Chapter 40
A week had passed since the apprentice knights began their training.
Whenever I ran into the boys coming down the stairs, they would cry out for help.
Each ti, I would go to Lucille and speak to her.
"It seems they are still lively enough to complain."
"Hmm~"
Lucille would show a refreshing smile.
I knew what that ant without having to ask.
I simply prayed for the souls of the boys during the training that would take place tomorrow.
I passed by her and headed toward the upper floors.
On the 14th floor, located below the 15th-floor conference room, there was a room called the Situation Room.
"Hello."
I was the only survivor who was not a knight permitted to enter and exit this place.
After the successful conquest of the Laboratory.
The cold attitude of the knights had completely turned around.
Rodwell took advantage of this atmosphere and shared so of his knightly authority with .
Of course, we did not discuss this in person.
Tania conveyed it to , acting as his proxy.
"Welco."
The knight Truman welcod .
He was a man of massive build who looked more obese than the other knights.
He leaned back in a small chair that did not fit his size and yawned repeatedly.
"The others have left for a while to eat lunch."
"I am aware."
Truman kindly explained the reason why no one was in the room.
I had intentionally co at this ti.
Not a few knights harbored dissatisfaction with the sudden granting of authority to .
I wanted to avoid unnecessary friction.
"I will examine the map for a mont."
"Sure."
In the Situation Room, a map of the tower area was attached to the wall.
Scribbled ink handwriting was visible on the map.
The knights who patrolled the vicinity or stood guard left information here.
The date and ti.
The areas where zombies appeared and their numbers.
If there was contact with other survivors, what the scale was and what the purpose was.
"It seems nothing much has happened."
"Yeah, pretty much."
I know the scenarios that will happen in the future.
The problem was that the variety of scenarios was far too diverse.
In order to guess which direction things would flow, I had to gather as much information as possible.
I deduced the consolidated information together with [Clever].
Fortunately…
There was no possibility of a sudden event occurring just yet.
The tower had entered a period of stability.
I thought it would last a month at most, but it was enough to soothe my exhausted body.
"If only weak monsters wander around like they do these days, won't peace arrive soon?"
Truman spoke again, as if he had grown tired of the silence.
"I am not sure. Even if they are weak, if a hundred of them show up at once, the story would change."
Among zombies, there are swarm types.
These were forms where groups that were not variants moved together as if living in a colony.
I had seen instances where the scale exceeded a thousand.
"You speak of such terrible things without hesitation."
"I ant that we must consider such possibilities as well."
"Don't say that to the other knights. You will be disliked."
"I am not the type of person who stays quiet about what needs to be said because I fear being disliked by others, so I am fine."
"You truly seem like a fellow who refuses to lose."
I greeted Truman and left the Situation Room after my business was finished.
I headed to the 4th floor.
Since it was a dormitory where won stayed, the entry of n was strictly prohibited.
Therefore, I did not enter the passage.
After waiting for a while, the person I wanted to et appeared.
It was Luizella.
"Haha, hello."
Luizella waved her hand with an awkward smile.
A week had passed since I brought her to the tower.
Her once filthy appearance had beco clean, and her emaciated body had gained a bit of flesh.
She seed to be doing quite well.
"How are you doing?"
"? Of course I’m good. Compared to that crude laboratory room, this place is no different from heaven. It is all thanks to you. Thank you."
Luizella, who was expressing her gratitude, could not et my eyes.
She was keeping what happened at the Laboratory in her heart.
The sense of guilt for having tried to flee alone.
That fact tornted her even now that ti had passed.
"Anyone, not just you, would not have trusted at that ti."
"...Haha."
She tried to et my eyes while letting out an awkward laugh.
But she quickly avoided them again.
I suppose there is no absolute need to look at her face while talking.
I thought to myself that if it was uncomfortable, then it was fine as it was.
"You said you had a favor to ask. What is it?"
"There is soone who needs help."
"Is fire needed?"
