By Zephyria 
Polargehen, who approached the man first, held out his hand and shook it. While they were exchanging small greetings, the children gathered in front of him. Afterwards, Polargehen turned to the children and formally introduced him.
“You all probably know him well since he’s so famous. This is Cloud Lavendy Hunter. He’s taking time out of his busy schedule to help with this training camp, so do well.”
Then, he gestured to Cloud as if to pass the baton. Cloud received the gesture, slightly raised the corners of his lips, smiled, and looked around at the children.
“I’ll formally introduce myself. Nice to meet you, everyone. My name is Cloud Lavendy. I’m an academy graduate, and currently the guild leader of the White Night Hunter Guild, and a Black Class Hunter. I’ll be with you throughout the training camp, so please take care of me.”
His gaze, which had been sweeping over the crowd, suddenly stopped on me. He stared at me for a long time after our eyes met, then put an even deeper smile on his face.
I frowned at the meaningful reaction.
As soon as Cloud’s introduction was over, Polargehen, who received the word again, briefly informed the children of the upcoming schedule.
“The full-scale training will start tomorrow. Today is rest. Free time. So, use this time to explore the area and the villa while familiarizing yourselves with the terrain.”
…Familiarize yourselves with the terrain….
I felt that the important thing was the words that followed, but the children seemed to only have the words ‘free time’ stuck in their ears.
As soon as he finished speaking, the children screamed incomprehensible sounds like unleashed madmen and ran into the villa. The more docile children were busy chatting and looking around.
Polargehen shook his head at the sight of the children as if they were on a picnic, but did not give any further advice or hints.
Cloud, who turned around to follow Polargehen who was moving first, also glanced at me one last time before leaving.
I felt like I was being watched, which made me uneasy. Does he have some ulterior motive? While I was looking in the direction Cloud had left with such suspicion, Tom, who was urging me to go inside the villa, moved first, and Zeon, who was following behind him, turned to me.
“Raymond!”
Anyway. Looking at his excited face, it was clear that Zeon was no different from the other children. I let out a laugh like a sigh and followed Zeon, who was leading the way.
And Ardian filled the empty spot left by Zeon, who had gone ahead, and joined us.
“Wow!”
I looked around the villa’s hall, listening to Tom’s exclamation.
The inside of the villa is very spacious. It seemed to have been built quite a while ago, and the faded feeling added to its antique beauty, and a huge chandelier decorated with crystals hung motionless above the high ceiling.
Tom, who had scurried up the stairs first, turned to the group still lingering below and said.
“Guys! There are so many rooms upstairs! Come on up!”
He looked just like a plump squirrel excitedly scampering around, so I was quietly watching him when Herman, scolding him for almost falling, slowly climbed the stairs. By the time I followed and climbed the stairs, Tom was satisfying his heightened curiosity by peeking here and there.
“It looks like they’re all individual rooms! There are so many that each of us can take one, and the rooms are big too! I guess we can each take one room, right?”
Tom said in a very excited voice.
That was quite welcome news to me too.
I hadn’t received any instructions from the professor yet, so I didn’t know for sure, but if we were given individual rooms, I would be happy because I could also escape from the interference and gazes of others.
I was thinking that when.
“That’s a shame.”
Ardian, who had been sticking to me like gum, suddenly muttered that. I glanced at him, wondering what was a shame. As if noticing my gaze, he turned around just in time, folding his eyes into crescents as he said.
“I was going to share a room with you if it was a double room.”
It was nonsense again.
I never gave him permission to do so.
I snorted quietly and moved first. I wanted to see what the inside of the room looked like.
Not long after, Polargehen reappeared and told the children remaining in the villa in advance. As expected, we would be assigned individual rooms, so we could each take the room we wanted.
We were all busy choosing our rooms until lunchtime. After choosing our rooms and eating lunch, we finally had some free time, so I went straight out of the villa. I wanted to explore the surrounding area as Polargehen had said.
‘He wouldn’t have said that without any meaning.’
It must be related to the upcoming training camp.
I couldn’t allow my pride to be hurt by being caught off guard, so I was going to actively participate.
‘First… I need to go up to a high place.’
That way, I could see the surroundings at a glance.
I moved aimlessly in the direction my heart led me.
Since there was a protective Barrier around this area anyway, the range I could roam was limited, so even if I wandered around a bit boldly, there was little chance of getting lost.
