Chapter 52
Chapter 52
Antennae (1)
Fortunately, we ran into a rescue team along the way. With their guidance and protection, we safely escaped the Poison Swamp.
Only after using the detoxification device at the entrance of the Poison Swamp to quickly wash away the poison were we finally free.
The third-year female student took the leader and headed toward the infirmary. I sat down in a sunny spot nearby and pulled out the jerky I had been saving.
Since I was extremely hungry, I ate at an incredible speed.
“Thank you for your help.”
“It was nothing.”
When I saw the third-year male student approaching, I stood up from my seat.
I didn’t particularly care to nitpick about manners, but perhaps because I had lived in Korea, I naturally became polite when facing someone older.
Of course, that would change if they got on my nerves. The approaching third-year male student wore a somewhat new expression.
“You’ve changed a lot.”
“Well. I suppose so.”
“Alright. We’ll split the spoils in half. We went through some trouble too, so we can’t hand it all over.”
“That’s fine.”
We coolly agreed to split the Hellhorn Bull’s horns fifty-fifty. I had already obtained everything I aimed for, and I was too lazy to argue any further, so I agreed immediately.
“Thank you for your help.”
“It was nothing.”
For some reason, he looked pleased, and I stared at him in confusion.
“Student Davide.”
“Mm? Vice-Commander?”
After talking briefly like that, the third-year male student left. The one who spoke to me next wasn’t one of the twins, but the Vice-Commander.
As if she somehow knew, she approached with a slightly worried expression and spoke to me. With tracking at this level, it wouldn’t have been strange to suspect her of being a stalker.
Feeling slightly uneasy, I greeted the Vice-Commander. What I was curious about was why she was here.
“What brings you here, Vice-Commander?”
“I happened to be nearby. I was just going to take a quick look before leaving, but I saw a familiar face. You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
“No. As you can see. I’m perfectly fine.”
It felt somewhat contrived, but it wasn’t something that could never happen. I slowly nodded.
“What’s this?”
“Swamp Ant antennae. They go for 1 knuckle per one.”
“……All of these are antennae?”
“Yes.”
The Vice-Commander made an incredulous face. Even at a rough glance, there seemed to be about 160 antennae.
There was a similar number inside my magic backpack, but I didn’t bother mentioning it.
“Student Davide.”
“Yes?”
“Did you perhaps see anything strange inside there?”
“Something strange? What exactly do you mean?”
“Anything that felt obstructive.”
“Not particularly. Ah, though the concentration was a bit odd.”
I explained in detail what I had heard from the party. Since it could be a sign of an anomaly, I described everything as thoroughly as possible.
When she heard about the path repeating itself, that area, and the sudden thickening of the concentration, her expression turned serious.
“Goodness, you must have been tired, and yet I was so inconsiderate.”
“It’s fine.”
“I’ll be on my way now. Please head back safely.”
“Yes. Vice-Commander, please return safely as well.”
I watched the Vice-Commander’s back as she gradually grew farther away. Obstructive things. The look in her eyes when she mentioned that was different from usual.
Was the Poison Swamp connected to the story? Nothing immediately came to mind. But one never knew. Just like how there had been Astral in the laboratory, there could easily be things I didn’t know about.
“Who was that?”
“The Vice-Commander of the Imperial 6th Knight Order.”
“Oh.”
I answered Rera’s question indifferently as she approached before I noticed. She looked surprised for a moment, then quickly lost interest. I could feel a peculiar gaze lingering on my face.
“What is it?”
“They asked me to pass this to you.”
The answer came from the twin brother. He was carrying something with visible effort.
When I took a quick look, it was rather grotesque. A piece of cloth tightly wrapped around the Hellhorn Bull’s horn and its root. It seemed they had failed to cut off the horn and ended up splitting the head in half instead.
My expression soured as if I had just seen something unpleasant.
“There won’t be any blood! We cleaned it all up.”
“……Already?”
That was fast. I gave a hollow compliment to the brother, who spoke with a hint of pride.
“Thank you for saving us.”
“Hm? Well. We all did well together.”
“You played the decisive role. None of us could produce that level of firepower.”
Rera, who seemed comparatively calmer, took out the antennae from her backpack and expressed her gratitude. What was with these people? We had all stepped up and defeated it together.
As for firepower, that was merely a difference in position. Since they all looked genuinely thankful, it was hard to outright refuse.
If they said they were grateful, it would be strange for me to argue otherwise.
“Good work. You should head back now.”
“Yes! Please return safely!”
The crisp greeting from the first-year made me feel oddly complicated. Winter was a first-year, and so was Canis. Worden was also a first-year. Yet this was the first time I had been treated like this.
Winter was at least polite, but it wasn’t this sharp, military-like attitude. Leaving behind my bewildered feelings, I started walking.
I gathered up the antennae scattered all around. There was no way I could carry them normally, so I tied them together with a rope into one bundle, stacked them high, and dragged them along. I should settle the accounts first.
“You’re back? How are you feeling? Are you hurt anywhere? When we received the rescue signal, do you know how shocked we were?”
“Oh, you’re still here.”
“Yes, yes. There’s one hour left until shift cha— I mean, how are you?”
To the guide who seemed more worried about losing her job than my well-being, I told her I was fine.
If someone was worried about me, that should have been something to be grateful for, but since her intentions were impure, all I could manage was a lukewarm expression.
“I’m here to settle.”
“Oh, right.”
I led her out of the office. She stared in bewilderment at the bundle placed in front of her, taller than she was.
Antennae as long as an adult man’s arm were neatly arranged, greeting her.
“What is all this?”
“Swamp Ant antennae. Two per ant. You can count them.”
“……My goodness. Did you carry out a massacre? At this level, it looks like you wiped out an entire colony.”
