East Strikes West

As I left the classroom to return to the dormitory after class, Roel called out to me as if he had been waiting.

“Ross.”

“Were you waiting?”

“Yeah. Professor Leora just got permission from the headmaster. It looks like the capital’s guard and the academy’s security knights are going to search the sewers together.”

I nodded at Roel’s words. Thanks to organizing my thoughts and feelings during class, my disappointment had faded considerably.

Even if the black magician didn’t die at Roel’s hands as originally planned, the Order and Roel would inevitably clash in the end.

Thinking that the result wouldn’t change much, I even had some hope that the capital guard and the academy security knights would handle the hatchery with less damage.

“Thanks for letting me know. Were you waiting to tell me that?”

“Yeah. I was worried you might still be feeling down.”

I shook my head at Roel’s words and said,

“Thinking about it, what hyung said is right. It’s weird for me-someone who can’t even protect their own body properly-to get involved.”

“No, it’s not. I’m still lacking too… There are things a student can do, and things they need help with from others. Don’t worry too much about it.”

Roel patted me on the back as if to comfort me, worried that I might become depressed.

Despite his actions that seemed to worry about me, I couldn’t help but give a bitter smile instead of answering, as a sense of inferiority slowly rose from the depths of my heart.

***

Becoming a security knight at Transcendence Academy required considerable skill, luck, and connections.

Despite being a security position, it was a place where a knight order belonging to the academy existed with special permission from the Imperial Family.

Luke, the commander of the honorable security knight order that protected the continent’s shining talents, was now in the capital’s sewer.

“Everyone, don’t let your guard down. Something might pop out from the ceiling, especially. If you find something, respond first and report later.”

“””Yes!”””

Even with the help of a magician to eliminate the darkness of the sewer with light, the structure of the sewer, where all sorts of filth and garbage gathered, made it easy for an attacker to hide.

The stench of the sewer, as well as the dirty mud like a swamp that was stagnant on the sewer floor, restricted movement.

Just moving carefully, wary of an attack that could come at any moment, was quite exhausting.

They divided the sewer area and set off with the capital guard. It was an operation to gather the enemies into one area of the aqueduct, like herding animals from both sides.

“Commander. Do you really think there’s a hatchery in the sewer? Honestly, it’s hard to believe.”

Lils, the adjutant, had been grumbling since before the departure, whether he inherently disliked the stench and dampness of the sewer.

“It’s an order from above. That student named Ross who saved Destin Village apparently overheard a black magician talking.”

“Isn’t that strange?”

“What do you mean?”

“According to the investigation team, it was bigger and had a different skin color than a normal orc. Judging by the muscle mass, it was several times that of a normal orc… Are you saying that a smart black magician who created such an orc would foolishly blurt out his plans? Am I the only one who finds this suspicious?”

The subordinate members who followed nodded in agreement with Lils’s words.

Magicians always maintained a cold rationality. Even black magicians were famous for being tenacious, creating spells until the very end, even with a sword stuck in their hearts.

For such a tenacious person to blurt out his plans meant that it was either a genuine coincidence or a deliberate trap.

“…I don’t know. Either way, the higher-ups wanted us to investigate the sewer. This is probably an opportunity to clean up the vagrants living in the sewer along with the capital guard.”

As Luke spoke soothingly, adjusting his helmet, Lils stopped grumbling and silently moved his feet, touching the wall of the sewer.

Quite some time had passed since the knight order led by Luke had moved into the darkest and dampest depths of the sewer.

Luke, who had been walking for a while, wary of an attack, felt a strange sensation. The situation that continued was too different from what he had expected.

“It’s too… quiet.”

Neither the vagrants living in the sewer nor even the rats that were everywhere showed themselves even once. That felt even more ominous.

As they continued down the sewer, maintaining their guard, they finally smelled the unique egg-like stench of a monster hatchery.

“It seems like there’s a hatchery ahead.”

At Luke’s words, everyone tensed up and drew their weapons. They didn’t know what kind of monsters might be there.

If there were several of those monster orcs that attacked the village, there could even be fatalities.

Luke, preparing to respond at any moment, cautiously moved his feet and was taken aback by the state of the hatchery.

Flesh was bursting, emitting a severe stench, and countless eggs had all hatched, leaving only shells behind.

“It’s already… hatched?”

Touching the liquid remaining on the shells, it felt cold, as if they had hatched quite some time ago.

But the hatched monsters were nowhere to be seen.

“Could they have been driven towards the guard? Lils, the crystal ball….”

Luke hurriedly turned around to speak to his adjutant, Lils, but Lils shook his head and pointed forward with his finger.

“The guard guys that Commander-nim mentioned. They’ve arrived on the other side.”

As Luke turned around again, the figures of the guard began to appear with lights in the distance on the opposite side.

Luke cautiously passed through the hatchery and met the guard at the midpoint. A man with a scar on his left cheek, who appeared to be the captain, stepped forward.

“I’m Puggles, captain of the capital guard.”

Puggles, who had a low and echoing voice that matched his impression, greeted him.

“I’m Luke, commander of the Transcendence security knight order. What happened?”

At Luke’s question, Puggles frowned and checked the state of the surrounding hatchery before answering.

“I want to ask you the same thing? Did you guys take care of the monsters here?”

“No. It was like this when we arrived.”

Puggles’s and Luke’s eyes met. A strange feeling filled their minds.

