## Chapter 45 – Agony in the Maze
There was one fact I had forgotten.
This wasn’t the world I originally lived in, and situations could arise that were the complete opposite of what I expected.
In an ordinary sense, soldiers thrown onto a battlefield and injured wouldn’t be able to escape unless someone helped them get out.
But if they could escape in that way, it meant they could employ tactical doctrines completely different from what I knew.
‘To throw themselves into such a dangerous place with nothing and still be able to escape so easily…!!’
After issuing a cease-operation order to the members of the swarm, causing them to flee, I spotted a group of students being watched by a Kernel Worm.
Before the operation was halted, some students had stepped into a deep pit hidden in the floor and fallen, losing consciousness.
Fortunately, they were unconscious and hadn’t seen the Kernel Worm, so I quickly made the Kernel Worm flee, fearing even the slightest delay.
At that very moment, the body of a student who seemed completely unconscious was enveloped in a halo of light and disappeared, just like before.
‘I didn’t think this through…’
I had two goals in this special evaluation.
One was to help the beastmen and Arachnella escape.
If I could secure even a few female beastmen in our lair, it would alleviate some of the resource concerns I had been worrying about.
And perhaps I could even gain Arachnella’s favor and bring her in as a comrade.
‘A jackpot, my ass… I could have died…!!’
And another objective.
‘I don’t know what will happen to the beastmen…
But if I could leave with even one more person from here…
That’s what I was thinking…’
That was to kidnap some of the students during this special evaluation.
It wasn’t like I didn’t feel guilty, but I had to survive too.
In that situation, having an opportunity to shift the blame while avoiding suspicion was very meaningful to me.
‘Now that the Magic Engineering all-girls restroom is up and running…
Simply surviving might not be enough…
I still need eggs to expand the swarm…’
The Magic Engineering all-girls restroom only allowed the spiders moving along the tunnels to collect fluids without revealing their presence as much as possible.
If I were to insert tentacles into the vagina and try to extract eggs, I didn’t know what kind of reaction would occur.
‘I don’t know how the female students will react when they lose their virginity…’
So, in the end, the only means of reproduction I could rely on were the females I kidnapped to directly harvest eggs.
‘Of all things, an escape artifact…’
That was the problem.
If someone saw me and then escaped, my existence would be revealed to the outside world.
That’s why I was hiding even the Kernel Worm, and only revealed myself to the beastmen, who were in a position to grab at any lifeline.
The feeling of having prey caught in a trap right in front of me but being unable to touch them and having to turn away was heartbreaking, but it was an unavoidable choice for the sake of immediate safety.
‘If only I could at least know what it looks like…’
I wondered if I should ask Vivian, but she couldn’t understand my words.
Body language could only go so far; there was no way to have a high-level conversation about what the escape artifact looked like or where it was.
And above all, even though she had returned to me after being sent back, and was cooperating with me enough to train Lanière together, I was still uneasy about how she would react if I presented her with more victims.
‘I need someone who can understand me better.’
Right now, there were only two beings who could accurately understand my intentions.
Arachnella seemed to be able to understand my intentions as a highly intelligent high-level monster, and the rabbit woman, Pina, said she could read someone’s mind like a supernatural phenomenon, though it was unclear if it was a mutant ability.
‘Pina… Do I have to tie her up…?’
Arachnella could be a meaningful combat force, but she couldn’t survive without eating animal meat.
And as a strong monster, she posed a tremendous risk compared to my still weak self.
If she changed her mind and tried to devour those I brought into the lair, tearing me to shreds would be entirely up to her.
So, the safest target I could utilize was the rabbit woman, Pina, but the biggest problem was that even if she was here right now, there was no way to find out the identity of the artifact.
‘Do I have to give up like this…? Haa…’
In the end, while I had explosively increased the number of Kernel Worms by helping the beastmen and Arachnella escape, it was a bit disappointing that this wasn’t as satisfactory a result as the risk I had taken.
