The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 121

“Don’t run. You’re going to get hurt.”

The brother that was chasing the other in their game of tag along the wharf stopped. The road, paved with shabby wooden planks, had come to an end right as he was about to enter the beach.

“There might be sharp rocks, so be careful.”

Of the two siblings, the older brother turned his head towards the source of the voice. A young girl was sitting with her knees bent on the slanted seawall.

Her light-yellow hair was hanging down from the morning dew.

The sun started to rise. Looking at her face, which was being lit up by the sunrise, he could see a gentle smile on it.

She looked like she was around the same age as them, but she looked oddly mature. The boy stared blankly at her face, then nodded his head and ran down to the shore while holding his sibling’s hand tightly.

Although they were the same age, the girl felt as if she were taking care of a younger sibling. That was why she couldn’t help but tell them that.

“…….”

Eventually, the girl—Adele—took in the scent of the hyacinth blooming down on the beach. She gently plucked it as she put it into one side of her hair.

And looking at the wharf, which had been busy since dawn, she once again breathed in the salty morning air.

It was the land of merchants, Oldek.

Oldek was the largest commercial city within the Empire, with dozens of boats setting sail every single day.

And the kids from the largest orphanage there, Deldros Orphanage, were growing up much faster compared to their peers.

After all, they didn’t have any parents to protect them. They were forced to quickly become people that could do their own share.

For most of the children, they were put to work as soon as they could move their bodies around.

They started by doing tasks like carrying around bags, fetching water, simple cleaning, washing hand towels, and other such things… And as they got older, they would start to take care of gathering food, washing clothes, and the children with good handicraft skills were made to do carpentry.

That was because, in a brutal society without one’s parents to protect them, they quickly needed to be able to take care of themselves. Even if it was a bit harsh, it couldn’t be helped. That was the policy of Deldros Orphanage.

An orphanage wasn’t a place to protect those children. Rather, it was a place for them to survive in that difficult world, all on their own.

Perhaps it was because of the atmosphere in the city of Oldek.

Adele, who looked quite young, thought as much as she sat down quietly and felt the sea breeze.

Even though it was still early in the morning and the sun was only just starting to rise, the wharf was already full of workers loading their boats.

Merchants used abacuses as they passed through the bustling crowd. Captains quickly checked through their stock. Workers raised their voices as they negotiated transportation and insurance contracts.

People started to work before the sun even woke up.

In the bustling commercial city, the two highest valued traits were hard work and diligence.

“You were over here, Miss Adele.”

Suddenly, she saw a man walking towards her with his hands behind his back on the other side of the seawall.

His suit, which fit him perfectly, already looked to be quite worn out. He had the appearance of a reverent clergyman.

“Did you hear the news?”

“The news about you being dispatched to the Holy Father’s Building? I heard that you were evaluated to become a bishop.”

Adele swung her legs in the air with a smile on her face.

“Congratulations. You’re going to become an extremely high ranked person. High Priest Verdio!”

Deldros Orphanage was a religious facility that was operated through the support of the Telos Religious Group.

In particular, since it was the largest orphanage throughout the empire, a high priest was sent to act as the general manager of the place before becoming a bishop.

High Priest Verdio walked along the seawall until he was right behind Adele.

The appearance of the young girl was that of a poor orphan. A dirty skirt and a blouse with frayed sleeves. Her hair, which was tied together with an old piece of string, was quite frizzy.

However, Adele had a strange elegance about her. Despite her young age, worn clothes, and shabby accessories, that elegance around her didn’t fade. It was difficult to fully explain with words.

“Saint Elnir, who blessed the Holy Father’s Building, has gone after seven years of service. That happened last year.”

Adele had already anticipated what Verdio would say, but she continued to listen without saying anything.

“But in order to pray towards our God Telos, the ongoing tradition of a Sainthood must continue. The fact that there hasn’t been anyone with Holy Power close to the Saint is the biggest current concern for the Holy Father’s Building these days. So, Miss Adele…”

“High Priest Verdio… I think you think much too highly of me. Really…”

Adele swept the leaves of a cosmos that she held in her hand as she kicked her legs around.

