漫画大王

Chapter 102

Erhi was blocking Scarlett’s path and provoking her.

That bastard never changed his habits, and had picked a fight with Scarlett upon encountering her.

—Hey you, Freak-Eyes, do you think you’re something? Are you talking back to me now?

—...

—You’d better leave that behind unless you want trouble.

It appeared as though Erhi was trying to snatch away the animal Scarlett had hunted down. Why was this bastard, who had entered the jungle to find his friend, needlessly picking a fight with the wrong person?

Just as I resolved to intervene before that fool Erhi did something even sillier...

Thud!

“Uck!”

I saw, in vivid detail, how Scarlett’s swift kick to Erhi’s belly sent him flying through the air. She slowly walked towards the fallen Erhi and planted her foot firmly on his face.

—The princess said...

—You, you freak-eyed wretch...

—That no matter what I do to you, she’ll protect me.

—Wh... What?

Erhi seemed startled, and that revelation was met with two more kicks to his abdomen, courtesy of Scarlett. I could clearly see him curled up in pain, gasping for air.

Scarlett fixed Erhi with a chilling gaze.

—The only reason I’m not repaying you in kind for all the horrible things you did to me is because I don’t want to become the same imbecile as you.

Thump!

“Kek!”

After delivering one final kick to Erhi’s face, Scarlett murmured quietly,

—Be careful. I’m not sure what I might do to you if I lose my self-control.

It seemed like Scarlett was struggling to contain her surging desire for vengeance. Apparently, she believed that if she lost even a hint of restraint, she might end up killing Erhi.

Erhi, his complexion now pallid, couldn’t even look up at Scarlett as she walked away.

He must have known that Scarlett was far more skilled than him. But he was a scoundrel who kept bullying her, knowing that she’d endured it out of fear of expulsion from the Temple.

However, now that Scarlett had gained an ally named Charlotte, she no longer feared that punishment.

Unlike the original story, Scarlett had gained Charlotte’s backing.

Consequently, she was able to subdue Erhi all by herself, without Ludwig’s help.

Once Scarlett had left, I waited before emerging from the underbrush. I looked at Erhi, who sat still, crumpled and trembling in fear.

“Re... Reinhart?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

I grabbed the collar of the idiot who was slumped on the ground and pulled him forcefully to his feet.

“Did you see that? You saw that, right?! That freak-eyed moron hit me!”

“Yes, I saw it.”

“That freak-eyed moron finally showed her true colors! That son of a—”

“Oh, shut the hell up.”

I glared fiercely at Erhi, annoyed that I had to even listen to all that.

“Is getting beaten up something to be proud of, you pathetic fool?”

Slap!

“Ugh!”

“How come you never learn to keep quiet, and always cross the line?”

Erhi had run his mouth unnecessarily, and got hit by me as well.

Knowing that I was not one to be trifled with, he didn’t dare utter the nonsense about how a peasant would dare to lay hands on a noble.

He knew very well that if he said such things, I’d merely strike him again like the madman I was.

“You should be worried about what Vertus is going to say, and not this nonsense.”

“Wh... What?”

Because of his unauthorized solo action, three classmates had been forced to risk danger by entering the jungle alone.

It wasn’t the beating from Scarlett that was the problem, but what he’d have to face upon his return. My words made him go pale, and his complexion turned ashen with worry.

***

“It’s okay to be useless. That can happen. In a group of people, it’s a natural occurrence.”

Vertus was leaning against a tree and addressing Erhi, who stood before him with his head bowed.

There was a smile on Vertus’s face, but it was clear to me that his mask was about to come off.

“But you see, I think there’s a difference between someone being useless and someone being unnecessary,” Vertus continued.

Uselessness and being unnecessary were different.

It was okay to be useless. At the very least, a useless person did not harm the group.

However, an unnecessary person was essentially someone who caused damage to the group. Hence, it was better to get rid of them.

Erhi was neither physically fit like me, Cliffman, or Ellen who could scout the forest, nor did he have supernatural powers or magic like Harriet, Adelia, or Riana. Moreover, Connor Lint had at least been consistently fulfilling the role of providing a steady supply of coconuts.

Among the students who were talented in Divine Power, Ashir from Class B was at least able to use divine magic, albeit on a very small scale. But Erhi couldn’t even do any of that.

