Chapter 26: Search in the Girls’ Dormitory
Arisu used Healing Magic on the girls who luckily survived from the orcs’ attack.
First is 《Heal》, then its 《Cure Mind》. The eyes of the girls which only held despair initially, gradually regain its life. Casting these magic costed a lot of MP, but this is also something that can’t be helped.
「Tamaki, Mia!」
Seeing Tamaki and Mia standing blankly on the spot, I patted their shoulders. At these timings, it is better to give them things to do, no matter what it is.
「We should take the time to investigate the surroundings now.」
There shouldn’t be any more elite orcs appearing, and the orcs here should have all been defeated by us. But even if so, we should not let our guard down.
I left this area to Arisu, and brought Tamaki and Mia to investigate the first floor with the wolf. The corridor is silent, and we looked into each room one by one.
A few doors are locked, but there is no need for courtesy. We used Tamaki’s axe to break the door and entered to investigate.
「Ah—— right, where are the 2 of your rooms?」
「Arisu and my room are over there, just beside each other.」
「Hmm, my room is on the 3rd floor.」
After I thought about it, I instructed Tamaki to return to her room to change.
「Tamaki, help pack some stuff for changing for Arisu. Then search the other room, and find clothes that the girls in the cafeteria can wear.」
「Understood, we can’t let Arisu stay there alone for too long, leave it to me.」
「Mia, you will follow me, let’s go to Level 3.」
As long as the familiar wolf is around, there should not be a problem with the guard. Even if a surviving orc is hiding above, the sharp nose of the wolf will detect their presence—— this is what I had thought about.
The narrow corridor can’t let 2 orcs walk side by side, as long as we can delay them for a while, then there is time to summon another wolf. And we can have Mia to use magic to support me.
And after summoning magic is raised to Rank 3, I learnt a new skill 《Cure Familiar》, which can fully cure the grey wolf’s wounds. Rank 3 summons will exhaust the greatest MP value by 9 points, hence as compared to re-summoning, curing familiars and re-using them maybe more efficient.
After splitting ways with Tamaki, Mia and I walked up the stairs. Luckily the enemies seem to have all rush out, there is no signs of orcs inside.
Level 2 and 3 are filled with sounds of buzzing of flies, painful to ears. They probably found corpse, that’s why they gathered. We walked Mia’s room which is on level 3 first, and let her change.
「Do you want to peek on me while I am changing?」
「No.」
I waited with wolf outside the room, I squatted , and the familiar wolf sat beside me like the loyal dog Hachiko. Whoo whoo, it seems to be a smart kid, I caressed the grey fur on the wolf, and it closed its eyes in comfort. Oh man, this fellow is really cute.
「Do you want the stained panties?」
Mia’s voice came from inside the room.
「No, throw it away, you should have many clothes for replacement in there.」
Mia stopped for a moment.
「hmm, that’s right, I will choose something suitable from my roommate’s wardrobe.」
I said it wrongly. To my carelessness, I could only groan in frustration. That sentence is as though saying that all her friends are dead. I pressed on my mouth, covering my groan.
「I don’t mind.」
Perhaps because of my breath, or perhaps of other reason, Mia discovered my movement. She suddenly open the door, and pushed her head out.
「Actually I am clear that my friends, cla.s.smate, and teachers are most probably dead, only I am luckily enough to survive.」
「That is not certain.」
「It is better to have mental preparation. It’s fine, I have already finished crying last night.」
Mia patted me, on my shoulder, who is squatting down, thinking of letting me be at ease.
「Last night, Shiki-senpai said to do so, and everyone cried together in the girls’ room.」
「Shiki-san huh……」
Mia responded with「Hmm」, and nodded.
「She said if we want to cry, we should do it now. So if Kazu-chi has yet to cry, then I can lend you my chest.」
As Mia said, she puffed her flat chest.
「Although it is not big enough to give people comfort, but I can still lend it to you.」
「Self-sarcasm is your forte?」
「Be careful that I will let you eat stained panties.」
That is a reward to people with certain hobbies, but I do not feel happy about that.
