Stampede (3)
The Forest of Death, from which escape is absolutely impossible.
The mont you set foot inside, the forest emits a mysterious wavelength that soon makes it impossible to find your way.
In the end, you beco dood to wander the forest forever—escaping becos impossible.
The forest itself feels like a magnet, pulling you in. Or perhaps, it feels as if the forest has its own will, intent on devouring people.
Because of this, a party must have soone capable of handling a pathfinding magitech device to avoid getting lost.
In a stampede, the real trouble isn't just the monsters.
"Pram! Thank you so much!"
"We survived because of you!"
Thanks to this, Pram received high praise among her teammates.
Everyone had thought no one would be able to activate the pathfinding magitech device.
But the mont it landed in Pram's hands, it began to function.
"But how did you do it?"
"Pram, are you by any chance a mage?"
So, curiosity flooded among the group.
None of them had any training in magic.
However, Pram had only held the device, yet it activated. Normally, it required the input of a spell with magic power to function, yet she did none of that.
No one could believe that a child who had never learned magic could do such a thing.
"I told you, I have no idea!"
"Co on, be honest~"
"I really don't know! My legs hurt so much I could die right now, so stop talking to !"
After a single mont of heroics, Pram beca the center of attention, which was a great burden.
She was already out of breath from running around like mad.
And the stampede was not over yet. Since everyone needed to take care of themselves, Louis addressed the team.
"You guys should rest now. You must be exhausted."
At that mont, soone shouted in their direction.
"Louis!"
Silia, who was standing at the entrance of the camp tent, called for Louis.
At the deputy-commander's call, the team was startled.
"I'll be back for a bit. Don't cause any trouble while I'm gone."
Leaving those words behind, Louis headed to the tent set up at the base.
As soone weak in physical matters, Pram lagged behind the others.
Fortunately, with Louis nearby, she hadn't beco monster food.
"To think the weakest among us would have such a talent—who could have guessed?"
"I really don't know myself. Ah~ I'm exhausted."
Tired from her teammates' enthusiastic welco, Pram yawned and half-closed her eyes.
"Probably even young master Louis couldn't pull that off."
When Victor praised her again, Pram replied with a mischievous grin.
"True enough. For once, I'm better than the young master."
"Shh! Quiet!"
"Mm...!"
Dimo, looking shocked, clapped a hand over Pram's mouth.
Startled by the sudden contact, Pram's eyes widened as she protested.
"Why'd you do that all of a sudden!"
"Watch your mouth! What if the young master hears you!"
"What about the young master, ah...!"
Pram realized what mistake she had made.
Louis had an unusually sharp sense of hearing.
Even the sound of a stone dropping far away seed like it was right next to his ears.
This fact was common knowledge among all the team mbers, thanks to their ti together.
Given Louis's sensitive senses, one should never talk behind his back lest it incur his displeasure.
But....
'I heard everything, you brats.'
Standing in front of the distant tent at the encampnt, Louis had already listened to their conversation.
Normally, he would have scolded them, but for now, letting them rest was more important.
"Co in."
When he heard the voice from inside the tent, Louis stepped in.
He took a seat facing Silia, who had been waiting, and asked,
"Is it alright to allow a re soldier into a tent ant only for officers?"
"For now, the other officers and the commander are out in different areas. There's nobody here to judge, so relax."
It wasn't a lie. There was no sign of any other officers nearby.
Silia continued,
"You'll be able to rest easy here for a while."
"Does that an the operation was a success?"
"That's right. At least for now, we can relax a little."
Because they had played their bait role well, this ti they were guaranteed a proper rest.
It also ant that Klein's magic array had worked effectively.
Thanks to that, the surviving soldiers could sleep peacefully tonight.
"What happened to Rejir?"
"He's still alive. He's probably sleeping in the fortress's dical tent by now. Looks like he swallowed so kind of poison, but sohow he survived."
"I got the poison out before it could spread completely."
Thanks to Louis's intervention, the poison's effect was reduced by half.
Of course, even that would be fatal for a normal person, but Rejir turned out to be an aura user.
With his reinforced body, he could withstand the weakened poison, but he was still unconscious.
"But why did you save soone from a hostile family?"
Normally, leaving him to die would have been the logical choice. Whether he died from the poison or killed himself, who would care.
There was a reason he was kept alive.
