Ch.130130 – A Reward for the Good Child

<130 – A Reward for Good Children>

Stat stones increase a random ability by 1 when consumed.

However, low-grade stat stones only increase abilities within the lower tier.

This means there’s an upper limit to the ability increase.

Oknodie’s body had quite high potential.

Her basic abilities had already grown close to the upper limit of low-grade abilities.

These days, she was certain.

Eating low-grade stat stones wouldn’t increase any of her abilities anymore.

Just slightly larger stones.

Unless she ate mid-grade stat stones, consuming stones wouldn’t increase her abilities.

So it was an act of kindness.

‘Someone like Morb deserves to share my stat stones!’

Actually, she was curious too.

An extra from the lower class.

A youngster she wouldn’t have even noticed in other timelines.

How far could this child grow if nurtured?

Could he continue attending the academy even as a sophomore or junior?

Regardless of possibility, she wanted to experiment.

She wanted to keep this child around for a long time.

So she showed him kindness.

But she didn’t expect him to agree so readily.

“You’re going to eat a stone?”

“I’m prepared. Whatever Oknodie asks me to do must have a reason.”

His mindset was extraordinary.

Morb definitely possessed the compliance of someone who had transcended being an extra.

He was completely different from those who would say “How could I do that!” or “That’s impossible!” and back out.

“Then… see you at dinner time!”

Morb nodded with a solemn face, like a pet who realized it was going to be slaughtered in two hours and had accepted its fate willingly.

Though he was serious, from an observer’s perspective, his tense appearance seemed both admirable and cute.

“How is it going? Is the education progressing well?”

“We’re going to have more training tonight too!”

“Hehe. That’s how Oknodie should be. Good, good. Please continue being a good child.”

Arcadia Ceviche, whom they encountered in the lecture hall, patted her head.

When Arcadia, with her large chest, raised her arms, her top clung to her body, making her upper body lines quite noticeable.

When Oknodie shyly averted her gaze, Arcadia misunderstood the reason for her embarrassment as being from the head pat and enthusiastically continued with “Eih, eih!”

* * *

Unlike the warm atmosphere between Oknodie and Arcadia, the lecture time was grueling.

“Today we’ll learn a new skill. Until now, we’ve learned <Aerial Shot>, <Quick Shot>, and <Power Shot>, but today’s skill is a named skill.”

The instructor loaded a bundle of arrows onto the target with a unique grip technique and fired toward the target.

With a whooshing sound, the arrows flew simultaneously and stuck into the target in a vertical line with a rapid thudding sound. The uninformed students exclaimed “Wow!” and applauded.

Morb turned pale.

“What are you doing, Morb? You saw it too! Look at that awesome shooting!”

“Idiot… why do you think the instructor showed us that?”

Morb’s concerns soon became reality.

“<Beoerum’s Linear Shot>. This is the name of the shooting skill you’ll learn today.”

Named skills require more complex operation and delicate control than ordinary skills.

They’re harder to use, but once mastered, their power in specific situations is on a different level from ordinary skills.

The so-called <advanced course> skill!

“Beginners should start with three arrows at once and gradually increase the number. I’ll also evaluate effective range and accuracy with increasing difficulty.”

“Instructor. How can we acquire this skill?”

An innocent student raised his hand and asked.

It was a pointless question.

“Practice.”

“…What??”

“Hard.”

“Instructor??”

“Practice hard for two hours.”

“Hey, instructor?? Excuse me?? Hey, where are you going! Hey!!”

Morb quietly picked up his arrows among students who were belatedly realizing the reality and despairing.

It was already decided.

No amount of protest would help.

Trying to nock multiple arrows at once made his aiming time longer and his hands shake.

Fwip-fwip-fwip

Arrows curved left, right, up, and down at their own will.

Shooting multiple arrows in a straight line at once was not easy.

Even though they were shooting from a much closer distance than usual, it was clear without saying that building proficiency would be an arduous process.

Fwip-fwip-fwip

As if mocking his struggles, Skola, known as the descendant of the divine archer, proudly planted magic arrows in a straight line on the target.

