Chapter 549

Yonaire looked at her friend with a slightly suspicious gaze, but she couldn't do that for long.

Other undead began to slowly crawl out of the forest.

"Spirit contaminants? ...Dark-type?"

Yi-Han muttered with a frown.

The people of the empire thought that cold-type spirits became active when the cold winter came, but in fact, that was only half true.

Winter was a season that awakened more diverse beings than one might think.

In regions where the biting wind blew, wind-type spirits revealed themselves more frequently, and in mining areas, there were cases where rock or metal element spirits roamed around in high spirits.

And among them, the most troublesome case was undead.

Cold and wind were not the only things that symbolized winter. Among them was also death.

It was rare for anything to frighten the people of the empire as much as undead hiding their bodies and wandering around in the long winter nights.

Of course, Professor Uregor had taken precautions to prevent undead from being resurrected in the nearby forest, but there were always exceptions.

The spirit contaminant staggering in front of them now was such a being.

An amorphous monster formed when a spirit that had gone out of control or become violent due to the strong flow of mana in the area became entangled with another being.

Since spirits were mixed in, it was not a typical undead, so ordinary preventive measures did not work well.

Moreover, the contaminant in front of them was a being in which a dark-type spirit and an undead were entangled.

In the first place, most spirits disliked undead, so even if they went out of control, they didn't get close to them...

"A dark-type spirit?!"

Priestess Siana widened her eyes in amazement.

Even lightning-type spirits were so rare that they were hard to see, but dark elements were even rarer.

"I know it's fascinating, but I don't think now is the time for that!"

Yonaire shouted urgently as she brought out the potions from inside.

The blackly rippling spirit contaminants were slowly crawling out of the forest.

■■!

■■■■...

Some of the spirit contaminants showed interest in the hut, but some fought each other.

A spirit contaminant in the form of a beetle, with a body the size of a full-grown pig, attacked the contaminant next to it, and that contaminant also fought back by swinging its hind legs.

"Here, ignition potion!"

"Thank you! Miss Maykin!"

Yonaire handed the ignition potion she usually carried for self-defense to Priestess Siana.

This potion, which burned fiercely when the flask broke and came into contact with air, was a good potion to use anywhere in Einroguard.

Especially for dark spirit contaminants, they would be weak to elements like fire and light.

"Uh, Yonaire? What about me?"

Yi-Han tilted his head while casting enhancement spells on his two friends with his staff.

Yonaire had naturally skipped over Yi-Han without giving him one.

"Huh? ...Ah! Here!"

Yonaire belatedly recalled that Yi-Han could also use the ignition potion.

He was a friend who fought so well on his own that the thought of him needing a potion didn't even occur to her.

"..."

"I... I was going to give it to you... Really."

"Yeah. Thanks."

Yi-Han turned his gaze to the window of the hut.

The number of contaminants with different appearances was gradually increasing. At this point, it was no exaggeration to call it a horde of contaminants.

'It doesn't seem to be something that occurred by chance. Could it be that one of the seniors was researching the dark element and carelessly dumped them in the forest?'

If that was the case, Yi-Han was going to show the juniors' anger, senior or not.

It was already hard enough to die, but what kind of nuisance was this?

And when such a commotion occurred, the ones who always suffered the most were the first-years.

The senior students at Einroguard had the ability to easily escape even if all kinds of ferocious monsters roamed the dormitory or main courtyard.

"Let's hold out inside until the professor comes."

"Will the professor come?"

"If he doesn't come, his own hut will be destroyed, so he'll come."

"..."

"..."

The two wanted to ask, 'Wardanaz, did you fight with the professor by any chance?' but they held back.

Regardless of what Yi-Han said, staying inside now was the strategically correct choice.

It was not a wise move to stick one's face out when mindless monsters were roaming around in a horde outside.

The proper way was to move slowly and carefully after the horde of monsters had moved to another location.

■■■■■...!

"!"

The squirrel-shaped spirit that had come to play pranks on the hut earlier but retreated due to the repelling decoction revealed itself again.

When the contaminants roamed around, the squirrel spirit seemed to be frightened and tried to deter them by blooming snow flowers all around.

"No!"

"If you do that...!"

The students lamented upon seeing that.

No matter how scared it was, to draw attention like that in front of the contaminants.

It was a foolish act.

In fact, the dark spirit contaminants that were acting individually quickly recognized the squirrel spirit and began to chase it.

"We have to help."

Yonaire carefully opened the hut door slightly and prepared to go out.

If she lightly touched the magic circle laid around here, she could let the squirrel spirit in.

"That's right. Spirits don't forget kindness. If we save it, it will surely repay us."

Priestess Siana echoed.

Yi-Han muttered something as well as he followed his friends to the vegetable garden.

Priestess Siana thought she heard a voice saying, 'Can we really trust spirits? These ungrateful bastards?' but she decided to pretend she didn't hear it.

"Yi-Han. I'll do it."

Yonaire felt that Yi-Han had a lot of resentment towards spirits and tried to send him back.

If the squirrel spirit they went through the trouble of saving even bit Yi-Han's hand, it might be truly irreversible.

In the future, a grand mage with titles like <Spirit Exterminator> or <Spirit Hater> might be born...

"No. It'll be faster if I do it since I set it up. I'll stop the flow for a moment, so can you cover me?"

"Yi-Han. If that spirit comes in now and shows violent behavior, then the current situation..."

"What are you talking about?"

Yi-Han looked at Yonaire in disbelief.

In a situation where he had to focus and stop the magic circle for a moment to let the spirit in, Yonaire was talking nonsense.

"...It's nothing. I'm ready!"