And I do not a roommate that I am close enough to mourn his death, and I even hope that all the people will die. Ah—— but……
Revealing everything about myself now will make me lose face, so why not just say something to tide over. That’s right, hmm.
「If I want to cry, I will cry on Arisu’s bosom.」
「It is indeed better to have huge b.o.o.bs right……」
At least change that「huge b.o.o.bs」to「lover」.
Before Mia finished changing and organising simple luggages, I left to check the rooftop. I do not wish to let Mia see that tragedy there.
The 6 corpses on the rooftop is surrounded by large amount of crows and flies. After confirming that there are no orcs, I returned to level 3, and shut the door to the rooftop.
This moment, Mia also carried her luggage and walked out from her room.
「Let’s go, Kazu-chi.」
There is no sign of sadness in her expression. Although her eyes are a bit swollen, but due to the dim in the corridor, so I could not see properly. Perhaps she cried again just now.
But just as she said, we should cry while we can, perhaps that is also a good thing. At least in our current situation, I thought so.
「Then again, Mia, why did you deliberately change to bloomers?」
Mia is dressed the same way when she is digging a hole as she left her room—— PE shirt and bloomers.
「This is brought over from the Cultivating Centre, everyone had a part in it.」
「Sorry, I do not know where to start retorting.」
We followed the sequence and checked the rooms on level 3, and found 2 bodies in a certain room. Mia looked at the bodies quietly, and mumbled:「Sorry, I will return again」.
「You know them?」
「They are my cla.s.smates.」
Mia’s expression did not change, but her hand that is holding the luggage is trembling.
I did not ask her relationship with the 2 person…… No, I could not ask.
As responsibility, we search all the rooms on level 3 once.
According to Mia, the girls who are staying on level 3 are all Year 1 students from the middle school section. She also expressed that other than her own cla.s.s, she did not interact much with the other students. Hence it is better for me to just search by myself? But Mia is a person who stay in this dorm, so perhaps there are only some stuff that she will know.
「Next is level 2. Level 2 is the rooms for Year 2s, I do not know people from Year 2.」
Oh—— I nodded. After ending the search on level 2 and 3, we return the cafeteria, without being attacked by any orcs.
Tamaki had already changed her clothes and returned. Her top half is PE shirt, and her bottom is the same bloomers.
「Why even Tamaki is also wearing bloomers……」
「I gave it to her just now.」
Mia whispered. Oi, you.
Tamaki is crying while sitting down, it seems that she discovered a few familiar faces in the corpse pile, while Arisu is silently continuing to treat the survivors.
「Sorry, sorry, Arisu. Just awhile more, let me cry a bit more.」
Tamaki used PE shirt that she had just changed into to wipe her ever flowing tears.
Arisu remained silent, without an expression, as though she is wearing a mask, continue to cast 《Heal》 and《Cure Mind》. I brought over blankets from the nearby rooms to cover the bodies of the girls who have been treated, they remained powerless. If only we could have done this earlier.
The girls who survived after receiving Arisu’s treatment amounted to 10. Their bodily wounds are healed with magic, their mental shock are reduced due to the effect of magic. Even so, no one could stand up immediately. Although magic can heal the wounds, but it can’t replenish their strength.
Forget it, after all we predict that it will become like this. I gave instructions to Tamaki who have recovered and Mia who was holding luggages with both her hands at the cafeteria entrance:
「The 2 of you hurry back to the Cultivating Centre, and bring 5 people here.」
「I know. But, let me go by myself. I will return immediately, Mia will stay here.」
It’s too dangerous for a person—— before I could say it, Tamaki rushed out, without even bringing her giant axe weapon.
Ah ah, that fellow is really! I could not do anything, but order the familiar wolf to go and protect Tamaki. I order it to wait near Tamaki, and if orcs appear, engage them.
My smart and adorable pet woofed as an expression of understanding the order, and chased after Tamaki.
