159 – The Story of Becoming a Nightmare for Someone -5-
*
The rain falls.
– Splaaash.
Rain poured down from the clear sky, and the land, resting in winter, began to soak in the spring rain.
– Splaaash…
The students who were doing their practice grumbled as they ran under the trees.
“Suddenly, rain.”
-So. If you stay a bit longer, we’ll have a full count of ten.
-It seems like today’s practice is ending here.
-Ah, that’s a shame!
I made a small shade with my palm to shield my forehead from the rain and started searching for an umbrella in the bag I had carried on my back, watching the students coming.
“Hmm…”
Students approaching me one by one.
As they discovered the umbrellas, students swarmed towards me like a pack of dogs, and I began waving my hand with a smile.
“Here! There are umbrellas here!”
The first person to arrive was an associate professor from the Department of Swordsmanship. I couldn’t remember his name.
All I could recall was his bright forehead with a dirty hue, and him being a balding educator at a young age.
Not particularly skilled in martial arts.
A person I thought would have a temper.
Yet, I didn’t dislike him. That’s just how people are, they can be this way or that way.
I smiled slightly as I looked at the approaching squid.
“Welcome.”
The professor extended his hand without saying a word.
Flicking his fingers, the professor demanded the umbrella. I smiled in response to his rather arrogant gesture and kept my mouth shut.
-…
A moment of silence passed.
The professor getting wet in the rain, not pleased with the hesitation of his disciple, and my gaze looking at him disdainfully crossed paths.
“What is it.”
“What.”
“What do you want.”
“You little brat.”
The squid, unable to endure the silence, spoke. It seemed like he needed the umbrella I was holding to protect his soon-to-be-balding head.
“Umbrella.”
Almost applauding the effort to protect the human species, I nodded my head in response.
“It’s one hundred gold.”
“What?”
“It went up. Three hundred gold now.”
With a stern gaze, the professor looked at me, and rainwater started to trickle down his bright forehead with a ‘tick’.
As raindrops clung to his long, bushy mustache, I muttered to myself as if flowing along with them.
“I heard rain can accelerate baldness.”
“…”
“There’s a saying that rain might make the remaining hair fall out.”
“…”
“I’m sorry. The rain suddenly made me remember that. It wasn’t meant for you, Professor.”
“…”
The professor, with a rigid expression, looked at me and said,
“Is that true?”
I replied with a cruel smile.
“Yes, that’s true. It was mentioned in a medical book I read before. It said that rain promotes baldness…”
The professor rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a shiny gold coin.
“One coin. I’ll pay the rest tomorrow.”
I handed him the umbrella with a serious smile.
“A good choice.”
“hehehehe…”
“hehehe…”
Indeed, easy prey is easily caught.
***
Under the raining sky.
Separated from the group, Mikhail, Yuria, and Histania Hanna were hiding under a tree to escape the approaching downpour.
“Ah…! I was going to share an umbrella with my master!”
Hanna expressed her regret with a sigh.
Mikhail clicked his tongue at Hanna’s reaction, while Yuria perked up her ears at Hanna’s words, also expressing regret.
“Me too…”
“Hmm? Yuria, did you call me?”
“No. Just talking to myself.”
There was no demon here capable of handling the exceptional skills of the three. Ordinary orcs couldn’t withstand Mikhail’s sword infused with magic, nor could they keep up with Hanna’s swift swordsmanship.
Thinking they might cause harm to their classmates by staying in the same place, Mikhail led the two away from Ricardo to conduct their training in a separate area.
Of course, straying from Ricardo’s designated location was natural. The two were confident in their abilities, and Yuria was thought to be fine. It was a situation born out of impulsive thoughts.
-Boom boom boom.
The heavy sound of rain continued relentlessly.
No one was passing by, and in a secluded corner where even students were absent, the three sought shelter from the rain in silence.
An awkward wind was blowing.
The person they admired.
The person who was admired.
And Yuria.
The three waited silently for the rain to stop without exchanging a word.
Did a long silence pass?
Mikhail cautiously broke the silence, as the raindrops showed no sign of stopping.
“The rain keeps coming.”
“That’s true…”
“It does.”
“I wish it would stop soon.”
There was no immediate response.
After glancing at Hanna’s sullen face, Mikhail gave up on continuing the conversation.
