Pandora, as it was commonly known, was both a training center and the educational institution responsible for cultivating talent for the Guardian Bureau.
Ivan followed Ruben through Pandora's heavy security and soon stepped inside the training center.
Countless training grounds and all manner of facilities lined the interior of the hexagonal outer wall.
“Are you surprised?”
“Yes. I've never seen a facility this large.”
“The empire spared no effort in building this training center. There are more than 4,000 trainees.”
“Are all 4,000 of them here to join Luverth?”
“Yes. Though fewer than 2,000 of them will graduate.”
The larger-than-expected scale and sheer number of trainees made Ivan feel nervous despite himself.
“Pandora has a rank system. Starting from the lowest, the five ranks are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue. Your rank rises according to your performance, and once you reach Blue, you take the final exam. Pass that exam, and you earn your qualifications as a special investigator.”
“Then will I start at Red?”
“Your rank is assigned according to your ability. Since you still cannot sense aura, you will have to start at Red. At your level, you should rise through the ranks quickly.”
Ruben did not stop walking as he explained. Ivan followed him and looked around.
He could see numerous trainees practicing with swords or building their strength on the expansive training grounds.
Honestly, judging by how they were training over there, it did not look particularly difficult.
As he looked around, the trainees on the training grounds suddenly snapped to attention and shouted.
“““Loyalty!”””
Their thunderous voices rang out toward Ruben as the trainees raised their right hands to their foreheads in salute.
Ruben waved lightly to them as though accustomed to it, while Ivan, standing beside him, felt awkward under the sudden flood of attention.
He also felt several trainees staring at him with naked jealousy.
‘It feels like they've already marked me.’
But he did not shrink back. He was no longer a slave.
It was not as though he could disregard everyone's opinion now, but he had no reason whatsoever to worry about what his fellow trainees thought.
Ivan therefore refused to avert his eyes and instead curled his lips into a deliberately irritating grin.
The trainees who had been glaring at him in displeasure ground their teeth.
‘What are you going to do about it? What can mere trainees like you possibly do to someone personally chosen by the Director of the Guardian Bureau?’
Ivan mocked the trainees with all his might inside his head as he followed Ruben.
Surely they would not come looking for revenge. Even if they did, he did not particularly expect to lose.
“They are still your seniors. How about glaring a little less?”
“My apologies.”
He had not expected Ruben to notice that.
‘That old man is uncanny.’
Apparently, his mouth was not the only thing he needed to watch around this man.
Thinking that, Ivan followed Ruben into the largest building.
“LOOOOOYAAAAALTY!”
On the top floor, the moment they opened the door labeled Training Center Director's Office, a deafening voice boomed loudly enough to cause an earthquake.
“Ah, fuck......!”
Startled by the sudden sonic assault, Ivan barely swallowed the curse threatening to burst out.
The sound had been so loud that his eardrums still rang.
Still shaken, Ivan followed Ruben into the office and saw a hot-blooded, middle-aged man standing at attention, his eyes blazing even at a glance.
“Have you been well, Director Ruben?!”
“Didn't we see each other only a month ago? Anyone listening would think it had been years. And lower your voice, Ragon. If I keep listening to that booming voice of yours, my eardrums won't survive.”
Ruben frowned and rebuked him.
“Hahaha! Seeing you, Director Ruben, brings the vigor of my youth surging back of its own accord. My apologies!”
Despite that, Ragon burst into a hearty laugh and raised his voice another notch. Watching him, Ivan thought to himself.
‘Is he insane......?’
Ruben, apparently long accustomed to this, swiftly gave up trying to persuade him and pushed Ivan forward by the back.
“This is a newly recruited trainee. His name is Ivan. He cannot sense aura yet, so start him at Red.”
“Ohhh! So this little fellow is the child you mentioned, Director Ruben? The Young Sword Demon!”
Ragon strode up to Ivan with his mountain-like frame.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Ivan! My name is Ragon! Thanks to Director Ruben's grace, I have been entrusted with the position of director of this training center!”
