Talt was doing well after the surgery.
It’d been a few days since then, and just yesterday, she managed to put Tuatha Dé’s eyes to good use and track me down even during a mock battle.
Now that she was able to control the speed that she was unable to manage until now, she had gotten stronger in one go.
From my perspective, she could even surpass Neusch in terms of close quarter combat.
It basically meant that she was invincible among those from our generation.
When we arrived in the classroom, I was engaging Neusch in idle talk when the broadcasting equipment activated.
『Year 1, Class S. Lugh, Neusch, Epona, Claudia, Talt. May the five aforementioned people come to the second visiting room within the next five minutes. This takes precedence over everything.』
All five of us?
If it had been four people, discounting Epona, it would’ve been related to supporting the hero, but if even Epona was called, then this was a different matter.
[Calling us right off the bat? Seems like quite the emergency.] (Lugh)
[I think so too. I didn’t think they would make students miss class. It can only spell bad news.] (Neusch)
I was face-to-face with Neusch, whom I’d been chatting with earlier, smiling bitterly.
It would be great if this wasn’t anything bothersome, but there was no way it could be anything but bothersome.
_______________________________________
When we went to the instructors’ staff room, there was the instructor in charge of Class S and a dignified woman dressed as a knight.
As far as I could tell from the number of medals her knight outfit was decorated with, she occupied a reasonably excellent position.
The instructor prompted us to take a seat, and once we obliged, he used a pen to mark a spot on a map on the wall and spoke.
[I’m sorry for making you miss class. I’ll get right to the point and tell you the important matter. I’ll have you kids take part in real battle. There are about 100 orcs drawing near a village 40 km west of here. The village itself isn’t of great strategic value, but orcs have the natural disposition of using human females to breed. If we let them get away with it, there’ll be twice as many orcs attacking the city of Lutoria afterwards. We have to avoid that at any cost. Which is why we’ll ambush and annihilate them all in a valley before they can raid the village. This valley, on the map. Here, the orcs will lose their numerical superiority thanks to having a cliff on both sides.] (Class S instructor)
A large-scale monster outbreak, huh. This was a possible sign of the Demon King and Demonfolks showing up, and I was also prepared for it.
However, I’d never heard of an outbreak of such a scale.
The plan itself was extremely easy to understand and made perfect sense.
The city of Lutoria was the economic center of the whole region, there was no way we could let it fall, and we couldn’t turn a blind eye on any raid to begin with.
The city’s defense was high thanks to its sturdy protective wall, but if it were placed under lockdown, that alone would cause both the distribution of goods and economy to stagnate, and the city would suffer heavy losses.
However, there were three points that needed clarification.
I slowly raised my hand.
[Lugh Tuatha Dé, you may speak.] (Class S instructor)
[Yes. I have three questions. I believe there should be a fort located ahead of the city. Does this mean that the orcs have broken through the fort virtually unscathed?] (Lugh)
[I’ll answer that. Those orcs were born at once on the inner side of the fort. And the military forces over there are currently dealing with an attack from other monsters, so they can’t lend us assistance.] (Class S instructor)
[Now, second question. We do feel proud to wield enough power to rival actual knights, but we are students. Since the early days of our enrolment, we have not received the training necessary to carry out military operations. Please tell us your reason for entrusting this task to us inexperienced students.] (Lugh)
It wasn’t like I wasn’t confident.
However, I wanted to dissipate as many ambiguities as possible. It wasn’t a matter of strength or anything else, but we didn’t have the basic knowledge required to take organized action on the battlefield.
Relying on us for that didn’t make sense.
[I understand. The reason for that is a lack of manpower. When exterminating monsters, the aristocrats who govern the invaded territories are the first to fight back, and if they can’t deal with it, they send a request to the Magic Knights. Monsters outbreak have been occurring one after another as of late, and the chivalric order doesn’t have enough people apart from those who are already tasked with defending the royal capital. So in the event that the Magic Knights cannot handle the extermination, it’s the Knight Academy’s turn to dispatch its instructors and students. However, both the teachers and senior students were already sent out, so you kids are the only ones I can ask. The reason I only called for the five of you is that in my opinion, you’re the only ones among all first-year students who could possibly engage in this mission.] (Class S instructor)
Seems like he had a high opinion of us.
Orcs, I had yet to see an actual one, but as far as I could tell from what I read about them, challenging one without possessing magic was tantamount to suicide.
If no other knights or upperclassmen were available, then I couldn’t disagree that sending out amateurs who could use magic was a better option than sending out regular people who had received military training.
[Now, third question. The enemies are orcs. Assuming that the worst could happen, it may be preferable that no women accompany us. Should we exclude Talt and Dia?] (Lugh)
[I see you’ve done your research on orcs’ natural disposition. As expected of one of our top students. But I dare to say this. There’s no problem if you’re here to protect them. That herd of orcs is so large we can’t afford to diminish the number of people at our disposal any further. Even if it’s risky, we have to strike with maximum fighting power.] (Class S instructor)
I wanted to ask if he hadn’t lost his mind.
The characteristics of orcs were a huge body close to three meters tall and a proportionate amount of power.
Also, they had their very own ecosystem.
They were a male-only race, so they impregnated females from other races.
Their fertility was exceedingly high. They would spend more than half a day having sexual intercourse, and unless something unexpected happened, the females got pregnant overnight, and the offspring were born in about three days.
…And that was exactly where laid the issue.
The secret natural disposition of the orcs was that the children inherited the strong points of their female progenitor.
So in the event that the village was attacked, not only would the number of orcs increase, but if they reproduced with humans, they might acquire the same level of intellect as humans too.
If such an orc took command of the herd, their danger level would go sky high.
And worst of all was…
[If Talt and Dia ever became their seedbed, some outrageous abominations would be created.] (Lugh)
[Don’t make me repeat myself, I understand the risk. And I’m telling you to make sure it doesn’t happen.] (Class S instructor)
Since the offspring would inherit their mother’s strengths, any orc born from a female overflowing with talent and mana would be a tremendous threat.
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