CLEAVER OF SIN Chapter 955: A Shame

The next day arrived swiftly as the morning sunlight poured through the window panel, its warm rays reflecting across Asher’s face and forcing him awake. His consciousness gradually stirred from the dream realm and returned to reality as his eyes slowly opened. As Asher awoke, he remained lying on his bed for a few seconds, staring blankly at the ceiling before letting out a carefree yawn.

He didn’t move; he simply stayed where he was as though there was something on the ceiling worth looking at, but there wasn’t. His head tilted to the side, his purple eyes falling upon the nightstand where a digital clock sat.

’11:30 a.m.,’ Asher thought. Then, without wasting any more time, he rose from his bed and walked toward the bathroom to freshen up.

But first, he checked his phone. There were no messages from either Copycat, Fatty Wang, or World Girl. He set the phone down and entered the bathroom. Within a few minutes, he stepped out feeling completely refreshed.

"That was a good sleep," Asher murmured aloud as he sat on his bed wearing nothing but his boxers. It had been a while since he had enjoyed such a genuinely restful sleep.

And with the past two weeks of constant training consuming both his stamina and mental strength, it was exactly what he had needed.

Asher stared at his phone for a moment before opening Arianna’s contact. They were supposed to go racing, just as they had planned yesterday, but they hadn’t settled any of the details. For example, where was the race supposed to take place? Where were they supposed to meet before heading to the racing track? Or what time were they even supposed to meet?

Asher didn’t bother waiting around for Arianna to text first like last time... well, it wasn’t as though he had actually been waiting last time. With that thought, his fingers danced across the screen of his phone. It was already exactly noon.

The moment the message was sent, Asher waited a few seconds for a reply since Arianna seemed to be a fast texter and had replied almost instantly yesterday. But no response came immediately, though Asher didn’t think much of it.

It wasn’t as though the people of Crymora were like the Gen Z generation of Earth, constantly glued to their phones and gadgets even while they were at work. People here had to train to become stronger, so hardly anyone had the luxury of being attached to their phone twenty-four hours a day.

As Asher swiped to another app and scrolled through everything that had been happening on social media over the past five days, he quickly discovered that he was still trending. And not only that, some unawakeners from the Thalvorn Empire seemed to have gathered around Acker Holloway, shaving their heads and asking him to teach them the path of Buddhism.

One which Acker happily explained. After all, spreading Buddhism had been one of his goals during the Inter-Empire Competition, and although he had ultimately lost, things had still worked out rather well for him.

What Acker Holloway didn’t know, however, was that the Overlord would soon be making an announcement, just as Emperor Zolthemir had suggested, the moment Acker left the Thalvorn Empire and returned to the Vandross Empire.

As Asher continued doom-scrolling, he heard a knock on his door. He already knew it was Finch and the rest of his friends. He didn’t even need Omni Perception for that, as he could clearly hear the rhythm of their beating hearts from where he sat on his bed.

He simply stood up, threw on some casual clothes, then walked toward the door and opened it.

"I would’ve thought you died during your training. After all, it took you five days to reply to us," Finch said the moment the door swung open without even greeting him first before stepping inside.

With that, everyone walked into his room. Some greeted him while others simply didn’t. The last time they had seen Asher had been during the award ceremony, and since they had texted him immediately after the event only for him not to reply, they knew he had gone back into training once again. Although they had no idea when he would return, they also knew that whenever he finally replied to their messages, it meant he was finished.

As everyone settled onto the couch and bed, Ryaen couldn’t help but ask as she looked around Asher’s room, "Seriously, how do you even train in your room? Isn’t it too small?"

She was genuinely curious. Although she could make do if she also wanted to train in a room like this, she still needed a reasonable amount of space because of the sheer range of destruction her abilities could unleash.

Asher settled onto his bed before replying flatly, "Well, I usually just push everything to one side to create as much room as possible. But as for the training over the past five days, I simply had FatelessPen create a separate space, like the one the Principal has, and I trained there," he replied, hiding nothing since he had nothing to gain from concealing it and nothing to lose from revealing it.

William’s eyes immediately lit up as he eagerly asked, "can we see it?"

"It’s already been destroyed by FatelessPen. Besides, you’ve been at Star Academy for almost a year now, so you shouldn’t be surprised by something like that," Asher replied, shaking his head.

William shook his head as well before replying, "A shame, truly." He paused briefly before continuing, "But I have to say, I thought I was already pushing myself to my limits when it came to training, yet every time we come to find you, you’re always just coming out of another training session." He let out a long sigh. "You’re making me, no, you’re making everyone look lazy," he complained as though he genuinely wished Asher would stop training so excessively.

Ever since everyone had arrived in the Thalvorn Empire, none of them had truly bothered to train as intensely as they had back at Star Academy. After all, why would they? They had come to another Empire that possessed technological advancements the Zarethorne Empire could never hope to match, so naturally they wanted to experience everything it had to offer instead of locking themselves away to train.

Besides, the fact that the Gentle Hotel didn’t come equipped with a training chamber had become everyone’s favorite excuse.

The most intensive training any of them had done was digesting the knowledge and experience they had gained during the Qualifier Round, just as Asher had done after his battle with Arianna. Aside from that, they had done little else.

"It’s not that Asher trains too much or anything of the sort," Vaelric began as he sat comfortably on the couch. "It’s simply that his circumstances demand it. For example, he trained immediately after his battle with Arianna Haellight, which is completely understandable. After all, he had gained valuable insights into his own abilities, as well as every flaw or opening he might have had that Arianna could’ve exploited. Then, this time around, he also had to properly digest and understand everything he gained from the Fruit of Dawn," he explained, analyzing the situation with near-perfect precision.

Hearing Vaelric’s explanation, everyone fell silent for a brief moment before slowly nodding in agreement.

"That makes perfect sense," Ryaen admitted.