Chapter 45

"Oh! Look at these kids. Did they prepare to have a picnic on Battle Island or something?"

As Seta was ruffling through the bags of the 5 students who were passing on the road, he shouted out,

"They even have meat!"

"..."

For them to have meat.

It seemed that they had caught a wild boar during these busy times.

The bags were filled with water, coconuts, and other sorts of fruits. There was even prepared meat.

It was enough food to last those five for nearly 2 days.

I looked at the remains of the five who were forcibly teleported.

"If it's this much food, it should last us three for about 3 days."

"That's what I'm saying. Thanks! We'll eat this in your stead!"

We were fortunate.

These five students were part of the Majeross Oceanic Union in the far east of the Frelia Continent.

Between the 32 schools, they were comparatively weaker, all ranking below 20th.

The reason these five weak students gathered in one place and stocked up on this huge amount of food was probably so they could rely on hiding somewhere and run out the clock.

"Thanks for the food."

Since we also skipped lunch due to us moving, we each took one fruit and took a bite.

Crunch!

"Nom nom... So Ruin, what do we do now?"

"We have no reason to wait anymore. Let's move."

"There might be teams who landed on the other side and are moving towards the western region. Shouldn't we just wait here and grab some more teams before moving? We can also fill our bellies while we wait. Hehe."

Compared to just before when he was worried no one would appear, Seta seemed satisfied with the tactic and wanted to grab another victory.

But I shook my head.

"The battle just then would've signaled to everyone that there's someone here. In this situation, We'll gain nothing more by hiding here."

If you left too many trails, you were bound to get caught.

At my words, Irene nodded as she silently chewed on the fruit.

"That's right. It should be our top priority to leave this place. The day's also getting darker."

"Ehm… You're right. Everyone would know that there's someone here."

"Yeah. So let's start moving."

"Destination?"

I opened up the map and held it up.

I pointed out a spot that I had marked earlier.

"For tonight, we'll sleep here."

Western Traveler's Lodge

A small scale base for 2-3 people.

It was the only base in the western region of the island.

Meaning,

"…We might run into another team."

"That's right, so we need to make some preparations and then move."

The only team we had confirmed to have entered the western region was that 1 team we destroyed.

But there was a decent chance that a team anchored on the other side would come into the western region.

We couldn't afford to be careless.

Avoiding cover that could hide our enemies, we started to move through the open area.

Then,

Booom!

An explosion was heard from the direction of the center of the island, and a moment later, an intense and constant mana wave echoed throughout the island.

"Woah. Who was that?"

"..."

It was in the direction of the Central Village.

Just by knowing the direction of the battle, I could take a guess.

"...Doom Prime."

"Doom? It's that punk?"

"That's right. There aren't that many magicians who possess this much magic power."

Irene nodded her head in agreement and Seta muttered to himself, feeling dejected,

"That guy became that much stronger in the 1 year I didn't see him? Just how much stronger is he now?"

"..."

Yeah.

He was strong.

He had put blind faith in his own skills and continuously found enemies to fight to gather kill points.

Just how much was he thinking of fighting?

As I looked upon the massive mana wave that Doom had shot out, my fighting spirit flared up.

Another reason appeared.

A reason why I needed to win in this game.

* * *

Western Traveler's Lodge

When we arrived there, the day had already started to pass into darkness, but I luckily hadn't found any footprints or trails of activity nearby.

"Light."

Irene ignited the dark room with Light Magic.

We closed the curtains and tried our best to block any gaps that might leak light.

During that time, Seta started to prepare dinner.

"Huhu. It's finally dinner time! My cooking is insanely good. You haven't eaten it before, right? I'll show you just how deep the taste of Oyota Steak is. I'll cook all the meat, so leave it to me."

He smiled with satisfaction as he pulled out the prepared meat from the bag, but I dissuaded him.

"Seta, I think it'll be best to eat meat tomorrow."

"Hm? What are you on about?"

"This is an open area. There's no reason to spread the smell of meat on purpose."

"B-but…"

I held up the fruit that we ate all day and were sick and tired of.

"We'll eat meat when it's bright out tomorrow, so for dinner, let's just eat a simple fruit meal."

"...Ah. Apple again..."

Seta muttered to himself, 'Meat is best when eaten at dinner...' but in the end, he agreed with me.

It was just that he would sometimes look towards the meat he couldn't eat and mutter with sadness in his voice,

"Sorry meat… I'll eat you tomorrow."

"..."

Now you've made me feel bad for the meat.

In any case, we were in a relatively safe area, but we did our best to avoid any dangerous situations.

This was the best we could do.

After all, there was no way that someone could eliminate the other 31 students to obtain an unreachable number of kill points.

Increasing your survivability was a sure-fire way to increase your score.

"Munch munch... This damned apple... I'm never eating this thing again after we get out of here."

"...Same."

Crunch!

