Chapter 218: A Tale of the Past, The Pied Piper of Hamelin - 4
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 218: A Tale of the Past, The Pied Piper of Hamelin - 4
The graduation practical exercise was a real-world evaluation designed to uncover talents that were difficult to assess through tests or sparring matches.
In other words, it was the last chance for the children who couldn't advance to the military academy.
The desperate children volunteered for the dangerous exercise, which was designed to be as realistic as actual combat.
The exercise proceeded smoothly.
The graduation practical exercise was a comprehensive assessment. The objective was for the students to work together to build a raft, travel down the river, be evaluated by an instructor at the downstream base, receive supplies, and return.
It was an exercise prepared to evaluate a variety of skills: alchemy, craftsmanship, strength, stamina, map reading, organization, negotiation, and more. Though various crises arose, the students overcame them by applying their talents in the right places at the right times.
“Chento. You studied a bit of meteorology along with ballistics, right? It's a slightly different field, but what do you think? Would adding a sail be better?”
The boy called Chento turned his head, sucking his teeth as if he'd been poked.
“…Tch. I don't know. How would I know? I quit halfway through.”
“Still, no one here knows more about it than you.”
“Hah. Are you making fun of me? You're Huey. The top student of our year.”
“I'm all book smarts. My experience is different from yours—you've actually thrown things, shot things, and observed them firsthand.”
“…Hmph. It was just childish messing around. Anyone could do it.”
Though he grumbled, Chento examined the wind's direction and the mast's material, fiddling with something. When the wind blew, the raft moved forward a little more easily. The difference was subtle, but definite.
“It's helping.”
“…Not really.”
Chento lowered his head, his heart filled with misery. It wasn't the attitude of someone who had accomplished something, but understanding his circumstances, I deliberately said nothing.
Praising something he had already given up on as brilliant would only deepen his regret.
The fleet of rafts moved slowly onward. The Hamelin River, which stretched to the south, wasn't very large, but it was winding and slow-moving, filled with all sorts of floating debris, attracting many birds and beasts that preyed upon what lay on the surface. Whenever a dark shadow following the river scraped against the bottom of the logs, everyone would tremble in fear.
We had been traveling like that for some time. An emergency occurred just as one of the instructors, who had been observing us for the evaluation, briefly left his post to move to the next checkpoint.
The river was blocked by a mass of debris on the surface. With the already slow current, the river was so choked with logs and leaves that the rafts couldn't move forward at all.
The children fell into confusion at the sudden obstacle.
“This must be a point where the current slows down, so the debris piled up and blocked the river.”
“What do we do…? At this rate, night will fall! We have to reach the downstream base today.”
And naturally, all eyes turned to me. They looked to me, hoping I would solve the problem somehow.
At the beginning of the year, when all the children had entered the secondary military school as blank slates, they each held dreams and hopes, their hearts swelling with anticipation.
Most of them pictured themselves in splendid uniforms. Level 3. A special position, different from an ordinary citizen of the Military State, a status from which one could truly achieve something. The most important first step forward.
But specialness is bound by numbers. It is special because the number is small, and because it is special, everyone desires it.
Not everyone can obtain it.
I called out to one who had once aspired to be a Mage Officer.
“Kerapald. Can't we solve this with magic?”
“With our mana levels, it would take ages using standard magic. If it were Lankart... maybe, but...”
It was a reluctant answer, but it was the undeniable truth. I nodded and turned my head to someone else.
“Shiati. It'd be impossible to clear that from on the raft, right?”
“…With footing like this, it would take all day. And there's nowhere to put the stuff we clear.”
Shiati stomped her foot, and a scream erupted from nearby.
She had once been a promising melee combatant, but her growth had stalled, and she lacked the talent to overcome her physical limitations. Pushed to the brink, she was hoping to turn her evaluation around with this graduation exercise.
Shiati, who had been stomping her foot, whipped her head around and snapped at me.
“Anyway, shouldn't you be the one giving orders, Huey?”
“Me? Why?”
“Why do you think? This whole graduation exercise was set up for you, wasn't it?”
She didn't know about my Gluttony. If she had, she wouldn't have stopped at just stomping her foot.
Shiati narrowed her eyes, sounding me out.
“The Chief Instructor must have wanted to evaluate your leadership skills. That's why you, the top student, were made to participate in this exercise.”
