# "Shall we go down first?"
Asidis cautiously offered her opinion. It was her first comment since discovering that the "two days' worth of food" they'd been given was nothing but "Uncle's bricks."
These bricks, which Elfihera claimed were dog food, were sticky, slimy, strangely crumbly, and reeked of a fishy smell—truly revolting items.
"Does anyone know the name of this mountain... or at least the geography of this area?" Oskar asked.
"..."
Everyone fell silent at Oskar's question. None of them, being foreigners from different countries rather than Krasilov natives, would know the geography of this rural mountain.
Oskar narrowed his eyes and said, "Then it would be difficult to descend without a plan. Getting lost in the mountains at night could become a serious problem. We should move while reading the direction at least when the sun is up."
"Do humans have not only poor night vision but also dull senses?" Elfihera asked.
"Excuse me?"
"We came up the mountain and fell here, so can't we just go back down the same way?"
"Mountains aren't ladders, what are you talking about...?"
"Elves are children of the forest by nature. Humans, just prepare yourselves to be amazed."
Elfihera stood up proudly with a smirk. She dusted off her clothes and looked down at the seated students.
Just then, Isabelle frowned and said, "Wait a minute, Elfihera. Doesn't something seem odd to everyone?"
"Huh?"
"Does anyone remember what the old man said when I told him 'I'll just go back to the station'? He said, 'That could be a way too.'"
"Did he?"
"It sounded like, 'Try going down if you can.' Does anyone else feel that way?"
Isabelle glared into the dark forest and continued, "Look. He deliberately erased the path and took away the horse. It clearly means he won't let us leave, but he says 'try if you can'? This is obviously a trap."
"Isn't that overthinking it? Why would Uncle set a trap?"
"I've never successfully predicted what that old man would do or what his intentions were."
Asidis and Elfihera found themselves nodding unconsciously at Isabelle's words.
That's true.
"So blindly going down could be part of some ridiculous 'training' the old man has planned."
"Training?"
"The only thing he'd do after dropping us in the middle of the forest would be training."
Everyone seemed to understand to some extent, except for Elfihera who looked somewhat disgruntled.
"So if we're suddenly starting some training that nobody asked for, what kind of training is it exactly...?"
"Judging by the old man's style, this is definitely an ambush."
"Ambush...?"
"Yes. The training he usually does with me is similar to this. If we try to find our way down the mountain, he'll definitely jump out from somewhere and attack us."
Isabelle continued leading the conversation, drawing the attention of the hesitant students.
Oskar nodded quietly and thought to himself.
Yes, when you see her like this, that spirited little girl from the court days is still there.
"Do we even need to take this kind of class in the first place?"
"The old man must have thought we did. Hmm... since he was friends with the Hero Party, maybe he thought we were lacking something..."
"That's strange," Oskar interrupted, raising his head.
"When the Hero Party was around our age, so during our parents' youth, wasn't it wartime? Is there any justification for us to secure that level of military power?"
Unless a Demon King were to revive, well...
And if the Demon King did revive, wouldn't the still-active Hero Party members gather again?
Setting aside whether the Demon King could revive or not, the current era has abnormally high military power compared to the national strength of each faction.
Not just the Hero Party, but all the heroes from the war era are still active. Each country leads the most powerful armies and generals in history.
That in itself is a deterrent to war. If war broke out at this point, mutual assured destruction would surely follow.
Therefore, the United Kingdoms were enjoying the most peaceful era in the long history of humanity. Because no one wanted war.
So, if the Demon King had any sense, even if they revived in this era, they wouldn't try to be active now. They could be annihilated the moment they emerged.
Thus, the children of the Hero Party have no justification for possessing strong military power.
'Does Krasilov truly want war?'
Unlike these foolish college students, Oskar was an intelligence agent dispatched from Tilles to Krasilov. With a hardened expression, he stared beyond the forest edge and thought.
If the children of the Hero Party were to die or get injured, it would certainly cause a diplomatic catastrophe. War might not be declared immediately, but one could easily predict disturbances equivalent to that.
Therefore, if we assume Krasilov is preparing for war with someone...
