Male Lead, Don’t Push, Pull!

One of the boys pointed ahead of Kyle. Even though there was no wind, the bushes were rustling and swaying.

“Do you think there’s a mountain beast out there?”

“But my brother said there are no dangerous animals in the mountains behind the academy…. Uh, why are you giving me this?”

“Hold onto it for me.”

Handing the balloon to his shorter classmate, Kyle reached for his own wooden sword, which he’d brought along just in case.

Soon, something popped out from behind the bushes.

The small creature with the yellow-green glowing viscosity was definitely a slime, a low-level monster.

“Mo-monster…!”

“Shhh.”

Kyle shushed them both. The slime hadn’t spotted them yet.

If they kept quiet, they might get away with it.

But at that moment, the slime sensed their presence and leapt towards them.

“Aaaahhh!”

Thwack–!

Kyle, who had stiffened his lower body and held his ground, slashed out with his sword without dodging.

The fiercely jumping slime was cut like paper by Kyle’s blade.

The slime had been an illusion from the start. The children blinked as the creature vanished without a trace.

“W-what?”

“It’s gone!”

Kyle pulled his wooden sword back to his side.

Apparently, the courage training was only just beginning.

Kyle turned to the boy behind him.

“You still have the balloon.”

“M, me?”

“Yep. Try not to pop it, and stay with me. I’ll make sure the way is clear.”

They both nodded at the same time.

Then, with Kyle in the lead, the three of them set off again.

The higher they climbed, the faster the frequency of the slimes. The illusions would pop up out of nowhere when no one was expecting it.

But every time Kyle swung his sword, it vanished like a bad dream.

The same phenomenon repeated itself, and now the students were mildly surprised, but not as frightened as before.

“Hehe, I think we’re going to make it.”

“It’s so easy!”

And then one of them got brave and offered to lead the way.

“The slimes are all fake anyway, I’ll take the lead.”

Not wanting to get into an argument, Kyle moved out of the way. Just then, another slime appeared in the distance. The student in the lead’s eyes lit up.

“Yaaaaaa!”

He shouted, full of enthusiasm, and ran toward the slime.

Climbing up, he swung the branch he’d picked up at the slime.

Snap—

“Eh?”

The boy blinked his eyes in confusion. Surely the moment the branch touched the slime, the slime was supposed to disappear like an illusion.

But it didn’t.

By the time he realized it was unusual, it was too late.

“Watch out!” Kyle shouted.

“Ew, ugh!”

The slime devoured the redhead.

The boy caught in its grip winced and flailed his arms in terror. Kyle rushed toward him.

The fierce blade sliced through the slime like a thin canvas.

Boom.

The shredded slime fell to the floor like soggy yoghurt.

Kyle grabbed the reappearing boy by the head and yanked him out. The nearly suffocated boy gasped and spat out a ragged breath.

The boy with the balloon rushed to his aid.

“Are you okay?!”

“Heuk, ugh. What the hell was that?”

“Get up, it’s coming again.”

Kyle nervously readjusted his sword.

It wasn’t just one slime they had to deal with.

The creatures had sensed the disturbance and were creeping toward them like a swamp expanding its territory.

It was as if they had entered a dungeon in the northern part of the empire, a dungeon that was overflowing with monsters.

Kyle thought quickly.

‘We need to get out of here as quickly as possible.’

Kyle wasn’t confident in his ability to defeat them all. It was his first time facing a real monster.

He also wondered why a monster had been summoned to the mountain where the Swordsmanship Department’s courage training was taking place, right behind the Academy.

But now was not the time to wonder about such things.

Right now, they needed to get to safety and away from the monsters in front of them.

“You guys, run,” Kyle whispered quietly to the two people standing behind him.

“What?!”

“Go. I’ll be right behind you.”

After a moment of hesitation, the boys started running down the mountain. The sound of their hurried running reached Kyle’s ears.

Kyle took a deep breath. Soon his eyes became serious.

And when the slimes stopped moving for a moment, seizing the opportunity, Kyle lunged forward.

***

As I followed Franz, I realized that I had been looking at the whole thing through a very narrow lens.

I thought it was courage training, and that they were supposed to scare the kids by pretending to be ghosts!

Summoning monsters! I thought it was some kind of exorcism.

But as it turned out, it wasn’t a real monster.

The man standing next to Franz touched the slime and it shattered, like an illusion.

It seemed to be a kind of illusion, like a hologram of modern society.

In other words, the ghosts that appear in the usual modern courage training were replaced by a monster illusion.

‘It’s similar, if you think about it.’

I shrugged.

Anyway, my purpose today was to film Franz’s misdeeds.

So, I snuck up on him and started recording his behavior, but to no avail.

Was it because there were other students with him?

Or was I taking it too easy?

“Vivian, let’s go back down now.”

Daniel was still urging me to get out of here.

After a moment’s hesitation, I nodded.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

There was nothing to be gained by staying here.

I pushed myself up, gathering my things. But then I heard Franz’s voice.

“Hey, I’m going to take care of some business, you go ahead.”

Franz sent the two people with him away and made a gesture of pulling down his trousers.

I frowned and tried to turn my head away as if I was going to see something I shouldn’t, but his behavior was strange.

He sneakily took a marble from his pocket and dropped it on the floor. He glanced around, as if to make sure the two people already up there weren’t watching.

What the hell? Anyone can see that it’s suspicious.

“Hey, let’s go together.”

A moment later, Franz shouted and ran after the two who had gone up first.

I took a closer look at the marble Franz had dropped.

It had been vibrating since it hit the ground, and it soon produced the same slime as the others he had dropped.

But something wasn’t right.

“The slime doesn’t stop coming out.”

The constant stream of green slime gave me a sense of foreboding. I abandoned the idea of going down the mountain.

Instead, I began to capture the scene in more detail on my video camera. It wasn’t long before I heard a familiar voice.

“It’s Kyle.”

I looked up to see Kyle leading two students up the mountain.

And then, as one of the students took off running towards the slime, an unexpected twist occurred.

The slime, which was supposed to be an illusion, hadn’t disappeared!

I panicked, as did Kyle and the boys next to him.

I immediately looked upwards to where Franz was hiding.

I could see the upperclassmen poking their heads out and watching.

Only Franz was smiling.

Franz must be up to something!

“Ew, ugh! Save me!”

And it got worse when a student was grabbed by the slime and was almost killed.

I jumped to my feet.

This was no joke.

Franz had summoned a real monster. Against freshmen who had just started school!

Franz must be stopped now.

I ran towards his hiding place.

“Franz Dyer! What have you done?”

“Ugh, it’s a ghost!”

“What the hell have you released!”

The upperclassmen, who had been arguing amongst themselves, jumped out of their seats in surprise at the sudden appearance of Daniel and me.

I lifted the white cloth covering my face up, knowing that we wouldn’t be able to talk at this rate.

“A person…?”

The upperclassmen stopped buzzing as they realized I wasn’t a ghost. Franz was the first to recognize me.

“You, you’re Rosiere…!”

“That’s a real monster! Are you trying to kill Kyle?”

“Kill him? Franz, did you do this on purpose? You said earlier that you didn’t know.”

“No! Who am I going to kill?”

His face turned a deep shade of red.

Suddenly, there was a tremendous vibration.

Thud!

Everyone turned their heads in surprise. A thick fog that hadn’t been there before obscured our vision.

Unable to hide my impatience, I finally called out.

“Kyle!”

No answer from Kyle. He couldn’t be hurt, could he?

Moments later, the fog that had enveloped the mountain slowly began to lift.

Through it, we could see Kyle, who had succeeded in breaking the orb that was constantly releasing slime.