“Ah... yes. It's a pleasure to meet you too.”
Please stop... My ears are going to bleed.
But Ivan's ordeal did not end there.
“Now, Ivan! Spread your arms!”
“Pardon?”
Ivan was bewildered by the abrupt order.
Ragon looked at him as though frustrated, then personally lifted both of Ivan's arms overhead.
And in the next instant...
“Ghack!”
“I sincerely welcome you to Pandora!”
Ragon suddenly stretched out his own arms and pulled Ivan into a crushing embrace.
He squeezed so hard that Ivan could not breathe out at all.
Ivan struggled as pain twisted through his internal organs.
‘What kind of ridiculous strength is this......?!’
Ivan took pride in having been born with a sturdy body, but in Ragon's arms, he felt like a newborn baby.
“Ivan! You will not die, so empty your mind and feel this passionate welcome with your entire body!”
“Ghaaaack......”
What in the world was this lunatic babbling about?
Air leaked from Ivan's mouth like a punctured balloon, while his consciousness flew toward the River Jordan in the afterlife.
He truly felt as though he might die if this continued, so Ivan drew on every last ounce of strength he possessed and began resisting Ragon's embrace.
“Grrrrgh!”
“Oh?”
Ragon's eyes widened in surprise.
His arms were still wrapped tightly around Ivan, but Ivan's strength was beginning to push them apart, little by little.
Had any trainee ever resisted his embrace this fiercely before?
A thick smile soon spread across Ragon's lips.
“Haha, it has been some time since a trainee I liked arrived. But how insolent! Stop this pointless resistance and pass out!”
With another thunderous shout, Ragon poured even more strength into both arms.
“Grrk......”
It felt as though a giant were wringing out his body.
In the end, Ivan was overwhelmed by the force and lost consciousness. Ragon slung the unconscious Ivan over his shoulder like a sack and spoke to Ruben.
“I will guide Trainee Ivan well!”
“Was it truly necessary to knock him unconscious?”
“No! I simply found his resistance to my embrace insolent, so I knocked him unconscious, hahaha!”
Despite knocking a trainee unconscious at their first meeting, Ragon wore an enormous smile, somehow utterly unapologetic.
“Very well. You may be rough, but you have produced many talented people over the years. I entrust Ivan to you.”
“Do not worry! I swear on my name that I will turn him into a civil servant Luverth can work to the bone for many years!”
Ragon answered confidently. At those words, the unconscious Ivan instinctively shuddered.
“Then I'll be on my way.”
“Are you returning already?”
“I must. Work at the Guardian Bureau never ends, so I cannot remain away for long.”
With his business finished, Ruben turned and left.
“Farewell!”
Ragon saw Ruben off in the same booming voice. Even then, Ivan could only make choking sounds from atop Ragon's shoulder.
***
“Aaaaaaagh!”
Ivan screamed as his eyes flew open.
“Huff... huff......”
Breathing roughly, Ivan shot upright and looked around in alarm.
“W-was it a dream......?”
Ivan rubbed the goosebumps covering his arms and sighed in relief.
He had dreamed of some naked, muscular man charging toward him with a bizarre laugh, and it had made him think, ‘If hell truly exists, wouldn't that be it?’
“I should live a virtuous life.”
Once he had somewhat regained his senses, Ivan began to assess the situation.
“Ah, that fucking director......”
He had wondered why he woke in a bed, but only then did he remember losing consciousness in the training center director's horrific embrace.
After unconsciously muttering “that fucking director,” Ivan hurriedly closed his mouth.
The training center director possessed absurd strength. Someone that powerful might also have sharp enough ears to hear Ivan talking to himself.
“Th-that was... only a joke. I did not mean it at all, so please do not misunderstand......”
He murmured timidly, but no answer came. Had the man not heard him?
When no response came even after some time, Ivan relaxed and looked around the room.
