“It is possible that after I leave this time, I won’t be able to come back here anymore.”(Me)

I haven’t told them about me going to the tournament, so it was obvious that they didn’t understand.

“What are you talking about?”(Sylphy)

“In one week, the tournament between the human race and the beastman race will start. I’m planning to watch it.”(Me)

“What does that have to do with it?”(Sylphy)

“Master told me that he wants to est...”(Nala)

I already saw the confusion in everyone’s expression, so I stopped him from confusing everyone even further.

“I sent a letter to the human king, telling him that I plan to attend personally as the nightmare.”(Me)

“I told you, what does…”(Sylphy)

“So you fear that they will prepare a trap or something like that.”(Sandra)

As expected of one of my students, Sandra was the quickest to understand.

“Yes. I said it’s possible that I won’t return, I didn’t mean that it’s for sure.”(Me)

“Was that also the reason for you to meet Sepp?”(Sandra)

I didn’t expect her to be that sharp, so I was a little bit shocked. I quickly calmed down and answered.

“Yes. Furthermore, I plan on taking either Sandra or Horan with me.”(Me)

“Can you explain that too?”(Sylphy)

Sylphy just wanted revenge on Sandra for interrupting her and hoped that Sandra wouldn’t be able to provide an explanation.

“Sure. It’s probably because big brother wants to take retainers with him to show off a bit. If he were to go alone, others could start thinking of us badly. Probably the decision is who out of us 5 will go with him, which is exactly why he wanted to discuss this.”(Sandra)

She looked at me as if she was waiting for my approval.

“Continue.”(Me)

I was happy that I didn’t have to do the whole explaining part, so I just sat back and relaxed.

“The problem is that Sylphy, Nala and Sarah were already seen with him at school, which only leaves Horan or me.”(Sandra)

Sylphy didn’t understand why something like that was seen as a problem. Perhaps it was a mistake to take someone in just because of my interest. I planned to check their intelligence beforehand next time.

“It’s because Master doesn’t want his identity to be revealed to others and if we were to go with him, someone who already saw us would become suspicious of him being the Nightmare.”(Nala)

“Correct. But the next problem is that if he were to take both Horan and me with him, the Dark Continent would be left with no protection.”(Sandra)

Sandra looked at me again and wanted me to confirm everything she said.

“Something like that yes. I have trust in everyone’s strength, but I don’t want to take any risks.”(Me)

“Fine. I understand that, but even if the humans plan something, there should be no problem if you’d just try to escape.”(Sylphy)

I wanted to answer but Sandra did so for me.

“How can we know that it’s just the humans? Perhaps they asked for help from the other races.”(Sandra)

It started to annoy me that Sandra explained everything.

“Yes. It would be nice if you’d let me talk from now on.”(Me)

“Ok.”(Sandra)

I thought she would put up more resistance or that she would be dissatisfied with it, so her reply shocked me a little bit again.

“I think the best decision is by taking Sandra with me. Horan is stronger, so he will be a better choice to defend.”(Me)

“If that’s your decision, I will accept the task of defending the Dark Continent.”(Horan)

No one else said anything, so I just took that as an approval.

“Good. Next, I’d like our faces to stay hidden so we need robes.”(Me)

I used another 2 hours to talk about what we need. Moreover, we thought about when we wanted to leave and how we wanted to travel. In the end, we decided that going by foot was good enough. Before everyone left, I told them my plan for the next few days.

“I know it’s harsh, but until we leave, so for the next 5 days, I’m planning to train in this house. I’d love to play and talk with you, but I need to be prepared.”(Me)

We decided that 5 days was the time limit, because we’d need about 2 days to arrive at the location where the tournament would take place.

“I’ll do the same. Can I train with you?”(Sandra)

She managed to shock me 3 times in one day. That’s a new record.

“Sigh. Fine.”(Me)

“Big brother, until your departure, I’ll have everything be prepared.”(Horan)

“Don’t forget your promise.”(Sarah)

She was silent during the entire discussion. It was the first time she said something since I came back.

“Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to come back and teach you about magic. I promise.”(Me)

It was already late when they left.

“What are we going to do first?”(Sandra)

“I don’t know what you are going to do, but I’ll probably focus on methods of casting magic.”(Me)

I wasn’t planning to teach her anything, because I wanted to focus on my own progress.

“Boo. Not fair. Why do I have to train alone? I thought you’d teach me something when you said I could stay here.”(Sandra)

“Do what you want, just come and get me when it’s time to leave.”(Me)

I went to another room for training. As I said, I focused on efficient methods of casting. After inserting myself to it with almost no rest, I succeeded in creating what I called instant casting and silent casting. As the names imply, instant casting is using magic instantly without any preparations, while silent casting is casting the spell in my mind.

In my opinion, saying the name of the spell you are going to use is stupid. The enemy would know what you are going to do and would have more time preparing a defensive spell.

Despite all my success, I couldn’t be happy. I actually thought that I was able to create those methods in one or two days, at least it felt like that. But shortly after I finished silent casting, Sandra came to pick me up. To my defence, the room I was training in didn’t have a window, so I didn’t know if it was day or night and I only slept once.

When I opened the main door, everyone was gathered. Horan gave us the robes and guided us to our boat. It was similar to the situation when Sepp left.

“I hope you enjoyed these last days, because they were the last peaceful days we’ll have for quite some time.”(Me)

I said as soon as we set sail for the human continent.