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HEL SCANS
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
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Chapter 210
“I… had some expectations, you know.”
Clink-
The sound of ice clinking inside glass cups.
Mutterings of a faint woman.
Intermittent sighs of an old man.
These were the small noises of the principal’s office.
Clack-
As Yussi swallowed expensive liquor like water, she seemed quite unhappy despite drinking more costly liquor than gold coins of the same weight.
She already seemed intoxicated, as a strong scent of alcohol emanated from her breath.
“I had some expectations… no, actually, quite a lot. Honestly, I thought he would give it to me.”
“……”
She had repeated the same words quite a few times.
Simon, the butler standing beside her, looked at his master with a sorrowful gaze.
Moments with the old butler were the only times she truly revealed her inner thoughts.
Yussi chuckled and poured herself another glass.
“In hindsight, it’s ridiculous.”
“Why is that?”
“The fact that the children set foot in the dangerous North because of my negligence… It’s my responsibility. Just the fact that punishment hasn’t been imposed is fortunate, isn’t it?”
The Hero who killed the Demonic Church Leader found the medium of ‘Severance’ in her embrace.
No matter how skilled a shapeshifter or a polymorph, one couldn’t bear three blessings within one body.
He decided to pass it on to the children who would become the next generation of Heroes.
Of course, Yussi misunderstood that the Hero who reached the peak of swordsmanship didn’t need ‘Severance’ and thought he was giving it to someone else.
… Anyway, the unchanging fact was that the Hero didn’t choose her as the owner of ‘Severance.’
To stand on the battlefield with him again, the lifelong aspiration she held.
He must be aware of it…
“Sigh.”
Yussi silently reached for the bottle again.
The old man snatched it away and poured himself a drink.
Glug-
Yussi absentmindedly chased the amber liquid filling his glass.
Simon couldn’t bear it any longer and spoke up.
“Aren’t you resentful towards the Hero?”
The answer came quickly.
“Impossible.”
“Why is that? The lady’s dedication went unrewarded…”
“No, Simon.”
Even in her drunken state, Yussi spoke with precise pronunciation.
“The Hero’s judgment is always right. He never makes mistakes.”
“……”
“And he always stands for justice.”
Blessings are a crucial force for humanity.
The Hero doesn’t choose the owner of such power out of personal reasons like being former comrades.
He didn’t give it to her because he judged that the children could utilize it properly.
So, if anyone should resent, it should be oneself, for being pushed aside by mere freshmen.
Yussi’s eyes looked down as if in self-reproach.
“I have heard, seen, and experienced that justice, and I have sworn to follow it for life.”
“Lady…”
“So, I cannot question or resent his judgment.”
As the old man remained silent, Yussi’s expression softened.
Clink-
She laughed again and picked up her glass.
“I’m just a little disappointed, that’s all.”
“…I see.”
“Both towards the Hero and towards myself.”
Sighs and mutterings continued with a melancholic tone.
“How can I… even though I’m doing my best… still fall short of expectations?”
“……”
“Should I… accept this as the end of my road? I hate the thought… I still have more to run.”
Clink-
Simon looked at the diminishing liquor in the glass at a rapid pace.
It had been almost four years since Yussi lost her arm and drifted to Rosenstark.
During that time, there were many nights filled with alcohol, and Simon could accurately gauge her master’s tolerance.
“Now.”
…Tap.
Simon’s wrinkled hand gently supported Yussi’s drooping head.
“Please have a good dream.”
The butler’s sigh tousled his master’s hair.
A rare bright smile, unseen lately except in dreams where she ran alongside the Hero on the battlefield, spread across her white face.
* * *
While the children were immersed in preparing for upcoming new training sessions, time flew by.
And then, a month later.
Finally, requests arrived for the mercenary groups stationed in Rosenstark.
After scrutinizing them closely, the professors selected and announced them to the students…
“Wow, I thought they’d just throw us some crappy tasks, but there are quite a few good ones.”
