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Chapter 117

Around a month.

It wasn’t a short period of time at all.

I was curious: How much stronger had they become?

I jumped down from the tree.

Jump.

As I landed, Mir immediately charged me.

She swung her hammer with great force.

I dodged the attack by slightly twisting my upper body, but I was surprised by her powerful strike.

This girl—

She didn’t have any wasted movements.

The Mir of the past would have frozen upon seeing someone bigger than her, wasting a few moments...

But this Mir didn’t seem afraid. She was looking directly at me.

Vwoong!

Next, I dodged Evan’s sword, which slashed toward me diagonally. I couldn’t say it was an impressive slash, but the follow-up was quite natural.

As I saw his sword smoothly continue into a second and third strike, I mentally nodded.

It’s Raven.

Had Juan succeeded in the ritual, what would have happened to Evan’s future?

I had seen the answer to that question in my first life.

Although Evan would have somehow survived the training camp, it would have been as the vice-cult leader.

He would have then infiltrated the hero institution “Heroes” while hiding his status within the cult.

Meaning...

The true moment of Evan Helvin’s betrayal had been many years earlier than the world had believed.

Then what about now?

He was still the Evan Helvin that I knew.

He stubbornly held on to the swordsmanship he had learned, his goal was to improve upon his father’s honor, and he was a young hero who held the ambition of one day defeating a demon lord using Raven.

I was happy for this truth.

In the end, if the high priest hadn’t interfered with Evan’s life. Evan was still someone who would choose to advance his father’s vision after but a moment of doubt.

Fuwah!

At this moment, a formless arm erupted from the ground.

This was Sharyl’s blessing.

I dashed a little to dodge the grey hand, and I kicked both Evan and Mir in the chin as they charged me from the sides.

Crack!

“Kugh...”

“Uwek!”

As they staggered back, I jumped up into a nearby tree again.

“What are you doing?! Don’t lose focus!”

“Ugh... B-but it’s too fast...!”

“I can tell that as well! It’s able to dodge our combined attack without a problem...”

Sharyl gritted her teeth as she glared at me.

I just sat, relaxed, on the tree branch and said, “An eavesdropper might think you pulled off some impressive coordination. Your formation was good, but your execution was lacking. The timing of your ambush was a bit too obvious as well.”

Mir looked up at me in a daze.

“...Why can an undead talk like that?”

“Something is odd.”

They seemed to have realized something was wrong as they slightly relaxed their grips on their weapons.

Sharyl was the only one who didn’t lower her guard.

“Don’t let your guard down. This is a terrible forest; do you know all the monsters that can appear here? It might not be an undead but a monster that uses illusions.”

“Now that you say that...”

“We’ll change our formation. I’ll go in, so Evan, you—”

“...”

I looked at their faces as they took a moment to plan.

Although the words being exchanged were a bit harsh, I could sense the trust in her voice.

Maybe they weren’t close friends yet, but they had gotten close as comrades, at least compared to what I remembered of our first meeting.

“...”

While looking at them, I momentarily imagined myself standing between them and let out a small chuckle.

I was a bit regretful.

Maybe if I’d been there with them, they would’ve gotten closer faster—and stronger faster as well.

Of course, that could just be my ego speaking.

Clap!

I clapped my hands to draw their attention.

“Let’s stop fighting. I’m not an undead or a monster using illusions. I’m really Luan.”

“Hah.” Sharyl’s lips curled as she said, “Someone who went missing for over four weeks just suddenly appeared in front of us... you want us to just believe that?”

“You’re right. Then ask me something only I would know.”

“...I wasn’t saying we should suddenly do a Q&A session—” Sharyl suddenly stopped in the middle of her insult before—with a much tenser expression—asking, “K-khem. Then what does S-Sir Hector like?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then, Sir Hector’s birthday...?”

“How the hell would I know that?”

“You’re brothers!”

“We’re not even that close?”

“In the past, you bragged about how much your older brother pampers you!”

Had I done that?

“Sharyl, I’ll ask.”

Putting Sharyl, who was looking at me with suspicion, behind him, Evan stepped up.

Then in his characteristically calm tone, he asked, “Where did you say your mother was from?”

“Colland, in the northern area of The Empire.”

“What is the name of the swordsmanship I use?”

“Raven.”

“Last time you checked, who was the young hero with the most points?”

“That damned Charon.”

“Who is your roommate in this training camp?”

“It’s you.”

“Ehm...”

Evan spoke with a troubled expression.

“I-I think he’s telling the truth.”

He then looked at me with an even more complicated expression.

“...We thought you were dead. What happened?”