“Seeing the future isn’t something that I can do because I want to. It really only happens occasionally, out of the blue. Even if it’s because of Holy Power, how could I call it my own when I can’t even control it as I please?”

“Miss Adele. None of that is important.”

Verdio stood next to her with his hand behind his back, looking out at the bustling wharf. It was a familiar view for Verdio.

The reason why the high-ranking clergies of Holy Father’s Building had sent him to Oldek was obvious. It was because his temperament when it came to work was similar to that of a merchant. In fact, it was extremely easy for Verdio to adapt to the culture of Oldek.

“The important thing is… that you were born with extraordinary abilities. To be able to see the future and break the providences of the world that were created by our God Telos—especially the providence of time. As far as I know, the only thing capable of that is Celestial Magic, which harnesses the power of the stars.”

“Celestial Magic. I don’t even know if I’m capable of such an amazing thing.”

“Wouldn’t you say that you were able to cast it by borrowing the power of Holy Magic? The fact that you are capable of such a feat without anyone ever having taught you is extraordinary in itself.”

Verdio’s red hair was bound into a ponytail, fluttering in the wind.

“You are the perfect vessel, one that deserves to be honored as the Saint. And it’s a great honor to be the first to discover the ideal vessel for the Saint within the Telos Religious Group.”

“……”

“Let’s head to the Holy Father’s Building together. If you prove your skills to the Holy Father, you can be appointed as the next Saint immediately, Miss Adele.”

She wasn’t a person that should just rot away in a corner of the Oldek Orphanage forever. Verdio was certain of that.

Adele quickly raised her head to look at him as she smiled once more. She then took out the lute that she was carrying on her shoulder. She held the lute in her arms like a young girl.

She then plucked the strings a few times as she shook her head, trying to find the rhythm. Verdio had heard the news recently that she was trying to learn the lute, but she still wasn’t all that great at it yet.

“Being able to see the future is more useless than you think, High Priest.”

“No one thinks as such.”

“That’s not true~ The changing of one’s flow in the future is surprisingly much more trivial than you would think. Even though a lot of things will take place, at the end of it all the flow will maintain itself.”

The sound of an inexperienced lute player spread throughout the bustling coast.

Adele saw many futures. A scene would suddenly show itself before her eyes, without any rules or foreshadowing.

The same went for the future of the children that gathered at Oldek Orphanage, who no longer had parents. Adele’s eyes often saw the futures of the children that lived there with her.

Even if she didn’t know their names or personality… The future of those children, which looked fragmented, were all different.

A wandering warrior that hunts down bounties while walking through the streets of Kohelton’s Lawless Zone. A magician that became a merchant, holding much power and wealth within the Elte Company despite her young age.

She saw a few children with bright futures ahead of them, but Adele had no way of knowing if those futures would truly come to pass.

“In a future that has many roads spreading far and wide, how useful is it to only be able to see a single route in a stream that holds countless paths? Surprisingly, one’s future can drastically change even with the most insignificant choices.”

“…Is that so?”

“That’s the way it works. Though, there are still many things that I don’t know about it. Hehe.”

As the girl played the lute, looking out at the shore, she saw one of the siblings that had just run past.

A few boys were running around, playing tag. After running around for quite a while, he suddenly looked down at the ground.

There was a large, sharp stone right there on the floor. Due to the inertia of his moving body, he had almost tripped and fallen onto it. After being lucky enough to be able to avoid the stone, he started to run again.

Without falling, the two boys ran along the sea slowly, going farther away from her.

“Still, about the Holy Father Building… I’m sure it must be a much quieter and more comfortable place to stay in than this noisy area…”

Adele looked at him with a smile on her face. Watching the sea, which glittered with the reflection of the soft sunlight, she could feel her heart relaxing.

