Only seven Hero Candidates remained.
Faced with that disastrous result, silence lingered over the room for a long while.
Some had large injuries on their arms and legs, and claw marks from something were scattered across their skin.
“Tsk.”
King had been striking poses on one side until yesterday, but today he was sitting on the floor, clicking his tongue.
It seemed his fight had not been easy either. His bronze body was covered in red marks.
“I assume everyone understands how things are going.”
Brillante opened her mouth heavily. She was the only person here without any visible injuries on her body.
“Approximately 90 percent of the people have been eliminated by the second match. And we still have eight more matches ahead of us.”
“Damn, what a bunch of useless idiots.”
It was King.
“Two or three people together couldn’t catch one lousy lizard? What the hell were they doing that only this many are left? And they had the nerve to act up saying they’d participate in the test?”
He clenched his fist and huffed.
“At least twenty people should’ve come up. Seven? Seven?”
King let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded and shrugged.
“Those bastards should be embarrassed even after dying. What the fuck? They dump everything on us and die, and that’s the end? I was just watching quietly, but this is absurd.”
Brillante did not stop him at all. This situation had shocked her too.
A test that had begun with 100 people had fallen below 10 in only two stages. No one had imagined it would be this bad.
“Of course the request is hard when they throw in ninety minnows, those rotten bastards.”
Min-jun ignored the fuming King and passed by, moving in front of Brillante.
“Brillante, are you really sure this match is made up of ten stages? You didn’t misunderstand something?”
“I’m certain. It is definitely a game made up of ten battles.”
“So you’re saying it’s certain there are still eight stages left?”
“Yes……. I also did not expect the difficulty to rise sharply all at once, but it seems certain that no one has seen the end in ten years.”
Min-jun wiped his hardened face.
‘I thought at least a dozen or more people would be fighting in the third match.’
In order to raise the possibility of completing the request even a little, as many people as possible had to survive.
The fewer people remained, the more disadvantageous it became.
It was too obvious to even say.
A sigh escaped Brillante’s mouth.
“Honestly, at this point, I can no longer imagine anything good about how many people will remain after the next match.”
“Enough. We don’t need it.”
King stood up and slammed the table with a thud.
“If this is how it is, I’ll go to the end alone if I have to. If you’re scared, then get eliminated on your own. Don’t try to wriggle along for no reason.”
There was not much reason in King’s eyes as he spoke loudly for everyone to hear.
Min-jun tilted his head crookedly.
“Looks like fighting the lizard today wasn’t easy for you either. I can see how shaken you are.”
“I’m better off than you, wrapped up in bandages from head to toe. How badly did you get hurt that you even received treatment no one else got?”
Min-jun glanced down at his own appearance.
“It just grazed me a little, that’s all.”
“You stupid bastard. If that’s what you look like after being grazed, I’m curious what’ll happen if you get hit properly. Won’t you become a complete rag?”
King snorted.
“At this rate, I won’t be seeing you after the next match. I might be the only one left.”
“This is my mistake.”
Brillante, who had been silent until then, opened her mouth.
“We should not have participated in this first session to begin with. We should have simply listened to the person named Merlin.”
“They chose for themselves. Why are you making such a fuss over it?”
“I was the one who first said in the Hero Network that it was better to participate early. This matter is entirely my responsibility.”
Brillante said that and let out a deep sigh.
‘Come to think of it, that’s right.’
Min-jun knew that too.
When information about the first session first appeared, Brillante had said that the structure rewarded early participation and appealed for people to join quickly.
“This was not a test that as many as 100 people should have participated in to begin with. I did not know people’s lives would be at stake, and I brought too many people here.”
Brillante looked like she felt responsible.
Though honestly, it did not seem like she needed to go that far.
“Um, sorry to interrupt, but it’s almost shift-change time……. We also need to go check the orc cage right now.”
The guards, who had been restless for a while, finally whispered that.
“Whew.”
Brillante sighed again and looked over at everyone.
Most of them had lost their will to fight.
“Let’s disperse for today. The match is two days from now anyway. Everyone, please follow the guards. If there’s a chance, I’ll call you together once more.”
People followed them out sluggishly, like livestock being led to the slaughterhouse.
The urging guards grew busy returning them one by one to their original places.
Min-jun quietly approached Brillante, who had remained alone.
“Do you know about the opponent in the next match? That two orcs will appear?”
“……How do you know that?”
Brillante wore a surprised expression. She already seemed to know.
“As expected, you know. How do you know?”
“The direction of my prison is close to the guards. When our guard is on duty, we’re close enough to talk to each other.”
“Ah.”
So that was why she had so much information.
“Then about that. If things go well, the third stage might be easier than this one.”
“We’ve decided to try pulling out the weakest ones among those orcs, so if it goes as planned…… yes, probably.”
Two orcs in bad condition. It would not be easy, but it would be more manageable than facing ones in perfect shape.