“I had a few things going on. I guess I ended up getting a little lost.”

“For four weeks?”

“That’s just how big the forest is.”

“Hmm...”

Evan didn’t seem to fully accept my excuse, but he probably found it difficult to outright denounce it either.

“In any case, it’s good to see you all working well. Have you gathered a lot of balls?”

“...!”

When I spoke about the balls, their expressions again turned nervous.

They’d finally moved on from the possibility that I might be a monster, but it seemed they had only now realized that even fellow young heroes could be enemies.

“You don’t have to be so scared. I’m only aiming for violet balls.”

As I said that, I observed Mir’s expression especially closely. She had the least control over her expressions.

I saw Mir let out an obvious sigh of relief as her grip on her hammer loosened a little.

It looks like they don’t have any.

With this, I knew they didn’t have any violet balls.

I suddenly became curious.

What would I have done if they’d had a violet ball?

Would I have forcibly taken it from them? Or would I have just let them go?

I wasn’t sure.

“...How can we believe that?”

“How about this?”

I took out a blue ball from my pocket and tossed it at them.

They were caught by surprise and hurriedly dodged the ball.

“This...”

“It’s a blue ball. I don’t remember how many points they’re worth.”

“It’s 15 points!”

“Ah, right. Thanks.”

“Hehe... it’s nothing much.”

Sharyl shot a quick glare at Mir’s relaxed behavior before asking me, “A blue ball has considerable value... What are you scheming?”

“I don’t have any ulterior motives like that. You can only have a total of three balls, right? I’m planning on filling those slots with violet balls, so I don’t need blue ones.”

“...”

“Here’s the deal. Do you know where any violet balls are? If you tell me, I’ll give you these as well.”

I juggled my other two blue balls as I clicked my tongue. Buying this information with two balls didn’t seem right to me.

Maybe I should’ve given them these later?

In any case, after hearing my offer, the three looked at each other before their eyes turned to Sharyl.

Unsurprisingly, she’d ended up becoming the team captain.

After thinking for a while, Sharyl said in a serious tone, “...All right, we accept. But since the situation in the forest is always changing, you can’t rely too much on this information.”

“Obviously.”

“First, we know where three violet balls are.”

“Oh...”

I hadn’t expected them to know where they all were.

“This is going to be easy... is the expression on your face, but it won’t be that easy.”

“Hmm?”

“Firstly, Charon and Sir Hector have one each.”

Maybe it was too obvious.

Well, my expectations were correct.

“All right. Then where’s the last one?”

At this point, Evan spoke up.

“The last violet ball is in a dangerous place, Luan. It would be better not to go for it.”

“Hmm?”

That was unexpected.

Someone more dangerous than Charon and Hector had it?

Was there anyone among the young heroes like that?

“There are only three violet balls in this test, and the instructors told us the locations of all three before we began.”

I hadn’t known that.

“There are three especially strong monsters in this test. The One-Eyed Ogre and Queen Butterfly were defeated by Charon and Sir Hector respectively. That’s how they obtained their violet balls.” With a hardened expression, Sharyl continued, “...But the last monster was too much. Even though a group prepared to defeat it together at one point, they failed and had to run away.”

“What is it?”

“We’ve been calling it the Master of the Cave.” Evan continued, “It’s a monster in a cave in the northern area of the forest. No one knows exactly what kind of monster it is. It’s wearing some weird straw mat. We only know that it’s as big as a giant...”

“It’s not a giant. Never,” Mir interjected, clearly annoyed.

I nodded.

“Sure. Thanks for the information.”

I threw them the other two blue balls.

After catching the ball in surprise, Evan asked me a question.

“Why are you giving us everything?”

“I told you, I’m going to get the violet balls.”

In truth, I had planned to hold on to one of them if I couldn’t figure out where all the violet balls were, but I no longer had to worry about that.

I stretched my back.

Although three days was a considerable amount of time, it would still be difficult to find both Charon and Hector in this wide forest.

I needed to move quickly.

As I was about to leave, Evan stopped me.

“W-wait. Luan!”

“...?”

He wore a complicated expression before letting out an awkward smile.

“...It’s great to see you alive.”

“You guys too.”

After giving them a thumbs-up, I left.

Had he said the “cave” was in the northern area of the forest?

I should go there first.

* * * * *

* * * * *

Charon Woodjack had been born in one of the four forbidden areas of The Empire, the Sunken Swamps.

When he’d obtained self-awareness, he’d already had a weapon in each hand, and by the time he’d been able to run on his two feet, he’d already known the taste of every leaf that grew in the swamp.

