The World Is Mine For The Taking-Chapter 1086: Epilogue 20 - The Heroes From Another World (5)
"You don’t have to bow like that. I was simply doing my job."
His voice softened just a little, almost like he wasn’t used to someone giving him actual gratitude. It wasn’t cold, but the shift was subtle—an instructor trying not to look flustered.
Job or not, it didn’t erase what he’d done for me. He could shrug it off as if it was nothing, but to me, it meant everything. He shaped me. Guided me back when I knew absolutely nothing—when I was fumbling through every stance, every swing, every breath like a clueless idiot who barely knew where his own feet were. He never made me feel stupid, never rushed me even when I took longer than normal. Every correction was gentle, steady, patient, like chiseling a dull stone into something barely decent. He gave me the tools I used now—the foundation that kept me standing.
Without him, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t even be able to pretend I had a chance in this world.
As those thoughts swirled around, a sudden noise tore through the air. A heavy, violent flapping—like a massive sail ripping the sky apart. It wasn’t a normal wingbeat. It was dense, deep, the kind of sound you felt in your ribs before you even heard it.
My head snapped up so fast my neck nearly cracked. And for a second—just a second—I almost screamed like a kid who’d just seen a horror movie monster crawl out of the screen.
"W–Wha...?! Is that a dragon?!" someone across the training grounds shouted, their voice cracking so hard it sounded painful.
"Idiot! That’s a wyvern! Can’t you see its wings are connected to its arms?! That’s a wyvern, dumbass!"
"I don’t need you correcting me!"
The dumb argument barely registered. Because the second guy was right—it wasn’t a dragon. It was a wyvern. But that didn’t make it any less terrifying.
A massive wyvern hovered directly above us.
Its shadow swallowed the entire training field like a dark blanket dropped from the sky. The ground trembled as gusts of wind rolled off its wings, whipping dust everywhere. Even the loose dirt lifted off the ground. Its scales shimmered like polished metal catching sunlight, and each flap of its wings sent a shock through the air strong enough to rattle my bones.
For an instant, everything inside my head shut down. Completely blank.
If that thing was an enemy...
If it attacked...
If it landed in the middle of the field...
Then I would have to fight it. I would have to stand here and somehow face something that could crush me with a single swipe. And if I failed—people would die. Even the idiots arguing about wyvern anatomy would be wiped out without even knowing what hit them.
But then the truth slammed into me like a bucket of ice water.
I didn’t know how to fight something like that.
My body froze. My legs turned into jelly—weak, trembling, refusing to obey me. They didn’t even feel like they were mine anymore. And honestly? That reaction was normal. Even with training, even with all the stamina I somehow gained, all of that meant nothing in the face of a creature like this.
Strength was worthless without experience.
Real, carved-into-your-bones experience.
The kind you got by fighting for your life.
And I had none. Not even a tiny bit.
I had never fought anything like this. Never faced anything this big, this dangerous, this overwhelming. I didn’t have a single clue how to handle it.
Absolutely none.
"You don’t have to worry about it," my instructor said casually, as if the world wasn’t shaking around us. "That’s going to be your next instructor."
"Huh?"
My head jerked toward him. A wyvern? An instructor? Did he just combine two terrifying words into one horrifying sentence? I felt like I was getting pranked by the universe. But then I noticed something—someone—on the wyvern’s back.
A rider.
"As expected, she’s coming back here with that wyvern of hers," my instructor muttered, sounding tired, almost defeated. Like this was just another normal day of witnessing something outrageous. Now that I thought about it, I had heard rumors—about a magic knight who rode a wyvern. So this was going to be my next instructor?
Before I could even process that—
"Oh. She’s coming down," he said. "Move out of her landing zone."
"Huh? Oh—"
So she was landing right here? She was going to jump off that thing’s back?!
And while my brain was still buffering like an old computer, she did exactly that—she jumped off. No hesitation. No warning. She leapt from the wyvern’s back like gravity was a suggestion and hit the ground hard enough to make it crack. The impact sent a shiver through the earth, dust exploding outward from the point of contact.
And then I saw her clearly. My breath caught.
She was a woman. A terrifyingly striking one.
Purple hair—long, flowing, catching the light in a way that made it look unreal. Her skin was pale, almost ghostly white, like she’d never seen sunlight in her entire life. It wasn’t sickly—just unnaturally fair, like moonlight made into flesh.
But what really hit me was... familiarity.
There was something about her face, her expression, the shape of her eyes—something so eerily similar to someone I knew that it made my stomach twist. It was disturbing. Unsettling. Like seeing a dream walk into reality.
It was honestly shocking. Earlier, I’d been thinking about that person, and now this woman appeared right in front of me with features so similar it felt like a cruel trick. Out of all the people who got teleported, she was one of the few who didn’t appear because she wasn’t in the classroom when everything happened.
Was this a coincidence? Could it even be one?
Both of them were similar. So similar. Except for the hair color.
She opened her eyes and stood, her movements sharp, controlled—too controlled. She radiated something wild, dangerous, almost feral. She didn’t feel like a normal human at all. More like a predator pretending to be one.
"This is Shredica," my instructor announced. "She is going to be your new instructor from now on."
"Shredica," she repeated, her voice low. Then her eyes locked onto mine.
Every hair on my arms stood up instantly, cold prickles shooting down my spine. It felt like I was staring at something that shouldn’t exist in this world.
Because right now... She looked exactly like someone who wasn’t supposed to be here.
