Volume 1 Chapter 6: Part 2: Expedition
"The children are growing at an astonishing rate." In his office, Walter looks down at the reports on Onyx and Irene. Especially for Irene. He's been teaching her for over a few months now. The number of high-level magic she learned is more than a handful!
And her swordsmanship is splendid as well.
"Indeed, the two have grown a lot." Otter is there too. He's surprised about how the two children grew as well. But he frowns as he adds, "But something is missing for the two."
"What do you mean?"
"The children have the talent. But they lack a lot of real-world experience." Otter looks at him and continues, "I suggest we send them on a subjugation quest to have them defeat monsters."
Hmm? Walter ponders about this. Real-world experience is a must for the two of them. Having Onyx and Irene continue to only train in the kingdom won't prepare them for outside.
"That's a good idea. What do you suggest?"
"I was thinking about having them kill orcs coming from this forest." There is an increasing number of orcs. They would be killing two birds with one stone.
"Hmm? How about this. Instead of having only those two go, I'll have trainees from the knight order go as well."
Otter frowns, "They would only get in the way for the two."
But Walter shakes his head, "Orcs always hunt in large groups. Having the trainees go there would be great. And the trainees are in the same boat as the two." Most of the trainees in the knight order are inexperienced.
Letting them go with Onyx and Irene would increase their training.
"..." Otter stays silent as Walter says that. And Walter took that silence as an agreement. He adds,
"I will have the vice-captain of the knight order and some of the more experienced knights go with them."
"Then I'll send a couple of priests and a grand priest to help them as well." After discussing the plan some more, Otter walks out of the room,
Walter sighs, catching a break from all of this. But he can't rest as Vargar enters the room now.
Walter shouts out, "Didn't I tell you to go rest?! Why are you here?!"
Vargar still has damages from the battle. It isn't as much as before, but he still has bandages on his body. That didn't stop Vargar from doing paperwork, but Walter didn't let him.
What would happen if Vargar became ill from overworking? Walter wasn't going to take any chances.
Vargar sighs, "Do you really want me to go? Do you not see the paperwork you still have to do?" On Walter's desk, there are a couple piles of paper. It's so tall that Vargar can only see the top of Walter's hair if he sits down.
"...Nevermind then." Walter takes back his statement. Even though he didn't want to ask Vargar for help, the amount of work was just too much.
"You just need to do one pile. Don't overwork yourself."
"Relax. I won't go overboard." Vargar sighs as he takes a pile of paper off and begins to work on it. And the way he works is astonishing. The tall pile is slowly dwindling down at an alarming rate.
"..." Walter looks at him, just speechless. As he works, Vargar asks, "So, what did you two talk about?"
"We talked about sending the two kids on a mission." Walter talks about the gist as he works. Hearing all of this, Vargar frowns,
"Are you really going to follow through with his plans?"
"I have to. Otter's reason is valid." There was nothing Walter could say to refute Otter's decision. It would have been unreasonable if he did.
"But you know it's too weird." Just hearing it alone is enough to make Vargar suspicious of Otter's suggestion.
Why do they have to go on a mission so soon? Especially when he insisted on having only Irene and Onyx deal with orcs.
One of the main problems with orcs is they hunt in packs. So having two people go alone was just too difficult. Somebody like Otter would know something of this.
So that just made it suspicious.
"I know. That's why I want the other trainees to go with them." Walter found it suspicious as well. That's why the trainees are going as a failsafe. With so many people there, would Otter ever try something?
What's more: it gave Walter a reason to have more skilled knights with them.
"Not even Otter would do something to them out in the open."
"But that doesn't mean they would do something in the shadows. The priests have already made moves in the dark."
"I know. But do you really think the Holy Land can mess with the boy? Have faith in your student." Walter understood it too.
Vagar nods too. He understood how capable Onyx was. But then he adds,
"Speaking about Onyx, do you know what happened at the courtyard today?"
"Hmm? What happened there?" Walter tilts his head, wondering what happened. He had been training Irene to notice what went on in the courtyard.
