The Villain Saint is my secondary account

After a brief opening, Severif began to introduce the details of the trial.

In short, the trainees need to hike to an unknown ruin five miles from the castle to investigate.

During the process, each trainee can only carry the prescribed equipment and props. They need to cooperate to complete wilderness survival, resist dangerous monsters, discover and establish contact with an unknown but friendly monster tribe, study ruins, map routes, and return to the castle after completing all tasks.

Professors and officers will observe the trainees' actions and score them. They will not provide practical assistance unless there is a truly dangerous emergency, but verbal communication is allowed.

The group of pampered noble students looked a little downcast when they heard about the restrictions on their belongings for wilderness survival. Professor Van Derrian immediately spoke up again: "I understand your confusion, but we are all children of the earth, bearing elven blood. Living in harmony with the forest and nature is a talent written in our blood. I believe you can all do it..."

Encouraged by him, the students below, who admired him, joined in the agreement.

Severif then led the trainees into the main castle to store their luggage and have lunch.

Walking through the magnificent castle, the curious students looked around.

Princess Femihill was also in the crowd. She was well-traveled and had seen many more magnificent castles, so she wasn't particularly interested in looking at them. However, her gaze was suddenly drawn to a portrait pasted on the head of a training dummy.

To be more precise, it should be described as an arrest warrant with someone's portrait on it.

At first, she thought she was seeing things, but after taking a few more glances, she quickly stepped forward and stared at the wanted poster with a 100,000 yuan bounty, her expression somewhat strange.

"What's wrong, Your Highness?"

Severif, who was ahead, noticed Femis's unusual behavior and hurriedly asked.

"Who is the wanted person...?"

"Oh, you mean this guy."

Upon hearing this, Severif's expression immediately became complicated.

"This... is indeed that ruthless pirate king. He assassinated the prince, attacked our fleet and the Holy Temple's fleet. Your Highness, I am truly sorry, it was the Legion's dereliction of duty that we failed to protect your brother..."

Femishire's lips twitched.

She had indeed heard her sister Celinedra mention the day before that her third brother had been assassinated by the newly emerged pirate king.

To everyone's surprise, this "pirate king" turned out to be an acquaintance.

Chapter Forty-Three Strange Phenomena

Seeing the clenched teeth of the Severif Legion Commander, Femishire didn't know what to say.

She recalled her duel with Ye Xiao and the fact that he had come to the embassy to deliver her subordinate's belongings, and she felt that Ye Xiao shouldn't be that kind of person.

However, she was not present when Prince Verrian was assassinated and therefore had no right to comment.

According to Sivirif, the arrest warrant has recently been sent to bounty hunter guilds and law enforcement agencies in many countries, but it has not yet been widely circulated among the general public in the country—after all, this is a disgrace to the empire, and at least in front of its own lower-class citizens, it still needs to preserve some face and dignity.

As Femis listened, he nodded, then glanced at the name on the wanted poster—"Voshchapiander"—and his expression became somewhat tense.

She hesitated whether to tell the legion commander the true meaning of the name, fearing that it would only make him angrier.

To be honest, although Prince Verrian was her half-brother, she had only met him a few times, let alone had any feelings for him.

Moreover, she always felt that there was something fishy about this matter. She knew in Loren that Ye Xiao was Skadi's knight and the lover of the Holy Maiden of Light. Logically speaking, there was no reason for such a guy to become an outlaw and a pirate to kill people indiscriminately.

If only I could ask that guy… Femishire thought, and asked Severif for an arrest warrant before leaving.

She remembered that her otherworldly traveler guard had the means to communicate with Ye Xiao remotely, and she could ask him to try asking after returning to Blue Mane Bay.

As for that "Professor Brandon"... Fermisil couldn't help but glance at Ye Xiao, who was talking to Professor Rhodes not far away.

If it weren't for the fact that this "Professor Brandon" was a genuine master of elemental magic, recognized even by her sister Celinedra, while the "Ye Xiao" she knew was a swordsman whose career path was completely unrelated, she would definitely have grabbed him and questioned him thoroughly.

……

After a hearty meal and a short lunch break, the trainees donned their off-road gear and gathered again on the training field.

Professor Van Derrian pinned badges on them for location and monitoring of vital signs. In addition to the three instructors from the academy and Severif, the Legion also sent a guard and medical team of a dozen people with eagle familiars to accompany them in case of any accidents.