Leaving the villa’s front yard and entering the forest, a sloping mountain path appeared. Following that path, I could see the summit in just a few hours. The view of the huge villa from there was quite spectacular.
‘There doesn’t seem to be anything special around here.’
All there is are rocks and sparse clumps of grass. I didn’t delay and started moving to another place.
Since I was planning to familiarize myself with the surrounding roads while walking around anyway, there was no reason to stay in one place for long.
I don’t know how many more hours I wandered around like that.
I had become familiar with the surrounding terrain to some extent, so I started looking around in every nook and cranny… when I suddenly noticed something like a hole hidden among the bushes and stopped in front of it.
I stared at it for a while, then cleared away the bushes and checked.
Beyond the bushes was a cave large enough for two or three people to enter.
A secret and deep cave pierced in a slightly high rock…. It might be a naturally formed cave, but I was drawn to it for some reason, so I approached and examined it.
And I discovered something foreign there.
‘This is.’
I crouched down on one knee and examined the floor in detail. There was something drawn like a picture on the floor at the entrance of the cave.
It was none other than a Magic Circle.
Why does a Magic Circle exist in a place like this? No matter how I think about it, it’s not ordinary. It seems like someone drew it ‘on purpose’.
After examining it for a while, I interpreted the structure of the Magic Circle.
From what I can see, it seems to be a Magic Circle that activates when Mana is injected, and it has a Formula structure similar to Reflecting Dry Tower, which is one of the Barrier or defense Magic, and it seems to be a conditional one that is completed only when three or more people activate it simultaneously.
‘Hmm….’
I don’t know why something like this is here.
I want to try activating it once, but it’s a conditional Magic, so it’s impossible alone. After hesitating, I stood up. If it’s related to this training camp, Polargehen will give me some hints, so it wouldn’t be too late to come back then.
‘I should go back now.’
The sun is already setting. If it gets any darker, my vision will worsen, and even if I know the way, I could get lost or have an accident, so it was right to return to the villa.
After that, I came down to the villa by the shortcut without delay, and the sun had completely set, and a bright moon was rising in the dark night sky. I stood in front of the villa and looked up at the sky for a moment.
“……”
Perhaps because this place is quite high, the sky was much clearer than the sky I see in other places… and the vivid stars were twinkling like sugar sprinkled on a black background.
‘It’s pretty.’
I was lost in such admiration when.
“I really met you ‘again’.”
I didn’t feel any presence at all, but suddenly I heard a voice from behind. I turned halfway around and stood there.
There was a man walking out of the villa with his long legs.
It was Cloud Lavendy. His amber eyes, lit by the moonlight, were emitting a mysterious light that could be seen even from afar.
“Student Raymond.”
With a somewhat playful tone…. I glanced at Cloud, who had come next to me, and narrowed my eyes.
“You were a Black Class Hunter.”
“Oh, I thought you knew. You didn’t?”
Cloud chuckled slyly, glanced down at me, and continued, looking back at the sky.
“Did you find what you were looking for ‘then’?”
“……”
“Hmm, I guess you didn’t find it? What a pity.”
I frowned.
I don’t know what his intention is in bringing up that matter again. Did he come to irritate me? I couldn’t find a reason to respond, so I was about to ignore him when.
Suddenly, a hand that wrapped around my chin turned my face to look at him.
I frowned, wondering what he was doing, and he looked down at me with eyes full of interest and examined me.
“But… do you really use Black Mana?”
“Let go.”
“I’m curious. Will you show me once?”
When I responded to his persistent question with silence, Cloud narrowed his eyes a little more, brought his face closer to mine, and lightly touched my lips with his fingertip.
“Your lips are prettier than I thought. Makes me want to taste them.”
It was a prank that was hard to listen to.
I slapped his hand away. The hand that had been holding me lightly fell away. Cloud chuckled, finding something funny.
“Anyway, I’m going to bed. Student Raymond, don’t stay up too late either. A tough training will start tomorrow morning, so you should sleep well if you don’t want to collapse, right?”
Cloud, who had turned around, waved his hand.
It was unnecessary interference.
Was that all he came out here to say?
I just stared at his footprints as he returned to the villa and didn’t follow him. I was going to go in soon anyway, but I felt like my pride was hurt if I followed him.
I stood there for a while longer for no reason, looking at the sky, and then returned to my room when I thought I wouldn’t run into him.
And so, a quiet dawn was just passing….
A serene early morning.
‘That’ suddenly began.