At the same time, in the Noble Alliance faction’s camp."Enemy attack!"Ding ding ding—.Along with the ringing of a bell echoing through the night came the sentries’ shout.On top of the unrest already spreading because Teon’s team, their ally, had been raided, someone had even come to attack the Noble Alliance team’s main base."Dammit, the main force is already gone."Charlotte, who had received the order to guard the camp while the main force went to rescue Teon’s team, ground her teeth and watched the enemy torches drawing closer.The main Noble Alliance force had moved out under the pretext of going to rescue Teon’s team, which had been attacked by Loen.Whether that really was a rescue or just going to fish in troubled waters, she didn’t know, but for someone to raid them in the gap when most of their combat forces were on a sortie… how could something like this happen.Charlotte watched the enemies approach and shouted to the students under her."Hey! Move it!""Y-yes."A girl answered Charlotte’s shout in a slightly intimidated voice.It was Bell, with white hair and rabbit-like red eyes.Charlotte quietly clenched her fist as she looked at Bell.'Still, if I borrow that commoner’s strength, I should be able to repel the raid.'Lately, because of Beatrice’s eyes on her, she hadn’t been able to say anything, but in an emergency situation like this she could give orders as she pleased.'Tsk, what a show-off she’s become just because she caught the princess’s eye.'A girl who hadn’t even been able to meet her eyes before was now living it up with her friends."Everyone, this way! We’ve spotted enemy torches!"Charlotte led Bell and the other combat mages out to block the enemy.And the raiding party from the enemy team that they faced.At the head of that raiding party stood a male student with a familiar face."Oh, meeting you here. Nice to see you, Bell."Bell widened her eyes and spoke."Loen?"***"So you were with this team? That’s unfortunate."I waved at the familiar face.It felt nice to run into people I usually saw often in such an unexpected place.While Bell and I were greeting each other, one noble girl at her side shouted at me."Loen, your side’s supposed to be attacking Teon’s team……!"Judging by the name tag, she was a student named Charlotte, and as far as I knew, one of the nobles who used to bully Bell.I spoke in a cold voice."That’s correct. Ciel’s detached unit is probably in combat about now."Ciel and Hildegard, plus Caron and Dandol. In truth, most of the team’s fighting power had been投入 into the raid on Teon’s team.Right now, only Tepes and a few other combatants had come with me.Clicking her tongue, Charlotte pointed a finger at me."Tch, Bell! Hurry up and fire a spell!""U-ugh."Bell hesitated, seeming reluctant to cast magic at me.Then Charlotte screamed at her."What are you doing right now? Do you not want to take the exam?""S… sorry, Loen!"Flash—.With Bell’s cry, a massive fireball that dyed my field of vision red came flying at me.Exaggerating a bit, the fireball looked like a small sun, lighting up the midnight darkness.'Ooh.'While I was admiring Bell’s magic, I switched my Elemental Aptitude to Water and opened the canteen at my waist, splashing out water.Shaaah—.At the same time, I used the Azoth Sword to form a wall of water and block Bell’s flames.Sssssss—!Bell’s fireball vaporized the wall of water I’d created in front of me.As expected of a fireball imbued with the properties of [Extreme Flame]; even a water wall strengthened through Transmutation wasn’t enough to block it.Watching the water wall evaporate, I spoke to the allies behind me."Tepes, get clear.""Everyone, throw yourselves to the side!""Yes ma’am!"Boom—!While the water wall evaporated under the heat of the fireball, Tepes and the other combatants threw themselves aside to escape the heat.Once I had blocked the first volley, I left this side to Tepes."Tepes, hold Bell off for a bit. I’ll go rob the food stores.""Hey, you’re telling me to fight that flamethrower? You trying to get me burned to death?""……Here. I’ll lend you this for a bit."I tossed Aegis to Tepes.Snatch—.Catching it one-handed, Tepes smiled."All right, with this I can block a few hits."Whoosh whoosh—.With Aegis in hand, Tepes boldly pulled out a steel bat and charged Bell and the other fighters."Hi-yah!"Boom—!While Tepes and the other combatants were buying time like that.I slipped out of the battlefield and moved to locate the Noble Alliance team’s food stores."Here we are."The camp was fairly large, so it took time to find, but before long I was able to locate a warehouse where food had been piled together."Who’s there!"The students guarding the area near the food warehouse started to rush me when they saw me, but.Psssh—."Uh…."I sprayed Sleep Spray and subdued them with ease.Once I’d taken out the guards and gone inside the warehouse, I saw all sorts of food.Salted meat made from hunted animals, edible fruits gathered from here and there, and preserved rations Union had scattered around the island for the students.It looked like enough to feed several hundred people for a week.Vmmm—.I opened my subspace pouch and swept in the preserved rations that would be easy to carry.It would be a waste to just burn it all, and once I absorbed their team later, I’d need even more food.I filled the subspace pouch to its capacity limit with food and stepped back outside.When I exited the warehouse, Tepes and the others were gathered there, looking worn out.With the ends of her hair slightly singed, Tepes panted."Huff, huff. You get all the food?""Yeah, thanks to you holding out so well, I got a lot. It’s enough for just us to eat for a few months.""I don’t want to stay on this island for months.""