Chapter 144 - 144. Practice Matches (1)

A conference room where the instructors in charge of the first year gathered.

Now, the schedule for the cadets to form their own groups and engage in a joint battle with the alien species has been disrupted.

At the suggestion of Principal Julius, the cadets had to deal with demons instead of alien species.

Suddenly, how do the cadets deal with the dangerous demons? All of this fell to Edward, who had previously been involved in war.

Building fantasy magic based on the memories of the demons he has defeated so far.

It couldn't have been a very cumbersome task, but Edward, for some reason, was not losing his smile.

At that time, Edward was retracing his memories and arranging appropriate demons for each group.

"Can you prepare a black and red guy for class C?"

Kaliman holds out a piece of paper with the members of a group belonging to class C, which he was in charge of.

The paper had Kaen's name written on it.

Edward immediately glanced at the paper.

"...Can I hurt you?"

Looking at power.

Class C cadets with mediocre skills.

The only unusual thing was the existence of Kaen, who had sparred with Zeto before.

"Turn it off... Aren't you overdoing it?"

To this, Raina, who had been banging her head on her desk suffering from a hangover from her excessive drinking the night before, struggled to add her words.

Asmodians are originally classified according to the color of their horns. Speaking of the dark red horns, it had to be seen as an opponent that would be difficult to deal with even with at least a few class A cadets attached to it.

It seemed too much to entrust to ordinary class C cadets.

'If it's normal'.

Kaliman opened his mouth with rather serious eyes, not his usual blurry eyes.

"I know my kids well. I can do it. Trust me."

Kaliman decided to leave 'Kaen' to Edward somehow.

The dark red horned demons were a necessary preparation for that.

Can I skip from class C to class A just by defeating a demon with mediocre skills?

You have to play well to be in class B.

It was unlikely that Kaen would have a relationship with the children in Class B, and this work was necessary in order to transfer her to Class A accurately.

This was also a consideration for Kaen.

After all, he was her instructor.

As long as she hides her powers anyway, the meaning of her halves disappears and fades away. For example, this would be a bad phenomenon for the academy.

"Step back, now you're just a blushing guy. Is this enough? This group is the pride of Class C."

"Oh..."

At Kaliman's unanswered request, Reina opens her mouth.

"...Okay. Then I'll prepare like that. I just remember a guy who crawled into the academy a long time ago. I think he'll be fine."

Edward, who could be seen as the general manager of this joint battle, gave permission, and only Carly raised her eyebrows.

Kaliman who quietly sings pleasure inwardly.

Time passes, and the rest of the groups are slowly tidying up.

Most of them were made up of demons that Edward had 'killed'.

Well, the weaker the demons, the more there is nothing to analyze, so the fantasy will be implemented based on imagination, not Edward's memory, but it was not a big problem as long as the level was met.

That's how the last group remains.

Edward skimmed through the names of the members.

"Eisel Ludwig, Yuri Clementine, Amon Caligus, Lucia Windris and Zeto..."

It was probably the group that could be considered the best among the first year cadets.

"Who should I put them on?"

"Well, I think it will end in vain with a fair amount of demons..."

"But wouldn't it be crazy to attach black horns?"

The instructors started to have a heated discussion, but in the end it was a matter in Edward's head.

Edward, who was wearing a sinister smile, finally opened his mouth.

"...Fortunately, this group has already decided on an opponent. Like the other class A groups, it must be a dark red horned demon."

It was a bit of an odd answer.

It is true that it would be difficult to catch the dark red horned demon no matter how well the class A cadets worked together, but it seemed too easy for Zeto's group, who could be seen as an asymmetric force.

Still, not all of the demons' strength is revealed just by the color of their horns.

Is that man with the sinister eyes of a snake aiming for that?

Such thoughts passed through the heads of the instructors in the conference room.

Edward, who was once called the 'Black Horn Hunter', now looked back on his memories of more than ten years and remembered 'the demon' he encountered on the battlefield.

He was a guy with considerable skills in subjects other than black horns.

Since we met each other while acting alone, we couldn't see the match in the end.

Yes.

