‘Pope of death demands suicide’
‘Has he really seen a god?’
‘Priests in the church of death face heavy criticism for not following the pope’
‘Who is the mysterious bishop who stayed alive?’
I loved the headlines of the newspaper the very next day but even more so the actual content. Not many questioned what the pope said, especially not those outside the church of death.
Thus, nearly everyone in the upper echelons chose to follow the popes command along around a third of the believers in the city. The news didn’t reach everyone yet, so nobody was entirely sure when the waves of suicides would end. It didn’t matter much to me though.
The church of death was basically done for as those who didn’t kill themselves would involuntarily find themselves in the arms of another church if they were even desired. With no one left around to recruit new, fresh potential, there was really no way this subdivision inside the whole church would survive. Especially because everyone had seen how ugly their faith was and would probably stay away from them as much as possible.
“Well, now that we have dealt with your personal matters, what’s next?” Hannah asked munching on her piece of bread I made earlier.
“Personal matters? What are you talking about?” I asked innocently and put a slice of bread into my own mouth. So fluffy …
“Well, you clearly wanted to jab at Askatesh and get revenge. They could have been useful for us as well, you know?” Hannah commented and started to clean her hands off the marmalade once her plate was completely empty.
“Hannah, can you imagine what would happen if a god gains access to this world? And not in the sense of creating an illusion to talk with others, but rather completely?” I asked and pushed the plate away from me as I finished my breakfast myself.
“I thought the gods were everything we see and touch.” That was correct. The god of wood was inside the table we were eating off, the god of air was the air we breathed … but they were also somehow limited in their actions they could take.
“That is correct, but there is something stopping them from influencing this world too much. I don’t know what it is, nor do I know why Aska wants to come to this world, but it can’t be anything good. I concluded unhappily. I didn’t even know how he could come to this world and that honestly frightened me a bit. Him standing in front of me all of a sudden was really the last thing I desired.
“I see. And what does this have to do with what we are doing today?” She asked and made me think for a little.
“Nothing?” I answered happily and stood up from the chair. As we were in one of the unused room in Tom’s mansion there wasn’t really anything or anyone around us and thus, we could go outside without anyone interrupting us.
Dressed in rather casual attire and naturally my sunglasses, we made our way westwards by circling around the royal district on foot. It was a sunny day with a colder east wind but that didn’t stop us from doing what we set out to. With a compass always in my hands, we strolled around the city at first but were pretty bummed out as the needle pointed towards the academy the whole time. I wasn’t entirely sure there were any more of these reincarnators around, but the probability was rather high. We were in the capital city of the human realm and even though it wasn’t a necessity that all of them were reincarnated as humans a few of them should be.
But as nothing happened, we chose to go to certain places where it was likely some of them would be.
The question was sadly what such a place would be, but I already had an idea even before we set out.
“The adventurers guild … do we really need to?” Hannah asked while looking at me as if I was an idiot. “It’s a place full of those who see themselves as superior to others, completely overestimate their own prowess and then whine when a bigger fish strikes back.”
“Is there any kind of backstory between you and adventurers?”
“No! No … no. Okay, I tried out this line of work myself for a little while but stopped around a year after I began. It is an incredibly unorganised bunch with everyone doing what they want. The only thing they are good as is to flaunt their achievements.” That didn’t sound very promising, that was for sure. But my guess was that this kind of behaviour was expected as the adventurers secured the existence of the kingdom by killing demons. It was obvious there would be some very loud group of good for nothings inside the guild. If they were all unorganised though … I had my doubts which were quickly confirmed as I stepped into the tall building made out of stone.
The adventurers guild kind of functioned as a meeting place as food was served in the single hall it consisted off. Around two hundred could find a place to sit down there but around three o’clock, only around twenty adventurers were around, gathering around multiple cork boards with leaflets on it.
Looking down at my compass I could confirm … nothing had changed at all. I was truly a bit sad about that.
“I have read a few stories about adventurers though. Unlike what you claim, there are supposed to be the greatest heroes in here.” I told her right as we stepped past a drunken man whose head rested on a table.
