Chapter 367: Rachel Cassowar
Both of them simultaneously trashed the bloodstained cotton wools they held, with the punctures caused by the needles having long healed.
Unlike Arthur, she was a bonafide master realm, but a master realm’s vitality was more than enough to heal such a small puncture instantly.
"Come to think of it, I didn’t catch your name?"
Arthur asked as he adjusted the level of the concealment ring and let it make him appear to be an Intermediate Master.
"That’s right...I’m Rachel."
"I’m Arthur. Nice to meet you, Rachel."
"Same here, Arthur."
As the boy spoke, he used his partial appraisal on her, just to get a little more detail about her from her titles.
|Name-Rachel Cassowar
Race-High-Human
Gender-Female
Age-18
Existence Realm-Master (Superior)
Titles: Adopted Daughter of the Cassowar Family, Herald of Earth. |
’Cassowar, huh? Probably a Noble family.’
He didn’t get much information in that department and decided to just directly ask whatever he was curious about.
"Among things I didn’t get, was the reason you’re here. Were you conscripted, or did you enter willingly?"
"I applied willingly.
My parents were soldiers, so they kind of instilled that ideal of being a soldier too into me since I was a kid, so...here I am."
Rachel replied as she used a rubber band to tie up her hair as she replied. After a momentary pause, she continued with a tone that made her sound like a fangirl about to meet her idol.
"Besides, receiving the blessings of the gods and fighting against the invading demons...as a Cassowar, that is the greatest honour."
When she spoke, Arthur stopped for a moment, his eyes widening ever so slightly.
But he quickly moved forward again, matching pace with her as he looked at those pretty brown eyes that had attracted his attention once more.
’This girl...’
Arthur discreetly covered his mouth with his hand, concealing any visible reaction as he thought.
’She doesn’t believe what she’s saying even the tiniest bit.’
The blank look in her eyes as she spoke made it all too clear that she was simply repeating something she had been told to say.
’Looks like there’s a story behind this...’
And Arthur’s curiosity about this ’story’ had been piqued by her demeanour just now.
Even so, he acted like he didn’t notice how strange she sounded, pointing out the Combat Testing Centre that wasn’t too far again.
"Let’s hurry, that soldier looks pissed."
"Maybe she hasn’t eaten all day?"
"That could be it."
The two chuckled lightly as they jogged to the centre, not forgetting to turn on their poker faces when they passed by the soldier in question.
Upon entering, they were given another speech, an automated recording like all the other speeches they’d heard all day.
It was here that their existence realms, elemental affinities, skills and magic were screened and documented.
Rachel attracted quite a lot of attention, due to her Superior Master Existence Realm, as well as her high earth elemental affinity.
It seemed that she also possessed a unique skill, and to no one’s surprise, it was an earth elemental-type skill.
She also held affinities for wind, fire, and light, as well as holy magic by extension.
Arthur looked up at the tinted glass windows high up in the room, easily seeing through the tint and looking at the commissioned officers who were seated there and taking notes; presumably for their superiors.
’That’s a lot of work...’
[Recruit 659!]
He got up and moved to the testing area, and though he attracted a fair share of attention as an ’Intermediate Master’, it wasn’t much since he wasn’t the only one.
Where he did pull the attention of all, however, was when he revealed that he possessed the ability to manipulate divinity.
He could see the eyes of the officers who were supervising the testing almost bulge out of their eyes, and even the one who was dozing off woke up the instant he sensed Arthur’s divinity.
"He can use divinity?!"
"Damn, I’m jealous!"
"We should report this immediately."
"He’s the first one today."
"...natural divine factor."
"What’s his existence realm?"
"Recruit Number what? 659?"
’Natural?’
Arthur caught the mutter of one of the onlookers, and he glanced around to try and trace the source but he could not find it amongst the multiple voices speaking up at the same time.
What’s more, the person went silent after that, so Arthur had nothing to use and pinpoint them with.
He looked up to the other side of the testing hall and saw that there were some men and women in lab coats behind the tinted glasses, but before he could take note of any other thing, a soldier called out to him.
When the commotion finally died down, Arthur was then assigned to the same platoon as Rachel. Apparently, the platoon was a special unit consisting of all the Superior Master Recruits, Unique Skill Holders, holy magic users and Arthur, being the lone divinity wielder in this batch.
’There were so many Divine Humans and Flugels the other day, and now I’m somehow the only one whom they were able to Recruit today?
From the entirety of Githal?’
There were other divine factor holders who had been recruited, hundreds of them even, but this number was small when one took in the population of Githal.
"Wow, looks like you’re quite the special one.
Maybe one of your ancestors was blessed, so you must have inherited the divine factor."
Rachel’s voice broke him out of his thoughts and he scratched his head awkwardly while replying.
"In that case, the ancestor is the special one, not me."
Apparently, the gods had descended and blessed some mortals with divinity in the past, and this blessing was carried on in their bloodlines, hence, the reason why divinity-wielding humans and elves were highly regarded.
They were the descendants of those blessed by the gods; at least some of them were.
’That means the ’blessings’ the soldier spoke about are different things.’
He crossed out the words of the soldiers he had heard earlier from his mind and then moved on to the next phase of the screening along with his new platoon members.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Finally, we’re done."
"Finally, we can eat."
"...you’ve been whining about food for a while now. Guess your wish was granted at last."
Rachel spoke as she looked down at Arthur who was slumped over the mess hall table like a deflated ball.
’His hair is quite shiny...’
She reached out and was about to touch his hair when suddenly, a familiar-sounding voice cried out her name.
"Rachel!! It’s really you!!"
When she turned around, she was met with the figures of long-lost friends, people she had not seen ever since she was adopted into the Cassowar family 11 years ago.
"What?!"
She cried out the name of one of the uniformed men as she got up and hugged him tightly, before doing the same to the other three who were with him.
These two men and women were people that Rachel considered her ’older siblings’ in the orphanage.
Despite the 10-year age difference between them, she was very close to this group, more so than any of the others In the orphanage.
Reuniting with them here of all places, could only be considered fate as she never thought she’d ever see them ever again.
"I missed you guys so much!"
"Yes, we missed our little crybaby too."
"I’m not a crybaby anymore!"
"So, you know you ’were’ one?"
"Ah!"
The contents of their conversation filtered in and out of Arthur’s ears, but the boy didn’t pay them any mind. He didn’t even turn around to look at the people Rachel was talking with, not until one of them gestured to him and spoke.
"Who’s this? Friend of yours?"
"?!"
’That voice!’
Arthur nearly jerked up from the table but somehow managed to keep calm and turn towards them with sleepy eyes.
"This is Arthur, met him during the screening."
"Arthur? Oh, so he’s the one that the Captains were talking about."
When Arthur turned to look at the man, the first thing that caught his attention, was the insignia on his uniform.
’A gold oak leaf...
From Alvey’s information, the ranks are the same as in Hell, so...he’s a Major.’
"Arthur, this is Ger. We grew up in the same orphanage; he’s kind of like my elder brother."
"Kind of?"
"Yeah, kind of."
Rachel’s genuine smile was dazzling, but Arthur was more concerned about the man she introduced to him as ’Ger’.
’...he’s one of the lab coat-wearing people who were behind the tinted glasses.
Wasn’t that room airtight? How did I hear him?
More importantly, he was present when I revealed my divinity, and now he was acting like he didn’t know who I was.’
All these thoughts were computed in a mere second, and in the next, Arthur widened his eyes in surprise and was about to get up and salute.
Perhaps predicting this intention, Ger stopped Arthur and just opted for a casual handshake instead of attracting more attention than they already were.
"Nice to meet you, Sir."
