novelraw Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Chapter 19
The next morning dawned.
As always, Feyr had been awake long before the sun rose.
This was partly due to the conditions of the Lunar Eclipse Training Ground, but it was also because he had built up the habit of cutting down on sleep and training from his past life.
And above all, today was the day the Skip Exam was taking place.
Then, just as Feyr was loosening up his body and waiting—
Knock. Knock.
"Number 24. You're being summoned."
An instructor knocked on his door to inform him that the Head Instructor had called for him.
Feyr opened the door as if he had already been expecting it and asked,
"Should I head to the Head Instructor's Office?"
The instructor nodded.
Feyr gave a small bow in thanks and immediately made his way to the Head Instructor's Office.
A short while later, Feyr arrived at the Head Instructor's Office to find Zak in a private meeting with an unfamiliar figure.
When Zak noticed Feyr entering, he said, "You sluggish wretch. How much longer were you planning to make us wait?"
"Apologies."
The same baseless nagging as always.
Feyr didn't pay it much mind. He stood before Zak and cast a sidelong glance at the man staring back at him with an expressionless face.
‘Is he a messenger from the Crescent Moon Training Ground?’
A messenger who had come to take him to the Crescent Moon Training Ground.
That was how Feyr saw the man's identity.
Sure enough, the words that came from Zak's mouth matched exactly what he had guessed.
"The man before you is a messenger who has come to collect you."
"The name's Jen."
The messenger stated his name and looked down at Feyr.
Then, without warning, his eyes widened as he unleashed a wave of killing intent directly at Feyr.
‘......This bastard?’
Feyr did not simply stand there in the face of Jen's sudden move.
He returned fire with equal force, unleashing a fierce pressure of his own.
Under normal circumstances, the moment Jen leaked killing intent in front of Zak, Zak would have intervened.
But Zak had done nothing even as Jen launched that killing intent—which meant this was, in the end, a kind of test.
So Feyr had returned Jen's killing intent in kind, meeting their expectations.
As Feyr stood there resisting Jen's killing intent, having grasped both their intentions—
"That's enough."
At Zak's mediation, both men withdrew their pressure.
Jen then looked at Zak as though conceding a point and said, "......Just as you said, he is no ordinary one."
"Didn't I tell you? The fastest-growing trainee since the Lunar Eclipse Training Ground was founded."
"At this level, no one will have complaints about the Skip Exam."
Jen said as much, then turned to look at Feyr once more.
He stepped toward Feyr and opened his mouth. "Feyr, was it? A rather solid level you've got."
"......Thank you."
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't hold a grudge. As a messenger, I had no choice but to test whether you were worthy of the Skip Exam."
To Jen's words, Feyr responded only with a small, dry nod.
Then Zak, who had been watching the two, spoke to Feyr after a brief pause.
"From this moment on, you are a Trainee of the Crescent Moon Training Ground. From the instant you walk out that door, follow Jen to the Crescent Moon Training Ground."
It was a truly simple and blunt explanation, without a single pleasantry.
At that, Feyr looked at Zak and asked, "Should I leave right now?"
"Wait a moment."
Zak said so and gave Jen a look.
Jen then turned to Feyr and said, "I'll step outside first. Come to the training ground entrance once you're ready."
"Understood."
Having said what he needed to say, Jen stepped out of the Head Instructor's Office ahead of them.
That left only Zak and Feyr alone in the Head Instructor's Office. Zak then reached into a drawer and pulled out a wooden box, which he held out to Feyr.
"Take this."
"This is......?"
"A Spirit Medicine that aids in Mana cultivation."
‘He's giving me something like this all of a sudden?’
Feyr received the wooden box and looked at Zak with a puzzled expression. Zak gave a scoff and spoke.
"As the Head Instructor of the Lunar Eclipse Training Ground, I cannot stand to see you fall behind the Trainees of the Crescent Moon Training Ground. That is why I'm giving it to you."
"......Thank you."
At the words of thanks, Zak let out a string of flustered, repeated coughs.
Feyr smiled faintly at the sight and thought to himself.
‘That's Zak for you. He pretends otherwise, but his heart is warm.’
Just as Feyr stood there looking at Zak with that thought—Zak continued, as though there was still something left to say.
"The reward for the Skip Exam will be passed on to you after I've consulted with the Family Head."
‘Ah.’
‘Now that he mentioned it, that reward was still pending.’
Feyr turned the matter of the Skip Exam reward over in his mind for a moment, then looked at Zak and said, "You don't need to give it to me."
"What?"
Zak's ears couldn't believe what they were hearing.
To refuse a reward whose contents he didn't even know yet—what in the world did that mean?
As Zak was puzzling over that, Feyr continued.
"Instead, when I have need of it later—just grant me 1 favour."
"What? A favour?"
