NOVEL NEXT Chapter 186: Entrance Test [II]
They both eyed the so-called protagonist of the game.
Sure, he was unreasonably handsome but that was all he had going for him.
Handsome packaging wrapped around a hollow interior.
Because when Azel focused a little more carefully, he felt… nothing.
No real pressure, no deep reserves of magical energy radiating off Reinhardt's body.
He wasn't some towering genius yet, not the Hero the world whispered about. Right now, he was painfully average.
'Right…' Azel thought, watching the boy's silver eyes narrow in indignation as he spiraled into a tantrum about how one was never supposed to touch the Hero of the world.
The irony almost made him laugh.
'This guy is weaker in the earlier parts of the game.'
It was funny, really.
In the original game, Reinhardt was supposed to stumble across a hidden relic here — a weapon so useless in the hands of anyone else it might as well have been a cursed trinket.
But in his hands, it became the catalyst that unlocked his so-called "Heroic Potential."
That was the moment he began to ascend.
Until then? He was just another guy that was born from a high bloodline.
Which made the entire situation in front of Azel all the more hilarious.
The grand savior of the world, lecturing and puffing his chest like a spoiled noble, when he barely had the power to match an apprentice.
'I never really noticed it when I played the game,' Azel thought dryly, 'but this guy sure has a shit personality.'
He shifted his gaze toward Rain.
Her face was calm, but her hands betrayed her. They were clenched tightly, trembling with the effort to keep her rage buried.
Her knuckles whitened, her nails nearly breaking the skin of her palms. Azel raised an eyebrow.
'I guess this is where she got it from.'
With a soft sigh, he decided this wasn't his fight.
He stepped back, folding his arms, content to let the two settle whatever history burned between them.
Reinhardt noticed his retreat almost immediately, and his gaze snapped back toward Rain. For a moment, the silver-eyed boy froze.
His indignation seemed to vanish, replaced with something uglier.
His eyes widened, drinking her in.
Rain stood poised in a white dress, modest and elegant, similar to the garb worn by the nuns of the Holy Church.
The soft fabric draped over her curves without hiding them, the neckline brushing the swell of her breasts, her long hair framing her sharp blue eyes.
She was radiant, dignified, and utterly untouchable.
To Reinhardt, she was perfection made flesh.
'I wonder how she would feel moaning under me,' Reinhardt thought shamelessly. His lips parted, his tongue brushing against his teeth as he nearly licked his lips.
The hunger in his eyes was unmistakable.
Then he met her gaze and flinched.
Rain's blue eyes burned like frozen fire, and for a brief, chilling second, Reinhardt truly believed he would die if he kept staring.
"Disgusting pervert," she spat, her voice cold and dripping with venom. "You're looking at me with those filthy eyes again."
"What?" Reinhardt blinked, feigning innocence. "You're beautiful."
He sounded almost bewildered, as though complimenting her should have erased her anger entirely.
Rain's face twisted with revulsion. Her arms wrapped around herself as though trying to shield her body from his gaze. Her voice trembled with rage.
"Even now, you are still the same. I can't believe I once loved you…" Her tone cracked, half a confession, half a curse. "I was so blind."
The words struck like a slap, but Reinhardt's pride refused to bend. His lips curled into an incredulous sneer.
"What are you spouting, woman?"
Rain's eyes sharpened, brimming with a fury only Azel could truly understand.
She wasn't speaking as the person she was now. She was speaking as someone who had lived this all before.
"In this life, perhaps even the next, Reinhardt!" her voice rose, "I will hate you until the day I die!" She declared, voice echoing through the clearing like a bell.
Reinhardt's smirk returned. He straightened, eyes gleaming with cruel amusement. Slowly, deliberately, he raised his hand.
"I don't understand your complaints," he said, each word was filled with arrogance. "What else are women for? Your only purpose is to spread your legs, bear children, and obey your betters."
His palm flared, raw mana bursting forth and coalescing into the shape of a blade. The air around it sizzled, and even Azel couldn't deny it: the brat had talent.
Well he was the protagonist.
'Oh?' Azel thought, his eyes narrowing with reluctant intrigue. 'Looks like the guy isn't completely useless. As much as I hate to admit it, he's a natural-born warrior.'
It was pretty hard to manifest a mana blade that easily for regular warriors.
Reinhardt leveled the glowing blade at Rain.
"Since you dare to insult me to my face," he declared, "I will strike you down instantly."
He surged forward, movements sharp and efficient like a predator lunging for prey.
Rain's fingers twitched, magic gathering at her fingertips.
A single spell hovered at the edge of release, it was a deadly one.
Her instincts screamed to kill him here, now, but her reason held her back. She couldn't afford the wrath of Reinhardt's family, not yet.
A wound, yes.
A corpse, no.
But she never got the chance.
A blur cut across the battlefield, faster than her eyes could follow. A single strike landed squarely in Reinhardt's stomach.
POP!
The sound was sickening.
Reinhardt's body was lifted from the ground, hurled backward like a rag doll. He smashed through a tree with explosive force, wood splintering and collapsing in a cloud of debris.
His body hit the dirt with a thunderous crash, rolling, tumbling, until finally it skidded to a halt in a mangled heap.
Azel's eyes flicked toward the ruin.
Reinhardt lay broken.
His body was a mess of blood and bone. One arm was gone entirely, torn from its socket. The other was shriveled, twisted like dried parchment.
His stomach gaped open, a crimson hole spilling rivers of blood into the dirt.
The Hero of the world, laid low in an instant.
'Meh.' Azel shrugged inwardly. 'Plot armor will probably kick in soon enough. He's not dying here. Not yet.'
His eyes slid back toward Rain, who stood trembling with lingering fury, her breath uneven.
Sure she was angry but enough was enough.
"You make it sound like you're living two lives or something," Azel said casually, breaking the tension.
His tone was dry as he stared her in the eyes. "I never knew you could hate someone you never even met."
In truth, he was already tired of their drama. Watching their cringey back-and-forth felt like listening to a badly written script come to life, like the start of some enemies-to-lovers thriller.
"O… Oh?" Rain muttered, her face turning pink.