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Chapter 76

There wasn’t any place to hide, but I kept fire eyes active as I checked my surroundings again.

I couldn’t detect anything suspicious.

To check on the corpse, I called for my team members, and they approached the shack.

“Ugh... Is that blood?”

“This...”

“...Pam?”

They also checked Pam’s corpse.

“It hasn’t been long. I guess that should be obvious since we saw her alive and well this morning.”

“...Is she dead?”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t believe it... It’s a lie, right? P-Pam can’t...”

“Shut up, Evan Helvin.”

As I warned Evan in a low voice, he flinched and stopped.

“Did you not expect something like this to happen? I hope you didn’t expect the Bednicker training camp to be a walk in the park. The Instructors definitely told us at the start. There is nothing odd about a young hero dying.”

“That’s...! Still...”

I let out a sigh.

Despite saying that, it wasn’t as if I didn’t understand how Evan felt.

However, panicking in a situation like this would only bring us harm.

I could sense that Evan’s stress was reaching its limit in many ways, but I didn’t have the time to console him.

“Mir, check the surroundings one more time and watch out for anyone approaching us.”

“Hm. Okay.”

It seemed Mir’s mental state was the most normal. Whether because of the life she’d lived or because she was a giant, she didn’t seem to show any reaction to the blood.

While she stood guard, I began to properly investigate the corpse.

There were marks of dried tears on Pam’s face. I could tell that she’d experienced extreme fear right before she died.

And I don’t think she resisted at all...

Even if Pam looked like this, she’d still been a young hero. She’d still been confident enough to enter the Bednicker training camp.

But someone like her hadn’t even been able to properly resist and had died in fear...

Something was very wrong here.

As I continued my investigation of the corpse, that sense of wrongness began to reveal itself.

“Hey. Are you actually going to find anything just by doing that?”

“Somewhat. First of all, this wasn’t done by a monster.”

Hearing that, the expressions of the two other people here changed.

“That can’t be. Didn’t they say that teams aren’t allowed to attack each other? Were the instructors not able to intervene at all?”

“But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to kill anyone. Although this is an extreme case, someone could’ve killed her while knowing they would get punished.”

“...”

Sharyl stared at the corpse as she said, “...So what’s the proof this was a murder?”

Technically, I hadn’t yet said that this was a murder.

Of course, it was more likely that she’d been killed by a person rather than a monster... but there were quite a few factors that made it difficult for me to be sure.

“The corpse is too clean to have been killed by a monster.”

If this had been done by a monster, then her corpse would be in a much less recognizable state.

Rather than a corpse, she would be chunks of meat.

Naturally, the next question was... who had done this?

Among the young heroes, the one I thought of first was Charon.

He wouldn’t hesitate to do anything to maintain first place.

It was possible that he’d been the one to harm Pam.

“...”

It was too early to pin him as the culprit.

There wasn’t enough information.

“Evan, do you remember who was on Pam’s team?”

“...Yeah.”

“Tell me.”

“Denma Galgar, Bazil Jule, and...” Evan glanced at me before continuing, “Hector Bednicker.”

***

Around ten hours into the Forest of the Butterfly, Hector Bednicker felt that something was off.

There are too few monsters.

Hector knew quite a bit about the Forest of the Butterfly.

In addition to the characteristics of the forest, he even knew about the types and numbers of the monsters that lived in it.

His family on his mother’s side had ensured he had that information.

Thanks to that, Hector had even known that one of the special tests in this training camp would involve the Forest of the Butterfly.

The surveillance range of the instructors is about 15km from the base camp.

In truth, young heroes would find it difficult to move past this area. There was a barrier set up with the training camp in mind, so if one tried to leave this area, they would naturally return to the center.

The one who had set up this barrier was none other than the Archmage Asad.

No matter how excellent the young heroes’ blessings were, there was no possibility that anyone could leave.

“The other side should be fine.”

Bazil Jule.

He was about the same age as Hector, but the dwarven young hero already had a full beard.

“We’re only hunting a butterfly. Honestly, this is more collecting than hunting.”

“Hmm...”

The target Hector had chosen for this test was a butterfly.

Naturally, it wasn’t any ordinary butterfly. It was a rare butterfly called a scarletfly... and there were only a few of them in the forest.

One characteristic that differentiated it from other butterflies was that it glowed a blood-red color.

Also, the feces of the scarletfly was a rare material used in the arcane arts and alchemy, and the butterfly itself looked beautiful when pinned to a board, so it was expensive among collectors as well.

The problem is how to find one.

It was difficult to find a scarletfly in this vast and dark forest.

Of course, Hector knew one piece of information about them.

Sunset.

Right before sunset, the glow of the Scarletfly was the strongest, enough so that it should be visible from a fair distance away.

Of course, that intense light wouldn’t even last 10 minutes...

That was why, right after entering the forest, he had invested most of their time looking for the place with the most butterflies.

And at sunset, he’d discovered a scarletfly.

But something unexpected had happened. There had been two glowing balls of light.

If their team had moved as one and lost them, they would have needed to wait until tomorrow.

This was why Hector had split his team into two groups to each chase a different light source.

“I told them not to go too deep into the forest, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“That would be nice...”

Bazil Jule was a dwarf who broke a lot of Hector’s preconceptions about dwarves.

