Chapter 2: Is the New Kid a Problem Student?

Why is it that in human social culture, ravens are always a presence associated with death and misfortune?

“Of course it’s because the ravens accompanying Grim Reapers are all played by the Spirit Ravens of our Netherworld, and they look very much like the crows of the mortal world…”

This was a question to which even children in the Netherworld knew the answer.

Pull any kid off the street at random, and you could hear this answer from their childish voices.

Deftly going through the procedure, registering the forms and stamping them, with the raven professional booklet printed with her identity information held in her beak, the little sparrow who had just been heartlessly abandoned by her partner rushed nonstop to her next destination.

According to the regulations, ravens who were not selected in the final phase would re-enter the candidate pool after registration, waiting for the arrival of the next batch of apprentice Grim Reapers awaiting assessment.

However, as soon as she hopped her way to the location, the little sparrow felt the somewhat piercing, strange looks from the surrounding area—some from humans, and some from those Spirit Ravens.

The reason for these looks was, of course, something the little sparrow knew all too well, and there was only one reason—she was not a Spirit Raven at all, but a species of Netherworld bird known as a Bone Sparrow.

Just as in the mortal world where people liked to use pigs, dogs, and the like as insulting words.

In the Netherworld, the Bone Sparrow was the creature that occupied this exact position.

Foolish, weak, hideous, lowly… almost every derogatory term you could think of could be applied to the Bone Sparrow.

Is your brain a Bone Sparrow brain?

You look like a match for a Bone Sparrow!

I bet you couldn’t even beat a Bone Sparrow in a fight…

Such insulting phrases were quite popular in the Netherworld, but there was nothing to be done about it, because Bone Sparrows truly were such humble creatures.

Speaking of weakness, a Bone Sparrow could even be preyed upon by palm-sized insects, putting it squarely at the bottom of the Netherworld food chain.

Regarding appearance, Bone Sparrows were also extremely terrifying; they looked like a sparrow’s skeleton with a bit of melted scrap meat sticking to it, like a zombie bird that could scare children to tears.

Talking about intelligence, if you set a trap right in front of a Bone Sparrow, you could hear the sound of it walking right into it the moment you turned around…

Compared to the Spirit Ravens, known as the smartest birds in the Netherworld, the Bone Sparrow was at the complete opposite extreme.

Therefore, the appearance of such a creature competing with them for the position of a raven was, in itself, an insult.

[Though speaking of Bone Sparrows being stupid, I’m pretty much the same. Stubbornly staying here instead of leaving isn’t exactly smart behavior either.]

After roasting herself, the little sparrow finished registering her file and completing the process.

Under the disgusted and loathing gazes of a group of Spirit Ravens, she squeezed into the waiting queue.

[When will the new batch of kids arrive? They should be here in a bit, right? The Grim Reaper official transition and the internship assessment preparation should happen right after one another.]

Subconsciously ignoring the fact that the surrounding Spirit Ravens were creating some distance away from her, the little sparrow looked around, attempting to find the location where those new apprentice Grim Reapers would enter later.

[I wonder if there will be any kids among this new batch who can bring some entertainment?]

Unfortunately, compared to the Spirit Ravens, the Bone Sparrow’s size was several rounds smaller.

This meant that even if the little sparrow bounced up on the spot, her field of vision would still be blocked by the surrounding Spirit Ravens.

[Ah, if that’s the case, those kids won’t be able to see me when they come in, right? Then it won’t be easy to get picked.]

It sounded like a statement completely lacking self-awareness—what normal person would ever choose a Bone Sparrow upon seeing one, right?

However, for the little sparrow to have such confidence, she naturally had her reasons.

Don’t blindly hate, okay? Although she was a lowly little Bone Sparrow, her fame in the Grim Reaper Academy was actually huge.

It wasn’t just because she stood out among the Spirit Ravens like a chicken among cranes…

Most importantly, in her decades of service, although the little sparrow had never successfully transitioned to an official partner, she held an unrivaled record—a staggering one-hundred-percent pass rate in the apprentice Grim Reaper transition assessment.

