Both of them froze in place. Waiting for the soldier to leave the two alone.
"Strange." Villian can't help but blurt the strange event that he was in.
"The only one who is strange is you!" The boy too can't help comment Villian audacity. Although he is visibly shaken.
Spirit him ponders sometimes. Thinking that a sabertooth can change into spirit mode is indeed pretty strange.
But he noticed something equally strange from the boy.
"You understand my language?" The reddish brown sabertooth can't help but ask.
The boy pauses for a bit looking confused as well. "It was the Caladryan language that us humans usually speak day to day. The right question is why the hell do you understand Caladryan? Do all sabertooths speak human language?"
Villian just shook his head. His spirit hand grabbed the astral chain that tangled his neck. It is cold like real steel. He knows that this chain is not tangible but got trapped anyway.
'Maybe to trap intangible things need something that is not tangible too.' The tiger lowkey humor himself.
He then looks at the boy puzzled. "What have you done to me?"
The boy scratched the back of his head. "That is the spell of [Tame]. Us beastmasters can use it to tame creatures other than humans and … umm"
"And?" Villian body tensed.
The boy said in a low embarrassing voice. "Be … my pet for … life."
The word that comes through the mouth of the boy is like a sharp arrow through his soul. All his plan and effort cheating death at that maze, only to get tamed by some human boy that hides behind his aristocratic family?!
Villian regulate his breathing. "Are you for real?! For life?! What kind of overpowered spell is this?!"
The boy tried to calm himself down and shook his head. "I have no idea."
"How about when your family finds out? What will happen to you?"
A collection of footsteps rushing through the camp. Spirit Villian goes back to his unconscious body.
Soon, a dozen men storm the central camp where they two are.
"Son, what's going on?" A deep sound of a middle aged man reverberated in the tent looking around his perimeter, but ended up looking at the reddish brown sabertooth at the middle of the camp.
He is a big man with bulky red and white armor. It looks fancier when he also holds the banner of falling white meteorite on a red background in his back.
The boy looked at his concerned dad. "I … tamed a sabertooth dad!"
Silence screams in the room. The soldiers behind the big man whispered loudly.
"Shush!" The big man raises his left hand and points his finger up. The whispers vanish.
He walks closer to his son and stares at the boy. "Congratulations son!"
The father lifts his son. And hugging him tightly. "This is a monumental moment for our small house. House Starforge."
Every soldier yells a rallying cry and claps.
Villian rolls his eyes in disbelief. Many hands immediately pat the ferocious reddish brown sabertooth. It made Villian dizzy because of the many pats.
"Even if we do not find victory on the battlefield. We are victorious in our own family!"
Everyone grabbed the boy and launched him up repeatedly. The boy looks so happy. It's akin to when he joins the football team and scores a goal on a tie score.
In fact, Villian is the only one that did not seem to be happy right now.
The big man steps on the neat lavish style chair with his boots full of mud, and continues to step on the fancy table and map like it was nothing.
"Tonight! Forget about the battlefield and let's go to a party for my son Benjamin!"
The soldiers rally under him.
It was like their best day ever in a whole decade.
Everyone runs outside. Leaving three people in the command center tent. Villian, Benjamin the boy, and his dad.
The dad sits along with Benjamin and asks him how he tame the mighty sabertooth known as Villian.
The reddish brown sabertooth soon listens to the dramatic bedtime story between father and son.
He really wants to fly away as far as he can, but this cursed chain prevents him, preventing all hope in him.
It's over an hour of the happy family boasting all their achievements in an exaggerated way.
But all of that boasting give Villian some insight about the bigger picture of his situation.
Firstly, there are some unique things about the human race in this world. In addition to the race's innate magic, they also gained a class-like system that is exclusive to them. Meanwhile, the uniqueness of sabertooth is their unique ancient magic.
Second, Benjamin belongs to the [Beastmaster] class. And their tamed pet is everything to this class. [Beastmaster] that tamed a dog is considered lower in the sense of hierarchy when compared to a [Beastmaster] that tamed a sabertooth or a fairy.
Third, the skill [Tame] is considered a 'luck' based skill. Few people get their first try success when using the [Tame] skill. Meanwhile, many humans need 50, 100, 1000th to get a successful tame. Some even do not get pets at all until they die.
Benjamin had used his [Tame] skill for 875th time to various species of the world and none of them worked.
Until the 875th time, he succeeded to tame an unbelievably rare species in the human turf.
'Unbelievably lucky for him but unbelievably unlucky for me.'
Villian inhale a lot of air and blow it. 'Is this a karma for me?'
He never thought of that until now.
What if all of this happening is because he bribed the Rite of Passage administrator that time. After that it seemed going downhill for Villian.
'Maybe there was ancient sabertooth magic that is tampering with my fate.'
But again, Villian cheating death is considered a good karma for him. Well, until he got tamed.
Fate lift you up, and then sends you down lower.
So in summary, it is an extremely important day for this House Starforge.
