I was sitting in a train toward the Storm Canyon. Since it was between the Dwavern Duke’s territory and the Capital, the railroad system fortunately covered it.

Taking out my wallet, I counted the stacks of money that were rolled within it.

“20,000L…. Now I know why many people want to work at Ark.”

Just the bribery alone gave me this much. Though, apart from Heinz Retar, all the participants I supervised gave me a few hundred Ls at most. Still, 20,000L was nothing to scoff at.

Throwing the wallet back into the safe haven of [Alternate storage]—my storage spell, I got off the train since it was my station.

|Eh? Where is this place?|

Right, I still hadn’t told Lyra what I was doing yet. So, the sight of her flying around all confused was natural.

(“A place with many Storm Wyverns.”)

|So you decided to listen to me after all!|

(“Nope, I just so happen to have business here. But I guess I can try taming one.”)

|You’re the best!|

I pushed Lyra back into my hair (apparently, she lives there now) and made my way through the town’s stone wall.

It was…windy, as anyone could’ve expected. Even inside the sturdy wall of the town, I could still feel the violent wind outside. Normally, I’d hate this kind of weather, but I strangely felt comfortable… Must be my Covenant with Lyra doing some weird shit. 

‘Now, why would anyone want to live here in the first place?’

I mean, people here were practically waiting for a disaster to happen at this point.

Well, looking at all the Miners that populated this town, I suddenly remebered why.

‘Oh yeah, largest Mithril deposit and all.’

It wasn’t exactly the largest, but the place where Mithril was most easily found. Lightning would strike at places where Mithirl ores was, so one just needed to watch where Lightnings struck and dig the ground to get rich.

At least, that was what thing was ten years ago. Nowadays, Mithril was only twice as cheap as steel since it’d become so easy to find now.

‘Now, should I book an inn or no?’

I was probably going to be here for two days at most since in the novel, it only took Artoria a day or so to fill the quota. So, my dilemma was that should I stay here for a bit longer to tame Wyverns…

‘I have money to spare anyways. Let’s book a room.’

Just like that, I entered the only inn here and booked a room. Just as I was about to hand my money to the innkeeper, I felt someone tapping my shoulder. I turned around and— SHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT! 

‘IT’S FUCKING ARTORIA!’

“Umm… Are you the Examiner?”

My body shivered as I held back the urge to punch her unfairly attractive face. Clenching my fists tight, I glanced around the room. Yep, everyone was practically glaring at her, which made sense since the first floor of the inn (which also doubled as a tavern) was occupied mostly by Miners.

‘Calm down now, remember to smile. Yes, smile.’

I strained a polite smile and said,

“Correct. You’re Artoria Kilvillain, right?”

Somehow, Artoria shuddered at my very and absolutely normal smile. With an unsure nod, she spoke.

“T-That’s right. P-Please take care of me!”

I still kept my professional smile and glanced at my phone. “Today’s Windday, are you sure you want to hunt Storms Wyvern now?”

“Yes, I’m certain.”

“Okay. Wait here, let me prepare my stuff.”

I kept my smile even as Artoria was out of sight. Only when I got into the bed did I let everything go and scream my soul out into a pillow.

.

.

.

.

Mhm, supervising Artoria wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. I literally just had to sit somewhere safe and take down notes. And if I was a righteous person, I wouldn’t need to even worry about anything since Artoria would rather die than knowingly cheat on this exam.

Yes, “knowingly.”

There was a reason why she chose Windday to take the exam—Marie. The Elf coaxed her into starting the hunt today so that she could help her subtly with her Wind magic.

Marie’s concealment of herself was very bad. Even I could tell where she was all the way from here—though, I made sure that I never lingered on her location for more than a split second.

She was so bad that I wondered if Artoria was actually cheating knowingly.

Anyways, Wyverns! They looked exactly like a smaller version of Dragons. The only difference was that their wings were on their front limbs instead of their backs.

