EWH Chapter 144

When they looked up, they saw a flock of harpies freely gliding through the sky, having arrived unnoticed. For these winged creatures, such a fall meant nothing.

Suddenly, several harpies approached them.

“Want help? Shall we help?”

The group made subtle expressions hearing the harpies’ words, unable to read their intentions.

“…Why?”

Ramiya asked suspiciously. It was unsettling to see these creatures that had been trying to either kill or torment them suddenly acting this way. The harpies cackled in response.

“Won’t eat you, not now!”

“Sorry about before?”

“They told us to say that!”

“Right!”

“That’s right!”

Did they realize that each word only raised more suspicion? But in reality, the group had no right of refusal. Harpies surrounded them in every direction, and this wasn’t even level ground but the sky—their home turf. If it came to a fight, they had no chance of winning.

Moreover, the harpies didn’t even wait for them to consider. Whether they refused or not, as if following some command, the harpies simply did what they came to do. They suddenly grabbed each person and tossed them into the air. Someone screamed again—probably Ali.

They squeezed their eyes shut, thinking they would fall to the ground. After feeling a moment of dizzying weightlessness, they opened their eyes to find themselves on the harpies’ backs.

The harpies carrying them silently flapped their wings. Breaking away from the flock, they cut through the wind swiftly, heading toward a hill along the path from the Forest of Trials to the academy.

Their method of dropping them off was as arbitrary as their way of carrying them.

“This isn’t right!”

“Ahhh!”

The harpies suddenly flipped over without warning, causing their distracted passengers to fall to the ground.

With a thud, they landed on the hill, each groaning as they struggled to get up. Fortunately, they hadn’t fallen from too high, so they were only slightly bruised and sore.

“We go!”

“Bye!”

“We’ll eat you next time we meet!”

“We will!”

“Hahaha!”

They spoke playfully as if their task was done. Flapping their enormous wings, they soared up to join their waiting flock high above before flying away somewhere. With their dungeon home destroyed, they seemed to be leaving to find new territory.

“Wow, I don’t even know what’s what anymore… I’m lost.”

Ramiya lay sprawled on the hill, muttering in bewilderment as she watched them disappear.

***

When they returned to the academy with their exhausted bodies, the place was almost unnaturally peaceful, as if it were a different world. Feeling this tranquility, it seemed like the floating island’s crash and devastation of the Forest of Trials area had never happened.

The stable hands leisurely tending to carriages and students chattering while crossing the courtyard all wore relaxed, peaceful expressions. Puzzled by this reaction, they turned to look back. Then they understood why everything was so peaceful.

The Forest of Trials, viewed from the academy, was miraculously intact.

There was no trace of the pale dust cloud they had just passed through, no trees crushed by falling debris, and no sign of the impossibly huge demon that defied common sense. It was just the Forest of Trials they had always known.

“Feels like it was all a dream…”

They almost wondered if they had all shared the same dream. But that couldn’t be. Everything had been too vivid—it couldn’t have been a dream. If so, there was only one possible answer.

“The professor?”

“Must be…”

In the end, only Melchiel in this academy could accomplish something like this. Probably no one else except dragons could do this, even if they searched elsewhere.

The other four besides Nathan had many questions they wanted to ask Melchiel. But they couldn’t go to him right away. Seeing the impossibly peaceful academy, their accumulated fatigue suddenly hit them like a wave, as if their tension had finally released.

“No more! I’m dying…!”

Ali complained of exhaustion while clinging to Azar’s back. Seemingly used to this, Azar walked slowly with Ali hanging on him and said:

“Let’s rest first and think later. No rush to meet the professor… right?”

“Agreed…”

Ramiya nodded weakly. Everyone shared the same desire to collapse and sleep right there. They figured it wouldn’t be too late to find Melchiel after resting.

But given their disheveled state, they couldn’t enter through the academy’s main gate proudly. Like thieves, they moved quietly toward the dormitory, trying to avoid being seen. At least, that’s where Nathan was heading.

Azar and the practically piggybacking Ali went somewhere else instead of the dormitory, but Nathan could guess where. Not that he particularly wanted to follow them.

His stiff legs felt heavy as if weighted with lead. Knowing this corridor would be empty at this hour, Nathan staggered down it like a fluttering piece of paper, with no one watching. He’d rarely been this tired before. His body could barely function, as if he’d worked five straight days of overtime. His eyes were half-closed, nearly giving up on sight and relying on muscle memory to find his dorm room.

That’s why Nathan noticed the person walking toward him too late. He’d shown his exhausted, irritable face before catching himself, but quickly straightened up.

“Oh? Nover! When did you get back?”

A male student carrying loads of luggage noticed Nathan and greeted him. …Unfortunately, Nathan couldn’t remember his name right away. But this wasn’t the first time—habit had trained him to converse without using names.

He wanted to just exchange quick greetings and leave, but unfortunately, the other person seemed to have a lot to say. Nathan was barely listening until the student mentioned his two-week absence.

“Come to think of it, Nathan, I heard you went somewhere good on the professor’s recommendation?”

“…What?”

Nathan, rubbing his tired eyes, showed a colder reaction than intended. The male student flinched and blinked. The sharp look from Nathan, who was already a head taller and looked on edge, had startled him.

“Um… is that not right? The professor said… Caravan asked about you when you weren’t coming to class. So the professor said you’d gone far away to take lessons on his recommendation and wouldn’t be back for a while… told us not to worry…”

Nathan was momentarily speechless and roughly rubbed his face. He let out something between a sigh and a bitter laugh.

“By the way, what happened to your glas—”

“Sorry.”

The student belatedly tried to change the subject by asking about his missing glasses, but Nathan couldn’t continue the conversation. His irritation had suddenly peaked.

“…Yeah, thanks to that, I had quite an experience. So let’s end this conversation here. You look busy, and I’m tired from just getting back… See you later.”

With that, Nathan patted the student’s shoulder a couple of times and left.

As soon as he returned to his room, Nathan irritably threw off his robe. The familiar chill greeted him.

He collapsed face-down on his bed, not even bothering to wash up. Actually, Melchiel’s cover story wasn’t bad. It was easier to explain later than having disappeared without a word. He understood this rationally.

But after going through all sorts of hardships and nearly dying, to come back exhausted and hear people ask if he’d had a nice trip somewhere—how could he not be irritated? Of course, normally he wouldn’t have reacted this way. He belatedly realized he’d taken out his frustrations needlessly, his nerves on edge like a hedgehog due to fatigue.

“Ah… I’ll have to apologize later,”

Nathan muttered glumly.