The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 117

The second day of the Hunting Festival, the real hunt begins.

The people who decided to participate in what could be called the highlight of this festival gathered in the clearing at the entrance of the Black Forest, which would soon become the hunting ground.

With all participants gathered, it was quite a spectacle to see faces that usually just brushed past each other.

The Swordsmanship Research Club, known for their winning track record, the team of Lemnos, who participated with two of the Five Pillars, Russell, who appeared with Golems, and the Engineering Magic Research Club were all there, waiting for the festival to start.

“Let’s just perform as we practiced.”

Though Rio said that, his expression didn’t look too good.

Previously, all they had to do was fulfill their tasks, but this time the stakes were different.

It wasn’t just a matter of completing their assigned jobs; they had to aim for the best.

They had to face those blessed from birth and win to claim victory.

There was no physical fatigue, but the mental pressure was quite significant.

“Senpai, relax.”

“Ah… do I look that tense?”

“Your complexion doesn’t look fine.”

“Don’t hunch over. We aren’t any worse than other teams!”

“That’s right! We can definitely win!”

While trying to ease Rio’s tension, a team approached and stared intently at his face.

It was an incredibly unpleasant gaze that looked down on him.

“Wow, what a pathetic loser. Are you here to win?”

“Hey, why only three? Couldn’t find a fourth?”

“So shabby.”

“Look at that hole in your face.”

Unable to bear it any longer, River placed a hand on the hilt of his sword.

I had heard that Rio was struggling with his relationship with his classmates recently, but seeing it in front of my eyes was a first.

The Hunting Festival was about to start, and their opponents were upperclassmen, but that didn’t bother him.

If he cared about such things, he wouldn’t have held back when Amy became a target.

Before the Hunting Festival started, if they could take out those four in a duel, it would be a gain by reducing a rival team.

When he reached for his scimitar, the hilt felt heavy.

“Thanks, but… please don’t react right now.”

Rio put his hand on the hilt to stop him.

“If you react, they’ll like it even more. There are so many people around that they can’t do anything worse, so let’s just ignore them. Once the Hunting Festival starts, we can fight without any issues, so let’s just ignore it for now.”

It seemed that Rio had grown so accustomed to such bullying that his expression didn’t change at all.

Right beside him, someone was mocking him without even a glance in their direction, treating it like it was someone else’s problem.

So he was saying that worse things happened when there weren’t many people around?

“True. Anyway, let’s just wait a bit. Once the Hunting Festival starts, we can fight without any issues, right?”

While those around him were advising him against reacting, River wanted to handle it right away.

He didn’t know how long they’d have to wait since the principal hadn’t shown up yet.

At that moment, someone appeared behind the third-year students.

-Thud!

“Ah?! Who’s that?!”

“You guys look like you’re having fun. Mind if I join?”

Hera, the head of the Swordsmanship Research Club, was grinning menacingly, wearing a short cloak.

“Ugh, what’s the Swordsmanship Research Club doing here?”

“Is this what you all are doing right before the festival starts? Do you really think the Hunting Festival is that easy?”

“Wah ah ah!!!”

With a sharp word, Hera grabbed one of the third-year students by the collar, making him scream as if he were about to leave this world.

It was a display of exquisite control over force.

If she had applied just a bit more strength, his collarbone would have shattered right away.

As soon as the third-year student had been released after suffering for about a minute, he quickly fled.

He didn’t miss the sharp gaze directed at them as he backed away.

“See, it’s the simplest people who act like that?”

“… Thank you.”

“What’s with the thanks? I can’t stand seeing that either.”

With a carefree laugh from Hera, Rio lowered his head.

Though he pretended to be unbothered, it seemed he was quite disturbed.

“I know you’ve seen a lot of this. Friends of your younger sibling, right? I was wondering why Atlas borrowed Golems and it turns out it was to get you guys to use them.

Do your best. We probably won’t miss the first place this time either, but I want to replace the Swordsmanship Research Club facilities one last time before graduation.”

Hera was about to say more when she was abruptly cut off.

“Oh, it’s about to start… then you all better do your best!”

Finally, the principal of the Academy, Gordon, appeared to announce the start of the Hunting Festival.

-Before we commence the festival, I want to emphasize a few things.

The principal looked quite haggard, perhaps due to many events.

He still tried to keep himself presentable, but the fatigue visible on his face was hard to disguise.