“Was that from the author who claimed there would always be the one rude guy picking a fight with newcomers?” Hannah asked but had to stop once she finished her sentence. A bearded, tall man with a halbert on his back stood in our way, blocking off the direct path to the reception.
“And you guys want to register as adventures, eh?” He raised his bushy eyebrows and leaned downwards to look at us closely. Maybe that book Hannah mentioned had been right all along.
“And if we were?” I asked in anticipation of what he would do. Would he fight us? Threaten us because we look weaker than the rest? The possibilities were endless!
“You would need to go to the reception over there.” He pointed towards the other side of the halls were a few other counters stood. “This here is for registered adventurers to apply for new quests.”
He was … sadly a lot friendlier than I had hoped for. It did seem as if we would get out of this place without any blood on our hands.
“Thank you … we have another issue though. Could you tell us where we can ask the guild to do a task for us?”
“That’s done over there.” He pointed towards the reception right next to the one we were headed which made sense considering how much one would have to move in between them.
“Thank you very much.” I said and curtsied before he stepped out of the way.
“Oh, no problem. I just hope I wasn’t unfriendly in any way?” He said right as we were passing by. I stopped and turned around once more as I found his question rather odd.
“Certainly not. Why are you asking?” I questioned and smiled gently. He didn’t seem motivated to tell me his reasoning right away, but my cute smile seemed to do the trick in the end.
“If I may say so … I don’t want any issues with a noble.” He said nervously. I looked down at myself, but couldn’t spot anything which identified me as a noble. The gloves I wore covered the ring, my attire was also worn by commoners and I hid the silvery dove in my cleavage before we entered.
“A noble?” I asked and frowned slightly.
“Your gloves … your friend has a sword and your voice is very … do we know each other?” He asked and instantly ruined my good mood. It was always this goddamn voice. I didn’t hate my own voice, but I disliked that everyone spotted the similarities between what they heard and the level up messages.
“Most certainly not. Thank you for your support. Have a great day.” I said drily and turned around without bothering with the stunned halberd guy any further. He probably thought he just angered a noble and made sure to escape the building swiftly, but not without stirring up any clamour at the entrance which I promptly ignored.
At the reception which wasn’t even manned at the beginning, we were soon greeted by a tall, muscular man with a crude wooden leg and multiple scars on his arm.
“How can I help you two?” He asked while tapping his right index finger on the counter repeatedly.
“Hello, we are here to give out a quest. We need the corpses of demons in their best condition delivered to this address.” Hanna placed a letter onto the counter and continued with our request. “We need two of each race you can get us, one male and one female. Is that possible?”
“That is … an unusual request, but nothing we cannot handle. I have to …” The staff member looked over our shoulders as halberd guy still hadn’t managed to get outside and was still loudly discussing with a teenager. “ … I have to remind you that there are only a few goblins around the capital city, so transporting the corpse of other demons here will become costly. I am deeply sorry for their behaviour, milady.” He said in regards to the commotion at the entrance door. And apparently, the halberd guy wasn’t the only one taking me for a noble. My guess were on the gloves … sadly I couldn’t get rid of them easily.
“Oh, the price is not an issue …” Suddenly, the halberd from the guy we met earlier embedded deeply into the reception to my side all of the sudden. I caught me completely off guard to hear it splitting the wood apart a mere mere away from me. What surprised me more though was the loud clank before the halberd struck it. Turing around a bit baffled, I noticed Hannah with a drawn sword glaring at the two people at the entrance.
Suddenly, it turned ghastly silent in the large room as everyone’s attention was focused on halberd guy who slowly backed off a five teen year old guy with black hair.
Maybe … just maybe I would see the rude adventurer nonetheless. Turning around once more, I saw that the receptionist was in no way able to react as he blinked rapidly while staring at the halberd next to him.
“So is everything fine like this?” I asked and tried to get his attention.
“Y-Yeah.” He muttered, clearly shaken by the experience. The receptionist probably had issues with the near death experience, despite being an ex-adventurer. Which was probably also the reason he completely forgot to mention that we needed to pay part of the payment upfront, but whatever.
