Chapter 81: After the storm

The first thing Kael noticed when the instructors arrived was how quickly the atmosphere changed.

Moments earlier, the sanctuary had been filled with exhausted students, shattered stone, and the fading remnants of dark magic. Now, teachers and instructors were moving through the clearing, examining the injured and securing the remaining pillar.

Professor Vista, a tall man with a stern expression, took charge of the situation.

"Students who can walk, move toward the center of the clearing. Those who are injured should remain where they are. The medical team will examine everyone before we leave."

His commanding voice carried across the battlefield.

The students followed his instructions. Several instructors began treating the injured, while others inspected the damaged sanctuary. One particularly cautious instructor approached the remaining pillar and studied its glowing runes without touching them.

Professor Vista, meanwhile, received a brief report from Seraphina.

She explained the appearance of the crimson barrier, the undead invasion, and the mysterious caster who had attacked the stone formations. She also described how Lilith had modified the defensive formation and how Kael had repeatedly redirected the enemy’s magic.

Vista listened without interrupting.

When Seraphina finished, he looked toward the remaining pillar.

"An ancient defensive formation that can distinguish hostile energy from other sources of mana," he murmured. "And you managed to activate that function in the middle of a battle."

Lilith, who was sitting on a broken stone block while a healer treated her hands, raised her head.

"I didn’t activate it. I only adjusted the energy circuit using the corrupted energy from the caster’s magic."

"And you were certain it would work?"

"No," Lilith replied. "I was reasonably certain that doing nothing would be worse."

Vista studied her for a moment before turning toward the other instructors.

"Record the formation’s current state. Nobody touches the runes until we understand what has changed."

The instructors immediately began documenting the remaining structure.

Kael watched from a short distance away, his injured arm resting against his side. He was beginning to regret every decision that had involved swinging his sword at concentrated dark magic.

His shoulder throbbed, and his arms felt as though someone had replaced his muscles with tightly wound ropes. Even holding his sword had become uncomfortable.

Quinn, on the other hand, appeared considerably more energetic. The white spider sat on his uninjured shoulder, its bluish markings glowing faintly.

"Qiu!"

"Don’t even think about it," Kael muttered.

Quinn tilted its head.

"No, helping save everyone doesn’t mean you get unlimited snacks."

"Qiu..."

"Your disappointment is noted."

Professor Vista approached before Quinn could continue its argument.

"Student Grayford, let the medical team examine you."

"It’s nothing serious, Professor."

Vista looked at him sternly.

"Then the examination should be quick."

Kael decided not to argue.

The healer confirmed that his shoulder had suffered an injury from the repeated impacts and that the strain on his arms would require several days of recovery. Although there was no serious damage, attempting strenuous sword training immediately would only make matters worse.

Kael accepted the treatment with considerably less enthusiasm than he had accepted the diagnosis.

Several days without sword training would be irritating. Several days without practicing his newly awakened mana control would be worse. Still, he had no intention of turning a manageable injury into a permanent problem just because he disliked resting.

He had already learned what happened when he tried to compensate for insufficient power through sheer stubbornness.

The answer, apparently, was that his arms hurt.

A lot.

...

The teacher’s investigation was brief.

The surviving students were asked to describe the events they had witnessed, but nobody could identify the mysterious caster or explain his true objective. Their accounts confirmed that the attacks had been deliberate, and the damage to the sanctuary suggested that the enemy had understood the defensive formation well enough to target its anchors.

The teachers would conduct a more thorough investigation after the students had recovered. For now, the priority was treating the injured and escorting everyone out of the Emerald Forest.

Before the evacuation began, Professor Vista received another report from the search teams.

"Professor, we found Victor Hale’s group."

Vista turned toward the junior instructor who had delivered the news.

"Where were they?"

"They discovered a concealed hiding place inside the forest. They remained there during most of the incident, but on their way through the shelter, several members of the group were killed, along with the senior students assigned to supervise them. The seniors died protecting the younger students."

Vista’s expression hardened.

"Have the survivors received treatment?"

"Yes, Professor. They’re being escorted here now."

"Good. Make sure they receive proper medical attention."

The instructor nodded and departed.

Kael had overheard the report.

He remembered Victor’s earlier mockery of Team 37, but the news brought him no satisfaction. Whatever disagreements existed between them, the deaths of those students were not something worth celebrating.

