As Dae finishes his recall, he turns away and wipes the tears in his eyes.
Dom watches him for a moment, his expression empathetic. "Damn, Dae. I'm really sorry."
Dae shakes his head. "It's not like it had anything to do with you… but…" He turns to Dom with a weak smile. "Thank you."
Dom nods, his expression lifted a little.
Dae sits up on his bed, a long sigh escaping his breath. "After I buried them in the garden." He said as he runs a hand over his head. "… I took our emergency funds and left our home."
His eyes glaze over, as his mind wanders back to that memory.
"I wandered around aimlessly for a bit, trying to figure out what to do… right until my funds began to deplete… So about 2 weeks after I left my home… I took up a job as a pig farmer."
Dom immediately frowns with disgust.
Dae laughs once he sees Dom's expression. "Yes. It was absolutely repulsive. I hated every second of it."
The smile on Dae's face quickly switches back to that of anger.
"Why should my family… good people who did nothing wrong have to die? Why should that… ingrate… live a normal life while I suffer like this?"
Dom raises a brow, intrigued by Dae's raw choice of words.
"Those were the kinds of thoughts I had every single day… 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 another sigh.
"Luckily, since my father wasn't a genius swordsman like my 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.
Dae nods as he opens his eyes and looks at Dom.
"That diary contains all 121 forms including the ones my grandfather invented. I did a few more odd jobs to sustain myself while I trained until I met an old family friend who took me in. My goal was to get stronger while searching for him."
He folds his arms with a frown on his face. "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 said.
Dae nods.
"But didn't your grandfather say something about having enemies? Won't they come after you?" Dom asked.
"Just like you, I've been leaving details about my last name blank in official documents." Dae said with a glance at Sam still clearly unconscious. "And other my guardian, you're the only other person I've ever told this to."
Dae then shrugs. "Of course, once I gain attention in the knights, they will eventually find me since I'm still using the same fighting style."
Dae's eyes suddenly darken.
"But as long as it gets me closer to finding him, I don't care who comes after me."
His voice holds an ominous tone that matched his malicious eyes which turn to find Dom giving him a conflicted stare.
Dae rolls his eyes and looks away with a now annoyed look on his face. "Are you going to judge me too? Telling me that I shouldn't focus on revenge and follow my grandfather's last wish?"
Dom takes a moment to think before responding; "No."
Dae turns to him, clearly confused by his response.
Dom looks up at the ceiling. "We've both killed as part of our Academy training, right?" He said, his tone matching his serious facial expression.
Dae nods.
Dom sits up and folds his arms as he goes on; "Since I was a kid, I always knew that some bad guys are just… better off dead. After hearing about this… Akito guy, I think he qualifies."
"He does." Dae said, his anger triggered.
Dom shrugs. "Besides, it's like you said. I have nothing to do with your past. Hell, who knows… maybe if it had happened to Pops, I would have done the same thing. I have no right to judge you."
The room suddenly goes silent. Curious, Dom turns only to find Dae staring at him in shock.
"What?" Dom asked.
Dae shakes his head in disbelief. "I've always thought of you as an impulsive muscle-brain. So, it's shocking that you can be levelheaded like that."
Dom's brow twitches. "What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, his expression now agitated.
"I didn't mean it like that." Dae said as he fights back a laugh.
Dom glares daggers at him… but he stops once he finally realizes something.
"Hold up." 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's eyes widen to their limits once he connects the dots.
"Hey. Is your grandfather by any chance…"
Dae nods.
Dom's mouth opens wide in shock while Dae closes his eyes with a somewhat proud smile on his face as he recalls the old man's face.
"My Grandfather was Hyeon Jin. The Head Captain of the Royal Knight's Second Division and former Monarch."
Dom slams a hand on his bedside table as he turns to sit on his bed's edge. "Are you fucking serious?!" He said, his loud voice mirroring his surprise. "He wasn't just any Monarch; he was the emperor's right hand man!"
The still unconscious Sam groan on his bed, most likely reacting to Dom's loud expression.
Dae sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. "Why don't you just announce it to the whole world next."
