The Frost Proving Ground.
Translated literally, the place of trial where the frost comes down.
Translated freely, it meant the place where martial skill is practised.
Put simply, you could call it the 'training ground' where the county's military education and drills are carried out and the soldiers temper their bodies.
In other words, it meant Adrian was currently at the training ground.
Kai's expression floating up like a fool's was, in a sense, only natural.
Seraphia, who had been quietly listening beside him, was also tilting her head to the left.
"That bastard is right now—"
"Sir Kai!"
Seraphia cried out at once.
Kai quickly corrected himself.
"...Are you saying Lord Adrian is at the Frost Proving Ground right now?"
"That is correct."
Bernard nodded immediately.
Obviously enough, Bernard had no reason to lie.
Which meant Adrian really was at the Frost Proving Ground right now.
But did that make any sense?
A wastrel who spent every single day sunk in gambling and pleasure, at the Frost Proving Ground?
"What is he doing there?"
Kai asked, his brow furrowed.
Of course, there was nothing to do at the Frost Proving Ground but 'train.'
And yet, it was unbelievable.
Because the Adrian that Kai knew had not once trained at the Frost Proving Ground in the past ten years.
Never mind training — he had never gone near the Frost Proving Ground at all.
So what wind had blown through overnight to have him training at the Frost Proving Ground?
It's impossible unless the person himself has changed.
And for a person to change is close to impossible.
He must have some other purpose in going to the Frost Proving Ground.
"He is undergoing training."
But that was Bernard's answer.
Seraphia seemed to find this one hard to believe as well, and asked in Kai's place.
"My brother is training?"
"That is correct."
Bernard's answer did not change.
It was not as if they were unaware that Bernard would never report a falsehood.
Even so, Kai simply could not believe it.
"What sort of training could he possibly be doing at the Frost Proving Ground?"
After all, Adrian had no talent whatsoever for swordsmanship.
And not only swordsmanship.
Spearmanship, blade arts, archery, and so on.
He had not a scrap of talent for the martial arts.
More precisely, it would be right to say his talent for 'Aura' was a disaster.
Beyond a disaster — at the level of wreckage.
If a level of talent could be expressed as a number, the Aura talent Adrian possessed could be called '0.'
Did he have a talent for magic, then?
He did not have that either.
Adrian could not use Mana Force in the slightest.
As a result, his 'talent for mana' could likewise be called 0.
So what training could an Adrian like that be doing at the Frost Proving Ground?
"That is......"
Bernard hesitated, letting his words trail.
A certain bewilderment had surfaced on his face.
"The training he is doing is so very strange that I am not sure how to describe it..."
"My brother is doing strange training?"
Even at Seraphia's question Bernard could not readily answer.
What on earth kind of training was he doing to produce this?
What could Adrian be doing that had Bernard, who scarcely ever showed emotion, showing 'bewilderment'?
"I will go and see for myself."
Kai headed for the Frost Proving Ground, located on the outskirts of the county castle.
***
A simple wooden structure raised on bare earth.
Inside, poles and wooden pillars connected by thick rope stood here and there, and heavy stones and large logs rolled about at random all around them.
Old shields and swords used for training hung on the walls.
Straw dummies fixed with crude belts were stored there, roughly stitched together with leather.
A place full of sweat and heat, heedless of the brutal cold the Snowy Mountain served up.
[The Frost Proving Ground]
It was the training ground where the soldiers of the White Wolf county castle trained. Befitting that purpose, a great many soldiers were gathered at the Frost Proving Ground.
But, befitting that same purpose, the soldiers were not training.
"N-no, wait..."
"Wh-what is that...?"
They were gathered together, doing nothing but watching someone train.
Where the soldiers' eyes led.
A man was devoting himself to his training.
Deep black hair and a finely handsome face.
The eldest son of House White Wolf, Adrian White Wolf.
HUFF! HUFF! HUFF!
His breathing, rough to the point of fever, was regular.
Firm, and yet controlled.
But it was not something produced by training in any martial art.
"Hrrgh...! Hngh...!"
Merely a groan laced with pain as he lifted a heavy weight.
Nothing more than the rough, feverish breathing that came naturally out of it.
In other words, Adrian was not doing training but 'physical conditioning.'
And of that, Adrian was focusing on conditioning that grows the 'muscles.'
The growth of muscle is a very important element for a knight.
Because it changes the efficiency of Aura.
When the same quantity of Aura is used, depending on the physical ability that forms its base, the difference in force ranges from several times over to several hundred times over.
Strong force comes out of a strong body.
That is a fact that does not change even once you have awakened the power called Aura.
Which is why physical conditioning was training as essential and as important as Aura training.
But even so—
"Hrrrrgh...!!"
......nobody meant for him to go that far.
It means 'temper' the muscles, and no more than that.
It absolutely does not mean 'wreck' the muscles like that!
"I-Instructor... is that even possible...?"
One of the soldiers asked. And Leverton, knight of the White Wolf county castle and its training instructor, gave no answer to that question.
It would be more accurate to say he had no presence of mind to answer.
"!!!!!!"
Because the shock Leverton was taking was close to outright horror.
HUFF! HUFF! HUFF!
Just look at Adrian lifting that absurdly heavy barbell.
Look at him conditioning his lower body with a barbell that had to be a full 300kg across his back!
'How in the world is he handling a weight even I have no confidence in......!'
