Chapter 54 – Deserted Island Survival Training (1)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The weekend arrived after the written exam ended. Under normal circumstances, I would have sprawled out on my bed and lazily gotten up around midnight, but I opened my eyes at the same time as on a weekday.

The reason was that I planned to stop by the library for the first time in a while to prepare for the deserted island survival training that would take place in a few days.

Of course, in an age where the Fourth Industrial Revolution was overflowing like these days, preliminary research could probably be done well enough on YouTube, but for whatever reason, I found paper books more comfortable.

“The books I need to borrow are… Surviving on a Deserted Island, How to Identify Poisonous Plants, Survival Methods by Top Instructor Bear Galix, and then… Would that be enough?”

Muttering the list of books I had written down on my phone, I kept walking.

The deserted island survival training that would be held on Avalon Island for two nights and three days starting next Wednesday.

Because it contains the words “survival training,” someone might think at first glance that it was some bloody survival event that crosses the line between life and death, but it was a training event closer to camping.

To put it simply, it had a purpose similar to a school trip, meant to let teenage cadets worn down by schoolwork breathe a little.

The fact that team composition was left flexible from one person up to a maximum of four, and that the academy had given all cadets a detailed notice of the training schedule, both proved that point.

But the word “survival” also worked in a double sense, because although the period was only two nights and three days, there was also an intention to gauge each cadet’s ability to survive on their own.

On top of that, it was an event that received a fair amount of focus in the game story too, because not only was it the place where the protagonist Leon obtained the hilt of Balmung, which would become his main weapon, but it also set off a series of incidents that made feelings begin to blossom between Leon and the main heroine, Abel.

“So this is finally where he gets together with Abel.”

Honestly, I was not particularly envious of that part.

After entering this place, I had grown rather cynical about looking at the opposite sex, and when Abel had come to Lang Class with Rachel the other day, she had very openly shown that she was wary of me. It seemed I had gotten on her bad side.

With my situation already as precarious as a candle in the wind, no matter how pretty she was, it was hard for feelings to arise. No matter who it was.

An academy elder was targeting me, there was the unidentified female instructor, and I still had to recruit the rest of the club members and so on. The situation was far too harsh to enjoy the warmth of early summer.

Thinking that, the bridge of my nose started to sting a little.

“Youth… maybe in my next life…”

Even so, as someone who wielded blades, I could not help but be drawn toward Balmung.

‘As a player of Miracle’s Blessing M, I not only know where Balmung was, I also know exactly how strong it was, so of course I want it even more.’

Balmung. The one and only immeasurable-rank weapon in the work. Searching for the scattered pieces of Balmung was one of the story’s central threads.

The condition to be chosen by Balmung, the holy and demonic sword, was to manifest the Blessing of Miracles. In one word, it meant it was a protagonist-only weapon.

In the story, they said that if you stabbed it into the ground, the earth caved in, and if you swung it, mountains were cut apart. Later on, it became a fraudulent weapon that let Leon solo everything.

Compared to that, my weapon was E-rank. No, was it D-rank now? In any case, compared to Balmung, it was only a tiny sashimi knife that looked laughable.

On top of that, just in case, I was still carrying around spare Daiso sashimi knives.

“…Could Balmung be reforged into a sashimi knife too?”

By the time I clicked my tongue in regret like that, I had already arrived in front of the library. As soon as I went in, I searched the computer there for the books I intended to devour all day.

Even though I had been a Japanese cuisine chef in my past life, I had never even had fishing as a hobby, so even if it was only for two nights and three days, there was no way I could endure in barren terrain without survival knowledge.

The tools we were allowed to bring were also limited to a minimum, so I had to reach at least a level where I could be self-sufficient.

At least the one fortunate thing was that it was not a place inhabited by magical beasts. In line with the true purpose of the training, all I had to do was focus on the keyword survival.

Of course, thinking back on that midterm exam, other variables could appear. But for this training, the instructors were said to be accompanying the cadets. Naturally, that was a different situation from when I had played the game.

On top of that, perhaps due to a special order from the headmistress, the Sword Emperor, who was currently serving as the temporary instructor of Lang Class, was also included among the supervising instructors.

Humanity’s strongest hero personally escorting the first-year cadets on their school trip…

It was somewhat different from the original story, but at least when it came to security, I could feel at ease.

So my job was to have enough knowledge to distinguish camping, survival, and poisonous plants. That was as far as my preparation for the training went on the surface.

I took down the books related to Avalon Island from the legend category and read through them quickly.

Avalon was an island located in the far western sea, a mysterious place whose terrain changes from moment to moment. At its very center lies an ancient lake called the Queen’s Lake, which had continued since the Age of Myth… omitted… Though some small minority groups call it the Land of Beginning or Paradise, it was currently an uninhabited island where no people live.

“Mm, that’s roughly the same as the setting.”

Even though some details had been added here and there, it was almost exactly the same as what I knew.

It was still treated as a deserted island, and the fact that the terrain changed constantly so there was no separate map was the same too.

