Chapter 125: Bad Feeling

"Haaah!"

Exhaling a heavy breath, Momoka stared at the result in front of her.

For a moment, she said nothing.

But little by little, a small smile appeared on her face.

It was something extremely rare for her.

She wasn’t smiling simply because of the result of that cut; it was because, at that very moment, she felt something she hadn’t experienced in months.

She had made progress.

That wall that had stood before her for so long had finally disappeared.

Momoka lowered her sword slightly as she continued to watch the dummy in front of her.

All that frustration she’d built up over months, that feeling of being stuck, the humiliation she’d suffered, and the anger that had been consuming her ever since that encounter with the masseur... they hadn’t gone away; she hadn’t cut them away with that strike.

But, curiously, she finally felt at peace.

"So everything was wrong."

She didn’t let the realization she gained from that moment of enlightenment slip away.

Why had she been able to make progress now?

She had tried practically everything for months.

She had trained.

She had repeated the same techniques over and over again and pushed her skills to the limit.

She had tried to control her emotions and keep them in check, just as she believed someone destined to rule should do.

And none of it had worked.

So why now, of all times?

The answer was right in front of her.

Her anger.

Her frustration.

All those emotions she’d tried to contain for so long—and which Momoka had considered an obstacle.

She’d thought they were precisely what was holding her back, something she had to suppress completely before she could move forward.

But now she was beginning to realize that she’d been wrong.

If she hadn’t felt all that anger, if she hadn’t built up so much frustration over months, if that massage therapist hadn’t managed to push her to the point of making her furious like never before...

She probably would have remained stuck.

Perhaps she would have kept trying to move forward the same way for months and never found the answer.

That anger hadn’t stopped her progress.

It had been what finally propelled her forward.

It was fuel.

And most importantly, it helped her continue on her path and discover what it was that had been holding her back.

The worst mistake she made was confusing what she was supposed to do as a future monarch with what her profession truly meant.

As a future ruler, she had to maintain her dignity, control her impulses, and set an example for others. There was nothing wrong with that.

But she wasn’t just a Beast Monarch—she was a Beastblade Monarch

She was mixing her responsibility as a monarch with her profession, and that wasn’t right.

And it wasn’t just the monarch and the beast—there was also the sword.

Even though she wielded a sword day after day, she seemed to ignore it as if it were merely an accessory.

She couldn’t simply set it aside at her convenience.

Now she was beginning to realize that perhaps that had been precisely her mistake.

She was a Beastblade Monarch

No more, no less—she might be defeated and demoted to a commoner; she might have to marry as a political pawn—but she would never cease to be a Beastblade Monarch.

That was her essence and truth.

And as a Sword Monarch, all she had to do was cut—cut down whatever stood between her and what she sought to achieve, using everything she was.

Now she understood why she’d felt that connection when she focused all her rage on a single point.

She hadn’t tried to destroy it.

She hadn’t tried to deny it.

She’d taken everything she felt and turned it into strength.

And that was what she’d been unable to do for months.

She’d tried to move forward while rejecting a part of herself.

Now she knew she didn’t need to do that.

She needed to turn it into her own strength.

That slash had also severed the notion that she had to deny a part of herself in order to move forward.

Yes, all of this really was the culmination of all her efforts over the past few months, along with the great catalyst that was...

"Tsk, as if he deserved much credit,"

It might have had a little influence, but it definitely wasn’t all thanks to him.

That’s what she was thinking as she left the training room.

"You! Tidy up the place and replace that dummy with a new one by tomorrow."

Momoka said this to the assistant at this elite training room, who was another student earning student points by doing extra work.

Although he was a senior, he knew what kind of person Momoka was, so he didn’t say a word. He just nodded and waited for her to leave before doing as she’d told him.

He didn’t understand why he had to replace the dummy, but he didn’t want any trouble, so he didn’t ask.

Anyway, he just planned to swap it out for one from another room that looked more intact so there wouldn’t be any problems.

But when he entered the room, he was stunned.

