Chapter 333

Chapter 333

At the word ‘explode,’ his friends were startled and instantly distanced themselves from Sion.

To be precise, they distanced themselves from the shovel Sion was holding.

Since Sion had also run away with her friends, leaving the shovel stuck in the ground.

“…Even if it’s called an explosion, it’s not enough to get hurt. It just means it will become unusable.”

Roan corrected his friends’ misunderstanding.

It seemed everyone had become a bit cowardly after tasting a bit of ‘Abyssal Wrath’ during Kaina’s pop quiz.

…Or so Roan thought, but in truth, it was right to be careful of explosions as much as possible.

“I-I see.”

“I-I see.”

“As expected, releasing the seal is dangerous…”

Only then did his friends nod and return to their original spots.

Demona cautiously called Roan.

“Hey, Roan.”

“What.”

Since there was also the matter of the hundred talants, Roan replied with the friendliest expression possible.

“Hieek… It’s nothing much, but by any chance, are you a shovel developer?”

“…How could that be.”

“As expected, right?”

Demona nodded as if she knew it all along.

“Aren’t you a developer?”

Just then, Joy, who had been quietly watching Roan’s explanation, stepped forward and asked.

“…?”

Roan stared blankly at her with a gaze asking why even the assistant was acting like that suddenly.

Joy cleared her throat and excused herself.

“Just kidding.”

“Ah, I see. Hahaha.”

Roan nodded and let out a laughing sound.

To put it in the style of the Earth’s internet: Joy-hahaha!

It was extremely hurtful to Joy.

Thinking the reaction was lacking, Roan quickly winked at his friends.

In times like this, his quick-witted friends immediately followed Roan’s instructions.

“Hahahaha! That’s really funny!”

“How can you make such a joke!”

“No, I was the one who asked if he was a developer?”

“Be quiet, Demona…!”

Poke—!

“Argh!”

Although one oblivious person was wedged in the middle, anyway.

…Of course, the more they did that, the greater the hurt was to Joy.

She would rather they just say it wasn’t funny if it wasn’t!

As the atmosphere did not improve much, Roan naturally stopped laughing and said to his friends.

“Now that I’ve taught you everything, let’s scatter and look for relics.”

“Ah, shall we?”

“A pop quiz is an extremely important task!”

“Yes.”

“Relic!”

Roan and his friends turned around and headed toward the edge of the empty lot, as if they had never laughed.

“…”

Left alone, Joy became extremely lonely, unlike her usual self.

Meanwhile, Roan, who had set out on the road, had a quite puzzling point.

“…I’m sure I said let’s ‘scatter’ and find them.”

Even though the mountain was right in front of them, for some reason, his friends only watched his reaction and had no intention of scattering at all.

“Ahem.”

Perhaps they each felt embarrassed, so they turned their heads slightly.

Roan let out a deep sigh and said.

“If we move around together, the competition will only get fierce. It’s more efficient to move separately.”

It was a very general theory with no room for refutation.

It wasn’t as if the other students had scattered to various places on the mountain because they didn’t have friends.

At that, Rafia said hesitantly.

“We know that, Roan.”

“?”

“But if we go to the place Roan goes, it feels like there will be many better relics…”

However, Roan’s presence took priority over general theories!

‘That is true.’

Even Roan could not refute Rafia’s words.

Roan began to climb the mountain in silence.

The excited Demona and Hector followed behind him.

“Oh, yes! Roan said we can follow him!”

“Let’s go together, heretic!”

“For the perfect score!”

“Bwahaha! For it!”

At times like this, the two matched each other perfectly to the point that one couldn’t even recall their usual bickering.

At the sight of the three backs already moving away, the remaining three female students also hurriedly began to follow.

And a few students who were nearby.

—Hey, did you hear?

—Yeah, Darc said we can follow him?

—Should we follow too?

—What if we die?

—…That is true.

They were temporarily tempted as well, but they decided not to be too greedy.

After all, wasn’t life more important than a perfect score!

