Chapter 134

─ D-Did you hear what Darc said?

─ He said a Fruit-Ripening Ape isn’t even a holy beast!

Meanwhile, the students misunderstood Roan’s words and were in an uproar.

Glare—

But when Roan and the Abyss Dragon glared at them at the same time, they cleared their throats for no reason and averted their eyes.

─ Ahem, it’s possible that a Fruit-Ripening Ape doesn’t satisfy him.

─ Right, right…

Roan let out a small sigh.

The newly born Bell also found them pathetic.

[Are they really aspiring priests?]

‘For now.’

At that moment, Vulcan and Denver, who had been just watching from afar, approached them.

Normally, they would not get involved in the freshmen’s hatching of holy beasts, but this time was extraordinary even in their eyes.

First, Vulcan asked in a serious voice.

“What do you mean it’s not a Fruit-Ripening Ape?”

Roan instantly analyzed Vulcan’s intentions.

That was not a question asked out of ignorance.

‘Is he trying to test me?’

Even if he passed the test, the only thing he would hear was ‘Join the Holy War Club!’, but he could not say something else now.

Roan parted the fur on the holy beast’s back and showed it to Vulcan.

“Fruit-Ripening Apes have brown fur. However, this red fur on its back is a mark indicating a leader among Fruit-Ripening Apes.”

Vulcan asked as if he could not understand.

“Even if it’s a leader, it would still be a Fruit-Ripening Ape, wouldn’t it?”

Roan nodded.

“Yes. But there is one more species with these characteristics.”

At Roan’s serious expression, Vulcan raised an eyebrow.

“A Fruit-Ripening Ape’s big toe consists of two joints. But as you can see, this one has three. In addition, it has thirty teeth in total, upper and lower combined, which is two more than normal.”

By this point, clear interest was visible in Vulcan’s face and tone.

“Oho. And?”

“It is almost certain by now, but to make one final decisive check.”

Roan took the holy beast from Riel altogether.

Then, he took out a fruit he had brought from the Garden of Dawn and gave it to the holy beast.

Squeak— Squeak—?

The holy beast tilted its head once, but soon smelled the delicious aroma and quickly snatched the fruit to take a big bite.

Roan placed the creature on the ground at the same time.

Squeeeal—!!!

As if moved by the taste of the fruit, the holy beast turned two consecutive backflips.

And.

“G-Grass?”

Around the ground where the creature stood, green grass began to grow abundantly.

Even among holy beasts that manipulated grass and trees, one that could grow things out of barren ground like this was extremely rare.

“As you know, Professor, a common Fruit-Ripening Ape cannot do such a thing.”

Roan smirked as he watched the scene.

Now it was time to draw a conclusion.

“The Arbor Emperor Ape.”

“……”

Vulcan fell silent upon hearing the species name Roan spoke.

Roan continued his explanation.

“Because their appearance is similar when young, it is a species that commits brood parasitism in the nests of Fruit-Ripening Apes. Of course, the Fruit-Ripening Apes have nothing to lose either. It accelerates the growth of plants much faster, and during battle, it grows up to twenty-five meters tall to protect its troop.”

“Wow…”

His friends marvelled upon hearing the holy beast’s true identity.

“Roan, honestly. Is there anything you don’t know?”

Demona asked with a serious expression.

“A lot.”

For instance, the names of my parents.

Even for Roan, the world of “God and Devil” was incredibly vast.

‘No matter how much I dig, new things keep popping up.’

In any case, the students seemed to take Roan’s brief reply entirely as a sign of humility.

─ Even if Darc is obnoxious, honestly, this is impressive…

─ Was the rumor true that the Darc family has a secret holy beast farm?

‘When on earth did such a rumor spread…?’

Meanwhile, Vulcan looked down at Roan for a long moment.

“Denver.”

“Yes, Professor.”

Clank—

Denver handcuffed him, as if he had been waiting for Vulcan’s call.

“Join.”

“I refuse.”

Crunch—

Vulcan immediately crushed the handcuffs.

A communication much simpler than before!

“Why won’t someone who loves holy beasts this much join the Holy War Club?”

Vulcan asked, finding it completely incomprehensible.

Roan replied instantly.

“It is because I simply love divine and holy beasts, but do not enjoy Holy War.”

The students murmured.

─ What did he say?

─ Is it like, ‘I am just Darc, but I am not Darc’?

─ Or ‘I am just the Great Demon King, but I am not Roan’…?

─ Hey, does that make any sense?

The students still could not distinguish between divine/holy beasts and Holy War.

No, it was meaningless to point it out now, but the same went for Professor Vulcan.

Roan approached Riel and spoke in a low voice.

Arbor Emperor Ape was even rarer than the Sunrise Nest Butterfly or the Dream-Eating Thousand-Mile Horse.

But instead of feeling jealous, Roan thought it was a good thing for Riel.

“The Arbor Emperor Ape is a clever species. It will learn sign language quite well if you teach it. It can also understand simple spellings.”

“……!”

This was because the highly intelligent Arbor Emperor Ape was one of the few species that could communicate accurately with its owner.

Riel was startled by Roan’s words and opened her eyes wide.

Demona made a fuss.

“R-Riel opened her eyes wide!”

Instead of a pixel-level movement that only Roan could recognize like before, it was a completely normal person’s reaction!

‘I-Is it that surprising?’

Roan had also thought Riel would be surprised, but he had not expected it to be to this extent.

But the truly surprising thing happened next.

Trickle—

“R-Riel shed a tear!!!!”

A single clear tear trickled down one of Riel’s eyes.

This time, not only Demona but also the other friends went wild.

─ D-Darc made Heylik cry!

─ The Great Demon King broke the Ice Princess!

Even the female students who often hung out with Riel were even more furious.