With talents in Swordsmanship, Divine Power, and martial arts, he belonged in Class A, but due to his lazy and arrogant nature, he made no effort to improve himself.

Erhi was a prime example of talent not correlating with skill.

That was why, along with Kaier, Erhi was in charge of trivial tasks, tasks that anyone could do. And in this dire situation, he’d decided to act alone, necessitating others to take unnecessary risks.

“You’ve gone from being just useless to being utterly unnecessary,” Vertus pointed out unreservedly. “Erhi. Do you want to be someone who is unnecessary?”

“No... No, I don’t. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Vertus.”

Though Vertus’s tone was kind, the message was chilling.

Vertus, who was teetering on the edge of extreme stress, was trying his best to maintain his composure. In the midst of it all, though, Erhi had gone against the directive to avoid solo action. In other words, he had provoked Vertus at a very bad time.

The ramifications were sure to last a while. It would have undeniably degraded Erhi’s standing in Vertus’s mind.

Erhi, who had never heard such words from Vertus, was trembling.

The others, though they hadn’t heard everything clearly, were also looking over with concern.

“Alright. Since you’ve done wrong, it’s only fair you receive a punishment. Starting tonight, the night watch shifts will be in pairs.”

Just the previous night, Kaier, who had been alone on the night watch, had gone missing. Hence, Vertus had decided to double the night watch going forward.

“You’ll be on full-time night watch tonight. Let’s make that your punishment,” Vertus continued.

There would always be two people on watch, starting from that night, and Erhi was to keep watch all night, while the other person on watch with him would rotate.

“Th-Thank you, Vertus.”

Erhi was actually thankful to Vertus for the relatively lenient treatment. It could have been much harsher.

The camp had been reorganized, and there was enough food for the evening. Everyone was currently focused on making rain catchers to store rainwater. Once the rain stopped, they would have to continually produce distilled water again.

As evening approached and the rain began to slowly let up, Ellen returned.

“... Wh-what is that?!” Adelia exclaimed, her eyes widening in astonishment as she muttered in bewilderment.

Everyone was more surprised by what Ellen had brought back rather than her return.

Thump.

Ellen casually dropped what she had been carrying onto the ground.

“Picked it up on the way.”

It was the jaguar that I had killed, but hadn’t managed to bring back.

The fact that she had dragged it back all by herself was impressive, especially since it must have been heavier because of the rainwater that soaked it. Everyone was curiously observing the dead jaguar, lying there with a cracked skull.

When she heard that this jaguar was the one that Riana and I had brought down, Ellen tilted her head and offered a nonchalant “Oh, really?”

“Eek... poor thing. I feel sorry for it.”

“Hmm? I almost died because of this thing. What’s there to feel sorry about?”

Harriet seemed to pity the jaguar, with its head bashed in. Heinrich, on the other hand, appeared to have a different take, one that wasn’t at all sentimental.

“But... What do we do with this? Can we even eat it?”

While there was some consensus about eating the meat from the likes of deer and wild boars, there was an apparent apprehension over the meat of a predator.

“I’m definitely not eating it,” Riana said.

She looked reluctant to eat it, and it seemed that others shared her hesitation.

“Still, since Ellen went through all the trouble of bringing it back... Doesn’t it feel a bit wasteful to just cast it aside?” Vertus commented.

Honestly, even with her incredible strength, bringing it back all by herself must have been a terrible struggle.

‘Hmm.’

I suddenly remembered a saying that cat meat was good for the back.

If that were actually true, how beneficial would the meat of a feline predator be for the back?

‘If that’s the case... Since it’s huge... Would it be, like, incredibly good for you?’

I was momentarily curious, but I didn’t really want to find out for myself.

My back was doing just fine, and it wasn’t like it was needed for anything yet...

Vertus pondered for a moment before coming to a decision.

“Well, I don’t know about the meat, but if we skin it and sell its hide, it could fetch a high price. As for the meat, we’ll eat it if we run out of other food.”

He seemed to be thinking about what to do after the mission was over.

“Since Reinhart and Granz caught it, and Ellen brought it here, maybe the three of you can split the proceeds from the sale?” Vertus continued.

