Kamel stood before Ivan with a grave expression, as though he were making an important request.
Ivan looked at Kamel in surprise.
He had taken Kamel for the type who preferred working out alone like a lone wolf.
There was no particular reason to refuse.
“I don’t mind, but as you can see, I’m helping these two work out. If you’re willing to wait, you can join us.”
“That is fine. I came to receive help as well.”
Help? Ivan looked puzzled.
After seeing Kamel exercise yesterday, Ivan had been unable to find any particular fault with his technique.
“You seemed to do just fine on your own yesterday. I don’t think there’s anything I can help you with?”
“That is fine. Merely training alongside you will be enough.”
“If that’s what you want.”
Ivan turned to Julian and Meirin and asked.
“What do you two think? Are you all right with him working out with us?”
“I don’t mind.”
“M-me neither.”
Julian did not seem to care, and although Meirin looked slightly shy around the stranger, she nodded.
“Your names were Julian and Meirin, correct? I look forward to training with you.”
“Lord Kamel even remembers my name. I’m honored.”
“There is no need to speak so formally to me.”
“I know. I was joking. Let’s get along.”
Sociable as ever, Julian treated Kamel casually too.
“Shall we start, then? We’re going pretty hard today, so brace yourselves.”
Ivan spoke as he lightly warmed up.
“First, we need to get our bodies warm, so let’s run.”
Ivan headed for the track on the training ground.
Julian, Meirin, and Kamel followed behind him.
The four took their places side by side on the track and began to run.
“Huff, huff... D-don’t worry about me, just go......”
As expected, Meirin immediately fell behind, while Ivan, Julian, and Kamel surged ahead in a level line.
All three ranked near the top in physical training, so they raced around the track at high speed.
That was when it happened.
Whoosh!
Someone dashed onto the track and joined their formation.
Her straight black hair streaming behind her, Miliana shot past Ivan and took the lead.
‘What is she doing now?’
Ivan stared at Miliana’s back in disbelief.
Since this was a communal fitness room, there was nothing strange about another trainee running on the track.
But there were plenty of empty lanes on the track Ivan was using.
So why had she ignored all that open space just to run in front of him?
She even kept glancing back, clearly conscious of his presence.
‘Does she want a challenge?’
Ivan drew a breath and increased his speed. In an instant, he passed Miliana and seized the lead.
“......!”
Miliana flinched. Ivan did not even look back as he ran onward.
In truth, he had been curious ever since the first day.
Between her and him, who had greater stamina?
‘She seems to consider me a rival too.’
He thought this would be a good chance to test themselves against each other.
Miliana watched Ivan pull away for a moment, then apparently caught fire as well. She bit her lip and began to accelerate.
***
Kamel watched the distance between Ivan and himself, which refused to shrink.
As a son of House Harbern, which ruled the harsh North, he had trained alongside his family’s knights since childhood.
But after entering Pandora, he had been forced to recognize his own shortcomings.
‘......’
Kamel exhaled his mounting breath and sank into thought.
When his father had abruptly told him to become an imperial official, Kamel had not understood.
He had lived in the North all his life. Since childhood, he had admired his family’s knights and respected his father, who protected the vast North.
For that reason, Kamel had always believed he would one day live as a northern knight, just like his older brothers.
—Kamel, go to Pandora. Learn how vast the world is, then return.
But his father, the Frost Duke, had spoken firmly, as though Kamel’s wishes did not matter.
True to the blood of House Harbern, Kamel was exceptionally talented, and no child of his age in the North could rival him.
‘That must be why Father sent me here.’
Even though he understood his father’s intent, he had still been reluctant to enlist in Pandora.
Part of it was the childish reluctance to leave his homeland, but more than anything, he had been unable to feel any anticipation.
To Kamel, the North had been the only world, and he could not imagine a world any broader than it.
‘What a foolish delusion.’
On the first day of training, Kamel had realized the vastness of the world, just as his father had hoped.
Born into the great House Harbern and hailed all his life as a once-in-a-generation genius, he had believed himself to be the center of the world.
Now he felt like a frog in a well.
There were people at the training camp who surpassed him.
‘Miliana Leonhart.’
Although they both came from Great Houses, Kamel acknowledged that she was one step ahead of him.
Kamel glanced to the side and saw Meirin, whom he had already lapped several times.
The difference between his stamina and hers was beyond comparison.
But when it came to aura class, the opposite was true.
‘To fully awaken her aura in only two days.’
Kamel had sensed aura after four days, but fully awakening it had taken him quite some time.
What about Meirin? Because Kamel could wield aura, he understood just how absurdly fast her growth was.
‘She will continue growing rapidly.’
She might even surpass him before long.
Her talent was astonishing, but someone else had made Kamel realize the vastness of the world more than anyone.
‘Ivan.’
A former slave and trainee who had yet to even awaken his aura.
Yet when Kamel watched Ivan face an assistant during today’s training, he felt as though he were looking at an enormous wall.
Even from a distance, Kamel had been unable to follow all of Ivan’s movements with his eyes.
‘If Ivan and I were to spar.’
Could he win?
Kamel immediately shook his head, as though the question required no thought. He would certainly lose. It was not a feeling, but a conviction.
No matter how he racked his brain, he found it difficult to imagine himself defeating Ivan.
‘If I used aura.’
Even then, he could not say for certain that he would win.
It was truly absurd. He had learned his family’s swordsmanship and martial arts since childhood.
What about Ivan? His movements showed none of the distinctive motions or restraint that came from formal instruction.
Suppose Ivan learned swordsmanship and martial arts suited to him at this place.
‘I cannot even begin to imagine how strong he will become.’
Until now, Kamel had never needed anyone’s help.
He had learned and mastered everything on his own.
