“Should we head down first?”

Esidisi cautiously offered a suggestion. It was the first thing anyone had said since checking their supposedly two-day supply of food and finding nothing but “Uncle’s bricks.”

These bricks, which Elpihera insisted were dog food, were monstrous things: sticky and slippery, yet oddly crumbly, with a powerful fishy stench.

“Does anyone know the name of this mountain... or at least the geography around here?”

“...”

Everyone fell silent at Oscar’s question. None of them were from Krasilof. Foreigners from different countries could hardly be expected to know their way around a mountain in the middle of nowhere.

Oscar narrowed his eyes and continued.

“Then we can’t simply head downhill. Getting lost on a mountain at night would be serious trouble. We should at least move while the sun is up, so we can keep our bearings.”

“Are humans a little deficient in their other senses too, not just their night vision?”

“Pardon?”

“We were dropped off on our way up the mountain. Can’t we just go back down?”

“It’s not a ladder. What are you...?”

“Elves are children of the forest, after all. You humans just get ready to watch and be impressed.”

With a smirk, Elpihera rose confidently. She brushed off her clothes and looked down at the seated students.

Then Isabelle frowned and spoke.

“Hold on, Miss Elpihera. Doesn’t something seem strange to you all?”

“Hm?”

“Does anyone remember what mister said when I told him I’d just go back to the station? He said, ‘That could be an option too.’”

“He did, didn’t he?”

“Doesn’t that sound an awful lot like ‘Go ahead and try, if you can’? Or is that just me?”

Isabelle glared into the dark forest.

“Think about it. They went out of their way to erase the trail, and they even took the horses. Obviously, they don’t intend to let us leave. But he tells us to try if we can? It’s a trap, isn’t it?”

“Isn’t that a bit of a stretch? Why would Uncle set a trap?”

“I have never once successfully figured out what mister was thinking when he did anything.”

Esidisi and Elpihera found themselves nodding at Isabelle’s words. Fair point.

“So blindly heading down the mountain could also be part of some ridiculous ‘training’ he’s planned.”

“Training?”

“If mister drags us out here and dumps us in the middle of a forest, training’s about the only thing he’d have in mind.”

Apart from Elpihera, who looked dissatisfied for some reason, everyone seemed more or less convinced.

“Let’s say he really did start some training out of the blue that nobody asked for. What kind of training is it supposed to be...?”

“Knowing his style, this is definitely an ambush.”

“An ambush...?”

“Yes. The training he usually puts me through is sort of like this. If we try to find our way down, he’ll definitely jump out from somewhere and attack us.”

Drawing the hesitant students’ attention, Isabelle took charge of the discussion.

Oscar nodded quietly, reflecting that, yes, at moments like this, she was still the same spirited little girl he remembered from court.

“Is there even any reason we need lessons like this?”

“I guess mister thought there was. Well... he was friends with the Hero’s Party, so maybe he thought we weren’t quite good enough...”

“That seems strange.”

Oscar raised his head, cutting Isabelle off.

“When the Hero’s Party was about our age—in other words, when our parents were young—wasn’t that during the war? Is there any compelling reason we need that much fighting strength?”

Unless the Demon King came back to life, well... And if he did, wouldn’t the still-active members of the Hero’s Party gather again?

Even setting aside whether the Demon King could return, the fighting power of each faction in this era was disproportionately high compared with its national strength. Not only the Hero’s Party but all the wartime heroes were still active. Every nation now commanded the strongest armies and generals in its history.

That was a deterrent to war in itself. Any war that broke out now would inevitably lead to mutually assured destruction. Thus, the United Kingdoms enjoyed the most peaceful era in all of humanity’s long history. No one wanted war.

So if the Demon King had any sense, even if he returned in this era, he wouldn’t try to make his move in it. He might be annihilated the moment he rose up. There was therefore no compelling reason for the children of the Hero’s Party to possess great fighting strength.

‘Does Krasilof truly want war?’

Unlike these foolish university students, Oscar was an intelligence agent Thilles had sent to Krasilof. His face hardened as he gazed toward the far edge of the forest, thinking.

The death or injury of any of the Hero’s Party’s children would inevitably cause a diplomatic disaster. It might not lead straight to a declaration of war, but unrest on a comparable scale was easy enough to foresee.

