Aaargh!

The child was trembling, covering their eyes with their hands, but the werewolves couldn’t care less about the child’s condition.

Erin immediately drew the dagger from her waist and threw it. Her dagger pierced straight through a werewolf’s hand.

“Urgh—”

From now on, it was crucial to finish this quickly. Erin and Ferdin’s eyes met.

She nodded and sprang forward. Ferdin immediately followed her.

“Who’s there!”

“Intruders!”

The werewolves who spotted Erin and Ferdin shouted.

Erin struck the head of the first one who shouted with the back of her sword. With the tremendous power infused with mana, one werewolf instantly lost consciousness.

Ferdin also succeeded in quickly taking down one with a surprise attack.

Neither of them had planned this thoroughly. Saving the suffering child before them was the priority.

At that moment, one werewolf quickly lunged at Erin’s side with its long claws.

Just as she raised her sword to block the attack, Ferdin moved first, cutting off the arm of the werewolf charging at her.

In coordination, Erin kicked the werewolf in the stomach.

Hit by her mana-infused leg, the werewolf flew back and instantly became incapacitated. It probably wouldn’t be able to move easily for quite some time.

Ferdin’s eyes lit up seeing this. The same was true for Erin.

‘At this rate… I might be able to escape without fully revealing my abilities…’

Though the challenge of rescuing the refugees remained, she thought it might be relatively easy to rescue Amon and Lilia.

Perhaps after rescuing them, she could return to the werewolf territory alone to save the refugees?

That way, her abilities wouldn’t be questioned.

Erin felt hopeful thinking this.

She wanted to enjoy her peaceful academy life a little longer.

If her identity as a Sword Master became known, she wouldn’t be able to continue this life.

In an instant, ten werewolves were incapacitated.

Ferdin approached her with a surprised face and spoke.

“…Your skills are remarkable, Lady Erin.”

Though Ferdin was in the advanced class while Erin was in the beginner class, he could tell that her skills far surpassed his own.

She didn’t belong in the beginner class. Even two high-ranking knights couldn’t subdue ten werewolves this quickly.

They would have taken more time and likely been chased by reinforcement werewolves.

Ferdin recalled a conversation he had with Count Asili recently.

“I thought there weren’t any… promising talents worth watching these days, but I saw one useful kid.”

At the time, Ferdin thought Asili was praising Amon. Though lazy, Amon certainly possessed outstanding talent.

Still, he was surprised that Count Asili would praise him.

After all, Asili was notoriously stingy with compliments, even to the members of the First Knight Order, which consisted of incredibly skilled individuals.

So for him, calling someone a “useful kid” was tremendous praise.

But now it suddenly occurred to him that the person Asili mentioned might have been Erin.

And that was… certainly strange.

That Erin would be stronger than him and Amon, who had trained for over a decade.

“No, I think our coordination was just better than expected…”

“We did coordinate well.”

Though a small doubt arose, now wasn’t the time to think deeply about it.

He hurried to the collapsed child and frowned at the wounds, which were more serious than he’d thought.

Ferdin lowered himself to meet the child’s eyes.

At that moment, the child’s memories flashed in his mind.

“What is this? How is this possible?”

“Isn’t that a monster?”

“Get lost, you monster!”

People murmuring as they watched the child use magic. A child branded a monster and abandoned.

The boy wandered aimlessly until he mixed in with refugees on an evacuation route, only to be captured by werewolves.

After his identity as a mage was discovered, the child endured unspeakable cruelties…

Ferdin clutched his head. Reading others’ memories was more difficult than he’d imagined.

Regardless of his will, his ability would imprint others’ memories into his mind, regardless of time or place.

And the more terrible the memory, the more exhausted Ferdin became.

Gritting his teeth, he carefully lifted the child.

The child seemed too weak to respond to anyone, merely glancing at Ferdin before curling up.

He desperately tried to hide himself, covering his face with his withered arms.

It was an experience that would terrify even ordinary adults. Even without that, it was natural for a child in this situation to panic.

With a grim expression, Ferdin whispered to the child, “We won’t hurt you.”

At those kind words, the child in his arms was visibly shocked.

Ferdin patted the child’s back to help him calm down a little.

But there was no time. They needed to escape quickly. As long as this child was a mage, the werewolves would never give up.

And if he were taken hostage with the child, the werewolves would demand more mages.

The child buried his head in Ferdin’s chest without saying a word. He seemed unable to speak due to the severe shock.

“Lady Erin, I want to rescue Amon and Lilia and return. Is that alright?”

They needed to rescue Lilia immediately since, as a mage, she might face unknown horrors, but they lacked the resources to save all the refugees.

Thinking that the werewolves might do the same to Lilia, Ferdin grew anxious.

“The problem is that we don’t know where they are…”

“I know.”

“…?”

“I can sense Amon’s mana.”

How? Ferdin was about to ask in bewilderment.

He’d heard that Sword Masters could locate their companions even across wide distances.

But that was literally superhuman—not something an ordinary beginner-class knight-in-training could do.

However, the way Erin had handled the werewolves so far wasn’t ordinary either.

Just as Ferdin was about to ask Erin how she did it, a battle cry rang out.

“Intruders!”

Erin grabbed Ferdin’s arm and led him. She concentrated, trying to locate Amon’s mana.

She sensed his presence not far away. He seemed to be confined in something like an underground prison.

‘Around twenty werewolves nearby…’

Not bad.

With that thought, Erin gripped her sword and started running forward.

Ferdin ran after her with the child secured in one arm. Behind them, werewolves gave chase.

Some werewolves appeared in front of them too, but Erin defeated them at a speed that amazed Ferdin.

They soon arrived at the underground prison. Thanks to Erin’s remarkable detection ability, they reached the prison very quickly.

Seeing this, Ferdin thought they might be able to return to the academy with Amon and Lilia without major casualties.

However, twenty werewolves guarded the entrance to the underground prison.

‘This might be too much after all.’

He thought this as he glared at them.

He had expected guards, but not so many.

Then again, they had encountered surprisingly few werewolves on their way here. It seemed their luck had run out.

Ferdin thought this as he looked at Erin.

He was about to tell her that she had done well to come this far, but advancing further was impossible, and she should escape with the child.

But in Ferdin’s eyes, Erin looked like she had made a decision.

She said to him:

“Let’s break through, Lord Ferdin.”

“Lady Erin, it’s impossible for the two of us to face twenty werewolves.”

Erin shook her head and spoke.

“I’m… actually much stronger than you imagine. Please trust me.”

Erin thought it would be understandable if Ferdin didn’t believe her.

If she had said this to someone else, they would have thought she was crazy.

Even she thought it unrealistic for two academy students with little practical experience to defeat twenty werewolves.

She was considering whether to reveal herself as a Sword Master by surrounding her body with mana if he didn’t trust her.

Making her concern pointless, Ferdin, who had been looking at Erin and thinking about something, nodded.

“I trust you.”

“What?”

“I trust you, Lady Erin.”

At Ferdin’s words, Erin froze.