Chapter 34: Conviction

People’s gazes pierce me.

Gazes I never received while being bullied, assaulted, beaten, confined, burned, and torn apart.

It was a rather bothersome kind of suffering.

Even more so because the gazes expressed incredibly negative emotions.

Still, like any other pain, I quickly got used to it.

Incredibly quickly, since it wasn’t felt if I didn’t pay attention to it.

And not long after, I heard my name.

I stood up and walked towards the arena, as if familiar with the routine.

“This time, several daggers and one large axe.”

The person handing out weapons gave me several daggers with a hesitant look, then groaned and brought out a large axe.

I casually hid the daggers in my waistband and inside my clothes, then took a step forward, holding the heavy axe.

This opponent seems to be B-rank.

Because her clothes were quite fancy.

Though not as much as Seo-jun’s.

The girl was holding a bow.

I figured it wouldn’t be a problem even if I got hit by a few arrows, but as the arrow left the bowstring, it flew towards me at a speed invisible to the naked eye.

Incredibly fast, without making a sound.

Several arrows simultaneously pierced through or embedded themselves in my body.

The one that pierced through and got stuck in my thigh was particularly painful.

At some point, the arrows started hindering my movement.

Looking back, my shoulders, elbows, and knees were studded with numerous arrows, as if I had become a porcupine.

As I groaned and tried to pull out the embedded arrows, the girl, who had somehow approached me, kicked me in the solar plexus.

“You deliberately killed a classmate, they say.”

“That’s what the teacher said.”

“They said the reason they put me against an F-rank on purpose was because of that.”

“It wasn’t on purpose.”

“It was closer to a mistake made in a fit of anger…”

Continuing to speak, I swung a dagger hidden inside my clothes.

But the girl easily stepped back and dodged, then took an arrow from the quiver on her back and stabbed it into my shoulder.

“I already heard.”

“That you don’t feel much pain, and that your injuries heal quickly.”

“So, did I do something wrong?”

I said it while pulling out the arrows embedded in my body.

Bits of flesh came off with the cross-shaped arrowheads.

Incredibly dark blood flowed from the wounds.

The girl just frowned and scoffed.

“You could have let him live.”

“Or do you guys, F-ranks, feel like this is the only time you can kill us?”

“Well, I don’t think it has anything to do with that.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Just say you forfeit.”

“I’m not a despicable person who kills someone who can’t even resist like you.”

‘The standard for being unable to fight is quite vague; it’s incredibly ambiguous how far you have to go before someone is considered unable to fight.’

‘The opponent being knocked out of the arena is one thing, but how can you tell if they’re pretending to be unconscious or actually unconscious?’

‘Therefore, most matches end in forfeits.’

‘Well, most kids are weak and can’t do anything if they get stabbed in the stomach or shoulder, or even hit by an arrow.’

I continued to pull out the arrows embedded in my body.

Even flinching at the feeling of the arrowheads occasionally hitting bone, not just flesh, I kept pulling them out.

I cried from the pain.

While sobbing, I diligently removed the arrows.

Just as I felt I had pulled out almost all of them, leaving only three or four, the girl sighed, kicked me in the solar plexus, picked up the arrowheads covered in flesh from the ground, and stabbed them back into my joints.

“…You know it’s pointless, don’t you?”

“Stop this crazy act and drop your weapon.”

The blood flowing from my body had soaked the ground so much that even I felt dizzy.

I speak to the girl kicking me in the puddle of squelching blood, re-embedding the pulled-out arrows, with a face that looks like she wants to cry.

“If you hate fighting me this much, wouldn’t it be better if you just stopped?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Forfeit.”

“Just think of it as sparing a pitiful, useless idiot.”

I hoped she would nod.

But the girl shook her head, and simultaneously, the blood that had seeped into the ground turned sharp, pulled the girl in, then started tearing into the fallen child.

Inaudibly, invisibly.

Like the boy I killed with my axe had shown, I made small ruptures in the blood spread widely on the ground, scattering it.

As if setting off a smoke grenade.

But I could see everything clearly.

Perhaps it’s because they’re practically a part of my body.

Screams coming from within the hazy blood mist. Turning my head, I saw the examiners, clipboards in hand, standing up in shock.

Like bread soaked in milk instantly becomes soggy, the girl’s form turned red.