“Thank you very much.” I said, turned around on my heels and strolled towards black haired youngling and halberdless halberd guy.
“It’s your fault for drawing a weapon!” Mr. raven hair shouted out before we were halfway there.
“Only because you were already swinging your sword in front of my nose!” Halberd guy justified his action and truthfully, I believed him more than this obnoxious teenager.
“You threatened me?!” The teenager shouted out angrily and waved his sword around erratically. Sadly, he stood right in front of the door and as everyone still had their gazes on the scene, it would be insanely hard for us to leave easily. I really had to deal with these two, didn’t I?
“Good sirs, why don’t you calm down a little and reflect on your actions?” I asked and stepped in between them.
“Who are you to tell me what to do?” The young teenager said angrily and dispite still staring at halberd guy, he pointed his sword directly at my nose. Hannah didn’t like it that much but held back from doing anything rash.
“Who are you to swing around your sword in front of my nose?” I asked, even though he should have some kind of prestige as no other adventurer tried to stop him yet.
“I am the strongest adventurer under the age of eighteen in the capital city. You may know me under the name of Schwarz.” Nope, never heard of him. And I certainly didn’t think I needed to as he didn’t look that strong. His pose was horrible as he needed to stick his butt out to keep balance. His foots were right next to each other and if that wasn’t enough to claim he was inexperienced, then it was certainly that he didn’t even mind Hannah who slowly moved into his blindspot with a drawn sword.
“Cool … you know what? I think this is a guild internal affair, so if you would be so kind to let us leave.” I asked kindly and pointed towards the door behind him.
“And now you are scared? Sure, go ahead and leave us alone.” He basically sneered as us for chickening out of the fight, but whatever. It would only be trouble for me if Hannah needed to fight this guy and thus, I nodded to the teenager thankfully and strolled past Hannah who had my back the whole time.
“What is the meaning of this?” Someone inside the guild shouted out angrily just before the wooden doors fell shut.
“That halberd flew at least ten metres.” I commented and scratched my cheek. He had very little technique, but I had to admit he wasn’t weak. I certainly couldn’t disarm someone else this spectacularly.
“I could do that as well.” Hannah mumbled. I wasn’t supported by the system in any way, so having Hannah by my side helped to gauge how strong they really were.
“Well then, any other spots to go …” I looked down towards my compass which I had just fished out of my pockets. It didn’t point towards the academy anymore, at least that’s was my guess. It pointed directly into the adventurers guild.
“Please let it be the halberd guy.” I begged and turned around on my heels. Hannah, probably very wary of any flying weapons, opened the door for me and strolled inside first.
We were back inside as the dispute between the two had already been solved, probably by the middle aged man in the back of the long hall. Halberd guy was already retrieving his weapon with low hanging shoulders and the teenager walked to the middle aged man leisurely. And I was staring at my compass in pity.
“It’s the fucking teenager … please let it be the other guy.” I whispered and walked towards them. Sadly though, the teenager was already walking past the man into another room.
“I am deeply sorry for what happened to you two. I can assure you that this incident will have consequences.” The man said and bowed deeply. Well, at least one adventurer had manners even though my guess was that he was an official at the guild.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. Nobody was hurt after all. But besides that … where is he going? I pointed towards the door the guy went through as the compass needle shifted slightly towards the right away from this middle aged man.
“He is taking a test to enter the royal academy. We are allowed three students with scholarships each year and he will probably be one of them.“ Suddenly the man was very uncomfortable and tripped from one foot into the other as if he wanted us to ignore what he said. His issue was probably that he was sending a rowdy into a prestigious school for nobles, but my issue was something else entirely.
“That is the consequence you were speaking off?” I asked and smiled lightly which he probably perceived more as a threat than anything else.
“No … certainly not.” He stumbled over his words, apparently because he really though I was a noble in disguise.
“I see. This test you were taking about? Can we watch it?” I asked swiftly.
“… sure?” He was left with no other choice whatsoever. In his mind, I was someone who could complain about the hardships I had to live through in this place and that was certainly nothing he wanted.