If translated to the mortal world, it would be equivalent to having a counselor or mentor in university who could guarantee you a one-hundred-percent pass rate for your thesis, defense, and even various exams.

Apprentice Grim Reapers came strictly for the purpose of passing the assessment to become official.

At school, they had probably been nagged by their teachers countlessly… if you can pick that Bone Sparrow during the assessment, you must choose it!

However, even if they passed, she would ultimately be kicked away in the end.

The little sparrow at least had this level of self-awareness.

When it came down to it, she was just a player with super rich experience in the beginner tutorial stage… no one would trust what her level would be once they officially entered the real game.

As she was thinking, a noisy commotion suddenly came from not far away, and the surrounding flock of crows also began to stir.

Her rich experience immediately told the little sparrow that the new batch of kids was coming.

The queue in the hall split into two lines—one for humans and one for birds.

The neatly arranged ranks of apprentice ravens all flew over to stand straight on the pre-arranged perches.

The ravens displayed their best postures.

While being sized up by the Grim Reaper trainees who were also lined up neatly, they were also sizing up these newly arrived kids.

Because the relationship between a Grim Reaper and a raven was one of partnership rather than subordination, given the uniqueness of this bond, the selection process was not a one-way street.

The Grim Reaper selected a raven suitable for themselves, and the raven similarly had to select a Grim Reaper suitable for them.

A two-way choice allowed them to better adapt to each other, rather than forcefully cobbling together a pair.

However, considering the possibility that either side might misjudge, an extra opportunity was added after the transition assessment.

This period could be considered the so-called adjustment phase, perhaps?

Of course, these were not things for the little sparrow to worry about, because there were already quite a few Grim Reaper trainees in front of her looking for her with eager eyes and extending olive branches.

Facing this group of newly graduated Grim Reaper trainees, the little sparrow’s face remained entirely unbothered.

Her heterochromatic eyes—one black and one blue—blinked a few times, suppressing deep in her heart the disgust toward the hypocrisy hidden behind their gazes.

At the very beginning, she indeed felt happy that so many people were inviting her.

But now she knew very well that, barring any surprises, she was still just a tool sparrow destined to be abandoned by this group of kids after they passed the assessment.

This kind of thing had happened countless times; every single class was like this.

Otherwise, how could she still be hopping back and forth in this candidate hall without ever leaving?

“There really is such a Bone Sparrow? Woah… that’s something. Can that small head of yours handle all that complex knowledge?”

Unlike the group of kids trying to flatter her, a frivolous voice that suddenly rang out caught the little sparrow’s attention.

Having seen countless people, she quickly noticed that the other party was different from the rest.

“I actually wanted to pick you to try it out, but seeing how popular you are doesn’t really match the rumors of you being repulsive, does it? Has the aesthetic of this graduating class warped? Leaving the good-looking Spirit Ravens unchosen to go for a terrifying thing like a Bone Sparrow instead?”

Driven purely by curiosity and interest in novel things, the short young boy in front of her spoke with an offensive tone and words.

However, his purpose in finding her was clearly different from the others.

“Ah? No way, he can graduate?”

“Does he not know the inside story about this Bone Sparrow? Didn’t his mentor tell him?”

“Is there a mistake? Did he cheat on the graduation exam?”

The surrounding trainees’ evaluations of the boy instantly sparked the little sparrow’s interest as well… this kid has a story behind him, huh?

Could he be a problem student? Doesn’t that make things fun?

For her one-hundred-percent assessment pass rate, hmph, having a challenge wasn’t bad at all!

And so, amid the surprised or disappointed expressions of the crowd, the primary favorite (fake) among this class’s candidate ravens—the little sparrow—lightly fluttered her wings.

She leaped from the perch directly onto the shoulder of this suspected problem student.

I choose you, new kid! I’m looking forward to what kind of fun you can bring me~

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