Chapter 123

Joint Combat Practice 2 (9)

Sylvania Academy’s living and teaching buildings are full of various facilities, but if you were to look for the one that stands out most often, it is the ‘plaza’.

The central plaza of the professor building, the student plaza, the eastern plaza, and the academic plaza. The main square of the living building, the square of each dormitory, the market street, and even the entrance square.

From grand and large squares to simple and small squares. The reason why there are so many open spaces is to provide students with as many places to rest as possible.

As if in response, there are quite a few students in the plaza doing photosynthesis while enjoying the scent of late spring. Faculty members, merchants in the residential area, and even outsiders come and go in the plaza in their own way, enjoying the midday peace.

The entrance plaza here is like the face of the school that greets you for the first time after passing the Maxes Bridge and the main gate of Sylvania.

Ed and Clarisse were crossing the center of the square. It looked like Edgar was pulling Clarisse’s hand. Naturally, the attention of those around me was flocking to me.

“Senior Ed. We... we don’t have time for this... we don’t have time for this...!”

The two knights escorting Clarisse tried to dissuade Ed as if they were embarrassed. However, he couldn’t use force because when he pulled out the knife, Clarisse became as angry as fire.

Clarisse looks embarrassed because it is pointless to use force and just leave it alone.

But right now, the two knights have a mission to take Clarice to the Trix House. I don’t know Ed’s intentions, but right now, he unexpectedly prevented me from driving a carriage outside the school... so I decided to wait and see what happened.

However, that doesn’t mean that Ed did anything particularly amazing or special.

I dragged Clarice with me and sat her down at a sunny wooden table near a street tree. Then, after putting down the drink he had bought at the student cafeteria, he sat down across from me and swiped my face a few times.

Ed also finds the current situation sudden and embarrassing. The information given right now is limited.

Clarice’s claim that time is repeating itself out of nowhere. And he proves that fact by calling out the military number that was given to him in the distant past... At the end of this joint combat practice, Seong Chang-ryong will be resurrected and destroy Aken Island.

Since things have come to this, we must think on the premise that everything the saint says is true.

That’s because Clarice’s behavior was so strange. Suddenly, he comes to Ed, who was in front of Glokt Building, grabs his arm, puts him in a carriage, and pulls the carriage out of the school, telling him that he has to run away.

Unless he went crazy, he wouldn’t abandon his duties and do something like this.

“There is no time to rest like this, Senior Ed. If you keep doing this... you will die again... This time, you have to cross the bridge and run along the coast... Surely, if you go over to the continent and run along the coast, you will become stronger. And there may be a hideout far away... Of course, the possibility is slim... But if there is something similar to a coastal cave...”

“Saint.”

When Ed called softly, Clarisse seemed to come to her senses and swallowed a sigh of relief. Ed added.

“Calm down. Let’s take a deep breath first.”

“I don’t have time for that...! Now... I want to stop watching you die... painfully... every time... I want to stop watching you die while protecting me... I just want to stop watching you die. ... So, we have to go quickly now... After something happens, Maxes Bridge will be blocked...! If not now...”

“It’s okay.”

“There’s no way it’s going to be okay...! If you don’t move right now, you’re going to die painfully...! You don’t want that... you don’t want that...! I don’t want to either...! This time... you’re going to die painfully... ... I hope you survive....”

“I told you it’s okay.”

After talking to that point, the light suddenly returns to Clarice’s eyes and she looks at Ed.

Seeing Ed not making a move and just continuing to tell her that he was okay... only then did Clarisse come to her senses.

“...Ed senior....”

From the time I met Ed in front of Glokt Hall until the end of joint combat practice.

How many times have we struggled to find a solution in this short period of time?

From Ed’s perspective, it’s hard to know. It can only be inferred from the scratches on the saint’s body.

“I... I don’t know anymore...”

Clarice lowered her head and shed tears again. At this point, her tear ducts would have dried up, but her emotions continued to shake her composure in a cruel way.

