I Became the Academy’s War Hero Chapter 26

The village’s name was Aelbena. Located six kilometers south of the operation zone. Current population: twenty-four residents.

As soon as we entered the village, the three of us silently stepped down from the carriage.

Prrruk!

Sensing danger, the horses kept backing away, so we had no choice but to tie them to the fence.

The old, twisted wooden fence looked as if it could fall apart at any moment.

While Walter calmed the horses, I stepped forward with Belfor.

“Hey, Belfor.”

“Yeah.”

“When was the last time the Special Task Force came out here for an investigation?”

“…If I remember right, about three months ago.”

“I’m not talking about the half-assed report your subordinates filed, idiot.”

At that, Belfor rubbed his forehead and let out a sigh.

“It’s been well over a year.”

“Figures….”

“Hey, we’ve got our reasons too!”

“Benamaur’s technically under the Imperial Defense Force’s jurisdiction, isn’t it?”

“…Yeah. And that’s exactly what’s causing a fuss upstairs. Everyone’s trying to shove the responsibility onto someone else right now.”

As we exchanged words, we continued moving deeper into the village.

The closer we got to the center, the stronger the stench of blood grew—along with the lingering traces of mana.

I headed toward a large wooden building that appeared to be the village hall.

Carefully pushing the door open with my foot, I pulled out a torch artifact from my coat and channeled mana into it.

When its light illuminated the interior, the full horror revealed itself.

“……”

Belfor and Walter, who came in after me, went silent at the same sight.

Dried bloodstains were splattered everywhere.

Chunks of flesh lay scattered around, most already well into decomposition.

Only two or three bodies retained enough of a form to still be recognized.

“…Between fourteen and sixteen people. Looks like most of the villagers died here.”

Belfor spoke quietly as he examined the corpses with sharp eyes.

“Obviously the work of a beast.”

I added one more thought.

“There was only one beast.”

“Your reasoning?”

“If they’d come in a pack, they’d have been spotted immediately. And there’s no way the people here would’ve all been wiped out in one spot.”

“Because they would’ve scattered trying to flee?”

I nodded lightly, lost in thought as I walked among the corpses.

The sticky, dried blood made it hard to lift my feet.

Most beasts moved in groups.

Usually, four or five of them formed a small unit, and several such units gathered to move as one swarm.

Even though people these days were more accustomed to beasts, untrained civilians still had obvious limits.

If there had been more than two beasts, no one here would’ve even thought of fighting back.

The bodies would’ve been piled all in one direction.

But now, the scene suggested the opposite—the villagers had attacked from every side.

Whether they ganged up on it or not, they must’ve thought killing it somehow was enough.

That led to only one possible conclusion.

A beast of B-rank or higher, capable of acting alone, had invaded the village for some purpose.

“I guess its purpose was… this.”

Sweeping the torch around the hall, I spotted a likely cause.

From the staircase leading down to the basement, an immense surge of mana was pouring out.

For a moment, it made my vision blur.

The mana emitted by beasts was distinctly different from the mana radiating from artifacts.

If beast mana were a deep red, artifact mana was a cool cyan-green. If one smelled foul and rancid, the other was fragrant like flowers.

Of course, that was the kind of nuance only those specialized in mana detection could perceive. For ordinary folks like us, our senses had limits.

Even so, I couldn’t help but feel certain.

“…What the hell was this beast doing down here?”

Because within the stairway leading underground, there was something that definitely shouldn’t exist.

The pungent, metallic mana radiating from below made us all cover our noses.

It was a long, endless mass of flesh.

Reddish-brown, pulsating rhythmically as if it had a heartbeat of its own.

A classic sign that a beast’s nest was nearby—a corruption vein.

Holding my throbbing forehead, I muttered with a sigh.

“This is gonna turn into a massive pain in the ass….”

In this world, beasts and humanity had shared history since time immemorial.

Records of beast extermination operations went back nine hundred years.

Unlike humans, who merely used mana as a means to an end, beasts used mana as their source of life itself.

We could live without mana just fine, but beasts were eternally starving for it.

That was why they constantly invaded human territory.

‘Though this one’s goal seems more like artifacts than human flesh.’

We observed the corruption vein creeping up toward the surface and sighed again.

“For the corruption vein to reach this far…”

“It means it’s been left unchecked for at least six months.”

“Where do these stairs lead?”

“Probably the hall’s storage room.”

In this world, artifacts were nothing more than useful tools.

Since drawing out their full potential was no easy task, there was even an entire academic field called Artifact Studies.

There were countless artifacts whose true usage had been long forgotten.

Especially in rural villages like this, where there was little contact with cities, most artifacts ended up abandoned in storage rooms.

