I Was The Weakest Beast Tamer

7. The Silver-Haired Girl

Before Evren could figure out how to approach the mysterious girl, the noisy classroom suddenly fell silent.

A muscular student appeared in the doorway. His name was Gara, a senior student who had been stuck in Class F for three years because he kept failing to move up.

The moment they saw him, several students immediately lowered their heads.

Gara walked up to the front desk and kicked the leg of the silver-haired girl's chair.

"Heh, newbie. You know the rules in Class F? All new students have to hand over their monthly allowance to the class boss." He smirked. "And that happens to be me."

Everyone in the classroom lowered their heads, not daring to look up.

"Allowance?" Evren asked loudly. "Can I get an exception? My father just stripped me of my status as heir. I'm broke."

Gara snorted in annoyance and walked over to Evren's desk. He slammed his hand down hard. "I don't care. If you don't pay up, I'll break your arm right here!"

[Well, well. You should break his arm first, Human.]

Evren rose from his seat.

"Hey, I'm trying to be a model student here. Don't make my life difficult."

"You think you're tough?" Gara grabbed him by the collar. "Come on, fight me if you've got the guts!"

Evren glanced at the hand gripping his collar, then sighed.

"Well, you asked for it."

Thud!

Evren drove his fist into Gara's stomach.

Gara's eyes widened. He stumbled backward, crashing into a row of desks and knocking several of them over. He struggled to catch his breath, but before he could fight back, his knees gave out. He collapsed onto the floor and lay motionless.

[Ha! Finally, you did something interesting, Human.]

The entire classroom went silent for a moment before the students jumped to their feet in shock.

Evren straightened his uniform collar, then pointed at two students who were still frozen near Gara.

"Hey, you with the glasses. And you, next to him."

"Y-yes?!"

"Drag this guy to the infirmary." Evren waved a hand dismissively.

"Y-yes, Young Master!" the two students cried out in panic. They immediately picked Gara up and carried him out of the classroom.

The other students quickly returned to their seats, not daring to look around anymore.

Class F fell completely silent. No one dared to say a word.

Evren then approached the silver-haired girl. Without asking permission, he pulled out a chair and sat beside her.

The girl flinched and hurriedly moved her chair away. She lowered her head even further, while the white cat on her lap stood up and hissed sharply at Evren.

"Shh... calm down," Evren whispered.

Hearing Evren's whisper, the white cat suddenly went quiet. Its ears twitched slightly before it settled back down on Sandra's lap.

The girl beside Evren noticed the change in her cat's behavior. She slowly raised her head, revealing a pair of gray eyes. Her lips trembled with fear.

"W-what... what did you do...?"

"What's your name?" Evren asked.

The girl blinked in confusion.

"Relax... I'm not going to demand your allowance or anything."

"Oh... I-I'm... Sandra..." she stammered, gripping the hem of her skirt. "Sandra Moriarty..."

Evren tilted his head. "Hm? Moriarty?"

"Why?" Sandra asked quietly. She lowered her head toward the white cat on her lap. "Are you surprised that someone from the Moriarty family is attending a regular academy?"

Evren leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest as he gazed out the window.

"Yeah... your family has always been pretty secretive and stayed out of the public eye." Evren smiled faintly.

"I-I promise I won't bother anyone, so please don't bother me. I just want to study in peace."

"I just got thrown into this place myself, Sandra. If I bothered you, it'd be like one piece of trash picking on another at the dump."

Sandra froze. "Did you... just call me trash?"

"Yeah. If you weren't trash, you wouldn't be in this class." Evren rested his chin on his hand. "But even trash can be recycled into something useful."

A faint smile appeared on the girl's pale lips, though she quickly tried to hide it.

"You're... weird," Sandra whispered.

"I get that a lot." Evren glanced at the cat on Sandra's lap. "By the way, this cat of yours... is it a Beast you have a contract with?"

"Ah... it's actually a Beast my younger sibling is supposed to contract with. I'm just taking care of it for a while until they're ready."

Evren frowned.

[What kind of family lets their child take care of a cursed creature like this?]

"You don't have a Beast, Sandra?"

Sandra shook her head slightly. "My spiritual energy flow is unstable. So my parents told me to take care of this cat to learn more about Beasts."

"Hm... your parents sure are thoughtful, huh?"

Sandra nodded.

[Hey, you damn human. You need to help this naive girl.]

Evren ignored Nox's comment. Before he could continue the conversation, Sandra suddenly raised her head.

"Um... you're Evren, right?" Sandra asked hesitantly. "Why... why did you give up so easily during the match this morning? I thought you could've won."

Evren raised an eyebrow. "You watched my match?"

Sandra nodded slightly, her cheeks turning a little pink.

"I can sense the flow of someone's spiritual energy, Evren. I know you're not that weak. Besides, you have a lot of potential."

"Oh? Then tell me what you see. I've always been curious about the Moriarty family's Spiritual Sight."

Sandra fell silent for a moment, then turned her face toward Evren. She focused her attention on the spiritual energy flowing around his body.

"You're... interesting, Evren."

Evren grinned. "Oh, yeah?"

"You know, when I focus, there's something else I can see."

Sandra raised her hand, trying to describe something that was difficult to explain.

"In my spiritual perception, I see shadows showing the different cultivation paths a person could take. Each shadow also shows how that person might develop if they chose that path."

Evren raised an eyebrow.

"So you can see different possible futures for someone based on the cultivation path they choose?"

"That's right." Sandra nodded. "Usually, I can only see two or three shadows clearly. The rest are too blurry for me to make out."

She paused for a moment before focusing on Evren again.

"But you're different. There are far more shadows around you than anyone I've ever known. And every single one of them is clear."

Evren fell silent for a moment.

'Nox, I think this girl is even more interesting than I thought.'

[Oh? So now you want to save her?]

'I was planning to help her from the start.'

[I'm inside your body. I know what you're thinking and feeling.]

Evren clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Sandra immediately turned toward him. "Ah... s-sorry. Did I say something weird?"

"No. It's just... as far as I know, the Moriarty family's Spiritual Sight can only measure someone's spiritual energy capacity. But you can see different possible cultivation paths and how someone might develop along each one?"

Evren frowned.

"I've never heard of an ability like that before."

Sandra blinked in confusion.

"Really? I thought everyone in my family could do that."

'Interesting. This girl doesn't even realize her ability is different from the rest of her family's.'

Evren raised a finger to his lips.

"Then, for now, don't tell anyone else about your ability, okay?"

Before Sandra could respond, footsteps could be heard approaching the Class F doorway.

An instructor stood in the doorway, holding a stack of rolled-up papers.

"All right, everyone, quiet down!"

His loud voice immediately silenced the classroom.

"My name is Arthur. Today, you'll be divided into groups for your first field assignment in the Black Mist Forest."

He swept his sharp gaze across the room.

"Don't expect easier missions just because you're Class F students!"

Arthur began reading out the students' names, assigning them to groups of three.

Evren listened lazily, while Sandra continued nervously twisting the hem of her skirt beside him.

Arthur opened the last scroll in his hand.

"Final group... Evren Tristan, Sandra Moriarty... and Gara Vance." Arthur rolled the paper back up. "Get ready and gather in the courtyard in thirty minutes."

Sandra immediately went pale. "G-Gara Vance...?"

"Wow, Sandra. Looks like our first assignment is going to be a really fun little field trip."