Chapter 102: Aftermath of a Tragedy (2)

Mitsuhara gave a dry laugh. "Do you know who the three mass murderers are?"

"Aren't they terrorists?" Imada and the others got a bad feeling.

"Not even the terrorists could grow the balls to attack the entire Sakura Garden Academy. Do you know how many Nobles support it? Before terrorists attacks, they weigh the pros and cons of the matter. They dare to attack the academy and they'll be skinned alive within minutes." Mitsuhara casually responded.

"Then who are they?" Asuka asked, not holding back her curiosity.

Mitsuhara looked at the distant sky. "Sub-humans."

***

It was afternoon.

The hot dry sun's rays directly landed on Imada making him sweat buckets. He was in-charge of tying up some bags full of food. 

"How many have you finished?" Koyami approached him with a stack of packaged food.

"Nine." Imada took the stack and carefully placed them in bags. "What are the others doing?"

"Asuka and the second years are fixing the carriage. Maki-sensei is getting the essential medicines from the Medical Department. The third-years helping her." 

"What about Mitsuhara-sensei?"

"He is checking the area."

"By the way, Koyami. Can I share a thought?" Imada appeared hesitant.

"Um, what is it?"

"You know… since the academy is broken down, can't we just take the resources? To live, I mean."

"What do you mean? Aren't we taking the resources?" Koyami pointed to the bags of food, appearing confused.

"Not this, idiot. I'm talking about weapons, potions, and also coins."

Koyami's eyes widened. "T-that's basically stealing… I-I can't support you in this!" Despite being a bully, he had his morals.

"That's not stealing. We are just doing this to survive." Imada put emphasis on the word 'survive'.

"Why would you need coins then?" Koyami was not that much of an idiot to not understand his classmate's intentions.

"W-we need coins because when we reach someplace, that might not be Capital. It's travel expenses."

"No. If you want to do it, then go ahead. I'm not with you on this." Koyami was stubborn.

"Come on, stop being a p*ssy…"

"What are you guys doing? We don't have all day." At this moment, Asuka approached the two of them.

"Oh, it's Asuka-hime." Imada's eyes looked disappointed.

"It's me. How many bags?"

"Ten." Koyami answered for him.

"That's enough. Gets the bags on the carriage." Asuka said in a commanding tone.

Imada looked at Koyami. "Carry half." 

***

"Are you done?" The third-year student looked at the people beside the carriage.

"We are done with the carriage." A second year student, Sakai, responded. Beside him was another second year student, Oshima. 

"Where are the other two?"

"I'm here." The second year girl came outside the carriage. She was Aya, the same girl who was 'interrogated' by one of the sub-humans. 

"Aya, are you feeling well?" 

"I'm good." Aya forced a smile on her face.

"You have to be." The third year responded in a grave tone. "Where's the other girl?"

"I'm here." Asuka appeared. Behind her were two guys who were carrying the bags.

"You are really narrow-minded. Could you not have carried one from each of us?" Dropping the bags, Imada caressed his shoulders. 

"It wasn't my job to do so." How could they dare ask Asuka-hime for labour work? Do they not know their place?

Koyami was too tired to respond. He went and took a seat in the carriage. "By the way, it's good that you have fixed the carriage but where are the horses?"

"..."

Koyami's question silenced everyone. 

"Wait, are you telling me that the four of you fixed the carriage without knowing if there's horses present or not!?" Koyami was stunned. Till now, he believed that his idiocy was high but it turns out he wasn't a match for the truly high-level idiots.

Seeing everyone panicking, the third year student replied. "Calm down. Just because we don't have horses doesn't mean we can't make the carriage run."

"What? How could we run the carriage without horses?" Imada wasn't sure what the other party was trying to say.

"Come with me." The third-year student pointed to him and started walking away.

"Hey, where are you going?" Imada caught up to him.

"The Machinery Department."

"Why?"

"Ever heard of new generation engines?"

"Those that are fueled by Gruer? The academy has that?"

The third year student quietly nodded his head.

