BXBX NOVEL Chapter 102 - Ismera’s Great Forest (1)
Chapter 102 - Ismera’s Great Forest (1)
The competition ended.
Perhaps because of the illusion magic, it finished much faster than expected.
“Professor! Over here!”
Among the people coming out after the evaluation, Knightley waved her hand.
Next to her, Hindrasta was carrying Merilda on her back.
“Good job, everyone. But Merilda, are you… alright?”
Merilda’s complexion was as pale as if she had just come out of cold water after being submerged for a long time.
“I’m fine…. I’m just a bit tired….”
“Jeez, really. I barely resisted the urge to leave you behind.”
Hindrasta grumbled.
“If we hadn’t been able to open that last door, you would have been in big trouble, you know that?”
“Sorry….”
Knightley roughly explained the evaluation story to me.
They did exactly what I instructed.
“You really did well, all of you.”
“Thank you. So, are you going to give us a reward?”
“Dian! Kids!”
I turned around at the sound of someone calling from behind, and it was Kirrin running toward us after just getting off a carriage.
“Ah, Headmaster. Welcome. The evaluation just ended.”
“Sorry I’m late. Things wrapped up too late….”
“It’s alright.”
“So how did it go? Did you do well? Was it difficult? Did everything you learned come out? Hmm?”
Kirrin fired off questions like a storm, but an announcement flowed from inside the hall.
[We will now announce the evaluation results. Participants, please gather in the hall.]
The results are already out. That’s fast.
When we went to the hall, everything was ready for the announcement and awards ceremony on the stage.
“Ah, I’m going crazy. I’m so nervous.”
Kirrin kept mumbling incessantly while holding the kids’ hands.
But even after waiting for a while, there was no sign of the ceremony starting.
Just when murmurs started growing louder here and there, an official hurriedly ran up to the stage.
“We apologize. The Director of the Security Office, who was supposed to preside over the ceremony, could not attend due to urgent matters.”
So the Deputy Director of the Security Office would be hosting the ceremony instead.
“Now, we will announce the evaluation results.”
The Deputy Director looked at the paper handed to him and cleared his throat.
“First, in third place: The Leblanc Mercenary Corps.”
“Woooooo!!”
Three members of the Leblanc Mercenaries cheered and hugged each other, causing a ruckus.
“What a fuss over barely getting third place.”
Hindrasta clicked her tongue as she watched.
“Second place goes to the Nemara Tribe.”
As soon as second place was announced, the atmosphere became chaotic.
“Nemara Tribe?”
“Are they talking about those Dark Elves?”
“Dark Elves got second place? Then who’s in first?”
Indeed, everyone seemed to have the same thought.
I was tense the moment I learned the Dark Elves were participating.
Dark Elves are a race specialized in assassination, and during the war, they penetrated all those strict defenses and infiltrated even the Emperor’s bedchamber.
Everyone probably assumed that the Nemara Tribe would take first place.
“Nemara Tribe…? What do you mean?”
On the other hand, Kirrin was wide-eyed in surprise, looking around in confusion at the news that her tribe had been here.
“Well, actually….”
I was about to explain when the Deputy Director announced first place.
Everyone held their breath as they focused on the Security Office Deputy Director’s lips.
“The Imperial Special Mission Academy.”
“Oh my gosh! Kids! We got first place!”
“Aaaaaah!!”
The kids screamed and hugged each other.
“Dian! Dian! I didn’t hear that wrong, did I?!”
“You heard correctly.”
“Oh my goodness! We really got first place! I can’t believe this is happening!!”
Kirrin shrieked with a high-pitched voice and jumped into my arms.
“What?! This is ridiculous!”
At that moment, a heavily armored mercenary who seemed quite experienced pointed and shouted.
“How could those kids take first place when even those dark bastards only got second? Are they playing favorites with their own people?!”
Then, fierce protests erupted from the crowd.
If I didn’t know the situation, I’d react the same way.
These girls did better than the Dark Elves? It’s unbelievable.
But what can they do? The results are what they are.
“Is that why you used that strange illusion magic or whatever?!”
“Yeah! It’s not fair!”
Then someone slowly stepped onto the stage. It was Kaiden.
“Everyone, please calm down.”
“How can we calm down right now?!”
“Who the hell are you?!”
“I am the mage Kaiden. I was in charge of constructing the illusion magic for this competition.”
When Kaiden introduced herself, everyone went silent as if they had turned mute.
“Kaiden…? Could it be that Kaiden from the Demon King Slayer Task Force…?”
“I heard Kaiden was a man…. She’s a woman…?”
