Chapter 20 : Psychedelic Moon

Chapter 20: Psychedelic Moon

Although the trainees still seemed to have plenty of complaints about me, the Exchange Tournament ended safely, anyway.

Now, all that remained was the graduation banquet to be held at the Grand Banquet Hall of the Lord’s Keep.

As the golden sunset faded gently, the chandeliers of the Grand Banquet Hall sparkled like the ambitions of the young trainees.

“Sir Ransen! Sir Ransen! You were seriously so cool earlier!”

The banquet hall overflowed with chilled drinks and greasy food. Everyone was clinking their glasses and having noisy fun, but I was alone, frowning.

‘If something were to happen… it would be now.’

With nearly 2,000 outsiders having entered the mansion within the Lord’s Keep, this was the perfect setup.

If someone had a scheme, of course, it would be today.

That was why I couldn’t even enjoy the banquet and had my nerves on edge...

“Because of my special constitution, I became the disciple of His Highness the Grand Duke. Why shouldn’t I use that power?! Kkhh.... I seriously almost cried. Thank you. Thank you so, so much, Sir Ransen.”

Some green-haired kid kept buzzing around beside me.

“You… Milo, was it?”

“Yes! Sir Ransen! My name is Milo Hiasen! Wow! You actually spoke to me! It’s an honor!”

I only talked to him to brush him off, but instead, the green-haired Milo clung to me even more.

I endured and endured, but in the end, I glared down at him and growled.

“You. Why the hell are you sticking to me like this? Hm?”

Had I been playing with kids so often that I started leaking some pheromone that attracted them? Milo, the youngest trainee at just 18, hadn’t left my side even for a single moment since stepping into the banquet hall.

“Well...”

Milo hesitated to answer.

Not that I intended to hear an answer in the first place.

I’d openly signaled him to stop bothering me, yet he still tried to reply.

“Forget it...”

“It’s just that! I’m also of a special constitution! That’s why I want to be like you, Sir Ransen!”

Huh?

Special constitution?

“You also manipulate mana directly?”

“N-no. Not like that.”

“Then what is it?”

“Well...”

Milo seemed to hesitate for a moment, then bit his small lips as if making up his mind, and took off the winter hat he always wore.

Through the bright green hair, ears far too long and pointed to belong to a human were revealed.

“I.... I’m actually a half-elf.”

“Half... elf?”

What, elves really existed in this world?

Weren’t they supposed to be just another name for fairies in the founding myths?

Some dismissed them as baseless legends, while others insisted that occasionally discovered human-like fossils were proof of elves...

But a living half-elf...

Though not pure-blood, he was still half an elf, wasn’t he?

They really existed! A race like this!

And he could even speak human language fluently!

After revealing his identity, Milo fidgeted with his fingers and said.

“Humans.... Ah, well, I’m human too.... Anyway, normal people usually only communicate with the Sword Spirit, right? Since it’s easier for humans to connect with man-made objects. But me... I find it easier to communicate with the spirits of nature. So instead, it was actually hard for me to communicate with the soul dwelling in artificial things like the Sword Spirit.”

Spirits?

Weren’t those supposed to exist only in fairy tales?

This era really seemed to have everything.

“That’s why I understand! Everyone insults Sir Ransen, saying they don’t even know where you come from, but I totally, totally get why you hide your past! I would’ve done the same.”

Milo’s eyes were trembling as he said that.

“Isn’t it true...? If you’re even just a little different from others... all sorts of bad people start circling around. Especially magicians.... When I was a kid, I was kidnapped by a wicked magician and subjected to all kinds of horrible experiments...”

Damn.... So he’d been through a lot.

“Even when I barely escaped and returned to my family, my father dismissed me as a bastard.... It’s better to just forget a past like that. That’s why I cut everything off and live my life. Even the surname Hiasen isn’t my father’s. It’s my mother’s, who was an elf.”

Ah, now I understood.

The fondness this kid had for me came from a sense of kinship.

But it pricked at my chest.

No... that wasn’t right...

I wasn’t even of a special constitution.

And yet, since he revealed himself so openly and followed me, I couldn’t bring myself to drive him away harshly.

There was something oddly... similar in him to the orphans the kids used to bring home.

Like Seklan or Seon.

Their faces kept flickering across my mind, and before I knew it, I was listening attentively to the boy’s words.

“Those with special constitutions usually find it harder to master the sword. Since they already have easier, faster ways to grow stronger.... That’s why, I want to be like you, Sir Ransen! To handle the Sword Spirit through bone-cutting effort! And not deny the power I was born with! I want to wield both the Sword Spirit and the spirits, just like you, Sir Ransen!”

“Uh.... Is that so.”

Fine. I gave up.

I gave up trying to push him away.

Half-heartedly listening to his words, I let my gaze wander around the banquet hall.

The hall’s ceiling had a massive Roof Window.

As even the sunset faded and the sky gradually darkened, it reflected on the window above, raising the atmosphere of the Grand Banquet Hall even higher.

‘Not yet...? Today... something is supposed to happen, right?’

Something had to happen today for me to grab hold of a clue that would let me return home...

I steadied my growing anxiety and kept my guard up.

“But... it’s embarrassing, but... it actually wasn’t entirely my own power. Ah! It’s not that I committed any wrongdoing.... It’s just that, well, that thing called ‘surgery’ was trending back then.”

As time passed and the atmosphere of the Grand Banquet Hall shifted again and again, that half-elf Milo Hiasen remained the same. He kept sticking right next to me, never stopping his chatter.

“If you undergo surgery and take the medicine regularly... communication with the Sword Spirit becomes unbelievably easier. These days, pretty much everyone does it. Ah, Sir Ransen hasn’t had surgery, right? And yet you’re this strong...”

What... was there some doping trend going on or something?

