Chapter 23: The Silent Return

The Forest's Secret

The mist had lifted as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving the forest eerily quiet once more. Cedric stood over Darius's unconscious form, his breathing steady despite the poison still lingering in his veins. His water core hummed softly, steadily purging the last remnants of the toxin.

Aveline, Vivienne, and Luna burst through the trees, weapons drawn, their eyes widening at the sight before them.

"Cedric!" Aveline's voice was sharp. "What happened?"

Cedric wiped a smear of blood from his lip and shrugged. "Got separated. Found these idiots already like this."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Already like what? Beaten to a pulp and bald?"

Vivienne giggled, covering her mouth with a delicate hand. "Oh my~ Did the monsters mistake them for sheep?"

Cedric smirked. "Something like that."

Aveline's gaze lingered on Darius's unconscious form, then flicked back to Cedric. She didn't believe him. But she didn't press further.

"We need to regroup with the others," she said finally.

The Hunt Resumes

The rest of the expedition passed without incident. The group moved through the forest, cutting down low-level monsters—Razorback Boars, Venomfang Spiders, and the occasional Shadowstalker Wolf. None posed any real threat, especially not with Aveline's lightning-fast swordplay, Luna's crushing strength, and Vivienne's precise archery.

Cedric fought alongside them, though his movements were slightly slower than usual, the poison's aftereffects still lingering.

"You're off today," Luna remarked after he narrowly dodged a boar's charge.

"Just conserving energy," Cedric replied, driving his spear through the beast's skull.

Vivienne twirled an arrow between her fingers. "Or maybe he's just distracted by my beauty~"

Aveline rolled her eyes. "Focus."

By midday, the forest had been cleared, and the students regrouped at the edge of the treeline.

The Lie Unfolds

Darius and his lackeys had finally staggered out of the woods, their faces bruised, their heads shorn clean.

"What in the seven hells happened to you?!" Instructor Zatch bellowed.

Darius clutched his ribs, wincing. "Monsters… ambushed us. Never seen anything like it."

One of his lackeys nodded frantically. "Big ones! With… with claws! And teeth!"

"And razors, apparently," Vivienne murmured, eyeing their bald scalps.

Zatch scowled, looking between them and Cedric's group. "You see anything?"

Aveline answered before Cedric could. "No. We were clearing the southern thicket."

Zatch grunted, clearly suspicious but unwilling to argue. "Fine. Field trip's over. Everyone back to the academy."

The Return

The journey back was uneventful. Darius and his cronies kept their distance, their earlier bravado replaced by wary silence.

Vivienne leaned into Cedric's shoulder as they walked. "So~ Did you really let monsters do all that work, or…?"

Cedric smirked but said nothing.

Luna snorted. "Idiots like that don't need monsters to ruin themselves."

Aveline walked ahead, her posture rigid, but Cedric caught the faintest hint of approval in her stance.

The morning after their return from the field trip, Cedric found himself restless. The fight with Darius had been too easy. The assassins from the Black Owls had been stronger, but even they hadn't pushed him to his limits.

He needed something new.

Something unpredictable.

His feet carried him to the academy's weapon vault, where racks of swords, spears, and axes gleamed under the torchlight. His fingers trailed over the familiar hilts before stopping at an odd, curved blade tucked away in the corner.

A scythe.

Not the farming tool—this was a war scythe, its crescent blade sharpened to a lethal edge, its shaft reinforced with steel.

Cedric lifted it, testing its weight. Unbalanced. Awkward.

Perfect.

The First Cuts

The training grounds were empty at this hour. Cedric swung the scythe experimentally, the blade whistling through the air.

It felt wrong.

He adjusted his grip, tried a different stance. Still wrong.

A normal person might've given up.

Cedric grinned.

"Challenge accepted."

The Library's Secrets

By midday, he had moved to the academy's library, scouring the combat manuals for anything on scythe techniques.

Most books dismissed it outright.

"The scythe is an impractical weapon, suited only for theatrics or desperate peasants."

"No recorded military has ever adopted it in standard combat."

Cedric scoffed. "Then why does it exist as a weapon at all?"

He kept searching.

The Dusty Discovery

The library's oldest section was nearly abandoned, its shelves choked with cobwebs and forgotten texts. Cedric had to light a candle just to see.

And then—

A glint of worn leather.

A book, half-buried under a pile of crumbling scrolls, its spine cracked with age. It had been used as a prop to stabilize a wobbling shelf, forgotten for who knew how long.

Cedric pulled it free, blowing off a cloud of dust.

The title, faded but still legible, read:

"The Reaper's Dance: Scythe Combat of the Eclipse Monks."

His pulse quickened.

Flipping it open, he found illustrations of warriors wielding scythes in fluid, deadly arcs, techniques unlike anything he'd seen before.

And scrawled in the margins, notes in a frantic hand:

"The scythe is not a weapon of war. It is a weapon of execution."

Cedric closed the book, his mind already racing.