She imdiately connected the word help with fire.
It was what she did inside the tower.
Starting fires to cook food and raising people's body temperatures.
It seed she also occasionally cauterized wounds.
A fire-attribute mage.
In weather where white breath flowed out, the power she possessed held great value.
"That is true. It could be seen that way."
At my ambiguous answer, Luizella tilted her head.
I led her toward a room on another floor.
"Ah!"
The girl who had arrived at the room first reacted to the sound of the door opening.
It was Tania.
Luizella raised the corners of her mouth as if she guessed her role upon seeing the girl.
"So that’s what this is about."
"It is indeed that."
Luizella approached the girl and took her hand.
"It is an honor for to teach the daughter of the Rainwood family."
Tania also seed to have noticed the situation as she looked back and forth between and Luizella.
"Are you becoming my teacher, big sis?"
"Yes, do you perhaps have any complaints?"
"No, it is just... it is slightly different from what I expected."
Tania's voice grew fainter and finally, she looked at .
It seed she believed that I would be the one teaching her.
"She is amazing. Entering a Laboratory as an assistant is extrely difficult. You must graduate from the Academy with excellent grades and also need a professor's recomndation. Above all, it is best to learn magic from soone of the sa attribute."
I presented the logical argunt to her as she stood there disappointed.
Tania slumped her shoulders as if she had finally given up.
Luizella hugged the disappointed girl tightly.
"As for such an ignorant man. You can get your revenge by showing him your grown self."
"Is that so?"
"Of course, he will surely regret it later. He will say, 'I should have held onto her back then.'"
"I will learn diligently!"
The two won were in perfect harmony.
It would be fine to leave them be.
I left the two behind and walked outside.
I had assigned appropriate teachers to each of the boys and the girl.
To survive in THE Survival, team balance is also important.
Becoming strong alone was simply impossible.
This was know-how obtained through failing nurous tis.
I will make them capable of pulling their own weight.
* * *
[Mana increases by 5.]
[Current Mana: 400]
On the day of departure for the summit venue.
I succeeded in digesting all thirty mana herbs.
Not eating them all at once was the correct answer.
If I had finished them hastily, my condition would have been a ss due to exhaustion from an upset stomach.
[Patience] also seed to have suffered quite a bit this ti.
"It seems it was even harder than during battle."
[Patience], which usually never lost its composure, was quiet for now.
Just as one cannot use magic if mana is insufficient.
I thought that personality traits might also have limits.
"Cheep, cheep!"
The chicks had grown beyond recognition in the span of three weeks.
Compared to when they hatched, their size had tripled.
Their food intake had also doubled in proportion to their increased size.
I looked at the sacks containing feed.
In a corner, sacks as high as a 10-story building were stacked like a tower.
It was not a stage to worry yet.
However, the concern for supplies should be done when they are abundant, not right before they run out.
"It would be better to obtain more if possible."
"Cheep! Cheep~!"
The chicks reacted to the words I muttered.
The agile ones threw their bodies and jumped onto my thighs.
Then they huddled as if it were their nest.
I heard that chicks instinctively look for warm places.
That is also the reason why chicks gather together.
It seed the gap between my thighs was warr for them than the straw.
"No matter what creature it is, they are cutest when they are young."
I could have used [Growth] on the chicks one more ti.
Yet I did not use it.
In this desolate world, the pure movents of the chicks made my heart feel at ease.
If they beca chickens, that feeling would surely be diluted.
[Cool] spoke.
It said it would be more profitable to use [Growth] to turn them into chickens quickly.
It was a realistic answer.
"I will do so when the ti cos, but I don't want to go so far as to advance the ti on purpose."
An egg-laying machine.
Food for survival.
I was not unaware that thinking that way was more advantageous for survival.
I knitted my brows.
Had I made a wrong choice?
If this mistake returned as a butterfly effect and strangled my neck.
Would I be able to not regret it even then?
"I am sorry, but it seems I must go now."
