Chapter 26 - The Forest

As the blue light disappeared, we were all suddenly in a new location. Looking around we were in a large forest that had trees as far as the eye could see. Though, we were in a large enough opening where we could all stand around.

I could hear some confusion.

"We're already here!?"

"Have we started?"

"Did they really just drop us off here?!"

"They didn't really just do that, right?"

Understandably, there was a lot of confusion. We were just dropped off in a forest and told to survive after all.

We weren't actually completely fucked if something went wrong though, I was pretty sure we were being monitored. When I wrote about the missions, I remember that until your third year you're not left completely alone. There were some missions in the second year that the teachers didn't monitor, though for our first year we'd be safe.

"Leo!"

"Hm?" I looked at Rio who had a questioning gaze.

"What should we do?"

What should we do? Good question, our class didn't really have any 'Leader' it was mostly just groups of people who hung around each other. I wasn't planning on taking up that role either.

"Everyone calm down!"

In the middle of everyone, Kazu yelled.

He had all eyes on him, everyone was still uneasy from being suddenly dropped here.

"We need to be calm! We're on a survival mission!"

Many students were still nervous.

I wasn't expecting him to take the 'Leadership' position, but since he was relatively friendly with all of us there probably wasn't a better person.

I could feel a tap on my shoulder, turning around it was Ayaka.

"Can't you calm everyone down or something?"

Huh? I think I could, but would they even listen to me? I wasn't friendly with anyone outside of our group.

I looked at Rio who was waiting for my answer, it looked like he wanted me to sing.

"Haah." I sighed.

I headed towards where Kazu was and put my hand on his shoulder.

"Leo?"

He looked at me with a tilted head.

I took a deep breath and started to sing.

"Alright, alright

This is just the pinnacle, you'll be alright, yuh

Bones, I hear 'em snap

But I'll be alright?"

After I finished singing everyone's eyes were on me. They were all silent.

Agh, this is why I didn't do it in the first place, we weren't friends or anything, so someone just coming out of nowhere and singing you a song would obviously be weird.

I suddenly heard Kazu yell.

"Leo! That was amazing! I feel calmer, thank you!" He had his hand on his chest

Huh?

Soon after I could hear some sighs of relief among the students.

"Hah, I feel better."

"For some reason I feel calmer now."

"That was beautiful, I almost forgot we were in a forest."

I could hear someone behind me

"Thank you!"

Turning around it was someone I've never interacted with... I think his name was Erik?

Kazu began to speak again and while he was speaking, I went back towards my group.

"Now that everyone has calm down a bit, we should focus on the mission!"

"Does anyone here have any survival experience?"

A small brown-haired girl raised her hand.

"U-Um... I-I-I spent a lot of t-time in the f-forest before school..."

I believe her name was Rose. She spoke a lot like how Rio did when we first met.

"Rose! Awesome!"

Kazu went up to her and held her hands

"That'll help a lot, Thank you!"

I couldn't see Rose's face from where I was, but I could only assume.

"Is there anyone else who knows anything?"

He let go of her hands and asked; Noone responded.

"Looks like we'll be relying on you Rose!"

Kazu wore a big smile.

---

Kazu wanted to bring Rose to the center and have everyone hear her but she was too nervous, so they spoke quietly to each other.

"You're very good at singing."

It was Taku. Come to think of it, most of my classmates had no clue I could sing. Other than Rio, Ayaka, and Ally, I don't think anyone's heard me.

"Thanks."

Rio looked proud as he wore a big smile like he was bragging.

"To be honest, I was a little nervous too, I've never been in a survival situation, so you calmed me down a lot. Thank you."

Taku did a slight bow while speaking, he was part of the duke's family. I didn't know 100% of his backstory but I do know that he rarely left the castle.

"No problem."

"And it was all thanks to my great idea!"

Ayaka proudly proclaimed.

"No! It was thanks to my brothers great singing!"

Rio responded

Are these two children or something?

A few minutes later, Rio and Ayaka kept going back and forth. Taku and I sort of ignored them and carried on a conversation on our own.

Kazu went back to the middle and started to speak after clearing his throat.

"Okay! Everyone! I hope has relaxed themselves and gotten used to the forest so far!"

"According to Rose, our first task should be to group up."

Huh? We were already grouped up?

"Not like the groups you have now, we'll want a lot of different groups."

"A group for searching for food, a group for exploring and learning our surroundings, a group for setting up where we sleep and a group for gathering materials!"

Couldn't you have simplified that way more? You could've just said, food, exploring, camping, gathering... There were too many 'groups' in that sentence.

"Please say if you have any specific group you'd like to be in, otherwise I'll assign you to a group."

He took on the 'leader' role fast; it seemed like everyone was fine with it too.

There were some students who exclaimed what group they'd like to be in, I was just going to let him assign me one I didn't really care which one I got.

"Do you have a specific group you want to join, Rio?"

I asked while looking at him.

"Um... What group are you joining?"

"Whatever Kazu gives me."

"Okay! I'll do the same!"

After everyone who wanted to join a specific group told Kazu, he started to assign groups to those who didn't.

And that was how I got assigned to the exploration team.