Chapter 38 Hanging

Reeve was hanging on the cliff, being held only by Josiah’s hand.

“Don’t let go!! Please, pull me up!!” Reeve repeatedly shouted those words in a desperate manner.

“You sound way less cocky when you’re on the verge of your life, huh?”

“Argh! My arm is getting numb!”

“Don’t you dare let go you son of a…”

It was somewhat fun seeing Reeve’s eyes widen that much for some reason.

‘Stupid aristocrat. What do you think would happen to me if they knew some nine-year-old kid killed the nephew of the lieutenant during the final exam? Technically I’m allowed to, but in practice…’ Josiah thought.

Still… The weight was really too much for Josiah to deal with.

It’s true, he had lifted huge boulders for Lenny’s cave in the forest. He had lifted stone tiles for an entire morning to help with the wall… But he always distributed the wight over all the muscles of his body. He never had to lift something from such an awkward angle using only one of his arms like that before.

‘I know! I’m going to use the rapier!’ Josiah thought.

He purposely always let the rapier tied around his belt in such a manner he could stab himself with its tip if he moved the waist in a certain way. Being stabbed by the rapier enhanced his blood flow in a way Thomas told him not to do. But sometimes there’s no other answer.

Josiah started moving his body to try and get stabbed by his own rapier, but it was making him balance his hand.

“Hey, what are you doing!?”

“Shut up! Just stay still!”

The attempts actually made Reeve slide even more, causing Josiah to grab him on an even more awkward angle.

“Sh*t! I’m gonna fall you son of a b*tch!”

When Josiah finally managed to use the power of his rapier, all the extra strength had to be used just to endure all of Reeve’s weight on the upper part of his palm.

“Damn it… I can’t… Help! HELP!” Josiah started screaming for someone else to hear.

He looked around, turning his head the most he could from that angle.

‘There’s no on around here. Everybody must be too busy dealing with the mountains, and we are here… Should I just releas…’ “Hey! What are you doing!?”

Josiah felt Reeve trying to pull Josiah down.

“Use your power to nail your legs on the dirt. I’m going to use you as a rope and climb up.”

“Are you crazy!? You’re going to drag me down! We’re both gonna fall!”

“Stand still, damn it! Use your sword to make a pole on the ground or something.”

“Shut up! I’m going to let you fall, you…”

“You two seem to be in a lot of trouble…”

Josiah and Reeve turned their heads to the third voice in surprise.

It was Watt.

He was climbing up the path. They could see his head as he was approaching.

Watt approached in with a smartass smirk on his face.

“C’mon, Watt. Don’t just keep standing there!” Josiah shouted.

“I know… I know.”



It didn’t take long for the grown Watt to help to pull them both.

“Phew, that was close,” Josiah said while spinning his arm to try making the circulation normal again.

“What happened? I leave my eyes for a sec and you two are enticed by the water like that.” Watt asked.

Josiah did a brief pause before ‘explaining’:

“…Nothing. Reeve just slipped. I happened to be nearby so I helped. Ain’t that right?” Josiah looked at Reeve with a frown.

“Yeah… That’s right.”

“Hey…” Watt asked Josiah: “by any chance, do you want to team up? We separated earlier on because I figured we are now competitors, but since they allow 30 people in… I think it’s better to work together. Plus, I can save your skin if you ever slip to the cliffside again.”

“Sure! That sounds great.”

“Alright, come here. I found a nice place. You coming as well…?” Watt looked at Reeve.

“No… I’m good.”

“Ok then. Good luck.”

The duo parted ways with Reeve, who stood behind in that same spot. Josiah and Watt began descending the trail where Watt came from.

“What happened to your body?” Josiah asked.

“I got attacked by some monsters. It’s hard to deal with them on your own. Another reason we’d want to stay together in this haha.”

‘It’d make sense they’d put people against each other in an environment where teamwork is the key as an exam phase. The army ‘is’ about working as a team, after all…’ Josiah considered.

“Really, thanks a lot! It’s a miracle that you showed up to help us at that exact time. Five more minutes and my arm would cease to respond.”

“Oh, that? No problem, but it was not a miracle, sorry.”

“Huh?”

Watt stopped walking and looked for something in the front pocket of his uniform.

“Here.” He showed Josiah a pack of little metal needles. He placed one above Josiah’s hand.

“What’s this? Bloodbound power…?”

“Yeah. I dropped this from a creature I slew in a camp a year and a half ago. These things work like this: I spike someone with one of these, causing blood to run off. Then the thing will pinpoint for me the exact location of the person it has stabbed. I can feel in my blood whether the person is far or close by.”

Josiah’s jaw fell down as he got speechless. He wanted to say ‘Wow that’s so cool!’ but he also wanted to say ‘Hey! Were you spying on me this whole time!?’

“Since we’re placed against each other I figured it’d be nice to keep track of some of the other people in the team, sorry. But turns out it was for the best, heh?”

“Yeah…”

They resumed following the path.

Not very far from there, the two soldiers reached the spot Wat was talking about:

“Here.”

“…?”

Josiah was expecting an actual place, like a cavern, or some tree or something, but it was literally the middle of the path. It didn’t end or anything. The trail kept going down.

“What about here?”

“See that branch of the other mountain over there? It’s awfully close. It’s almost like we can reach there.”

Josiah stopped to gaze at the closest mountain.

“Now that you mention it…”

“That’s the reason why I went after you. We need two to make this work.”

‘Hey! Here I was thinking you were a lifesaver but you were just needing me after all!’ Josiah thought.

“Let’s do this. I happened to have brought some rope from the camp. But I need someone or something to be there on the other side to tie it up. I thought: Maybe I can wrap a long sword with the rope and use it as a stick.”

“My sword!?”

“Yours and mine. We can place my sword here with one end of the rope and yours on the other end.”

“Great idea, but… Who’s going to place my sword on the floor? Seems like a job for someone who is already on the other side.”

“That’s where you come in. I heard your rapier gives you strength. Can’t you toss your sword to make it pierce the floor over there? After we tie the rope in?”

“That is possible, but… at my level… It shouldn’t pierce strong enough to support a person crossing on the rope. I think any strong wind would blow the sword out of the floor.”

“That’s perfect! We do that, and then I just climb up and toss one of those boulders above the sword, to bury deeper on the floor.”

Josiah still wasn’t fully convinced.

“But… What if you miss and kick the sword out and it falls to the side on the floor? Who’s gonna get it then?”

“Huh… We could just pull it with the rope and try again...”

“Oh! That’s right! Haha!”



They tried the plan. First, they tied the rope to Josiah’s sword and placed the other end on Watt’s sword, in their mountain. Josiah used his bloodbound rapier power to enhance his toss and got it on his third attempt.

He then waited near their end of the rope and waited Watt throw a couple of boulders from above, trying to aim for the sword, and got them both right in the first time. In the end, they had a rope they could use to cross from one mountain to another.

“Heeeeh! Told ya! My plans always work!”

“I’m more impressed with your accuracy. Isn’t it hard to throw the stones straight to the spot all the way from above there?”

“Heh, don’t underestimate my aim.”

On the rest of the day, Watt and Josiah kept finding the best spots for forming bridges and getting closer to the destination, by repeating the same process. Because of Watt’s rope and the duo’s teamwork they were advancing very quickly to the central mountain of agarimanite.