Outside of the tent, there were so many lights from torches. Bonfire lights up very brightly into the air. Illuminating the night forest with its radiance.
Looks just like your usual bonfire party on earth. Where college students drink beers, get high, and some other stupid stuff.
The soldier bonding to one another with various activities such as making a circle at a campfire. They talk about their opinion on various things life related. Some laugh, some serious, some drunk.
Many of them scattered on the camp and go to their own one or two friends to hangout.
A mischievous thought flew over his head. 'Can I injure someone or even kill as a pet?'
He glanced at Ben and his father that talked with one of their lieutenants on the other side of the camp.
'Strange, did he know that his pet is on the other side of the camp?' ponders Villian.
The boy strikes him as a not strict person. And that is good for Villian. But it may be different if Villian makes a mistake that costs him the fake freedom.
The Astral chain does not exist when he is in his body. But, also the distance is quite long. Over 20 meters before a cold steel grips his neck.
The reddish brown sabertooth is glad that the broken skill [Tame] can give him an ample amount of privacy from that boy.
Everyone is still wary of a sabertooth in their ranks. Whenever the reddish brown sabertooth tried to go near one of them, the soldier go as far as creating their own distance against Villian.
'There is no real way to know if I can hurt anyone, except …'
The sabertooth crosses all of his legs and pretends to sleep.
By time, one by one the soldier is getting bolder enough to approach him, knowing that the sabretooth is already sleeping.
Villian partially removes his soul from his right front paw while the rest of them are still intact with the body, and pinches the soul of the leg on one of the soldiers that turn his back on the sabertooth.
When he was still Zyrral, he could not interfere with others' souls. As his [Spirit Channeling] was not that strong.
The soldier screamed all of the sudden. Gaining the attention of anyone nearby.
The red man looked like he wanted to scream but quickly shut his mouth. He then walks to the nearby soldier and speaks in a low tone, "W-was that sabertooth just claws me?"
His friend shook his head. Claiming that he did not see the whole thing.
The victim surely gets away from the sabertooth.
'Strange.' Villian ponders again for a bit.
This is not what he thinks in mind when doing silly stuff to someone.
'Not just the one who I pinch with my soul seemed scared, the one who the guy talked to next was also showing a rather anxious face.
Both of them talked in a whispered kind of voice.
This dawned on the Villian's mind.
They are scared not because of a wild animal lurking amongst them. But they are scared because this is not your common wild animal. This is the animal of the son of the ruler of this army.
It means that Villian got the treatment of a king's pet. His status may be higher than the status of the highest ranking of a soldier.
The soldier of course did not dare to ruin the happy moment of a lord with an incident that had the potential of misunderstanding.
One thing he has not known is whether there is a punishment for disobedience. Seeing as Ben did not unleash something that really hurt Villian. Except, the way that Ben retracted his arms toward himself, making the astral chain only had a range of 3 meters before it began tightening around Villian's neck.
But he saw for a moment that Ben seemed to struggling and fall on the floor while holding the astral chain.
'Is there something that can make me to snatch that chain?' Villian thinks to himself
"Hey come here boy!" Ben snapped his index finger to his thumb in his right hand, while holding a piece of meat in his left hand. He waves it to lure Villian to come to his side.
Meanwhile, Villian has conflicted feelings. The delicious mutton processed by humans smells amazing. Far better than the raw meat that the sabertooth hunt and eat on the spot.
On the other hand, the thought of being someone's 'good boy' is really sickening. To the point that he wants to kill himself if someone says that word to him.
"What do you want?" asked Villian not hiding his embarrassment.
Other humans do not seem to notice that Villian spoke the language of humans. He too saw the reaction of Ben, surprised when everyone apart from him did not freaking out.
The two look at Villian. His dad suddenly tapped his shoulder. "You and that sabertooth are going to magic school, Ben."
"WHAT THE F*CK!" Like adding salt to the wounds, Villain shouted. Everyone was immediately alarmed because they translated those words as a strong growl
School is the last thing that Villian wanted to do as a sabertooth. Obviously he is not an adult that needs another lesson in math, physics, biology, etc.
But Villian is thinking again. The dad said it is a magic school after all. Villian can learn new spells and all.
'Maybe I can learn a spell to be free from this astral chain.' He thinks to himself.
Ben seems to not be stunned by the roar. On the contrary, his face frowned and his mouth not uttering words.
"Ok Father!" responded Ben. The previous happiness in his face immediately went away.
"Good. In the early morning I will assign people to escort you back to the capital. "Make me proud, okay?"
The dad left them alone.
The urge to possess the dad and undo the things he just said is through the roof. But Villian need confirmation from Ben first. Or else, the misstep would be proven fatal in coming days.
The two of them glared at each other.
"You don't like school?" asks Villian trying to break the ice.
"Yeah, it was because back then as a [Beastmaster], The damn skill won't get me any tamer. Everybody bullies me, teacher, student alike."