“I suppose your intention is that he will mature during his time at the academy?” I asked as he led us through the same door into a room with a soft floor.
“That is … honestly what we hope, yes.” He said and showed us a row of benches to sit down.
“What are they doing here, guild master?” The boy asked annoyed and positioned himself in the middle of the training room with his sword already drawn.
“They are interested in your skills and so am I. Let’s see if you are good enough to enter the academy.” The guild master didn’t bother too much with preparing and strolled towards Schwarz leisurely. “Go on.”
“Kingdom of darkness!” Suddenly, the magical lights inside the room either dimmed considerably, or went out completely. It was truly an interesting way to fight, but I had yet to see what he wanted to achieve with that.
“Mantle of darkness!” I could see in which direction he was going. Around him dark swaths formed and covered him, making him nearly invisible to the normal naked eye.
At first, the boy circled around the guild master but as his opponent didn’t react much, he simply went for a simple overhead strike.
It was phenomenally boring. The guild master simply grabbed behind him, caught the boy by his collar and threw him through the whole room. Schwarz only stopped as he crashed into the wall head first. I had hoped for a prolonged fight, but it was obvious who had won. The guild master was simply stronger and had appropriate techniques to support his strength which made the fight nonsense from the start.
I was a bit interested how the guild master managed to sense the boy, but I wasn’t too keen on probing into his secrets. Instead, I watched how Schwarz laid near the wall for several seconds unmoving.
“Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen.” It was clear the boy had fallen unconscious and yet the guild master simply shrugged it off.
“Was that your test?” Hannah asked amused.
“Truth to be told … there is no test. But he needed to know that there are far stronger people out there … right?” The guild master said, staring straight at my elven friend.
“In that case, please allow me to take care of him until he wakes up again.” I said and bowed respectfully, still sitting on the bench.
“Do as you please …” My question was certainly a bit unordinary, but he still didn’t want to deny my request. While he walked out of the room, I started to walk towards Schwarz with a slight smile on my face.
‘Pope of death demands suicide’
‘Has he really seen a god?’
‘Priests in the church of death face heavy criticism for not following the pope’
‘Who is the mysterious bishop who stayed alive?’
I loved the headlines of the newspaper the very next day but even more so the actual content. Not many questioned what the pope said, especially not those outside the church of death.
Thus, nearly everyone in the upper echelons chose to follow the popes command along around a third of the believers in the city. The news didn’t reach everyone yet, so nobody was entirely sure when the waves of suicides would end. It didn’t matter much to me though.
The church of death was basically done for as those who didn’t kill themselves would involuntarily find themselves in the arms of another church if they were even desired. With no one left around to recruit new, fresh potential, there was really no way this subdivision inside the whole church would survive. Especially because everyone had seen how ugly their faith was and would probably stay away from them as much as possible.
“Well, now that we have dealt with your personal matters, what’s next?” Hannah asked munching on her piece of bread I made earlier.
“Personal matters? What are you talking about?” I asked innocently and put a slice of bread into my own mouth. So fluffy …
“Well, you clearly wanted to jab at Askatesh and get revenge. They could have been useful for us as well, you know?” Hannah commented and started to clean her hands off the marmalade once her plate was completely empty.
“Hannah, can you imagine what would happen if a god gains access to this world? And not in the sense of creating an illusion to talk with others, but rather completely?” I asked and pushed the plate away from me as I finished my breakfast myself.
“I thought the gods were everything we see and touch.” That was correct. The god of wood was inside the table we were eating off, the god of air was the air we breathed … but they were also somehow limited in their actions they could take.
“That is correct, but there is something stopping them from influencing this world too much. I don’t know what it is, nor do I know why Aska wants to come to this world, but it can’t be anything good. I concluded unhappily. I didn’t even know how he could come to this world and that honestly frightened me a bit. Him standing in front of me all of a sudden was really the last thing I desired.
“I see. And what does this have to do with what we are doing today?” She asked and made me think for a little.
