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The search for team members continues.

In the second year, I couldn’t find anyone special.

So this time, I visited the first-year floor.

Perhaps because they were still freshmen, unlike the calmed second-year students, the first-years were chattering and talking away.

“Second years have gone through Magung when they were first years.”

This stark difference between those who have experienced Magung and the chicks who have yet to do so was evident.

However, among these freshmen, there are indeed extraordinary individuals.

That’s right, the first-year special class is one of them.

They possess levels of strength that could be seamlessly integrated into the second year without issue.

The special class formed from them is on a whole new level compared to the regular first years.

“Hey? Looks like a small one is coming.”

“Right? So tiny.”

I could hear the voices of the kids chattering as they looked at me.

But as soon as they saw my name tag, they shut up.

The blue representing the second year and the student council mark.

These two elements gave my image a sense of weight.

The first-year students naturally cleared a path for me.

The treatment I received was completely different from when I passed through the second-year corridor.

“The special class members must have been checked in advance.”

And before that, there was someone I needed to accompany.

“Hey there, junior.”

“Y-yes?”

When I called out, a flustered junior hurriedly responded.

The enthusiasm characteristic of first years was evident.

“Do you know where Aisha Bizbel is?”

The Great Sword Iron.

Aisha Bizbel.

She’s the junior who trains with me every morning.

Given how much I owe her, I thought I could take this opportunity to owe her a bit more.

The junior readily pointed me towards Aisha after hearing my question.

It made sense since she was said to always train more during lunch.

“Training in the morning and again after lunch.”

At this rate, I wondered if Aisha was truly made of steel.

She was more of a steel human than my own steel-like skin.

When I arrived at the training room, there indeed was Aisha.

Wearing gym clothes instead of her uniform, she swung a great sword in her hands.

It was undeniably an absurdly large great sword.

Yet, it drew a clean arc as she swung it.

Her muscles were absurdly impressive once again.

“Aisha.”

When I called her name, Aisha halted her swings.

She turned around late and smiled upon seeing a familiar face.

“Oh, Senpai, what brings you here?”

As Aisha smiled, the junior who guided me wore a dumbfounded expression.

“The Great Sword Iron is smiling?”

Seeing his reaction, I grasped the situation.

Aisha occupies a position that is hard to approach among the first years.

A border count of the Empire.

The Bizbel family.

The Bizbel name encapsulates the northern warrior race.

Both men and women alike possess towering heights and robust physiques.

Upon facing a man from the Bizbel family, ordinary men realize their biological inferiority and become utterly deflated.

Aisha is considered to possess exceptional talent even among the direct descendants of the Bizbel family.

Moreover, when she entered Jerion Academy, she came in through recommendation instead of taking the entrance exam.

Her martial arts scores are currently at the top.

Additionally, she spends nearly every day training, which means her friendships with other students are not deep.

It’s no wonder that in this academy, the person who speaks to Aisha the most is me, a second-year senior.

Thus, Aisha has always been a daunting presence to the first years.

Now, with Aisha smiling at me, it’s understandable that the junior would be flustered.

The junior stared at me with a blank expression.

It was a face that clearly questioned what I was doing.

“It seems like my rumors haven’t spread in the first years.”

Well, they are all busy adapting to the academy and focusing on their studies.

This isn’t a time to be concerned about rumors.

“I can take my leave now.”

When I opened the conversation, he finally snapped back to reality and quietly stepped outside.

Yet, his lingering gaze filled with questions was hard to shake off.

“Senpai, what brings you here?”

In the meantime, Aisha approached me wiping off her sweat with a bright smile.

I cleverly handed over a drink I had brought along.

I figured she would be in this state anyway, so I came prepared.

“Ah, thank you.”

“Aisha, have you chosen your Magung team yet?”

Aisha, who was opening the drink and taking a sip, shook her head.

As expected, I thought she wouldn’t have yet.

“I’m thinking of forming a team this time. What do you say? Want to join?”

If someone with Aisha’s level of power joins, there’s no better front-line member than her.

So when I made the offer, Aisha finished her drink and grinned robustly.

“Was this drink a bribe for that?”

