What in the world was this guy talking about?
I stared blankly at the person right in front of , completely dumbfounded.
Maybe my expression looked ridiculous, because the man let out a scoffing laugh.
He gave my shoulder a rough smack.
“Look at that country bumpkin vibe dripping off you.”
The man was incredibly tall.
A massive axe was slung diagonally across his back. A rcenary, maybe? I thought as I glanced at the calluses on his hand.
Doesn’t look like a carpenter.
Judging by the weapon and his hands, he’s not a knight either.
The people standing behind him don’t look like they do ordinary work, either.
People entering and leaving the Imperial Capital glanced our way.
So of them even hurried to leave the area. Rei had stepped back and was watching the situation unfold.
Now that he was used to my presence, he didn’t seem inclined to move.
It wasn’t really a situation that needed help anyway...
So I spoke calmly.
“I’m sorry for blocking the way. And I believe there may be so misunderstanding—”
“You must’ve picked up one of those storytellers’ rumors about how the Children of the World Tree get special treatnt.”
Doesn’t seem like he plans to listen.
“That’s why everyone sward around the World Tree, wasn’t it? Chop off a Sacred Branch from a holy tree nearby and—”
“Who would cut a Sacred Branch for a reason like that?”
His words made sothing surge up inside .
Still staring at the one clutching my collar, I frowned.
“That is not why one cuts a Sacred Branch.”
“But you cut one.”
The other man suddenly raised his voice.
“You cut it, you! That’s why you got cursed by the Sacred Branch, isn’t it? Then you crawled all the way to the World Tree to undo it!”
“Hey.”
“I didn’t want to cut it either.”
Rei threw in a short remark, but both the man and I pretended not to hear him.
Trying to force down the anger rising in my chest, I muttered,
“But there was no other choice. If you’re angry that I cut the Sacred Branch, then I apologize. I know full well that I committed a grave sin.”
“Excuses after cutting it.”
He snorted.
“When all you wanted was to get stronger the easy way.”
The man’s gaze dropped to the sword hanging at my waist.
“You a knight?”
he asked.
“A wandering knight?”
“I’m not.”
I gave the sa answer I had when I first t Rei.
“I just know how to use a sword a little.”
“You’re not even a knight?”
The mockery in his voice deepened.
“So you’ve never even been knighted?”
Rei had asked the sa thing.
He’d even said that, if I wanted, he could grant knighthood himself. Of course, he had taken those words back almost imdiately.
After sparring with beside the valley, he had gotten excited and asked if I was a knight, then looked stunned when I said no, demanded to know why not, and said he could knight himself if I wished. Then, after staring at blinking in confusion, he changed his words.
And then he told we should go to the Imperial Capital.
That I should beco a knight of the Empire.
I had answered that I didn’t particularly want to...
But in the end, I got swept up in his pressure and ca all the way here.
“So this nobody who used to be nothing can absorb power now, huh? Must feel great, getting a sword that can cut through anything too.”
I was dragged out of my thoughts by the man’s voice.
Without warning, he suddenly reached for my sword.
“For a country hick, that’s way too fine a blade for you—”
“Hilde, wait!”
BAAAM!
I reflexively smashed my fist into the man’s face.
The impact traveled cleanly through my knuckles.
Thud!
His huge body crashed heavily to the ground.
The passersby who had been sneaking glances while quickening their pace widened their eyes.
“You bastard!”
The n behind him all drew their weapons at once.
“Do you even know who you just hit?!”
Instead of answering, I sprang forward and instantly closed the distance.
Then, the mont they panicked at how suddenly the gap vanished, I didn’t miss it.
I swung.
BAM! WHAM!
After dropping two of them in quick succession, I bolted.
“Hey, Hilde!”
Rei shouted as he chased after .
“Take with you!”
“Run.”
I glanced back at Rei, then reached out and shoved his hood lower over his face.
“With this many people around, it’ll be hard for them to identify us!”
If I had been alone, I wouldn’t have needed to run like this.
But I sprinted as hard as I could, worried that what I had just done might drag Rei into unnecessary trouble.
Since I didn’t know how cities worked, running seed like the safest choice.
My master taught that. Even in situations where I couldn’t hide my sixth sense, if I still needed to disappear, I should dive into crowded places.
