Why is Teacher Rudger coming out of there?
Although the students didn't say it out loud, they were all thinking the same thing.
The girl who had dragged Rudger, Seridan, paid no attention to everyone's stares as she patted her waist and plopped down.
"Oh my, how exhausting."
For such a cute voice, her way of speaking suggested she had lived for quite some time.
Everyone looked at Seridan with bewilderment.
Upon closer inspection, she wasn't an ordinary girl.
Students with sharp eyes realized that Seridan wasn't human but a dwarf.
So to summarize the situation: a dwarf girl was dragging around Rudger, who was in a deep sleep.
'What is this? A dream?''No. This place is already a dream. So should I be asking if this is reality?'
The situation was so absurd that the students even forgot they were trapped in an inescapable labyrinth.
Flora was the first to gather her thoughts and speak.
"Wait. You there."
"Huh? Me?"
Flora was momentarily speechless at Seridan's brazen question and expression.
Not only had she naturally joined their gathering, but what was with those innocent eyes asking why she was being addressed?
"...Yes, you. What exactly are you? Why are you with our teacher?"
Flora emphasized her voice as if to indicate she wouldn't let Seridan get away with any funny business.
Her intention was also to intimidate her into behaving.
In reality, Seridan wasn't intimidated by Flora's demeanor at all; rather, she felt that Flora resembled a hedgehog with all its spines raised.
While Flora might appear older on the surface, Seridan was already a veteran who had been through thick and thin with Rudger.
The strong-hearted Seridan wouldn't be intimidated even if she faced Nirva.
'What's this? She's concerned about Nari? Well, isn't that sweet.'
Seridan immediately sensed why Flora was wary of her.
"I don't know. When I came to my senses, this person was lying here. I couldn't just leave him alone, so I was moving him."
She avoided mentioning terms like "Nari" or claiming she knew him, as that would likely lead to questions about their relationship.
Seridan pretended to be meeting Rudger for the first time as she explained the situation.
"Do you know him?"
"...Yes. He's our teacher."
Since Seridan's explanation seemed plausible on the surface, Flora partly lowered her guard.
Of course, she hadn't completely removed her suspicions.
Flora tensed her eyes as if to show she would teach Seridan a lesson if she tried anything funny.
From Seridan's perspective, Flora's behavior just seemed cute.
'She's cute when she can't be honest.'
Flora would have been furious had she known Seridan's true thoughts.
"What happened to the teacher?"
"I don't know. He's been in a deep sleep."
"If we try to wake him..."
"He won't wake up even if you try. It seems he's under some kind of curse."
She didn't mention that the medium of the curse was the demon Nirva but Flora wasn't so oblivious as to miss that.
In the current situation, if Rudger, who had gone to the depths first, was cursed, it meant that the demon had put him to sleep.
The students who heard the explanation put their heads together.
It was better to figure out a way to wake Rudger than to just sit around doing nothing.
"If it's a curse, should I give it a try?"
Aidan was the first to suggest an idea.
His anti-magic could cut through magic and of course, curses are a type of magic.
He thought that if someone was cursed, it could definitely be removed with anti-magic.
Everyone nodded, and EAidan stood next to Rudger with his staff in hand.
Flora urgently asked when she saw Aidan's resolute face.
"Wait. How will you do it? Are you going to hit him with your staff?"
"Oh, well, I need to swing a sword, right?"
"Is it necessary to hit him?"
"No. I'll swing it from a distance, without touching him."
"Oh, that's right?"
"Yes. But if that doesn't work, I might have to directly strike him."
"Huh?"
Aidan spoke as if he was genuinely concerned about Rudger.
Seeing this, Flora was unsure of what to say.
'Is he actually pretending to care about the teacher while trying to relieve his stress?'
How many times had Aidan been criticized in Rudger's class?
Among the 80 students, probably no one's name was mentioned by Rudger as often as Aidan's.
Aidan always laughed it off, but could one say there was absolutely no resentment inside?
"...You're really not going to hit him, right?"
"Why would I hit the teacher?"
Well...
Other students around had the same thought as Flora.
"Here I go."
