SWNOVELXO Chapter 44 - Changing the Dragon Plaque (3)
Chapter 44 Changing the Dragon Plaque (3)
A moment later.
Yuri returned with something in his hand.
He said…
“Come on, don’t eat it, put it on your skin.”
Saying something incomprehensible, he started smearing the stuff he brought on Jerry’s face.
“What, what are you doing!”
“Hey, don’t avoid it. This is good for your skin.”
Jerry tried to move his face around, but buried in the ground, he couldn’t escape Yuri’s clutches.
So, Jerry’s entire face was covered in some strange, unknown liquid.
‘What is this?’
As a sweet scent tickled his nose, he licked a drop of the liquid running down his face.
At last, Jerry realized what the substance smeared on his face was.
“…Honey?”
Where on earth did he find honey in this winter?
This was the Forest of Beginnings!
And why was he putting it on his face?
While Jerry pondered these questions, Yuri disappeared from sight again, only to return with something else this time.
It was a lump of mud the size of a human head.
“I had a real hard time finding this in this weather. I hope our Jerry likes it.”
“What is… that?”
Yuri kindly answered Jerry’s question.
With his actions, that is.
“Everyone loves honey, you know. People and beasts alike. And… these guys too.”
Tap-.
Yuri lightly tapped the lump of mud near Jerry’s face, and something small fell out.
No, to be precise, ‘a small creature’ fell out.
‘What?’
A small creature, unfortunately, fell onto a blood-stained rock.
Head, chest, abdomen.
Two long antennae and six legs.
And a pair of strong-looking mandibles.
It was…
“A… blue ant?”
It was a single blue ant.
Since it was active in winter, it was commonly called a winter ant.
Additionally, it was a pest with venom that caused severe itching.
As Jerry’s eyes widened in shock, the blue ant, which had been floundering upside down, righted itself.
The creature’s antennae twitched constantly.
Then.
Stiff-.
Its long antennae stopped moving as if it had found its target.
Slowly, the blue ant turned its body towards Jerry’s face.
To Jerry, the scene seemed to move in slow motion.
And when he finally locked eyes with the ant, Jerry saw a vision of the creature greeting him.
Peek-a-boo!
(｡･∀･)ﾉﾞ
It seemed to say, ‘Just wait there, I’ll be right over!’
“N-no…!”
Jerry cried out in despair, but he couldn’t stop a creature that had already set its sights.
In an instant, the blue ant started sprinting down from the rock.
Da-da-da-da-.
The end of that sprint was, naturally, Jerry’s honey-smeared face.
Terrified, Jerry screamed.
“D-don’t come near! Hah!”
He tried blowing the blue ant away with his breath.
The blue ant was blown far away in an instant.
But that was just the beginning.
Tap- tap-.
This time, Yuri lightly shook an ant nest twice.
Then five blue ants fell out.
“Aaah! S-stop it! Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah!”
Jerry blew one ant away with each breath.
Seeing Jerry accurately blow away the ants, Yuri burst out laughing.
“Geez, our Jerry seems to like it so much, it was worth the trouble of gathering them in this bad weather.”
Yuri’s eyes sparkled as he rubbed his nose with his index finger.
“I prepared a lot just in case there wasn’t enough. How is it? Good, right?”
Yuri said as he appeared with several more ant nests.
Seeing the five ant nests in Yuri’s arms, Jerry was horrified.
“…Are you crazy?”
How could this look like he was enjoying it!
Jerry was on the verge of tears.
He had met quite a few crazy people so far.
But now he was sure.
All the crazy people he had met were fake.
This guy in front of him was truly ‘insane.’
Seeing Jerry turn pale, Yuri’s eyes hidden behind his messy hair glinted.
He lifted one of the ant nests again.
“Now, here’s a question! How many ants do you think are in this one ant nest?”
“……”
“And if I crush it here… will our Jerry blow away the ants faster, or will he be surrounded by them first?”
