CH 54

[Hated Hero’s First Party Battle]

The unidentified monster that had appeared out of nowhere.

It looked as if it was born as a result of the synthesization of various different monsters. The four of us stared at it in mute astonishment.

If this guy got to the venue of the ball—or rather, the academy, it would be disastrous. Guessing that, we challenged the roaring monster.

“I will go first!”

Raul took the lead.

As was in the original storyline, through training under the Holy Knight Klaus, Raul was now able to control the power of the Demon Sword to some degree; he was overpowering the monster. Moreover…

“I’ll go next.”

…after the monster took some heavy damage under Raul’s assault, Jarvis, who took pride in his speed, joined in. With his ever-beautiful swordsmanship, he gradually chipped away at the monster’s stamina, eventually inflicting a large wound on it with a slash on its back.

I must say, the two were performing great… I couldn’t let myself fall behind, could I?

“Haa!”

Following my loud shout, mana overflowed the Holy Sword with tremendous force. I converted it to the wind element and lightly swung the sword.

That was all I did—but an instant later, the monster’s body bled from countless cuts. It appeared that it was the final straw that broke the camel’s back, its huge body powerlessly collapsed to the ground.

“W-wow… how did you do that?” Jarvis asked in wonder.

“I just projected a slash, is all,” I answered matter-of-factly.

A projectile slash to bring down enemies from a distance.

With this move, I could deal damage to the enemy and use restraining spells to seal their movements once they were weakened.

But it ended up being an instant kill.

Though it wasn’t dead yet, so strictly speaking, it didn’t count as a kill. However, I was able to subdue the rampaging monster in the most efficient and effective way without wasting time and effort.

“That’s amazing, Lord Barrett!” Raul shouted excitedly.

“That was quite good teamwork for an impromptu team, I’d say. What do you think, Mr. Walter?” Jarvis asked.

“Indeed, that was brilliant. Moreover, you only subdued it and didn’t kill it. Am I correct to assume it was so that we may examine it?”

“Yes, you are, and please do.”

How did such a bizarre monster appear in the academy? To figure that out, we had chosen to fight it in a way that let us capture it alive.

“Seriously… you guys are amazing.”

We got Mr. Walter’s acknowledgment as a bonus, too; I’d say the result of this battle was great, to say the least.

…Wait, come to think of it, we three were members of the hero party in the original storyline. The rest of the party members were Tayte and one other person.

Oh yeah, that person—【that girl】, I hadn’t met nor heard anyone mentioning her name.

Well, in the original storyline, perhaps because of the train wreck that was the hero party led by (former)Barrett, she never talked about her origin in detail… she may not even be a student of the academy.

After a while, other teachers and knights rushed over.

The fact that students had worked together to bring down a never-before-seen giant monster gave a huge shock to the new arrivals.

Leaving the clean-up to them, we students headed back.

Once we arrived at the venue of the ball, we found the other students getting ready to go back already, looking slightly down. Well, it was only natural with how things ended.

However, seeing the disappointed students, the student council, through its president, Reina, announced that it would be holding a different event at a later date. Upon hearing that, the students’ expressions brightened.

And as for me…

“Barrett!!”

As I turned around upon hearing my name being shouted, I felt a strong impact on my chest.

“T-Tayte… I’m back.”

“A-are you okay?!”

“I’m totally fine. There was a strange monster, but we all made a short work of it.”

“That’s good… If anything were to happen to you, I would have…”

“Tayte…”

I hugged Tayte tightly until she calmed down. But I was sweating after the battle, so I was honestly worried about her smelling it…

As I was calming Tayte, I met eyes with Raul and Jarvis, who then gave me thumbs up and took their leaves.

Afterward, Tayte returned to her room with a maid from the House of Ehrenberg, whereas I, sweating from the battle earlier, was going to go take a bath, but as a matter of course, it would take time to get the bath in my room ready. As such…

“Is the public bath open at this hour?”

…so I asked Marina, who gently nodded, “Yes, it is. In fact, there should be no other students at this hour, so it may actually be a perfect time.”

“You’re right.”

It’d be bothersome if it was crowded, and above all, I wanted to wash off these sweats and go see Tayte again as soon as possible.

Suppressing my enthusiasm, I headed for the public bath.