44 – Entrance exam (5)

Flocks of birds frightened by the explosion jumped out of the forest all at once.

The thick dust like fog formed a huge curtain and completely blocked the view of the street corner.

Even Cecil, who had some knowledge about the explosion, could not understand how it was triggered.

He was obviously empty-handed. It felt like magic, seeing as I could feel the strong magic power.

“Coke! Damn dust.”

“Aagh! This won’t come off your body!”

“Quickly get rid of that bastard!”

In an instant, it became a mess.

Soon after, several flashes of light flashed in the dust.

A fight is taking place, but there is not even the sound of weapons colliding. Occasionally there was only the echo of a dying scream.

After a while, all sounds stopped.

A gentle breeze began to blow away the dust little by little.

The figures of the fallen knights on the road were gradually revealed.

The battle is all over.

The masked man brushed off the dust on his wooden sword and walked out slowly.

It seemed that it took less than three minutes for the articles to be organized.

He doesn’t see a single wound.

Seeing Cecil’s nonchalant appearance, as if she had been doing gymnastics, she immediately sensed it.

Even compared to the key figures in this test, such as Gale, Shion, Luna, Victor, and Naias, he was a person of skill who would not be inferior at all.

I don’t know what it is, so I’m just doing my activities quietly so as not to attract attention.

Cecile grinned at the man.

To ask such a companion from the beginning of the exam. Being separated from my colleagues seemed to be a blessing in disguise.

The man gestured to Cecile as if to go quickly, then turned around and continued down the road.

She followed him, fanning her hands in the dust.

The knights lost their minds and were scattered here and there, and around them, steel swords were cut into two and stuck to the ground.

No cuts or bruises are visible to those who have fallen.

Even Cecile, who had no knowledge of swordsmanship, would find it strange.

In particular, the wizard’s face was pale enough to be unrecognizable.

Even if I asked him what he did, he would not answer.

Cecil spoke to the back of the man who was running ahead.

“Are you doing something?”

At this, the man stopped for a moment and looked at Cecile blankly.

“Why, do you have something to say?”

He took out a candy from his pocket and handed it to her.

What used to be one each time was increased to five this time.

“Are you giving it because it’s a compliment?”

He shook his head.

“Otherwise, eat and keep it a secret?”

He nodded twice.

Cecile complained with a disapproving face.

“Ah, that’s frustrating. I’ll just keep it all a secret, so can’t you take off your mask, take off your clothes, and sing a cool song?”

A small peek laugh is heard inside the mask.

“Wow, you laugh too. I thought it was a wooden doll.”

My first impression was that it was clogged up like a prisoner serving a long term or a monk, but now I feel a little more friendly.

He grabbed Cecile’s wrist and forcibly gave her candy, then set off again.

“Looking at it, it’s pretty cool.”

Cecile put a piece of candy in her mouth and followed suit.

After moving along the main road for a long time, Cecile briefly looked back.

Far away, the Planteras were carrying the fallen and returning to Eternia.

“Assholes, don’t come back.”

***

There was a small chapel on one side of Grace Mountain. It was a place marked as a base on the map.

A garden decorated with evergreens spread out around the chapel.

On the southern side, large rocky peaks protruded abruptly, so half of the base was in shadow.

And in that shady place, about sixty volunteers lay down like the sick and recovered.

The Planteras occasionally carried fainted or exhausted volunteers from the side of the canyon and other detours back to the base.

And some of the fallen were being looked after by alchemists and wizards.

This scene reminded me of a field ward.

I heard it from Sylverin and knew everything. The journey from the starting point to the subjugation of the gatekeeper was only a preparation process to consume all the supplies that the applicants had brought in advance.

The real test began from the moment you had to procure and produce food and potions directly from Grace Mountain.

Applicants must choose. Whether you gather your teammates to help them and get extra points and reach the top slowly, or quickly reach the top with the minimum number of people and get more points than bonus points.

Cecil had to join her friends, and I had no reason to join that group. We are 20,000 disbanded at the base.

The task of becoming close to Cecile had progressed to some extent, so there was nothing left for me to regret.

It was a bit of a headache to get to know him while wearing a mask, but since I had a lot to focus on right now, I thought I’d put this problem aside for a while.

Cecile looked around for a while, as if she was looking for her comrades.

Then someone shouted from the side of the chapel.

“sister!”

A woman my age saw Cecile and ran quickly.

“Trisya!”

As soon as they met, they hugged each other.

After a while, a girl named Tricia broke the hug and said,

“no! Sister, the clothes again… . hey, i can’t live really.”

When she saw Cecil’s skirt, she hated it.

Cecil pointed at me and then said,

“I was having a blast with this friend.”

Trisha looked at me and said.

“A bout… sun?”

It was good for me and Cecile to attract the attention of the people around them with their clothes and appearance.

So I want you to refrain from saying misleading words.

Cecil introduced me.

“hit. This is my candy bag. Candy for short.”

Look at this, a candy bag? A candy bag?

The relationship with this woman is likely to require further readjustment.

Despite the strange introduction, Trisha did not show any question and greeted me calmly.

“I heard the story. Thank you for taking good care of my sister.”

They kept communicating through Stitch, so it seems like I talked to them a few times during that time.

Cecil’s other colleague said that she had gone out to check on the gatekeepers’ movements.

It was an ambiguous time to go further with the dusky sunset. Along with Cecil, I also intended to stay at the base for a while.

After the sun had completely set, her remaining companions returned from scouting.

