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Brilliant clusters of light left scars on the earth. The demonic beast’s blood gushed out in streams that spilled onto the ground.

The demonic monkey’s hands reached to its neck in a pitiful attempt to try and grab the empty air where its head should have been. However, no matter how much it searched for it, its head had long since fallen to the floor.

Another demonic beast fell. They were opponents that I already defeated countless times before.

I swiped the blood off of my sword indifferently. Looking around, the forest seemed to have been roughly cleared.

There were five or six monkey demonic beast corpses lying next to Senior Delphine. A variety of sword marks seared into the demonic beasts emitted an acrid odor of burnt flesh.

In just a brief moment, she drew multiple trajectories in the air to clear up the monsters that rushed at her.

It was the ‘Illusory Sword of the Golden Lion’. Normally, there was a good mix of real trajectories and feints drawn in the air when using the technique. However, the more skilled the swordsman was, the higher the proportion of actual trajectories drawn in the air.

For example, Seria could simultaneously draw three sword trajectories, with two of them being real. Once she becomes more skilled, she will be able to draw a sword path consisting solely of real sword trajectories.

Once she becomes even more skilled than that, she would be able to handle five sword trajectories at once.

That was the level of skill that Senior Delphine currently possessed. The ‘Illusory Sword of the Golden Lion’ technique she used drew five sword trajectories at once, with three of them being real.

To prove my point, each of the monkey demonic beast corpses in front of Senior Delphine were sprawled on the ground with a single cut from her sword. The way the demonic beasts were lying dead with their arms extended in the same position meant that their lives were taken at once.

On the other hand, the demonic monkey corpses in front of Seria were killed in pairs. That was because she was only able to use two real sword trajectories at a time.

While gazing at Senior Delphine and Seria, who were panting for breath, I couldn’t avoid clenching and unclenching my fists.

Although I didn’t know why I was able to, I successfully used the Sword of the Golden Lion multiple times. My proficiency was higher than Seria’s, but lower than Senior Delphine’s.

Three sword trajectories, with three real trajectories.

That was my current level.

Though, it was––at best––just a matter of relying on how much my body remembered from my distant memories.

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure it out. How was future ‘me’ able to learn the Secret Technique of the Yurdina household? I was also shockingly familiar with the Holy Nation’s and the Sword Circle’s Secret Techniques as well.

I shook my head and gave up. I wouldn’t get my answers right now even if I dug deep into my brain to search for them.

My gaze delved deeper into the forest. The cave was just around the corner.

“If everyone is all sorted out, let’s move again. Flesh seeds might appear near the cave, so be wary of surprise attacks.”

As I was about to make my way to the cave, I glanced over at Celine.

She looked extremely nervous. Her arms and legs were trembling and the paleness of her face made me question whether or not she would be able to continue the battle.

To be fair, it was technically Celine’s first real battle.

And for her first real battle she had to fight monkey demonic beasts, a monster from myths, and was now heading to destroy the nest where the Dark Order was conducting secret experiments.

Of course she would be terrified. I put my hand on Celine’s shoulder without saying anything.

Celine tensed up immediately in surprise, but let out a sigh of relief once she saw that it was me.

Her golden brown eyes looked helpless and sunken.

“…….Ian Oppa.”

“Are you scared?”

Celine’s eyes slightly shook at my straightforward question.

She paused for a moment to think, then shook her head.

“…….No.”

At her response, I couldn’t stop a chuckle from coming out. Anyone could see how scared she was, but it seemed like she wanted to save face.

“You can stay behind if you’re scared.”

“B-but……”

“Instead, you will have to put your life on the line for other things from here on out. I’m not sure what it is, but it will be even more frequent if you stay by my side.”

Celine’s mouth that was hesitating to open soon closed into a straight line. She looked up at me with sad eyes.

She looked like a puppy drenched from the rain. I smiled lightly while softly stroking Celine’s head.

When I pressed on Celine’s head, she let out a soft groan and looked at me. Still, she didn’t seem to shy away from my touch.

“Celine, there was no other choice the moment you picked up a sword… It’s either kill or be killed. You have to get used to it.”

“…….Yeah.”

Celine answered me with a gloomy expression. I had no other choice but to smile bitterly and turn around.

She needed to find her own answer. I couldn’t help her understand just by speaking about the matter this one time.

But wait… Who even was I to give advice to Celine?

I held my chin. When I thought hard about it, I realized I didn’t have much real battle experience either. If I had to speak the full truth, Senior Delphine and Senior Elsie had way more experience on a battlefield.

