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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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‘Team play.’
Originally, it wasn’t something I paid much attention to.
Not only was it not a situation that called for it, but I also didn’t particularly prefer it.
But things changed after I effectively recruited Yuseora as a companion.
‘I should at least think about it to some extent.’
I couldn’t just throw her away now.
And I was doubtful whether she would obediently back down even if I did.
So, for now, I had no choice but to make the most of Yuseora, whom I had accepted.
That was also part of the reason why I transferred classes to Freya’s side.
From now on, I could use tactics more to my liking.
That was the plan…
‘Nothing is easy.’
I looked around at the team members gathered for the strategy meeting.
Everyone was frozen like mice in a beast’s den.
The only exceptions were the two beasts.
“Wouldn’t this be good enough?”
A knight positioned in the middle of the enemy lines and a queen guarding the king in the rear.
And other chess pieces scattered around them.
This was the formation Elsie had created on the strategy board.
“So who’s the knight?”
At Yuseora’s question, Elsie smiled and said,
“You, of course. The ace they brought in from swordsmanship class 2?”
The current situation was clearly not good.
This was also why I tried to send Elsie to another instructor as much as possible.
But in the end, that failed, and even sending her to another team within group 4 failed due to Elsie’s stubbornness.
“What are you talking about? Didn’t you lose to me? Then you should be the one to go forward.”
“No, the queen guarding the king should obviously be stronger than the knight, shouldn’t she?”
Elsie was certainly strong.
I could clearly picture Gwen’s hardships, who would have been guiding her for over a year.
‘I should apologize when I see her again.’
But Yuseora never yielded to Elsie.
Of course, that didn’t mean it was a good thing.
“But I lost two weeks ago. If we fight again, I’ll win.”
“There’s no way someone who couldn’t even properly attack me could have become that much stronger in two weeks.”
“If you don’t believe me, we can fight right now?”
No, that was a problem.
I had been quiet until now because I was a little scared, but now I had to stop them.
“Yuseora, stop. Do you want to destroy your Sacred Relic?”
And, although I didn’t say it out loud, this whole area would be destroyed along with the Sacred Relic.
Of course, I believed that Yuseora wasn’t serious, but just in case, I had to stop that from happening.
“Seo Yoo Rang? Are you taking her side now?”
No, it’s just that stopping you is a little scary.
Those words almost came out, but I barely swallowed them back.
“That’s not it…”
“Then how about Seo Yoo Rang decides? I heard that in many parties, the archer has some command authority, as we learned in tactics class?”
“That sounds like a pretty good idea?”
For once, the two were in agreement.
Although there was a problem with that agreement.
…No. Come to think of it, there wasn’t really a problem.
‘Anyway, it means that the two of them have acknowledged my command authority.’
I had already received some degree of command authority from Fraira.
But whether the other team members would follow that command authority was a separate issue.
In a way, the two powerful beings, Yuseora and Elsie, had solved that problem.
‘Is this a gain, in the end?’
I examined the strategy board that Elsie had roughly set up.
The strongest queen guarding the king.
And the other chess pieces scattered around, with the knight roaming the enemy lines.
‘It’s a pretty standard tactic.’
Come to think of it, the tactics of the former 4-B team, which Elsie belonged to, were also standard like this.
Elsie must have been in charge of tactics since then.
But the composition of the 4-B team at that time was too unbalanced to use such standard tactics.
‘It’s the same now.’
So these standard tactics couldn’t be used.
It meant that it didn’t matter who was stronger between Elsie and Yuseora in the first place.
They used the same weapon, the sword, but the two were fundamentally different.
‘Yuseora has a strong single blow, but that’s it. Elsie is still lacking in power, but has good combat endurance.’
Based on this, there was only one best conclusion.
I reached out to the strategy board and started moving the chess pieces.
‘It’s a bit unsettling, but…’
Theoretically, this was right.
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Some time later, the first mock battle of the 4-B team after the trade.
Their opponent was the 3-A team led by Professor Huff.
And the support mage of the 4-B team, Lian, didn’t look so good.
‘Is this really right?’
The sly face of that guy, Seo Yoo Rang, who had presented the strategy as if being pushed by two women, flashed through his mind.
And that strategy was something he had never seen before, not in class or anywhere else.
‘Normally, a support mage should always be paired with an attack mage…’
For some reason, Seo Yoo Rang had instructed him to follow two swordsmen.
Well, he could somehow accept that.
But the problem was those two swordsmen.
‘Is it really okay to put those two together?’
The two women walking in front of him.
Yuseora and Elsie.
Even after entering the mock battle, the two were constantly bickering over trivial matters.
‘There’s no way they can work together like this.’
As he was clutching his head, the two looked back at him and said,
“Huh? You’ve fallen behind again?”
“If you keep falling behind like that, you’ll die, you know?”
No, teamwork wasn’t the problem after all.
‘That bastard, Seo Yoo Rang.’
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“I still don’t think this is right…”
Meanwhile, the same words were being spoken by the party consisting of two swordsmen and one spearman.