「We will bury the bodies some other day. According to this situation, the buildings are likely to have other survivors, I wish to save them as fast as possible.」
「Yes…… You are right.」
The moment when she stood up, Arisu’s legs suddenly gave way.
I ran up to support her quickly.
「Sorry.」
「Thanks to you, these 10 people could survive, you should be proud.」
「But…… my friends, a few of them already……」
This huh—— I nodded. Hmm that’s right, such stuff are bound to happen.
Since that is so, even if you behave a bit more sorrowful, it is fine. Express all your feeling—— I wish to say that……
But Arisu is very clear, no matter how sad she is, the dead will not return. The correct choice is to save as much survivors as possible, that is probably what she believes in.
But I don’t feel that it is good to just purely increase the number of survivors. The Cultivating Centre is our gathering point, if the number of people defending there does not increase to a certain number, the future activities like this will be in trouble. But once the number increased too much, it will result in a fight between groups.
At the same time, I also feel that we should destroy the gathering points of the orcs, eliminating the enemies. What if the surviving orcs all attack the Cultivating Centre together, we will not be able to defend it. Before things develop to that, we have to think of methods to solve it.
Well it is just thinking, no matter what, I do not have much MP left.
Arisu’s MP should be almost finished due to the healing. Arisu is still fine, but my MP is linked to my combat ability. I wish to bring them back first and rest.
Mia looked around the rooms in level one, and gathered clothes for changing in a few plastics bag back in a trained manner.
「Sorry for troubling you.」
「No, it is better for me to do something to calm myself.」
Mia finished her words, and pa.s.s the clothes to Arisu. Indeed it is PE shirt and bloomers, I am already too tired to retort……
「Mia, sorry, can I trouble you to go to the kitchen and find stuff like choppers.」
「Okay——」
Mia ran out of the cafeteria as though she is escaping.
Even though her steps are not steady, Arisu still returned to her room and changed into her PE shirt and bloomers.
After 20 mins, Tamaki returned. She followed my instructions, and brought 5 people over.
Shiki-san is also among them. Other than her, other 4 middle school section girls also witness the tragic scene, and stopped their breath, and then cried. Shiki-san slapped those girls’ cheeks.
「I know that you all are in pain, but protecting the survivors are the most important thing now. We do not know when the Cultivating Centre will be attacked, hence we cannot leave it too long.」
Shiki-san scolded those blur girls that came from the Cultivating Centre to help, and I cast 《Mighty Arm》 on them, to let them use their shoulders to support the girls. After all even though the victims underwent treatment, they are still powerless, causing them to weigh very heavily.
Luckily among 4 of the girls that were rescued, expressed that they can walk on their own, and stood up shakily. They supported each other’s shoulders and walked.
「Although I am still not clear on the situation——」
Among the survivors, one of the girl with ponytail said. She used a cloth to wipe her hair that was stained with orc fluids, because of the sticky feeling, she frowned and looked at me.
「But there is no time, right. Since so, we will do our best to not become your burden.」
I only said「don’t force yourself」, and chose to respect their will. Although we should at least let them wash with water, but as I expected, the tap water in the girls’ dormitory cannot be used. Probably because of the earthquake, causing the water pipe to have problems somewhere.
「Then, Gaya-san, let’s go.」
Shiki-san supported a girl each on both her shoulders respectively, and because it seems tough, I suggested to help, but I was rejected with a「You can’t」as the reason.
「Your responsibility is to protect us during attacks when we are on the way back, isn’t it?」
「Ah, that’s right.」
I felt that the initiative has been taken away. But her orders are very well-thought, nothing to complain about.
We retreated from the girls’ dormitory quickly and returned to the Cultivating Centre.
Just as we are about to reach the Cultivating Centre, the wolf familiar’s ears suddenly stood up.
Shiki-san carried the girl that we rescued, and walked slightly forward. At the same time, she stopped and turned back. I remember Shiki-san got the Detection Skill, in other words——
「Gaya-san, there is sounds of battling from the front.」
Shiki-san expressed in an urgent voice.
「The Cultivating Centre has been attacked by the orcs.」