“I knew this would happen.”
Ivan sighed as he watched Miliana flounder.
He had not expected her to leap into the river immediately after him.
It could only be described as foolish.
Unlike on land, once someone jumped into a river, it was impossible to stop and rest.
Just as Ivan had expected, the unrelenting current gave Miliana no chance to recover her breath.
Before long, she exhausted her strength and began to sink.
‘Should I help her or not?’
Ivan considered it briefly. He could simply ignore her and continue without consequence.
On his way here, Ivan’s exceptional senses had detected assistants hiding in every direction.
Even if Ivan did not save Miliana himself, an assistant would rescue her.
‘But then she’ll be eliminated.’
An assistant intervening meant they had judged Miliana unable to continue the test.
It was difficult to imagine she would receive another chance.
With no other choice, Ivan stopped advancing and swam toward the place where Miliana had sunk.
There was no rule forbidding trainees from helping one another, so saving her should be allowed.
He did not hesitate.
Part of him moved because he owed her, but more than anything, Ivan simply thought it would be a terrible waste for Miliana to fail like this.
‘Because she’s talented.’
That was all.
Ivan swam toward where Miliana had sunk, dove beneath the surface, and found her being swept away.
For some reason, Miliana wore an extraordinarily peaceful expression, unlike moments earlier.
‘Did she hit her head?’
That would be dangerous. Ivan urgently sank deeper and reached toward Miliana.
Then Miliana’s arm twitched, as though she were trying to take Ivan’s hand.
Ivan seized her arm and kicked his legs powerfully, rising back to the surface.
“This current is damned strong.”
When he surfaced, the river had carried them a considerable distance from their original position.
Ivan first checked Miliana’s condition.
“Cough......!”
Her face was deathly pale, but fortunately, she immediately spat out water and began breathing.
However, she did not appear capable of regaining consciousness yet.
Ivan slid his left arm beneath Miliana’s armpit to secure her, then moved his right arm and both legs as he advanced little by little.
Swimming while holding another person was even harder than he had imagined.
The added weight and loss of one arm made it difficult to gain speed.
“God, you’re heavy. This settles my debt.”
But Ivan did not release Miliana and steadily made his way toward the opposite bank.
***
The world once again turned reddish beneath the sunlight.
Around then, Miliana finally managed to open her heavy eyelids. The first thing she felt was warmth.
To the soft crackle of burning wood, Miliana raised a body that felt as heavy as a thousand geun.
“This place......”
Still dizzy, Miliana examined her surroundings.
The river continued to rush by with undiminished force.
She had clearly exhausted herself and sunk while crossing it.
It did not seem that an assistant had saved her.
The tag was still attached at her waist, and if an assistant had rescued her, she would already have been eliminated.
Yet she was still here.
“That means.”
Miliana naturally looked around as though conscious of someone.
Before long, she heard footsteps in the distance.
“Huh? You’re finally awake.”
Ivan approached her carrying an armful of fruit he had apparently picked somewhere.
“How do you feel? You kept groaning.”
Ivan set the fruit down and asked.
Miliana stared blankly at Ivan. The sun was setting.
That meant a considerable amount of time had passed since morning.
But......
“...Why are you still here?”
Miliana asked in a subdued voice.
She could not understand.
No matter how far ahead Ivan had been, half a day had passed, so he had surely fallen far behind.
“Can’t you tell? Who do you think has been caring for you all this time?”
“Why in the world......?”
“I didn’t intend to nurse you for this long either. Something happened.”
Ivan sat beside Miliana as he spoke.
That morning, he had somehow managed to carry Miliana to the opposite bank.
That much had gone well.
Ivan had intended to light a fire beside her so she could wake up, then leave.
But at that moment, an assistant watching from a distance had intervened.
“As a penalty for saving you from drowning, I was told not to move a single step until you woke up.”
It was a punishment Ivan had not anticipated.
He had protested that he had never heard such a rule, but the assistant firmly replied that the training center director had personally invented the penalty just then.
And so Ivan had no choice but to remain there until Miliana woke.
Fortunately, after throwing a fit, he had at least been allowed to wander nearby and pick fruit.
“Eat. It’s sweet and tastes good.”
Ivan handed Miliana one of the freshly picked fruits.
“......”
Speechless, Miliana accepted it.
When she bit into the ripe fruit, sweet juice flowed down her throat.
Apparently famished, Miliana finished the entire fruit in an instant.
“Want another?”
Ivan chuckled at the sight. Miliana hesitated, perhaps because of her pride, before giving a small nod.
“Why did you save me?”
After finishing the fruit, Miliana hesitated before speaking.
“...You could have just passed by. No one would have blamed you. This is a competition.”
“True.”
“And as a result, you had to stay here all this time. If it were me, I would have passed by. Even if you left me there, an assistant would have saved me.”
“Then you would have been eliminated.”
Miliana flinched because he was right.
But she still could not understand.
“What does that have to do with you? I never wanted your help. Even if I had been eliminated there, I would have... accepted it. It would only mean that was my limit......”
“I know. I had no duty to save you. I could save you, and I wanted to, so I did it because I felt like it. Just as you helped me because you felt like it.”
Ivan answered calmly while chewing on a fruit.
“So you don’t have to thank me. But tell me something. Could you really have accepted being eliminated like that? To me, you looked more desperate than anyone.”