This level of protection is already quite comprehensive, considering it's just a student trial, not a real adventure.

With a whistle from Professor Van Derrian, the students left the castle one after another and headed into the depths of the Dawn Forest.

"Shall we also hike together?"

Watching the students' retreating figures, Professor Rhodes turned to Van Derian beside him and asked a question.

"Of course, the students are all hiking, how can we slack off!"

Van Delian waved his finger. "Let's go, friends. How I miss that vibrant, youthful energy..."

Before he could finish speaking, a rumbling sound came from the other side, and a two-meter-tall, sturdy earth elemental puppet got up from the ground and carried Ye Xiao on its shoulder.

"Um... what are you doing, Professor Brandon?"

"Let's set off on foot."

Ye Xiao rested one hand on the earth elemental's head, lay on his side, and yawned. "This is my spell. It should be fine if I'm hiking."

Van Delian's lips twitched.

Seeing this, Professor Rhodes simply summoned a treant to carry him on his back.

He was initially a little embarrassed to do this, but since someone else had taken the lead, he didn't care anymore.

Van Delian was exasperated. He was a swordsmanship professor, yet he couldn't be so lazy. He could only silently stride towards the castle gate.

Reaching the depths of the Dawn Forest was far less easy than the way they had come.

The area was overgrown with thorns, and the students had only traveled a mile when they encountered the first wave of attacking monsters.

It was a group of spiders with an unusually large size. When their long, hairy legs appeared in the forest, many trainees in the group were so frightened that they screamed.

"Stay calm, students, and make good use of the knowledge you have learned."

Van Delian offered a reminder from the side.

This could actually be considered a class, only the classroom was moved outdoors. Nowadays, imperial society is advanced, and the times are different from before. Many newly born young nobles rarely go out into the wild to fight monsters.

After all, they can simply buy whatever monster materials they need, and if they really need something rare, they can hire a high-level hunter team to hunt it. There are almost no occasions where nobles have to personally fight monsters.

But that's obviously not going to work. Being pampered makes it difficult to become strong, which is why both academies in the south and the north have an annual external assessment process.

After overcoming their initial instinctive fear of facing powerful monsters, the students finally managed to organize a slow and hesitant counterattack.

If it weren't for Professors Vanderrian and Rhodes's deliberate intervention to delay the spider monsters' attack, there might have been casualties in the first wave of the expedition if it had been a real adventure.

The same scene was playing out in other locations throughout the vast forest.

Most of the first-year noble students were coming into close contact with such a threatening monster for the first time, and many of them were so frightened that they turned pale and dared not move their hands and feet.

Only the first group, which went to the Sky Knights, performed differently.

Princess Silvana sat atop a giant treant, and with the power of earth magic, she casually summoned several vines from the ground, shattering the horde of bear monsters that were besieging her. Then, she proudly raised her head, earning the admiring glances of the group's students.

Duchess Illyas, who was standing to the side, was unhappy that her spotlight had been stolen. If this guy hadn't come from the north, she would have been the one to shine right now, but at this moment she could only grit her teeth in secret.

“Silvana, you can’t rely too much on divine magic. You should take this opportunity to practice your other abilities.”

The only one who dared to lecture the second princess was naturally the eldest princess, Serendra, who was accompanying a group of students as a mentor.

"There's no need for that, sister. Isn't divine magic also my ability?"

Silvana crossed her arms over her chest, her beautiful eyebrows slightly raised.

"But you're right, sister. It's true that we should give other students a chance to practice, otherwise everyone would have come for nothing."

"Ugh."

Celine sighed helplessly, and just as she was about to say something more, a strange look flashed across her brow.

Whether it was her imagination or not, she seemed to see a bear monster's severed arm lying on the ground not far away, which suddenly slithered like a snake into the bushes nearby.

Before she could see clearly, a piercing scream suddenly rang out.

"what!!!"

Her gaze immediately shifted, only to see a student being bitten hard on the arm by a grotesque bear head that was only half intact, with blood splattering everywhere.

Chapter Forty-Four Parasitic Snakes

Blood splattered on the ground, and two students rushed forward to try to help pry open the strange bear head.

Even though only half a head remained, the corpse, its eyes gleaming with ferocity, stubbornly clung to the injured student's arm.

