Chapter 156 – Those Who Remain at the Academy (01)
‘I never thought it would be like this…’
It wasn’t like this in the first round.
A fire broke out on the Academy route as well, but after the duke’s troops withdrew, they desperately tried to put out the fire, so the level 1 area where they set the fire was completely burned down, and the level 2 area was left abandoned. . And half destroyed because there was no one to put out the fire. The level 3 area was surprisingly intact as it was a place that was ignored to the extent that even the operative faction did not include it as an attack target.
Thanks to this, I still remember the scene where everyone gathered in class F at the beginning of the academy route, talked about each other’s situation, and reminisced.
I heard that if you go through the treason route, Aren and Ophelia retreat and the duke forces give up their attack, so the academy is mostly intact.
But now, as we entered the third route, perhaps something went wrong, Class F’s classroom disappeared, and there was no need to specify the area, everything was burned down and only the remains of the building were left.
So, originally, the process of recapturing the Academy area and using it as a bridgehead marks the end of the prologue in Part 2 and the start of the full-scale war, but I never thought of the Academy, the target of that process, would be destroyed like this.
“Master. This seems strange.”
“What?”
“During the journey here, communist soldiers had set up a front line and were on guard, but strangely, there were no soldiers to be seen near the academy.”
In fact, all other roads were blocked by Duke soldiers, but the area near the academy seemed empty and there were no traces of other soldiers.
If they were hiding between buildings, we might say we couldn’t find them, but most of the buildings in the current academy were collapsed or uninhabitable, so it was difficult for soldiers to stay there for a long time.
“I feel an eerie feeling.”
“It might be dangerous.”
As I looked at the frightened looks of the two female thieves, I thought that this was originally part 2, where messengers and other personnel assessed the risk of the battlefield.
In other words, this is an area so dangerous that it should not be entered with current power.
“I’m going in.”
But that didn’t stop us from checking the inside.
To go back, she just hides in the thief’s hideout, but if she does that, it becomes difficult to join other heroines or friends. Above all, the hideout has already been consumed by the Duke’s territory, so if she doesn’t escape, she will be caught by the Duke’s soldiers and die at any moment. Because it was.
At least in the process of escaping, it would be safer to pass by the Celestial Academy area, where the troop gap of the Duke soldiers can be seen.
“Ugh…”
Originally, thieves-type professions could set up or disarm traps, but since they were just ‘bandits’ with a thieves-type appearance, they had a plundering function but did not have trap-related abilities.
If you forcefully take them, you will only lose their loyalty, and there was no need to take them because there was no one inside that could try to plunder them anyway.
‘And… I can’t show my things in front of them’
“Okay. Then, you guys should wait here.”
“Shall we go together?”
“No. When the communist soldiers come, shout and send a signal. If there is danger, they run to where I am.”
Only then did the two female thieves smile as if they were relieved, and it seemed like they really didn’t want to go in here.
Rumbling!
I went down the hill, climbed over the collapsed stone wall, and entered the academy.
‘First of all… I tried to find my room and then the teaching assistant’s office.’
I tried to go to the teaching room because I thought there would be spare medicine and potion making tables left, but there was no way to find my room until it burned and collapsed like this.
I tried to remember the old men’s dormitory, but the dormitory in the level 3 area was completely burned down and only the ruins remained, so my room on the second floor was gone. When I entered the level 2 area, the room near me collapsed and was also destroyed.
“Whoa…”
I turned over the fragments to check, but everything worth money was long gone.
At the time, I had the [Master’s Sword] Left in the dormitory because I was planning to use a wooden sword, and I had other equipment, but I think someone must have taken the metal and other items.
As a result of tracing traces here and there to trace the traces from my memory and find out the location, I found the most intact place with no signs of being burned.
It was the place that was least affected by the fire because there were stone blocks around it, and above all, it was the last place to be caught up in the fire because your henchmen and Ophelia were there.
When I arrived at the training ground where the confrontation between classes B and F was supposed to take place, I was finally able to find my familiar object.
‘Whew… I’m glad I was able to recover even the wooden sword.’
A wooden sword full of hand stains with about half of its body stuck in the ground.
Since it was my exclusive weapon anyway, others would not have been able to use it, and since it was indestructible, no one would have been able to try to get rid of it, and even if I had tried to carry it, it would not have been easy to touch it because its attack power was 99999 due to its reinforcement value.
Moreover, since it looked so shabby, they may not have noticed anything strange and left it alone.
‘If I pick this wrong, the whole area will collapse.’
Since it was a temporary stage, there were cracks in the surrounding terrain here and there, perhaps because the surrounding construction was done in a hurry or because it was not maintained for two years.
So much so that if you accidentally touch it while removing a wooden sword that is deeply embedded in the ground, land subsidence may occur.
‘Does this problem arise because it is so powerful?…’
It was when I was about to go up to the stage to carefully remove the wooden sword.
Rustling.
Gray status windows began to appear lingering around.
‘Was he hiding?’
“Stop.”
A dry, cracking voice resonates heavily.
When I stopped walking up the stage and looked back, there was a group of soldiers with bushy beards, wearing torn clothes, and several wounded soldiers, pointing their weapons at me.
As for weapons, they were makeshift weapons made by carving the end of a broken spear back into a sharp wooden spear, or by sticking a sword with a missing blade on the end of a wooden stick and making it into a spear.
