“Can’t see the souls, huh?”
Rudell couldn’t hide his puzzled expression at his words.
For necromancers, souls are what they handle.
In other words, it’s like magic power for magicians.
“Literally… They don’t appear to my eyes…”
He seemed to be quite shaken, as tears began to well up in his unfocused eyes.
Of course, it wasn’t something hard to understand.
A necromancer who can’t see souls.
That was pretty much the same as a magician who can’t use magic or a swordsman who can’t use a sword.
“Waaah-!!”
“…”
Capeles started to cry loudly.
Seeing that, Rudell couldn’t hide his awkward expression.
What if one day, his magic suddenly vanished?
He thought he would likely show an expression no different from the one in front of him and approached Capeles.
“Calm down, Capeles. We can’t be sure if it’s temporary, can we? We might find out if there’s something wrong if we go to the temple.”
“Thank you… sniff…!!”
Encouraged by his words, Capeles looked up while sniffling.
“Don’t you remember anything? Maybe you were bitten by a bug… or triggered a trap?”
“Nothing like that… I did feel something strange when I entered the forest though…”
“Strange feeling?”
“It’s like something keeps pulling me…”
“Hmm…”
At those words, Rudell let out a soft groan.
“Did no one else feel anything strange?”
“No, we didn’t…”
When Rudell turned to ask the other students, they shook their heads.
“Hmm…”
So, something only reacts to the necromancer…
He thought it couldn’t be anything ordinary, and he turned to the student who seemed to be the team leader.
“What do you plan to do now? If Capeles is like this, it could be dangerous to stay the night.”
“I was worried about that… As you can see, we have no combatants without Capeles…”
Necromancers are basically inferior to ordinary magicians if they don’t have undead to command.
Since they weren’t far from the center of the forest, if they encountered monsters in this state, it would indeed lead to a dreadful situation.
Of course, there were supervisors watching over them, so life-threatening situations wouldn’t occur, but if the supervisor revealed themselves, it would also count as a demerit, leaving them unable to act.
“…”
After a moment of looking at them, Rudell turned to Leje, who let out a short sigh, as if telling him to do as he wished.
Since we were going to accumulate debt anyway,
It wouldn’t hurt to make it a little bigger.
Thinking that, Rudell spoke to the team leader.
“There’s a camp not far from here. How about we go there?”
“Huh? But… we’re rivals…”
“Rival or whatever, it’s a bit off to leave someone in danger, don’t you think?”
Rudell said, but in reality, they had no choice.
Get attacked by monsters, face a demerit, or shamelessly accept protection.
The choices they could make were too clear.
“…I don’t think I can decide alone.”
Saying that, he approached the other students and started discussing…
After a while, the student returned, seemingly resigned, and bowed his head to Rudell with a short sigh.
“I will accept your kindness, Count. I won’t forget this.”
“That’s enough.”
With a faint smile, Rudell extended his hand to him.
*
Sending them to the camp, Rudell and Leje moved deeper into the dark forest again.
“Are you really okay?”
“What do you mean?”
Rudell tilted his head at her question.
“I mean, can you just accept anyone like that? What if it’s a connection to the church?”
“Well… there’s Eleor with them. I don’t think it’ll be a big issue.”
As a saint, she could sense the divine power of others.
According to her, those belonging to the Church of the Eaters of Death could be easily identified at a glance.
Having her at the camp, there was no need for great concern even if there were connections to the church.
Most importantly, while church members might be skilled in combat, they wouldn’t be able to handle Kurt who was there.
“Hmm…”
“If you’re that worried, should we go back?”
Having searched quite a wide area, they hadn’t really found any traces of the church.
Since it was only the first day of the exam, it should be enough for today.
“Wha-what are you saying!? Why would I worry about them!?”
“Yes~ Yes~ I understand.”
It’s really easy to read her.
With that thought, Rudell let out a snicker.
Even though she pretended not to, it was easy to tell she was worried about others.
In response to his demeanor, Leje turned away with an embarrassed expression, while Rudell watched her with a faint smile.
And so, they stopped and began to retrace their steps.
But not long after…
“…?”
As Rudell leapt between the trunks of a massive tree, he paused with a puzzled expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just….”
It seemed like something strange caught his eye…
With that thought, Rudell focused his vision.
And what appeared to his eyes was a group of people moving somewhere.
“Look, someone’s moving over there?”
“Really? Hmm…”
At Rudell’s words, Leje narrowed her eyes and peered into the darkness.
Her pupils sparkled with a faint blue light…
“Is it really? Who would be out at this hour?”
It was already past eleven at night.
Most students would have set up their base and be resting in preparation for tomorrow.
“Hmm…”
“Should we check it out?”
A low groan escaped from Rudell’s lips, as if he was reading her thoughts.
“I think that’s a good idea.”
There was an uneasy feeling he couldn’t shake off.
Nodding at Leje’s question, Rudell moved with her toward the faint figures moving in the distance.
*
Having spotted the suspicious group, Rudell and Leje silently followed them.
Before long, they came to a stop, watching from atop the trunk of a nearby enormous tree.
“I think it’s the church members, right?”
“I think so too.”
Unidentified figures clad in black robes.
The ominous-looking rosaries in their hands confirmed they belonged to the Church of the Eaters of Death.
“What on earth are they doing?”
“It looks like they’re preparing some sort of ritual…”
Squinting her eyes, Leje said, to which Rudell replied.
The basic form of all magic is a circle.
By inscribing appropriate formulas onto the cycle of magic, spells are activated.
In that sense, the formation they had assumed now looked like something was about to unleash magic.
“What should we do?”
“What do you mean?”
As Rudell replied to Leje, who was asking what to do while watching the scene unfold, the answer was pretty much obvious.
“We have to take care of this.”
Whatever their aim was, they couldn’t be allowed to continue freely.
With that, Rudell jumped down from the tree, and Leje pulled out her sword and followed him to the ground.
“What are you guys!?”
Simultaneously, the church members shouted as they drew their weapons upon noticing them.
Of course, that was no threat to Rudell and Leje at all.
“Ugh!?”
Without a word, Leje swiftly beheaded the nearest church member, and before they could react, her sword sliced another member in half.
“Damn! It’s the enemy! Attack!”
“Death to the unbelievers!!!”
Another church member fell, spurting blood, and only then did the rest finally charge at Leje…
Swish!!
“Ugh!?”
“What the—!?”
The sound of slicing air accompanied by spikes of shadow arising from the darkness pierced their bodies.
In the pitch-black forest where even the moonlight couldn’t shine,
It was the perfect environment for Rudell.
In just a matter of seconds, the nearby church members turned into cold corpses and rolled on the ground…
“Looks like the cleanup is done.”
“Leje, could you step back for a moment?”
“Got it.”
As Leje sheathed her sword, Rudell began to gather his magic.
Rudell’s shadow stretched wide, and the corpses of the church members sank as if disappearing into the shadow.
“Ugh, I can never get used to this.”
With a shiver, Leje lightly trembled.
Regardless, having completed the cleanup, Rudell turned his gaze back to the scene.
The appearance of the place didn’t seem particularly special.
“Hmm…”
Letting out a low groan, Rudell crouched down to examine the traces on the ground.
And then…
“This is…”
Having discovered something, Rudell narrowed his eyes to look at it.