Of course, theoretically, a party of two swordsmen and one spearman was a fairly balanced combination.
But the problem was that this left no one to protect the mage.
“That guy’s archery skills are just average. Does he really think we can win even after abandoning the attack mage?”
The only one left with the attack mage was the archer, Seo Yoo Rang.
That meant that close-range protection was impossible, so the moment their position was exposed, it was over.
Then one of them said in a light tone,
“Well, whatever. Our team is just a dumping ground anyway. A perfect combination was impossible from the start.”
“That’s true. The so-called ace they brought in this time, Yuseora, is also practically a B-team castoff.”
“And Seo Yoo Rang was probably just thrown in as an extra.”
As they were chatting and laughing,
They saw birds suddenly taking flight in the distance.
“Looks like the battle has already started over there.”
That was where the Yuseora, Elsie, and Lian party had headed.
“Come to think of it, the most pitiful one is Lian. To be stuck with those two aggressive women…”
At that moment, his words were cut off.
His mouth was definitely moving, but no sound could be heard.
“Wait a minute, now…”
Their conversation was drowned out by a huge boom.
When the echo gradually subsided and their voices could be heard again.
They couldn’t continue.
Far away, on the other side of the battlefield.
Half of the intact forest there had been wiped out.
And it had happened in an instant.
“Was there someone like that in team 3?”
Even among the elites led by Professor Sigrit, no one had shown such destructive power.
Or was it a new member who had just joined team 3 through the trade?
As they were making such guesses,
Seo Yoo Rang’s voice rang in their ears.
(Alright. ‘Tank’ has completed the annihilation of the opponent’s mage party.)
‘Tank’ was the nickname Seo Yoo Rang had given to the Yuseora, Elsie, and Lian combination.
They didn’t know what it meant, but at the time, they thought the name was ridiculous.
But now they thought differently.
“Tank is freaking strong…?”
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“What the hell…!”
Professor Huff, who saw the catastrophe, jumped up in surprise.
Freya said to him,
“Didn’t you tell me not to use such undignified language last time?”
“…I misspoke.”
Huff sat down again.
It was unlike him to get excited, but he couldn’t help but be excited by what he had just seen.
He asked Freya,
“I hate to admit it, but isn’t this the first time since that guy you taught that someone has shown such power?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Then did you know about her and try to recruit her during the entrance exam?”
Freya shook her head.
“No, at that time, I just thought it would be fun.”
“Then that…”
“Well, only she would know, right?”
At Freya ‘s half-hearted answer, Huff gritted his teeth.
But he couldn’t show it.
He calmly began to analyze the situation on the battlefield again.
‘But that attack seems to be a one-time thing.’
Since the 2-star Sacred Relic she had was already destroyed, another attack of the same power would be impossible.
And Elsie, who was with her, seemed to have exhausted her stamina after rampaging alone to get there.
‘Then what’s left is two swordsmen, one spearman, one archer, and one attack mage?’
He had already confirmed that the support mage was with Yuseora a moment ago.
That meant that the attack mage definitely didn’t have a support mage with them.
Maybe the battle wasn’t over yet.
And just then, he received a message.
(Professor, we’ve found another enemy party. It’s a combination of two swordsmen and one spearman.)
At that moment, Huff felt it instinctively.
The odds were still in his favor.
Aside from Yuseora and Elsie, the swordsmen on Freya ‘s side were all of a lower level.
Moreover, the fact that they were all gathered in one place meant that the attack mage only had an archer at best.
Therefore, he ordered,
(Leave those guys alone and find the mage quickly!)
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“Alright. ‘Tank’ has completed the annihilation of the opponent’s mage party.”
He muttered as he saw the explosion that occurred far away.
The 4-B team’s attack mage, Belle, asked him anxiously,
“Are we really going to be okay?”
Even if it was true that Yuseora had annihilated the mage party, it didn’t mean victory.
The remaining two swordsmen and one spearman weren’t reliable.
Moreover, she was now alone with Seo Yoo Rang, without any proper protection.
‘I’m doomed, I’m so doomed…’
When she was assigned to a position alone with Seo Yoo Rang, she remembered the looks Yuseora and Elsie had given her for some reason.
Those looks were definitely looks of pity.
And now she was keenly realizing the meaning of those looks.
“Yes, we’re fine.”
Seo Yoo Rang answered calmly.
She should have definitely told him when he said that he couldn’t use anything other than Fireball.
That Fireball wasn’t the kind of high-powered magic he was thinking of.
No, should she tell him now?
‘Yeah, that’s better, right?’
She worked up the courage and opened her mouth.
“Um, I don’t think you’ve seen my Fireball properly, but Fireball isn’t really that…”
“No, I’ve roughly grasped what kind of magic it is. I brought you here considering that, so don’t worry.”
“What?”
His eyes had changed in an instant.
It was a look she had never seen before, even during the mock battles in the same 2-A team.
He quietly said to her,
“Don’t worry too much and just focus on casting.”
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