The children of the Hero Party must secure enough military power to protect themselves in crisis situations. That would be a kind of safety measure Krasilov could prepare.
The easiest way for Krasilov's military's "hypothetical enemy" to secure Krasilov's multi-front line would be assassination targeting us.
'This peaceful world has barely lasted four years.'
Oskar closed his eyes with a gloomy expression. It's been only four years since the Demon King died and the demon race was driven out. Rather than saying peace has been restored, it would be more appropriate to say they've been desperately rebuilding.
In that short time, his homeland had to plant spies in neighboring countries. Because all human nations were still projecting their growth engines into their militaries.
The current United Kingdoms are like a parched field. Having forgotten its prosperous past and miserably dried up, it would all burn if even a tiny spark were to catch.
So, he needed to see what they were preparing.
Whether Krasilov was truly preparing for war, or if not, what ulterior motives that mysterious man Ivan Petrovich Yeremov had.
Training, huh.
Fine. He is a person who has trained all his life as the eldest son of the Guardian Lord and as a knight of the Salvation Knight Order. The traditional knightly training of Tilles is closer to this kind of environment than the gentle setting of a university.
So, playing along with this tune...
Oskar stood up with a resolute expression.
"Aaaaaaah—!!"
They had scattered to gather branches for firewood not even five minutes ago.
Hearing the scream echoing through the forest, Oskar reflexively got up, grabbed his sword, and ran.
"Save meeeee—!!"
"Miss Asidis...?"
At the source of the sound, Asidis was hanging upside down from a tree. She was struggling while pressing down her fluttering skirt with both hands. Oskar sighed deeply and headed toward the nearby tree trunk.
He saw a trap made of rope woven around the trunk. Oskar cut the trap and caught Asidis as she fell.
"Thank you! Thank you!!"
"What happened here?"
"I saw branches piled up nicely, so I picked them up and suddenly..."
After putting Asidis down, he looked around and saw, as she had said, branches that looked "perfect" for firewood piled up neatly.
And nearby, traces of swept leaves as well.
It was a trap set in anticipation that they would go out to gather firewood. Oskar gave a hollow laugh and looked around.
There was a small note attached to the tree trunk where the trap had been connected.
-There are no straight lines in nature.
What does this mean...?
Oskar was examining the note when he took a step forward.
With a ping sound of a string breaking, rope instantly wrapped around his ankle.
"Uwaaaaaaaah—!!"
"Mr. Oskar!!"
Oskar, you fell into a trap despite reading the field survival rules. Minus 1 point.
Asidis. When what you need most appears before your eyes without warning, you should be suspicious. Minus 1 point.
Elfihera. You suggested making a campsite but went back to the carriage to rest. Lack of teamwork, minus 3 points.
And...
Is this even edible?
I'm hungry, but I definitely don't want to eat "Uncle's dog treats." I need to secure food ingredients first.
Since I can't suddenly go hunting in the middle of the night in the forest, I have to gather food.
The problem is that Isabelle has never gathered food in her life. After all, the children of the Hero Party are all descendants of noble families.
Especially in Isabelle's case, she had never even left the Tilles court.
The food ingredients she knew were limited to familiar items that had been well-prepared and served. She prided herself on being a good cook, but that didn't include the process of bringing ingredients directly from their source and preparing them.
So, for now...
"It looks like... a shiitake mushroom."
Starting with something familiar.
It's dark, so I can't see any berries, and there's no way to identify edible vegetables.
Isn't it common sense to start with mushrooms that look edible based on their shape?
The smell seems similar, and even if there's something bad, most things become fine after cooking.
Isabelle smiled as she picked plenty of large mushrooms.
-Bang—!!
Ivan glanced aside to confirm the hit and lowered his gun barrel. After holstering the still-smoking gun in his belt, he took out his notebook.
Isabelle, attempted to consume wild mushrooms. Lack of common sense. Minus 1 point.
"I told you I'm going to kill you, old man! I swear!!"
In the distance, Isabelle's voice could be heard as she clutched the mushroom that had been shattered by the bullet.
The first night was passing.
Now that they had roughly learned the survival tutorial, he was thinking of starting with line-of-fire detection training.