〈Shield?〉
The mage remained silent at Sarin’s bewildered face.
Then, looking at Sarin’s dazed expression, he reached a conclusion and nodded.
〈Talent, it is.〉
〈…….〉
Sarin couldn’t fully understand what the mage was saying, but he knew one thing: the mage had realized that Sarin had recalled the formula for the magic shield he had seen by eye just before being engulfed in flames.
‘But I couldn’t have had a mana core. How on earth…….’
〈You are no longer a slave.〉
〈…….〉
His hands and feet were cold and trembling, but Sarin struggled to lift his head.
As the mage turned around as if to leave without a second thought, Sarin shouted at his back in a suppressed voice.
〈Because of you…… my brother died!〉
At this, the mage stopped walking.
The only reason he could yell at the man who had single-handedly annihilated an entire village was because he had nothing left to lose.
The mage turned back to look at the screaming child and smirked as if it were pathetic.
〈Your brother didn’t die because of me.〉
〈You hit him with your magic and he died!〉
Having lost his brother, the only family he had left, Sarin couldn’t see anything else.
The hellish place he had spent his whole life was now a scene of devastation, and he had nowhere to return to.
〈Do you still not know? The reason your brother died.〉
His breathing grew ragged, and his head swam.
The excitement that filled his mind caused him to lose his last remaining tether of reason.
〈What!〉
〈This massacre is something you should have done in the first place.〉
〈……What?〉
At those words, Sarin looked up at the mage with a blank expression.
〈Wouldn’t it have been enough if you had burned this slave market and left with your brother long ago?〉
〈What is that……〉
What could a puny kid, less than half the mage’s height, have done?
Back then, Sarin didn’t know.
How relative “talent” really is.
〈It happens sometimes. Even in Pasadian, there are times when someone raised without seeing or learning anything like you has an excessive amount of talent…….〉
〈What on earth are you talking about?〉
At the mage’s unintelligible muttering, Sarin curled his body up as much as possible and glared at him fiercely.
〈Do you think your brother would have lived if I hadn’t come?〉
〈…….〉
〈Aren’t you a slave just like him anyway? You would have met your death someday when your usefulness ran out.〉
Sarin couldn’t even offer a rebuttal to those words.
No one knew better than Sarin, who had grown up in the slave market, that his words were true.
Just how insignificantly they regarded the lives of slaves.
〈I’m quite generous to those with talent.〉
Sarin stared blankly at the mage’s robe, which was embroidered with white thread.
〈I didn’t use expensive healing medicine to save you for no reason.〉
Crackle, crackle.
The sound of human skin burning and the sickening stench still lingered.
However, the mastermind behind it was already about to leave the village.
〈I’ll be going now. It seems you’re the only thing worth salvaging in this small village.〉
〈…….〉
The sun was already rising behind his back. Perhaps that was why his departing figure didn’t seem real.
‘I have to take revenge on that guy who killed my brother…….’
Why did I feel a sense of relief?
‘Why on earth?’
A hot trail of tears flowed down Sarin’s cheek.
After that, many things happened to Sarin, but he remembered the clothes the mage wore and said he scrounged and saved money by any means necessary to take the exam at Pasadian.
Darek couldn’t hide his bitter expression, knowing the story of Sarin’s past.
“Sarin. Don’t talk about that time.”
At Darek’s serious words, Sarin stared straight at him.
Then, he shrugged his shoulders cheekily and said.
“I’m fine now. Besides, meeting that mage again is my goal anyway.”
“An official disciple, I assume? Seeing the power he wielded.”
“Right. Looking at the robe, I think he was a lower-level disciple.”
The man who had annihilated an entire village by himself.
He had definitely been wearing a robe with white embroidery, which lower-level disciples wore.
At the time, he had even seemed like a being who transcended humanity, but now that he thought about it, he figured he must be struggling in Pasadian just like he was now.
‘How far has he climbed by now? He definitely possessed skills that a lower-level disciple shouldn’t have been able to exhibit.’
Reaching that thought, he realized just how powerful Pasadian as a whole was.
“Anyway, I’m fine now, Darek.”
Just as Sarin said that, the sound of the training ground door opening could be heard.
Click.
“…….”
The eyes of everyone in the training ground turned toward it.
Sarin and Darek also focused their gaze there.
“What……? They’re late.”
Sarin’s pupils dilated.
“……That’s them, isn’t it? The trio from the 47th class.”
At Sarin’s words, Darek frowned.
“Certainly…… their shells are worth looking at.”
Their tall statures and polished faces all shone brightly.
“Are those really noble young masters?”
“Is that small kid Anakin Descartes?”
