Chereads / He Who Survives / Chapter 2 - Chapter 2- Failure

Chapter 2 - Chapter 2- Failure

A few years past. In the back of a school, a small group of 15 year old kids is beating up a kid that is a year younger than them.

"Didn't I tell you to greet me whenever we met?" The ring leader of the group said, as he was mercilessly kicking the brown haired kid while he was down. The ring leader's name is Kristen Elward, son of a high ranking noble, whereas the brown haired kid is the child of a low ranking noble.

"I am not going to do that, as you are not a figure I respect."

The boy's voice was monotonous, as if he was uninterested in the very fact that he was getting beaten to death by a bunch of kids who obviously has too much time on their hands. That same boy apathetic boy is also our protagonist, Laplace Hanzworth.

Kristen glared at him for a second, and said "You are one persistent bastard aren't you?", he continued kicking Laplace, but this time it was harder than before.

"Why don't we add some spice into this? [Enhancement magic: Physical Boost]." A shield of light encased the boy's body. "Keep this in mind you little sh*t, next time, whenever you see me," the boy started gathering energy into one of his legs, and in a swift motion, the boy struck Laplace as hard as he could, causing Laplace's expressions to go dark as blood came gushing down his mouth. "You greet with me respect, got it filth?" Saying that, Kristen spat on Laplace's face and left to class.

"Think of this as a lesson from your superiors", he chuckled. To him it doesn't matter whether or not Laplace shows him respect, because that was just merely a convenient excuse he could use to beat Laplace up.

Laplace had lied there without moving for a few minutes, before getting up and checking his surroundings to see whether or not Kristen was still there. "He's gone? Great." He let out a sigh of relief. Kristen had broken one of Laplace legs, so he has no other option but to go to the school's infirmary.

As he slowly limped through the halls, all eye were on him. Whispers about him could be heard.

"He got beaten by Kristen again?"

"He can't even defend himself from Kristen, what a joke."

"Man, his sister must be embarrassed to have someone like him as a brother."

To him, the whispering were a bit unpleasant but he was too lazy to be bothered by them. As he limped closer to the infirmary, a woman in her late 30's walked out of the infirmary. She stood at the entrance and stretched for a bit before realizing that Laplace was right next to her.

"GOOD GOD, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?" She yelled, seeing as Laplace face was pale with blood coming out of his mouth and one of his legs visibly broken, any normal person would be shocked to see that he's still alive.

"Oh I'm fine, I just need some minor healing stones and I'll be good to go." Laplace calmly replied. "What do you mean you're fine?! One of you legs is snapped in god damn half!" The woman was panicking, she was worried since Laplace seemed unfazed by what had happened to him.

"Oh really, it's okay, I just need som-" Before Laplace could finish, the woman dragged him inside and forced him to lie on one of then beds there. Laplace tried getting up, but he was immediately restrained by the woman using magic.

'Wow, first time having chant-less magic used on me, this feels... unpleasant.' He thought to himself, not worried at the fact that he is currently being restrained against his will.

"Is the restraints really necessary?" He asked, the woman walked over with a bunch of high quality potions in her hands and said "I don't want you to run away mid treatment, not that you can run." She handed Laplace one of the potions in her hands.

"Wow way to insult someone who just wounded their own leg." Laplace said with a frown on his face. "That is way past the point of just being a "wound"." The woman started questioning whether or not Laplace was sane as no one would shrug off a fractured bone as a small wound.

He chugged down the potion and said "The things you say are hurting my feelings miss nurse.". The nurse looked at him with a look as if she's questioning whether or not she made the right choice healing him then said "First of all, it's Aria, second, I'm only speaking the truth, like who comes into a infirmary with a leg that looks like it's been trampled by several Tokasso's and expect not to be hit with the question of how they're still alive?"

"I have no idea what a Tokasso is but they sound cool, so I'll take that as a compliment." Laplace said with a small grin on his face. "That, that was not a-, y'know what? Never mind, I feel like I'm talking to something that doesn't run on normal logic." Aria sighed.

(Knock knock.)

Someone had knocked on the door. A 15 year old girl walked into the room and asked "Hey uh, I heard my brother is injured and he- OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR LEG?" Like Aria's, the 15 year girl's reaction was the same.

"Sweet lord what the hell happened to your leg Laplace?!" the girl said with a horrified expression, as Laplace's leg looked like it could snap in half in any second. "Oh it's just a small scratch no big deal sis, look it's already better than before." Laplace said with a carefree tone. "Why are you like this? What makes you think this is just a small scratch?" the girl yelled at him, worried at the fact that her brother can't tell the difference between a small scratch, and a fractured bone.

The girl's name is Laplace's older sister, Eve Hanzworth, who is rumored to be the one that is going to be appointed as the next head of the Hanzworth house rather than Laplace. Though the Hanzworths may be low ranking noble, they are still well respected as their forefathers were said to have liberated several towns and villages from invading kingdoms.

"Is his leg gonna be okay? He's not gonna be crippled right?" Eve asked with a concerned tone in her voice. Aria was examining Laplace to see what could have caused the injury this serious. "Well..." Aria was hesitant in answering "There are good news and bad news, good new is, your brother's leg is recovering really quickly even without the potion's help, bad news is somehow his leg's bone structure is becoming a bit messed up. The bone is recovering, but it's a bit bent over to the left."

"Oh it shouldn't be a problem, i could just snap it back in place." Laplace grabbed his bent leg, and proceeded to do what he said he would do: snap it back in place. Without showing a bit of hesitation, Laplace forcefully snapped his leg back into shape causing a loud cracking sound.

Aria and Eve watched in shock as Laplace just did what any sane person wouldn't do. Eve was frantically shoving potions down Laplace's throat as she was worried on how reckless Laplace could be with his own body.

