Chapter 90

Part 15: The Way Back (2)

In the forest, there were only the two of us.

I was clearly following the group, yet...

I had no idea where I was.

To get lost, to lose my way with my senses, was unbelievable.

"Could I really be lost?"

I heard Professor Raido's voice.

When I looked at Professor Raido, he was looking at me with an expression I had never seen before.

But the unfamiliar expression quickly disappeared.

"I don't know what happened."

I shook my head. It was a situation I had never expected.

"Just a moment. I'll check from above."

I climbed to the treetop and looked around.

Bizarrely, even from up there, I had no idea where I was.

It was an unexpected and absurd situation, but I could nod in understanding.

"So that's how it is."

A major question had been answered.

I descended and told Raido, "It's a bit strange, but I think I can find the way. Let's hurry."

"Huh? You know the way?"

Raido looked bewildered at my words.

"Yes, let's go."

I started moving in one direction.

I heard hesitant footsteps from behind.

I turned my head to see Raido following me with a troubled expression.

As we moved, monsters appeared as usual.

I stepped forward with my sword, but unlike before, they were not easy to handle.

I thought I had swung my sword properly, but it only grazed the monsters, and sometimes it was too deep to pull out.

"Damn, why isn't this working? Give me a hand!"

"I'm trying. This monster is resistant to my abilities!"

From behind, it seemed he was doing something, but the monster was enthusiastically attacking me, and I was covered in wounds before I could finally drive it off.

I didn't stop.

The path became even more confusing, but I continued to lead Raido.

After a few more battles, I finally stopped, severely injured.

Ugh. Grunt.

I sat on the corpse of a crocodile-like monster and examined my side.

The flesh was torn, and my insides were visible. Blood continued to flow, making me dizzy.

I drank a potion, but the wound was too severe to maintain my condition.

"I think this is as far as I can go. I can't go any further."

Raido looked at me seriously.

No matter how hard he looked, nothing changed.

My wound was fatal, and I couldn't move anymore.

After staring at me for a while, Raido picked up my sword, which was leaning against a tree.

"Your sword is heavier than I thought. You've been fighting with this?"

He frowned as he moved the sword.

Despite his abilities, he seemed to have trained with a sword properly.

Watching Raido swing my sword silently, I sighed.

"Of course, it was you, wasn't it? You deliberately separated us from the others."

He chuckled at my words.

"Too many people are perceptive. Or is my acting not good enough?"

"Surely, there were others who noticed besides me?"

He poked my side with his finger.

"The professor with the same wound figured it out at the end. If he hadn't, he would have died peacefully. Why did he pretend to know?"

He clicked his tongue softly.

"Surely, the professor didn't die because of the monsters, did you kill him?"

"Well, even if I had left him, he would have died. Blaming the monsters is fine. I just made sure he returned a bit faster for Briah's sake."

He spoke in a very calm voice.

He didn't seem worried at all, even with me in front of him.

And for good reason, from what I could see, my injuries made it difficult to fight him.

He knew this, which is why he was talking so casually.

"People didn't know, but my ability isn't just effective against monsters. It can also distort human senses, confuse their perceptions, and make them misjudge the position of the light pillars."

Indeed, as I had suspected.

My getting lost and the Cartin group taking a strange path were all due to Raido's ability.

"But the duke and the elders of the family ignored my ability and gave the successor position to my younger brother!"

He stopped speaking and stabbed the sky with his sword.

"Do you know how painful it is for the heir of the family to be expelled from the academy and to hang out with other outcasts? No, you wouldn't know, being a bastard."

He enthusiastically told his story.

I didn't need to ask for reasons; he was telling me everything on his own.

I didn't know about Raido's situation from the opening ceremony until yesterday.

I thought he was a smart, well-off noble's son living a normal life, but it seemed he had his own pain and conflicts.

Frankly, he looked like a lunatic to me, but if he said he was suffering, what could I do?

There was no reason or way to say anything.

Raido continued.

"While struggling to get by, I finally realized yesterday that the heavens hadn't abandoned me."

Indeed, the knight's corpse was the problem.