I stabilized the mana that had flowed into my Dantian.
I put the chicks back down, checked the farm, and stepped outside.
The abandoned ruins.
A desolate and silent world with not a single sign of human presence.
When I looked at this scenery, I thought that the choice I made was not so bad.
* * *
"It has been a long ti."
"Ahem, it has been a long ti."
Rodwell answered with a dry cough.
"I expected to et at least once before departure. I did not know you would truly avoid for three weeks."
"I avoided you? That is a misunderstanding. I was simply. Sick. You know."
Silver eyes full of doubt stared this way.
His prestige as a Captain fell to the floor.
It did not matter.
If we had held a conversation, he was the type of fellow who would have cleared out his supplies with a silver tongue.
"It seems we will have much to talk about at the summit venue as well."
"I am sorry, but since we use different rooms, we won't have a chance to et."
"Even if I don't seek you out, Rodwell will be the first to find ."
Joshua shrugged his shoulders.
I know the scenario that will unfold at the summit venue.
Even if I don't do anything in particular.
The picture of Rodwell kneeling and pleading was vivid in my eyes.
"What an unpleasant prophecy."
Rodwell clicked his tongue.
He sat on a rock in front of the entrance.
He erased his laughter and wore an expression suitable for the na of a Knight Captain.
A solemn and cold gaze.
It was a perfect match for the nickna in the ga, Insightful Rodwell.
"Joshua, from now on, we will talk about sothing a bit different. You, what did you do?"
It was an ambiguous question asking what he had done.
Joshua saw through the aning of what it was about.
It was about his mana.
"I did not do anything in particular."
"I am a knight, so I am quite unskilled at gauging mana. Nevertheless, I could tell that your mana has changed. It ans it was not a slight change. It changed to a noticeable degree."
Unless one is sensitive to mana, it is difficult to distinguish an increase of 5 or 10.
But if it was 150, the story was different.
Even an ordinary person who knows nothing about mana could feel it as a form of intimidation.
"In terms of mana alone, you are similar to Lucille. It ans you are a Vetus (6th rank). If only it were not a world like this, news that a prodigy has appeared or that a monstrous prospect has been born would have followed, and the sounds of praising you would have reached the entire Academy."
Rodwell paused for a mont and continued his words.
"But that is not the case now. When one suddenly becos strong, there are more people who act with caution, fear, jealousy, or envy rather than those who look up to them."
"Are you like that as well?"
Dark circles around the eyes.
A pale complexion.
As a leader, he was a human being who had many things to shoulder even without fighting.
"When power becos strong, factions are bound to form. In fact, there are mbers who rely on Lucille more than . Fortunately, nothing has happened yet, but it might happen soday. I hate situations I cannot control. Because I have to use violence."
Joshua understood his feelings.
He himself had experience with an internal colleague stabbing him in the back.
As such things usually do.
They tend to happen suddenly in a situation where the person themselves is unaware.
"Rest assured. The thing you are worried about will not happen."
"Is that so."
"That is so."
"Then it seems I have beco friends with the strongest Novice (9th rank). What a sha, as you cannot take the promotion test. The tag of Novice will always follow you."
"Would that not be better instead? If the opponent looks down on , a gap will be created, and those things can be utilized."
Rodwell let out a sigh as if it were absurd.
"Do you have no desire for power? You must have been a noble once too. Do you not miss the life where maids looked after you and subordinates prepared things for you?"
"Not particularly."
Rodwell was shocked.
The way of thinking was not that of a noble.
If one were to fall deeply into that sweet life even once, no one could ever escape.
In fact, the reason his family was desperately trying to revive was likely because they had enjoyed the comfort that power provides.
"I simply cannot figure you out."
"I hear that often."
Rodwell’s gaze turned toward the entrance.
Through the open gap, Tania and Lucille could be seen approaching.
"It is ti to depart. I ask for your support."
"Yes, I ask for yours as well."
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