It was pandemonium—utter, blinding chaos.
A stampede of screaming bodies, each one desperate to be the first to escape. Discipline shattered. Order crumbled. Only the scholarship class, led by their instructors, retained a shred of coordination. And even that came at a cost.
They surged forward with brutal efficiency, plowing through the fleeing crowd. To them, the general students were just obstacles, furniture in the way of survival. They didn’t hesitate to shove, elbow, or outright punch their way through, driving straight toward the safety of the inner gate at a breakneck pace.
It was like watching a herd of raging bulls barrel through a field of panicked fawns.
And then, one of those fawns got caught in the stampede.
“Wha— Huh?! Wait, why are you all looking at me like that? That’s… that’s a scary face, you know? W-Wait, you’re not stopping? You’re not stopping?! Why aren’t you stopping?!”
She could’ve stepped aside. Could’ve slipped into the shadows like everyone else. That would’ve been the smart thing to do.
But Koharu Saegusa didn’t move.
The moment her eyes locked onto the Ogre Emperor’s towering silhouette, her mind unraveled. A long-buried nightmare surged to the surface, ghosts of her past clawing their way into the present. She had seen a demon before. She’d watched one tear through her village, her home. She had survived, but just barely.
Now, frozen in that same suffocating terror, she couldn’t think. Couldn’t run. Couldn’t breathe.
And, well, Koharu wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, even on a good day.
Before she could snap out of it, a blur of motion slammed into her. One of the elite students, the scholarship class, shoved her aside like she was a broken chair in the middle of the road. She crumpled to the ground, breath knocked from her lungs.
No one stopped.
No one swerved.
Not a single soul even slowed down.
“Ah—”
She managed a gasp before instinct kicked in. Dropping flat onto her stomach, she curled into herself, hands clamped over the back of her head. A desperate shield against the storm.
Thundering footfalls pounded the dirt around her, then over her. Boots drove into her back, her legs, her arms. A relentless barrage of pain crushed her beneath the stampede. Every step threatened to cave in her ribs. Her vision flickered, teetering on the edge of blackout.
Stay awake. Stay awake. Don’t pass out, don’t pass out!
And then, suddenly, the pain stopped.
Koharu blinked, dazed. Something, someone, was covering her. A body, crouched on all fours, shielding her from the onslaught. She looked up.
It was a boy. One of her classmates. Arms and back trembling, heels dug into the dirt, he took every brutal stomp in her place.
When the last of the stampede had passed and the thunder of hooves became distant echoes, he slowly rose to his feet. Then, without a word, he offered her a hand.
Koharu stared, stunned. “Arthur? Why are you—?”
He met her gaze, voice calm but firm. “Do I need a reason to help a classmate?”
Arthur Markham, the pretty boy with golden hair down to his shoulders. Third son of a poverty-stricken noble house. Quick to temper, always trading barbs with Ryuto. He had his own baggage and more than a few grudges.
They’d butted heads before. He’d even suffered for her once, thanks to the Academy’s group punishment system.
“But Arthur,” Koharu murmured, voice catching, “back then, when you got your meals taken away, you called me a useless klutz. You said if I weren’t a girl, you’d have punched me.”
Arthur chuckled without the slightest hint of guilt, flashing a crooked smile. “Yeah. And I also said something else, didn’t I? My old man taught me never to hit women.” He glanced down at her, exasperated. “Still, you really don’t stop screwing up, do you? Even now, you’re hopeless.”
There was no malice in his tone. Just the kind of blunt, backhanded affection only someone like Arthur could pull off.
Koharu gave a sheepish laugh, then bowed her head with quiet sincerity. “Thank you. Really. Now come on, we need to get inside the gate.”
Arthur nodded and reached for her hand to help her up.
“Ah! Ow!”
She jerked back instinctively. “What’s wrong?!”
He winced, shifting his weight to the other foot. “Guess I messed up, too. Got stepped on real good.”
“Your leg…?”
“Yeah,” he muttered. “Caught a solid one in the stampede. Best case, it’s a sprain. Worst case… might be broken.”
He scanned the area. No one was left.
The others had already made it safely through the gate. The courtyard stood empty behind them, silent now, except for the distant roar of war cries ahead.
They’d been left behind.
Turning back toward the open field, Arthur’s expression darkened. He shook his head slowly.
