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SeRon’s shocked expression at the thought of bringing the Saint along remained unchanged.

I left her be and decided to introduce others.

“Aisha, Poara, this is the Saint. She’ll be teaming up with us this time.”

“S-Saint?!”

Just like SeRon, Poara looked at the Saint with a surprised expression.

“Senior, how did you manage to bring the Saint on board?”

The one with the least change in expression, Aisha, asked the question.

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Well, nobody had asked the Saint.”

Therefore, I invited her over.

I even gave the Saint a valid reason.

“…Of course, this idiot would never think of that!”

At that moment, SeRon, who had been behind me, shouted.

She grabbed the collar of my clothes tightly and glared at me with wide eyes.

When I shot her a look questioning why, her forehead turned bright red, and steam seemed to rise from it.

She looked like she would die from frustration at any moment.

“Are you out of your mind?! Do you have any idea what might happen if we bring the Saint along?!”

The Saint, SirMiel, belongs to the Empire’s leading religion, the Holy Church, and her status is right beneath the royal family.

Given that, if anything were to happen to the Saint…

The students had no confidence in dealing with the consequences.

That’s why no one had dared to team up with SirMiel until she became a second-year student.

It had become somewhat of an unspoken rule.

But I didn’t care one bit about that.

There was an opportunity I could utilize.

It would be absurd to just ignore it.

“The Third Princess is going as well.”

I pointed to the Third Princess, Iris Haishirion, who was already preparing to join.

A princess, who holds a status higher than the Saint, is entering the Academy.

“The situation is completely different for the princess!”

Iris is stellar in martial arts.

Her swordsmanship is extraordinary.

She’s a perfect example of someone who excels in both martial and literary arts.

She is often praised as having the greatest talent among all past royals.

Not having her enter the Academy would be a national loss.

But the Saint’s situation is different.

Though SirMiel excels in Holy Studies, her skills are in healing.

It’s not about having the power to protect herself.

Thus, students tasked with protecting the Saint were filled with worries about what could happen.

“As long as we keep the Saint safe, it’ll be fine.”

“Easier said than done!”

I raised my hand and slapped SeRon on the forehead.

“Yowch!?”

She screamed as she clutched her forehead.

SeRon glared at me, questioning what I was doing.

“Then just do it. Did you think the Academy was some vacation spot? Do you really think there are going to be priests stronger than the Saint?”

And above all else.

“With the Saint right next to us, is that really what you want to say?”

SeRon flinched.

This blockhead finally started to grasp the situation and began to glance at SirMiel.

SirMiel, wearing a gentle smile, shook her head.

“I’m alright. I already know what we’re getting into.

I also understand the burden, which is why I haven’t joined a team until now.”

SirMiel willingly explained the situation to the professor.

As long as no proposals come in, she would not enter the Academy.

“However, despite knowing this, Brother Hanon still called for me.”

SirMiel rolled up her white sleeves, revealing her determination.

“Since you called me, under the name of our Lord, I, SirMiel, will give my all.”

SeRon bit her lip.

She couldn’t even say a word, perhaps feeling guilty for what she had just said.

I turned back to the other two.

“Aisha, Poara, you both are okay with this, right?”

“Yes, Senior. I had a hunch something like this would happen when I joined your team.”

“I-I’m okay too!”

What exactly did Aisha anticipate?

“Senior, you always lead us into strange situations.”

Aisha seemed to know too much about me.

She must have really keen hearing.

“Team, Hanon Irey.”

At that moment, I heard someone calling our team name.

As I gestured, everyone followed behind me.

Only SeRon sighed heavily, her face full of worries.

As I approached the Academy, Professor Veganon stood there.

Today, she was in her uniform, and upon seeing me, she slightly raised her eyebrows.

“Hanon, you’ve managed to assemble quite the absurd team again.”

It seemed like she wanted to reprimand me.

However, Veganon didn’t say anything further.

Instead, she mentioned the dangers of the Academy once more.

“Remember. The most important thing in the Academy is your lives. If it seems dangerous, run away. There’s no need to sacrifice your lives unnecessarily.”

