I ended up doing the monster subjugation by myself. I thought about working with the other girls, but we weren't close at all. I gave up trying to work with them because I didn't want to feel uncomfortable.
I had been told to pair up with Swan, but I had the same problem with him too. We knew each other since childhood, yes, but we weren't close now, and most of all, I felt uncomfortable being with Swan. And I was definitely fine being alone.
Without realizing it, I had taken out more than half of the required amount of monsters to pass my practical exam. I put all of the monster cores safe in my pocket. Most mid-level monsters were around the skill level of the average swordsman. There was no way that I, somebody who went against Hylli and his monstrous skills, would struggle against something as weak as a mid-level monster.
After paralyzing the monster in front of me, I sliced its throat with my sword. Then, 'Shahal', a salamander-like monster that walked on two feet, began to spew green, slippery blood onto my sword.
I ducked to avoid the blood and gently retrieved the glowing core and placed it into my pocket. 'Shahal' had a blue core with a greenish hue.
I had finished the subjugation that I was assigned to do.
The monster subjugation had been simple. I decided to take a break, thinking about how I would show off to Hylli and Cory about how many monsters I had caught later.
For first years, students were allowed to go back to campus as soon as they were done subjugating their required number of monsters. But for second years who were now in the middle of the mountain, we had to wait for the rest of the people in our year to finish before we could head back on campus.
My condition was seriously the worst. My stomach hurt from my cramps, but it also felt like I had a cold coming on soon. I felt queasy, my head throbbed, and my body had chills going through my body and I was just cold.
I thought about lighting a small fire, but stopped because I didn't want to create a mountain fire. I decided to lean on a tree to take a break. I put my hand on my forehead to check my temperature, but it felt pretty hot.
I hunched over to try and bear the pounding in my head.
But I couldn't help but focus when I heard an ear-splitting scream.
"Kyaaaaa! Someone do something about this!"
"I don't know either, it's not I subjugate monsters every single day!"
This was coming from the female swordsmanship students who had entered this year.
Four of them had formed a group, but they had become surrounded by intelligent monsters and couldn't seem to escape.
But seriously, if they had just entered the swordsmanship class for the first time this semester, why did they all group up together? This was a mid-level monster zone.
I remembered them being asked to join other groups, but they had refused. I didn't know if they were fearless or brave. I sighed, standing up straight. It was annoying, but I should probably help them because we were in the same class.
It looked like a dangerous situation, so I immediately ran towards them. There was a tall cliff right below the students, and it would be horrible if they fell. And getting caught by the monsters and getting directly summoned to school would be bad too.
When students were placed in a dangerous situation during monster subjugations, they were immediately summoned back onto campus. In that case, that would become a constant source of teasing from the other swordsmanship students, so I didn't want to recommend it to them as well.
I fixed my grip on my sword and headed towards the students.
When I appeared, the newbies screamed in surprise.
"Shu-Shuraina!"
"Oh my goodness, the Shuraina is here!"
"Oh my god! We're saved!"
Damn, that was a nice reaction. I was trying to fight, but they huddled around my back as if trying to hug me. I told them to step back and focused on the monster in front of me.
I was running out of magic, so I faced the monster with only my sword.
There were four monsters in total surrounding us. Mid-level monsters were easy, yes, but four at once was a hassle.
I gulped and headed straight towards the monsters.
I stepped onto a nearby tree and jumped high, as if floating. I attacked from above and came back down.
I took care of one of the monsters by stabbing my sword through their skull, and waited until the monsters lost their formation to attack the rest.
I smoothly received their attacks and used the recoil to strike back. It was important to use the appropriate strength. If I wanted to move as smoothly as a flowing river, I needed to be able to control all of my body's muscles.
My body had a small and thin bone structure. Because of that, my body was suited for swift movements. The monsters couldn't move as fast as I could.
It didn't take long to take care of the other monsters after putting down the first one. I had studied their movements for my club project, so I knew where their weaknesses were.
I moved quickly and stabbed them through their weak points. I almost wobbled from the dizziness, but I didn't show it.
The other swordsmanship students just stared at me, face blank. Their eyes twinkled with too much expectation.
I threw the monster cores at the students.
They didn't look like they had captured any other monsters, so I felt bad. I handed them the cores without a fuss.
"You guys aren't going to get a zero thanks to me, so buy me bread or something next time."
When I handed each of them a monster core, they ran towards me.
"I'll buy you the whole store!"
"Wow, that was amazing! You're as awesome as expected!"
"If it wasn't for you, we'd be in big trouble. I was really scared."
They all tried to hug me. I slowly walked backwards to avoid them.
"I got it, so don't stick yourselves on me."
