"What!? Does this mean... father!"
Heretic. The one who goes against the gods. In a world where gods are real, this would be no less than going against the world itself.
Murmurs once again began to spread, but unlike the last two times, these were filled with hostility.
"And here I thought that the 'genius' would get a good job."
"He was too cocky after his father became a marquis."
"We should just kill him right now. Who knows when he might incur the wrath of the deities?"
Even with all the noise, it seemed that the world was frozen for Sil.
The nun began for forgiveness from what seemed to be nothing, and the hero, who was with Aria, silently put his hands on his sword's mantle while keeping one hand around her. Aria, on the other hand, was visibly concerned for Sil.
Sil thought, and thought, and kept thinking.
Dammit. there's no way this could be an error. Was it just a hand that was dealt to me, or was this written in my fate? Whatever happens now, there are only a few options that I can think of. Fight my way through? This might be my last-ditch effort. Suicide? No. Definitely not. Ask for forgiveness from the king? He'd imprison me. I don't want to live a life like that. I also know my father is kind- extremely kind. Even with this job, I'm confident that he'll accept it. Unfortunately, the world will not. They might take away my father's title he almost died for, and imprison him too if he tries to cover for me. Then, I guess the only thing I can do now is...
Sil surprised everyone by stepping in front, facing the king.
If the only options left for me are bad ones, then I'll atleast choose the option I want.
Thinking this, Sil confronted the monarch.
"Oh, king... this subject of yours has failed you. I understand the value of my job. As such, I'd like to ask for my -Sil von Creed's exile immediately. I would also like for my engagement to the heir of the Evans family, Aira Evans, to be broken."
While no one saw it, the hero slightly chuckled.
Tears swelled up on Aria's face. Sil noticed, and while wanting to comfort her, refrained from doing so.
The king played with his long white beard with his hands for just a few seconds, which felt like an eternity, and finally said something that made everyone pinch themselves.
"So shall it be, Sil. However, you are still the son of a marquis. As such, I implore you to attend the Union University when you turn 17 after two years. Until then, I will respect your choices and exile you."
Huh?
Sil began to think as to why someone who killed his own siblings to get the throne would do something like this.
Ah... I see. He wants to make me a scapegoat, to show how merciful he is to nobles, even if they have bad jobs, while sending me away from the country at the same time. I didn't think that I'd be one of the twenty people he would choose from the entirety of the continent to attend the infamous university. Well, I'm grateful for this too. Perhaps, I'll be able to make enough connections there for the king to overlook my job.
The Union University is, without a doubt, the most prestigious university in the world. People from all five continents can only hope to go there, and only twenty geniuses from each of the five continents can be enrolled with their respective monarchs or democracies.
Essentially, only 1oo people out of billions are allowed to attend from all over the world each year. This just shows the basic level there. And rightfully so, as each of them will one day stand at the forefront of the world, and Sil was expected to be one of them, representing the central 'human' continent.
Breaking everyone from a small trance, the hero stepped forward.
"As such, this ceremony will henc-"
"FATHER! How can you admit a 'heretic' like him into the Union University?! I'm confident that he'll only embarrass both himself and our entire kingdom there. I request yo-"
"Insolence. You forget that our kingdom already houses another hero along with the saintess. Do not consider yourself someone this country must need to depend on for its survival yet. This nation is not that weak. Remember, you're adopted, and that too only recently. Yet you have the gall to interrupt the monarch of the nation?"
"But that heretic's father did the same!"
"Each of the nobility present here has gone through rough times and proved themselves either in war or helped in upkeeping the prosperity of our lands, including Flare Von Creed. Did you know, that he killed a lesser dragon by himself? Now, tell me my son, what have you done except have the 'hero' job?"
Sil snickered while thinking,
Goddamn bastard. He's even using his own son to improve his image in front of the nobles? He might be a bastard, but he's one I want on my side.
The nun, who was silently praying all this time, grew frustrated at the fact that a heretic like him was being let off with just an exile- just a two year one at that too. While this may not seem important to Sil at this point in time, this small non-verbal interaction would later grow into a confrontation with the entirety of the holy nation.
For now though, Sil realized that he needed to leave. Since, there is quite a significant difference between being 'exiled' and an 'immediate exile'.
A simple exile could take weeks to be implemented on a noble, since it may require several carriages worth of resources to be handled by the noble family one may belong to.
