As Dae finish recalling his past, he turns away and wipes the small tears in his eyes while Dom watches him sadly.
"I'm really sorry, Dae."
"It's not like it had anything to do with you… but…" Dae turns to Dom with a weak smile. "Thank you." Dom nods with a similar smile and Dae leans back with a long sigh. "After I buried them in the garden, I took our emergency funds and left our home like grandfather said."
Dae pauses to rub his face. "I wandered around aimlessly for a bit, trying to figure out what to do until my funds began to deplete… So about 2 weeks after I left my home, I took up a job as a pig farmer."
"Ew." Dom mumbled and Dae laughs.
"Yes. It was absolutely repulsive. I hated every second of it." Dae tightly clenches his fists with anger now in his eyes.
"Why should my family who did nothing wrong have to die? Why should that bastard live a normal life while I suffer like this? Those were the kinds of thoughts I had every single day… until about a week later, I couldn't take it anymore."
Dae looks up at the ceiling, his anger still palpable. "I couldn't abandon the pride of our family, my grandfather's legacy and most importantly… let that evil man walk away after what he did." He closes his eyes and calms down with a long sigh.
"So, I quit my job and continued my training. Luckily, since my father wasn't a genius swordsman like grandfather, he took his time to record and analyze the Thunder Sword Style in a book to help improve his skills."
"So that's what I always see you read every night." Dom commented and Dae nods as he opens his eyes before turning to Dom.
"That diary contains all 121 forms including the ones my grandfather invented. I've been using it to train my sword skills." Dae looks at the wall again. "I did a few more odd jobs to sustain myself until I met an old family friend who took me in. My goal was to get stronger while searching for Akito."
Dae sighs again as he rubs his head. "Unfortunately, as a young orphan with no influence or family name, finding him was impossible… So, I decided to join the one profession that will give a nobody like me that kind of power and influence."
"The Knights." Dom mumbled and Dae nods. "But didn't your grandfather say something about having enemies? Won't they come after you?"
"Just like you, I've been leaving details about my last name blank from official documents and you're the only other person I've ever told this to." Dae replied with a serious face before shrugging.
"Of course, by the time I gain authority in the knights, they will eventually find me, especially since I'm still using the same fighting style as my grandfather."
Dae's eyes suddenly darken. "But as long as it gets me closer to finding Akito, I don't care who comes after me." His voice had an ominous tone as he says this before turning to notice Dom's conflicted face.
Dae sighs again before looking at the ceiling. "Are you going to judge me too? Telling me that I shouldn't focus on revenge and follow my grandfather's last wish?"
"No." Dom said, drawing a curious look on Dae's face as Dom looks at the ceiling too. "We've both killed as part of our Academy training, right?" Dae nods.
Dom lets out a long breath before going on; "Since I was a kid, I always knew that some bad guys are just better off dead. And after hearing about this Akito guy, I think he qualifies."
"He does." Dae grumbled and Dom shrugs.
"It's like you said. I have nothing to do with your past and who knows… maybe if it had happened to Pops, I would have done the same thing. So, I have no right to judge you." Dom said before noticing Dae's surprised expression. "What?"
Dae shakes his head in disbelief. "I'm just shocked that you can be levelheaded like that."
Dom's brow twitches as an agitated look crosses his face. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I didn't mean it like that." Dae grumbled as he fights back a laugh while Dom glares at him… before a strange look suddenly crosses his face.
"Wait a minute." Dom said as he stares down at his bed with a hand on his chin. "Swordsman, Lightning magic, Hyeon Family, Blade King, the Great Fall?" Dom mumbled before turning to Dae with a gasp. "Hey. Is your grandfather by any chance-"
Dae nods, cutting Dom off whose mouth widens in shock. Dae folds his arms and closes his eyes with a somewhat proud smile on his face. "My Grandfather was Hyeon Jin. The Head Captain of the Royal Knight's Second Division and former Monarch."
"Are you fucking serious? He wasn't just any Monarch; he was the Emperor's right hand man!" The still unconscious Sam groan on his bed due to Dom's loud expression.
"Why don't you just announce it to the whole world next." Dae grumbled.
"So, you're seriously telling me that you're a descendant of one of the greatest knights in history?" Dom asked with a more quiet but still excited tone and Dae shrugs. "No fucking way."
Dae raises a brow at him. "Don't believe me?"
Dom folds his arms with a frown. "As much as I don't want to, it makes sense… Now that I actually think about it, some of your sword attacks and names does resemble the ones I used to read about when I was a kid. But the Blade King only uses one sword, right?"
"Yes." Dae said as he stares at his hands. "All Hyeon Swordsmen use a single sword. Because I wanted to surpass all of them, I decided to create my own fighting style."
