CHAPTER 59: VISITORS

Aurora looked at the young lady, who was drinking tea like an elegant lady.

With black hair and eyes of the same color, her smile was quite captivating.

With a round face that made her a young lady who would be called ‘pretty’ because of her youth and would be described a foreign beauty, thanks to her oriental features.

“I thought you would be arriving at noon today,” Aurora said to the woman in front of her.

Yoshihisa Akira.

This young woman at only 21 years old was a psionic whose cryokinesis ability allowed her to manipulate cold and was recognized as an important S-Rank in Asia, where she had influence.

“I was a little late,” Akira commented and, giving a cheerful smile, added. “By the way, I meant I would come at noon in Japan. There are 8 hours time difference, so in Japan right now it’s 2:00 pm. It’s normal to arrive at 6:00 in the morning.”

Aurora blinked... She assumed he had been referring to her time zone.

“Anyway, thank you for coming. We’ll surely need your and your group’s help,” Aurora said in a serious tone.

The ‘Ark’ mission required strong individuals, and more so when they now not only had to guard students but protect other people.

“Why are you acting so formal? You’re too cold,” Akira muttered, looking at her shyly as if hurt by Aurora’s attitude.

Before Aurora could say anything, an obvious fake cough echoed.

Akira gave a glance at the coughing person to break the atmosphere and Alice, as if nothing had happened, returned the look.

“What’s wrong, jealous?” Akira asked with a high and mighty attitude, gave a smile that seemed to demean Alice, and asked. “Are you afraid I’ll steal Aurora for myself?”

Alice only glared back and continued eating chips like it was nothing.

For her part, Akira snorted with a haughty attitude...

Aurora’s lips trembled at the sight of both of them and all she did was shake her head as she realized that maybe this month would be longer and more tiring than expected.

“By the way, Aurora... Do the students know about the missions?” Akira asked with a curious expression.

She was back in a good mood when she realized that she didn’t get an answer from Alice.

“No, I was waiting for you to brief them and for you to help me prepare them with your team,” Aurora answered honestly.

Their small group was not specialized in teaching and although they trained with them, helping them improve, it was good to have an extra group to help.

An S-Rank group with experienced A-Rank members would be very helpful.

“Sure. I always had an interest in teaching my ‘kōhai’,” Akira said and, with an evil chuckle, she muttered. “I’ll show them the hell I lived through.”

Her muttering seemed to contain a bit of heaviness, but Aurora thought it wasn’t possible and she was mishearing.

—She was with you for several months and at that time the work in Zerzura City was too intense. It makes sense that she thinks she was in ‘hell’.

Reading her system’s comment, Aurora wisely ignored it, like most times.

“Hmph, just admit you couldn’t take it,” Alice said with a dismissive look.

“Ha... I’m an S-Rank now! I’m a powerhouse! Don’t slander me!” Akira declared, looking proudly at Alice.

Looking haughty and sticking out her chest with an expression full of pride, in a way she resembled a ‘powerhouse’ with a very high arrogance however, Alice gave a smile.

“So... Do you want to ‘train’ with me?” Alice asked without hiding the look she gave.

Alice’s smile was amused, and her eyes were shining for her to accept.

“I have to train the students... I don’t have time,” Akira replied and immediately ran away in just a flash.

Alice gave a smile and looked proudly at Aurora as if she had won the competition between the two of them and wished for a congratulations.

“Were we too extreme at that moment?” Aurora hesitated quietly.

Alice shrugged her shoulders without giving it too much importance.

Akira was with them three years ago before having graduated from a psionic academy in Asia and choosing Africa as her internship place... At that time, Africa was too hectic and Zerzura city was emerging, so the work was too intense.

Alice was the one who gave her intense training and she certainly must remember it now... In her defense, without that training, she would surely have had a hard time surviving the constant daily missions and dangerous missions at that time.

“No matter. It’s nice to have her as an ally now.” Aurora commented with honesty and a cheerful smile.

That weak young woman at the time had become an S-Rank, who retired to perform a similar style of work to Aurora’s only, in Asia helping out in any way she could.

Creating her own guild that Aurora worked with from time to time, supporting each other.