An immediate exile, just like the name suggests, means to leave the area the same day. Unlike a simple exile, where it could be taken as an order from the king, an immediate exile is always passed as an 'royal law', to be treated with the same way as an actual law would. Meaning, one could be imprisoned or even hanged if they break it.
Sil, who understood this, went to his family's manor as soon as the ceremony was over to get as little things as possible. He didn't want to attract unnecessary attention, plus he would need to submit any expensive things such as jewelry at the border to be checked, which takes at least a day. Sil didn't have that much time, considering he was 'exiled immediately'.
Since he was in such a hurry, Sil didn't notice the hero comforting Aria by hugging her as he left the ceremonial palace.
He took the bare necessities from his room. Money, a shabby but better-than-average sword, a cloak made from the hide of a 'Cerberus', a C+ rank monster, and a few simple clothes. The lesser dragon his father fought was an A- rank monster, whose scales his father used to create armor for himself.
A few hours later, he was on a common shared carriage with some strangers. It was only after that that he realized he had yet to check what his job actually was. Granted, it didn't SOUND good, but the same could be said for the 'sword's slave' job, which was the job that one of the only 24 S-rank adventurers had.
While none of the five people in the carriage noticed, Sil silently opened his job's status after thinking about it in his mind.
He was quick to notice that unlike the traditional white status screen, his was maroon- the same color as his eyes.
Somehow,
he thought,
it keeps getting back to the color of my eyes. I know that the color of hair indicates mana affinity, but I've never learned anything important about the color of eyes. Plus, I've never seen anyone with eyes like mine. What does it actually mean?
After pondering over it for a while, he couldn't come up with anything, so he just decided to check his job.
What he saw was... something he couldn't expect from a job like 'heretic'.
Sil had a total of seven job-unique skills, out of which two were locked, meaning he needed to achieve specific things related to his job before he could view them. That was surprising in itself, since even the 'hero' job only had four unique job skills.
The first one was 'cult', which said that 'Accept beings that have rejected divinity as your allies. The level of your allies will boost your own, while your own perks will become theirs'. Current number of cultists: 0/15'
A type of subordination skill?
Sil thought.
The second one was 'motif', which stated 'You will get stronger every time you do a good deed with an ulterior motive. If you do a good deed without any motives, you may face penalties. This skill is always turned on.'
The third skill he had was 'Fanatic of the accursed', described as 'Naturally drawn towards cursed relics. Upon using them, the user will not get any status effects. Alongside, a +1 rank may be achieved if the user wishes to do so after sacrificing required item or soul. Normal relics will become unusable.'
Cursed relics. Unlike normal relics, which give the user benefits after forming a contract with them, cursed relics give more amount of strength while also giving the user a 'curse', which may come in the form of a 'banishment', such as 'banishment of the five senses', 'banishment of dreams', 'banishment of heat' and so forth. These curses were the only reason why one couldn't rely on cursed relics all the time. But now that Sil had overcome that simple rule, he was probably the only one in the world who looked forward to coming across one.
Well, cursed relics are far more rare than normal relics, so it may take a long time before I comes across one...
The fourth skill which he could see was 'Abyssal affinity'. This one intrigued Sil a lot, as it said 'Ability to learn and use abyssal magic and abyssal swordsmanship, considered to be forbidden as it may injure gods. Current status: 1 star/7 stars.'
I thought the maximum stars any magic or blade skill could have was five. What's with the extra two? Also, A skill... that can harm gods? I wonder if I'll face any deities in the future...
Sil thought, thinking that while it may be impractical, it is not impossible considering his next skill.
The fifth and final skill available to him, 'backdoor'. It was confusing at first, until Sil read the skill's description. 'A backdoor to the divine vault, where deities store all of their spoils. The user must note that the user will achieve maximum hostility with the deities the moment this skill is activated. Currently able to access the outermost ring of the vault. Penalties may occur if the user attempts to access any inner ring.'
This is crazy, to say the least. I thought that it was a simple myth... the divine vault. It is said that one achieves enlightenment after just seeing the vault's door, and I can actually go there?
Sil spoke to no one in particular. By this time, Sil reached the border of the country. Usually, it would take atleast a week of constant travelling to get to the border from the capital, but with the king's authority, he was able to use an instantaneous teleportation device to one of the border cities, 'Frei', from which he took the shared carriage he was currently in.
As such, after passing the border using fake credentials with no particular issues, he entered the labyrinth country of Eden.