"That guy suddenly attacked our group. The reason should be obvious."
Rejir must have held a grudge against Louis for dragging him into this demon realm.
It was nothing but brazen hypocrisy at this point—but it was no longer surprising.
"What was your squad leader Eike doing?"
When a soldier attacks comrades during warti, it's up to an officer to stop it.
But here, neither soldiers nor officers were in their right minds.
"He tead up with Rejir to try to kill us."
"...."
At that, Silia narrowed her eyes.
Indeed, when Louis's team escaped the forest, squad leader Eike was nowhere to be found.
"So what happened to Eike?"
"I killed him. Or, more precisely, he was betrayed by Rejir."
"You know what happens to a soldier who attacks their allies during a stampede, right?"
"We were clearly acting in self-defense."
Louis raised his hands low, showing his innocence.
If anyone deserved punishnt, it was Eike and Rejir.
"Then there's no point in keeping Rejir alive."
"If we do that, we'll never find out who's behind this."
What was a rookie like Rejir relying on to attack his own allies?
Moreover, it wasn't his sole idea; even the officer Eike had cooperated.
Co to think of it, Eike was also a new officer.
It was unlikely he'd have done such a thing without soone's instigation.
Especially not during this stampede.
"So that's why you saved him?"
"I'm sure there's soone who incited them to kill us. There's no rush to kill him—we can do that after discovering everyone involved."
It was a clear violation of the rules set by the commander. If Kelian found out, he wouldn't let it slide.
But during this stampede, there would never be a more perfect ti to kill an ally.
Except for a mont's rest, it wouldn't be strange for anyone to die at any ti.
"So, aside from Rejir's grudge, there are others targeting you."
"That's what makes this the perfect opportunity. You can kill soone quietly in the chaos and claim they died to monsters."
There were plenty of plausible causes of death besides monsters—
Grazed by a poison spine, dying from starvation and eating the wrong plant or animal, disappearing in so special place like the Forest of Death.
And...
"There's always the chance we'll run into higher-rank monsters, isn't there?"
"......."
At Louis's words, Silia's face clouded over. The re rumor that higher-rank monsters could appear filled every soldier with fear.
Unlike the low-level ones, they possess intelligence. There's no guarantee a bait tactic like today would work on them.
"Did they say those monsters would actually target us?"
"Strictly speaking, we're just on one of their possible routes. If we're lucky, they might just ignore us and pass by."
After all, the true enemies of the monsters weren't the fortress troops, but other monsters occupying rival territories.
Since they have intelligence, they're likely to make rational decisions.
In short, if you don't go near them, you won't have to fight.
"With monsters like that looming, is there really anyone who would care if a comrade dies?"
Who would mourn the death of a shrimp crushed between fighting whales?
If anyone would, it'd be Kelian alone.
He was the only one in the fortress capable of facing higher-rank monsters.
"Enemies on all sides..."
Monsters, the Forest of Death, and even possibly hostile allies.
If soone survived all that, "lucky" wouldn't even begin to describe it.
With that in mind, Silia voiced a question.
"But how did your squad survive? In that Forest of Death?"
Even Silia found it incredible that they made it out alive.
The fact that it was Pram, Louis's squad mber, who made it possible was shocking.
"I told you before. My squad mbers aren't ordinary kids."
At the ti, there was no one who could use the R-Type Guide.
Eike was dead, Rejir was unconscious. Louis could find the way himself, but he couldn't use the magitech device for it.
It requires advanced magic or magitech knowledge to operate. The mont Pram grabbed it, she made it work.
"No wonder Pram is the most frail among us."
She wasn't a child talented with the sword. Rather, she had a different talent altogether.
Louis had been just as surprised at the ti. Pram's frailty made sense in retrospect.
"If she keeps surviving, she could beco an excellent mage one day."
If she managed to keep going, that is.
To do that, what Pram needed to pick up now wasn't a sword, but a staff—or a book.
"Not just a mage, probably in many fields."
In his past life, Louis had played nearly every class in the ga.
Knight, mage, archer, thief, druid.
Normally, you'd pick one of these five basic fields, but each field also split into specializations.
Every class had a first and second job change.
The characteristics of skills changed according to the personality selected for the character.
If you went "good" with mage, you beca an Elental Master handling elents.
If you went "evil," you beca a dark mage wielding demonic power.
When Louis played as a mage, he'd picked "good
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