V4C1

The time is still too early to beconsidered morning. Regardless, Arus andLoki awaken roughly at the same time. Dueto that, neither of them can be said to require alarm clocks. Then, with brisk movements reminiscent ofwhen they were on duty, they proceed with their preparations for the day. Only once they finish do they speak.

Since meal preparation has already becomeLoki’s duty, she says, “What should I make for breakfast?”

“Something light will suffice. Don’t worry about it too much.”

Arus has no recollection to house rolesbeing divided according to their interests, but such implies Loki’s expressionas she works in the kitchen. He thenlooks out a window. While he’s uncertainto the weather of the outside world while within the protective wall, he getsthe feeling it’s a good day. Maybe because this is when daylight beginsto shine?

Breakfast is simple, but made withconsideration towards balanced nutrition. Arus exhales as he stands, his breath is still laced with the fragranceof his after meal black tea. He hooksthe hanging robe with a finger and puts it on.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

The students are free to procure combat clothingfor the extracurricular activity, but their academy uniforms are more thanadequate. As such, Loki wears the sameuniform she always does. As she isn’texpected to partake in combat, it doesn’t make much of a difference. Furthermore, her alterations to her academyuniform technically now make it a combat outfit as well.

They leave the research building, but nostudent has yet to arrive at the designated meeting point. The main reason is because of how early it is. Light from the teacher’s building impliesthat members of the faculty are also making their own preparations.

The time is a bit after four in themorning. The extracurricular lessonwon’t be until nine. In regards topreparation, the staff will be fine as long as they finish by seven.

Arus and Loki are on the roof of theresearch building. Arus says, “Loki,I’ll be heading to headquarters for a preparatory exercise. What will you do?”

“I shall stay with you, itadakimasu .”

Arus leaps off the roof with a joke. “Don’t be late.” Although the expression behind his mask can’tbe seen, the edges of his lips are raised.

The two move at a pace impossible forordinary magicians. It’s one that allowsthem to reach the edge of the protective wall in an instant. Arus’ steps are taken in complete harmony withhis breaths, not one is off. Loki’sbreathing also follows a rhythm, one that helps her body warm up.

None of the nearby magicians onsurveillance pay them any mind. Not evenArus with his mask is criticized. [1] They hold back after noticing Loki’s uniform. That they need to notice Loki before stoppingcannot be helped.

The two ease their way through Babel’sprotective wall. A prickling sensationwashes over them as they dive through due to the wall’s peculiar wavelength ofmagic.

The scenery once they are through is acomplete about face. Arus takes everythingin from the clear sky to inspiring mountain ridges off in the distance with adeep breath. He relishes even the freshair filling his lungs. “Just as expected,this place is the best.”

The tension from Loki’s faces relaxes atArus’ monologue. She smiles whilesaying, “There will be no difficulties to detection like this.”

“Good.”

“What will we do? I currently detect 23 mamono within a 1kmradius.”

“I see, in that case, you could ease theearly morning subjugation effort?”

“Understood.”

Arus could also set out, but finds doingso boorish and therefore refrains from saying anything. [2]

The two take their time as they follow aroundabout path to headquarters. The teachersand reinforcement units are already setting up by the time they arrive. Even though Arus wears a mask, he is notrestrict to staying by Loki’s side. Hereceives an object and sets off to perform his duties.

“How is the reception, Arus-sama?”

He finds the wavelength adjusted to thetransmitter over his ear satisfactory and says, “No problems.”

The communication device he wears iscalled a <<Con Sensor>>. Ittransmits sound over a mana wavelength by utilizing ores with a peculiar audiofrequency.

He adds, “At present, I’m 6km northeast ofheadquarters.”

“Roger. I do not detect any high ranked mamono at the moment.”

“Understood. As soon as I confirm the presence of anymamono, I’ll exterminate them posthaste.”

“Please, do so.”

“Leave it to me.”

After some time passes, Loki speaks withheavy determination, “I shall.” Afterwards, the communication link ends.

As far as Arus is concerned, the averagesoldier is no different from a low ranked mamono. [3] Even if the number of mamono is reduced, needless damage to their bodies willspill a lot of their blood. That createsthe possibility of mamono gathering even though it’s daytime. As such, he subjugates mamono by targetingtheir cores. If he can’t, then heannihilates the core with the entire mamono in a single strike.