Was he exhausted from working the other professors hard to prepare for the festival over the past two weeks?

-The ‘Ring of Confirmation,’ an artifact used for score calculation distributed to everyone, will activate a teleportation magic forcibly if it leaves the owner’s body or is damaged.

If things get dangerous, throw the Ring of Confirmation away immediately and get out.

If you understand, then… let the Hunting Festival begin!!

With the principal’s declaration, a magic circle spread across the entire clearing.

A brilliant light of magic burst forth, and shortly after, everyone in the clearing was thrown away.

—————————————

As soon as they realized they had entered the Black Forest, some teams hid themselves.

They smeared substances they had prepared on their bodies to disguise their scent and changed their colors to blend in with the Black Forest.

While some teams actively searched for prey, those teams were usually very skilled hunters or teams confident in their stamina.

Revealing themselves while moving had too many drawbacks for the average students.

Regardless of the situation, Monsters had much better senses than ordinary animals.

Even regular animals would run away at the slightest rustle and smell, so how much more acute were the senses of Monsters?

Even if they weren’t aiming high, achieving a good score in the Hunting Festival meant bonus points for their grades, so they had to avoid being eliminated foolishly.

Since they had released plenty of suitable Monsters all around for the festival, it would be easy to discover prey with just a bit of movement.

Fidgeting with the ring, the total score they had accumulated appeared in his mind.

The ‘Ring of Confirmation,’ the artifact emphasized by the principal at the start, was given to each student. By hunting Monsters and placing the ring on them, that team would officially be recognized for the catch, adding to their score.

The points varied based on the danger level of the Monster.

The score displayed on the ring was 2.

That was the result of hunting two Monsters as soon as they fell.

Silently holding their breath and moving while spotting other Monster traces, the leading student discovered something.

“Hey… look over there.”

He pointed to a spot quite far beyond the hill.

“A person…?”

“Is it already too late…?”

To their eyes stood a single student, confidently presenting herself.

With curly black hair and a tall stature… it was Lucia Russell, one of the Five Pillars, making waves.

“Whoa… is that a Lone Wolf? There’re three of them…”

“She hunted three Lone Wolves by herself? And a mere investigation?”

Beneath her feet lay three large wolves that looked like they had just been hunted.

She was placing each one against the ring, registering her score.

Notably, the wolf lying there was remarkably large, even twice the size of Lucia, with horns on its head, making it an impressive sight.

The horned Lone Wolves excelled in pack hunts and used the horns to unleash powerful magic attacks. Typically, it took four academy students to tackle one lone horned wolf.

Yet, Lucia had single-handedly hunted three of them.

From the outside, it seemed as if she hadn’t taken any damage at all.

“Talk about a letdown… let’s move to another place.”

“Wait a minute.”

The leading student felt someone approaching and signaled his teammates to lower their bodies and stay silent.

Holding their breath and waiting, they saw a team consisting of second-year students appear.

The two teams were from the same class.

“What are you guys doing… oh, what a letdown.”

They seemed to relax and share casual laughs despite meeting their rivals.

The atmosphere was good because they had previously agreed to cooperate to reach the minimum line of bonus points without too much competition.

“Do you know how many Monsters you need for the bonus points?”

“Wasn’t it ten points?”

“Oh crap, we need nine more points…”

“We’re only at eight points.”

“What’s there to boast about with just a one-point difference.”

While exchanging information, the student who had been peering over the hill, David, suddenly spoke after reaching a conclusion.

“Hey.”

His gaze was still directed at Lucia Russell.

“Since we’ve got eight of us gathered… don’t you think we could take down one investigator?”

“Are you out of your mind?”

A hunter from his team responded.

She had taken down three Lone Wolves on her own—what could they do against her?

“Don’t do anything reckless; let’s just fill our points… it’s not like taking down a student brings any significant rewards.”

Fighting among students wasn’t particularly efficient.

While it was fine to eliminate a rival, it wasn’t very effective.

With so many teams participating in the Hunting Festival, it was hardly feasible to pick them off one by one.

There weren’t even bonus points for fighting among students, and they wouldn’t be able to steal each other’s scores.

Yet David’s expression was serious, almost to the absurd.

“… Haven’t you heard there’s a bounty on the Five Pillars?”

“Who’s bold enough to do something that reckless??”

To have the guts to put a bounty on the Five Pillars, were they a Titan Family or something?