Chapter 104
Chapter 104
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: End-of-Month Evaluation (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Eeeek?!”
Arin smacked her lips repeatedly, letting out bizarre noises as if shocked or flustered.
“No, nooo!”
She let out a short scream and hurriedly jumped down from Poppi’s neck.
Then she rushed over to Yuri, who was standing beside Poppi, grabbed his face, and immediately started yelling at him.
“Why’d you cut your hair! No! Put it back! Grow it back!”
Not satisfied with that, Arin wailed while sniffling.
“Noooo! It was my secret! Waaah!”
It was like she’d discovered that her favorite hidden eatery had been found out by everyone else.
Like the crowds had grown so big that even she had to wait in line now.
Arin reacted with such intense grief.
Poppi blinked at the sight of her.
“Hungry?”
Its eyes seemed to ask who this was and if they knew him. Arin snorted in response.
Sniffle.
“Who? It’s Yuri, duh?”
“Hungry?”
“…Are there any other Yuris besides the one we know?”
“……”
At Arin’s words, Poppi shut its mouth and glared at Yuri.
It sensed not his outward appearance, but his innate disposition.
And then.
“Hun, hungry!”
Poppi yelped in shock and pointed at Yuri.
As if saying, *That’s Yuri!*
Arin scolded it for that.
“I just said it’s Yuri. And be quiet. If someone else sees Yuri because of you, you gonna take responsibility? Yuri’s face’ll get worn out!”
As she spoke, she covered Yuri’s face with her palm.
But Poppi’s shout had already echoed loudly.
No, actually, Arin’s voice had been even louder.
It rang out so hugely that all eyes in the crowd turned to them instantly.
Murmurs.
Whispers erupted here and there at the same time.
“Who’s that? Never seen that face before.”
“Wow, prettiest guy I’ve ever laid eyes on in my life.”
Every bit of it was admiration directed at Yuri.
Especially some of the women stared at him blankly.
Even those who couldn’t stare openly kept stealing glances.
Arin, who had anticipated this reaction from the start, frantically raised her hand again to cover Yuri’s face.
Yuri swatted her hand away with a flick.
Smack.
“Hey, what’re you doing? Get off.”
Now Arin’s much-fought-over face was fully exposed.
Skin so clear it seemed transparent, red lips.
And golden eyes that felt jewel-like in their beauty.
He was definitely a man, but his subtly androgynous, beautiful face continued to draw the crowd’s gazes.
Yuri scratched his cheek at the stares and reactions fixed on him.
“Ha, I just trimmed my hair a bit and suddenly I’m a stranger.”
Arin shot back indignantly at his mutter.
“Of course you are! This isn’t just trimming your hair! It’s like a portrait that was just a faceless body suddenly got its face drawn in!”
“Hungry!”
“And not by some amateur artist either—it’s like a master poured their soul into crafting that face!”
“Hungry!”
Poppi nodded enthusiastically at Arin’s words, as if no description could be more spot-on.
Yuri made a dumbfounded face.
“…That good, huh?”
No wonder Theresia had been so shocked she dropped her spear.
Yuri had sparred with her countless times and never seen her drop it.
But hearing Arin’s description, he could roughly imagine how stunned she must have been.
Then he stared straight at Arin.
“Hey, but how’d you recognize me right away? You said it’s like a whole new head grew on.”
“Me?”
The moment she heard Yuri’s question, the image of Yuri’s face from when she first arrived at the Cradle flashed in Arin’s mind.
But she didn’t mention it.
She grinned broadly.
“I’ve always had a sharp eye!”
“…Your reaction earlier didn’t say that.”
“Hahaha.”
While Arin laughed awkwardly at the sharp probing, the gazes pouring onto Yuri didn’t let up.
And amid that flood of stares.
Someone was glaring at Yuri with wide eyes.
*No way… impossible?!*
The one staring at Yuri without even blinking was none other than Gunter.
Gunter, who had been staring blankly, muttered softly as if entranced.
“…Yuri Holland?”
Though his build and height were all different from the Yuri in his memory.
That face, seen from afar, looked so much like the one he remembered.
As Gunter recalled Yuri, he soon shook his head.
*No, he can’t be here.*
Yuri Holland would be training with Johan Redner by now.
Why would he be in the Cradle?
With that thought, he tried to erase the risen image of Yuri’s face.
Instead, he fell into contemplation.
*Then who is it?*
He was definitely from the 50th Cohort since he’d shown up here, but it was a new face.
*Black hair and golden eyes…*
At that moment, Gunter’s eyes blinked rapidly.
*Black hair? No way?!*
He was so shocked that the thought in his head slipped right out of his mouth.
“…That black-haired guy?”
His voice was loud enough that a few around him nodded.
Especially Nelli Blanc, who had grown close while forming a squad together, chimed in bluntly after hearing Gunter.
“Right? You thought so too?”
“……?”