“Wow, we could earn some serious money, couldn’t we?”
They received quite a warm response.
This was because the contents and rewards were quite decent.
Even the discerning Luke, who was picky about requests, said so.
“Although there aren’t any major requests due to the region being in the central-west, these are good enough requests.”
A few months ago, they might not have received anything but trivial tasks.
But now, coincidentally, most of the mercenaries had left the west.
As a result, there were many lucrative missions stacked up, considering the difficulty versus the reward, and the children were benefiting from it.
The students of Rosenstark formed their teams and quickly chose missions.
The Extreme Class kids were no exception.
However… the situation was a bit different.
“Divide!”
“Survival means dispersing!”
“If you stick together, you won’t get much!”
There were mainly two rewards the children could get from completing missions:
The gold coins offered by the client.
The points provided by the academy.
Naturally, the more challenging the mission, the greater the reward.
However, it was clear that blindly choosing difficult missions would likely lead to disaster.
‘Because there are more people!’
It also takes longer and requires more people.
So, both the rewards and the points are divided more finely.
Therefore, the children had to carefully consider and select missions.
They also had to decide whether to go solo or play in a party.
‘It’s a race for the ‘Blessing’. I have to stay focused.’
Even if they were previously at the bottom of the Extreme Class, once they obtained the blessing, it would serve as a stepping stone to the top.
Moreover, this competition wasn’t just about the academy’s grades.
Becoming the owner of the blessing meant a guaranteed admission to the Dawn Knights.
It would also greatly elevate the honor of their family.
Truly, it was a competition where their entire lives were at stake.
Gerald succeeded in recruiting Ban to his team after careful consideration.
It was him and Ban in the Third team, just two people.
…No, actually, there was one more invited member.
But Ban didn’t know about it.
.
.
.
A day’s journey by carriage from Rosenstark, there was a city.
The third team chose to retrieve stolen relics as their first mission.
…Even though they called it a relic, it was just a statue with a small amount of Holy stone inside.
Mission Brief:
Author: Gerald
Date: New Empire Year 297, October 7th (Date of acceptance, bid date was October 2nd)
Client Information: Cain Drove (Priest of the Holy Church)
Contracted Mercenary Group: Aulrum
Executor Information: Extreme Class 3rd Team
Representative: Gerald
Mission Objective: Retrieve the stolen relic (a white stone statue approximately 30cm in height and 15cm in width)
Mission Location: Trade city of Laman
Mission Duration: 3 days (until October 10th)
Mission Requirements:
1. Complete before the Harvest Festival in 3 days (after this, the chance of missing out is high)
2. Ensure the relic isn’t destroyed
3. Arrest the suspects and bring them to the temple
(More omitted)
Reward: 30 gold coins, Church Appreciation Plaque
Contract Condition: Compensation required if the relic is damaged
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HEL SCANS
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
Join our Discord for release updates!
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As soon as the third team arrived at the temple on the outskirts of the city where the client resided, they were greeted with cobwebs and dust piled up at every corner of the building.
Naturally, a question arose in their minds.
…Where did they get 30 gold coins from?
“Hehehe.”
The priest let out a fake cough.
He seemed to be coughing non-stop, as if desperately trying to divert their attention from the cracked walls.
Or maybe it was just because there was so much dust it made him cough.
…Living as a priest in an era where Holy power has disappeared must be tough.
Gerald, the team leader, stepped forward.
“Uh… I’m Gerald, the leader of this mission.”
“I’m Cain Drove. I’m in charge of the Laman parish.”
… Parish leader?
Gerald glanced at the priest’s worn-out robes.
The look in his eyes made Ban uncomfortable for a moment…
“Oh my, you’re so worried.”
Gerald unexpectedly spoke in a gentle tone.
Ban looked at Gerald with admiration.
He, who had refused to attend classes with his peers who were inferior in ability, had now become an adult who knew how to coax a client.