In this joint battle, the group that Zeto belongs to will be the only one to deal with the demon that Edward could not 'kill'.

That demon would be enough.

After all, Edward was the guy he'd faced alone when he was his cadet's age, so he seemed like there was nothing he couldn't do against him if he jumped in in groups of four or five.

'...Are you living well?'

I don't think he would have died anywhere.

ㅡ Kwakwang!!

Edward let out a fishy smile as he listened to the sound of lightning outside the window just in time.

A thunderbolt in the dry sky

It was just fine weather.

***

ㅡKurreung...

It was a strange weather with lightning falling in a clear sky without a single dark cloud.

On the screen on the other side of the exam hall, the cadets were engaged in a joint battle.

"How is it? The level of the cadets."

Oberth, who was sitting next to him, asked.

Oberth was not the old man he had seen in the woods before, but a middle-aged man who smelled like money.

The academy's president was Hubert Graham.

Is this really Obertra?

It is said that it is his disguised identity that he has been forced to create as he has lived so long.

Anyway, I was invited by him to watch the joint battle.

Since the Innocence Academy was said to have been created following my will as a hero, Oberth suggested that it be a good time to observe the students' skills.

'I'm not a hero, but I'm Zeto's younger sister...'

The cadets made up half of the group that caught the Demon, and half of the group that struggled to catch the Demon.

The demons were not to be taken lightly.

Demons who deal with demons are on a different level from the enemies they have dealt with so far.

"The cadets don't know, that guy named Edward... He's using a fairly high level of fantasy magic."

"The Klaus family is famous for their fantasy magic."

"Klaus?"

A question mark appears on Ray's face when he hears the family name for the first time.

"Now the headmaster of the academy is Julius Klaus, the number one in fantasy magic. He has risen to the level of a great wizard with illusion magic. That's his son, Edward Klaus. Even if he looks like that, he participated in the war as a cadet at a young age. As you can see, he's an accomplished war hero. Now, as you can see, he's working as an instructor... Like his father, he's exceptionally gifted with illusion magic."

"Hoo..."

Ray glanced at Edward, who was casting illusion magic in the middle of the exam hall.

Edward Klaus.

He must have said that he was the instructor in charge of my discussion.

Illusion magic is a very tricky magic.

There are too many things to calculate even for a brief illusion, including minor environmental factors.

Edward's fantasy magic seemed to be at a level that could cause an illusion that it was no different from reality.

"It's a treasure. From the academy's point of view."

In the end, since it's fantasy magic, you'll naturally have the idea that it's safe in your head, so it was unreasonable to compare it with actual combat, but training was enough.

In fact, since Klaus became the principal, the survival rate of cadets as well as the quality of training have risen remarkably.

Oberth sighs and laughs at Ray's evaluation.

"Did I put Juliut in the principal's seat for no reason? I had a hard time bringing her in. Now I finally have someone who recognizes my hard work."

"..."

In response, Ray nodded her head nonchalantly.

While they were having that conversation.

The battle of Joe, who entered illusion magic first, is over.

The result is defeat.

The demons were a formidable opponent.

"It's a pity. No matter how promising young people are gathered on the continent, if they don't match, it's still going to be hard to deal with the dark red horns."

"When I was there, the black horns attacked me in droves..."

Ray, who clicked her tongue, sighed.

"..."

Oberthe looked at her blankly and was at a loss for words for a moment.

Cognitive dissonance came when old-fashioned words came out of the mouth of a little girl who looked like she hadn't lived her life properly yet.

"...That's right. Still, it's not bad that the cadet with the shield moves well."

Oberth, barely clearing his mind, answered.

Ray and Obert.

As warriors and wise men, they were people who went through the heyday of the demons when the demon king was alive, so it was inevitable that the young people of today's peaceful world would underestimate them.

Edward then sings the next group.

It was Jeto's Joe.

"Hmm... Maybe I can hope this time."

Ray crossed her arms and said those words.

Oberth opened his mouth slightly.

"Isn't there any encouragement for my older brother to cheer up after becoming a younger sister?"

"..."

In the past and now, the one talent that touched people was the amazing Oberth.

***

ㅡShoot ah...