But there was another reason I had come all the way to the library and even given up my weekend morning sleep. Wanting to find a clue to that thing I absolutely wanted to locate on Avalon Island, I busily flipped through a few more books and continued researching the island.

Maybe because they were things I had already known, the information sank into my mind intelligently, almost as if it were being poured directly in. My reading speed was fast.

Perhaps because I had a purpose, time in the library passed quickly, and before I knew it, the sunset spilling through the gaps of the windows was baking the interior in gold.

“Oh, Geom-ma. You were here too?”

An intelligent-sounding voice came from behind me. Since it was a familiar voice, I naturally turned my head.

“……”

Blond hair blazing as if swallowing the golden sunset, and clear blue eyes.

“Long time no see.”

Leon van Reinhardt was greeting me with a cheerful wave.

* * *

Even in the quiet library, Leon’s presence in front of me flaunted itself brilliantly.

When I looked broadly around the hall, several female cadets were hiding behind bookshelves to sneak glances at him and squeal among themselves until the librarian scolded them.

Hell, even the librarian harshly chiding them was still stealing glances at Leon from the corner of her eye, so I was really feeling the meaning of the phrase that looked were plot armor.

‘He’s annoyingly handsome. Bet his dick was small.’

…But the books in his hands. Judging by the titles, they were books related to magic.

‘Why is he reading books like that?’

Dumbfounded, I stared at Leon and then let out a deep sigh. No, it really was not pleasing to see the guy who was supposed to be the protagonist holding introductory books on magic.

If I had to give him some consideration, perhaps he had taken the midterm incident as a lesson and wanted to learn about demonfolk and magic.

Still, he had mountains of things to do ahead of him, and yet here he was in the library digging into magic. I could feel my faith in him wearing away in real time.

When I narrowed my brow, Leon made an awkward face and hid the books behind his back.

“……”

An uncomfortable silence passed for a moment. Then Leon smiled softly and opened his mouth.

“What kind of book were you reading?”

“Just researching Avalon Island, where the training is next week.”

He seemed to be trying to ease the sinking atmosphere somehow, and I did not want to deliberately sour things further, so I answered him lightly.

“You’re really diligent, Geom-ma.”

Well, I could not deny that. As of now, I could proudly say that my lifestyle was more diligent than anyone else’s. My days were packed with exercise, dungeon exploration, and studying magical beasts.

But what could I do? Knowing the dark future ahead, all I could do was did my best in my own way for the next three years.

“I’ve got to take care of myself.”

“Take care of yourself…”

When I said that, Leon repeated the words with a bitter look.

“…You’re different from me. And I’m different from you.”

What did he mean by different? A meaningful thing Leon had once casually thrown at me when we first met came back to mind.

Geom-ma, where did you come from?

A line whose true intention I had been unable to gauge. The way he had greeted me as if he were glad to find someone from the same hometown.

No matter how I thought about it, it felt different from the image of the protagonist Leon that I knew from my experience playing the game. His radiant face was shadowed with sadness, and his attitude showed a strange torment.

Even so, his actions still did not deviate too much from the Leon I knew in the game. I did not know how I should interpret his disposition.

I shook my head to chase away the thought. Regardless of my trust in Leon, he and I were fundamentally headed in entirely different directions.

“…Well then, work hard. There isn’t much time left until the library closes, so be careful on your way back.”

“Yeah, thanks. You too, Leon.”

Leon waved once more and turned away. I watched his back with eyes sunk in thought.

In contrast to all the gazes in the hall that seemed to praise him, his shadow stretched long and ominous in the sunset. It looked as if light and darkness were each pressing heavily on his shoulders like weights.

Was it the burden of the hero carrying the fate of humanity?

“……”

That did not mean I intended to coddle or console him. I took my eyes off him and returned to reading.

There was something I absolutely had to find before going home.

* * *

…After spending the entire weekend buried in the library flipping through books, Monday morning arrived, and I was in Lang Class.

Resting my chin on one hand, I blankly stared out the window. Finding clues and leads to that unprecedented power that still had not been revealed in this world had not been as easy as I expected.

When I stretched long, a secretly satisfied smile spread across my lips.

“It was worth the effort.”

Even so, there had definitely been gains from investing my precious weekend. I had managed to roughly pinpoint the location of the hidden blessing on Avalon Island.

With my primary objective now decided, after finding the blessing, I planned to enjoy camping leisurely in accordance with the true purpose of the deserted island survival training.

Staring into a campfire, catching fish with a hand line, and filleting sashimi again for the first time in a while.

“In my past life, I never really had the spare time to enjoy things like that because of work.”

While I was running that happy little fantasy through my head, Leon’s face suddenly crossed my mind and stuck in my throat like a fishbone. The strange behavior Leon had shown.

“……”

But only for a moment. Scratching my jaw, I forced myself to ignore the thoughts rising inside me.

I’ve got enough problems of my own. Worrying about a guy who gets the world’s favoritism was meddling. The most I could do was observe Leon as long as the original story did not go too far off course.

“…Maybe I should sleep a little.”

I had been staring at text until late last night too, so fatigue had settled thickly under my eyes. It would not do to be short on sleep before a major undertaking.