"Yes."
To turn down a reward that hadn't even been decided yet, over something so trivial.
Zak was dumbfounded, yet he did not try to dissuade Feyr from his decision.
"If that is what you want, then so be it. However, I will grant the favour at my own discretion, so bear that in mind."
"That is enough."
What an eccentric fellow.
Zak muttered as much, then gestured for him to leave and said, "Business is done. You may go."
"Understood."
From beginning to end, the exchange between the 2 was equally dry.
At last, Feyr finished speaking and stepped out of the Head Instructor's Office.
As he crossed the threshold, Feyr left with a final parting word.
"Thank you for everything."
And with that, as Feyr too departed, Zak was left alone in the Head Instructor's Office.
Alone now, Zak stared out the window, then clicked his tongue with a quiet tsk.
***
After his final exchange with Zak, Feyr immediately made his way to the training ground entrance.
At the entrance, Jen was checking through some documents while waiting for him.
A moment later, Jen spotted Feyr, tucked away the documents he had been reading, and said, "Done with your business?"
"Yes. Sorry for the wait."
"Don't worry about it. We leave now, so don't fall behind."
Jen said as much, then took the lead and began walking.
Feyr followed quietly in Jen's wake, and the 2 of them soon exited the Lunar Eclipse Training Ground.
They walked for quite a while after that without a single word exchanged between them, a silence stretching between them.
Then, all of a sudden, Jen broke that silence.
"We'll arrive in just a bit more. Any questions before we reach the training ground?"
‘Questions, hm.’
Feyr began to think for a moment.
Truth be told, there were countless things he was curious about.
From here on out, he wouldn't know all the information the way he had at the Lunar Eclipse Training Ground.
But he couldn't ask everything, so he narrowed it down and asked only a few.
"I'm wondering which class I'll be assigned to."
Unlike the Lunar Eclipse Training Ground, the Crescent Moon Training Ground was divided into classes.
Starting from the Beginner Class that built the fundamentals, there was the Intermediate Class, and then the Advanced Class—3 classes in total.
He didn't know the finer details, but given his current age, he'd likely be placed in the Beginner Class. Going by his cultivation level, somewhere between the Intermediate and Advanced Class.
‘Wherever I'm assigned, it won't be strange.’
Even so, knowing in advance made it easier to plan ahead.
As Feyr asked with that thought in mind, Jen responded with a trace of puzzlement.
"Probably the Beginner Class. But how did you know the Crescent Moon Training Ground was divided into classes?"
"Other instructors tipped me off."
A lie, of course.
But Jen didn't seem to find anything odd about it, and simply nodded along.
‘It was nothing the instructors couldn't have mentioned.’
‘But still—Beginner Class......
As mentioned earlier, the Beginner Class was where you built the foundations.
For Feyr, who had already grasped most things starting from Mana cultivation, the content taught in the Beginner Class was nothing he particularly needed.
‘No. Actually—is this a good thing?’
Looked at differently, it was rather an opportunity to build up his lacking physical strength.
Just as Feyr was thinking that, Jen asked again. "Any other questions?"
"Then—I'm wondering how long it takes to graduate."
At that, Jen paused as though considering, then gave his answer.
"Usually from age 13 to 18—roughly 5 years. But the fastest anyone has ever graduated was around 3 years."
‘5 years as a rule, 3 years at the fastest.’
A span that was long if you called it long, short if you called it short.
In truth, compared to other houses, this was an extraordinarily fast pace.
Most houses took a full 10 years to produce even a single junior knight—whereas the Crescent Moon Training Ground took only half that time.
‘And it's not as though the quality is low, either.’
If anything, it could be said to surpass ordinary junior knights.
The knights of the Family that Feyr had seen in his past life all carried, without exception, a tremendous aura of spirit.
That went for the junior knights as well.
Part of it was surely their innate talent, but most of it was probably due to the Family's atmosphere.
In this Family, any show of weakness, even a small one, was something you couldn't survive.
‘Truly no different from beasts.’
Just as Feyr was thinking that to himself, Jen, who had been walking ahead, came to a stop.
"We've arrived."
‘Already?’
Lost in thought for a moment, Feyr clicked his tongue at the fact that they had arrived so quickly, feeling as though there was more he wanted to ask.
‘I still had questions left......’
‘Can't be helped.’
Anything else he wanted to know would have to wait.
With that thought, Feyr swept his gaze across the expanse of the Crescent Moon Training Ground and asked Jen, "Where should I go from here?"
At Feyr's question, Jen turned his head and answered, "First, report to the Crescent Moon Training Ground's Head Instructor. You won't know the layout here, so I'll guide you that far."
"Understood."
The conversation broke off, and Jen began walking again.
