I Became the Youngest Disciple of the Martial God

As I looked down at the sobbing Academy student, the door behind me suddenly opened.

Drrr...!

I immediately went into fight mode, but the student reacted completely differently.

“W-we’re saved...!” She had been bawling just a moment ago, but now she suddenly brightened up and, with a look of relief, dove headfirst through the doorway. “Y-you!” she said to me. “Hurry, come over here!”

“...”

She waved me over with a smile on her face.

I was slightly suspicious, but it didn’t seem like a trap, so I followed her inside.

The door slammed shut right after I stepped through.

“Phew...”

“Great... We should be safe for a while.”

“Safe?”

I looked down at the cadet.

There was a lot she needed to explain.

* * *

Arin O'Handel.

Seventeen years old. Third-year cadet in Kartell Academy’s magic department.

I’d never heard of any O’Handel family, so it probably wasn’t famous.

“It should be around here somewhere...”

Arin began rummaging around as soon as she entered the room, while I took the time to look around.

This seemed to have been a lab, though it wasn't very large. It was about half the size of my dorm room, maybe?

There was a window, and through it, the crimson moon was still visible.

Earlier, I'd been too distracted by the sky. This time, I lowered my gaze to examine the ground below.

“...”

Bathed as it was in the moon’s red glow, the ground looked like it had been soaked in blood, leaving me wondering if it was really the same path I'd walked just moments ago.

This wasn't just a result of the darkness.

The withered garden, the dried-up trees, the old streetlights, the cracked roads, and the demons...

Demons?

I narrowed my eyes.

Even though they were quite a distance away, they were still clearly visible.

Upon closer look, they also had doll-like forms. These dolls were just overwhelmingly larger.

Judging by what I could see, they were at least three meters tall.

“They're ‘adult dolls’,” Arin whispered as she walked up next to me.

“Adult dolls?”

“Yes. The one you defeated earlier was a ‘child doll.’ There are only child dolls inside the building. All the ones roaming around outside are adult dolls like that.”

“Mmm...”

“That's why we don't dare leave the building.” Arin sighed deeply and shook her head. Then, as if to lighten the mood, she cheerfully said, “Look at this.”

I glanced over to see her holding two bottles of water and some long sticks.

The sticks looked somewhat familiar.

“...Energy bars?”

“Oh, you recognize them! Yeah, that’s right. Food is hidden around the rooms. Luckily, these happened to be left here.”

Arin held out an energy bar to me. “You can have this...!”

“What?”

“O-oh! Since you saved me, you can have both...?”

Grooowl...

Arin’s face instantly flushed red.

“I already ate outside, so you can have them both,” I told her.

“R-really?”

“Really.”

“Thanks!”

The moment “Thanks” left her mouth, an energy bar was shoved in.

With a crunch, she began munching on the tough energy bar made of hardened mixed grains.

I remembered eating something similar during the training camp, given to us by Priest Juniang.

They were easy to preserve and were packed with calories. The only thing horrible about them was the taste.

It wasn’t something I would touch unless I was in some sort of emergency...

But Arin seemed happy enough to fill her stomach.

Not that I can blame her.

From her sunken cheeks to her gaunt frame, she must have been starving for at least a week, if not longer.

After downing an entire bottle of water in one go, Arin let out a satisfied sigh, a happy expression on her face.

“Phew... Now I feel alive.”

Now that she finally looked ready to talk, I turned my gaze away from the window and asked, “Senior how long have you been here?”

“I’m not sure. The sun never rises here, so... But it feels like it’s been a couple of months.”

“...”

It was hard to take her words at face value.

Without expert survival skills, it was unlikely a regular student could accurately track the passage of time in such extreme conditions.

Arin hesitantly glanced at me before asking, “By the way, who are you? You managed to defeat that hideous doll in a single strike...?”

“My name’s Luan. I’m a young hero.”

“A young hero!?” Arin looked at me in surprise. “Oh! You said you were a transfer student... Right. I remember hearing that young heroes were coming about a month ago or so. That means you’re from one of the Great Houses! Oh, I mean, sir...?”

She must be a lower-ranking noble.

I chuckled at her sudden respectful tone. “Just speak normally. I’m just a transfer student here anyway.”

“R-really? Th-then, don’t mind if I do... This is my first time meeting a young hero. That’s amazing... You seem so calm too. Are all young heroes like you?”

Arin seemed quite talkative. If I put her next to Pam, I was sure they would talk all day.

