My obstacle was gone. I waited for another moment before making to climb up onto a jutting piece of the cliff. A sharp pain ran through my ankle.
“Ow!”
My body tensed reflexively, which only made the pain worse. I didn’t have any strength in my muscles. I swallowed the complaints I wanted to spit out about the deerborn boy who’d inflicted this pain on me. With no other choice, I climbed the cliff relying on just my arms and my good leg. Now and then, I used my tail for balance, and while it wasn’t easy, I managed to make steady progress.
I heard an unwelcome sound under my foot. “Not again...”
My foothold vanished. I tried to hold on with my fingertips to stop myself from falling, but the rain had made the rockface weak, and it looked like it was about to crumble.
“Watch out!”
A hand reached out from over the cliff and grabbed my wrist. I couldn’t fight back as it pulled me up, and my body slid in a heap onto solid ground, my face pressing into the wet mud.
I immediately looked up at the boy who helped me. I recognized him—it was the elf, the one who ran circles around the rest of us with his grades in essence training and arcane tool crafting. His light blue hair was always partly curtaining his eyes, like he was afraid of others looking at him. Right now, he regarded me with pity. I guess he had been trying to save me.
“A-are you okay?” he stuttered. “Your leg...”
There was something wrong with him, I realized. It was unusual to encounter anyone in this environment, in this world, who spared a thought for others like he did. The adults encouraged competition, instilling in us a deep suspicion of those who could adapt to our situation. To put it in the terms from my previous life, we were being taught an unorthodox set of morals that meant we would not hesitate to kill.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Don’t worry about me.”
I didn’t know what he was thinking, and I wanted to get away. However, my painful ankle prevented me.
“I-I am worried,” he pressed.
“I’m fine.”
He paused. “Okay...”
The boy turned, walked toward the barely visible mountain top, and disappeared into the woods. I let out a quiet sigh of relief and stood up. I followed in the same direction, dragging my ankle behind me.
I could sense more movement in the forest than before. The beast population grew denser the closer I got to the mountain peak. At least, nothing would hear me dragging my foot thanks to the sound of the rain.
My stomach rumbled. It was still too early for dinner, but it seemed that running in this exhausting weather had sapped a lot of my energy. As I searched for something to stave off the hunger, a few red berries fell onto the ground in front of me. I gathered them and looked up the hill, finding a tree that bore the same fruit.
“What are you doing?”
“U-um... Nothing,” the elf boy said, even though he had rolled the berries my way. Guilt flashed over his face before he hid himself in the bushes.
I looked down at the berries. They were shaped like apples but were a size smaller. I split one in half and licked the inside. It wasn’t bitter, and my tongue didn’t go numb. I recognized the taste from the dishes served in the dining hall. Satisfied that it wasn’t poisonous, I tossed the fruit into my mouth.
When I finished my light meal, I started walking again. I sensed a child nearby. I had no doubt that it was the elf boy. He was more stubborn than I realized. He was walking right ahead of me, neither too close nor too far. While he kept himself hidden at first, he stopped bothering after he realized I wasn’t calling him out. When he found some strawberry-like fruits growing in a thicket, he picked a few, then turned to me.
“I’m not hungry anymore,” I said.
“O-oh, sorry,” he said quietly, still stuttering. He ate the berries himself.
The elf boy didn’t say anything else, the conversation between us dying quickly. I’d already resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t getting rid of him, but I didn’t want to waste my energy needlessly by talking to him.
“I know about you,” he stammered.
I didn’t respond.
“You got a c-coin...right at the start, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
Back when combat training was still endurance training, I did a good job of mimicking the proper form. I remembered the elf boy from the very first session. He stuck out especially vividly in my memory for showing he was superior compared to the rest of us.
“And your—” he began.
“Quiet.”
My pit organ picked up a mass of warmth a small distance away, partially obscured by the rain. From its size, I guessed it was a somewhat large wolf. I held my breath and flattened myself to the ground, trying to hide myself from its line of sight. The elf boy noticed the wolf too and did the same. I focused hard on snuffing out all traces of myself, as if I were ready for my heart to stop beating if the need arose. Eventually, the wolf vanished. I gave a sigh of relief.
“Do you think it’s gone?” the boy stammered. He stood up, his eyes darting this way and that about the trees.
I walked ahead of him. A wolf’s pained howl came from the trees in front of us, followed by the woefully unconcealed sound of footsteps running off into the distance. The elf boy and I stiffened. I picked up a stone as I stayed on the ground. I closed my fingers around it, lying in wait. Something was approaching, and it wasn’t long before we discovered what.
The bushes parted to reveal a boy with the cautionary colors of yellow and black on his swaying tail.
“Oh, it’s you,” Tiger said. His ears were perked like he was searching for something, but the sight of us clearly disappointed him.
Predictably, his handmaid, Pipsqueak, appeared behind him. “Isn’t this enough, Tiger? The instructor will catch up to us if we don’t hurry.”
“Shut up. You don’t hafta tell me a million times.”
Tiger glared at us, and I raised my guard. I knew he didn’t view me particularly favorably. If he decided to attack now, I would have no chance of escape.
“I didn’t realize Hardhead was here.” Pipsqueak’s hostility flashed my way for a moment, then vanished.
Tiger, meanwhile, sneered as he walked up to me. He was already much larger than the rest of the cohort, and he looked even bigger up close. My body stiffened automatically when he came within reach.
“C’mon, don’t be scared.” He laughed at my wariness, probably mocking me. “What, she’s not around, so you gotta get Monk to protect you?”
Monk was the elf boy, then.
I didn’t say anything.
“Cat got your tongue, Hardhead?” Though his mouth curved, his eyes weren’t smiling. I didn’t lower my guard. “Whatever. C’mon, Pipsqueak.”
“R-right.”
Again, Tiger seemed disappointed as he and the gnome disappeared from sight.
“T-Tiger’s usually n-nicer than that,” Monk stammered thoughtlessly.
That implied that he was especially nasty to me. I would rather not have been “special” in that case. I would’ve happily surrendered to him, if he’d let me.
By the time we reached the top of the mountain, the violent rain had come to a miraculous stop, the morning sun visible beyond the clouds. I hadn’t realized that we had already entered the next day. The exhaustion I felt was nothing like I had experienced from any other training session, probably because I’d climbed a whole mountain mostly on the strength of one foot.
Most of the children were already here, including Hieda. The dragon girl was there too, but she didn’t spare me a glance. I was finally free from the elf boy. I sat down on a rock and let out a deep sigh of relief.