Volume 1 Chapter 1 (2/2)

”Excuse me.”

As Shuou called out, the three men turned to look in his direction.

”Ha?”

The man sitting closest to Shuou stood up lazily and approached him.

”I received a referral from the guild. I heard that you were recruiting applicants for attendants here.”

”Well, finally huh. Count yourself lucky kid. You're the last one. Put your name on this paper and sign that you agree to take the exam.”

His first encounter with coloured gem holders turned out to be the worst. Eyes as if they were constantly looking down on others along with frivolous and slack faces. It felt like the man in front of him held some sort of talent since birth to make others feel unpleasant. The man grabbed a pen nearby and purposefully tossed it on the ground to Shuou's right.

Looking from behind, the two men still seated snickering at the situation.

”Also, people takin' the exam have to leave all their belongings here for the time being. Money, weapons, and food. Leave everything but the minimal amount of clothing you need.”

”…The reason being?”

”Ha? Look, you came here because you wanna enter the army right? Then shut up and listen to the order.”

The man's att.i.tude became increasingly irritable. Shuou still had doubts about obeying the command without any sort of proof, but he wanted to avoid any conflict with the military. He reluctantly began handing over his belongings.

One by one, he placed his belongings on the table. His rations, weapons, and cloak. In the end, these were the only things he could really call his belongings.

”Hey, are you messin' with us? Take out your money. If you're hiding even a single coin…”

”I don't have any money. If you want to check, go ahead.”

”Fine, then do some jumping jacks right there. We'll believe you if we don't hear anythin.”

Following their commands, Shuou jumped up and down on the spot multiple times. However, just like he had said, he didn't have any money and no sound came out.

”f.u.c.k, are you seriously broke?”

―Like h.e.l.l he'd come here if he had money

As Shuou swore to himself, the men who were in the back came forward and began rummaging through the things he had placed on the table.

”As expected of a commoner. Nothing of worth.”

”The h.e.l.l's this? Dried meat? This dagger doesn't even have a proper blade either.”

”This cloak isn't bad. Dunno what it's made of, but seems pretty high quality.”

At this point, Shuou's doubt turned into conviction. These guys were using this as an excuse to steal things from commoners who came here looking for work. On top of that, they didn't have the slightest intention of hiding it despite Shuou being right in front of them. To them this was a normal everyday routine.

”Right, I forgot”

The man who approached Shuou first turned and looked at him with a twisted face.

”Hand over that thing you're wearing on your face. Looks pretty well made from what I can tell. Probably make a bit of money if we sell it.”

”I refuse.”

―Even if he were stripped naked, this was the only thing Shuou refused to hand over

”Hmm, that's strange. I don't think I heard you. Why don't you say that again?”

Placing his hands near his ears, the man made an exaggerated gesture.

The two beside him held their stomachs and laughed as they watched on.

”I received this from somebody important to me. You can take anything else you want from me, but I won't be giving you this.”

Their laughter suddenly stopped. As his lips quivered, the man facing Shuou looked at him with blood shot eyes.

”Don't f.u.c.k with me! If I tell you to to take it off, you take it off! Some f.u.c.king commoner like you thinks he can go against me?”

Flying into a fit of rage, the man unsheathed his long sword and pointed the tip at Shuou.

”H-hey, isn't that going too far? If this gets out, we're gonna be in trouble.”

The two men who were previously laughing stepped in to stop him, but the man showed no signs of wanting to put his sword away.

”Shut up. This guy's a spy from another country. We'll go with that.”

”Go with it you say…”

”This s.h.i.+tty commoner resisted us. If we let this kid go, he'll rat us out eventually.”

”That's not good. If we get busted…”

One of their faces turned pale as they thought about what would happen.

”We got no choice then.”

The two others also drew their swords.

Shuou slowly backed out of the tent taking some distance from the men. Following him, the three men came out of the tent with their swords drawn.

―So if somebody doesn't listen, they'll shut them up huh. Simple-minded.

One man overflowing with enmity and two others following him afraid of being ratted out. Just how corrupt were these three. If the entire Murak.u.mo army was like this, he'd lose all hope.

Shuou quietly sighed to himself. Since it had come to this, no matter what he did, the result would become bothersome.

The 3 men walked towards Shuou and took up positions with their swords up as if to surround him. Their movements were refined and clearly different from that of an amateurs'. They gave off an aura befitting of soldiers who had gone through intense training. The man in the centre raised his voice as if persuading the others.

”We discovered a suspicious commoner, but he resisted when we called out to him. We had no choice but to kill him. Got it?”

The two men on the left and right silently nodded.

The man on the left attacked first.

Swiftly closing in, the man threw out a horizontal slash.