Feeling awkward around Hanna, who was close to Ricardo, Mikhail turned to Yuria, who was sitting hunched over, and started a light conversation about everyday things.
The weather had been warm lately.
This year, as they chatted about the heavy snowfall, the conversation shifted to their first night at the lodge.
“Yuria, what did you do yesterday?”
“I was just resting at the lodge.”
“Oh, really?”
“And Mikhail?”
“I…”
With a fleeting glance at Ricardo’s face, Mikhail furrowed his brow, let out an awkward chuckle, and said, “I was resting too.”
“I see.”
Yuria turned her head and saw Hanna drawing on the floor with a twig.
Hanna, drawing the familiar figure of a man. Though curious, Yuria held back her questions and instead asked Hanna about Mikhail’s activities.
“Hanna, were you resting at the lodge too?”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
Hanna tilted her head in response to Yuria’s question and replied, “I went to see Lady Olivia.”
“What?”
“I thought she might be bored, so I visited her after a long time.”
Laughing at the events of the previous night, Hanna continued drawing on the floor with a twig.
– Did you bring chocolates?
– Yes!
– Oh…! How nice. I’ll compliment you.
– Can you just admire me instead of complimenting?
– I don’t want to.
– Why not?
– Just because. It’s bothersome.
Olivia had been so disliked.
Now, Hanna somewhat understood why the butler was so devoted to Olivia.
At Hanna’s words, both individuals remained tight-lipped. Olivia’s presence was like a nightmare to them.
Cruel and.
As victims of the selfish villainess’s misdeeds, the two kept their mouths shut, not uttering a word.
In a cold tone, Mikhail spoke to Hanna.
“How do you know Olivia?”
“We became acquainted when I went to deliver my re-enrollment form last time.”
“You’re acquainted with Olivia?”
“Yes, she’s not exactly… kind. But she’s amusing.”
As Hanna’s demeanor started resembling Ricardo’s, she smiled happily.
Mikhail, with a stern expression, slowly opened his mouth to offer advice about avoiding dangerous individuals.
– Grrr…!
“Don’t associate with Olivia…”
-Quad-ddeung!!!!
With a flash of light.
A dark shadow appeared in front of Mihail.
“I found you.”
It was a man with a sinister aura.
Wearing a white priest’s robe,
A man with deep scars in his eyes
And a sharp gaze.
The man smiled at Mihail.
With a determined vitality, continuously emitting a chilling laughter that seemed to make one’s whole body shiver, the man pierced Mihail with his gaze.
Hanna instinctively grabbed the hilt of her sword.
Reacting reflexively to the intense aura emanating from him, she tensed up and gathered her focus.
With the thought that carelessness leads to death, Hanna gripped her sword and swallowed nervously due to the tension.
Yuria, too, began to draw on her magic to cast a buff.
And Mihail.
Since the moment he saw the man’s face, he had been frozen stiff.
The man, without sparing a glance at Hanna and Yuria, solely stared at Mihail.
Taking out a photo from his bosom and comparing it with Mihail’s face, the man scrutinized Mihail’s eyes, nose, and mouth, nodding his head.
“Somehow your face looks familiar.”
After smirking cruelly, the man dropped the photo to the ground.
A photo getting wet in the rain.
It was a picture of Mihail, who had received a commendation for his actions in the previous dungeon.
The man spoke to Mihail.
“It’s you, right?”
With a cruel smile, he spoke chillingly.
“You, the one who killed your friends to survive.”
Mihail’s expression began to freeze coldly.
*
It was a very old memory.
No.
From Noble mtl dot com
It was an old nightmare.
The incident where he encountered a disaster called a villain in a dark slum.
That day, too, the rain was pouring like now.
And that man was standing there.
-If I had told you to run, you should’ve run. It’s because of you that this kid ended up dead.
-Oh… no…!
-What do you mean no?
It was terrifying.
The sight of a big man swinging his fist, and being hit by someone for the first time in his life, everything was terrifying because it was all new.
That day, the man had spoken with the same smile as now.
-Oh, something interesting came to mind.
Choose a cruel option.
-“Fight each other. I will spare only one survivor.”
-…
-Why are you just standing there? Move.
And thus, he made his choice that day.
A choice he would regret for the rest of his life.
A choice he made with his own hands.
🤔