Correcting the Villainess of the Academy

On the third night since the exam began, we hurried our steps. The moonlight appeared sporadically, continuously being hidden by clouds.

Despite our so-called forced march, we weren’t making very fast progress.

It was due to the terrain inside the basin, which had become a mess due to a meteorite collision.

In front of the valley, sheer cliffs barred our way, while beyond the horizon lay vast grasslands we could witness.

We navigated around by avoiding a clear and enormous lake that reflected down to the ground, and an endlessly sprawling dense green wetland.

Perhaps due to the atmospheric conditions, the sun would shine brightly one moment only to be followed by a sudden drizzle the next.

Even considering that the Heavenly Basin is a considerably vast area, the internal environment was even more diverse.

“Ugh. Look at that.”

As we passed some mushroom clusters as tall as a person, Muyoung suddenly scrunched up his face as he surveyed the surroundings.

A large group of plump, hairy larvae was excitedly munching on the caps of the mushrooms. The sound of crunching echoed far and wide.

“I understand why the professor said this place is closer to outer space. They look like they’d fall right out of hell. What on earth are those things…”

“…They’re Lepheus moth larvae. Don’t you know that?”

“Le…what?”

“Sigh The professor said monsters are categorized into small classifications, so try to memorize them all by their scientific names… Really, just because you’re wearing glasses doesn’t mean your brain isn’t sluggish…”

Yena grumbled in a pouty tone. At her sharp reaction, Muyoung let out an incredulous laugh.

“I definitely said I was sorry, right? It’s not like I have any bad feelings about it!”

“If you’re going to say that, at least take that cloth off your face while you talk…!”

As she said that, Muyoung had tightly wrapped a thick white cloth around his face. It’s not like I have the right to say anything, since I’m wearing a mask, but just looking at him made me feel a little stifled…

“There’s no way to keep from gagging. Just try to understand a bit. You’re way more narrow-minded than I thought.”

“Who’s narrow-minded…!”

“Both of you, just stop it already…”

After barely managing to put a stop to their bickering, Muyoung and Yena turned their gazes away from each other, ignoring one another entirely.

This was just a repeat situation that had occurred at least several times since yesterday. It was truly a predicament for me, caught in between.

That said, I couldn’t just kick anyone out. I didn’t have the intention to do so at all, especially since we had already ventured deep into the northern section. Increasingly powerful species of monsters were emerging, blocking our path.

Both of them were outstanding support, but without a doubt, Yena and Muyoung’s combat abilities weren’t that impressive.

If even one person fell behind, it practically guaranteed our elimination with the lowest score.

Ultimately, we had no choice but to stick together until the end of the exam.

“Wait a moment.”

We were marching in an inverted triangle formation, with Muyoung positioned at the very back. Yena and I were scouting the front left and right, respectively.

Suddenly, Muyoung stopped us in our tracks.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s a crack on the ground at 11 o’clock. It doesn’t look like it was formed naturally. I can feel movement from inside.”

Listening to Muyoung’s words, I looked down at the ground. As I lightly scraped the pile of fallen leaves with my finger, I quickly saw a bunch of translucent, sticky threads dimly glowing.

“…That looks like a Sigmata’s nest. Yena, can you pull it out?”

“I’ll give it a try.”

Yena fiddled with her wrist particle allocator. Soon, small dewdrops began to gather in midair in front of her, forming a gigantic droplet.

She threw the created droplet straight toward the crack in the ground.

Kiik!

After a brief moment, a massive creature finally burst out of its hiding spot, unable to hold its breath any longer.

With large fangs and twelve legs, it was particularly imposing. Just its body, excluding the legs, was almost as big as Yena.

The monster, looking somewhat like a giant spider, turned and ran straight toward the shrubbery. Its intention wasn’t to hunt but to escape from danger. In that case, dealing with it would be easy.

I quickly approached behind the fleeing monster. Then I plunged my blade into its chest and sliced it straight down to its belly, tearing it in half. The monster’s green blood splattered wildly everywhere.

“Ugh…”

Seeing the still-twitching monster corpse, Yena scrunched her face in disgust.

“After coming out of the Lupus territory, the variety of species certainly increases. I couldn’t have come in here alone.”

Muyoung muttered as he collected a fang from the monster as proof.

“If you guys hadn’t been here, I wouldn’t have made it this quickly on my own.”

“Humility is…”

I didn’t voice what I didn’t genuinely feel. The difficulty wasn’t particularly hard, but if scouting and support hadn’t been so well distributed like now, the speed would have definitely lagged a lot.

