Chapter 54
Carius returned to the campsite empty handed.
There was only one fact he discovered while descending from the forest.
It was that Joshua had succeeded in hunting the variant.
He felt goosebumps.
The carcass of that bear was abnormally large even at a glance.
What if his 18 year old self had encountered this thing?
He might have lost control of his bladder just imagining it turning into a zombie and chasing him.
“How about you all?”
He asked the subordinates who had followed him.
“Pardon?”
“Could you hunt the bear we saw just a mont ago?”
The subordinates hesitated for a mont before answering.
“W-We can do it. A bear like that is more than enough for to handle alone.”
“It was only big in size, the inside was likely an empty can. It must have been a simpler opponent than we thought.”
Carius felt his irritation soar.
Honestly, he wanted them to say they were afraid.
If they had, he would have praised them, saying they were aware of their own capacity.
“Just a troublemaker, just a piece of vermin who is no longer even a noble. How did he grow that much.”
He could not understand.
He did not want to understand.
The value of the opponent he had looked down upon grew greater day by day.
Now, the relationship with the boy could not be recovered.
Regretting the actions of the past did not suit him.
Even so, he could not stop it.
He regretted mocking the boy.
* * *
That afternoon, the survivors of the militia and the rchant Guild returned safely.
Martel and the militia captain were flustered by the unexpected result.
“You guys, how did you return alive?”
“Well, you see...”
The boys and girls confessed honestly.
That Joshua had taught them the way to survive in the forest.
They could have hogged the credit for themselves.
But the desire to not lose the relationship with him was greater.
“Is that so.”
Martel wore a satisfied smile.
Inadvertently, they had placed second in the exam grades.
The Sun Knights were annihilated.
The Moonlight Knights were rescued by Rodwell.
The only ones who properly implented the contents of the exam were themselves and the Starlight Knights.
“Even calling themselves knights, they were nothing special. Keke.”
Martel chuckled.
During that ti, he had experienced humiliation both knowingly and unknowingly for being a commoner.
Points like his voice being weak during the eting.
Or being lectured during als about lacking refinent.
If small things were added, they were too many to count.
“Do not tell anyone about this story. If you go around shouting that you received help, both the boy and you will be in trouble.”
“B-But if we do that, what about the favor we received from that person?”
“I will et him separately. I will convey the fact that you all were grateful.”
The children seed slightly dissatisfied.
They likely wanted to give their words of gratitude in person.
Their hearts were comndable, but a greeting without a reward is rely empty.
‘In the past, there was a ti when my heart would be filled by sothing like a sincere greeting.’
The world has changed.
If one does not show sincerity, human relationships break much faster.
The boy was cold.
He was mature and calm to the point that he was not thought of as a student of that age.
He would never be lured by sothing like sweet talk.
Martel headed straight for the Starlight Knights' tent after that.
In front of the entrance, a red haired girl had co out to get so fresh air.
“Excuse .”
When he offered a polite greeting, the girl looked at him like a startled rabbit.
Her expression had beco frail.
It was a completely different appearance from when they had left the camp.
It seed she could not rejoice purely even though she had survived.
The girl painfully put strength into her knees.
Even though she must have been considerably tired, she showed courtesy by bending her waist.
“Hello, you are the head of the rchant Guild, right?”
Martel raised his eyebrows.
The Rainwood family was one of the leading prestigious families in the kingdom.
In front of her bloodline, his fa was nothing more than a handful of ash.
Even so, she spoke formally.
The girl’s actions made his heart lean a little more toward the Starlight Knights.
“I am sorry, but Sir Rodwell is not here right now.”
“Ah, that is fine. Because the person I ca to et today is soone else.”
Tania tilted her head.
“I ca to et Joshua. I have sothing to talk about with that boy.”
“If it is senior, he is inside.”
The girl opened the path as if telling him to pass through.
Martel nodded slightly and went inside.
Just as she said, Joshua was inside.
“Ah, you have co?”
The boy was not surprised.
His calm face seed as if he had expected this side to visit.
He stood up from his seat, placed a chair on the opposite side, and returned to his seat.
“Please sit.”
“You are not surprised at all.”
“I had a hunch that you would co.”
“That really is a terrifying sense you have.”
Martel sat down.
As if it were a prearranged script, the boy poured water into a glass and handed it over.
He downed the glass he received.
A cool sensation seeped into his body.
“How is your body? I heard you fought a variant.”
“I am fine.”
Martel swallowed his dry saliva.
He had been close to death at dawn yesterday.