“Wouldn’t that make it worth trying?”
Brillante nodded.
“Yes. I will definitely pass Stage 3 as well, so you must pass too, Liz. Even one more person needs to get outside.”
Brillante’s eyes burned hot as she murmured quietly.
“But don’t feel too burdened. If it comes down to it, I am confident I can end this test alone.”
Min-jun was inwardly impressed by those words. Even in this situation, she did not seem to retreat at all.
It was to the point that her self-blame over participating felt like a lie.
‘A gambler’s temperament, huh.’
Brillante.
She intended to find a solution to this “test” no matter what kind of obstacle she met.
She was completely different from the people who sank into despair and frustration.
‘Judging by how she has the fewest wounds too, she must be near the top here in combat ability as well.’
A woman supported by mental strength, skill, and quick thinking.
That was Brillante’s image inside Min-jun.
“I cannot make the same mistake twice.”
Brillante’s clenched fingers had gone white.
“I will save the people I brought here. I will survive to the end and finish this request. With my own hands.”
Brillante said that and rose from her seat.
It was because the guard was urging her on from the door.
“That much, I will not yield to anyone.”
With those words as her last, Brillante followed the guard. Min-jun stood frozen, at a loss for words.
‘She lives a tiring life.’
He had wondered why she would deliberately take on the leader role that others would refuse, but now he felt like he knew.
She was tightly bound by a needlessly heavy sense of responsibility and mission.
Enough that she even held the tragic resolve to “untie the knot she had tied” with her own hands.
“Ah, hurry up already! Don’t just stand there blankly!”
“Yes, I’m coming, I’m coming.”
Min-jun followed the urging guard back to his prison.
It was exactly two days before the third match would be held.
***
That dawn.
Canaria lit several candles inside the dark office. Her eyes revealed fatigue and dimness.
‘I’m sleepy…….’
She rubbed her eyes and loosened her stiff body once.
Even with the status of a guard lieutenant, her day was not easy. It was completely different from the life she had lived until now.
She followed the Chief Guard around and was called to all kinds of places, and when she returned, she was made to practically handle the management of Guard Headquarters herself.
For her, a peaceful resident of the twenty-first century, every single task was far from easy.
‘In the first place…….’
And what troubled her most of all was…….
‘I can’t read.’
Communication happened with no problem, but letters were an exception.
There had been more than one or two times when not knowing how to read caused inconvenience during work, so she always studied letters whenever she had time at Guard Headquarters.
Fortunately, there were several books here, and she now knew how to use her high status.
She had people explain the letters to her.
“Letters, you say?”
“Yeah. I don’t know how to read them.”
“……Pardon……?”
“Read them to me, quickly. Don’t tell anyone else.”
“You mean…… read the book, ma’am?”
“Yeah. Point to each letter one by one. Slowly, until I tell you to stop.”
“Y-Yes?”
The bewildered guard must have wondered, Is she making fun of me? But in any case, a lieutenant was a lieutenant, and a guard was a guard.
The man caught by Canaria had faithfully explained books to her over the past few days.
‘Still, now I can roughly see what the contents are…….’
At first, she had started because everything felt too vague, but as time passed, she grew more and more familiar with it.
Now, she could read books roughly even by herself.
Was it because she had no issue speaking and listening in the first place? The letters also felt strangely easy to learn.
“Haam.”
Canaria yawned and carefully read through the book.
She planned to keep studying until it was time to switch with the other lieutenant.
‘……?’
But that thought did not last long.
She sensed something strange from the lower floor of Guard Headquarters.
Murmur, murmur.
The sound of several people talking. Shouts were mixed in here and there, and something was clearly strange.
‘Should I go?’
After wetting her lips and thinking for a moment, Canaria soon closed the book and stood. She had an ominous feeling.
When she immediately went down to the first floor, she saw the guards moving busily.
Canaria grabbed one guard who was passing by.
“Did something happen?”
“Ah, Lieutenant! Nothing abnormal during duty!”
The guard hurriedly stopped and saluted by raising his arm to his chest.
“Why is it so noisy?”
“Well, it’s nothing else…… It seems something happened at the orc cage. Everything has turned upside down.”
“The orc cage?”
“Yes. The two assigned to it this week made a complete mess, so it’s chaos……. Ahem.”
He quietly lowered his voice.
“The general told them to feed the orcs going into the match well, but would you believe they forgot? They’ve been doing strange things for a while now, and they’re just not in their right minds, those idiots. Ah, Lieutenant, this has nothing to do with you, so you should be fine just staying here!”
The longer the guard spoke, the more Canaria’s face hardened.
Her bad feeling had been right.
‘Who found out about the orc cage, and how……?’
She could not understand how that place, which she had made so no one could enter, had been discovered for any reason.
“Lieutenant? Lieutenant, where are you going?”
Canaria immediately headed toward the underground orc cage.