"That corpse was a knight sent by our family 50 years ago. It was a major plan, sending my second grandfather and half the knight squad. I don't know what they were looking for, but they disappeared in this sealed land like others before them."

I watched him ramble, my dizziness getting worse, but I could still hold on.

"Since then, it became the duty and goal of those who attended the academy to find the items left by my late grandfather in the sealed land."

"But it wasn't something that could be found easily. Eventually, it became a formality."

I must have lost consciousness for a moment while listening.

"Hey, don't die yet. You need to hear my story."

Raido looked at me with concern.

When I regained my senses, he started talking again.

"It was just a formality, but when it actually happened, it became a different issue. It was a chance for the son who had been removed from the successor position to rise again."

He put his hand on his waist.

"The late grandfather had a ring that glowed when he got within a certain distance. And the family members who came to the academy carried that ring."

He showed me his hand. A ring I hadn't seen at the academy was on his finger.

After finding the knight's corpse, he took out the ring from his bag and checked it. The ring glowed red, and he used his ability to lead the group in the direction the ring pointed.

Unfortunately, the destination was a nest of monsters, and he used the others to successfully find the item left by his grandfather.

"Is the pouch on your waist that item?"

"Right. What our family was looking for. The item that will make me the successor again."

He patted the small pouch on his waist.

The pouch was so small that it seemed it couldn't hold much.

I wonder what's inside.

Even in my dazed state, curiosity flickered.

"When I returned later, the injured professor was suspicious of me, and I had no choice but to take action."

He glared at me as he finished his story.

"It was a simple matter, but the professor ended up dying. And you pretending to know is making things difficult for me!"

Ultimately, he was angry at me and Professor Cartin for what he had done.

He had deceived people, and to hide that fact, he had killed someone and lied to cover it up, and now he was trying to kill me.

Perhaps this was the first big lie he had told yesterday.

But as the lies and killings continued, his conscience dulled, and he became accustomed to killing.

In the end, he was trying to kill me without any hesitation.

"I wanted to tell someone. I used to mock the villains in plays who rambled about their secrets, but when I was in that situation, it was very hard to hold back."

With that final rambling excuse, he finally approached me.

"There's no time to wait for a natural death. We need to reach the rendezvous point before sunset, so please understand that I have to kill you first."

He raised his sword, babbling nonsense.

If I die by this sword, I will return to the morning of yesterday.

It was part of the plan.

I had to die once to save Cartin.

To use that death effectively, I had been searching for the culprit.

Suspecting her death, I asked around, identified the culprit, and then deliberately injured myself to make the culprit talk.

Fortunately, the culprit was talkative, and I easily heard the story.

Now, all that's left is to die.

Kraaaang!

But I felt a bit wronged to die alone.

Even if today's events would disappear, I couldn't just let the one who killed Cartin go.

"What! What's that sound!"

Raido, unable to swing his sword, looked around in surprise.

'Fortunately, the timing was right.'

Strangely, my ability to sense mana was not affected by Raido's ability.

My sense of direction was a mess, but my ability to sense mana remained intact.

Thanks to this, I could feel the approach of monsters and find places with many monsters.

So, while I was lost, I searched for a place with many monsters.

And this was the nest of the crocodile monsters.

The monster I was sitting on was a female left in the nest, and the monsters now approaching were males.

Dozens of crocodile monsters appeared all around.

"Get out of here! Get out of here!"

Raido, terrified, swung his sword and used his ability.

But the sword bounced off the monsters' bodies, and his ability only affected a few.

"No, no! I'm so close! I'm going back to my position!"

Raido's screams could be heard among the monsters.

The screams grew fainter and finally stopped.

The sound of monsters gnawing on flesh could be heard, and I could see other monsters approaching me.

'But I can't be eaten.'

I gathered the remaining mana.

Mana flowed out with the blood.

Dizziness worsened, and my strength drained.

At the same time, my vision went dark.

After a moment—or perhaps a long time—my vision brightened again.

The dense forest and vines.

The team members I saw yesterday were lying on the ground, retching.

The same scene.

I had returned properly.

Now, it's time to save Cartin.