Skola kept increasing the number of arrows and distance without hesitation, and Oknodie quickly followed behind.

Though not as good as Skola, she improved rapidly as if she had practiced this skill for decades, quickly getting the feel of it like someone recovering a forgotten skill.

‘This is the difference in talent. The gap between the lower class and upper class that can never be bridged.’

This was it.

The gap between Oknodie and himself.

The gap was vastly wider than he had thought.

Effort alone wouldn’t be enough.

Talent was such a terrifying thing.

Catching up?

No.

Even keeping from falling behind was difficult.

This was no time to refuse any eccentricity.

That’s why, as soon as the lecture ended, he secretly received the stone in a deserted back alley and swallowed it without hesitation.

‘Ugh.’

It’s painful.

The act of swallowing something that shouldn’t be eaten.

The act of enduring the anxiety that your body might be harmed.

The act of suppressing the gag reflex and the body’s rejection.

It’s almost like an act of self-harm.

“How is it? Do you feel anything?”

“My stomach feels bloated…”

“That’s normal! Now we just need to test which ability increased by using your body.”

They measured the time it took to reach maximum speed in a full sprint, whether the maximum speed had increased, and how long it took for the consumed stamina to recover.

“Your agility increased!”

This time, the speed at which he reached maximum velocity increased.

It meant his acceleration had improved.

“Really?”

“Yes!”

“Just from eating a stone?”

“Uh-huh!”

“Haha. Whatever it is, it’s amazing.”

He didn’t understand.

But the records didn’t lie.

The time was clearly faster than what was measured before eating the stone.

“Do people normally get faster from eating stones?”

“No? This is a special stone!”

“Thank you. For using such a special stone for me.”

“You’re welcome!”

Feeling infinite gratitude, Oknodie called out “Hand!” and made him open his palm, then took out a candy from her pocket and placed it there.

“Since you did well, have a candy! This is Oknodie’s reward for good children!”

Strawberry flavor.

A taste that makes you smile involuntarily.

It seems similar to the sweet fragrance that emanates from Oknodie.

She probably smells like this because she always eats such sweet desserts.

It made him feel good.

Like he had learned one of Oknodie’s secrets.

“Tasty, right?”

“Yes.”

“I was actually saving it to share with Leaf when we meet again, but I’m giving it to you specially!”

“Thank… you?”

As he tried to express his gratitude, his vision blurred.

Suddenly, a strong dizziness came over him and his breath was cut short.

“──? ──?”

His head was spinning.

Oknodie’s voice seemed increasingly distant.

Something had gone seriously wrong.

Was it the stone?

Or the candy?

One of them was definitely problematic.

Perhaps eating the stone was a mistake after all.

He groaned, clutching his forehead, then collapsed with a thud.

Blink. Blink.

Through his closing eyes, the scenery rushed by.

The wind slashed at his cheeks.

Was Oknodie carrying him on her back?

She was so fast.

Incredibly fast.

He wanted to catch up to that speed.

With that thought, his consciousness abruptly cut off.

* *

“Are you awake?”

“Wh-where am I…?”

“The infirmary.”

As Morb tried to get up, the doctor gently pushed his head back down onto the bed with a magic wand.

“Respiratory distress, dizziness, muscle paralysis. You’ve ingested quite a strong neurotoxin. Any idea how that happened?”

Poison?

That couldn’t be.

What he ate wasn’t poison.

“There must be some mistake. I only swallowed a stone, so how could there be poison…”

“How would I know? Anyway, the child who brought you here paid the medical fees, so rest well tonight and leave tomorrow.”

“…That won’t do. I can’t keep up with the lectures that way. Can I leave sooner?”

“The detoxification itself is complete, so you could go back right away. I just gave you time to replenish your energy. But since you’re already here in the medical wing, you might as well rest? The beds in the medical wing have an effect that increases the recovery speed of those lying on them.”

The doctor said his piece and closed the curtain, telling him to rest as much as he wanted before leaving.

As he groaned and loosened his stiff body, a small piece of paper fell beside the blanket.