―Observe

Because of a severe burn, Shuou was unable to use his right eye. Even so, his left eye possessed incredible dynamic vision incomparable to that of an ordinary person. However, using his rare vision required a certain amount of concentration. As a child, he was able to use his rare talent only when he was calm. In situations such as fights where his presence of mind became unstable, his concentration would disperse and he'd be unable to use it. However, thanks to his teachers' training he was able to maintain his calmness even during life and death situations.

Taking a small step backwards at the perfect timing, Shuou avoided the horizontal slash aimed at his stomach.

”Wha-!”

The man held his sword aloft s.h.i.+fting his eyes between the sword and Shuou several times with a blank expression. He was probably bewildered that there was no blood on his sword despite swinging it seriously.

”The h.e.l.l you doing idiot?”

”N-no, that-”

”Whatever! The two of us'll end this instantly.”

The man in the middle brought his sword up in preparation to swing down diagonally while the man on the right came in for a thrust. Once again, Shuou twisted his body and avoided both blows with little effort.

―Their swordplay was nothing special

Within the Ashen Forest, there were fiends capable of swinging their claws lightning fast with little to no wind-up. Thinking back to the days he would regularly face those kinds of monsters, these slow swings couldn't even be considered playtime let alone practice.

The men continued taking turns showering Shuou with their attacks, but he continued to effortlessly avoid all of their attacks just s.h.i.+fting his body.

”f.u.c.k… I can't hit him. What the h.e.l.l is this guy”

Out of breath, the men propped themselves against their swords using them like canes while breathing violently.

”I've had enough. Let's use our crystal essences… it's time to get serious”

”A-alright”

”Okay…”

”Crystal Essence” was the term that referred to the powers that coloured gem holders possessed.

―So they're gonna use their powers huh?

For the first time since the fight started, Shuou felt a sense of nervousness and put himself on guard. For the most part, Shuou understood the power of crystal essences that coloured gem holders could use. However, he had yet to see or experience it first hand.

The man on the left with the orange augite faced the palm of his hands towards the ground. As he did, earth and dirt slowly began gathering in the air and gradually formed into a thick arrow-like shape. Following him, the man possessing the green augite in the middle raised his hand and quickly rotated it above his head as a blade of wind began to form. At some point, the man on the right had also formed a roaring sphere of water that floated in front of his chest.

Shuou realized as soon as he saw it.

These abilities had the power to instantly destroy the human body.

―Looks like I can't afford to get hit by these.

He prepared himself.

This was the first time he had seen a crystal essence.

Even if he was able to track the movement, he may not be able to dodge it.

He didn't even know if he'd be able to see it.

He steeled himself. To put his life on the line.

―I might die

Following a signal from the man in the centre, all three released their crystal essences at once.

The blade of wind aimed towards his feet, the arrow of earth towards his chest, and the sphere of water towards his face.

―What…it was this simple?

Taken aback, Shuou was easily able to discern the movements of each attack.

Lifting his legs, he let the blade of wind fly past. s.h.i.+fting his body to the right, he dodged the arrow of earth. Finally, he crouched to avoid the sphere of water.

What he felt then was not a sense of achievement, but a feeling closer to that of disappointment.

According the stories he'd heard from his master, crystal essences were something to be feared. Hearing the stories, he felt both fear and deep interest towards the power, but he now felt a sense of sadness having been able to deal with it so nonchalantly.

”What the f.u.c.k are you! Impossible. Not possible not possible not possible. It's some kind of trick. No f.u.c.king way a mere commoner should be able to dodge a crystal essence!”

The green augite holder in the centre let out cries of anger as his face dyed deep red. The men on the left and right stared at each other with their mouths open as if they couldn't believe what just happened.

In a fit of anger, the man continued pouring out shouts of anger. Seeing the man without a trace of composure left, it was clear there were issues with his personality. While thinking that, as if annoyed by Shuou's calm composure, the man became further enraged.

”f.u.c.king s.h.i.+tty clouded, don't think you can remain so calm!”

The green augite user raised both his hands in the air.

Almost instantly, a blade of wind began forming in the palm of his hands. Doubling the size of his previous crystal essence, it sucked in the surrounding air and let out a roar as if ripping through the atmosphere.

What happened then was something n.o.body could have imagined.

Suddenly, a cold chill sprung forth and engulfed the entire area. The breaths they let out chilled and emitted a misty white cloud. Everything in sight had instantly frozen over covered by a thin layer of ice. They were all taken by surprise. The man who had been channeling his blade of wind had his concentration suddenly cut off resulting in his crystal essence quickly dispersing.

”That's far enough.”

They all looked towards the direction of the voice. Standing there, clad in an elegant uniform wearing a cold doll-like expressionless face, was a single girl.

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