Milo, perhaps getting tipsy, let his words grow deeper and deeper.

But that wasn’t any of my business.

Whether trainee knights from 10,000 years ago were doping or having drug parties, it had nothing to do with me.

“Over there. He’s had surgery. And him too. Nowadays, all the ones on the rise are those who’ve had it.”

The ones Milo pointed out were exactly those Iodin had told me to keep an eye on. Those rookies who were recently making a name for themselves?

I’d been told to watch them closely and recommend anyone I found promising to the Horizon Knights.

Not that I had any such intention—their eyes alone irritated me...

Ah, maybe I should just recommend Milo once?

Sip.

But seriously, was nothing going to happen tonight?

If so, then how was I supposed to find a way back home?

Daaang–

Just then, the bell rang.

“Hm?”

Why now, when it wasn’t even the time for thanksgiving prayers?

I flinched and lifted my head, and Milo cried out with a flushed face.

“Ah! It must be starting!”

“Starting? What is?”

“The Psychedelic Moon! Today’s the night it rises—the once-a-month Psychedelic Moon.”

Psychedelic Moon? What the hell was that?

“Look! Over there!”

Milo pointed at the Roof Window. Beyond the glass, in the dark sky... a moon I had never seen in my entire life was rising.

My body froze solid.

‘What is that...?’

It was truly a sight I had never seen before.

‘The moon... is triangular?’

The only moon I knew was just one.

The Broken Moon—its corner gnawed away, said in legend to have been eaten by a giant bird. That shattered moon was the only moon I knew...

But this one was triangular.

And smaller.

Almost as if... if you fitted it into the gnawed-out space of the Broken Moon, it would slot perfectly into place. That was the kind of moon it was.

‘How can a moon shine so blindingly?’

It shone as bright as dawn, flashing in every color imaginable.

Blue, red, yellow, green—

The fluorescent moonlight poured through the Roof Window, drenching the Grand Banquet Hall in a dizzying riot of color.

“Wow.... Seeing it from here... it’s really beautiful. The Psychedelic Moon.”

Beautiful?

To my eyes, it looked nothing but ominous...

A crawling, creeping discomfort, like bugs wriggling across my skin.

Was this really the past of 10,000 years ago?

If so, then what in the world was that foreboding moon?

Why did it exist in this era, but not in mine?

My head grew tangled with the sudden flood of information.

And that was why.

At the very moment the long-awaited ‘incident’ broke out, my reaction was slow.

Krrruuuh.

Kwaarrrrk!

It began with the roar of a beast.

‘What the...?’

Under the pouring fluorescent light, the trainees who had just been laughing and chatting moments ago were writhing in agony.

“Kwaaaah!”

Some even burst into feral roars.

Crunch! Crack!

Their joints twisted grotesquely in all directions, their bodies swelling until their clothes tore apart.

Their muzzles elongated, sharp fangs sprouted, and claws grew like blades, slashing everything around them.

“Kyaaaah!”

“Ghhhk!”

Trainees caught by the suddenly lashing claws screamed and collapsed in pools of blood.

By rough estimate, about 300 to 400 trainees had transformed into monsters.

‘Werewolves...?’

Their shapes resembled werewolves.

But they were different.

First, they were hairless, making them grotesque to behold. Their tongues were so long they looked as though they were dragging a snake, and their tails writhed like bundles of tentacles.

“Subdue them!”

The knights guarding the banquet hall charged forward, but—

“Ghhhk!”

“Kraaagh!”

Mid-grade Experts barely lasted a moment before being flung away.

Only High-grade Experts could push back one or two at best.

That was how absurdly strong these monsterized trainees had become.

Some were even mixed in that were exceptionally powerful.

Boom! Crash!

The monsters truly began rampaging.

They overturned tables, lashing their snake-like tongues to pierce through untainted trainees.

‘On this scale?’

Four hundred monsters nearing the level of High-grade Sword Experts?

I knew an incident would happen...

But this? This was at the level of war.

Even I couldn’t handle this.

I had to retreat.

And take Milo with me.

But then—

“Ghhrrrk.... S-Sir Ransen.... Ghhhk.... M-my body... feels strange...”

Milo, too, was starting to transform.

His clothes were half torn, his muzzle stretching long. But faint green light glimmered across his whole body, making him slightly different from the other monsters.

“Milo! Snap out of it!”

Had I grown attached to him in that short time?

I couldn’t bring myself to cut him down as he turned into a monster. I hesitated.

It was then.

Grrrraaagh!

One monster leapt over a table straight at me.

I drew Banroa, ready to cut it down—

“Kwaaaahhh!”

But Milo, who had been writhing in pain, suddenly sprang up and charged at the monster.

It was clear: he was acting to save me.

Crunchhh!

The monster’s fangs sank into Milo’s shoulder.

“Graaaarghhhhhh!”

Half-monsterized, Milo let out a hideous scream.

“Milo!”

As I rushed to save him, our eyes met.

With a sorrowful gaze, he said to me:

“Sir... Ransen.... I... wanted to become... a knight...”

Crunchhhh!

The monster clamped onto Milo like a crocodile, then hurled him behind.

“Grrrraaagh!”

“Kyahhhhhh!”

The surrounding swarm of monsters, as if sensing Milo was a traitor, all lunged at him at once.

Among the ashen-white monsters, Milo’s green-glowing body was torn apart piece by piece.

Heat surged.

My eyes burned hot.

From deep within my pupils, dark blue flames flared, making the entire world ripple.

As I watched Milo being torn apart,

fury exploded through me, making every hair on my body stand on end.

“MILOOOO!!”

I didn’t know what the hell was happening—

But I wanted to save that boy.

I truly, desperately wanted to.

Tip: Tap/click the left or right side of the screen to go to previous/next chapter.