novelraw Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Chapter 10
When Feyr tore open the balloon-shaped pouch, Tokens came cascading out.
Shhhk!
An enormous number of Tokens, spilling out along with some kind of mucus.
Zak could not close his mouth at the sight.
There was only one place on this mountain that could produce Tokens in that quantity.
"……Don't tell me, was it you?"
"Your guess is correct, Instructor."
Zak's face flooded with disbelief.
The large pouch Feyr had brought.
Its true identity was the stomach of the Titanoboa—the lord of the mountain.
Mount Levelheim underwent periodic subjugations to control the Magical Beast population. In other words, Zak was already well aware of which Magical Beasts inhabited it.
At a glance, the only Magical Beast on the mountain with a stomach that large was its lord.
Zak exhaled a deep breath and muttered.
"Unbelievable. To think a Trainee would actually appear and take down the lord of the mountain."
The nearby instructors who heard his murmuring stirred. They, too, knew full well just how powerful a Magical Beast the lord of the mountain was.
"A thirteen-year-old slave brat took that thing down?"
"Couldn't it just be a lucky fluke?"
"Doesn't seem like it—not a single scratch on him. What in the…."
It was a Magical Beast even the instructors could not easily contend with.
As the commotion grew, the Trainees also stared at Feyr with wide, round eyes.
"Wow…."
"What in the world did he just pull off?"
No matter how young and inexperienced the Trainees were, they could tell that Feyr had accomplished something extraordinary.
Amid the uproar, Zak shot the instructors a pointed look and asked.
"Just how did you take that thing down? It shouldn't be an opponent you could fell at your level."
"Is there something difficult about it?"
"What?"
Everyone, Zak included, fixed their attention on Feyr's next words.
What sort of answer would he give?
Feyr answered with an impassive expression.
"Nothing difficult about it. I attacked its weak point and took it down."
"Ha……."
Zak let out a hollow laugh, as if at a loss for words.
Knowing that the Titanoboa's weak point was the Reverse Scale was something one might figure out without too much difficulty.
However.
Knowing something in your head and executing it with your body are worlds apart.
The lord of the mountain was not a Magical Beast that could be taken down simply by knowing its weakness.
And yet—a mere month.
A greenhorn who had trained for just one month had taken down a two-hundred-year-old serpent all by himself.
He had even brought proof like this?
Was such a thing even possible?
As Zak sank into that thought, Feyr asked him.
"Will you not pass me?"
Snapping back to his senses, Zak let out a short laugh. Brazen little thing.
He cleared his throat and opened his mouth.
"Ha—you pass."
With Zak's declaration, the exam was over.
***
Afterward, the surviving Trainees returned to the Lunar Eclipse Training Ground.
Feyr surveyed the area, checking over the remaining Trainees.
'About half got culled.'
The number of Trainees had visibly dwindled since morning.
Once the exam ended, the Trainees who had failed were coldly dispatched on the spot.
When the instructors finished their headcount, Zak spoke from the platform.
He was calling out the top-ranked Trainee of this exam.
"Number 24."
Of course, the top rank this time was Feyr as well.
He had taken down the lord of the mountain and brought back a great many Tokens.
It was a feat that bore no comparison to the other Trainees.
Zak addressed Feyr as he stepped up onto the platform.
"Number 24 takes top rank in this exam as well. Two times in a row, no less."
In truth, it was also a prod to the other Trainees to push themselves harder.
Zak lightly patted Feyr on the shoulder and continued.
"The top rank reward will be delivered at a later time."
"……?"
Feyr blinked, sensing this was different from what he remembered.
‘If things had gone as before, it seemed like it had been given right away.’
However, Zak had his own reasoning. The reason he had not delivered the top rank reward immediately was—
To grant a reward befitting Feyr's performance, which had far exceeded his expectations. Zak was by nature a man who calculated practicality down to the last detail.
A sprout showing promise must be given sufficient fertilizer.
But Feyr had no way of knowing this. Displeased that he would not receive the reward right away, yet unable to show it, he simply bowed his head.
