I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 754 - Side Story 27: Hunter (3)

Pantos opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was a blue sky where the dark clouds had cleared.

The sky was so high and clear that its end was unknowable. In the quietness where there wasn't even a sound, Pantos realized he was floating gently on water.

Pantos recalled the scene right before he had lost consciousness. The last thing he saw was the form of the Elemental Lord opening its giant mouth wide. And his memory was cut off there.

"Did I lose?"

Pantos muttered in a deflated voice. He had broken through those countless checks and reached right before the Water Elemental Lord's nose. He had thrust his harpoon toward it, but ultimately failed.

Was it the recoil of his body cooling down after being pushed too hard for battle? Or was it still the price of failure for not catching his target?

His body was strangely devoid of strength. In a state of complete exhaustion, Pantos simply floated like duckweed on the quiet water.

"You awake?"

At that moment, a voice came from beside him. He didn't even have the strength to turn his head, so rolling just his eyes, he saw Rudger floating in the air, looking this way.

"Were you watching from there the whole time?" 

"I thought it was about time you got up. Since you were still just lying there even after regaining consciousness, I wondered if you were savoring this rare moment of leisure." 

"Hmph. If you want to mock me, go ahead and mock me."

Pantos had failed in his hunt. What value could there possibly be in a hunter who failed in his hunt?

"You've gotten quite sentimental since I last saw you. Why would I mock you?" 

"I attacked boldly but was defeated, wasn't I?" 

"If I were going to mock you, I would have mocked you from the time you endlessly challenged an insurmountable wall."

Rudger drew an arc at the corner of his mouth.

"I'm not in a position to mock someone like that, am I? Neither you, nor I." 

"......"

Pantos blankly looked up at the sky.

"Next time I'll definitely win." 

"Yeah. That's a good mindset. That friend says he's looking forward to it too."

That friend? Pantos finally felt something out of place.

Now that the fight was over, he was floating in the sea. This northern sea was famous for its fierce waves crashing about. It was a place where rough seas arose 365 days a year, but right now it was strangely calm.

Pantos sat up. For him, who had already reached a certain level, standing on water was nothing.

What Pantos saw was a giant whale staring intently at him. The Water Elemental Lord, the pinnacle of water possessing that enormous power and body was waiting on the calm sea surface for him to wake up.

"Why are you......?"

For Elemental Lords, weren't humans existences not even worth paying attention to? To Pantos who was puzzled, Rudger answered instead.

"He says his interest was piqued." 

"Interest? No, wait, can you even communicate?" 

"It's closer to sensing his will. You're the same, aren't you?"

It was as Rudger said. While fighting the Water Elemental Lord, Pantos could vaguely sense the Elemental Lord's emotions toward him.

Interest. Admiration. Competitive spirit. It meant that he treated Pantos not as someone to be ignored, but as a proper individual personality.

It was a fact he had deliberately forgotten or turned away from due to the exhilaration of battle.

"Right. That was it."

Pantos readily accepted this situation. When one of the strongest prey had acknowledged him, how could he ignore that?

'For an Elemental Lord to recognize a person as something equal to itself. That's quite surprising.'

The existence of Elemental Lords wasn't particularly a secret. People in the world, especially scholars, knew that spirits and elementals existed in this world.

Countless scholars and researchers had strived to reveal what kind of existence the spirits that spirit mages commanded were, and where they originated from.

Though the veil of that secret hadn't been completely lifted, the knowledge humanity had gained could not be called meager.

'But even those scholars gave up on daring to research the Elemental Lords.'

The pinnacle of spirits. The essence of nature. A living, moving natural disaster. That was an Elemental Lord.

Just as humans cannot dare face nature. Elemental Lords, who were nature itself, were a vast unknown that could not be uncovered by human knowledge.

Moreover, Elemental Lords were difficult to even confirm with the naked eye. Because they all existed only in the depths of nature, even skilled explorers were famous for being unlikely to encounter one even once in their lifetime.

