EnCoffin Me Chapter 117
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 117 Reversal (1)
Alexio felt liberated the moment he closed the test paper.
Not knowing how to answer anything was a suffocating feeling, especially when everyone around him was writing furiously. To avoid suspicion of cheating, Alexio didn't dare glance around. He looked at the magic clock, but it wasn't even time to submit the test. Bored, he began drawing a fire-breathing dragon on the test paper.
The drawing was crooked and ugly to a shocking degree.
As the hands of the magic clock moved, a black-robed priest at the front of the empty room gently announced the remaining time. Alexio suddenly stood up, handed in his paper with glee, and dashed out of the room like he had been set free.
His sudden movements caused a stir in the room. Many of the examinees, still focused on answering, were startled. They assumed that this student who finished early must know everything, so they wrote even more cautiously. This year's Holy Temple assessment was especially difficult, with questions that were incredibly challenging. Out of the hundreds of people in this room, only five would remain, and they would then have to compete in practical combat with examinees from other venues. No one could guarantee success, yet everyone desired the honor of becoming a Holy Temple hunter.
The priest held Alexio's paper in silence for a long time.
While the general knowledge questions were still relatively complete, the history, astronomy, and arithmetic sections were a complete mess. Half the page was left blank, a snowy expanse where Alexio had instead drawn a crude comic of a brave hero slaying a dragon. It was so ugly the priest nearly cried.
No matter what, this attitude was far too inappropriate.
The priest sighed and put the paper away. After the exam ended, it would be sent to the senior priest along with the others. The senior priest, holding these exam papers, walked down a corridor shaded by lush branches. Suddenly, he spotted the black-haired, red-eyed child he had seen in the exam room earlier. Due to the Holy Temple doctrine, soft and light-colored hair and eyes were more favored. Someone with such dark features was almost never accepted into the Holy Temple.
That child who handed in his paper early, his name seemed to be… Alexio?
A few people seemed to be gathered around this black-haired child. The priest merely glanced at them and continued walking forward, not paying much attention.
Alexio had been happily trying to catch fish from the pond using a blade of grass. The fish here were surprisingly dumb, slowly drifting closer. He could easily scoop one up with his hand. But before he could act, someone tossed a pebble into the water, making the fish scatter in panic.
The smile on Alexio's face faded. He turned his head, his red eyes fixing on the person who had thrown the stone.
“…Is there something you need?”
His memory wasn't great, but he didn't recall seeing these people before. Still, he was willing to give them a bit of patience and hear their reason for bothering him. If the reason didn't satisfy him…
“You're the one who handed in your paper early, right?” The speaker was wearing the robes in the Holy Temple's colors and carried himself with arrogance. He was clearly someone whose family had ties to the Holy Temple, or he wouldn't be allowed such attire. The three of them closed in on Alexio, their expressions clearly unfriendly.
“That's me. So what?” Alexio jumped down from the pond's edge. His movements were light, his expression fearless. After scanning the group, he was sure none of them posed a real threat.
So he yawned out of boredom.
“Do you even realize that submitting early distracted everyone else?” the leader snapped, stepping forward. “With that filthy hair and eye color of yours, you've got no chance of being accepted into the Holy Temple! Don't tell me you disrupted others on purpose? I get it now, you're probably a spy sent by the dark forces!”
Alexio calmly listened to his rant, his expression completely unbothered.
“Go on, take another step forward if you dare.”
“I dare. Now what? I… gurgle gurgle!”
Alexio had already shoved the guy's head into the pond, sending the fish scattering in all directions. The others tried to step in, but without even glancing up, Alexio knocked one into a tree and sent another tumbling into a bush. In just a few seconds, all three were flat on the ground.
Alexio grabbed the soaked one by the hair and pulled him out of the water. The boy coughed violently, still trying to speak.
“Y-You actually attacked someone in the Holy Temple… I'm going to report you…”
“Go ahead!” Alexio said cheerfully. “I'll even give you a few more punches to the face to help your case. Hurry up and report me. Maybe they'll finally kick me out of this awful exam. Like I wanted to be a hunter in the first place. If that patrolling priest hadn't dragged me out of my village, I might have already joined some adventurers' team by now!”
He might even be sitting next to the water nymph listening to stories. Who in their right mind wanted to leave home and study for months just to take some ridiculous test?
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He gave the three boys another round of beating before he finally heard the pleasant sound of the lunch bell. If the Holy Temple had one redeeming quality, it was the offered lunch to the candidates between the morning and afternoon sessions. After months of being forced to study under the patrolling priest, Alexio was already familiar with the Holy Temple's daily schedule. The food here was one of his few comforts.
The priest in charge of the cafeteria once again saw the black-haired boy who was always first in line for meals. Alexio held his tray with bright red eyes. The priest, who normally had shaky hands, felt unnerved and ended up scooping him several generous extra helpings.
Satisfied, Alexio took his heaping tray and claimed an entire table for himself, happily munching away.
While Alexio was eating, someone else was staring at his test paper in frustration.
“What's going on with this kid… Alexio?” the grading priest muttered, completely baffled. “How did someone with this kind of performance even make it past the selection? Who brought him in?”
“The patrolling priest,” replied another priest wearing glasses, adjusting his frames. “He discovered the child in a village and identified him as gifted. He brought him back early and arranged several months of study before sending him to take the exam today.”