That was exactly why I’d wanted to visit this place in the first place.

‘If the beast was just collecting artifacts for the sake of it, that’d be the best-case scenario….’

But if that wasn’t the case, we might as well give up on finding any usable artifact here.

It was likely that any important ones had already been moved to the beast’s lair.

Feeling convinced that we’d gotten ourselves into something troublesome, Walter shuddered and swore.

“Goddammit! Why does bad luck always stick to me like this?!”

Belfor scratched his head awkwardly, then looked at me.

“Hey, Carter.”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s just change locations. This place is hopeless.”

“The report?”

“…Yeah, we’ll file it, obviously.”

“Hmm….”

“We’ll just leave it at this—say that the beast contamination rate is extremely high and requires immediate action. We’ll head back right now, make the report, and tomorrow morning we can stop by a few other operation zones.”

“Yeah! That’ll do! Let’s get out of here!”

Walter agreed enthusiastically.

I glanced at the two of them, then noticed a notification message appear at the top right of my vision.

The moment I saw it, I muttered quietly.

“…It says to open the status window?”

“What?”

“Nothing. Forget it.”

Even as I brushed it off, the message kept blinking cheerfully.

※ Due to data synchronization, your schedule has been updated.

C―3013 Advance Unit → C―3013 Exploration Mission [Failure to comply will result in a demerit]

A small map window appeared out of nowhere, brightly displaying the area surrounding our current position.

“Haa….”

Would it kill them to at least tell me what kind of demerit this is supposed to be?

‘I knew things were going too smoothly.’

I hadn’t expected the interference to come in this form.

I checked the designated area’s range once more.

From where we stood, we’d have to head far down through the underground stairway.

By rough estimate, at least four kilometers deep.

After shoving the message window into a corner, I exhaled briefly and nodded to myself.

I hadn’t really planned to avoid it anyway.

‘I need to know exactly how much of this body’s power I can use.’

Those assassins from before hadn’t even been a warm-up.

And if I was up against a beast, using the Magic Eye of Intimidation would be much easier.

So, I looked at the two of them in turn and made my proposal.

“Let’s clean this up ourselves.”

“…What?”

Both of them stared at me, as if they’d misheard.

“I said let’s clean it up. Since we’ve already found it.”

“Are you out of your damn mind….”

“Hey. We only came here for a basic survey. We’re not prepared for a full engagement.”

Ignoring their fierce objections, I stepped closer toward the staircase.

There was probably already a beast’s bio-factory set up underground.

Once its roots dug in, the nest absorbed mana from both the ground and the air to grow as many tendrils as it wanted.

That reddish-brown mass of flesh, called the corruption vein, served as a vacuum—draining mana from everything around it.

It even invaded places untouched by its roots, sucking out every drop of mana that didn’t exist to begin with.

Once it had absorbed enough, the nest would eventually bloom into a creature—a beast.

Of course, not every beast was born this way.

But those that were became, without exception, malign lifeforms that threatened humanity.

“……”

I channeled some mana into my leg and stomped hard on the corruption vein.

With a wet splatter, the mass burst apart weakly.

‘It’s almost rotted away.’

That meant the inside probably wasn’t in good shape either.

The nest was likely just barely functioning.

Pointing at the drooping flesh, I spoke with certainty.

“So what if the contamination rate’s high? There’s nothing nearby for it to feed on. It’s practically inactive.”

“…And what if we just end up as perfect prey?”

“As long as it’s not A-rank or higher, it won’t be a problem.”

“No, seriously, we don’t need to do this! Why poke a hornet’s nest?!”

I ignored Walter’s loud protests and fixed my gaze on Belfor instead.

He rubbed his chin, carefully reading my expression.

To drive the point home, I added a few more words.

“We’re the only ones who actually know what happened here, right?”

“…That’s true.”

“Sure, we could gloss it over and leave it be—but wouldn’t it look better on your record if we handled it properly?”

“……”

“It’s not like exaggerating the report would be hard.”

“So you’re saying you’re doing this… for me?”

“Yeah, yeah. Of course.”

When I avoided his eyes, Belfor sighed and scratched his forehead.

After thinking for a long moment, he finally nodded as if giving in.

“Fine. Let’s do it. It’s not completely unreasonable.”

“Wait, seriously?”

Leaving the flustered Walter behind, I drew the rapier I’d brought with me.

Belfor flicked his fingers lightly and pulled a spear out of thin air.

Seeing us both take ready stances, Walter had no choice but to take out his own wand.

As he spun it once around his wrist, a bright light burst forth from its tip.

The earlier torch artifact’s glow was nothing compared to this.

Gathering mana into my blade, I took my first step forward.

The darkness greeted us as if welcoming us home.