Was that...... a possible thing at all?
That is impossible unless you borrow the power of Aura.
Then was Adrian using Aura?
That was absolutely not it.
Because Adrian had no talent for Aura.
Not merely lacking — converging on 0.
There was not a person in this county castle who did not know that fact.
Which meant it was the strength of a pure body, and yet......
"Guh, guhk...!"
Leverton simply could not believe it.
How could a human being do that!
And what's more, this was none other than 'Adrian.'
The Count's wastrel, who lived sunk in gambling and pleasure.
A pale-skinned noble's son who had never once in his life done conditioning or training.
The feeble, frail Adrian who looked as though he'd break if you flicked him.
Leverton had been a mercenary before he was the White Wolf county castle's training instructor.
Then he received an offer from the late Count, left the mercenary life behind, and became the castle's training instructor.
Already some ten years served as training instructor.
And even so, he could say it.
......This was a first.
'That, that vicious......!!'
A brute that vicious was a first!
Brute?
Could Adrian be described with a word as small as 'brute'?
The physical conditioning Adrian was doing right now.
That was not a kind a human being could do.
CRUNCH! CRACKLE! CRRRUNCH!
Every time he lifted the barbell, a bizarre sound burst out of Adrian's thighs.
That sound was telling them the muscle had gone past bursting and was reaching a state of rupture.
'Th-that......!!!'
How could a thing beyond the very category of physical conditioning be called human!
So long as one is born human, biological limits absolutely exist.
And Aura was what let a person overcome such biological limits.
But Adrian cannot handle Aura.
At this very moment, Adrian was purely and only a 'human being,' and yet—
CRUNCH! CRACKLE! CRRRUNCH!
'How in the world......!!'
The common sense Leverton had never once doubted began to be thoroughly wrecked.
What's more, the growth of muscle lies in 'Recovery.'
By repeating high-intensity exercise you damage the muscle, and as the damaged muscle recovers, the muscle grows.
But that too has a 'limit.'
When the scope of damage reaches rupture, and that reaches a state beyond recovery, you lose muscular strength forever.
A limit is dismissed as a limit because it is a limit.
The price of breaking it is by no means light.
And yet—
Squelch, squelch-squelch.
......and what in the world was that?
***
THUD! THUD-THUD!
When I flung the barbell down to the floor, an enormous tremor rang out.
Skin gone red past red, to scarlet.
It was hot enough to burn.
From that heat, steam rose in curls off my bared upper body.
The muscle had entered a state where recovery was no longer possible.
The ruptured muscle could no longer support me.
Just as my body collapsed limply to the floor, it happened.
◆Y-you are out of your mind!!!
A message surfaced abruptly before my eyes.
Beginning with that message, additional messages poured down.
◆You may use the skill 'Regeneration [C+]' to regenerate the ruptured muscle.
◆Required nutrient - Protein
◆Consume protein to regenerate the ruptured muscle?
The skill gained by devouring the Ice Troll, Regeneration [C+].
It was an acceptance that needed no thought.
But the wholly ruptured muscle would not permit so much as the twitch of a finger.
Fortunately, using the skill was perfectly possible with my will alone.
◆Using the skill 'Regeneration [C+].'
◆Consuming a large quantity of protein to regenerate the ruptured muscle.
Along with the surfacing message, the muscles of my whole body began to churn like clay.
As though this were exactly how muscles would behave if they held selves of their own.
The ruptured muscle fibres reassembled, twisting together more densely.
The reassembled muscle density packed tighter and tighter, until there seemed no gap left to force a way into.
And when the regeneration finished completely—
◆Muscle fibre tissue has broken through its limit!
◆Muscle fibre is newly reassembled!
◆Strength stat rises by +4!!
I could confirm that my Strength stat had risen by +4.
***
"Whoaaaa!!"
Leverton let out a shriek without meaning to.
And how could he not — just look at that!
Squelch, squelch-squelch.
Adrian's muscles were writhing.
It was telling them, beyond all doubt, that Adrian's ruptured muscle was recovering.
"Uh......?"
"Wh-what in the world is that...!!"
Leverton and every one of the soldiers let their mouths fall open.
How... could that be possible?
Human recovery too has its rightful limits.
A wound where the skin is cut or torn can recover.
But if an arm or a leg is severed?
That is the end of it.
Human recovery cannot regenerate a severed arm or leg.
The muscle rupture Adrian had just suffered was an injury of that order.
It was a fatal, unrecoverable injury on the level of a severed limb.
And it recovered in a single stroke.
That...... is not human recovery.
Unless he was working some kind of magic, how could that—
'That's supposed to be magic?'
No, even working magic it does not go like that.
Divine power, the force called the power of a god.
Would it take something on that level to drag it down into the territory of understanding?
And even then it would have to be the Saintess of that far-off Holy Kingdom.
Only then could you finally accept it, thinking, 'Ah, if it were the Saintess's divine power, that could happen!'
Put simply, Adrian was no different from a man with a Saintess as his personal trainer.
It was no different at all from having one's body grown at tremendous speed by a Saintess's divine power.
In technical terms, he was getting an emperor's power-leveling.
'He's getting an emperor's power-leveling...?'
No, it would be more accurate to say he was doing the emperor's power-leveling to himself.
"Th-there's no way...!"
"How can such a thing...!!!"
The shock Leverton and the soldiers were taking finally went past horror altogether.