But I couldn’t continue my train of thought any longer. It was because a blob of brown hair suddenly appeared in my face.

The person had a small frame––I immediately knew it was Senior Elsie.

She struggled to get her words out for a while. When I shot her a puzzled look, Senior Elsie closed her eyes and shouted loudly as if she finally made up her mind.

“I-I did well too!”

I stared blankly at Senior Elsie for a moment, then realized what she meant and suppressed a laugh.

It seemed like she mistook my stroking of Celine’s head for some kind of reward. It seemed like she got jealous and was protesting against it in her own way.

Of course, that was nothing more than Senior Elsie’s one-sided misunderstanding. She was the only person I knew out of all my friends who treated the action of me stroking someone’s head as a reward.

The way Senior Elsie kept glancing at me with expectant eyes was so adorable that I couldn’t help but stroke her head as well.

Her expression softened and the ends of her mouth went up in a smile.

“Mr. Ian… Hehe… I like you……”

As she spoke, Senior Elsie hugged my arm and started rubbing her cheek on it like a dog showing affection for their owner.

It was a shocking sight, but neither Celine nor Seria paid much attention to it. It seemed they got used to it by now.

The way that Senior Elsie showed her affection was that straightforward. It was to the point where I was actually worried about how things would be when we returned to the Academy.

Still, I had no negative thoughts about it.

Senior Elsie trusted me and followed me out here even though her life was at stake. Since I knew how little she regarded commoners, agreeing with my cause couldn’t have been an easy choice for her.

Senior Elsie wasn’t the only one, either.

Celine, Seria, and Senior Delphine all did the same.

Before I knew it, I found myself surrounded by many colleagues. In other words, I also got more people I needed to protect.

I silently calmed myself down. I had to be sharper than anyone else.

My eyes sank deeply. I recalled what the man muttered to himself in one of my memories.

‘I won’t ever regret again.’

His words echoed painfully in my heart.

The cave was now right in front of us.

**

It was still damp and chilly inside the cave.

It hadn’t been too long since we left, so it made sense that the environment changed little in the short period we were absent. However, since it was now late in the afternoon, the overall atmosphere was even more eerie.

Night was fast approaching.

When the time of the Evil God Omeros comes, her descendants become even stronger and vicious than before. The flesh seeds would be no exception.

We had to finish the battle quickly. This was the reason why I rushed our group to the cave even under their complaints of fatigue from the previous battle.

We were moving forward as cautiously as possible, but weren’t met with any surprise attacks from the flesh seeds yet. Once we exited the long passageway, we found ourselves in a pit.

I turned around to give a look to the rest of the group. Senior Delphine nodded her head to speak for everyone else.

We slowly walked together onto the edge of the pit.

There, flesh seeds were walking around making strange noises. Many were sleeping when we saw them for the first time, but right now they weren’t.

Dozens of monsters were writhing and running around the pit. Some of them were even screaming for some reason.

And in the middle of it all, the flesh nest was wriggling and spitting out even more flesh seeds.

Like a fruit torn apart, the film over the flesh seed opened as the newborn staggered to its feet. Its screech echoed through the cave, but a terrified voice was also mixed within.

It probably belonged to the person used as the material for its creation.

It was a scene that instinctively evoked disgust. The rest of the group was frowning long before I realized it and I was even starting to feel a burning anger inside me.

They cannot be allowed to live.

Once again, I realized I made the right decision. I whispered to Senior Elsie.

“Senior Elsie, go into the brig right away. Senior Delphine and I will go in as the lead…..”

And right then, a strange presence caught my senses.

My eyes slowly turned to the ceiling. What met my gaze was a crouching flesh seed glaring at Senior Elsie. It was a signal that it was about to attack.

I cursed inwardly. Thinking about it, I realized that the flesh seeds could use their claws to climb the walls. It wouldn’t be weird for them to cling to the ceiling and wait to ambush us.

I immediately shoved Senior Elsie, my already drawn sword swung downwards to the left.

And then, three vertical lines soared to the clearing.

Screeeeeech!

The flesh seed that passed through the silver lattice was split into four pieces and rolled in the ground. Blood gushed out from the perforated line extending from the top of its head, cutting it in half.

It stopped moving.

Yes, it was just one flesh seed.

My eyes urgently scanned the ceiling. Hanging like bats, I saw more of them glaring at us with bright red eyes.

Confusion appeared in the group’s eyes as I shouted.

“Everyone get ready for battle!”

It was time for the blood-soaked myth to be recreated in front of us.