The grading priest was stunned. This was the result after months of studying? He stared at the ugly dragon doodle on the test sheet, completely speechless.
“No need to worry about his score,” the glasses-wearing priest said calmly. “Didn't he do fairly well on the section about dark creatures? That's enough. Skills can be trained and knowledge can be filled in, but talent is innate. This child has already been preselected to become a hunter.”
“What?!” The grading priest was shocked. “Just what kind of talent would make them bend the rules like this?”
The glasses-wearing priest glanced around to make sure no one was nearby, then lowered his voice and spoke just a few syllables.
“The holy scythe.”
The grading priest shuddered in surprise. That explained everything. To be able to draw the holy scythe at such a young age, the child's potential was exactly what they had always dreamed of. He, too, lowered his voice.
“Is he one of the candidates for that project they're about to launch?”
“Yes. There are several others in the same batch. They've even prepared compatibility test papers,” the glasses-wearing priest said, pausing for a moment. “If he matches… then his future will be limitless.”
“It's a pity about his hair and eye color… It's practically the embodiment of a heretic.”
“Maybe that's just the imperfection the gods left behind.”
Completely unaware that a new set of exam questions would soon descend upon him, Alexio finished his hearty meal, then climbed a tree and found a forked branch to nap on. The sunlight was comfortably warm. If only there were no exams, no Holy Temple, life would be perfect.
Meanwhile, far away, a certain vampire was feeling anything but relaxed.
The heavy coffin lid slid aside and tilted to the floor with a thud. No dust rose. It had already been meticulously cleaned by considerate servants. Crimson velvet curtains surrounded the space, blocking out all light. From the coffin, a platinum-haired vampire with the appearance of a young man slowly sat up. His body was slightly stiff from the long slumber, and his beautiful sky-blue eyes carried a flicker of gloom and irritation.
“Blood.”
He extended a hand to the side. A servant quickly stepped forward, offering a crystal goblet filled with gleaming blood. The vampire drained it in one go, then grimaced in disgust.
His mood was sour.
Maybe he'd vent some of that frustration on a few unlucky vampires.
First on his list was, of course, his nominal father. He'd been asleep for so long. Surely his ‘good’ father must have secretly stirred up a lot of trouble by now.
Silver-threaded roses were embroidered on the pitch-black cloak that trailed slowly along the corridor floor. As the vampire walked, he reacquainted himself with the feel of moving in this body. Some sort of commotion seemed to be happening ahead. The vampire prince guessed they were trying to avoid him. In the past, he might have let these pitiful vampires off the hook, but today his mood was far from pleasant. He was eager to play the role of the villain.
He teleported to the front of the corridor. The fourth and fifth-generation vampires who had been frantically trying to flee instantly froze in place. Without saying a word, they all dropped to their knees with heavy thuds.
“Prince Lucius…” one vampire, kneeling slightly ahead of the others, spoke with a trembling voice. “Lord Theo knows you've awakened and is on his way to see you.”
Hearing Lucius let out an ambiguous chuckle, the vampire nearly lost all composure and lowered his head even further, shaking uncontrollably. The animosity between those two was no secret among vampires. Lord Theo clung tightly to power, while Lucius was more than willing to wrest it away. Worst of all, Lucius constantly forced others to take sides, and he held grudges. Simply put, as long as Lucius was awake, the entire vampire race, Theo included, lived under enormous pressure.
“I will see him,” Lucius replied coolly. As he passed the kneeling vampires, he suddenly stopped and fixed his gaze on a female vampire holding a lace fan, kneeling among them. She immediately panicked, trembling so violently that her vision blurred.
“Hmm…”
Lucius muttered thoughtfully, rapidly flipping through his mental archives. After a while, a flicker of recognition finally appeared in his eyes.
“I remember you now.”
The female vampire looked as though she might collapse on the spot.
“You were behind the rose bushes by the eastern door with your companion, speaking ill of me,” he said, with precise certainty and a slight nod. “I usually don't concern myself with private remarks, but unfortunately… I heard you.”
“Please forgive me! Please!” the female vampire pleaded. Lucius regarded her seriously, then abruptly pulled open the heavy curtains along the corridor. Sunlight poured in, bathing both of them in bright light. The female vampire screamed in agony, trying to crawl out of the sunlight, only to be stopped by his calm warning.
“If you run, I'll make you stay in it for a full hour.”
With tears streaming down her face, the vampire remained under the sunlight for several minutes before Lucius allowed her to leave. Severely burned, she scrambled away. Lucius stood unharmed in the light, the sword-and-roses tattoo above his right eye faintly glowing, marking him as one blessed by a god.
His mood did not improve. He was still bored, bored, bored…
Perhaps he should kill Theo for amusement.
Acting on impulse, Lucius opened Theo's door softly, his mind filled with simmering intent. Inside, the second-generation vampire sat in the dark. Hearing Lucius enter, a flicker of immense reluctance crossed his face, quickly replaced with a polite smile and a nod.
“You're finally awake.”
Lucius stared at him, considering where to begin.
Cold sweat formed on Theo's brow. He gripped the armrest tightly, never more thankful for the piece of intelligence he had recently obtained from the Holy Temple.
“There's something interesting I think you'll want to hear.”
He forced the smile to remain on his face.
“The Holy Temple plans to raise a little playmate for you.”