Chapter 39: Koraet

"How? Is Chris going to at the tournament?"

"Yes, but not as a participant. As you know there are unique prizes given to first, second and third place which will further accelerate their growth and the ones who finish in top 10 will get a chance to fight a knight of their choice. This is ceremonial fight. Now, considering that you finish in top 10 and has given the right to choose their opponent knight. Choose Chris and kill him."

Karl thinks for second and asks. "Kill him? On the stage? Won't that cost me the grudge of a sentinel and it's entire family."

"Don't worry. You have the backing of the Phirsecots, I make sure that no harm comes your way."

Karl is still not convinced. "That's not enough. If you had the power to go against the Dadelion sentinel family you would have killed that old man that day."

Ray smashes the table and stands up. "DON'T QUESTION MY ABILITY!"

Karl looks straight in the eye of Ray. "You lost, accept it or not."

Ray glares at Karl for few seconds before calming down. He slowly unbuttons his shirt. Revealing his skeleton like body.

'Before the incident, he had atleast Mr. Olympia level body. Such a waste.' Karl's inner body builder sighs as he looks at Ray's current condition. As Ray reveals his lower chest, Karl notices few holes in his chest and stomach area.

"It didn't heal yet?" He asks. Ray doesn't answer, instead he starts to release a small amount of mana. Karl feels cold wind coming from Ray's direction.

"The reason I lost that day. The reason my legacy spell couldn't overcome that old man's simple spell is this." Karl stares at Ray's chest and suddenly a white worm came out of the hole. Karl immediately takes few steps back. This worm looks exactly like the one Karl fought with Serena.

"Hahaha." Ray chuckles. "Don't be scared. It cannot leave my body. This creature's main body is destroyed. Currently, it is just a worm which lives off my mana. Back then, when I fought Koraet few of it's worms entered my body. In the midst of our intense battle, I didn't notice it. Until I activated my legacy spell against that old man. This pesky little worm ate majority of my mana and my attack got weaker. That is why I lost." The worm is poking out of Ray's chest which looks utterly disgusting.

On the other hand, Karl is scared. He slowly walks towards Ray and observes the worm. 'No doubt. It's the same one.'

"What happened? Why are making such grim expression?"

"W-What if I say, that the main body of this creature is still alive?"

"What? There is no chance, I personally destroyed it's main body. There weren't any worms left besides the ones in my body."

"Apparently, there are. I fought them myself, just few days ago." Then Karl proceeds to tell his entire adventure to Ray.

"Hmm. It matches the description of Koraet and that vicious beast is so close to our city."

"Is he here for revenge?" Karl asks.

"Of course not. Parasites are not that intelligent. Not even the ancient beast Koraet."

"Then, our best bet would that this beast is searching for it's missing part." Karl points at Ray's chest.

"Maybe." They both remain silent for a minute, searching for a counterplan for this.

"Can't you remove this thing from your body?"

"It's not that easy. This worm has wrapped itself around my mana circuits and my heart. If I forcefully try to remove this thing then it can damage me internally."

KNOCK! Both of them look at the door.

"Enter." Ray orders.

Hector gracefully opens the door and bows. "The dinner is served and young master is waiting for your company."

Karl glances outside through a window and sees that it's pitch dark. Ray buttons his shirt and stands up.

"I think something about this, I appreciate the information." Ray expresses his gratitude. Karl nods.

"Stay the night, Leonard. Since it's already too late."

Karl avoids eye contact. "Uh. I have some personal things to attend so I can't." He declines.

"Dinner is served for our guest too." Hector cuts in. Ray looks at Karl.

"Y-Yeah." Karl hesitantly agrees for dinner.

Then, he follows Ray and Hector to a huge hall which has a fairly small table in the centre. Various lavish food items are placed on the table. Ian is sitting at one end of the table waves. Karl takes a seat beside him and Ray sits opposite of Ian and Karl. They begin eating and this dinner was the most boring dinner Karl ever had in his both lives. Nobody talked or even looked up and the useless etiquette was eating Karl from the inside. For the sake of not embarrassing himself Karl just tries to mimic Ian.