We suppressed our hunger with a simple fruit meal as we listened to Seta's complaints.

During the night, we also took shifts when sleeping.

The first was Irene.

The second and also the most tiring was me.

Lastly, to also prepare breakfast, was Seta.

We split it into these 3 time frames, each 2 hours long, and took watch.

"Yawwwwn—! Irene, I'll sleep first then, so wake me up if something happens."

"Then, take care."

After leaving it to Irene, Seta and I went into our temporary beds.

But sleep didn't come to us easily.

The bed was moist and hard, but this wasn't the real reason I couldn't sleep.

That was something else.

"...Ah, so annoyingly loud. Just how much are they going to fight? Don't they feel tired?"

"..."

It was because of the random sounds of explosions that rang out every so often.

They came from the direction of the Central Village, where Doom Prime and the 15-person group was predicted to be.

But sounds of explosions also could be heard from all over the island.

There were probably fights both big and small to try and take possession of these lodgings.

And just an hour after we went to sleep,

These sounds of battle,

"Ruin, wake up."

"..."

Came and found us.

An ambitious visitor at dawn.

Yeah.

Someone had come to our lodging.

"Look over there."

Even in this urgent time, Irene maintained her composure and softly lifted the curtain.

Outside,

"...How many people?"

"1 person."

One individual was prowling around our building.

They seemed like…

"I turned off the light magic just in case it would leak out. For now, I don't think they know we're here."

They were checking if someone was in the lodging.

It was dark, so their face couldn't be identified, but the figure that was illuminated by the moonlight was carefully walking around, checking their surroundings very diligently.

"We'll wait for now. They could just pass by us."

"Sure."

I kept my eyes on this unidentifiable individual.

One person...

Why?

Why were they walking around by themselves this late at night?

It was hard to confirm that they were alone.

"Maybe… is it Doom?"

"..."

Was it Doom?

Or was it a student that coincidentally came near us?

They could also have been bait.

Showing up alone to lower the guard of their opponents and then ambush them.

There was nothing we could rule out.

Well, there was one thing.

"...They're approaching."

They seemed intent on coming into the building, as they walked straight toward us.

I lowered the curtain.

"Just in case… Irene, can you wake up Seta?"

"What will you do?"

"I need to go check who it is."

"Be cautious. If you use magic you'll draw unnecessary—"

"I was thinking of not using magic if possible."

"..."

For a magician to say that they will suppress someone without using magic.

It might've been a strange thing to say, but I shrugged my shoulders.

"Don't worry."

"...I'm not worried."

Irene immediately went to wake Seta up and I stood right behind the door, analyzing the visitor's movement.

They were coming closer and closer.

Then, they went quiet, right outside the door.

They were probably listening to the sounds in the building.

We prepared ourselves, the wooden door between us and them, and the intruder opened the door as if they hadn't heard anything.

Click! Creak—!

As the door opened, the shadow came in.

Grabbing the back of their neck, I slammed them into the ground.

Bam!

"Kuk! Kuak!"

As they collapsed to the ground, I blocked their mouth and twisted one of their arms so they couldn't cast magic.

"Ek! Euak!"

With my oppressive strength, they couldn't even scream as I pinned them.

"Who are you?"

Light.

The light that couldn't leave my palm ignited the room and this light showed the face of our intruder.

First of all, it wasn't Doom Prime.

He was…

"Eup! Eeeup!"

"…You. You're the Collum school representative…"

The school representative of the Collum School that I versed before in the group competition 'Arrow Ball'.

The guy whose face of defeat was quite memorable…

This guy was definitely a capable individual who had a small group of 6 other people.

But why was he alone?

And his condition wasn't too good either.

He wouldn't have rolled around in the dirt by himself.

Seemingly having been attacked by someone, he was stained with dirt and parts of his shirt were ripped.

"Are you by yourself? And why do you look like this?"

"Eup! Eeeeup!"

As he looked at me, shouting to signal me to let him speak, I let go of his mouth.

"Puah! R-Ruin...?"

As he muttered after regaining his breath, Irene and Seta jumped out.

"What?! An Intruder? What's going on?"

"Hah... Sorry. I wasn't trying to intrude. J-just… I need somewhere to rest... I-if I knew you guys were inside, I wouldn't have come near."

Something must have happened.

While he was explaining himself, I looked out the window.

I couldn't sense any other movement.

Was he really alone?

"Are you alone?"

"Y-yeah."

I asked him again,

"What about your teammates? Weren't there 6 other people?"

"..."

At my question, he closed his mouth and clenched his eyes.

"They were all taken out. I escaped by myself."

"What? All 6 of them?"

"Taken out? By who?"

"..."

Just what had happened?

Collum School Representative.

He opened his mouth like he was recounting a nightmare.

"Doom... Doom Prime."

"..."

As I thought.

There was no one else it could have been.

——