When I woke up, it was raining.

Pretend to be immediately felt by the surroundings.

It seems that the members of the group were also summoned to the same point.

"Where should I be...?"

"It looks like a battlefield..."

Yuri's answer followed Lucia's question.

It wasn't long before everyone could clearly understand the answer.

It was because I could feel the fishy smell of blood through the damp soil.

"Certainly... There are a lot of corpses around."

The corpses scattered here and there were a mix of human and demonic corpses.

There was no sound of shouting or clashing blades that should be heard in a battlefield, and the only sound of raindrops in my ears seemed to be that the battle had already ended.

First of all, it is said that it is a fantasy realized based on Edward's memories, so he must be one of the demons he met on the battlefield when he was young.

'You can look forward to it.'

Ever since he entered the fantasy, Edward's fishy smile hadn't left his mind. It doesn't seem like an ordinary demon at all.

"Come to think of it, everyone changed their outfits before I knew it...!"

As Lucia said, where did the uniforms we were wearing go? We were wearing a poncho-like raincoat and a costume with plate armor in places.

"I think it might be the clothes Instructor Edward was wearing at the time."

I nodded at Amon's answer.

It is ambiguous to say that it is a complete armor, and since it was Edward who belonged to the assassination unit, it seems that he was armed with more agile movements.

"Zetto, are there any enemies around?"

Yuri's question continues through the sound of rain.

It's not a question you would ask a blind man blindfolded with bandages, but everyone here knows that my abilities are useful for reconnaissance and detection.

"...At least not around here."

I tried to spread the kigam up to the maximum distance, but it didn't reach any living creatures.

Still, there were some suspicious corners.

In this huge forest, there was a direction in which the corpses of human soldiers were forming a path.

"Follow me."

The crew follows under my concise command.

People who follow the blind in search of enemies.

It must seem quite strange to those outside of fantasy magic who will be watching it on the screen.

As I walked down the street, I checked the condition of Eisel, who was particularly quiet.

Eisel hadn't said a word since entering illusion magic. She quietly looks around her.

I didn't feel any tension.

I was worried that she would lose her composure because it was against her demons, but it might be okay to put those worries aside for a while.

Basically, it should be taken for granted that humans dislike or hate demons, but unlike the other members here, Aisel must have had many direct encounters with demons.

She was Eisel, who kept her composure well.

"Eww..."

Lucia, who was walking down the street, swallows a vomit.

The gruesome corpses of soldiers who seemed to have been killed by demons were scattered on the road.

It was a sight that was hard to see with open eyes, but it was based on Edward's memories, so it might be the last appearance of those who actually participated in the war.

It was a time when I was walking on the road following the scent of blood.

Before long, something touches your senses.

"...Is ahead."

"A demon?"

She nodded at Eisel's short question.

However, the amount of demonic energy felt from him is unusual.

'No matter how much, Edward wouldn't have prepared the black horned demons...'

We immediately approached him slowly, hiding in a nearby bush.

"Live... Grow... Try... Give..."

It wasn't long before I heard the voice of a person who was taking a hard breath.

It was confirmed with the naked eye that the soldier's body fell to the floor and stretched out with the sound of crackling and breaking bones.

""...""

Although it was only a fantasy, it was only in Edward's memory... The tension was evident in the members of the crew who witnessed the scene where the demons easily cut off a human life.

It was only then that I was able to capture his figure.

Pure white long hair, blood-soaked armor.

Eyes red like blood.

...It was a very familiar face.

There was only one difference from the guy I knew.

That the horn on his forehead is not black.

Did Edward ever meet this guy during the war?

I don't think he could have killed him.

Because he must be alive in the land of demons right now.

Soon after, the guy who was standing in the middle of the rain, getting hit by the pouring rain, slowly inspected the bush where we were.

"..."

At the same time, Eisel's pupils trembled violently when she discovered him.

That would also be the case because he was the leader of the demons chasing Eisel.

She was her nightmare.

***

Contrary to Jeto's thoughts, Eisel wasn't shocked by that.

She was right that she was the same as her enemy, but above all, her demons in front of her eyes...

'...The demon who killed Zeto.'