“I tried everything I could think of. I tried pulling senior Ed by force, running away in this way, hiding in that way, everything... I tried every possible possibility based on a trivial hope that wasn’t really a big deal, but nothing worked. ... There’s really nothing going on...”

Clarice spoke as if she were pouring out tears while wiping away tears.

Students passing by the square looked at the amazing sight and whispered to each other, and the guards, who had no idea what was going on, couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat as if they were embarrassed.

Ed, who was looking at the frustrated saint... quietly stood up and sat down next to her. Then he grabbed Clarice’s arm, took out the ointment for wounds he had bought at the student store, and applied it to her.

“Seniors?”

“First of all, a saint must protect her own body as the highest priority. It is a truly fatal risk that her wounds will not heal.”

Ed had already finished organizing all his thoughts as he brought Clarisse to the square.

From Ed’s perspective, the information given was extremely limited, but it was enough to provide some insight into the situation.

First of all, the scratches on the saint’s body were strange. There was no way that the saintly woman, who had come out dressed up to say that she was going to meet the Holy Emperor, would face the Trix Hall with her body full of scars exposed like this.

“The protection of the holy law that surrounds the saint is the power to protect her body from all threats that are hostile to her or have ‘attack intentions’. Additionally, the saint who receives the protection of Telos is capable of all types of holy magic. “I also heard that it has resistance.”

Archbishop Verdio, who always reads minds like a mind reader. He was said to use a magic spell that could penetrate other people’s feelings, but that was the reason why it did not work on Saint Clarice.

Those who have been baptized by a saint have resistance to all types of magic. In the first place, the very act of trying to harm a saint who stood at the top of the religious order using the religious magic of the religious order was impossible.

“Then... do you know the meaning of these wounds...?”

“What are the meanings of the wounds...?”

Now the saint is blocked by a dead wall.

Although he tried every means available to him, he was unable to escape from Seongchangryong Velbroke and was frustrated.

In that case, what Ed must do is to suggest a new direction to such a saint.

“In the first place, this phenomenon of rewinding time itself was realized due to the Holy Law. Therefore, the memories of the saint who receives the protection of the Holy Law do not disappear or the wounds on the body do not rewind.”

Ed headed to the student center, shedding a cold sweat.

Ed walked straight into the student center. Among the halls, it was the Nail Hall where 1st and 2nd year students were practicing combat.

“Saint... You need to leave slowly... Even if it’s only from the outside... You can’t go in like this to the sparring hall where the students in training are gathered. “Isn’t there...”

Ed tried to stop him, but Clarice just shook her head while crying.

In the first place, once this episode ends, the relationship between Clarice and Ed will go back to the beginning. From Clarice’s perspective, if it’s not this time, I can’t be pampered like this.

I have to pull myself together and become strong. But I can’t do anything about wanting to cling to Ed for as long as I’m allowed. Once

this joint combat practice is over, he’ll be there again. He will risk even death to protect Clarice at all costs.

“...”

Ed wiped his face once, made up his mind, and opened the sparring room door of the nail salon.

-Quaaaang! Quaaaaaaang!

-Whisk. Haaaaaa!

The joint combat practice episode of Act 3, Chapter 5 is in full swing. Wade and Taily were exchanging fire on the sparring hall.

Wade swung his sword in an attempt to somehow inflict a sword strike on Taily, but he was already on the growth track. The right Tailley does not allow Wade’s sword.

However, Wade’s defense is also formidable. In the end, the moment Taily decides to use the basic swordsmanship, Wade will lose his will to fight and drop his sword.

Ed will stand up after that. This was predictable.

The next opponent would probably be Claude, the head of the pension department.

Although he puts pressure on Taily using all kinds of hallucinogenic reagents and basic magic combinations, he will eventually be overpowered.

And, unable to overcome his competitive spirit, he will drink the forbidden reagent. The subsequent drawings were still going as Ed expected.

But Ed’s purpose is not to witness the duel.

