In order to go back to my room, I had to go back to the academy grounds. With the gate closed, my only way in was by jumping over the wall. Luckily, security fully focused on the south gate. The wall itself wasn’t high and I got to the other side with ease. I gracefully landed on the floor and made a short pose.

“For the landing, I give you 8 out of 10 points.”(Takeshi)

“Huh?!”(Me)

Takeshi sat in a nearby tree and waited for me. I thought everyone was either asleep or busy with the incident at the south gate. He scared the crap out of me for a second.

“Sigh. Don’t surprise me like that.

“Hup.”(Takeshi)

Takeshi stood up and jumped down.

“Where have you been?”(Takeshi)

“None of your concern.”(Me)

“Eh? Are you sure about keeping quiet? I mean, I just saw a suspicious person jumping over the wall of this academy. I should report that?”(Takeshi)

“Damn it.”(Me)

I silently cursed.

“Fine, I went to check out that new court magician.”(Me)

“I thought so. And how is he?”(Takeshi)

“You thought so?”(Me)

“Well, you stalked him the entire day. It was only a matter of time. How did it go?”(Takeshi)

“He is quite talented.”(Me)

“I can’t read your mind. Be more precise.”(Takeshi)

“Hmm.”(Me)

I needed some time to think of a comparison.

“Not at our level, but a bit better than Sakura.”(Me)

“Well he has to be if you waste a whole day for him.”(Takeshi)

“Yep. I’ll go back to my room now, if you would be so nice as to not report me.”(Me)

“Sure. Good night.”(Takeshi)

“Good night.”(Me)

I went back to my room. I somehow had the feeling that Takeshi was up to something, but I didn’t know what. Well I wasn’t going to sleep either.

“That really surprised me. How did he even know I’d sneak in from there?”(Me)

There were many things we didn’t know about each other. I was fine with that and didn’t think about it any further.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“For now let’s go home.”(Me)

I activated my teleportation magic. A bright light blinded me for a few seconds. When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in the circle I drew before.

“Wait. Now that I think about it, I activated it twice in one day. Returning in the next few days will be difficult. Sigh. What’s done is done. If I want to appear as the nightmare, I’d have to come from the Dark Continent anyways.”(Me)

I left the summoning array and searched for the others. I had to admit, it wasn’t my best idea to draw the circle in a forest. It took me a minute until I was able to get out of it.

“What is this?”(Me)

I was quite surprised when I saw what they were able to build in the past few weeks. There were houses made out of stone, wood and that stuff. Not little huts, which anyone can build out of mud or dirt, but actual houses. I haven’t even seen the interior yet, but was already proud of my students.

It was still dark and most of the kids were asleep. No one noticed me yet. In the centre of all houses and old huts, two of them sat around a fire. They were probably up for a night watch or something like that. I leisurely walked to them. I was wondering why they didn’t respond.

Even if it was dark, because of the fire, they should have at least noticed that someone was approaching them. It was strange and after every step I took closer, I got more and more anxious.

“Hey. You two, what’s wrong with you?”(Me)

I got no reply. I already stood before them, so something was definitely wrong. Mary and Cody, both half-human half beastman, soundlessly sat in front of the fire.

Don’t tell me they got attacked and were knocked out.

I was worried and got close enough to hear their breaths. I confirmed that they were still breathing normally.

Wait. Is it possible that they just fell asleep? If that’s so, I’ll have to educate the two of them when they wake up. If I’m already at it, I should do so with everyone.

Whatever the reason, I sat down next to them and waited. Even after I closed my eyes, I somehow managed to stay awake until the sun started to rise again. It has already been morning since I arrived at the Dark Continent, so I only had to wait for 2 or 3 hours.

Cody finally showed signs of waking up. He started to move around and opened his eyes.

“Yo.”(Me)

With sleepy eyes, Cody looked at me. He still looked asleep and wasn’t able to comprehend the situation.

“Good morning. I hoped you two slept well during your night watch.”(Me)

He finally realised what was going on.

“I… We… Welcome back big brother. Since when have you been sitting there?”(Cody)

He said with an embarrassed and silent voice. After doing his best to distract me, he tried to wake Mary up. He shook her until he finally got a reply.

“5 more minutes.”(Mary)

“No 5 more minutes. Wake up Mary big brother came back.”(Cody)

Mary also opened her eyes slowly. She also didn’t understand what was going on. Mary did everything as slow as possible, until she saw me.

“Ah! I… We… Welcome back big brother.”(Mary)

She said the same as Cody and tried to hug me. I denied her welcome and grabbed her head.

“I’m back. Care to explain why no one greeted me 3 hours ago?”(Me)

I asked with a creepy expression.

“Sorry.”(Mary and Cody)

On one hand, the both of them sounded embarrassed and on the other hand, I could even hear some fear in their words. Well I definitely was going to punish them for their carelessness.

“Let’s talk about punishing you later. At least wake the others up and gather them for me.”(Me)

Because I wasn’t able to return for quite some time, I was planning to thoroughly talk to all of them. After roughly 30 minutes, everyone gathered around me. Sylphy, Nala, Sarah and Horan were the last who came. I could see in Horan’s eyes that he was told about the situation by Cody and Mary and knew that I was going to punish him too.

“I’m back and I have a lot to tell you. First, I want to know about what happened in those past weeks, while I was gone.”(Me)

Everyone wanted to answer my question and they all talked at the same time. I didn’t understand anything. In the end, Horan gave me a quick overview. They built those new houses and trained diligently. That was all. When I asked him how they were able to finish that fast, he told me that the labouring part was taken care of, by using magic.

After that, I eased the whole discussion by bringing up my meeting with Sepp. I told them everything he told me and everyone was happy that Sepp successfully arrived at the human capital.

Lastly, I was interested in how the three newcomers were doing. I knew about how they treated Sylphy because Sepp already told me, but I wanted to see everything for myself. For the rest of the day, they showed me around, showed me their progress etc.

Last but not least, they showed me a house they build for me. It was the biggest and in my opinion the best. Everyone looked excited when they showed me their best creation and wanted to follow me inside and show me around.

“It’s enough if only Horan, Sandra and the three of them come with me. I also need to talk to them privately.”(Me)

They were sad, but respected my wish. Except for the ones I said before, everyone returned to their own house, work or training, while the 6 of us entered my house.

“What’s the matter big brother?”(Sandra)

Sandra guessed that I was about to discuss something important and asked right off the start.

“It is possible that after I leave this time, I won’t be able to come back here anymore.”(Me)