Harem Sync: Divine Edition

Chapter 106: Baptism (4)

"Did we lose?" Golden asked, slowly getting up.

"No. Not by a long shot." The pair who had helped them up replied.

Haru looked around; the room was bigger than the previous one, with more freshmen and more light.

"Safe zones..." he said quietly, remembering the map, the specific points he had seen in the courtyard before they ran off.

"Exactly." The pair confirmed. "The points on the map mark safe zones. Veterans don’t attack us here."

A single-person student in the corner added: "One more pair and we get resources..."

A veteran sitting at the table smiled, saying, "Said the traitor."

"Traitor..." Haru mentally processed. "Even better. It seems that at these Checkpoints there’s data on pairs that should arrive so that we can distribute resources..."

"The wretches are experts. This forces the others to move, and when they leave here they’re chased. There will come a time when, because they’ve captured several students, there won’t be any complete people left to receive resources..."

Haru Mal finished the thought when a thin and a fat guy arrived hurriedly running.

The fat guy was visibly destroyed, sweating, limping, too breathless to speak.

"Good!" the others cheered.

The most arrogant veteran at the table, the one who seemed born only to annoy, stood up without haste. He spat on the ground. He picked up a box and threw it in the center:

Three gallons of water in canteens, three dry loaves of bread, a revitalization potion, and a bandage.

Each newcomer ran to grab it.

Haru and Golden moved, but before they arrived, they stopped.

Everyone stared at each other, then at their resources.

Two pairs and the single man had already taken everything... there weren’t enough resources for everyone there.

"How...?"

"Golden..." Haru said softly, "...I think we should get out of here."

"No fucking way." Golden ignored him and forced the chain forward, dragging Haru to the single man.

Golden snatched his canteen, opened it, and drank.

"What the hell are you doing, Golden!?"

"Ah, fuck it. Let go of my hand."

Golden almost finished the water in his canteen, took a deep breath, and looked the single man in the eyes,

"...I don’t know why these guys gave me insufficient resources, but one thing I know."

Golden gave the almost empty canteen to Haru. "This guy was called a traitor. So he’s the one who least deserves to be here... he doesn’t even have a partner."

He paused, staring at everyone, and suddenly another guy came to try and stop him.

Golden punched him, the blow echoing. He stomped on the next guy’s face without even looking. He grabbed the bread. He didn’t eat it, just bit into it and spat it in the guy’s face on the ground.

It was clear that Golden just wanted to beat someone up.

Chaos ensued, supplies were snatched away, and a fight for supplies began, each one shouting.

"Survival will make understanding crumble..." Haru thought, watching this.

Haru then drank from the little that remained in his canteen, breathed, and threw it back to the veteran at the table.

The veteran put the canteen down without looking, only adjusting his glasses.

Chinese features with a smile of someone who had seen it all. He closed the book he was reading and stood up, drawing his two-fingered nunchaku.

"Welcome to Astraeus Eldrath..."

"Golden, let’s go now." Haru sensed that trouble was coming.

"But this is a safe zone..."

"This is a Baptism, and they make the rules."

The Chinese man began to speak, in a calm, almost professorial voice:

"I remember my Baptism..."

He looked specifically at Haru and Golden, the only ones standing still amidst all the chaos.

"I remember falling into a safe zone too. At first, everything was fine... until the chaos over supplies began..."

Then they heard footsteps behind them, another pair running towards the safe zone. They hesitated at the sight of the fight, slowing down.

The other veteran clenched his fists, cracking his neck.

"Let’s go..." Golden already agreed.

The Chinese man didn’t stop: "Safe zones have two rules. Rule one: there’s a certain number of pairs to receive supplies."

He slowly put away his glasses. "And the second is very similar to what Eldrath said: safe zones in war produce more corpses."

He looked at the line on the ground. "Rule two: there’s a certain number of pairs so that the safe zone produces corpses."

The pair that was coming stepped on the line.

The Chinese man and the other veteran entered, without announcement, without hesitation.

They just arrived, hitting everyone. Without any mercy.

"SHIT!"

Haru and Golden ran out.

"Damn it!"

They arrived at a long corridor, where only the moon illuminated from one side.

Only three figures ran there: Haru, Golden, and the Chinese behind them.

The Chinese man could catch them at any time, but he ran at a moderate pace, for pure pleasure, his nunchaku twirling casually.

"Hahahaha! Accept it, it hurts less!" His voice echoed in the hallway.

"I remember being hunted like this! I ran until I couldn’t anymore!"

"Crazy, son of a bitch! Leave us alone!" Golden shouted breathlessly.

"Out of the question." The Chinese man replied amicably. "You’ll become hunters next year too. I would stop... but this is my third year. The last one where I feel this."

He laughed louder.

"Hahahaha!"

"Third year..." Haru processed as he ran. "Damn it."

Ahead was a window and a right turn.

The Chinese man touched the side wall, instantly sprawling out, closing the turn with a solid wall.

Only the window remained.

The ground became slippery from the layer of ice forming.

Haru and Golden fell, dragged along, tried to get up, fell again and slid down onto their seats.

When they tried to get up again...

The Chinese man was already in front of them...

Crouched, with his nunchaku still and a calm expression.

"...shhhhh." he ordered, putting his finger to his lips. "It’ll be over soon."

