SRS 6

“Don’t worry too much. It’s the first day today, so it won’t bite.”

“…It’s dragging them around.”

Suhyeok pointed with his thumb at the students who were being carried away in forced flight after being grabbed by the griffin. Mikael didn’t even look that direction and spoke.

“It’s taking them to the Sky Garden. We need to go there too. The first class starts there.”

Sky Garden. It was the place he saw on the board yesterday.

“Let’s go before we’re late.”

Mikael urged them. Yohan and his friends washed up while they listened to the screams of students coming from everywhere and followed Mikael out of the dorm with reluctant expressions.

After that, the place Mikael headed to was the Griffin Hall.

Mikael entered Griffin Hall like it was familiar and opened the room with the sign 304. He showed everyone the four griffins that were sitting there quietly.

“We woke up early and avoided the raid, so we need to ride the griffins ourselves.”

“We need to ride these?”

Kylus frowned with disgust. Mikael looked like he didn’t see the problem, then he exclaimed.

“If you can’t ride it, you can get carried by the claws or get bitten by the beak like the others.”

“…….”

“…That’s a really brilliant idea.”

Kylus spoke in a serious voice, and Suhyeok raised his thumb in disbelief.

Yohan approached the griffin, who was lying face down and looking at him with cautious eyes. He felt a familiar energy pulsing from the griffin’s heart.

“…I think I can feel divine power.”

“Griffins are divine beasts.”

“Aha.”

If that was the case, the griffin would probably like it if he gave it some divine power.

When Yohan gathered holy power in his hand and lightly released it, the griffin sniffed and brought its nose to Yohan’s hand, then its eyes widened.

–Heh heh!

The creature rubbed its whole body and wings against Yohan. Yohan, who was flustered, let out confused sounds and lost his balance. The griffin lowered its posture and caught him.

Soon, the creature swung its head back and bounced Yohan’s body a couple of times, helping him sit securely on its back.

“…….”

At some point, Yohan ended up sitting on the griffin like he was riding a horse, and he looked down with a dazed expression.

–Purrr!

The griffin with golden eyes looked up at Yohan and tilted its face around like it was acting cute. When Yohan first saw it, he was startled by its huge size and its sharp claws, but after looking at it, it seemed a little cute.

“I think it likes your divine power.”

Mikael explained calmly. His tone sounded like he expected something like this from the start.

“That’s how it is?”

–Purr!

The griffin spread its wings and purred, as if it understood the words. Yohan awkwardly stroked the griffin’s back and pushed in a little more divine power. The creature flapped its wings in delight.

“You can just go like that, Yohan.”

As Yohan nodded at Mikael’s advice, Kylus and Suhyeok looked at the griffins that needed to carry them with troubled faces.

“What do we do? We don’t have divine power.”

“Getting carried by the claws won’t be bad.”

“I’d like to refuse that.”

“Then there’s no other way.”

“Can’t we ride together? It looks like you know how to ride a griffin. If Kylus and I split up and ride on yours and Yohan’s griffin, won’t that work?”

It was a reasonable suggestion. When Yohan also asked together, Mikael skillfully climbed onto the griffin’s back and looked at the two.

“Well… I won’t recommend it, but if you want to do that, it’s fine.”

“You won’t recommend it? Why?”

“You’ll know when you get to the garden.”

The white haired young man smiled. At the meaningful smile, Kylus and Suhyeok frowned. They felt something wrong, so they couldn’t bring themselves to move.

“…You act like you’ll explain anything, but sometimes you’re mischievous.”

“Can’t I?”

“There’s nothing stopping you.”

Whether he gave advice or not was entirely Mikael’s choice. In the first place, if Mikael hadn’t woken them up, they would’ve already been grabbed and flown away by the griffins. So he shook his head, and Mikael quietly watched as Yohan meekly retreated.

Yohan was the one who looked away first.

“Kylus, Suhyeok.”

Yohan called the two over and reached his hand toward them when they approached.

“If it’s okay, do you want to receive a blessing? Griffins seem to like divine power, so it’ll help.”

“We’ll like it if you do that for us.”

“Will you be alright?”

Kylus tried not to show it, but he looked worried. Yohan noticed that look and chuckled.

“I finished recovering yesterday, and something like this isn’t hard.”

When he act confident, the young men obediently held out their hands to Yohan. Yohan held their hands with both of his. Golden light flashed, surrounded Suhyeok and Kylus, and then disappeared.

“Oh. I definitely feel more energy.”

“…Good.”

