Chapter 72: C72: The Hunter and The Hunted
Should I intervene or not?
That was the main worry in my mind as the silver-haired team approached Agon.
On one hand, I wanted to keep a low profile throughout the exam as there were monsters here that would become even more monstrous in the future.
"Hello there, big brother," said the youngest of the silver-haired group. She didn't look older than twelve. Her other team members were a silver-haired, well-built young man; the last was a young woman who looked a couple of years older than Agon.
"Big brother?" Agon tilted his head in confusion. He didn't look weirded out at all by this. "I have a sister? To be honest, you look more like Anika's sibling."
Anika frowned, but she didn't say anything.
Screw it! I have to intervene! The last thing I wanted was for Agon to end up kidnapped or in some other troublesome shit. "Oh! Agon, you're here too!"
I put my arm around Agon's neck and smiled widely. Sei and Anika's eyes sharpened, and they immediately had their guard up.
Since I was acting overly friendly, they understood I was trying to warn them.
The twelve-year-old girl frowned; something shifted behind her gray eyes as she glared at me. "Who are you?"
She looked like she was about to fight me. So I leaned my arm on the handle of my sword. "Me? Just some guy. My name isn't worth remembering."
She gritted her teeth, and her eyes seemed to come aflame.
Good, if she attacked me here, she would be disqualified. If she were disqualified, then her team would be too. I could eliminate a troublesome element in one fell swoop.
But before she could act, the other young woman put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't instigate a fight. He's Kon of the Dark Sword Clan."
As soon as my clan's name was mentioned, the silver-haired kid breathed a sigh of annoyance and turned around. "Let's go."
Heh, even second-rate villains are cautious of my sketchy clan? Should I be grateful or insulted?
Whatever, at least the problem was solved for now.
The only guy in the silver-haired team scratched the back of his head nervously and apologized. "Sorry for the trouble."
While the older girl bowed and then followed after the youngest amongst them.
If my suspicions were right, they should be from Organization X, a group with only one letter for a name. It was an entity that worked behind the scenes. There wasn't a lot of information on it, only that they were running some crazy experiments and a surprising amount of nobles were founding it.
Who was their leader? Did they even have a leader? What's their goal?
I knew none of that. The only thing I knew about them was that Agon would destroy one of their bases, where he would encounter a lot of weapons like himself. However, they were mass-produced copies at best.
"Weird, why did she call me brother?" Agon was still leimming.
I put a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry about it. There are a lot of weirdos you will meet in this exam. If you start worrying about each of them, you will go mad."
Would such a flimsy excuse work on anyone else? No.
"Yeah, you're right!" He gave me a thumbs-up and a wide carefree smile.
Agon wasn't anyone else.
He turned toward Gem and gave him the middle finger. "I thought you were gonna fail. How did a shitty exorcist like you make it here?"
"Says the guy with a cut-up shirt and blood all around it!" Gem of course didn't take insults lying down.
I zoned out both of them. Their friendship worked in a strange way; they always insulted each other in every meeting.
At least their rowdy voices covered the conversation between the rest of us.
"Do you think they're suspicious?" Anika asked, glancing for a split second at the silver-haired team.
I nodded. "Yes. I can't go on the exact details, but you must be cautious around them."
"Are they after Agon for the thing?" Sei inquired.
As expected of him, he caught on quickly. I gave him a slight nod as confirmation. Due to our conversation, Bets probably understood what we were talking about.
"What thing?" The only one confused among us was Anika.
We just stared at her and said nothing. Now wasn't the best time to spill national-level secrets that might start a war.
Peasants don't care which King ruled over them; for most people, nothing would change.
But the leaders wanted to keep their power.
A war would start almost instantly if they learned that Sun Country was trying to create an Ultimate Class weapon. The last thing they would want was for the 'weapon' to mature and give Sun Country an advantage.
"The way you guys are staring is pissing me off!" Anika gave us a death glare. We casually turned away.
…
One by one, more teams came. Slowly the big room was filled almost to the brim. Some of the participants had injuries, and others didn't.
Did anyone figure out that they were being tracked by the paper that had appeared on their beds?
It had been about seven hours since we entered when someone finally came from the tunnel. "Good, good, none of you made a reckless charge toward the tunnels. An Exorcist must always be cautious!"
"We call ourselves knights in my country," an exorcist wielding a spear whispered to a random person beside him.
"I don't care, dude."
That's Arthur from the Yari Clan; they were among the four great clans. Also, they were the royal family of Britannia.
What he said was true, while our country called us Exorcists. In some other countries, they had different names and structures, like; Knights, Monster Hunters, Shamans, etc.
But they had the same rankings of Junior, Senior, Expert, Elite, and Special.
Though most bigger countries still called them Exorcists. Britannia was the only big country I could think of that doesn't call us Exorcists. However, there were other parts of the world where they called us Wizards.
The same about demons too; some call them monsters, Akuma, spirits, etc. But they used the same ranking as we did: Lingering, Low Class, Middle Class, High Class, and Ultimate.
In some cases, they weren't wrong to classify supernatural creatures differently. Because what the Sun Country calls demons involves a wide spectrum of creatures. Even the usually harmless forest spirits were rated as low-class demons.
"Since you've come so far, whether it's due to wits or power. Know that you deserve to be here, and one day you will become the pillars supporting the resistance against evil!" The examiner spoke enthusiastically.
Most of the youngsters gathered here were excited by the speech. A few others and I knew the truth. Becoming an Expert Exorcist was no simple job. It wasn't just killing demons. Investigations were a basic skill for any Exorcist, and politics were part of it more than they should be.
"Anyways, follow me. We will move to the next part of the exam!" The teacher ran off, and we all followed in a sprint. Some crawled on the roof like spiders, while others walked on the tunnel walls.
But it once again dawned on me that I was surrounded by monsters. None of the people here were normal. Every one of them had a special ability.
Some might have used their ability without me noticing. I might have even been their target.
Fuck! That's the kind of thought that would make anyone paranoid!
…
After a while, the whole tunnel got dark, and we still kept running. It was creepy looking around and seeing everyone's gazes shining as they had imbued their eyes with Ord to try and see better.
Was the teacher trying to expose students who didn't have good Ord control? Make them easy targets for the stronger ones? Or show the others which of their peers they shouldn't go against.
At least Bets and Gem controlled their Ord well enough to imbue their eyes with it.
"Ow! Did I stumble on someone? Sorry!" Agon apologized. He did so loud and clear.
Yep, he just put a huge target on his back.
I distanced myself from him bit by bit. He is the protagonist; I'm sure he will easily handle such a hurdle. On the other hand, I don't want to be the character that dies so Agon could get some character development.
But as we continued, we arrived at a well-lit underground train station. A red locomotive train was waiting for us.
"Okay, participants! This will be where we will sadly part ways. Anyone who wants to continue with the exam will have to enter the train. Each team must have their own room in the train by the end of their journey."
Everyone rushed into the train, pushing, punching, and stomping each other. They likely thought there wouldn't be any free seats. But I knew there were more than enough.
"Shouldn't we go in too?" Bets asked.
I shook my head. "No, this stage will be easier if we are on the attack."
After all, we just need to wait and fight one battle. In contrast, the defenders have to fight any attacker.
I wasn't too worried about how many battles we fought. In this part of the exam, my goal was to eliminate the silver-haired team.
As soon as I caught sight of them entering the train, I nudged my teammates. "Now is our best time to go in."
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