* * *

Roan and his friends climbed quite deep into the mountain.

Beep, beep, beep—!

—Oh, something came out.

—What is it this time?

—A pop quiz test paper?

—What? There are test papers in a pop quiz?! It’s a real relic, isn’t it?

The voices of the students who had set out first could be heard here and there, but the frequency had definitely decreased.

“Roan, I’m tired~ How far do we have to go?”

“Exercise regularly, exercise.”

“What?! Are you telling me to torture myself?! Even heretic inquisitors don’t do that!”

“…Heretic inquisitors do, heretic.”

Hector spoke with an expression as if he would interrogate the whining Demona at any moment.

“What harsh fellows…!”

“Anyway, we just need to go up a little more.”

When Roan said this, Sion, who was listening, asked.

“Yes? Then is there a place you are looking for?”

“…”

Of course, there was a place he was looking for.

However, if he said so, they would surely ask a chain of questions about how he knew that.

Thinking for a moment, Roan gave a rough excuse.

“First, we should go up to where the other fellows cannot be seen.”

“Why is that?”

“Fanatic, don’t you even know the saying that God’s will is in places unseen?”

“What?!”

Strictly speaking, it was not a phrase to be used now since it meant not to despair even in bad situations but to have hope.

“Well, it is a good saying, Hector.”

“Idiot Demona, if you’re going to say that, stop whining and just go.”

“Y-You are too much…”

His friends nodded, seemingly convinced by the rough tone.

Indeed, if it was a valuable item that Roan would find, putting in the same effort as other students wouldn’t be enough.

Only when they reached a level where even the noisy alarm of the shovel could be heard faintly.

“We are here.”

Roan stopped his steps with a faint smile.

“Ah! I’m tired!”

As soon as she heard those words, Demona sat down as if plopping on her butt.

Although the other friends were not to that extent, the mountain hike seemed quite grueling.

‘Is it because I ate the restorative food? I don’t feel that tired.’

Only Roan, who had diligently eaten Hiti’s restorative food, looked perfectly fine.

Rafia and Riel, who were wiping their sweat, admired.

“Wow~ Roan seems to only study every day, but his physical strength is also really good.”

“Amazing.”

“Ahem, do you know who that is all thanks to?”

“Yes, do you know who it’s thanks to?”

““…?””

‘Thanks to whom.’

Thinking it would only be annoying if they asked, his friends decided to stay quiet.

Kiki—! Neigh—!

Whether they liked the energy of the deep mountain, Kiki and Ssaeng-ssaeng-ie began to run around and play here and there.

Following Kiki, all kinds of rare grasses grew, and Ssaeng-ssaeng-ie swallowed those grasses entirely into a dream and then restored them, which was quite interesting to watch.

On the other hand, gentle ones like Noeul were already slouched over their masters’ bodies, breathing heavily.

“Noeul, Flutter, you guys need to exercise.”

Meow…

His friends, who took a brief rest, soon looked around properly.

“But where is this?”

“It is a valley.”

“?”

His friends tilted their heads at Roan’s calm reply.

They knew it was a valley without him telling them.

They meant why on earth had he stopped at this particular valley, and this exact spot.

Roan grinned.

“!!!!!”

“R-Roan, are you finally trying to kill us?!”

“So you brought us to such a secluded place?!”

“How can you dispose of your rivals like this?!”

“…Fanatic, do you really want to die?”

Although a real crisis almost visited temporarily because of Hector, Roan endured it well.

“…What are you talking about.”

“Ah, sorry.”

After the brief farce passed, Roan explained the reason.

“It isn’t now, but topographically, there is a high possibility that water flowed here in the past. That means it is a good place to camp. If we dig here, a decent ruin will probably come out.”

“Oh… indeed.”

His friends nodded at the reason, which was more plausible than they thought.

Of course, Roan was not one to rely on such probabilities, regardless of whether it was a valley or not.

‘A definite ruin will come out below here.’

As far as Roan knew, it was the most valuable ruin that could be salvaged in this vicinity.