“I didn’t see the queen ant. And I didn’t make it to the hatchery.”
“Ahh, what a shame.”
She kept chatting as she began counting the antennae. I responded half-heartedly and let out a long yawn.
The air I breathed in after leaving the Poison Swamp felt incomparably refreshing. I found myself realizing anew just how pleasant it was.
“There are 342 in total. That makes 171 ants. At 1 knuckle per one, that’s 171 knuckles. Would you like to receive the compensation right away?”
“Sure. Ah, and this is a spoil.”
“Hmm? And what is this?”
“A Hellhorn Bull’s horn. More precisely, half its head.”
“……What exactly did you go and do? Hellhorn Bulls inhabit Zone D.”
“It just happened.”
That wasn’t much of an explanation. The guide, looking tired, deliberately unwrapped the cloth to check the head.
Even as she deeply frowned in disgust, there was no hesitation in her hands. It was the touch of a seasoned civil servant.
“What would you like to do with the spoil? Would you like to sell it to us?”
“Hmm. One moment.”
I asked for her understanding briefly at her suggestion. Then I summoned the Holy Scripture into my left hand.
At the appearance of the Holy Scripture, radiating a faint glow while holding a sacred aura, the guide let out a gasp of admiration.
“Beautiful Goddess. May I use this horn as a weapon?”
“?”
Seeing me suddenly bring my face close to the Holy Scripture and whisper to it in secret, the guide’s expression became spectacular.
Ignoring her reaction, I continued asking Anaye. There was no particular sign of rejection.
“Can you cut off just the horn and deliver it?”
“Ah, we can do that much. But what did you just do?”
“The Goddess is particular about weapons. I have to receive permission like this.”
“Huh. Hahaha. Hahaha.”
The guide let out a hollow laugh.
***
“What happened with the Swamp of Gehenna?”
“According to our investigation, the students’ statements are not accurate. The concentration did not deviate from the designated levels for each zone.”
Sheila drank her tea as she received the subordinate’s report. The consistent testimonies from the group of students. That was clearly an abnormal sign.
However, those who went to investigate insisted that nothing was out of the ordinary and that the students’ statements were incorrect.
“Good work.”
After sending her subordinate away, she remained alone in the office. Sheila felt something unsettling.
It was possible the students had misperceived it, or that they had lied. However, Sheila found the other side more suspicious.
“Student Davide was the first to enter the swamp.”
After that, the party entered, and the first one in the party to sense something abnormal. Somehow, didn’t it seem connected to Davide?
Of course, it was close to speculation, but lately she had been paying more attention to Davide, and that line of thought had naturally taken root.
“Perhaps I should go see Student Winter.”
Her raw, unfiltered cuteness. It was something rare to see at the academy. That pure white and petite image naturally brought a smile to one’s face.
She briefly dreamed of a small deviation from her duties, but it did not last long.
“Hey. Sheila.”
“Yes. Knight Commander.”
Sensing the powerful presence approaching the office, Sheila quickly rose from her seat. She welcomed Ethan, who opened the door without knocking.
As always, Ethan called her with a face worn down by fatigue.
“It seems the Hellhorn Bull’s corpse has arrived.”
“Ah! Understood! I’ll head there right away.”
There was a reason why the Knight Commander himself came to report something like this. In truth, there was no reason for the Knight Commander or the Vice-Commander to personally inspect the corpse of such a monster.
If that was the case, then there must be a reason to see it. Sheila finished preparing quickly and followed Ethan.
In the training ground of the building where the Imperial Knight Order resided, there lay the massive corpse of a Hellhorn Bull.
“Hmm.”
The corpse, with its head severed, was far from well preserved. A gaping hole in its chest and hands and feet shriveled tightly inward.
“The exoskeleton around the chest has melted inward.”
“We should assume it pierced the exoskeleton and attacked the inside.”
The Hellhorn Bull was a troublesome monster with a hard exoskeleton. Still, it was not impossible to defeat.
It was especially weak to the water attribute, so with just two proper water-attribute mages, defeating it would not pose much of a problem.
As she examined the wound, Sheila realized that what had pierced a large hole through the chest was not unfamiliar.
The radiant lightning sword she had seen back then. If it possessed enough firepower to split even a Guardian, this level of power was only natural.
“One that should be in Zone D was found near the edge of Zone A.”
“It must have either fled from something or chased someone. One of the two.”
“Which do you think?”
Territory disputes were common in the wild. It would not be strange if it had lost such a fight and fled.
If that were the case, there should have been beastly wounds on this corpse. However, this Hellhorn Bull had encountered the student party in perfect physical condition.
“I believe it was the former.”
“This thing ran without fighting? Was there something capable of making it do that?”
Having noticed the lack of significant wounds, Ethan quickly organized the situation. The problem was the one that had caused it.
Sheila let out a small sigh. The Hellhorn Bull was as aggressive as its appearance suggested. A mad creature that would charge even at opponents stronger than itself. And yet it fled without fighting.
“It seems the one in the center has moved.”
“The one that hasn’t moved in 60 years?”
“If it wasn’t that one, the Hellhorn Bull would not have avoided a fight.”
“Seems so. Write up the report like this and head to the academy. Meet the Academy Director and discuss it.”
“……Yes.”
More work had piled up again. Sheila returned with a gloomy expression. She felt this was something the Knight Commander should be handling, but she gave up on the thought.
Even she clicked her tongue at the sheer volume of tasks concentrated on the Knight Commander. More than anything, she was receiving certain conveniences, so she was in no position to complain.
“Ah. How depressing.”
Would there be no leaving work on time again today? More than that, having to see that difficult and sharp Academy Director again was even more exhausting.