Apparently it was a few minutes after Sato and I took over that I woke up.
A violent roar and a rush of light.
I was awakened by the worst possible awakening - the vibration of the ground - and my eyes were drawn to the battle that was unfolding in front of me.
Every time I moved my body a little bit from the battle I just witnessed, my various muscles would scream and I wouldn't be able to move, but even if I could, I wouldn't be able to enter this battle.


''Holy Sword Technique--'Divine Punishment''


A large pillar of light rises from Sato's sword, which is held at the upper level, and burns your vision.
I could feel a tremendous amount of power being compressed from that pillar of light.
After leaving the castle, each of us have improved our levels of skill through experience in battle and training.
But even so, I couldn't reach Sato's level.
It's probably a trait of the brave profession, but while we advance one step, Sato is advancing ten or twenty steps.
I had fallen to my death earlier, but that was partly because I was fighting while protecting Ueno-san and me.
Also, Sato-kun can absorb a lot of things in a real fight and grow up.
That's why I allowed Sato-kun to recover, even though I knew it would be a little unreasonable.


Hahaha ！！！！


All the demons that were at the end of the swinging pillar of light would disappear.
This holy sword technique is correct to annihilate rather than slash.
That's how overwhelming the difference in power is.
As Sato-kun swung his sword down, I felt as if I had seen the back of Commander Saran, who made a retreat for us in the Kantinen Labyrinth.
My admiration is still Asahina-kun, but I think Sato-kun is the person everyone, young and old, admires.


''Oi!''


Sato's technique made the demons disappear and the forest became quiet, and now Nanase's voice rang out.
I was relieved to hear that voice, which remained the same as usual.
I'm not sure I ever imagined being defeated by a demon because Nanase-kun had Jir-san with him, but even so, there's always the possibility that it could happen.
I'm very sad to think of him dying because he was a person who could get along with anyone and talk to me in the corner of the classroom.


''Nanase-kun, Jir-san! Are you okay?


Mr. Ueno, who had been quiet until now, raised his voice.
At a quick glance, they did not seem to be injured and we were relieved to see that they were not injured.
When Sato was about to open his mouth to ask how things were going in there, Nanase shouted out before him, "We are not injured!


''We're not injured! I'll be out of here sooner than that!


Jill was holding Mr. Ueno, who couldn't move, and Nanase and Sato, who looked like he had no idea what was going on, helped me with my shoulder.
I wondered what was going on.


''Ziel-san says that there's a possibility that the lord of this forest will react to Tsukasa's attack earlier. He's like a demon that even the previous heroes were able to avoid! We'd better get out of here before they notice us.


My mouth dropped open at the explanation given to me as I ran.
When I looked to the side, I saw that Sato-kun had the same look on his face.


'Lord of the forest? Is that a sound?

Yes, sir, that's why I'm in a hurry.


We were about a hundred meters away from where we had just left off when the ground suddenly shook and we fell to the ground.


'Is that an earthquake?'

No, it's the voice of a demon. It's the voice of the master of the forest, like you said.


Giel says with a bit of a hushed voice.
According to him, the Lord of the Forest shakes the ground with a single voice and the ground cracks ...... when he moves.
However, I heard that Crow-san told me about it, so it might be more believable.



' ...... Apparently, it doesn't seem to be chasing us. I should have mentioned the Forest Lord in the beginning. I'm sorry.


Moving a bit from there, Giel stopped and placed Ueno-san on a rock to simply patch up his injured leg.
It was injured enough that it wouldn't leave any permanent damage, but it would be difficult to walk now.


We'll give top priority to joining up with Asahina and the others for now. Let's get Hosoyama-san to tend to Mr. Ueno's leg.


Sato calls out to me, but I'm not sure how I'm going to join him.
This forest is quite deep, and I've moved around so much that I don't know where I am anymore.
Every direction I look in, I see trees in every direction.


Hey, guys, look at this!


As we were all troubled, Ueno-san, sitting on a rock, pointed to a tree.


'Ah! This is ......





Asahina-kun, Kazuki-kun, Hosoyama-san. I'm glad you're all safe.


All eight of us were together again at the slightly open area where we had first spread out.
When we got there, Asahina and the others had already arrived and were waiting for us, laying out the fruit they had picked.
None of the three of them were injured, and if they were, it was just a small cut, probably from getting caught in a branch or something.
We lined up the food we had brought from each of us and divided it up evenly.
It seemed that Hosoyama-san could tell what was edible or inedible, so he gave us a poison test first.
As a result, my group and Jir's group engaged relatively quickly and ended up with less than Asahina's group.
It was very difficult and fun to catch fish by hand in the river.
As we ate, Asahina opened her mouth.



'But I'm surprised you made it this far. You didn't have any landmarks over there, did you? We couldn't even burn the wolfsbane because there are demons in the woods, and I was thinking that the three of us might have a camp tonight.


Maybe Asahina is happy to see us again, she is more talkative than usual.

Oh, this fish tastes like sea bream and is delicious.
Even though it looks completely like a carp.
It's just grilled fish seasoned with the small amount of salt I had on hand, but as they say, hunger is the best condiment.
I listened to the conversation while I ate the fish.
Most of the time, Asahina and Sato decide on the future direction of things.
Occasionally Jill will be in the mix, but she usually follows our policies without interrupting.
I've grown accustomed to Asahina's conversations, which I didn't see her talking much in the classroom.
Perhaps unconsciously, Asahina and Oda have a slightly similar tone of voice.
Is one of them trying to imitate the other?
Or maybe I got it while we were together.