Academy’s New Guard is Unusual - Chapter 59

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 59
“Me, kidnapped? What on earth are you talking about?”
Milo’s face had gone pale as he asked.
“What do you mean, what’s kidnapping? It’s kidnapping.”
“No, I’m not asking the definition! Why are you kidnapping Darkin?”
“The Imperialists are after Darkin. If we leave him alone, he’ll be in danger, so we’re getting ahead of them.”
“Ah, so you’re asking for his consent and evacuating him.”
“I said kidnapping. Since when does a kidnapper ask for consent? You’re being dense.”
“Dense—”
Milo gaped like a fish out of water, bewildered, then yelped as though he’d touched fire.
“Student kidnapping is a serious crime, a serious crime! If we get caught, expulsion won’t even cover it!”
“It’s fine. We’ll return him in perfect condition.”
“…That’s not the point! You said kidnapping!”
“You’re being too negative about kidnapping.”
“Isn’t that natural?”
“This kidnapping is for Darkin’s sake, so it’s a righteous kidnapping.”
“That’s exactly the problem—why not just ask Darkin for his consent and evacuate him?”
“What’s the point?”
“Insane…”
“Milo, don’t focus on the tree. Look at the forest.”
“The forest?”
Milo tilted his head in confusion, then turned to look at the Forest of Lost.
Using a metaphor on Milo had been my mistake.
“If you don’t like it, you can sit this one out.”
“Damn it! Is this really necessary?”
“Very much so.”
After groaning for a while, Milo dragged his palms across his face.
“Grave, just promise me one thing. That no students will be hurt.”
“I’ll try.”
“…Fine, let’s do this. Righteous kidnapping.”
I chuckled softly and started walking toward Darkin. Milo followed, muttering things like “Lord have mercy, Grave, damn it.”
At Elysium Academy, the elite Security Corps weren’t treated particularly well.
To the staff, they were just menial workers to be used freely, and to the students, they felt like NPCs.
The kind of NPC that’s everywhere but no one really engages with or thinks about. Most students didn’t even greet the guards.
“Greetings. I am Darkin.”
But Darkin bowed deeply to me in greeting.
So he really was Volcan’s younger brother. I nodded silently to myself.
“I’m Grave. We’ve decided to go in together.”
“Ah, that’s not necessary. Entering the Forest of Lost isn’t really part of the Security Corps’ duties.”
“The Forest of Lost is under Security Corps jurisdiction.”
“No need. I don’t want to be a bother.”
“I think there’s a misunderstanding. This isn’t a request—it’s a notification.”
Darkin stared at me intently.
His eyes were a solid brown, like ancient wood.
“Then I’m grateful.”
Darkin bowed deeply.
“More than happy to.”
I moved to stand beside Darkin. Milo took the other side.
It formed a kind of flanking position, but Darkin didn’t seem to mind.
Just then, students began entering the Forest of Lost.
I recognized the faces of the students going in.
‘The Crown Prince, the Grand Duchess, Killian.’
On the surface, it was an impressive lineup. In reality, the Grand Duchess just followed the Crown Prince, and Killian followed the Grand Duchess.
The three entered the Forest of Lost without the slightest hesitation.
After that, students continued to file into the Forest of Lost in a steady stream.
But no one was coming out.
The exit was elsewhere.
As I continued to watch the entering students, I searched for anyone showing open hostility toward Darkin.
There was nothing worth picking up on.
Most students stared at Darkin with suspicion.
Soon it was our turn.
“Keep your eyes forward. Don’t answer anything, no matter what. As you walk, you’ll come to an enormous tree—the hole in that tree is the exit.”
Defern spoke in a cold voice, treating Milo and me as though we didn’t exist.
Despite Defern’s icy manner, Darkin headed cheerfully toward the Forest of Lost. Milo and I followed a step behind.
The moment my foot touched the Forest of Lost, an unsettling sensation swept across my entire body. It felt similar to entering the Central Library, but damper and more viscous.
Like stepping into a deep marsh.
At the same time, the landscape shifted. I’d barely taken one step, yet I was suddenly deep in the forest.
Towering trees crowded all around, blocking out the sky. It was the Forest of Lost—a forest where sound itself seemed to die, and a heavy silence pressed down on everything.
“Grave, this is creepy as hell.”
A grumbling voice came from beside me. It was Milo. Darkin was between us.
Darkin kept his eyes straight ahead, his face tense.
Then—
“Help me!!”
A woman’s scream, torn and desperate, echoed from some distance away. Both Darkin and Milo’s heads snapped toward the sound.
A female student came running out from the direction of the scream, crying out urgently as she approached us.
“I’m lost! Which way should I go?!”
Her face was desperate, her breathing ragged. She looked genuinely panicked.
Of course she did. She was an actual lost student.
“Here—”
“Milo.”
I grabbed Milo’s shoulder as he tried to rush forward. He turned to me in confusion.
“Milo, look carefully.”
“At what?”
I pointed at the student. The uniform she wore was similar to Elysium Academy’s, but subtly different.
“That’s a uniform from the previous generation.”
“The uniforms changed twenty years ago—”
“So she’s been missing at least that long.”
Twenty years.
Milo whispered the words in a strained voice. His eyes grew hard and unsteady.
“Is there… is there no way to help her?”
“No. And there’s no need to. That’s not real—it’s just the specter of someone from the past.”
“But—”
“Ignore it and keep walking.”
The student continued to reach out, pleading for help. I dismissed her casually and moved on.
Then—
“Aaaaahhhhh!”