Anyway, the title of young hero sure did come in handy.

Just like with Glenn, kids at this age tended to admire the status of young heroes.

Arin's gaze was filled with trust, and though it was a little burdensome...

It wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It meant she'd be more likely to follow my orders in an emergency.

The top priority is to ensure the safety of the civilians.

That didn’t just mean eliminating physical threats, it also meant providing as much mental reassurance as possible.

I looked at Arin and said, “Senior, you don't have to worry anymore. I'll protect you.”

“Huh?!” Arin’s face reddened slightly and she quickly nodded repeatedly. “Uh, o-okay...!”

Is this not the way to do it?

Honestly, I wasn’t particularly good with words.

And it wasn’t like I had the luxury to choose my words carefully, so I asked again, “Do you know where this building’s entrance is?”

“I do, but...” In a heavy voice, Arin said, “It's impossible to get out.”

“Because there are adult dolls outside?”

“That's one thing... but first, let me tell you about this building. This research building is unusually large. As you can see, the corridors seem to be dozens of times longer than the average building’s.”

I nodded.

It wasn't just the length but the width as well. They were wide enough for a carriage.

Arin continued. “We're on the first floor... but to get outside, you have to go up.”

“Why?”

“Because there are no entrances on the first floor. The only way out is to go up to the roof and jump down.”

There was something strange about her tone.

She was one hundred percent certain about this.

“Have you actually tried it?”

“...Not me, the seniors from Crimson Hall. There were seven of them in total,” Arin said sadly. “The higher you go in this building, the more vicious the enemies get. Even the dolls on the first floor are too much for me, so what kind of monsters do you think will be on the roof? Of course, after thinking it through, it was obviously better to leave the baggage behind.”

“...”

“Those seniors were really strong, though. They took down the dolls inside the building just as easily as you did, but...” Arin looked at the window, her eyes blank. “They were all killed by a single adult doll.”

“Ah.”

“It wasn't even a fight. They stood no chance against it. Those dolls out there... they're real monsters.”

They were that strong?

I had gotten a glimpse of them, but it was hard to gauge their strength from a single look. If they were living beings, I would have been able to get a rough estimate of their skill by observing them, but unfortunately, dolls were too different.

* * * * *

* * * * *

I took a moment to collect my thoughts.

What was my top priority?

Killing the princess somewhere in this world was important, but there was still time until the full moon.

In that case, my top priority right now should be...

“First, let's get out of here.”

“To where?”

“We need to find the others.”

There might be others still alive.

They might have information that Arin didn’t know. Maybe some had even seen the princess.

“Uhm...” Arin hesitated.

She seemed afraid to go out into the hallways.

“If you're scared, you can stay here.”

“N-no! I'll go with you! I-I won't be a burden. Promise!” Arin said urgently.

She seemed to consider being left alone here worse than dying.

I nodded, headed to the door, and walked out into the blood-lit corridors again.

I snuck a glance toward a window and said, “By the way.”

“Yeah?”

“If we break this window, can't we just go outside that way?”

“Oh.” Arin smiled bitterly. “I tried that, of course. I tried hitting it as hard as I could with a metal chair, but it didn't do anything at all.”

“Oho...”

So it was tough enough that doing something like that wouldn’t even leave a scratch?

Hearing that stirred up my defiant spirit.

Right before I could unleash the Strongest Fire Technique on what seemed like an ordinary window...

“U-um...” With a sharp intake of breath, Arin pointed ahead.

Where she pointed, there stood a doll in the middle of the hall. Motionless.

It was a stuffed doll, so small that it only looked to reach my ankles, and in its hand was a knife. Like the previous doll’s knife, this one was also dripping blood.

Kekeke.

“Ugh...”

The moment the doll laughed, Arin stumbled backward and wrapped her arms around herself.

She reacted like this was a nightmare turned real.

I thrust my right palm forward.

A roughly made flaming wheel flew toward the doll. It looked more like a mass of flames than a palm.

But that was intentional. I didn't want to waste my strength and energy on this small fry.

Whoosh!

The flaming wheel covered the doll's entire body, and since it was a stuffed doll, it burned intensely.

“Eh...?”

By the time Arin made a confused noise, my attention had already shifted away from the doll.

“Senior, can you run?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Then let's hurry. Do you know where the stairs are?”

“I do, but before that...” Arin hesitated, then said, “Could you save my friends before we go upstairs?”

“Save them?”

I tilted my head in confusion, puzzled.

