Volume 3 Chapter 2: Part 4: Promotion Exam

 

"What did you just say?" Onyx's expression turned dark, and his voice went cold. How could they call Rena a white devil? 

 

But the guy continued, "Don't you know white hair represents disease and death?! Having somebody like that on our exam is a death wish." Backing away was the first thing he did. But what happened next was something no one expected. 

 

The guy took out his mace and pointed at Rena!

 

"Are you crazy?!" Nigel looked at him in disbelief as he jumped off the wagon. What is wrong with this kid? He quickly grabbed the mace out of his hand, 

 

"Don't point weapons at your comrade!"

 

"She isn't my comrade! She's pure evil!"

 

"..." Are you trying to kill yourself?! Do you really want to die? Nigel didn't think he would say something like that! Do you not see the dark aura coming off of Onyx?!

 

Anybody could see the rage on his face. Heck! Even if nobody looked at him, they could feel the immense pressure coming off him! Nigel could already imagine it. Remembering how Onyx beat Galven to a bloody pulp: no way could these idiots withstand it. 

 

They were going to be beaten black and blue! And he was right. 

 

These bastards! Onyx was ready to jump out of the wagon and start a fight right here and now! But then, a hand grabbed onto his arm. Rena was the one who did it.

 

Master, don't do anything reckless. Remember what you told me?

 

But what about what this bastard said? How can you let this go?

 

It's ok, master. I don't care about what they say about me. These words aren't something I haven't heard.  

 

"..." Seeing her like this, Onyx's expression softened. Just how much did she have to hear to be calm from this. Rena's expression hadn't changed when the guy talked down to him. No sadness or surprise. 

 

Only calmness.

 

Onyx could tell these incidents occurred a lot to Rena for her to act like this. 

 

I'll calm down. Onyx took a deep breath before scowling back at the two guys in coldness. He turned to Morgan, "Morgan. Let us be off now."

 

"Huh?!" "What?!" The two were shocked by what he said. Onyx ignored them and looked at Nigel, "Nigel, get back on the wagon. We don't need to focus on these pitiful people."

 

"Who the hell do you think you are talking to us like this?!"

 

"I don't need to talk to people who don't understand common courtesy and respect for their teammates." The reason why they arrived at the gates earlier than expected was not to be rude to others. They were all from different parties, so it would look bad for others if they were late. 

 

"U-understood." Morgan nodded and signaled his employees to start the horses again. 

 

"Hey! Are you really going to leave us here?!" "Yeah! This isn't your quest! You can't do whatever you want!"

 

"And this isn't your quest either. We waited for you guys for an extra twenty minutes. Not counting some issues, that was an extra hour. Do you think we have all the time in the world to wait for you?"

 

"It's only an hour! It's only a little time!" 

 

"A little time? Do you think 1 hour is a little time? Then let me ask you; is it wrong to make your peers wait for you? All of us came on time because there was a level of respect and etiquette. 

 

And I advise you guys to stop shouting like monkeys unless you want monsters to come at us in droves." Despite being angry, Onyx wasn't a fool to not realize where they were. They were in the forest, filled with monsters, probably waking up from sleep.

 

Hearing that, the two shut up. Onyx continued, "And continuing to act like this shows how bull-headed the two of you are."

 

Cyrus added, "What's more, you wasted everybody's time right now too. You guys should have shut up and followed us instead of trying to pick a fight."

 

"..." The two continued to be silent. They were in a losing battle. Everybody agreed with what Onyx said. They wasted time for them. Nigel sighed,

 

"Get on the wagon now and shut up. Willa, you come and sit in the front with us." Now that they were here, they would have to bring them, or the guild would have problems. 

 

Nigel knew there would be problems if either sat in the same wagon as Onyx. 

 

"U-understood!" Willa got off the wagon and jumped into the front one. The other two begrudgingly sat in the back with Cyrus and Tricia. As the wagon continued onward. 

 

"What is wrong with those two?" Onyx cursed a bit. He was still mad about what happened. 

 

"Ignore them for now. We shouldn't be focusing on those guys. We should be concentrating on our exam." Nigel sighed. Onyx wasn't alone in being angry. Having them come with them left a horrible aftertaste. 

 

"Rena, are you ok?" Willa took the chance to speak up as she asked Rena. Onyx looked at Rena too. 

 

Rena nodded, "Don't worry about it. I'm ok."

 

Onyx's face darkened, "Nigel, what's this about white hair?" I should have known. There had been times when people stared at Rena in particular. He felt something off about it. 

 

But when he looked back at them, they would all turn away. So he never thought much about it after that.  

 

Not until now. 

 

Nigel scratched his head, "I see. So you haven't heard about this." Thinking about it, that seemed to be the case. He explained, 

 

"There's this legend that white hair is bad luck and misfortune. Many people with white hair are usually ostracized by it, and they're treated as lower beings." Nigel told the truth. 

 

So that's why people didn't want to buy Rena. Onyx realized it now. During the auction, the bidders all gave hesitant looks. 

 

"Some people believe these types of things like that fool over there. But some people like myself don't believe in something like that." Nigel never thought of the myth to be true. 

 

It was just hair color and nothing more.

 

"Me too! I don't believe it at all!" Willa added on. 

 

"Thank you." Rena thanked them and looked towards Onyx, who had been thinking hard.