“I thought the same. Honestly, the only one who’d fit with those two is that guy. The black-haired one.”
The two Nelli mentioned were naturally Poppi and Arin.
Nelli, who had been staring at Yuri—well, technically the three of them—sighed in genuine admiration.
“Wow, I didn’t notice when his hair was that mess, but now… he’s kinda my type.”
Pana, who had been listening to Nelli beside her, burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! With a face like that, who wouldn’t like it? No, even if your tastes differ, you’d change them to match that face!”
“Right?”
“Obviously! Should we go say hi?”
“Should we? But we never talked to him before, and going now… wouldn’t it look too obvious?”
“If we can snag that face, showing a little desperation’s fine!”
“Snag… think we can?”
“His blue-haired companion next to him is pretty intimidating, for sure…”
As Nelli and Pana whispered in that girly way, Gunter clamped his mouth shut.
Meanwhile, the Black Sword Soldiers appeared.
Step, step.
Black Sword Soldiers carrying several large sheets of paper.
Their arrival silenced the cadets’ chatter.
As everyone watched the bulletin board.
As always, the glasses guy stepped forward.
“Alright, we’re starting the end-of-month evaluation announcements now.”
Flutter.
A large sheet of paper was posted on the board.
“What’s that?”
“Yeah?”
“Not rankings?”
Those expecting a ranked report card for the evaluation instead voiced doubts at the plain list of names.
Then the glasses guy cleared up their confusion.
“The 68 names listed here all scored zero on this end-of-month evaluation.”
With that, he scoffed.
“Congrats. The 50th Cohort set a record for the most passers ever, and now you’ve set one for the most zeros too. Sixty-eight zeros… that’s probably gonna stand for a while.”
In other words, all 68 names on the poster had gotten zero.
The named cadets’ ears turned red.
But even as zeros, some stood tall.
“Evaluation’s one thing, but we gotta eat to survive first, right?”
“Yeah, we didn’t have points for food…”
They might feel a bit embarrassed about the zero, but they didn’t think it was a big deal.
The reason was simple.
“We’ll do better next time.”
“Sorry, we’ll work harder next time!”
They assumed they’d get another chance.
And the glasses guy shattered that naive assumption in one blow.
“Next time? Don’t make me laugh. You think you’ll get a next time?”
“Huh?”
“As of now, the 68 who scored zero are expelled from the Cradle.”
“……?!”
It hit the cadets like a bomb.
Rebellion erupted immediately.
“Ex, expelled?”
“Expelled just for scoring zero on one evaluation?!”
“It’s only been a month!”
The 68 expelled fell into collective panic.
The glasses guy sneered at them.
“That just gave me one more reason to expel you idiots.”
“Huh?”
“You’ve been in the Cradle a whole month and still don’t get what this place is.”
“……”
“I’ll give you 12 hours. Get to the dock where you first landed. As a final mercy, we’ll put you on a black ship and send you off.”
“Ah……”
“But if any expelled are still on Cradle soil after 12 hours, you’ll be considered enemies of the Cradle.”
“……?!”
“Then you won’t make it home alive. No, not even dead—you’ll rot somewhere beyond that lake.”
It was a chilling warning.
And it came from none other than a Black Sword Soldier.
The killing intent radiating from the surrounding soldiers turned the expelled’s faces pale as ghosts.
*They’re serious… this guy… he’ll kill us.*
*Not a joke!*
Seeing them frozen in shock, the glasses guy jerked his chin.
“Still standing around? You don’t think we’ll carriage you to the dock like when you arrived, do you?”
“……?!”
“Keep standing there if you wanna lose your heads.”
Only then did the expelled recall that even by carriage, it had taken hours from the dock to the arena.
Running full tilt now, they’d barely make it in 12 hours.
“U, uwaaaah!”
“Damn it!”
Terrified, they turned and bolted.
Like that, the 68 rushed off en masse.
Silence fell over the remaining cadets.
Most hadn’t imagined penalties could mean expulsion, so they were stunned.
They also thought about what would’ve happened if someone absent from the announcement had been expelled.
*Hunted by Black Sword Soldiers without knowing why… tossed in the lake.*
As a corpse, of course.
The thought sent chills down their spines.
On the other hand, they felt relief knowing they weren’t zeros or low-rankers.
But they didn’t know.
What had just exploded before them was merely the first bomb.
Soon, the glasses guy dropped the second.
“Now announcing the low-rankers.”
Flutter.
Another poster went up over the zero list.
Dozens more names were there.
The only difference: ranks and scores beside them.
The cadets blinked in shock.
“L-low-rankers?”
“Then what was that just now? Weren’t those the low-rankers?”
Hearing that, the glasses guy smiled as he replied.
“When did I say those were the low-rankers?”
Only then did the cadets realize he’d never used the term “low-rankers.”
Just “zeros.”
“……”
Heavy silence descended, as the purge was far from over.