NOVEL WEB Chapter 1
I woke up to a softly whispering voice.
“Ririan…”
“Why?”
“I need to go to the bathroom!”
Seeing the urgency in her voice, I quickly got out of bed.
I lifted the girl lying on the bed and headed towards the bathroom located at the end of the corridor.
Since there was a slight height difference between me and the girl, it created a somewhat comical scene.
“Can’t I go?”
“No, you can’t.”
The girl hurriedly closed the door with a somewhat anxious expression.
My name is Ririan.
In the past, or rather in my previous life, I was called Park Tae-min.
What I vaguely remember is the occurrence of gates and the birth of abilities.
And the emergence of monsters.
At that time, I was an old man over 100 years old.
Even when the world was on the brink of destruction, I had no regrets or fears.
Since I had little time left to live, leaving a bit earlier felt trivial.
Ultimately, I died at the age of 110.
Thanks to the advancement of modern medicine and the abilities.
They experimented with various drugs and abilities on my body, which seemed likely to die soon.
Thanks to that, I enjoyed about 10 more years and comfortably ended my life.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the girl’s room.
My appearance was that of a lizard just cracking out of its egg.
The girl introduced herself as Jema while looking at me, who still couldn’t speak.
The room was just a bed and a desk.
It resembled a slightly larger study room.
Currently, I live in a bigger room, but I am still not satisfied at all.
A sound that jolted my consciousness out of my thoughts.
Whoosh~
I heard the sound of water going down, and Jema peeked her head out through the gap in the door.
“Did you hear that?”
“No, not at all.”
Jema hugged my left arm tightly, clinging to me.
Recently, she had become quite clingy.
In the past, I was the one who relied more on her, but now the situation had changed.
Currently, we live in a dormitory of an academy operated by the Kingdom of Tholis.
The Kingdom of Tholis is a minor nation surrounded by powerful countries on all sides.
Beyond it, there are two empires larger than the great nations.
This place, called the Xaihum Continent, was very similar to the world I used to live in.
The reason is that gates had opened in the Xaihum Continent as well.
The gates are connected to the world I lived in.
Currently, both worlds are exchanging through the gates.
It has already been 300 years since the exchange began.
Thus, even if I were to return to my original world, no one would know me.
When I heard that, I swallowed my bitter feelings with effort.
At that time, Jema fully understood my emotions.
She said she had lived in this country without knowing who her parents were.
The two of us have relied on each other to survive until now.
One day, Jema returned from the academy seriously injured.
The reason I, who was a lizard, took on human form.
There was bullying inside the academy.
We look somewhat similar to humans but appear a bit different.
Jema has a pair of small horns on each side of her head.
On her back, she has a pair of wings similar to a bat’s.
Around her waist, there’s a long, thin tail, the end of which resembles the spade of a poker card.
My horns are slightly larger than Jema’s, my wings are covered in scales, and my tail is large and thick like a lizard’s.
The Kingdom of Tholis is fundamentally a nation for humans, by humans, and of humans.
Although there are numerous other races living in the Xaihum Continent, it was common to see places that exclude them.
To avoid the disdain and persecution of humans, large and small kingdoms have emerged.
The more this happens, the more humans start to gather together.
Some extreme nations formed alliances.
The Kingdom of Tholis is one of those and is the weakest nation.
The way this weak nation survives is through the academy.
Every year, they accept talented and excellent students for education at the academy.
The students produced in this way are dispatched as mercenaries to other countries.
The mercenaries apparently earn quite a bit of money with their exceptional skills.
If one enrolls in the academy, they can receive various supports.
However, I am not a formal student here, and Jema is hardly treated as one either.
It’s not just discrimination against students.
What Jema faces is undoubtedly collective bullying.
Students and teachers alike are complicit in it.
I desperately want to escape from this place.
“Is there no way to remove that?”
“If you touch it wrong, it’ll destroy your heart.”
Modern science and magic have combined to create these shackles.
They attach to the wearer’s body and flow through the blood vessels, binding the heart.
To remove them, a special key is needed.
If you forcibly tear it off, the mechanism will blow up the heart.
Ultimately, it’s a contraption that cannot be removed without tearing out the heart.
Because of this binding, I couldn’t just quit and leave.
I thought of trying to steal the key, but the one who put this on me is not at the academy.
When I asked where he went, the answer I got was absurd.
He had left to investigate the gate as a mercenary.
Exploration inside the gate has been insufficient, aside from the entrance and exit.
Apparently, there exists its own world within.
To free Jema from her binding, I needed to find that guy first.
Even if he wasn’t around, there must be techniques beyond the gate to release this.
Jema, who crawled into the bed, slightly lifted the blanket, looking at me.
“Come in quickly~”
“We’re about to be late for school.”
“Sigh. I don’t want to go.”
Letting out a deep sigh, Jema slowly got out of bed and changed her clothes.
She truly looked like she didn’t want to go.
Since Jema got hurt in her eyes, I had also been attending the academy with her.
Once Jema finished getting ready, she snuggled up next to me.
It takes about 5 minutes to walk from the dormitory to the main building of the academy.
I could already see many students going to school.
It was a cheerful atmosphere on the way to school.
As soon as Jema and I appeared, the surrounding atmosphere chilled drastically.