She suddenly let out a piercing scream, one so savage it made your blood freeze.
“What’s your name what’s your name what’s your name.”
The student babbled like she’d lost her mind and lunged at us.
Both Darkin and Milo flinched violently. Milo looked like he was about to cry.
I simply stared without answering. The student who’d been shrieking right in front of me collapsed and disappeared a moment later. It was quite a vivid sight.
Darkin and Milo’s faces had gone pale as if they’d seen a ghost. For how they looked, they seemed to have weak nerve.
I clicked my tongue softly.
No matter how much the academy wanted to scare freshmen, the student affairs office wouldn’t put them in real danger.
The Forest of Lost was the safest taboo in all of Elysium Academy.
As long as you didn’t answer and kept walking toward what you believed was forward, you were safe.
Especially the entrance route for the Freshman Welcome Ceremony was the shortest path through the Forest of Lost.
Specters appeared a maximum of twice, making it structurally impossible to actually get lost.
It was just a hazing ritual to frighten the freshmen, after all.
But Darkin would disappear here.
In the game, who had kidnapped Darkin was never revealed. We could only guess it was the Imperialists based on what remained—that horrifying skinless body.
I suspected the culprit was one of the student affairs staff. There was no way a freshman could pull off something like this in the Forest of Lost.
“The Forest of Lost is safe as long as you don’t answer. You don’t even need to look straight ahead. Just keep thinking ‘I’m moving forward,’ and the exit will appear. Think of it as a slightly noisy walk.”
I explained kindly. But Milo and Darkin’s expressions didn’t lighten.
“A, a walk?”
“Walking in a forest is a walk. If you’re really scared, just talk to yourself. If you speak without intending to respond to anyone, it doesn’t count as an answer. Come on, let’s go.”
The two of them were rigid with fear, so I took the lead. A moment later, they shuffled after me.
The Forest of Lost had trees so densely packed that we had to change direction every few steps.
That didn’t matter much. The important thing was to keep thinking about moving forward.
Another lost student’s specter appeared, but I didn’t react to it either. Just like before, the student shrieked and vanished.
Everyone who entered the Forest of Lost started at random locations. But the exit was always the same.
So to ambush someone inside the Forest of Lost, the most efficient tactic would be to wait at the exit.
I was certain the Imperialist targeting Darkin would be waiting at the exit.
Sure enough, there was someone near the exit.
The problem was their clothing. They wore an Elysium Academy uniform, but the style was quite different from the current one.
The sleeves and collar were loose and billowing—the kind of aristocratic dress you’d see in old books.
I had no idea how long they’d been lost.
What was strange was that unlike the other lost students, this creature’s eyes held clear focus.
The Forest of Lost was a diluted Rift, like the Central Library. So much time had passed since its creation that it now existed somewhere between the Rift and reality.
Just as the Central Library had an army made of books, the Forest of Lost had the lost ones.
Most of the lost were merely spirits begging for responses, but higher-tier Anomalies existed too.
However, we were at the far end of the Forest of Lost. High-tier Anomalies rarely reached here.
Or at least, that’s how it should have been—
‘It came out to greet us personally.’
Looking at the oddly-dressed Anomaly, I let out a low whistle in my head.
The Forest of Lost was a half-diluted Rift. In here, high-tier Anomalies couldn’t move freely. And yet it came all the way out here—
There was only one reason I could think of.
“How dare a beast enter the academy?”
Because Darkin, with his dark skin, had entered the Forest of Lost.
‘So the Anomaly was an Imperialist.’
That wasn’t impossible.
The Imperialists had existed since the Empire’s founding.
The question was whether the student affairs office knew this.
More importantly, there was the immediate situation at hand.
At that moment, Milo stepped forward, rolling up his sleeves.
“Is that bastard an Imperialist?”
Milo pointed bluntly while asking, clearly furious from how ready he looked to charge.
The Anomaly suddenly spread its hands wide.
“Beast, die.”
Brilliant magic circles materialized behind the creature in rapid succession, dense enough to cover the entire forest.
The older a Rift, the stronger its Anomalies become. And despite being diluted, the Forest of Lost was undeniably a Rift.
This creature had been here so long I couldn’t even guess when it disappeared.
Therefore, it was quite powerful.
‘Around High Mage level, maybe pushing toward Archmage.’
It wasn’t quite Archmage—an actual Archmage wouldn’t cast magic so crudely.
But the firepower alone rivaled an Archmage.
“Grave—”
Milo blinked in alarm at the countless magic circles covering the sky.
Overwhelmed, he looked to me urgently. I clicked my tongue and spoke.
“Back off.”
“I’ll do it myself!”
“Is that so? Fine.”
“Don’t you usually ask twice out of courtesy?”
“I’m not great at that stuff.”
“Hmm, now that I think about it, even water has its hierarchy. I defer to you.”
“You’re the senior anyway.”
“…You knew that?”
I chuckled at Milo’s astonished question and stepped forward.
At the same moment, dozens of spells came pouring down. It felt like the sky was collapsing.
‘About High Mage level then.’
Aura was Aura’s natural counter.
But Magic had a key difference from other attributes: it could be prepared in advance.
Therefore, the more time a mage has, the stronger their power becomes.
This creature had already spent considerable time preparing.
In short, the situation was rather bad.
Of course, protecting just myself would be easy, but the creature’s target was Darkin.
So—
I reversed my grip on the Guard Staff and whispered.
“Sword Aura Technique.”
A brilliant blue Aura surged from the Guard Staff in waves.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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