Western Voltimir territory. The forest belt adjoining Ishtal.Kiriel entered the treasure-hunt event with two aides in tow.One could ask if it was fitting for a student council president to be idly doing a treasure hunt…… but the prizes for this event were quite useful to Kiriel.Namely, one of the B-rank prizes: the “Leave Voucher.”In addition to the 21 days of annual leave granted to students each year, it adds one more day of leave.In other words, it legally lets you skip class.To be honest, Kiriel had already given up on written grades, so her family didn’t bother worrying anymore.But precisely because of that, when it came to attendance points, her older sister had thundered that she would not let it slide, so Kiriel had been diligently showing up to class at least.However, if she found and secured this Leave Voucher this time, she could skip class once in a while for a change of pace.For Kiriel, who pursued freedom(?) over rote education, there was no better prize.Squeak-!After searching the woods for a bit, a squirrel-shaped spirit scurried out from beyond the bushes and sat on Kiriel’s shoulder.“Tailsquil, how’s the situation?”Squeak- squeak-.The squirrel whispered something into Kiriel’s ear and pointed with its tail toward the brush.“Ah, there’s one over there? Let’s hurry.”Squeak-!As the low-rank tree spirit Tailsquil dashed into the forest, Kiriel quickly chased after it.“Lady Kiriel, please go slowly.”“Let’s go togetherrr~”Silpi and Rina also followed behind Kiriel deeper into the woods.“Ah, found it!”Near the tree trunk where they arrived, following the spirit’s lead, there was a slip imbued with traces of mana.And not the white C-rank ones they’d seen until now, but a blue B-rank slip!Eyes sparkling, Kiriel opened the slip.On the slip was Freya’s congratulatory message.[B-Rank Prize. One-Day Leave Voucher][We send our congratulations to your luck, or to your excellent skill and will.][We will add one day to your current leave. We will coordinate with each academy head to ensure it can be applied to the fullest extent possible, but for details, please consult with your supervising professor.]Freya’s handwriting stood out on the Leave Voucher.The moment Kiriel saw it, she leapt up and shouted in delight.“Kyat-ho!”“Congratulations.”“You drew good fortune~”“Hehe, thanks, you two.”Just as she showed them the slip she’d found and did a happy little shoulder dance—Flap-flap-.Birds took off as if fleeing beyond the forest.In that instant, the eyes of Kiriel and the other elves changed.“……!”They were a forest people and friends of spirits, but at the same time, they were an excellent hunting folk.Those birds’ movements were certainly not ordinary.It was as if they were hastily fleeing from something dangerous.And then—“Kyaaaak-!”A student’s scream echoed through the forest.The elves hardened their gazes, exchanged looks, and immediately moved toward the place in question.***“R-, run!”Where Kiriel, sensing an ominous sign, headed, a battle was already underway.Small shapes were attacking the students.Monsters as tall as a human’s waist, with big ears and green skin.‘G-, gremlins?’Kiriel’s eyes widened.It was common Union knowledge that a variety of animals inhabited Voltimir’s dense forests, and among them, vicious carnivores had been found multiple times.There were even rumors of people seeing lions or tigers.But never before had there been a case where a large group of monsters like this was found within the territory.“Silpi!”“Yup!”At Kiriel’s shout, Silpiet wove the form of a bow with mana and loosed an arrow.Twang-.With the springy quiver of the string, a magical arrow cleaved the air.It struck squarely in the forehead of the gremlin chasing after the students.Guekk-!Hit dead-center between the brows, the gremlin tumbled to the ground.But even though the leading head chaser fell, the gremlin pack did not stop and rushed the students.Rina summoned low-rank water spirits and gave an order.“Miss Undine, summon a water drop~”As Rina lazily stretched out a hand, the spirit in the shape of a girl wearing a blue dress, Undine, appeared.Undine, having revealed herself, formed a massive water drop in the air.Blorp-.A huge water drop suddenly formed in their path.“……!”The gremlins rapidly gaining on the students couldn’t avoid it, plunged straight into the drop, and floundered.Glub-glub-.Trapped in the water drop, the gremlins soon drowned inside it, and then, with a splat, the drop burst.“Huff, huff.”Only then did the students, now freed from the gremlin pack chasing them, flop down into the grass.Kiriel ran to them in a single bound and checked their condition.