“Aaaagh! I-Ivan......! I can't do any more......!”
Meirin's pain-filled groan echoed through the fitness room.
“One more! Think of your sick mother! Think of the siblings you left behind!”
Ivan pushed Meirin as she performed a bench press.
The communal fitness room was packed with every kind of cutting-edge exercise equipment.
Moreover, Ivan had taken exercise seriously enough in his previous life to aspire to become a personal trainer.
Although he had been unlucky enough to get hit by a truck immediately after leaving the military, the knowledge he accumulated to become a personal trainer remained in his mind.
As a result, the combination of cutting-edge equipment and Ivan's expert knowledge was tearing Meirin's muscle fibers apart in the most efficient and painful manner possible.
“That's it! Push it all the way up!”
Ivan supported Meirin's trembling arms and forced her to raise the barbell at last.
After barely lifting it, Meirin collapsed with her face bright red.
“I-Ivan... it feels like my chest is being torn apart.......”
Meirin had never used a bench press before, much less exercised properly.
To her, using exercise equipment for the first time felt like being introduced to an instrument of torture.
She could not move her arms anymore.
Her face went pale from the unimaginable pain as she climbed off the bench.
Ivan, meanwhile, looked like a fish in water as he added more plates to the barbell Meirin had lifted.
Meirin stared at Ivan as though she had encountered a madman.
“Is this... a weight a person can lift?”
“Hm? This is only my warm-up weight.”
Meirin narrowed her eyes in disbelief.
Showing her directly would be faster than explaining.
With that thought, Ivan lightly stretched both arms and lay down on the bench without hesitation.
From Meirin's perspective, the fitness room was nothing short of hell, but to Ivan it was heaven.
‘How many decades has it been since I used proper equipment?’
Ivan reminisced with emotion. When he had been a slave soldier, the idiot who commanded his unit had possessed neither exercise equipment nor sensible training knowledge and merely driven the soldiers around the training yard.
As a result, Ivan could only exercise in his spare moments with weights fashioned by tying wooden poles to rocks.
When circumstances did not permit even that, he had been limited to body-weight exercises.
But look at this.
He no longer needed to frown at a knotted pole that sat poorly in his hands or endure the unpleasant asymmetry of one side feeling heavier than the other!
“Hup!”
Ivan held a short breath, pulled his shoulder blades tightly together, and powerfully unracked the barbell loaded with plates.
With his back arched like a bow, he lowered the bar to the center of his chest and pressed it upward.
“Hup! Hup! Hup!”
Breathing at a steady rhythm, Ivan lifted the barbell 10 times in rapid succession. Meirin's mouth fell open at the sight.
“A-Amazing.......”
She knew from the morning training that Ivan was strong, but she had never imagined he could so easily lift more than twice her body weight.
“Now that's the stuff. People really need proper equipment. The pump is incredible, isn't it?”
Ivan spoke excitedly to Meirin. He wanted her to share his enthusiasm, but unfortunately, she looked completely bewildered.
Why did he enjoy suffering?
It was true that the exercise produced the pump Ivan described, but Meirin could not find the slightest trace of fun or happiness in it.
“Meirin! Add two more plates to each side!”
Riding his momentum, Ivan shouted to her.
“Huh......? You're adding even more weight?”
“Of course. I haven't even started my working sets.”
“......”
Though horrified, Meirin did as instructed and fitted more plates onto the barbell.
Meirin struggled merely to lift a single plate, while Ivan continued moving the barbell with strength to spare.
Ivan completed 6 sets in an instant, resting for less than a minute between them, and thought to himself.
‘This body never stops being amazing.’
No matter how fanatically Ivan had exercised in his previous life, his maximum bench press had only been around 160 kilograms.
But what about now?
He could lift 200 kilograms as though it were a feather, and his maximum could even exceed 300 kilograms.
It was a physique that could only be called blessed.
Thanks to that body and the memories of his exercise-obsessed former life, Ivan had built an astonishingly powerful physique despite being only 16.
“Phew. Let's stop here for today.”
Having finished every set, Ivan rose and wiped the sweat from his brow with a satisfied air.
“Really?”
Meirin's face brightened more than ever at those words.
“Yes. Overworking your muscles isn't good either. We're done with the bench press, so let's move on to the next exercise.”
“......Huh? W-We're not finished......?”
“Finished? We still have 7 different exercises for the other muscle groups, and then we need to do cardio.”
“......”
The color instantly drained from Meirin's once-bright face.
One exercise alone had been this painful, yet seven more awaited her.
‘Can I... endure this......?’
Meirin had steeled herself before following Ivan into the fitness room, but sadly, her resolve already felt close to breaking.
***
“Ivan... couldn't you just kill me......? Pleeeease.”
In the end, Meirin was made to complete all 7 exercises and burned away to a white cinder.
“You held up well for your first time. It's only hard at first. Once you get used to it, it'll feel refreshing.”
“I don't even have the strength to move anymore.......”
“If you're tired, rest over there. I still have more exercises to finish.”
“Okay.”
Meirin answered weakly and trudged toward the corner.
Ivan sat at a new machine to finish his remaining workout.
The intensity and volume of Ivan's exercise were far higher than those of an ordinary person.
Not only was Ivan's body exceptionally strong, but it recovered from fatigue quickly, allowing his muscles to grow at an astonishing rate.
‘At least I was fortunate enough to be born with a good body.’
If he had been born weak as well, he would have already gone to the next world or lived a fate worse than death as someone's plaything.
He was about to resume destroying his muscles with renewed gratitude for that fact.
“Hey.”
Someone in the distance called out to Ivan.
