「Everyone, are you hurt―」
Before I could finish, I was hugged by Professor Lumina.
Her breasts, which exceeded a thousand cures, pressed against my chest, enveloping me in her scent and body heat.
“Stop it! Don’t worry me like that!” “I’m sorry.”
“I know you’re brave, but Dr. Medhill isn’t here! What would you do if something happened?!”
I only felt guilty for worrying her, even though she was scolding me.
True, if we had prepared for a long battle, we could have come up with other strategies.
We could have all ridden on Fenrir and sniped at the enemy’s openings with Professor Lumina’s magic.
But at the time, I thought that was the best option. “I’ll be more careful.”
As I said that, I patted Professor Lumina’s back.
I did that for a while, but she suddenly pulled away from me as if she had noticed something. Her face was red.
“I-I didn’t mean that like that!”
And I’m trying to explain to Miyose and Kounodaira… ###
“Don’t worry about it, Lumina-sama. It’s natural to be drawn to Sohitsu-sama. And this is an desert island where teachers and students don’t matter. No one will blame you for your feelings.” ###
Kounodaira is trying to support her, I guess. The teacher’s face turns even redder.
「Sousuke-sama. Thank you for what you did earlier. For standing up to the huge enemy to protect me, a weakling like me. My admiration for you has only grown stronger.」
Kouen gently took my hand and looked up at me with a flushed face. “Y-You’re welcome?” “Which path will you choose?”
Miyose, having returned to her human form, entered the conversation.
I suppose you could say you brought me back to the main topic.
During the battle, I noticed that this vast space seemed to be an unmineable area as well.
If we enter one of the three branching paths, I suppose we could mine there.
“Y-Yeah! W-Which one should we take?!”
“I will follow your judgment.”
Mr. Teacher was flustered, while Kanzono smiled and said.
「In Fenrir mode, my sense of smell is heightened. The one on the far left smells like golems.」
Once I smelled them, I could tell them apart.
「Oh, impressive. So we should avoid the left one.」
「By the way, Genjuu, what about the other two?」
「The middle one smells the weakest, but…」
「…The master of the white space can’t not know about Miyoo’s ability. They’re either testing to see if I can smell the golems in Fenrir form, or they’re setting a trap knowing I’ll use my sense of smell.」
If it’s the former, choosing the middle one would be relatively safe.
But if it’s the latter, choosing the middle one might lead me into a trap.
「Ah, I see… It’s a tough decision.」
Thinking too much won’t solve anything. I’ll vote for the middle one. I’d rather face fewer but stronger enemies than a large number of them.
「Yeah, that’s true. I don’t want you to take unnecessary risks anymore.」
Miyoo was looking at me with a rare stern expression.
She could have been in danger if she hadn’t accepted it.
I’m sure Miyoe was on edge too.
Thinking about her feelings makes me feel guilty.
But if something similar happens again, I’ll probably act on it again.
I swear to myself that next time, I’ll think about my own fall.
“Then let’s take the middle path.”
So we proceed down the oddly cylindrical path.
I asked Miyoe to transform back into Fenrir.
After discussing it, we decided to have Fenrir Miyoe keep watch and have the teacher do the mining. “Let’s try it now.”
The teacher uses ‘light heat magic’ to chip away at the rock.
As expected, a large rock rolls down for the third time.
“It looks like we can mine here.”
Kamizono murmured in relief.
I checked the pieces that fell down, but I couldn’t tell what kind they were just by looking at them.
Deep Mine had shown me a little, but I still couldn’t figure this out.
For this time, I just needed to collect different types, so I put a piece in Kamizono’s and my baskets and moved on to another point.
We repeated this a few times.
“Yeah, there are more than five types here.”
Just to be sure, I collected seven different-looking ores.
There were white ones, reddish-brown ones, crystal-like ones, white chunks with black streaks, and blue ones, among others.
It seemed that I could only collect similar-looking ores from the same point, so it took a while, but this should be enough to clear the task.
Since “taking them out of the mine” was the condition for clearing, I couldn’t relax until I got back to the entrance.
“Everyone, thank you for your hard work.”
Kamizono gave us words of encouragement.
「Thanks to you and Miyoo, we managed to pull through.」
「No, it was thanks to everyone’s cooperation.」
But perhaps it wasn’t for the best that the mood had become so amicable.
Fenrir Miyoo let out a low growl, warning everyone to be on guard. All eyes followed Miyoo’s gaze. There stood a woman. Or rather, not quite.
She had a humanoid form, and her skin felt like a human’s, but her joints looked like a doll’s.
She wore a metallic mask over her face, but she had hair, and if her skin were covered, she might pass for a human.
She was wrapped in a tattered cloth, but if she weren’t, one might look away in discomfort.
She was clearly a doll, yet she was so close to being human, a beautiful yet terrifying presence.
“Ah, is that also a golem?” Shizukana’s voice trembled.
The creature’s human-like appearance was stirring fear within her.
“If it gets any closer, I’ll attack!” The teacher warned.
She too seemed to have some reservations about attacking a humanoid figure.
Fenrir Miyoe should be able to tell it’s a golem by its smell.
In reality, she couldn’t pounce on it right away and deliver a sharp claw attack.
A semitransparent disk-like object appeared and deflected Miyoe’s attack.
Miyoe’s body is slammed against the rock face.
“Ms. Miyoe! I won’t allow you to hurt my student!”
Luminas points at the enemy with her index finger. Something felt off. She looked at Miyoe.
It was hard to see through the red fur, but I finally noticed.
There were wounds that looked like Fenrir’s claws.
In other words, the enemy didn’t block the attack with a barrier ability.
They reflected the attack with a completely different ability, didn’t they?
By the time I realized this, I had already started running towards the teacher.
I knew that I couldn’t stop her spell from activating at the right moment. A beam of light runs.
The female golem also put out a disk to defend against the heat ray.
The heat ray, upon touching the disk, was reflected and nearly pierced through the teacher’s head. “Guh!” —I made it in time…
I managed to push the teacher out of the way at the last second. “Kyaa…!”
It was good that the teacher had gotten out of the heat beam’s path, but it didn’t seem like she had managed to help herself gracefully.
Instantly, a burning pain runs through me.
I quickly sit up after falling and check the injured area.
A hole from a beam of heat had gone through my left shoulder.
“K-Kouno-kun? N-No!!” “I’m glad you’re safe, Sensei.”
Sweat burst out of my body, my heartbeat was so loud, and the pain was unbelievable, but I forced a smile to keep Sensei from worrying.
I was worried that my smile wouldn’t look natural.
I wouldn’t say I wasn’t thinking about death, but I had Senjuu here.
I told myself that I shouldn’t be thinking about the pain, but rather how to defeat this golem as soon as possible. Well, what should I do?
If you’ve read this far, you may already know that,
there’s no need to worry, as we’ll breeze through any trouble!
Also, today is the update day for the fourth episode of the comic version!! (Probably at 11 o’clock)
I hope you’ll enjoy it alongside the web version. And the book version, which is currently on sale, too…!!
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