Akira wasn’t the first student she had by her side and it was hard to think she would be the last...

Giving Alice a signal to follow her, Aurora left her office and made her way to the hall, where some animated visitors were bringing the huge building to life.

Akira, who had taken on the attitude of a professional and serious superior, scrutinized the students who were standing stiffly in formation.

Akira’s eyes were shining brightly and her gaze was passing through all the female students, focusing on Clémentine.

“Captain, stop staring at them so hard, it makes them uncomfortable!” A young woman shouted and caught Akira by the arms, managing to pull her back.

Stepping back, she returned to Aurora’s side, giving her a glance at her only to then at the students...

“I couldn’t help myself. They are genuine beauties. Youth grows up too fast,” Akira murmured with a tone of an old woman, who watched the youngsters develop without understanding the reason why they grew so much.

Aurora’s lips quivered, but she ignored her, completely trying to hold back her smile.

Students so young and good-looking were to be admired, Aurora agreed on that point, though it wasn’t so much as to make her feel old when there wasn’t that much age difference.

“Let’s do the formal introductions first,” Aurora announced, and left Akira to speak.

Akira’s expression changed completely as if the previous comment had never been said and, putting her hands on her hips, she looked at the students.

“I am Yoshihisa Akira. You can call me Akira. I am the captain of the adventurer group of the guild, ‘Frozen Storm’. You may also have met my title, ‘Tempest’.” Akira stated with some seriousness.

S-Ranks were usually the most well-known because SS-Ranks were rare, let alone SSS-Ranks.

When they reached S Rank, they usually received a title that was known to the public... It was a form of recognition, that was all.

However, it was difficult to know all the S-Ranks that were spread around the world, so Akira didn’t mind when only three students nodded.

“Kuwahara Aeko, the Vice Captain. Unlike me, she is a capable and very skilled A-Rank scout,” introduced Akira to the young woman who had stopped her earlier.

The young woman with Asian features gave a smile and nodded formally in greeting.

Stolen story; please report.

“The one wearing metal armor and looking like a statue is Santiago Núñez. Don’t give his attire and creepy silence any importance, he’s a good guy whose strength is A-Rank,” Akira commented with a simple tone.

Aurora’s lips trembled at the situation, but strangely Santiago, who stood at the entrance with his hand on the handle, his sword wearing a serious expression, only nodded in greeting.

“Why does the same thing always happen?” muttered a young westerner looking like a scholar.

“The one who just muttered, is Oscar Ross, but don’t be fooled, although he looks like a scholar, he is a beast,” Akira said with a serious and sincere expression pointing at the young westerner who had spoken.

Her tone was full of ambiguity gave a strange feeling to her gaze... As if he was a ‘beast’ in a ‘different’ sense.

The students looked at the young scholar with strange and wary glances, and...

“I’m a shapeshifter. Technically, I can become a ‘beast’,” revealed the young man and, adjusting his suit, he gave a glance to Akira, who was smiling and added. “The captain may look serious, but don’t get carried away by her appearance. She can be quite ‘dangerous.”

Avenging the ambiguous tone Akira had created, the young man did the same causing, the expression of those present to tremble.

“Have more loyalty!” commanded Akira with a solemn expression and a low tone. “Don’t slander me.”

“Ya... Ya... That’s enough,” said an Asian woman bringing a tray with different hot drinks and looking at Akira, declared. “Captain, stop trying to deceive our future partners.”

With those words, she carried the tray for the students to take a drink and, with a smile, introduced herself. “My name is Shao Ya. I am the healer and medic of the group, so if you have an ailment, you can come to me.”

After her presentation, she brought the tray in front of Aurora and the latter took out a cup of tea with a grateful smile.

It was too early in the morning and the students had just finished performing a mission, Akira, with the introductions, had gotten rather carried away and had kept the students from resting.

“We are looking forward to helping during this month,” Shao Ya commented with a smile full of reassurance.

All the other members of Akira’s group nodded in unison calmly along with their captain.

“You can rest or catch up with our guests. We’ll have an important meeting later,” Aurora warned, as she saw the students relax a bit.