But after coming here, Kamel had become painfully aware of his shortcomings.
That was why he had made his request of Ivan.
‘I still have a long way to go.’
He did not want to remain inadequate. It was a feeling he had never experienced before.
He did not know how to make up for what he lacked.
But somehow, he felt that staying by Ivan’s side would lead him to the answer.
‘I do not want to lose.’
This was the first time his desire to compete had set his heart ablaze so fiercely.
The same was true of Miliana.
‘I can’t accept this.’
Miliana ground her teeth as she chased after Ivan.
But she could not easily close the distance.
Miliana swallowed her frustration and fought against the breath rising to her throat.
She had spent her entire life struggling desperately for acknowledgment, enduring both her family’s mockery of her illegitimate birth and the contempt of her father and half-siblings.
Miliana had trained through tears of blood, driven by the single wish to be acknowledged.
‘Then why?’
Why did she have to feel this frustrated?
In truth, Miliana knew the reason. It was because Ivan was always ahead of her.
From the first day, Miliana had felt an inexplicable displeasure toward Ivan.
But she had deliberately ignored it.
‘I have no reason to feel displeased with him.’
She had suppressed and ignored the uneasy emotion slowly blooming inside her.
She did not know why, but she did not want to learn what that emotion was.
Today, however, Miliana had realized during training that her displeasure stemmed from an inferiority complex.
She had been unable to move before an assistant, but Ivan had.
He had held out against an assistant for an hour, while Miliana could not be certain that she could do the same.
That was right.
In the end, it was nothing more than ugly jealousy.
Every time she saw Ivan, it felt as though everything she had built until now collapsed into nothing.
‘I......’
Miliana suppressed the emotion leaking from her and glared at Ivan’s back.
She could not fall behind Ivan like this.
No matter what it took, she had to become a special investigator, accumulate more achievements than anyone, and rise to the top.
She was prepared to burn everything for that purpose.
She did not care how ugly she had to become.
‘I can’t lose to you.’
The light in Miliana’s eyes began to blaze more intensely.
***
‘Will this be enough?’
Ivan had continued racing around the track at the same pace, but now he began to slow down.
He had gotten a rough sense of Miliana’s and Kamel’s abilities.
‘I’m a little better.’
Even so, he did not grow smug or conceited.
They could wield aura, while Ivan could not.
If he failed to awaken his aura, stamina and everything else be damned—he would simply be eliminated.
He might have slightly better stamina and strength than them, but if he could not wield aura, then he would ultimately be the one furthest behind.
‘Five days left.’
He had to awaken his aura by then, no matter what. Ivan steeled himself and came to a stop.
“We’re warmed up now, so let’s move on to strength training.”
“Understood.”
“But Ivan, I think Meirin collapsed?”
Julian looked back as he spoke. Meirin was panting with her tongue hanging out, her face bright red.
“Haaah... D-don’t... worry about meeeee......”
Meirin forced the words out in a voice that sounded as though her breath could fail at any moment.
“What are you talking about, Meirin? You’ll be punished by the heavens if you skip strength training. Hurry up.”
But Ivan hauled Meirin to her feet, refusing to hear it.
“Are we training our chests again......?”
“No, today we’re doing shoulders and legs.”
“I am confident in my legs. Even in the North, few possessed legs as strong as mine.”
“Really? How much can you squat?”
“About four hundred.”
Kamel answered Ivan’s question with confidence.
Ivan flinched.
‘Four hundred might be a little rough......’
He was not sure he could squat four hundred.
But a man’s pride was at stake. When it came to legs, he could not allow himself to fall behind.
Ivan bluffed.
“I do about four hundred and ten.”
Kamel calmly countered.
“I meant that I do ten repetitions with four hundred.”
“Then I do twelve.”
“When I am in good condition, I manage around fifteen.”
“When I’m really feeling it, I can do about seventeen.”
A subtle battle of nerves unfolded between Ivan and Kamel.
Watching them, Julian tilted his head. Was that really something to be so proud about?
Julian was not a true workout fanatic and could not understand, but when it came to their legs, neither Ivan nor Kamel wanted to lose.
‘Ah, shit... Can I really do seventeen with four hundred......?’
Worry flooded in after he said it, but as a man, he could not take back his word.
‘Fine, damn it. I just have to do it!’
Ivan strode forward with the grim expression of a general marching onto a battlefield.
‘Today, I will surpass my limits.’
Kamel felt the same.
And Miliana carefully followed behind them.
Ivan and Kamel were not the only ones who had been fired up by the competition.
***
After finishing his workout, Ivan returned to his room.
He diligently massaged his tingling leg muscles with his hands. Even though he had stopped by the infirmary, obtained a potion, and drunk it before returning, the soreness had not fully faded.
That was how brutally he had worked his legs.
“Bastard should’ve taken it a little easier.”
Kamel was strangely prideful about such things. Whenever Ivan added more weight, Kamel added even more.
Ivan had kept adding weight too, refusing to lose. In the end, their contest had concluded with both of their legs giving out beneath them.
“This is no time for that.”
After resting briefly, Ivan sprang off the bed, took the orb in his hand, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes. Recalling what he had learned in class, he concentrated on sensing aura.
‘Please, let me feel something today.’
Praying desperately, Ivan exhaled and began forming an image in his mind.
In the end, aura was what mattered most. Without it, he could not advance to the next rank.
So no matter how hard he tried to remain calm, he could not help feeling impatient inside.
Ivan once again continued his visualization in a state of total concentration.
The ticking clock marked the passage of time.
One hour, then two. Time flowed like water.
‘I have a good feeling today.’
The corners of his lips rose without his realizing it.
And Ivan...
“......”
Still had not awakened his aura even after a month had passed.