It was a private room furnished simply with a bed, a desk, a wardrobe, and daily necessities.
“Am I going to live here from now on?”
The room measured barely thirteen square meters, but Ivan could not stop the tears leaking from his eyes.
There was no stench of foul men's sweat, no rat bastards scurrying busily about, and no straw bed that painfully stabbed his back whenever he lay down.
“I've made it in life. I truly have.”
Filled with happiness, Ivan buried himself in the soft bed again.
His entire body ached from that bastard director's embrace.
He intended to lie in bed and catch his breath, but then...
“Hm?”
Turning his head, Ivan noticed a scrap of paper on the desk. He immediately rose and unfolded it, only to read...
“Change into the training uniform in the drawer and report to the training ground by eight o'clock?”
Ivan's head naturally turned toward the clock hanging over the door.
“Let's see. So the time now is... 8:10 a.m.”
A chill shot down his spine.
It was the kind of chill one felt after waking on a workday and realizing a body that should be exhausted felt strangely refreshed.
He was late. Ten whole minutes late.
If he considered the matter calmly, this was entirely the fault of the training center director who had knocked him unconscious.
But Ivan was only a trainee. Confronting the training center director and demanding that he take responsibility was impossible.
Which meant...
“Haah, seriously. Nothing is going right from the very first day.”
Ivan hurriedly stripped off his clothes.
If he reached the training ground as quickly as possible and calmly explained the circumstances, perhaps they would take them into consideration.
“Do I need to change my underwear too?”
For some reason, the training uniform even included underwear.
It appeared elastic and well ventilated, so it had likely been provided for use during training.
Reaching that conclusion, Ivan stripped off his underwear without hesitation and transformed into his natural, naked state.
Then it happened.
RATTLE!
The door slid wide open on its own. Ah, come to think of it, he had not locked it......
“What are you still doing here, trainee, ten minutes after assembly began?!”
An enraged voice followed the door into the room.
Regret washed over Ivan, but it was already too late. The person who appeared to be an instructor was glaring at him.
She was even a woman.
“......”
“......”
Silence descended after their brief exchange of looks. The instructor's face immediately twisted at the sight of Ivan in his natural state.
“Haha, good morning?”
He offered the greeting in an attempt to ease the atmosphere, but it only made the instructor's expression grow as cold as a frozen lake.
Ivan smacked his lips bitterly.
It seemed his first day had become thoroughly tangled from the very beginning.
***
Ivan sealed his shame deep inside his heart, quickly changed into his training uniform, and ran out to the training ground.
Dozens of trainees had already assembled there, everyone except Ivan.
Ivan was the only trainee who had arrived late. He suppressed his embarrassment and humiliation and tried to slip into the formation.
“The only trainee who arrived late will not try sneaking into the back. Come forward.”
As expected, the instructor singled Ivan out with a pointed remark and called him over.
Ivan had no choice but to turn around and go back to the front. The instructor watched him coldly and issued an order.
“While the trainee was late, every other trainee finished introducing themselves. Our tardy trainee will therefore promptly state his name, origin, and reason for coming here. Begin.”
Led by the instructor, Ivan found himself standing half against his will before dozens of trainees.
There was no backing out now, so Ivan obediently began his introduction as ordered.
“Nice to meet you. I'm Ivan.”
Ivan regarded the trainees with a touch of arrogance as he spoke.
At times like this, he needed to be bold! Confident! And shave off half a spoonful of courtesy so no one would look down on him.
“I used to be a slave. I came here because I heard that becoming a civil servant would earn me severance pay and a special pension when I retire. Let's get along.”
Simple and honest.
Ivan finished his introduction like a cool, aloof city man and smiled in satisfaction inside.
Did people not say that showing your true self earned more goodwill than putting on airs for no reason?
Ivan had no doubt that his debut as a trainee had been perfect.
Of course, the other trainees merely stared at him with dumbfounded expressions, as though they had just seen a lunatic.