Chapter 3:

Chapter 3:

Scarlett explained in detail.

About the Academy’s admission criteria and benefits. The follow-up support measures and so on.

It was a topic he couldn’t help being excited about, but Abel hid his inner feelings well and listened till the end.

Soon after Scarlett was done giving him a general explanation about everything, she said this.

“That’s all for now. I’ll send someone to you tomorrow, so you should try to decide by then if possible.”

Though she made an admission offer so abruptly, Scarlett didn’t expect an immediate answer. So, she ended her explanation like that.

Abel lowered his head to give a polite response.

“Okay. Thank you for your consideration.”

“No need to thank me. Ah, it doesn’t just end with an admission offer. You also have to take a simple entrance exam.”

“Okay. Got it.”

With a slight nod as a response, Scarlett turned around and left the waiting room.

“What an overwhelming aura.”

Abel thought as he saw her leave through the door.

Scarlett Klein.

The head of the famous Family of Count Klein and one of the Kingdom’s Three Divines, with the nickname ‘Spear of Flame’.

Not to mention, she was the remarkable person who revived the reputation of her half-ruined family solely with her fame.

That was possible because Scarlett was a war hero and one of the best-skilled Gigant Riders.

‘But what’s even more important is that she’s one of the professors at the Academy.’

The academy’s senior professors can suggest candidates via ‘admission recommendations.’

So, Abel, who had no clear status or money, needed that recommendation in order to take the entrance exam.

‘And I got that suggestion from Scarlett.’

Despite a mandatory entrance exam, just receiving the offer was enough.

Abel, with his fists clenched tightly, had a smile on his face.

»————- ★ ————-«

A wooden wall with countless holes and an old, worn out roof.

There was a stinky, musty smell of rotten wood and an unidentifiable trace of another scent that would bring anyone great anguish,

This was Abel’s place.

Abel sat on the chair in the corner and looked around the shabby house he had grown attached to.

Though it may seem ridiculous, when he first came to stay here, the emotion he felt then was happiness even then, not anguish.

If this was Earth, he would’ve gotten sick of such a place by now, but here, one can only imagine his happiness to be sleeping anywhere other than the street.

“Abel.”

.

Abel, who was lost in his thoughts for quite a while, was brought to consciousness by the raspy voice of an old person.

“What’s with that lonesome expression on your face?”

When he turned his head, in the doorway that was broken a while ago by someone after drinking, he saw a familiar old man.

At a glance, it was noticeable that the old man was wearing a robe made of luxurious fabric with a blackwood cane in one hand.

All of it was attention-grabbing, from his snow-white hair to his green dizzy pupils, to the long white beard that reached his chest. His external appearance made him seem like a sage or graceful magician. However, that was far from reality.

“When did you get here?”

“What do you mean when? Right now. You punk. That’s not important. What I don’t understand is why this house only has one chair.”

“Please have a seat here.”

“Ei, just stay there.”

Waving his hand in a motion of ‘no’, the old man sat on Abel’s bed instead. He stared at him and spoke.

“So, are you leaving today?”

“Yes. I already told you that when you were drinking the day before yesterday.”

“You ‘already’ told me? As time goes by, your manners are just rotting away, huh.”

“Well, I would say this is just proof that I’ve followed in your highly dignified footsteps as my teacher.”

Hearing Abel’s polite tone with those words, the old man frowned.

He seemed to ponder whether or not to show Abel that the cane in his hand could quickly turn into a weapon.

However, he gave up that thought instantly and sighed before speaking.

“Haah. Keep up that attitude and you’ll be kicked out of there as well.”

“You’re worrying about me for no reason despite knowing what kind of a person I am.”

“Yeah. I know that well enough now. Tch. I should’ve recognized that from the first time I met you.”

“So that you could have made me your pupil sooner, huh.”

With a piercing gaze on Abel, the old man let out a giggle of laughter. Likewise, Abel also gave a smile.

“If it wasn’t for your monstrous synchronization ability, you would’ve been lonely and trapped in this little room until who knows when.”

“Yeah. Well.”

“This is not some random matter to just glide over. Your synchronization ability is way beyond the normal standard, and your talent when it comes to Gigant production are both extremely rare. To the extent that it makes me envious.”

In response to the serious tone of his words, Abel didn’t take it as a joke and simply nodded.

