[V8C5] Wow, My Students Are So Talented!
Translated by Jodas 8: The Witch of the BoundaryEven if they wanted to return to the Wedge Tower, Monsters waited for them in the Town of Merwen along the way
Obviously, they couldn’t just leave those Monsters be, but the adults in the room figured it might be too hard for just the group currently at the inn to take care of them.
Tia thought so as well. That blond Monster was quite a strong Monster.
He had to be equal to, if not greater in power than the frost Monster they met in the autumn. His physical strength at least overwhelmingly exceeded that one.
To be honest, she had been prepared to die when that Monster hit her.
“……Piyo?”
“What is it, Tia? Is there something on your mind?”
“Pirorororo… Hm…”
Whether when chased around by the Eyeball Birds or when hit by the blond Monster, Tia made it out with only minor scrapes and bruises.
As far as Tia could tell, those injuries seemed far too light.
“Shouldn’t those Monsters have been a lot stronger than that? It wasn’t like they were holding back… It felt like they were weaker than they normally were, or something… Pevuvu…”
An Eyeball Bird’s talons should have the power to tear through a beast’s flesh.
Tia definitely felt like those Monsters were weaker than she remembered.
As she thought, Tia suddenly remembered something.
“Ah, right! The Eyeball Birds had a weird shiny thing on them!”
All of the adults looked at her with suspicion.
Speaking for all adults present, Hütter asked.
“What the heck does that mean? Were the Monsters wearing accessories or something?”
“Um… Something crystal-like was stuck in their bodies. I think I caught a glimpse of something sparkly through the Greater Monster’s clothes on his chest, too.”
The adults expressions changed at once when Tia spoke.
They started to discuss among themselves with fast voices.
“There are some Monsters that collect shiny objects, but Eyeball Birds shouldn’t be one of them.”
“I’ve never seen a Monster like that myself.”
“Then is it a new species…?”
The mages of the Investigation and Extermination Offices quickly spoke as they shared their interpretations.
Among that chatter, Wren raised his hand.
“Um, would it be possible for Monsters to modify crystals from the Crystal Territory and wear them? By wearing crystals from the Crystal Territory, they could move around in places with low mana density… or something like that?”
Wren’s line of thought stunned Tia.
She’d never thought of walking around with a crystal from the Crystal Territory.
(But, I don’t think their range would expand that much just by walking around with a crystal that had a lot of mana… right?)
Maybe they could walk around a little farther into the Boundary Territory, but the Darwock Royal Palace or Merwen would be way too far.
In the first place, because Monsters did not have the ability to create, Monsters had dramatically lower talents for such things compared to humans. Besides, even the thought of relying on a tool would not occur to them.
Wren turned to Rukiye as she sewed.
“Rukiye, could you make something like that?”
“I’ve never seen a crystal of the Crystal Territory in the first place, so I can’t really say much about it, but… It takes serious skill to make something that works by embedding it directly into the body like that. It’s on a completely different level from just making an accessory out of crystals.”
The other adults all nodded along with Rukiye’s answer.
Tia agreed as well. Monsters didn’t have the skills to make something so convenient… But…
“Then, what if they made one of their human thralls or whatever make them?”
Sevil cut in sharply.
“Pefu!” Tia let out a yelp of surprise. Tia wasn’t alone. Everyone else’s faces darkened as well.
“If I could not make something by my own hands, then I need only find someone talented enough who can. That is what I would do if I were them.”
This was something that both Tia, the Monster, and the humans of the Wedge Tower who knew monsters well had overlooked precisely because of their expertise.
— Monsters do not rely on tools. They do not have the skills to make tools of their own.
They had taken that fact for granted.
When Hütter heard Wren and Sevil’s comments, he thought.
(My students are super talented~!)
Tia did well to escape from a Greater Monster and bring back valuable intel.
Then Wren and Sevil used that intel to broach the possibility that the Monsters had been using never-before-seen tools.
They were all so talented.
That in mind, Hütter made a face that said ‘I knew all along that my students would say such things,’ and spoke.
“If humans and monsters had been working together, then it wouldn’t be out of the question for them to get a foothold in the Wedge Tower either.”
Hütter lifted his glasses up. Everyone’s eyes followed the motion of his hand.
This felt good. Thanks to his three students, everyone’s eyes were on Hütter, and in a good way.
Hütter then stated with a calm voice, but taking care to include a sensible level of tension:
“The Monsters have acquired a means to travel away from the Crystal Territory… That much is certain. But, I believe this must also come with some limitation.”
