Chapter 52

***

“Can’t just do nothing.”

Filina opened the glass bottle on her waist and poured it into her mouth. An empty glass bottle fell to the ground and rolled with a clear sound.

It was a potion she received from the Magic Tower. Since Hugh couldn’t get the ingredients, she divided the remaining potion in half and carried it in a glass bottle. She didn’t expect to use it like this. 

Filina gritted her teeth and applied force to the fingertips that held the sword. The monster flew in and attacked her with sharp claws. Filina quickly swung the sword and caused a light breeze. 

It took 30 minutes for the potion to show its effect. Until then, she had to drag on somehow. 

“… Sir Debussy.” 

Shw heard Henry muttering in a low voice behind her. Filina spat out in an annoying voice. 

“I’m telling you in advance, I can’t afford to protect Sir Argeny. So don’t mess with me for no reason, but hide somewhere else.”

Henry smiled in vain with a face of absurdity at her words. At the same time, he kept looking back at Filina as if he couldn’t believe his current situation. He couldn’t even protect the woman, but had to be protected.

Moreover, Filina was much smaller than Henry, and her appearance of staring at the monster was no different from that of a ferocious beast. 

In particular, it was the red eyes that were so cold.

As the monster descended to the ground, not missing the moment, Filina ran forward without hesitation.

Her sword quickly cut through the wind and attacked the monster. The monster tried to block Filina’s approach with its one large wing.

But she swung her blade fiercely over the air once more. The monster spread one wing and floated in the sky. Black feathers scattered across the floor.

Filina held her breath for a moment and observed the movement of the monster.

Because it had only one wing, its speed was significantly reduced. Not only that, the number of times it descended to the ground decreased as if its stamina had decreased significantly.

First of all, she must avoid empty spaces where monsters could freely attack.

If it was weak now, moving to another place would not mess up the forest as before

Filina turned her head and thought about which direction she should run. In the meantime, she found Henry, who was still standing still.

She approached him with a puzzled expression and asked.

“What are you doing here? Are you trying to get killed?”

At Filina’s words, Henry opened his mouth with a bewildered face.

“It’s not… I can’t leave Sir Debussy alone…… ”

The tips of his ears were red as he was making excuses.

Meanwhile, his face became paler than before, and it was foolish to see him standing still in this place. She sighed heavily and looked straight at Henry. Then she exhaled coldly. 

“You’re getting in the way.”

At Filina’s words, he twisted his expression and opened his lips.

“Do you really have to say that? I’m just worried about Sir Debussy…… ”

“I don’t need it.”

She spoke dryly.

“Sir Argeny doesn’t have to worry about me, just take care of yourself. I don’t want to hear you get hurt because of me.”

At that moment, the sound of the monster flying by flapping its huge wing was heard. Filina looked back and stared at the monster rushing toward her with wide open eyes.

Filina started running towards the grassy area. Then the monster flew after her.

Henry watched Filina run with a frown on his face.

His body was heavy.

After he collapsed in the training room, he said he was trying to control his condition, but it didn’t seem like he had recovered yet.

He was usually not prone to colds, but he suffered from a severe fever once a year.

Whether it’s because of the nature of not going to the clinic, or because the fever and cold tend to stay in the body for a long time, or perhaps when the symptoms gradually subside over time and he became careless, but the fever was infested again as if it were teasing him.

A weak breath escaped Henry’s lips.

No matter how bad his physical condition was, he couldn’t let a woman fight a huge monster alone.

‘You’re getting in the way.’

Henry’s feet, who had taken a step forward, came to a halt on the road.

It was because what Filina had said earlier crossed his mind. Before, when she told him to hide somewhere, saying he was rude, he had doubts about his ears.

When he was fighting the monster, she treated him as a troublesome piece of luggage when she tried to run away using that opportunity.

Henry’s purple eyes struggled to find Filina. His vision was blurry and he couldn’t see well.

Perhaps, interfering in the fight in this state would only be a hindrance, as she said.

Henry furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Filina, who was fighting the monster with a distant view.

Moving quickly into the wooded forest, she swung her blade with a light gesture. Then, a brilliant light drew a white circle around Filina’s sword.

Henry wrinkled his brows at the sight he saw for the first time. It was like magic, a very divine energy of light.

Filina, who was actually experiencing the phenomenon, had a puzzled face.

This was because the potion was not yet the time to activate the power.

Perhaps the activation time varied depending on the dose of the potion.

She stared intently at the pure white light emanating from her hands.

She felt the warm power. A ray of holy light drew a beautiful band and moved to the blade held by Filina. At that time, the monster ran across the tall trees and ran towards her.

