99 – The Hero Who Endured the Trial Needs a Reward!
“Haa, haa…”
Noah gasped for breath, swallowing the dry spit. His throat felt frozen, and a bitter taste rose from inside.
Noah suppressed the urge to vomit and raised his sword.
Clank!
With a long beak and wings spanning over 6 meters when spread out, a monster the size of a three-story building with bloodshot eyes rushed towards Noah.
Clank!
Clank!
And there were as many as three of those monsters. Noah gritted his teeth and swung his sword. Fortunately, the monsters didn’t have any armor, so he could easily aim for their weak spots.
But even that was reaching its limit.
‘How long has it been?’
Noah struggled to regain his blurry focus and counted the time he had spent here. It had been at least a week.
‘When will this fight end?’
In the endless expanse of the blue forest, monsters relentlessly chased Noah from all directions. Since arriving in this place, Noah had been swinging her sword endlessly.
Yet the monsters kept coming, without end.
Facing the endless ordeal, Noah was consumed by a distant despair and determination. But such thoughts did not last long.
In this place where monsters constantly surged, pondering was a luxury. Noah only focused on learning how to wield her sword madly and survive.
Throwing herself into the fray to become a pillar for others, the wall that stood in her way crumbled instantly.
“More, more, more! I can become stronger!”
Beyond the limit, Noah unleashed her desire for growth that had been suppressed for so long. By the time her gaze shone fiercely and her mere presence could make some monsters faint.
“Die!”
“…!”
A group of humans began to attack Noah. Dirty clothes, unkempt beards, and eyes filled with desire. Despite their sloppy appearance, their swords and leather armor seemed quite formidable.
Contrary to their shabby appearance, they were surprisingly strong, enough to startle Noah. Each attack was sharp, and any mistake resulted in immediate wounds.
Small wounds would appear and naturally heal, gradually revealing the vulnerable spots of the humans.
Instinctively, she learned how to strike to bring down enemies faster and more efficiently.
And so, Noah grew one step further.
Whenever Noah adapted to the attacking enemies and the situation, the forest would tremble and unleash new foes. After defeating all the appearing enemies, Noah always showed growth of at least one step.
“Ugh, huff…”
Thud!
Noah forcefully exhaled, her bloodied sword plunged into the ground. She felt like she could collapse and lose consciousness at any moment. Her legs trembled and her head grew hot.
Shhh…
At some point, the sky, which had turned gloomy, began pouring rain endlessly. She could feel the sticky blood washing away from her body.
Was it because of the dozens of people and monsters I had just cut down?
Apart from the sound of pouring rain and Noah’s own breathing, there was no other sound. Noah watched the raindrops falling from his head and recalled traces of the past.
Noah and Nero. They were siblings, but due to the nature of the slave market, they couldn’t be together for long.
Nero had black hair and black eyes, while Noah had brown hair and green eyes.
Although they were siblings, Noah didn’t look like Nero because he resembled their father, and Nero didn’t look like Noah because she resembled their mother. They were so different in appearance that it was hard to find similarities unless you looked closely.
If they had been twins or looked more alike as siblings, they would have been sold together. But since Nero and Noah looked like strangers unless they claimed to be siblings, they were often forcibly separated and sold.
Every time that happened, Noah threw himself to prevent being separated from Nero.
“Why won’t this brat let go?!”
Even when the enraged slave trader stomped on him, kicked him, or threw him away, Noah stubbornly clung to Nero.
In this cruel world, Nero was the only existence that Noah had to protect. That fact was Noah’s only source of support. That’s why he never yielded to any violence.
Because Noah and Nero had a mixed appearance, they were marketable. Unless they wanted to kill Noah, they had no choice but to keep Noah and Nero together.
Noah spat out blood from his throat, his body covered in wounds, in pain, suffering, and hardship, but he kept his eyes open like a mother protecting her child, guarding Nero.
It was the only reason he had to survive in this dreadful world.
“Ha, ha…”
Noah thought. There was no difference between then and now.
Just like back then, he was rolling on the dirty floor, forcing himself to stand up with a body covered in wounds, enduring.
“Why was I doing this?”
Why couldn’t I stop this painful, difficult, torturous act? Why do I keep going? I’d rather…
Noah blinked his eyes slowly. In the distance, he faintly heard the sound of a monster approaching, “Keek!”
Noah wanted to die. At the same time, he wanted to live. To live, he needed a reason, and that reason was Nero. When Nero was safe, that reason became Lian.
To protect someone is the “right thing” to do. To become stronger in order to protect someone is also the “right thing” to do. So Noah believed that he was on the “right path.”
