Chapter 25 – Episode 25. Astrid Is Confused
In an instant, only the bones remained.
“Huh… I was going to leave it and eat it… “
After glaring at the whining Eranya once, Astrid called the squadmates together.
The squad members who surrounded Astrid on both sides must have had enough rest now, and her face, as well as her face, looked quite energetic.
“Now, let’s start. I plan to leave after 10 minutes of tidying up. Is everyone okay?”
“Are you okay!”
Vera Sien waved her hand as if there was no problem with the start, with her characteristic smile, and the other squad members were nodding their heads to see if they agreed.
“Great. Then, we leave in 10 minutes.”
The Astrid squad members were now preparing to depart, erasing as much traces of their presence as possible by rubbing their feet, and putting the equipment back on.
As the Astrid squad members were getting ready to depart, Akhemilla squad members who were pounding their stomachs with a feeling of satiety next to them began to get ready to depart as well.
As it is a competitive test to catch monsters by squad, if the start is delayed, you may lose money. The space where the test was conducted was different, but it seemed that it was because if the speed of breaking through was slow, or if you missed the demon that existed because you were in a hurry, you could miss the score in an unexpected place.
“Now, the exit must be over there.”
Astrid looked around and checked the sign.
There was a notice written on the sign, and Astrid approached and read it.
“If you leave the checkpoint, it diverges to the test space after 300m… Then… “
It wasn’t the safe space immediately after entering the checkpoint, but the safe space seemed to start some time before entering the checkpoint.
“Squad leader Astrid, shall we go then?”
Astrid saw Akhemilla, who was smiling unchangingly, and who couldn’t stop laughing at what was so good about her. Astrid felt something uncomfortable in her heart. Astrid herself is so uncomfortable.
‘He doesn’t know what makes him so comfortable and good. I don’t know what you’re thinking.’
Astrid looked at Archemilla for a moment. Perhaps feeling Astrid’s gaze, Akemilla tilted her head slightly as she faced Astrid.
“What’s on my face?”
‘It was full of bitterness.’
Clicking her tongue into hers, Astrid shook his head.
“No, it’s not a big deal. Then, let’s go.”
“Since it’s Squad 1, Astrid Squad will go first.”
‘Only when… ‘
It didn’t mean much, maybe Akemilla really said it with pure intentions, but anyway, to Astrid now, everything Akhemilla said annoyed her.
I don’t know why.
“Come on, let’s go.”
Putting personal feelings aside, I just wanted to finish training quickly. After inspecting the greatsword firmly strapped to her back, Astrid moved toward the exit.
After leaving the checkpoint, which was a fairly wide open space, a mysterious forest was revealed.
If you go further 300 meters from here, you will enter the training ground again, that is, into the mountains where only Astrid’s squad members are.
Looking back, her squad members were following Astrid in perfect order, followed by Akemilla’s squad.
‘… Let’s stop caring No need to worry… ‘
What does it matter
Isn’t this the academy that came to find a way to return to the original world because they didn’t want to get married in the first place? Whether or not she ran for the crown prince had something to do with Astrid.
To put it bluntly, it was rather normal for Akhemilla to want to win Leopold’s heart.
It was about halfway there.
“For a moment.”
At Erania’s voice, Astrid’s steps stopped. And as she stopped, all of the squad members following her also stopped. Not only that, but she’s Akemilla and her squad as well.
– Kung, Kung, Koo Kung…
The vibrations that had been faintly felt were now palpable.
The feeling that something is coming, that something heavy and heavy is approaching is intense.
Erania pointed in front of Astrid with her pale face.
Something like a shadow was cast through the dense forest of trees heading towards the test space, where they were heading, and eventually, by the time they realized that the shadow was that of a falling tree, the cause of the unknown vibration was revealed.
The height of her head alone seemed to exceed 3 meters, and a bizarre appearance that grew higher and higher as she went backwards.
Two horns sprouted from her head, and from her mouth were long, sharp lower canines protruding menacingly.
The area around her supposed neck was packed with scales like her thick armour, glistening in the afternoon sunlight.
“Um, what is that… ?”
It was said that there were no large monsters, but the sudden appearance of the monsters threw the ten students into confusion.
At least that wasn’t a medium sized monster. It must be large, but the existence that cannot be here is too foreign.
Astrid was no exception to that confusion, and Astrid froze as she met her big, bright red eyes staring at her from afar.
