I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 29

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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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Chapter 29
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It hadn’t taken Aiden and Sena long to reach the Final Point. The magical tool they wore, which scrambled the monsters’ perception, made the journey faster still.
Of course, that also meant Olivia’s team was drawing dangerously close to the Final Point as well.
Without that tool, crossing two hours to approach the area around the Final Point would have been far more difficult.
“You’re here? Over this way.”
“Concentrated magical energy traces? Tell me more—specifically.”
“Exactly what it sounds like. There’s residual magical energy in the field, sure, but this feels different. This section is completely dead. It’s as if chunks of magical energy pressed down and trampled through here.”
Where they pointed, withered grass and trees lay scattered everywhere. It looked as though that particular area had been exposed to an ‘excessive’ concentration of magical energy.
The traces stretched inward like a path cut through the forest.
“You’ll investigate this. It’s your specialty—tracking, searching, all of it. Right?”
“Just let us—”
“Leave it, Sena. Let them dig their own graves.”
Aiden clicked his tongue and brushed off the mockery with practiced ease.
Tracking magical energy was tedious work. Occasionally residual magical energy would clump together and leave traces like this, and because such concentrations affected nearby organisms, these hunts always ended badly.
Generally, at the end of such a trail lay monsters and animals that had slaughtered one another, or plants and creatures caught mid-demonization.
It was grim, repulsive work with little satisfaction—mere cleanup. The Luxe Knight Order was where those who handled such work gathered.
“So that’s why you called us.”
“Each of us does what we do best. Don’t worry. They said they’d pay the commission fee.”
“How generous of them. But what about you two? While we’re busy chasing this down, what exactly are you ‘distinguished gentlemen’ planning to do?”
“We need to track the actual monster.”
They lifted their chins and spoke with complete confidence. It was all Aiden could do not to laugh.
He wanted to mock them mercilessly—did they really think they were capable of tracking a monster?—but Aiden chose restraint. Sena, too, held her tongue with a deep sigh.
“Wait.”
But only for a moment.
Red alarms flared in Aiden’s mind.
“You’re not about to tell me you’re tracking down the boss monster.”
“…Huh?”
“Come on, surely not. The boss monster should be sitting quietly locked in the Final Point. Right?”
Until now, Aiden had held onto hope. Knights though they were, surely even fools like these wouldn’t be stupid enough to do something like that.
How could they possibly have failed at something as simple as monitoring the monster’s movements from the Final Point?
“…Lost it.”
“What?”
“I-it disappeared.”
…They couldn’t even manage that. His expectations had been too high.
“Sena, let’s report these bastards for dereliction of duty.”
“Seriously? So what exactly were you doing out here? Finding traces of magical energy and calling us? Just standing around watching while we arrived?”
Disbelief was written all over Sena’s face. One of the assistant instructors, who couldn’t hold back any longer, clenched his jaw and shot back defensively.
“…It’s highly likely that thing is still lurking nearby! There’s time before those brats reach the Final Point, and that monster can’t cross the Barrier, so this isn’t a major problem!”
“Stop spouting nonsense and go find it, you morons!”
His excuses stretched on. People with guilty consciences always had plenty to say. Aiden was certain of it.
‘They must have lost the monster while searching around, then stumbled on this.’
It seemed they’d found this ‘concentrated magical energy’ trace quite far from where they should have been, which was how they’d managed to discover it at all.
Knights, my ass. What order were these fools affiliated with anyway…?
A mental list of people to deal with after the exercise was complete filled Aiden’s mind.
The group had plenty more to say but chose not to argue further, heading out to search for the monster instead.
“Let’s search quickly. It’s our job anyway.”
“…Yeah. Let’s finish this fast and get out. Something feels off about all this.”
Aiden knew well enough that the Academy’s magic stones embedded in the monster’s body served a dual purpose—controlling it so it couldn’t venture beyond a certain range.
But he wouldn’t tolerate even the smallest variable. Because…
‘Olivia is here.’
Aiden clenched his teeth. That was when Sena urgently called out to him.
“Wait. This trace—it seems to lead toward the Barrier.”
“What?”
“Let’s follow it. Something doesn’t feel right.”
Around where the traces remained, grass withered and crumbled into dust. The trees were the same, desiccated and brittle; each time Aiden knocked one, black powder scattered down like rain.
Though some distance from the Final Point, any anomaly here could impact the Final Mission.
The two moved with urgent purpose, following the magical traces with deadly seriousness.
“This way.”
“All right, keep moving.”
The pursuit continued. They examined everything—grass, trees, lingering auras, and the monsters passing through—hunting for the source of these traces.
They discovered the crucial clue a little while later.
“This can’t be real.”
Sena’s eyes widened in shock, her hand covering her mouth. It couldn’t be helped—the scene before them bore no resemblance to what they’d expected.
“This is…”
There were no grotesquely entangled corpses of monsters and animals, no creatures mid-demonization. None of the things they’d anticipated seeing.
Instead, something else lay before them.
“…Sena. Contact the commander immediately.”
“Good heavens. Is this actually—”
“A demon beast’s traces.”
Fragments of red magic stones scattered across the ground.
It was evidence of a demon beast—or at minimum, a monster undergoing demonization. Only that could taint magic stones red.
“Why would something like this suddenly appear…”
“Wait.”
“What is it, Aiden?”
Sena turned from where she’d been urgently contacting the outside.
But Aiden had no mind to answer. His face had gone ashen white.
“The magic stone.”
“What?”
“That magic stone Sirius Arle stole…”
Could it have been red?
Without another thought, his body lunged forward. The students—Olivia—was in danger.
* * *
Around the time Aiden realized the crisis befalling his team, Olivia’s group found themselves in grave peril, surrounded by an enormous horde of monsters.
Though they’d fought their way here through countless battles, they’d never encountered monsters in such overwhelming numbers, and the team found themselves pushed back, helpless.
“Cough!”
“Bennett, you all right?”
“I’m… fine.”
The situation was dire. There was no other way to describe it.
A deceptively strong wind had masked the monsters’ approach, delaying their detection. But even so, shouldn’t this be too much for a training exercise?
“O-Olivia, those monsters…”
“Fall back. Don’t get hurt.”
They were driven off the path entirely, retreating into the forest. The flood of monsters made it impossible to hold their ground on the road.
Is this the Final Mission? Usually the Final Mission meant defeating the strongest monster at the Final Point—just one. But what is this? We haven’t even reached the Final Point yet.
A thousand thoughts flashed through her mind, but there was no time for deeper contemplation. Monsters kept pouring in from all sides.
Combat continued relentlessly as they fled. Under such circumstances, avoiding injury was impossible.
The magic students tired first, but Bennett bore the worst injuries. Though Olivia wasn’t unscathed either.
And now.
“…Is this… really the exercise?”
“Let’s hope so.”
They were surrounded. They’d fled fiercely, but human endurance had its limits.
An ominous foreboding grew like a snowball. Though she clung to the hope this was merely part of an ordinary exercise, her instincts screamed that something was terribly wrong.
Bennett had nearly died earlier protecting the magic students. The Academy would never simply watch while students were in such danger.
They would have deployed assistant instructors in advance to halt the exercise before students suffered serious wounds.
But now…
“Why aren’t any of the assistant instructors showing up?”
Only silence answered.

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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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