61. Arriving at the Naa Empire

※Below was translated by Sephallia. Thank you very much.

A bright flash engulfed me. Once it faded, the scenery around me hadn't actually changed all that much. The only noticeable difference was the several figures scattered around me.

“…”

For just a moment, my mind entirely blanked. The dividing line between myself and the world around me felt unclear. What remained was the illusory sense that the significance of such borders was peeling away. As I continued to stand there in that trance-like state,

“Alea, get a grip!”

A girl with purple hair came right up to me before calling my name. Right, I’m Alea. Alea François. She is Simone Orso. My friend.

“Alea-chan? Are you alright…?”

“I’m fine. It might just be something like teleportation sickness?”

“I’ve heard it happens, what, need a bag?”

“No, I’m fine. Instead, please explain the situation.”

Taking a deep breath, I slapped my cheeks to snap myself to attention.

“L-Lily isn’t sure… She heard the demons had launched an attack. We were told to wait here until we received further instruction.”

“I see.”

It would appear that Mother Rei’s judgment was correct.

“W-Where’s Rei-san?”

“There was an attack on the other side too. Mother decided to act as our rearguard.”

“S-So that’s what happened…”

“There’s no need to worry about her. I’m sure she’ll catch up once she cleans up. More importantly, let’s make sure everyone here is safe.”

“R-Right.”

The teleportation facility here in The Empire was larger than the one in Bauer. The facility here was as big as the gymnasium back at the academy, meaning even with us students scattered about, it did not feel cramped. However,

“So, is it just me or did we not all make it over here?”

“What do you mean?”

“I can only count about ten or so of our classmates. Not to mention, the last one I saw appear over here was you, Alea.”

“So no one made it through after I did?”

“Sure seems like it. Maybe something happened to the gate.”

I turned back to check the gate, but nothing especially stood out to me. Of course, these ancient magical artifacts were very much so outside my field of expertise. Even if there were a problem, I wouldn’t be able to identify it.

Turning my attention to the figures around the area, they were indeed the other students that had teleported before me. They were all crouched, their anxiety evident.

“W-What do we do…?”

“I mean, we should wait like we were told to, what else can we do?”

“I suppose that’d be for the be―!?”

The moment I perceived “it” I rushed between the two of them and stood just in front of the room’s entrance.

“I’ll handle this. Lily-sama, you protect everyone else.”

“R-Right.”

“Mei, you―wait, huh? Where’s Mei?”

“Huh?”

Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen Mei since we’d teleported.

“Looks like Mei hadn’t teleported yet. I checked in with everyone a bit ago, and she wasn’t here.”

“I’d just assumed she’d teleported before me…”

“Sorry but we’ll have to worry about Mei after. Right now we gotta make sure we get through this.”

“You’re right.”

For now, the best we could do was abide by the instructions we’d received from the Empire and standby. We had the rest of our class regroup a ways away from the entrance while Lily-sama and I stood in front of the door ready to act on a moment’s notice. Just as Simone and I finished our exchange, the outer door was broken through.

Straining my ears, I could hear the sounds of ongoing combat in the distance. And then, I heard what started as a small sound quickly approaching.

“Down below!”

At first I could only feel subtle vibrations beneath my feet, but as time went on the rumbling only grew more intense. Then, before us was a herd of monsters just like the one I’d seen before teleporting. The monsters looked like something between a snake and a mole. The shape of their bodies was streamlined, and they were covered in sharp scales. It seemed about ten of them had broken through.

“There’s so many… Then…!”

It was vital that I made the first move. To prevent the monsters from spreading out, I instantly closed the distance and cut down three of them. Of the remaining ones, four stood still warily observing the situation. The remaining three slithered past me toward the other students.

“Lily-sama!”

“Leave them to me!”

Lily-sama’s twin daggers flashed briefly through the air, slaughtering the three that had broken past me in sequence.

“Well now, it’d be best if the rest of you were to just give up."

The monsters all attacked me with their pointed appendages, I couldn’t tell whether it was their fangs or their tongues, but I didn’t feel threatened. I recognized these monsters. They were the same species as the one that caused that commotion on our first day of class. Dodging each of their attacks with ease, I took out the rest one by one.

Perhaps taking notice of the commotion, the empire’s soldiers stationed within the building rushed toward the room to provide magic support. Seeing their accuracy, as well as how quickly and decisively they made their decision to entrust the role of vanguard to me, I could see just how well trained these soldiers were.