If you keep running without stopping, whether it’s humans or monsters, you’ll lose them eventually.
If you keep running around like that, I’ll co find you and take care of the rest, so just make sure you keep your head attached. It’s not like you’re lacking skill, so you should be able to run from most things.
Gale’s words, the ones I had kept replaying while I was captured.
Rembering them, I ran with all my strength.
If you want to hide a tree, put it in the forest.
Together with Rei, I ran into the Imperial Capital through the crowd.
***
“Question.”
Sophia spoke.
I had been smiling at Ami, who was pumping her fist and cheering like I’d done well, but I turned my head toward my senior.
“Yes.”
“If it’s too sensitive, just say so. I really don’t know much about this.”
“Of course. Ask whatever you’d like.”
“You said you people have a sixth sense. Then how is it even possible to run away?”
Her brows lifted.
“When I look at Jack Black, it feels like he can detect things on a planetary scale.”
“Jack has a sixth sense on the level of a mutant. You should assu ordinary people don’t even have a quarter of a quarter of that.”
I explained with a faint smile.
“You could even say a quarter of a quarter of a quarter. So you really shouldn’t use Jack as the standard. In my case, my sixth sense is much duller than Jack’s, but even so, mine was still vastly sharper than that of ordinary people. Like how Badgers are more perceptive than normal humans.”
“So most people usually can’t recognize things from far away?”
“Mm, it’s less that and more that the precision is lower.”
I smiled wider as I looked at the seniors listening closely to my words.
As the conversation continued, even Ricardo, Yun, and Kai, who had been doing their own things while half-listening, lifted their heads and stared straight at .
It must seem fascinating, since it’s a sense humans don’t possess.
How should I explain this so it feels intuitive?
“Maybe think of it like opening an online map, but the search radius is way too broad.”
“But they still know you’re sowhere inside that range, right?”
Sophia asked.
“Then doesn’t that make hiding impossible?”
“Yes, but ordinary people can’t clearly morize the presence of soone they’ve only just t.”
I chose my words carefully.
“So while they can distinguish things like the presence of a human or the presence of so kind of monster, identifying the exact presence of a specific human requires spending a certain amount of ti with that person first. Usually.”
“Ahh.”
“So in the end, I didn’t get caught that ti. After that brief little clash, most people wouldn’t be able to morize and isolate soone’s presence that specifically. It’s not a sense with fixed data values like vision.”
“Jack really is incredible!”
Ami gasped in admiration.
I nodded.
“Yes. And usually, people whose sixth sense is excessively sharp tend to die young.”
“Gasp.”
“The world would just be too noisy...”
Ami, sitting across from , sucked in a breath, while Ricardo—half buried in his sleeping bag beside —remained calm.
“Wouldn’t you also notice every ti a presence disappears~?”
“Yes.”
“It’s honestly amazing the Driver can stay sane...”
“In reality, quite a lot of handlers did fall into depression. Those with strong sixth senses usually ended up becoming handlers.”
“I asked Jack about that once.”
Huh?
I looked at Ami in surprise.
The others blinked too and turned toward her.
Ami, who had been sitting cross-legged chewing on cheese jerky while listening intently to my story, adjusted her posture.
“I asked him how he endures feeling lives get cut off.”
This ti, I stared at Ami.
“What did he say?”
“He gave one of those answers that sohow made no sense and perfect sense at the sa ti. He said it gets easier when you realize everything keeps circling back.”
She looked up at the ceiling, as if trying to recall Kairos’s exact words.
“He said humans, monsters, and plants are all ultimately part of the world. Every life has an end, and that end seems to give birth to new life again. The deaths of those close to you are unbearably sad, but whether you grieve or not, the world keeps going, and sotis he finds comfort in that fact. He said, ‘Both you, Senior, and I are only living brief monts within a much greater cycle.’”
“He’s a philosopher.”
Sophia let out a small laugh.
Kai stretched the corner of his mouth into a long grin and added,
“That’s a good conviction. ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) I feel like I finally understand why he sotis charges in like he’s thrown his life away.”
“Does that even count as conviction?”
Yun asked, sounding puzzled.
“Isn’t that just a list of facts?”
“Oppa, you’re such an idiot!”
“Hildebert.”
