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Iron gasped for air, his training clothes reduced to tatters. Dried blood stained the fabric.

Sweat poured down his forehead.

Thanks to the potion Ruin had applied, the major wounds had already healed, but the searing pain lingered.

“Haah, haah.”

A pained groan drew his attention to Ain, whose condition mirrored his own.

After a bout of dry heaving, Ain clutched his chest, struggling to breathe.

“Ain, are you okay?”

“Just a moment. Don’t talk… to me….”

Ain stared blankly, sweat drenching his face.

The training dummy, now almost unrecognizable, smoldered like a bonfire.

Crackle, crackle—

Iron’s gaze drifted to the dying embers.

“…….”

“Ah, that was truly awful today….”

Someone’s lament echoed Iron’s own thoughts.

Why go to such extremes?

Ruin’s retreating figure, heading back to the dormitory, seemed utterly demonic.

They had endured increasingly difficult training, adapting each time, only to be pushed even further.

But today it crossed a line.

“Damn it.”

A curse slipped out involuntarily.

Iron knew Ruin meant well.

But this wasn’t the way.

A duel where flesh was torn and blood spilled.

Not just using magic, but rolling on the ground, grabbing rocks, elbowing, tackling, even knocking each other unconscious….

It was too much.

He wanted to quit, but couldn’t.

If he let his guard down, he’d be struck in the head with a rock.

His body still trembled.

“This is wrong. I’ve never heard of training like this.”

Iron wanted to become stronger.

He didn’t consider himself naive. Abandoned by his unknown parents, he knew the world’s cruelty.

He wanted to become strong.

To become a respected mage, free from scorn.

But….

There was an order to gaining strength.

Magic towers and established families didn’t train haphazardly.

Even if the Samael House lacked tradition….

Shouldn’t they gain experience before engaging in such brutal duels?

“……Sigh, so what do we do? Rebel? Refuse?”

“…….”

Iron fell silent, pondering the question.

That was the problem. It was obvious that talking to Ruin wouldn’t do any good. That demonic guy definitely wouldn’t even listen.

Running away wasn’t an option either.

There was nowhere to go, and more importantly…

He didn’t even feel like running away anymore.

A mage of Samael.

At some point, Iron naturally realized his sense of belonging to Samael.

Of course, it didn’t mean he felt pride or anything like that for Samael.

It was just that, going through hellish training together, he had developed a bond with the others.

Ain, Falke, Makan… even Zion didn’t seem so hateful anymore.

Crackle, crackle—

Staring at the ashen embers, almost completely burned out, Iron fell into silence for a while.

* * *

Mount Khaoto was green as always.

The apprentices’ shouts echoed throughout Mount Khaoto all day long.

There were only ten of them, but their shouts echoed back to Samael.

For a while, I repeated the routine of training the apprentices and immersing myself in their training.

The daily schedule was simple.

Morning: Running.

Afternoon: Mana sensitivity training.

Night: Duels.

It was a tight schedule from afternoon to night, but I didn’t give the apprentices any time to rest.

There wasn’t much time left.

Meanwhile, there were a few noteworthy things.

First, except for Makan, everyone had destroyed their Mana Core.

Only Makan had created a Mana Circle while retaining his Mana Core, but I didn’t intend to blame him.

I knew he was a descendant of the ‘Gento Tycoon’.

Gento Tycoon was a mercenary who used both spear techniques and magic, and a master who created his own training methods.

That stubborn Makan also had the potential to forge his own path.

When I handed him the spear I received from the bearded man, he quickly got used to it without anyone teaching him. He was definitely a talented one.

I had no intention of suppressing Makan. I intended to help him forge his own path as freely as possible.

Also, it seemed the others had been reading the magic books I gave them, as they were focusing their Mana sensitivity training on the elemental magic they were good at.

Falke was training in light elemental sensitivity, but he hadn’t succeeded even once. Every time Falke failed, I teased him, saying:

“What a ‘genius’ you are, ‘you chubby guy’.”

Praise makes a whale dance, but that only applies to originally skinny whales.

Falke was a chubby whale, so I didn’t think it mattered.

Besides, light elemental was actually the second most difficult element to sense after lightning.

I was rather surprised whenever I saw a pure white aura swirling around Falke.

Thus, the afternoon Mana sensitivity training ended, and it was almost dinner time.

After having dinner huddled together with the apprentices, we would light the training dummy on fire and start the night duels.

Of course, it was also the time I looked forward to the most.

It was the time I could legally smash the heads of these idiots.

Thwack—!

“Argh!”

“Where’s your focus, you idiot!”

Thwack! Thwack!

Today, I knocked Ain out. Unlike the other Samael descendants, he lacked focus.

He should be concentrating on his opponent, but he had too many distracting thoughts during the fight.

“Already passed out?”

Seeing Ain unconscious, I shook my head and looked around.

Makan and Zion were in the middle of their fight.

It was a fierce duel, but it fell far short of my standards. Both of them were merely imitating a real fight.