The client let out a relieved sigh and shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s a big problem. In such turbulent times, for the relic to be stolen by rogues…”
“Haha, you can relax. Do you know who we are?”
“Well, I’ve heard that students from Rosenstark are coming, but…”
The priest’s anxious gaze lingered on Ban’s composed face.
“Those students seem to be newcomers.”
“Haha, I’m a newcomer too.”
“Oh, I see, I see.”
The priest tried desperately not to show his surprise.
Snap-
A vein popped on Gerald’s forehead.
“Haha, what’s the problem?”
“Well… although Rosenstark students are certainly remarkable…”
Cain awkwardly tilted his head.
“It’s just that if they’re newcomers, wouldn’t such a search mission be easy for them?”
These kinds of retrieval missions couldn’t be solved just by winging it.
They required a lot of skills like information gathering, tracking, and interrogation.
‘There are barely any belongings left, and now they’ve entrusted us with this retrieval mission…’
With veteran mercenaries around, he already looked uneasy, but when the newcomers appeared, he seemed extremely anxious.
Gerald noticed this and casually extended his spear.
“Heh, it’s not to stab you. Take a look here. We’re not just ordinary newcomers.”
“Is that so?”
Gerald shook the part of his spear where the sign of a Hero (damaged but received again after negotiations) was carved in front of the priest.
Ban tried to object.
Because if they failed the mission after boasting about the Hero’s name, it would tarnish the reputation of their teacher.
But Gerald whispered to Ban with a smirk.
“This way, the client will have a better evaluation, and we won’t fail. There’s a surefire way.”
“Surefire…?”
“Well, relatively?”
It was a somewhat evasive answer, but… it was effective nonetheless.
Cain hesitated but then explained in detail about the suspects who stole the relic.
The suspect was a new follower who started coming to the temple three months ago.
It had been approximately five days since the relic went missing.
And it was around the time when the new follower disappeared too.
“We reported it to the guards, but there wasn’t much response…”
“They’re conducting inspections at the city’s entrances and nearby territories, but…”
“Hmm, it must be difficult to catch them in a bustling trade city.”
“That’s right. However, someone came forward yesterday claiming to have seen them in the nearby commercial district.”
“Do you have any more information to share?”
Gerald and Ban diligently noted down the clues.
And so, the third team set off from the temple.
Half immediately questioned Gerald.
“…What exactly is this surefire way?”
“For now, your Skynet.”
[TL/N: Will be calling Ban’s new technique Skynet as it fits more.]
Ban looked at Gerald incredulously.
“What, do you think Skynet is some kind of panacea?”
Skynet was the technique that Ban had just begun to comprehend.
It was a technique born from combining part of the magic he learned from Beatrice, ‘Detection’, into his own sensing technique.
It was still in an embarrassing state, not quite worthy of being called a seasonal technique yet, but it was highly efficient for tracking something.
Similar to Felson’s ‘God’s Net’, but focusing more on capture than annihilation.
‘But covering this much area is unrealistic.’
Ban shook his head nervously.
“Gerald, this isn’t a rural village, it’s a trade city.”
“That’s why I said ‘for now’.”
“Huh?”
“Well, it’s almost time.”
Ban cocked his head in confusion.
“Who’s coming?”
“Our third team member.”
…You didn’t mention there was one.
Before Ban could spit out his frustration, a familiar howl echoed.
A black-furred wolf, restrained by a leash around its neck, appeared before them.
Its fur was as black as the night sky, and its eyes shone blue even in broad daylight.
Shadow had grown even larger than the average large dog or an ordinary wolf… thanks to him, all eyes on the street were on them.
It was a mystery how he got permission to enter.
It would have been impossible without a Rosenstark student ID.
“……”
Ban stared with his mouth agape, alternating between the leash buried between Shadow’s elegant fangs and the person holding it.
Gerald waved his hand with all his might.
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HEL SCANS
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
Join our Discord for release updates!
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