“...Tardy Trainee Ivan, promptly run into formation.”
“Yes!”
At the instructor's quiet command, Ivan immediately ran to join the very end of the back row.
The instructor glanced at Ivan with a dumbfounded expression, as though she had never encountered a trainee like him in her life.
She had meant for him to introduce what region he came from. Even after ten years as an instructor, she had not expected him to suddenly announce that he had been a slave.
And he had said it as proudly as though he were a noble from some illustrious house.
‘Is something seriously wrong with him......?’
‘It looks like a lunatic has joined us. I should stay away from him.’
‘Ah... damn it. Why did he have to stand next to me? He's terrifying.’
The other trainees also began treating Ivan like a madman and putting distance between themselves and him.
It was understandable.
Slaves were not viewed favorably in this world. Most of them had become slaves after committing crimes.
There were, of course, cases like Ivan's, where people were unjustly enslaved despite committing no crime.
But given the status itself, anyone who had once been a slave was usually desperate to hide that past.
Ivan, on the other hand, had proudly come out as a slave, so there was no way he would look normal in other people's eyes.
“A slave bastard has no business lowering the dignity of this place......”
Pandora also had many nobles.
To them, dedicating themselves to the country was equivalent to elevating their family's honor and standing.
The gazes of the noble-born trainees therefore fixed on Ivan more intensely than anyone else's.
“...He truly is a lowborn bastard utterly devoid of honor or pride.”
Of course, many trainees had entered Pandora in pursuit of material rewards.
However, since special investigators were regarded as a noble profession, no trainee other than Ivan openly declared such a mercenary goal.
That was why the proud, noble-born trainees glared at Ivan as if he were filth.
As a result...
Between arriving late on his first day, shamelessly admitting that he had been a slave, and giving a motive entirely devoid of honor, Ivan's stack of unpopularity showed no sign of stopping.
‘Did I screw up?’
Only then did Ivan notice the reactions around him and scratch his head.
He had thought he had planned his introduction rather meticulously.
It displayed the self-respect and humor to calmly admit he had been a slave, the confidence to disregard society's judgment, and a motivation that was materialistic yet relatable.
He had therefore been certain the men would react with ‘That bastard's kind of cool?’ while the women would think, ‘This man... might actually be all right......?’
‘I suppose I miscalculated.’
He could feel their stinging gazes. They were plainly looking at him like trash.
Ivan readily acknowledged his mistake and pretended to remain calm.
‘Right. Did I come here to make friends? No, I came to become a civil servant.’
Rationalizing his mistake was an added bonus.
Life never went as planned. And Ivan knew exactly how to handle times like this.
‘What the fuck are you looking at, bastard?’
Ivan abruptly changed his attitude and moved his lips toward the trainees who kept glancing at him.
He made no sound, but it was not difficult to infer what he was saying from the movement of his lips.
“That bastard......!”
Several trainees who had been openly staring at him ground their teeth and glared as if they wanted to kill him.
Ivan checked the instructor's reaction and quickly added something else.
‘If you have a problem, come at me, you morons.’
He might bow his head to those above him, but he would stand tall before his equals.
That was Ivan's motto.
Of course, with the instructor present, the trainees could not openly attack him.
He had acted precisely because he knew that.
***
“Now that everyone is assembled, I will explain the curriculum the trainees will undergo.”
The instructor addressed the trainees, who stood in orderly rows and columns.
“Before that, this instructor will introduce herself. This instructor's name is Alia. You will address me as Instructor Alia.”
“Yes!”
Satisfied with their unified response, Alia nodded and continued.
“The trainees gathered here are all Red, the lowest of Pandora's five ranks. To graduate from the Red class, you must pass tests in basic stamina and aura awakening and release.”
The trainees reacted to the explanation in different ways.
Some nobles who had already received extensive instruction from their families looked triumphant. Some trainees' expressions were already stiff, while others burned with the determination to survive at any cost.
And yet...
“Our tardy Trainee Ivan, are you perhaps dozing off right now?”
Alia spoke in a voice evenly divided between disbelief and anger.
When no answer came, she suppressed her rising fury and shouted.
“Trainee Ivan will come to the front immediately! Move!”
“Gulp? Y-yes!”
Only then did Ivan come to his senses, wipe away his drool, and scramble to the front.
He found himself looking directly at Alia's icy face.
“My apologies!”
He immediately apologized, but Alia's expression did not soften.
“It appears this instructor has been too indulgent, causing Trainee Ivan to misunderstand something.”
Ah, seriously.
He was indeed at fault, but Ivan could not help feeling wronged inside.
For two full days, he had been forced to ride in a carriage all day to arrive in time for his entry into the training center.
He had been made to come straight here without relieving any of the fatigue accumulated inside that hard carriage.
“Um, well... actually......”
Ivan tried to explain the circumstances, but...
“Enough excuses. Trainee Ivan will plant his head on the ground immediately and listen attentively. Continue showing such an insincere attitude, and you had better prepare to be expelled.”
Alia cut him off as though his explanation was not even worth hearing.
“Understood......”
The word expelled made Ivan promptly plant his head on the ground and answer.
He could not see ahead of him with his head against the ground, but he could feel the trainees silently laughing at him.
‘What an exhausting life.’
In truth, his life as a slave had accustomed him so thoroughly to this degree of hardship that it did not particularly affect him.
‘More importantly, how did she know I was dozing off?’
He had been in the back row where he could barely be seen, yet she had noticed.
Ivan was reminded once again that the world was full of monsters.
“Someone interrupted the flow, but I will resume the explanation.”
With Ivan still keeping his head against the ground beside her, Alia continued.
“The Red class training period lasts two months. There will be three exams: stamina, strength, and aura. Naturally, failing even one of the three will result in expulsion.”