She pointed toward the front-line knights of the Academy.

“Even if an Apostle comes out, the adults will handle it. You just need to do what you can.”

In a situation where they had to send boys into the Academy to reduce ground casualties, Veganon spoke with an expression that seemed less than thrilled about the realities of this world.

Her only wish was simple.

That they all return alive.

“I will keep that in mind.”

This was a promise I absolutely had to uphold.

It seemed that Veganon felt my resolve and didn’t say anything further.

“Have a good trip.”

We entered the Academy.

The mouth of the Academy opened wide, as if a hellish beast were about to swallow us whole.

As we stepped inside, a chilly wind brushed past our faces.

Once I lifted my head, sunlight poured down, revealing a meadow and greenery before us.

“This is…”

Aisha, entering the Academy for the first time, froze.

No wonder—before us stretched a landscape completely different from just moments ago.

This place, filled with greenery, was undeniably peaceful.

“I-it’s strange. It’s clearly a forest, but I don’t feel any spirits.”

Poara, standing next to Aisha, looked around the forest with a bewildered expression.

Indeed, while there is supposed to be a forest before us, it felt distinctly alien.

“Tsk, this entrance is a gray forest.”

SeRon, the only one with experience in the Academy, clicked her tongue.

The first floor of the Academy is divided into four zones.

One of them is the gray forest.

That’s where we had just entered.

“If it’s the gray forest, that means…”

“Yeah, as time goes on, gray zones appear all over the forest.”

I replied to SirMiel and took a step forward.

Suddenly, the greenery I was standing on turned gray.

The paths that crossed the gray forest all turn to shades of gray.

And once you step onto these gray zones…

“You’ll lose a handful of stamina.”

It’s a place you should never step on again.

That’s the gray forest.

“What a fascinating forest.”

Aisha marveled at the ground turning gray beneath her feet.

“There’s nothing fascinating about it. It’s the most tedious forest.”

In contrast, SeRon looked disgusted.

As she had said, the gray forest was not a place I welcomed either.

Most importantly, the triggers of the gray forest could be considered the worst environments on the first floor of the Academy.

“What are we going to do? If we take too long, we won’t be able to move at all.”

SeRon urged.

Just as she said, if we stayed here too long, the paths that had already been explored would turn into a place where we couldn’t set foot.

“No, we aren’t moving.”

“What?”

SeRon turned back with a bewildered expression.

She looked like she couldn’t understand what I was saying at all.

I understood SeRon’s reaction.

Yet it has to be done.

“We aren’t going to the second or third floors.”

The event for Act 3 Chapter 3, the Academy event—The Guardian of the Gray Forest.

Originally, Lucas was supposed to handle this event.

But Lucas isn’t here anymore.

So it’s up to me to fill in for this event.

I lifted my head.

“Everyone, from now on, we’re going to…”

And what came next took everyone by surprise.

“We’re going to take a good rest.”

We need to conserve our stamina before the event.

*

Inside the Academy, the gray forest.

It was indeed within the Academy, yet the sunlight filtering through and the gentle breeze made for a perfect napping spot.

With trees scattered around, there were plenty of shady spots, and unlike a real forest, there weren’t any bugs.

So there was practically no better place to relax than this.

“Is this even real? We’re in the Academy, and we’re resting?! Are you out of your mind?!”

But instead of the buzzing of insects, there was an annoying noise.

That was SeRon chattering beside me.

Leaning against a tree and resting, SeRon kept nagging and eventually started yelling.

I squinted my eyes and looked at SeRon.

“Is there a rule against resting in the Academy?”

“Hah, seriously, you idiot, do you even understand why we came here?!”

“Sure, I do.”

To prevent the twisted beings from sending Apostles to the surface to destroy the world.

That’s the purpose of the Academy, and the reason it was established.

All students attending the Academy take pride in this fact.

Even if it means risking their lives to do so.

“Is that what you think? Do you really think we should be resting when we’ve built such a team? We should be going down to fight the Apostles!”

