Teaching Others

Aboard the airship, in the recreation room.

"I'm done." The white-haired, blue-eyed boy scowled and tossed down his cards, displeased.

He hadn't gotten a single pair in all those rounds. He'd just kept losing and losing.

The key was, nobody had been cheating. He was simply so unlucky he couldn't get a decent hand.

He also wasn't willing to cheat, and wouldn't let anyone go easy on him. So after all that time, he still hadn't won once.

The others playing with him were at a loss, too. Nobody wanted to beat a monster who could punch them into a wall, but...

His luck was just too awful!

The group looked at one another as the boy sat curled up on the sofa, expressionless and clearly unhappy.

"Um... We'll be going, then?" Their smiles were forced, an attempt to curry favor, though they were clearly unused to acting ingratiating. The result was painfully awkward.

After all, no matter how hard a villain tried to look friendly, it wouldn't make him seem like a good person.

Su Wu casually lifted his eyelids and glanced at them. The group bolted out of the recreation room as if they'd just received an order.

"What a bunch of bores..." Su Wu propped his chin on one hand and yawned lazily.

There should only be a portion of the examinees aboard this airship. After all, supposedly tens of thousands registered for the Hunter Exam each year, and several hundred eventually made it to the actual exam site.

Yet there were only a few dozen examinees aboard the airship.

Huh? Wait. Would the Hunter Exam's examiners really be kind enough to come pick up the examinees?

In the original story, it seemed the main cast only met the examiners after completing all sorts of tests and reaching the official exam site.

There was also a part where magical beasts disguised themselves as examiners to deceive the examinees.

But the Six Eyes could confirm that those two examiners were definitely human, and fairly strong ones at that.

So why weren't they waiting for the examinees at the official exam site? Why had they shown up aboard the airship ahead of time?

Come to think of it, whether before or after reaching the official exam site, there were plenty of tests.

That meant the airship wasn't completely safe during these few days, either.

"What kind of test will they have aboard the airship?" he wondered with some interest.

Come on, examiners, try a little harder. Tests that were too easy would be no fun.

"Knock, knock, knock—" A muffled rapping came from outside.

Su Wu ignored it. This wasn't a private office or a conference room. What was the point of knocking?

When no one answered, a timid voice came from beyond the door.

"Um... May I come in?"

That voice... He remembered. It was that monkey.

The name was easy to remember, so he had a vague impression of him.

Hadn't they taken him to the infirmary? He'd recovered that quickly?

"Come in." Su Wu didn't change his posture, and his voice remained as languid as ever, without a hint of inflection.

Maro carefully pushed the door open. He seemed to approach everything with trepidation.

As soon as he entered, he saw the boy sitting on the sofa beside the card table. Because of his age, the boy wasn't very tall, and the sofa practically swallowed him up. His legs were crossed, one hand propped beneath his chin, his eyes half-lidded as though he couldn't be bothered to look at anyone properly.

Even so, the blue in those half-lidded eyes was impossible to ignore.

They were probably the most beautiful eyes Maro had ever seen.

Even the Kurta Clan eyes that had appeared at the Yorknew auction couldn't compare.

He thought those Kurta Clan eyes, dug out and displayed in glass jars, were as twisted and ugly as the people in the audience scrambling to bid on them.

"...Lord Hill! I came to thank you..." The blond, bowl-cut boy still had bruises on his face, but there was no trace of blood on him. It looked like he'd cleaned himself up carefully before coming.

"Thank me?" The white-haired boy's voice rose at the end.

"Didn't you have the examiner take me to the infirmary..." Maro's emerald eyes sparkled.

"And... you were so cool in the training room!" Ever since he'd first spoken, he'd been using a rather peculiar form of polite address.

Su Wu pursed his lips. "Because you were too weak. You were in the way."

"The training room doesn't need another punching bag who won't fight back." He got to his feet and stretched, his tone teasing.

Maro froze for a moment, then lowered his head. His voice was somewhat subdued. "Because... because I always feel like I shouldn't fight back..."

"Oh?" Su Wu turned around and looked at him directly for the first time.

Come to think of it, the guy was kind of good-looking. He looked as if he came from a different painting compared to all the villains who were obviously just cannon fodder.

He was blond and blue-eyed, too, and came from the important map Yorknew.

On top of that, his life energy was clearly about the same as his opponent's, yet he refused to fight back no matter what...

There had to be more to it.

In a game, he'd definitely count as a special NPC. Maybe the sort who could trigger a side quest.

"Fine. I'll give you some time to explain. Maybe I can teach you what to do." Su Wu sat back down on the sofa and gestured for him to continue.

"...I used to get beaten up all the time. If I fought back, more people would join in and beat me up..." The blond, bowl-cut boy spoke slowly, as though he'd needed a long time to think it over.

"If I didn't fight back, they'd get bored pretty quickly." He seemed a little embarrassed as he said it.

After hearing him out, Su Wu wasn't particularly surprised. It was more or less what he'd expected.

Calling this guy a monkey was an insult to monkeys.

"Then you really are... useless." Su Wu delivered his verdict without expression, boredom written all over his face.

That kind of personality was unbelievably dull.

"Hit me," he suddenly said.

"What?" The blond, bowl-cut boy stared blankly. A moment later, once he realized what Su Wu had said, his eyes widened and he hurriedly lowered his head. "Are you joking?"

"...If you can't even bring yourself to hit someone, you might as well give up on the exam now." Su Wu spoke nonchalantly.

Someone who just took the hits and didn't know how to fight back would end up dead in the exam sooner or later.

Giving up early might let him live a little longer.

He really was a kind, highly virtuous, good-hearted person.

Su Wu took a moment to marvel at his own perfect character.

"...I can do it," the blond, bowl-cut boy suddenly said.

"Hm? Are you serious?" Su Wu rubbed his chin and looked at him.

"As long as it's not you, I can do it!" Maro clenched his fist, as if trying to make his words more convincing.

"Good. Then go to the training room and beat up whoever you find!" Su Wu clapped his hands together and made the suggestion cheerfully.

After all, nobody could be killed aboard the airship. At worst, he'd just get beaten up pretty badly.

Maybe he'd suddenly see the light and decide to give up on the exam.

When he put it that way, he really was a kind person who cared about others.

"I understand. I'll prove it to you." The blond boy promised, then left with his fists clenched, practicing punches as he went.

Su Wu could hear him deliberately lowering his voice as he walked:

"I can do this..."

"Punch him once and run. I can do it."

That didn't sound reliable at all...

"I'd better go back to my room and sleep." Su Wu had no expectations for what would happen next. He headed out of the recreation room.