The monster swung its giant axe, striking the ground causing it to crack open as it travelled towards the students. All were able to easily dodge it, but the school building wasn't.
"Ms. Faelan!" A student called her. "This won't end well if we just let the monster continue to do this!"
"We have to act!"
The monster kept swinging and swinging as the students kept dodging, waiting for their teacher to make the call.
She was in deep thought, pondering on the consequences of attacking it while the treaty is still active.
"I have an idea." Nyla said to her.
"Hmm?"
"The monster attacked us first. We only acted in self defense."
"Heh. Your master taught you well."
"Don't give yourself credit for what I said."
Now catching the attention of all the students, "Listen up everyone, Our fellow student here has volunteered to get rid of the monster for us. Why don't we let her take care of it."
Nyla didn't seem like she liked that, but she wasn't upset either.
Everyone one else was curious. Now that they knew she wasn't a bad person, meaning she didn't cheat in the entrance test, they wanted to know just how powerful she is.
"Give it your all." Faelan told her with a supportive smile on her face. Now that made her upset.
They cleared the area, leaving only Nyla and the monster, who surprisingly just stood there and waited.
A minotaur is an A class monster, ordinarily. That means that it wouldn't pose much of a threat to the students of Class-1, who are mostly A class and higher.
She could easily take it down without even having to move her feet—but judging by how Faelan looked when telling her to take care of it, she thought that she has to put on a show.
She took a stance and threw her spear to the monster, which blocked it with its giant axe, shifting its body to a different side. Once the spear broke the axe, it tore through its shoulder, rendering one arm useless.
She leaped to its head and landed a blow—breaking its jaw and bringing it to its knees.
She turned to kick it's body, when her leg was caught and flung into the nearby trees, breaking them from the force with which she was thrown.
That made her visibly angry and deciding not to entertain anyone any more, she stopped holding back.
She called the spear to her hand and effortlessly decapitated the monster, ending the whole charade. She did it so fast that barely anyone could see her movements.
While others praised her, their teacher noticed another girl in that class watching with a doubtful look. She took an interest in her.
that same evening, in a building next to the dormitory area, a party was being held by the students. Not many had attended.
Their teacher was in an office writing a letter when someone knocked at her door.
"Enter."
That girl from earlier. "You called?"
"I thought it'd take you longer to come here. Were you not at the party?"
"It's only for the other worlders and anyone else who wants to go. I thought it'd be good to give them some time alone instead." She had a confident air around her.
"Understandable. I called you to discuss about something. You have an appraisal skill, correct?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Then you must've noticed what was wrong with that monster."
"...I'm sure I wasn't the only one."
"And you're right. I noticed that Haizea also realized it too—but I don't want to interrupt her in their celebration."
"Makes sense, since I'm not one of them."
"What is you're diagnosis, Ms. Wendi?"
"...Miasma." That caught the teacher by surprise.
"Explain."
There is only one known source of miasma in the continent, the corpse of the Monarch Beast that was defeated by the hero, Faelan, or their teacher.
It's a form of mana that manifests when there's too much of it. And when mixed with natural mana, monsters form.
It is the mana that most monsters use, and that Minotaur was full of it.
"Likely to hide the other force at work."
"Which is..."
"Control magic. The kind that only demons could use."
The teacher smirked, finished writing her letter, then stood next to her window.
"Summoning magic: Red Crow."
The bird flew to the window.
"And that is..."
"A messenger type bird. Please refrain from asking too many questions." She said while tying the letter to it's leg.
The letter got absorbed into its body.
"Understood."
"Did that thing just talk?!"
"What did I say?"
When it flew away, it disappeared into thin air leaving only a bunch of feathers.
"Is that all you want to talk about."
"Well..."
"Hmm?"
"You looked lonely."
"I'll be off then."
"Wait. Please refrain from telling others what you saw today. We still don't know how that monster got here. There could be an imposter amongst us."
"Very well."
Meanwhile, in the party—
Other students were catching up with one another. Even those in the other class were present at the party.
They gave each other stories, ate, and drank—juice, that is.
"Wait! There's no way!"
"You're Ms. Saori?!"
There was another girl amongst them. They surrounded her with curiosity after hearing the news spread in the party.
Their former homeroom teacher.
"Uhh. How about we calm down fast."
"Wow, you're a kid again."
"Shut the hell up!"
"Even an adult came back as a kid"
"Ms. Saori!" "Ms. Saori!"
The place had gotten too loud. Nyla had to step out because of being too annoyed.
She went to the balcony where she got to enjoy the view of the night sky.
Ever since she got this world, she always enjoyed looking at the stars because of how many there were.
Even the constellations were different. Barely any darkness was visible.
And then there were the two moons.
"Akari..."
Haizea shyly called her from behind.
"It's Nyla now."
"R-right. Sorry."
She joined her, and for a moment, there was an awkward silence.
"Two moons, huh." Haizea tried to strike a conversation. "We really are in another world."
She started getting sad when it took Nyla too long to respond.
"The big one. Do you know, what happened to it?"
"You mean...that hole on the side? I thought it was always like that."
"15 years ago. It happened 15 years ago. They say that Nerezza Vingar was the one that did it."
"Huh? That shouldn't be possible."
"What do you mean?"
"You're saying that you've never noticed?"
"Huh?"
She looked genuinely surprised.
"Hang on. I have a small affinity for fire magic."
She mixed wind and fire, then directed it to the sky.
Her instruction was clear. "Follow the projectile."
Its altitude kept increasing as it rose higher and higher. Nothing was happening, yet she kept insisting on watching closely.
The projectile suddenly came into contact with something, something invisible, and it stopped it from going any higher.
Nyla was absolutely shocked, inquiring what that was. But Haizea didn't know.
According to her, she was doing some tests at night when she learnt how to use magic. One time she got curious after realizing that a magic projectile could go for a pretty long distance if nothing touched it. *She had a target across a lake which she missed.*
At that exact moment, the same bird that had been terrorizing farm animals flew above her head. The rest doesn't need an explanation.
"I don't know. It feels like you missed out on some parts."
"The point is, it looks like there's some kind of invisible wall in the sky, and nothing can go through it, maybe. So how did he do so much damage to the moon?"
"I'm not actually sure, its what they say in the kingdom of Aetheria. The one that was attacked by monsters 15 years ago."
Once she mentioned monsters, she remembered what happened earlier that day, with that monster that attacked earlier. She knew that the monsters would never stop attacking humans. To her, it was always an act.
Also, how could it have gotten so close to the school? She wanted to ask Faelan that question the next day.
"Hey." Haizea called her. "Why are you ignoring me?"
After the monster was defeated, Nyla kept trying to avoid eye contact with her for the rest of the day. Even when she was approached, she pretended not to notice her.
"That's, not it. I just, couldn't find the right words to say. I'm sorry."
*Whimpering*"You're mean. Do you know how much I wanted to see you. There's so many things I have to say, yet you don't know what to say to me? You're mean."
"I'm sorry. I just—"
"Enough with that act!" Their attention was drawn to the noise.
"We know what you did!" One guy was yelling Riku while others watched.
"How dumb do you think we are?! This all happened because of you!" Another joined in.
"W-what are you talking about? I don't understand. Weren't we friends?"
"That should be my question!"
Akari and Fumiko, or Nyla and Haizea, watched this with unperturbed faces.
"It was your fault you piece of shit!"
"What are you—"
"Stop playing dumb! You're the reason, WHY WE ALL DIED!!"