Aidan held his sword, activated anti-magic, and swung it toward Rudger's head.
Flora unknowingly flinched.
The same was true for Aidan's friends, Leo and Tracy.
Will he hit him? Surely he won't hit him? Is he really going to hit him?
Contrary to their expectations (or hopes?), Aidan's staff in the form of a sword passed perilously close to Rudger's head without touching it.
"Ah!"
One student let out a disappointed exclamation but received glares from everyone.
He quickly hung his head low.
"This..."
The expression on Aidan's face after using anti-magic wasn't good.
"I don't think this will work. This isn't like a regular curse. It's something far different, something I can't cut with my anti-magic."
Aidan sensed it after swinging his sword.
The curse that had put Rudger to sleep was something he couldn't handle. It wasn't an ordinary magic or curse but something on a different level altogether.
"What should we do then?"
"If it's not a regular curse, could there be something else?"
"Maybe there's some kind of trigger."
Listening to the students' conversation, Erendir opened her mouth on a whim.
"Maybe he'll wake up if someone kisses him...?"
"..."
"..."
The reactions were exactly fifty-fifty.
One side coldly stared at Erendir as if saying, 'Princess, what nonsense are you talking about?'
The other side seemed to vaguely agree, thinking, 'Is that so? Somehow it feels like it might work?'
Flora also reacted to Erendir's words.
"Kiss..."
Flora's gaze turned toward the sleeping Rudger's lips.
Deeply asleep, he looked like a sleeping prince in the forest.
'If I do it, will he wake up?'
No. Even if he doesn't wake up, would it be...okay to try?
As Flora was absorbed in such thoughts, Sheryl approached and tapped her arm.
"Flora? Flora. What are you thinking so deeply about?"
"Eek?!"
Flora's spine straightened, and even her hair stood on end.
Even Sheryl, who had spoken to her, widened her eyes at the exaggerated reaction.
Flora realized what she had been thinking and blushed.
"Oh, sorry. Did I startle you too much? Your face is red, are you okay?"
"Uh, yeah. Just, um. It feels a bit hot."
"Hot? It's cool here. Flora, you're acting a bit strange, you know?"
"Anyway! Right now, waking up Teacher Rudger is the priority. Right?"
"Uh, yeah."
Sheryl couldn't ask what she was curious about due to Flora's sudden assertiveness.
First, they needed to assess the situation.
"Would he wake up with a kiss? But that's a fairy tale story."
"But this is a dream world. Wouldn't something like that work better than common sense here?"
The students' opinions were split exactly down the middle.
Some of them wondered, 'Does it have to be a kiss?' but couldn't freely voice this thought in the heated atmosphere.
"Then I'll try this time too!"
Aidan confidently exclaimed as he stepped forward.
"Hey, you jerk! Why are you volunteering? Do you want to die!"
And within one second, he was restrained and dragged away by Tracy.
"Excuse me."
It was then that Iona, who had been quiet until now, spoke up.
Since someone usually quiet was offering an opinion, everyone looked at Iona with a mix of curiosity and interest.
"Honestly, I don't think he'll wake up from something like a kiss."
At those words, the students who had been thinking 'Is this right?' widened their eyes.
She said it. She finally voiced what they had been thinking!
But given Iona's usual behavior and her strangely persuasive tone, no one objected.
In the meantime, Iona suggested a new plan.
"Rather than that, wouldn't it be better to use Aidan's magic to split the wall and escape this space first?"
The students could now reconsider their current situation with this practical suggestion that could be implemented immediately.
It would be good if Rudger woke up, but if there was no immediate way to wake him, shouldn't escaping this place be the priority?
With Aidan's anti-magic, they didn't need to wander through dangerous doors; they could cross walls.
If done right, there was hope of joining up with other survivors.
"Alright! Then let's go!"
Aidan energetically said as he swung his sword toward the wall.
Just like before, the space split and a path opened.
While everyone gazed at the split space with expectant eyes, only Flora quietly stared at Rudger lying on the stretcher.
'Kiss...'
The regret kept lingering in her mind.
* * *
"Hmm?"