Makan, wielding his spear, lacked sharpness in his thrusts. It seemed he was worried about hurting his opponent, deliberately aiming away from vital points.

Zion had a glint in his eyes, but he had an instinctive fear of blades due to the trauma he experienced with the knight. Whenever the spear tip approached, his body involuntarily froze.

‘Hmm.’

It was the same when I looked at the others.

Falke and Iron were also just mimicking a fight.

Falke was terrified of getting hurt. Even if his opponent showed a big opening, he wouldn’t even attempt an attack if he thought he might get hurt.

And Iron…

He was a sight to behold. It was so obvious that he was forcing himself to fight.

Smack—

“Ugh!”

I sent Falke flying and then started fighting Iron directly.

‘I’ll fix your rotten mindset.’

As soon as Iron was startled and stepped back, I wrapped myself in a Wind Barrier and charged at him with a body slam.

“Ugh.”

Iron’s waist buckled, and he collapsed onto the dirt floor.

For a moment, Iron looked up and glared at me, but he quickly looked away when I met his gaze fiercely.

“Get it together. If you keep doing it like that, I’ll be your opponent every day from now on.”

I repositioned myself and watched the apprentices.

Nothing changed.

Makan and Zion were still just imitating a fight.

Falke and Iron were reluctantly continuing their duel.

I didn’t intervene any further because this wasn’t a problem I couldn’t solve.

It couldn’t be fixed overnight just by yelling at them. They had to break through that wall on their own.

Thwack—!

“Ugh.”

The training ended with Iron sprawled on the ground.

“Gather around.”

At my gesture, the apprentices gathered in a circle, stumbling a bit.

I roughly applied potions to them and sat among them for a moment, looking around.

Of course, there was almost nothing to see.

Pitch-black darkness always descended by the time training ended.

Usually, I would have returned to the dormitory first, but today, I didn’t feel like it.

The apprentices and I sat down and started staring at the training dummy burning like a bonfire.

Sizzle…

The mountain was dark and quiet.

No sound could be heard.

Only the space where the apprentices and I were gathered was dimly lit by the fire.

Crackle, crackle—

As I stared endlessly at the bonfire, someone shuffled slowly towards me.

It was Iron.

His body was shrouded in darkness, only his face faintly illuminated by the firelight. He hesitated, then quietly spoke.

“…Do we really have to go this far?”

I met Iron’s gaze without saying a word.

“Look at us, Commander. It’s too much… This kind of training isn’t suitable for our level yet. Can’t we take it step by step? Do we really have to do it this way?”

I responded as if answering nonsense.

“You’re talking like you’ve got it easy.”

“What?”

“What if you die?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

I made a gesture of slitting my throat with my hand.

“It happens in an instant. You think the enemy will wait for you to get stronger gradually?”

“…”

“Do you think you’ll only encounter idiots who’ll go easy on you because you’re weak?”

“Who’s the enemy? Are you talking about the Bayern bastards? Even so…”

“Save your nonsense for the doghouse. It’s not because you’re Samael. It’s the same everywhere.”

I glared alternately at Iron and the other apprentices, then pointed at the ground.

“Becoming stronger is your choice. Choices come with responsibilities. Once you’ve stepped into this world, there will always be enemies aiming for your head.”

I suddenly felt angry as I spoke.

“I’m telling you to give it your all, you idiots. Does this look like a game to you? Stay alert. If you act like a fool, your comrades might die instead. Remember that.”

“…”

There was no answer.

In the dark silence, only the embers continued to burn.

* * *

The same training continued the next day, and the day after that.

I secretly hoped the apprentices would rebel as a group, but it didn’t happen.

The idiots diligently participated in the training, and I continued to train them, pushing them hard.

Then, one sunny afternoon…

While doing Mana sensitivity training, I felt unpleasant gazes from afar.

“…”

It was the elders.

For the past few days, they had been sitting in the shade at the foot of the mountain, watching the training at this time.

Judging by the unpleasant feeling, they were definitely giving me those longing looks again.

Why were they staring like that?

Well, considering what I had said, I could understand why the elders were acting that way.

Seeing the apprentices improve day by day must have ignited their passion.

“Hmm.”

I briefly met the gazes of the elders staring from afar.

At first, I thought about treating the elders like the apprentices, but it wasn’t a good idea. They were too old.

If I made them do physical training with their stiff bodies, their joints would surely shatter.

So, I had to use a different method.

‘It’s getting worse.’

Unable to bear the increasingly unpleasant gazes of the elders, I immediately started walking.

It’s always best to act when you think of it.

I left the rest of the training to Zion and headed straight for the mountain.

As soon as I took a few steps, Zion asked from behind.

“Where are you going, Commander? If you’re going out, take me with you.”

“What are you talking about? I’m not going anywhere, so focus on your training.”

I walked in a completely different direction from where we usually ran.

To be more precise…

I started climbing the mountain where there was no path.

I couldn’t remember clearly because it had been a long time…

But this was probably the right way.

…Right?

——–