Unlike other dwarves, he wasn’t rude or loud. Bazil was generally calm and cold, and he spoke to everyone with a respectful tone.

One fault was that he was far too easily scared.

Hector turned his attention away from his fearful team member and smiled as he looked at the scarletfly currently in his possession.

There is nothing in this forest more precious than a scarletfly.

* * * * *

* * * * *

With this, not just that arrogant Charon Woodjack, he would even be able to beat the Goodspring and Luan.

...Luan Bednicker.

Remembering the face of his youngest brother, Hector calmed his competitive spirit.

At first, he’d thought it was a coincidence or a misunderstanding, but not anymore.

Hector recognized Luan.

And in this training camp, he had the desire to confidently defeat Luan.

Had had one regret, though.

For some reason, he could tell that Luan wasn’t taking the training camp as seriously as he was.

Having experienced Luan’s true worth, Hector was frustrated by Luan’s attitude.

Charon Woodjack?

Hector of course conceded that Charon was impressive.

He might have even felt inferior if he hadn’t experienced that incident.

However, he had met a much greater monster than Charon, someone who the one considered the best among the young heroes refused to even look at.

I don’t know why he isn’t showing his full potential...

If Luan cared to show off his full strength, that arrogant son of Hyde would fall from first place...

Suddenly, Bazil spoke with a cold voice.

“...Hector.”

Hector slowly raised his eyes as he responded, “I know.”

He could feel a presence beyond the brush.

With his senses, he could tell that it wasn’t his team members Pam or Denma.

Hector drew his sword.

Kieek!

As he did, a monster jumped out of the brush.

It looked just like a wolf, but it had three eyes and its teeth were unnaturally sharp.

Hector’s expression hardened a little when he saw the monster, but he swung his sword.

The wolf collapsed while spraying black blood.

...It’s tougher than I expected.

His sword might’ve gotten stuck in the wolf’s muscles or joints if he hadn't used his mana.

“I-impressive as always! So this is the swordsmanship of the genius of Bednicker...”

Bazil was quick to praise him, but Hector didn’t respond.

Rather, his brow narrowed.

...A wolf?

He knew that wolves existed in the Forest of the Butterfly.

However, he had never heard of a wolf-type monster that looked as weird as this one.

Of course, no matter how strong the information-gathering power of his mother’s family was, they wouldn’t be able to sweep through the entire forest...

“Was that swordsmanship perhaps the famous Shadow Sword—”

“Bazil, draw your weapon as well.”

“Pardon?”

“There are more.”

Rumble...!

Soon, he felt vibrations that seemed to shake the entire forest.

Even the dull Bazil seemed to recognize their situation as his face became pale.

“J-just how many are there—”

At least a few dozen.

Of course, Hector knew that telling Bazil would only make him more scared, so he didn’t say anything.

Bazil isn’t a combatant.

Of course, it wasn’t as if Bazil couldn’t fight at all, but he could be considered a nonfactor in a fight.

That meant that, realistically, Hector would need to be the one to kill this pack of wolves...

This won’t be easy.

Although it was sudden, Hector was thrown into a battle for his life.

“Follow me!”

“Y-yes!”

Hector ran through the forest as he continued to wonder.

The appearance of a wolf-type monster in the forest wasn’t a problem, but so many of them appearing to chase just two young heroes was definitely odd.

Krrr!

A wolf appeared as if it had fallen from the sky.

Did it jump down from a tree?

Hector gritted his teeth as he swung his sword.

Schwing!

“S-sir Hector!”

“Keep running!”

He wouldn’t be able to run forever.

Due to the forest’s terrain, he couldn’t outpace a beast running on four legs.

Hector kept looking around until he noticed a decent place.

An area with difficult terrain created by knots of exposed tree roots.

In a place like that, he at least wouldn’t be surrounded.

Though I won’t have anywhere to run either.

Hector smirked.

It didn’t matter. Here or there, if he couldn’t kill these wolves, he would die.

“Bazil, I don’t think I’ll be able to look out for you. Keep yourself alive.”

“...U-understood!”

Hector could at least show one act of kindness, and it was to face the side the enemies were charging from.

Thankfully, Bazil didn’t fall into panic and followed Hector’s commands.

Growl!

There, the pack made contact.

***

How many had he cut down at this point?

Hector couldn’t tell if the wetness he felt all over his body was from blood or sweat.

Bazil...

Looking to his side, although Bazil was in a terrible condition, he seemed to still be alive.

“Fuu...”

Hector let out a deep breath.

Although he just wanted to fall over, the battle wasn’t over yet.

Growl...

The wolves were standing not too far away from him.

It was frightening to see these monsters just staring back at him without attacking.

Thankfully, we have some time to catch our breath...

...but what were they waiting for?

All of a sudden, he heard a voice from above.

“Hector Bednicker, it seems you’re in trouble.”

As he raised his neck, he saw an annoying face sitting in the branches.

“...Charon Woodjack.”

“Hm. So you still have enough strength to talk?”

Hector’s expression hardened.

Seeing Charon’s sudden appearance, an absurd theory crossed his mind.

“...These wolves, are you commanding them?”

“Who knows? But I can change the tide for you.”

“What are you saying?”

Charon put his hand on his chin.

“It’s a trade, Hector Bednicker. If you give me all your points, I’ll save you.”