His gaze, his calmness, his aura held Haru and Golden there on the ground, filled with fear.

The Chinese man slowly raised his hand and grabbed Golden’s shoulder.

"Here." he said, pausing. "It’s... over. You just had to surrender and you wouldn’t have to suffer like this."

"Huh..." Golden blinked. "So that’s all?"

"Yes."

"It was all just pretend!? You’re not going to hit us!?" Haru asked with a relieved smile on his face.

The Chinese man tilted his head, smiling.

"Hahahaha!" Golden was already laughing.

"I’ll go."

"Wait, you’re going to hit us!?" Haru’s laughter ended.

"Ah, of course I will."

He slowly drew his nunchaku.

"Anyone who goes to the beach and doesn’t get their feet wet is either working as security... or is an idiot..."

"No, no, no, man!"

"Don’t resist."

"No, no!"

"But since I’m such a good guy..." he twirled the nunchaku, "...I’ll give you an option."

They both nodded, in agreement.

"It’s like this... you get a beating as you deserve. But light."... "Or one of you gets a beating for both of you."

Haru looked at Golden.

Golden wasn’t looking at Haru, he was looking at the ground.

"Man..."

Nothing.

"Hey."

Nothing.

"Dude... you’re kidding, right?"

Golden stood there, calculating. It wasn’t pure malice... it was clarity.

"Haru walked on the walls... summoned a sword... Haru made plans from the beginning..."

"Not me."

"I ran from... I did the calculations when the veterans arrived in the room. I saw the resources and went first."

"All the calculations came out the same... and now the calculation is the same."

Golden stood up.

The Chinese man broke the chains and pointed to the open corridor.

"When you find other veterans along the way, say: ’The Chinese man caught me.’" he said, pointing to his own chest.

"No one uses my name without permission. They’ll understand you’ve already been baptized... now go. Survivor."

Golden went without running. And at the end of the corridor, he stopped for a second with his back to Haru. He didn’t apologize, he didn’t look back, he just went.

Haru watched and wasn’t angry. He was... understanding.

"Well..." the Chinese man said, still half-crouched with the naturalness of someone at home. "Here’s another life lesson for you."

The ice wall beside them began to thaw.

"You can run if you want."

"If he thawed the wall to the left... wait for me to move to the left."

"Assuming he’s facing me... my left side is his right hand. The one holding the nunchaku."

Haru pretended to go to the left...

The Chinese man’s right hand anticipated, nunchaku already in an arc, coming towards his face.

"Just as I thought."

"Gotcha..." the Chinese man thought.

"Vorath."

Vorath emerged from the inventory, his sword appearing vertically between Haru’s face and the nunchaku.

The sound of metal against metal echoed throughout the corridor.

"Ah... the son of a bitch!" The Chinese man recoiled, eyes wide. "His mana wasn’t inhibited!?"

Haru had already jumped out the window, leaving only shattered glass.

"The son of a bitch is crazy! He doesn’t have enough mana to survive a fall from that height!" The Chinese man jumped immediately after.

But when he looked at the ground... Haru wasn’t falling.

"Huh...?" He spun around in the air and saw Haru climbing the building’s wall.

He was running as if it were any surface, his bare feet glued to the stone, only the wind pulling his hair.

The Chinese man laughed as he fell.

"...Promising newcomer. I think I got my toy (apprentice) for this year..."

Haru didn’t stop running, slipping slightly, still not used to manipulating that spiritual property.

Even so, he climbed to the academy’s roof.

And when he arrived, he almost fell to his knees, his breath was broken and his legs were gradually losing strength... he felt as if something inside had been squeezed.

"Using spiritual properties without mana consumes my vitality... it’s fair, I expected no less from the pact."

He began to walk slower and slower until he reached the edge of the roof where he fell to his knees, gazing at the horizon.

And his eyes instinctively looked down, which, coincidentally, was the courtyard of the women’s wing.

"At least I’ll die in peace..." he thought...seeing

Lanterns still lit, students wearing all kinds of sleepwear, light dresses, bikinis near the heated fountain, so much breast in one night.

Haru’s vision began to blur, exhaustion was obscuring the edges, but not before registering the size of the chest.

"I can’t see who’s who... but it’s worth it."

Heavy footsteps behind.

The Chinese man arrived, unhurried, normal, as if he hadn’t run at all.

He grabbed Haru by the hair and pulled him slowly, taking him away and leaving him in the center... He didn’t even look down when he did it.

"Tell me, boy..."

"Before I smash your face in... for baptizing you and spying on the girls."

"Are you mad at your partner?"

Haru, on the ground, breathing heavily, answered slowly:

"No."

The Chinese man waited longer.

"I was about to do the same... Survive first."

He breathed.

"If you’re going to betray... make sure you don’t live in misery or regret... he himself said something like that today, and I wouldn’t regret it hahaha"

A passing wind.

"I like it." The Chinese man let his hair down. "What’s your name?"

"Haru Mizuki."

"Japanese, huh!?... you don’t even look Japanese..."

"Everyone says that... I’m from Tokyo, by the way."

"Haru Mizuki from Tokyo." The Chinese man raised the nunchaku, spun it quickly, his voice changing:

"I welcome Astraeus Eldrath as an internal trainee."

"WUUUOOO - WATAAAA!"

The nunchaku descended.