The Only Male Student in the Academy

161. Commercial District – Wandering Giant Strategy (1)

“…What is that?”

Claire looks at the giant and inadvertently sighs.

It is the same for other party members. Everyone is staring at the giant with blank stares.

Only I was looking away from the giant.

“Don’t look too hard. You will get infected.”

“hehehe….”

Marie closed her eyes tightly at my warning.

Claire also lowered her eyes as if she realized it a beat later, and Nina turned her head with an expressionless face.

“I expected that the situation in the territory would not be good, but… I never thought something like that would exist.”

“It’s not that strange. Just as Jayka was the center of infection on the floating island, the same would be true for the County of Findelnerca.”

I said so.

The County of Findelnerca is divided into five districts: East, West, South, North, and Center, and each district has a boss monster that is the center of infection.

‘Agricultural district’ in the east. Benit Root Boss ‘Farmer James’ / Nina Root Boss ‘Parasite of the Abyss’.

‘Commercial district’ in the west. Common boss ‘Wandering Giant’.

‘Industrial district’ in the south. Benit route boss ‘Renegade Picaine’ / Nina route boss ‘Machine Man Picain’.

‘Defense district’ in the north. Common boss ‘Fake Aims Willot’ / Nina Route additional boss ‘Fune the Prisoner’.

Central ‘direct district’. Common boss ‘Patriarch Gauss Findelnerka’.

These boss monsters emit an aura that explodes the infection level around them, and only by defeating them can the infection level in the area be lowered.

Therefore, the basic method of conquering the County of Findelnerca was to tour the five districts and defeat the boss mobs in each region.

“If Benit had used the warp gate on the coast of Marbella, he would currently be in the agricultural district to the east. However, now that the Territorial Defense Act has been activated, he will soon get lost trying to get there, so first set off the spark of the torch. You have to earn it.”

“And the torch is in that commercial district, right?”

“Yes, that’s right, Claire Entirrus.”

Nina nodded her head in response to Claire’s question.

When Nina saw that, she immediately let out a sigh.

“…I’m already sick of it. It looks dangerous at first glance.”

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“It’s too late to go back anyway, Claire.”

“I know….If this is what happens, I will be with you until the end. Be it hell or whatever.”

Claire goes to her seat, as if half resigned. This meant that I would leave the role of guide to Nina, and Claire would protect me and Marie.

Nina takes the lead, with Marie also taking her own position.

“Please be careful not to get too far away from me.”

Saying that, Nina stretched out her legs.

The movement was slower than expected. She moves her feet so slowly that it reminds me of her sloth.

One step.

One step.

One…… Step.

A completely different look from Nina, who was usually quick.

As she carefully walked across the stone bridge, she turned to the right.

“……? Why are you going that way?”

“If you follow me, you will understand.”

Nina immediately answers Claire’s question and moves to the right.

Claire gave me a look asking if I could follow her, so I quietly gestured to her to follow her.

If you are following Nina like that,

The scenery changes.

“Hey…?!”

Marie next to me let out a surprised voice.

We were near the forest just a moment ago, but before we knew it, we were in the middle of a flat field.

“Space movement magic…?”

“No. This is the Zero Defense technique, Claire Entirus.”

“Is this a spirit-possession technique…? It’s not just that you lose your sense of direction, the scenery around you has completely changed.”

“At the same time, it is a technique that distorts the concept of space.”

Even if you move to the right, there is no guarantee that it will be on the right.

Even if you jump down, you may end up at higher ground.

If you go backwards, you may end up moving forward instead.

If you open the door and go in, you might end up coming out of the building.

That’s what the Yeongjipojutsu method was.

“It doesn’t make sense….”

Claire took a deep breath.

The current situation was clearly beyond Claire’s knowledge. That was because it was a situation that logically made no sense.

This situation can never be resolved with just the magic knowledge or geographical sense that has been acquired.

Since this is a miracle caused by God, it cannot be understood by human standards.

“That doesn’t mean there is no law at all. It’s blurry, but the boundary feels weak. There’s a point where I feel like if I cross this boundary, I’ll move on to another area.”

Nina picked up a stone and threw it.

The stone could not extend all the way, and once it crossed a certain boundary point, it completely disappeared.

“If you move from that point, you will probably be able to move to another area. If you repeat this a few times, you will be able to enter that city.”

Nina then walked to the spot where the stone disappeared, and this time she turned left.

That’s how we crossed the border.

Every time that happens, the scenery changes,

At some points, it is in the middle of the forest,

At some point, you arrive at a place that is too far away from the city,

At some points, we reached right in front of the city, but could not enter it.

After repeating this several times,

Nina got down on her knees.

“…Please wait a moment. I’m sorry.”

A trembling voice.

Nina’s face was dripping with cold sweat.

“Eh, eh…? Miss Nina… Uh, where does it hurt…?”