Villian gives a chuckle in his heart.
Caladrys is a continent that is inhabited by humans, Sabertooth, Elves, and Fairies. Each of them is represented by their own gods. God of Dust that commands the soil and wind, created the sabertooth a long time ago. God of Fertility that controls Light and Leaf created Fairies and Leaf.
God of Anarchy that controls Fire and Steel created humans. And the God of Tranquility that controls water and darkness created the sirens and other underwater dwellers. Long time ago they decided to create the continent of Caladrys to show each other whose creation is the best.
All the creatures were agreeing on those passages. But the problem is after that, their interpretations of the 'best' are really different from one another. One race decided to conquer, one to preserve, one to study the universe, and one to defy all and slowly perish.
The last sentence was according to the ancient scripture of the sabertooth tribe.
…
City Danavor. One of the most important cities situated on the green field plains outside the deep forest.
The carriage that transported Ben, Villian, and other vanguard of House Starforge are about to enter human settlement. A poor neighborhood alongside the main road that leads to the city.
Villian thinks it was somewhat alarming to see a really tidy straight road with a rather slum of human settlements on the sideroad. The only guards or police enforcer is within the road, escorting the carriage.
Villian cannot help but think that the people outside are just fodder if something from the forest decided to be dangerous.
'So this is what being an important person was like.' Villian getting relaxed though.
'Forget about getting revenge. This is what I need to spend my daily life with.'
The carriage then stopped. A stone wall stands tall ahead of them.
Carriage driver gives them a bunch of documents made of paper, different from animal parchment that is actively used by the sabertooth to write stuff.
Guards are looking different near the gates. Bunch of guards with green gold ornaments with more heaviness on them. Different from the red white from the House Starforge that noticeably has a lesser plate on their torso.
The iron gate creaks open. Revealing lavish houses way bigger than the one outside. Trees and gardens are decorated neatly along the pavement. And especially no poop and foul smell.
A contrast outlook of the society caste from outside to inside the wall.
But one thing that looks glaring is the giant building that towers over all buildings inside the wall. Including the walls. About 5 times higher than the walls.
The carriage suddenly stops moving.
"Come on Villian, we arrived at our destination." Ben says that in a gloomy tone.
Both of them finally step down from the wooden carriage. Stepping on the paving block for the first time and not soil.
"What building is this?" asked Villian cannot contain his curiosity.
"It is the academy building. The largest one in this nation."
Villian flabbergasted. "Why is this so big?"
"Magic, Class, Combat, Religion, Science are learned intensively here. Also this place is the sole university in this nation. Everyone with [Class] System awakened to them will enroll here."
"For what? What are you fighting?" Villian seems confused. For what he knows, there were no wars for hundred years amongst the different races.
Benjamin looked at the sabertooth for a bit. "Do you know about the creature called 'The Entity'?"
Villian shook his head. "No. Who are they?"
Ben's attention looks elsewhere, but his ears actually listen to Villian. "Mysterious shadows like creatures that show out of nowhere. Wreaking havoc and killing everyone in their sight."
The sabertooth can only ponder why there were no such creatures sighting in Auroria. The only problems that they had to fight are very much pretty mundane like a usual dispute and organizational power control.
Where the most problems that the sabertooth faced were usually involving human poachers.
Ben walks to one of the better buildings near them. An old man with a tidy work outfit greets Ben. And is surprised when seeing a sabertooth by his side.
"Let me bring your luggage, Young Master." The butler offered him his hands. The wrinkled smile on his face looks really genuine.
"No need!" Ben declines the offer and enters the building.
The interior of the building is not half bad. The floor however is made out of wood but the high quality one. Many decorations are actually put together really tidy.
Kitchen, 2 bedrooms, and a living room. This is a really nice living space. But somehow he expected more like a large mansion.
"Welcome to the townhouse. A temporary house that our family had purchased in this city, boy." Ben continued explaining with his focus everywhere but to Villian.
The first thing that he checked in the townhouse are the little deformities in the furniture
The sabertooth is not taking any degrading calls. "I have a name too you know."
"Hmm?" Ben glances to the sabertooth. Finally giving him the attention he deserves.
"Don't call me 'boy'. Call me Villian instead from now on." told Villian, finally had the courage to negotiate, even if he does not know what kind of young master the boy truly is.
Ben pondered for a minute and finally said. "Okay then."
'Okay then?! So he is not your typical arrogant young master. Hehe, this is going to be delightful.'
The boy sits down. Closing his face with both of his hands. The sadness in his face cannot be contained.
"Why don't you just refuse your dad's offer?"
The sabertooth is taking a gamble by asking sensitive questions as a stranger.
Ben looks at Villian again. "He takes no for an answer. The happy facade he had shown there will instantly change with just a simple 'No'."
Villian thinks for a minute and exhale his breath. "But you don't want him dead, don't you?"
Ben gives a chuckle. Unleashing a somewhat questionable grin. "Yeah, I want him dead."
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