The Beast's Distrust
The Beast's Distrust
"I'll kill you, you fucking bastard."
I tore through the darkness and kicked off the ground.
Crimson blood burst from my shoulder and thigh, torn apart by the bloody battle with the Holy Knights, but the pain didn't even reach my brain.
My reason had already burned away completely the moment I witnessed Ines, bound from head to toe, and the massive Imperial Knight dripping blood from both hands.
Ta-at-!
My dagger rushed toward Valian's throat like a beast's fang.
Chaeng-!
Valian reflexively raised the scabbard at his waist and knocked my blade away.
But I ignored the recoil, twisted my shoulder joint unnaturally, and tenaciously dug for his chin once again.
A trajectory of mutual destruction, abandoning even defense, with the sole intent of tearing the enemy before me to shreds.
"This guy...!"
I heard Valian's heavy voice, sounding flustered.
My dagger let out dozens of whistling sounds as it aimed for the gaps in his armor.
But it didn't reach. The limits of an underdeveloped body and the stamina depleted from the battle with the Holy Knights were holding me back.
The bastard's scabbard was blocking all my murderous intent perfectly, like a massive wall.
'I'll pierce it.'
I clenched my jaw until my molars felt like they would break.
I scraped together every last bit of that blind miracle from deep within my Dantian, the one Ines had poured into my chest every night.
Woooong-!
Riding the edge of my dagger, a blindingly brilliant, pure white 'Holy Power' exploded outward.
"...?!"
Valian's dull pupils widened as if they would tear.
It wasn't just simple mana light. It was a miracle of the purest and most sublime dimension, one that even high-ranking priests of the Church would barely reach after dedicating their entire lives.
Shocked by that overwhelming sense of otherness, Valian's movements faltered for a split second, and his massive frame was pushed back half a step.
My blade tip was just about to touch the bastard's carotid artery.
"...Haa."
A heavy sigh escaped Valian's lips.
At the same time, a terrifying sensation, as if the sky were collapsing above my head, struck my entire body.
Kugugugung-!
The 'Aura' erupting from Valian's body distorted the space.
It was on a different dimension from the crude, sharp energy I had begged for and learned in my past life, the one I had forced up while carving away at my own flesh.
The moment Valian's Aura was released, the surrounding forest and darkness in my field of vision were completely erased.
Instead, what filled that space was Valian's inner world.
'Mental Image.'
A massive, overwhelming 'Wall of Steel' that would never collapse even if thousands or tens of thousands of enemies rushed it.
That suffocating mass became a physical pressure, crushing my body.
"Kuh, ugh......!"
The light of the Holy Power gathered on the dagger was crushed by the weight of the steel, shattering and scattering like a glass window.
The ruthless pressure dug in as if to crush every bone in my body.
It was impossible to even breathe, let alone swing my sword.
In the face of that overwhelming and massive gap in power, my body, which had been thrashing like a beast, was uselessly flung away.
My vision flickered black.
Just like that, my consciousness was completely severed.
"...."
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I felt was the rough sensation of rope digging into my wrists.
I reflexively tried to raise my upper body, but because my two wrists were tightly bound behind my back, I had no choice but to twist my body on the bed like a beast.
An unfamiliar ceiling. Simple, hard furniture.
It seemed to be Valian's temporary lodging provided by the Academy.
"You're awake."
A massive shadow sitting on a chair in the corner of the room opened its mouth.
My pupils stood on end, blood-red.
I bared my teeth and growled low, as if I would tear the bastard's throat out right then and there.
"That child... where is Ines?"
The wounds cut by the Holy Knights throbbed, but I didn't care.
"What did you do to her?"
Even in the face of my murderous intent, Valian didn't even twitch a muscle in his expression.
Instead of answering, he quietly pointed to my feet with a nod of his chin.
"......."
I lowered my gaze.
With her small head leaning against my leg.
Ines, her entire body wrapped tightly in that thick blanket I had seen behind the dormitory, was sleeping soundly, unaware of the world.
There wasn't a single scratch on her white face, which was peeking out from the blanket.
Despite being in an unfamiliar space, she looked perfectly at ease, leaning on the warmth and pulse of my legs, which were tied with rope.
"Haa...."
A sigh of relief escaped me before I knew it.
The ominous murderous intent that had been boiling up from my Dantian melted away like late autumn frost.
I relaxed the tension in my bound wrists and leaned my body against the headboard.
Only then did the scenery of the room begin to enter my vision.
Valian was sitting in the chair, silently wrapping his thick hands with bandages.
Looking closely, that crimson blood that had soaked his gloves wasn't my woman's blood.
On Valian's thick hand-edges and forearms, terrible wounds, mercilessly bitten by a beast and deeply gouged by sharp claws, remained vividly.
The shape of those scars.
It was clear they were marks left by Ines, who had been having a seizure while in a catatonic state.
"That child was wandering outside, bleeding and out of her mind."
Valian muttered in a heavy voice as he tied the bandage.
"She was biting her own arms until they bled, so I simply wrapped her in a blanket to protect her and stop her from hurting herself further."
The blanket wasn't a binding. It was a clumsy measure to stop a beast that was destroying itself.
Valian's wounds were the traces of him willingly taking the beast's struggle with his bare body during that process.
The bastard never had any intention of harming Ines from the beginning.