Unfortunately, that was just the superficial reason. Nicholas had spread that rumor among the instructors and some students, creating a reason why I had to participate.
It was such a plausible reason that it was difficult to refuse outright, so I couldn't say no and ended up stranded here.
Stranded by the debris that had probably been prepared for me.
“…Go on and give the order, General. I'll be waiting for your command.”
Shiati said sarcastically.
At the same time, a sense of lonely resignation seeped from her words. Though she spoke like that, she too had accepted it.
For her, who was waiting for an order, I gave one.
“Let's pull the rafts to the riverbank and clear the debris from the land. It'll be much safer to clear it from the ground.”
“But that means going into the forest...”
“These are just rafts. We're packed on them like cargo, and they're already overloaded. Let's get moving. If things get dicey, we can just come back.”
In the end, we moored the rafts nearby and set up a temporary camp. Venturing deep into the dangerous forest would have been a poor choice, so we gathered in a clearing not too far in, lit a bonfire, and huddled together.
Clearing the debris was an incredibly difficult task. Pulling out the waterlogged driftwood, the tangled vines that formed a net, and all sorts of other wreckage was a struggle even for a hundred hot-blooded children.
Just when it seemed we had cleared a little, the children looking up at the sky began to mutter.
“…Isn't this dangerous? At this rate, it'll be night.”
“Actually, night is already here. The sun will set in a few hours.”
“The night is dangerous. How did this happen?”
They never dreamed that this situation might have been caused by someone's plot.
Pushing a little way through the forest, we found a clearing. Seeing traces of a previous stay, the children were delighted, thinking we could set up a proper camp. But I, sensing the ominous fate that lay beneath, could only give a bitter smile.
Night fell. The time of beasts. In the darkness, the humans, terrified, comforted themselves with a small bonfire.
We had never planned to stay in a place like this. Drinking water, food, clothing—everything was in short supply. It was a good thing there were leftover tents, blankets, and firewood nearby; otherwise, we might have had to spend the night on the swaying rafts.
“It's a relief there was a campsite. We were almost stuck...”
Unaware that this was all part of the scenario, the children rejoiced in this silver lining.
We huddled together around several bonfires. As time passed, anxiety began to sprout in their hearts. As the clear flames illuminated their flushed faces, the children looked at each other and muttered.
“What should we do? Shouldn't we just give up now?”
“Isn't there another way? Let's make the fire bigger and call the instructors. Spending the night here is dangerous...”
Making the fire bigger was tantamount to a declaration of surrender. The instructors would come, but a negative evaluation would be unavoidable... However, some thought it was necessary for their immediate safety.
Just then, Chento shot to his feet and shouted.
“We can't call the instructors!”
The children nodded with grim faces, as if agreeing with Chento. Shiati also sided with him.
“This graduation exercise is crucial! This is an unexpected situation, but if we overcome it, we can get an even better evaluation! Why did we come all this way in the first place? To become level 3 citizens!”
“But.”
“If we give up here, we'll be level 2 for the rest of our lives. We'll live the same day over and over like hamsters on a wheel, working as laborers just to make ends meet! Are you okay with that?”
There was a dark joke: "Better to live as a level 0 than a level 2."
Level 2 citizens who graduated from the secondary military school were assigned to labor in military facilities that required a secondary education. They called it labor, but it was effectively military service.
Naturally, it was more dangerous and troublesome than other forms of labor. The pay was higher than general labor, but it was wealth you couldn't pass on anyway.
“I have to become level 3. Otherwise, it's meaningless! You all feel the same way, don't you!”
What did one gain from a higher level? A single, base sense of superiority. And even that was purely emotional. If a level 2 citizen used violence against or gave private orders to a level 1 or level 0, they would be immediately dragged off to a labor camp.
Only the Military State itself could discriminate between levels. Whether level 2 or level 0, they were all slaves to this state.
Things only changed starting from level 3.
Reminded of this fact, the children were swept up in a new wave of excitement.
“Yeah! This is an opportunity!”
“If we get through this, we might get an even better evaluation!”
“Set up a watch! Oh, and a password!”
Was it thanks to Shiati's speech? A gung-ho atmosphere formed among the children. Their excited emotions rose and danced like the bonfire flames before dying down.
As I watched them quietly, Kerapald called to me in a low voice.
“Huey. Come here.”
