Chapter 9

Mad Swordsman of the Shadow World (9)

Tap tap!

“Catch him! Catch that bastard!”

“Son of a bitch! Why is he so fast!”

Harsh breathing and curses came from behind.

Theron slightly turned his head and looked at the ones chasing him.

Palcote and his group were pursuing Theron as though they intended to kill him.

‘They're following nicely.’

Theron skillfully controlled his speed, maintaining a barely reachable distance from them.

From their perspective, he seemed within reach yet remained impossible to catch, so their anger could only rise further.

Pabat!

And how long had they been running?

Avoiding the occasional mushy spots beneath his feet and the tree roots as he ran toward the outskirts, Theron soon found the place he had been looking for.

“Huff... huff... huff...!”

Theron stopped, his shoulders heaving.

A place with a slope so steep it almost felt like a cliff, densely covered with bushes below.

Stopping at its edge, Theron turned and looked at Palcote and the others.

“You... you bastard... huff... huff...”

“Fuck, finally caught you... huff!”

They breathed so heavily it looked as though their faces might burst.

Palcote struggled to steady his breathing and spoke to Theron.

“Done running, you rat bastard?”

He raised his knife and threatened Theron.

“If you cooperate obediently even now, I'll spare your life. Ah, though one of your arms will be broken.”

The ones gathered around Palcote were those who had been badly beaten by Theron before.

There was only one reason they had managed to band together again.

‘...Because of those guys, huh.’

Several vicious trainees had attached themselves to Palcote.

They disliked the recent atmosphere in the Section 5 training grounds that had begun revolving around Theron.

‘Over something as trivial as that...’

Kids were still kids.

Theron glanced at the slope behind him.

It was filled with tree branches and bushes, and the incline was steeper than expected.

Theron spoke mockingly to Palcote.

“Stop spouting bullshit. If you're going to come at me, then come.”

At the same time, Theron raised his dagger close to his body and spoke with a sharp gaze.

“But come prepared to die.”

At Theron's words, several of them flinched and unconsciously stepped backward.

Theron was small, but the presence emanating from him was anything but ordinary.

But...

“You bastard, don't try to bullshit us!”

To Palcote, it seemed to have the opposite effect.

Shouting excitedly, Palcote charged toward Theron.

Charging like a wild boar, Palcote glared at Theron with half-crazed eyes and shouted.

“Die, you bastard!”

Swoosh!

Theron lightly knocked aside the dagger thrust straight toward his stomach.

If weapons were involved, the situation was actually more favorable to Theron.

Because he could ignore the difference in their physiques.

Slash!

“Agh!”

Theron's dagger cut across Palcote's left forearm, spraying red blood onto the ground.

Palcote screamed and staggered backward with a startled expression.

Because for a moment, he had not even seen Theron swing his knife.

“What are you doing? Aren't you coming?”

Palcote alone was not enough.

To create justification... all of them had to attack him.

That was why Theron had deliberately cut his arm instead of his leg.

Rather, this minor injury would give them a reason to charge at him as though they wanted to kill him.

And as proof.

“What are you doing, you bastards! You want to break the alliance?! Kill him! Kill him! If we all attack together, we can just kill him!”

Palcote screamed desperately.

At his words, the ones who had been hesitating bit their lips tightly.

“Aaaaaaaah!”

“Die!”

They charged at Theron simultaneously.

But their movements were so clumsy.

‘...I could kill them all in thirty seconds.’

Their openings were so glaringly obvious that Theron unconsciously hesitated.

But then Theron lightly avoided the knife of the one at the front and took one large step backward.

Slip!

“Aaaaaaaagh!”

At that moment, Theron's body slid straight down the slope.

The incline was so steep and densely covered with bushes that Theron disappeared from sight in an instant.

It was also dark, making it even harder to judge how deep it was.

The ones above spoke with bewildered expressions.

“Wh-What?”

“That bastard... fell down!”

Palcote's group crowded together at the edge of the slope.

The dark, bush-covered slope below seemed to stretch on endlessly.

“...I can't see him.”

“Fuck... don't tell me he's dead?”

At one trainee's mutter, Palcote frowned.

“Shut up, you bastards!”

After shouting, Palcote silently looked down.

But no matter how much time passed, Theron, who had fallen down the slope, did not appear.

One of the trainees allied with Palcote scratched his head vigorously.

“Ah... damn it. What do we do about the exam now?”

In the end, hadn't they tried to catch Theron in order to obtain the Moltir Flowers?

They had failed to make him gather flowers for them, and they had not even managed to take the ones Theron already had.

Moreover, if word got out that they had killed another trainee while fighting inside the Shadow Forest during the exam...

“...Listen carefully. We chased him and lost him. Theron just died while running away. Don't say any bullshit about Theron falling off a cliff or anything like that. We simply lost him. Got it?”

As long as everyone here kept their mouths shut, the secret would not leak out.

“The bastards who share Theron's room didn't see us fight him anyway, so we can just deny everything.”

At Palcote's words, several exchanged anxious glances.

Palcote tightened his grip on the hilt of his knife and spoke to them.

“If anyone so much as opens their mouth to an instructor, I'll twist your neck while you're sleeping. Got it?”

“O-Okay.”