If there was an Elemental Lord that could be seen most often, it would be the Water Elemental Lord here right now.

Because it would rise above the sea to enjoy sunbathing and spray sea fog. But even that was very occasional. Only fishermen who came out to the open sea to catch fish could barely witness its form if heaven's luck followed them.

'There was no reason to encounter each other, and even if they did encounter each other, Elemental Lords didn't take interest in humanity. From an Elemental Lord's perspective, humans and demi-humans living on the continent were just a part of it.'

Of course, there were always exceptions. Right away, there was Rudger, in whom the Earth Elemental Lord took interest. There was also a saint who made a contract with the Wind Elemental Lord.

But these two cases had the commonality of being related to divine power. Who created this world, and who scattered the seeds that became the source of the life forms born upon it.

Thinking about that, it was in a way natural for Elemental Lords to take interest in those two people.

But Pantos was different. He was just a beastman. Of course, he was excessively strong for an ordinary beastman, but still.

'But no matter how much they say he's a variant or whatever, Pantos' strength was seized by his own power. It's a realm he could reach because he had talent and trained to the extreme.'

Were there really no others throughout history who possessed strength equal to Pantos? Naturally, no matter how desperately Pantos attacked, there shouldn't have been any reason for an Elemental Lord to take interest.

But the Water Elemental Lord didn't do that.

Perhaps it was because his disposition was innately generous. Since water is also the source of life, one could see that the disposition of the Elemental Lord who is water itself could be very gentle.

Or perhaps Pantos' incomprehensible emotion of obsession had some effect on the Elemental Lord. An existence that received everyone's awe had encountered an unusual emotion for the first time.

Whatever it was, the fact that the Water Elemental Lord took interest in Pantos, an individual, remained unchanged.

Not as one among countless existences living on the continent. But recognizing him as a subject—a beastman hunter who didn't lose his spirit even against it.

From scholars' perspective, this would be mind-blowing.

Whether such an earth-shattering event happened or not, Pantos remained the same.

"I need to become stronger."

Rather than joy at being acknowledged, competitive spirit arose that he would definitely win next time.

The Water Elemental Lord departed. Its massive body submerged into the endless sea and disappeared, and the calm sea began to have massive waves crashing again.

Pantos remained until the end, watching the Water Elemental Lord disappear. Perhaps in his heart, the emotion of someday surpassing it was rippling.

"Let's go now. Since a guest came all this way, I should treat you."

Rudger followed Pantos to his dwelling.

It was a small cabin not far from the coast. The cabin built for temporary use had Pantos' touch in every detail. It was estimated that he had stayed here for quite a long time.

He had most things needed for living. In the midst of that, as if he hadn't neglected hunting, there were also things like rabbit and deer hides hanging on the walls here and there.

'Well, more eye-catching than that would be the taxidermied predator's head.'

The taxidermied form of a giant bear's head, estimated to have ruled this forest, was quite impressive.

Pantos skillfully lit a campfire and took out salted meat to prepare it.

"That's unexpected. You know how to cook?" 

"Of course. I have to wander the continent hunting prey. Preparing meals by myself is commonplace."

Pantos quickly grilled the prepared meat and sprinkled spices on it.

"Eat."

Taking the skewered grilled deer, Rudger looked at it with an admiring gaze.

Because the meat was well-grilled, juices were dripping down, and with the spices sprinkled on it, the smell was fantastic.

Even Rudger, who didn't particularly have a big appetite, found his appetite naturally stirred. Then how about the taste?

Rudger, who lightly took a bite, let out a groan. Not in a negative sense, but in a positive sense.

"It's funny to say this, but you could settle down somewhere and open a shop."

Having eaten many feasts while wandering the world, Rudger had considerable knowledge about cooking.

From meals at Theon, meals at the Imperial Palace, and even brief VIP treatment in the Kingdom of Yuta. He had received generous hospitality wherever he visited, and naturally had extensive knowledge and experience about gourmet food.