“Nothing?” I answered happily and stood up from the chair. As we were in one of the unused room in Tom’s mansion there wasn’t really anything or anyone around us and thus, we could go outside without anyone interrupting us.
Dressed in rather casual attire and naturally my sunglasses, we made our way westwards by circling around the royal district on foot. It was a sunny day with a colder east wind but that didn’t stop us from doing what we set out to. With a compass always in my hands, we strolled around the city at first but were pretty bummed out as the needle pointed towards the academy the whole time. I wasn’t entirely sure there were any more of these reincarnators around, but the probability was rather high. We were in the capital city of the human realm and even though it wasn’t a necessity that all of them were reincarnated as humans a few of them should be.
But as nothing happened, we chose to go to certain places where it was likely some of them would be.
The question was sadly what such a place would be, but I already had an idea even before we set out.
“The adventurers guild … do we really need to?” Hannah asked while looking at me as if I was an idiot. “It’s a place full of those who see themselves as superior to others, completely overestimate their own prowess and then whine when a bigger fish strikes back.”
“Is there any kind of backstory between you and adventurers?”
“No! No … no. Okay, I tried out this line of work myself for a little while but stopped around a year after I began. It is an incredibly unorganised bunch with everyone doing what they want. The only thing they are good as is to flaunt their achievements.” That didn’t sound very promising, that was for sure. But my guess was that this kind of behaviour was expected as the adventurers secured the existence of the kingdom by killing demons. It was obvious there would be some very loud group of good for nothings inside the guild. If they were all unorganised though … I had my doubts which were quickly confirmed as I stepped into the tall building made out of stone.
The adventurers guild kind of functioned as a meeting place as food was served in the single hall it consisted off. Around two hundred could find a place to sit down there but around three o’clock, only around twenty adventurers were around, gathering around multiple cork boards with leaflets on it.
Looking down at my compass I could confirm … nothing had changed at all. I was truly a bit sad about that.
“I have read a few stories about adventurers though. Unlike what you claim, there are supposed to be the greatest heroes in here.” I told her right as we stepped past a drunken man whose head rested on a table.
“Was that from the author who claimed there would always be the one rude guy picking a fight with newcomers?” Hannah asked but had to stop once she finished her sentence. A bearded, tall man with a halbert on his back stood in our way, blocking off the direct path to the reception.
“And you guys want to register as adventures, eh?” He raised his bushy eyebrows and leaned downwards to look at us closely. Maybe that book Hannah mentioned had been right all along.
“And if we were?” I asked in anticipation of what he would do. Would he fight us? Threaten us because we look weaker than the rest? The possibilities were endless!
“You would need to go to the reception over there.” He pointed towards the other side of the halls were a few other counters stood. “This here is for registered adventurers to apply for new quests.”
He was … sadly a lot friendlier than I had hoped for. It did seem as if we would get out of this place without any blood on our hands.
“Thank you … we have another issue though. Could you tell us where we can ask the guild to do a task for us?”
“That’s done over there.” He pointed towards the reception right next to the one we were headed which made sense considering how much one would have to move in between them.
“Thank you very much.” I said and curtsied before he stepped out of the way.
“Oh, no problem. I just hope I wasn’t unfriendly in any way?” He said right as we were passing by. I stopped and turned around once more as I found his question rather odd.
“Certainly not. Why are you asking?” I questioned and smiled gently. He didn’t seem motivated to tell me his reasoning right away, but my cute smile seemed to do the trick in the end.
“If I may say so … I don’t want any issues with a noble.” He said nervously. I looked down at myself, but couldn’t spot anything which identified me as a noble. The gloves I wore covered the ring, my attire was also worn by commoners and I hid the silvery dove in my cleavage before we entered.
“A noble?” I asked and frowned slightly.
“Your gloves … your friend has a sword and your voice is very … do we know each other?” He asked and instantly ruined my good mood. It was always this goddamn voice. I didn’t hate my own voice, but I disliked that everyone spotted the similarities between what they heard and the level up messages.
