Chapter 139

“The formation from just now was very impressive.”

I slowly opened my mouth.

Having experienced it myself, it couldn’t help but be impressively serious.

Madam Maiden wore an expression of curiosity about what I was going to say.

I gave her a light smile.

“But I think formations like that could have variables.”

Not that they might have them—it was way too big—but I decided to skip that part.

They’d figure it out when they saw it!

“What kind of variables do you mean?”

A glint appeared in Madam Maiden’s eyes.

I gave her a gentle smile.

“The results seem like they’d vary greatly depending on the individual soldiers’ skills.”

If placing soldiers one by one at the map’s corners counted as a formation, then sure, eat shit.

I didn’t forget to flash a pretty smile at the Eastern Empire side too.

“……!”

The Eastern Empire guys’ faces all turned pale at once.

Why? Seeing the future?

I waved to them inwardly and said,

“So I think we should run the experiment one more time.”

As soon as I finished speaking, I picked up the toy horses connected to the Eastern Empire people and placed them one by one at the map’s corners.

—Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!

Hmm, nice crisp sound!

“With the same formation.”

At my words, the map began to glow light green.

Madam Maiden turned to the Eastern Empire side. She swung her hand, enveloped in a light green aura.

Good, fire away—!

“!”

The Eastern Empire guys, their faces ashen, were swept up in the light green glow.

They clearly panicked, hurriedly exchanging glances.

But what could they do?

No matter that three out of four were mages, I didn’t think they’d succeed in this mission.

Especially starting from the map’s edges, just flying or running to where the monsters were coming would eat up a ridiculous amount of time.

Do your best, fighting!

“Sharp observation. Shall we see how it goes?”

Madam Maiden looked at the map with an intrigued expression.

Rifen was watching the floating map in midair reluctantly.

On the map, the four Eastern Empire cadets had just entered the special space.

The monster count popped up just like for us.

Madam Maiden wasn’t cutting them any slack on monster numbers despite their high favor—pretty fair, I like it.

Favor points!

As I swallowed a laugh,

the Eastern Empire people started moving on the map.

I could see four ridiculously long names—ones I didn’t need to remember—written over the black dots.

[…….]

The black dots on the map didn’t show expressions, so I couldn’t see their faces clearly.

But just from their movements, I could guess the situation.

They’d barely dropped into the special space and were panicking, twitching in place repeatedly, unsure what to do.

Then they seemed to make up their minds, and the mages started moving quickly one by one.

“Oh…….”

They weren’t dragged along to the gate response team for nothing—the mages flew off decently well.

It wasn’t marked as flying on the map, but they were crossing hills and water at a steady pace, so it was obvious.

On the other hand, there was one knight who couldn’t fly.

I glanced at the bottom right.

“Oh.”

I almost laughed at the struggling knight’s movements.

Laughing would trigger a dignity warning! Can’t laugh!

“…….”

I forced a serious face and watched their antics.

The three mages were imitating Hunter So Yeri, heading quickly toward the main road—the area around the map’s center where we’d met them.

Unfortunately for them, the mages were making a serious mistake.

“They’re too slow.”

Hunter So Yeri said, narrowing her eyes.

Right. Their flight speed was way slower than Hunter So Yeri’s.

Well, if they could control flight speed like her, they could make a living as personal jets.

Of course, the ones who couldn’t started lagging behind.

Plus, the knight who had to climb mountains and cross rivers barely moved from his spot.

“Oh dear, at that rate, they won’t make it in time…….”

Put on the most pitiful face possible!

I’m so sad! I can see their future of getting skinned alive and stats exposed—it’s heartbreaking!

They should’ve had one mage pick up the knight!

“……Ah.”

Then it hit me—an important fact.

Wait, even if a mage went to the knight, they couldn’t carry him?

Hunter So Yeri was support-class, but S-rank was S-rank.

Not a dealer or tank, but she had the basic strength granted to S-ranks.

And with S-rank base stats, lifting one person was no issue.

But those mages weren’t awakened hunters, so no way.

“…….”

I desperately held back another laugh.

Hngh! Can’t laugh!

“Hmm. The monsters are approaching quickly…….”

Madam Maiden narrowed her eyes, displeased.

I could see the monsters closing in on the mansion fast too.

Could the Eastern Empire guys handle it?

Even Rifen, who’d lost interest, was now fixing his gaze on the map.

Meanwhile, the 100 red dots representing monsters were clustered tightly, forming almost a square.

Oh, fast, so fast!

[…….]

The Eastern Empire mages must’ve seen it too, because they picked up speed.

Of course, it wasn’t some once-in-a-lifetime burst, so to us, it just looked sluggish.

Plus, the mages hesitated now and then.

