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Chapter 70

I could see Skull standing in the middle...

A few people he had gotten close to in the last few days were standing around him, but they all turned away the moment they saw us.

“...”

An awkward mood swept through the area, and Evan let out a bitter smile.

Although we hadn’t spent long together, he’d probably thought of them as his friends.

Karis had the same reaction.

And I... weirdly didn’t have any fluctuations in my emotions.

It wasn’t like I didn’t regret it all. We’d gotten along pretty well.

Maybe I was just cold-hearted to begin with?

“Hmhm.”

The Instructor on the platform cleared his throat.

It was the Instructor of Martial Arts, Juan, but he wasn’t alone.

All the grand masters were standing behind him.

Juan glanced over the group of young heroes before he spoke.

“Young Hero Charon, is everyone gathered here?”

“Yes.”

Now that I thought about it, the instructors had at some point started to treat Charon like the leader of the young heroes.

It wasn’t just roll calls like this; all short directions were relayed through Charon.

Charon always stood at the front whenever we moved to a different area for lessons. And he’d been taking on this role like it was the most obvious thing to do.

“The ranks... hm. By the looks of it, it seems everyone’s checked them out.” A weird smile appeared on Juan’s face. “You should all know by now, so I will tell you: the rule added by Charon is ‘Young heroes can trade points among themselves’.”

Hector held back his anger as he asked, “...Is there a reason you’re telling us this now?”

Juan looked at him before replying, “Not at all.”

“Pardon?”

“Just as there isn’t a reason not to tell you now, there wasn’t a reason to tell you before either.”

“...”

Juan smiled.

“Young hero Hector, if you wished for kind explanations and systemic education, you should’ve enrolled in the Imperial Academy instead of Bednicker’s training camp.”

It was the first time the Instructor had said something that made sense.

“If that is all, we will now proceed with the subject selection. You see the instructors standing behind me, right? They are each responsible for a different subject. They will give a short introduction, and you need to select the subjects you feel best fit you.”

At that, Tanko stepped forward and gave his introduction.

“I am Tanko. Naturally, I will be teaching things related to hunting. If you want to stay up for three days and nights to kill a cultist, follow me.”

It was a fitting introduction.

The other instructors also gave their introductions.

“I will teach survival. If you want to know how to survive even if you have to roll in mud and feces, come here.”

“I am the Instructor of Laws, Einsburn. Although we all live under one empire, its laws do not apply to all the lands. I will teach you the laws that must be followed in the lands of the nonhumans and those outside of The Empire.”

“I will teach you the history of The Empire, from its founding to now. Of course, if you wish, I can teach you about the 21 Heroes that you love or the age of the gods before them.”

“I am the Instructor of Doctrine, Juniang. I don’t believe that everyone here desires to become a hero. If you wish to follow the will of the Church of the Sun, come to me. I will explain the dogma of the Sun God.”

After the other grand masters gave their introductions, Juan finally gave his own.

“Instructor of Martial Arts, Juan. I can teach you about most weapons... be they swords, blades, spears, axes, clubs, daggers, bows...”

At that, the eyes of the young heroes lit up.

I guess since they were still young, rather than boring theory lessons, they desired more practical lessons in line with real combat. The Instructor of Martial Arts seemed to be the preferred choice.

The Instructor of the Hunt and the Instructor of Survival had below-average numbers of applicants, probably due to their teaching habits.

“Luan, which subjects are you going to choose?”

“Hmm...”

I paused to think over Evan’s question.

What was the lesson I needed the most right now?

The answer was simple.

It’s blessings.

Forget proficiency with my blessing, I needed to learn how to even use it.

Of course, there was no such subject.

And it wasn’t as if I could just ask them to teach me something else... Then did I need to hide the fact that I couldn’t use my blessing even though I’d been granted one?

Thus, my choice...

“I have a question.”

As I raised my hand to ask, Juan smiled.

“Young Hero Luan, what is it?”

“What happens if no subjects are chosen?”

“I cannot allow that. It would mean that you aren’t doing anything during the lesson periods, Luan.”

“What about self-study...”

“That is not allowed.”

That was a shame.

So it wouldn’t be that easy.

I contemplated for a moment before walking up to a grand master.

* * * * *

* * * * *

“...Hm.”