Alia's gaze turned cold, and the trainees swallowed hard.
Except for Ivan, who could not look up.
“I will explain the details two weeks before the exams, so do not worry. Finally, one warning.”
Alia's voice grew sharper.
“Some of the trainees here will be nobles, while others will not. However, now that you are trainees of Pandora, every one of you is simply a trainee. Anyone who invokes their status to seek an unfair advantage will be severely punished, so commit these words to memory.”
“Understood!”
“Any trainee with a question will raise their hand.”
Having finished her explanation, Alia addressed the trainees. As often happened when someone abruptly asked whether there were questions, nothing came to mind.
The trainees remained silent, and Alia spoke again.
“If there are none, we will proceed directly to training. Since this is the first day, it will be light. Everyone, follow me.”
After that brief statement, Alia turned toward the rear of the dormitory. The trainees immediately followed her.
“Um... may I stand up and follow as well?”
Ivan asked while looking at Alia's retreating back, but...
“......”
No answer came.
***
Ivan considered getting up and following, but worried that doing so would only give her another reason to criticize him, so he remained where he was.
Noises that sounded like people hauling something heavy came from behind the dormitory, and before long, the trainees returned to the training ground one by one.
The packs on their backs and sandbags strapped to their limbs suggested that they were about to undergo stamina training.
“Trust a slave to look so ridiculous.”
“You look like you'll fail the first exam anyway. Why don't you leave now?”
“That's right. This is no place for a lowborn bastard like you.”
Taking advantage of the instructor's absence, several trainees who had glared at Ivan earlier openly mocked him.
Ivan had heard more provocations like that than he had eaten meals in his life, so he did not lose his temper. Instead, he quietly raised his middle fingers at them.
“Fuck off.”
With his head planted on the ground and the middle fingers of both hands spread like an eagle's wings, the pose was nothing short of art.
“How dare you, you bastard......!”
Apparently moved by that beautiful sight, one of the trainees grew agitated and approached Ivan.
Ivan heard the faint sound of the trainee's foot leaving the ground. It appeared he intended to kick him.
‘Should I dodge or let him hit me?’
That was the question.
Ivan deliberated, and in the meantime, the trainee kicked at him.
Ivan did not want to be hit, so he withdrew his middle fingers and planted both palms firmly on the ground.
‘She told me only to keep my head planted.’
In other words, as long as his head remained against the ground, he could move however he pleased.
Interpreting the order however he liked, Ivan kicked off the ground with both feet.
The recoil sent Ivan's entire body shooting straight toward the sky, and he spread his legs wide.
“......!”
The trainee flinched in surprise at Ivan's sudden movement.
By the time he showed his surprise, Ivan had already twisted his legs and rotated the arms anchoring him to the ground.
The name of the move was the headspin.
As the rotation of his arms and the twist in his legs unwound, Ivan spun rapidly with his head still fixed to the ground.
His turning leg accelerated at the same time and flew straight toward the trainee's jaw.
“Urgh!”
The trainee panicked and barely dodged Ivan's foot. More precisely, Ivan had deliberately eased his strength enough to let him dodge.
With his head rotating 180 degrees along with his legs, Ivan could now see the trainee's face.
It might sound unkind to say so, but the thought that faces truly revealed character flashed through Ivan's mind.
“My good man, would you care to stop here?”
Ivan lowered his voice and addressed the trainee like a reclusive master.
“It would be rather humiliating to lose to me while I'm in this position.”
“You lunatic, how dare you!”
“Suit yourself.”
It was the reaction Ivan had expected, so he swished his feet through the air, loosening up his body—or rather, his legs.
Apparently deeply ashamed that a single kick had made him retreat, the trainee charged Ivan with an even redder face.
Ivan's eyes gleamed coldly.
He had already completed the picture in his mind: catch the bastard's neck between his legs and choke him.
He was about to move his legs when...
“Why don't you stop there?”
An aloof woman's voice suddenly cut in and stopped the trainee's movement.
“What bastard thinks they can order me......?”
The enraged trainee whipped his head toward the owner of the voice.
In the next instant, his expression hardened like stone.
“L-Lady Miliana......”
The trainee shuddered as though he had provoked someone who must never be crossed.
Unable to contain his curiosity, Ivan also turned his head slightly to see who it was.
A girl with striking black hair and violet eyes was watching them with a blank expression.
“You can drop the ‘Lady.’ Like the instructor said, I'm only another trainee here.”
“But......”
“I don't care what you do, but if you want to cause a disturbance, do it somewhere else later, just the two of you. Don't inconvenience the other trainees.”
Miliana coldly looked between Ivan and the other trainee as she spoke.
“Th-this is a misunderstanding, Lady Miliana. I merely wanted to teach this ill-mannered slave......”
“You started the fight, didn't you?”
At Miliana's words, the trainee had no choice but to close his mouth.
“I have no desire to judge who was right or wrong. But as a trainee who will be training alongside you from now on, choose an appropriate time and place. You aren't a child. Understand that lashing out with a kick to start a fight also lowers the dignity of this place.”
The trainee ground his teeth at those words. Naturally, his furious gaze was fixed on Ivan, not Miliana.
Even so, he had no choice but to back down.
“My apologies......”
In the end, the trainee suppressed his anger and returned to his place.
“You don't need to speak formally. I didn't come here to receive special treatment.”
Miliana gave the curt reply and walked back to her place.
Ivan watched Miliana's retreating figure and thought.
‘Is she from some incredibly high-ranking noble family?’
The bastard who had picked the fight appeared to be a noble too. If even a fellow noble cowered before her like that, she had to be from an exceptionally illustrious house.
“Thanks.”
Still marveling inwardly, Ivan called out his gratitude to Miliana.
“......”
She ignored him completely.