Top Instructor of a Third-Rate Academy

057

As soon as the last weekday class ended, we immediately set off for the canyon with the security team.

A distance that took five days on foot.

A distance that could be covered in 2-3 days by horse without overdoing it, but.

“Shouldn't we go faster?”

Hati grinned and began to once again overwork the horses using Yuria.

I felt sorry for the horses, but I heard that the horses that suffered like this were treated to the highest quality feed and snacks for the remaining period, as well as top-grade horseshoes and grooming—the best treatment possible.

They suffer intensely and live like kings for a few days.

With a loud noise, the scenery flew past us.

The land was still desolate, having just passed winter.

In between, green sprouts were coming up, so in about a month, the trees and wild grasses would bloom.

The students would go into battle seeing those flowers.

I couldn't let the young people, who had bloomed like flowers, be lost to a ridiculous mistake.

“But why am I even……”

Inside the large wagon that could hold up to twenty people were Pan, Bridget, and even Zelta.

“Our class needs your head to win. So we have to go together.”

Bridget insisted strongly, and Pan agreed.

The two of them seemed to have gained quite a bit of competitive spirit since last year's showdown.

When they heard they would be competing against the other classes again this time, they were the first to volunteer to come along.

“What will change even if I go?”

“We're going because we don't know. If you don't go, we don't know if things will change or not, but if you go, at least there's a possibility that things might change.”

At Pan's words, which struck at the heart of the matter, Zelta said nothing and just stared at the scenery outside the wagon.

Seeing that, the atmosphere between Bridget and Pan was definitely different.

It seems they'll make good rivals.

“Sir! We're here~!”

Just then, I heard Rozalin's voice from outside and felt the wagon slowly come to a stop.

Having departed at night, it was already dawn.

We had been running for almost a full day.

A few of the mercenary corps members skillfully provided feed, snacks, and water to the horses, who were foaming at the mouth and snorting.

While the horses buried their heads and ate, the people got off and packed their equipment.

“Ugh, my butt.”

“The shaking is making me feel sick……”

Zelta and Bridget grumbled as they got off the wagon.

It was a common aftereffect for people who hadn't ridden in a wagon for a long time.

The land sickness was especially severe right after getting off the wagon.

After getting used to the constantly shaking wagon, the moment you set foot on the ground, you feel the ground swaying as if it were waves.

Land sickness was much worse than seasickness or wagon sickness; it was difficult to keep one's balance, waves of nausea surged up, and a headache set in.

“Ugh.”

As they were groaning, Yuria came over and spread her holy power over everyone.

As a purple light swept over everyone from the mercenaries to myself and Zelta, the nausea began to calmly subside.

“Thank you.”

“It would be better to move after we've recovered and finished our preparations.”

I waited, leaning against the wagon with Zelta, Bridget, and Yuria.

In the meantime, Hati's mercenary corps began to pack various equipment, and just as the mercenaries' individual characteristics were diverse, their equipment was also colorful and varied.

There was a person who packed three types of bows and carried them on his back, and another who had dagger sheaths wrapped around his entire body.

There was also a mercenary who carried a whole five swords on his body, and another with a shield like a cauldron on his back.

“Amazing.”

The way they handled their equipment, the equipment itself, its placement, its size, etc.

Everything spoke of that person's life.

Each one was a combat machine that could survive alone in the wilderness, facing fiends and returning.

And in front of them were Rozalin and Hati.

“Let's go.”

Rozalin smiled sweetly.

She was just as she had been at Akarind Academy, and her confident smile spoke volumes of her life and skill.

And following behind her was Hati.

He was equipped with even more diverse and numerous pieces of equipment than all the other mercenaries, and the weight of that equipment alone seemed to be well over 60kg.

He moved his body with a light grunt, and there was no significant difference from when he had no equipment.

“Let's go.”

We followed their guidance into the canyon.

“We have to walk quite a bit. Flying-type monsters have a wide field of view, so we have to go around through the shady areas here, facing the headwind.”

The youngest woman in the mercenary corps guided us.

Her name was Yeni.

She was a woman with one side of her head shaved clean and the other half braided into dreadlocks. She was taller than Hati, and muscles that were close to perfection could be felt through her thin clothes.

Her first impression was of someone tough, but her voice was soft, and her speech was lightly mixed with a western dialect.

“Stop.”

Yeni, who had received a hand signal from the front, raised her palm.

“It seems the advance team has spotted the harpies' advance team. We'll calculate the line of sight and go around, avoiding their path.”

As she said, we went around not through the normal canyon path, but through deserted paths between rocks.

There was no sound, but there were long nails hammered between the rocks, and a sturdy rope was fixed between the nails.

“This way.”

The nails were hammered in so firmly that they wouldn't budge even if many people passed over them.

It was unlikely that such nails had always been there, which meant they had just been hammered in. Amazing.

After moving like that for a while, there was a narrow path between the mountains.

Perhaps for the sake of visibility, the small branches on both sides of the path, which was just wide enough for one person to walk, had been cut.

“Watch your step. There might be poisonous insect traps hidden in the bushes. I've spread some medicine, so there shouldn't be any normal ones, though.”

Indeed, as she said, a pinkish powder was sprinkled here and there between the paths.

Even while walking and doing all this work, the lead group was not in sight.

It was such a fast process that even though we were walking diligently, the distance didn't seem to close.