Ivan rolled his eyes toward the source of the voice.
A group of trainees who looked obnoxious at a glance was approaching him.
‘Who the hell are they?’
The group of about 5 trainees had neatly styled hair that contrasted sharply with their comfortable exercise clothes.
Their gazes toward Ivan were also filled with the distinctive arrogance of nobles.
‘They're obviously nobles.’
Why did nobles keep approaching him after he arrived here?
Knowing the chances that they came with good intentions were low, Ivan gave a curt answer in annoyance.
“What?”
The freckled blond boy who appeared to lead the group approached Ivan and spoke.
“Are you a noble?”
“Do I look like one?”
“A commoner, then. I thought so. Move. We were using this machine.”
The response was exactly what Ivan had expected.
The blond spoke to Ivan in a commanding tone tinged with disgust.
Instead of replying, Ivan looked over their faces. He did not recognize any of them, so they must belong to another class.
“What kind of bullshit is that? I got here first. And you came from over there.”
He began by politely and logically refuting their claim.
“Bullshit? Has this bastard lost his mind? Do you even know who this gentleman is?”
The brown-haired boy beside the blond stepped forward in outrage on his behalf.
The development was exactly as expected, so Ivan was not surprised.
“Obviously I don't, or I wouldn't be saying this, you dumbass.”
“Wh-What... dumbass......?”
“Yes. Anyway, dumbass, I have no intention of giving up this spot, so get lost before I shave that ugly parting off your head.”
Ivan spoke with a blank expression and waved him away.
“Wh-What?”
Nobles generally had no resistance to insults. Most had been raised in indulgence, surrounded by pleasant words.
The brown-haired boy was no exception.
Rather than immediately responding to Ivan's mockery, he merely flushed bright red.
“You......! Those words you just said! Can you take responsibility for them?”
“Dumbass, do you think I'm your husband? Why would I take responsibility for you? And don't suddenly confess to me with that face. That's violence.”
“Pfft!”
As Ivan verbally assaulted the brown-haired boy with effortless flow, the other nobles beside him finally burst out laughing despite themselves.
“You insolent commoner bastard......!”
Unable to endure the torrent of insults, the brown-haired boy tried to swing at Ivan.
But the blond stopped him.
“What are you doing, Roen? He may be a commoner, but striking him as you please here will not end well.”
“Lord Daniel.......”
“Don't fall for such a trivial provocation.”
After calming the brown-haired boy's anger with a few words, the blond looked back at Ivan.
“What is your name?”
“Ivan.”
“Ivan? Ah, are you that former slave? I heard about you from trainees in your class. You haven't even awakened your aura yet, have you?”
“So?”
“It is true that we were using this machine. We merely stepped away for a moment to use another.”
Daniel continued, looking calmly at Ivan.
“I won't waste words. With talent at that level, you won't even advance to Orange. Stop muddying the fitness room and go elsewhere from now on. If you do, I may contact my family and employ you as a laborer after you fail.”
Hearing that erased every trace of Ivan's desire to deal with them calmly.
Had Ivan truly been a commoner, it might have sounded like a tempting offer.
Unfortunately, if Ivan failed to graduate from this place, he would be sold back into slavery.
“Are you a noble?”
Ivan asked. The blond responded as if the answer were obvious.
“You could tell if you had eyes. I am Daniel Granton, second son of House Granton.”
“Then why does a noble bastard walk around without any basic sense? Is House Granton's motto ‘Always leave your common sense at home’?”
“......”
“As you can see, I wasn't born into a very good position. But even I understand what ‘communal’ means.”
“What are you trying to say......?”
“A communal fitness room is a place everyone shares. Anyone with the slightest sense would know that claiming several machines at once only disgraces their parents.”
The blond, who had maintained his composure, began glaring at Ivan as though he wanted to kill him. Ivan did not stop there.
“Or do you have no parents to disgrace? I don't have parents either, but I'm not as senseless as you. In other words, you simply lack common sense as a human being. You're even worse than the dumbass beside you.”
“Do you truly believe you can bear the consequences of insulting my family?”
Daniel asked in a lowered voice, barely suppressing his surging anger.
“I could inform my family and make a lowborn wretch like you disappear overnight.”
“Go ahead. Be sure to tell your great family that you acted like an inconsiderate prick and couldn't even answer when I called you on it.”
Ivan told him to do as he pleased.
“...No. If I ran to my family because a wretch like you wagged his tongue, I would lose face as a noble.”
Daniel shook his head and forced his expression back under control.
“However, you have insulted me and my family. As one of the great empire's nobles, I must firmly teach a lowly bastard like you the dignity of the nobility.”
With that declaration, Daniel removed the towel around his neck and threw it at Ivan.
“Duel me with honor on the line.”
The look he directed at Ivan made it clear he had no intention of taking his words back.
“You may have no honor to protect, but I am different.”
“So?”
“If I win the duel, you will apologize for insulting me and my family while kneeling before everyone. You will also swear never to use this fitness room again.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then everyone will know you as a coward who fled from a duel. There will be no physical violence, but you may find your life extremely troublesome from now on.”
It was an unmistakable threat to use every noble connection he possessed to harass Ivan.
It did not sound much like a threat to Ivan, but the prospect of removing these people from the fitness room was appealing.
“Fine. Why not? But if I win, none of you can show your faces in this fitness room again. Understood?”
“Agreed, though you will not win.”
“How are we going to duel? The instructor said fighting and sparring between trainees are forbidden.”
“A concern befitting a lowborn.”
Daniel gave him a crooked smile.
“A duel does not necessarily have to be a fight.”