Chapter 197

“…Ah!”

The next day, Jacqueline jolted awake with a start.

Bright light streaming in from outside the building stabbed into her eyes.

How long on earth did I sleep?

She felt completely refreshed. It had been a long time since she’d slept this deeply.

Because of the conversation she had overheard from the villagers the previous night, she thought she would be too anxious to sleep well… but that wasn’t the case at all.

She had slept so soundly that someone could have carried her away and she wouldn’t have noticed.

It was because of the fatigue from the journey.

But if nothing happened all night… maybe what I overheard yesterday was just my imagination?

Jacqueline suddenly felt embarrassed.

The villagers were kind enough to lend complete strangers like us the biggest house in the village…

Looking around the room, she saw that her other friends were still deep in dreamland.

Feeling hungry, Jacqueline got up from her seat.

When she stepped outside the lodging, a delicious smell drifted from somewhere.

“Hey, you’re awake.”

“Ah, good morning.”

A woman with dark-brown hair braided like a scorpion’s tail noticed Jacqueline and waved.

Cat’s Eye Rieka.

She was the veteran adventurer Professor Winslet had hired to guide them on this trip.

Rieka had started a fire in the courtyard of the village chief’s house and was boiling a pot.

Jacqueline’s stomach rumbled loudly as she stared at it, making Rieka chuckle.

“It’s almost done. Want a bowl?”

“Yes. I’ll have some.”

Rieka’s voice was loud and her way of speaking rough, but she didn’t seem like a bad person.

It definitely wasn’t just because she was offering food…

“Ow, hot! And it’s still undercooked.”

“Really? Guess it needs to boil a bit longer.”

“..….”

Jacqueline mentally drew a scoreboard in her mind and deducted one point from Rieka.

“By the way, it’s really quiet.”

“Yeah. There’s no one here.”

“Huh? But the villagers are—”

“They all left.”

“Left? All those people at once? When?”

“Last night. They seemed to be in quite a hurry, like they had some urgent business.”

Of course, Rieka didn’t mention that the destination of that midnight departure was the afterlife.

Jacqueline looked around the area once, then crouched down beside the fire and asked,

“Then where is Professor Winslet?”

“He came out a little while ago and went to look around the village.”

Jacqueline’s eyes sparkled as she asked,

“Which direction did he go?”

“Why? Planning to follow him?”

“Hahaha.”

Jacqueline tried to brush it off with laughter, and Rieka shook her head.

“Forget it. If you’ve got that much energy, go fill up those water skins in the leather bags over there.”

Following Rieka’s gesture, Jacqueline turned her gaze and saw a mountain-like pile of luggage stacked in one corner of the yard.

“Wow, what are all those?”

“What do you mean what? They’re supplies for our trip.”

“But the villagers all left. Where did you get all that?”

“They said those things were useless to them, so they told us to take everything.”

“The villagers were really kind and warm-hearted people.”

Rieka snorted.

“The stew’s done. Go wake your friends. We’re leaving as soon as breakfast is over.”

***

As soon as breakfast was finished, Rieka went somewhere and came back leading two large beasts tied with ropes, then loaded luggage onto their backs.

“This is about the limit of what those lizards can carry… The rest we’ll split up and carry ourselves. It’s mostly just food and water skins anyway. Once we eat it tonight, the weight won’t be much of a burden. Alright, let’s go.”

Rieka slapped the beast on its side, and the lizard that was twice the size of a human began walking forward with heavy steps.

The wasteland lizard used instead of pack horses in Ground Zero was a flat creature that resembled a crocodile.

Its hide was rough and thick, and though it looked skinny and gaunt, it had powerful legs that carried heavy loads without difficulty.

But when Jacqueline saw the creature in person, she was deeply disappointed.

“This is a wasteland lizard? Yesterday you said it was a cute animal. It’s not cute at all.”

Rieka grinned and replied.

“At this level, it’s actually pretty cute. By Ground Zero standards, that is.”

“What kind of place is Ground Zero anyway…”

The path they took led into a wasteland where dull gray gravel stretched endlessly.

The ground was too rough for carriages to travel on, the land was lifeless and dry with barely any grass growing, and it was cold at night but scorching during the day.

Aside from the occasional strangely jutting rock formation or a withered, twisted dead tree, it was a plain where no shade could be found.

Beads of sweat quickly formed on the students’ foreheads.

Jacqueline looked back at Trisha, who was walking at the very end of the group, and asked with concern,

“Teacher Trisha, aren’t you hot? You’re wearing such a thick coat with the hood pulled all the way over your head.”

“Mmm. My skin is sensitive, so I can’t be exposed to sunlight. Even if it’s hot, I can’t help it.”

“I see…”

After speaking, Jacqueline felt her throat go dry, so she shut her mouth and focused on walking.

Of course, she started chatting again after just one minute.

“Look over there. How is Professor Winslet not sweating at all in this heat?”

“He’s cooling the surrounding air with magic.”