"So you're seriously telling me that you're a descendant of one of the greatest knights?" Dom asked with a more quiet but still excited tone and Dae shrugs. "No fucking way."
Dae raises a brow. "You don't believe me?"
Dom settles down with a frown on his face. "As much as I don't want to, it makes sense… Actually, now that I 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. But because I wanted to surpass all of them, I decided to create my own fighting style."
Dom smiles. "Let me guess, you thought twice the swords would make you twice the swordsman?"
Dae laughs. "You're actually right." He said as he remembers his younger self.
"As a child, I thought wielding two swords would make me stronger." He laughs a little. "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."
Dae's smile widens. "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 wide 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 nearby table. He places 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, sending flower petals flying around.
Dae rolls his eyes. "That's just impractical."
"You're impractical." Dom immediately retorted as he drops the flowers.
Dae laughs, the air now completely lifted of its previously dark tone. It is only until Dae notices Dom's once again cheeky smile that he stops laughing.
"What now?" Dae asked as he narrows his eyes at Dom's suspicious expression.
Dom's grin widens. "I'm just happy you finally opened up."
Dae flinches.
"If I had known a near death experience was what it would take, I would have done it 3 years ago." Dom said with a laugh.
Dae groans. "I regret this already." He grumbled before laying 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."
Dae lowers his blanket to give Dom a confused look.
"Call me Dom. Hearing the full thing always sounds too formal." Dom said with a shrug. "Besides, I only let my real friends call me that."
Dae stares at Dom for a moment and then turns his body away.
Even though that wasn't the response he wanted, Dom still smiles as he leans back on the bed, with his 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 Academy exam venue…
Johan smokes as he causally walks through the quiet eerie forest with Sandra holding a lit lantern beside him.
"Not to complain, sir…" Sandra said as she looks around while they walk. "… but we've been looking for hours and still haven't found anything."
"Our young students barely escaped death by a mistake we could have prevented." Johan said with a glance thrown in her direction. "I think a little stroll is the least we can do."
"I cross-checked the catalog 10 times already." She said as they push through some bushes. "… and judging by the surveillance log, the Reflezard wasn't among the recruited beasts. There was no way it could have snuck in."
Johan stops to push aside a branch, his eyes narrowed at something on the ground some feet away.
"There we go." He said as he moves to get a closer look.
Sandra follows, her eyes widened once she sees the circular swirling pattern of hard soil isolated in the field of grass.
"A teleportation circle." Sandra said in recognition.
Johan takes out his cigarette of his mouth, blows out some smoke and crouches to examine the circle.
"Since there's no surveillance in here, there was no chance of us seeing the beast moved here." He taps on the circle. "And judging by this location and the timing…" He raises his finger and points in a certain direction.
"…It was transported here in the middle of the exam, rather than the start." He added as he stands.
"Who would do this?" She asked.
He snuffs his cigarette under his boot with a glare fixed on the circle. "I have a pretty good guess."
She notices his expression and gasps in realization. "You don't mean…"
"This land is owned by the Capital and thus, the Council." He said as he turns to her. "Even though we requested for it, they still have the power to sneak the beast in without us knowing."
Sandra's expression quickly twists with anger. "But I thought they wanted more knights? A Reflezard is an extremely dangerous beast. Many more recruits could have died."
Johan folds his arms. "I don't think they sent it to kill the recruits as a whole… they were targeting just one recruit."
She raises a curious brow. "But who would they want to kill so bad that they would happily risk decreasing the amount of recruits this year?"
Johan hums as he takes a moment to look around.
He considers several factors, the timingof the summoning, the 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 Council. Once he connects the dots, there was only one student who came to mind.
Judging by his now serious expression, Sandra knew that Johan figured out the answer.
"Who was their target, sir?" She asked, curiously.
Johan remains silent for a moment and then turns away. "It doesn't matter. What's done is done."
Sandra frowns in disappointment while Johan stares at the circle.
"Tell the others to call off the search and bring some spatial specialists to investigate this circle." He said.
She 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 other soldiers.
As she relays the command, Johan mantains a steady gaze on the circle…
"You better watch yourself, kid." Johan whispered as he stares at the circle a little more before walking away...