He’d survived ten different life-threatening dangers before hitting puberty.

While those haughty noble children had been learning about etiquette and refinement, he’d been engraving survival and hunting into his body.

That was why, no matter how tough Bednicker’s infamous training camp was going to be, he’d not seen any reason to be nervous.

The life he had lived was different, and his experiences were different as well.

Even when compared to these young heroes.

Outstanding teachers, an excellent curriculum, and priceless elixirs... but real experiences were a hundred times more important.

And so long as the safety net of the instructors existed, this training camp couldn’t be considered a truly real experience.

That was why Charon hadn’t been able to understand when the father he respected, Hyde Woodjack, said...

—Do not touch the blood of Bednicker.

To Charon, this was an unfamiliar piece of advice.

Previously, Hyde had only ever warned him about monsters, which were just prey in the end.

Was this training camp different?

Would the children of the Great Houses change the preconceptions Charon had about nobles?

In the end, they had not.

Even though there were young heroes from all over the land who were quite famous in their own right, there wasn’t a single person who had caught Charon’s eye...

Except for exactly one person.

Among the grand masters, the person Charon had been most impressed by was the Instructor of the Hunt, Tanko...

Charon had heard about his past as a great warrior and considered his class to be the best of all the instructors’, both in how he taught and what he taught.

There was nothing more that needed to be said about his skill either.

However, there was a crazy bastard who had sparred against that Tanko from the first day on.

Luan Bednicker?

In truth, Charon had been keeping an eye on Hector Bednicker initially.

But he had soon realized that even Hector couldn’t match up to him.

So he’s one of the three children that the Lord of Blood and Iron treasures?

As far as Charon knew, Luan wasn’t one of those three.

This is a good opportunity.

It was an opportunity for him to observe the skills of the Great Warrior Tanko.

But that would only be the case if his opponent could take a single exchange.

How many of the great warrior’s strikes could that weak-looking kid take?

Charon spectated the battle while holding such thoughts...

...and his expression stiffened at the skill of a peer he had never seen before.

How is that guy...

Those without a discerning eye wouldn’t have been able to see it.

They would’ve just assumed that Tanko was one-sidedly suppressing Luan.

Idiots like Hans said that Luan was receiving special treatment.

That wasn’t the case at all.

Although Luan’s physical capabilities weren’t impressive, there was no fault Charon could find in his actions.

If Charon had been in Tanko’s position, even he would’ve given out those bonus points.

He has an unbelievable amount of dueling experience.

It was the one thing that Charon lacked: experience fighting against other people.

Despite that, due to the gap between himself and the average young hero, he had never lost a single spar...

But it would be impossible for him to spar against Tanko as Luan had done.

That was when he’d felt it.

More than Hector and Sellen, he needed to be most wary of this Luan.

However, the person he had decided to focus his attention on had disappeared for a stupid reason.

Luan had gone out into the forest at a time that wasn’t allowed and ended up going missing.

Of course, Charon’s instincts had told him that there was a reason for Luan’s disappearance...

But he hadn’t felt a need to look deeper into it.

After that, Charon had created an overwhelming difference between himself and the other young heroes to maintain his first-place ranking, and he didn’t doubt that this would be his final rank at completion.

Clang!

As soon as he had his first exchange with Hector, Charon furrowed his brow.

His opponent’s sword felt heavier for some reason.

Creak.

Even as their swords were locked together, Hector spoke.

“Do you know the gap between your points and mine?”

“Not really... I don’t particularly care about the points of those below me.”

“It’s 37 points. But that gap should’ve been much shallower.”

“Ah. Is that so?”

Even though Charon was outwardly mocking him, Hector responded as if he didn’t care, “For the last however long, I have had one point deducted from me every day.”

“...What?”

“The last four weeks, my sparring partner was the Instructor of the Hunt, Tanko.”

Charon stopped for a moment.

“You wouldn’t have known. As you just said, you never looked back to look at those chasing after you.”

“...”

“I was like that as well,” said Hector. “It might be obvious, but I could never win against Instructor Tanko. And my sparring skills weren’t acknowledged like his were, so I wasn’t able to receive any bonus points.” With a grin, Hector continued, “But in the end, it looks like I made the right call.”

“...!’

The moment Hector twisted his wrist, Charon’s shortsword glided along the flat of his blade and was deflected to the side.

Not letting go of the opportunity, Hector put strength into his hands and struck upward.

Clang!

A clear sound rang out as the shortsword was flung away.

Charon furrowed his brow as he felt the stinging sensation in his wrists.

“Charon Woodjack, looks like I’m better at spars than you are.”