Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 503: The Prince’s Future Paths

The hand-to-hand combat class finally came to an end after nearly five relentless hours of endless drills. Despite the smiles and easygoing grins Instructor Jude constantly wore on his face, which made him appear like a jovial and simple person at first glance, that impression was often deceptively misleading because when it came to training and hand-to-hand class sessions, Asher suspected the man was nothing short of a demon, as he pushed everyone to the very edge, to their absolute limits, as though he sought to break them apart completely and then painstakingly rebuild them from within.

Asher groaned softly as he walked down the open space, and despite his ridiculous talent and naturally refined physique, he still felt sore all over his body as every muscle ached from the merciless drills he had endured, and this was not even the first time he had been through this exhausting routine.

This was simply how Instructor Jude’s class always went, leaving everyone feeling half-dead despite technically still being alive, their bodies heavy, their breaths uneven, and their pride thoroughly battered.

Asher sighed, his steps silent as always, controlled and measured like a phantom drifting through the halls, the next class would be coming soon, and the Star Academy seemed considerate enough to structure things properly. They seemed to understand Instructor Jude’s brutal methods intimately, as there was always an hour or two of free time after his class before the next one began, almost as if the schedule itself acknowledged that anything less would result in students collapsing on the spot from sheer exhaustion.

Asher thought about the next class, which was the Astra Manipulation class taught by Instructor Melissa, and at the very least, he wouldn’t come out of that one with muscle aches or trembling limbs. Asher, who normally enjoyed training and drills by pushing himself forward every single day with a quiet yet stubborn determination, strangely seemed not to like it when it was someone else doing the pushing instead, perhaps because it stripped him of control and forced him into a pace he did not personally dictate.

Many students rushed back to their rooms to get some rest and reset themselves, their footsteps hurried and unsteady, knowing they should recover within an hour since nobody here was exactly a normal person by any reasonable standard. Asher could feel the gazes on him as he walked, some of them lingering, some subtle, some blatantly obvious, many still amazed by his earlier display of winning against sixty percent of the class without appearing strained or desperate.

They couldn’t help but wonder if the entire one hundred percent had been present whether it would have changed anything at all, whether the outcome would remain the same or finally humble him. Although they asked this question among themselves in hushed whispers and quiet debates, each of them already knew deep within their hearts that it wouldn’t, and that realization only made the gap between them feel even wider.

Asher’s eyes shifted toward Vaelric Lux Vanthelmor, who was walking as though he wasn’t fully focused on this current reality, his gaze distant and unfixed, like someone lost within a storm of his own thoughts. Asher could more or less tell what the Prince was thinking and going through without even needing to ask, because disappointment had a very distinct aura that clung to a person like invisible chains.

’He better get over it soon, after all, even Ryaen Silvershade can defeat him,’ he thought to himself as he stopped staring at the Prince. Asher, who had read far too many novels in his previous life, couldn’t help but wonder which development path the Prince would take, because stories had taught him that prideful nobles rarely chose the calm or rational route when their status was threatened.

Would he give in to his own weakness and become a villain, swallowed entirely by madness and resentment, perhaps joining hands with the other side and conspiring to have the Star Academy attacked from within like some tragic antagonist? After all, if he couldn’t rule the class as rank one and the strongest student, he might as well just attempt to wipe everything and everyone out, dragging the world down with him out of spite and fractured pride.

Then during that time, the Prince would probably attack him, Asher, after gaining some ridiculous power boost after signing a soul-selling deal or contract with some Rank 10 or Rank 9 Emovira, trading his future and humanity for fleeting strength like so many foolish characters Asher had once mocked while reading.

Or would the Prince simply break out of his shell and finally realize that there was always someone better, someone stronger, someone higher, and would he stare at the Sun one day and realize how beautiful it was and finally stop obsessing over meaningless comparisons and hollow pride?

Asher himself didn’t believe he himself was the most talented person within Crymora, within the Empire of this generation perhaps, sure, but throughout the entire world, he didn’t dare believe it for even a second.

To Asher, there was always someone better, someone smarter, someone more monstrous. Just because he reincarnated and obtained a system didn’t magically mean the planet revolved around him as though he were the sun that Crymora orbited around, and that kind of thinking was precisely how people became arrogant fools who died early.

Asher shook his head the next moment as he decided to stop thinking too much, realizing he was letting the novels he had read in his past life as Ethan influence him into overthinking the Prince’s actions and projecting fictional tropes onto reality.

’I wonder how the Emperor would react,’ Asher mused to himself as he walked, because he didn’t dare believe someone as cunning and calculating as the Emperor, who could manipulate memories as easily as breathing, didn’t have spies within the Separate Dimension.

The man didn’t even need to plant them in advance, he only needed to visit here once for whatever absurd reason he could fabricate and simply turn someone within the Separate Dimension into a puppet of his, rewriting their loyalty like scribbling over old ink.

’Will he send someone to kill me in the middle of the night?’ Asher mused calmly as he continued walking with steady steps, ’well, if he wanted that, he could have done that already,’ he thought to himself, but again, all his thoughts were based on the assumption that the Emperor even had a puppet placed nearby.

’Urgh, I’m thinking too much again, I guess it’s because of all the free time I have on my hands,’ Asher sighed quietly to himself as he walked, ’I just have to be done with classes in a few days and begin solo missions,’ he thought to himself, already anticipating the freedom and solitude that would come with independent assignments.

Although he could have simply gone to the compulsory classes like the Weapon Mastery class, the hand-to-hand combat class, and the Astra Manipulation class, as they were the only ones that deducted points as penalties for missing attendance, Asher felt it would be wrong to ignore the other instructors simply because they held no direct power over his point balance, as it felt subtly disrespectful and unnecessarily arrogant.

At the end of the day, he would just show his face and vanish into the Training Facility Building once he accumulated another bulk of points, quietly grinding away at his own pace like he always did, preferring solitude over pointless chatter.

’Speaking of points, I have about one thousand eight hundred points now,’ he thought to himself, and seemingly tired of walking, he vanished from his spot as he activated Virelass’ Position Marker and disappeared instantly, teleporting directly to his room as he intended to rest there briefly before the next class began, allowing his exhausted body a short but well-earned reprieve.