The instructor had announced that tonight’s operation would be the rescue of Baron Kelven…
No, the rescue of Caron.
Yuridia, who had been lost in thought for a moment, spoke up.
“So, all we can do is wait…”
“No, not necessarily. There’s actually something I’d like to ask of you.”
“Something to ask?”
“Yeah, we found an abandoned mine during our search. It looks like it was used in the past but was recently shut down.”
“A recently abandoned mine… That sounds suspicious.”
“I heard it was closed because of a beast sighting. I want you to find out whether that’s true or not. And also…”
Lowering his voice, Urek continued.“There’s a small chance that Dolores might be held there. Of course, some of us will go with you, but…”
Urek trailed off awkwardly. But it wasn’t hard to understand what he meant.
Instructors were always responsible for protecting the students.
However, there were times when even students had to be set aside.
When a royal’s life was at stake.
During natural disasters beyond human control.
And—
‘When civilians are taken hostage.’
If Dolores was found in the abandoned mine, our safety could no longer be guaranteed.
Because we’d have to fight the bastards guarding her.
Not only would we be filling in the manpower shortage, but we’d also be in a situation where our lives couldn’t even be guaranteed.
It was only natural for him to hesitate.
“Hmhm…”
Urek and the other instructors avoided our gaze.
They must have felt ashamed of relying on students.
I didn’t know how the others felt, but to me, this was something worthy of praise.
Because it meant they wanted to save Dolores, even if it meant borrowing the hands of students.
‘It’s far better than pretending not to know or doing nothing at all.’
Perhaps the others felt the same. Sharing glances in the air, they exchanged small smiles.
“We’ll take that mission.”
“Oh~ Hohoho! This too must be the goddess’s will. With all of us together, there is nothing to fear.”
“Eliminating the beasts will help the village too, right? Then I can’t sit this one out.”
“An adventure with friends! I love it!”
Maybe it was the hope of rescuing Dolores that energized them, but their faces brightened.
As for me—
‘So this is as far as it goes.’
Yes. The main party heading to the abandoned mine… This was exactly how the story went.
The only thing they would find there were mole-like beasts that had evolved with magic stones.
No demons. No Dolores.
‘According to the story, Caron succeeds in escaping the mansion, but…’
Two days later, Dolores is found dead.
That’s the outcome of the Caron rescue mission.
In this situation, what I had to do was—
“Keke, we’ll be sitting this one out.”
“What? Zero, what do you mean?!”
“Are you saying you’re afraid of dying? I didn’t take you for such a coward… How truly disappointing.”
Yuridia and Victoria scolded me. Behind them, the instructors’ gazes were filled with disappointment.
I was sure my carefully built favorability had dropped as well.
But knowing that following them would be a waste of time, I couldn’t afford to squander my precious moments.
And I had plenty of excuses ready.
“Are you certain Miss Dolores is even there?”
“What? Well…”
“You’re not, are you? In fact, I believe the chances of her being there are slim. It’s too contrived.”
“Don’t tell me… you think it’s a trap?”
I nodded.
Considering the limitations on the number of souls a lower-ranking demon could consume, Dolores had at most two days left.
And in this critical moment, new information conveniently surfaced?
It was highly likely that someone was deliberately spreading false intel.
The instructors quickly began exchanging opinions.
“That does make sense. When time is tight, deception is an effective strategy. We use tactics like this ourselves, don’t we?”
“But we can’t be sure, can we? What if it’s real? Besides, with the operation tonight, one of us needs to attend the strategy meeting immediately.”
“Ugh… Uuuuugh! As someone indecisive, I despise these multiple-choice dilemmas!”
Just as the confusion was escalating, Ron casually draped his arms over their shoulders and spoke.
“Calm down, everyone. Our little guy here seems to have already thought of a solution.”
With that, all eyes turned to me.
Was Ron competent or just completely unpredictable?
I let out a small sigh and spoke.
“As I said before, we won’t be going. Instead, we’ll be using the remaining time to search the village.”
“The idea that ‘the darkest place is under the lamp’… That’s a possibility too.”
