Sometime later, within the vast wilderness.
"Hey man, don't you think you went a bit too far there?" Removing the black fabric covering their faces as they simultaneously let out a sigh of relief, the shorter man among the two could not help but glare at the man in front of him. "You're Rank 4 for crying out loud! Can't you stop yourself from being inclined to kill everything you fight against?"
"On top of that, you had me stall that other guy for longer than what we initially agreed upon!" the shorter man continued to berate him. In response, the tall man listened to the short man's words in silence. "I better get at least a quarter of the pay you're getting from this!"
"Fine." Surprisingly, rather than complain that he was being chewed out by the shorter man, the tall man decided to acquiesce to his words, causing the shorter man to do a double take, wondering if he had heard correctly.
Blinking a few times in slight surprise, the shorter man eventually let out a sigh as he looked at the man. "Forget it. It's not like I was serious anyway."
"But seriously though, what made you go so far that you even went and beat the shit out of the target?" Hearing the man's question, the tall man scratched his cheeks as he pondered over the best way to explain why.
"Well…" Eventually, the man found the words he was looking for as a grin appeared on the tall man's face. "What can I say? He got me excited."
Once again, the short man was taken aback by the tall man's words, looking at the man's face for a bit before redirecting his attention to the lower region of the man's body. With a hint of disgust, he responded, "Gross."
"Misconstruing my words as always." Seeing the short man's reaction to his reply, the tall man shook his head before sighing. "What I meant to say was… that target I fought earlier was the best fighter out of all the targets that we've tested."
"Really?" Of course, the short man found that hard to believe. "If you were to compare it to someone we've tested before, how does he stack up?"
"He's about as good as the one you were stalling earlier in terms of combat experience," said the tall man. "If he was at least Rank 2, he would've probably put up an actual fight against me."
"But at that point, he would've already been contacted by the Blacksmith Guild, no?" At that point, the short man lightly gasped in shock.
"The most terrifying part is that he isn't even peak Rank 1 yet. In fact, judging by the aura he was exuding, he was just Level 11." Nodding in agreement, the tall man continued. "In terms of overall talent, he's definitely on par with Hal."
"That good?" Hearing that, the short man finally believed in the tall man's words. After all, he wouldn't have been designated as the one stalling others, if not for the tall man's acuity for combat talent.
"In any case, we've done our job for today. Let's head to the nearest settlement, get some rest, and then send a recommendation letter to the Blacksmith Guild head." Feeling as if he had sufficiently explained the prowess of the target he had tested, the tall man stood up before heading towards a certain direction. Naturally, the short man soon followed suit.
"Wait… why would you send a recommendation letter to the head?" the short man could not help but ask as they ran. However, it did not take long for everything to click in his mind as he looked at the tall man with his mouth slightly agape. "Is he…?"
"Yeah." The tall man nodded. "Out of all the targets we've tested, Valyr is the most eligible."
"It's as if he's destined to become one of the Four Pillars."
…
Morning.
"Nngh…" Feeling as if the ground underneath him moved up and down, Valyr could not help but slowly open his eyes, the sight that greeted him being the ceiling of the carriage. Realizing where he was at, he quickly sat up, only to stop midway and lightly cry out in pain as his body ached all over.
"Oh, thank the heavens you're awake!" Just as he had lied down on the floor of the carriage once more, Valyr heard an audible sigh of relief coming from his left as the carriage gradually came to a halt. Not long after, Tristan appeared before him, his expression filled with worry. "How do you feel?"
"How do I… feel?" Valyr looked back at Tristan, a wry smile adorning his face as it soon contorted into an expression of pain. "How else would I feel? I feel like utter shit."
As he said this, he recalled everything that had happened last night, filling in the gaps to how he had appeared on the carriage. With great clarity, he could recall how one-sided the latter portion of the fight against his assailant was, with his only action being to cry out in pain as the man pummeled his body over and over again.
"Well, it would be surprising if you didn't." Hearing Valyr's words, Tristan bitterly smiled. "By the time I was able to come to your side, you were beaten to a bloody pulp. In fact, it's been an entire day since you fell unconscious."
"That long?" Slightly shocked, Valyr tried once more to sit up, only to feel pain as he did so once more. Thankfully, Tristan was there to aid him, allowing to sit upright as he gazed out of the carriage.
Seeing that the walls of Astarto Village was only quite a fair distance away from where they were, Valyr could not help but look at Tristan with a slightly apologetic expression. "It's been tough on you."
"Tough? If anything, that should apply to you," Tristan replied, thinking back to what had transpired last night. With that in mind, he could not help but have a slight frown. "Did you offend someone while we were at town?"
"I didn't." Valyr slowly shook his head.
"Then… why were we ambushed?" Responding to Valyr's words with another question, Tristan looked at the former's face, only to see genuine confusion on it.
"I… don't know." Valyr truly didn't know what to answer. If he did, he would have already told Tristan. However, the truth of the matter was that it was all sudden, even to him.
Hearing Valyr's response, Tristan eventually let out a long, exasperated sigh, wanting to know the reason why they were ambushed. Nevertheless, with Valyr being grievously injured from the fight, he decided to place the matter at the back of his head for now, telling the former to rest up as the carriage moved once more, returning to the village sometime later.