Low ranked mamono, with their smallbodies, are essentially no different than a swarm of rabid animals. While exceptions to that generalizationexist, few have been confirmed to reside in that area. In other words, the students will at mostface mamono the size of adults. Thatmakes mangling a mamono’s entire body easier than solely aiming for just thecore. They do this because the mamono’sbody will decay once its core is lost.

After Arus deals with 30 nearby mamono,Loki contacts him. She says, “Theextracurricular lesson is now commencing.”

“Roger.”

–Noble noble noble, diamond diamonddiamond–

The students gather in a plaza just beforethe protective wall. Many of them weartheir training clothes in lieu of a combat uniform. Tesfia and Alice do the same. All of them are gathered in their groups and areholding one final group meeting as they wait for the Director to give them thesignal to begin.

In Tesfia’s group, there is her, a fourdigits; two members who rank at five digits; two members who rank at six digits;and their supervisor, a four digits, third year, upper classman named CavsorDenbel. He is the eldest son of adistinguish household who for some reason or another, burns with antagonism towardsTesfia. His responsibilities aren’tsmall, yet despite the many situations in which they could have discussedstrategy, he spent a lot of time away from his team.

Alice’s group has her as a four digitsmember and four five digit members. Whileher fellow group members are all five digits, they are much more preferred thanthe pair in Tesfia’s group who range between sixty and seventy thousand. Her supervisor is the second year, Seniatt Phocimil,but their rankings aren’t very different from each other. Furthermore, they are also of the samesex. Somehow or another, she is anupperclassman who looks after others.

The Director says, “Well then, we’ll beconducting the extracurricular lesson from this point onward.”

The gaze of every student falls upon theDirector. She adds, “All supervisorswill be given distress signal flares for the off chance anything happens. So if needed, a reinforcement unit will comerushing over. Everyone, please show thefruits of your daily hard work.”

Her greeting is very simple, but all the essentialinformation she needs to tell them has already been transmitted. Furthermore, her words are the signal foreveryone to pass through the protective wall.

The first students to pass through stop intheir tracks. Their expressions can allbe described as master pieces. No groupis able to immediately move after that first view of the outside world. The fantastical and majestic landscape islike walking into a dream or an illusion.

Tesfia says, “….Amazing!”

Alice says, “So beautiful!”

Greenery is overgrowing and abundant. Not a single piece of modern machinery can befound for as far as the eye can see. Everyoneis overwhelmed by the ancient and towering trees. Not even the upperclassman serving assupervisors are spared. They’re allovercome with the sensation that they’ve been transported to another world.

Ferinella, also a supervisor for theextracurricular lesson, claps her hands to get the attention of the over fourhundred students. Her smile is incomplete contrast to the ominous words she speaks, but it’s enough to bringeveryone back to their senses. “Staysharp, there are mamono out here!”

Everyone’s expression tightens. The groups enter their formations and scatterinto every direction. No group has beengiven a specific goal, simply fighting mamono is the entire purpose of thelesson for everyone. As such, there isno need for the groups to press too deep into the outside world. They are free to go where ever they want asdictated by the whims of their curiosity.

Battles can be seen starting in thedistance despite the lesson just beginning. That’s the moment Tesfia resolves her heart and proceeds withcaution. As was previously decided, shetakes point.

The path she leads her group down wasnaturally formed. Therefore, despitewalking for a bit of time, not much distance is covered.

“— —Stop!”

Tesfia holds out her arm. Her other hand holds a finger before hermouth. The faint rustling of branchescarries in from the distance. Everyonecrouches down and step towards the tree’s shade in order to investigate.

Something falls from above.

“…!!”

It falls and appears before them. It’s around the size of a human child, butwith strange, long arms. They are longenough that its lightly clasped fists reach the ground. Also, despite having a short and misshapen body,its feet are unnaturally small. Coilingaround its body into a perfect circle is a tail. The impression given by its overallappearance is that even if a mistake is made, it won’t be able to takeadvantage of it.

Its entire body, save for the crimsoneyes, is black to the point of being eerie. Its queer color is unnatural. Tesfia matches its features from what she’s been taught in her lessonsand concludes, that’s undoubtedly amamono.

She then issues orders for thesurroundings to be checked for other mamono. Afterwards, she says, “This one is probably an F rank, [Vellam]. As per our strategy, we’ll subjugate it bygoing around and cutting in.”

During their introductory lessons, thatmamono was presented as an example. Thismamono’s behavior is similar to that of a monkey despite being hunched overlike an old woman. They are abundant inouter areas overabundant with trees.

Tesfia’s group members acknowledge hercommands with a nod. She directs them totheir positions with her hand while gradually approaching from the frontdespite its bloodthirst.