She looked at me and tilted her head.

“Luan Bednicker.”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t expect you to come here... Is there a special reason?”

Was it so unexpected?

Well, this was the least popular subject among the young heroes.

I looked at the Instructor of Doctrine, Juniang.

She was a grand master of Bednicker, a cleric of the Church of the Sun, and also the heretic inquisitor.

“I feel like you would know the most about the Church of Darkness, Instructor.”

“That is true...” The Instructor of Doctrine looked a little annoyed as she mumbled to herself, “...I can’t fool around with you here.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing.”

I looked at her in shock, but she quickly moved past the point and remained quiet.

The Church of the Sun.

I chose this since the doctrine of the Sun God Aton could be a source of inspiration for my Strongest Fire Technique and White Sun Form...

Did I make a mistake?

Anyway, before long the subject selection ended and the grand masters returned to their lodge.

We wanted to go and rest as well, but the Instructor of Martial Arts didn’t leave the platform.

It seemed he still had something left to say.

“Young heroes, it has already been a week since you started this training camp. Although many talented individuals attend Bednicker’s training camp, I believe the cohort this time is even more amazing.”

He was almost certainly just saying that just for show, but a few gullible people had smiles on their faces. They seemed to be taking it at face value.

“One week. You should’ve gotten used to life here by now, so I guess we can begin the proper training camp.”

“Proper?” Evan mumbled at the ominous word.

The other young heroes seemed to feel the same way as they quieted down.

As everyone looked up at the platform, the Instructor of Martial Arts continued, “We will now form teams.”

“...Teams?”

“Yes.”

“What do you mean by that?” asked a thin young hero wearing a stupid expression.

Their speech was a little rough. If it were a different instructor on the platform, they probably would’ve said it differently.

Despite the rude words, the Instructor of Martial Arts maintained his smooth smile.

“Is something wrong? When you become official heroes, you will have many missions where you must move as a team, not individually. Teamwork is one of the most important aspects of being a hero.”

“I-I know that, but...” the young hero mumbled at the Instructor’s sound reasoning. “It’s too sudden...”

“Haha. Sorry about that.”

I looked at the Instructor of Martial Arts’s smiling face...

At least try and sound sorry.

“I will give you a few more pieces of information regarding the teams. Unless a special circumstance arises, the teams you create now will not change until the end of the training camp, so I hope the young heroes who form each team can be nice to each other.”

“What special circumstances are there?” one young hero asked.

With a smile, the Instructor responded, “It is possible you might unintentionally lose a few team members.”

“...”

The young heroes who had been standing around in a daze all wore serious expressions now.

They were all probably thinking about death.

“Also, each team will consist of four members. Since there are a total of 39 members in this training camp, there should be nine teams.”

“If there are nine teams... won’t the members not line up properly?”

“That’s right. One team will have only three members.”

I took a moment to think.

Was there any reason that fewer team members would be bad?

“Finally, the members of a team will have their points awarded and deducted as a group. So if one member of the team performs great and is awarded points, the rest of the team members will also benefit.”

Murmur.

It instantly became noisy.

I felt like the instructor had mentioned the best-case scenario on purpose.

Maybe it was because the other young heroes had suffered in the training camp for a week at this point, but they weren’t easily swayed by those words.

That means we’ll have our marks deducted together as well.

If that was the case, teamwork would be an issue. It would be very strange to not have any internal fighting.

For something like this, fewer team members might be better.

Charon, who had stayed quiet the whole time, finally spoke.

“How will the teams be formed?”

The Instructor smiled.

“They were selected fairly and objectively on the foundation of the instructors’ discussions.”

I doubted that.

I acknowledged the competence of the grand masters, but I couldn’t tell what a few of them were scheming.

And the head of that scheming group was the Instructor of Martial Arts himself.

Charon closed his mouth.

He seemed to be in deep thought, but that was to be expected.

After having added a rule to obtain an overwhelming first-place advantage, he would lose all his points if he ended up on a team with losers.

And if the teams were chosen fairly, there was an even higher chance that Charon would be teamed up with people who were relatively low in the ranks.

“That is all for the explanations. I will now announce the teams, starting with Team 1: Laun Bednicker, Evan Helvin, Sharyl Rubyeta, and Mir Giant.”

“...?”

What?