Then, all of a sudden, she saw something that she was never able to see before… She had a feeling that she could see a glimpse of ‘her own future.’

***

“Saint Clarice, you look a little unwell. Are you feeling okay?”

There was already a commotion all around her.

It was the day of the Joint Combat Practice, near the entrance of Glockt Hall.

Clarice sat across from Ed with a wooden table between them. For some time now, she was a bit out of her mind. That was only natural.

She was looking all over Ed’s face and had even touched his body to check if he had any injuries. Because of the outburst from the students, which was only getting louder, she felt like her eyes were going to overflow with tears.

She couldn’t stay still. So, when Ed had reached out his arm and asked her a question… She quickly grabbed ahold of it.

“…Saint?”

From Ed’s point of view, the situation was a bolt out of the blue. However, Clarice completely disregarded Ed’s reaction as she quickly dragged him away.

“We have to run…!”

“What…?”

“We… We need to run…!”

Clarice was already overwhelmed after going through so much in such a short amount of time.

However, even in that overwhelming incident she experienced, there was still a memorable and shocking scene.

The appearance of the Holy Blue Dragon, which covered the entire sky above the island. The scales that rained down, killing countless students. Ed’s reaction, as if he had realized something. The collapsing Ophelis Hall. And… Ed’s body, which had died in her arms while protecting her.

Memories that passed like a panorama had crept into Clarice’s mind.

Once the Joint Combat Practice finished, a shadow of destruction would fall upon Acken Island.

It wasn’t a dream. It definitely had taken place in real life. She didn’t know why, but for some reason, she had returned to the past.

Before the disaster struck… The best thing to do was to run away as far as possible. That was a natural and reasonable response.

“We… Can’t do anything… We just… Need to run away…!”

Clarice had tears welling up in her eyes as she grabbed Ed’s arm, running towards the carriage. Yennekar—who was sitting next to them—as well as all the students around them that were watching, turned to stone.

Grabbing onto Ed’s arm in broad daylight and suddenly saying that they needed to run away… No one would ever think that the situation was normal. But as mentioned before, the Saint’s mental state wasn’t normal anymore, either.

“Saint…? Saint…!”

Ed was pulled along by his arm towards the carriage by the Saint. It was something that he couldn’t recklessly break away from.

Clarice then instructed the soldiers to push him into the carriage. With Ed’s back being pushed, he had no choice but to get on the Saint’s luxurious carriage.

After Clarice got on board with him, she quickly ordered the horseman to rush straight to Mexes Bridge immediately.

“Excuse me? Saint, right now… You need to go to Trix Hall to meet with the Holy Father…”

“I’ll take responsibility for everything… Just rush over to Mexes Bridge as fast as you can…!”

Right now, as the Holy Blue Dragon had yet to appear, there shouldn’t be a crowd gathered at Mexes Bridge.

The first thing that came to mind was the Holy Father and the Archbishop. Since they were on Acken Island, it was obvious that they would also get caught up in the dragon’s attack.

However, right now Clarice had no idea where they were. She waited quite a while at Trix Hall before she came back to the past, but in the end they had never showed up.

A single minute, even a single second was precious. It would be much too difficult to find the both of them, convince them of what was to come, make them cancel all of their plans, and then finally escape with them from Acken Island. She was certain that the dragon would show itself before she could even find them.

Clarice’s teeth chattered as a cold sweat broke out across her skin like crazy. Since she was the Saint, she wanted to secure the safety of the Holy Father and Archbishop first, but… In the end, she clenched her teeth as she directed the carriage to head straight towards Mexes Bridge.

Now… The right thing to do would be to save the people that she could. She couldn’t waste her fortune of being brought back to the past by trying to figure out where the Holy Father and the Archbishop were.

In the carriage was the driver that had protected the horse for the Saint up to the very end, as well as the escort knights that died to protect the Saint.

And right there, sitting across from Clarice… Ed Rothstaylor, who had been crushed by the rubble while protecting the Saint until the very end.

