Chapter 44: Departure (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
After meditating, Angele changed his clothes and opened the window to let the air circulate. Whatever that was left on his body didn’t smell pleasant. He grabbed his blanket and opened the door. There was no light in the hallway, and all the rooms were quiet. Angele could only hear the snoring of people and the noises made by the beds. There was a chilling wind blowing through the hallways, making Angele feel much better after walking out of his room.
Angele went straight to the bathroom at the end of the hallway and took a shower. He then returned to his room and wiped off the black blood on his clothes. Angele felt refreshed, then putting all his dirty clothes at the corner.
‘As a wizard apprentice, I can only meditate for a certain duration each day. Otherwise, my body wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure. There are still three leaves on the Dead Soul Grass, and when I finish all three, my body will change. By then, I won’t need to find new grass anymore,’ Angele recalled the information from the book. The maximum number of hours he could now do was 5 hours per day. He carefully put the box containing the grass beneath his pillow and fell asleep right after.
The second morning.
Angele awoke at 5 o’clock in the morning, brimming with strength and energy. He got off the bed and looked at the Wizard’s book on the desk.
‘The dorm isn’t safe enough a place for this. I should ask Master to keep them for me,’ Angele thought. He placed the book and the box inside a black bag and left the room with it.
It was still early in the morning, and no carriage for hire was there yet. He didn’t return to his bed and instead walked toward the sword training ground. He passed by the dorm and dining hall before heading toward a hill west of the building. Built upon it was a platform, the place clearly being the sword training ground. Batches of equipment were stored in a gray stone house behind the platform, and more than 30 wooden training dummies stood on the ground, green grass surrounding the ground all over. It was still a bit dark, making the place seemed eerie. Insects cried and sang in the forest nearby.
Angele tied the bag around an arm of a dummy before grabbing a wooden sword from the stone house. He heard noises in the air as he did several basic slashes. Angele felt satisfied. He walked toward the dummy that had his bag tied on it and decided to start practicing.
‘Unknown human beings approaching. Distance: 103 meters. Numbers: 3,’ Zero suddenly reported. Angele didn’t know that people would come so early just to hone their sword skills, but he wasn’t too concerned about them. He knew several students who occasionally practiced very early. There were three males chatting while walking, slowly drawing near to Angele. With Angele’s excellent hearing, he could easily hear their conversation.
“ … I heard that several new faces joined the school’s grand tournament, each of which was very strong,” one of them said.
“Whatever, those people are always the champions. Asma’s Storm Sword skill is way too strong. I heard he was selected to be the future leader of the harbor’s police department, and Geline was working at the patrol already. There are some people who have exceptional sword skills such as Allen, Albert, Nancy, and Alger. They won’t be easily defeated by newcomers,” someone else said.
“They may be strong, but no one can stand a chance against Asma. He won the sword skill competition at Westwind, making the other contestants look like a joke. I choose to be a swordsman because I admire him. Also, I heard that Alger has been practicing at the training ground very early recently. We might meet him there,” another one said.
As the footsteps were getting close, Angele shook his head after hearing their conversation. He laughed because he had seen Asma using a sword before. He was very strong and his skill set was refined. It might even be stronger than Angele’s basic sword skill set. Angele met him once at this training ground, and he must be from a high-class family. Angele used his chip to collect data on Asma’s Storm Sword skills, concluding after that those skills required the Life Energy Seed to unlock the full potential. The set was at the level of a grand knight, but it was useless to Angele.
Compared to the storm set’s burst potential, Angele’s basic skills were focused on technique and precision. If Angele tried to practice the set, he would just get a backlash as he didn’t meet the requirement for it. After all, he didn’t have the Life Energy Seed. The Grand Sword Tournament was a tradition of the Andes Alliance, which was held every other year. The school would become raucous during the tournament. Some high-class nobles would be invited to be the judges. Not only were the contestants the students in the school, even the alumni participated since the prize itself was tempting.
Angele never cared about it as his goal was reaching stage one as a wizard apprentice and awaiting the boat of the Wizard organizations. Angele stopped listening to their conversation, deciding to focus on practicing instead. He raised his wooden sword and initiated a front slash on the dummy — something which he kept repeating. As the three students arrived at the training ground, they became surprised when they saw Angele.
“It’s Angele, the language genius! I heard he’s Master Adolf’s favorite student, and he even taught Angele privately,” one of them said with a faint voice.
“Shall we greet him?” he continued.
“Nope, let’s not disturb him. I heard he’s also an impressive archer such that many students said that he has a 90% accuracy rate even when the targets are 100 meters away! If we have a tournament for archery, he’ll be at the top 3 for sure! Also, I heard he doesn’t like other students, very self-centered, and even has a bad temper. Some students once said in public that they don’t like him, but after a while, they suddenly stopped saying things like that. They probably had a ‘great time’ with Angele,” the other one said.