Feyr quietly followed behind, and the 2 of them soon entered the Crescent Moon Training Ground's Main Building and made their way to the Head Instructor's Office.
Thus the 2 arrived before the Head Instructor's Office.
Jen knocked on the door and said, "Head Instructor, sir. It's Jen."
"Mm. Come in."
With the permission called from within, Jen opened the door to the Head Instructor's Office.
Jen and Feyr stepped inside, and Jen addressed the man sitting with his back turned, giving a salute.
"As instructed, I have brought the Skip Exam Trainee."
The man seated at the front turned his backrest around and revealed himself.
A middle-aged man with grey hair and a languid expression, dark circles hanging heavily beneath his eyes.
The Head Instructor of the Crescent Moon Training Ground—Lowell.
"Right. Good work. You're dismissed."
At Lowell's word, Jen gave a small bow and withdrew from the Head Instructor's Office.
With Jen gone, Feyr looked steadily at Lowell.
‘......Was this man an instructor before he was posted to a knight order?’
The Lowell Feyr remembered was no mere instructor.
He was the Commander of "Red Eagle"—one of the Family's knight orders.
Red Eagle was a knight order that primarily handled the aftermath of major incidents.
While other knight orders dealt with the key figures of a mission, Red Eagle cleaned up what remained—the so-called battlefield cleaners.
That was Red Eagle, and its leader was the very man now standing before him.
Yet to think that such a blood-soaked butcher was now an instructor educating children who still smelled of milk.
As Feyr stood there in a daze at the strange disconnect, Lowell opened his mouth.
"You're the one they said would be arriving today?"
"......Feyr."
"Right. Anyway. You."
Lowell lazily waved a hand as though it were all a bother, and let out a yawn.
Feyr stared at him, and thought.
‘Same personality as back then.’
That ever-languid attitude, perpetually drowning in exhaustion—it was exactly the same as in his past life.
Lowell, still in the middle of his yawn, resumed his questions.
"So. You're the one Zak sent over personally?"
"That's right."
"Hmm...... Since Zak sent you himself, I suppose there's no need to verify your ability."
Lowell muttered as much and began rummaging through the pile of documents stacked beside him.
It was a copy of the report Zak had personally written about Feyr some time ago.
He pulled out Feyr's report and, skimming through it, murmured, "Let's see...... just what kind of a thing is this."
And then, as he skimmed through the report with his clouded eyes, Lowell's eyes went wide and he let out an exclamation.
"......What?"
The reason Lowell was this startled.
It was because the contents written in Feyr's report were so utterly outlandish.
‘When he first arrived at the Lunar Eclipse Training Ground, he beat up Young Master Kail, and then in his first exam he subjugated the lord of Mount Levelheim single-handedly? On top of that, he reached the 2nd Star in just 2 days......?’
Going by the written contents alone, there wasn't a single thing that was easy to believe.
And no wonder.
Feyr was only 13 years old.
On top of that, before being brought to the Family, he had been a miserable slave.
Yet the moment he arrived at the Family, he had shown these near-miraculous feats?
In the span of barely a month, at that?
‘Does this make any sense?’
Since it was a report that had gone directly to the Family Head as well, it couldn't be fabricated.
But even so, it was not something easily believed.
‘I thought some nonsense was being spouted when they said there was a Skip Exam from the Lunar Eclipse Training Ground......’
When they said it was the first Skip Exam in decades, he had thought someone was playing a joke.
Even if it were true, he had assumed it was some private matter of those above—and yet......
‘If everything written here is true, then sending him up through the Skip Exam makes sense.’
No—the Skip Exam wasn't enough.
The feats Feyr had shown were things that even the Family's direct bloodline, who were called prodigies of the age, could not be guaranteed to accomplish.
As Lowell stood there blankly in thought, a sight before him—Feyr, standing there unfazed—drew an involuntary laugh from him.
"Pfuhuhuh...... this one's completely out of his mind, isn't he?"
Even at Lowell's words, Feyr showed no reaction.
He only thought inwardly.
‘Like you're one to talk.’
After a brief, senseless laugh, Lowell settled down and informed Feyr.
"Regardless, as of today, you are a Trainee of the Crescent Moon Training Ground. I don't know whether you heard on the way, but you've been assigned to the Beginner Class. Strictly speaking, at your level, the correct procedure would be to assign you to the Intermediate or Advanced Class—but there's a set procedure for this, so it can't be helped."
Feyr nodded as though he understood.
"For anything else you're wondering about, ask the instructor you saw earlier. He'll be your guide for the day."
"Understood."
"Right. Reporting done, so go on out."
At Lowell's word, Feyr gave a brief nod and stepped out of the Head Instructor's Office.
Left alone, Lowell glanced sidelong at Feyr's report, then smiled faintly.
And said in a low voice:
"One hell of an absolute madman just showed up."