“Yep, once you sip it, you can’t run away. If you try to escape, I’ll blackmail you for having accepted a bribe.”

“Scary. I feel like you’d only make weird threats.”

“For starters, I could threaten to reduce your morning training amount.”

“I’ll stop that with my life.”

Imagining Aisha doing a headbutt fills me with dread.

“So about the team?”

“I’ll join. I think I’ll get along well with you, Senpai.”

We’ve trained together for a while now.

At least within the academy, there’s no one who matches well with Aisha as I do.

That’s two front-line members secured.

Now, what’s left?

“The healer.”

A student from Holy Studies.

*

Time flows again.

Before I knew it, summer was slowly approaching, giving a sense of early summer.

Jerion Academy was more tense than ever.

The birth of an apostle from the Abyss occurs as revealed through the astrology of the four seasons.

On the best spring days.

On the day summer begins.

On the day autumn nights outlast the days.

On the coldest day of winter.

When a season reaches its peak.

An apostle is born.

The newly born apostle possesses feeble strength.

Therefore, during this period, academies around the world are sending students into the Magung.

And today.

As summer officially heats up, period of start to summer is upon us.

At the entrance to the western region’s Magung, overseen by Jerion Academy.

Many students were gathered under the guidance of professors and teaching assistants.

Naturally, such a sizeable crowd doesn’t all rush into the Magung at once.

It starts from the top-performing third-year students.

And moves down the ranks sequentially.

“The Magung has a distorted structure.”

The ultimate goal of an apostle is to breach the wall of the Magung and wreak havoc upon the world, thereby hatching the Abyss.

Thus, all apostles are first birthed on the first floor hatchery.

However, in order to step outside, they must venture toward the Abyss.

The power of a freshly born apostle is weak.

Attempting to exit in this state would only lead them to be hunted by the knights guarding the final Magung lines.

Therefore, they chose to descend further into the Magung.

To absorb the power of the Abyss and grow stronger.

Thus, the deeper the apostles go, the more power they possess.

And the moment they become complete beings as apostles.

They begin their charge towards the surface.

The purpose of establishing academies worldwide is to stop this charge before it begins.

To do so, students are sent in four times a year.

“Even on second thought, it has a distorted structure.”

In front of the entrance to the Magung.

As I quietly watched the third-year students being let in first, I gazed at the Magung.

It looked as if it would swallow up everything on the surface.

The grotesque entrance seemed akin to a gaping mouth from hell.

That’s the entrance to the Magung.

“If I were the Abyss, I’d create apostles by my side right from the start.”

Was there even a need to create apostles at the entrance of the Magung?

Even as someone who’s played this game for ages, I still couldn’t decipher why the Magung was structured this way.

“At the very beginning.”

The existence of the Abyss itself is full of questions.

Even in the Flame Butterfly route ending, it remained ambiguous whether the Abyss was genuinely defeated.

“It’s a Deus ex Machina.”

A god of mechanical devices.

It’s been referred to as a sort of device inserted for seamless progress in the story.

Users called the Abyss that.

“They say someone left the Abyss ambiguous in the sequel to Magung Slayer, intending to write the final chapter.”

It’s disappointing, but the developer of Magung Slayer hasn’t provided any updates in over five years.

In the end, all that remains are rampant user speculations.

No official statements about the Abyss exist anywhere.

“Hey, burned sweet potato, do you want to keep ignoring what I’m saying?”

As I gazed at the Magung, I heard a clattering voice from beside me.

A red-haired kid was beside me.

“When are our team members coming? Honestly, did you trick me? It was all a lie, right?”

Seron Parmia.

The day before I finalized the team, she found me around dinner time.

“Um, ahem, you know, burned sweet potato, it seems that your team is one short.”

She called me over and I wondered what she was up to.

Seron kept clearing her throat as she spoke.

“Hey, it might be okay if I join your team.”

Hesitant, Seron roamed around looking for another team up till the very end.

But she couldn’t find anywhere that would take her.

If this continued, she’d have to end up in some ragtag team organized by a professor.

For Seron, there could be nothing more humiliating.

Ultimately, her last hope turned to my team.