The instructors and students had been investigating the village thoroughly, but they hadn’t searched every building.
After all, we were pretending to be tourists.
“The students will split into two teams, and the instructors into three.”
Luna, Rezé, and I would form the village search team, while the others would investigate the abandoned mine.
The instructors would split into a village search team, a mine search team, and those attending the strategy meeting.
“The village search team is too small… Won’t it be dangerous?”
“It’s a village. If we find anything suspicious, we’ll immediately contact the nearest instructor for support.”
“That makes sense. Impressive, really. I always feel this way, but the top-ranked students are just on another level. Ugh!”
Urek let out a short scream as Ash jabbed him in the side with her elbow.
“What?”
“Don’t praise them too much. Don’t you know? The more their egos inflate, the more reckless they become. And in a situation like this, we need to be extra careful with our words.”
“Kids grow through praise, you know? And this much is fine. Honestly, you and I don’t agree on anything.”
Urek and Ash started bickering.
Hmm… But the top scorer in the midterms wasn’t me—it was Luna.
Maybe Annwood Academy’s instructors were skilled fighters but terrible at basic counting.
“Alright, let’s get into formation. Even this time is too precious to waste.”
The argument had been long, but their movements were swift. In an instant, the instructors took their assigned positions.
Urek, who was in charge of Yuridia’s group, and Joan, who oversaw Victoria’s group, joined the abandoned mine search team.
Ash, responsible for Alex and Raymon, joined the instructors’ meeting.
And for our village search team—
“Well, looks like I’m staying put. What a shame.”
“…You don’t look very disappointed for someone saying that.”
“My friends, this is a misunderstanding. It’s not because I find the abandoned mine search or the instructors’ meeting a hassle. And it’s certainly not because I’m scared of demons!”
…Ron, as if.
Well, nothing much should happen at the mine. It’s not actually a trap, after all.
“Hmm… A pity. I thought this time, we’d finally get to fight together.”
After all, there was the Empire’s Hero, Adonis.
Come to think of it, what had that old man been doing until now?
Adonis grinned and subtly started a conversation with me.
“For you to refuse a battle… You must have some suspicions.”
“Keke, not at all.”
“So, you won’t even share it with me… As expected, you’re no ordinary kid. Or did you learn that from Caron?”
A sudden jab at Caron?
If anyone here was “no ordinary person,” it was you, old man.
“Anyway, I’ll leave the village to you. I’ll take care of things here, so don’t worry.”
Shouldn’t he be saying that to the instructors instead of me?
Still, I nodded.
Because Ron had a stupid grin on his face.
“Huh? What was that? I feel like someone just praised me…”
Leaving behind Ron, who was scratching his head in confusion, the abandoned mine search team and Instructor Ash set off for their missions.
There was a minor incident where Raymon tried to sneak into our group, but Luna promptly windmilled him and hurled him toward the mine search team.
After dealing with Raymon, Luna dusted off her hands and asked,
“So, where are we headed?”
“Keke, I have no idea.”
“…? Didn’t you say we were going to search the village for Dolores?”
“I lied. I just really hate climbing mountains.”
“…”
Luna lunged at me and bit my ear, while Ron and Rezé ran off in the distance.
Well, considering it was Luna, she was holding back a lot.
Even when Acela was sent flying by Bickerd’s kick, Luna had shown superhuman patience when I told her to hold back.
So, I should just let her bite me. This is part of the weight I have to bear as a father (?).
…But Luna.
My ear is bleeding.
A little while later, Luna, her anger somewhat calmed, was applying medicine to my ear while grumbling.
“Haa… This is bad.”
“Keke, it is. My ear is torn, after all.”
“Your ear isn’t the problem! We don’t have a single useful lead!”
Would she have reacted the same if it were her ear that got torn instead? I should test that next time.
Besides, I actually did have a lead.
Something far more important than anything that could reveal the true mastermind.
But now wasn’t the time to bring it up.
What mattered most at the moment was—
‘Are there any more clues related to Dolores’ rescue?’
In this episode, about 95% of players choose to search the abandoned mine with the main party, while the remaining 5% wander around the village gathering information.