 

"Master, you don't have to worry about me so much. Things like that have come second nature to me."

 

"..." Onyx was silent but rubbed her head, "Idiot. This shouldn't be second nature to you. And how could they say your hair is a sign of misfortune? It's beautiful."

 

"..." Rena blushed.  

 

"Kya!!" Willa squealed a bit at the romance forming. 

 

"..." Smooth talker. That's the only thing Nigel could describe. 

 

"Speaking about the two, what should we do about them?" Onyx asked. There were problems with them as they joined. 

 

"Ahh, don't worry about that. I'll discuss it when we take our break." They would have to take a break for the horses. 

 

"Understood." After a while, the wagons stopped. Morgan and the rest tended to the horses, giving them food. 

 

Onyx and the rest sat in a circle. Nigel spoke up first,  

 

"Guys, before we continue further, we need to do some things first."

 

"What do you have in mind?"

 

"I think we need to introduce ourselves some more. Say what rank you are and your role as well. I'll go first; my name is Nigel Shea. I'm the vice-captain of the party Thunder Breakers. I'm rank D, and the role in my party is the tanker."

 

"I'll go next!" Tricia smiles, "My name is Tricia Gray. I'm E rank. And I'm in the party Blossom Springs. I'm a mage, and my specialty is fire magic."

 

"I'm Cyrus Bradshaw. And I'm a solo adventurer. I'm an archer/tracker. My rank is a D." 

 

"I'm Willa Levine! I'm going to be ranking up to E rank! I joined the guild a few months ago. And I recently joined the party Blue Cats."

 

Blue Cats? Onyx found this name familiar. Because it was. 

 

"Ahh, you're in Ryan's party?"

 

Willa was surprised, "You know my captain, Mr. Onyx?"

 

Know him? "Well. Kinda. We ran into some complications." Well, they tried to kill me. Onyx chuckled, remembering what happened that day. The party, Blue Cats, tried to pass off a horde of goblins on him. 

 

But after dealing with them and taking care of the goblin king, they became more respectful to him. 

 

Hearing that, Willa tilted her head. But a thought came into her mind, "Wait, are you the legendary berserker sadist senior who sliced down the goblin king?!" 

 

"...What?" Now it's Onyx's turn to be tilting his head. Legendary...what now?

 

"Captain said before he got saved by a super cool adventurer." She remembered it now.

 

Sounds good. But then, 

 

"And that person asked him for directions to the goblin king. He said that with one stroke, the senior took out 100 goblins! And with a swipe, he split the goblin king in half!" Willa's eyes sparkled as she said this. Like Ryan's story was some folklore. 

 

"...Willa, does anybody else know about this?" 

 

"...." Onyx could only shake his head, "Willa, what your captain said is exaggerated. Don't listen to what he says."

 

"But what the captain always says is true."

 

"...." Ok then. Not going to deal with that. Onyx ignored her insistence as he said his greeting, "My name is Onyx. I'll be ranking up to C rank. And the weapon I use is a sword."

 

And Rena chimed in, "My name is Rena. And I'm the same rank as Onyx. I'm the archer of our duo." After saying all of that, they turned over to the last two, 

 

"Vinnie Parson, E-rank. Swordsman."

 

"Blaine Baird, F-rank. Tank."

 

The two's voices were frank and cold. There was no sense of cooperation between the two of them at all. 

 

What's wrong? But Onyx felt something off. He looked over to Vinnie, who was scowling at him. 

 

What's his problem? That's what he wanted to ask. But Nigel explained, 

 

"Alright, since we got the greetings out of the way, we can discuss the others. We should put some rules for everybody to follow. I think the basic one is 

 

1. Not trying to kill the others. 
2. Don't get in each other's way.
3. Splitting loot evenly. 

 

Is that fair for everybody?" Nigel thought about this throughout the wagon.

 

"We're good about it." "What about you guys?" Besides the two, the rest had agreed.

 

"Fine." Vinnie begrudgingly accepted. 

 

"Good. Now, this leads me to the second thing. Who should we appoint as the leader going forward? Does anybody-"

 

"Let me be the leader!" Vinnie screamed, "I'm a natural-born leader and can guarantee that we can pass this quest easily with my leadership!"

 

"Not happening." Onyx and Cyrus instantly denied it. There was no way they could let this fool become their leader. That was already signing a death wish to everybody. 

 

Vinnie scowled, "What? Is it because of my rank? Is it messing with you guys that you're going to listen to somebody lower than you?"

 

"One: Rank does matter in this situation. Second, you are unfit to be the leader. And what do you think a leader is?"

 

"Isn't it obvious; it's all about strength! The strongest person is going to lead it!" Vinnie raised his chin up with pride plastered on his face. 

 

Onyx was trying hard not to roll his eyes at him, "There's my point. Also, shouting you want to be the leader is something only a non-leader would do." Thinking about it, he turned to Nigel,

 

"Nigel. I think you're the best person to lead the group."

 

"Huh me? But aren't you stronger than me?" 

 

Are you going by that logic too? Onyx shook his head, "I am stronger than you. However, that doesn't make me qualified to be a leader. You're the vice-captain of your party. So you have experience in leading for the most part. 

 

So my vote still stands. Does anybody else have an idea of who the leader should be?"

 

"No." Besides Blaine, the rest had no problem with it. 

 

"Alright then. I'll be the leader." Nigel sighed.