several acquaintances despite her limited number of relationships.jSzXg
JG2J8b0Josephine was saying that to make sure Hua Ran wouldn’t be dragged back to the east, but that was when the other visitor opened his mouth after a long silence.X9Hjznb
lWuNmK“I would like you to prove your words for us.”FFMC
gF4He was a large yet virtuous-looking man. He, who was wearing a slightly old-fashioned sacred clothing was Bishop Renault Lusignan who was sent from the holy land of the Old Faith, Xeruem.QXsU
bxO“That fiendish demon having social skills? How do you not realize that this is part of their evil plans?”38zRNFn
1f8o“Bishop Lusignan. I believe it is better for you to refrain from saying anything else.”duf
yyL7eA“No! We, the true faithful ones, will not believe your claims that have zero evidence.”KYyysmZ
tcat“…What are you trying to say?”xqnnU
yPOvXZ“How about you let that evil one attend this festival? That fiend that murdered countless innocent lambs will reveal its true nature in the heat of battle and violence.”bjPgp
QTKW“…”Psm
B5ic8Honestly, Josephine wanted to logically argue against everything he said but she didn’t have the confidence to have a battle of logic against religious people. A dispute against a religious person was not a battle of facts and logic, and was in the realms of emotions and faith.2L19hy
Y4EAccording to their standards, she too would have to be burned at the stake for being a witch.Gm0EOeY
bfJ6o“Are you saying we should have Student Hua Ran attend the festival?”CCaGk
uK0vDFighting against Old Faith and the Senior Professor of Purple Hawk Academy on the topic of Hua Ran was actually favorable for Merkarva Academy, because they had two precedents that proved how demons could have more than enough social and rational mindsets.11ShG2j
2j5qIt would be great if she beat them in the argument by using that as proof and stopped them from coming up with worthless disagreements but…3uU
kke“Alright. I will ask Student Hua Ran if she would like to attend the individual event this year. And, Professor Kang Ryun?”PpdtJ
FQrY“What is it?”JdcQV
iZtXVp8“Student Hua Ran will decide her residence herself. Things might be different in the eastern continent but here, her legal guardians are me, Chairman Eriu… and the great Saintess of Chapel Zeon.”nOp
6tQE“…”4KxDp
Xv9kzXBWith that, Josephine encouraged them to leave. There was a reason why she was so cooperative with their request.AZLAmUn
2pLya“Things… really went the way he said.”LIw
UzboAJosephine recalled the conversation she had with a certain boy a few days ago.FMOb
45o………yIA9EaU
kS1wH……fgDvs
sb9cxZ…JeBN
mfwWIk“Please let me decide the group dormitory of the students from Purple Hawk Academy.”h6F
gPG3vDs“…That’s very sudden.”U4Ju
D7N0E5PLady Josephine said with a cold gaze. She was in the middle of monitoring every one of Korin’s actions due to her distrust and was probably wondering why he was suddenly saying this.msu
wSXT“Is there a reason?”fL7hC0
TWAWz“The academy invited for this festival is the Purple Hawk Academy, right?”GvAwC1
KH7t“Yes. It is an annual event.”RTFc
OkB“There are Valtazar’s dogs hidden in this festival.”snuEzo
xVvj“…!!”hNnMejq
H6toP6jLady Josephine’s eyes widened into circles. She was considering Korin Lork as Valtazar’s disciple, so she found his words highly convincing.o5gBwo
rDxunq“Who?! Where are they?”zWBI0
zjR“I only know that something will be happening but I’m not sure about the details either. However, I can make a guess.”4RhmvM
CZtC4“You mean?”qxMpneN
0HlHij2“Old Faith and Purple Hawk. It might be one of them, or it might even be both.”k7DCpe
0Qro6It indeed was both.b6tmNU
NKevjHgBecause of their constant decline, the Old Faith was desperate to increase their influence once again, and a small portion of students along with the spiritualist of Purple Hawk were also working in conjunction with them.2Qrxnk
ARYM7The keyword for both groups was [Heavenly Yaksha, Hua Ran].vkz
KzFAxPThis event concerned the turning point of the main scenario and the fate of the super important named character, Hua Ran, which would later decide the future of the entire El Rath Kingdom.CkSsDRb
VIs1“Professor Josephine. I want to ask you to monitor the Old Faith.”cuWwRWD
ak8w“Then Student Korin, you…”T7cFIqX
3gKPwX7“There are newly constructed inns, or rather hotels, near the outskirts of the city. Please have the Purple Hawk students stay there. That place is the best place to monitor them for me.”aVq
o6tR4“But how can I trust that…”UJVt
bL0Wm“You don’t have to trust me. Please continue doubting because that is the right way to take things. But whatever you do, my goal will never change.”F8Thr
fGWY『I will save the world.』FBu
w06HlJosephine had also seen that Pledge.oW3XlRO
F6yuU“…”cNaX9
6oXFEAfter heaving a sigh, Lady Josephine turned to Korin with a squint.XxNk
zx72“By the way, I think there were stories about how new hotels were built in the outskirts with the investment of students…”IiA4NA
