It did not take long until Lereon, Ophelia and Mika arrived at the east gate.

There, they saw a group of demons swarming the carriages and the students. Cylia and the third-years were actively fighting against them.

The three in the air quickly descended and took down the low-ranked demons instantly.

"Get inside the carriages!" Ophelia shouted while fighting off the enemies.

"..."

Mika glanced around to see if they were missing some people.

Just in time, Olivia and Sara joined them with groups of second and first-years following them.

"We have to leave now, Mika!" Ophelia stated slightly frantically.

After the last student got inside one of the many carriages they had prepared in advance, Mika and the Rostanta siblings launched one last magic attack together in order to make the demons back off and give the carriages a headstart.

Having their bodies enhanced with magic, the three then caught up with the carriages and clung themselves to the roofs.

Thus, twelve carriages with each eight people inside exited Loogam.

Some demons were still chasing after them despite having to leave Loogam behind. But those demons were either soon dealt with by Mika and his comrades or gave up after realizing that they could not do anything anymore.

Only when it was night and when there was no enemy in sight, the group decided to take a break.

They lit up a big campfire for everyone to sit around at.

"Thanks." Mika said after Sara offered him a bottle of water.

While refreshing himself, he looked at Hunters and the students they took with them.

Cylia talked with Olivia and Lereon whereas Sara and Ophelia checked on the students. The students were anxious.

They did not comprehend the situation and they did not know what would happen next as everything happened in an instant to them. Their academy was invaded by demons and while Hunters were fighting them, they guided the students to the east gate so that they could escape from there.

It was normal that they would be anxious. Some even yelled at Ophelia and Sara, aggressively begging for an explanation, however, the two remained calm.

Meanwhile, the white class led by Lily was also calm and discussed something among themselves.

"..."

When Mika got up, he automatically attracted everyone’s attention.

He headed toward the center where everyone could hear him.

"For those who don’t know me yet, let me introduce myself. I’m Mika Elbar, a former student of Loogam and current leader of the group Hunters."

That introduction alone caused a great number of gasps among the students. They started to whisper among themselves and some casually threw questions at Mika.

"You’re currently in this situation because Lucio Graymen declared war on Grat and Rostanta."

Mika continued talking, ignoring the noises around him.

"He plans to take over the world and to let it get invaded by many more demons. However, he will sacrifice almost the entirety of humanity during that process. We knew about his plan beforehand and therefore, came to Loogam under the pretext of participating at the world conference."

"Our goal was to rescue as many students as possible from there before Lucio could keep you in his hands."

"W-why only the students...? Wouldn’t it make more sense to save the citizens?" a student asked nervously.

"Of course, we thought about saving them, too, but in regard to the future battles it was wiser to get you out of there."

They were students at the academy of Loogam. It was, therefore, appropriate to say that one should not underestimate their fighting capabilities. If they had stayed in Loogam, then Lucio would have forced them to fight so Mika and the others decided to kidnap them from Loogam in order to weaken Lucio’s force.

"We will travel to Fuera first. There, you can decide what you want to do. If you want to fight with us against Lucio, then you’re free to do so. The same can be applied if you were to decide to live somewhere safe until the war ends." Mika said.

Mika was about to walk away.

"Now get some rest. We will continue traveling in two hours." he declared to the silent and scared crowd. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

And while he walked away from the center, he looked around once again.

"S-so he’s the mysterious leader of Hunters...?"

"Mika Elbar... Why do I have the feeling that I’ve heard about him somewhere...?"

"I-I saw it with my own eyes...! He’s incredibly strong!"

Once he ended his speech, the students began to converse with each other again.

"..."

His gaze was coincidentally directed at his former classmates.

They, too, were gazing at Mika nervously, anticipating a talk with him.

However, before he could head over to them, Sara tugged on his arm sleeve.

"C-can we talk for a moment...?" she asked sheepishly which was untypical of her.

The two distanced themselves from the others and talked behind the carriages.

"What do you want to talk about?"

Sara suddenly bowed her upper body.

"I’m sorry, Mika...! Because of my carelessness, one of your friends did not make it out with us!" she apologized earnestly.

"...?"

"Please, let me offer my apology as well."

Cylia appeared from behind and lowered her head together with her daughter.

"After talking with his classmates, I learned that the boy’s name was Gerard. He bravely faced a group of demons and acted as a decoy so that the group could advance to the gate." Cylia elaborated.

Mika closed his eyes as he heaved a small sigh.

"You can lift your heads. You don’t need to apologize after all, doing those things sounds like him." Mika said indifferently.

"You aren’t angry...?" Sara asked carefully.

"There’s nothing we can do about this fact now. Besides, Elsa also didn’t make it out of Loogam. We can only hope that she returns safely. And who knows, maybe the teachers and the rest of the students will be brought alongside in the best-case scenario."

"Or what do you say about sneaking into Loogam now with just us?"

It was Olivia who made that ridiculous suggestion.

"..."

Mika sternly glanced at her who, in turn, flashed her grin.

"If we move as Hunters, then it should be possible, no? None of them would expect us to ambush Loogam again, especially this late."

Sara and Cylia stared at Mika, waiting tensely for his answer.

"We won’t do that. And you know that, too." Mika replied.

If they were to move, then they would have to leave the students behind.

Of course, there were some capable individuals but the risk of something unexpected happening was still too high.

"Aside from that, I don’t know what would happen if Lucio were to confront us again."

After mentioning his name, even Olivia turned stern.

"Did you get a grasp on his ability?" she asked Mika.

"..."

Mika pondered.

"I don’t have the full picture yet but it seems to me like he has a relic that allows him to manipulate his opponent’s body based on the opponent’s current thoughts."

"What do you mean by that?" Sara asked.

"Whenever I instinctively thought about hitting him in a certain way, my body would stop. However, I have the feeling that I’m still missing something crucial..." Mika said.

"W-wait a minute... I’m trying to follow your conversation but there’s something major I want to point out..." Cylia chimed in baffledly.

"Yes?"

"You’re talking about Lucio’s mysterious ability, however, I thought that he wielded a relic that enables him to let demons enter this world...?"

"Yes, that’s right."

"T-then, does that mean that he..."

Cylia stopped midsentence as her common sense broke apart.

"Lucio wields two relics." Mika stated.

Meanwhile, Lucio was on the roof of Loogam’s academy.

"...and that’s what they’re thinking probably." Lucio stated with a grin.

Even though it was dark, Lucio was on the weakly illuminated roof as he viewed Loogam.

Behind him was a demon, bowing politely.

"Well, they’re partly right. I do wield two relics, however, I don’t think that they know about my other relic’s true ability." Lucio said, shrugging his shoulders.

"It’s not easy to figure out that I have the ability to reverse the thought of anyone who thinks about me." he added triumphantly.

It was a relic that made Lucio practically invincible.

If someone were to try to attack him, then they would stop as their thought of ’attacking him’ would turn into ’don’t attack him’.

"Anyways, how’s it looking on your side?" Lucio asked, turning his head to the back.

"..."

The demon, whose head was still facing the ground, remained unresponsive at first.

"He says that the preparations are done and that he can’t wait for them to come back." the demon said neutrally.

"Heh, having a demon with the ability to use telepathy can be quite handy." Lucio huffed amusedly and quietly.

He cleared his throat.

"I’ve already told you about the next step but I don’t think there’s anything you have to worry about." Lucio stated.

"But once your work in Grat is finished, return to Loogam, Dreyar."