“Heok, heok……”

So much so that Zelta, who was at the very back, was almost panting from lack of stamina.

A 14-year-old freshman.

And a brainy type who uses his head at that, so it was impressive that he had followed along this far.

“Are you okay?”

“Heok, heok, heok…… I'm, I'm holding on……”

I stared intently into Zelta's eyes.

Even at this moment, his eyes were darting around busily, reading information.

The way his eyes darted around seemed like my own, sensitively taking in information from all directions.

A similar, kindred child.

I patted his shoulder a couple of times to encourage him and then turned to the front.

“We have to keep our guard up. Still, it’s a relief that there doesn’t seem to be a queen.”

“Can you see that too?”

Yeni pointed to the sky.

A few harpies were freely gliding and flying in the sky.

“Harpies with a queen don't fly like that. They're collective and systematic.”

Just then, Hati came walking briskly from the lead group.

He was walking through the bushes, but it felt as if his steps were even faster than on flat ground.

“I've seen it all.”

He was holding a piece of paper in his hand.

The paper I received was densely filled with a map of the initial canyon entrance, the monsters' movements, the location of the nest, and its scale.

“It was completed quickly.”

“Take the margin of error into account. Still, this should be about right. The contest was to see who could hunt the most harpies in a certain amount of time, was it?”

“That's the pretext.”

There were about 70 students in one class.

Among them, about 60 students, excluding the non-combat division, would form a single group and move to the harpy habitat.

The 6 classes would enter the harpy habitat from the outside to the inside, three times a day over two days.

The evaluation time was two hours.

Entry, combat, and escape all had to be done within these two hours.

“In the combat evaluation, scores are based on a how many harpies were hunted, but other scores cannot be ignored. Safe entry, and safe escape.”

There were many factors to consider for the strategy.

Unless the harpies were idiots, it was clear that they would prepare after being attacked once or twice.

Besides, the further back the team, the more the harpies' aggression and individual strength would be a problem.

If the front teams hunted the harpies well, the harpies were likely to abandon their nests and flee.

Conversely, if the front teams didn't hunt the harpies well, the harpies were likely to launch an even more aggressive all-out attack.

All variables, from the order of entry to the strategy, had to be considered.

“There are quite a few of those harpy bastards. Roughly estimated, two hundred. It's a scale that's strange for there to be no queen.”

“Because they've been the gatekeepers of this place for a long time.”

“The advance team is about twenty. The first two teams will face those twenty. The next scale will be in the hundreds.”

A hundred flying monsters.

It was a scale that would make one's mouth go dry, but.

“……So, Hati-ssi. Could you perhaps lead the mercenary corps a little further in?”

That was the point I was aiming for.

“Further? You mean to go further into the swamp from here?”

“Yes.”

I glanced at Zelta.

The strategy Zelta had talked about, it was impossible to use people, but it seemed quite possible if we used something else.

For example, monsters.

“The reason the harpies have built their habitat near the entrance of the canyon, not deep inside, is probably because there are stronger monsters with their own territory inside the canyon.”

The scale of the harpies is two hundred.

The fact that such a large-scale monster is inhabiting the area, large enough to have a queen, means that they are coexisting in a moderate balance with the monsters inside the canyon.

“So, we'll divert the attention focused here to over there and strike from behind.”

Is there a need to use people as bait?

We'll use the monsters over there as bait.

“Are you serious?”

Hati looked at me, raising his eyebrows in slight surprise.

“If the order gets messed up even a little, the students will be fighting in a place where two types of monsters are mixed.”

“I will ask to be placed last in the order. No one will want to take the risk and be evaluated last under these conditions, so it will be fine.”

“Won't the risk for the students double?”

“No, if my thinking is correct, it won't. I have no intention of taking the students near the harpies.”

As I laid out the plan in my head, people's gazes gathered on me.

Zelta's eyes trembled slightly, as if he were reading me.

“We don't know what kind of monster is inside the canyon, but if it's competing with the harpies for territory and coexisting, it's highly likely that they are species that live in different habitats.”

In addition, if it was in conflict with the harpies, there was also a possibility that it was a monster with anti-air attack capabilities.

What if we lure such creatures and release them into the harpy territory?

“All hell will break loose.”

“While the two monsters are fighting, the students will climb up the canyon and pour down arrows or throw stones.”

“Is it even possible to make them fight?”

“Since there's a nest, we could attack the baby harpies. Or we could bring the young or eggs of the monsters in the inner habitat. There are many ways to make them fight each other.”

This was my idea up to this point.

And Hati, who had heard the whole idea, spoke.

“Mister, don't you go around calling our adjutant a demon.”

“What?”

“The sister has terrible judgment.”

“Whaat?”

“Damn it, this is why humans are the worst. I feel sorriest for the humans.”

Hati grumbled as if it were unbelievable and returned to the lead group.

Wait, did I just propose such a strange plan?

I glanced at Zelta, and as soon as our eyes met, he avoided my gaze as if he had seen a demon.

That hurt a little.

Anyway, after establishing the plan, we returned to where the wagon was and waited for Hati to come.

And soon, Hati returned.

“Why on earth are creatures like that in a rural canyon like this? Good grief, anyone would think this is the northern border.”

“What was there?”

Hati grinned.

“Bingo. There's an interesting monster. There's a Beholder.”