"Stop."
The running that had started early in the morning only came to a halt once the sun was high in the sky.
"Ugh!"
"Haaah."
"Huff."
Thud.
Almost all the kids collapsed onto the ground as if fainting the moment Harken gave the command, gasping for breath.
"H-How many laps did we run?"
"It feels like more than yesterday."
"Three hundred and fifty laps. Yeah, it was more. Haaah."
The kids compared it to the test they'd experienced for the first time yesterday, shaking their heads and shuddering.
And then.
"Hoo."
Lightly catching his breath, Ruin wiped away his sweat as if he'd just come out for a casual drink, looking completely at ease today as well.
He'd started from the very back, but in the end, he'd caught up to a position similar to Sereon's.
Of course.
"Urgh, huff."
Sereon, his face pale as a sheet, lay sprawled on the ground, breathing raggedly.
It was because he'd refused to slow down beyond his physical limits, determined not to lose to Ruin.
Just then.
"Tsk. Doing that won't change anything, you know."
As if meant only for Sereon to hear, Ruin's low tongue-click reached his ears.
"...What? You bastard! Cough, urk!"
Sereon, who had been lying down, suddenly bolted up, but unable to hold back the discomfort rising in his stomach, he ended up vomiting right there.
"Eww, what? Sereon! Why are you suddenly throwing up? Are you okay?"
At the voice of Meirin approaching from behind, frowning.
"No need to worry about it. Damn it!"
Sereon shouted harshly and quickly left the spot.
Seeing his reaction, Meirin looked a bit puzzled as she glanced at Ruin and whispered softly.
"What's with him?"
"Who knows."
Ruin shrugged and muttered lightly.
"He probably just pushed himself too hard."
"Anyway, jerks like that aren't worth worrying about."
Meirin shook her head as she replied, and Ruin simply responded with a strangely meaningful smile.
And then.
"...."
A bit farther away, one person sat on the ground, watching the scene.
'He provoked him on purpose.'
Selena Marquess hadn't wanted to hear it, but due to the distance, she'd caught the conversation between Ruin and Sereon.
Unintentionally, she'd grasped the entire situation.
'...He might be quite a troublesome guy.'
With that, she formed her own assessment of Ruin.
Along with their appearances.
"What do you mean, making us run even more than the first test?"
"This is the first training? The first test and training are both just running...."
"Hoo, so is today over now?"
Amid the trainees who looked utterly exhausted, barely able to maintain their breathing.
"That concludes the morning training. Now, eat lunch and we'll jump right into afternoon training, so enjoy your meal."
The resolute shout of the devil instructor Harken rang out.
"N-No way."
"Morning training is over? We ran ourselves to death, and that was just morning training?!"
"Lunch? After all that running, how are we supposed to eat anything?"
"I can't eat. Nothing's going down."
"Ughhh. Is this for real?"
"Kill me, just kill me alreadyyyy."
The kids hung their heads, screaming in despair, while the instructors who had been pushing them all morning soon disappeared from the training ground.
"S-Surely the training won't continue like this from now on, right?"
"No way, that's ridiculous. They're probably just trying to establish discipline today. It has to be."
"So, are you guys gonna eat? I don't think I can...Urk!"
"I have to eat. Even if I throw it up later, I need to eat and hold on."
The kids staggered to their feet, chattering as they headed toward the dining hall.
"L-Let's eat."
"What is this? They expect us to eat this?"
The meal for the Linegrime trainees was quite efficient in form.
Rather than greasy food, it consisted mainly of soft soup and bland vegetables that aided digestion.
"Damn, there's nothing to eat."
"It tastes awful."
"My family's servants wouldn't even eat like this."
Each kid grumbled, fully displaying that they'd grown up as children of noble houses.
Ruin stared blankly at the bowl in front of him.
'Whoa, there's a meal plan?'
For him, with the memories of No. 1872 still vivid, allowing a meal like this during training felt incredibly generous.
At least in his training, hunger itself was one of the disciplines to overcome on your own.
They hadn't given even a drop of water for days on end, let alone supplies.
The shadows had to survive by eating grass or hunting small animals themselves.
So, this healthy meal prepared for the kids' nutrition and stamina recovery felt like heavenly food to him.
'With meals like this, I could run a hundred or a thousand times.'
With that thought, Ruin took a spoonful of the soup before him and soon muttered with a deeply moved and satisfied expression.
"It's delicious."
[What? D-Delicious? You call this delicious? Delicious my ass. Jerky fallen on the ground would taste better than this. Ugh, it's disgustingly bland. Who the hell made this crap?]
Expressing the complete opposite opinion from Ruin, the Sword Spirit grumbled about the food.
At the same time.
"Urk, Ruin. How can you eat this like it's tasty? Here, take mine too. I can't eat it...Ugh!"
Meirin approached from the side again, offering her unappetizing food as she muttered.
In response, Ruin thought to himself, so quietly that even the Sword Spirit couldn't hear.
'They're all just too full and spoiled.'
Lunch ended like that, and the kids gathered back at the training ground.
Soon, Harken and the instructors reappeared.