“No… I’m just a little tired…”

“Claire, bring water to Nina. Marie, let’s prepare to rest here for a while.”

After confirming Nina’s condition, I immediately instructed her to do so.

Put up the tent.

Although it is vague, I still have memories of setting up a tent in my past life. Of course, I only set up military tents a few times during my time as a soldier.

Is it because I had the experience at that time? Or is it because the tents brought from the academy are of better quality than military tents?

Anyway, Marie and I were able to set up the tent without it being as difficult as we thought.

“But, Ariel… Isn’t it too grand to take a short break…?”

“I can’t go any further today anyway. I’ll probably sleep here.”

After hearing what I said, Marie raised her head and looked up at the sky.

Bright blue sky.

Bright sunlight is shining and brightening the surroundings.

“It’s still broad daylight…?”

“The time zone doesn’t really matter. For now, Nina is the only one who can guide her, and in this situation, if she tries to move around carelessly, she will be lost.”

Saying that, I took out the second tent. With this momentum, I plan to set up four tents.

The attack on the County of Findelnerca progresses in a total of four stages. Directions – Camping – Encounter – Entry.

In the first phase, route finding, one of the party members explores the movement route.

If the search is successful, the movement progress increases,

If you fail in the search, your movement progress will be significantly reduced, or if you are unlucky, you may end up moving to an unexpected place.

“Can’t we just move after Nina recovers…?”

“It will take quite some time to recover.”

Party members who have searched for a path will have their mental strength stat deteriorated each time they explore a moving route.

First 1, then 2, then 4, then 8, then 16……. Each time the same character attempts multiple searches, the amount consumed doubles.

If your mental strength stat falls below a certain level, you will suffer from exhaustion, and in this case, the success rate for all tasks will decrease.

Above all, since the mental strength stat is related to the cumulative infection value, you should never overwork a single character.

The good news is that any loss of mental strength caused by route finding can be fully recovered after a day of rest.

To put it another way, it is also a story of a race against time.

“Ariel, everything here is installed….”

“I see. Then, Marie, you should go to bed from now on.”

“Uh, huh…?”

“From now on, we will have to take turns keeping watch, one by one. So, you should go to sleep from now on.”

I said that to Marie and immediately approached Claire.

Next to Claire, Nina, who had drank water, was sitting on her mat with a tired face.

“Same goes for you too. Go into camp and go to sleep right away.”

“…I’m fine. I can do more.”

“I told you. The head of the party is me.”

I spoke strongly on purpose.

Nina is basically a character with low self-esteem. The owner of the house where Nina was raised began to destroy her self-esteem from the beginning.

Since she is a character who neglects her own life and condition more than anything else, it is better not to believe that Nina is ‘okay’.

“Didn’t I tell you last time that if you ask me to be the party leader?”

“…….”

Nina nodded her head.

Fortunately, he is a character with little rebellious temperament combined with low self-esteem.

In the first place, as Benit’s maid, she was always in the position of receiving orders. So, if you give her instructions rather strongly, you will be able to listen to her better.

When she took her eyes from Nina and looked at Claire, Claire shrugged her shoulders as if she knew.

“So I can just go into the tent right away~?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, okay~. But what is the order of night watch~? And we have to eat, but we eat separately~?”

“…If it’s night duty, I can do it alone.”

“That’s why I told you not to judge arbitrarily, Nina. Just know that you will always be the best.”

Immediately I made a move.

Claire, who read my gaze, got up and entered the camp as if she had no choice,

Marie, who was watching from a little distance away, nodded with an uneasy expression on her face and entered her own camp.

Nina seemed a little hesitant,

“I told you to go in, Nina.”

“…….”

She fired one more time and eventually she too entered her camp, leaving her alone.

Phew.

I let out a breath.

Then he puts down the bag and takes out the items one by one. The important thing starts now.

“Should we light a bonfire and take food for the junior troops? Well, combat rations will do. And….”

I thought of many things to do, but the first thing I did was install the turret.

As I said, this tour of the County of Findelnerca consists of four stages: ‘route finding-camping-encounter-entry’.

Among these, the thing you need to pay the most attention to is camping.

It’s called camping because I like to say it, but in reality, it has the aspect of defensive warfare.

The territory defense technique, which does not know where it will move once it crosses the border, does not distinguish between enemies and enemies. In other words, there were countless cases of monsters flowing into the camping area.

Defending the visiting monsters and protecting the camp is the ‘camping stage’.

“Have you installed everything?”

One turret each in the north, south, east and west. And landmines were laid in several places along the expected intrusion route.

In addition, a ‘sensor that detects intrusion’ was attached, and a ‘candle that deters the approach of monsters’ was also lit.

Even after the general preparation is completed, there is still work to be done. Lighting a bonfire and gathering combat rations for the subordinates to eat while keeping watch.

