79 COGNIZANCE (1/2)

A thick, five-feet-tall snake darker than coal, toiled on the floor, seemingly trying to find food. Its small yellowish eyes and tiny but sharp fangs didn't stir up chills in the cross-eyed kid's body as he approached it unescorted by chariness.

The footsteps of the kid alerted the snake, and it immediately rolled over on its back, wide-opened its mouth, and stayed still.

”It suddenly stopped moving,” Beren only got excited. He thought that the snake was willing to share some knowledge with him, and he increased the pace; however, just as he got closer, the snake suddenly turned over onto its belly and hissed with its mouth closed as it spread its neck and rose high into the air. Seeing the snake stand tall on its tail, Beren's eyes were swamped with suspicion, and the hissing scared him into taking a few steps back.

The pupils were petrified down to the soles of their shoes, and even the masters were taken aback, for they had never seen a snake stand so tall and give a perfect illusion of turning more corpulent. Towering over the kid, the snake was staring down at him with its vicious countenance, and he was too scared to move, for its hood was now bigger than his head. Maybe he was close enough to be considered a threat, so the snake opened its mouth and hissed as it bent its neck backward for launching an attack.

As the snake shot its upper body at Beren's face while hissing aloud, he fell back, but he was still in the snake's path, and receiving a bite seemed inevitable.

A wooden sword from one side and a foot from the other side swam into Beren's view and smashed into the snakehead when it was only inches away from his face.

The hissing ceased, and the snake fell to the floor, its head crushed out of shape, but its lower body was still twitching and writhing. Beren, though, was shaken up by everything that was transpiring, couldn't help but look at the two people who stopped the snake before it got to him.

One of them was holding a wooden sword, and it was the same person who had been getting beaten by the Sword Morons until moments ago. The other one was a red-haired girl, one who looked clean and fresh, having taken a bath not long ago.

Everyone there suddenly felt a nasty smell so unpleasant that it raised their bile. ”What in the hell is this?”

”It must be the snake,” with her nose shut with one hand, the red-haired girl picked up the still-moving snake that was giving off vapors and shoved it in her purse, startling everyone. ”It's so noisome.”

”Miss Sariyu, what are you doing here?” 777 asked in surprise.

”Wait a minute.” Sariyu, however, turned to look at Beren. ”Hey, idiot. How can you be so obtuse that you're approaching a snake so carelessly? Do you want to die that badly?”

”D-Die?” Beren was startled and stumped for a second, but then his eyes enlarged. ”I-I was told that snakes give knowledge through biting.”

”What?” Sariyu's expression turned cold. ”Who told you that?”

Beren pointed his finger straight toward the seven people of Sword Morons. ”They were beating this uncle, and when I asked them to stop, they told me to stand in the snake's path, or they won't let the uncle go.”

Sariyu glanced at 777, and his blood-covered hair, ears, and neck told her everything, even though he didn't say a word. ”If that snake had bitten you, its venom would have probably claimed your life.”

Beren was stunned to hear that. ”I-Is that true?” his voice was edged with fear.

”Only crooked bastards would trick a child,” Sariyu barked at the masters and the pupils who wore brazen bearings. ”Do you people always eschew your integrity like this?”

”Huh! Aren't you loquacious!” one of the masters replied in a spiteful and condemning manner. ”Trying to shame us by your foofaraw. How foxy, hehe!” He snorted and waved his hand. ”Go mind your own business, Red Fox, or you'll get hurt.”

”M-Master,” just then, one of the pupils spoke in the master's ears. ”She's the one who beat the trainees in the drill hall today.”

The masters were surprised to hear the news. ”Oh, this girl? Are you sure?”

”Yes, master morons. I saw it with my own eyes.”

While the masters and the pupils were discussing, Sariyu and 777 were themselves busy in a conversation.

”What?” Sariyu didn't like what she had heard. ”You don't want me to fight for the boy? You saw how those nefarious punks tricked him! He may have died if the snake had bitten him.”

”Yes, but just listen, okay?” 777 replied in a low voice, so low that even Beren couldn't hear his words. ”There may be foul play involved here, but that kid is more than seven years old, and though he may not know what a snake is, he still approached it out of his own volition. It's not murder as long as the snake has no connection to those guys over there. Even if the snake belongs to them, it won't be easy to prove their guilt.” His words stunned her, but he wasn't over yet. ”If the kid had died, it would've meant that he was misfortuned. That's all there is to it. As they say, the loss of a man's life due to the lack of knowledge is the same as the slaughtering of chicken.”

Once again, Sariyu didn't like what she heard. ”That's a load of nonsense.”

”Maybe or maybe not,” 777 continued to speak in a careful tone. ”This rule may seem twisted, but I have some sensitive information... that people who were even indirectly involved in murderings on this ship never managed to pass the entrance test of the sect.”

Her eyebrows raised more than a little. ”Not even one?”

777 shook his head with certitude.

”Are you sure?”

777 nodded and loosened his throat, thereby lowering his voice further, ”You may think no one's noticing you, but trust me, many eyes might be watching us right now. It's better to think that eyes are everywhere on this ship, well, not everywhere, but you get the point. All your actions on this ship may even be evaluated one day. Any information regarding the sect test is hard to come across. Even most people on the hundredth deck are not aware of this. So keep this information private to yourself.”

”Mm,” she bit her lower lip, ”but still, I don't support a law that lets an adult kill a child through deception and then walk away free.”

”Deceit stems from lies. Haven't you ever lied?”

”I did,” she furrowed her brows and was half-mad with annoyance, ”but this is different.”

”It is, maybe to you, but how can you say that everyone else thinks the same?” 777 moved back and spoke in a normal tone. ”Hey, I know this is hard to digest. On the good side of things, it's not like this behavior is allowed in the outside world, but only in some places, this ship for one is where it's allowed. Didn't you read the guidebook, the claret-colored one?”

”I did,” Sariyu suddenly scratched her chin, ”and I remember coming across some rules which stated about knowledge, but it was a long day back then. I kept on reading so many new things, so some were hard to process.”