At some point, the holes in my elbows and knees were almost completely closed.

I picked up the bow and quiver lying on the ground, and the arrows that were embedded in my body, then nocked an arrow.

Then I aimed it at the girl lying on the ground.

It seemed like only about ten steps away, but far from hitting her, it just flew far off behind her.

Weakly, fluttering before falling limply.

Though it seemed the girl herself, perhaps terrified by the arrow flying from somewhere she couldn’t see, was staining her already blood-soaked uniform with something even more foul-smelling.

“How did you even hit me with this in the first place?”

No answer came to my question.

The living lump of blood had its mouth tightly shut.

I slung the bow over my shoulder and tossed the hindering arrows somewhere.

She was twisting and turning, trying to move, but it seemed difficult due to the numerous wounds on her body.

So, just like the girl had done to me, I approached her, stomped on her solar plexus, rummaged through her body, pulled out a dagger, and stabbed it into her shoulder.

This time, I didn’t look up at the examiners.

There’s no need to ask for their permission.

They’re the humans who already abandoned a child, innocent and blameless, to die so miserably.

Grabbing the hair of the girl bleeding profusely, whose eyes were starting to glaze over, I tossed her into an area without a blood puddle.

I believe the great hero, who doesn’t even answer F-ranks, will survive even with an arrow embedded in her forehead.

Even someone like me survived, so surely a much greater person wouldn’t die.

Taking a step forward, I nocked the arrow, slightly stained with my flesh, that was lying on the ground.

Then I shot it towards the girl whose eyes were incredibly wide.

With a small whooshing sound, the arrow flew forward.

Incredibly, the arrow flew off course again, accompanied by the sound of something deflecting it.

This time, perhaps because it was deflected by a clipboard, a man in a suit, holding a broken clipboard, was blocking my way.

“I don’t know what trick you used this time, but do you think it’s right to kill an opponent who has already lost the will and ability to fight like this?”

At those words, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Si-hyun unni, no, wait.”

“Then why did you just stand there when I was crushing that child with an axe?”

‘Si-hyun unni was hunted down.’

‘Without saying she surrendered, bleeding profusely, covered in wounds, yet still taking steps forward without giving up.’

‘So this is what they teach here, isn’t it?’

The man’s face looked thoughtful for a moment, then he continued.

“Because I didn’t know you would kill her.”

“At least kids your age, even if they torment an already subdued opponent, don’t usually kill them so cruelly.”

The man blocking my way, perhaps a teacher, said it while grinding his teeth.

It was utterly disgusting.

No matter how badly I treated that girl, the blood puddled on the ground is my blood.

‘I could have died too, you know.’

‘You don’t know I’m a test subject, do you?’

‘So why are you only targeting me?’

“I thought you’d just play around a bit and toss her to a healer.”

“I’ve seen more than enough kids like you, acting violently, especially those who crawled in from the slums.”

Crawled in from the slums?

“That’s why I looked up to you, sitting high and mighty.”

“Even asking for permission, if it was okay to do this.”

Or is it because I was always grinning foolishly?

I throw the bow and arrow in my hand onto the ground.

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

“You just didn’t think she was worth saving because she’s C-rank.”

“It’s just, you know, something you can throw away in a black plastic bag like food waste.”

I didn’t need it in the first place.

I just tried it out, wondering if it would move this time too.

Though the result probably wouldn’t have been any different.

“And besides.”

“You don’t need to stand in front of me anymore.”

“Just throw the trash in the food waste bag.”

“That’s what people like you do.”

From the nose of the girl whose name I don’t know, blood, along with everything inside her head, started pouring out as if from a broken faucet.

I just chuckled while watching.

Thinking it would be nice if the person in front of me just charged at me.

But if that girl doesn’t die, that C-rank boy would surely feel incredibly wronged.

However, I can’t see a black plastic bag in the arena.

Therefore, the already dead girl wouldn’t be put in one.

Much to the regret of that boy who probably became food for the lab rats.

It seems from B-rank onwards, they’re considered human.

‘I should probably become a human too.’

‘Then surely, even those people who don’t care what I say, who ignore my words like I’m a dog, will listen a little.’

‘Then whatever I do will be a human’s doing, not the insane act of an incomprehensible villain.’