“Is everyone okay? Any injuries!”“We’re f…… fine.”“But one person stayed inside for us……”One girl pointed toward the brush they had fled from.It seemed one person had acted as bait to buy time while the rest escaped.“Got it! I’m counting on you two for the rest!”At those words, Kiriel borrowed the power of wind spirits and accelerated her body.Swoosh-.The scenery around her blurred.Wherever she set her foot, grass and trees slipped aside to open a path.It was the High Elf’s innate ability, the Forest’s Path.Even as she sprinted through the forest, Kiriel perked her ears and headed unerringly toward the direction from which the sounds of battle came.She arrived at the battle site in an instant.As Kiriel reached the scene, she tilted her head.“Huh?”What remained at the scene were gremlins turned into hunks of meat, and one girl, blood-soaked, standing firm in the clearing and breathing hard.“Hoo, hoo.”Sky-blue bobbed hair down to the ears and blue eyes.A silver breastplate over her uniform and a greatsword in hand.When she noticed Kiriel, she relaxed her tensed face.“Ah, are you Lady Kiriel?”Kiriel quietly checked the girl’s name tag and the academy crest engraved on the breastplate.She seemed to be a student named Adler from Saintea.From the name, she might be the student Elena always took along. The face was hazy in memory.“Mm-hmm. Did you take care of all that by yourself?”“Yes, I’m dead tired.”Letting out a sigh, she flicked her sword, slick with the gremlins’ green blood, to shed it.All the green blood on her uniform and silver breastplate belonged to the monsters.Fortunately, it didn’t look like she was seriously hurt anywhere.But who would’ve thought so many monsters were inhabiting within Voltimir’s territory?Kiriel asked in a voice colored with doubt.“How on earth did you run into monsters?”“Don’t know. I was patrolling the area under Lady Elena’s orders when they suddenly attacked.”“There should definitely be automatic golems patrolling. Why would something like this……”The management of the natural environment in the territory was handled by automatic golems patrolling the forest.Moreover, the physical and magical barriers surrounding the Union shouldn’t be something mere beasts could break through.“I saw…… a broken golem near here, though.”“A golem, broken?”“Yup.”Hard to believe, but if it was this girl who was Elena’s close aide, it had to be believed.“In any case, I’m glad you’re safe. I apologize that you had to go through something unpleasant in our territory.”“It’s not Lady Kiriel’s fault anyway. I’ll be going now.”“Where? Get treatment, just in case.”“……I’m fine; there’s no injury. But you should run away quickly. Something feels off.”“Feels off?”“Yes, I’ll be off.”Leaving those words behind, Adler zipped away.Kiriel watched the direction she disappeared for a moment, then turned her head and glared into the dark woods.Woooo—.A nasty mana spread from beyond that darkness.It felt like a bizarre warp of mana was blurring time and space.As Adler said, something felt off.‘Indeed, it does feel strange.’Because of this unpleasant mana in fact, the elemental spirits nearby were trembling as if uneasy.Gremlins had already appeared within the territory and attacked students.In the worst case, they might have come into contact with the Dark Magic Stones scattered through the academies and mutated into something even stronger.‘Mm.’Kiriel soon nodded and steeled herself.For now, she would scout it out alone.She couldn’t send other students into a place that might be dangerous. For all appearances…… she was the student council president.And while theory wasn’t her forte, she had confidence in actual combat.“You lot.”At Kiriel’s call, the five elemental spirits contracted to her swarmed around her.A sparrow of fire, a girl of water, a squirrel of forest, a dwarf of earth, and a beetle of steel.Though she was weak in theory, she was a once-in-an-era genius spirit-user who had contracted with all five great elemental spirits.After she steadied her breathing for a moment, Silpi and Rina rejoined them, having escorted the students chased by the gremlin pack to a safe place.“President, you were here.”“What are you going to do now~ That’s dangerous~”Clank-.Given the dangerous situation of monsters appearing in the territory, they had even brought along an automatic golem that had been patrolling the area.Depending on the situation, each academy’s student council was granted the authority to command the territory’s automatic golems.With the strength of these two plus the golem, it seemed feasible to scout this anomaly for a bit.