Of course, that was the case for the other friends, and Roan’s circumstances were a bit complicated.

‘…Probably even that won’t be enough for me.’

If it weren’t, he wouldn’t have tried to obtain Harden’s Handkerchief in the first place.

However, even if it wasn’t for the pop quiz, many useful items would come out, so it wasn’t a loss.

“Then let’s dig now. Roughly… if we dig centering around here, something should come out.”

“Yes!”

At Roan’s words, his friends completely recovered their energy and took up their shovels.

To his friends who approached holding their unlocked shovels, Roan gestured.

“Lock the excavation shovels again.”

“Why?”

His friends were puzzled by the instruction to lock the shovels they had just unlocked.

Roan explained the reason.

Teaching them the unlocking method was in preparation for when they searched separately.

Since the situation turned out like this, it was not necessary.

“That is strictly for searching, and it is too sensitive when unlocked. If you misuse it here…”

“Shall we try digging?!”

Boom—!!!!

“Argh!”

“…It turns out like that.”

Without having to explain the reason in detail, Demona dug her shovel into the ground on her own, got caught in the explosion, and fluttered away.

“““…”””

Without a second word, his friends just locked their shovels again.

“Roan! If that was the case, you should have told me in advance!”

Demona, whose hair was disheveled and whose face was covered in soot, returned huffing.

“I was telling you.”

“Ah, was that so? Then explain more.”

Demona scratched her head and focused on Roan’s words again.

“Now dig.”

“What? No more?”

“None.”

“Tch, tch, tch.”

Using the locked excavation shovels, his friends began to dig the range Roan had set for them.

Thump— thump— thump—

“Oh, as expected of the excavation shovel~ It digs well?”

Thump— thump— thump—

“Gasp, gasp, it seems rocks are coming out a bit, but it digs well!”

Thump— thump— thump—

“Argh!!!! How long do we have to dig?!”

“Demona, be quiet!”

However, even though they had dug to almost the height of a person, there was no sign of anything coming out.

His friends were sweating even more than when they climbed the mountain.

“Roan, is there really something here?”

“If you are curious, try activating the alarm. Just don’t unlock it.”

Hearing that, Rafia manipulated the shovel half-believingly.

Beeeeeeeeep─────!!!!!

“Kyaaa! What is that?!”

A sound on a completely different level from ordinary cases.

Rafia hurriedly returned the shovel to its original state.

Demona said to Rafia with a pathetic look.

“You’re the noisiest one, really.”

“Be quiet!”

“That’s why you are the most…”

“Black Knight!”

Thump, thump, thump—!

Demona only quieted down a bit after being kicked a few times by the Black Knight.

Anyway, judging by the alarm’s reaction, there was definitely something below.

When a goal and certainty arose in the same task, strength naturally welled up.

Roan and his friends’ hands became a bit faster.

Clang—!

“I found it!”

The first reaction came from Sion’s shovel.

As everyone gathered and began to dig intensively around that spot.

“This is…”

“A personal tent for camping?”

Below, a small tent, so-called a ‘tent,’ revealed itself.

Hector looked up slightly and said.

“For something buried to this depth, it is quite intact.”

Indeed, the tent dyed in a combination of green and brown to blend well with nature was no different from new, except for a bit of dirt.

Roan nodded.

“Because it is a pretty good item.”

If they knew whose possession this was, his friends would probably be startled.

While digging up the dirt with her shovel to tidy up the surroundings, Rafia found a tiered lunchbox.

“Eh? There’s a name written here?”

“Really?”

His friends gathered, curious about who on earth had used this unusual tent.

Was it a professor from long ago?

Or was it a wonderful senior who left their name in history?

If not, was it a trace of an outsider who visited the school?

Everyone’s eyes gathered in one spot.

— Timothy Harbor —

“Kyaaaaaak!!!!”

“W-What is this?!”

“Dirty…!”

“Riel, even so, calling the professor dirty is a bit…”

At the identity of the owner finally revealed, his friends screamed and threw the lunchbox away.