I needed to conserve as much magic as possible.

I guess I can understand a bit why an exceptionally high score is given for teamwork in the Cradle.

Even if my skills were significantly lower than they are now, the speed wouldn’t have differed much, I suppose.

“Ugh… go away…”

“You again…! Huh… Hyuna…”

There was more commotion from the back.

Yena’s face turned red as she looked like she was about to cry.

If things were just fine between the two, it would have been perfect…

“Hey, guys. Stop it. If we go a little further, there’s a midpoint. Let’s rest there for today. At this pace, we should reach the center soon.”

“Already…?! Are we really going to come in first…?”

Yena murmured in a voice full of joy.

We tidied up the scene and resumed walking under the moonlight. Tonight, an eerie calm enveloped the surroundings. Aside from the Sigmata we encountered earlier, not a single squirrel could be spotted.

“Something feels off…”

Muyoung muttered suspiciously.

“The spirits are agitated. What on earth could it be… Ugh…!!”

Suddenly, Muyoung grasped his head and collapsed onto the ground.

He was in clearly more pain than before, writhing as if the ground was causing him anguish.

“Hah…!”

“Muyoung! What’s wrong all of a sudden?”

“I don’t know…! The connection to the spirits was forcibly cut off for a moment and then restored…! Ugh… what is this…?”

Muyoung held his head, struggling to speak. We waited for a while, standing still to see if he would recover.

Unlike the previously calm atmosphere, strange noises that we couldn’t identify began to drift in from afar. Whatever it was, it was clear that something unusual was happening.

As Muyoung staggered around, suddenly he raised his hand to signal us.

“Wait a minute… Vice Captain, something is rushing in from 3 o’clock. Two entities. They’re going quite fast…”

The area was choked with reeds growing up to our heads, making it hard to see clearly. I sent Muyoung and Yena back, preparing to face whatever enemy might spring forth.

Soon enough, I began to hear the rustling sounds coming from the distance. It was steadily approaching us.

And shortly after, what sprang out from the reeds was not a monster, but a human figure walking on two legs.

“Uhiik!!”

Without even swinging my blade, the person who appeared screamed as if they were about to leave this world in terror upon seeing me. Their voice outmatched even the loudest monsters.

Yena suddenly called out someone’s name.

“Sera…?”

“Yena…???”

It seemed that the identity of this person was Yena’s acquaintance. The female student seemed to relax significantly upon seeing Yena, collapsing onto the ground in exhaustion.

Upon closer inspection, the female student, called Sera, was in terrible condition. She was carrying someone on her back, and both of them had their protective gear torn and shredded, with hardly any intact places left.

The person she was carrying seemed unconscious.

There were signs of being scratched by something sharp on her arm, and the bandage covering the wound was soaked bright red, with blood pouring down beneath it.

“Sera, what happened??”

At Yena’s question, Sera’s voice trembled with fear.

“This isn’t the time… We’re in big trouble…!”

“What do you mean big trouble…?”

“The separation wall of the southern sector has been destroyed!! High-ranked monsters are pouring in from that direction…! People could really die if this continues…!”

“What…?”

*

At the temporary base in the grassy area near the Heavenly Basin, dozens of second-year students from the Cradle were bustling about.

They were assisting the professors with various tasks. Numerous upperclassmen were merging their visions with crows, surveying various places in the northern district.

Their main mission was to monitor illegal activities occurring during the exam. Collisions and duels at the Cradle were commonplace, and even small disturbances were often ignored by the Cradle side.

However, someone always crossed the line. Especially in situations like this, it was perfect for one to disguise their mischief as chaos. What they monitored was exactly to prevent such situations.

Beyond that, their goal was also to identify those who stood out to predict whether they would be recruited into future factions.

The raw stones didn’t appear during the usual organized exams but always came out during unpredictable, practical scenarios like this.

“How peculiar…”

A female student who was lying flat on the field with her eyes closed muttered. With her cheerful appearance and a tear marking under her right eye, she made a strong impression.

Kwon Yuri was watching a trio that looked entirely out of place.

A natural blooming magician from the outskirts, but thanks to her unique vivacity, she was quite popular — Ha Yena.

A spirit sorcerer receiving strangely negative reviews among female students… Shin Muyoung.

And the freshman who needed no introduction due to her infamous reputation.

What was stranger than anything else was that they were the group closest to the center.

It seemed that Yoo Jin-hyun was mostly handling the physical tasks, yet the remaining two were assisting him nearly perfectly.