Ivan recalled the days that had passed.
Everyone had done their best in training. They had worked relentlessly to grow, even if only by a little.
But Miliana’s efforts were on an entirely different level.
She abused her body so severely that it resembled torture more than training.
She had struggled desperately until the day before the test.
After seeing how desperate she was, Ivan could not believe she would accept being eliminated.
“I......”
Ivan’s question left Miliana speechless. She tried to shake her head, but in the end, she could not deny it.
‘Could I really have accepted the result if I had been eliminated there?’
No, she could not have.
She would only have comforted herself by speaking of her limits and insisting nothing could have been done.
At that moment, when she saw a hand reaching toward her as she sank.
Hope had absurdly welled in Miliana’s heart when she should have let everything go. When she opened her eyes here, she had felt relieved without realizing it.
That was right. No matter how hard she tried to deceive herself, she had been unable to give up.
“...You’re right. If I had been eliminated there, I probably... No, I certainly couldn’t have accepted it... I would have lived my whole life in regret.”
After hesitating, Miliana admitted it with a quiet, hollow laugh. Everything suddenly felt trivial.
Why she had tried to deceive herself, and why she had pushed herself so hard.
“The truth is... I envied you.”
Now, Miliana felt disillusioned with herself for hiding her true feelings.
Perhaps she had simply grown so tired that she wanted to confess everything.
“I envied how you were always ahead, and I wanted to catch you. At the same time, I was afraid. Watching you continue to grow made me feel as if I were standing still. So I grew jealous of you, ugly as that was. Then I lied to myself about those feelings, stubbornly pushed on, and collapsed like an idiot.”
The sky overhead glowed softly with the sunset.
Miliana stared silently at it and sighed with several emotions intertwined.
“That’s all.”
Miliana did not bother turning her head.
But she was curious.
Would Ivan pity her for this, or would he look upon her with disgust?
Either one felt as though it would hurt.
“Hey.”
After hearing Miliana’s true feelings, Ivan finally spoke.
“Are you making fun of me?”
His tone contained neither pity nor disgust.
Ivan spoke in disbelief.
“What does that make me if you say all that?”
Ivan suddenly let out a deep sigh.
“Me?! I haven’t even sensed aura, never mind moved it. I tried every possible thing to awaken it, and the director even dragged me off and beat me like a dog, yet I still couldn’t awaken it. What good is having some stamina when I’ll be eliminated if I can’t awaken my aura? And you can control aura just fine.”
“What......?”
“And it’s not like your stamina is terrible. You have far better stamina than most people. Don’t you?”
“Uh......”
Miliana nodded in bewilderment at Ivan’s sudden stream of complaints.
“Isn’t trying to have everything a little shameless? If I fail, I’ll be sold back into damned slavery. Be honest. If you could trade bodies with me, would you? Hmm?”
“......”
Miliana considered it but could not bring herself to say yes.
“See? The fact that you couldn’t answer immediately tells me everything. This is so unfair. The relative deprivation is brutal. I’m jumping into the river, so don’t try to stop me.”
Ivan continued venting his resentment.
To think she felt inferior to him for such a trivial reason.
To Ivan, who faced being sold back into slavery and a lifetime among stinking men, her words could only sound like mockery.
“Do you know how damned awful it is to suffer abuse while you sleep? Do you know what it feels like to sleep on straw stabbing into your back, to wake up with rats crawling all over you, or to have a superior pick at every word you say and discriminate against you?!”
Ivan pounded his chest as the thought of his bleak future plunged him into depression.
Miliana looked flustered.
This was not how it was supposed to go......
She had never expected Ivan to become despondent instead.
Miliana worked her lips helplessly before offering him some comfort.
“I-I was wrong, so please calm down. It’s not over yet.”
Before they knew it, their positions had reversed.
***
“Um... Anyway, stay strong.”
“Sure, what does failing matter? I’ll just be sold back into slavery and fight monsters until I die. Ah, should I run away instead? Then an instructor would cut off my head.”
Ivan grumbled as he erased the traces they had left behind.
Miliana had woken, so they could move again.
They had fallen far behind while she was unconscious, but if they ran hard from now on, they should still pass safely.
But a variable remained.
By now, the special investigators had probably begun their pursuit.
“Sigh, life is bitter. But what can I do? I have to run. Can you run?”
“My body is still stiff, but I can run without trouble.”
“I won’t help you a second time, so don’t push yourself like an idiot again. Manage your stamina this time.”
“...All right.”
Miliana looked at Ivan with a strange expression.
His tone was indifferent, yet she felt an inexplicable warmth.
That warmth was unfamiliar to Miliana, yet somehow it also felt familiar.
It resembled the warmth of her mother’s touch when she was young, a memory she could now barely recall.
‘What a fascinating guy.’
Until now, everyone who treated Miliana kindly had wanted to forge ties with her family.
Ivan, however, was different. He treated Miliana without any ulterior motive.
When she first saw him, she had thought he was simply insane.
But now, Miliana had no choice but to see Ivan in a new light.
“But why has my stomach been hurting for a while? Is it because of those strange fruits?”
“...Don’t tell me you picked them without even knowing what they were?”
“How would I know what grows around here? I picked them because they looked tasty. Anyway, your stomach doesn’t hurt?”
At that innocent question, Miliana’s eyebrows trembled.
On second thought, he was still insane.