Checking if they were on track?

The direction—you couldn’t miss the monsters’ path even if you tried?

“Mm…….”

Then I saw Hunter So Yeri clear her throat.

Her eyebrows twitching—she was clearly fighting to control her expression.

This face?

She looked like she wanted to laugh but the warning held her back, but I was sure.

If hunter chat was possible, it’d be blowing up.

She barely managed her expression and delivered a cool analysis.

“Looks like they got flustered realizing the distance was farther than they thought while flying.”

Madam Maiden nodded at that.

“Indeed. Earlier, the mages had enough skill to move, but this party doesn’t seem to.”

Then she elegantly started roasting the Eastern Empire.

Exactly!

“It’s a distance that’s too much for normal flying or running.”

Hunter Joo Yian chimed in.

Of course, we weren’t normal, so don’t try this at home.

It reminded me of that TV disclaimer.

[※Non-awakened or children, do not imitate]

Should we have said that?

※Non-S-ranks, do not imitate?

Too late now.

They’d clearly underestimated the gap between Hunter So Yeri and their level.

“Mm.”

Shin Jae-heon ran a hand over his face. I knew that pose.

Isn’t it the one you use in class to hide laughing at a manga?

In short, he was laughing skillfully too.

“Their confident flight is impressive.”

Then Hunter Joo Yian spoke up.

I saw Madam Maiden turn to him. She clearly wanted more of his thoughts.

Noticing or not, Hunter Joo Yian continued steadily.

“You can’t come up with a strategy like that without confidence in your abilities.”

“Ahem!”

I had to clear my throat to hold back laughter at that.

Can’t laugh here!

But how do you say it like it’s not an insult and then roast them indirectly!

If you’re gonna make us laugh, signal first!

In one word, it meant overconfident trash with no skills.

[…….]

Meanwhile, the map progressed quickly.

The Eastern Empire mages had finally entered the monsters’ path.

The problem was their speed was too slow.

“Wonder if they can catch up.”

Madam Maiden watched the map with interest, thinking the same as me.

The mages, flustered by the monsters ahead, hesitated then veered their flight path toward the mansion.

They had to block in front, no choice.

“The knight still hasn’t arrived.”

Shin Jae-heon said that, then used his school-honed expression-hiding skills to conceal his laugh.

I was ignoring him on purpose—don’t point it out! Now I saw!

The knight I’d been ignoring had barely covered 1/3 of the distance to the goal.

Yeah, climbing mountains and crossing rivers isn’t easy for normals, right?

Meanwhile, the mages seemed to give up on linking with the knight, flying past the monsters toward the mansion.

They stopped, forming a triangle.

“Oh…….”

Planning a one-shot spell too?

Do they have that firepower?

We could because of stacked buffs and Shin Jae-heon as an AoE damage dealer.

But they didn’t look built for that?

“Hmm.”

As Madam Maiden tilted her head, a massive magic circle appeared on the map.

The circle drawn between the three mages was clearly high-rank at a glance.

Oh, something going on?

Are they gonna succeed?

Them succeeding wouldn’t hurt us.

We’d get decent points for ‘sharply spotting the variable.’ The issue was them getting full marks.

I didn’t like that.

Then Hunter So Yeri subtly shook her head.

“Hard to one-shot the monsters from there…….”

Her worried eyes contrasted with her hand-covered mouth, which was smiling.

I didn’t know her past, but she’d definitely fooled around in class before.

Meanwhile, the pitiful knight was still desperately jumping and running.

Do something for your poor knight, kids!

[…….]

Unfortunately, the mages showed zero interest in the knight, quickly pouring mana into the magic circle.

[……!]

The map started glowing with a bright yellow magic circle.

Really?

Looks more legit than expected—maybe they’ll pull it off?

But filling each line of the circle with light took longer than thought.

And during that time.

The red monster dots were rushing in fast.

“Mm.”

I could tell the future just from Hunter So Yeri’s face.

She smoothly brushed her smiling lips—way more natural than Shin Jae-heon.

Is this what they call seasoned skill?

As I admired and turned back to the map.

“……!”

The map didn’t make sounds, but I swear I heard one.

The sound I heard was this.

Pop!

From under the magic circle the mages drew.

The monsters had no reason to wait for it to build—one by one, they were slipping out of the circle’s range.

Pop pop pop!

“They didn’t account for that.”

Shin Jae-heon said with a baffled face.

I could see the three mages falter—even outcalculated by a dealer.

They said Western Empire was knights, Eastern was mages.

Whether the next emperor was Kinna Baltan or his grandpa, the Eastern Empire looked doomed.

The future was blindingly bright.

[……!]

And as dazzling as their future, the yellow magic circle flashed on the map.