Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Whoosh!

Damian charged toward the instructors who had formed a wall ahead of him.

The instructors were clearly more capable than the average candidate. However...

‘They’re just training center instructors, after all.’

Besides, from the looks of it, they were relatively new, with only two or three years of experience as instructors.

Thud thud thud thud!

As Damian rushed forward, the large instructor in the group smirked and stepped closer to intercept him.

“No hard feelings, but you need to go back!”

And just as expected, when the instructor tried to shoulder-check him...

Swish.

“Huh?”

Damian smoothly dodged the body check and darted through an opening.

Whoosh!

In an instant, Damian passed the instructors, glancing back at their surprised faces with a grin.

“Excuse me.”

He added a mocking smile for good measure, the key point of his strategy.

Seeing such a young candidate sprint ahead, the instructors couldn’t hide their astonishment.

Did that kid just overtake them?

“What are you doing? Stop him!”

“Yes, sir!”

At the senior instructor’s command, two other instructors quickly surged forward, trying to catch up to Damian. But...

Thud thud thud thud!

Damian only increased his speed, quickly pulling away from them.

The candidates following behind widened their eyes at the sight. Among them, Apel couldn’t contain his laughter.

“Hahaha! What the hell, that guy!”

But even as he laughed, Apel grinned.

“I’m not going to lose to him.”

If it had been anyone else, he might have just shrugged it off, but with someone his age making such a bold move, how could he stay put?

Apel dashed forward, and seeing him take the lead, the other candidates gritted their teeth and shouted.

“Let’s go too!”

“Let’s break through that wall!”

As the entire group of candidates sped up and charged toward the instructors, the instructors couldn’t hide their shock.

“What the...!”

“Aaaah!”

In an instant, the atmosphere shifted.

The instructors observing the situation at the second training ground couldn’t help but look a little startled.

“...It seems like things are different at the second training ground.”

“Looks like there’s a peculiar one in the mix.”

“Shall we send in more instructors?”

At this rate, it looked like all the candidates at the second training ground might actually pass, which was a situation that needed to be managed. But just then...

“Hahahahahaha.”

Raymon, who had been watching the situation, burst into laughter, his shoulders shaking.

He couldn’t help but laugh.

“...Instructor Raymon?”

“Leave them be. Sending in more instructors now would just be admitting that we’re rigging the test. Their performance is part of their skill.”

The instructor’s interference in the endurance test was just another obstacle to overcome.

In a real war, far more absurd things could happen regularly.

Compared to that, the instructors’ interference was trivial.

Though it might seem unfair, Raymon believed that handling such variables was part of what the candidates needed to learn.

However...

“The reverse is also true.”

The instructors would also have to deal with the “variable” introduced by the candidates’ unexpected actions.

How well they could manage this and still fulfill their roles was part of their learning as well.

“It seems my judgment wasn’t wrong.”

A candidate who could create such a variable was special.

Of course, it was because the other candidates responded to his actions that the atmosphere had changed.

If they had just watched, it would have been a solo effort, nothing more.

‘But...’

Raymon knew that igniting even a small spark like that wasn’t easy.

In the battlefield, those who could fan the flames of such a spark were the ones who led the charge.

Raymon smirked as he continued to watch the second training ground.

The test had become a chaotic mess, with no one caring about pacing anymore. But the candidates had overlooked one crucial detail.

“...Can they keep up that speed for the full 15 kilometers?”

He chuckled.

Without realizing it, they were already facing the second part of the test.

* * *

“Huff... huff... huff...”

What the hell? How many laps have I run?

The world seemed to spin around him, and the nausea clawed up his throat.

Barely suppressing the urge to vomit, the candidate turned his head to check how many laps he had completed.

Twenty laps.

With each lap being 500 meters, he had run 10 kilometers.

But...

“Ugh!”

Why was he so exhausted after only 10 kilometers?

Unable to hold it in, the candidate turned to the side of the track and emptied his stomach.

“Huff... huff... huff...”

“Ah... I’m going to die...!”

Over half of the candidates running at the second training ground looked like they were on the verge of collapse.

Some couldn’t control their trembling legs and had already fallen to the ground, unable to get up.

“Huff... huff... Focus on pacing yourself.”

“Yes...”

“Huff... huff...”

Even the instructors were struggling to catch their breath, their pace slowing down considerably.

They had long given up on interfering with the candidates.

The senior instructor glanced at the candidates still running.

Many of those who had sprinted from the start were now too exhausted to continue.

The few who had paced themselves were faring better, but even they were clearly struggling.

