国产午夜亚洲精品AⅤ

Chapter 99

We constructed additional huts that day, enough that each person could have their own. The kids accepted my suggestion to tie down the huts to the logs with vines to prevent the newly-made huts from being blown over or tossed about by the wind, and each hut was secured firmly to the wooden support.

If we had left them they were, they would all be smashed and blown away by the rainstorm that would hit us the next day.

The order for the night watch remained the same as the previous day.

Everyone seemed in slightly better spirits, perhaps because of the newly installed log floors, which were an improvement over the previous night. However, most seemed to feel slightly disgusted with themselves for finding comfort in the slightly better sleeping arrangements, given the situation.

Everyone was equally exhausted by the day’s events, and all fell asleep, regardless of the condition of our camp. I was no exception.

***

It was deep into the night when...

Gush Gush Gush...

The sound of rain...

Rumble! Rumble!

Thunder...

Whooshhhh!

And wind...

The patter of the falling rain and the howling wind entering through the slit in the hut made it impossible to stay asleep.

Given our current conditions, constructing a hut that was completely weatherproof was out of the question.

“What the—! It’s raining all of a sudden?”

One by one, the kids began shouting in alarm from inside their huts. Sleeping comfortably in this chaos was out of the question. Dark clouds swirled overhead, and with the campfire extinguished, visibility was down to zero. We were in literal darkness.

Only the intermittent flashes of lightning provided any source of light to be able to see anything.

A storm was raging.

—Don’t go outside! Stay in for now!

That was Vertus’s shout.

Even though the rain was seeping into the huts, stepping outside meant getting completely drenched. Staying put was a slightly better option, and provided some shelter against the rain and wind. It was impossible to fall back to sleep, but enduring this until the sun rose and the rain subsided was the only choice available.

Going outside now would only result in a rapid drop in body temperature due to exposure to the elements.

—It... it’s going to fly away!

However, it seemed not all the huts were firmly secured. Some looked like they were about to collapse.

—If it collapses, quickly move to another one!

Even in such a desperate situation, Vertus calmly issued instructions to the other kids, who had been seized by confusion and fear. If we hadn’t reinforced the floor with logs, we’d now be lying on wet, damp sand.

Crack!

At last, unable to withstand the strong winds, someone’s hut collapsed with a crash.

—Aah!

That scream belonged to Harriet.

—I, I can’t see anything! What should I do?

Enveloped in the heavy darkness, Harriet seemed to be in a state of panic. It would have been nice to use magic to create some light, but in that situation, it was impossible to remain calm enough to cast a spell.

—I, I can’t see anything! What should I do?! I, I feel like I’m going to be blown away!

—Saint-Ouen! Get into another hut!

—I, I can’t find one because I can’t see anything!

Flash!

A flash of lightning arced across the sky, allowing me to pinpoint Harriet’s location. I emerged from my hut. She was crouched down on the ground, groping around aimlessly.

“Wh-Who are you...?”

Harriet seemed to feel both relief and fear as someone grabbed her in the darkness. I fumbled my way back into my hut, dragging Harriet with me. I made her lie down in the remaining space next to me.

“Calm down, Thick-Skull.”

“R-Reinhart?”

It was funny yet sad that she immediately recognized that it was me, even in all this chaos, just because I had called her by that nickname.

I could sense her relief at hearing that nickname and knowing that it was me.

“Vertus! I’ll take care of her!”

—Good job Reinhart!

“Calm down. It’s just rain.”

I patted the back of the trembling girl who was drenched in fear and shivering from the rain. “The rain is going to stop. You know that, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah...”

She wasn’t just trembling in fear. Her shivering seemed to stem from her feeling cold as well.

“Use a heat spell or whatever you have to keep warm. You’ll have nothing to worry about then.”

“O-Okay...”

She seemed to be trying to calm herself down, taking deep breaths as I had shown her.

Rumble!

“Aah!”

Unfortunately, finding calm didn’t seem easy amidst the unrelenting roar of the savage winds and peals of thunder. She was caught in some of the worst conditions possible, even before she’d had a chance to adapt to the unfamiliar environment, so it was only natural that her mind would not settle down.

The huts creaked ominously, and it seemed a few more had broken apart. Some of the kids screamed, and I could see others rushing out to gather those who had been displaced.

“I’m scared...”

I couldn’t see Harriet’s expression in the darkness, but I could definitely feel her shaking. Nevertheless, my continuous patting seemed to be effective, because she soon managed to activate a spell.

She had apparently conjured up some sort of heat source using magic, because a faint yellow orb materialized, which begant to spread warmth around it.