Of course, I’d never heard of anyone in that 5% actually finding information related to Dolores.
But now that the story had deviated, maybe searching the village would actually yield something…
‘Where should I go?’
That was the problem.
I could only visit one place before the day ended.
Yet, Trash Village had a total of eight different locations I could choose from.
If I had multiple playthroughs, I’d just pick a random spot and test it out. But that wasn’t an option now.
As I was deep in thought—
“Dig deeper!”
“O-okay!”
I heard children shouting somewhere nearby.
By now, I was quite familiar with those voices.
It was the Trash Sprout Defense Squad.
“What are they up to now?”
“Keke, let’s go take a look.”
The small plaza we were currently in was one of the eight locations.
If we moved toward the children, we wouldn’t be able to go anywhere else.
It could end up being a waste of time.
But I chose to stay here.
‘This is an event I haven’t seen before.’
Not to mention, the Trash Sprout Defense Squad was linked to many events involving Dolores.
This place had more potential than the other choices.
Figuring out what the kids were doing wasn’t difficult.
They were cleaning up the mess left behind by the rotten eggs they had thrown.
“Hurry up! Do you think you’ll finish at this pace?”
Whale was leading the charge.
“Hm… Looks clean.”
Adel was inspecting their work.
And the one actually doing the cleaning by hand—
“C-Cleaning is hard!”
—was the youngest member of the Trash Sprout Defense Squad, Acela.
“You’re not digging deep enough. If you don’t turn the soil properly, you can’t use it as fertilizer. At least dig as deep as the size of a hand!”
“M-My hand is only this big…”
“Then I’ll change the standard to an adult’s hand! Move faster!”
“O-Okay!”
Acela started digging the soil with a small trowel, putting all her effort into it.
Watching the scene, Luna smacked both Adel and Whale on the head.
Smack!
“Ugh!”
“W-What?! Are we under attack by villains?!”
“I’m the lion of justice here to punish you villains, you brats!”
Adel and Whale, realizing it was us, grumbled while rubbing their heads.
“What the heck? Oh, it’s just the foul-tempered lady. Why’d you hit us?”
“Cleaning is fine. But why are you dumping all the work on the youngest?”
“We’re not dumping work! We’re assigning roles.”
“Role-playing is nice and all, but you’ve given her way too many roles.”
Luna was right.
Acela carried a small notebook with her. Inside, every task she was assigned was neatly listed. Cleaning was just one of many.
“…We didn’t have a choice. If we don’t keep her busy, she’ll keep thinking about Dolores.”
“Dolores? The missing girl?”
Why was her name suddenly coming up here?
Adel scratched his head awkwardly before speaking in a voice quiet enough that Acela, still digging the ground, wouldn’t hear.
“The Trash Sprout Defense Squad originally started with just the two of us. Acela only joined recently. Not even a few days ago.”
“What? That recent? Wait… don’t tell me—”
Luna trailed off.
She had realized the timing coincided with a certain incident.
“That’s right. We were the only kids in the village… so Dolores used to take care of us.”
“She especially looked after Acela. She even took her along when she had things to do. We only played together sometimes. But then…”
When Dolores disappeared, Acela was left alone.
She wandered around the village searching for her, crying all day.
Seeing her like that, Adel and Whale pretended they needed more members and brought Acela into the Trash Sprout Defense Squad.
They were trying to fill the void Dolores had left, even if just a little.
“The rule that ‘members of the Trash Sprout Defense Squad can’t cry’ was made to stop Acela from crying. But…”
Even after being kicked by an adult, she still tried to follow that rule.
Maybe the one who was truly the most devoted to the Trash Sprout Defense Squad… was their youngest member, Acela.
“…Damn. You guys are actually good kids.”
Luna ruffled Adel and Whale’s hair.
Constantly assigning Acela tasks—it wasn’t just pushing work onto her.
It was their way of looking after her.
“Since we shared our secret, you should share one with us too.”
“A secret?”
“You guys didn’t come here as tourists, did you? You’re here to find a demon.”
…Damn.
These kids were sharper than they looked.
–TL Notes–
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