97: The Distrust 97: The Distrust After Heinz was done attacking, they gathered together and Axel gave some input to him on how he could improve, Vyra also added some comments in between, Lumina simply kept quite since she did not know much about physical combat.
Then Vyra took her turn, who without her arrow and bows she was also quite lacking in direct physical combat.
Then came Lumina’s turn, considering how paranoid Lucien was about her it was surprising he didn’t teach her combat.
Oh well, he didn’t care that much about it honestly.
Axel simply helped her, advising on the most basic things like stances, sword grip etc, since she seems to be a total beginner.
Letting her swing the swords wouldn’t be helpful since she did not even have the basics covered.
Soon it was Axel’s turn to do attacking on the three of them, so he attacked Heinz in a lackluster manner, it was obvious he wasn’t interested in showing what he could actually do.
He mimicked struggling a bit, but anyone with two braincells would understand what he was doing, Heinz played along.
Vyra and the princess tactfully chose not to say anything.
But when it came to exchanging opinions about Axel’s attacks, things became a bit awkward, since Axel was simply putting on a show, the three of them did not know what exactly to say.
Heinz was undeterred, so he spouted some bullshit advice out of nowhere, and made him look like an idiot.
The two girls laughed sheepishly at those comments, and he could only grit his teeth and listen to all the bullshit he had to say.
After all the groups were done.
The professor called out to each student by their rank numbers.
Who walked closer to him, and he started advising them personally, Axel frowned, thinking, how could he pay attention to every single person that was fighting in his group?
Was it a result of some kind of wide range super observation spell, or was the professor just that good, he didn’t know.
For some reason he did not call the Valkyrie or Lucien.
He just told the two of them to go back to their lodgings, everyone finished their one to one conversation with Fenris only leaving Axel at the last.
Something that he himself wasn’t pleased about in the slightest.
The professor called him out, with only him being left, Heinz also went out giving him a speculative look, the princess and Vyra also bid farewell to him for today.
It seems professors advice was a lot more helpful to them than what he said, well that was to be expected, he surmised.
The professor asked him the very typical question he expected from the man, “Why are you not revealing how skilled you are?” “To be honest, from what I can see, you seem to be natural with the sword itself.
As if you have lots of experience with the sword, I presume it is from what you have gone through in the trial, of course, you don’t have to answer that if you think what I am asking is inappropriate.
After all, for all those who perform well in their first trial, it is a sensitive topic which they do not want to talk about,” added the professor.
A form of displeasure washed through Axel, but he hid it well enough.
He answered emotionlessly, “Even before going into the trial, I was good with swords, and in the trial, I had to deal with swords a lot.” Fenris had a thoughtful expression on his face.
Axel could guess what was going through the man’s head.
It was understandable that one gets the berserker aspect for being good with swords and having anger-related issues, but the question here is that he should not be very good with swords while keeping the Runecaster aspect active.
Runecaster is purely a utility aspect.
Just as Axel thought, his professor was thinking exactly that, perhaps Axel’s talent with swords was so great that the passive effect of it was perhaps effecting Axel even when he was using the Runic aspect.
That could happen, purely passive effects of a certain aspect does not stop, even when the other aspect is active.
But that also begs another question, if Axel was truly that talented in sword or any particular melee weapon, he should have gotten the ‘Saint’ or ‘Aurauser’ aspect.
So, the professor ended up asking him doubtfully, even though it was kind of rude to pry into him so much, “It still doesn’t make sense.” Axel shrugged and said, “Please don’t forget who my grandfather is and the things he has accomplished as a Runecaster.” The professor eyes widened in shock, “Uh, yes, yes, of course, I forgot the fact that your last name was Nomrad, of course.” “It would end up making sense when you’re the grandson of the one and only Damien Nomrad.” “Please forgive my prying curiosity, I could not help but feel a bit excited at the prospect of a Runecaster being more proficient at the sword than even a combat-oriented aspect holder,” he stated sincerely.