Noah let out a bitter laugh mixed with self-pity.
“Is this what a hero is?”
He realized that challenging the trials was ultimately driven by his own selfishness. The question poured into his mind like rain, wondering if he had thrown himself into the role of the protagonist in a novel, intoxicated by his desire to protect Lian.
Ssoaaahh, toodook, toodoodook.
As he gazed vaguely at the raindrops falling on the ground, he suddenly felt the monster’s cry approaching right in front of him. Yet Noah couldn’t even flick a finger.
“Is it right for me to die like this?”
In the endless cycle of fighting, Noah truly wanted to rest, or so he thought.
Keeheek! Kehak!
With powerless eyes, he fluttered in the air and faced imminent death. A disgusting stench brushed his nostrils. Faced with death, Noah recalled something completely different from his previous memories.
Blood splattered on the ground, a “terrible experiment” that he encountered for the first time since birth. Even Noah, who grew up facing all sorts of cruelty, was filled with fear in the face of true death.
At the same time, Noah remembered.
[ I’m okay. ]
The lips that smiled nonchalantly and said it was okay, the appearance of always trying to embrace others without realizing his own pain.
Noah, by holding onto himself, forcibly held onto the precious ones in order to survive, just as he himself couldn’t die. Wasn’t Lian doing the same?
In order to endure in this cruel and terrible world, wasn’t Lian also clinging to the pretext of “sacrifice” just like him?
The thought that Lian’s sacrifice was no different from his own selfishness melted into his mind like raindrops.
Kkaddeuk.
Noah gritted his teeth and swung his sword. His posture was a mess, and his body twitched. But he didn’t stop. And then, the various voices that had been echoing in his mind began to fade.
Ssoaaahh -.
Then, the melancholic sound of rain that had not been heard before began to echo again. Noah continued to swing his sword without stopping, cutting away the thoughts that had corroded his mind.
“So, it was because of my own selfishness that I tried to protect Nero? Yeah, that could be it.”
The world was too cruel to survive solely on the love for one’s family. To the point where death seemed like rest.
That’s why he couldn’t deny that his past self had clung to Nero out of selfishness.
However…
“Kururuk!”
As the monster, like melting slime, approached while melting the trees, Noah exhaled a thin breath and slammed the ground. The floor trembled due to the rain, and his body felt heavy.
“The sacrifice of that person…”
Noah thought, recalling Lianne’s gentle laughter, like sunlight, with his fingertips.
“It’s not about selfishness.”
Something that had been gnawing at her mind began to burn fiercely due to strong determination and denial.
[ Kieeak! ]
Something screamed inside his head, and something smaller than Noah’s pinky finger that had been stuck to his throat shattered and fell to the ground.
“Ahh!”
Noah did not realize at all that something had fallen out of his body and swung his sword diagonally with force. The sword she wielded was imbued with a pale light, like a lake beneath the moonlight.
In that moment, she surpassed her last limit. And she awoke from a long slumber.
***
Clatter, thump, thump, thump! Crash!
“Be careful with the fire over there!”
“Please move aside for a moment!”
The kitchen was bustling during a time that should have been quiet. It was because a party about the boss of the organization going beyond the boundaries was being prepared. Lian also tried to join in and lend a hand, but Lily held onto her.
“Can you hold onto Noah for me, oppa?”
“Huh? Why?”
“He’s secretly preparing a surprise party! Noah oppa is so perceptive that if anyone from our group goes to hold him, he’ll definitely find out. So please go and hold him!”
“Uh? I’m not confident in doing something like that!”
Lily pushed Lian’s back and said.
“Just ask him about the training and buy some time! We’ll prepare as quickly as possible!”
That’s how Lian was chased out of the kitchen. Lian scratched the back of his head and headed towards Noah’s room.
“It’s an urgent situation, but… I can’t leave right away. Let’s congratulate him with peace of mind. Ah, I should subtly mention that I have to leave this place while I’m at it.”
From Noble mtl dot com
What if Noah doesn’t want to leave this place?
Lian thought as he headed towards Noah’s room. Maybe because he was walking while worrying, he arrived quickly.
Knock, knock.
“Noah, are you in there?”
[Come in!]
A familiar voice came from behind the door. It was Julianna’s voice mixed with laughter. Lian immediately opened the door and went inside.
“Uh? Where’s Noah?”
Inside the room, only Julianna, who was looking at a book, was sitting alone on the bed. In response to Lian’s question, Julianna chuckled and said.
[Oh, I went to wash up because my body got quite dirty while going through the trials.]
Lian’s gaze turned towards the bathroom. As she said, the sound of water was coming from the bathroom.
He’s been set up lol