At first, I couldn’t adapt to this atmosphere at all and yelled at those around me.
Among the numerous students, a few kids approached us.
“Hey! You little brat and son of a bitch~”
“Shut up, Juan.”
With long, slit eyes, snowy white skin, and short blond hair.
He adorned himself with various jewels all over his body.
His appearance clearly resembled that of a delinquent.
He was one of the people to be most cautious of in the academy.
He was the one responsible for blinding Jema.
However, in this situation, evidence was solely Jema’s testimony.
No one believed that he had increased the severity of the bullying.
“Why do you keep popping up and bothering us?”
“You seem to dislike us. Should I poke holes in your eyes?”
As I answered with my claws raised, Juan’s expression stiffened slightly.
“Tch.”
Jema didn’t resist, so she was severely bullied.
In contrast, I showed my claws and teeth, ready to attack at any moment.
We had yet to confront him.
“Ririan, you’re really going to get in trouble.”
“So what? No one cares about us anyway.”
I wasn’t attending the academy by choice.
That meant I wouldn’t be chased out no matter what I did.
However, the situation is different on their end.
If they cause trouble and are kicked out of the academy, they would bear tremendous disgrace in this country.
When I was in the body of an old man, I felt my strength declining every day.
Now, my condition improved day by day.
I may still be shorter than Jema, but I will grow someday.
Jema and I settled into the classroom comfortably.
“What shall we do today?”
“I don’t know? Physical training?”
This classroom was provided only for Jema and me; there were no other students.
They separated classes for humans and other races.
There wasn’t even a teacher in charge, so every day was self-study.
The place where Jema was bullied was also this classroom.
At that time, I wasn’t present, so the delinquents came and caused havoc.
Now that I was here, they didn’t come to the classroom.
In one corner of the classroom, there was a shelf filled with textbooks.
For a while now, I had been conducting my own lessons by reading textbooks to Jema.
I would read, and Jema would listen, explaining the knowledge I knew.
Our unique teaching method.
It has been very helpful in acquiring knowledge of this world.
Since there was no teacher in charge, we set our class times as we pleased.
Sometimes we would go outside to kill time.
Today, we headed to the training ground for physical training and swordsmanship practice.
The training ground was located in the basement of the academy.
The walls were decorated with various armors and weapons.
Scarecrows were set up here and there.
“Today, let’s practice hitting scarecrows.”
Jema was the swordsmanship instructor.
At first, I wondered how she could teach without being able to see.
However, I decided to believe her when I saw Jema cut a scarecrow with a wooden sword.
“By the way, where did you learn swordsmanship?”
“Books.”
“There are no books about swordsmanship in our classroom, are there?”
“The swordsmanship taught at the academy is the swordsmanship of this country.”
Jema took out a small-sized book from her bag.
“This is the swordsmanship of the Latnia Empire.”
Latnia Empire.
A nation founded by a figure known as the Sword King, with a history spanning over 2000 years.
“Where did you get that?”
“Someone gave it to me in the back alleys.”
Jema had already mastered up to the fifth chapter of that book.
I was still on the second chapter.
The highlight of imperial swordsmanship was the flashy sword techniques that shone brightly.
“Probably, we won’t be able to master it completely.”
“Why not?”
“Because it requires some kind of faith, and you need to be able to use divine power, too.”
Divine Power.
An unknown force that resembles mana but has entirely different properties.
Another reason Jema said she couldn’t use it.
Because of our race.
I’m not exactly sure, but Jema is from the demon race.
The demon race is fundamentally known not to be able to handle divine power.
“Still, it’s good swordsmanship. After all, it’s from an empire.”
“Then, should we practice the third chapter today?”
“Tell Ririan about the third chapter.”
“Why?”
“Slash and stab a thousand times each. You didn’t do ten repetitions, did you?”
The basics of imperial swordsmanship required incredible stamina.
Ordinary humans would give up while mastering the second chapter.
“Alright, then let’s start~”
“What about you?”
“I’ll be monitoring whether Ririan is doing it properly.”
How she plans to monitor without being able to see is beyond me.
Whoosh! Thud!
Under Jema’s watch, I began to strike the scarecrow.
“Swing it harder, put more strength into it.”
“How would you know when you can’t see?”
“The sound is different, the sound.”
Determined to show off, Jema grabbed the wooden sword and approached the scarecrow.
Swish! Thud!
A dull sound momentarily echoed through the training hall.
“See? If you hit it properly, it makes a sound like this.”
Since I had to swing it a thousand times, I was controlling my stamina and strength accordingly.
“Each swing should be with all your strength. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
If I were to swing with all my might every time, I’d probably tire out quickly.
After Jema’s instruction, I struck the scarecrow with full force for about two hours.
Finally, I learned how to produce a clear sound without exerting all my strength.
“Hmm. How many have I done?”
“About six hundred times?”
After striking for a while, my palms were already reddened, and my arms felt a bit numb.
“We’re almost there. Let’s finish the thousand today.”
About two more hours later, I completed a thousand slashes and stabs.
To finish quickly, I increased my speed significantly in the latter half.
When the training was over, I collapsed on the ground to recover my exhausted energy.
“How much more do we need to do?”
“Today is the end of the week, so if we do it three more times, the third chapter will be complete.”
The road to mastering swordsmanship looks long and arduous.