Friend For My Benefit

Okay, first things first: let's clear the air and state that this chapter title has absolutely zero shady implications.

Get your minds out of the gutter.

Understood?

Good.

Four years have flown by in a total blur, and my life is still an absolute snooze-fest. Amachi is still a walking disaster, Shane is still deeply punchable, and the rest of my classmates—whose names I still haven't bothered to memorize—continue treating Shane like he was personally blessed by the gods.

And speaking of Shane—

"Alright, everyone, let's give it up for Shane!"

My classmates and I were crowded into the classroom, clapping enthusiastically while Shane stood beside the teacher at the front, looking entirely too pleased with himself.

"Congratulations, Shane! You've officially earned a recommendation to apply to the top adventurer program under the heavens: Hilbert Academy!"

Let's break this down for a second.

Around here, becoming an adventurer is basically a guaranteed path to a golden future. It's the ultimate dream job—raiding high-rank dungeons, uncovering ancient relics, taking down catastrophic monsters, and getting treated by the public like some kind of living god.

Normally, you have to be at least eighteen just to apply, but Hilbert Academy makes exceptions for underage applicants with special recommendations. It's globally renowned as the ultimate training ground for elite adventurers, and its graduates practically walk out with wealth, prestige, and offers from nobles and major guilds.

The main reason the academy carries so much influence?

Its founder is Genzan—a literal living legend and a man widely regarded as the strongest human alive.

And before anyone gets confused, no, he wasn't the guy who defeated the Demon Lord. That honor belonged to Grazei centuries ago.

Grazei was the one who defeated the Demon Lord and sealed him away in another dimension along with the majority of the demon race.

Unfortunately, majority didn't mean all .

Plenty of demons were left behind, scattered across the world and causing problems for generations afterward. Genzan belonged to the generation of heroes that finally cleaned up that mess, hunting down the remaining demons alongside several other legendary adventurers—including a certain smelly old man I'm unfortunately related to—and finally bringing the conflict to an end.

So, yeah.

Having that guy as Hilbert's founder did wonders for the academy's reputation.

The teacher announced that Shane would be leaving in about a month since Hilbert was a massive trek from our little backwater village. Instantly, a swarm of kids surrounded him, burying him under high-fives and praise while I stayed glued to my back-row desk, watching the circus from a safe distance.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Amachi standing near the door with a sour expression.

He looked ready to chew through a brick.

Probably furious that his self-proclaimed rival was leaving before they could settle the score.

The second the bell rang, I was ready to bolt home to my favorite books—until one of the teachers informed me that the village chief wanted to see me, forcing my unwilling feet to carry me toward his office.

I shoved the heavy wooden door open without knocking and found a fifty-something man buried beneath a mountain of paperwork.

"Hey. Doors work both ways. Learn to knock," the old man grunted without even looking up.

"Keep hunching over that desk like a gargoyle and your spine is going to snap in half," I shot back. "You're rotting in here."

His head immediately snapped up at the sound of my voice, and the moment he realized it was me, he practically vaulted out of his chair and crossed the room.

He stopped right in front of me with an unreadable expression.

Then he threw his arms open.

"Oh! Fourth! My boy! You have no idea how much your old man missed you!"

Before I could escape, he crushed me in a suffocating bear hug.

"Ugh! Get off me! I told you to stop doing that, you crazy old geezer!"

Meet my dad.

Well... sort of.

He's a fifty-year-old man with sagging skin, graying hair, and body odor strongly suggesting he hadn't crossed paths with a bar of soap in quite some time. His name is Zaw, the village chief.

And yes, he's the smelly old man I mentioned earlier.

Despite looking like a washed-up vagrant, he was actually a legendary high-ranking hero who had fought alongside Genzan during the final hunts against the demons left behind after Grazei's era.

Oh, and right.

Remember how I said in the last chapter that I was just a completely ordinary kid with nothing special going for me?

Yeah.

I might have omitted one minor detail.

I'm Zaw's son.

Adopted son, to be specific.

When he first told me, I didn't exactly have an existential crisis. One look in the mirror made it pretty obvious we weren't related by blood.

Did it make me sad?

Not really.

I never knew my biological parents, and the old man raised me well enough. I never felt like I was missing anything.

Zaw finally released me and waddled back toward his cluttered desk with a smug smile. "Still got a tongue like a razor blade, I see."

"Why did you drag me in here anyway? Don't tell me you were just lonely."

I wandered over and flopped onto the dusty sofa in the corner while Zaw snorted, picked up his coffee mug, and eyed me like a merchant inspecting questionable merchandise.

"So, I assume you heard about Shane getting his recommendation to Hilbert?"

I let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah. The whole class is throwing a festival over it. They probably think he's the next chosen savior of humanity."

"And what about you?"

His tone became quieter.

"What do you think?"

"Couldn't care less," I answered immediately. "Heroes and elite academies are way above my station."

"Couldn't care less..." Zaw smiled. "Or are you just too stubborn to admit you want a piece of that action?"

I whipped my head around and glared at him. "What's that supposed to mean, old man?"