As he said this, Yuri tightened his grip on the ant nest.
Crack-.
Seeing the soil crumbling as if it were about to break, Jerry turned pale.
Then came Yuri’s sinister voice.
“I assure you, if this breaks, every hole on your face will be filled with ants.”
“D-don’t do it… p-please…”
“Should I stop?”
Jerry desperately nodded his head.
Seeing this, Yuri smirked and said.
“Then tell me everything you know.”
“……?!”
“I’ll give you five seconds. Five, four, three…”
Yuri firmly counted down as he tightened his grip on the ant nest.
As the numbers decreased, the amount of soil falling from the ant nest increased, and Jerry’s face filled with despair.
‘Oh… of all the times…’
And following despair was resignation.
In the end, he tightly closed his eyes.
‘I’ve really fallen for a crazy lunatic.’
Thus, Jerry’s lucky day…
“I-I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything! Aaah, it’s breaking! Hey, you bastard! Let go! Let go of it, let go!”
…ended in tragedy.
* * *
The blizzard that had been raging in the Forest of Beginnings gradually subsided.
However, as the blizzard died down, the screams echoing throughout the forest increased.
“Please, not that…!”
Crash-.
“N-nooo!”
Yuri watched from hiding as another Golden Dragon Plaque shattered.
He saw the 49th Cadet leave to find another prey, then turned and began to run.
A wooden box was strapped to his back.
Rustle-.
Tap-.
As Yuri quickly sprinted through the white forest, his eyes glinted coldly.
‘What a mess.’
Since coming into the forest, he had seen more than a dozen Dragon Plaques shatter.
Occasionally, there were cadets who held out for a while, but it was merely a matter of time.
In the end, they too were ‘hunted’ by the 49th Cadet.
‘A hunting competition, indeed.’
That word fit the current situation in the forest quite well.
The 49th Cadet as hunters.
And the prey were the cadets of the 50th Cadet.
He just didn’t like the fact that he was among the prey.
“Changing the Dragon Plaque…”
Murmuring this, Yuri recalled the conversation he had with Jerry a few hours earlier.
* * *
“Changing the Dragon Plaque? What’s that?”
At Yuri’s question, Jerry sighed and began to explain.
“Sigh… you know that the cadets’ Dragon Plaques are determined at the same time as the qualifying test, right?”
The Golden Dragon Plaque given to recommended cadets.
And the higher-ranking Dragon Plaques above the Silver Dragon Plaque were given according to the test results.
But the Dragon Plaque given upon entry wasn’t necessarily the same Dragon Plaque at the end.
“Usually, you can raise the rank of your Dragon Plaque with points, but it’s hard enough to earn points just to survive, let alone gather enough to change your Dragon Plaque.”
“Points?”
“Oh, you might not know. I’m talking about the silver coins. The Black Sword Corps should have handed them out during the test, right?”
“This thing?”
Yuri took out a peculiar silver coin with a hole in it from his pocket.
Jerry nodded upon seeing it.
“Yeah, that. They call it points in the Cradle.”
“Is it the currency used in the Dragon’s Cradle?”
“Something like that.”
“If it’s currency, it’s currency. What’s with the ‘something like that’?”
“You can use it to access all the facilities and buy goods in the Cradle, so it is currency. But the problem is, points aren’t just used as currency.”
“Then?”
“They’re a measure of your grades.”
“……?”
“The standard for grading in the Cradle is ‘how many points you have.’”
“……?!”
Yuri’s eyes widened slightly.
‘This silver coin is more important than I thought?’
The silver coins he considered mere currency had more value than that.
‘So, they’re structured to make you spend points while also forcing you to gather them.’
Yuri smiled at the Cradle’s vicious system.
‘Interesting. Just my style.’
What exactly he could do with points would become clear once he entered the Cradle, but Yuri already liked the system the Cradle had set up.
Seeing the silent Yuri, Jerry poured out his story with a sigh.