As it is a relatively large nail hall, the number of spectators is also large. Just because the door was slightly open didn’t draw attention. Only the attention of a few students around the entrance was focused. However, when she saw the saintess clinging tightly to Ed and not letting go, she was astonished with her mouth wide open.

Time will go back anyway. Ed made a self-suggestion like that, gritting his teeth and ignoring the gaze.

I made my way through the crowd of students whose eyes were focused on the duel, and eventually found a student in the opposite corner, leaning against the wall, watching the duel. It was a female student wearing a dark red school uniform coat and a robe over it. Since he is a second-year student and a student of Class A, this student will probably also have quite a lot of combat practice scheduled.

Ed stood next to him, looked up at the duel table, and spoke quietly.

“Sell me some information.”

The girl reacted to the voice and briefly raised her eyes, looking strangely surprised.

In the first place, Ed is not a person who should be here at this time. He is a person who should have gone to Glokt Hall for the combat training assigned to him. There is no reason to suddenly show up at the nail hall where 1st and 2nd graders are sparring.

“oh.”

However, the girl did not ask for detailed information. All he did was look up at the duel table side by side and brush his auburn hair, neatly braided to one side.

“You’re a welcome face in a place like this. Have you done anything profitable?”

“Well, I’m not sure about that.”

Girl―― Lortel Kecheln always smiles like a fox.

Even if it appears so suddenly, there is no way to panic. Even in the face of any unexpected situation, his thoroughly rational side does not disappear.

This young merchant, who only operates in the dark, appears to be extremely thin, but if you dig into the truth, he is the real power behind the scenes, with all of Sylvania’s living quarters in his pocket.

All information flows in the living area go through the Elte Chamber of Commerce.

And all information from the Elte Chamber of Commerce passes through the ears of Lortel Kecheln, the company’s assistant manager.

― ‘Saint... there are inspection personnel on the side of Maxes Bridge. It is said that Elte Company’s trade goods are currently crossing through the Maxes Bridge. ‘The situation is very chaotic due to the goods wagons and escort mercenaries, so they ask you to wait for a moment.’

As Ed returned from the Maxes Bridge to the student center, he saw Elte Company’s logistics procession filling up the bridge. Considering the level of complexity, it was definitely not at a level that could be sorted out in just one or two hours.

Didn’t they say that the Holy Emperor and the Archbishop came through the Maxes Bridge in the first place? The reason why the logistics flow on the Maxes Bridge was so temporarily paralyzed was probably because the two VIPs had to stop for a while as they passed over the bridge.

In that case... the numerous merchants of Elte Company would have seen the successful procession with their own eyes.

In addition, the staff at the carriage depot, who would have taken care of the royal carriages, are also employees of the commercial district of Saenghwang-dong. In the first place, no matter where those two people went, they would not have been able to avoid the eyes of the merchants in the residential building.

The commercial area of the living area is entirely the area of Lortel Kecheln. In a residential building, not even a single gold coin rolling on the floor can escape her surveillance.

That’s what she asks herself. There is no way to find out about Seonghwang’s movements faster than that.

Therefore... Ed was willing to give Lortel no matter how much he asked. I’ve said this time and time again, but time will go back anyway.

“There is someone I need to find urgently. I have to find him at least before the joint combat training is over. I will give you whatever money you ask for.”

“Well... this is a bit of a sudden story...”

Lortel looked up at the sparring hall, slowly stood up and turned to Ed.

Even though it was a somewhat sudden request, he seemed more relaxed. That’s right, Lortel Kecheln was a strong-willed person who could maintain his composure in any situation, but...

“...Huh?”

When I saw the saintess hugging Ed’s arm tightly and looking at him with melancholy eyes... I couldn’t help but swallow my breath.

Even after washing my eyes and checking again, the face was clearly that of Saint Clarice, the pinnacle of the Telos Church and the one who received the respect of all believers.

“...????”

Even for a person with a cool-headed mind and insight, it was difficult to predict such a scene.

Ed was well aware of that fact, so he wiped his face a few times... and waited for Lortel to take the time to accept the situation in front of him.