Right now, these were the only people that Clarice could reach out to. She wanted to save even one more person if she could, but she wouldn’t be able to save every single person at the school. At most, the carriage could only fit a few people.

That was why… she had no choice but to first save the people that meant something to her.

She felt as if she were weighing a person’s life by her own heart. That awful feeling of guilt crawled up her back, but… She didn’t stop the wagon.

That gigantic dragon wasn’t something that could be stopped with human power. Being unable to overcome her guilt and staying still on Acken Island doing nothing would lead to nothing more than a dog’s death.

“Saint… If you do this, things will be difficult.”

Inside the swaying carriage, Ed tried to dissuade Clarice.

“Saint, aren’t you supposed to head towards Trix Hall right now? I also have to go to the Joint Combat Practice, so if you do this, the both of us will be…”

“Once the Joint Combat Practice finishes…”

Whether he would believe her or not.

To be honest, Clarice continued to speak without even thinking in the slightest that he would believe her.

“A massive dragon will descend over Acken Island. And then… It will kill us all.”

“…What?”

It didn’t matter if he treated her like a psychopath. She just wanted to tell him the truth.

“I… nearly died once already… but I was brought back to the past.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I… I also don’t know… but…”

Clarice clasped Ed’s hands as she wept.

“You saved me once. And… Something… You seemed to have figured something out… But before passing it onto me… the… The rubble had…”

Once again, fear began to well up inside her body. Clarice clenched her teeth as she tried to hold back the tears that were welling up.

Clarice barely finished speaking as she clenched Ed’s hand tightly, steeling herself.

“It had collapsed… Instead of me… you died… so… no matter what happens… you told me to ask you for help… Of course, now you don’t know what I’m talking about… But still…”

“No, Saint… Just… What…”

Using one’s common sense, it would be difficult to ask anyone to believe such a sudden story. So, if she looked at it from his perspective, it made enough sense.

A Saint from the Religious Group suddenly showed up, dragging him by his arm and shoving him into a carriage, then claiming that she had gone back in time.

But for Clarice, it was only the truth.

“Suddenly saying something like that … How am I supposed to react…?”

“I know it’s hard to believe… but… The only person that I can rely on is you…”

While everything was falling into chaos, Ed was the only one that seemed to have realized something. The truth behind it all.

And he was the person that protected the Saint up until the very end.

“But still… For me…”

“Please… Please, believe me… Really… I really saw a dragon appear…! All the students dying, watching you protect me until the very end… With my two eyes… I clearly saw it all…”

The scenes from back then resurfaced as trauma, continuing to haunt Clarice’s mind. Even though he could see the sincerity in her tears, it was still all too sudden.

Clarice rubbed her eyes again and again as she wiped away her tears… It was then that she remembered Ed’s last words.

“Saint… For now… I think it would be better to stop the carriage and talk.”

“One… Five…”

Ed tried to calm Clarice down with a troubled expression on his face, but Clarice didn’t care about it as she continued talking.

“One, Five… Five, Zero, Zero, One, Six, Zero… Right… One, Five. Five, Zero, Zero, One, Six, Zero…!”

“What…? All of a sudden… What are you doing?”

“Before you died, you told me to tell you this… One, Five. Five, Zero, Zero, One, Six, Zero…!”

“What… Is that a number? Just what is that supposed to…?”

All of a sudden, a strange feeling of familiarity left Ed speechless.

It was… A number that was not remembered by Ed Rothstaylor.

Rather, it was one that came from before he crossed a distant world to live the life of an excommunicated aristocrat.

Perhaps the reason the first two numbers were separated from the rest was because before Ed died, he had also said it like that.

When his thoughts finally reached that point, a familiar array of numbers suddenly came to mind in an instant.

15-500160.

That was… a memory that came from before he arrived in that world… It was his military number.

Ed’s expression hardened in an instant. That information… No one could have told her other than himself.