"I'm just saying, you wear that indifferent mask pretty well." He shrugged. "But deep down... part of you is burning for an opportunity like that."

His words hit harder than I expected.

Naturally, I responded in the most mature way possible by immediately changing the subject.

"Are you ever going to take a bath? Seriously, your stench is bordering on a biological weapon."

Zaw burst out laughing. "Why waste time washing when the paperwork never ends? Tell you what—help me clear this desk, and I might consider using soap at least once this month."

"In your dreams."

I pushed myself off the sofa. "I'm not touching your paperwork with a ten-foot pole."

"Then enjoy the aroma!"

Zaw chuckled as I headed for the exit.

I walked out without looking back, but his words stayed stuck in my head.

"Deep down... part of you is burning for an opportunity like that."

I stopped in the hallway and stared through the window at the endless sky stretching beyond our tiny village.

Hilbert Academy.

Adventurers.

Heroes.

My fingers slowly curled into fists.

No... I don't want any of it.

Or at least, I wanted to convince myself I didn't.

"If I told you that you could have that exact same chance, what would you say?"

Zaw's voice carried clearly through the wooden door behind me.

I spun around.

That old man was annoyingly good at reading me.

"What are you talking about?"

I stepped back into the office, annoyance mixing with curiosity.

"You know Hilbert holds open entrance exams every six months, right?"

I nodded slowly.

"And you're probably aware that the high-ranking adventurer who signed off on Shane's fancy endorsement application is none other than..."

He paused dramatically.

"...me."

"So what?!"

A bitter spark immediately flared in my chest.

"Are you rubbing it in my face that I don't have the talent to get noticed like Shane?!"

"Calm down, kid."

Zaw sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I'm saying I'm going to give the next Hilbert recommendation to you."

I froze.

"...What?"

"You heard me. I'm giving the next endorsement to you."

"That makes zero sense."

I shook my head. "How could you even do that? Those slots are reserved for prodigies with absurd talent. Like Shane."

Zaw gave a quiet chuckle before reaching into one of the towering stacks of paperwork and pulling out an official-looking document stamped with a gold seal.

"Fourth, do you actually know how Hilbert's admissions process works?"

I frowned and searched my memory. "Uh... the first way is paying an astronomical amount of money just to buy yourself a seat at the entrance exam."

Zaw nodded. "Right. And the alternative?"

"The alternative..."

I paused.

"You get a direct endorsement from a legendary, high-ranking adventurer."

"Bingo."

Zaw smiled faintly. "And last time I checked, I'm famous enough to pull those kinds of strings."

I stared at him.

My brain stopped working for a second.

"You mean..."

"All I have to do is scribble my name on this recommendation line," he said casually, as though we were discussing the weather, "and just like that, you bypass the fees and get a ticket straight to the entrance exam."

I stood there in stunned silence.

"But... why?"

My voice came out quieter than expected.

"Why give a massive opportunity like that to a talentless nobody like me?"

Zaw chuckled. "Don't sell yourself short, Fourth. I never said you were talentless."

"But I—"

I started to argue, but he raised a hand.

"Of course, my signature still comes with a condition."

His tone changed.

"There's a catch."

"A catch?"

My suspicion immediately returned.

Zaw's grin widened.

"Go make friends with Amachi."

"What?!"

I shouted so loudly I was surprised the roof didn't cave in.

"Why him?!"

"Amachi's a rough kid," Zaw said, his playful expression disappearing. "He lost both his parents when demons destroyed his village when he was five. That's why he isolates himself and trains like a madman, constantly picking fights with Shane just to become stronger."

"Ah..."

That hit me harder than I expected.

Amachi had a tragic backstory like that?

Man...

He really did sound like the hero of one of those overly dramatic adventure fangas.

"...That's not the only reason, is it?"

"Not by a long shot."

Zaw leaned forward. "Amachi might look like a ticking time bomb, but there's something important inside that kid. Something you'll never understand unless you actually look him in the eye."

"And if I tell you to shove it?"

My voice hardened.

"Simple."

Zaw shrugged.

"I don't sign the paper. You stay right here in this village."

Silence.

My heart hammered against my ribs.

I couldn't understand what kind of game the old man was playing or why it had to involve Amachi—the one guy in class I actively went out of my way to avoid.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

Zaw looked directly at me, his eyes suddenly sharp. "Because I know there's more in you than you let on, Fourth. But you're never going to grow if you keep staring at the world through a window."

He paused.

"Sometimes, you have to force yourself to look at people from a different perspective."

I gritted my teeth.

Refusing meant throwing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity straight into the garbage.

But actually pulling this off?

Way easier said than done.

"Think it over," Zaw said, waving a dismissive hand as he returned to his paperwork. "I'm not forcing you. But ask yourself if you're really okay letting an opportunity like this slip away."

Without another word, I turned around and walked out, leaving the old man behind while a hurricane of unanswered questions swirled through my head.

By the time I stepped outside, the afternoon sun was already hanging low over the village.

…

Damn it.

Dropping a massive lore bomb this late in the day?

How was I supposed to sleep now?