[The doctor said this much is okay and you won’t die! See you again in two days when you’re better! – OKNODIE]

So Oknodie had helped him after all.

As soon as his energy recovered, he left the hospital room.

It was quite late.

It was almost time to go to sleep if he returned to the dormitory.

He’d already had enough sleep.

His feet naturally headed toward the secret training ground.

“Your perseverance is admirable. I heard you were hospitalized.”

“I can’t waste an entire day.”

Zhang, whom he encountered again at the secret training ground.

An upper-class student like Oknodie and an assassin class, a pretty petite girl.

Unlike Oknodie who showed childlike innocence, Zhang, who seemed much closer to a dangerous killer, wore a chilling smile again today.

“If you collapse from mere training, shouldn’t you rest more?”

“It’s not like that. Oknodie helped me train, but my body was shocked and I collapsed.”

“Oknodie did?”

Seeing her interest, he told her about what happened in the evening, and Zhang burst into laughter.

“Ahahaha!”

“What? It’s not that funny.”

“I think it’s amazing that you actually ate it just because she told you to.”

“I had no choice. I was that desperate.”

When he retorted with an annoyed voice because she was teasing him so much, Zhang wiped away tears of laughter and spoke with a voice still not completely free of amusement.

“Do you know what kind of training you received?”

“Stone-eating training?”

“Wrong. Poison-eating training.”

Zhang said with a face that found it hilarious.

“The problem wasn’t the stone, but the candy.”

“There was poison in the candy?”

“Haven’t you figured it out yet? Oknodie was giving you assassin training. The only training method she knows, the one she learned herself.”

“…Oknodie regularly eats candy containing poison that knocked me out for half a day after just one piece?”

“Her organization is quite vicious. And it’s not just regular training, but she had to eat a poison candy every time she acted like a ‘good child.’ I’m thankful I learned under my master instead of Oknodie’s organization.”

Something ominous could be felt in her tone.

“…What do you mean?”

“You’re really slow, aren’t you?”

“Please. I’d really like to know. I’m slow to learn and don’t understand easily.”

Zhang, with her doll-like elegant face, frowned and poked Morb’s forehead.

“Don’t bow your head. Friends don’t do that to each other.”

“S-sorry.”

“When an assassin sees the back of someone’s head… hehe. It makes them want to do things you wouldn’t want to know about.”

He gulped nervously.

It suddenly hit him.

What an assassin really was.

What kind of world Oknodie and Zhang lived in.

He thought he understood, but what he knew was barely scratching the surface.

“I’ll tell you if you want… but can you promise not to regret it?”

“Of course. We’re friends, right? Both you and Oknodie.”

“You shouldn’t answer so lightly. If your attitude toward us changes after hearing this… smooth talk won’t help.”

Her colorless eyes stared as if probing his inner thoughts.

Those eyes somehow felt a bit frightening.

“You might throw away our entire relationship so far. Do you still want to hear it?”

In Zhang’s eyes, he felt a darkness so deep that he couldn’t claim to truly know the inner selves of the two.

When he nodded, he realized that the darkness revealed before him—Zhang’s darkness—was much lighter than Oknodie’s darkness that she was about to reveal.

“The poison candy was probably a punishment from the organization.”

“Punishment?”

“A punishment she had to swallow every time she wanted to be a good child.”

“What does that even…”

“You still don’t understand? Or are you pretending not to? Hehe. Morb… your cute reactions are nice, but there’s no use in running away. You asked for this.”

He didn’t want to hear it.

He didn’t want to understand it.

Step by step.

As Morb slowly backed away, Zhang followed.

Thud.

When he hit the wall and slumped down, Zhang leaned in and whispered in his ear.

“Do you understand? When she failed to torment an animal she was supposed to torment. Or failed to beat someone she was supposed to beat. Or failed to kill a target she was supposed to kill.”

“A punishment given to a ‘good child’ who refused training to eliminate resistance to violence and murder.”

A sharp scent mixed with the smell of blood, different from Oknodie’s sweetness, seeped into Morb’s nose.

“That’s the meaning of the poison candy that an assassination organization gives to good children.”