In addition, it is necessary to mark the locations of land mines so that others can easily understand them, and to inform junior high school officials of this information. I took out a piece of paper and wrote down the details of the handover.

Place the handover information on the mat, place a stone on it to prevent it from blowing away in the wind…… Unfold the simple chair and sit down.

“…….”

I feel like I’ve done everything I can.

It would have been nice to be able to put up a fence, but that is impossible. If you had known this would happen, would you have asked Claire to write “Iron Wall” In advance?

Unlike the sun shining down, my body was quite tired.

The journey to the County of Findelnerca was quite tiring, and as soon as we arrived, we had to do quite a bit of physical labor, including setting up tents and preparing to be on guard.

There was a lot of work to be done in the first semester, so I took charge of it, but I wonder if it was right. Based on my experience of being on watch duty several times in the military, I think the first and last seconds are the best. Because you can sleep continuously without waking up in the middle of the night.

In that sense, maybe it would have been better to hand over the first seconds to Mari?

When I think about it, we are a couple, but I feel like I haven’t been paying much attention recently. Wouldn’t it be better to be considerate even in places like this? … No, I guess that means not being able to distinguish between public and private life.

While various thoughts swirl in my head, I remain silent and watch my surroundings.

“……………….”

The faint sound of the wind. A small breathing sound can be heard from the camp.

Except for the glimpse of a giant on the city side, it is truly a peaceful and quiet space.

Chapter 2 is Time Attack.

Even just camping for a day like this consumed quite a bit of supplies. Battle rations, turrets, candles to scare away monsters, firewood to light a bonfire, and more.

If Nina’s mental strength stat decreases, she will be in danger, but if you take too much care of her and repeatedly rest, her supplies will decrease.

Although there are times to supply supplies from time to time, supplies are not the only problem. If you stay in the County of Findelnerca for too long, the cumulative infection value will accumulate.

So just spending time is a risk. Marie hasn’t even finished her vacation homework yet. She must return to the floating island as quickly as possible and complete the unfinished tasks.

Lucius may also be in a similar position, but… Well, I guess they are doing well.

It is not difficult to find out the situation there through the mobile spider bomb, but we decided not to do it. They’ll be in the eastern district, which is completely opposite to us, so if there’s a problem there, we can’t go there to help. It would be appropriate to use it only to check Lucius’ progress occasionally.

I have finished organizing my thoughts.

“I can do it.”

I muttered.

As always.

Four hours passed like that.

The sunlight that was bright when I first stood watch is now gone. The sun has set and the stars are shining brightly in the night sky.

It would be better for me to finish my watch routine at this point and go to sleep.

“Who should I wake up?”

Actually, I haven’t decided who will be the second starter.

I took charge of the first semester because there was a lot to do, and I decided that Nina would do the last semester so that she could get enough rest.

However, between Claire and Marie, I haven’t really thought about who will be the 2nd and 3rd seconds.

Should I say that there is not much of a difference in which of the two takes second place? I set up most of the things, including the turret installation, so all I have to do is stay awake.

If I were to ask, Claire would be the one who is thorough, and Marie would be the one who is comfortable.

… Um, I don’t know.

Each person has their own strengths and weaknesses, so it is difficult to say who is better suited to second position. Should we just decide by tossing a coin?

“As expected, Ariel is still on alert~?”

─ I thought about it and tried to take out the coin, but it quickly became meaningless.

I’ve been worrying about nothing.

As I put the coin back in, I looked back.

And as expected, Claire was there.

Wearing a bunny girl suit.

“…Huh?”

A new voice, so new that it was hard to believe it was his own, came out of my mouth.

It is something that cannot be helped. That’s because he came out wearing a different outfit than expected.

“Actually, I have a lot accumulated.”

hehehe, Claire approached while smiling.

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On a single-person simple chair that can only accommodate one person,

He forced himself to sit next to me, pushing me away with his butt.

It’s close.

Closer than anything else.

That’s because it’s so sticky.

I could feel Claire’s body temperature through her clothes.

“I’ve been patient all this time. After all, the floating island wasn’t in chaos, right~? Even during the quarantine period, it wasn’t an appropriate atmosphere~? Jayka’s sister died not long ago, and it’s only human to be swayed by desire. It’s a bit like that, isn’t it~?”

“…….”

“There were a lot of people in the lab, so I started to notice~. Above all, the more you endure, the greater the joy that comes later, right? …It’s getting a little harder to bear now, though.”

-Chin.

Claire put her legs on my lap.

My thighs and Claire’s thighs overlap each other.

Just like that, Claire climbed on top of my body only halfway and pushed her butt so that it touched my pelvis.

Claire’s weight comes from one leg.

Claire showed me only half of his face,

“Please be cute, my master…♡”

I say that with hot breath.

… This crazy b*tch.