Talt was doing well after the surgery.

It’d been a few days since then, and just yesterday, she managed to put Tuatha Dé’s eyes to good use and track me down even during a mock battle.

Now that she was able to control the speed that she was unable to manage until now, she had gotten stronger in one go.

From my perspective, she could even surpass Neusch in terms of close quarter combat.

It basically meant that she was invincible among those from our generation.

When we arrived in the classroom, I was engaging Neusch in idle talk when the broadcasting equipment activated.

『Year 1, Class S. Lugh, Neusch, Epona, Claudia, Talt. May the five aforementioned people come to the second visiting room within the next five minutes. This takes precedence over everything.』

All five of us?

If it had been four people, discounting Epona, it would’ve been related to supporting the hero, but if even Epona was called, then this was a different matter.

[Calling us right off the bat? Seems like quite the emergency.] (Lugh)

[I think so too. I didn’t think they would make students miss class. It can only spell bad news.] (Neusch)

I was face-to-face with Neusch, whom I’d been chatting with earlier, smiling bitterly.

It would be great if this wasn’t anything bothersome, but there was no way it could be anything but bothersome.

_______________________________________

When we went to the instructors’ staff room, there was the instructor in charge of Class S and a dignified woman dressed as a knight.

As far as I could tell from the number of medals her knight outfit was decorated with, she occupied a reasonably excellent position.

The instructor prompted us to take a seat, and once we obliged, he used a pen to mark a spot on a map on the wall and spoke.

[I’m sorry for making you miss class. I’ll get right to the point and tell you the important matter. I’ll have you kids take part in real battle. There are about 100 orcs drawing near a village 40 km west of here. The village itself isn’t of great strategic value, but orcs have the natural disposition of using human females to breed. If we let them get away with it, there’ll be twice as many orcs attacking the city of Lutoria afterwards. We have to avoid that at any cost. Which is why we’ll ambush and annihilate them all in a valley before they can raid the village. This valley, on the map. Here, the orcs will lose their numerical superiority thanks to having a cliff on both sides.] (Class S instructor)

A large-scale monster outbreak, huh. This was a possible sign of the Demon King and Demonfolks showing up, and I was also prepared for it.

However, I’d never heard of an outbreak of such a scale.

The plan itself was extremely easy to understand and made perfect sense.

The city of Lutoria was the economic center of the whole region, there was no way we could let it fall, and we couldn’t turn a blind eye on any raid to begin with.

The city’s defense was high thanks to its sturdy protective wall, but if it were placed under lockdown, that alone would cause both the distribution of goods and economy to stagnate, and the city would suffer heavy losses.

However, there were three points that needed clarification.

I slowly raised my hand.

[Lugh Tuatha Dé, you may speak.] (Class S instructor)

[Yes. I have three questions. I believe there should be a fort located ahead of the city. Does this mean that the orcs have broken through the fort virtually unscathed?] (Lugh)

[I’ll answer that. Those orcs were born at once on the inner side of the fort. And the military forces over there are currently dealing with an attack from other monsters, so they can’t lend us assistance.] (Class S instructor)

[Now, second question. We do feel proud to wield enough power to rival actual knights, but we are students. Since the early days of our enrolment, we have not received the training necessary to carry out military operations. Please tell us your reason for entrusting this task to us inexperienced students.] (Lugh)

It wasn’t like I wasn’t confident.

However, I wanted to dissipate as many ambiguities as possible. It wasn’t a matter of strength or anything else, but we didn’t have the basic knowledge required to take organized action on the battlefield.

Relying on us for that didn’t make sense.

[I understand. The reason for that is a lack of manpower. When exterminating monsters, the aristocrats who govern the invaded territories are the first to fight back, and if they can’t deal with it, they send a request to the Magic Knights. Monsters outbreak have been occurring one after another as of late, and the chivalric order doesn’t have enough people apart from those who are already tasked with defending the royal capital. So in the event that the Magic Knights cannot handle the extermination, it’s the Knight Academy’s turn to dispatch its instructors and students. However, both the teachers and senior students were already sent out, so you kids are the only ones I can ask. The reason I only called for the five of you is that in my opinion, you’re the only ones among all first-year students who could possibly engage in this mission.] (Class S instructor)

Seems like he had a high opinion of us.

Orcs, I had yet to see an actual one, but as far as I could tell from what I read about them, challenging one without possessing magic was tantamount to suicide.

If no other knights or upperclassmen were available, then I couldn’t disagree that sending out amateurs who could use magic was a better option than sending out regular people who had received military training.

[Now, third question. The enemies are orcs. Assuming that the worst could happen, it may be preferable that no women accompany us. Should we exclude Talt and Dia?] (Lugh)

[I see you’ve done your research on orcs’ natural disposition. As expected of one of our top students. But I dare to say this. There’s no problem if you’re here to protect them. That herd of orcs is so large we can’t afford to diminish the number of people at our disposal any further. Even if it’s risky, we have to strike with maximum fighting power.] (Class S instructor)

I wanted to ask if he hadn’t lost his mind.

The characteristics of orcs were a huge body close to three meters tall and a proportionate amount of power.

Also, they had their very own ecosystem.

They were a male-only race, so they impregnated females from other races.

Their fertility was exceedingly high. They would spend more than half a day having sexual intercourse, and unless something unexpected happened, the females got pregnant overnight, and the offspring were born in about three days.

…And that was exactly where laid the issue.