Filina quickly avoided herself, stepped on the pillar, and jumped up to the place where the monster was in an instant. As she swung her sharp longsword hard in the air, a violent sandstorm broke out and the trees and grass around her moved in turmoil.

She landed steady on the floor with a smooth motion.

Despite taking only half of the potion, the power was considerable.

Fortunately, the forest was not destroyed. Instead, the monster that was hit with Filina’s sword orthodoxly became black ash and disappeared.

Black feathers fell from the sky.

Filina, who grabbed one of them, cried out with a disappointed face.

“If I had known it would end this easily, I would have taken the potion from the beginning.”

Filina looked at the feather she was holding in her hand and raised her head.

Her eyes met with Henry, who was quietly staring at her from afar.

***

“I heard there was a big commotion in the Wind Forest.”

The cadets gathered together and listened to Carmen.

Next to him was a freshman receiving first aid from Lawrence. All the places where the skin could be seen were drenched in red blood.

That freshman was the man who was attacked by the monster birds.

“Didn’t I clearly warn you not to tamper with other fruits? Still, there were people who ignored the instructor’s words and touched the fruit.”

The freshman, who was being treated by Lawrence, shrank his shoulders.

“The Wind Forest is safer than other places, so it is often used as a training place for new students at the swordsmanship academy.

However, if you break the rules of the forest, a commotion like this happens.”

At Carmen’s sharp voice, the training ground became silent.

“I will give minus 20 points to the 1st Order who broke the rules of the forest.”

All the cadets murmured in surprise. Among them, they were trying to find the culprit, asking who the hell picked the other fruits.

“Also.”

However, everyone shut their mouths at Carmen’s heavy voice, which was not yet finished.

“There were many people who saw cadets in danger and ignored them. I was most disappointed in this part. You have stained the spirit of chivalry. Realize that those without camaraderie can never be called knights.”

It was a voice colder than ice.

All the cadets who heard him dropped their heads to the floor like criminals.

Carmen, who watched the cadets silently, spoke once again.

“I will impose minus 20 points on both the 1st and 2nd Orders.”

Hearing his words, small groaning voices could be heard. For the 1st Order, this training was quite a loss.

If the score for each team dropped too much, the time they could stay outside was reduced even if they advanced safely.

So, for the cadets who wanted to go out, this class would have been quite a blow.

“But there were those who did not ignore the cadets in danger and joined the fight. Although it was seen that the cadets were left alone in the end, the situation was not favorable, so this part was excluded from the evaluation. So, I’ll give 10 plus points to both Orders.”

Hearing his words, a smirk escaped between Filina’s lips. The yellow bird sat quietly on Carmen’s shoulder.

Carmen knew every move they made.

In the end, he didn’t mention the fight with the giant monster had taken place.

“And to increase the skills of the cadets who defeated monsters, I’ll give the 2nd Order an additional 20 points.”

Otherwise, it would be impossible to put such concrete facts into words.

In the end, the 2nd Order would get 10 more points for each team.

The 1st Order had a total of minus 30 points. They were quite shocked by this task, so they were silent.

It was understandable because the 1st Order had always achieved high scores while training.

There may be personal experiences of receiving negative points, but this would be the first time that a whopping 30 points had been deducted through training.

The 2nd Order was surprised just as much by this training.

In conclusion, they had 10 points higher than the 1st Order, but overall, they received as many as 40 points.

However, Filina’s expression looked completely dissatisfied.

Carmen knew that she had killed the monster. If so, he must know that Filina drew her sword.

But he didn’t say anything.

Maybe it was because of Henry.

He also drew his sword like Filina, so both Orders’ scores had to be deducted equally.

However, if the score of each team drops again here, the 1st Ordet will fall into a bigger shock than now.

Of course, the lower the score of the knights belonging to it, the lower the dignity of the vice-leader.

Lawrence and Carmen were the same ranks of second-in-command, but there was a small difference in the golden badge on their left chest.

Carmen was one rank ahead of Lawrence.

However, according to the original story, Lawrence was promoted to second class commander faster than others and graduated from the swordsmanship academy.

In fact, it was difficult for most of the cadets to be promoted once they reached the rank of 5th regular knight. Therefore, it was a pattern of passing the graduation exam once a year and leaving school.

However, Lawrence was the youngest to take on the second rank of Vice Commander.

From the point of view of Carmen, who was much older than Lawrence, Lawrence, who was more likely to become vice commander than others, would not be pleased.

Carmen’s eyes, which were quietly scanning the cadets, met Filina’s eyes.