Extra's Guide to Surviving a Dark Fantasy World-Chapter 79: Entering the Academy

Everyone gasped, watching with wide eyes as my lifeless body lay splattered on the ground. Aria widened her eyes in shock, and Seylith narrowed his eyes, not trying to hide the mysterious smile on his face.

The upper half of my body was separated from my torso, lying in my own pool of blood; overall, it was a very gruesome scene.

To them, at least, from my point of view, everything felt a little different.

I knew it.

I tried to speak but failed to move my mouth, instead being forced to watch the carnage around me. The defenses on my uniform had activated the instant it had come in contact with that monster, encasing me in a defensive golden cocoon.

It was quite a shame that it had taken me so long to realize this. I looked at the sight of a panicking Aria lunging towards the beast, trying to make an opening for the mages behind her.

In hindsight, it had been pretty obvious. Just why would the Sacred Vanguard Academy, one of the strongest and most influential academies that catered to the children of the world’s elites, put their lives in danger?

Then there were fake corpses, trying their best to look as gory as possible.

Not to mention, everyone on the battlefield had been acting a little weird ever since that second wave of Glyms had shown up. Soren revealing his salhira, Aria visibly panicking something she always tried to hide in the book, managing to show a calm face even in all the situations we had experienced in the Wastes. And me, taking charge in a battle that I had sworn to not stand out in.

It was almost like we were being played with, manipulated, forced to reveal our true selves in front of the academy to show them how we would really react in a combat situation.

Worse yet, no one seemed to notice these oddities at all. Even someone as sharp as Aria didn’t seem to have figured anything out.

Even I had taken a large amount of time to see those things, and the only reason I had been able to figure it out was because of how well I knew these characters, and I had finally remembered Mia Rhyden, the headmistress of Sacred Vanguard Academy, and one of the strongest mind mage in the human domain.

All this time, she was manipulating our heads to subtly influence us into showing her our true selves while showing us the true terrors of war.

This test of determining and separating leaders from followers went a lot deeper. They were probably watching our battle right now, making a psychological profile of every single student present on the battlefield.

This was also the reason why I had acted like a spoiled Buffon in my last moments. If this had gone the normal way, then my previous performance might have led me to be thrown at the top of the class, putting me under Seylith’s radar.

That stunt, however, with me calling my classmates out while insinuating that I was only able to perform so well due to those mana-rich pills, should be able to clear some of the heat from my head.

Speaking of Seylith. I looked forward, seeing his figure standing in front of the wounded students, with his sword of light raised high up in the air, making sure to protect his classmates even if it cost him his life.

Wonder when this bastard figured it out.

I knew Seylith Serenth’s character too well to know that he would have been the first to sacrifice his classmates in a real situation.

Yet here he was, standing heroically in front of them, refusing to back down. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

This could mean only one thing. This guy had figured out the reality of our situation as well, and just like me, he was also using it to his advantage by painting himself off as this fearless leader in front of the academy staff.

Bastard. I mentally cursed while looking at his figure. There was a reason why I wanted to stay away from this guy for the time being. My sister, Ashe, was perhaps one of the craziest and one of the most dangerous people I had ever met, yet even she wasn’t able to completely defeat this guy.

If I was right about this, then he should sacrifice himself for others just before they reach the academy.

And that’s exactly what happened, the group continued moving forward, fighting and running. And just at the last moment, Seylith offered himself as a distraction, allowing the rest of the students to escape inside.

As for me, I could only mentally shake my head in derision, watching it happen in front of my eyes.

The defensive magic encasing our bodies also began to flicker the moment the main group stepped inside the academy gates. At the same time, the Glyms surrounding the area began to retreat, returning into the fog.

Once they had left, the light surrounding us disappeared, completely dissolving the illusion and releasing us from paralysis.

"All students present in the field, please make their way towards the academy grounds as soon as possible." An announcement rang throughout the forest as the formerly dead students slowly began getting up from the ground. I followed their lead as well, slowly integrating myself with the crowd.

Everyone around me was confused, some a little bit ashamed, so I, too, made sure to follow the sentiment, putting on a bewildered expression while slowly walking toward the academy, yet the closer we moved, the better we realized.

The gates we were running towards didn’t belong to the academy at all. Behind the thick foliage of trees stood tall walls, hiding behind a gigantic fortified city at the foot of the mountain, no different from those in the alliance.

With our mouths agape in awe, we slowly walked past the gates to the city, walking inside a large compound surrounded by soldiers. Everyone from the main group was already present there, with an army of healer surrounding them, tending to their wounds.

At the head of the crowd stood our headmistress, Mia Rhyden, smiling while surrounded by a group of other teachers.