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Schwarzheim City Hall.

The Opal Black Female Student Dormitory there.

For the past three days, the students had been stuck inside the dormitory without being able to go outside.

In reality, while it was called a dormitory, it was just a bunch of them huddled together in some empty rooms of the city hall that were left somewhat vacant.

Originally, the academy had booked several places for the students to stay during their practical training. However, given the city’s chaotic situation, the instructors judged that it would be dangerous to scatter the students, and the only place that could accommodate such a large group of 200 students was the city hall.

Of course, even if it was for the students’ benefit, cramming them into a room without any beds and merely laying down some blankets was bound to breed discontent among them…

Surprisingly, however, there was little resistance.

Most of the students participating in this practical training were from the Garnet Red Class.

Shared living in one room? Blankets instead of beds? That was an environment anyone from the common class had experienced at least once.

If they were Diamond White students, there would probably have been a riot by now, but for the Garnet Red students, this was a normalcy. In fact, life at the academy over the past two months felt ridiculously luxurious compared to this.

And speaking of the Garnet Red instructors, who were worried about the situation, consisting of three of the top aristocrats—or even royalty—if we were to mention the Opal Black Class…

“It’s cleaner than I thought!”

“Right?! It feels like we’re on a group trip!”

There was hardly any backlash.

Excluding Elizabeth, Marian, and Schurz, the other students had grown up far from a luxurious lifestyle, and the remaining three students understood well that the current circumstances were exceptional.

Moreover, after rolling around for months under the relentless instruction of their instructors, they had developed a close bond, so they felt no particular aversion to sharing a room.

“Hey, don’t come over here, alright? And if you snore while sleeping, I’ll kill you.”

“That won’t happen! And if we’re talking about snoring, it’s more like Batar…”

“Hmm? What did you just say?”

“Ah, nothing…”

At least that was the situation in the girls’ room.

Titania, curled up quietly on her blanket, murmured with a whine, “Instructor, where are you…?”

It had already been three days since Instructor Ion went out to scout the city.

The sun had already set outside. They had planned for him to return by today at the latest, but the promised time had long since passed.

Thanks to this, Rilya, who was patrolling the dormitory, had a visibly troubled expression that the whole room could see.

Gwen hesitantly spoke up, “Um, there’s a saying that no news is good news…”

“Even so, given the state outside, they could at least send word! Just send Zegler or something!”

Marian, saying this, knew well how difficult that was.

Even if they sent Zegler right in the middle of enemy territory, he would be captured immediately anyway. That was just something she had said out of frustration.

Yeah, it is frustrating.

The city could be attacked at any moment, and in such a precarious situation, the students couldn’t even step outside the city hall.

Being an imperial princess, granddaughter of the commander-in-chief of the imperial army, and a pupil of the swordmaster and grand wizard with the high elves of the Great Forest didn’t matter.

In the critical moments, the students were merely beings that required protection.

Those students who had experience in woodworking or blacksmithing could go out to help reinforce the city at their own discretion, and thanks to Elizabeth’s status as a princess, she was busy serving as the mayor’s deputy, but students lacking combat abilities had no choice but to wait around without anything to do.

Suddenly, Osnia spoke up.

“We have to do something.”

“Do something? What do you mean?”

“Anything we can do. We didn’t train for this.”

Her incisive words made the other girls in the room stiffen.

After Instructor Ion’s bombshell statement, the students had been diligently honing their skills to help out whenever possible.

It was not because someone told them to. It was a voluntary effort, so they could be of assistance to Instructor Ion when needed.

It wasn’t just to waste time sitting in a room.

Marian replied in a frustrated tone, “So what do we do? Sneak out and look for Instructor Ion?”

She obviously meant to imply that such a thing was out of the question. Going outside into a city full of undead without any plan would be nothing short of suicidal.

Yet, Gwen, with an intrigued expression, said, “We don’t necessarily have to go out ourselves, do we?”

“What do you mean?”

“Can’t we use Tanya’s spirits? They seem really handy.”

Titania often conversed with spirits that were invisible to others.

Gwen had seen such encounters multiple times, and her suggestion was to send a spirit that could move around unnoticed.

However, Titania shook her head slightly.

“That won’t work. I can ask the spirits for help, but I can’t give them commands… They probably don’t want to go to a place filled with dark energy like this. Plus, I’ve heard there are spirits among the undead that attack other spirits.”

Natural spirits tend to avoid places filled with the energy of death. Forcing them to reveal themselves would only make them targets for the malevolent spirits that sense their presence.

Gwen, who had no knowledge of spirits, nodded with a disappointed expression. “I see… then there’s no choice…”

“No, it’s worth a try.”

Osnia cut in.

“They exist. Spirits that can drift around places filled with dark energy without being attacked by evil spirits.”

Titania looked startled and replied, “Are you talking about… dark spirits?”

“Yep.”

Spirits exist in everything, even in lands overtaken by the undead.

It’s just that the natural spirits don’t exist there; usually, those lands attract spirits that feed on dark or death energy.

Spirits of death, spirits of destruction, spirits of suffering… those that deviate from common natural principles are referred to as “dark spirits.”

Titania’s expression showed a hint of fear. “Is it okay? Dark spirits are really hard to handle… Those who use dark spirits are usually treated as black magicians. Am I going to end up a continent’s public enemy?!”

“Just because most who handle dark spirits are black magicians doesn’t mean summoning dark spirits is forbidden.”

“R-really? But isn’t it dangerous?”

“Master can also use black magic, and I understand it intellectually. As long as it’s not used for bad purposes, it’s fine. I’ll help you.”

Osnia’s complexion visibly darkened.

“I… don’t want that kind of thing to happen again.”

Her usual way of speaking was somewhat blunt, but the students had become close enough to understand what she meant.

She was saying that she disliked it when the instructor left because of matters unrelated to them, unbeknownst to them.

And that sentiment was shared by everyone in the room. Titania, Gwen, and Marian all hated the idea of their instructor leaving like that and wanted to do something about it.

With a determined expression, Titania stood up.

“Alright. I’ll give it a try!”

After saying that, she immediately closed her eyes and focused her consciousness.

There was no need to choose an appropriate spot. Schwarzheim was already filled with dark energy that even Titania’s spirits would want to flee from.

They weren’t summoning a high-level spirit, and this level of dark energy would suffice for a simple messenger.

In fact, even while preparing to summon the spirit, the two still felt uncertain.

Dark spirits tended to get easily excited, were very destructive, and had unpredictable natures. It was no wonder they were called dark spirits.

If a spirit master had enough affinity to form a contract with such a spirit, that was a given sign of a warped inclination. There was reason behind why black magicians made contracts with dark spirits.

It was uncertain whether Titania, with her cheerful disposition, could summon a dark spirit just because she decided to. Often the spirit might not even respond at all.

But Osnia had been watching Titania all this time and had seen just how absurd her affinity for spirits was.

With that in mind, perhaps she could summon a spirit that didn’t fit her nature at all.

Osnia spoke with a slightly tense tone. “Just the summoning is what we need to focus on. I’ll handle the rest.”

After all, a powerful spirit wasn’t likely to be summoned here, but even a low-level dark spirit could become troublesome with its erratic behavior. It could suddenly attack a human for no reason or force unreasonable contracts on its summoner.

If it came to that, Osnia planned to overpower the spirit and make it submit by force.

But Osnia was missing something that even Titania herself had overlooked.

“Uh? Huh?”

“This… could it be…!”

The innate talent for being loved by spirits that the high elf of the Great Forest possessed.

 

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