Yi Han tightly shut his eyes.
But reality was cold and unyielding.
They had been caught! In the very first week! Haha! Hahaha!
"... W-what's going on?" Nilia asked in a trembling voice, still not fully grasping the situation.
Yi Han calmly replied, "It seems we've fallen into the headmaster's trap."
No matter what method Giselle had used to find an escape route, it was clear they had been playing right into the headmaster's hands.
The problem was, if it had just been Giselle who got caught, it might have been manageable.
But Yi Han and his group had followed her! The fact that they had come up here in the first week meant they must have seen the fake map I had made and spread around! Today, you all will learn a valuable lesson: never trust a map of unknown origin! You never know if that treasure map is really a treasure map or just a trap set by an evil lich!
"......"
"......"
What kind of lunatic does something like this? Yi Han was utterly dumbfounded.
So, the headmaster himself had created fake escape maps and scattered them around? Who knows when the freshmen would find them, or if they’d even look at them in the first place? And yet, he went ahead and did something like this...
'No matter how you look at it, he’s just having fun.'
While he claimed to be teaching the students a lesson, Yi Han knew these kinds of professors all too well.
This was clearly just entertainment for him.
"Students of the White Tiger Tower, listen well! The escape is over. From now on, it's time to return. The rules are simple. I won’t intervene directly, but I’ll send pursuers after you. Avoid them and return to the tower! If you’re caught, you’re guilty. If you escape, you’re innocent! Use any method you like. You can even defeat my pursuers if you want!"
As he spoke, a massive skeleton appeared in the dark night sky, glowing with a green light.
From its gaping maw, undead summons began pouring out.
Bone hounds and skeletal trackers started dropping onto the mountain one by one.
Thud!
Lights flickered on in various places.
The bone creatures had lit torches.
The hunt had begun.
"Let's run!!!" Nilia whispered urgently.
Her eyes were filled with terror, trembling uncontrollably.
"Nilia, calm down."
"How can I calm down?! If we’re caught, we might die!"
"No, we won’t die."
Unlike Nilia, who was terrified of the skeletal headmaster, Yi Han was used to dealing with crazy professors and had even had a few private conversations with the headmaster before.
To Yi Han, the headmaster was just having fun, but to Nilia, it seemed like he was furious at the freshmen’s audacious and horrifying crime.
"R-really?"
"If we’re caught, we’ll probably just end up in the punishment room or something."
"P-punishment room?! With torture devices and... never being able to come out...?"
"Probably not like that."
Nilia had a vivid imagination, and it tended to lean toward the worst-case scenarios.
Yi Han covered her mouth with his hand and checked their surroundings.
'Are those skeletons?'
The sound of rustling and branches breaking.
The skeletal trackers were moving through the underbrush.
Woof! Woof!
The bone hounds were barking too.
"Run!! If they catch up, we’ll take them down!"
"For honor! For chivalry!"
The students of the White Tiger Tower shouted as they drew their wooden swords.
It was clear they were ready to fight.
'But this situation has nothing to do with honor or chivalry.'
Yi Han was a bit curious how sneaking out of school and getting caught had anything to do with honor or chivalry, but...
"There’s only one thing we need to do right now, isn’t there?" Dergu asked in a low voice.
In this situation, it didn’t matter which tower they were from.
They had to work together to push back the enemies!
"Good point, Dergu."
"Right. I’ll step forward and..."
"While they distract them, we’ll make our escape."
"......"
Dergu looked at Yi Han in disbelief.
But Nilia, Yonel, and Gainando immediately agreed.
"Great idea!"
"......"
Dergu held back his words.
After all, Yi Han was the leader of the group now.
'We need to break through the thinner part of the encirclement.'
Observation.
Yi Han wanted to rush out immediately, but he held back.
In any situation, it was often better to wait patiently than to panic and act hastily.
Yi Han waited to identify the weaker part of the encirclement.
Fortunately, the White Tiger Tower students were buying time by shouting and charging forward.
They couldn’t waste this opportunity.
'Wait.
Isn’t this a bit too much??'
Yi Han, hiding in the bushes, was stunned.
The undead summons pouring out of the floating skeleton in the dark sky showed no signs of stopping.
It was an overwhelming number, as if they were trying to crush them with sheer force.
'...
I underestimated the headmaster’s madness!'
Yi Han sighed inwardly.
The headmaster was even crazier than he had thought.
He had declared that if they were caught, they were guilty, and if they escaped, they were innocent, so Yi Han had assumed the headmaster would give them some chance.
But to block them off so thoroughly...
No, maybe the headmaster thought this was his way of giving them a chance.
'The professors’ thought processes are a bit twisted.'
Maybe the headmaster genuinely believed, "This is the level of challenge the students need to grow by breaking through this encirclement."
The problem was that it was Yi Han who had to break through it.
'This is...
Even if the White Tiger Tower students distract them, it won’t matter.
Should we just surrender?'
Every path down the mountain was now guarded by skeletal trackers holding torches.
Behind them were more skeletal trackers.
And behind them, even more...
The number was so vast that the lower part of the mountain felt as bright as day.
'Wait.'