─ Darc… Not only does he hang out with Riel every time, but he even made her cry…!

─ What a bad guy!

‘I only said good things, though…’

It was absurd from Roan’s perspective.

At that moment, Riel spoke in a voice audible only to Roan, but clearly.

“Thank you.”

Roan willingly decided to endure the boos, anger, and misunderstandings poured upon him.

‘Well, as long as she’s happy with it.’

Riel also decided on a name for the Arbor Emperor Ape.

“The Earth…”

The little giant of the primeval forest that sprouts from the earth and leaps toward the sky, Kiki.

A name so long that one might wonder if she could memorize it herself!

“Ki-Kiki. It’s cute…”

…The friends decided to just call it Kiki.

Meanwhile, Vulcan and Denver, who had been watching the noisy hatching of Roan and his friends, were conversing in low voices.

“……Professor. Is Darc really a first-year?”

“Yes.”

“Unbelievable…”

Well, let’s put aside the fact that he guessed the identities of the Sunrise Nest Butterfly and the Dream-Eating Thousand-Mile Horse.

Even though it was a holy beast so rare that Denver had never seen the real thing, he could make an effort to understand, considering Roan was from the Holy Palace where all kinds of holy beasts gathered.

But to distinguish between a Fruit-Ripening Ape and an Arbor Emperor Ape like that?

And when it was freshly hatched from an egg?

‘What is he, a holy beast biologist or something?’

Denver, the proud captain of the Acherandir Holy War Club, was also flabbergasted.

“We must recruit him into the Holy War Club, right?”

“Absolutely, Professor.”

At Vulcan’s question, Denver nodded determinedly.

Until now, he had thought Vulcan was just making a fuss, but now he realized they had been too gentle.

At this level, they should have kidnapped him using all their power during the club promotion period!

‘Ahem, not kidnap, recruit…’

Somehow, before he graduated, he would recruit that super rookie—no, nuclear bomb—of the Holy War world!

“By the way, Denver.”

“Yes, Professor?”

At Vulcan’s quiet call, Denver tilted his head.

“A Sunrise Nest Butterfly and a Dream-Eating Thousand-Mile Horse… Were those kinds of creatures originally included in the batch?”

“Uh…”

Even in Vulcan’s eyes, the holy beasts Roan’s friends had obtained were definitely unusual!

Denver hesitated for a moment and then said.

“I don’t know for sure, but didn’t the Richmond Merchant Guild probably throw in a few special ones?”

“Hmm…”

Vulcan pondered for a moment but soon nodded.

After all, if many good holy beasts hatched, it was a good thing for Acherandir anyway!

He then glanced at Roan’s incubator, which had not yet hatched.

‘Well, the main attraction hasn’t even come out yet.’

Meanwhile, deep in Dragon Street, Zorve was pleased as he thought about what would be happening at Percival Hall right about now.

‘If it’s Roan, he would have picked one of them.’

Zorve had painstakingly slipped in a few rare eggs for this year’s freshmen!

He hoped Roan would get one, but even if he did not, there was no problem.

The power of the Richmond Family was not merely at that level.

A rare holy beast egg was just a taste.

…Zorve had no idea that Vulcan had secretly slipped a divine beast egg to Roan.

***

Roan’s divine beast was almost the last to hatch.

Even when most of the holy beasts had hatched and were sharing their first communion with their owners, Roan’s incubator remained silent.

‘Well, it’s a divine beast…’

Roan could understand this much.

Normally, he might have felt a bit (?) jealous seeing his friends’ rare holy beasts hatch, but this time he felt nothing.

This was because he had a divine beast egg.

…In fact, if he envied other holy beasts while having pocketed a divine beast egg, one would have to seriously question the presence of his conscience.

[Is this guy really coming out today?]

The Abyss Dragon, which had initially lent a hand, claiming it would infuse its own energy, grumbled, seemingly bored now.

‘It will. It’s just taking a long time because it’s such an amazing creature.’

[Hmph, making a divine beast wait.]

‘You made me wait for quite a long time too.’

[I am an Abyss Dragon!]

Come to think of it, hadn’t the Abyss Dragon also hatched only when the ruins’ release of holy power was almost at its end?

At that moment,

Ding—

“Oh.”

“Roan’s is finished too!”

The light on Roan’s incubator turned on.

Holding their own holy beasts tightly in their arms, the friends rejoiced as if it were their own affair.

Since all three of their holy beasts had been born as remarkable creatures, they hoped Roan’s holy beast would be the same.

Meanwhile, even the students who had been hanging out in small groups gathered around him this time.

They put their arms around each other’s shoulders and shouted like this:

─ Wind Terrier! Ember Sparrow! Ground Lizard!

…All of them were species that Roan referred to as ‘trash holy beasts.’

Roan, who claimed to love divine and holy beasts, yet used terms like ‘trash holy beasts’!

‘It’s the unavoidable fate of a player who has to evaluate performance.’

Roan rationalized.

─ Honestly, if you have a conscience, you already got an Abyss Dragon, so take it easy!

When someone shouted this, everyone nodded with one mind.

They were truly Acherandir students, uniting and harmonizing in accordance with Hiloa’s teachings.

Although it was a problem that the thing they united and harmonized to do was cursing someone.

Of course, Roan was not even angry.

This was because he already knew very well what kind of creature would be born.

This was indeed the mindset of a true winner!

However, even though he knew, Roan hid his fluttering heart with effort and opened the incubator.

Pshhhhh—

─ Why is smoke coming out?

─ Is it a smoke holy beast?

─ Where would such a thing exist?

At the sight that was starkly different from the other students, everyone’s gaze focused even more.

The same went for Vulcan and Denver.

Just as everyone’s attention was directed toward Roan’s incubator.

Swoooosh—

“““???!?!?”””