“It seems most of these candidates won’t finish in time. We’ll be lucky if even ten or so make it. So focus on your breathing and keep your pace.”

“Yes... understood. Huff... huff...”

“Huff... huff... It’d be pretty embarrassing if we, the instructors, couldn’t finish...”

The large instructor gritted his teeth, forcing strength into his legs.

He had made a mistake by expending too much energy at the start, falling into the trap set by that young candidate.

Compared to the other candidates...

‘...Is he a monster?’

The senior instructor watched Damian running ahead of them.

At first, when Damian had overtaken them and sprinted forward, the instructor had dismissed him as a thoughtless fool.

But after three or four laps, he noticed something that caught his attention—despite the chaotic atmosphere, Damian was calmly pacing himself while running.

‘He’s still faster than the others, though...’

For a moment, the senior instructor’s expression hardened.

Could it be that he had planned all of this?

‘That’s ridiculous.’

The senior instructor shook his head.

No matter how highly you rated him, Damian was still just a boy in his mid-teens.

How could such a young kid have orchestrated this situation?

Besides, it wasn’t as if he could have predicted that the other candidates would respond as they did.

‘...It must have been luck.’

That was the only way the senior instructor could make sense of it.

He continued to watch Damian run ahead.

“Huff... huff...”

Damian, keeping his breathing steady, glanced back at the other candidates.

Most of them were now more than a lap behind him.

The gap was so large that some were even three laps behind.

‘Those guys... they’re all going to fail.’

About half of the candidates were no longer running; they were barely walking.

Damian shifted his gaze back to the front. But then...

“Hey, Damian.”

Apel suddenly appeared beside him, calling out to him. Damian turned to look at him.

“You seem pretty energetic.”

“Did you plan this?”

“What do you mean?”

In response to Damian’s question, Apel smirked.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know. You can’t fool my eyes.”

Apel glanced back at the candidates who had collapsed.

“They’re all going to fail here. And those guys barely walking won’t make it in time either.”

At least half of the candidates were already confirmed to be out.

And this was all because of the atmosphere Damian had created right at the start.

‘It felt like passing the instructors meant passing the test.’

Originally, Apel had planned to maintain his pace and overtake the instructors near the end.

But he had gotten caught up in the atmosphere Damian had set and joined in.

“If we couldn’t use magic, we’d be in the same boat as those guys.”

“If you have a card to play, why not use it? I see it as part of the competition.”

“...So you did plan it.”

Apel murmured. Then he asked,

“Damian, why are you trying to join the army?”

“Huh?”

“If you can use magic, you’re not just an ordinary guy.”

Damian chuckled at Apel’s remark.

“Is that your way of bragging that you’re not ordinary either?”

“Haha, does it come off that way?”

Apel laughed as if he were joking, and Damian replied,

“This is the only place for me.”

“...?”

Was that really his reason for enlisting?

Apel looked at Damian with a puzzled expression, but then he gave a strange, unreadable smile.

“I see.”

It made him think that Damian, too, had reasons he wasn’t ready to share with others.

Apel spoke to Damian again.

“You’re an interesting guy.”

“You seem pretty interesting too.”

With mutual grins, the two completed the endurance run and stood before the instructor.

Seeing that they were the first to finish all thirty laps, the instructor looked at them in surprise.

“B-Both of you... pass!”

* * *

“There’s an interesting recruit at the Third Training Center?”

“Yes, Instructor Raymon from the Third Training Center contacted us. He said the recruit is only thirteen years old.”

The man wore a black eye patch over one eye.

A thick beard covered his chin and below his nose.

In a room that looked somewhat disorganized, the man slowly stood up after hearing his subordinate’s report.

His skin was cracked, like drought-ridden earth.

But the calluses on his hands suggested he had wielded weapons for many years.

Despite his thin frame, when the middle-aged man stood, an air of sharpness surrounded him.

“That strict Raymon said the kid is interesting? I’m a bit curious now.”

The middle-aged man’s lips curled into a smirk. He then looked at the subordinate who had brought the report and asked,

“So, what’s so interesting about him?”

The subordinate began to recount the details of the tests at the Third Training Center that Raymon had shared.

Starting with the use of the Kingdom’s spear technique and going through the endurance run, which most candidates found particularly challenging.

When the subordinate described what the recruit had done during the endurance run, the middle-aged man burst into laughter.

“Hahaha, what a reckless brat. So, did he pass?”

“He not only passed, but he also outpaced the instructors to finish first.”

“A thirteen-year-old with guts.”

His eyes gleamed with a spark of interest. Finally, the middle-aged man asked,

“What’s his name?”

“He’s called Damian.”.