The secret natural disposition of the orcs was that the children inherited the strong points of their female progenitor.

So in the event that the village was attacked, not only would the number of orcs increase, but if they reproduced with humans, they might acquire the same level of intellect as humans too.

If such an orc took command of the herd, their danger level would go sky high.

And worst of all was…

[If Talt and Dia ever became their seedbed, some outrageous abominations would be created.] (Lugh)

[Don’t make me repeat myself, I understand the risk. And I’m telling you to make sure it doesn’t happen.] (Class S instructor)

Since the offspring would inherit their mother’s strengths, any orc born from a female overflowing with talent and mana would be a tremendous threat.

…And I didn’t want to bring the two of them any closer to those monstrosities ruled by their carnal desires and with that kind of disposition.

[Lugh-sama, thank you for your concern. But it will be fine. I will not lose to them.] (Talt)

[That’s right. You trained us, and besides, you’ll protect us, right?] (Dia)

They had no idea how I felt.

Sure, orcs were a slow and brainless bunch. But their strength, vitality and unfathomable resilience were alarming.

That was enough for accidents to happen.

[No matter what you’ll say, orders are absolute. You kids are the future nobles of this country, aren’t you? In that case, save this country. …In order to support you, this girl from the chivalric order and I will travel with you from here.] (Class S instructor)

[Sorry for the late introduction. My name is Rachel Burton. I’m from the first generation of the academy. I’ll be protecting you, so no need to worry.] (Rachel)

Rachel Burton, a name I’d heard before.

A student from the first generation of this academy, and the one who graduated as the top of her promotion.

Each one of us greeted her.

[I was really excited when I heard that there were so many outstanding talents who appeared this year that this was going to be the craziest generation in ten years. I can’t wait to see what you guys are made of.] (Rachel)

[I will be sure to work hard in order to meet your expectations.] (Lugh)

I stopped showing my opposition and replied to her.

No matter what reason I would give, I couldn’t refuse, so I gave up.

[With Lugh and I on the team, we’re invincible, and we even have the hero with us, so the number of orcs means nothing to us!] (Neusch)

Neusch said so, but I couldn’t completely hide my anxiety.

I didn’t say it out loud, but there was something I feared more than orcs.

And that was Epona’s outburst.

I fought her numerous times since our first mock battle.

…Epona would always get fired up and use the kind of attacks that would’ve undeniably killed anyone other than me.

Her biggest weakness was that she would immediately stop paying attention to her surroundings during those moments.

She was like that even during mock battles. I couldn’t afford to let her get twice more excited about fighting a pack of orcs than when she wasn’t fighting for real.

If that happened, then who knew what kind of horrible tragedy would occur in the aftermath of such a disaster-level power running wild?

Speaking of which, Epona was looking in my direction.

[I’ll do my best. Thanks to Lugh, I’ve grown a lot more confident lately!] (Epona)

And I refrained from saying that this was what I was afraid of.

…I should be more wary of Epona than the orcs.

[This discussion is over. We will depart in three hours. Once you’re done packing and equipping yourselves, we’ll meet with the knight’s carriage in the plaza. This is a military-led operation. Therefore, we’ll require that you wear your uniforms. Now, you may leave.] (Class S instructor)

We didn’t say anything more and merely turned our backs.

I never thought my first military mobilization would take place so early.

Once we were in the corridor, we split up to make our own preparations.

Epona was in high spirits, and Neusch was wearing his mask-like smile.

I called out to Talt and Dia who stayed behind with me.

[Girls, I’ll tell you something you absolutely have to follow in order to survive. Something I can’t tell you in front of the instructor or the people from the army. I’ll say it only once, so listen carefully.] (Lugh)

Inspired by my serious tone, they both nodded with a firm expression.

[First, never move away from me. Stay by my side and don’t chase the enemy too far. You see, chances are this’ll turn into a melee. If you take an orc’s blow from your blind spot, you’ll lose consciousness even if you strengthen yourselves with magic. Those monsters will instinctively give top priority to incapacitating females and taking them home. If only one of them takes a female away, the others will act as a wall of flesh to back him up. If that happens, there’ll be no more hope. As long as you two stay by my side, I’ll cover your blind spots and keep crushing whatever may come.] (Lugh)

[Y-Yes! I will never leave your side.] (Talt)

[Yeah, I’ll be careful too. I don’t want to be separated from you, Lugh.] (Dia)

[Second, give priority to my orders over any other. Whether it be from our instructor, or that knight Rachel, should their orders not match mine, don’t hesitate to follow mine.] (Lugh)

[It goes without saying. I am Lugh-sama’s exclusive servant after all.] (Talt)

This might’ve been unfit for a knight of this academy, but as my exclusive servant, this was the perfect reply.

[I can’t say cool lines like Talt does, but I’m also going to do just that.] (Dia)

[And finally, the greatest danger is Epona. The aftermath of Epona fighting is several times more dangerous than the orcs. Never relax your attention… or else you’ll die.] (Lugh)

As long as they kept these three promises, I could cover for them.

Just with these three rules, they should be okay.

Even so, to think they would put us to work when we just started attending school, this lack of manpower must be significant.

Were we really driven into a corner to the point that all the upperclassmen capable of fighting were dispatched?

…Or perhaps this was all an excuse to conduct a hero performance testing.

Either way, we’d do whatever we could to the best of our abilities.

Besides, I needed an opportunity to witness Epona’s full power.