“Most certainly not. Thank you for your support. Have a great day.” I said drily and turned around without bothering with the stunned halberd guy any further. He probably thought he just angered a noble and made sure to escape the building swiftly, but not without stirring up any clamour at the entrance which I promptly ignored.
At the reception which wasn’t even manned at the beginning, we were soon greeted by a tall, muscular man with a crude wooden leg and multiple scars on his arm.
“How can I help you two?” He asked while tapping his right index finger on the counter repeatedly.
“Hello, we are here to give out a quest. We need the corpses of demons in their best condition delivered to this address.” Hanna placed a letter onto the counter and continued with our request. “We need two of each race you can get us, one male and one female. Is that possible?”
“That is … an unusual request, but nothing we cannot handle. I have to …” The staff member looked over our shoulders as halberd guy still hadn’t managed to get outside and was still loudly discussing with a teenager. “ … I have to remind you that there are only a few goblins around the capital city, so transporting the corpse of other demons here will become costly. I am deeply sorry for their behaviour, milady.” He said in regards to the commotion at the entrance door. And apparently, the halberd guy wasn’t the only one taking me for a noble. My guess were on the gloves … sadly I couldn’t get rid of them easily.
“Oh, the price is not an issue …” Suddenly, the halberd from the guy we met earlier embedded deeply into the reception to my side all of the sudden. I caught me completely off guard to hear it splitting the wood apart a mere mere away from me. What surprised me more though was the loud clank before the halberd struck it. Turing around a bit baffled, I noticed Hannah with a drawn sword glaring at the two people at the entrance.
Suddenly, it turned ghastly silent in the large room as everyone’s attention was focused on halberd guy who slowly backed off a five teen year old guy with black hair.
Maybe … just maybe I would see the rude adventurer nonetheless. Turning around once more, I saw that the receptionist was in no way able to react as he blinked rapidly while staring at the halberd next to him.
“So is everything fine like this?” I asked and tried to get his attention.
“Y-Yeah.” He muttered, clearly shaken by the experience. The receptionist probably had issues with the near death experience, despite being an ex-adventurer. Which was probably also the reason he completely forgot to mention that we needed to pay part of the payment upfront, but whatever.
“Thank you very much.” I said, turned around on my heels and strolled towards black haired youngling and halberdless halberd guy.
“It’s your fault for drawing a weapon!” Mr. raven hair shouted out before we were halfway there.
“Only because you were already swinging your sword in front of my nose!” Halberd guy justified his action and truthfully, I believed him more than this obnoxious teenager.
“You threatened me?!” The teenager shouted out angrily and waved his sword around erratically. Sadly, he stood right in front of the door and as everyone still had their gazes on the scene, it would be insanely hard for us to leave easily. I really had to deal with these two, didn’t I?
“Good sirs, why don’t you calm down a little and reflect on your actions?” I asked and stepped in between them.
“Who are you to tell me what to do?” The young teenager said angrily and dispite still staring at halberd guy, he pointed his sword directly at my nose. Hannah didn’t like it that much but held back from doing anything rash.
“Who are you to swing around your sword in front of my nose?” I asked, even though he should have some kind of prestige as no other adventurer tried to stop him yet.
“I am the strongest adventurer under the age of eighteen in the capital city. You may know me under the name of Schwarz.” Nope, never heard of him. And I certainly didn’t think I needed to as he didn’t look that strong. His pose was horrible as he needed to stick his butt out to keep balance. His foots were right next to each other and if that wasn’t enough to claim he was inexperienced, then it was certainly that he didn’t even mind Hannah who slowly moved into his blindspot with a drawn sword.
“Cool … you know what? I think this is a guild internal affair, so if you would be so kind to let us leave.” I asked kindly and pointed towards the door behind him.
“And now you are scared? Sure, go ahead and leave us alone.” He basically sneered as us for chickening out of the fight, but whatever. It would only be trouble for me if Hannah needed to fight this guy and thus, I nodded to the teenager thankfully and strolled past Hannah who had my back the whole time.
“What is the meaning of this?” Someone inside the guild shouted out angrily just before the wooden doors fell shut.