Amidst the hushed whispers, Kaiden continued speaking in a clear voice.
“I understand why you might have doubts about the evaluation results. Therefore, I will now show you the evaluation videos of the winning teams here on the spot.”
Oh, Kaiden. So you’re going to do something like a VAR (Video Assistant Referee) review. Not bad.
Suddenly, a massive screen big enough to cover the stage appeared, and screams erupted from the crowd.
The screen showed the Leblanc Mercenary Corps’ evaluation video playing at double speed.
Initially, the mercenaries seemed a bit confused, but they calmly infiltrated the facility, avoided traps and security forces, but eventually got caught.
They fought but failed to overpower the guards in one strike, which led to more forces gathering from other areas.
The video ended with them surrounded and cornered by countless enemies.
The fact that they didn’t even reach the objective yet still took third place means the other teams didn’t even get that far and were wiped out.
The second video was the Dark Elf Nemara Tribe.
“Gasp?!”
Kirrin covered her mouth as the Dark Elves’ faces were zoomed in on.
In the video, the Dark Elves moved skillfully like shadows, penetrating deep into the facility without being detected by anyone, earning gasps of admiration from the crowd.
But at the very last stage, they failed to disable the security measures. That was the decisive point.
Lastly, our kids’ video played.
As soon as the video started, a dazzling barrage of flashes went off, making it hard to keep your eyes open.
It was an attack spell that streaked across the sky and crashed down onto the facility.
One of the key elements of the operation I ordered the kids was that attack spell.
Responding to the fire support request, the army mages began bombarding the enemy facility with combat spells like crazy.
The coordinates Knightley calculated for guiding the firepower were astonishingly precise.
Taking advantage of that chaos, they began their infiltration.
Once inside the facility, the kids overcame traps and slaughtered all the encountered security forces.
Since they didn’t know the exact details of the internal security operations, even if they managed to avoid the guards’ eyes temporarily, they could run into them again later.
It’s better to take the shortest route, killing everything in sight to buy time.
The objective of this evaluation isn’t stealth, but ‘securing the important documents.’
As long as they secured the documents and got out, everything was fine.
The Leblanc Mercenary Corps tried the same tactic but failed because they couldn’t kill the enemies before the alarm went off. They took too long in the fight.
But our team has the dragon Hindrasta.
When Hindrasta’s sword cleaved an enemy’s head in half along with their helmet, people gasped in horror.
While the attack spells pounded the exterior of the facility, the kids slaughtered every enemy they encountered and advanced toward the central area at breakneck speed.
“That’s impossible! How could they do that?!”
Then, in the final stage, when Merilda decoded the encryption in a matter of seconds, people screamed in disbelief.
“Does anyone still doubt the rankings?”
After the video ended, Kaiden asked, and someone raised their hand in protest.
“Combat magic support, that’s cheating!”
Kaiden smiled and shook her head.
“We clearly announced the allied situation and available support elements before the evaluation. Why do you think it’s cheating?”
The reason other teams didn’t take advantage of this is simple.
Most people automatically associate ‘infiltration’ with the idea that it must be stealthy.
But intentionally causing chaos and slipping in through the confusion is also infiltration. As long as you get in undetected.
“Properly grasping the evaluation’s intent is practically equivalent to understanding commands in a real operation.”
At Kaiden’s calm response, the person protesting couldn’t argue further.
Kaiden glanced around the room and met my eyes, giving me a mysterious smile.
The reason I ordered such a bold operation for the kids is simple.
The evaluation scenario for this competition was directly based on a mission that Linus, Kaiden, and I had carried out in the past.
The only differences between then and now are:
Back then, instead of army bombardment, Kaiden alone unleashed firepower equivalent to that of an entire army.
And Linus and I, ‘just in case,’ simply killed every enemy inside the facility.
Thanks to that, when we reached the final stage of securing the important documents, there were no surviving enemies, so we leisurely cracked the security measures while snacking on our combat rations.
That’s about it.
But seriously, where is Professor Ismera in a moment as glorious as this?
# # # # #
At that moment, Ismera was outside the hall.
She leaned against the wall with her head hanging low.
She had gone out in search of Dian after being startled when the Dark Elves came to the booth alone, but she had overheard something by chance.
The Second Princess wants to replace me with the mage Kaiden….
The moment she heard that, she was so shocked that she ran straight to this spot.
From beyond the wall she leaned against, she faintly heard that the Special Mission Academy had taken first place.
I need to go back…. I need to go back and congratulate the kids….
But for some reason, her feet wouldn’t move.