“Got it.”

“Everyone keeps this secret. Take it to the grave.”

Everyone held their breath and nodded.

Before long, they quickly returned the way they had come.

Now that Theron was dead, they had to find another way to gather the Moltir Flowers.

And after they left.

Rustle.

Something moved among the bushes below the slope.

Theron stood up.

His entire body was covered in scratches and abrasions.

Blood was flowing down from his shoulder.

But Theron simply wiped away the blood expressionlessly and looked upward.

“...Bastards. They're damn suspicious.”

Remaining motionless while a tree branch was stuck into him had been somewhat troublesome.

But with this, he had completely diverted their attention.

The instructors would probably also...

‘Be told that I'm dead.’

But that did not mean he intended to leave the training camp like this.

There were still far too many things he had to obtain here.

This ridiculous act had merely been to buy time to obtain the Blood Jade Fruit.

“Hoo.”

Theron briefly steadied his breathing.

Then, recalling his memories from the past, Theron looked in one direction.

‘I need to hurry.’

If he could not return within the time limit, the exam would end.

He had to obtain the Blood Jade Fruit while also passing the exam.

After organizing his thoughts, Theron.

Pabat!

Quickly threw himself into another stretch of darkness connected to the Shadow Forest.

______________

“Missing?”

“...Yes.”

At Berton's frowning question, Bengle lowered his head.

It was extremely rare for the chief instructor of Hell Island to take an interest in a specific trainee.

And yet that trainee had gone missing at the location of the first exam.

No, it would not be wrong to say he was practically dead.

But Berton asked with a calm expression.

“Who did you hear it from?”

“The trainees who share his room told us. They said Palcote and several others attacked them.”

“Several others? You're saying they attacked as a group?”

“They said it was twelve trainees, including Palcote.”

“...”

Berton fell silent.

If so...

“Then wasn't he killed rather than simply going missing?”

Things like this happened occasionally.

During exams.

Especially in the Shadow Forest, it was an excellent place for trainees with existing conflicts to fight among themselves.

Berton narrowed his eyes.

‘He's not someone... who would be done in by a pig like that...’

Whether it was twelve people or twenty.

He did not think someone with eyes like that would be taken down so foolishly.

But Bengle shook his head.

“I don't know whether it's true or not... but they claim they lost him while chasing him.”

“I'll verify it myself. Bring those bastards here immediately.”

“But... it's already been three days. Whether he was killed or went missing... there's a high chance he's already dead.”

“...Didn't I say I would verify it myself?”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

Bengle hurriedly turned and ran toward where the trainees were.

Because he knew that if he said even one more word, he might lose his head.

And in the office after Bengle left.

Left alone, Berton once again recalled Theron's appearance.

“...That shouldn't be possible.”

Was the feeling that he was missing something... merely his imagination?

Berton soon looked coldly at the trainees entering his office.

_______________

In the past, on the day of an unexpected accident.

Theron had been completely reborn.

The intense vitality and heat he had felt at the brink of death.

The memory of seeing the Blood Jade Fruit for the first time still remained vivid.

“It was definitely... this way.”

A gap in the valley south of the Shadow Forest.

Theron walked one step at a time while searching through his distant memories.

Three days had already passed.

‘Two days remain...’

There was little time left.

But Theron did not rush and slowly searched deeper into the valley.

Before long, night fell, and the cries of beasts could be heard all around.

To the current Theron, everything here was dangerous.

Whenever he sensed them drawing near, he hid behind rocks and lay low, avoiding danger as much as possible.

And how much time had passed?

“Found it.”

Theron muttered while looking at a small cave visible beyond the tall bushes.

When he had discovered it before, he did not remember these bushes being here.

‘It was two or three years later... so things could be a little different.’

Theron pushed the bushes aside with his hands and entered the small cave within the gap in the valley.

Whoosh!

There was no wind, but the moment he entered the cave, a chill enveloped his entire body.

And as he went farther inside, he suddenly began to feel intense heat.

The exact sensation he had felt before.

When the heat touched his body, it felt as though his memories of the past were vividly replaying before his eyes.

“...Ah.”

His darkened vision gradually brightened, and the cave walls were dyed reddish.

Amid the shimmering heat rising from between the rocks, Theron's gaze fixed on one place.

A gap where the heat of the earth and mana intersected.

Something containing that intense mana and vitality was once again before his eyes.

“...Found it.”

A single fruit resembling a vermilion crystal glowed mysteriously in a hollow in the rock wall.

It pulsed like a living heart, absorbing mana from deep within the earth and releasing it as heat.

‘Before...’

He had simply chewed and swallowed it recklessly in order to survive.

Because of that, he had failed to properly absorb even ten percent of the Blood Jade Fruit's power.

‘But...’

Even that much had been enough to completely change Theron's life, showing just how tremendous the Blood Jade Fruit's energy and abilities were.

But now.

“This time will be different.”

If he could absorb everything contained within the Blood Jade Fruit...

Theron reached out, plucked the Blood Jade Fruit without hesitation, and sat down.

With the Dark Tempest mana cultivation method, he should be able to contain all of this boundless power.

And...

Crunch!

Theron swallowed the Blood Jade Fruit without hesitation and began circulating his mana cultivation method.