It must have been a considerable distance away now, but given its size, it was clear that if it ran, it wouldn’t take too long to catch up.
All of the cadets here now are not official cadets, much less have they completed proper combat training yet.
But even if they didn’t know what it was, what kind of monster it was, or even whether it was a monster in the first place, all the students felt that it was dangerous, very dangerous.
An instinctive sense of danger, like a herbivore facing a dangerous predator.
Perhaps, they were facing such a fear that they had experienced for the first time in their life.
“… Everyone, retreat, retreat! Quick, retreat! Back to the checkpoint!”
I heard Leopold’s voice.
It hadn’t been long since I had left the safe space, the checkpoint.
Obviously, it was a valid reasoning that if I retreated there, that monster wouldn’t be able to enter either, but-
However, Leopold hadn’t thought that this place also belonged to the safe space.
“Astrid, wake up!”
Someone grabbed Astrid by the waist and started running.
Astrid looked up at the owner of the hand and saw Leopold’s profile as he was running with a pale face as if he was nervous.
“Le, before Leopold… “
“Quickly, from the retreat!”
Leopold ran while hugging Astrid’s waist, but even the weight of the greatsword strapped behind her was so great that it didn’t speed up at all.
“Let go, let go! I will run!”
After Leopold let go, Astrid and Leopold started running to the checkpoint together.
Squad members were also running toward the Honbibaeksan checkpoint. Astrid, who was in the forefront of the line, fell behind in the last beauty this time, and her monster chased after her, thumping loud and gigantic footsteps.
“ Pushing ㅡ ㅡ ㅡ ㅡ! ”
A roar that seemed to shake the heavens and earth resounded.
With a scream as big as his enormous size, the ground shook as if riding a wave as he struck the ground with his forepaw.
“Oh… !”
Astrid tripped and fell in the wind, and Leopold, who had been running with her, returned to Astrid.
“Astrid, are you okay?!”
Thump, thump, thump, thump
Astrid stumbled and fell with the monster that chased after her with a roaring sound. And Leopold returned to Astrid.
“Your Highness, quickly, quickly return to the checkpoint! Dangerous… !”
“Majesty!”
An angry voice was heard.
Akhemilla was running toward Astrid and Leopold with her twin swords gripped.
It was unclear whether the other squad members arrived safely at the checkpoint, but it seemed that they had returned to Akhemilla because of Leopold and Astrid, who had not reached the checkpoint yet.
“Ah, Lady Akemilla! It’s dangerous, go back!”
The large monster gradually closing the distance, and the fallen Astrid. Leopold tries to raise her up. And Akemilla runs back to save them.
“ Pushing ㅡ ㅡ ㅡ ㅡ! ”
“Run, run!”
As if to trample it down, the monster jumped with all its might.
At that moment, a huge shadow was cast that completely covered the sun, and Leopold hugged Astrid and Akhemilla at the same time, rolled sideways several times, and left a large mark on the ground.
A burning pain came from his back as he was stabbed and scratched by the branches and pebbles protruding from the ground, but if he changed his position here, Astrid and Akemilla would be hurt, so Leopold gritted his teeth and held back the pain. Did.
– Kwak!
A deafening sound as if the sky were collapsing and a vibration as if the earth was shaking reverberated and spread in all directions.
The legs of the monsters were holding on to where they were standing just a moment ago, so if they stayed there, they probably wouldn’t have been able to find them by now.
“Wow, are you okay? Astrid!”
Leopold was able to come to his senses enough to take care of the two women only after he had been pushed for a long time leaving a large mark on the ground and barely stopped.
“Fine… It’s okay, Your Highness.”
“I have no problem either, Your Highness!”
In a panic, even the title given to Leopold changed from cadet to His Majesty, but no one noticed it.
Astrid and Akemilla seemed to have no problem, so they felt relieved for a while, but the problem started right now.
Thanks to the sudden jump of the monster, the three people rolled and barely avoided it, and now the road back to the checkpoint is blocked by the monster.
“Hey, now how… “
– Damn it.
The ground shook with the sound of something cracking.
The sound of cracking grew louder as the three lost their balance and staggered from the sudden shaking.
“Uh, what… ?!”
“Oh… ?!”
“Oh, oh my… !”
And finally, the ground couldn’t stand it any longer and began to crumble.
At least they could see the attack or jump of the monster in advance, but the three of them fell down without even reacting to the sudden collapse of the ground.