I had misunderstood everything and held a knife to the Knight Order Vice-Captain's throat like a beast.
But I didn't apologize or bow my head.
Just because my misunderstanding was cleared up didn't mean I could trust this 'adult' in front of me.
"......."
Valian's dull, deep gaze turned toward me.
"Is it because of that child?"
He threw a question that pierced to the bone.
"The reason you swing your sword so desperately, as if there's no tomorrow."
I kept my mouth shut and stared straight at him with cold eyes.
"And."
Valian's eyes narrowed.
A sharp and heavy pressure, befitting a Knight Order Vice-Captain, filled the room.
"That power gathered on your sword. It was wrapped in Holy Power so dense that it was too alien for a commoner orphan."
The most fatal detonator.
"You don't seem to have any faith, so what connection do you have with the Church?"
My mind cooled down like midwinter ice.
If it were Professor Walder, he would have gladly covered up my Holy Power to satisfy his own intellectual greed, but I had zero information on the knight in front of me.
If he were a normal adult loyal to the Empire and the Church, the moment the fact that Holy Power erupted from my body reached the ears of the leadership, Ines's safety would be completely finished.
'What connection do I have with the Church?'
A bitter sneer burst out inside.
I have plenty of connection. I still have the grudge of wanting to tear apart the heads of that disgusting Church.
But I didn't open my mouth in the end.
At the root of my silence, a much deeper and more vicious blindness was seated than the wariness of being caught for the secret of my Holy Power.
I never trust 'adults'.
Memories of my past life.
The old adults of the Empire and the Church who praised us, shouting about the greater cause and justice when we were cutting down the Demon King's Army to save the world.
In the end, for the sake of their own power and greed, they drove us, who had sacrificed ourselves most purely, into 'heresy'.
Hypocrites who smiled while stabbing us in the back and sold us out to the most miserable death.
'Even in my past life, adults like you always deceived us by putting up plausible justifications and shallow favors.'
I lifted my gaze, which had been sunk to the floor, and glared at Valian's upright pupils.
Even if this man were truly a righteous knight, I had no intention of betting my selfish survival and my woman's safety on such uncertain goodwill.
A tense silence.
Having confirmed the wall of vicious distrust that would never open, Valian soon let out a short sigh.
Seureung-.
He stood up from the chair and drew the sword at his waist.
I reflexively tensed my muscles.
But Valian's sword wasn't aimed at my neck, but behind my back.
Tuk.
The rope that had been tightly binding my two wrists was uselessly cut away.
"......."
I rubbed my tingling wrists and remained wary of him.
"I won't ask how you obtained that power or why you're hiding it. You must have a terrible story behind it."
Valian sheathed his sword and advised heavily.
"But never use that power carelessly outside. The moment you get tangled up with the Church's hounds who smell it, even that child you're so desperately trying to protect won't be safe."
An obvious warning I already knew.
But Valian's next words were completely outside the scope of my expectations.
"I will give you a weapon to replace the Holy Power. I will teach you how to handle real 'Aura'."
"...What?"
"The power of a real knight that overlays a 'Mental Image' onto reality, the one that crushed you tonight."
A proposal of unilateral and heavy goodwill, without any conditions.
But my empty inner self wasn't naive enough to be moved by such pity.
"I refuse."
I immediately snapped coldly, hugging Ines on the bed with my freed hands.
"Don't try to get a leash on me with shallow favors, and just tell me what you really want instead of playing games."
Give and take.
A thorough exchange of benefits was the only language of the world I believed in.
At my thorny refusal, Valian looked down at me blankly.
A bitter smile passed over his rough beard.
"You're quick-witted."
"Right. It's not free. The reason I left the busy front lines and came down to the Academy as an instructor is entirely because of you."
Valian added, crossing his arms.
"Take the Aura I teach you and become strong. And after you graduate from the Academy, join the Imperial Knights and become my limb. That is my condition."
Joining the Knight Order.
Only then did the logic make perfect sense.
A prior investment to use a non-standard military force like me as the Empire's shield.
'I knew it.'
I sneered inside, but there was no reason to refuse this perfectly established selfish deal.
If I could obtain real Aura, it would become the perfect weapon to deal with Walder or the Church right away.
Joining the Knight Order is nothing; I can just suck out the sweet nectar of the Aura and stab them in the back later.
"Fine. I accept that condition."
When I answered dryly, Valian nodded.
"Come out to the parade ground again starting tomorrow night. We'll begin real training."
Valian turned his body and headed out of the room.
Before opening the door, he carelessly placed a small glass bottle on the table.
"It's a top-grade potion regularly supplied only to the executives of the Imperial Knights."
Valian's heavy gaze turned toward my torn shoulder and thigh sword wounds, and then to Ines.
"Use it on your wounds and that child."
Kkiik, tak.
With those words, Valian closed the door without hesitation and left.
"......."
The room where silence had settled.
I stroked Ines's small shoulder with my freed hands and stared quietly at the brilliant red potion placed on the table.
It definitely took the form of a transaction.
But, wrapping the beast that had made his hands bloody in a warm blanket.
And the back of the man who willingly gave away a precious potion and Aura without any oath of obedience.
Having experienced countless deceptions and betrayals since my past life.
In my cold and dry inner self, which had been perfectly frozen and closed off.
It felt as if the sound of a strange and unfamiliar crack was ringing out, very faintly.