Twenty-three hours later, the hundred-kilometer endurance trek came to an end in the courtyard of the old school building. All around us, students were collapsed on the ground, groaning or sprawled out in exhaustion. Not a single one was still standing.
The instructor, standing tall and proud, surveyed the wreckage with a satisfied nod.
“Students Saegusa and Maclaine have retired from the course. Seems they’ve voluntarily withdrawn. But I’m sure the veteran adventurer escorting them will make sure they get back safely.”
Just then, Lilith, who’d been sitting on the ground with her arms wrapped around her knees, pushed herself up to her feet with visible effort. Her knees wobbled, betraying the fatigue she’d tried to hide.
Even for her, it seemed, completing the full march without relying on enhanced stats had taken a serious toll.
“Instructor?”
The voice was low, steady.
The man turned. “What is it, Lilith?”
“You’re seriously expelling Ryuto? Voluntary withdrawal? Are you out of your mind?”
He blinked, confused, pulling an exaggerated, dumbfounded expression like a festival mask. “You’re the one who requested this training camp, designed for bottom-tier students, even though you’re in the elite scholarship class, and now you’re lecturing me?”
“Yes,” she said coldly. “And I’m asking you. No, I’m warning you. Are you in your right mind?”
“Come again? I told all of you before the start of the hundred-kilometer walk,” the instructor said with a frown. “Anyone who fails to complete it is considered to have dropped out. Maclaine showed surprising combat potential, I’ll admit that, but rules are rules.”
Lilith took a slow breath. Her voice dropped further, quiet and cutting.
“Let’s imagine something. Hypothetically.”
“Go on,” he said, humoring her.
“Let’s say… someone stronger than Cordelia Allston is hiding in this so-called bottom-tier class. Someone whose strength dwarfs hers so completely that they’ll soon be known across the world. Let’s say you were the one who expelled them. By your own judgment. By your own hand. What do you think happens next?”
The instructor gave a short, amused snort. “If that ever happened, I’d lose more than just my job. But it won’t. Because that kind of premise is absurd.”
Lilith didn’t respond right away. She simply muttered, more to herself than anyone else, “I’m telling you for your own good before you make a mistake you can’t undo. Instead of expelling Ryuto, give him a test. Take off the Shackles of Golgotha. Set him a task, anything will do. Some monster extermination mission, something straightforward.”
The instructor frowned again, not quite following. “What are you talking about?”
“You don’t need to understand. Just do it. You’ll see soon enough.”
“…”
“We’re not here because we care about this place,” she added, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “We chose it because it’s the closest to where the world’s about to fall apart. Cordelia Allston’s going to be at the center of a global disaster, and this school will be the first to feel the shockwave. That’s the only reason we’re here.”
And just as her voice faded, a wave of murmuring rippled across the training field. Something had shifted.
All eyes turned toward the school’s front gate; more specifically, toward the forest path stretching far beyond it.
Ryuto Maclaine was walking toward them. But that alone wasn’t why the field had fallen into a stunned, murmuring silence.
As Ryuto stepped onto the training grounds, the instructor broke into a jog and rushed to meet him.
“You… You carried her? And her gear?!”
The shock in his voice was understandable.
At that moment, Ryuto had nearly eighty kilograms strapped to his back. Koharu herself weighed about forty kilos, her pack another twenty, and his own gear added yet another twenty. Altogether, he had hauled that weight through the wilderness for hours.
“There wasn’t a rule saying I couldn’t carry someone,” Ryuto replied coolly.
The instructor squinted. “When did you start carrying her?”
“Around the twenty-kilometer mark. Even then, she held out as long as she could. Her feet were covered in burst blisters. She passed out from the pain partway through. But she tried damn hard. Pushed herself way past the limit. So I figured… I’d take the rest of her burden. That was the deal.”
The instructor stared at him for a long moment, then spoke slowly.
“You’re a Villager, yet you passed the entrance exam for our prestigious Altena Academy of Magic. I saw your performance in the mock battle. And now this, this endurance, this strength of will… Ryuto, are you really human?”
Ryuto let out a dry, breathless chuckle. Then, carefully, he lowered Koharu to the ground and unhooked her pack. He slipped off his own backpack and let it fall with a heavy thud, then crumpled forward, collapsing face-down in the grass like a man finally giving in.
“Human, yeah, just a regular Villager,” he murmured, his voice barely audible. “Anyway… I’m done… I need to sleep…”
Lilith approached without a word. She crouched beside him and gently draped her cloak over his body.
“Either way… I’m tired… So damn tired…” His voice trailed off.
Wrapped in Lilith’s cloak, Ryuto’s breathing grew slow and even. A soft, peaceful rhythm. His face was calm, almost serene.
And just like that, he was asleep.