“Alright, let’s just stay away from him. Just don’t anger him,” the one who was at the front said.
The three talked for a while, though they tried avoiding any eye contact with Angele. They picked a place far from him, and then began training with wooden swords they had taken. Angele found it funny when he heard their gossip while practicing. He thought he didn’t attract any attention in school, but apparently, he was well-known. The students who didn’t like Angele were just random small fry who knew a little bit about fighting skills trying to fight him. Angele taught them a lesson within several seconds. They left him alone after learning that he was Adolf’s student. After that incident, rumors spread saying that Angele wasn’t one to be trifled with.
Angele didn’t too deeply about it. However, people were saying how he was self-centered and had a bad temper, making Angele speechless. He shook his head and decided to continue training.
In the next several days, the school became very busy as many activities organized by students were ongoing. Angele saw many students walking to and fro with swords tied to their waists. Many timbers were being carried to the training ground. It seemed that the tournament would be held there wherein the school was building the audience area.
Angele heard students talking about the champion candidates in the dorm many times, but he never cared about it. He continued his daily routine, but he now meditated instead of sleeping. He couldn’t go to the sword training ground due to the recent event, so he instead went to the archery training ground. His meditation wasn’t progressing quite well after his first experience. Angele’s attributes didn’t increase the same amount as the former 0.3 increment in stamina, but he could feel his body becoming stronger. The chip wasn’t giving him exact numbers, but he could feel it was slowly but constantly increasing. Angele felt great as he could keep 8 runes in his mind now. His mind was clearer than before even without sleep.
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The 3rd dorm building in the school. Inside a random room.
Several students were chatting together.
“Hey! Caesar, I didn’t know Angele was in this school too!” one guy said.
“Angele? Angele Rio? That dumb playboy?” The young man named Caesar seemed surprised.
“Yea, him.” The guys laughed.
“Lucky guy. He didn’t get killed while running away? He was weak as a snail,” a girl with short hair said, and laughed. She was eating something that looked like sunflower seeds, which looked tasty.
“Caitlyn, what courses will you and your brother choose? The fees here are really expensive, so I’ll just stick with painting,” she asked as she turned to a girl behind her. A beautiful girl with blonde hair draped all over the shoulders was sitting beside her, drinking some tea slowly.
“Angele Rio? I heard there’s a talented student named Angele. Is that him?” The blonde girl didn’t answer the question. She was more concerned about the previous topic.
“Yep, that’s him.” The first guy laughed.
“That prick is doing well. I hear he’s studying under Master Adolf. He’s a mere one lucky bastard. Who the hell does he think he is? Damn!” he continued. It was as though he didn’t care, but people who knew him knew he was just jealous.
“Yea, Angele was never a smart guy,” Caitlyn said as she laughed.
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Five days later…
“Angele, do you know a girl named Caitlyn?” Roger, who lived alongside Angele in the dorm, suddenly asked. He was currently having dinner with Angele.
Angele didn’t know Roger too well, but they occasionally had dinner together and would chat for a while. Roger was most likely the only person who would talk to Angele aside from Sophia in school. He was also the same person who told Angele about the course schedule at the dorm.
“Caitlyn? Why do you ask?” Angele thought for a second before answering. He remembered that the viscount’s daughter was also named Caitlyn. The original Angele died when he fell off the horse during the competition, which was indirectly caused by her. Roger spread butter over his bread and grabbed the strawberry jam by the side.
“She just registered, but I heard that she and her brother got entangled in some trouble. They messed with Vivak, thus the latter surrounded them with his gang. They had no way out, so Caitlyn said you were her fiancé in front of everyone. Vivak was unwilling to fight you, so he left them alone after,” Roger said before he laughed.
“Now it seems like you don’t know her at all. Things will become hilarious, I suppose,” Roger continued. He wasn’t from a very large family, but he was certainly better than the typical Rudin nobles who fled from their own country.
“Yea?” Angele didn’t want to say too much, so he just laughed. He grabbed an apple-like fruit and took a bite on it. The Candia family didn’t prepare for the Saladin invasion, so their main forces were killed on their way to escape. They now had lost territory. Angele once saw one of the corpses of their dead men on the way, but he couldn’t even remember the person’s name. Viscount Candia was lucky enough to reach Marua alive.
“What’s the girl’s full name?” Angele asked.
“Caitlyn Candia,” Roger said, then took a big bite on his toast.
‘That’s her,’ Angele thought. He smiled at Roger, but he didn’t say anything.