He could feel the sincere undertone of the man, and he didn’t mean anything bad, but it was still kind of annoying nonetheless.
But now that he had this conversation, he suspected the professor wouldn’t bother him anymore with this.
He was initially worried his grandpa card might not work on them, but it worked better than expected.
It seems his OG grandpa was a really, really big deal.
If that’s all it takes to disown the suspicion on him, he wouldn’t have to hold back his sword skills related to his runic swords, and even if he did showed his full combat prowess empowered by the runic swordsmen skill, he was pretty sure it won’t be enough to match the monstrous prowess of the 4th prince and lets not even talk about the Valkyrie.
Bidding farewell to the professor, he went out, and Heinz was waiting for him.
They both started walking back together, Axel asked him, “Why were you not using spears and using a heavy sword instead?” Heinz chuckled, “The same reason you didn’t go all out.” Axel also chuckled at that response, “So, did you book dates with the princess or Vyra?” Heinz coughed up a mouthful of blood, hearing that, as he instantly became embarrassed, “Goddamn it, no I’m not into them?” “Uh, so you like both, heh?” commented Axel.
“No, I don’t, you bastard,” rebuked Heinz “So, you want to have a threesome with both of them?” he asked suspiciously.
Heinz hurriedly covered his mouth and looked around with a sense of dread.
“You think I didn’t notice you ogling the princess, like you were about to literally eat her alive, while she whispering into your ear,” added Heinz darkly.
Axel winced back, “No such thing happened.” Heinz gave him a long and hard look, “Sure, if you say so.” “No, I mean it, you idiot.” Axel tried to defend himself, but that wasn’t working much, as they continued bickering while walking back.
Eventually, they reached their apartment, and Heinz asked one last thing, “By the way, what did she tell you?” “The princess?” asked Axel.
“Well, she said she was…um, sorry for what Ken did,” he revealed with a sigh.
Heinz looked at him a moment and guessed, “And I suppose, you didn’t forgive him with just that?” “Forgive??
Heh, oh please…” stated Axel in a dark undertone.
Heinz nodded and said, “Well, see you tomorrow.” Axel waved back and entered his apartment.
He took a shower, ate some food.
It was just afternoon at that time, so he went to sleep for a few hours.
Unfortunately, his sleep wasn’t very peaceful.
How he was stabbed in the back by his master, by the librarian.
How his little brother Akon died in the trial.
At the back of his head, it became a trauma.
In hindsight, he didn’t trust anyone anymore, even in the slightest.
There is always a wariness that he could be stabbed in the back by anyone.
Even Heinz wasn’t an exception to his distrust, even though he was the closest to him, and even though he knew Heinz’s character from the story.
Axel found himself continuously being doubtful of the story he read.
Not having had a good sleep, he eventually got up.
Going to the balcony, he enjoyed the view, at least one good thing about this world was that it was utterly beautiful, especially the view from his balcony.
The countless stars shining and making the trail of starlight looked utterly majestic, and the fresh unfiltered breeze of the air as well the three bright moons hanging in the sky.
On top of that thanks to magic, there were no annoyances like mosquitos or insects.
Not that mosquitoes would be able to pierce his flesh as a 1st-phase seeker.
Unless there was a specific kind of mosquito, like a magical beast.
With a sigh, he got rid of all unnecessary thoughts.
Sitting down in a lotus position on the tiled floors of the Balcony.
He uttered, “Nexus Panel”, looking at it for a moment, he uttered again while closing his eyes, “Enter Sanctum.” The familiar gigantic Sanctum, covered with countless runes and bloody spots, appeared in front of him, or perhaps he appeared in front of it.
This time, he did not need to push the large door.
Rather, it opened on its own.
He could also see the view inside.
It was a land filled with dead corpses, a blood-red sky, and a bloody river flowing beside it with no change.
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Seeker_of_Chaos Sorry, guys for the late publish, the going to be a bit late as well.
A few hours I suppose.