“Good, that’s it.”

“Yeah.”

Although the light wasn’t very bright, it was just enough to vaguely illuminate the surroundings. The wind continued to howl outside, but the orb’s effect was similar to having a small campfire inside the hut.

Harriet, having calmed herself, began to summon more orbs one by one, and started floating them toward the other huts.

“Y-You’re...?” I said.

“... Yeah?”

I must have looked a little stunned, as I hadn’t expected her to act in such a way. Harriet stared at me as if she had done something wrong.

“... No, never mind. Keep going.”

In a crisis, we needed to help each other.

It was a simple gesture, but seeing Harriet acting on her own to help others made me feel strange. Maybe she thought that, since she’d received a lot of help, it was only natural for her to help others. Still, that wasn’t like her at all.

Fortunately, the orbs of light that Harriet summoned seemed to succeed in easing everyone’s anxiety.

Rumble!!

“Well done.”

“... Thanks.”

The storm continued to rage on.

Falling back to sleep would be tough, but at least we were no longer cold.

***

The storm which had raged through the night finally began to calm down in the morning.

Of course, the rain hadn’t stopped. A deluge of rainwater was still pouring down from the sky. Waves were crashing violently against the beach, and in the distance, more intimidating waves churned about at sea.

Even with waterbreathing spells, venturing into those waters would be suicidal.

The morning brought with it improved visibility. It made sense to wait for the rain to stop, but it seemed that it would continue through the upcoming night as well. Staying put meant a day of hunger, and possibly even going without food until the next morning.

While water wasn’t a problem, food definitely was.

“Wh-Where are you going?”

Harriet looked panicked as I started to rouse myself and get up. Summoning all those heat orbs at night had left her drained. She must have been the most exhausted among us.

“We’ve got to do something. You rest.”

“...”

As I walked out into the pouring rain, Vertus, who was already outside, waved me over.

“It’s a total mess out here.”

“Tell me about it.”

I wasn’t sure if it was necessary for him to be out there, but Vertus had been checking on the three huts that had been ruined overnight. It looked like he was making sure everyone was accounted for and safe.

“Reinhart, we have a problem.”

“Problem?”

Vertus’ expression had turned gravely serious.

“Kaier has disappeared.”

Originally, at this point, all of Class A, except for Ellen, should have given up.

That was why the incident that should have occurred in Class B’s ranks had now occured in Class A.

***

Kaier Vioden had vanished, and Vertus was currently trying to understand the situation.

“There’s definitely something weird going on. Normally, if it rains, the person on watch should have woken us all up... but that didn’t happen, did it?”

Kaier had the watch just before mine. If the storm had started while he was on duty, Kaier should have woken everyone up to prepare, but he didn’t.

“Erhi, who was on watch before Kaier, said he definitely woke him up. He saw him start his watch before he went to sleep...”

“I wasn’t awoken by anyone.”

Kaier didn’t wake me. We had all woken up only because of the noise of the storm.

“It seems something happened to Kaier while he was on watch... At least, that’s the situation at hand.”

Something must have happened to Kaier before he could wake me for my turn, leading to his disappearance.

“It’s possible that Kaier faced some kind of situation and decided to give up voluntarily. Or this situation itself could be part of the mission, or he might have wandered into the jungle and gotten lost... It’s complicated.”

Vertus nodded at my speculations, which was more or less guesswork.

“This must be part of the mission, right?”

“It would seem so, wouldn’t it?”

“Hmm...”

Vertus seemed to be looking for certainty. It was unclear whether Kaier had given up, had gotten lost in the woods, or if something truly unfortunate had happened to him. If the situation wasn’t under control, Kaier’s life could be at risk, but the teachers provided no hints despite all this.

It was all on us to figure it out and resolve the issue.

Whether we searched for Kaier, gave up, or uncovered the truth, was up to us.

“There are three plausible possibilities right now,” Vertus continued calmly amidst the downpour. “One: for some reason, Kaier went into the jungle in the middle of the night. It could be something like needing to relieve himself. During that time, the storm blew in, and he lost his sense of direction, which means that he’s now wandering lost in the woods.

“Two: a survivor on this island has kidnapped Kaier or harmed him in some way. If that’s the case, then it’s likely that Kaier has given up, or been eliminated. Especially if that survivor is part of the mission and being directed by the teachers.

“Three. Class B has kidnapped Kaier.”

Vertus was considering a possibility that hadn’t even crossed my mind. He had Class B on the list of suspects too.

“Class B? Why would they?”

“The way to clear this mission is simply to survive until Sunday. But that’s only to ‘clear’ this mission and not ‘win’.”