"Apparently, the brat from the Irkeng family challenged Onyx to a duel." The person who told him this was Frederick. When Vargar heard about this, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
He wasn't angry about what Gregory did. Instead, he was wondering if Gregory had a screw loose or something.
How could you challenge the hero? You're either foolish or confident in winning.
Gregory is definitely the first option.
Vargar knows how powerful Onyx is. The same goes for Gregory. That's why Vargar knows that if the two fought, Onyx would have grinded Gregory into paste.
"What?! The brat did what?!" While Vargar laughs about this inside, Walter's eyes go wide. He couldn't believe what he heard. But hearing that, he slumps down into his chair like a dead man.
"Why is it always that brat?" Walter wants to cry. He knows that he'll be doing more paperwork because of this.
"What did you expect? The moment we have agreed for him to be joined as a trainee, he'll be a pain in our ass." Vargar sighs. But with that sigh, Walter slouches back up from his chair and points his finger at him!
"You're the one who wanted them to join!" Vargar was the main reason why he allowed them to join. Seeing how he was so relaxed, Walter screams out, "When can we get rid of them! I have enough of those brats!"
He had enough of Gregory's antics. And that guy wasn't the one too.
"Relax. We just need these brats to keep messing around. The moment we siphon almost all of their wealth, we'll make them disappear like air." Vargar has an evil expression as he says this.
Did they really think they could get away free after becoming our enemy?
There were reasons why Walter and Vargar had been keeping those noble children in the knight order.
During the rebellion, those children's parents sided with the king. And when Walter won and became king, those nobles started to lick his boots. Praising him and continuing to glorify him to get into his graces.
But it just made Walter even more disgusted. These nobles are nothing more than snakes. He knows they'll strike him again when he's at the lowest point of his life. That's why Walter and Vargar knew they had to take these guys in one swell swoop.
That's when Vargar devised a plan. And that was to let the children of those nobles join the knight order for a large sum of money. The more trouble those noble children cause, they'll just blackmail their families and get more money off of them.
And the moment their wealth is at the lowest, Walter and Vargar would take them out!
And they have been siphoning a lot of money off those nobles for a while now.
"Hey, your grin looks weird." Seeing how Vargar was making such a devious face, Walter quickly hunches back. He hides behind all those papers. He knew that expression. That face meant Vargar was planning something sinister.
"With him challenging Onyx to a duel, how much money do you think we can get from the Irkeng?" And that's his plan. Challenging the hero to a duel was something a fool would do. A hero was a symbol, yet Gregory chose to destroy that symbol.
"..." Walter doesn't know what to say. He just hunches back down. But then he notices Vargar getting up from the table. Walter looks at him weirdly, "Where are you going?"
Are you going to the Irkeng now?!
"Back to my room."
Walter's face went blank. It's like the response didn't register with him. But he shouts out, "What about the paperwork?!"
I'd already finished my paperwork a while ago. Finish the rest, or you will stay in this room for the entire night." Vargar doesn't say anymore and walks out of the room.
"......." Finish the rest? How can I finish the rest when there's so much?!
"Waahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
The cries from Walter resounded the entire room!
...
"Wow, those two are really going at it."
"Shouldn't somebody stop those two? Do they not see what they're doing to the courtyard?!"
"Then you do it! I don't want to get caught up in a typhoon like that!"
The knights shout at each other as they look at the war zone in front of them. And that war zone is caused by none other than Vargar and Onyx.
A few days have passed,
Vargar's injuries have healed for the most part, and he couldn't keep standing around anymore.
That's why he's sparring with Onyx. Well, you can't say it's a spar.
To other people, this is a pseudo life and death battle!
Onyx uses a heavy sword, while Vargar uses two short ones.
Vargar backs away from Onyx, trying not to get hit. And Onyx chases him down. He continues to slam his sword down.
When he did, the ground would burst into cracks!
"..." The knights look at him with horror. That's a wooden sword, right?! He's not wielding some sort of metal mace, right?!
Lately: the scene of Onyx destroying the courtyard has been happening a lot. But the knights still couldn't believe it. They wonder whether or not the inside is metal while the outside is wood.