Of course, Ed had never given such information to Saint Clarice before.

And yet, the sequence of numbers that she said were so accurate that… he had to give credibility to what the Saint was saying.

Keeek.

Suddenly, the carriage stopped. The horseman opened his window as he gave his report.

“Saint… People from the other side of Mexes Bridge came to do an inspection. They said that trade goods from the Elte Company are currently crossing over the bridge. Things are quite chaotic because of the wagons holding the merchandise as well as all the mercenary escorts, so they’re asking you to wait for a while.”

“N-Now…?”

“Yes. It seems that a lot of protocols ended up being delayed because the Holy Father himself passed by the bridge. Since it’s hard to clear all the wagons in front of us right away, we may have to wait quite a while…”

“Just break through.”

Ed, who was sitting on the other side, opened the window to speak to the driver.

“…What?”

“We will take responsibility for everything. Since the situation is urgent, just break through as quickly as you can.”

“Th-Then… The school will end up saying something…”

“I told you to not worry about that. Or is it not possible because there isn’t enough space to pass through…?”

The driver hesitated as he looked towards Mexes Bridge.

The Elte Company’s trading wagons were piled up, the mercenaries lined up on both sides.

It wasn’t that there wasn’t any space on the outskirts of the bridge—rather, the size of the carriages and the way the mercenaries were lined up were all different. It didn’t look like it was going to be easy to weave through all of them. Of course, that only applied to most horsemen.

“…This is my twenty-second year as a horseman. If you can bear a bit of shaking… It might be an exaggeration to say as much, but I can even travel over the entire ocean.”

“Great.”

Ed closed both windows on each side of where the Saint was sitting.

He then sat back down, still dumbfounded by the present situation. However, he spoke with a serious expression on his face. His attitude was completely different from before.

“Tell me about what happened again. Slowly. Don’t miss a single thing.”

Looking at his appearance again, it looked as if he had gathered thousands of troops on his side… Clarice sniffed as she swallowed her breath.

“I… I…”

Kwadatang!

At that moment, the carriage began to shake violently. It was the aftermath of running away from the inspection.

As the horseman shouted, cracking his whip, the carriage swerved to and fro and narrowly passed by the crowd of people and wagons. Some of the mercenaries were startled, falling over. The outer walls of the wagons and the carriage rubbed against each other, resulting in some scratches. It was an extremely dangerous action to take.

It was impressive to witness the carriage, which wasn’t easy to change directions with, act so flexibly—quickly changing its path repeatedly. Of course, the reason for all the shaking was because of the passengers that were inside.

“Kyaaaaaaaghk…!”

Ed reflexively grabbed the windowsill as he tried to catch his balance. Clarice, on the other hand, couldn’t handle the shaking and fell straight into Ed’s arms.

“Arghh….”

Ed grabbed ahold of Clarice, holding onto her tightly so that she wouldn’t bounce around any further. Her petite body meant that he had to hold onto her tightly to keep her from flying out of her seat at the slightest of shakes.

“Ahh… Argh…”

As she was held in Ed’s arms, Clarice’s heart began to pound quickly.

Ed only held onto her to stop her from getting hurt. However, Clarice had already experienced a life-or-death crisis before, and had been in a situation where her back was pushed up against the corner multiple times.

Ed’s sturdy body and the rising temperature gave her a strange sense of safety. She had completely given herself up to his arms.

“Saint. There’s no time.”

“Ah, yes…”

Then, as if she suddenly remembered the urgency of the situation, Clarice quickly swallowed her breath and forced herself to regain composure.

***

As they finally rushed through and made it off of the crowded Mexes Bridge, the carriage was no longer in a great condition.

The marble railings of Mexes Bridge were scratched, the wagons holding trade goods were scratched and the phoenix-patterned statues on both sides fell off, and the wheels of the carriage had rattled against the outer wall several times.

Nevertheless, the wagon still continued, not slowing down. That was because he was ordered to keep pace even after passing over Mexes Bridge.