“Right. Practice has its joys. Unexpected happenings always pop up out of nowhere…”

Kwon Yuri mumbled. Her gaze was particularly fixed on Yoo Jin-hyun.

The fact that he expressed strong resentment towards his friend, Baek Seoyeon, had already spread throughout the entire Cradle.

“Strange… He doesn’t seem like the kind of junior with that personality…”

Kwon Yuri had previously encountered Yoo Jin-hyun once. She had helped Baek Seoyeon invite the freshmen to a social gathering.

Despite his unique appearance, he was polite, and his speech felt warm, which wasn’t unpleasant at all.

Considering he quietly spent his time without engaging in other social activities except hanging around Ha Yena, it didn’t seem like he had any political motives to create dissent.

Kwon Yuri briefly pondered reasonable explanations, but only silly jokes flitted through her mind.

“What if he happens to be an ex-boyfriend she met by coincidence… Hehe.”

After muttering such nonsensical thoughts, she chuckled to herself.

Though she was a close friend of Baek Seoyeon, she kept the identity of her fiancé a closely guarded secret.

However, it was easy to understand how Baek Seoyeon felt about her fiancé. Whenever she talked about him, her face was always lit up with a bright smile.

She had certainly claimed that he was the only person she had ever loved in her life. There was no way such a woman would have an ex-boyfriend.

Yet, part of her was deeply curious. Even the same woman viewed Baek Seoyeon as a flawless being. Talent, appearance, background, personality—none were lacking.

What kind of person would be loved so absolutely by such a woman?

Could it be that it’s some unexpectedly innocent and handsome countryside boy?

“Hehe… I should stop thinking about this. Next time, I’ll definitely get her drunk and ask.”

Kwon Yuri shook her head, scattering her fantasies. Just then, she was about to focus back on her work.

“Then back to it… Ugh…!”

Suddenly, an intense shock surged through her head. It felt horrific, like something was scraping the nerves out with a blade. The pain traveled down her head, igniting her very eyes.

“Urgh… what is…”

The pain finally faded after wreaking havoc through her body. Kwon Yuri managed to recognize that the sharing of vision with the crows had forcibly been severed.

Only then did she stumble to her feet, surveying her surroundings.

“Urgh…!”

“What the hell! What’s going on?!”

“My eyes hurt…!”

Her surroundings had turned into complete chaos. Those also using crows to scout the exam area were rolling in agony on the ground. It looked like some bewildering mass seizure swept through.

“What in the world is going on…? Ugh…”

Kwon Yuri muttered. Others seemed to be experiencing the same rebounds as herself, having their connections to the crows severed.

However, instances of forced disconnection were something that happened very rarely.

Unless there was explosive interference from powerful particle waves nearby, it was impossible for multiple people to experience the same symptoms concurrently.

And such large-scale interference would only occur upon the appearance of monsters categorized as threat level 1 or higher.

Puh-ruuuum!

The sound of something exploding in midair snapped her thoughts back to reality. A firework spell shot high into the night sky, painting it red.

With the first dropout appearing, the personnel in the base immediately began to prepare a rescue team.

“Kwon Yuri, come here!! Hurry!!”

Kwon Yuri, too, was about to start doing her job when she heard someone calling her from the entrance of the basin. The voice was filled with panic and urgency.

At the entrance of the basin, a group of injured freshmen was stumbling out, drenched in blood. Their backpacks were completely gone, and their protective gear was in tatters.

Some appeared to be in serious condition, their bodies covered in blood.

“You…”

She spotted someone very familiar among them. Gook Jae-ryong. A junior from the same magical school clan as her, but someone she hadn’t known well due to his irritating nature.

Seeing him bringing in a critical group of nine left quite an impression. Using the central path, which was the easiest route, was somewhat ridiculous but still…

“Junior, what on earth is going on?”

At Kwon Yuri’s question, Gook Jae-ryong trembled as he replied.

“Senior, this isn’t the time… We must stop the exam at once…”

“What?”

“We must hurry…!”

“Junior, take a deep breath and try to calm down…”

She tried to soothe him, but Gook Jae-ryong merely shuddered, blurting out incomprehensible words. His face was filled with dread.

Puh-ruuuum!

Suddenly, the sky lit up as if the sun had risen, naturally pulling her gaze upward. It was as if a massive gun had discharged, making a thunderous sound that echoed loudly all around.

“…What on earth is happening…”

Kwon Yuri muttered in a daze, staring at the sky. What she saw was dozens of red fireworks continuously exploding in the air above the basin.

---