Whoosh-

Yonaire, who was covering Yi-Han with a staff and ignition potion, admired the change in the magic circle.

To stop such a large and complex magic circle that covered the entire surrounding area so easily.

It required not only a complete understanding of the structure of the magic circle but also the ability to freely touch the flow by inserting one's own mana.

She felt that the friend who had been grumbling about spirits until just now was suddenly a genius of magic, one of the best in the empire.

Priestess Siana seemed to think the same, as she was staring at the magic circle with an admiring gaze.

"Come in!"

Yi-Han shouted at the squirrel spirit while suppressing the magic circle with force.

The squirrel spirit, which had been constantly chased, belatedly heard Yi-Han's voice and turned its gaze toward the hut.

"This way!"

"Come quickly!"

Yonaire and Priestess Siana also gestured for it to come quickly.

When the squirrel spirit began to run in a hurry, the two let out sighs of relief.

Yi-Han muttered.

"Even when its own life is in danger, it ignores me when I tell it to come."

"...Ah, no. It must have been a coincidence."

"But it didn't come when Wardanaz called..."

"Priestess Siana...!"

Yonaire looked at Priestess Siana reproachfully for suddenly disrupting the work.

However, Priestess Siana also had her own thoughts.

"But I think it's not good to forcefully take sides like this. Honestly, it's a bit ungrateful, isn't it?"

"That's true, but..."

"Guys. I'm really fine."

Yi-Han sighed and looked at his friends.

Although the spirits were indeed too indifferent compared to the sincerity Yi-Han showed, Yi-Han was not so fragile as to keep worrying about it.

So what if the spirits didn't like Yi-Han?

Yi-Han had to go his own way.

Rather, it was more painful for his friends to keep worrying about him like that.

"Spirits might be a bit wary of me. So don't worry about it like that."

"I'm sorry. Yi-Han."

Yonaire looked at Yi-Han with an apologetic meaning.

She had tried to be considerate of her friend, but ended up making him more uncomfortable.

"No. There's nothing to apologize for. Just be honest with me."

"Okay. I will."

Priestess Siana, who had been listening to their conversation, asked Yonaire slightly.

"So it's true that it didn't come when he called earlier, right?"

"Yeah."

At Yonaire's blunt words, Yi-Han's expression wavered slightly.

Tap-

Meanwhile, the squirrel spirit passed through the magic circle. Yi-Han quickly reactivated the magic circle.

The contaminants chased the squirrel spirit and circled around the area, howling at the instinctively felt distasteful energy.

"Don't be afraid. We are not your enemies."

"That's right. Look."

Yonaire and Priestess Siana spread their hands as if to soothe the frightened squirrel spirit.

A frightened spirit was often more dangerous. If touched incorrectly, it would go out of control and cause a rampage.

-...-

The squirrel spirit looked around to assess the situation, then climbed up Yi-Han's ankle and stopped at his wrist.

And then it rubbed its head as if to say thank you.

"...????"

"Yi-Yi-Han!"

"This is a miracle!"

"Priestess Siana..."

"It-it's not a miracle, but half a miracle...?"

Yi-Han couldn't hear their conversation. He could only see the squirrel spirit rubbing its head against him.

"Yi-Han... You're not crying, are you?"

"...No. I got dust in my eyes."

The basilisk in his sleeve hissed.

It didn't like Yi-Han being fond of the ungrateful spirits.

Regardless, the squirrel spirit clung to Yi-Han and wouldn't let go.

"Wardanaz. I think we should go inside. Over there..."

Priestess Siana called out to Yi-Han and pointed her finger forward.

It could be seen that the contaminants deep in the forest were chasing other spirits.

Although the contaminants were not coming inside now, if more gathered and their numbers increased, there might be some that would recklessly break through like before.

"Are there other spirits being chased?"

"I don't know? Probably, right?"

"Let's help them."

"...Huh? Yes?"

Priestess Siana was startled.

The situation now was a bit different from before.

Earlier, they had opened the magic circle by surprise in a situation where the nearby contaminants had little interest in the three of them, but now, the contaminants were howling and glaring at the hut.

The situation had become too dangerous compared to before.

"I can block this much. Trust me. Priestess Siana."

"I do trust you, but... Isn't this too reckless?"

"No. It's enough. And I can't just stand by and watch innocent spirits being forcibly unsummoned by contaminants."

The squirrel spirit was moved and clung to Yi-Han.

"..."

"...Okay... I'll prepare."

***

Professor Uregor shouted with annoyance when he saw the suddenly appearing contaminants.

"Get-out-of-here!"

When he blew the magic horn, the contaminants shriveled up, vomiting bodily fluids.

"I swear on my ancestors' beards, if the students summoned them, I will make them pay for sure!"

The dwarf professor rode the spirit deer he had summoned and moved quickly.

There was no time to waste as there were many huts built within the school grounds.

As he rode along the ridge and checked the huts in the three forests, Professor Uregor belatedly thought of his 1st-year disciples.

'Oh no!'

The disciples' hut on the opposite side was also close to the forest, so it had a high possibility of being swept away first if something like this happened.

'No. There's a magic circle and that kid Wardanaz is there.'

Thinking of Wardanaz, he felt much more reassured. Professor Uregor turned the direction of the spirit deer and hurriedly rushed as if flying.

'As expected...'

The hut came into view from afar. Seeing that it was intact, it was clearly fine as expected...

Crackle crackle...

"...Is, is there a war going on?!"

Professor Uregor was truly startled when he saw the front yard of the hut turned into a miserable crater as if it had been attacked.

Did they have to fight so fiercely??