The old man’s name was Vulcanos.

Among the outstanding Gigant masters in several institutions, he was one of the best, and at the same time, he was also his teacher.

He was able to meet and work under Vulcanos thanks to a quest.

But the time he spent with him and the bond between the two was more real and substantial than any game quest.

In this world, Abel was able to settle down and survive all because of Vulcanos.

‘Without you, Mr. Vulcanos, I probably would’ve turned into a frozen corpse.’

Not just survival, Vulcanos helped him in a lot of other ways.

Without the training by Vulcanos, he couldn’t have even dreamed of making a perfectly functional Gigant using scrap parts.

“Hm.”

Vulcanos was hitting the ground with his cane making thumping sounds, after which he finally spoke up.

“If you’d have just asked me, I could’ve easily given you an ‘okay’ Gigant. Why didn’t you let go of that trashy Gigant till the end?”

It had been a year since he met Vulcanos, yet that was the first time he had asked that question.

He wondered if it was okay to speak out the thoughts he had held on to since he was leaving.

Just like the question that appeared for the first time, Abel also let his inner thoughts become words for the first time.

“Did I never tell you?”

“What?”

“When I become a famous Gigant rider in the future, I will officially become your client. But if I’ve accepted something like a Gigant from you before, I probably wouldn’t be able to complain about it.”

Vulcanos had this blank expression on his face and then suddenly burst into laughter.

“Right. That’s the kind of punk you are.”

Nodding his head, Vulcanos stood with the support of his cane.

“It won’t be easy. Still, I’ll be expecting you.”

“Okay. It won’t take long, though.”

“Sure. Also, take this.”

Vulcanos took something out of his inner pocket and threw it to Abel.

Abel reflexively caught it. It was a small dagger.

“Why are you throwing a lethal weap...”

“I made it from Rabbit’s parts.”

He stopped after hearing what Vulcanos said.Ñøv€l-B1n was the first platform to present this chapter.

“Either way, you made that Gigant with your own two hands. You kept saying you weren’t attached to it all, but it was pretty obvious.”

Abel was fiddling with the knife when he pointed to the jewel on top of its handle and asked a question.

“Is this... ... ‘that’?”

“Yeah. It’s the base material of the core. If you combine it in the secondary core, it can work as usual. Well. It’s only to keep a token of his memory.”

As Vulcanos’s explanation went on, Abel’s eyes turned redder and redder, and he let the dagger slide out of his hand.

The dagger was in a leather sheath, and a rabbit-shaped engraving was on its handle.

Rabbit.

After falling into this strange world, he had something entirely “his own” for the first time and probably will remember that moment throughout his lifetime.

Abel spoke while putting the dagger in its sheath.

“...Thank you.”

At that moment.

Tap, tap-

A woman with a familiar face walked up to Abel and the other boys.

Only then did Abel take his eyes off Milles and turn his head towards the approaching woman.

Scarlett, the Head of the Klein Family.

After glancing through the boys, Scarlett spoke up.

“Good, you’re all here in one piece.”

She quickly continued before giving anyone a chance to speak.

“Though I’ve already given a simple explanation, I’ll repeat it. The person to get the recommendation to join the academy will only be one of you. And this is the selection process for that.”

Once she explained that point, Scarlett looked sideways, and the knight standing there continued the explanation.

“Now, your task is to ride Milles.”

Hearing that, the children’s pupils dilated with excitement. It was as if they hadn’t expected at all that they would be riding it.

‘As expected.’

That is, of course, excluding Abel.

The knight spoke further with the same composed tone.

His calm manner implied he thought it was not a complicated ordeal.

“The one who gets on that Gigant and lasts for the longest time gets the recommendation.”

Yet the actual words he spoke were incomparably cruel.

Everyone knew this because all of them were interested in Gigants and had enough abilities to be selected here.

How difficult it would be to get on Milles.

Despite noticing the reaction of those young kids, the knight connected his words with the same disinterested tone.

“Now, get started right away.”

Scarlett had already stepped aside, and the knight, in her stead, led the young boys.

On the other side.

The knight glanced at the young boys following them and felt a sense of cynicism in his mind.

Using one’s common sense, it was explicit that this test was a brutal measure to select one of these boys who lacked experience.