******

Clémentine, even though she was feeling a stinging look, kept her calm and using her psionic energy, caused an A-rank boar to stumble halfway through its charge.

Érica who was standing next to it, created an ice spear and sent it shooting towards the boar.

Without giving the boar time to get up and dodge the spear, Clémentine used her telekinesis to force it to the ground, generating an invisible pressure that prevented the beast from escaping.

The boar shrieked as the spear pierced it and sought to flee in desperation, but Clémentine quickly finished it off after pushing the spear away with her telekinesis.

“Good job!”

The duo heard a voice behind them and Clémentine turned to see Akira looking at both of them with a smile.

She was levitating gently in the sky, watching them intently.

“They are B-Rank, but they have potential. Now I understand why Aurora took them to learn in her group,” Akira commented, and looking at her partner, she asked. “Oscar, do you think you can help the mage?”

That powerful psionic was not alone, and her partner was watching beside her carefully.

“First of all, I don’t think there is much to teach her. I’m a nature mage, not an ice mage, and secondly, I’m sure she has better teachers than a simple A-Rank mage like me,” Oscar replied somewhat calmly and with a smile, he added. “That said, maybe I can give her a few pointers.”

Even though he was acting humble, the smile he gave at the end carried a bit of confidence in his abilities.

Akira rolled her eyes and, shaking her head, focused back on them.

“In this time we will be together, we will practice and help them train and improve as much as possible,” Akira announced, returning to her role.

“Thank you...” Clémentine and Érica expressed in unison.

It was true that their families paid them teachers with great experience and skills, but those same teachers opted for slow and safe individual and personal development.

Getting advice from others stronger and more experienced than them was worth it.

In this world, unlike Terra nova, there are no ‘levels’ and earthlings could not level up, improving as if they were in a game.

Earth had its own independent rules, and the way to improve would differ for each person and profession.

It was not only about training but could also be a more personal and even ‘emotional’ and willpower development.

The quartet, after dropping off the boar carcass that had escaped last night during the emergency mission in the nearby village, returned to the base via a portal.

*Bang*

*Bang*

*Bang*

As soon as they arrived, they noticed how Leslie was shooting with her pistol at Santiago, who was using a metal shield to protect himself from the bullets with an impeccable defense.

It didn’t matter if Leslie used her ‘curved shot’ ability, Santiago, with his shield in his left hand and his sword in his right, defended himself tenaciously.

The magical energy in his shield extended deflecting the bullets, managing to defend himself without moving too much.

Clémentine and Érica looked at Leslie with surprise when they noticed that the bullets were real.

“Santiago mentioned that he could shield himself from my shots... And he had me try to shoot him,” explained Leslie quickly, putting her gun away with great speed as she was discovered by the group.

“You can keep trying later, but I warn you Santiago has a great defense. He is a true ‘Knight’ capable of resisting some of my attacks with all his defense,” Akira commented without simplicity.

The group observed the silent man with a new look and Santiago’s response was to put away his shield and sheathe his sword.

Knights were a profession dedicated to the protection of themselves and their companions.

Because Terra nova had this kind of people, their skills were mimicked and adapted to earth, allowing them to use shield skills and sword skills.

It was a profession in which a lot of dedication was needed because of the effort to train a style that required learning two different forms of arts.

The way to use magical energy when one had a shield and sword was very different from just focusing on sword arts.

“Assemble in the operating room.”

At that moment, Liam’s voice echoed in the place.

Akira, leading the group, opened a portal, and they all entered, appearing in one of the corridors at the end of the second floor.

Andrés and Nicole, along with Shao Ya and Aeko, arrived at the same time.

The students since the emergency mission did not rest and performed their daily morning mission and trained or interacted with their new classmates.

Akira was the first to enter, and Clémentine with the others followed.

The operations room had a table in the center which revealed a map of Africa and in the corner was a cluster of high-tech computers, which Liam was using at high speed.

Aurora and Alice were looking at the map of Africa carefully.

“Have you read the introductory report I passed around?” Aurora asked everyone present and when they nodded, she explained. “The code mission I named ‘Ark’, whose objective is to rescue refugees from Kenya. This mission is not easy. It will be dangerous and risky.”