“I’m good.”

Riana shook her head, indicating she wasn’t particularly interested in money. Ellen and I made eye contact, but nothing seemed conclusive.

“Even if we decide to sell the hide... I’m not exactly confident in handling that task.”

“Is that so? Well... skinning it properly is important, too, I guess.”

Vertus scratched his head, as if to say that there was no helping it if we couldn’t properly skin the animal. “It’s a shame, this could be worth about twenty gold coins. Even if it’s not in the best condition, I’m guessing we could still get at least half of that.”

Twenty gold coins... That was ten million won.

“... I think I can do something about it,” I said.

Indeed, there was nothing quite like money to spark one’s creativity.

***

I didn’t have the confidence to skin the animal and process the hide myself, and if left alone, the carcass would begin to decay by the time the mission ended.

So I took Ellen with me, and we dragged the jaguar’s corpse over to where Class B was.

Class B had almost completed rebuilding their camp, and was just sitting down for a meal.

“What’s this...?”

The students from class B were naturally surprised when Ellen and I suddenly appeared, hauling the jaguar carcass. They all stared blankly at the large feline creature as if it were some oddity.

“Hey, Delphine.”

“Yeah, Reinhart? What’s this?”

“Can you skin this nicely for me?”

While I might have been clumsy at skinning, I knew that Delphine would know how to do it well.

Delphine clapped her hands as if she understood what I had in mind.

“Well... I can’t guarantee I’ll do a great job. I’m not a professional, you know. Is that fine?”

“That’s okay. Let’s sell it once the mission is over and split the earnings. As for the meat, if you guys from Class B want it, go ahead.”

Since we only needed the hide, I decided to give away all of the meat to Class B. Everyone on our side was hesitant about consuming it anyway.

As for Ellen, Delphine and I...

The three of us agreed to split the profits. Of course, given the circumstances, we had to consider the possibility that the hide might decompose, or that the quality of it might not be good enough to sell.

“It’s already unbelievable that such a creature even exists, and also how it was taken down. And now, you planning to sell its hide is just... amazing.” Charlotte shook her head in utter amazement, speechless at the absurdity of the situation.

Her eyes said it all: “Are you kidding me? Isn’t this mission at all important to you, you idiot?!”

‘Hey, strictly speaking, it was Vertus who suggested selling the hide!’

***

Somehow, with me somehow becoming the intermediary, Classes A and B, who should have been competing, were engaged in an unintended collaboration.

Of course, it was cooperation that was promoted by the prospect of money. As darkness fell completely and the rain finally stopped, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

Heinrich and Riana began to dry the wet firewood, and soon a proper bonfire was started. Everyone gathered around it, drying their damp bodies. Vertus also began to cook the animals he had caught by smoking them above the bonfire, since, if left alone, the humid weather would quickly cause the meat to spoil.

Despite the small number of people, the sight of everyone huddled together by the fire, trying to warm up, almost resembled what one would see at a pre-dawn labor market.

“Whew... Somehow I feel like, by tomorrow, we’ll be wishing it was raining again.”

Everyone laughed at Harriet’s grumbling. Everyone had cursed the rain while it was falling, and the blazing sun was just as annoying when it shone.

As we ate the smoked meat that had been prepared for dinner, we dried off our wet bodies.

“By the way, Ellen, you were in the forest the longest today. Did you find anything?”

Ever since Ellen had suddenly returned carrying the jaguar, I hadn’t had the chance to ask her what she’d been doing all day.

“I found a camp, possibly made by the other survivor.”

Everyone’s eyes widened at this momentous piece of information. Their eyes seemed to question why she hadn’t mentioned such important news earlier.

“I waited to see if they would return, but they never did, so I gave up and came back. It seems they’ve made several camps, and live in whichever they feel like,” She continued.

She had found a survivor’s camp. But it wasn’t just one camp; there were likely multiple camps scattered about.

And there was more...

“There was something like a boneyard, too. And there were human skeletons in there.”

“Heeek!”

The survivors were presumed to be cannibals...

At that revelation, a palpable sense of horror swept through the group.

“This is one hell of a malevolent setup.”

Vertus seemed to suspect that this wasn’t just a simple group mission assigned by the Temple, but something designed to instill trauma.