“Ogres. Whole damn horde of them.”
Just as he said, the monstrous swarm had closed in to within fifty meters. At the head was the Ogre Emperor himself, towering and grotesque. Beside him marched several Ogre Kings—massive, armored beasts—and behind them came rank upon rank of Ogre Generals and their snarling foot soldiers.
Arthur laughed softly. Not bitter. Not afraid. Just accepting.
He swept his golden hair back with one hand, gaze steady.
“Go, Koharu. I’ll hold them off, buy you as much time as I can. I’m not dying for nothing, alright? If you trip and fall again, I swear I’ll come back and haunt you.”
Tears welled in her eyes. She stood frozen, lips trembling, voice barely a whisper.
“Why? Why would you go this far for someone like me? For a useless, slow, stupid girl like me?”
“I’m a noble,” Arthur said, his voice quiet but steady. “They mock me now, say I’m just the third son of a broke, fallen house, but I don’t care.”
Koharu didn’t respond. She could only look at him, shaken, breath hitched.
Arthur met her gaze, eyes filled with quiet defiance.
“What kind of noble can’t even protect one girl?” Then his calm cracked, voice rising in a raw shout that echoed across the empty field. “I may be broke, my name worth less than dirt, but I never took a single damn tax from commoners just to save my own skin!”
He threw a hand toward the gate.
“So run, Koharu! Go! Don’t waste this!”
But she couldn’t. Her body wouldn’t move.
She reached for the divine power of her bloodline, tried to summon the strength to fight, but her legs trembled, her focus slipped. It was no use. The power of the Saegusa clan didn’t draw from within. It wasn’t hers to command freely. It had to be borrowed, a blessing from a higher power. And gods didn’t lend their strength to panicked minds.
It was like begging a bank to invest in a company led by a shaking wreck in torn clothes. Divine power demanded composure.
Even in the relatively calm safety of the Forest of Fog, she hadn’t been able to access it. And now? With the very monsters that had wiped out her family charging straight at her?
There was no way.
What do I do? I can’t do anything. I’m useless. If I freeze up now, we’ll both die.
Then, from behind, from the gate they’d thought abandoned, a voice rang out, high and sharp.
“Well, would you look at that? Even the dead-last class has some fight in them.”
Arthur blinked, startled. His expression twisted into disbelief as he turned.
“Cordelia Allston…?”
Before he could even process the sight, another voice followed—cool, quiet, but cutting through the noise like a blade.
“She’s not alone.”
Koharu turned as well. There, standing beside Cordelia, as if she’d been there the entire time, was another girl, calm and steady, radiating quiet strength.
“Lilith?”
The two girls stepped forward, leaving Arthur and Koharu behind as they advanced toward the approaching horde. Within moments, they’d passed the pair entirely, putting themselves within striking distance of the ogres, barely a breath away from the monstrous front line.
Cordelia’s voice cut through the thickening tension, crisp and analytical. “We’re dealing with the Ogre Emperor and his entire escort. If we try to fight them one by one, we’ll be crushed. No question.”
Lilith gave a curt nod, her tone flat. “Most likely, yes.”
Without hesitation, Cordelia extended her right hand toward her.
A simple and clear gesture of alliance. Lilith stared at it for a beat, then smacked it aside with a sharp slap.
Cordelia’s eye twitched. “What the hell?! You’re seriously turning down teamwork now?”
“I’ll fight,” Lilith said calmly. “There’s no other choice. So yes, we’ll cooperate.”
“Then what was the point of swatting my hand?”
Lilith paused. Then, with a voice like frost, she replied, “Don’t mistake necessity for friendship.”
Cordelia blinked, then smirked, the corner of her mouth curling upward with something between amusement and challenge. “Hah. Alright. Suits me just fine.”
Side by side, but not together, they turned to face the horde.
Cordelia’s eyes flared crimson. The air around her shimmered as a deep red aura erupted from her skin, crackling with violent potential. She nodded to herself, ready to unleash the storm.
Then, just as quickly as it had ignited, the glow around her flickered out. Her crimson irises faded back to their usual bright blue in the blink of an eye.
Cordelia clicked her tongue, irritated.
Lilith tilted her head slightly, expression unreadable. “What happened, Cordelia Allston?”
Cordelia grimaced, lips tightening into a wry line. “Have a guess…”