SWNOVELXO Chapter 104 - End-of-Month Evaluation (3)
Chapter 104: End-of-Month Evaluation (3)
“Wh-wha-wha-wha-what?!”
Arin’s lips opened and closed repeatedly, making strange sounds as if she were surprised or confused.
“N-no way!”
She screamed and quickly jumped down from Poppy’s neck.
Then, she ran over to the person standing next to Poppy, grabbed their face, and immediately started yelling.
“Why did you cut your hair?! No! Put it back! Cover it again!”
Not satisfied with just that, Arin began to sob and wail miserably.
“Nooooo! It was my secret! Aaah!”
As if a restaurant she had kept to herself had suddenly become known to everyone.
And now, she had to stand in line because of the rush of customers.
Arin reacted with an intense and pitiful sadness.
Poppy blinked at her display.
“Hungry?”
With an expression that seemed to ask, “Who is this? Someone you know?” Arin sniffled and answered.
Sniff.
“Who do you think? It’s Yuri!”
“Hungry?”
“…Do we know another Yuri besides the one we know?”
“…….”
At Arin’s words, Poppy closed his mouth and stared intently at Yuri.
He seemed to be assessing the innate nature of the person, rather than their outward appearance.
And then…
“H-hungry!” Poppy exclaimed in surprise, pointing at Yuri.
As if to say, “Hey, it’s Yuri!”
Arin scolded him.
“I told you it’s Yuri. And be quiet. If someone else sees Yuri, are you going to take responsibility? Our Yuri’s face will wear out!”
She covered Yuri’s face with her palm.
But it was too late; Poppy’s shout had already echoed loudly.
Actually, Arin’s voice had been even louder.
It was so loud that everyone’s attention was instantly drawn to them.
Murmurs filled the air.
At the same time, there was a buzz around them.
“Who’s that? Someone I’ve never seen before?”
“Wow, I’ve never seen such a beautiful guy in my life.”
All those exclamations were directed at Yuri.
Especially, several women stared blankly at Yuri.
There were also many who, even if they couldn’t look directly, kept glancing sideways.
Knowing there would be such a reaction, Arin worked hard to cover Yuri’s face with her hand again.
Yuri swiftly knocked her hand away.
Smack.
“Hey, what are you doing? Move it.”
At that, the face Arin had been trying to cover kept getting exposed.
His skin was so clear it seemed transparent, his lips were red, and his eyes were a stunning golden color that looked like jewels.
He was unmistakably a man, yet his face had a strangely androgynous beauty that continued to capture everyone’s gaze.
Feeling the attention and the strange reactions directed at him, Yuri scratched his cheek.
“Geez, just because I trimmed my hair, people act like they’ve never seen me before.”
At his mutter, Arin retorted indignantly.
“Of course, they would! This isn’t just a simple haircut! It’s like a portrait that had only the body drawn suddenly got a face!”
“Hungry!”
“And it’s not just any portrait; it’s like one painted with the utmost dedication by a master artist of the highest rank!”
“Hungry!”
Poppy nodded fervently as if Arin’s description couldn’t be more accurate.
Yuri looked bewildered.
“…Is it really that much?”
He suddenly remembered Theresia’s surprise when she dropped her spear.
He had sparred countless times with her, but she had never dropped her spear before.
Listening to Arin’s description, Yuri could guess how surprised Theresia must have been this time.
Then he looked closely at Arin.
“Hey, but how did you recognize me so quickly? Didn’t you say it was like a face suddenly appeared where there was none?”
“Me?”
At Yuri’s question, Arin recalled seeing Yuri’s face when she arrived at the Cradle in the past.
But she chose not to say it out loud.
Instead, she smiled slyly.
“I’m just good at recognizing things!”
“…That wasn’t how you reacted earlier.”
“Ahaha.”
Even as Arin laughed awkwardly under Yuri’s sharp questioning, the gazes fixed on Yuri did not waver.
And among all those eyes…
There was one person staring at Yuri with their eyes wide open.
‘No way… Could it be?!’
The person looking at Yuri without even blinking was none other than Gunther.
Gunther, who had been staring at Yuri vacantly, muttered to himself as if entranced.
“…Yuri Holland?”
Even though the body size and height were completely different from the Yuri he remembered.
That distant face, however, looked so much like the face he remembered.
As he thought of Yuri, Gunther shook his head.
‘No, he can’t be here.’
If it were Yuri Holland, he would be training with Johan Redner right now.
Why would he be at the Cradle?
Trying to erase Yuri’s face from his thoughts, he fell deep into contemplation.
‘Then who is he?’
Given that he was here, he must be part of the 50th batch, but it was a face he had never seen before.
‘Black hair and golden eyes….’
Gunther’s eyes blinked.
‘Black hair? No way?!’
So shocked, the words that came to his mind slipped out of his mouth.
“…That black-haired guy?”
His voice was quite loud, and a few people around him nodded.
Especially Nellie Blanc, who had gotten close to him while forming a squad, suddenly chimed in.
“Right? You thought so too?”
“……?”
“I thought the same thing. Honestly, the only one who could fit in with those two is that guy. The black-haired guy.”
The two people Nellie referred to were, of course, Poppy and Arin.
