Capítulo 18: Cover Up
Now that I was alone again, I had a chance to reflect on everything that happened recently. I had gotten caught up in a conspiracy against the kingdom that summoned me, I had killed people for the first time in my life, and I was told that my path to power was an absolute death sentence. It really was an overwhelming amount of information and unresolved feelings that needed to be thought through.
The intense exercise of running down the road as if my life depended on it helped me reach a sort of meditative state. It was true that I had become a murderer recently, but I found that it didn't really affect me as much as I thought it would.
After living for so long, whether intentional or not, you tend to come face to face with death at least once. Especially for me, I was there when my own parents got sick and eventually left the world. Though I suppose a death like that is quite different from violently killing somebody with a halberd. Nonetheless, the end result was the same, so I found that I wasn't overwhelmed with the feeling of realizing death is real.
Now about whether or not those people deserved to die there, I suppose I would say probably not. However, it's not like they deserved any favors from me anyway. None of us were on friendly terms and this was the most optimal outcome for me, so I knew without a doubt that I would do it again. I would also undoubtedly have to kill again.
It was not that I took pleasure in any of this, but that it's just how this world works. It very well could hit me different if I was forced into a situation that I had to kill innocent and defenseless people, but at least for now I had no regrets.
After being lost in my thoughts for a while, I could eventually see a large white mountain in the distance. Unlike some mountains that have been worn down by the wind and rain over the years, this one looked brand new. Almost as if the sharp tooth of a shark pierced through the ground. There were some deformations here and there, but by in large the mountain looked like a sharp sided cone coming straight out of the ground.
I ran for a bit longer and could eventually see a group of people ahead. It was now time to test my acting skills once again.
Once I got a bit closer to them, I started to yell out.
"Help! That creature killed everyone!"
Bruno walked closer to me with a frown on his face. A couple of moments later, I finally reached him and collapsed on the ground in exhaustion.
"What are you talking about old man?"
I was breathing incredibly hard at this point, but I forced out some words between raged breaths.
"There was a strong monster back there. It killed the knight and the other trainees that were with me. I barely managed to run away while they were still fighting."
A new sense of seriousness and danger came from Bruno's voice.
"You better not be fucking with me old man."
"No sir. I barely made it out alive."
He looked at me with skepticism for a while, but then took out an orb from a pouch attached to his armor. Holding it up to his mouth, he spoke.
"This is Bruno, give me a report Marco."
I wasn't sure if this strange orb was supposed to work like a speaker, but regardless minutes passed with everybody in silence.
"Marco, report in now."
Silence once again.
Bruno looked back at me once more with rage abundantly clear in his expression.
"Tell me everything that happened now."
My breathing had calmed down quite a bit at this point, so I could speak clearly as I told my story. I tried to stick to the truth as much as possible in an attempt to make even myself believe the order of events.
"At the start of the run, I kept on catching up to a bunch of the slackers causing them to group up in an attempt to stay a little ahead of me. However, this boar monster eventually blocked the path causing everybody to confront it. I felt like together, we had a chance of defeating it, but then another monster came out of the forest that made everyone feel despair. The knight quickly went forward to stop it, but I was too scared at that point to stay. I instantly ran down the road once more and just happened to get on the other side of the boar. I'm not sure if other trainees tried to run after me, but they would have had to deal with the boar before they could. As I ran as fast as I could, I could hear screams coming from behind me, so I assumed that they ended up losing."
"Truly a worthless old dog. And a complete coward at that."
Bruno looked disgusted at my behavior, but I just shrugged.
"And who instilled a sense of comradery between me and the other trainees? Why the fuck would I risk my life for a bunch of people who have done nothing but make fun of and bully me?"
Bruno backhanded me causing another one of my teeth to fall out. I fell to the ground as I spit out some blood and my tooth. At least the injury was on the inside of my mouth so nobody would be able to see anything. I decided to act like I was surprised and touched the inside of my mouth. Taking it out, some blood was now stained on my fingers. This would come in handy if I wanted to use the talisman soon.
Regardless though, my words seemed to do the trick. Bruno wasn't bothering with me anymore, but also seemed to take my story as the truth. All it cost me was my reputation and another one of my teeth. If this continued, I might have to get something like dentures.
Bruno stepped away from me and brought up the orb once more. However, this time I could see him straining his arm muscles and causing a large amount of mana to swarm around his artifact. Seeing that mana, I knew that he was stronger than most of the people I had seen in this world.
"This is Commander Bruno reporting a code yellow on the road from the capital to the Bonetooth Mountains. At least one adept knight assumed dead. This situation involves the heroes so I'm requesting an investigation of this matter."
Shortly after, a response came out of the orb.
"Understood. A team will be dispatched."
I guess it really did work like a phone on speaker mode.
Bruno put away the artifact into his pouch once more and then turned back to me.
"Get in line you piece of shit."
I didn't want to antagonize him any more than this, so I followed his order. Soon Bruno spoke to everyone.
"We have encountered a bit of a situation, but that won't affect our training at all. Recently, one of our deadbeat members has complained about companionship issues within this division. Therefore, the training will continue in groups. I will now randomly assign you to specific groups, then we will head out in search of monsters."
I noticed many people look at me in disgust during Bruno's speech. It was a little funny to me though. It almost felt like I was a little kid who complained to the teacher that I had no friends in class which only served to ostracize me further. Guess it was a good thing that I wasn't looking for friends here.
Bruno called out many names to form groups until he eventually got to mine.
"Greg, Samantha, Sam, and the worthless old dog."
Looks like I would be in a group with the two heroes that hated me and Alex's friend who coincidently also didn't like me. Looks like Bruno was trying to make things hard for me once more. I guess I was pretty out of line earlier, but I couldn't help but think that these grudges that he held were incredibly petty.
I walked over to my new group, but everyone of them looked at me with disgust. I just shrugged my shoulders while the others introduced themselves to Sam. Greg and the hero Samantha were obviously already acquainted.
A little bit later, Bruno finished calling out group names and everybody looked towards him once again.
"Alright here is how things are going to go. We will all set out and stay in one big group as we search for monsters. When we spot one, any group can volunteer to fight it or I will just call out a group at random. We will then watch as that group fights the monster. Rely on your teammates and remember your training. I'll keep watch and note each of your performances. After we finish and get back to the capital, I will be speaking with each one of you individually."
Bruno scanned the crowd of trainees, perhaps looking for any confusion. Soon he nodded.
"Alright then, let's move out."
Everybody gathered up while sticking close to their groups and we started walking even closer to the strange looking white mountains. I glanced over at my teammates and was soon lost in thought about how to approach our fights. I would definitely have to be careful not to get injured myself, but thinking about it now, I figured I could go down the somewhat useless route if needed.
After all, I would most likely be summoning god knows what before the next practical training, so I wasn't sure if it even mattered if I was labeled as worthless at this point. I guess I would have to wait and see the monster we were facing before making any decisions.
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