Chapter 38: Discovering the Blind Spot
Thor continued on his way up the stairs with a head full of slime, holding the box in his arms.
Perhaps breaking some illusion, he realized that he had successfully walked to the sixth floor of the East Tower, and to his left was the very wall of runes that had once made them newcomers look dizzy.
Even with Saul's current mental strength, he didn't dare to look at it much.
Somehow the blurred world became clear again, and it was only then that he noticed a slight stinging pain in his forehead.
It was probably because he had just bowed face to face and had exerted himself too much, causing his forehead to be bruised a bit as well.
"Hurting the enemy by a hundred and damaging yourself by 0.1, it's worth it."
He thought of another serious matter, "Gotta hurry back and take a shower, I wonder if it'll get infected."
But what was in his hand had to be taken to Kongsa-senpai first, Saul didn't want to sleep with a dead head in his arms.
Passing back through the passageway to the West Tower, he continued up the ramp.
The sixth to ninth floors were the activity areas for first level apprentices.
It was just after eight o'clock, and while the East Tower was already silent as a tomb, the West Tower was still quite lively.
Some people saw Saul, who was walking slowly up the stairs, and whispered.
Others noticed the yellow leather held in Saul's hand, and surveyed it with curious eyes, but did not dare to come forward because of Saul's reputation.
Saul ignored the gazes around him, step by step, walking steadily.
Leaving the area of the first level apprentices, the tenth floor where the second level apprentices were located returned to silence.
No one was loitering in the corridors, chatting, or sharing their feelings about the day's learning.
The doors of the dormitories here seemed to be in a tightly closed state regardless of day or night.
Saul looked slightly sideways.
He remembered what he saw when he was a servant and came over to clean the corridors.
The crying behind the door, the cluttered garbage, and the puddle of blood ...
What a puddle of blood that changed his fate.
However, before Saul could sigh more, there was a sudden soft sound from the front.
Saul immediately returned to his senses and looked up the ramp.
At the corner leading to the twelfth floor, where it was obscured by shadows, a pair of black leather boots poked out.
I don't know how long it had been standing there.
Saul didn't stop, just raised his guard and slowly stepped forward, and his eyes moved slowly upward from the leather boots.
The man standing around the corner slowly emerged into his true form.
It was Cid, who had been away from the tower for over a month.
He gazed wordlessly at Saul, his brow obscured.
But when Sol approached, the corners of his mouth suddenly lifted in an exaggerated icy arc again, "Don't you know how to say hello when you see your senior?"
"Good day senior." Sol honestly greeted him and even bowed slightly.
"..."
Cid didn't expect Saul to be so obedient, not like the kid he scared to the point of almost killing a month ago.
Saul finished his greeting, looked calm, and continued on his way up.
His face was a polite smile, but his mind was already on high alert.
The two were close, side by side, and about to miss ...
"Do you really think that your mentor cares about the death of a first level newcomer? As soon as someone more valuable appears, you are trash that can be discarded at any time."
Saul tilted his head sideways; he only came up to Cid's chest, and looking at the other man at that angle required a high chin.
Saul gave a good-natured smile, though he kept his tone respectful, not knowing what kind of bizarre image it would turn into with the addition of the slime on his head.
"Thank you for your guidance Senpai, I will endeavor to constantly improve my value."
Cid sneered, disdaining Saul's selfless statement.
"If talent could be made up for by hard work, there wouldn't be so many white bones of despair underfoot."
Sol didn't retort, he just gazed at Cid silently.
"Will he strike at me directly? It's not too late, but there's no one in front or behind me."
But the hardback didn't come out.
"Cid wouldn't dare make a move." Saul grew calmer. The other man paid no more attention to Saul, and with his hands in his jacket pockets, he took three steps down the stairs.
The mood seemed good.
Saul waited until Cid's figure had disappeared before turning to continue walking.
"He doesn't dare, or can't make a move on me." While walking, Saul pondered, "I should have thought of that, he failed to kill me in the library and followed up by sending Brown to harm me. Sid wanted me dead all along!"
"But he never made a direct move to kill me." Saul's eyes grew bright, "It couldn't have been because of the mentor. When I was a servant, it cost him almost nothing to kill me, but he still didn't make a move!"
"Could it be that Cid can't kill?"
This idea was immediately dismissed by Sol.
Cid had killed the little fat man who relied on bribes to get by in front of all the newcomers.
"Could it be that he ... can't kill me?"
The more Saul thought about it, the more he thought it was possible.
He glanced at the hardcover book in the afterglow, "Cid was looking for the diary, and that diary is the same as the hardcover book on my shoulder. He may not be trying to kill me to silence me. He may be trying to kill me to find this hardback book!"
Although this speculation was unbelievable, whimsical and unfounded, it could explain Sid's strange behavior all along.
He wanted Saul dead, but refused to do it himself.
Saul stopped and stared blankly at the small package in his hand, his consciousness having long since flown away.
Tonight was actually a perfect opportunity for Cid.
Saul held in his hand a forbiddingly exotically bizarre head with unknown slime hanging from it.
If Cid made a move to kill him, he could totally blame Saul's death on the bizarre events that had befallen him.
But Cid didn't make a move, and only taunted painlessly.
"You can't get a hardback book by killing its owner!"
These words popped into Sol's mind.
"If I'm not wrong, Sid knows this hardback very well. It's also not right ... If that's the case, why would he throw the hardcover book at my head?" Saul was a bit worried, the hardcover book was too mysterious, yet there was no self-introduction, so a lot of things could only rely on Saul to figure it out on his own.
"No matter what, no matter if Sid knows about the Hardcover Book's ability to foretell death, he and I are already immortal. At present, I'm not strong enough, so I can only see what I can do and ask for the blessing of my thighs in the meantime."
Saul resumed his stride upward.
"Cid will definitely strike again." Without taking two steps, Saul suddenly stopped again, "Something's not right, Sid's attitude today isn't right."
Cid was initially gloomy when he saw Saul today, but then his mood was pleasant.
He was already making a new move.
Saul recalled what Cid had just said.
"Do you really think that your mentor cares about the death of a level one newcomer? As long as someone more valuable appears, you are trash that can be discarded at any time."
Mentor, newcomer, more valuable person ...
Saul narrowed his eyes, "Sid went out this time to look for a newcomer ... He found a newcomer who can take over my corpse room job?"
If it wasn't for Mentor Katz sheltering Saul, there was no way Saul would have had a month's respite.
But the premise that Saul was sheltered was most likely because he was working for Mentor Kaz.
Mentor Katz didn't want his newly recruited beater to die so quickly.
But what if someone comes along who is even better suited for the corpse room job than Saul?
Mentor Katz may not insist on leaving the job to Saul.
Saul doesn't think Kaz has much of a mentor/student bond with him.
Especially when he became more and more skillful in handling corpses, this mentor didn't even come to the corpse room to guide him in his homework much anymore.
It wasn't realistic to expect his mentor to shelter him again because of old feelings.
Saul glanced down at the package in his hand and decided to quicken his pace to find the support he had just begged for.
I've given you a job to do, so I can't just see you die, right?
What's wrong with your brain?
...
Konsa wasn't very happy that Saul came knocking on her door.
As soon as she yanked Saul inside, she watched the boy stagger and fall to the ground, the eyeballs in the glass enclosure clinging to the edges one by one, red and bloodshot, seemingly ready to explode at any moment.
"Why did you come straight up here?"
(End of chapter)