Looking at Yuri, Nellie sincerely admired him.
“Wow, I didn’t notice when his hair was in that style, but now… he’s kind of my type.”
Pana, who was listening beside her, burst out laughing.
“Haha! Who wouldn’t be into that face? Even if your type was different, you’d have to adjust it to match that face!”
“Right?”
“Of course! Should I go over and talk to him?”
“Should we? But wouldn’t it be too obvious to suddenly strike up a conversation now, after never talking to him before?”
“Who cares if it’s obvious, if you can win that face over!”
“Think we can win it?”
“Well, the blue-haired girl next to him seems quite formidable….”
Gunther remained silent as he watched Nellie and Pana whispering among themselves about their own topics.
In the meantime, the Black Sword Corps members appeared.
Step, step—
The Black Sword Corps arrived, holding several large sheets of paper.
The conversations among the cadets ceased with their arrival.
Everyone’s attention was on the bulletin board.
As always, the man with glasses stepped forward.
“Now, we will begin the announcement of the end-of-month evaluations.”
Flutter—
A large sheet of paper was attached to the bulletin board.
“What’s that?”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“It’s not the rankings?”
Those who had expected a scorecard with rankings expressed confusion at the notice, which only had names written on it.
At that moment, the man with glasses resolved their confusion.
“The 68 names written here all scored zero in this end-of-month evaluation.”
With that, he scoffed.
“Congratulations, while the 50th batch has set a record for the highest number of successful candidates, it has also set a record for the highest number of zero scorers. Sixty-eight zeros… this might be a record that won’t be broken for a while.”
In other words, all 68 names on the notice had scored zero.
The ears of those whose names were listed turned red.
However, despite being labeled as zero scorers, some of them remained defiant.
“Evaluation or not, we still have to survive, don’t we?”
“That’s right. We don’t even have enough points to get food…”
Although they felt a bit ashamed to have scored zero, they did not think it would be a major problem.
Their reasoning was simple.
“I’ll do better next time.”
“Sorry, I’ll try harder next time!”
They believed they would have another chance.
The man with glasses quickly shattered that complacent belief.
“Next time? How amusing. Do you really think there will be a next time for you?”
“Pardon?”
“As of now, the 68 who scored zero are expelled from the Cradle.”
“…?!”
A bomb had just been dropped on the cadets.
Immediate protests erupted.
“E-expelled?”
“Are you saying we’re being expelled just for getting zero in an evaluation?”
“But it’s only been a month since we started.”
The 68 cadets facing expulsion were thrown into a collective panic.
The man with glasses sneered at them.
“That just adds another reason for your expulsion.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’ve been in the Cradle for a month, yet you still don’t understand what kind of place this is. You’re all a bunch of fools.”
“……”
“I will give you 12 hours. Reach the dock where you first arrived by then. As a final act of mercy, we will let you board the Black Ship and leave.”
“Ah…”
“But if any expelled cadet is still on the grounds of the Cradle after 12 hours, they will be considered an enemy of the Cradle.”
“……?!”
“If that happens, you won’t be able to return to your homeland alive. In fact, you won’t return even in death; you’ll rot somewhere beyond that lake.”
It was a chilling warning.
And the person who gave that warning was none other than a member of the Black Sword Corps.
The murderous intent emanating from the surrounding Black Sword Corps members turned the faces of the expelled cadets pale.
‘Th-they’re serious… These people… they’re going to kill us.’
‘This is no joke!’
Seeing the terrified expressions on their faces, the man with glasses gestured with his chin.
“Are you still just standing there? Surely, you’re not thinking we’ll give you a carriage ride to the dock like when you first arrived?”
“……?!”
“If you want to keep your head, then keep standing there like that.”
Only then did the expelled cadets remember that it had taken several hours to travel from the dock to the circular arena by carriage.
Even if they started running immediately, it would be tight to reach the dock within 12 hours.
“Ugh, ughhhh!”
“D-damn it!”
Terrified, they turned around and began to run.
And so, 68 people rushed out.
A heavy silence settled among the remaining cadets.
Most of them had never considered that they could be expelled for poor performance, so they were shocked.
They also wondered what would have happened if they had missed this announcement.
‘They would have been hunted down by the Black Sword Corps without even knowing why… and thrown into the lake.’
As corpses, of course.
That thought sent shivers down their spines.
At the same time, they felt relieved that they weren’t among the zero scorers or in the lower ranks.
But they didn’t realize it yet.
What they had witnessed was only the first bomb.
Soon, the man with glasses dropped the second bomb.
“Now, I will announce the lower-ranking scores.”
Flutter—
Another large notice was posted over the list of those expelled with zero scores.
This new notice also had dozens of names.
However, the difference this time was that each name was listed with a ranking and score next to it.
The cadets blinked in surprise.
“L-lower-ranking scores?”
“Then just now… what was that? Wasn’t that the lower-ranking scores?”
The man with glasses seemed to hear their questions and responded with a smile.
“When did I say that was the lower ranking?”
At those words, the cadets finally realized that the man with glasses had never mentioned anything about it being the lower ranking.
He had only referred to them as “zero scorers.”
“…….”
A heavy silence filled the air as they realized that the purging was far from over.