Thrown into the Abyss as a Trash Tamer, Turns Out World-Ending Beasts Just Want Cuddles

“After the ceremony,” Kael agreed, though his smile had sharpened. “Then we find a guild, join a party, and never look back.”

Edrin looked toward the hall. “Together.”

Kael’s expression flickered.

Only for a moment. Then he slapped Edrin’s shoulder hard enough to make him stumble. “Obviously together.”

They joined the line.

It moved three steps before stopping.

A woman ahead wore a fur-lined cloak despite the warmth. She turned to inspect Edrin’s boots, then his rough hands, then the faded village mark stitched into his sleeve.

“First Awakening?” she asked.

Edrin nodded.

“Which district?”

“North Vale.”

Her mouth twisted. “Farm country.”

Kael shifted closer. “We came for the ceremony, not an inspection.”

The woman laughed. “Then pray for something useful. My nephew awakened as a Shieldbearer last year. Even that barely earned him a place in a bronze party.”

“What’s useful?” Edrin asked.

“Blade arts. Elemental casting. Healing.” She lowered her voice. “Anything with rank.”

Kael lifted his chin. “We’ll manage.”

The woman’s gaze returned to Edrin. “And you?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Perhaps Beast Tamer.”

The words carried farther than they should have.

A boy nearby snorted. His older brother elbowed him, but both began laughing.

Edrin felt heat climb his neck. “Why would you say that?”

“Because village boys always dream of it.” The woman turned forward again. “They think every stray dog is hiding a legendary bloodline.”

Kael laughed with the others.

Edrin stared at him. “What?”

Kael’s smile faltered. “It was a joke.”

“You didn’t have to join in.”

“Don’t be thin-skinned. We’ve been walking beside each other since we were six. If I can’t laugh at you, who can?”

The line crawled forward. Edrin kept his eyes on the hall.

A pair of guards stood along the route, their polished armor reflecting the crystal light. Between them hung a bronze sign bearing the symbol of the Awakening Order: an open eye surrounded by seven rays.

Underneath, someone had scratched a crude drawing of a dog.

A second line of writing ran below it.

BEAST TAMERS REPORT TO THE ANIMAL PENS.

The letters had been carved deep enough to gouge the metal.

Kael noticed Edrin looking. “Ignore it.”

“That sign is official?”

“No. It’s a prank.”

“Then why hasn’t anyone removed it?”

Kael had no answer.

The crowd pressed tighter as the bells rang again. A child began crying near the front. Somewhere behind Edrin, a merchant cursed when someone stepped on his cloak. The plaza smelled of horse sweat, hot stone, and the sharp oil used to polish armor. Every sound seemed to strike against the hall and return louder.

Edrin flexed his fingers.

He wanted only two things. To survive the day without disgracing himself, and to leave the hall with Kael still at his side.

The first seemed difficult enough.

A tall young man in a red sash pushed through the line, followed by two broad-shouldered companions. He stopped beside Edrin and looked him over.

“Move.”

Edrin glanced behind him. “The line is there.”

“I know where the line is.”

“Then you know I’m standing in it.”

The young man’s eyes narrowed. “Do you know who I am?”

“No.”

Kael stepped between them. “Keep walking.”

The red-sashed man looked Kael up and down. His gaze paused at Kael’s worn sword, then moved to the threadbare grip.

“Another pair of field mice,” he said. “The capital has been overrun.”

One of his companions chuckled. “Maybe they came to awaken as Beast Tamers.”

The laughter spread. Not everyone joined, but no one stopped it.

Edrin’s hand closed around the leather charm.

Kael’s face had gone still. “Say that again.”

The red-sashed man smiled. “Beast Tamer.”

Kael moved first.

His fist struck the man’s jaw with a crack that cut through the plaza noise. The red-sashed man staggered into the person behind him. A guard shouted. The line broke apart as people surged away, eager to avoid blame and even more eager to watch.

Kael shook his hand. “He asked for it.”

The red-sashed man spat blood onto the stones. “You’ll pay for that, village dog.”

Two guards seized Kael by the arms.

“Enough!” one barked. “No fighting in the ceremony line.”

“He insulted us,” Kael said.

“He insulted you,” Edrin corrected quietly.

Kael turned his head.

The distinction landed badly.

The guard shoved Kael back into place. “Both of you. Stand there until the line moves. One more disturbance and neither of you enters the hall.”

Edrin swallowed. “We’re sorry.”

Kael’s shoulders remained rigid.

The red-sashed man returned to his place, rubbing his jaw. His companions whispered around him. Edrin could feel their eyes on the back of his neck.

After a while, Kael spoke without looking at him.

“You could have taken my side.”

“I did.”

“You apologized to the guard.”

“To keep us inside the line.”

“You always think too much.”

“And you hit too quickly.”

Kael’s jaw tightened. “Maybe that is why I’ll awaken something powerful.”

The words were meant as a joke. They did not sound like one.

The line passed beneath the shadow of the hall. The crystal spires hummed overhead, and blue radiance spilled across the stones. Edrin’s skin prickled as they approached the bronze doors.

Names were called inside.

One by one, candidates entered and emerged changed.

A girl came out sobbing with a gray mark glowing on her palm. Her mother embraced her and whispered that a D-Rank class was still honorable.

A broad young man raised both fists when a priest announced his C-Rank Spear Knight ability. His friends cheered as though he had conquered a dungeon.

