BSS 32

Chapter 32

“Miss! It’s dinner time.”

“Yes, I’ll be out.”

It was a bit early for dinner, but since I was starving, the stableman’s announcement couldn’t have been more welcome.

The road to the next city was long and harsh once again. For someone like me with weak stamina, long-distance travel itself was torture.

Of course, even though the others also traveled by carriage, the kids in the Combat Division would often hop off and walk alongside the knights, chatting or stretching their bodies.

[Master, dinner is cream stew tonight.]

[Really? That’s one of my favorites.]

Rai, who had gone ahead to check the menu, brought back the delightful news.

Maybe because it hadn’t been long since we restocked supplies in the previous town, dinner was quite generous. I got off the carriage and trudged over to the serving line.

The line was split in two—one for the General Division, one for the Combat Division.

No one officially divided them that way, but because the Combat and General kids tended to keep each other at arm’s length, it naturally formed like that. No one told them to, but even meals were eaten separately.

Naturally, I stood in the line for the General Division, where I belonged.

“That’s her. That one.”

“I heard she almost got killed by a swarm of wasps.”

“Seriously? I always thought she had bad luck, but wow.”

I heard the Combat kids whispering from the other line. They never get tired of this, do they? Come to think of it, the ones who mocked me were almost always from the Combat Division.

The General Division kids didn’t insult me, but they didn’t approach me either.

It was undeniable—I didn’t blend in, and I drifted on the fringes.

Soon it was my turn, and I received a stew filled with chunks of vegetables and meat, a piece of bread, and an apple. I glanced at the clusters of kids eating together under the trees, then turned back toward my carriage.

“Murderer.”

A sharply clear voice stopped me in my tracks. I turned my head to find the owner of that voice.

Oh look, this rat-sized brat…

I tried to keep my expression neutral, but the twitch at the corner of my lips was involuntary.

A boy with violet hair was glaring at me intensely.

He had the face of someone who desperately wanted everyone to see how brave he was being.

“You. I heard you killed someone.”

Technically, I didn’t kill him. You stupid little purple-headed gremlin.

“I heard everything from the adults.”

“So what?”

“So what? Killing someone is bad! Don’t you even know that? They say the General Division kids are geniuses, but I guess not all of them. Idiot!”

Who’s calling who an idiot?

The violet brat looked familiar—he was always at the center of the group that made fun of me.

He wore thin gauntlets, so he was probably in the hand-to-hand combat group. That also made it likely he was a friend of Leo, the kid who got eliminated because of me.

This tiny brat must’ve expected me to be shocked by his accusation or to burst into tears and run away. But honestly, I was just annoyed.

Clearly, he had no idea just how foul-tempered I could be.

“Who decided killing is always bad?”

“That’s just common sense!”

“Heeeh? So you’re never going to kill anyone? Not in any situation?”

“Of course not. I’m going to be a righteous person. Violence should be solved through conversation.”

Pfft.

As if that were possible in this world…

“…Why are you laughing!?”

If there was one thing I learned the hard way from all this, it’s that this world is far more dangerous, brutal, and unforgiving than the one I lived in before.

It followed a strict survival-of-the-strongest rule.

Humans weren’t even the strongest species here; yet they were powerful, savage, and primal.

There was disorder everywhere—kept in check only by stronger violence.

The way nobles could so casually behead commoners? Pure rule-by-terror.

To survive, you had to kill first. I had been naïve.

The Academy was a safe aviary—a greenhouse—while just one step beyond its boundaries, danger lurked everywhere.

There was a reason nobles clustered tightly among their own.

“Your ideals are beautiful. Really. The wasps would love someone like you. I should send them a letter—tell them there’s a kid who’ll die peacefully without resisting.”

“…What?”

“They say the wasps love young nobles.”

“Y-you think that’s going to scare me? Ugh! You’re disgusting! Just like a murderer!”

Kid, your legs are shaking.

“You know… the wasps like to cut nobles from the bottom up—”

“Shut up! Shut up!”

I took a step toward him.

“And did you know? They say the wasps brew alcohol using the eyeballs of the nobles they kill.”

“Th-that’s a lie!”

Of course it was. I just knew a ton of scary stories kids would freak out over. Basic Korean student skills.

“And they display the severed heads on shelves like decorations.”

“Waaah! Teacher Dineeel!”

He ran away crying before I even got to the truly terrifying stories. That kid had such a weak stomach.

“Genie Crowell bullied meeee!”

I snorted as he went tattling on me, then chewed on my bread.

Talking about severed heads had ruined my appetite a little, though.

I was eating alone in the carriage when—

[Master, someone is—]

Clatter!
The carriage door flew open, and a girl barged inside before Rai could finish acting as my intercom.