I was stuck in the academy’s flower bed.
Of course, the situation might improve, but there was no knowing when another opportunity like this would come.
‘Still, living comes first…
It’s a shame, but there’s no helping it…’
After thinking a lot and swallowing my tears, I gave the order and returned, and began to look down below, following Vivian and Lanière, who were watching an interesting situation.
“Wow…”
“……”
They were watching with such fascination that Lanière was about to drool, and Vivian was just staring blankly.
What they were watching was a team that was breaking through the monster hordes with surprising momentum.
‘Anne’s team…?’
They had shown quite unique and effective results in the first gate, but their performance hadn’t changed even after moving on to the second gate.
While the man who had been manipulating the mechanical eagle like a robot was fending off the monsters with the mechanical arm he wielded, the arrogant Asian woman next to him was scattering something around.
The enemies who were directly hit by whatever the woman was scattering collapsed and convulsed on the floor.
‘It doesn’t look like a strong attack…
What is she using…?’
For now, I passed over what I didn’t know and turned my gaze to Anne and her sister, and could see the two women attacking in pairs, just like the team members I had seen earlier.
Anne was drawing her sword to block or deflect the surrounding attacks aimed at them, and in the meantime, her sister was rapidly calculating multiple spell activation arrays and launching destructive attacks with magic.
Those four alone already had a great combination, but the most impressive thing was something else.
‘What is that woman…?’
The orange-haired armored woman, who hadn’t seemed particularly impressive until now, just seemed confident.
I was slightly appalled by the sight of her rampaging alone in the middle of the monster horde.
If I had to say, among those who formed pairs, it made sense that the Asian woman scattering something or Anne’s sister, who seemed to be a student in the Department of Magic Engineering, needed assistance because they were weak in close combat, so they were tagging together.
But right now, that orange-haired woman was overturning the middle of the monster horde as if she were a top predator, and cutting down everything that attacked her.
Not panicking for a moment, just senselessly slaughtering all the enemies in front, behind, left, right, above, and below with an apathetic expression, it made me wonder if that was beyond the level of a student.
In addition to using only swords, she even used throwing knives, pulling out daggers she had taken from her side and throwing them.
Watching that, I felt that my choice to retract the traps I had set to catch the students was not wrong.
Not only was it awkward to mess with Anne, but I didn’t know what I would suffer at the hands of such strong people.
‘I need to be especially careful of that team…’
At that moment, a dagger flew past our heads and stuck into the ceiling, freezing not only me but also Lanière and Vivian.
“Is something the matter?”
“It’s nothing.
I think I sensed something.
I must have made a mistake.”
The woman, who seemed to be looking up at the sky for a moment, soon defeated all the monster hordes and walked away with her companions, who were asking her questions.
Lanière and Vivian, who had been momentarily surprised but hadn’t even screamed and were stiff, soon took a trembling breath and began to speak.
“Haa… That was a surprise…
Did they notice us…?”
“No… I was just glaring at Monethen a bit…
She must have felt that killing intent and reacted…
Lucia Borgia… Truly a superhuman as I’ve heard…”
“Ah…”
Vivian, who confessed that she was the cause of the problem, closed her eyes and let out a small sigh.
But Lanière was even more surprised to hear her words.
Hearing the name ‘Lucia Borgia’, Lanière was startled and shouted softly, making a fuss.
“That Lucia Borgia, the young lady of the Borgia ducal family?”
“That’s right. I guess you know her too since you’re in the swordsmanship club?
That woman is almost like an idol to all the students in the Department of Swordsmanship…
In the first place, that woman has already surpassed the level of a student.
At that level, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call her a professional…”
Watching the backs of Anne’s team as they moved away, a small murmur was heard from Vivian, who was slowly getting up from her seat, and the atmosphere was subtly sinking.
Lanière’s eyes were expressing her excitement, and Vivian’s eyes were expressing her bitterness.
“Maybe the first place in this special evaluation…
Will be that team after all…”