It was a group consisting of a male cousin of Cecil, and four female students from the Pensions Department and the Sorcery Department.

After all six, including Cecile, gathered together, chatter broke out non-stop. It made me wonder how Cecile had endured when she was with me.

After Cecil joined my colleagues, I kept my distance from them.

It was not a place for me, and after this, I also have to start my activities in earnest.

***

Lilith broke through by borrowing the power of the vitality potion until the middle of the way to the base.

After that, it went very smoothly.

There was no need to drain one’s mana, and there was no need to pull out a centenary wand.

It was because he hadn’t encountered Plantera since following the main road.

However, instead of resting in a hurry, he took an additional vitality potion and took a forced march, and thanks to that, there was only one bottle of potion left after arriving at the base.

Going through rough terrain alone was a very unfamiliar experience for Lilith. Throughout her life, she had lived with an escort knight when going out.

It was a journey of only one day, but to Lilith, this experience came as a terrible loneliness and fear she had never faced in her life.

Maybe that’s why, after reaching the base, the emotion I felt was not pride, but sadness.

Unbeknownst to her, her desperate need for a companion had grown very strong. Regardless of whether he was capable or not, he wished he had at least someone to share a word with.

At the time of the moon, crystal balls were planted around the base chapel and lit up.

The atmosphere here, where the vanguards were staying, was also stagnant.

She wandered from place to place, eagerly looking for someone she knew.

Lilith also belonged to the fast-moving side among all applicants. Perhaps because of that, there was no recognizable face.

‘no one… doesn’t exist?’

That many connections and popularity felt useless here.

And in an empty lot beyond the garden, I found a masked man sitting on a rock wall.

He was sitting still, holding a wooden sword, killing time.

The companions were nowhere to be seen. It seemed that the situation of the man was no different from that of Lilith.

‘Hmm, that’s great.’

Lilith sat down about ten paces away from him, with her back against the same rock wall.

I thought I’d wait for a while and talk to him when I see an opening.

I sat still and looked around and saw a woman approaching from the garden side through the darkness.

As the woman got closer, Lilith was able to recognize her identity. He was an unexpected person.

Wavy brown hair down to her chest. Dark eyebrows and large, sharp eyes. His features exuded a mysterious atmosphere unique to mixed-race people.

A magical genius. It was Cecil Fontar.

‘Cecile? Why is Cecil here?’

She crouched down in front of the masked man, eye level with him.

Then, after clearing his throat a couple of times, he said.

“Hmmm, sweetie, we are supposed to leave early tomorrow morning. Are you leaving in the morning too?”

The man looked at Cecile and nodded. It seemed that the two knew each other.

“I see. We’re going to take a long detour for the assignments of the Ministry of Pensions and the Department of Sorcery. You’ll arrive a little late at the top, but there’s no big problem because you’ll get a lot of cooperative bonus points. It’s just that we don’t have anyone who handles swords, so we need reinforcements. So… .”

Cecile paused for a moment before speaking.

“That… Won’t you come with us?”

‘what… ?’

It was a shocking remark to Lilith.

Lilith wasn’t the only one who had her eyes on the man. What’s more, the person who recognized him was Cecil, who had a strong chance of entering the Faculty of Magic.

And his behavior was even more shocking.

The man silently shook his head.

Cecile smiled as if she had expected it.

“It seemed so. I won’t see you tomorrow morning.”

Cecile rummaged through her bag and laid out five glowing blue spheres at his feet.

It was a magic bomb that went through a high degree of magic refining.

“This is a reward for taking good care of me. You know what?”

She stood up slowly and continued.

“Tell me your name next time. Because I keep calling it candy, people think it’s just a strange relationship. I only like handsome men because my eyes are so high.”

Lilith gathered information for a while. Cecile seemed to know the man’s face when she spoke.

‘Did I wear a mask because of my face?’

Thanks to overhearing the conversation from the sidelines, questions about this man grew out of control.

“Then go. see you again!”

Cecil waved her hand and quickly left.

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Judging from the words of taking care of them and the overall context of the conversation, it seemed that the two accompanied each other to the base.

Lilith was not in a good mood.

To be able to treat her so coldly and take care of Cecil to the point where people would say that she took good care of her.

It didn’t look like we’d known each other for a long time.

I felt like a snob who openly discriminates against people based on their ability or fame.

Little by little, Lilith’s dissatisfaction built up until she approached him and started talking to him.

She walked over to the man and said.

“hi.”

“…”

“You…have you seen me?”

***

I expected it, but I didn’t feel so good when I was rejected face to face.

‘Eh, I cut it without worrying.’

Cecile went back to her colleagues and glanced back.

He had his eyes fixed on the pretty woman next to him who was well-maintained like an aristocrat.

The woman was pouring out stories to the man one-sidedly.

It seemed that he was acquainted with the man.

Cecil’s proposal to become a colleague and collect additional points together was an attractive enough alternative for him.

No matter how good your skills are, you cannot break through the gatekeeper and break through routes a and b. In any case, he too had to gather allies.

Since he doesn’t talk to other people, he won’t seek out random allies.

So, the reason for the refusal was one.

‘It’s because of that woman.’

There is a feeling of discomfort that is difficult to describe.

The man actually had no great feelings. Cecil’s proposal for the group was also given out of necessity rather than selfishness.

However, this soon turned into an emotional issue.

The problem was seeing a man with a rather pretty woman.

If I had just left, nothing would have happened, but when I turned around, I felt a strange feeling of displeasure, as if I had been pushed by that girl.