"Then, where are we going to find the supply of Gruer?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

***

After roaming the entire area around the academy, Mitsuhara had a serious expression on his face. 'We are surrounded from all sides. It is the worst possible scenario. If we want to leave the island, then we have to fight all the way till we reach the coast.' 

'This should be the place where they are fixing the carriage?' Mitsuhara's eyes were searching for the carriage.

"Mitsuhara-sensei?"

"Ah, Maki. How are the students doing?" He called her informally because he was an Uncle-figure to her.

Maki gave a sweet smile. "The students are smarter than I expected. Because there were horses available, they brought the new-generation engine from the Machinery Department."

Mitsuhara's eyebrows perked up in surprise. "Do they know how to fuel it?"

"The third year student, Koshikawa, knows about it."

"Koshikawa is an innovative student. He had always been at the top Five of his class and even won quite a few awards." Mitsuhara wasn't surprised that it was Koshikawa who gave the idea.

"I didn't know that. If that's the case, why did the academy not sponsor him?" 

Mitsuhara shook his head with a bitter expression. "He is a commoner."

"Ah…" Maki dropped her shoulders. "After all the world had been through, it's sad and unfair that there is still a caste system in the world."

"Don't be ignorant, Maki. The world can't strive to improve itself if everything is perfect."

"I firmly refuse to acknowledge your argument, Mitsuhara-sensei. Perfection is a myth but we have to strive towards it. If, by any chance, we reach the height of perfection, what's wrong with it? We would lose the thing we strive towards but in return, the world would become a better place to live in."

Mitsuhara didn't continue to linger on the topic. "Where are they?"

"At the main entrance."

"In that case, let's go."

***

Koshikawa laid down on the carriage and sighed occasionally while looking at the sky.

Imada and the others kind of felt weirded out by his behaviour.

"Don't care about him. He likes to act cool." One of the second years, Sakai, spoke out. His eyes then turned outside the carriage where he saw Maki and Mitsuhara approaching.

"How was the situation?" Imada was the first to ask.

"The worst." Mitsuhara said without holding back.

Everyone fell silent.

"We are surrounded by Zonal Lions from all sides. If we want to go the coast, we either have to be fast or fight through a horde of Zonal Lions, which is practically suicide. What do you want to do? Stay?"

"That seems to be the best choice…" Maki was fearful when she heard the name of "Zonal Lions".

"Where did the Zonal Lions come from!?" Asuka asked, her tone was enraged.

"The sub-humans, who else?" Koshikawa said in a calm voice.

"How could the sub-humans bring an entire horde of Zonal Lions into here?"

"Only Mitsuhara-sensei could answer that." Koshikawa looked at Mitsuhara from the corner of his eyes.

"It doesn't matter if you know how they did it or not. The fact is, they did bring an entire horde of Zonal Lions here. It would do you more harm than good by knowing certain things. I'm asking this again, do you still want to go?"

"If we don't, will something happen?" Oshima asked the most important question.

"I forgot to mention that the horde is approaching the academy. Within tonight, they will enter the academy premises." Mitsuhara said in a nonchalant manner.

"Let's go, in that case. Continue dilly-dallying but don't regret being the food of Zonal Lions." Koshikawa was the first one to support the decision to move forward.

The six students looked at each other with an uneasy expression,

"This is what I meant when I said that none of you had the courage to leave this place. I don't blame you. This is natural. Since none of you are giving a proper answer, we'll stay at the academy then." Mitsuhara knew this was coming.

"Wait, we haven't made the decision yet. I'm moving forward. Who else is with me? Raise your hands." Koshikawa didn't want to surrender to his fate.

Imada raised his hand.

Few seconds later, all the six of them raised their hands.

Mitsuhara's face changed. "This is not good. The six of you shouldn't force yourselves or the result would be worse."

"We are going! We have already made our decisions." Asuka stubbornly said. The rest of the students nodded. 

"Teacher, we might be forcing ourselves to appear brave but it's true that none of us want to die without trying." Koshikawa wryly smiled.