After escaping Acken Island, there was nothing but empty plains for quite a while. You would need to ride the carriage for quite some time before you would even see the entrance of the Great Forest of Kranfell. Only after passing through would you be able to see Zahul’s Frontier Territory. There was still a long way to go before they could find someone to ask for help.

“If even Ophelis Hall ends up collapsing, there really won’t be a safe location in the entirety of Acken Island. It was the smart decision to choose to run away, no matter what.”

Ed was able to accurately grasp the situation after hearing Clarice’s explanation, even though her voice trembled as she told the entire story.

“And… If you really did come back in time… It was most likely because of Celestial Magic.”

“Celestial… Magic…?”

“Since you’re also a student in the magic department, I’m sure you also heard about it in your first-year classes.”

Clarice nodded her head, still in Ed’s arms. Although the carriage’s shaking had become bearable to some extent, Clarice was still being held tightly in Ed’s arm—as if she were a newborn baby.

It wasn’t the time to worry about the small things, so Ed didn’t pay any attention to her.

“The only existing magic theory about interfering with time is Celestial Magic. However… A level of magic that allows someone to change time at such a massive scale… At the very least, it’s not something that could be done through a human’s magic power.”

“I-Is that so…?”

“That’s why it’s difficult to say thatonlyCelestial Magic was used. If someone had created an external source of magic power on a massive scale, or if they could use power granted by a God as a divine power… the story would be different. However, in the former case a long period of preparation and a massive scale of magically engineered items would be required. In the latter case, a huge amount of divine power would end up being consumed.”

“Divine Power…”

“Yes… Sacred Magic. It’s not something that just anyone could use.”

The Knight Templars of the Telos Religious Group and the high-ranking clergies were the only ones that would be able to use Sacred Magic to wield such a magic power efficiency.

However, experimenting by combining it with Celestial Magic was completely forbidden.

In the first place, Celestial Magic was so vast and wide and had yet to be researched properly. Plus, time-based magic was considered taboo, so it would be difficult for clergies to gain access to it.

Even many expert magicians considered Celestial Magic to be an incomprehensible realm of magic. There was no way that a clergy that was isolated from the rest of the world would attempt to combine Sacred Magic with Celestial Magic.

“It seems highly likely that a high-ranking clergyman was involved in it.”

“Is that so…? Then…”

Just before Ophelis Hall collapsed, what Ed had agonized over while looking at the magic circle up in the sky… she was now starting to understand.

Even though the situation was turning chaotic and dire, Ed had continued to carefully analyze the cause of the situation.

“I don’t know why they would attempt something so difficult, but for now I am grateful that we were given the chance to survive.”

“I have to make the most of this chance… For now… If we go to Zahul’s Frontier Territory and explain the situation, asking for help, a report will be sent over to the imperial family. With that… But even then, I’m still not even sure they will be able to stop that massive dragon.”

“We should still try anything we can. By the way, Saint… I think I’m starting to sweat.”

After Ed spoke, Clarice’s shoulders began to tremble as she blushed. As she got a grip of herself, she realized that she had pushed herself deep into Ed’s arms—as if she were digging a hole—clutching his shirt tightly.

She couldn’t help it. There was an unknown sense of relief she felt from being by his side, since he was always able to maintain his composure despite the situation.

Thanks to his calm appearance, she was able to maintain herself up to that point. Normally, a girl of her age would have just sat on the floor and cried, unable to overcome her confusion.

“J-Just a bit more…”

Clarice spoke as she pushed herself closer, deeper into Ed’s arms. At the very least, she wanted to stay like that while the carriage continued to move.

“Th-Then… Do as you wish…”

Clarice started to feel another sense of relief as she looked at Ed lowering his arm… She wanted to get drunk on that peacefulness forever. However, at that moment—

Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahk!

A roar broke out in the sky.

The sound brought up a memory that made her skin crawl.