……Agreed."Answering Tepes, I decided it was time to withdraw.We had achieved our primary goal of robbing the food warehouse, so now we just had to run away safely."Get them!""The enemy’s over there!"The voices of the pursuers rang out from far behind.I used the Azoth Sword to transmute the earth and raised a massive wall of dirt.Rumble rumble rumble—.Using about half my mana, a huge wall several meters high rose up and completely cut off the pursuers from us."They robbed our food!""Get them!""Get them with what? How are we supposed to get past this wall!"Thanks to the massive earth wall I had created, the enemies couldn’t chase us.With our retreat secured, we calmly slipped out of the Noble Alliance camp."Let’s go."***When we returned safely to our base, it was full of noise and the presence of people.A crowd gathered together.Ciel was waiting for us along with the students from Teon’s team who had surrendered.Ciel bowed her head to me."Did everything go well?""Yeah, it’s a shame the subspace pouch isn’t bigger."I had filled the 500-liter subspace pouch to the brim with preserved food, but it still felt a bit lacking.I turned my head and spoke to Teon, who had surrendered to our team."Been a while, Teon. First time seeing you since the Ishtal headquarters?""Looks that way, Sir Loen."Teon scratched their head, looking awkward."You made a good choice. The sooner you surrender, the more points you’ll get. You can treat your injured students too."In fact, even now that Teon had surrendered to me, Teon’s team still outnumbered mine by a lot.My team had around 50 people, whereas Teon had brought roughly 150—three times that.Even so, the reason Teon had decided to surrender was that there were hardly any comrades left who could still fight.Most of their fighting force was in a state of barely hanging on after being pounded by Ciel’s fists, and just having a lot of subordinates didn’t really help in combat.Teon cautiously asked me."Are you not going to ask about the fact that I tried to betray you?""Why would I fuss about that. Don’t worry about it. That’s just how war is.""……."This faction war was a miniature version of war.Situations where people smashed each other in the back were common, so alliances sealed only by treaties meant nothing.It was important to have many people you could trust and to strengthen your bonds with each other.Like Silphiette, whom I had once saved, or Elena, who had casually come alone to visit the enemy camp.Allies who had no room to betray you, and leaders you could respect even as enemies.Even if the faction war was only one of the exams Union had prepared, it was interesting because you could experience so many things.Finishing that line of thought, I asked Ciel."How many Cubes did we secure?""We obtained a total of 157."Ciel pointed to the stack of Cubes piled up in one area."Good, I’ll absorb them into my Cube."I went to the mountain of Cubes and absorbed them into my Cube one by one.Once I had absorbed all the loot we’d gathered, a notification voice rang out.[Current Base Level: 8]Space expands.Cost recovery increases.Maximum Cost increases.70 → 80Basement, storage sector, outer tower and inner tower are activated. Ramparts are generated.The Cube had now expanded into the form of a splendid fortress.The base level had jumped up to Level 8 at once, and Level 9 was not far off.The number of people registered to my team had also increased to about 200.We still didn’t match Elena’s team yet, but it was tremendous growth.If we finished off the Noble Alliance team going forward and later absorbed Silphiette’s team as well, we’d be able to stand toe-to-toe with Elena’s team.Once I finished the Cube absorption and subordinate registration, I asked Ciel."Ah, come to think of it, what happened with the Noble Alliance?"The main Noble Alliance force that would have been dispatched to take advantage of the situation while Ciel’s detached unit and Teon’s team were locked in fierce battle.While the main force was away, I had raided the Noble Alliance food stores, but we had no information on what had happened to the main force itself.In response, Ciel explained."I persuaded Sir Teon to come here quickly before the Noble Alliance main force arrived. So we never faced them directly.""Then they must have swung at empty air. Well done, Ciel."Ciel hadn’t lost troops while facing the enemy, and had quickly persuaded Teon to bring over most of the forces intact.Her contribution was enormous.In any case, the Noble Alliance main force had failed to absorb Teon’s team and gone on a wild goose chase, and on top of that, their home camp had been raided and most of their food stolen, so they must be in a panic.In war, food was always the top priority issue.If your stomach was growling with hunger, your fighting spirit would naturally bottom out.If you were starving and they didn’t even feed you, who would fight hard.Troops that lost the will to fight were no longer troops; they were no different from ordinary people gathered together.And before things got that far, the Noble Alliance would soon come straight at us to fight.Ciel spoke."They’ll probably attack in the near future.""Yeah, since their food’s been stolen, ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) they can’t hold out long. They’ll come to hit us in a swift, decisive battle. Together with Silphiette’s team, which they still think is their ally."At my words, Teon’s eyes widened, and Teon asked in a startled voice."……Surely not?"I nodded with a smile at Teon."That’s right. Silphiette is actually an ally of our team. A hidden dagger that will deliver a decisive blow to those Noble Alliance bastards."

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