the era of calamities-Chapter 85: Lousy timing

To cover a wide area, the candidates from the Bureau of Archives and Exploration had been scattered all along the coast in pairs.

When one of them heard their walkie-talkie buzz, a message came through:

"It’s time for hide and seek."

Their faces twisted; they knew exactly what that meant, having played this game before.

One of them grabbed the walkie-talkie, relaying the message with a trembling voice, like an emergency.

"That lunatic , he’s at it again."

He didn’t wait for a reply. The two candidates bolted, searching for hiding places.

One buried himself in the sand, while the other crouched in the shadow of a large rock.

"Until dawn. If he doesn’t find us before dawn, then we’ve won."

But as he whispered that, a voice rang out behind him.

"Tag. You’re it."

He shivered. Turning around, he found Sirius standing right beside him.

"You’ll only get half your ration today,"

Sirius told him before walking away, scanning the ground for signs of the other.

He hadn’t gone far before he noticed freshly disturbed sand.

"If you’re going to bury yourself, dig deeper. I can see your clothes from here."

Even though he’d been discovered, the candidate didn’t move.

"So that’s how you want to play," Sirius warned him.

"If I remember right, when you hunt crabs, you stab the sword into the sand to make them jump out. Maybe I should give it a try..."

At the threat, the candidate burst out of the sand, pleading.

Sirius didn’t flinch.

"I warned you. For you, today will be a day without rations."

The candidate seemed terrified at first, then his fear turned into anger and he shouted at Sirius.

"Who the hell do you think you are?"

His fist became wrapped in a gust of wind.

"Good reaction. For that, you’ll get half a ration."

Sirius spoke calmly, tilting his torso; he deflected the fist and swept the candidate’s legs with one move, sending him face-first into the sand.

Once he was down, Sirius sat on top of him, pinning him in place.

"That’s a decent reaction. But let me show you how to hit properly."

Sirius raised his hand; his strike came down with perfect force, making the candidate flinch yet his fist didn’t land. It sank into the sand instead.

"When you fight, you have to follow through."

After lecturing him, Sirius got up and walked away. He still had more candidates to find and terrorize.

---

Elsewhere, about a dozen candidates had gathered.

"I’ve had enough of that guy. Who does he think he is?"

"Yeah, just because he passed the exam doesn’t mean he has rights over us."

"Idiot. Who cares if he passed or not? What pisses me off is that he acts like he’s above us."

"Yeah."

"He’s probably just some spoiled kid with connections."

"No way, really..." one of them muttered.

The candidates’ rebellion had started because of the hide-and-seek game Sirius had imposed, pretending it was training.

They were already fed up with the drawn-out exam, the miserable living conditions, stripped of modern comforts and surviving only on canned food. Having someone act like their boss was the last straw.

"Well, well, guys, you’re fired up today."

A voice echoed from within the group, startling them.

"Conrad, is that you?" one asked. Even though his voice was there, they couldn’t see him.

The infamous Conrad became visible again before saying:

"You’re hot tonight. How about we take him out instead of just talking?"

"Kill him?" one candidate shuddered.

"Relax. What’s scaring you?" Conrad asked.

"It’s just... isn’t it forbidden to lay a hand on an enforcer?"

"Yeah, if the director finds out, we’re screwed."

"The director..." Conrad sneered before continuing.

"He doesn’t care in the slightest what happens here. We’ve been stuck here for over three days, and no one’s watching us except those two (Sirius and Ronel).

We kill him and blame it on a calamity attack. Nobody will know."

Conrad had that aura villains are made of the kind that convinced people like these candidates.

All he had to do was reassure them they had nothing to fear, and they accepted his plan.

"Yeah, once we’ve finished him, we’ll deal with the girl next."

"Heh, she made us stay awake three nights in a row. It’s about time she paid up, don’t you think?"

"Oh, she’ll pay, all right."

Conrad looked pleased with their excitement.

"First we take out the boy , he’s the real threat. Then the girl you can do whatever you want with her."

("Once I’ve gotten rid of those two, only that arrogant girl (Iris )will be left. Then I’ll be at the top of all the candidates.") Conrad thought.

While the group was plotting, none of them noticed that just a few meters away, standing in plain sight, San was watching with a tired expression.

("Guess I’ll be working overtime,") he muttered.

---

A little farther on, Sirius had just located his third team of candidates, still unaware of what was brewing.

---

At the same moment

On top of a cliff, Ronel lay stretched out, bored. With nothing else to do, she put her binoculars to her eyes and muttered to herself:

"Finally, they’re on the move. It was getting painfully dull just sitting here."

---

Sirius leaned back against a rock, glancing at his phone.

"Three hours, fifty-four minutes."

"I’ve barely got an hour left, and I’ve only managed to find half of them. They’ve gotten better."

The terrain around them offered little cover aside from the shadows of rocks or the beach itself. There weren’t many places to hide, which made Sirius’s search easier and the candidates’ hiding harder.

He sighed.

"All right, five minutes’ rest, then I’ll get back to it."

But as he was dozing off, a dagger flew toward him. He caught it by the tip before it could pierce his skull.

"So, you’re here. Makes my job easier," Sirius said as a group of candidates advanced, circling him, Conrad at their head.

"You’ve got it wrong. You’re the one making our job easier."

"Why?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.

("Did I really piss them off that badly? Not that it matters this will make for good combat practice.")

Of course, Sirius didn’t believe he was strong enough to defeat a dozen initiates alone.

It’s worth clarifying: not being able to beat them is different from not being able to kill them.

Conrad snapped his fingers.

"Surrender peacefully, and maybe we’ll spare you."

The candidates had fully surrounded Sirius.

He scratched his head as his phone vibrated.

"Hang on, I’ve got a call. Let me answer, then we can continue this conversation."

He pulled out his phone and put it to his ear. Ronel’s voice came from the other end.

But one candidate, unable to bear his arrogance, rushed at him with a dagger.

"Already?"

Sirius replied to Ronel as he leapt up, his knee smashing into the attacker’s chin.

"Tsk, lousy timing."