"Understood."
"That is all. Dismissed."
***
Free time afterward.
Feyr was doing strength training at the outskirts of the training ground, as he always did.
In the midst of working up a sweat building his strength—
"Feyr."
Beheli approached out of nowhere.
His bearing was noticeably closer than it had been at the start.
For some reason, it brought to mind a loyal hound wagging its tail.
'Well, all that effort paid off.'
It had taken quite a while, though.
Feyr opened his mouth without stopping his training.
"What?"
Beheli immediately lowered his head, expression serious.
"Thank you. Because of you. I survived."
"What's this. Are you going to thank me every time you see me?"
Just as Feyr, unsettled by the distinctly changed air, was about to wave it off—
"And. A favor. I have one."
"What?"
"I want. To become strong. Like you."
Beheli spoke with an unrelenting seriousness.
Feyr, too, wiped the playfulness from his face.
"Hmm…. Beheli. What do you plan to do going forward?"
Beheli furrowed his brow at those words.
He seemed not to immediately grasp the intent.
"You said you want to become strong. So—what do you plan to do with that strength once you have it?"
Beheli just blinked with wide, round eyes. As if he had never thought that far ahead.
Feyr let out a quiet sigh.
"Let's say you grow strong with my help. But if you have no purpose behind it, like right now—you're nothing but the family's dog. You'd just be spinning your wheels in the end."
Beheli flinched. He could not deny Feyr's words.
After a brief silence, Beheli asked carefully.
"Feyr. The family. You like it. Don't you."
Feyr closed his mouth, face expressionless. Without a single word.
He only quietly shook his head.
Beheli looked puzzled. Understandably so. After all, this whole time, Feyr had shown nothing but diligent compliance toward Beilhart's training, its exams, and its instructors—without a word of complaint.
Not just the Trainees but even the instructors assumed Feyr was favorably disposed toward Beilhart.
'The reality is the opposite.'
Feyr closed his eyes in silence.
An endless hatred for the family smoldered like dying embers. Having thrown his life into the gutter, using him as a tool of murder against his will, and then……
In the end, they had discarded him.
Feyr had not forgotten it for a single moment.
That foolish past life.
But now it was different.
He would choose for himself and move for himself.
He would break free from the life of a puppet and live as a human being.
Opening his eyes, Feyr let out a small snort of laughter at Beheli's blank face staring back at him.
"What? Don't you believe me?"
"No. I believe you."
"Then why that expression?"
"Curious. Why you tell me."
Beheli scratched his head and asked.
"Because you're trustworthy."
Feyr meant it sincerely.
Looking back on his past life, he had never seen anyone from this place with as much loyalty as Beheli. On top of that, they shared the common thread of hatred toward Beilhart.
Whether flustered or not, Beheli fumbled with his words, unsure what to do with himself. Had he been moved, in a way unlike him?
Feyr snickered.
"You can't even speak Imperial properly. That's exactly why I trust you."
"Wh, what!"
At Feyr's teasing, Beheli's expression shifted to one of pure bewilderment.
"Am I wrong? You can't even talk straight anywhere you go. Who would trust you?"
"Damn. Bastard. You are."
"Can't even curse properly."
The two of them giggled at each other over the playful exchange.
And then, as the laughter slowly faded—
"Anyway. Let me ask again. What are you going to do once you become strong?"
Feyr asked with a serious face.
Beheli fell briefly into thought. Because it was only now that he had realized. What it was he had been yearning for.
Soon, Beheli opened his mouth. As if he had finally given it a name.
"Revenge. Revenge on the family."
"Revenge…… What's the reason?"
Of course, Feyr already knew Beheli's story well. But he needed to hear it clearly from his own lips.
With his hesitation gone, Beheli laid bare a tale filled with deep-seated sorrow.
"Those bastards. My clan. Massacred. I'll do the same to them. The ones who made me like this. I'll kill every last one. That's the reason."
For a moment, Feyr turned Beheli's words over in his mind. Just hearing it filled him with a sense of grief and bitter tears.