“That halberd flew at least ten metres.” I commented and scratched my cheek. He had very little technique, but I had to admit he wasn’t weak. I certainly couldn’t disarm someone else this spectacularly.
“I could do that as well.” Hannah mumbled. I wasn’t supported by the system in any way, so having Hannah by my side helped to gauge how strong they really were.
“Well then, any other spots to go …” I looked down towards my compass which I had just fished out of my pockets. It didn’t point towards the academy anymore, at least that’s was my guess. It pointed directly into the adventurers guild.
“Please let it be the halberd guy.” I begged and turned around on my heels. Hannah, probably very wary of any flying weapons, opened the door for me and strolled inside first.
We were back inside as the dispute between the two had already been solved, probably by the middle aged man in the back of the long hall. Halberd guy was already retrieving his weapon with low hanging shoulders and the teenager walked to the middle aged man leisurely. And I was staring at my compass in pity.
“It’s the fucking teenager … please let it be the other guy.” I whispered and walked towards them. Sadly though, the teenager was already walking past the man into another room.
“I am deeply sorry for what happened to you two. I can assure you that this incident will have consequences.” The man said and bowed deeply. Well, at least one adventurer had manners even though my guess was that he was an official at the guild.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. Nobody was hurt after all. But besides that … where is he going? I pointed towards the door the guy went through as the compass needle shifted slightly towards the right away from this middle aged man.
“He is taking a test to enter the royal academy. We are allowed three students with scholarships each year and he will probably be one of them.“ Suddenly the man was very uncomfortable and tripped from one foot into the other as if he wanted us to ignore what he said. His issue was probably that he was sending a rowdy into a prestigious school for nobles, but my issue was something else entirely.
“That is the consequence you were speaking off?” I asked and smiled lightly which he probably perceived more as a threat than anything else.
“No … certainly not.” He stumbled over his words, apparently because he really though I was a noble in disguise.
“I see. This test you were taking about? Can we watch it?” I asked swiftly.
“… sure?” He was left with no other choice whatsoever. In his mind, I was someone who could complain about the hardships I had to live through in this place and that was certainly nothing he wanted.
“I suppose your intention is that he will mature during his time at the academy?” I asked as he led us through the same door into a room with a soft floor.
“That is … honestly what we hope, yes.” He said and showed us a row of benches to sit down.
“What are they doing here, guild master?” The boy asked annoyed and positioned himself in the middle of the training room with his sword already drawn.
“They are interested in your skills and so am I. Let’s see if you are good enough to enter the academy.” The guild master didn’t bother too much with preparing and strolled towards Schwarz leisurely. “Go on.”
“Kingdom of darkness!” Suddenly, the magical lights inside the room either dimmed considerably, or went out completely. It was truly an interesting way to fight, but I had yet to see what he wanted to achieve with that.
“Mantle of darkness!” I could see in which direction he was going. Around him dark swaths formed and covered him, making him nearly invisible to the normal naked eye.
At first, the boy circled around the guild master but as his opponent didn’t react much, he simply went for a simple overhead strike.
It was phenomenally boring. The guild master simply grabbed behind him, caught the boy by his collar and threw him through the whole room. Schwarz only stopped as he crashed into the wall head first. I had hoped for a prolonged fight, but it was obvious who had won. The guild master was simply stronger and had appropriate techniques to support his strength which made the fight nonsense from the start.
I was a bit interested how the guild master managed to sense the boy, but I wasn’t too keen on probing into his secrets. Instead, I watched how Schwarz laid near the wall for several seconds unmoving.
“Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen.” It was clear the boy had fallen unconscious and yet the guild master simply shrugged it off.
“Was that your test?” Hannah asked amused.
“Truth to be told … there is no test. But he needed to know that there are far stronger people out there … right?” The guild master said, staring straight at my elven friend.
“In that case, please allow me to take care of him until he wakes up again.” I said and bowed respectfully, still sitting on the bench.
“Do as you please …” My question was certainly a bit unordinary, but he still didn’t want to deny my request. While he walked out of the room, I started to walk towards Schwarz with a slight smile on my face.