“I think so.”
The 45th-class students’ gazes also drifted toward the trio for a moment.
They certainly radiated an aura that couldn’t come from ordinary people.
Likewise, they naturally sat in the spectator seats, perhaps having come to observe the 46th class’s skills.
“That silver-haired one must be Lucien Filo, and the black-haired one must be Hilde Asta.”
At Sarin’s words, Darek frowned and said.
“Noisy.”
“They’re at the age where they’re full of energy, aren’t they?”
They were arguing and bickering with each other, as if they were quite close.
“Ahem, but didn’t they say nobles hate noisy things?”
Darek and Sarin were flustered by a side to them that was different from the nobles they knew.
“Maybe it’s because they’re collateral branches.”
“What if they’re direct descendants?”
“That wouldn’t happen, but that would be a problem in itself…….”
“Kehehe.”
Nobles were all people who were pedantic about rules, hated rudeness, and were narrow-minded.
……That’s what I thought, but watching them like this, they’re really no different from ordinary kids.
“Hmm…….”
Sarin observed them carefully before rising to his feet.
“Where are you going?”
“To say hello.”
“No, why are you going? They should be the ones coming to us.”
Darek looked up at Sarin, bewildered. Sarin then said confidently.
“Jack told me to go check them out.”
“……Did you get orders from that guy?”
Darek scowled at Sarin’s words.
Jack—violent, self-willed, and a sociopath.
Sarin was the only person that Jack acknowledged, if only a little.
……Though, even that acknowledgment was stingy.
“You, who wouldn’t even listen to a word Jack said, why now?”
“Because I’ve become a little curious myself this time.”
Sarin said to Darek with a smile.
“I’ll be back.”
“……Do whatever you want.”
As Darek waved his hand dismissively, Sarin walked down the stairs toward the trio.
When Sarin appeared, all three children looked up at him.
“Hello? I’m Sarin of the 45th class.”
Anakin responded belatedly to Sarin, who was smiling brightly.
“……Ah! Hello. I’m Anakin of the 47th class, and these are Hilde and Lucien.”
Sarin blinked at Anakin’s introduction.
‘A noble using honorifics?’
This was not in Sarin’s expectations.
‘In all my life, I’ve never heard a noble use honorifics to me, a slave.’
Sarin quietly stared at Anakin, who was sitting in the middle, sandwiched between Lucien and Hilde.
“But what brings you here……?”
His face was obscured by his hood, so he couldn’t see it well, but Sarin could tell just from the rough outline that he was quite pretty.
“We’re sparring together this time, aren’t we? I just came to greet you.”
Then, the three of them just stared blankly at Sarin.
As Sarin tilted his head in puzzlement, Hilde opened his mouth.
“Are there normal people in Pasadian?”
At his words, Lucien stared at Sarin with suspicious eyes.
“Who knows yet.”
“……That’s too rude.”
Even Anakin was trying to stop him.
Watching all this, Sarin stared at them blankly before clutching his stomach and bursting into laughter.
“Kehahaha!”
Seeing Sarin like that, Lucien shook his head as if he had expected it.
“See. I told you, there’s no such thing as normal.”
“Lucien. I don’t think that’s something for you to say.”
Sarin, who had been laughing for a long time, wiped his tears and said.
“You guys are more interesting than I thought? I tried to be careful because I heard you were nobles.”
“Since we entered Pasadian, I think we’re all the same disciples.”
At Anakin’s kind words, Sarin replied.
“Hmm…… really? Okay. Well, there’s no order in dying anyway.”
Sarin touched his chin and asked them.
“Who’s the strongest among you?”
“…….”
At that question, Anakin, Lucien, and Hilde looked at each other and stayed silent.
It was because they themselves hadn’t determined who was the strongest yet.
“Me.”
Lucien, who had been staring fixedly at them with his chin on his hand, opened his mouth.
Seeing that, Hilde mocked him.
“You talk funny for someone who comes back injured every time.”
“I let them hit me on purpose.”
“You let them hit you until you pass out—what a great consideration.”
“That is……”
Sarin was speechless at the chaotic scene for a moment.
Two constantly bickering, and one silently focusing on class.
‘What kind of combination is this?’
“Sarin. The person named Jack is the strongest in the 45th class, right?”
Anakin, the one who was at least easy to talk to, asked Sarin.
Then, Sarin answered cheekily.
“How did you know? That that mad dog is the strongest.”
“Mad, dog……?”
As Anakin blinked his eyes in confusion, Sarin laughed as if he found him cute and said.
“Haha. Was that expression too extreme? But we all call Jack that.”