She still isn’t used to walking in theoutside world. Fallen branches scratchat her legs, but she ignores the pain and continues forward. The mamono’s bloodlust is so strong that herheart beats with the speed of a ringing bell.

Unease sets within Tesfia as she scrutinizesthe mamono’s actions. The lecture alsomentioned that it doesn’t often descend onto the ground. Could thisone be a deviant?

The mamono stands its ground as it keepsits eyes on its surroundings.

Hasit noticed us? It doesn’t look like it’sgoing to run away…

As Tesfia gets close enough to hit themamono with a spell, she peaks towards the shade of the tree. Theyshould be getting into position soon.

“…!!”

The mamon’s black fur stands on end as itshead twists around. An uncanny, almosthuman, grin arcs across its face. Behindit is a female classmate.

Tesfia stabs her katana into the groundwhile saying, “It noticed you!!” Themagic formulas etched into her blade shine as mana flows down the sword. Prior preparations allow her to quicklyfinish her spell and surge a thin road of ice straight towards the mamono.

The mamono, unaware to Tesfia’s existence,is unable to react against Tesfia’s attack. As it leaps at the girl, its foot remains stuck on the ground. Its entire lower body is encased in ice in aninstant.

Tesfia is shocked by the results of herspell. She only intended to create a gapby freezing its sole to the ground, but instead left it entirely unable tomove. “— —!!!! …Attack!”

Her attack more or less went haywire, butproceeded as intended. She halted themamono’s movement by going full out with attack magic through her AWR.

Due to having low ranked members on theteam, damage from the first class attack magic [Arrow] cannot be predicted. Therefore, the team judged that their AWR wouldbest be used for physical attacks. Regardless, not one student is able to killthe mamono with their first strike.

It only topples over after a gruesome blowto the head. The student responsiblethen walks towards Tesfia with a smile.

—The mamono gradually raises its upperbody from behind the student.

Tesfia springs forward before it canmove. She hoists her katana overhead andcuts the mamono in two. “Haa!!”

The mamono’s body, due to its core beingin the head, crumbles.

““““— — —!!””””

Tesfia says, “Don’t get careless!” Her success is attributable to listening toArus’ advice from long ago. She wouldn’thave been able to recognize the situation and react otherwise.

Everyone is covered in a cold sweat.

“You saved me.”

Then, the girl who was discovered by themamono earlier, gives a deep bow by bending from her back as an apology for herblunder. “I’m so sorry, Tesfia-san.”

“Don’t worry about it. You might not have been noticed in anothergroup.”

The faint sounds of battle drift in fromnearby.

“Still, that was incredible. You took itout with one hit.”

“Thank you.”

Internally, Tesfia gives words ofgratitude to a certain someone. Everythingshe just accomplished was undeniably the fruits of that person’s training. Her current level is clearly higher from whenshe first enrolled.

Cavsor steps out from his hiding placewith a fearless smile and gives a condescending praise. “That’s undeniably an F rank mamono. An E rank would have given us more trouble,but not bad.”

Tesfia spares him a glance to give a rough,“Thanks.”

“But, you need to practice harder untilyou can take mamono down on your first strike.”

He points out that her spell failed todefeat the mamono. It wasn’t very clear that I was only trying to buy time in the firstplace. No, I might just be saying thatin hindsight.

Tesfia, for the sake of moving on fromthat conversation, says, “Thank you very much for pointing that out forme.” In her mind, she no longerrecognizes that upper classman as relevant. Her priorities are more in line with Arus’ guidance. Therefore, a successful subjugation is allshe needs to feel a sense of accomplishment.

T/N: Sorry this took so long. I had trouble sleeping this past week. Sleep deprivation makes translating hard~

Special thanks to M4L4DD1CT10N forsponsoring this chapter. I’d also liketo thank D for becoming a patreon~

Now about this chapter, not much happenedcompared to the manga. Just more insightto Tesfia’s team, but it also came with much needed character growth. She seems like less of a brat now. I wonder how it is with Alice??

~Gandire Alea

[1] 周囲には監視のための魔法師がちらほらと見えるが誰も二人、特にマスクを被ったアルスを見咎める者はいない。

[2] アルスにも捕捉は出来ている。だからと言って無粋なことは言わない。

[3] アルスにとっては雑兵も同然の低レート。

<3.6 The Preceding Day~ Bottom~ Resolving the Heart

4.2 A Position’s Responsibilities>