Among them, there wasn’t a single boy who had tried boarding a Milles grade Gigant.

‘Would they be able to operate it?’

And let’s say they manage to operate it. Was it even possible for them to last for more than one second?

The knight had absolute trust in Scarlett, yet the impractical and unreasonable demand that this test placed on the kids slightly shook that belief of his.

Although the chosen candidates had high synchronization ratios, riding a Milles depended entirely on their experience.

However, in the end, the loyal knight didn’t articulate those thoughts.

Soon after reaching in front of Milles, the knight indifferently said.

“Is there someone who’d like to try first?”

Everyone’s expression stiffened upon hearing those words.

It was a normal reaction considering they knew what it meant to get on Milles.

While casually preparing for the test, the knight was about to say something.

But, suddenly.

“I would like to try first.”

There was a boy with an abnormal reaction.

The knight glanced at the boy coming forward with his hand raised up.

Black hair with black eyes.

His build wasn’t as big as the other candidates, but with his face that screamed his curiosity and confidence, he was definitely someone who left an impression.

The knight said to the boy, Abel.

“Okay.”

There wasn’t really a reason to stop him since he volunteered.

While wishing that Abel would give up before he got hurt, the knight prepared for him to get on the Gigant.

Milles was on the ground, in a position that made it easy to get in, but with Abel’s relatively petite body, it wouldn’t be a breeze.

Yet, without someone’s assistance, Abel slid right into the cockpit with an agile movement.

‘I hope he doesn’t hurt himself.’

Thinking that, the knight had his eyes in Abel’s direction, who was now settled down in his spot.

It wasn’t just him. The truth was that not a single person there believed that Abel could ride Milles properly.

Right then.

Inside the cockpit, Abel was busy hiding his fascination.

It was vivid that the cockpit was made with remarkable techniques and technology, which caught his attention.

But more than anything, the core placed right in the center aroused his admiration the most.

‘This is Milles’s core.’

Its enormity was unparalleled as against Rabbit’s core.

‘This is not the right time for this.’

A moment of admiration would have to do for now.

Taking deep breaths, Abel gradually placed both hands on the core.

This was his first time riding Milles, but he already knew what to do next.

First, he squeezed out what little magical abilities he possessed and pushed into the core.

Whoong-!

In response to Abel’s magic, with a frightening vibration, the core lit up with a bright light, and at the same time, the magic absorbed by the core spread throughout the entire body and then flowed right back to Abel, all within an instant.

“Hm!”

Along with the hit of a dizzying spell, a range of emotions suddenly started to take over Abel.

The sensation he felt could be described as if a child of three- or a four-year-old child was suddenly in an adult’s muscular and sturdy body.

Mmmmmmm-!

On the other hand, accompanied by the vibration, the surprise was visible on a few faces as soon as Milles started operating.

Whirrmm-!

If the knight operated, or at the least, a cadet rider was operating it, it wouldn’t be a matter of astonishment.

However, the one in the cockpit was an inexperienced boy who had never once in his life gotten on Milles.

“Is-Is that really...?”

“No way, how...”

Even experienced knights couldn’t conceal their surprise and started mumbling to themselves.

But ‘that’ was just the beginning.

“Ack-!”

Abel kept his teeth clenched because of the constant dizziness and headache that tormented him greatly.

To move the Gigant, his ‘thoughts’ were of tremendous significance.

Because of the pain, his face was pale white, and he could not do anything.

So, Abel envisioned an image in his mind.

A scene from a comic he enjoyed reading when he was young.

The sight of a hero standing tall despite his pain and struggle.

Thud-!

Both of the Gigant’s hands touched the ground. And from there, his gigantic upper body slowly rose.

“Urgh!”

Abel didn’t stop there and focused on an even clearer image in his mind.

The sight of the hero taking off, throwing away the heavy chains, and proudly rising to his feet popped up.

And the Gigant reacted to the intent behind it.

Whoong-!

With heavy vibrations reverberating through the ground, those standing around with their mouths wide open in surprise lost their balance and stumbled.

Abel noticed how everyone was looking up at him as his line of sight rose higher.

Whoong-!

Thus, when the giant stood tall with his feet on the ground, imagination transformed into reality, and the name ‘Abel’ got imprinted on every person standing there.

[To be continued.]