Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume18 Chapter7 (section)

===Part 2===

Inside a certain temple in the forest, fire light was flickering. Hanging on the wall were large decorations made of bones. The pungent smell of herbs filled the air.

"My apologies to you all."

Saying that, the girl bowed towards Kamito's group sitting by the fire.

Her blue eyes were as clear as a lake's surface. She had platinum blonde hair.

Like Kamito and his friends, she was wearing the Academy's uniform.

The girl's name was Horin Shareilia.

She was the druid girl of Team Cernunnos.

A powerful user of a beast swarm spirit, she had defeated Kamito and Claire before in the school tournament. She was one of only a handful of powerful elementalists in the Academy.

Earlier, Kamito and the girls had triggered the traps she had laid in the forest.

"No, we were in the wrong for trespassing."

Kamito apologized. This part of the forest was apparently something like her backyard.

Born in a forest clan, Shareilia was a rare elementalist not hailing from a noble family.

Because of that, even though she was attending the Academy, she obtained special permission to live inside this Spirit Forest together with animals.

"If your home is here, that means that Academy town isn't far off, right?"

Claire asked while drinking herbal tea.

"Hmm, you will soon reach it after going down the hill."

"How are things at the Academy town?"

"...Hmm, sorry."

Shareilia shook her head at Ellis' question.

She was still in the forest when conflict broke out between the students and the Imperial Knights, which was why she could not return to the Academy. Left without a choice, she came to this temple to sleep. As it so happened, Kamito and his group triggered the traps in the yard.

"Why did you set traps like those?"

"It would be dangerous if students accidentally wandered into the forest."

Hearing Rinslet's warning...

"&mdash;I set them to prevent those people from damaging the historical sites in the forest."

She replied with a serious look.

"Did you say historical sites?"

Claire and the others exchanged glances.

There were many historical sites in the Spirit Forest, dating back to the age of myths.

For example, the temple dedicated to worshiping Est was one of these sites. The most famous historical site in the forest was probably the gate that allowed people to teleport to Astral Zero.

"Hmm, a bunch of weird looking people entered the forest and took away the gate historical site near the lake."

"Took away? How do they take away&mdash;"

"They used militarized spirits&mdash;"

Shareilia spoke with chagrin.

According to her, the suspicious group had released militarized spirits in the forest, slicing apart the giant rock that constituted the historical site and carried it away.

"They are not the Empire's knights?"

Ellis asked.

"I don't know. All of them were wearing strange masks. Animals have left because these people chopped down trees in the forest."

"It is hard to believe the Imperial Knights doing something like this&mdash;"

Ancient sites were products left behind from a past age when Astral Zero and the human realm were one. The technology of modern spiritology was unable to replicate the power of even the most basic historical sites.

Thus, historical sites were protected by international treaty. Let alone damaging them, even moving them was strictly prohibited. If the Empire's army had taken away the site, it would surely draw violent criticism from domestic nobles and foreign nations.

"What are they planning by taking a historical site away?"

"...I have a bad feeling about this."

"Yeah, we better hurry&mdash;"

Kamito nodded. Hearing that, Shareilia stood up and whistled.

"There is a shortcut to the Academy town ahead. I asked wolves to lead the way for you."