“…I see. So something like their powers are weakened, or that there is a limited number of crystals left. That sounds possible.”
Otto stroked his chin as he thought.
Hütter nodded once and continued to speak.
“That part is not confirmed, though. Let’s leave that as a wishful possibility for now. What’s important is that we communicate this information to Headmaster Möbius and the Wedge Tower as soon as possible.”
Alright, this was going well. Hütter secretly pumped his fist.
(By taking control of this discussion like this, then I can put forward my plan of running away to safety…!)
Hütter was a member of the Guidance Office and the Instructor to Tia and the others.
In that case, he should be thinking of a safe way to have the Apprentices get back to the Wedge Tower. If he could do that, then Hütter himself would also be able to return safely along with them.
One of the Investigation Office mages raised their hand.
“I will deliver the message to Headmaster Möbius. I believe I can get the message to him by myself before the day is over.”
Headmaster Möbius was meeting with the Darwock Queen’s faction at the moment. He should have been relatively nearby, so sharing information with him shouldn’t be hard.
The problem was how to return to the Wedge Tower.
Hütter glared at the map as he spoke.
“Then, I’ll bring the students to hurry back to the Wedge Tower. That said, the odds are high that Monsters are staking out our original route.”
“In that case, while the road itself is more treacherous, we should probably detour to the West, via the other side of the Wall.”
Otto’s proposal sounded reasonably appropriate.
To the West of this town was an invisible Wall across which Monsters could not pass. Möbius had also told him to flee to the West should anything happen.
That was precisely why this route was not a suitable escape route. — That was what his third-rate con man instincts were telling him.
Hütter surveyed everyone’s faces and aksed.
”‘Monsters cannot cross the Western Wall.’ — Monsters themselves understand this, yes?”
Sevil, who was quick to pick things up when it came to violent matters like this, muttered “I see…”
“If the Monsters had enough knowledge to wait in ambush around Merwen… Then there is a reasonable probability that they have also predicted that humans would try to cross the Western Wall. If anything, that could be the reason they set up that ambush in Merwen and let Tia go.”
“Pyofu? They let me go?”
“It is still only a possibility. However, if it were me, I wouldn’t kill a single messenger; I would let them wander about and try their hardest until I get the chance to crush the whole group in one fell swoop.”
While Sevil’s way of speaking was violent, Hütter agreed for the most part.
Especially because the land to the West was more hilly with many places with poor footing. Those sorts of places were where attacks from the sky were most devastating.
According to Tia’s story, there were Monsters called Eyeball Birds that could attack from the sky. If the Monsters had even a little bit of knowledge to them, these Eyeball Birds or whatever should be able to stake out the area around the Wall.
Hütter traced his hand across the map as he gave his suggestion.
“Merwen to the South is a no-go. The Wall to the West is also a no-go… that leaves us with the East. How about we take this route, just barely skirting around the Forest of the Boundary, passing through the Lange Hamlet?”
There were several powerful mages already stationed in the Lange Hamlet such as the Extermination Office’s Frederik Lange, so if anything happened, those people could protect them.
(Tia’s Magical Flying Device is out of commission for the time being. In that case, it’s time for me to pull out my tricks.)
Hütter secretly brought one of his pet pigeons — one of the Poppos — to act as a messenger pigeon for him. However, he couldn’t use the pigeon to send messages to the Wedge Tower.
That was because Hütter had previously used slight of hand and those pigeons to demonstrate his so-called ‘chantless illusion magic’ to the mages of the Wedge Tower. If he used the pigeons as messengers here, there was a chance his trick could be exposed.
He had to hide the existence of the Poppos, the key to his magic tricks, from the mages of the Wedge Tower.
As such, he had entrusted the care of the other pigeons to Sombart while he was out.
(It would be hard to send a message to the Wedge Tower… but it wouldn’t be hard to send a message there.)
It was crucial to have a capable assistant.
Of course, he wasn’t talking about Sombart, the guy feeding the pigeons. He was talking about the Black Lion Emperor’s subordinate: Heidi.
Wrapping up his thoughts in short order, Hütter wore a grave expression.
“If Monsters and humans are working together, It’s not unthinkable that they’ve already infiltrated the Wedge Tower. From now on, we need to not only be cautious of Monsters, we must keep an eye on what the humans are doing as well.”
When Hütter said that, his three students, Tia, Wren, and Sevil briefly glanced at each other.
Surely, they were communicating with their eyes something along the lines of ‘Wow, Mr. Hütter is so smart and cool!’