Surviving until Sunday would allow us to clear the mission, but not emerge victors.

Ultimately, this mission had both a cooperative element as well as a competitive one.

Vertus was considering every possibility, including the possibility that our competitors were also suspects.

“There’s another way to win, aside from just satisfying the special conditions,” Vertus continued.

I sensed I knew where Vertus was heading with this.

“If you make the opposing side give up, you can win by just enduring until Sunday.”

Vertus had caught on to another method of emerging victorious in this survival competition, one that even I, the author, hadn’t thought of.

He was truly beyond imagination.

Of course, Vertus was aware that this third option was a much less likely scenario, but he also believed that Charlotte would surely be aware of this possible path to victory. Even though such an aggressive approach was unlikely, he still believed the possibility existed.

Hence, Vertus asked me, amidst this chaotic situation, to check on what Class B was up to. As the only one from Class A who frequently interacted with Class B, I wouldn’t raise any suspicions, he reasoned.

He left me to make my own judgments regarding the sharing of information regarding our current situation and any other issues with them.

***

Braving the downpour, I made my way to Class B’s camp, which was also in disarray.

The huts in Class B’s camp were all irreparably destroyed, and the camp seemed deserted. If I hadn’t demanded that our huts be reinforced in preparation for such a severe storm, Class A would’ve suffered the same fate. It seemed the Class B students had decided to abandon the camp for the time being, and were going to assess the situation again once the rain stopped.

Given the amount of destruction they had faced in the middle of the night, any attempt to salvage their camp would have been futile.

They were likely gathered somewhere inside the jungle, probably under a large tree.

“Charlotte! Ludwig! Delphine!” I called out as I entered the jungle, aimlessly shouting for Charlotte and Ludwig. It didn’t take long before I found Ludwig, who appeared from behind the trunk of a large tree.

“Reinhart!”

“Hey! Are you alright?”

Ludwig approached me through the rain with a relieved expression as I drew closer.

“Whew, what a disaster this is.”

“Is everyone gathered over there?”

“Yeah. But it’s rough. They’re not in a good condition.”

Following Ludwig’s lead, I reached the other members of Class B, who were huddled together under a big tree, trying to shelter from the rain. They were just as drenched as the students from Class A, since there was no complete protection from the rain.

Fortunately, there was a floating sphere of light, similar to but slightly different from what Harriet had summoned, radiating warmth that seemed just about enough for them to endure the miserable situation.

At this point, I knew that it was a student named Ashir, with a talent for Divine Power, who was maintaining this minimum amount of warmth with divine magic. He was the one who had summoned the orb.

“Reinhart.”

Charlotte, who had been sitting quietly, rose from her spot, pulled me over, and made me sit close to the sphere of light. “Did you come to investigate us?”

Charlotte gave me a feeble smile, as though she could see right through my intentions, even in these dreadful conditions.

“I can’t say that you’re wrong. But it looks like the situation here is pretty bad.”

“Definitely. It hit us completely out of the blue in the middle of the night.”

All the members of Class B were shivering visibly, and Ashir seemed overwhelmed just maintaining the divine magic.

“How are things over there?”

“Our camp got hit pretty hard too. Not as badly as here, though, but still not great.”

Charlotte nodded as I spoke. I checked on the other members and completed my assessment of the situation.

“It looks like you’re missing one person.”

At my words, everyone’s expressions stiffened slightly. There weren’t many in Class B that I knew well, so the absence was noticeable.

“Louis Ankton, is he missing too?”

Charlotte’s expression changed at my question.

“Huh? Does that mean you’re missing someone on your side as well...? What happened?”

“Yeah, we’ve lost Kaier.”

It seemed the disappearances weren’t solely confined to one side.

People had disappeared from both groups. The original storyline revolved around Lanian Sesor’s disappearance from the Class B group, but that part had changed slightly.

Immediately, the possibility that Vertus had proposed—that Class B might be the culprits behind the disappearance—vanished. Class B would go searching for Louis Ankton once the rain stopped.

“I can’t go into details given the circumstances,” I told Charlotte, looking at her.

Charlotte would be able to deduce quite a bit from the one single clue that one student was missing from both Class A and Class B.

“There’s a ravine in that direction, with a stream of drinkable water. We found it yesterday.”

“Drinking water?”

“Yes.”

This news caused the expressions of the Class B students to shift slightly. Although it was raining, the existence of drinking water was crucial information.

Charlotte looked conflicted about receiving such information for free.

“Take care, Charlotte.”

“Yeah, thanks, Reinhart. Be careful on your way back.”

Charlotte saw me off, watching until I had gone quite a distance.