Nirva, who had been absorbing the power of survivors he found, turned his head at the sudden sense of dissonance.
"Someone has made a hole in my prison?"
What was this all about?
Even if it were Zero Order, he shouldn't be able to move at all within this dream prison he had created.
"An annoying rat has flowed in through the crack."
Nirva's face contorted.
Because of those humans, he had dared to consume the offerings that should have been dedicated to the Goddess.
How much self-loathing had he felt for that sacrilegious act?
Even now, as he was eating survivors with the sole purpose of recovering his strength, Nirva vaguely felt that he was falling apart.
As his physical strength returned, his mind was deteriorating.
Still, he was prepared to endure any humiliation for the revival of the Goddess.
But suddenly, a hole had appeared in the prison, and through it, the offerings were moving freely.
"As much as I'd like to go after them myself."
It wasn't time yet.
Going in his current state before fully recovering would more likely result in his defeat.
Though he didn't want to admit it, the humans of this era were strong.
"Soldiers. You must act in my stead."
As Nirva gave the order, desiccated corpses like mummies stirred.
Sand-formed armor covered their bodies.
-Clatter. Clatter.
The soldiers wrapped in dream sand rose like zombies, emitting a yellow glow from their eyes.
It was a degraded version of the [Samnium Terracotta] he had created when fighting Rudger, but in the current situation, even this was welcome.
"Go. Kill them all."
The dream soldiers moved on his command.
After sending the dream soldiers, Nirva searched for his next prey.
He needed to absorb those who had entered this prison to recover as much strength as possible.
Despite having devoured many people, his severed right arm showed no signs of regeneration.
"Tsssk. Haah."
Nirva briefly regulated his breathing and wrapped dream sand around his severed arm.
The golden sand transformed into the shape of an arm, it was a sand prosthesis.
For now, he had no choice but to use this as a substitute for his arm.
Nirva's gaze turned towards a door attached to the ceiling.
"A strong and familiar aura."
Beyond that door, in a space made of dreams, he sensed the auras of two people.
One belonged to a Dream Walker, and the other to a mixed-blood between human and elf.
Nirva's mouth corner stretched into a long grin, reaching below his ear.
Delicious prey had appeared nearby.
"How fortunate."
Nirva moved without delay.
"Open."
Nirva floated in the air, approached the door, and placed his index finger on it. The door smoothly opened, connecting to the next space.
Normally, what should unfold beyond the door would be a completely different landscape.
But Nirva was both the creator and caretaker of this prison.
He could skip annoying steps as much as he wanted.
-Clunk.
Through the open door, Sedina and Julia became visible.
The two were momentarily distracted by the suddenly opened door, but upon seeing the golden gleam beyond, their faces turned pale.
"Nirva?!"
"Let's run!"
The two, instinctively recognizing who they were facing, chose a quick retreat.
It was a cold judgment of the current situation that took precedence over youthful rashness.
"Quick judgment indeed. But do you dare to try and escape from me? Do you think I'll leave that alone?"
Nirva stretched out his right hand, the one that had been cut off by Franz and replaced with a sand prosthesis.
The sand that made up the prosthesis spread widely and shot towards the backs of Sedina and Julia.
Julia, who was fleeing, looked back and pushed Sedina aside, causing both to roll on the ground.
Immediately after, a sand fist that passed by the two created a large hole in one of the prison walls.
Seeing this, Nirva clicked his tongue.
"Oh my. I just wanted to capture you alive, but as I’m not my familiar arm, I can't control my strength."
Shaking his head at the tunnel-like hole in the wall, Nirva prepared to extend his sand prosthesis again.
"This time, I won't miss."
Sedina and Julia were so overwhelmed by the recent attack that they couldn't even think of running away.
Just as the two were about to close their eyes tightly, Nirva's body shuddered.
'What is it?'
Nirva's gaze turned towards the large hole he had created.
From inside the space that had turned pitch black due to the absence of light, the growling sound of a beast was heard.
Nirva unknowingly clenched his fist.
'That is...'
He could sense it instinctively.
The entity beyond that darkness right now was one that stood in direct opposition to his own nature.