The examination had been designed to test their survival skills, not to leave students dead in the forest.

Someone had deliberately turned it into something else.

And that person had escaped.

Kael glanced toward the trees.

He wondered whether the instructors would discover anything useful from the damaged formations or the traces of dark magic.

Unfortunately, wondering wouldn’t produce answers.

For now, he had his own problems to deal with.

He needed to become stronger.

And he needed to make sure his teammates did the same.

...

By the time the students were ready to leave the sanctuary, the sun had begun descending toward the horizon.

Kael took one last look at the clearing.

The remaining pillar stood amid the ruins, its markings glowing faintly. Six others had been destroyed, leaving broken stone scattered across the ground. Beyond the boundary, the forest had returned to an unsettling calm.

It was difficult to believe that the same place had nearly become their grave.

His gaze eventually shifted toward the deeper forest.

Somewhere beyond those trees lay the dungeon he had hoped to explore.

The Moonlit Catacombs.

He had planned to investigate it during the examination, gathering materials and looking for opportunities to improve his strength without attracting attention.

Instead, the crimson barrier had appeared, undead had overrun the forest, and he had spent most of the incident trying to keep his classmates alive.

He couldn’t exactly complain about the outcome.

Everyone he had been trying to protect had survived, and he had learned something important about his newly awakened mana control.

Even so, he couldn’t help feeling disappointed.

He had come close to discovering something valuable, only for the opportunity to disappear before he could investigate it.

’What a waste.’

Kael allowed himself a moment of frustration before reconsidering the situation. The dungeon wouldn’t disappear simply because he had failed to explore it. As long as nobody cleared it, there was still a chance to return.

And as far as he knew, he was the only person in this world who knew the secret to clearing the Moonlit Catacombs.

That knowledge was an advantage he had no intention of throwing away.

’I’ll come back.’

His gaze remained fixed on the forest.

’Next time, I’ll be prepared.’

He turned away and followed the others.

Quinn climbed from his shoulder to the top of his head, apparently deciding that it offered a better view.

...

The journey back to the academy was quiet.

The surviving students were too exhausted to engage in their usual arguments, and even the more talkative members of Team 37 had little to say.

Darius walked with his greatsword secured across his back. Elias occasionally checked on Mira, who had spent most of the examination healing others and was now struggling to keep her eyes open.

Quinn remained with Kael, occasionally crawling from his shoulder to his backpack whenever it wanted a different view.

Seraphina traveled near the instructors, helping organize the students while answering occasional questions about the sanctuary.

Kael had been trying to avoid drawing attention to himself, but he noticed her looking in his direction more than once. Whenever their eyes met, she seemed about to approach him.

Then she would hesitate and return her attention to the other students. It was unusual enough to make him curious.

He had a fairly good idea why she wanted to speak with him.

Before the battle resumed, he had whispered something into her ear that had left her visibly stunned.

A secret from her childhood.

A memory that, according to the game’s optional personal route, only two people knew about.

The boy who had found her beyond the northern wall had given her a handkerchief, promised not to expose her secret, and encouraged her dream of becoming strong enough to protect others.

To the young Seraphina, those moments had meant more than a simple act of kindness.

She had grown up surrounded by expectations. As the daughter of a powerful family, she had been taught to behave with dignity, control her emotions, and never reveal weakness. Her desire to protect people was often treated as an obligation rather than a personal dream.

That night, she had escaped those expectations for a few hours.

She had carried a broken wooden sword beyond the northern wall because she wanted to practice somewhere nobody would judge her. When she fell into the drainage ditch, she had been terrified that her family would discover what she had done.

The boy who found her could have laughed at her.

He could have reported her disobedience. Instead, he had helped her out, given her his handkerchief, and listened while she explained why she wanted to become strong.

He had treated her dream as something worth believing in.

And he had kept his promise.

For a lonely child who had rarely been allowed to act like an ordinary girl, that kindness had become a memory she treasured for years.

She had hoped to meet him again, not because he had performed some extraordinary feat, but because he had been the first person who had accepted the part of herself she was afraid to show anyone else.

Kael understood the significance of the memory.

What he didn’t fully understand was what Seraphina would do with the realization that he might be that boy.

He wasn’t even sure how he should feel about it himself.

After all, he remembered the scene from a game.

She had lived it.

The distinction made the situation considerably more complicated than he would have preferred.