After 30 minutes, the dinner was finally over. "Why can't you stay the night?" Ian asks with his puppy eyes.

'If I stay the night, the probability of me committing suicide due to uneasiness is over 9000.'

"Sorry, I have few things to take care of."

"Okay." Ian makes a sad face.

Karl catches Ray looking at him. 'Hey. Hey. Getting jealous of your son's friend? What will happen if this idiot gets married.' Karl laughs in his own mind.

"I have the car ready for Sir Leonard." Hector announces. Karl stands up and bids farewell to Ray and Ian. He follows Hector to the main gate. Outside, the same van as the morning is wating. Karl opens the door.

"Have a great journey. May the Horizon Bless you." Hector bows.

Karl nods and sits inside. The whole journey was quiet. Karl was just staring outside the window, thinking about his actions. Suddenly, it started raining. After two hours or so, Karl finally sees the academy gates. The van lands in front of the gates. The door opens on it's own. Karl steps out in the heavy rain. The van closes the door and takes off. He walks towards the gate. At the gate he spots the security guard.

'Fuck. I don't have my watch. Do I have to sleep on the road tonight?' He walks to the guard.

"Hello. I need to go inside."

"ID? Wait. You are the student who defeated Mikaela in a duel right?"

"Y-Yes."

"Oh! That was duel was amazing. You showed those prideful knights that even a commoner can defeat them." He smiles. 

"T-Thank you. Actually, I lost my watch." Karl explains his situation.

"Bah! Go inside, don't stand in rain." The guard opens the gate. Karl goes inside.

'Winning that duel has it's own perks.' He smiles.

The road is emptier than a Sunday late night subway. Sound of rain left soothing sound in Karl's ears. There are street lights every 100 meters or so. For a second, Karl thinks about his past life. If he didn't get reincarnated or killed in the first place.

'I would have graduted in the next year. Probably would have worked in some IT firm for 30 years. Ideally, I wanted a big villa and a sports car. A beautiful wife would have made life really good. Then, I would have few kids, spent rest of my days working till death until they get settled. After that I had to live off my own pension in some remote nursing home where I would have slept and sat in my own shit.'

A light flashed followed with a thundering sound. Karl finally reached his dorm. He walked straight to his room and checked the corner if there is someone sitting on his door. There wasn't. He opened the door and stepped inside. His overly soaked body brought some water inside the room but Karl didn't really care. He took all of his clothes off and jumped straight on the bed.

'Such a boring life. I am glad that I could came here.'

He closes his eyes and his exhaustion takes over.

The chief is sitting in his office and looking out of a glass window. A thunder strikes in a distance.

"Chief, we got reports on some unidentified monster in Laykoen forest." Rick reports.

"Does any of the adventure guilds has any leads?"

"Yes! The Glory Guild is claiming that beast is the Koraet, a type of ancient parasite. It's threat level is red super giant."

The Chief sighs. 'What are the knighthood families doing. We can't fight such beast, currently federation hardly has two intermediate knights.'

"And the student Leonard Avaritia was seen back in his dorm."

"Any idea where he could have been?"

"No sir."

The Chief thinks for few seconds. "Keep a eye on his movements. Submit a special quest under the federation's name to all guilds in Renock city. Place the bounty on that parasite and set the threat level lower than red super giant."

"But sir-"

"Just do as I say and what happened to the response from the sentinel families regarding the knight succession tournament?"

"Yes sir. They agreed to our terms."

"Good-"

Suddenly the ground shakes and the lights go off. "WHAT WAS THAT?"

Rick's watch flashes and a message pops up. "SIR! THE VAMPYERS! THEY HAVE BREACHED THE CITY GATES!" He announces.

Chief quickly glances out of the window and sees smoke coming out of the city gates. The rain slowly changes colour. It starts to rain blood.

"A-A noble is here." Rick guesses.

"May the merciful lord help them." The chief prays in a low voice.