The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

Once the rangers had regained their composure, they resumed leading the students towards the canyon.

If it had been before, many would have marveled at the grand scene of the canyon opening up into a vast grassland, as well as the tall, imposing city wall not far from them, but now most of them just wanted to safely get into the academy before anything else went wrong.

Evelyn shared their sentiment, though not because she was terrified or anything like that. Although her probe had failed, as expected, it had managed to do its job of provoking the beast. In fact, it was far more effective than she imagined, but she couldn't be bothered checking a gift horse's mouth. 

Regardless, she had harvested more than she ever expected, and she couldn't wait to get to a more private place to start checking things out. Hopefully, her guess was right, and she should now be able to help Bree out of her predicament.

In the end, even if her actions hadn't led to anyone's death, it still weighed heavily on her that she had ended up causing so much distress to both Vivian and Bree. Although she wished Craig had died, seeing how calm his aide looked now, Evelyn was sure he should be alive and well.

'How is it that this guy reacted so strongly at that time, but looks so relaxed right now? He doesn't seem concerned that Craig might be dead at all. It's as if he was just acting earlier….'

But even if she wanted to dig into it further, she doubted that the guy would answer any of her questions. Plus, there's no point in attracting more attention to herself at the moment.

'As long as Bree restores her strength and intelligence, nothing else matters. I can always take care of that bastard prince later.'

Not long after, their group finally passed through the ungated opening in the massive stone walls. Although there were two guards present, they didn't seem to care about their group's entry.

The city itself was far more humble than its tall, grand walls suggested. Most of the houses were either just a single story or had just one additional floor, the shops were just small stalls and street vendors so far, and even the roads were far inferior in material to those in Moreen city.

"Disappointed?"

The pink-haired girl nodded. "A little. There doesn't seem to be much here."

Cecilia sighed. "That's because it's not too safe to build in this area. The sentinels may be strong, but sometimes beasts and threats they consider 'insignificant' can pass through and cause havoc."

Evelyn couldn't help but feel slightly confused. "If the sentinels take care of most real threats, aren't there many ways to deal with the small fries? At the very least, they could build a gate."

The older girl could only shrug helplessly. "I don't know, honestly. Anyway, this city is just a temporary resting spot between the forest and the academy. The other three cities are far better!"

Evelyn nodded, though her interest was more in the academy itself than these cities. After all, since they had all been built by students who had decided to settle down in this area over the years. There was no taxation, government, or any central body controlling their development. How grand can they be, with everyone just doing whatever they want?

These grand walls built for their protection were just the ancient academy's charity projects.

Of course, that didn't mean that life in these cities was terrible. For one, the academy didn't charge anyone for the land. They just had to take care of building their residence or shop themselves. Of course, the amount of area you can occupy depends on your total 'contribution points'.

And another huge advantage was the fact that almost every child capable of being cultivated into a ranger was guaranteed to be admitted to the academy, provided they could take care of their own expenses. This was because the academy didn't need to limit their seats to account for the trip through the 'Wonderland of Doom'. The academy itself was more than big enough for the increased number of students.

Perhaps the only major disadvantage of living here was that their livelihood mainly depended on hunting in the 'Wonderland of Doom'. Needless to say, both the skill requirements and fatality rate were sky-high.

However, this was also the best place to grow for a talented ranger. The combination of danger and resources, along with a proper safe place to return to and rest, provided an ideal environment to level up.

This was why many rangers from all over the continent came to stay here. As people who didn't have the luxury of boarding the academy's carriage, they of course had to face the dangers in the forest while traveling.

Thankfully, the academy allowed them to accompany their carriage on its once-a-year trip, provided they also acted as escorts. For free, of course. 

It freed the academy from having to send their own experts out every year, and it also gave the rangers a more reliable way to enter and exit this safe haven through the 'Wonderland of Doom'. A win-win, unless something went wrong.

Evelyn didn't know just what kind of damage the academy's precious artifact had suffered from the centipede's attack, nor what kind of reaction the upper echelons will have after learning of it.

Hopefully, it wasn't too serious. She didn't intend to hurt her own future place for learning, after all. But of course, even if she could do it all over again, she would still make the same choice.

It didn't take too long for their group to arrive at the center of the city, where an ornate archway stood with a thin film of distorted light inside, flickering like a curtain in the wind.

Evelyn's eyes shone as she looked at it, wondering if she would learn how these kinds of things worked when at the academy. 

"It's much smaller than the ones in Moreen city and port of Nemer, huh."

This was the second time she came across a 'teleportation array'. And although she had always been curious about arrays and artifacts, she could never find any details on how to create them herself.

Her best clue had been that Vivian had somehow managed to make that bracelet into a grade one artifact, but all of her own trials resulted in failure. Either Vivian managed to get it right by sheer luck, or Evelyn was missing something important.

Cecilia smiled as they got into a single file line to enter the 'gate'. "Of course, those were all long-range portals. But those don't work here. Except for a few of these short-range portals inside academy grounds, we have to either walk, fly, or rent a carriage."

Many commoners were carefully listening to their conversation, and many of them were terrified at the prospect of going through such an unreliable-looking thing for the first time. One girl finally couldn't hold it in anymore.

"I-Is it really safe?"

Cecilia nodded. "Totally safe. Less than one in ten thousand go missing after going through teleportation arrays."

Of course, instead of assuring the poor students, her words only managed to scare them further.

"I-I'm not going in!"

"Me either!"

"I wanna go home!"

At this moment, some of the stronger rangers finally couldn't hold it anymore. Not to mention that the beasts on their way were stronger than usual this year, they even ended up involved in a confrontation with the 'Thousand Eyed God'.

The rangers didn't even know how far the academy's precious artifact had been sent flying, and their top student was also missing. 

If they had known this was what they were signing up for, none of them would have taken this mission.

Hopefully, the academy didn't blame them for any of it, especially the artifact. If they were to pay for it, maybe even selling the next ten generations of their descendants into slavery wouldn't be enough to rid themselves of that debt. 

But even if they were to be blamed, the rangers didn't dare go inside the forest. How could they move away from the sentinels when it was still unknown if the 'Thousand Eyed God' had left or not?

Anyway, now that the students had already been led to the portal, their job was done. None of them wished to stay any longer, but the leader of the rangers also knew she couldn't leave without 'completing' her responsibility cleanly.

"Hey, you, you look like the oldest prefect here, right?"

Stanley was stunned when the tall blue-robed lady suddenly pointed him out.

"M-Me?"

"Right. Listen up, brats! It takes at least six hours to get to the academy, non-stop, so I just suggest not being an idiot and just going through the portal. But if you really don't want to, then this guy here will show you the way."

Without waiting for anyone's response, she turned around and left swiftly, and the other rangers hurriedly followed.

Stanley was left staring blankly as dozens of students started gathering behind him, ready for him to lead the way.

'This would never happen if Prince Craig was here! It's all because of that stupid King and his mad scheme!'