“Monsters appearing in the territory. That’s clearly strange. I wondered if it might be related to the Dark Magic Stones.”“That makes sense. Are you sensing anything else?”“Yeah, an incredibly nasty feeling. My gut’s never been wrong.”Bzzzt— A headache-like sensation wafted from over there. It was clearly the power of darkness.As a High Elf, she could feel it.Rina advised,“I think it’d be better if I go back and bring the professors~”“Then it’ll be too late. In the meantime, other students might get hurt.”“Understood. But if it’s dangerous, you must run right away.”“Of course. I’m only going to take a quick look.”In the end, Silpi and Rina followed Kiriel’s lead and set out to investigate deeper into the woods.***Voltimir territory.The large forest belt dividing Ishtal and Voltimir. Commonly called the Black Forest.Standing alone in the forest, I quietly closed my eyes and began mana detection.With both eyes shut and my mind focused, my other senses naturally sharpened.Ssshhh—.Branches shivered as the wind flowed through the woods.The chirping of birds with the layered undertone of insects.The fragrant scent of soil pricking at the tip of my nose and the refreshing smell of grass.Even the movements of small animals beyond the brush—everything.As I focused for a while and drew my senses up like that—“……!”I also felt the flow of a blue energy rising within the darkness.Shaaah—.This energy that wavered like a heat haze beyond my eyelids was mana itself.Being able to feel it meant having the ability called mana sensitivity in this world.Those without talent could go their whole lives unable to feel mana, but fortunately, Loen had this talent.A mage, to begin with, is one who senses mana and controls it by Law (法), bringing it under human control.Barring special cases, a mage without mana sensitivity doesn’t exist, so all I had to do was embody this basic talent Loen’s body possessed.The heat-haze-like flow of mana rising before my eyes was clearly gathering somewhere.I followed that peculiar current and moved my steps.Following the directional flow of mana that led to a single point, I was soon able to reach the source.A white slip tucked under a small stone. It was one of the C-rank items among the treasure-hunt prizes.Ting-!A notification window popped up before my eyes for a moment.[You have used mana detection to discover a specific object for the first time.][Mana +1]It seemed I had unlocked a hidden achievement of some sort. The higher mana was, the better; this was a pleasant development.I closed the window and opened the slip to check its contents.[C-Rank Prize. Lottery Ticket & Gift Certificate][Congratulations. Using the number written on this gift certificate, you will be able to participate in the prize drawing at a later time.][Additionally, we grant you a 50,000-point gift certificate usable within the Ishtal territory. It is accepted at most shops, but may not be usable at some; please be sure to check before use.]“Mm.”I read the slip, which sounded suffused with Freya’s manner of speaking, then slipped it into my pocket.I’d heard that for B-rank slips and above, the contents were written directly with a pen instead of printed.That gripping the pen gave her a ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) cramp so bad she had trouble holding a sword the next day.In any case, with Loen’s current mana detection ability, finding C-rank slips wasn’t difficult.Next, let’s raise the difficulty a bit.Among the B-rank prizes, I’d heard there were items that added leave days.For me, who had burned through all my leave due to injuries, it was a prize second to none. This time, I would move aiming for that.Just then, as I continued focusing my mind and probing mana—Thump-.In that instant, the blood meridians in my body pulsed and told me there was demonic energy somewhere.A principle far more fundamental than a typical mage’s mana detection: demonic-energy sensing possessed by one of demonic bloodline.From somewhere in the woods beyond my perception, I felt a viscous demonic energy tug at the back of my head.Not the aura of a simple monster or beast, but a kind of aura exuded by a demonkin.‘……One of Carmilla’s vassals, is it.’If anything, it was a relief that I found it in a sparsely populated forest like this.Before it could harm students, I should go and eliminate it in advance.Thinking so, I moved my steps, following that peculiar energy.

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