Chapter 577: The Survival Training Begins

It was the day after we had arrived at Lake Vivian.

The Academy’s students were dispatched in groups of ten around the town of Sheftent. They were asked to gather medicinal herbs and defeat any magic beasts with a threat level of F there.

Since it was an official request from the Adventurer’s Guild, each group must have a student registered with the Adventurer’s Guild, and the other students would be treated as their party.

Many students were active as Adventurers in Lady Blue, not only in the Special Battle Class but also in the Advanced and other classes. They must have thought that the request this time would be quite easy for them, but actually, it was not that easy.

It was because the vegetation, animals, and weather around Lady Blue and Lake Vivian were quite different. If they thought it would be the same as usual, they might have a hard time later.

Each group was accompanied by one instructor and one Adventurer, and the spirits seemed to be following us as well. So, without any abnormalities, there wouldn’t be much danger for them.

「I’m Charles」

「Fran」

「I’m looking forward to working with you. It’s reassuring to know that the Black Lighting Princess is with us」

「Likewise」

Fran was also assigned to accompany one of the groups. The adventurer who was assigned to accompany the same group as us was a young E-ranked Adventurer.

They seemed to have balanced the instructor and Adventurer pairs, with strong Adventurers paired with weaker Adventurers and the weak instructors paired with stronger Adventurers.

And that was the reason why Fran, the strongest instructor they had, was paired with Charles, the weakest of the Adventurers. Moreover, I don’t know if they were aiming for it or not, but Charon and Khanna were in the same group as us.

「I look forward to working with you, Fran-san」

「Nn」

「Me too, I’m glad to be in the same group with Fran」

At first, the students were uneasy when they saw how unreliable Charles looked, but when they knew that Fran would accompany them, their smiles returned.

The upperclassmen probably knew that Fran was second only to Weena Rhyn in terms of ability.

But still, it was the new students who seemed anxious. They only saw Fran as a fledgling Adventurer.

They should have seen her riding on Urushi’s back before, but she hadn’t properly shown them her abilities yet. They must think that she was a strong magic beast user, but Urushi was now hiding in her shadow, and they only saw Fran alone.

Thus, they might think that their escort was the newbie duo of Charles, who was a fledgling, and Fran, who looked just like a child. That was probably what made them feel uneasy.

Currently, Fran and the third group were asked to gather medicinal herbs and defeat a pack of wolves. Our location now was in the middle of the mountains, a little away from the lake.

Charon was walking in the lead while looking at the map. Those requests could be done in no time if I or Fran helped, but this time we had to let the students do it.

「Let’s pick some herbs around the river ahead」

But then, it was Khanna who replied to Charon’s words with an uneasy expression.

「Eh? But you sure you want to come closer to the water?」

「It’s the lake that we should stay away from. So, there wouldn’t be a problem on the river, right, Charles-san? It’s safe for us to go near the river up ahead, right?」

「Eh? Yeah, you’re right. It’s fine if it is the river up ahead」

「Thank you very much. Let’s head there then」

「Yes」

Charon, she was quite good, wasn’t she? She casually extracted the information that there was a river up ahead. Charon’s map was taken from the Adventurer’s Guild in Sheftent, but I’m not sure how accurate it was.

Some rivers would disappear depending on the season, and if the information was old, there wouldn’t be a river anymore. However, Charles’ slip made her sure that the river was still there. That was unless Charles hadn’t purposely told a lie.

Well, I guess it was simply just a slip from him. He doesn’t even seem to be aware that he had given her a hint, as he was talking to Charon in a carefree manner. So, it was unlikely that he had told a lie to her.

There were some restrictions set for the students in this off-campus survival training. One of them was to stay away from Lake Vivian. This restriction was not set by the Academy, but by the Adventurer’s Guild.

It was because the Modoki sightings were increasing and it had become too dangerous for the students to be there.

When we reached the river, Charon and the others started looking for medicinal herbs. Then one of the students shouted with joy.

「I’ve found it! This must be some kind of medicinal herbs, right?」

「Ooh, isn’t that a Scarlet Water Weed!? They’re short in supply right now, so they must fetch a high price!」

It was the Scarlet Water Weed that we had found before. We were told that there was a shortage of it back then, but it seemed that there was still a shortage now.

The Scarlet Water Weed was supposed to be a cure-all for this country’s unique endemic disease, but was the endemic infection still spreading?

I asked Fran to ask him about that. But even Charles didn’t seem to know the details either.

「It’s not a big deal around here. But in the eastern part of the country, the demand seems to be rising. You all came from the Magic Academy, right? I’m sure you know a lot about it, don’t you?」

『Well, I haven’t heard anything about an endemic disease spreading though』

「I don’t know」

「Really?」

「How about you, Charon?」

「I don’t think there is that kind of problems at the Academy. Even last year, there were only a few students from other countries had been affected by it」

It seemed that Charon didn’t know much about the endemic disease either.

「Is that an epidemic in other towns?」

「No, Fran-san. That’s not possible」

They told us that children were more likely to be affected by this endemic disease and that the number of patients increased at the Academy of Magic when there was an epidemic. In other words, the disease couldn’t be prevalent elsewhere when it was not prevalent at the Academy.

「Then, from where is it?」

「I don’t know about that either. Maybe it’s only prevalent in the coastal areas in the eastern region」

Oh, and by the way, Fran was fine. The potion made from the Scarlet Water Weed was supposed to be preventive medicine, and Fran has already taken it.

「Khanna, what’s wrong?」

「Eh? No, I was just wondering if I could make some money by procuring the medicine that is short in supply」

「Ooh, as expected of a student of the Academy. I didn’t know you could come up with something like that from what we just talked about for a while」

「I’m the daughter of a trading company’s owner after all」