Among them, a man with a brown beard wearing the most intact armor was approaching me, pointing an old, cracked iron sword at me.
‘Belonging to the royal faction’
It wasn’t that they had lost their senses, but by looking at their frightened eyes, I could tell that they were royalists, not ducal soldiers.
“Reveal your affiliation.”
“Celestial Academy.”
“It’s a lie. Celestial Academy was closed due to an incident two years ago.”
Really. If I had to be specific, I belong to the Celestial Academy.
‘If it were my friends, I could just reveal my identity…’
Originally, in the first route, the Academy route, I was sponsored by the Sailians and my name was known, so if I said ‘Aren’, it would be accepted to some extent, but now that I was not properly appointed by the royal faction, there was nothing to guarantee my status.
As I was shaking his head without revealing his identity, the soldier who looked like their squad leader stroked his beard and glanced at me.
“You have the Duke sword.”
“This is what I obtained after defeating them…”
“Ha, lie. You’re saying you’ll get the opponent’s weapon intact?”
Yeah, if you think about it, it doesn’t make sense. I also obtained this item almost by accident, combining the thieves’ plundering abilities with Sir Andre’s disarming skills I learned.
“…Seeing that the eyeballs are intact, it is clear that they are not part of the Duke faction, but I cannot determine their identity.”
“…”
“Hmm. It’s okay as long as it’s not a communist faction. It could be a bandit who came to pick something up. It has nothing to do with us right now, so get out of there now.”
Fortunately, this person didn’t seem to have any intention of capturing me or fighting.
However, the status window did not change to blue indicating friendly relations.
“Are you soldiers belonging to the royal faction?”
“That’s right. Now that the front lines have collapsed, I’m trapped here as a defeated soldier.”
“The front line collapsed?”
“Have you heard the news yet? Peasant soldiers have already surrounded the capital. Thanks to that, our unit, which was picking up the wounded on the way to the capital, was left behind and ended up like this.”
“I’m sorry, Captain…”
Looking at the foolish-looking soldier with relatively little beard, the soldier who looked like a captain waved his hand as if he didn’t want to listen.
But it was pushed that far?
‘Even if you start with the first route, where the duke faction is the strongest, it’s rare for you to be pushed back to the capital… But that’s only after almost all battles are over?’
“Anyway, we are currently living in hiding here to avoid the communists. If the royalists counterattack later and come close, we will join them, or we will take advantage of the opportunity and escape at night.”
“Yes…”
“I won’t worry about it as long as you don’t get us involved too. Everything around here will be robbed anyway so there won’t be anything to pick up… “
When my eyes turned to the stage at those words, the impression of the royalist soldier I was talking to crumpled.
Not only was my expression crumpled, but some of them were hastily trying to thrust their weapons at me, so I felt like I would have to fight them the moment they showed up here.
‘I don’t think I’ll lose in a fight with these soldiers, but…’
If I clashed with the Royalist soldiers here and met the Cylians later… It would really be a big problem, so it was better not to clash with the Royalists if possible.
Seeing this, the soldier who looked like a captain began to stop his men who were raising their weapons.
“Stop it. You might be showing curiosity because you don’t know much.”
Only then did the soldiers lower their weapons, and judging from the fact that they were still in command for the remnants of the defeated soldiers, they seemed to be quite capable, despite their current shabby appearance.
“Don’t go up on the temporary stage. It’s dangerous.”
“Danger?”
The soldier who looked like a captain kept his mouth shut, as if he didn’t want to mention it.
“Anyway, there is no need to go up because there is nothing left except the wooden sword left by Aren, the traitor to the royal family.”
“Aren, a traitor to the royal family?”
It was the first time I heard this name.
Are you really calling me a traitor?
“Didn’t you hear? He’s a traitor who betrayed the members of the royal faction and escaped alone with the evil Witch of Red Flame.”
“…”
“It’s amazing how much that young lady cares for that commoner. They say she’s never even seen the hostages from the academy who were captured… Tsk.”
The culprit is here.
“Is it true that you betrayed me?”
When the soldier who looked like a captain hesitated for a moment, another soldier next to him answered for him.
“It must be true, as it is the testimony of teachers from the academy and soldiers who participated during the attack on the academy. It is said that the Red Flame Witch handed it over to her allies out of fear that it might be stolen during the melee, and she is still keeping it hidden even now.”
“…”
It seemed like something was wrong.
‘If I had Cylian or friends, I could explain things well and clear up the royalists’ misunderstandings, but it would be difficult in the current situation.’
If I revealed that I was Aren, I would be taken as a traitor or a hostage who could control the Duke’s Ophelia.
“Captain. The sun is setting.”
As the sun slowly set, the captain and soldiers began to become more and more impatient.
“Tch… “Did you collect enough?”
“How can I fly tonight?”
“Since we already robbed the internal shopping mall and dormitories, why not raid the teachers’ dormitories?”
“There are no supplies there anymore.”
“There’s nothing I can do.”
The captain, who was talking incomprehensibly with his subordinates, looked at me and gave me a final warning with a heavy expression.
“Be especially careful at night. If you wander around this area, which was previously a level 1 area, you never know when you might get eaten by a monster.”
“Are there any monsters?”
In response to my question, the soldier who appeared to be the commander entered the temporary barracks built between the collapsed buildings with his subordinates.
“Something scarier is coming.”
