Chapter Chapter 14: RATH 14 TL: Eevee (1/2)
RATH 14
TL: Eevee
2. What is this. Scary. (7)
The Twelve Labours.
Heracles got 12 labours, didn’t he? With that in mind I constructed a training cave with twelve rooms. If you had to ask why a cave it’s because it felt like they would have done this in a wuxia novel! Was the kind of feeling I had in mind when I made this training area.
Of course, the contents aren’t crudely made either.
I made this carefully with my experiences from both my past and present lives.
Starting from the first room of arrows, the first five rooms were designed to recreate situations that one could encounter on the battlefield, and the next five rooms are made to trial the occupants by numbing the senses.
I tested it myself, and the ninth room where all five senses are nullified should be particularly difficult.
Since you can’t feel anything in a room where you can’t see anything, it feels like you’ve died and become a ghost.
Since I made it so that even I, who can’t even be affected by curse magic, let alone regular illusions can be affected by it, so it’s not the sort of thing that you can push through with magic power alone.
Because knowing that the kids would block it with magic, I used all sorts of paralysis and hallucinating poisons without holding back!
Of course since every level is hard mode the kids’ll get tired as well.
And their motivation’ll drop too.
And because of that, to show them the face of a well-respected instructor, the eleventh room is a room of rest in preparation for the twelfth.
Why? Because the twelfth room is seriously dangerous.
To be honest, I didn’t make that room.
The twelfth room is the handiwork of my previous cohorts of graduates. My initial heartwarming intentions of ‘take care of your future juniors!’ that I initiated from my very first cohort was twisted by my damn disciples, becoming a room with feelings of ‘why don’t you try getting f***ed over!’ and other assorted malice.
Because of this, even when they swear and curse as they fall to it, the vicious cycle never stops.
Well, that was the second generation. After the third generation, that is now, they cleared away all of the routes they used to clear it, installing new traps and other modifications.
Especially the previous cohort, two of them actually came back to add a summoning circle with their first paycheck.
These lunatics.
Among the trainees, no, even if you include the training regimes of the soldiers or the knights, let alone the organization, the Empire, no, the entire continent, the only place you can face off against a devil is here!
And because of that I’d planned to start this sometime mid-next year at the earliest…
But since No.1000 wants to get stronger, I opened it for her specially so she could.
Well, it’s not like I did it just because I was lazy.
…Really!
Ah, that reminds me. Once tomorrow comes I should get the other two in here as well.
Good things are meant to be shared, right?
Their peer is suffering, I can’t just leave the other two alone.
Hm… Good. It’s actually really good?
At the very least it’ll take a year minimum for them to clear it, and I won’t have the risk of having all my secrets cleared out until then.
This is perfect?!
Even the previous cohort which was said to be the strongest in the organization’s history took nearly a year to beat it, and their numbers were more than double the current cohort but it still took them that long.
There’s no way they can overcome the trials that I made with just three people!
Uwahahahahaha! I am the guardian of my own stock! Come, brats! I shall show you the hell that is royalty fees!
…There was a time where I was happy like that too. Damn it!
#11 Their story: The secret future hero’s vitality.
The day after I screamed in pain a new trial awaited us.
“This place?”
I was beat up that much, I was suffering that much but my body was perfectly fine.
No, beyond fine, when I woke up I actually felt refreshed.
Because of that I couldn’t even skip out on training and had to come with everyone else.
And the new training ground we arrived at was an old shed I didn’t know even existed, and beyond the suspicious-looking old door was a cave which screamed bad tidings no matter how you looked at it.
“That reminds me, you said you came here on your own yesterday.”
When No.17 asked No.1000 that No.1000 nodded her small head affirmatively.
“What kind of place is it?”
No.1000’s head tilted a bit. Then she seemed to struggle with her thoughts for a bit before she smiled brightly and said.
“No.1, try opening the door.”
“Eh? The door?”
As No.1000 nodded I sighed and followed No.1000’s instructions and pushed op…
Fik!
“Kuk!”
What the hell! A surprise attack from the very beginning!
No, before that!
“Oi, No.1000. You knew about this, didn’t you?!”
“Yep. It’s this kind of place.”
What the hell are you saying with a smugly proud look! One of your peers nearly got killed by an arrow! After listening to you, too!
“Hey, wait, that’s uncalled for! Why the hell did you make me open it? No.17 asked was the one that asked, did I ask you anything?”
“…Because you’re a man?”
Damn it! Because I’m a man she says!
What kind of age is this! It’s an age where one of strongest existences of the sword, the Sword Star is a woman!
Ah, but I can’t really say anything back.
Going and outright making a woman lead from the front is something my pride as a duke’s son and a man won’t let me swallow…
“Kuk… alright. I’ll lead. But still, even if it’s this place, there’s going to be plenty of dangerous sections and whatnot.”
Pride didn’t feed me, rather it had taken away many of my meals, but I still had my pride. I needed to abandon it as quickly as possible, but it’s not working out very well.
“Yep. Once you take a step forward after opening the door.”
Hm? One step. Meaning the one step I’m taking now?
“Silent arrows are fired from underneath.”
Tak.
“This crazy?!”
The moment my foot hit the ground I immediately fell backwards and dodged the arrows.
I was seriously about to die from that!
“Why the hell is there no sound when arrows are being fired?! And you should speak up faster! I nearly died back theaaeree?!”
I immediately ducked my head to dodge No.1000’s sword flying towards my face. This crazy bitch!
Are you just outright gunning to kill me now! What did I do wrong! Damn it was it food? Are you eliminating the competition now!
Tang! Tang! Tang!
But after I heard something colliding against her sword, something dropped onto my head.
Hm. This. Is an arrow. If I’d stayed like that I’d have a hole in my head.