Storm Wyverns were no different. The only things separating them from the other Wyverns were that they were one of the weakest types of Wyverns, and that their scale color was gray.

The Wyvern Artoria spotted was smaller than average. It was probably a juvenile.

Artoria didn’t really need Marie’s help to beat this thing, but she would receive it anyways. So, I strained my eyes to see the exact moment when Marie would intervene.

And there it was. Just as Artoria was about to strike her sword at the Wyvern, an almost invisible draft of Wind pierced through its skull, killing it on the spot. Of course, Artoria didn’t realize this and continued striking the now-dead Wyvern.

She excitedly cut the Wyvern’s horns and handed them to me.

“Did you see that, Miss Examiner? I just have to kill four more, right?”

I recieved them with a smile.

“Of course.”

‘Hypocrite…’

She refuses to kill people, and yet here she is, killing an innocent juvenile Wyvern without any thought. Sure, it would grow up to be incredibly dangerous, but that was just the natural order of things, and the same thing could also be said for children. Everything had the potential to be a Villain. 

.

.

.

.

‘Hmmm…’

“Miss Examiner?”

“Hmmm?”

“Is something on your mind?”

“Actually, there is.” I looked at Artoria. She looked absolutely exhausted, which was natural considering the fact that she’d just killed four Storm Wyverns back-to-back. The problem was that: one, she shouldn’t have gotten so tired just because of this since Marie was helping her, and two, I had to kill some Wyverns on my own since they attacked me. However, I was in better shape than Artoria.

“I’m just…more powerful than normal today, that’s all.”

“Is that so?” Artoria shrugged and went back to resting.

Dammit, because of this pushover, the problem of me being this powerful once again came back to me. The last time I checked, my Stamina was practically my lowest stats.

Not being able to take the suspense anymore, I took out a [Buff Parchment] from my [Alternate Storage], hid myself away from Artoria, and ripped it apart.

===CURRENT BUFFS===

[Windday: +50% increase for Wind affinity]

[Stormborne-Red: +20% increase for Lightning, Wind, and Blood affinity in stormy weathers]

===

‘So that’s why!’

Probably another thing that my Covenant with Lyra was doing. Feeling good that I actually had an advantage here, I broke the Status panel in half and returned to Artoria.

…Things weren’t how I left them.

There she was, Artoria, lying on the ground; bleeding. Right beside her was Marie, who was also injured. They were hugging each other and glaring at the Monster that did it to them.

It was a Greater Storm Wyvern—a D-ranked Monster. 

I frowned. (“Lyra, I thought you were keeping all the strong Wyverns away?”)

That was something that Lyra told me she’d do. And that was why I was so laid-back despite being deep inside the Storm Canyon.

|S-Sorry, I can’t scare it away!|

(“...Why?”)

|T-The Wyverns that Lumaria’s chosen killed…they were probably this Wyvern’s children.|

(“Alright.”)

No need to explain anymore. If my children were killed right in front of my eyes, I’d probably be pissed; Celestial threatning me or not. While I could understand what the Wyvern was thinking, I simply couldn’t let it kill the Protagonist.

‘She still needs to save the world for me, dammit!’

So, I pulled out my Crosslance and observed the situation.

‘It’s uninjured…so it’s scales are probably hard.’

Yeah, looking at the big gash on the ground, it was safe to say that some kind of exchange of attacks was made. If the combined strength of Marie and Artoria couldn’t hurt the Wyvern, then I surely couldn’t, either.

So, there was only one thing left to do.

I threw my Crosslance on the ground and heard it make a loud sound.

Of course, this attracted the attention of everyone—

“M-Miss Examiner!”

—Even the Wyvern’s.

“Grrrrr….”

My footstep resounded in this strangely quiet region of the Canyon. In fact…I was using Wind magic to do it just for extra effect. As the Wyvern was about to lunge at me, my molten eyes turned gray.

“[Authority of Fear]”

It was as if color was drained from my world. Still, I didn’t need colors to tell that the Wyvern was shivering in extreme dread and fear.