He was almost eaten by zombies.
It was normal to be depressed like the girl he t in front of the tent.
Suffering from nightmares at night, the mory of that ti beca a trauma and tornted one endlessly.
In the anti, both body and mind fell ill.
However, the boy was different.
He was not exhausted.
His pupils shone strongly as always.
“That is a relief. So, first of all, I have words to convey. I was told you helped the youngsters on our side.”
Joshua let out a light breath.
“Were there any injuries?”
“Everyone is safe. They said your advice was decisive.”
“I see.”
“Why did you help them? They were people unrelated to you.”
“If there is no relationship, I can just create one. Provided that it is necessary, of course.”
“That is interesting. How can they help you?”
“For example, how about a role connecting the situations between the groups?”
Martel refined his thoughts and organized the words he had uttered.
In short, it was a dispatched position.
The affiliation was with the rchant Guild, but they stayed in other groups and diated the situation.
It was similar to an envoy.
He had vaguely thought that such a role was necessary to continue expanding the territory.
It felt like he gained certainty through the boy’s mouth.
“A ssenger delivering news on horseback would be difficult. A carrier pigeon would be good. We have a few trained pigeons here. I know the rchant Guild has them as well.”
Martel gasped.
This ti, too, the boy already knew facts he had not been told.
It was scary by this point.
He felt as if the boy even knew the size of the items between his legs.
“We have them.”
“That is good. Please give an answer to this problem right before we separate. Let us move to the next thing. It is the matter of bartering. There is an item I want to trade.”
“Please show .”
Joshua pushed forward the dals he had received from Rodwell yesterday.
The reaction was imdiate.
He gripped the badges made of gold and silver with an excited air.
Martel was a person who possessed an inferiority complex as a commoner.
He was excessively interested in items that symbolized the honor of a noble.
“If you need it, I can tell you the heroic tales intertwined with these badges.”
Martel did not answer.
He put all his strength into appraising the badges, gathering all his powers of observation.
They were the real deal beyond a doubt.
It did not matter how he had obtained them.
If it was the boy, he would not have obtained them in a way that would cause a problem.
“What is it that you want?”
If weighing utility for survival, dals were junk.
But when this situation ended soday.
If society regained its normal function, these dals would also regain their value.
An investnt for the future.
Thinking as such, he was ready to pay the price.
“I need materials to make a staff. Wood infused with mana, a lightning struck spirit tree.”
Even though he thought he was ready to offer anything.
Martel hesitated for a mont at the boy’s demand.
Wood infused with mana was mainly used for making staves.
Among them, spirit trees were rare, and those that survived being struck by lightning were even rarer.
There was exactly one.
Martel intended to use it when trading with professors at the academy soday.
“This makes agonize.”
Joshua kept his words brief.
He could not show a stubborn attitude like when trading scrolls.
The other party held the upper hand in terms of the value of the item.
“How about other trees? I have oak and willow.”
“For a mage, the tree that suits each person is determined. It is difficult to replace it with sothing else.”
Martel stood with a tensed expression.
He wondered if this was a matter to agonize over in the first place.
The opponent was a student.
On the other hand, the people of the academy he had thought of as trading partners for the spirit tree were experienced mages.
Whether looking at experience or career, it was reasonable to beco close with that side.
Even so, he could not make a decision easily.
The scales did not lean to one side.
Joshua was extraordinary.
He obtained mana herbs and bartered with him.
He even returned alive after facing a variant.
He was a person whose future was fearful.
‘If it is a recognition that it is simply swapping items, it is a loss on this side, but if thinking of it as deepening the bond with him, isn’t it not bad?’
His sense as a rchant told him.
That it was good to conclude this deal.
Starting as a small peddler, he had suddenly beco the leader leading the rchant Guild.
He took pride in having accumulated not a little experience during that ti.
He had lived viciously to the point of being called a miser or a skinflint, and that heart remained unchanged even now.
If it was a loss, he did not trade.
He had lived a calculating life.
That was an absolute rule.
Yet he did not feel in the least that the absolute rule was collapsing.
The scales leaned ever so slightly to one side.
With just that, a judgnt was made on what would be good to choose.
“I will do it. I hope we can continue trading in the future.”
“Thank you.”
Joshua smiled lightly.
* * *
That afternoon was still chaotic.
Carius, who had failed in the search for Leonard, imdiately sought out the Moonlight Knights' tent.
The sound of voices being raised was heard.
“There was a variant in this forest. We are on our way back after confirming it. Sir Derek, did you not say there were no variants in this forest?”