And the other question was what would happen to them if they got in the way. Just thinking about this is enough to make them shiver. And the first victim of all of this is the courtyard.
These past few days, the ground has turned into a destruction zone.
But Vargar and Onyx don't care about this. Onyx takes the heavy sword and slams it down at Vargar's feet.
A thundering sound resounds throughout the entire courtyard! Vargar jumps up from the ground and takes this opportunity to strike down at Onyx.
Gotcha! That's what Onyx wanted him to do. He quickly spins his body around, making his sword slice upwards! What Onyx wants is a head-on clash with Vargar.
His heavy sword has more power than Vargar's weapons!
When the two blades clash: one of Vargar's swords flies through the air. But,
"Checkmate, brat," Vargar says as he holds his sword at Onyx's neck. He lets go of his sword to loosen the pushback to dive close to Onyx's body.
Onyx drops his weapon and falls to the ground. He complains, "Come on! I was so close as well!"
"For you, you did fine." Too fine. For a split second, Vargar's instinct went on high alert. If it wasn't for his quick thinking, he might have got done in by that attack.
He's grown a lot. Compared to before he went out, he was much weaker. But now, he is much more refined.
"But it's still enough to beat you. I won't rest until I defeat you, teacher!"
"..." Vargar doesn't know what to say. But the next second, Vargar punches him in the head!
"Eyy! What was that for!" Onyx rubs the back of his head, not expecting to get hit.
"Felt like it," Vargar remembers what he said to him before. How can he accept Onyx growing stronger than him?
"..." Onyx, who doesn't know what he was thinking, looks at him speechless. He can't believe his teacher is acting so childish.
"Anyways, there's something I need to tell you."
"..." Are you really going to ignore what just happened? And yes, he is. Onyx asks, "What is it?"
"You got the memo from Frederick that you and Irene and some of the trainees will go to the forest to hunt orcs, right?"
"Yeah. Wait, we're going with the trainees?" Onyx's face scowls a bit. He heard about Irene and him going.
But not with the trainees.
Gregory comes into Onyx's mind, and Onyx would not go with him. He'll just hold him back.
"You don't have to worry about it. There will be people like Gregory coming with you. But some trainees have talent.
And the senior knights will be coming with you to supervise the entire thing. So you'll be fine.
Worst case, you can beat them up like no tomorrow if they annoy you." Even if some of the senior knights and trainees attack Onyx together, they wouldn't be able to beat him.
"I can't do that. That'll just make the knights angrier."
"It's fine. Most of the senior knights might actually be happy if you beat them. But more than that, do you understand the premise of the mission?" Vargar's calm voice turns serious as he asks Onyx.
"It's for us to gain experience." Onyx doesn't need anybody to say a thing. He understood the gist of this mission.
Vargar nods, "Yes. And this type of mission is somewhat useless to you. But you can't lose focus."
Orcs aren't as strong as wyverns. And nothing compared to the might of a chimera. The amount of experience Onyx gained from his trip with Vargar makes this mission a cakewalk.
"Understood." Onyx nods.
"Good. Also, I want you to listen to my commands."
"Hmm?" Onyx tilts his head.
"You guys are hunting for orcs and nothing else. If you see anything strange, the first priority is to run away as fast as possible."
"Huh?"
"You heard me. The first thing is to prioritize your own safety." It doesn't matter what'll happen to the other people around him. Vargar wants Onyx to focus on himself and nothing else.
"..." Onyx doesn't know what to say. But his expression turns tense.
Vargar adds, "Remember what happened during the fight with the chimera? The right move to escape. And I won't be able to go with you this time. The knights don't have the same power as me."
The difference between the senior knights and him is wide. What's worse is there are many people around too.
"..." Onyx's face turns tenser as he hears that.
"Promise me. If you're in danger, don't think about fighting. Quickly run away."
"Alright. I understand."
"Good." Vargar's serious expression loosens. He adds, "You'll have a few days before you go. So I'll cram as much information and training as possible during that time!"
Onyx's face brightens, "Yessir, teacher!"
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