Then a thin boy stumbled from the hall, pale and shaking.

“What did you get?” someone asked.

The boy looked at his hands. “Beast Tamer.”

Silence fell.

Then the laughter began.

It rolled through the line, ugly and easy.

The boy’s face collapsed. He ran.

Edrin watched him disappear between the carts.

Kael leaned close. “Don’t let that happen to you.”

“I won’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

Edrin looked at him. “You said we’d leave together.”

Kael stared at the doors. “I said we’d become adventurers together.”

“That means the same thing.”

“No,” Kael said. “It doesn’t.”

The doors opened.

A priest in white robes stepped onto the threshold, holding a crystal tablet. “Next candidates. Kael Dorn and Edrin Volk.”

The names struck Edrin like a summons to judgment.

Kael rolled his shoulders. His old confidence returned, bright and dangerous. “Come on.”

Edrin took one step.

The plaza erupted.

Every crystal spire flared at once. Blue-white light poured over the hall, bleaching the banners and turning every face ghostly. The air snapped with static. The crystal tablet in the priest’s hands cracked down the middle.

Kael stopped.

A ring of light formed beneath his boots.

The priest stared at the spreading radiance. “Impossible.”

“What is it?” someone shouted.

The light climbed Kael’s body in burning threads. He threw his head back as the bells began ringing without anyone touching them. The sound shook dust from the hall’s stonework.

Edrin reached for him.

A force slammed into Edrin’s chest and hurled him across the threshold. He struck the floor hard, his palms scraping against cold marble. Kael stood beyond him, wrapped in a storm of silver light.

Words appeared above Kael’s head, written in blazing script.

S-RANK ABILITY AWAKENED: DOMINION OF THE STARFALL BLADE.

The priest fell to one knee.

The crowd outside exploded into cheers.

Kael looked down at his hands. Silver lines glowed beneath his skin. A sword-shaped sigil burned across his palm, bright enough to cast shadows beneath his fingers.

Edrin pushed himself upright.

“Kael,” he said.

Kael did not answer.

The priest rose slowly, trembling. “An S-Rank ability. A rare S-Rank ability in the capital after twelve years…”

People surged toward the doors. Guards formed a barrier, but their eyes stayed fixed on Kael.

The red-sashed man had forgotten his bruised jaw. He stared with open envy.

Kael finally looked at Edrin.

For one breath, Edrin saw the boy who had shared his blanket beneath the hedges and stolen apples from the same orchard.

Then Kael smiled.

Not warmly.

“Stand up,” he said. “They’re waiting for you.”

Edrin’s scraped palms stung as he rose.

The priest’s attention shifted to him. The crystal tablet, already fractured from Kael’s awakening, flickered weakly.

“Place your hand on the altar.”

Edrin approached the stone dais. The hall had gone quiet again, but this silence was worse than laughter. Hundreds of faces watched him. Kael stood at his shoulder, shining like a figure from a temple mural.

Edrin set his hand against the altar.

Cold traveled up his arm.

The crystal tablet gave a dull chime.

A gray symbol appeared above the altar: a chain linked to a paw.

The priest frowned.

The symbol dimmed, then steadied.

“Class awakened,” he announced.

Edrin waited.

The priest looked at the tablet again. His mouth tightened.

“Beast Tamer.”

The hall remained silent for half a heartbeat.

Then someone outside shouted, “The dog boy got his class!”

Laughter crashed through the open doors.

Edrin’s face burned. The symbol above the altar shrank until it looked like a stain.

The priest cleared his throat. “Class rank… F.”

The laughter became a roar.

Edrin pulled his hand away. The altar released him with a faint pulse, leaving a dark mark shaped like a paw over his palm.

Kael’s silver glow faded.

Edrin turned toward him. “Kael.”

Kael was surrounded now. Priests, guards, nobles, and young candidates pressed close, all asking questions at once.

“What does it do?”

“Can you summon a dragon?”

“Will the Order sponsor you?”

Kael looked at Edrin through the crowd.

Edrin stepped forward. “We need to talk.”

Kael’s eyes moved to the mark on Edrin’s hand.

Something cold settled over his expression.

“Talk about what?”

“About us. About leaving together.”

A noble girl beside Kael laughed softly. “You know him?”

Kael’s mouth curved.

“We came from the same village,” he said.

Edrin waited for more.

Kael gave him nothing.

The priest gestured toward the side of the hall. “F-Rank awakenings exit through the animal service door. Do not obstruct the ceremony.”

The door opened behind Edrin. Its hinges groaned. Beyond it lay a narrow passage leading back toward the plaza, where the scratched bronze sign waited beneath the arch.

Edrin looked at Kael once more.

“Come with me,” he said.

Kael glanced at the crowd gathering around him, at the silver sigil on his palm, at the nobles already speaking his name.

Then he stepped away from Edrin.

“Not now.”

The words were quiet, but they carried farther than any insult.

A guard seized Edrin by the shoulder and turned him toward the service passage. The crowd parted just enough to let him through. Someone barked like a dog as he passed. Someone else called him a kennel rat.

Edrin walked beneath the scratched sign alone.

At the far end of the passage, he stopped.

The capital bells were still ringing. Behind him, Kael’s admirers shouted over one another, celebrating a future Edrin could no longer see himself sharing.

He looked down at the dark paw-mark on his palm.

Then the doors slammed shut between them.

End of chapter one. 39 more chapters in the full book.