It was Shannon who answered.

“That’s nice. Shannon, can you do that too?”

“Mhmm.”

“Really? Then let’s do that too.”

“No. It’s a waste of mana. And it’s tiring.”

“But the professor is using it freely and doesn’t even look bothered.”

“Well, he’s the professor. I do have an affinity for the ice element, but I can’t control it as well as he can.”

That was high praise coming from Shannon, who rarely complimented anyone when it came to magic.

Just as Jacqueline finally gave up asking and let her shoulders slump, Rita who had been walking silently spoke up.

“But wouldn’t it be a little cooler around Professor Winslet?”

“Huh?”

A moment later, Rieka who had been walking at the front heard the commotion behind her, turned around, and clicked her tongue.

“Seriously, are you chicks chasing after their mother hen? Watch where you’re going instead of crowding like that!”

“But it’s so hot.”

“And we’re thirsty.”

“If you start whining already, how are you planning to make the round trip through harsh Ground Zero…?”

“Everyone stop.”

At the sudden sound of Professor Winslet’s voice, the group stopped walking.

Professor Winslet continued.

“Something’s coming.”

“Coming? What is? …Ah!”

Rieka seemed to realize first and let out an exclamation.

“What’s coming?”

“Look over there carefully.”

Professor Winslet was pointing with his finger toward the right side of the group’s path.

Following his finger with their eyes, everyone soon understood what he meant.

Far away on the horizon, there was a small black dot floating among the heat haze.

“What is that?”

“It’s floating in the sky.”

“I think I read about it in a book. That’s a mirage. It appears on very hot days, but it’s an illusion that doesn’t actually exist.”

“No, that’s not an illusion. It’s real.”

It was Rieka who answered.

“It’s real?”

“Yeah. It’s one of the phenomena you can find in Ground Zero. Normally you have to go much deeper inside to see them… so why is it out here?”

“You say ‘them’ like they’re people.”

“Pretty similar. They move with their own will.”

“They move?”

Come to think of it, before pointing at it, Professor Winslet had said “something is coming”.

Which meant…

“Don’t tell me it’s coming this way?”

The moment she said it, Jacqueline regretted it.

Her words had jinxed it.

What had looked like a small dot on the horizon began to grow larger by the second, and when it had grown to about the size of a fist, Jacqueline realized what it was.

It was a rock island.

A huge chunk of stone was floating through the air and moving, as if it were a jellyfish drifting over the sea.

Despite such an incredible mass moving quickly, it seemed unaffected by the laws of physics. It stirred neither wind nor sand.

Rieka cursed.

“Damn it. If it already looks that big from here, how huge is it really? I’ve set foot in Ground Zero hundreds of times, but I’ve never seen anything like that in my life…”

“What should we do?”

“First, run! If we get away from that thing’s path, it might not notice us and just pass by!”

Rieka immediately broke into a sprint, but after a moment she looked back and felt a surge of frustration.

There was exactly one person who wasn’t moving at all despite the situation.

“Hey, Professor! What are you doing not running?!”

“I suffer from a condition that prevents me from running.”

“Damn it! We’re in a life-or-death situation, so stop spouting nonsense!”

“……”

Professor Winslet only twisted the corners of his mouth slightly without replying.

Something flashed through Rieka’s mind.

She clapped her hands with a delighted expression.

“Wait….don’t tell me! You’re planning to act as bait so the students can escape? That’s a great idea!”

Professor Winslet’s mouth twisted even further.

To make matters worse, the students all began criticizing Rieka at once.

“That’s not great at all!”

“We can’t just leave the professor behind!”

“No, what exactly do you expect me to do then…?”

Rieka abruptly shut her mouth.

Her entire field of vision had suddenly gone dark.

The enormous rock island had blocked out the sun.

A thick shadow fell over the group.

“My god. So running away is out of the question now. So what’s the plan, Mr. Mage?”

“I’ll destroy it. Protect yourselves from the fragments.”

“Well… I don’t think it’ll be solved that easily—”

Wuuuuung!

With a clear resonating sound ringing in their ears, a small wind began to rise.

And that wind was being drawn toward Professor Winslet.

In the instant they realized that something was happening, Professor Winslet’s magic was complete.

Booooooom!

A shockwave that seemed to rattle flesh and bone exploded against the rock island.

Immediately afterward, the rock island shattered like a snowball kicked apart in winter, scattering into small pieces… but they did not fly away.

Someone muttered in a startled voice.

“What is this?”

“They stopped in midair!”

The rock island had clearly been shattered by the shockwave.

But the broken debris did not fall. Instead, they remained suspended in the air as if time itself had stopped.

Before long, the rocks that were now split into tens of thousands of fragments began moving separately, as if each had a will of its own, forming a swirling current.

Rieka shouted in frustration.

“I told you breaking it wouldn’t solve anything! The rocks aren’t the main body. The real thing is an evil spirit! A poltergeist!”