They were going to be smooching me at this rate. I didn't know why, but I suddenly thought of Harun. They were hesitant at first, but when I helped them, they suddenly became overwhelmingly enthusiastic towards me.
My head began to hurt at the sudden burst ofnoise.
"Shuraina!"
"Kyaa! Behind you!"
Because of my current state, I didn't check behind me and fell down the cliff.
All of a sudden, I felt myself falling. Gravity pulled me downwards towards the ground. I could see the girls scared out of their wits.
I looked at the girls who had shocked expressions on their faces and waved at them, telling them that I was okay. I used levitation magic to safely float downwards.
The girls' expressions slowly changed to those of relief. I yelled, "I'm okay," at them. They cheered and clapped.
When they saw that I looked okay, they looked relieved and went their ways. They seemed to think that I was some kind of superhero. They shouted, "Shushu, we'll see you at school!", "Your magic is so cool!" and left, leaving me sighing.
Well, it was all good that I helped the newcomers and that I had fallen down the cliff.
But the problem was that I had used basically all of my magic with my levitation spell, and that I was feeling worse and worse.
Moreover,
"Which part of the mountain is this...?"
I'd gotten lost.
For a moment, I felt hatred towards the girls who had disappeared immediately after. Who cares if everything was on a positive note, you idiots.
At this point, I wanted to put down my pride and be summoned back on campus. But in order to do that, I needed to be attacked by a monster. But I didn't see even a speck of a monster right now.
I fell slightly into despair.
I was running out of strength. I wanted to go back inside. I frowned as my head pounded.
After scanning my location, it looked like I was towards the left of the center of the mountain, but this wasn't a well-known location. I thought of the model I made in my club and began to walk.
After walking a few steps, I saw a familiar back.
A pretty silver-haired boy was in my line of sight. I didn't know why he was all the way here, but for now, I was happy to see someone familiar. The excitement I felt about being able to go back to school beat any sort of wariness I felt against him.
I began to walk towards Swan.
"Swanhaden."
Swan had a stiff expression on his face and seemed to be looking for somebody.
When I called his name, Swan immediately turned and began to walk towards me.
With his eyes staring down on the floor, Swan began to speak.
"I was surprised. Why did you fall down all of a sudden?"
I tilted my head at Swan's words.
Did he see me falling? Mm, that was super embarrassing.
Swan was hiding his face, so I couldn't read his expression. I was embarrassed and I didn't trust him too much, but at the moment, Swan was the only one I could trust. I decided to ask him for help.
"Um, Swan. I kind of got lost. Do you know how to go back to school?"
"..."
When I began to speak to him, Swan briefly went still. His head was still pointing downwards. Then, after a few moments, he showed a reaction.
Swan nodded.
Oh, whew. Thank goodness. I had been worried that Swan was also lost.
"Follow me."
With that short phrase, Swan turned away.
I felt kind of anxious at how easily Swan had accepted my request.
I wondered briefly if he was leading me to the upper level of the mountains, where the higher-level monsters resided. It wasn't too big of a stretch considering Swan's usual behavior, but Swan was the only person I could rely on at the moment.
I stared blankly at Swan's back. I didn't even have the energy to think of any plans. If he was dragging me to hell like this, I would probably just end up there.
We had continued to walk quietly before he began to speak.
"You look a little pale. Are you hurt?"
Swan continued to walk, looking straight ahead. He had talked to me, but he still wasn't looking at me.
My brain began functioning all of a sudden.
Swan's words were too kind and his tone was a bit too nice. I had let my guards down because of my pain. I was suspicious about his worry-laden voice, but I gave up thinking about it because he sounded genuinely worried.
But for him to ask me about how pale I looked without even looking at me.
I didn't want to tell him that I was in pain, so I told him that nothing hurt.
"It's cold, so hurry in. Tell me if you're in pain. Please."
I wondered why he was being so nice. I would've seriously began to wonder why he was being so kind, but I just decided to accept it for now because I was having a bit of a hard time.
For some strange reason, though, there was a long span of silence between Swan's words.
He seemed to speak, then think, speak, then think. It looked like he was painstakingly finding the right words to use. It was probably supposed to make me lower my guards, but it only made me raise them further.
Regardless of me being wary of him, I was kind of happy that it seemed that he didn't forget who I was. He was acting like he cared, after all. I wanted to check, so I asked him a question.
"Swan, do you remember me? We saw each other a few times when we were younger."
Swan seemed shocked at my words.
He was walking ahead, but slowed his pace slightly. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it a few times before speaking again.
"...I remember. We were really close."
"What?"
My eyes widened at his words.
We were close? When? Seriously?