And then.
"Then come with me."
"Come. With you?"
"That's right. If you truly want your revenge, come with me. Let's take that revenge together."
Beheli stared at Feyr in silence for a moment. Then he asked.
"What's your reason."
"To survive."
"To. Survive……?"
"That's right."
Beheli tilted his head at the words whose meaning he could not grasp. However, Feyr added nothing more.
He simply extended his hand.
Beheli clasped it without a moment's hesitation.
"I trust you. Revenge. We do it together."
At the same time, Feyr quietly looked Beheli over. He was covered in bruises.
'About time I dealt with those bastards.'
Kal and his crew.
Those who had let their inferiority and jealousy drive them far past the line.
The type found everywhere—he had seen plenty of them in his past life too.
But those bastards were different.
'They touched someone they shouldn't have.'
Continuing to mess with Beheli like this.
He had already let the incident in the kitchen slide. But this time, they had clearly crossed the line.
If he hadn't handed Beheli the Tokens in time….
He would have been disposed of. This could not be overlooked.
'Strike while the iron is hot.'
When Feyr finished his thoughts and rose from his spot, Beheli asked.
"Where are you going?"
"Bathroom."
"I see. I. Don't need to go."
"So what?"
Feyr gave a small smirk and set off.
***
Kal and his crew were gathered in a corner of the Lunar Eclipse Training Ground, chattering away in small groups.
"That savage bastard. Number 24 must've helped him again this time, right?"
"No doubt. He brought back that many Tokens, so he must've handed over the extras."
"Why does he keep looking out for that smelly savage? What for?"
The topic of conversation was Feyr and Beheli. How they couldn't understand why Feyr was helping the savage Beheli, and how it was nauseating that Beheli had lucked into Feyr's good graces.
Then.
"But wait, you think that savage bastard snitched to Number 24? About us stealing the Tokens?"
"Man, why does Number 24 keep sticking his nose in?"
"What if he comes looking for payback on our behalf? Then……."
Kal and his crew had begun to grow increasingly uneasy, wondering if Feyr might come seeking revenge for Beheli.
While they were rattling on in their troubled state of mind, a Trainee suddenly approached them.
"What? What is it?"
"The instructor is looking for you guys."
"The instructor?"
"Yeah. Follow me."
At the mention of an instructor's summons, Kal and his crew followed the Trainee without a shred of suspicion.
Before long, they arrived in front of a large stone building.
"He's in there."
"What? In here?"
The stone building was reminiscent of a prison. Every window was packed tight with iron bars.
The atmosphere was unsettling at a single glance.
Behind the creaking wooden door, it seemed as if vicious criminals might be locked inside.
As Kal and his crew stared blankly at the building, the Trainee who had led them there said.
"Anyway, the instructor told me to bring you here."
"Tsk, fine. Well, if the instructor said so……."
Kal clicked his tongue and relented.
Whatever the reason, an instructor's word was not something they could go against.
At that, the Trainee shrugged his shoulders and turned to leave.
"Then I'll be off."
"Hey, wait. But which instructor—"
Kal belatedly asked, sensing something was off, but the Trainee disappeared from their sight in no time, without an answer.
"What's going on?"
Kal and his crew scratched their heads and looked around, then opened the door of the stone building and stepped inside.
"……?"
"Instructor?"
At the same moment, a fierce gust blew in and the door slammed shut with a loud crash.
Bang!
"Damn! You scared me. Anyway, why is it so dark in here?"
"Right? From the outside it had windows and everything?"
"Instructor, are you in here?"
"Instructor, are you in here?"
But no answer came back.
The interior was pitch black with all light cut off, and there was not even a trace of a candle to be found.
Just then.
Thwack!
Kal's head snapped to the side.
Startled by the sudden sound of impact, one of the crew cried out.
"Wh, what was that?"
And then.
Crack!
One of them took a hit and had his jaw wrenched sideways.
It was not only Kal and his crew inside the darkness.
A single serpent, perfectly at ease even in the dark, had its sights set on them.
It was Feyr.