The four people in Leah’s group moved the children to Azura’s lair, and while they were at it, they made a secrecy oath using the magical tools Helix had brought.

Leah and Helix commuted from the villa to the lair every morning and returned in the evening. The court physician occasionally came to the villa looking like a zombie to get his belongings, raided the kitchen to inhale food while standing, then disappeared with bundles of food packed up.

Leah explained to the puzzled head maid and Knight Biden.

“He’s busy with work I assigned him. He’s developing a new treatment method.”

“I see. The court physician’s passion is truly remarkable.”

Thanks to all four working hard, there was progress. The children’s fevers started going down little by little.

The court physician and Karai became even more fired up.

The court physician would sometimes sniffle with emotion even while working frantically.

‘To think I’d enter a Dragon’s lair! To think these children I saved will become mages who’ll write a new history of magic!’

Was this dream or reality?

Though he’d lived his whole life as a magic fanatic, reality was more amazing than what he’d imagined reading magic books as a child. The court physician floundered in an ocean of emotion and thought.

That he was truly fortunate to serve Lady Leah.

It was the same for Karai.

Since that day when he felt his past being saved as the children were saved by Leah, he had been feeling the joy of living. His heart tingled every time the children’s fevers went down and their fingers moved little by little.

‘So this is what it feels like to be alive.’

Living was this vivid, feeling emotions, knowing the taste of food.

Ever since waking up alone after being captured with his fellow vagrant gang, he’d always felt detached from the world. But now these children felt like his comrades and younger siblings.

“Huh?”

Leah was slightly bewildered.

The court physician and Karai were so enthusiastically focused on treating the children that there was no room to help.

“Aren’t those two a bit too passionate? There’s no room to join in.”

“Isn’t that good? We can do our own work.”

“Work?”

Helix held out his hand. Leah naturally took it and asked.

“Where are we going?”

“Patrol.”

The two walked around the lair checking for any suspicious people or unfamiliar objects.

“We need to be thorough since we’re protecting unconscious children.”

Contrary to his words, Helix was walking slowly to match Leah’s pace. Leah tilted her head.

“This feels more like a stroll than patrol.”

“…It’s patrol.”

Why was there a delay before his answer?

Helix cleared his throat with a ‘ahem’ and added.

“You haven’t been practicing magic or training lately, just staying cooped up in the Dragon’s lair, so your steps have gotten slower. That’s why it feels like a stroll.”

Leah inwardly laughed seeing Helix turning his head away for no reason.

It really seemed like he was worried about her not getting fresh air and took her for a walk. She held back the smile threatening to leak out and played along pretending not to know.

“Maybe it’s because I’ve just been in the lair? The weather’s changed too. It’s gotten a bit chilly.”

“Are you cold?”

He held her hand and infused warm mana.

Pop. Pop.

As her palm warmed up, it tickled for some reason. While she was blinking at that sensation, Helix suddenly spoke.

“What do you plan to do when the children wake up?”

“Well, I was thinking of making a magic school.”

“School?”

He seemed puzzled.

“Yeah. Gathering children and teaching them knowledge and social skills. Like an educational institution?”

“Similar to an academy?”

“Not an academy, but a place that teaches young children…”

Leah struggled unable to explain.

This world had academies where noble youth studied, but no schools for teaching young children.

Noble children had tutors, while commoner children inherited their parents’ work or learned skills through apprenticeship. Occasionally children who showed aptitude for study received temple education.

‘I didn’t notice since I was sick, but there’s really no basic education here.’

She gave up explaining and made an excuse.

“Since they’re children, I’d like to gather them and teach basic knowledge and magic common sense.”

“You mean gather mages and teach them?”

Helix was surprised. Even in the old days, mages entered magic towers already as full mages, not to learn magic.

He looked down at Leah with half shock, half admiration. She looked pretty as her platinum blonde hair swayed softly when she moved her round head to look up at him.

His contractor and disciple amazed him more the more he knew her. How could such a small cute head come up with such surprising ideas?

“Wouldn’t it be fine? There are only two mages anyway, you and me, we can’t handle teaching everyone.”

“I’m not a mage but a guardian.”

“But you’re still a magic expert.”

“I don’t think I can teach at young children’s level. And you, Leah, are still too green to teach anyone.”

“I think so too.”

Leah nodded.

“That’s why gathering them to teach would be good. Even if the teachers are a bit clumsy, wouldn’t it be better for the children to research and learn together?”