After seeing the effect of the blessing, they thanked him and approached the griffins. The two divine beasts tilted their heads like they were unsure if this divine power really belonged to them, then rubbed their bodies against them. Suhyeok’s expression brightened at the griffin’s signal to get on and sat on its back. When Kylus also finished climbing on, Mikael led the way by pushing the door open and took off with his griffin.

“Let’s follow them.”

-Purr!

Yohan’s griffin kicked the ground at high speed and jumped up to chase after Mikael.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

“Let go! Let go already! We’re here now!”

“Ugh! Someone get this griffin off me!”

“Hey! Don’t eat my hair!”

The Sky Garden, where everyone arrived together, was a complete mess. Most students wrestled back and forth with their griffins, and some already lay flattened under their griffins with hopeless faces.

“Yohan!”

Aegis, the priest Yohan became close with during the final exam, spotted him and hurried over with a bright expression.

“Ugh… No, hey! Let go for a bit! Hey… ugh… Yohan…”

Of course, the griffin gripping Aegis’ waistband with its beak made it hard for him to move. He dragged the huge griffin along and finally collapsed, looking at Yohan with pitiful eyes. Yohan was feeling sorry for him at first but soon became confused.

Aegis was a priest too. Why was a griffin bothering him?

“Aegis. Did you try giving divine power to the griffin?”

“What? Why would I give divine power to something like this?!”

“…They said griffins are divine beasts.”

“Those are different things.”

“…Hmm.”

Yohan understood why Aegis was being harassed. In a way, it was his own fault. While he looked at Aegis with a somewhat pitiful expression, he reached his hand toward Aegis’ griffin. When Yohan released divine power and showed it to the creature, its eyes sparkled. Then, the griffin let go of Aegis, and approached him.

-Grr!

At that, Yohan’s griffin bared it teeth k and growled. Yohan only now realized that griffins had teeth.

“…It was calm earlier, so why is it like this?”

“It must be jealous.”

Suhyeok commented from the side. Yohan didn’t understand and looked at his griffin.

“Why would it be jealous?”

“Maybe it wants to get holy power only for itself.”

“It doesn’t really have to…”

-Grrrr!

“No…”

-Hng….

“…….”

-Piu….

The griffin growled fiercely at first, then whimpered with a pitiful expression, and in the end, lowered its head like it lost all strength. It looked hurt. Yohan stared sweating and then he sighed.

“…Fine. I’ll give it to you only if I can.”

When he admitted defeat, the creature that had shriveled up proudly spread its wings like it was never disappointed.

“Is it really a divine beast?”

Suhyeok said exactly what Yohan had been thinking. Yohan didn’t want his griffin to understand and wilt again, so he only agreed in his head and gave advice to Aegis.

“As you saw, griffins like divine power. So try giving it some and get along with it.”

“No, what’s so cute about something like this…”

Aegis grumbled with a displeased face. Meanwhile, Yohan advised the other priests as well, and he felt relieved when the students slowly started freeing themselves from the griffins with the help of divine power users. Fortunately, it looked like nobody would get eaten or die to a griffin in the first class.

“You’re kind.”

Mikael, who had been quietly observing how Yohan moved with a trail of griffins behind him, commented.

“…There’s no reason to be unfriendly.”

“Is that so?”

Mikael tilted his head. Yohan looked at the gray eyes he couldn’t read and frowned.

Mikael didn’t seem like a bad person. The fact that the divine griffin followed him was proof of that.

But Yohan still didn’t know what Mikael was thinking. His intentions and thoughts were completely unknown…

“I honestly don’t understand.”

Mikael’s eyes curved as he heard Yohan murmuring to himself.

“I usually make people curious.”

“Yes.”

“…….”

Yohan didn’t know how to reply, so he answered immediately and looked away. He felt the back of his head prickle.

At that moment

“Everybody move out of the wayyy!”

A voice echoed from the sky. When the students lifted their heads and looked up, a huge, huge griffin, one incomparably larger than the ones they came with, fell toward the ground.

“Ahhh!”

“Get out, move!”

“It’s a giant griffin attack!”

When the students realized what was happening, they ran from the fall point in panic. A moment later, with a loud crash, the griffin hit the ground like it had slammed itself down.

“Agh…”

The person riding the shaking griffin groaned and slowly got up. Judging by the situation, he was probably the one who shouted for them to move at the start.

Everyone stared at the sudden intruder. He noticed the hundreds of eyes fixed on him and scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile.

“Nice to meet you all. I’m Ariel, the professor who’ll teach you your exercise classes with griffins from now on.”

The gentle looking professor with glasses said “Heave ho!” and got off the griffin.

“Ahhh!”

He then rolled down, and the students fell silent. The first professor they met after entering the Resurrection School was… clumsy.