Now it was just one final monster. As I was about to finish it off, I could sense magic surging within its body.

“Bad news for you, magic doesn’t work on―”

Ignoring the spell, I decided to carry through with my attack. But before I could, I was hit by the brunt of the spell’s force, knocking me off of my feet.

“Ugh!?”

The spell itself hadn’t done all that much damage, but taking damage at all had been quite the mental blow. They… Managed to get through my colorlessness!?

The monster, seeing the opportunity after breaking my poise, quickly closed in before lunging forward and launching its sharp appendage straight for my face.

“Alea-chan!”

“Krh…!”

Twisting my body to dodge its attack, I then sprang back onto my feet riding that momentum to cut down that final monster.

“Phew… I let my guard down there.”

“A-Alea-chan, are you okay?”

Lily-sama called out to me, clearly worried. It appeared that she had properly understood what had just happened.

“Yes, somehow. But…”

“T-There was something strange about that, wasn’t there…?”

Colorless―the innate ability to absorb magic and convert it into power―that special trait of mine had failed to activate. Could what just happened be an exception? Or could there be something wrong with my body? I didn’t know, but it was something that I’d have to confirm once the situation settled.

“Alea, Lily-sama, good stuff. Are you both okay?”

The one who came to check in on the two of us was, of course, Simone

“L-Lily is completely fine, but Alea-chan is…”

“I’m not at all hurt, but well, it seems there’s something I’ll need to check a bit later on.”

As I’d previously explained how my Colorless trait worked to Simone, she did appear to be worried.

“Yeah? But at least you’re not hurt, that’s good.”

“It’s not. There are still plenty of monsters in the area. We should lend a hand to the Empire’s forces.”

“Really? Kinda looks like they’ve got it though.”

“?”

Turning to look in the direction Simone pointed, I watched as the Empire’s soldiers dispatched the monsters under very well-organized command. The soldiers had perfectly adapted to these new monsters, even with their erratic movements and attack patterns.

“See?”

“Seems you’re right.”

“T-They’re so reliable…”

“Then could we quickly confirm our current situation?”

“Of course.”

“P-Please do.”

Pulling out her notebook, Simone quickly noted down key information.

“First, we don’t really know why but our class was split up during teleportation. Only part of our class actually made it over here.”

“R-Right. Mei-chan’s nowhere to be found and we don’t see any signs that Rei-san is coming.”

“From what we’ve seen, it looks like anyone that teleported before me made it, and those after me were unable to.”

“It does seem that way.”

I was almost certain that Mei had gone in before I had but…

“Next, both Bauer and Naa were attacked by monsters.”

“Could other countries have been attacked too…?”

“We don’t know that, it could just have been the two countries.”

“I think it’s best we just note down what we’re sure of for now. So Bauer and Naa are both confirmed.”

After jotting that down, Simone continued.

“Right now, among the classmates here, the ones with proper combat experience are Alea and Lily-sama.”

“It would seem so.”

“T-The other students would have experience from their classes, but asking them to keep up with Alea-chan and Lily might be tough.”

Simone jotted that down in her notebook as well.

“I confirmed this with the staff here earlier, but apparently it’s impossible for us to teleport back to Bauer right now.”

“That’s not good…”

“It’d take far too long to return if we walked.”

Looking at the current situation laid out like that, it would seem we’d found ourselves in a tough spot. As we contemplated what our next steps should be,

“Cease fire! There’s no need to give chase. Prioritize the treatment of any who are wounded!”

A dignified voice rang out. Turning my attention toward the voice, I saw that the Empire’s forces had driven back the monsters.

The person who had just given commands made their way toward us.

“Yeesh, the monsters actually made it all the way here? Our friends from Bauer, I express my apologies!”

As the person rushed over, they called out toward us and I immediately recognized her voice.

“Huh? Philine-sama!?”

“Oh my, long time no see, Alea-chan.”

And there before us was the Naa Empire’s Empress, Philine Naa. Surprised by the sudden appearance of someone unexpected, both Lily-sama and I let our guard down for a moment.

It seemed that brief moment was enough.

“!?”

Out of nowhere, one of those mole-like monsters popped out from the ground, launching itself straight at the teleportation gate. There was a loud thud as sparks flew out of the gate, before finally, silence.