Not only had the practice dummy been sliced in half, but the reinforced wall several meters behind it—which was just as hard, if not harder, than the dummy itself—also had a cut in it; the location made it clear that both had been made at the same time.

The assistant was truly frightened and wasn’t quite sure how to handle the situation.

So, with his legs trembling slightly, he went to his superiors to tell them what he had seen.

..

.

"Well... I don’t think it’ll be a problem anymore."

After returning to her dorm room and finishing her shower, feeling refreshed, Momoka said that to herself.

Now that she felt better, she felt that even if she went back and that masseur teased her again with his words or her nickname, it wouldn’t bother her, and she would simply ignore him.

She felt calm enough to do so.

"Huh? That’s strange."

Meanwhile, at that moment, Momoka noticed something odd... There was nothing and no one at the dorm reception desk.

She shared her dorm room with her sisters.

Normally, dorm rooms were assigned to two people, but since she was among the top three in her grade, she was entitled to a larger dorm room, which had enough space and rooms for her two sisters to stay with her.

So the three of them shared the dorm room.

They used to train early every day. Her younger sister, Akane, did too, although lately—because she had to pass her theory classes—she’d been studying and hadn’t been able to make it.

The thing was, when they both finished their morning training, Shiro, her younger sister, would greet them with a homemade breakfast she’d prepared herself.

But everything was silent, and there was no food.

That was strange.

For some reason, that gave Momoka a bad feeling, so she headed to Shiro’s room.

Knock, knock.

"Shiro... Shiro!"

She knocked on the door and called out to her again and again, but no one answered. It could simply be that Shiro was sleeping in.

But Momoka had a bad feeling, and the lack of a response only made it worse.

You couldn’t underestimate the keen instincts of beastmen, and Momoka usually trusted hers.

The door was locked, but she tried to get in anyway.

Bang!

With a hard shove that nearly broke the door and its frame, she burst in.

Inside, Shiro’s room was neatly organized, but Shiro was nowhere to be seen.

At that moment, Momoka went on high alert and, without wasting a second, went to where her other sister was.

"Hey, Akane! Hey!"

Knock, knock.

The same thing happened again: no one answered. Momoka took even less time to try the second option and, once more, forced her way in.

"Huh? Eh? What’s going on?... Why are you breaking down my door?" (Akane)

But when she did, she noticed that Akane was, in fact, just about to open it, looking sleepy.

"Why aren’t you answering?"

"Ugh... I barely heard you... huaaah~. I was asleep. What’s going on?" (Akane)

Akane, dressed in her underwear and half-asleep, didn’t understand a thing because she was still half-asleep.

"Do you know where Shiro is?"

"Huh? Shihiro?... Hmm, isn’t she in the kingdom? She’s already graduated." (Akane)

"Hey, wake up! I said Shiro! Our sister! She’s not here. I looked in her room and she wasn’t there. Do you have any idea where she is?"

Momoka started to get really worried.

It was strange. Shiro was the type of person who didn’t go out much, and when she did, she usually let someone know.

For Momoka, this was a strange and worrying situation.

"Hmm... Could she have gone to the library or somewhere to study?..." (Akane)

Akane, on the other hand, was relaxed and about to fall asleep standing up.

Even though she’d heard that Shiro had gone missing, she didn’t think much of it.

"...You have a better sense of smell than I do. Help me find her."

"Seriously? What the heck?... Do you think I’m a dog or something?"(Akane)

"Just get dressed—I have a bad feeling about this."

"Ugh, what a pain." (Akane)

"(?__?)"

"Fine, fine, I’ll do it... just give me a moment." (Akane)

Akane never quite understood why Momoka was making such a big deal out of this, but it seemed Momoka wasn’t going to let her just go back to bed, so she went to get dressed.

It wasn’t that she didn’t care about Shiro, but this was the academy—a place that, since its founding, had never had a single incident.

Under the Argos system, nothing bad could happen to the students, and that would still be true even today... right?

..

.