178 - Mishandled vow

*

The heat of Valern's fist was able to blow through Sakase's barrier, however the region above his wrist didn't have that heat and consequently got severed. Due to that, Valern was teleported out of the barrier first, granting the win to Sakase. Though, this was purely from the limitations of the barrier. If it had been a real battle, that last attack would have decisively made Valern the winner.

Watching from a seat, my body only grew more excited to fight. However, the present day was a rest day, and I wasn't to keen on slowing my recovery. Suppressing this odd impulse, I went about my day as usual. Walking into the hallway, I was met with a different reaction than usual.

"Where have you been?! You suddenly disappeared from the hospital without a word! I thought you killed yourself!..." (Cress)

'Despite losing her vocal chords, it's as if I could still hear her voice... ' Cress thought to herself. It wouldn't do any good to say it out loud, considering how pointless it was.

"Uhh.. Well.. Haa~ you should inform me next time when something important like this happens. We still need to celebrate your recovery you know?" (Cress)

".... Hmph, guess we'll postpone it then. So you've just been going to school casually while we've been searching? Jeez... You've given us so much trouble... Anyway I'm tired. Let's go back." (Cress)

<... Yeah... I'm tired~>

Heading back to rest, I made sure to heal to full health before being consumed by my drowsiness into a slumber. With my health pool, it would actually last a lifetime for the curse to actually kill me. However, considering from the perspective of my mental health, it was better to heal up just in case I get attacked.

***

"Nee~ Do you want to get stronger?" (Sakase)

"Tch! What kind of question is that?" (Valern)

Back at the arena, 2 young guys were taking a rest in their infirmary beds. As their injuries were incredibly light due to the barrier's interference, they were recovering their stamina with a little rest. Both sat and leaned against the bed head instead of lying down, perhaps from fear of falling asleep. It would be embarrassing to fall asleep while not being gravely injured.

"What did you have in mind? It'd be rather suspicious if you bring some source of power out of nowhere, I'd have to report to the authorities on cultist after all." (Valern)

The pink haired boy spoke, though his tone seemed relaxed, his muscles had tensed at this meagre suspicion. Though he may be overreacting, there was no reason to be too careful in such a dangerous world. You could die at any moment. His pink hair rustled while he folded his arms behind his head in a carefree stance. All to lower his enemy's guard in case he was attacked, a trained habit from youth.

The dark haired boy raised his eyebrow at Valern's suspicion. Due to it being much shorter than Valern's, his hair had already dried from his sweat and stood as normal. On the other hand, Valern's normally spiked shoulder length hair had loss its shape from the sweat and retained it due to the large volume. It was no straight and let down, and it complemented his sharp eyes that were staring straight in boredom.

Anyone else who have been swayed by his looks that seemed too mature for his age, though Sakase completely kept his composure due to extensive exposure. They were friends for quite a while even before they joined this academy. They've met at a noble gathering party at the small age of 6, but only started becoming friends at 8 when given private education together. Most could only guess that their first interaction involved Sakase being tricked by Valern's looks. Contrary to their expectations, Valern used to have short and prickly hair and only started growing them out at 8.

"Haa~ enough with the dumb jokes, we've literally known each other for years. If I had joined a cult, I would have invited you long ago instead of using a suspicious question." (Sakase)

"... That's true, knowing you, you would do exactly that like an airhead. I'm sorry for not accounting for your intelligence. So what's it about? "(Valern)

" I'll ignore that rude comment... Anyway it's incredibly simple. We don't even have to do anything. "(Sakase)

" Spit it out already! "(Valern) His eyebrows knitted in impatience, awaiting the explanation of the strange nuances his friend was attempting to convey.

" All we have to do... Is to become rivals. From now on, keep dueling me whenever you want, and I'll do the same. If we lack the resolve to do that, how will we ever reach Emily's height? Sure we're already monsters for reaching the level 600s at the age of 10. However she's on another league. This is pointless, but please give me your decision... "(Sakase)

" The resolve huh... On one hand, we could have lived peaceful lives as politicians and just aimed to increase our families influence. However, it seems that this strange path has opened up... From here on out, we would give up being human... Are you fine with that?

To reach level 1000, no matter how you look at it, Lilith is suspicious. She might have given up something precious, her humanity, perhaps the curse, or something else entirely to reach that height. Trudging on on this path means exactly that, we're going to give up a lot of things if we want to reach her... "(Valern)

Contemplating his friend's words, Sakase only looked on with concern showing in his expression. Giving up what's precious to you... What did Lilith give up? Reaching such a height so early... Is utterly inhumane...

" I see... Even you are getting second thoughts..." (Valern)

"Of course. I initially thought of this plan, due to not being able to artificially accelerate my levelling anymore. In my domain, my trusted retainers were only so strong to feed me exp to this point, from here on we have to risk our lives by ourselves. I suspect that we may take our whole lives to get around level 800 to 900... I didn't think too far ahead... "(Sakase)

" That's normal... So you even had a rough estimate on our peak. 900... And you didn't consider that we may have to sacrifice things to reach higher? "(Valern)

"... Rarely do humans get to 900. Reaching Lilith was more of a pipe dream at this point, a source of motivation. I was only being optimistic that we may~ get to 900. Since 900 is when humans become immortal, the gap between 899 and 900 is the largest. I thought that if we competed, we may become motivated to perhaps~ reach 900..."(Sakase)

" I see... Maybe next time... "(Valern)