Chapter: 51
Noah managed to survive in the brutal forest with Julianna’s help. Day by day, she shared body heat with the kids in a dark, damp cave, holding out as best as they could.
They hunted small monsters, and filled their famished bellies with the few mushrooms or fruits they could find.
Their precarious daily grind came crashing down when a couple of kids were attacked by monsters.
Nothing was chopped off, but the wounds were deep, making proper treatment a must. With no time to waste, Noah started bolting from the forest in search of a village. Sure, there was a risk of getting snatched up by slavers, but losing the kids by just sitting still didn’t sound so great either.
“There it is… a village!”
Maybe their desperate prayers made it to the heavens? Noah and her crew stumbled upon a quaint little village. They didn’t have any professional healers or priests, but there were plenty of hunters hanging around.
The village, sitting at the edge of the Forest of Death, was made up of folks scraping by by hunting monsters. However, make no mistake, it wasn’t a hub for the hardcore elite.
It was more like a gathering of wannabe strong people—not strong enough to thrive under the Demon King’s cruel rule, but too strong to just toss down their swords… basically, a bunch of middle-of-the-road fighters.
Since they were in the business of hunting monsters, they managed to patch up the kids’ wounds without too much fuss. But it came with a catch.
“You used our precious herbs, so you kids need to work off that debt in the village. You’re safe here, aren’t you?”
In exchange for healing, the village chief made the children labor for their keep. Well, they didn’t have other options, and living in a cave forever wasn’t on the agenda, so they accepted the chief’s “offer.”
And that’s how Noah and her crew ended up doing grunt work in the tiny village.
“Move it, move it!”
Without strength or parents, the kids were treated no better than slaves. They were able to snag whatever scraps the villagers left behind thrown to them like charity, and had to sleep in a cramped, animal pen-like place with barely a roof over their heads.
Still, it was way safer than the Forest of Death, so they grinded through each day, doing their best to survive.
Just when they thought they were getting used to it all, disaster struck.
“Noah… Noah, brother!”
“Let go!”
Noah dropped the heavy pile of firewood and dashed toward the scream. She found Lily held captive by one of the hunters while Nero was busy scratching the hunter’s wrist with sheer defiance.
Without missing a beat, Noah attacked the hunter head-on. Thanks to the training she had done with Julianna, she was able to take the hunter down like a pro.
‘Time to bail.’
While cradling a trembling Lily, Noah realized they couldn’t stick around any longer. She hid the unconscious hunter in the woods and snuck back into the village, swiping anything valuable and a few food items before making a run for it.
The chief never thought the kids would bolt into the Forest of Death, so he didn’t bother keeping watch. So, they managed to escape the village without any trouble.
After that, Noah got stronger as they roamed the Forest of Death—but boy, was she also getting tired. One by one, the kids’ injuries kept popping up, and sometimes, their lives were hanging by a thread.
Their bodies, including Noah’s, accumulated scars and bruises.
‘Lian…’
Whenever the horror of reality felt like it was about to smash her, she would think of Lian. Just picturing his kind smile and warm words gave her the strength to grit her teeth and rise again.
They persistently fought for their lives and finally managed to escape the Forest of Death entirely. The kids who survived the forest never hesitated to wield weapons anymore.
Hiding as best they could, they followed a caravan of merchants through the wilderness for days. The long line of merchants passed through a small fortress wall and into a big city. The kids squeezed into a small opening and wriggled in.
‘This place…!’
Noah recognized it instantly upon entering the city. This was the same city where she and Nero were once sold as slaves.
The name of the city was ‘Cardishian’, a huge den of underworld activity. It was a place where beggars and corpses littered the streets like summer bugs—pretty much a hangout spot for Noah and her crew to find a place to crash.
Thanks to the lack of security, they could stay in the city without any ID. Sure, they only managed to find a spot in a crummy alley filled with other beggars, but at least no one was looking to kill them or exploit them.
But that peaceful phase didn’t last long.
“They look fairly useful, don’t they?”
“One, two, three—this should cover our drink tab for a while!”
Poor little kids became easy targets in the back alleys. Noah pulled out her knife to protect them. The kids also sprang into action, utilizing the skills they had trained hard to develop.
Some got seriously hurt during the brawl. Noah clenched her teeth as she treated one of the injured kids with the little money they had.
‘I need strength.’
To safeguard herself and the others, she needed to bolster her power.
‘I can’t do this solo.’
Just ramping up her own strength wasn’t enough. They all needed to get stronger together as a united front.
While hustling through the alleys, Noah started picking up on “how the weak survive.”
After that, she began rescuing marginalized kids from the alleys. The adults there were already gone, deep down the rabbit hole, leaving behind children who still had a glimmer of hope for the future. Of course, her motives weren’t totally selfless.
‘Lian, if it were you, you’d make the same call, right?’
She was doing her best to emulate Lian’s selfless protection of the little ones.
The kids who survived the forest possessed various skills. They shared what they learned with the newcomers and trained together.
Noah, with her talent for leadership and swordplay, began teaching the kids in earnest, and their skills skyrocketed at lightning speed.
With the training, Noah quickly figured out the dynamics of the alley life. While watching the fights between the alley’s lowlifes, she cleverly found blind spots to hide.
Slowly but surely, Noah’s group began to grow in size.
One day, while desperately trying to survive, Noah spotted Lian in a newspaper dropped on the ground.
[The Emergence of a New Star Nobody Expected!]
It was a grand headline, but the actual article was tiny, crammed into a corner of the paper, not much bigger than her palm. There was a photo included, but it was so small that only someone with Noah’s keen eyes could pinpoint it was Lian.
Noah’s eyes bulged as she stared at the frayed newspaper.
‘Lian… you’re alive!’
She always believed he was alive, but life in the brutal alleys made her question, ‘What if, just maybe…?’ Her anxiety mixed with sheer joy.
‘Lian, you better believe I’m coming to save you!’
Noah immediately kicked off her investigation into the arenas. Being just a ragtag group of kids, gathering reliable info was tricky.
The best they could gather was that “there’s a white-haired slave boasting some wild skills.” Even that little tidbit sent Noah’s hopes soaring.
She wanted nothing more than to dash over to the arena and get Lian out, but she didn’t have the confidence to make it through to Jiso’s territory, not to mention the strength to rescue Lian.
Her ‘leader’ talent, cultivated by guiding the kids, quickly revealed the path she needed to take.
‘To shield Lian, this isn’t enough. I have to get stronger!’
She planned to expand her group and amp up each kid’s abilities. That way, they could create a safe haven to shield everyone, including Lian.
Noah began moving feverishly toward her goal. Julianna sensed Noah was acting a little off-kilter but didn’t dare call her out on it.
In a world this cruel, you had to be a little insane to survive.
Julianna thought that if Noah were going to go mad, it would be far happier to do it over a person than over intoxicants like blood or drugs.
No one tried to rein Noah in, so the weight of Lian grew heavier and heavier as time progressed.
Her life’s goal seemed to be all about ‘Lian’ at this point.
As time marched on, those around her caught on to Noah’s fixation on Lian. Those that caught on, much like Julianna, didn’t dare call her out.
“It’s risky around here, so when brother comes back, let’s keep him cooped up in a building as much as we can.”
“He might feel a bit claustrophobic, so how about we set up a garden?”
“Well, that means we’ll need a large building.”
With Noah, the leader always blabbering on about Lian, the kids couldn’t help but remember him and long for him. Instead of confronting Noah, they were inadvertently stoking the flames even further.
Plans for Lian’s confinement were stacking up nicely in the absence of him.
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