So, assuming Krasilof was preparing for war with someone, the Hero’s Party’s children would need enough fighting strength to protect themselves in a crisis. That would be one safeguard Krasilof could put in place.

After all, the easiest way for whichever “hypothetical enemy” Krasilof’s military had in its sights to force Krasilof into a war on multiple fronts would be to assassinate them.

‘The world has known peace for barely four years.’

Oscar closed his eyes gloomily. It had been only four years since the Demon King’s death and the expulsion of the demons. Rather than a return to peace, it was a span of time better described as a desperate struggle to rebuild.

Yet in that brief time, his homeland had already been forced to plant spies in neighboring countries. Every human nation was still channeling its capacity for growth into its military.

The United Kingdoms were now like a parched field. Miserably dried out, their prosperous past forgotten, they would burn to nothing at the touch of the tiniest spark.

Then he would have to see what they were preparing. Whether Krasilof truly was readying for war—and if not, what that enigmatic man, Ivan Petrovich Yeremov, was scheming.

Training, was it? Very well. He had spent his entire life training as the Lord Protector’s eldest son and a knight of the Hospitaller Order. Traditional knightly training in Thilles was closer to this than to the gentle environment of a university. Playing along would be no trouble.

Oscar raised his head and stood, his expression resolute.

* * *

“Aaaaah!!”

Not even five minutes had passed since they had agreed to split up and gather some branches for firewood. At the scream ringing through the forest, Oscar sprang up reflexively, gripped his sword, and ran.

“Heeeelp!!”

“Miss Esidisi...?”

He found Esidisi hanging upside down from a tree. At the sight of her flailing, both hands clamped over her fluttering skirt, Oscar let out a deep sigh and approached a nearby tree trunk.

A rope trap was rigged to it. Oscar cut the trap and caught Esidisi as she fell.

“Thank you! Thank you!!”

“What on earth happened?”

“There was a nice pile of branches, so I picked some up, and suddenly...”

Setting her down, he looked around. Just as she had said, there was a large pile of branches that looked “just right” for firewood. Nearby were traces of leaves being swept aside.

The trap had been set in anticipation of them gathering firewood. Oscar gave a hollow chuckle and turned his gaze. A small note was attached to the tree trunk where the trap had been anchored.

[There are no straight lines in nature.]

What was this supposed to...?

Oscar pulled off the note to examine it, then took a step forward. A thread snapped with a twang, and a rope instantly tightened around his ankle.

“Aaaaaaagh!!”

“Oscar!!”

* * *

Oscar. Fell into a trap even after reading a field survival rule. One point deducted.

Esidisi. When the very thing you need most appears before you without warning, you ought to be suspicious. One point deducted.

Elpihera. Suggested making camp, then returned to the carriage to rest. Lack of teamwork. Three points deducted.

And...

* * *

Was this edible?

She was hungry, but there was absolutely no way she was eating “mister’s dog chews.” First, she needed to find some ingredients. She couldn’t just start hunting in a forest in the dead of night, which left foraging.

The problem was that Isabelle had never foraged for anything in her life. All the Hero’s Party’s children came from distinguished families. Isabelle, in particular, had had no experience of life outside the Thilles court.

Her idea of ingredients was limited to familiar things brought to her neatly prepared. She was confident in her cooking, but that hardly encompassed the entire process of going to the source, gathering ingredients, and preparing them herself.

So, for starters.

“It does... look like a button mushroom.”

Start by collecting something familiar. It was too dark to see any berries, and she had no way of identifying which wild greens might qualify as edible vegetables. Wasn’t it common sense to start with mushrooms that looked edible?

They seemed to smell similar too, and even if there was something bad in them, cooking usually took care of that. Smiling, Isabelle picked a whole armful of large mushrooms.

* * *

BANG!!

Ivan glanced over to confirm the hit, then lowered his gun. Tucking the still-smoking weapon into his belt, he took out his notebook.

Isabelle. Attempted to consume wild mushrooms. Lack of common sense. One point deducted.

“I told you I’d kill you, mister, didn’t I?! I swear I will!!”

Isabelle’s shouts carried from far away as she clutched the mushrooms his bullet had blasted apart.

The first night was passing. They should have more or less picked up the survival tutorial by now, so he intended to start them on Line of Fire Detection training next.