It was strange. “Save them” implied they were still alive, but in this place, a single moment’s delay could lead to death, especially for untrained cadets.

The opponents were murder dolls, after all.

“Yeah... They are being held captive.”

“By whom?”

“By other cadets.” Arin’s eyes glinted with resentment as she gritted her teeth. “They're from Indigo Hall. They've taken over the dining hall on the first floor.”

“Indigo Hall?”

“Yes, are you familiar with it? It's where the academy keeps all the troublemakers. It's... kind of like a detention center.”

That was news to me.

Indigo Hall... I knew it was the lowest-ranking dormitory, but I hadn't realized it was used as a detention center for troublemakers.

That means they're not exactly possessing the best of characters.

It was only in extreme situations that a person’s true nature was revealed.

Limited food, limited space, and the threat of death down every hallway... I wondered how such an environment would affect cadets with delinquent tendencies.

I didn't want to think too much about it.

“Where's the dining hall?”

“Hold on.”

Arin pressed her face against the window.

The ‘ㄷ’-shaped building resembled a long, straight main section with two protruding wings.

Beyond the window, the opposite wing of the building was visible.

Arin looked at it and seemed to recognize our current location.

“We should keep going this way. We just walk straight, take a left at the bend, and keep going until we see an unusually large door. That's the dining hall.”

“Okay. Let's go.”

I hurried my steps a little more.

We ran into a few more dolls, but they only appeared one at a time, so they weren't much of a bother.

The terrain itself was also in my favor; the open corridors offered no hiding places.

Those small bodies would have been advantageous in an ambush. If they could jump out from some hidden location, they would be more of a nuisance.

“Even the senior swordsmanship department couldn't take down a single one of those dolls...”

Arin seemed to have mixed feelings as she watched a doll sprawled out on the ground. At least the fear in her eyes had faded significantly, which was good.

The path bent once, then continued straight ahead again.

We entered the building I arbitrarily called the “main body,” where the corridors were noticeably wider.

Along the way, I spotted a staircase leading up, but I passed it by...

“...Here it is.”

We had finally arrived in front of an unusually large door.

* * *

Russo Haffwit felt like it had been well over a month since he’d come to this ridiculous hellhole.

Maybe it had been two months? He didn’t know.

At first, he’d felt despair and fear. He’d even thought about death.

But that wasn’t necessary

As long as he stayed out of the corridors, he was safe... and this dining hall provided food every day based on the number of people seated.

That was the only reason they bothered to keep the other useless cadets confined here.

A student approached him. “Senior Russo, please...”

The student had a pale complexion, dull eyes, and protruding cheekbones.

“I haven't eaten for four days now... Please... just a little something...”

“Funny how you lie. You haven't eaten anything? I gave you water yesterday.”

“I-it was a single sip...”

“That's right.” Russo laughed. “You know, a person can last a month on just water? Why not think of this as a chance to go on a diet?

“...”

“Or you could just go out there and find food yourself. Like... you know, what was her name? Arin? Like her.”

The cadet’s lips pressed together tightly.

Russo knew better than anyone that such an act was suicide.

He was fully aware of that, yet he still suggested it.

Because he knew the cadet would never leave this dining hall.

At this moment...

With a dull thud, the door to the dining hall opened.

The cadets in the dining hall were not surprised because the dolls never opened doors. The corridors alone were the domain of demons.

That only meant one thing: The ones who opened the door were people...

Two figures appeared.

Standing in front of the cadets was a brazen-looking platinum-haired boy.

“Senior, is the right place?”

“Uh, y-yeah...” Came a small, mosquito-like voice from behind him.

Russo’s gaze landed on the source. It was a familiar face.

“Arin O'Handel. You’re alive.”

“...”

“You had fun outside and decided you missed home, huh? Welcome back. Of course, for your insolence, you’re banned from food for a week.”

“Aha.” The one who replied was not Arin but the boy. “So that's how you’ve been keeping control. Sure, it's an underhanded method, but nothing beats food as a bargaining chip.”

“Who are you?” said a cadet sitting near the entrance, a rugged-looking guy whose muscles were visible even beneath his cadet uniform “You look like an underclassman to me, and yet you have no manners. Do you think there’s professors or school rules to protect you here?

“...”

“If you want to live even a minute longer, you’d better mind your manners.”

At that, the young boy’s expression changed. His gaze sharpened and he gave a good, long look at the cadet.

There was an unintelligible word.

“...Manners?”

____

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!