"Would you stop doing stuff like this? What happens if you die?"

"Then I die."

"No shit, but what happens after that? What happens to us who needs to deal with the aftermath?"

For a split second Laplace frowned a bit, before going back to his usual carefree expression. "Ah, it's good to know someone cares about me." he said with a sad smile. "Yeah yeah I know this is family bonding time and all but your leg is healed now, so get out and go back to class." Aria said, having seen enough sh*t for one day.

"So... should we uhh... head to our class?" Laplace asked, not knowing whether he should go sleep inside a bush, or head back to class. Eve had just stared at him, sighed, then left for class. "Huh, guess I'll do the same then." He thought to himself.

Whilst returning back to class, he could vividly hear applause and cheers emanating from the outside arena. He was curious as currently there are no classes holding combat training, he went to see what the commotion was all about.

Arriving at the scene, all he could observe was a huge crowd standing near the entrance. Initially he tried asking what was happening, but he was promptly shoved away by one of the people that was watching, leaving him with no other options but to force his way through the crowd. Pushing past the crowd, he could see the front, and when he finally reached it his face engulfed by a stray fireball that was conjured by one of the guys who appeared to be contesting for superiority.

"DON'T STAND NEAR THE ARENA SCRUB!" One of the fighters yelled at Laplace. "Sh*t, are you okay over there?" The red haired fighter asked, worried for the well being of someone that had accidentally been shot by a stray conjured by him. Laplace only raised one of his arms up and signaled a thumbs up to him, to reassure him that he did not wound an onlooker.

After a few seconds Laplace realized that he had recognized that voice, he promptly sat up to see whether or not he was correct. And indeed it was, the wielder of the Hero's Brand and childhood friend of his: Alan Siegward. Alan was regarded as the hero that would save the world from the demon lord and bring peace to the continents when they found out that he has the Hero's Brand.

However, due to both his eyes and hair being of a deeper crimson shade, he was entitled the name 'Demon Child' and was treated accordingly by both the students and teachers as he shared similar bodily attributes with the first demon lord. Despite all that, Laplace still talked to Alan as he couldn't care less about social standings and what not. If anything, Laplace is entertained by the idea of having a demon as his friend, because of the fact that before being reincarnated into this world, he was commonly referred to as a demon that would murder a soldier even for the smallest mistakes.

In a swift motion, Alan struck down his opponent without breaking a sweat which concluded by him becoming the victor. The applaud of the crowd echoed in the arena when they witnessed the victory of the future hero. The sounds of cheering wasn't something that endeared Laplace as he always preferred a quiet environment. Thus he tried to leave, but soon was stopped in his way by none other than Alan.

"Laplace is that you?"

"Nope I'm just solid air."

"It is you!" Alan was extremely happy, as he was finally able to meet a friend he wasn't able talk to for a year or so due to him being occupied by his party members and hero training. Laplace on the other hand was worried he would be attacked by Alan's fans for being in a close relationship with Alan even though he is someone that could be considered as low as trash in the school's hierarchy.

"Uh yeah..." Laplace was stuttering, he didn't know what to say to Alan. "Oh look, demons are invading the school." He pointed towards the sky, trying to distract Alan so he could flee from this predicament.

"Where?" As soon as Alan turned around to look for the demons, Laplace ran through the hallways as fast and far as he could. Alan looked at the sky before for some time till realized that he was deceived.

Alan stood there for a bit looking dumbfounded as he tried to reason with the scenario before him. Then out of nowhere group of girls approached Alan, it was his party members. A blonde girl with a short stature and twin tails, a tall red haired girl carrying a greatsword, a blue haired priest, and a quite white haired swordmage.

"Ya did it boy!" the red haired girl said, wrapping one of her arms around Alan's neck.

"Who was that earlier?" the blonde haired girl asked, Alan with a smile on his face answered, "Just an old friend, but we'll save introductions later since our class will do a mock dungeon raid with their class. "

Meanwhile, as Laplace was sprinting through the hallways, he bumped into his homeroom teacher, a man with a tall and thin stature, with silver messy hair and eyes that looks like he hadn't slept in weeks. "Whadda hell do ya think ya doin? Get yer ass to the dungeon already." the man grumbled.

"Oh hey teach, what you doing out of class?" Laplace asked in a carefree tone. "Whaddya mean what am I doing out of class? We're havin a mock dungeon raid with the other class, so get yer ass movin to the dungeon." .

Laplace blankly stared at his homeroom teacher for a few minutes before asking "Wait, I wasn't told anything about mock dungeon raids today. I didn't even bring any equipment with me." Laplace sounded distressed, even if it is a mock dungeon, death is still a threat.

His teacher only grinned and said "I don't see any problems." he gripped Laplace's head and started chanting "[Spatial Magic: Relocation] " a sudden flash appeared, and Laplace was in front of his classmates.

His classmates were shocked to see something suddenly appear out of thin air, but quickly resumed to doing their own things when they realized it was Laplace.

Laplace suddenly felt a sharp pain run through the back of his head.

"Guess nowadays even worthless trash like you can use spatial magic huh?" it was none other than Kristen, this time he was clad out in light mithril armor and a hat that Laplace has deemed as an irradiated ice cream cone.

"Didn't I tell you to greet me whenever we meet?"

"Eh? But I don't wanna."

The crowd started giggling, even though Kristen looked very strong, he was considered the second weakest in class only being placed above Laplace. So in order to avoid getting shunned by the school, he has to assert dominance over the weakest student in order to prove his worth.

"Why you little-"

Kristen raised one of his fist to punch Laplace, but mid swing, it was promptly stopped by Alan. "I suggest you refrain from doing this." Kristen's face turned pale as Alan was gripping his wrist tightly, with visible anger on his face.