They had already traveled quite far from Acken Island. Not just Mexes Bridge—even Right Mountain could barely be seen off in the distance.

However, that giant dragon… It was still large enough to overwhelm the entire island. The majesty of that massive dragon could clearly be felt, even after running so far away.

Rather, being able to see it so far away brought on a new sense of just how massive it really was. A massive dragon that could blow away the entirety of Silveria Academy with just one kick.

“Beeck…!”

A nightmare-like memory rose in her, but she had succeeded in escaping that time. Remembering that fact, she tried to go back into Ed’s arms, seeking that peacefulness and safety that was once there…

Kagagagagakak!

Whoooooosh!

A feeling of magic power surrounded her entire body.

That… It was the feeling of the Saint’s ‘Holy Blessing’ that surrounded her body being activated.

Holy Blessingwould protect Saint Clarice from any hostile attacks, unless it was a natural disaster or an accident… Clarice was conditionally protected from any attack that held the intention of harming her.

In other words, there was a large-scale attack on the carriage. The sound of the outer walls of the wagon being smashed and the sound of shattering was all too familiar.

Kwagakang!

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaghk!”

It was safe to say that there was almost no concept of an attack’s range with the Holy Blue Dragon.

The scales that rained down from the Holy Blue Dragon, the size of which covered the entirety of Acken Island… No matter how far they rode in the carriage through the plains, it was impossible to escape its range.

Rummmmmble! Boom!

However, the further away they were, the more density and power of the attack dropped.

Compared to when she was attacked directly, it was much more relaxed. The protection ofHoly Blessingwas also at a much weaker level.

However, the carriage wasn’t able to bear it. One wheel was crushed by the impact and another wheel diagonal of it had fallen off. Eventually, it collapsed.

“Ugh. Kyaaaaaaghk!”

After much shaking and turning, the Saint’s carriage had reached its end.

Inside the wagon, which had fallen on its side in the dirt, dust rose up… The Saint, who was in Ed’s arms, was barely able to open her eyes.

“Are you okay, Saint?”

“Y-Yes… I’m fine…”

After saying that, she looked up at Ed, still in his arms as she swallowed her breath. Ed was bleeding from his head. He had already been hit by a few of the scales.

Kwaaaaaaaang! Kwaaaaaaaaaang!

Kwakang! Kagagagakar!

The sound of the battle taking place on Acken Island off in the distance reverberated throughout the plains.

The magic of the Holy Blue Dragon and the counterattack by the magicians ended up lighting up the entire sky like fireworks.

Meanwhile Ed, who was wounded… got up from inside the fallen carriage. Fortunately, his wound wasn’t fatal.

“E-Ed…!”

“I’m fine. Since I was holding you in my arms, it seems that my vitals and internal organs ended up being protected by your Holy Blessing.”

He didn’t look fine at all.

His neck and stomach were in good condition thanks to holding onto the Saint. However, one of his arms was covered in blood, and his thigh had been pierced, the wound quite visible. However, Ed clenched his teeth as he stood up, pushing open the doors of the carriage that faced the sky.

He then pushed the Saint out of the carriage… before he came out himself, grinding his teeth.

“Heuk. Heuk…”

“Ahh, ahhhhh…”

The horses had been decapitated.

And knights and the horseman, as well… With them not even being protected by the outer walls of the carriage, they had been hit by the scales directly. As fatal wounds covered their bodies, the carriage had fallen and rolled on the dirt for quite some time.

The corpses of the horseman and the knights lay there on the road, where the carriage had rolled over… It was difficult to look at.

“Saint… Once we cross through this forest… We will reach Zahul’s Frontier Territory.”

Ed tore his collar as he tied his wounds, forcing himself to stand up as he spoke.

“We have to… Continue moving.”

Clarice then grabbed ahold of her trembling heart, barely managing to stand up.

Then, while supporting Ed, who was in terrible shape… They staggered across the plains.

Behind them, the battle between the Holy Blue Dragon and the magicians continued.