“You’ll understand once you become a real cadet. The stories about the Cradle that circulate outside are mere fantasies.”
“……?”
“A month in the Forest of Beginnings? Hah. If you can’t even endure that, you’d better quit and go home. Because once you become a real cadet, you’ll have to do that for a whole year.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Cradle is a thoroughly competitive society, and they reward those who survive that competition. But the really nasty part is, they even discriminate in terms of basic needs like food and clothing.”
“Huh?”
“For the first year, the only thing given to new cadets is the clothes they were given when they entered.”
Yuri showed his clothes with a look of disbelief.
“This? Just this?”
“Yeah, just that one set.”
“What if they tear?”
“What do you think? You either buy new ones at the store with points, mend them if you can’t afford new ones, or just live with them torn.”
The information Jerry spilled about the Cradle was shocking.
For the first-year cadets, they were only given one set of clothes.
Just as they had to find their own place to sleep and food during the month in the Forest of Beginnings, they had to fend for themselves for a whole year.
‘So, a month in the Forest of Beginnings was… just practice?’
After enduring that year, when they became second-year cadets, they received clothes every six months and food rations once a month.
In the subsequent years, the benefits increased gradually as they survived the competition and gained seniority.
Hearing this, Yuri clapped his hands in admiration.
Clap clap-.
“Wow, the Dragon’s Cradle is crazier than I thought?”
Such a crazy place was known to the world as if it were some kind of academy.
As Yuri clicked his tongue, Jerry nodded in agreement.
“It is crazy. But it’s also a place that gives you opportunities.”
“Anyway, continue what you were saying. What is Changing the Dragon Plaque?”
“…Where did I leave off?”
“You said you can raise the rank of the Dragon Plaque with points.”
“Oh, right. You can raise the rank with points, but it requires an enormous amount of points. However, once during the five years, you get a chance to change to a higher Dragon Plaque without points.”
He could roughly guess what that opportunity was.
Yuri grinned.
“And that opportunity is… to take the Dragon Plaques from cadets?”
Jerry nodded.
“Exactly. When new cadets arrive, only the second-year cadets can participate in the festival… the Cradle calls it Changing the Dragon Plaque.”
* * *
Running through the forest, Yuri smiled.
‘The Forest of Beginnings… it wasn’t made for the new cadets.’
Once in five years.
To reward the second-year cadets who survived the hellish first year after entering, they were given a chance to change their Dragon Plaques for free.
That was the true purpose of the Forest of Beginnings.
‘Not only the Dragon Plaques, but the points are also generously scattered, so it’s no wonder the 49th Cadet is going wild.’
Even if they weren’t interested in Changing the Dragon Plaque, the 49th Cadet had to move diligently to earn points.
The Cradle could weed out the incompetent new cadets without additional manpower.
The cadets could earn points.
It was unfortunate for the new cadets, but it was a decent mutual benefit.
‘Interesting. The new cadets are like golden goblins…’
They were prey that spat out points and Dragon Plaques when caught.
That was the current situation of the new cadets.
As he thought this, Yuri chuckled.
“In that sense, I guess I’m a king golden goblin?”
Strapped to his back was a box containing points collected over the past month, amounting to tens of thousands.
And he held the highest Dragon Plaque, the Black Dragon Plaque.
If someone caught Yuri, it would be a ‘jackpot.’
If this became known, the 49th Cadet would swarm like bees to catch Yuri.
Therefore, the best course of action for Yuri was to hide somewhere until the Changing the Dragon Plaque ended.
For others, it might be difficult, but for Yuri, it wasn’t.
Then he could easily protect his points and Dragon Plaque.
But Yuri left his hiding place and ran into the forest where the Changing the Dragon Plaque was in full swing.
And he headed south across the forest.
There was only one reason.
‘This Changing the Dragon Plaque… isn’t just a festival for the 49th Cadet.’
Licking his lips as if savoring a taste, Yuri’s red tongue flicked over his lips.