1Lsw“That has nothing to do with this.”OIgR
23Rn“I heard how Student Korin was the owner of the hotels who received the investment…”UhWt
xyhctD“That has nothing to do with this.”SDhzP3Q
BGGp“Recently, there were talks about Student Marie moving fresh ingredients over to that place and running stalls…”PQVF
Q4Dz“That has absolutely~ nothing to do with this.”BygZ
pk50w5“…”xV0QDQ
D4EODnObtaining more than 100 long-term guests.2qsBy
xv8The reason he prepared all sorts of profitable business models including daily necessities, food, carriage fees, and everything was all because he wanted to make things more comfortable for the guests.rftO7t
WzupThat was most certainly the case.5GTHcL
5wl****xQ9B
jIa4At the center of the Academy at the ‘festival venue’ were more than 1,000 students including myself. Everyone was looking around their surroundings including Jaeger and Lark.fx3ot
kNdwlMz“There’s so many of them.”I21bp
NuP“Apparently there’s a bunch of 4th year Seniors as well.”Kvp
T4x“Can we… even survive here?”YundyY
Jll2CWe were here for the preliminaries of the festival group battle event. Only 16 of these people would be able to survive.D7xRbK
TUHysStarting from freshmen students who participated out of curiosity, it ranged all the way to 4th year students who wanted to add even one more line to their CV. There were about 1,000 students including the 4th graders and that meant most of the diligent students had applied for the event.0PFbqm
JeVX‘I guess Hua Ran is the only named character that is not participating in the group event.’rbNvV4v
BWNhApparently, she was only going to be attending the individual event. And as for Alicia…5HQDGQL
Qq2uW“Mr. Korin~. I’m hereeee…!”D5WhuZ
9hWFfqShe was all~ the way over there in the middle of the crowd. Try your best to survive, Alicia.fpweUh
LFi“Nice to meet you everyone. I am the judge of this year’s preliminary battle, Kang Ryun.”GAgh3E
kbqThe middle-aged man with a dignified aura said from the platform while gazing down at the festival venue.8ZGq6A
9gz“Who is that person?”JMv1
GCfr“You know, he’s the Senior Professor from Purple Hawk that came a few days ago.”sXBM
P4xx“Ahh… that’s him huh. I think I saw him the year before when we went over to the east…”nWQcHix
P9SwGfw“It’s going to be disgustingly hard again. Ahhh~!”7yjBXW
3gA3KThe 1st and 2nd year students showed a contrasting reaction to the 3rd and 4th year students.42O
i47“Is he famous?”KStHgG
BxTXJ“I think… he was on Guardians once. He was like the greatest formation expert of the east or something…”4rX
YXdajTaoist Sage, Kang Ryun – he was officially recognized by the Alliance as a semi-Unique Grade mage, and was well-known for creating unbreakable formations with unbreachable walls.7kNr17J
OYbHj“The following battle is the preliminary stage to choose 16 brave guardians that will be attending the group battle. I wish you good luck. You will be disqualified on the spot if your epaulets come off so keep that in mind.”Z1Wl
aljmAfter saying that, Kang Ryun ended his dry speech.25QWvq
VLk4dLB“We will now begin. The content of the test is… I believe you could say this is the most important role of guardians.”eMxh85A
1B0X『Save the Citizens.』WU5
uWQ3Before the students could even process those words—KU3MHsw
tsGER74– Kugugung…!!UASzuE
UniThe ground began to soar up.qdKKw
lOGe1gI“H, huh. W, what’s happening?”7aaQZvm
OaX“The ground is moving!?”7VOFPfh
LF7aXs“…This is gonna be another hassle.”1pnOND
mFiUu2Some of the students were confused while others were somewhat expecting this to happen. In the blink of an eye, the ground finished changing into a structure.N6w
W3BWsN“How does this make sense?”HtQ
Wv2Jaeger barely stopped himself from swearing but…7ihH
1NbKY“Crazy…”M0NPs
KsFeELark unknowingly let out a swear word. As a mage who understood just how immensely difficult something like this was in principle, it must have been more ridiculous for him.OaZp
c41Their reactions were justified though, because the festival venue that had a thousand students inside had suddenly turned into a labyrinth!8cEWoBb
fAr❰Eight Formation Drawings – Eight Gates Formation❱EA7ubuP
9nqPy5BIt was a formation that was activated by placing down mythical articles that braced the laws of nature with the support of the user’s mana.Xpf7uh
CI9A well-constructed formation messed around with people’s sense of distance and was as tough as an unbreakable fortress that could stand off against tens of thousands of enemies.pq1bIA
J7GegQPIn order to crush a formation that had already been activated, you had to destroy or remove the articles forming the formation, or brute force the formation. Of course, brute forcing and trying to find the weak points of a formation was as difficult as finding the pattern of claymore mines in a minefield.yl6vJS
uLzy“By the way, what does it mean to ‘Save the Citizens’?”2rL7L
zd5RaI“Maybe he was talking about those?”4vVjmdf