No one knows where its strength comes from.

"Back off!"

Serendra realized something was amiss and decisively thrust her sword out. Corrosive rock wind burst forth from the tip of the sword, transforming into a shattering spiral that reduced the monster's head to dust.

She precisely controlled the force of the magic circulating around the sword's edge, preventing injury to the student's bitten arm. Even so, the once fair arm now bore a shocking, bright red wound.

"what's the situation!?"

The college instructor in charge of the group also rushed over and, seeing the terrible state of the situation, quickly used natural magic to heal the wounds on the students' arms.

The healing process was supposed to be done collaboratively by the students themselves, but when the professor saw Celinedra's somber expression, he knew that something unexpected had probably happened.

"Goddess above, why is it still moving!?"

Screams came from the side, and the group looked at the head on the ground, which was now a pile of minced meat.

It was wriggling and contracting strangely, as if it were breathing.

Serendra frowned and, amidst the horrified gazes of the other students, used the tip of her sword to pry it away.

Just as the longsword made contact with the pieces of flesh, without warning, a small and blurry black shadow suddenly tore through the flesh and lunged straight at Serindra's face with a "whoosh".

Fortunately, Serendra reacted quickly and immediately blocked with her sword.

The dark figure bounced off the cold sword, revealing its slender, dark body. Like an eel, it instantly burrowed into the mud and disappeared without a trace.

"Is that a snake?"

Some of the students who were watching asked in confusion, but Celinedra couldn't respond. The thing was too fast, and even with her master-level dynamic vision, she couldn't see it clearly.

"Professor Farelin, have you ever seen a monster like that before?"

She asked softly.

Professor Farrell was the assistant instructor of the group who had just arrived to help cast healing spells on the students. He mainly taught nature magic and alchemy.

She is an Aslan woman in her forties who has been teaching at the Sea Cliff Academy for over ten years. The Dawn Forest outside Blue Mane Bay is a very familiar place to her.

Even she couldn't recognize the strange serpentine creature from before. "I'm not sure, Your Highness Serendra. It looks like a black manta ray... but it's much smaller and its speed is really unusual."

The student who was bitten had his wound healed on the surface and stopped bleeding under the effect of the natural magic, but his entire arm was black and bruised, as if the blood inside could not clot and was swollen.

The appearance of a monster never seen before in the forest is not unusual under normal circumstances.

After all, there are many kinds of monsters on the continent, and it is not uncommon for mutated species to emerge due to the influence of the magical environment and the migration and reproduction of various communities.

But Serendra thought about the elemental chaos that had occurred on the border recently, and now she had encountered an unknown monster. She had a bad feeling about it.

Furthermore, the snake-like monster's movements were quite bizarre, suggesting that more than one was parasitizing the bear monster's body.

"Gather all the trainees, something's not right."

Celinedra gave the order decisively. She wasn't sure if she was overreacting, but it was clear that the safety risks to the trainees continuing to operate in this area were incalculable.

Continuing the trials before figuring out the true nature of the unknown monster is definitely not a wise choice.

Of course, not everyone supported Serendra's idea. After arriving and understanding the situation, the vice-captain of the Sky Knights, Teplo, felt that the reaction was somewhat excessive.

It was just a mutated monster snake that appeared. How could a real Aslan knight or adventurer abandon their mission because of something like this? Only pampered noble students need to be appeased.

But he only thought it to himself and naturally wouldn't offend Celinedra in his actions.

They quickly helped gather the group of trainees back from the woods.

"I regret to inform you that due to some special circumstances, our trial has been temporarily terminated, and we will now return to Bluestone Fortress by the same route."

Because the group was exploring in shifts when they were suddenly attacked by the bear monster, many trainees did not see the black snake they had just seen, so some agreed with the order while others were surprised.

Greta was also in the crowd and immediately sensed something was wrong, because Favina, whom she was controlling, hadn't even had a chance to lure out the Dark Cultists yet.

But Illyas seemed even more anxious than her, her gaze constantly sweeping back and forth between Serendra and Favina.

If Greta is the oriole unaware of the mantis, then this guy is now the mantis eager to get rid of Favina. Seeing that the opportunity right in front of him has suddenly disappeared, he is naturally restless.

Unfortunately, since even the vice-captain didn't object, none of the trainees dared to question the eldest princess's orders.