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For the two hours after that, we kept wandering around inside the forest and defeated a giant snake called Viper as well as a wolf called Forest Wolf.

We finished our three battles, so though it was a little early, we decided to return back to the teacher.

There was still about half an hour left until the time limit, so we were the only ones to return so far.

“Oh, you’re back? That was a bit too fast. Did you retire?”
“No, we finished our assignment.”

We showed the monster parts to the teacher. For the Raum Peasant and Viper, it was part of their meat. For the Forest Wolf, we brought its fangs. Peasant and snake meat was of course edible. The fangs could be used in weapons or ornaments too.

“Those are quite the small fry.”
“Well, there was no restriction on which enemies to fight.”

The teacher looked at me with great interest as he heard my answer. After observing me for a while, he gave an impish grin.

“Okay then, you have some good promise. You may rest.”
“Okaay.”

It seemed that we passed without problems, so we could feel at ease now. Celica and Zanastia who had complex expressions also sighed in relief.

“But was it really alright this way?”
“I said it before, but there was no need to go out of our way to hunt big prey. Those haughty nobles might do that, but you have to start with reasonable enemies, right?”
“There is nothing wrong with Nicole’s words. We who are fourth-rank Adventurers can guarantee it.”
“But Nicole sure is stingy there. I wanted to show you my cool side more.”
“Cloud and Sullivan, you two are banned from approaching girls.”
“Whyyyy!”

This guy… When he sees a cute girl he starts to act pretentious.

I understand where he’s coming from, but Michelle would get jealous so I wish he controlled himself.

Also, Sullivan, you should also control yourself. Letina had no chance to show off because of your excessive actions.

Seeing us like that, Celica started to giggle.

“You are quite close, huh.”
“With Cloud? I mean, he’s a comrade.”
“I don’t mean that. How should I put it… it’s like you have a good affinity?”
“Ah, well… No, never mind.”

I was about to say that I was a man at the core, but hurriedly stopped myself.

Certainly, since I understood a man’s feelings, I had quite low mental fences in that regard. Given that she was a girl through and through, it wasn’t unreasonable for her to misunderstand our relationship.

“But there’s not a single chance that I would end up with Cloud, like ever. And Sullivan is completely out of the question.”
“You’re that against it?!”

Cloud screamed at my clear rejection. I would never date a man, so this was one thing I’d never yield on.

Then, I felt human presence approaching us. It seemed that the other group had returned.

“Come on, move it! We’re almost at the campgrounds!”
“Ouchh… Carry me a little more gently.”
“Stop whining. We cut short our assignment due to your blunder!”

It looked like one of the Adventurers had injured his shoulder, while another one was tending to him.

And I saw the students they were in charge of were badmouthing them. The teacher also noticed that and rushed to take a look.

“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine… or not really, but nothing life-threatening.”
“Can you use recovery magic? We’ve run out of potions on hand.”
“You can’t even recover yourselves? Man, we sure pulled in some incompetent Adventurers.”

Neglecting recovery necessities was certainly something I could not commend, for an Adventurer, their body was their capital. That said, it wasn’t something the students, who were the ones being protected, were qualified to criticize.

Because the injury they suffered was to protect those very students. Even if that was their work, it was too cruel to criticize them for it.

“Yeah, I can use the basic Heal spell. Wait a bit.”
“I will help. I can use Cure Light and Comfort.”
“Thanks.”

Recovery magic couldn’t be used in succession. The wound would be closed in an instant, but until its effect ended, a similar healing spell would be ineffective.

Even if that took only one or two minutes, that was still a fatal time in the middle of a battle. As such, it was better to have more variations of healing spells.

Maria’s repertoire of such spells was extremely large. The teacher used Heal, while I overlapped it with Cure Light. These two were different spells, so they could work together.

“You saved me there. Thanks.”
“Do you feel strange anywhere?”
“No, nothing in particular. You’re very skilled.”
“It’s nothing special.”

The healing power of the interference healing spells was by no means high. As my magic power grew, so did its healing power bit by bit, but the teacher’s Heal did most of the healing.

But he still called out to me like that… Which was probably because I was a girl now.

His face seemed quite flushed, but let’s just say it was due to the injury. Considering anything else would just give me goosebumps.

While we did this, the time limit seemed to have ended, so the students started to return one after another.

The Adventurers looked quite fatigued, having learned thoroughly how exhausting it was to act with the noble boys.

Once everyone returned, the teacher summed up the results. In the end, it was only us and one more party that managed to clear the assignment.

The remaining five parties either didn’t make it in time, or couldn’t continue due to the Adventurer getting seriously injured.

“Looks like all of you’re back, huh? Well, it was your first expedition, so it’s natural that you failed to accomplish it. But I’ll still say this—the Adventurers got injured far too much. This just shows how hard it was to cover for you.”

The nobles who weren’t used to being scolded started to frown, but no one was stupid enough to snap at the teacher.

“Okay, let’s return to the academy. After the lunch break, sum up the points you need to reflect on and report it to me.”

Today’s afternoon hours were reserved for that.

Though we accomplished our assignment, there were noticeable problems. There would be no problem if we just submit them in one go.

Both the students who failed their assignment and the Adventurers protecting them returned back to the academy with tired gaits.

But this was also a valuable experience. They experienced the difficulties of Adventurers. Employing people was something that they would experience many times in their life.

Adventurers, too, were able to learn how selfish the nobles could be. This was probably not the only time they would have to deal with nobles, so it should’ve been a valuable experience.

As such, this lesson was perhaps the most valuable so far.