From Rudger's perspective, this meat was really fantastically grilled meat. Should it be called the extreme of basics? To experience this taste from roughly grilled meat without any other miscellaneous techniques.

However, even to Rudger's sincere praise, Pantos responded with a snort. Because for him, who had lived his entire life only for hunting, being good at cooking was not a compliment at all.

"As a hunter, when you catch prey, you must treat its byproducts with utmost care. This is just part of that process."

Of course, even though he said that, Pantos also preferred to eat delicious things if he was going to eat anyway.

Didn't he particularly like the chocolate the children gave him when he was in Leathervelk?

"More than that......"

Pantos looked at the side of Rudger with subtle eyes. There was a small turtle basking in the warmth of the campfire. Though it was called a small turtle, it was a 1.5m land tortoise.

Of course, compared to its true form, it was so small it wouldn't even amount to a speck. Pantos knew. That this turtle was an existence equal to the Water Elemental Lord he so wanted to hunt.

The problem was, he wondered why this one was here.

"Well, we somehow became close, I suppose."

Rudger could only say that. Actually, the Earth Elemental Lord unilaterally felt interest in this side and gave a lot of help.

Perhaps what worked most greatly on that impression was the effort to prevent the ley lines from bursting.

The Earth Elemental Lord read that the power dwelling within Rudger was not that of an ordinary human, and had been watching his movements closely since then.

And when Rudger fully opened his celestial gate, it must have clearly felt it. Because it saw one of its kin, the Fire Elemental Lord, get thoroughly beaten.

"Why? Are you interested?" 

"It's interesting that it's an existence of the same rank as the one I'm chasing, but not to that extent. My current goal is only that one."

Pantos' target was the Water Elemental Lord because he himself chose to do so. He wasn't indecisive enough to suddenly change his prey just because another one appeared now.

Moreover, the Water Elemental Lord had its own symbolism to Pantos. Because he was a beastman who instinctively shunned water, it was intended to overcome that aspect.

'Well, considering he already runs on water and swims well, he seems to have overcome it long ago.'

It was natural considering what beast's factor Pantos possessed. He was a polar bear beastman born with a mutant trait among bear beastmen.

"You're unexpectedly single-minded." 

"You've gained pointless jokes since I last saw you. Were you very lonely?" 

"Perhaps I was."

When Rudger readily agreed, Pantos glanced at him with surprised eyes. The appearance of Rudger smiling gently while looking at the campfire was quite distant from the man he knew.

Of course, his inner self was still the same, but the way of expression was different. Past Rudger didn't reveal his emotions outwardly well.

"You've changed. Quite a lot, too." 

"Is that so? I don't really know. But I'll take it as a compliment." 

"I'm not sure if changing is good."

Pantos bit into the fully grilled deer meat in one bite. Then he gulped down water from his canteen.

"I did anything to become stronger because that was my goal and my life. So I thought other things were meaningless."

When Arpa came looking for Pantos. Even when he responded to Rudger's call and entered Owens afterward. Even when he worked together with companions after that.

He followed because Rudger, who was stronger than himself, said so, but Pantos always had doubts.

Is this really the path to becoming stronger? Camaraderie, friendship, the heart that wants to protect— he thought all of that was unnecessary.

That would rather soften emotions. It would rust the sharp purpose that must pursue only strength.

To not rust, one had to keep applying heat and hammering. Only then could one sharpen the blade and pierce through prey. Pantos believed this without doubt.

"Is that why you didn't come find me even though you knew I returned?"

Rudger glanced sideways at the newspaper scattered around the campfire. The front page of the half-read newspaper had an article about Demon Lord Heathcliff written on it.

Pantos had known from before that Rudger had returned.

"Because it was hard to be certain. Whether that emotion was poison to me or not. Whether I should boldly cut it off if it really was poison." 

"So did you find out anything?" 

"There's one thing for certain."

Pantos smiled rarely and grilled one more piece of meat.

"Talking face to face like this is enjoyable."