My mind-reading ability reads everything. Instantly grasping Kerapald's purpose, I gave a slow nod.
Having once dreamed of being a Mage Officer, he was a follower who worshipped Lankart like a god. Yesterday, he had been summoned by Lankart. Lankart had called his loyal follower and subtly told him.
That this test had a hidden trap.
That was why he was the first to notice something was wrong and had approached me.
“I found something.”
In the middle of the night, Kerapald led me to the riverbank. Approaching the water's surface near where the rafts were moored, he cast a standard magic spell to create light. Beneath the river, illuminated by his glowing finger... a long, sturdy rope was tied below the surface.
I looked up. The light was too dim to see clearly, but on the water's surface, reflected in the moon's shadow... a long line of debris was stretched out in a straight line, following the path of the rope.
Kerapald said proudly.
“It's a net. All this debris was stopped by a net.”
“So it was.”
Just as I expected.
This spot was indeed a place where the current slowed and debris collected, but for it to pile up so perfectly on time... yes, it had to be an artificial manipulation like this.
“Looks like you already had a rough idea. Hehe. Yeah. The existence of this pre-prepared camp was strange from the start. The superficial test is to go downstream, but the real test is... dealing with a crisis. Wisely handling a survival situation and making it out alive—that's the true purpose of this test. Right?”
No. The true purpose of this test is for everyone to handle it unwisely and die. All without even realizing it's a trap.
In that sense, Kerapald was a summons sent by Lankart.
A personality that loves to dig things up. A person who feels pleasure from uncovering knowledge itself, rather than using it. He would continue to wander around, trying to grasp the hidden meaning of the test. If left alone, he might uncover the secret hidden in this camp, even the Anathema. No, he would uncover it.
Kerapald, who had been subtly told something akin to the Anathema by Lankart... was a ticking time bomb.
The one I was supposed to drive to his death first, so I could devour all the children. A character designed for that very purpose.
Lankart.
You are not here right now. The only desires I can read now are Kerapald's.
Therefore, I cannot do as you wish. No, you can't change me this way.
Instead, I smiled.
“You're right, Kerapald. To have figured this out already. You're pretty sharp, aren't you?”
Kerapald's eyes sparkled with satisfied curiosity.
“As expected of the top student! I knew you'd know!”
‘The top student is still the top student... I only knew because Lankart gave me a hint. But, still! Right now, in this place, I'm number two!’
His desires flow in.
A yearning for life. The joy of having accomplished something with his own knowledge. Comradeship and camaraderie. Or a newfound hope.
I can't just trample all that for a handful of mana or qi.
On the contrary.
“Kerapald. Your guess is right. There's definitely a secret hidden in this camp.”
“What kind of secret?”
“I don't know everything myself. We have to start looking now. So, Kerapald, would you do it?”
The Military State has abandoned you. It might even be because of me. Because I'm so optimized for Gluttony, Nicholas forced this through.
But I can't say it's my responsibility. This is something the Military State, or Nicholas and Lankart, schemed up. I don't want to kill you.
It's a strange thing to say, but you're already providing me with plenty of sustenance for my mind.
Nicholas, and Lankart too. They want to change me, but that's all there is to it. Their emotions are placid. Their regret and remorse are just a quiet sediment at the bottom, like a calm water's surface.
I have no interest in the cold emotions of those who try to manipulate others without anything at stake for themselves.
Instead...
“I have a lot to do, so I'd like you to form a team and investigate.”
“Really? Me? You'll have to report my findings properly later, okay?”
“Of course. Why would I have any reason to omit what you've done?”
When the plan is exposed, when this problem comes back to bite you, how will you react? What emotions will you show? That's what I'm more curious about.
You have to put your own necks on the line, too. That's only fair, isn't it?
“Only you, the first one to notice this, have the right. Kerapald. Why don't you start by drawing a map of the camp?”
“Got it!”
As you draw the map, you'll realize it. The shape this camp forms. What lies beneath it.
And if blood were to flow, what shape it would draw.
‘Look! I've already figured out the true nature of this test. With this, I'll be several steps ahead of the others!’
Though the truth he finds at the end will be one he can't possibly accept with a smile.
I should go and prepare as well. I need to slowly release information and drop hints so the children can accept a clearer truth.
So that even with the most superficial knowledge, they will know that this is an Anathema.