“…What. You?”

“Hi!”

“Wait, you can’t just enter someone else’s carriage—”

“Do you like sweets? It’s nothing big, but here’s a gift!”

The girl with vibrant pink hair looked extremely shameless.

She confidently held out a luxurious-looking box of chocolates.

“…Make yourself at home. Think of it like your own carriage.”

“Thanks!”

If she had brought candy, there was no way I’d have let this slide. But chocolate in this world was an extravagant luxury dessert even nobles rarely ate.

Even I had only tasted it a few times. And she brought not one or two pieces—an entire box!

“Really? The whole box is for me?”

Chocolate was rare because its raw ingredients were scarce and it melted easily, making storage difficult. There were no refrigerators or refrigerated wagons here.

“Yup! You can eat it all.”

I didn’t hesitate and began opening the package right on the spot.

As I tossed chocolates—each printed with a tiny picture—into my mouth, I wondered if this was how Rai felt when he discovered rare metals.

“Good thing you like chocolate!”

“It’s not like I’ve ever had enough to get tired of it.”

The girl smiled warmly as she watched me eat. Now that I looked closer, I remembered seeing her in the Alchemy Division a few times. Maybe she was friends with Mia.

“Oh, I remember now. You’re in the Alchemy Division, right? A friend of Mia’s?”

“Not exactly, but Genie, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Huh? When have we ever talked for you to call me Genie…”

“My family is the one that makes that chocolate. Have you heard of Feiru? My full name is Eruje Feiru.”

“…Ask anything. What do you want to know?”

Two things clicked at once.

The Feiru family—immensely wealthy.
And the name Eruje—Mia’s self-declared rival. She mentioned her so often that even if I’d never seen the face, the name was unmistakable.

“Um, I have a few questions. Is that okay?”

“I’ll listen until I finish this box.”

“What if I give you a few more boxes first?”

“We’re friends. You can talk to me anytime.”

Until I got sick of chocolate, we’d be very good friends.

“I heard you met the wasps directly. What was it like? Did you really almost die? How’d you survive?”

“That’s what you’re curious about?”

“And I heard your snake isn’t a normal snake… Is it a vajra serpent by any chance?”

“I don’t even know what a vajra serpent is.”

Kids in the Alchemy Division had intense curiosity and a burning passion for research. Even Mia preferred studying over playing.

Eruje seemed like the same type.

Her eyes sparkled uncomfortably bright as she talked about Rai.

“I heard your snake is incredibly tough. They say you can’t cut it even with a sword! And that it understands human speech perfectly!”

“Rai is pretty sturdy, yeah.”

“Rai? The snake’s name is Rai?”

“Yeah. He was around here a moment ago… Huh? Rai? Where’d he go?”

As I slowly savored another chocolate, I looked around for Rai. He’d been beside me earlier but had vanished.

He sometimes disappeared without a word—probably off hunting again. Even if he ate metal, it was still “hunting.”

“Really? He was right here?”

“Yeah, but he’s gone now.”

“Aww, what a shame…”

“You… seem more interested in Rai than in me?”

“Yes! Because I’m sure your snake—no, Rai—is a vajra serpent!”

It was just a random snake I picked up because I needed a corpse—why would I know what type it was?
And he wasn’t even a snake—he was a spirit.

“Vajra serpent?”

“You seriously don’t know it? It’s a snake from legend!”

I must’ve looked unimpressed, because Eruje’s excitement only intensified.

This was bad. Whenever Mia made that face, the next two hours were gone.

“Vajra serpents only live near deposits of vajra stone. Another name for vajra stone is diamond. The older they get, the harder their scales become—apparently they live hundreds of years! And at their hardest, their scales are said to rival a dragon’s! Isn’t that amazing?”

“Heeeh…”

“And they’re said to be extremely intelligent—way smarter than dogs or monsters!”

“Now that you say it, it does sound like Rai.”

“Right? Vajra serpents are so rare that you can’t even get specimens. According to legend, the helm of the Great Emperor Mithes was made from vajra serpent skin. Its iridescent glow shone so brightly you could spot it from afar!”

Well, of course diamond armor would shine. I silently kept eating chocolate, hoping she’d finish soon.

“But Rai is black, isn’t he? The books say vajra serpents should be milky white… so I ran a test. Because research lives and dies by experimentation.

And the sword really bounced off and chipped!”

“…That means… you actually swung a sword at Rai?”

“Yup! He was totally fine!”

[Gasp—so that’s where I’ve seen her!!
Master, don’t look for me!]

Rai’s trembling voice echoed from somewhere.

I had definitely let a dangerous girl into my carriage.

Eruje’s chatter continued, and even after the carriage started moving again, she still hadn’t stopped.