“Listen, idiot, the Apostles aren’t just below.”

The Apostles certainly exist on the first floor.

In fact, they can be said to be the most concentrated there.

The birthplace of the Apostles is in the hatchery located at the center of the first floor.

“Who doesn’t know that? But the thing is, the Apostles go down below regardless!”

The newly born Apostles, seeking power, mostly descend to the lower floors of the Academy.

As a result, the number of Apostles on the first floor decreases the fastest.

“We need to go down to encounter more Apostles. That’s common sense!”

As SeRon insisted, I opened my eyes wide in disbelief.

“Sure, that’s why we’ll go down later.”

“I honestly have no clue what you’re talking about.”

SeRon looked at me as if I were crazy.

But there was nothing I could do about that.

I have my reasons too.

So I grabbed SeRon by the shoulders and pushed her down to sit.

“Calm down and take a break. I never said we weren’t going down.”

No matter how much I tried to persuade her, SeRon seemed exhausted.

She sat there muttering insults toward me.

I’ll have to smack her forehead later.

“Hanon, another party is passing by.”

In the meantime, Poara, who I’d assigned to scouting, reported back.

Poara’s spirits were scattered throughout the gray forest.

That meant they were continuously reporting back as scouts.

“It seems like this is the last party.”

Students were making their way to the center.

To go down to the second floor, they had to go to the center, so everyone was heading the same way.

‘It’s about time.’

Before I knew it, we were the only ones left who hadn’t gone down to the second floor.

“SeRon, how many times has the gray forest been activated so far?”

As I stood up and asked, SeRon glanced over at me.

Her face was filled with dissatisfaction.

“It’s my second time since I enrolled.”

“Right, that’s your count. But for the Academy’s activation, that makes it the ninety-ninth time.”

SeRon’s eyes widened slightly.

Her expression seemed to question whether I had been keeping track of that.

But this point was crucial.

“The environment of the Academy has been steadily changing for a long time.”

The reasons the Academy is always dangerous stem from that environment.

No matter how much research is done, it changes at certain points.

It necessitates taking risks and deploying an exploration squad.

And right now…

The time Lucas enrolled is precisely the period of transformation for the Academy.

It’s a point where the Academy’s conquests have stabilized.

Due to the Academy’s transformation, numerous casualties emerge, allowing the Apostles to fully gain their strength and be born.

Truly, a time of turbulence.

“When the Academy transforms, it’s typically when the emergence of an Apostle reaches a hundred times that peculiar phenomena occur.”

SeRon’s pupils began to dilate.

She looked bewildered as she stood up.

“You don’t mean…”

“The gray forest is reaching its hundredth activation today.”

My eyes opened wide.

“Today could possibly be the most dangerous day for the Academy challenge.”

There’s no method to immediately return to the surface after descending to the lower floors of the Academy.

To be precise, there is a way, but only I know it.

Thus, returning will be a struggle for all the students.

In reality, after completing the Academy challenge, more casualties tend to occur on the way back.

That’s because the sense of accomplishment from clearing it lets down their guard.

So, the Act 3 Chapter 3, the Academy event is…

An event that causes the most catastrophic human casualties ever.

A herald of the Academy’s transformation.

Depending on how we get through this juncture, the difficulty of clearing the game rises dramatically.

Kugugugugung!

At that moment, the entirety of the gray forest began to resonate.

SeRon’s face grew pale from the vibration.

Meanwhile, I slowly lifted my head to the sky.

The sky that had been bright until just now began to darken.

And through the darkened sky, long tree roots started to descend.

“It’s here.”

The prepared Saint, SirMiel, stood up.

The reason I could bring SirMiel onto our Academy team was because I had spoken about this beforehand.

Considering the potential for significant human casualties.

Keeping that possibility in mind, SirMiel gladly agreed to follow me.

“Hanon’s team.”

I pulled a hefty shield from my back and called everyone.

“From now on, we will forge a path to ensure the safe return of the students.”

We will defeat the Guardian of the Gray Forest.