"Let me guess, you thought twice the swords would make you twice the swordsman?" Dom asked with a smile.
To Dom's surprise, Dae laughs. "You're actually right." Dae smiles as he remembers his younger self.
"As a child, I thought wielding two swords would make me stronger. Of course, I quickly realized that using two swords was even harder, especially since I had to modify every single sword form to suit my dual wielding. But I was determined to make my own impression as a swordsman and now… it's my trademark."
Dae turns back to Dom and raises a brow at Dom's cheeky grin. "That's so dope. Maybe I should start using swords too. Since you're using 2, I'll use three swords."
Dae scoffs. "Where would you even keep the third one?"
Dom quickly picks up three of the flowers in the vase placed on the bed-stool with one in his mouth and the other two in his hands. "Three Sword Style, Form 4… Something Slash." He grumbled as he performs some terribly coordinated swings.
Dae shakes his head. "That's just impractical."
"You're impractical." Dom immediately grumbled as he drops the flowers and Dae laughs. As he did, Dom smiles at Dae who stops laughing once he notices the smile.
"What now?" Dae asked.
Dom's grin widens. "I'm just happy you finally opened up." Dom said and Dae's flinches a little, making Dom laugh. "If I had known a near death experience was what it would take, I might have done it 3 years ago."
As Dom laughs, Dae groans. "I regret this already." He grumbled before lying back down on his bed and covering himself with the blanket.
"Oh, come on. Don't be shy. We're basically brothers now." Dom chuckled.
"Good night, Dominic." Dae said from under the covers.
"Dom." Dom said, causing Dae to lower his blanket to give him a confused look. "Call me Dom. Hearing the full thing always sounds too formal. Besides, I only let my real friends call me that." Dae stares at Dom for a moment before turning his body away from him.
Even though that wasn't the response he wanted, Dom still smiles as he leans back on the bed, with folded arms behind his head while Dae buries his face in the bed sheets as he tries to hide his smile.
Meanwhile...…
Under the cover of night in the final exam forest field, Johan smokes as he causally walks through the quiet eerie forest with Sandra holding a lit lantern beside him.
"Not to complain, sir but we've been looking for hours and still haven't found anything." Sandra grumbled.
"Our young students barely escaped death by a mistake we could have prevented. I think a little stroll is the least we can do." Johan said as he lets out a smoke before pushing some bushes aside to pass through.
"I cross-checked the catalog 10 times already and judging by the surveillance log, the Reflezard wasn't among the recruited beasts. There was no way it could have snuck in." She commented.
Johan stops to push aside a bush, and his eyes narrowed at something on the ground some feet away. "There we go." He said as he walks forward, and Sandra follows before gasping once she saw the circular swirling pattern of hard soil isolated in the field of grass.
"A teleportation circle." Sandra mumbled in recognition and Johan takes out his cigarette before letting out some smoke as he crouches to examine it closer.
"Since there's no surveillance in here, there was no chance of us seeing the beast moved here. And judging by this location and timing, it's possible that it was transported here in the middle of the exam, rather than the start." Johan said as he stands back up, drops the cigarette to the ground and snuffs it out with his foot.
"Who would do this?" Sandra asked.
"I have a pretty good guess." Johan said with a distrustful look at Sandra who gasps in realization.
"You don't mean…"
Johan shrugs. "This land is owned by the Capital and thus, the Council. Even though we requested for it, they still have the power to sneak the beast in without us knowing."
"But I thought they wanted more knights? A Reflezard is an extremely dangerous beast. Many more recruits could have died." Sandra grumbled in anger.
Johan folds his arms. "You're correct but I don't think they sent it to kill the recruits as a whole… they were targeting just one recruit."
"But who would they want to kill so bad that they would happily risk decreasing the amount of recruits this year?" She asked and Johan hums as he looks around.
Judging by the timing, particular sector of the field they are currently in, the fact that Reflezards are known for hunting beings with high mana reserve and his personal experience with the Royal Council, there was only one student who came to his mind.
From his expression, Sandra knew that Johan had the answer.
"Who was their target, sir?" She asked, curiously.
Johan remains silent as he removes his cigarette and lets out some smoke. "It doesn't matter. What's done is done." Sandra frowns in disappointment while Johan turns to her with his usual neutral expression. "Tell the others to call off the search and bring some spatial specialists to investigate this circle."
Sandra nods as she pulls out a thick circular object from her jacket which she opens up, revealing a small circular mirror that distorts before producing the image of one of the trainers. As she relays the command, Johan turns back to the circle and narrows his eyes as a certain white-haired recruit crossed his mind.
"You better watch yourself, kid." Johan mumbled to himself as he stares at the circle a little more before walking away...