“Curse yourself for having Draconic blood.”

It had an inferior bloodline to me running in its veins—fatal mistake. There was no room for rational thinking or logic, just pure, unadulterated Fear.

|You can tame it now!| Lyra suddenly spoke up.

Yes, I could. However, it would be best if the exams ended here. After all, I doubted that Artoria could heal her injuries in time to hunt more Wyverns. Plus, I could always come back here to tame a Wyvern.

Despite everything it must’ve been going through, the Wyvern was looking at me with hatred and disgust. 

I ran my hand over its hard scales and muttered,

“Don’t look at me like that. It’s just your luck running into Artoria.”

A fight could start for any reason. For the Wyvern’s case, it was revenge. For Artoria and Marie, it was just for an exam.

In a battle of morality and sympathy, the Wyvern would win ten times out of ten. However, reality cared not for who’s right and who’s wrong.

The least I could do for it was to give it a quick death.

Blood was running down my cheeks from my eyes, making it look like I was crying. ‘Must be the side effect of straining my Eyes too much,’ I reasoned.

I could use [World Splitter] to easily kill it right now since its scales weren’t protected by Mana, but…

“Your scale is your pride. I won’t tarnish it.”

Raising my right hand up high, I filtered Lightning Mana and muttered,

“[Lightning Spear]”

From a small red spark in my hand, a molten-red spear of Lightning slowly grew in size. I stared at the reflection of myself in the Wyvern’s eyes. Disheveled hair, blood running down from my eyes, and a [Lightning Spear] twice the size of my own body crackling and sizzling the air around it.

Tensing my muscles, I stabbed the spear of Lightning right into its eyes. I heard the Wyvern wail in pain, but it was too late now. All I could do was increase my Mana even more to hopefully kill it before it was too late.

After a while, the Wyvern finally stopped moving. It’d moved on to the next life.

Patting the scale on its face, I softly whispered,

“Sorry…”

For not delivering on my promise.

.

.

.

.

Currently, I was in a cave, resting.

Oh, and Artoria and Marie were here, too.

As I’d expected from the moment I made myself known, Artoria was staring at me with very much admiration. After all, I “easily” killed the thing she couldn’t.

Meanwhile, Marie was glaring at me despite having been saved by me. Ungrateful bitch.

In order to escape the two main characters’ gazes, I stood up and explored the cave on my own.

Other than some obvious Wyvern shit and piss, there wasn’t anything of note. Nothing, except some white eggs.

|Oh! Wyvern Eggs! If you can raise one properly, it’ll be completely loyal to you!|

(“Is that so?”)

I saw no reason to not do it now. Picking up an egg, I opened [Alternate Storage] and tossed it in. However, after roughly five seconds, the egg was ejected.

‘Huh? Maybe it’s because the egg’s fertilized?’

(“Lyra, will it work with an unfertilized egg?”)

|...It can. But you need to regularly feed it Wind, Water, and Lightning Mana.|

(“Fine by me.”)

I tried each egg until I'd finally chosen the right one—the unfertilized one. After that, I decided to go back to check up on Artoria and Marie. However, Marie was right in front of me as soon as I turned back.

Before I could say anything, she grabbed me by the collar and slammed me into the cave’s wall.

“Listen here,” she hissed. “I know that you’re aiming for Art.”

‘I'm not.’

“I can understand. She’s the most beautiful woman in the world. But SHE’S MINE!”

‘You can have her all for yourself, crazy bitch.’

I didn’t answer verbally to any of her questions and simply nodded while feigning fear. It was better this way. After some more threats, Marie released me and said,

“You’d better not say anything about my presence here and pass Artoria. Otherwise…” she drew a line across my neck with her finger. “...I’ll kill you.”

‘No doubt about it.’

It was lucky that I had no intention of failing Artoria anyways.

.

.

.

.

After we escaped from the Canyon, I immediately ran back to the Capital to hand in Artoria’s proof of completing the exam.

‘I deserve a long sleep after this…’