mKFH7mLark pointed at a place that had golems made of stone. There were sentences written down on the wall next to them.fGt
biepE『1. You may command the citizens after touching them.iHdh
ajzK1F2. If you safely guide the citizens to the destination, you will receive 1 point per citizen. But needlessly destroying a citizen will result in -2 points per citizen.』gtKe
kyxdThe rule itself was quite straightforward.f5QyRj
SXyY****De2j
FacAlicia was able to understand the rules of this preliminary event without much difficulty.JBXkN
bmpVz0iAll in all, this was about protecting the citizens. Following the fundamental purpose of guardians, which was to protect citizens in a land infiltrated by demonic beasts, their job was to guide as many stone citizens as possible to the safe locations.lONOk
tYSkrS“C, come this way!”H631
hIob“Miss Alicia! We have another citizen here!”PPb7
ESlir6“We already have ten! This should be quite enough right?”miNxu
TR1zoo5Right now, she was moving with other students.UkwQ
cLG5What she wholeheartedly realized during the hunting grounds prac lesson was that tests like these weren’t supposed to be done as an individual despite the Academy not separating them into groups.epZlC
szWEspecially in a test like this, the most efficient method was to gather allies and assign roles.yw4JT
Vyd“A demonic beast in front! A long hound…!”3qSGSN
MDGHearing that, Alicia quickly raced across the labyrinth. Hounds had the tendency of calling their kindred so it was best to deal with them as quickly as possible.BIihSm
YsntAvw– Woof!heRLQN
z8ELWith a thud, a long wound appeared on the long hound’s body. Soon, the body of the long hound turned into stone and crumbled down.xQk
F2jmF“Huu~”B7ylimK
ofmoThey were the stone warriors of formation experts. It was probably made to look like demonic beasts to make it seem more realistic. Since the stone citizens were also technically stone warriors, it was possible to see just how much effort and articles had gone into this formation.l5XEV
PA5bIOa“Huu~. Everyone. Did you find the safe locations?”AQzYy27
h48AF“I’m looking for them right now with my familiars. It’s an Eight Gate Formation so there should be an exit near this place as well…”btN
R2xGIB“Everyone else was busily moving around though. Shouldn’t we gather as many citizens as possible beforehand?”ckqYY
3BsV“What do you think, Senior?”JpF0JCV
vyKFour boys and girls including Alicia worked in cooperation to come out on top of this preliminary event. However, what they weren’t aware of was that crazy people tended to appear in survival games like this.rZqFE
6hD– KIYOOOOOOOOTTT…!eYGi
dLE5A strange scream echoed across the enclosed labyrinth along with the deafening sound of drums.mIftyaS
GvbE“Drums?”5yTjyF5
GAf– Dung dudududung! Dung Dung!UZR4L
eR5U– Dung dudududung! Dung Dung!idRVa
Wjp2Q– KIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…!!OMLSwL
CM6J“E, enemies! Enemies approaching from the front!”Cyfnj
YBB– Dung dudududung! Dung Dung!mSp
M7zb– Dung dudududung! Dung Dung!EOeK
bFnKMjqA thunderous set of noises were reverberating inside the labyrinth. The owners of that ominous yet majestic background music were slowly approaching Alicia’s group.5RKWtpe
bVwh6AAnd when they at last showed themselves… Alicia and others were struck speechless.atQ7v
LiVpd“……”98OU
lzysUG“…What in the heck is that?”seIVN
Ag8Running across the ground were stone warriors that went by the name of stone citizens. After combining dozens of stone citizens together like the horses of a mock cavalry battle and riding on them, several students were striking their drums and harps, which they got from who knows where, like madmen.8anuf
EVIrSL– Dung dudududung! Dung Dung!6b2B
Vb5AJI– Dung dudududung! Dung Dung!BLp
QMKI– Dung dudududung! Dung Dung!09bKVRQ
bi1I– KIYOOOOOOOOTTT…!!SE1gh
7Lp– KIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…!!HtxMi
dNIs2Due to being way too immersed in their acts, the boys let out barbaric howls and played their harps like electric guitars which made them appear like bandits that came straight out of a book.ygDG
uWE“We are the Mandrake Bandits! Drop your weapons and we will spare your lives!”u64qs
XjdbOne of the bandits with their lips painted red, Jaeger, shouted while looking down at Alicia and her crew.A3sVP
LbXIt was hard to tell them apart because of their overall appearance which made them appear like people who would say, ‘Why so serious?’, but Alicia immediately recognized who the boss of that bandit group was.VZylv
BhIajO“…M, Mr. Korin?”G4JyMj6
lsacHThe common rule for battle royales was this:sLRl
INRLook for teammates and cooperate.IUUF
NNWWBut this was the real principle of battle royales:qxQk
xelJZ9Plunder everyone except for me.rrBGnZ
IrzewN“I know not who Korin is.”Kb5
EI47dLC“Sorry?”Zpfa
hRh“I am the omnipotent ‘Immortan Lork’! You are to call me ‘O~ Mighty Immortan!’ when referring to my name!”2Som
NKj“…What kind of thing are you up to now?”fGfTYDK
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