It was like walking towards the mouth of a monster that was covering its eyes and opening its big mouth.

Feeling doubt and unease in each other’s gazes, the two exchanged glances silently for a moment and organized their thoughts.

“…Then was there a battle on the way here?”

“…There wasn’t.”

At Luke’s words, Puggles swallowed dryly and asked.

“There are traces of hatching, and the monsters have disappeared. They must have escaped in advance through the sewer. Then where did they go…?”

Luke, receiving Puggles’s gaze, turned his gaze to his adjutant, Lils, without realizing it.

“Could it be… a trap to lure us in?”

“What do you….”

Before Luke could question Lils’s words, the crystal ball in Lils’s arms emitted light and echoed through the sewer.

―Monsters have appeared through the academy’s secret passage. The sewer forces are to immediately return to the academy….

While everyone was momentarily forgetting reality and listening foolishly to the voice coming from the crystal ball, a huge roar that started from afar filled the sewer.

Kwaaaaaang!!!

Luke, feeling something had exploded from the small vibrations and explosions on the floor, heard the voice coming from the crystal ball in Puggles’s arms.

―Captain! All the entrances to the sewer have exploded! Are you okay? Captain! Captain!

Puggles, regaining his senses, took out the crystal ball and replied.

“This is Puggles. What do you mean the entrance collapsed?”

―Captain! You’re alive! There was an explosion in the sewer, and the sewer collapsed, causing the entrances to sink. It looks like it will take quite some time to restore?

Hearing the voice coming from the crystal ball, Luke looked at Lils with a desperate expression and asked.

“How many security personnel are left at the academy…?”

“Excluding the 52 people deployed to the sewer… 13 people. And 6 people are on vacation, 2 people are in treatment… There are only 5 people actually left.”

At Lils’s words, Luke felt like his legs were giving way.

“We’ve been had….”

With the capital guard and the academy’s security knight order trapped in the sewer.

The academy was as good as empty.

***

The sudden change occurred while I was having dinner.

After finishing training alone as usual. I arrived at the cafeteria and was eating in a secluded spot.

Since the Transcendence attack incident was already out of my hands, I was eating while reviewing the story about thorn blight and wondering how to discover the cure faster than planned.

At the same time as a huge explosion echoed, the inside of the cafeteria shook tremendously from the backlash. The candles that were floating in the air went out from the impact, filling the cafeteria with darkness.

“What was that?”

“Was it a lab explosion?”

“Someone turn on the lights!”

There were members of the magic department in the cafeteria. They summoned lights from various places and drove out the darkness in the cafeteria.

As if an earthquake had swept through, the cafeteria, where the darkness had disappeared, was dirtied with fallen chairs and tables, and food trays on the floor.

“Is anyone hurt? Check if there’s anyone hurt around you.”

A student with a purple ribbon indicating the 4th grade shouted and asked. Everyone checked around and said they were okay.

“It seems like an earthquake happened. Everyone, calm down and take your seats….”

Interrupting the senior’s words, a chilling warning magic that sounded like tearing iron echoed throughout the academy, reaching everyone’s ears in the cafeteria.

Unlike the 1st graders who didn’t understand the situation, the 3rd and 4th graders, who had trained for warning magic every quarter, quickly grasped the situation and immediately shouted.

“It’s a warning magic!”

“Block the cafeteria door and activate the window protection magic!”

“It’s an attack!!!”

They shouted like that without anyone saying it first, and the seniors skillfully picked up the tables in the cafeteria and blocked the cafeteria door. The 1st graders and I, who had not yet received training on warning magic, could only watch with bewildered eyes.

As if something was going to break down the cafeteria door, it was banging on the door so hard that the cafeteria was filled with a thumping sound.

The hinges of the door could not withstand the intruders trying to enter the cafeteria and broke and fell to the floor.

The seniors, presumed to be from the combat department, all rushed to the door and used their bodies to prevent the tables from falling, but it pushed away the tables along with the wooden cafeteria door and revealed itself.

A huge size that could not be seen as a living thing.

Arms with muscle masses larger than a human body, a fighting spirit contained in yellow eyes, and an intense sense of oppression emanating around it.

A senior from the combat department who had fallen to the floor while blocking the invasion said in a trembling voice.

“T, troll…?”

This was the capital where the Imperial Family of the Empire was located. It was a place with the capital guard, the academy’s guardian knight order, and knight orders and soldiers stationed in the capital.

The students in the cafeteria were greatly shocked that a troll had appeared in ‘Calabhem’, the capital of the Empire, which did not allow any monster invasions.

It had been decades since the trolls in the continent were all hunted down by knight orders and adventurers and pushed to the eastern border.

The fact that something that should not exist was in front of their eyes filled their hearts with unknown fear and anxiety.

But what was even more desperate was that it was not a ‘troll’.

It was a ‘Rag Chimera’ created by the black magician by synthesizing monsters to attack the academy, which caused the most injuries and deaths in the ‘Transcendence Attack Incident’.

The capital guard and the academy security knight order should have headed to the sewer… Why did this appear at the academy?

Before I could realize the question, the body of an unknown senior who was standing at the front was lifted into the air by the chimera’s gesture and hit the wall of the cafeteria, losing consciousness.

“Kyaaaaak!!!”

Starting with the scream of a female student who was watching it from the side, a battle for survival began with the chimera’s rampage.