Beast Taming? Nah, Dragon Herding is Way Better! - Chapter 55

Chapter 55: The Great Fist of Justice
“Now, please bear in mind that all of you will be sent into an independent space meaning that you can’t team up to fight the opponents, and you can only rely on yourself in that space… oh, and also, no need to feel scared of death there” the staff then said with a smile on his face as he signs to himself once he raises his hands on the level of his neck and pretends to slash it all the way across.

“Sure, you will die there if you’re not careful but that is just a simulated death, the moment you die there, you will be transferred back here completely fine so no need to worry… well, of course you will still feel the pain from the damages you sustained but that’s that” the staff then added at the end of his previous words causing most of the young men here to feel scared enough that their pupils even shrunk for a moment as they realizes the significant of the thing that the staff said.

While it is true that most of them are already people who are really talented given the low passing rate of the other three trials before this one, most of them still haven’t actually got involved in a fight that might induce painful damages to themselves, not to mention fights that concerns their very lives, making this last trial the most problematic one to them as even just the notion of a temporary death and the feeling of pain after it bothers them quite a lot.

One among the people who doesn’t really feel all that bothered with this is the emperor-like young man, Diluc, who literally thought that he goes through death and back given his experience with the Soaring Steel Eagle, an experience that almost kills him if not for his broad knowledge regarding the outside world.

“There’s another problem, but I hardly see this as a problem for our… less fortunate examinees” the staff then speaks again after he saw that the aspiring students already starts regaining some of their composure before deciding to drop a bomb that is devastating more to the nobles rather than the commoners here.

“You cannot summon or integrate with your contracted beast in this place, meaning that it is your strength and your strength alone that you can rely on during this exam” he added with such playfulness in his voice that most of the participants thought that he is joking, however seeing the modest, serious smile on his face, majority of the young men who each has their own contracted beasts, mostly nobles, starts throwing a fit and raining the staff with question.

As the young men starts getting more and more rambunctious and chaotic, the staff couldn’t help but get a bit irritated causing him to lose control of his strength, leaking out a single bit of his power, a power so strong that it made the entire gathering of test takes silent as they feel like they’re going to be screwed should they utter another noise in front of this staff.

“It’s good that everyone is so understanding of this, now I wish you all good luck and greater might to pass this final trial” the staff said before stepping aside and allowing the ones in the front most part of this group to take steady steps towards the gates, his final reminder resounding before the first person enters this spatial domain.

“Very last reminder everyone, this is the worst part of the trials where only one in a hundred person passes, so I suggest all of you to struggle to your utmost in order to be admitted in the academy, especially since all of you had already gone so far for you to reach this place” the staff pointed out before saying the most motivating piece of his words the entire time he is orienting these young men about what they are going to experience inside this spatial domain.

“If you passed all those other trials, it already means that you have the ability to defeat whoever it is that you will face there, it just boils down to how well you can utilize the strength you’ve shown in the previous trials” the staff said, causing some sort of security to root itself on the hearts of these participants, who seems to gain a trace if not more of newfound motivation and confidence to take this final trials.

“Seems like my time here is going to be far better than I thought” Diluc mutters to himself once more as he watches the performance of this staff, thinking to his own that while there might be problems because of the other students in this place, there can’t be anything worse than that given that majority of the staff he met here are people who doesn’t seem to have any prejudice towards anyone, people who treats each and every person equally.

After muttering this to himself, the emperor-like young man finally enters the spatial gate leading to the domain where he is supposed to fight someone who he doesn’t know yet now, hoping that he can have a fight with himself as he thinks that this is the most efficient way for him to know the flaws of his current combat style.

However, the moment he enters the spatial domain and saw the figure waiting for him, he couldn’t help but feel confused thinking about what could possibly be the connection of this figure is, thinking that it is highly unlikely that they are a part of the academy’s staff given their youthful figure, neither is it someone who is rooted to his mind given that he is absolutely sure that never in his life had he encountered this person before.

‘Just what happened?’ the emperor-like young man, Diluc, thought to himself as he prepares himself, feeling a bit wary as he still doesn’t know what sort of opponent this figure is along with their identity, his wariness apparent from his senses using mana completely spreading the entire area between him and his supposed opponent.

“Hoh?” feeling his senses that spreads through the mana in the air, his supposed opponent couldn’t help but smile as they look at him, the voice melodious and feminine, a relatively mature and sweet sounding one that appears not too good of a compliment with the face of this youthful figure.

As Diluc feel more and more confused how can a kid appear here, the figure seems to notice the weird glint in his eyes causing her to start getting triggered, now just a bit irritated with the young man’s gaze at her causing her to shout at him.

“The fuck are you looking at me like that for huh!?”

———-

A little bit earlier before this encounter, a white-haired, horned youthful beauty can be seen walking along the free space of the academy, nodding to herself as she spreads her senses to both the men and women’s area of the exams, seemingly satisfied that there are a lot more people passing the exams that she expected, and that is even after her increasing the difficulty of passing the trials by more than fifty percent.

“Miss Aria…” out of nowhere, another figure emerges from the shadow nearest to this horned beauty, prompting her to nod in acknowledgement as this figure bows to her with respect.

“Aeonia, I told you no need to go through all that formality when it’s just the two of us right?” shaking her head as she points this out, the youthful beauty said with a helpless smile on her face, feeling like there’s really nothing she can do with this respect from this lady, whom she treats as a close friend already given how long she had served under her, dutifully doing all her commands and even helping her voluntarily without her orders oftentimes.

“Miss Aria, these are the report for that Diluc Leonhart for the third trial” the lady in the shadow replies, ignoring the white-haired beauty’s words on the outside, however, deep inside, she couldn’t help but feel glad every time this friend of hers reminds her of that.

“Good work, how’s his performance there?” the white-haired beauty, Aria, asked as she begins reading through the reports regarding this interesting young man for the third trials, reading through the assessment at the same time that the lady just waiting in the shadows starts explaining.

“Past the limits of the normal measuring device, official recorded score 9999…” the two of them said at the same time, both of them also sharing the same expression on their face, an expression of utter disbelief more apparent on the lady obscured by the shadow, and that is despite her already reading through this information once before she reports to the white-haired beauty.

“Tell other professors and staffs that I will be personally testing this kid for the fourth trials, and anyone who dares steal this from me will be greeted by my great fist of justice” Aria self-righteously announces as she hands the reports back to this friend of hers.