Ricardo, who had practically been lying down, suddenly raised his upper body.
“Are you crying?”
I quickly wiped away the tears gathering in my eyes.
Then, seeing Ami staring at stiffly, and the three seniors abruptly turning their heads away, I smiled softly.
“I guess getting older makes a person more sentintal.”
“I think you’re past the age where that line works.”
Yun said dryly, though he still looked at strangely.
Feeling embarrassed under all my seniors’ gazes, I rubbed the back of my neck.
“It’s fine. It’s not because I’m sad. It’s just... hearing Jack’s words secondhand suddenly made sothing surge up inside .”
Everyone kept looking at in silence.
After hesitating, Ami said,
“Should we sleep...? I still have tons of questions, and I really want to hear the rest too, but it’s night already, so let’s continue tomorrow.”
“Yeah... let’s get into our sleeping bags.”
“I’ll tell you just a little more.”
I answered with a faint smile.
“I was about to stop soon anyway.”
The seniors all looked like they had plenty more to say, but no one interrupted.
I lowered my gaze and checked the ti on my phone.
11:55 p.m.
I should finish the story within thirty minutes at the latest.
For a mont, I thought about what Kairos had said to Ami before I continued.
“So... we managed to run well enough to get ourselves a room at an inn.”
***
The mont we stepped into a room so cramped even I was startled, Rei spoke.
“You are absolutely taking the entrance exam.”
I whipped around to face him.
Whether from anger or from running, he was breathing hard.
Looking at him, I asked,
“I’m not really interested... More importantly, thank you for helping make sure they didn’t take my sword. Also, was it really okay to knock those people out like that?”
Rei folded his arms and snorted.
“It doesn’t matter at all.”
He yanked off his hooded cloak roughly and threw it onto the straw bed.
That cloak might look badly worn on the outside, but when you touch it, the fabric is surprisingly good.
As I stared at the ashen cloak thinking that, Rei grumbled,
“From what I could tell, they looked like rcenaries employed by the Imperial Palace.”
“Huh?”
The words Imperial Palace made freeze stiff.
“The Imperial Palace?”
For soone like , who had spent most of his life in a temple at the far southern edge of the Empire, the Imperial Palace was a place beyond enormous.
The Emperor himself was sothing that belonged in stories I couldn’t even properly imagine.
rcenaries employed by a place like that?
Did I make a terrible mistake?
I stared blankly at Rei, frozen, and he imdiately noticed my expression.
He let out a small laugh.
“Even if they’re hired by the Imperial Palace, it’s nothing special. No need to worry.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It’s not like they go through a knighting ceremony and receive a title the way Imperial Palace knights do. Which ans they’re not nobles. And besides, you could’ve beaten all three of them even if they ca at you together.”
“That’s true.”
I nodded obediently.
Rei nodded back and added,
“Well, to be honest, if I don’t intervene, things could still get a little bigger.”
“What?”
I shot him a disbelieving look.
Didn’t you just say it was fine?
“But they’re still a rcenary unit hired by the Palace. It’s bad for their image if rcenaries employed by the Empire get flattened by soone who isn’t even a wandering knight.”
“Bad for their image?”
For a mont, I didn’t properly understand what Rei ant.
“That becos a problem?”
“Quite a bit.”
Seeing my confusion, Rei explained that nobles usually cared deeply about things like dignity and appearances.
Just as rituals and their rules were important in the temple, nobles placed great importance on customs and face. If they felt their dignity had been bruised, they could beco furious in an instant. If it hadn’t been three against one, or if fewer people had witnessed the conflict, it might not have mattered. But there had been plenty of witnesses, and the result had been overwhelmingly one-sided, so they might start looking for .
After giving this explanation I still didn’t fully understand, he grinned at my blank expression.
“But if you beco an Imperial knight, the whole situation changes.”
“...Why do you want to beco an Imperial knight so badly?”
I asked as I looked at the man with the sa golden eyes as .
“You already have a title, so you don’t need to beco one.”
“I want to join the Imperial Knights and absolutely cross blades with Sir Kysis.”
Rei answered without hesitation.
Once again, I didn’t really understand what he ant.
“Sir Kysis?”
A person’s na?
“Who is Kysis?”
Rei’s face filled with shock.
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