They immediately distributed the prepared wooden swords one by one and shouted.
"Everyone, pick up a sword."
At the devil instructor Harken's shout, the kids' faces, which had been downcast from the morning training and lunch, began to show some life.
"Finally!"
"Now we're doing proper training."
"Alright. Let's focus and learn."
Though physically drained and unable to eat properly.
The kids' eyes sparkled at the prospect of learning and mastering new swordsmanship, truly befitting trainees selected and admitted by the Linegrime family.
But those sparkling eyes soon....
"Ten thousand times."
Wilted completely at the devil instructor Harken's following command.
"For the afternoon, your training is to swing the wooden sword in your hand downward exactly ten thousand times. Of course, in perfect standard posture!"
.
.
.
"Anyone who doesn't complete ten thousand before sunset forfeits dinner."
The trainees' faces turned pale at the devil instructor Harken's extremely stern and resolute shout.
But soon, Harken continued with a slight smirk at the corner of his mouth.
"However, those who finish ten thousand quickly can rest for the remaining time."
His clever mix of carrot and stick slightly shifted the trainees' mood.
"Rest? If I finish first, I can rest?"
"Alright, let's get this over with as fast as possible."
"Yeah, what's ten thousand? I probably swing a few thousand times a day anyway."
"Just a bit more than usual!"
At first, all the trainees dove into the ten-thousand downward swings with full enthusiasm.
And the instructors watched them with meaningful smiles.
A short while later.
"Again!"
"No, that's not the posture. Start over!"
"Swing properly. Standard posture, didn't you learn it?!"
With the instructors scrutinizing every movement of the trainees with picky eyes.
"Why doesn't this count?"
"What's the problem, anyway!"
The 'perfect standard posture' that the devil instructor Harken had mentioned at the start.
They'd fallen right into that trap.
"Did you forget what the head instructor said? Perfect standard posture. How is this standard posture? Your sword tip is crooked."
"Your stance is wrong from the beginning. Bend your waist a bit more, straighten your back!"
"Hey, don't put your foot there."
The instructors patrolling around the trainees didn't overlook even a single mistake or flaw.
They pointed them out and inspected one by one.
Only three people escaped the instructors' sharp gazes.
Sereon, Selena, and Meirin.
"Hoo, hup!"
"...Haa."
All three were focusing intently, giving their best with each swing.
Chaap!
Sereon displayed a textbook downward swing posture.
His eyes and expression burned with intense focus like never before.
However.
"Hoooo."
He readjusted his breathing as he prepared for the next downward swing.
Chaaap!
The time taken until the second downward swing was considerable.
No matter how outstanding Sereon was, at this pace, completing ten thousand swings in the afternoon seemed absolutely impossible.
Of course, the others weren't much different.
"Haaa."
Before long, sweat poured like rain from Sereon, and Selena's jade-like skin flushed red.
"Tch, this is annoying. Really!"
And Meirin kept frowning.
The three most promising prospects at the Linegrime training camp were relentlessly striving and pushing themselves.
But in contrast to them.
"Hmm."
One boy stood motionless for an hour, doing nothing.
"You brat, what have you been doing without swinging until now?!"
At the instructor's menacing shout, Ruin quietly lifted his wooden sword and smiled lightly.
"Ah, I was just observing for a bit."
"What?"
"I'll start now."
And then.
Pwang!
He executed a perfect downward swing that completely cleaved the surrounding air.
"...?!"
The instructor, who had been about to snap at him, looked dazed for a moment, caught off guard.
Then.
Tang! Chaap!
A second, no, a third perfect standard posture downward swing followed.
"W-What is this...."
Even the instructor thought he couldn't perform a more perfect downward swing himself.
Ruin repeated the chillingly clean and flawless standard posture downward swings.
'Even if he's a genius, is this really possible?'
Having watched countless talents and prodigies as a training camp instructor.
He knew better than anyone how much intense focus and effort a seemingly simple standard downward swing required.
Yet this kid, who seemed to be slacking off, suddenly showed this.
'...What the hell is this guy?'
But unlike the instructor's shocked expression, Ruin's inner thoughts were utterly relaxed.
'Hm, it's not as hard as I thought?'
Of course, for Ruin, who fully possessed the experiences of No. 1872, swinging a sword in standard posture was quite familiar.
But that wasn't all.
'The observation paid off.'
For the first hour or so, Ruin hadn't swung his sword but had taken in all the movements of his peers around him.
Their breathing, motions, even the subtle muscle twitches.
It was one of the abilities of
'I can see it all. And I can apply it too.'
Especially Sereon's perfect posture had been immensely helpful to Ruin.
'Thanks, but not that thanks. Sereon.'
Recalling his bad blood with the guy, Ruin chuckled inwardly as he muttered to himself.
Pwaaang!
Of course, thanks to that, Ruin could replicate Sereon's perfect standard posture even more accurately and much faster.
And a short while later.
"...Ruin, done. You've completed ten thousand."
The clear announcement from the assigned instructor echoed across the training ground, drawing everyone's attention toward him.
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T/N:
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