Chapter 287

“Don’t let your guard down, Julius!”
“–Karma, huh. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it!”
Karma had moved in and blocked a monster who had rushed towards Julius in order to attack.
After that, Karma, who had transformed into a red werewolf, stood next to Julius and continued to fight. His power was as great as the adults, and he was just as strong as Julius.
Karma was acting on Magnus’ order, as he had said that everything would be over should their commander fall.
Karma obeyed without question, and Julius also seemed to have discarded his usual composed attitude, and readily accepted Karma’s help.
While Julius may have said various things in the past, he did in fact, accept that Karma had a true ability.
The students were crossing the borders of their schools and working together.
It was all very good up until this point.
This point…
◇◇◇
What I first thought was strange, was Magnus’ movements.
He had sent Karma over to help Julius, while he relocated to where the monsters were relatively weaker.
With Magnus’ ability, it would be more appropriate for him to stay in an area where the attacks were more vicious.
As I was curious, I used ‘Magic Detection’ to get an overhead view and observe Magnus’ actions.
Then I saw that Rozari, the girl who seemed praise Magnus a whole lot, had left the frontlines. She was running towards the group of spare forces.
Spare forces–the people who had finished being treated for their injuries or put on their summoning items. Or so I had thought, but on further inspection, it seemed like that was not the case.
They were not treating the wounded there, instead, the wounded were being roughly carried to a different tent.
As for the group…
When I looked closely, I saw that they had finished putting on matching white robes.
There was Clad, who was one of the knights that guarded Julius, and even the combat teacher from Ingracia, who had not joined the fight at all.
Could it be that they are… Just as I thought this, things started to move at once.
First, the teachers who were fighting the poison tiger were poisoned and fell.
There was Master Brown and Master Peter from the Tempest Human Development Resource Academy.
Master William and Master Blum from the Ingracia Academy.
And to combat teachers whose names I did not know from NNU Magic and Science Investigation Academy.
The six of them had been holding the poison tiger back, but now it was free.
The teachers weren’t dead.
They weren’t dead, because Moss was protecting them. However, they might as well have been, as they were unconscious.
And so the poison tiger was now ignoring them and was now attacking the wall of students led by Julius.
“Julius, this is bad!”
“Tsk! If only there was a Hero…”
“Lord Julius!?”
Karma.
Even Maria and Carole, who always followed Julius.
They were all looking at Julius with expressions of anger and despair.
As for Julius…
“I…I won’t give up. Masayuki would have…”
Hmmm… I wonder about that?
If anything, he would probably just run away. Yes, there was a good chance of that.
He would ask Venom to stop the monster and in the meantime…
And then that person, who could now be called Masayuki’s director, would lecture him and bring him back.
However, the timing would also be perfect, as it would be right before Venom was about to be defeated.
Spectators of the scene could not be blamed for seeing this as a Hero coming to save the day in the nick of time.
It wouldn’t seem too lucky for Venom, but that was their problem.
I don’t care about Masayuki, anyway.
Right now, the students were important.
Julius gripped his sword with strong determination, and without showing a hint of fear, he stood in front of the poison tiger.
“I’ll be joining you, Julius!”
“Sorry about everything, Karma. As someone who is in a position of power, I have…”
“Don’t mention it. I understand. But we can be friends from now on, right?”
“…Yes. Let’s make it out of this alive!!”
Julius and Karma, and the other students as well.
They were in a hopeless situation, but they did not give up.
I wanted to give them all a passing grade.
I liked their spirit.
As for Julius, it would be necessary to guide him a little in terms of the way he thought, but I felt that he had at least the bare minimum of what a leader needed.
He wouldn’t win this round, but I thought that I would help a little after he was defeated by the poison tiger.
That was what I thought, as I observed them fighting.
As I knew from the beginning that they would not be able to beat the poison tiger, I had planned for Moss to beat it back once everyone had been defeated.
The only thing left was to see what these suspicious-looking people in the white robes would do. Also, Magnus’ movements…
But they did not look like they intended to join the fight until all of the students and teachers had fallen.
What horrible people. I thought with anger as I viewed them.
And once they saw that the last of the combat students had fallen, they began their move.
Two of the figures in white robes moved out and began to dispose of the monsters at a much faster pace than the teachers had been managing.
And then another stepped out in front of us survivors and activated a magic barrier.
The survivors were overwhelmed with shock and confusion.
“Don’t worry. I will protect all of you.”
Said Magnus.
As if to prove this claim, he went off alone to face the poison tiger.
Stupidity? No, it wasn’t.
Magnus’ movements were full of confidence, and it seemed that he understood that his victory was a certain thing.
And of course, he was right.
He began to fight with the poison tiger with a power that exceeded that of an A-ranker.
And so he was successful in driving it away.
“Tsk. It escaped. Ah, well. At least I accomplished what I wanted.”
Magnus said this as if it was nothing.
In fact, it seemed like Magnus had yet to show his full potential. And the poison tiger was not much of a problem in his eyes.
At this point, it was all but proven, that it had been Magnus and the others who had tricked Julius.
As Clad was Julius’ guard, he would have had plenty of opportunities to mix the herbs in his food.
And more than anything…
“Now, all of you. There are two options for you now.”
Out of nowhere, a single woman came out and made this declaration.
Her words were directed at us, the non-combat students.
It seemed as if she had been waiting for this moment when all of the fighters had been defeated.