“You have a point.”

The two discussed various things as they continued walking.

How long to hide the children from Count Trow’s eyes, whether making a school inside the Dragon’s lair would endanger the children.

What subjects to choose and how many, whether the current four were enough for teachers, how to handle different education for magic users based on their manifested abilities.

“Are there abilities like super strength and such?”

“Of course. Even Karai, though his manifestation level is low, basically has defensive abilities.”

“Defensive ability is useful. Then Karai could teach children who develop physical magic abilities. If not, we could recruit my second brother.”

“Your brother isn’t a magic user, is he?”

“That guy’s already beyond human so it’s fine.”

She who had been chattering worried.

“But how will they attend school? We can make the school inside the lair, but if they commute from home, won’t it reach Count Trow’s ears?”

Leah sighed.

“But we can’t separate such young children from their parents either.”

“Separation would be better.”

Helix said quietly but firmly.

“They’ll manifest as mages or magic users after surviving, won’t they? They’ll only feel alienated even with their original families.”

Leah flinched slightly.

“…Really?”

“Though of course not everyone is like that.”

He added a word as if comforting her and carefully continued.

Even in the age when magic flourished, many mages were twisted, he said. There were quite a few cases of children being ostracized or abused, accused of being possessed by ghosts before realizing it was magical talent.

Leah shook her head repeatedly.

“This won’t do. We can’t save our children just to make them outcasts. We’ll have to take them in and raise them ourselves.”

“How would we raise them?”

“Since we can’t be like parents, we should think from a teacher’s perspective. Let’s make it a magic boarding school with room and board provided.”

Leah was talking like a director while saying to think from a teacher’s perspective. Helix felt a strange disconnect as he looked down at her.

“A magic boarding school… would that work?”

“Why not?”

Leah asked back.

“With enough money and proper attention, nothing’s impossible. Trust me.”

Helix pressed his forehead.

“…I can see I’ll need to supervise from the side at least.”

***

A mountain village in the north with not a single light even in the deep night.

A group of masked men appeared on the northwestern ridge of the village.

“There it is.”

A man with his mask pulled up particularly high whispered to his companions while pointing at the village. It was Scar who had escaped from the slave trader group.

“What’s this. Just a backwater village.”

The masked group assessed the village lit by moonlight. It wasn’t large in scale, and only old wooden fences surrounded it without a single watchtower. By the looks of it, there probably wasn’t even a self-defense force.

“This’ll be too easy. We just need to kill everyone, right?”

“Don’t let your guard down too much.”

Scar recalled Count Trow’s orders.

The Count ordered them to massacre the villagers who had sold children, saying to eliminate evidence of the human experiments. He didn’t forget to earnestly request making it look like the village was attacked by monsters.

“He said not to let a single one escape. To make it look like monsters did it, not people…!”

At that moment, there was suddenly a swooshing sound cutting through the air.

Scar who had been talking without noticing anything collapsed like a straw bundle. The masked group could only blink, unable to react to the sudden event.

“Ah.”

A blonde man who appeared behind Scar muttered as if regretting a mistake.

“Should I have killed him after he finished speaking?”

Blonde hair and an angelic face.

The way he casually adjusted his grip on an enormous greatsword.

The masked men froze like encountering a pack of monsters in the dead of night.

“R-Ruyan Piert!”

Someone who came to their senses shouted.

“Eek!”

“Why is Ruyan Piert in the north!”

They screamed like seeing a ghost and ran away.

However, it wasn’t just Ruyan Piert who had killed Scar with one stroke that was around. He had been moving with the prince’s subjugation force.

The fleeing men were soon caught by the knights and had to spill everything they knew, but they didn’t properly know anything.

“We don’t know who the client is, we just received advance payment! It’s common in this field… really!”

“That’s right! W-we just came to work for money from that Scar fellow!”

Prince Patrick who was watching the interrogation gave a hollow laugh.

“Your boldness in calling murder and robbery ‘work’ is impressive.”

“These fellows must be from some nasty mercenary group.”

The prince got a headache.

After wandering the Hel Mountains for days chasing monsters whose numbers were gradually decreasing. Just as fatigue was accumulating and results weren’t like before, they had planned to rest while looking around nearby villages after coming down.

‘And investigate the cause of these anomalies too.’

But to think they’d meet thugs trying to harm people while imitating monsters on their way down.