As Yi Han pondered, he noticed something strange.
The skeletal trackers leading the bone hounds weren’t paying any attention to Yi Han’s group.
'That’s odd.'
Of course, Yi Han’s group was hiding in the bushes, and the White Tiger Tower students were running down the mountain, drawing all the attention.
But if the skeletal trackers knew Yi Han’s group was hiding here, shouldn’t the bone hounds be sniffing around or approaching?
Instead, the bone hounds and skeletal trackers were only chasing the White Tiger Tower students, heading downward.
'Could it be... the headmaster doesn’t know we’re here?'
Yi Han had assumed the headmaster knew they were hiding.
After all, the headmaster was an incredibly powerful mage, far beyond Yi Han’s level.
But what if the headmaster wasn’t actually here?
"I won’t intervene directly, but I’ll send pursuers after you. Avoid them and return to the tower!"
Thinking about it, there was no way to know if the giant skeleton floating in the sky was really the headmaster.
It could just be a projection or an illusion sent from afar.
'If that’s the case, all we need to do is avoid the pursuers’ eyes!'
Hiding and escaping was much better than being caught and running.
"... Let’s go up."
"What??"
"Down there, we’ll definitely get caught. Look at the numbers. If we clash with them, the pursuers will swarm us."
At Yi Han’s words, Nilia’s eyelashes trembled.
"But up there, there are no pursuers. Let’s go up and either circle around or hold out. That’s much more feasible."
"Got it!"
"?"
Even Yi Han was surprised at how easily Nilia agreed.
"I suggested it, but... shouldn’t you think about it a bit more? We don’t know what’s up there."
"Being caught and locked in a torture device in the punishment room is much worse!"
"... I told you before, but I think you’re misunderstanding something."
After carefully climbing up for about 30 minutes, Nilia whispered, "It’s a cave. Let’s go inside."
"Any monsters?"
"None. It’s a small cave, and there’s no sign of life. I threw a rock in."
Nilia tapped her long ears as she spoke.
"We’ve moved too much. I’m fine, but the others need to rest."
"That seems like a good idea."
Nilia, Yi Han, and Dergu were fine, but Yonel looked exhausted, and Gainando was on the verge of collapse.
They had been walking in the dark and running from pursuers while staying tense.
It wouldn’t be surprising if they collapsed now.
"Light!"
As they entered the cave, Yi Han cast a spell.
A light as bright as the sun filled the cave.
Yonel hung his coat over the entrance to block the light from leaking out.
"Surely... they won’t chase us this far, right?"
"Don’t worry. We didn’t hear any pursuit on the way up. They must all be gathered at the lower part of the mountain."
Nilia reassured Yonel.
Fortunately, Yi Han was right.
The headmaster’s summons hadn’t noticed them and hadn’t come any further up the mountain.
"The problem is how long those summons will stay."
"Maybe I should have just broken through."
When Dergu spoke regretfully, Yi Han shook his head.
"No. Breaking through by force would have been impossible."
"Why?"
"Given the headmaster’s personality, he wouldn’t leave such an obvious weakness."
"......"
"......"
The other students thought, "How do you know that?" but they respected Yi Han’s opinion and didn’t say anything.
"Whether we wait for them to disappear or find a way around, we need to rest now. Let’s eat something."
"Agreed!"
Yi Han handed out the sausages, bread, and cheese he had brought.
Gainando tossed a dwarf honey candy into his mouth, closed his eyes, and savored it.
It seemed like he had been craving sweets for days.
"Oops. We’re out of water..."
Nilia pulled out a leather water pouch with a troubled expression.
They had run out of water after all the walking.
"Don’t worry. We have magic."
"!"
"Spring forth!"
As Yi Han swung his staff and shouted, a ball of water appeared in midair.
Nilia hurriedly held out her leather pouch.
"That’s amazing, Yi Han!"
Dergu was impressed.
Coming from a knightly family, Dergu was slower at learning magic compared to the other tower students.
To him, Yi Han’s magic was nothing short of a miracle.
Gainando and Yonel clapped and cheered like children.
"Just in time, my throat was dry!"
"Thanks, I’ll drink well."
Nilia filled her leather pouch to the brim and carefully closed it.
Then she said enviously, "I wish I could learn water magic too..."
"You’ll pick it up quickly once you get the hang of it."
Yi Han spoke sincerely.
It wasn’t a particularly difficult spell, and once you got the feel for it, it was easy to use.
"I hope so."
Nilia said this, then picked up her staff and chanted, "Burn!"
Whoosh!
A small flame ignited in midair and transferred to the kindling Nilia had gathered.
A cozy campfire was soon crackling.
Everyone had been walking in the cold night, and their hands and feet were frozen stiff.
Sighs of relief could be heard all around.
"Whew. I’m glad it worked on the first try. I was nervous even though I succeeded last time."
Nilia, who seemed to have an affinity for fire, had successfully cast the flame creation spell on her first try.
Then she looked at Yi Han and said, "I’m jealous. I’d rather have water magic than fire."
"......"
"... What, what?!"
Nilia stammered in confusion as Yi Han glared at her.
Did I say something wrong?!