Chapter Chapter 13: RATH 13 TL: Eevee (2/2)
“Luck.”
“An essential part.”
And life is a giant shitty RNG game!
If you’re lucky then everything falls into your lap even if you do nothing.
“And…”
“Can you not think of anything else?”
“Yes.”
As No.1000 nodded I slowly brought my left hand back to the top of the desk.
Hm. To think she’d request extra training.
If it was No.1 then the compensation wouldn’t match the price, but No.1000 is different.
I’ve said this before, but this No.1000 is the number given during primary training.
When the time comes for this kid to graduate, even if she fits into just the top ten of all the cohorts I’ve trained so far, the fact that the bonus payout will be several times my salary was proven with the previous cohort.
“And teaching you that should be my role as an instructor.”
As an instructor, teaching my disciples is my job. But no one ever said that that job should ever be done myself?
#10 Their story: Mirua’s story.
-The path to live long and prosper-
When was it. That surviving was my objective in life.
From my earliest memories, leaving with mom’s hand in hand was daily life, and even fragments of bread were hard to come by and I had to loiter around here and there.
The middle of the battlefield. And as a citizen of an enemy country of the Empire every day was busy running away, and that was daily life.
Food was my life’s objective.
But now that I think about it, that was just because I was struggling to survive.
Why do I want to live? Why do we struggle in order to survive? I don’t understand even when I think about it.
But still. I want to know. I will survive. And to do that…
“Hm? Aren’t you heading back?”
After I threw No.1 on his bed, as I hesitated to open the door to my room with my hand on the handle, No.17 saw me and tilted her head quizzically.
Even if we’re all trainees there’s only three of us so we’re all pretty much neighbours.
“A bit later.”
No.17 made an expression that something was wrong, but she didn’t seem to care much further and went into her room.
I let go of the door handle.
Yes. In order to survive. That method would be the best.
I turned my footsteps back around, past the training grounds to where the instructor lived and knocked on the door to his quarters, but there was no one there.
Maybe, he’s still working…
“Come in.”
Outside the instructor’s office.
I put down the hand that had been about to knock on the door. I hadn’t even knocked yet but had he already realised I was here.
“Yes.”
Is he working? He’s writing something on paper and not even looking my way.
“What’s the matter?”
“The one who survives the longest is the winner.”
“Do you have questions about our discussion before?”
The instructor said coolly.
But, after listening to this today, there was something I realised.
“I want to be a winner.”
I want to be a winner. I want to live long and prosper. I don’t want to die. The majority of life in my memories were in death’s shadow.
I was always so hungry I felt like I’d die.
I was always so scared I felt like I’d die.
It always hurt so much I felt like I’d die.
Many, many times I thought that it’d be easier for me to give up and die, but I don’t know why but death was even scarier.
And so I always ran away from the thing called death.
Yes, I had always been running.
I ran away from the adults that looked at me dangerously.
I ran away when I that heard the Empire’s battlemages, the death gods of the battlefield were approaching.
Even when I fought among the orphans for something to eat I would run away if I realised I was outmatched.
Like that, always, I would run away.
Grit.
I bit down on my lips. The iron taste of blood filled my lips.
I don’t want to have to run away any more.
One step, another, I walk closer to the instructor.
“Do you know what you need to survive the longest.”
Finally, the instructor looked at me and said with a slight smile.
What you need to survive? Of course I know that.
“Food.”
If you are hungry then you have no strength. Every step feels like agony. Sometimes the world will turn white in front of your eyes. Especially when you can’t drink any water as well, then it’s truly hell.
“Correct.”
See. Even the instructor acknowledges it.
“Strength.”
If you are not strong then things are taken from you. The feelings of having food you fought so hard for being stolen from you is something only those who have experienced it would know. And in order to reclaim it you need to be strong. If you are not strong, you get taken from and die.
“Correct.”
See. Even the instructor acknowledges it.
“Luck.”
If you’re unlucky then you can be hit by a stray spell. If you are lucky then you can survive even in under magic artillery fire. Life and death is always separated by the thickness of a single sheet of paper. And that single sheet of paper is luck.
“An essential part.”
See. Even the instructor acknowledges it.
“And…”
I can’t think of any more. There’s definitely more. I know what it is. But I just don’t have a way to explain it.
“Can you not think of anything else?”
“Yes.”
In that case that is not something that I know. Just something that I feel. To be precise, something that I don’t know.
And that’s why I came to the instructor. And as if he was pleased, he said.
“And teaching you that should be my job.”
After he said that, the instructor took me somewhere.
In these last few months I thought that I’d seen everything this facility had to offer, but we opened an old door I thought was a storage shed and went down a flight of stairs, a small cave appeared.
“I thought you would need this after a bit more time, but seeing your desires I’ll open it up early.”
“Is what I want inside here?”
“Yes. There is. But, only if you can survive.”
If I can survive?
That means…
“I could die in here…”
“Yes, you could die. But like I’ve said earlier, the one that survives is the winner. Meaning that death awaits the defeated. Life and death is always together. Survive. And prove it.”
With that, the instructor left without any more words.
There was no command for me to turn back either. He didn’t even ask me for my opinion. He believed in me, and led me here.
“Life and death is always together.”
Muttering those words I opened the door.
Fik!
“Uht?!”
I barely dodged something that grazed my cheek.
The instructor was always right.
If I listened to the instructor, everything went well. Although he said some difficult things from time to time, when we didn’t understand, he made us understand with actions.
And maybe this time as well, if I can get through this dangerous place like the instructor said, I could attain my goals.
So I understand you, instructor. I understand you, instructor…
But an arrow flying towards my head the moment I open the door is too much… Sob.
AN: Hands up who remembers Sermi