"Hold onto something. I'm taking you out of here!"
"Okay!"
The children responded without hesitation.
They saw Shizue as a mother figure and would follow her unconditionally. Even if it meant crossing a battlefield or being hunted down by Englassia's soldiers later, they showed no fear.
"Hey!"
"What are you doing?!"
The nearby soldiers quickly noticed Shizue's movements.
"Stop her, now!"
"Get out of the way!!"
Shizue had no intention of being polite.
To protect the students she cherished, she unleashed the magicules within her.
In the next moment, scorching flames erupted in all directions, accompanied by a violent explosion that sent the soldiers blocking the carriage flying.
Fortunately, Shizue had exercised restraint.
Otherwise, none of them would have survived that one attack.
As it was, they only sustained injuries, none fatal.
"Hold on tight!"
She called back to the children, then cracked the reins and drove the carriage straight out of the city gates.
"Now's the time!"
"Quick, quick, quick!"
"Let's follow them too!"
The merchants waiting at the gate surged forward, seizing the opportunity Shizue had created. Chaos exploded as shouts and clamor filled the air.
Meanwhile, at a high point in the fortress city, two figures silently observed the scene.
"Was this your plan?"
"Ah."
Yuki nodded. "Simple, right?"
With that, Yuki used recording magic to transmit the scene at the city gate to a female classmate thousands of miles away.
"Now, the evidence is irrefutable."
"With how well I know Hinata, there's no way she'd stand by while Shizue gets deluded by a monster."
Yes, all of it was Yuki's doing.
The anti-teleportation barrier, the guards at the gate, the urgent push to corner Shizue and force her to break through.
Everything had been orchestrated to drive her into acting out of character.
"Hmph. Scheming against your own teacher. You really are a dangerous man."
Granbell Rosso, patriarch of the Rosso Family and former Awakened Hero who had protected the Western World for a thousand years, stood beside him.
In terms of strength, Granbell, the Hero of Light, was above Yuki.
Though neither had acquired their Ultimate Skills yet, Granbell's thousand years of combat experience made the difference clear.
Of course, the two weren't enemies—at least, not for now.
"Shizue-sensei!"
On the other side, Hinata Sakaguchi was leading several thousand Holy Knights when she received Yuki's transmission.
"That bastard!!"
Hinata might be stubborn, but she wasn't a fool.
With something this big happening, Yuki not only failed to stop it, but even sat back and watched Shizue leave.
His intentions were obvious.
"He has no right to be Shizue-sensei's student!"
If he knew Shizue was being deceived, he should have taken responsibility and stopped her.
Instead, he used her, pushing her into danger to probe the changes in the Great Jura Forest.
Hinata had absolute confidence in her own strength and feared no monster.
But being led by the nose like this, being used like this, was unacceptable.
"When this is over, I'm coming to settle the score with you!"
Right now, she only hoped that Shizue and the children were unharmed.
"If Shizue-sensei suffers any harm, I won't let that scoundrel off!"
Shizue was her reverse scale.
The fact that Yuki had used her as bait was enough for Hinata to break ties with him completely.
"Damn it!"
Even so, Yuki's plan had worked.
Seeing Shizue flee through the gates, Hinata couldn't sit still.
"All troops, accelerate!"
They had to move faster.
She had to get to her teacher's side as soon as possible.
"Hmm?"
"This is…"
West of the Great Jura Forest, not far from the Sealed Cave, a figure slowly emerged.
Then a carriage shot out of a teleportation array. It was Shizue and the children, who had just escaped the Kingdom of Englassia.
"Phew... did we make it?"
Shizue brought the carriage to a halt and quickly checked on the children.
She still felt a lingering chill in her chest.
Just before leaving the fortress, she had used her Unique Skill to scan for any strong auras in the vicinity.
What she found had made her blood run cold.
There was a terrifying presence inside the city. The amount of magicules that person possessed was far greater than hers.
That was someone she could never defeat.
"Who was that?"
"Did I misread the situation?"
Shizue wondered to herself.
"Was the barrier not meant to trap me, but someone else?"
If that person had chosen to act against her, there was no way she could have escaped, not while protecting five children.
'I don't get it...'
Shizue had never been particularly good at analyzing things.
Under Yuki's layers of misdirection, she couldn't grasp his true intentions.
The only connection she could make was with the war between the Kingdom of Falmuth and the Great Jura Forest.
As for Yuki's real target being her student, Hinata, or something else entirely.
That never even crossed her mind.
"Shizu-sensei!"
"Are you okay?"
The children's concerned voices snapped her back to reality.
"I'm fine!"
She looked at their worried faces and felt warmth in her heart.
That's right. She had already escaped.
Who the other person was, what they wanted, none of it mattered anymore.
She had made it out.
"Everyone, we're safe. Come on out."
One by one, she helped the children out of the carriage.
This was inside the Great Jura Forest.
Though called a forest, this particular area had few trees.
Instead, it was a vast, open grassland, the kind the Starfang wolves once loved to roam and hunt across.
"It's definitely more relaxed here."
"The atmosphere in the Western Nations is just too oppressive."
To outsiders, the Great Jura Forest was dangerous.
But to someone like Shizue, it felt like coming home.
Even the magicules in the air felt refreshing and comforting.
(To be continued.)