“The confirmation of this area was finished. At that ti, it was not there.”
“That is an excuse. In the first place, how much of the territory did you search? I am asking why you did not inform us of the fact that the environnt could have changed!”
The one who proposed the exam was Carius, but the one who had set the forest as the stage was Derek.
It was a bickering related to that.
As the voices grew intense, those following them wore frightened expressions.
On the other hand, he was as cool as a cucumber.
He watched the situation as if he were a bystander who was completely unrelated.
[Cool] and [Clever] observed seriously.
They seed to want to learn human psychology.
I watched the fight of the two on the spot until they were satisfied.
“Senior, if it is okay, I want to rest more.”
Tania seed uninterested.
Her expression was dark and her voice had no energy.
She was the type who believed that hope remained in this world.
However, as she watched such a fight, the hope dwelling within her was gnawed away, and she was hurt.
“Okay.”
I was bitter just the sa.
Regardless of the fact that I had twisted the scenario by spiriting Leo away.
The ending of the eting place was always like this.
By tomorrow, all of the scheduled week would have passed.
It was not known how those two would wrap things up, and I did not want to know.
Only one thing remained to be done before separating.
“...Um.”
Adela approached.
Serena was with her.
She brushed back her hair that was dyed blue.
“I do not know what words to start with, but first, thank you. I survived thanks to the scroll you gave to Serena.”
She offered a greeting with an awkward air.
The areas around her eyes were dark as if she had not been able to fall asleep for even a mont last night.
It was a tired complexion.
“It is good to sleep when you can. Fatigue is also an enemy.”
“Ah, thank you for being concerned. But every ti I close my eyes, the scene of Calvin, that boy, being eaten keeps coming to mind. If we had followed you, we would not have experienced such a thing.”
Adela’s voice was trembling.
That trembling seed to lead to the areas around her eyes, and then tears began to well up.
It was an appearance as if she felt the responsibility deeply.
“You are wrong.”
“Huh?”
“There was no guarantee that you all would not die even if you were with . Rather, it could have been even more dangerous.”
It was not empty talk ant to comfort her.
There was no correct answer in this world.
There was only the attempt to approach the correct answer.
In fact, Leo almost died while fighting the variant.
If I had made a mistake at that mont, her position would not have been different from now.
“At that ti, your choice was a sufficiently logical choice, and that is why I did not stop you. Although it is a pity that things turned out like this as a result.”
I thought they would be able to escape to the ridge.
The death of the boy called Calvin was not anticipated.
“I suppose it ans anyone can fail.”
“You also lost Leo.”
Adela bowed her head.
I was misunderstood as being in a similar position.
They do not know the truth.
For now, I have no intention of revealing it.
I put on a forced, kind smile.
Her stiff lips loosened, if only a little.
It seed a sense of solidarity had ford as people who experienced the sa thing.
“We will separate tomorrow.”
“Yeah.”
“I wanted to beco a little closer with you, so it is a pity.”
She showed a regretful gaze.
Here, a conversation based on interest that a man and woman or students might share would be good, but.
I had no intention of doing that.
More than that, I intended to warn her regarding future dangers.
“The mine that is your headquarters, it would be good to make the defense sturdy.”
Adela showed a flustered expression at my out of the blue advice.
“What do you an?”
“Three months from now, a horde of zombies will attack that place. The number is 300 to over 500 if there are many.”
“Haha, you’re joking right?”
“Judge for yourself how to use this information. Because I am rely delivering it.”
Adela had a complicated face.
Whether to believe it or not.
Even if she believed it, what kind of preparation could she make?
It was sothing that could not be known.
As she felt dizzy and stepped back, Serena approached forward.
[Thank you.]
Serena took out her notebook and wrote.
Her first word was also a greeting of gratitude.
Her eyes shone.
My face was reflected in her beautiful golden pupils.
[Is this the end between us?]
“We will et again. To be honest, I do not see the Moonlight Knights as being able to endure against those things.”
Adela and Serena were shocked simultaneously.
I did not talk about half baked possibilities.
They bit their lips as if they understood while looking at Derek, who was fighting in the back.
“When you think it is not working out, give up quickly. It is too late after the incident breaks out.”
[Do you an for us to run away from the knights?]
“That is also one of the thods. And if it turns out that way and you haven't found a place to rely on, co down to the tower. Because there is a place for at least the two of you to stay.”
I gave a refreshing answer, but.
I knew the fact that they could not abandon the knights.
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