Her voice and tone were serious from the beginning, getting the students to show more solemn expressions.

“Not only because of the ‘Lord of Mombasa’ conflict with the ‘Somali Terror’ that has turned much of Kenya into a war zone but because of our journey,” Aurora commented and unfolded the map of Africa.

The map still held the borders of the old countries along with their names and the names of the major cities, despite the fact that the magical forest had already swallowed a huge portion of the center of the continent.

Realizing they were paying attention, Aurora continued.

“Our goal is to reach the town of Nakuru, which is over a hundred kilometers from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. It is in that place that we will find the refugees we will need to bring back.”

The group nodded.

Aurora had sent a report earlier and had mentioned quite a bit of information giving answers to basic questions.

A great part of Kenya was in conflict, Nakuru was no different, but that place was where the ‘Lord of Mombasa’ had the most influence and where a considerable number of refugees were to be found.

It was a place of conflict, but less than the capital Nairobi.

“It is impossible to go by ships because we would have to go through a large part of the war zone. It is also not easy to send planes unless we want them to be shot down by territorial magical beasts or the army of the Somali Terror. Not to mention disrupting other warlords are in neighboring areas,” Aurora reported and then unfolded a map, with the most suitable route, and explained. “We will get off at the ancient Wau village in South Sudan. We will pass through the capital Yuba and then go through Uganda and arrive in Nakuru. The way back is the same.”

“You want to cross through the magic forest?” Érica asked, stunned to see that most of the road was inside the magic forest that had spread out.

A large part of South Sudan was covered by the magic forest, the same was true for all of Uganda.

‘Civilization’ was no longer to be found there. It was all the territory of magical beasts, wild creatures, monsters, or nature itself.

“Between beasts or humans, I prefer beasts a thousand times,” Akira declared with a serious expression.

Her entire group nodded without hesitation.

Magical beasts could be unreasonable, but they could be dealt with... Humans, on the other hand, were a different matter and more so in a modern world like this.

“How many refugees will we be escorting?” Aeko asked professionally.

“The number is expected to exceed a thousand refugees,” Alice replied without looking perturbed.

“And those are light estimates,” Aurora added with a small, rueful smile.

Aeko took a deep breath... No, they all had heavy expressions.

A thousand lives would depend on them to get safely through the magical forest, whose danger was categorized as at the top.

“Long distance portals have been prepared to bring people in case of emergency and reduce the number of the injured and sick who need urgent help, but it is estimated that number will be the one we will support,” Aurora revealed and looking at her companions, she stated. “Don’t feel pressure. We will not be alone, more than fifty skill users will support us in this mission, and if necessary, more can be deployed. But it is not advisable or we will draw too much attention from the Somali Terror.”

Cardinal Brousseau wasn’t lying when she said there were plenty of volunteers, but that didn’t mean she could take them all.

The mission was not one that needed a huge assault force, just enough to protect those they needed to protect and get back quickly.

Warlords were crazy, that was a general idea and Aurora believed that most warlords fell into that idea, only with a few exceptions.

“You don’t need to worry about the extra details and minutiae. This mission is led by me, and it is my duty to take care of those details. However, I ask that you prepare yourselves for this type of mission and what is to come. It will be a physical and mental shock. You need to be prepared,” Aurora warned with a solemn expression, and observing the students, she added. “You guys have to keep in mind that it will be harder than all the missions you have had before. However, you can refuse now and no one will judge you.”

This mission was dangerous... A real and obvious danger that could not be contained and for which they could not fully prepare.

At any point in the mission, they could run into high-ranking magical beasts or be attacked by militiamen who were involved in the conflict.

The possibilities were endless.

The excuse of being students from this point on could no longer be used and from this point on, they were either members of the group or they withdrew.

Clémentine and the others understood that.

The constant danger and the possibility of everything going wrong were present.

It was no longer about their own safety, they would have to ensure the safety of others.

For the small group that had spent a week striving, again and again, there was only one answer.

“We will participate,” Clémentine said as spokesperson when everyone else nodded.

There was no other answer than that... After all, they were students at the Hero Academy.