She figured that my team of skilled members would be better than some ragtag team.

Gazing at her for a moment, I tilted my head.

“Why do you talk as if you’re giving me a favor?”

This girl, does she not grasp her own position?

“What? I’m saying I’m joining your team. You didn’t manage to get a proper team together anyway!”

Only now did I understand.

Seron was oblivious to how our team was composed.

So that’s why she was being so cocky.

“Our team’s rear is Poara Silin.”

“Eh?”

At my next words, Seron wore a flabbergasted face.

She must have heard Poara’s name.

The whole academy was a buzz about the Spirit Sovereign.

Even those from the second and third years were trying to recruit Poara.

Not knowing Poara’s name would be rather odd.

Poara is in our team.

With just that statement, the value of our team instantly surged.

“And the front line is first-year, Aisha Bizbel.”

“W-wha?”

Seron is an imperial noble.

The name Bizbel would be common knowledge to any noble.

Her face started to turn pale.

She finally realized.

The team I had assembled was far stronger than she had initially thought.

She probably figured I just threw together a bunch of random people.

“There are quite a few people wanting to join my team even now.”

After news spread of first-year prodigy Aisha and Poara joining our team.

I’d often heard students wanting to join.

Regardless of how our team would end up, many found it beneficial to get acquainted with Aisha and Poara in advance.

This is why a name’s reputation is important.

But Seron had spent most of her time alone.

Ever since being expelled from the group of four, no one had bothered to associate with Seron.

So, she hadn’t heard about how my team was structured.

At this juncture, what reason would I have to take in Seron?

Finally realizing her position, Seron began to take a step back.

“Seron Parmia.”

I called out her full name.

At that, her shoulders stiffened, and her once proud demeanor faltered.

“If you want to join the team, you can’t say it like that.”

I smiled broadly.

“Say it again, clearly.”

Would she join the ragtag team?

Or join our strong team?

If she joined the ragtag team, her results would surely plummet.

And there’s no telling what sort of jokes that would invite from others.

A prideful person like Seron would never be able to handle that.

Seron’s shoulders trembled.

She glared at me before biting her lips in frustration.

Her forehead began to blush red.

It was so heated I could’ve sworn steam was rising from it.

But she suppressed her embarrassment somehow.

Then she lowered her head quietly before me.

“Please, please put me in the team.”

“Louder. Clearly.”

“Please let me join the team!”

“With more urgency.”

“Please, I beg you to let me join the team! P-please! Hu-huhuh!”

Is this her breaking point?

“My dad said if I don’t get good grades this time, I’ll be kicked out, so please let me in.”

As I watched Seron break down and cry, I couldn’t help but nod approvingly.

Thus, Seron became part of our team.

“Right, it’s not like the likes of burned sweet potato would have folks like Poara or Aisha on their team. I was fooled. I was tricked!”

…Is this girl dense or what?

Even after getting humiliated by me yesterday.

She’s back here acting all cocky this morning.

At this point, she might have erased yesterday’s events from her memory.

I raised my hand and grabbed her jaw.

Just as she was about to shout “What are you doing?” with her big eyes wide open.

I turned her head to face the coming pair.

“Keep your eyes open and see clearly. They’re coming.”

Aisha and Poara were approaching.

When their eyes met mine, Poara bowed her head while Aisha briefly smiled.

“…This is going to be tough.”

With my hand occupied, Seron responded in a mumbled voice.

I let go of her jaw and wiped her drool on her clothes.

“So then, who’s the last member?”

Now that I think about it, I hadn’t mentioned the last member yet.

As I turned my head, just in time, someone was walking over here.

One by one, students started directing their gazes towards that individual.

At that moment, surprise and awe mingled across the students’ faces.

In contrast, Seron’s eyes widened, her mouth agape as she began to pale.

“W-wait, what?”

Seron finally became the fool.

“I’ll introduce you.”

I showed the figure approaching to Seron.

With pure white blonde hair and adorned in the only gown approved at Jerion Academy, featuring a bright white background embroidered with golden threads.

“She is the Saint.”

Our team’s last healer.

The Saint, SirMiel of Eden.