A few days earlier.
On his way back from training, Jake had spotted a trainee approaching Ivan.
‘That's…… Neville.’
Neville was the sly bastard who had clung to Jake at the previous training center.
‘What's that bastard doing with Ivan?’
The two were talking about something.
They were too far away for Jake to hear what they were saying.
‘Seeing Neville grovel like that, I guess he's decided to attach himself to Ivan.’
Jake did not feel much about it.
After Jake had been thoroughly crushed by Shuren, Neville had probably decided he was a rotten rope and acted accordingly.
‘Ivan…… laughed?’
Their conversation seemed to be going well.
Before long, the two parted ways.
Jake carefully slipped away without being noticed and headed toward Shuren.
“Shuren!”
“What is it? Today's training is already over.”
Shuren looked at Jake without expression.
Jake told him what he had seen.
“……So that's what happened.”
“Your old lackey met with Ivan.”
“Yeah. He probably told Ivan some way to force you into a duel.”
“I can just refuse.”
“Well, there's something called a Special Duel Request.”
Jake explained what it was.
Jake himself was well-versed in rules and regulations.
That was why he guessed Neville had probably told Ivan about the Special Duel Request.
“Hmm. If he uses that, I won't be able to avoid the duel. Your lackey will obviously give false testimony.”
“He's not my lackey anymore.”
“Whatever.”
Shuren thought for a moment, then asked Jake if he could get a complete copy of the training center rules.
Jake handed him the list of rules he had with him.
“I'll think of something. Thanks for telling me.”
Then, the next day, Shuren challenged Jake to a duel.
“H-huh?!”
Jake jumped in shock.
***
‘He actually used it like this.’
Jake clicked his tongue inwardly.
Shuren was not only powerful, but also exceptionally clever.
That day, Jake had told Shuren about Neville, but he himself had not been able to think of any clear solution.
Yet Shuren had managed to come up with a countermeasure like this.
‘As expected. Bowing my head and following Shuren really was the right choice.’
Jake inwardly praised his own excellent judgment.
Meanwhile, Ivan's face turned so red after being denied a duel yet again that it looked ready to burst.
“Shu…… ren!”
He ground his lips together as he called Shuren's name.
“Just shut up and fight me!”
HUMMMMM!
Ivan drew up his mana and pulled the sword from his waist.
WHOOSH—!
At the same time, he kicked off the ground.
The few meters between them vanished in an instant.
CLANG—!
But the instructor blocked Ivan's attack.
He drew his sword with astonishing speed and knocked Ivan's blade aside with the back of his own.
No matter how talented Ivan was, he was still only a knight trainee.
He could not match the strength of an actual knight like the instructor.
CRASH!
Overpowered, Ivan lost his sword and rolled across the floor.
“How dare you disobey an instructor's order!”
The instructor immediately subdued Ivan with an angry shout.
Ivan tried to break free from the instructor's grip.
But once he realized the difference in strength, he quietly allowed himself to be restrained.
“You will be placed under disciplinary confinement. Follow me quietly.”
The instructor dragged Ivan away.
‘Tsk, tsk. That's what you get for not controlling your temper.’
Shuren watched Ivan being hauled away with contempt.
“If he's under disciplinary confinement, we won't see him for a while. They lock you in solitary confinement for that.”
Jake commented from beside Shuren.
Thanks to Ivan self-destructing, the situation would remain quiet for a while.
‘That bought me some time.’
Shuren did not want to fight Ivan just yet.
Of course, he had no intention of avoiding him forever.
It simply was not time yet.
Besides, sitting still and doing nothing did not suit Shuren's personality either.
“Jake. Let's go train.”
“Ah, today might be a little…….”
Shuren's gaze instantly turned cold.
“I'm not trying to slack off. I've got something to do.”
“What?”
“I'll deal with that bastard Neville myself. He used to serve under me, so he needs to pay the price for betraying me.”
“Well…… do whatever you want. Then let's consider our duel over.”
Jake nodded and walked toward Neville, who was standing there blankly.
“You bat-like bastard. You're free to choose whose side you want to take, but you still have to pay the price, right? A duel. I trust you won't run away like a coward.”
Shuren watched Jake's confident expression.
‘He'll handle it himself.’
Shuren stopped paying attention to him and focused on his training.
***
Dawn.
Only moonlight illuminated the darkness.
As always, Jake waited for Shuren on the first floor of the dormitory building.
They were supposed to go train together.
The sun had not even risen yet, so there was no one else around.
‘He's a little late today.’
Shuren normally came out exactly on time for training.
But for some reason, he was nowhere to be seen.
‘What is it?’
Wondering if Shuren was sick, Jake entered the building and went to his room.
‘Could it be……?’
Jake could sense mana surging inside Shuren's room.
‘Shuren gained another realization and is advancing again!’
Jake clicked his tongue at Shuren's monstrous rate of growth.
‘I shouldn't disturb him at a time like this.’
He decided he would have no choice but to train alone today and turned away.
Meanwhile, just as Jake had guessed, Shuren was in the middle of consolidating a realization.
He sat cross-legged in the center of the room, releasing mana.
FWOOSH!
Flames flickered around him.
‘Doing it this way reduces the amount of Calamity Flame I have to expend by a lot.’
Shuren was constantly releasing fire energy so his Mana Circuits would not burn from the Calamity Flame.
Only by releasing the Calamity Flame in such an inefficient manner could Shuren stay alive.
If he reduced the amount of fire energy he released, he would consume less mana and therefore grow faster.
But if he reduced it too much, his Mana Circuits would be damaged.
Finding the right balance was important.
Shuren decided to use this opportunity to reduce the amount of flame he released.
His body had been trained to a certain extent, and now he had accumulated enough mana.
This was the right time.
‘It's coming……!’
The moment Shuren reduced the fire energy he released, his body reacted.
The pain felt as though a fire had broken out inside him.
‘I have to endure it!’
The agony was enough to drive him insane.
Shuren pushed his mental fortitude to its limit and endured.
‘This is all so I can crush that bastard overwhelmingly in our duel.’
Even though he knew he could win, deliberately avoiding Ivan's challenges had wounded Shuren's pride.
But Shuren's every action was directly tied to rebuilding the Flamer Family.
He had no choice but to remain cautious.
‘Still, running away from some brat hurts my pride.’
That was why Shuren endured the burning pain and continued growing.
All so he could strike Ivan down even one day sooner.
A short while later, Shuren finished adjusting the Calamity Flame.
FWOOSH…….
The flames swirling around him subsided.
The Mana Circuits inside his body adapted to the current level of the Calamity Flame, and the pain disappeared.
‘At this level…… I can definitely take him on.’
He had heard that Ivan's disciplinary confinement ended today.
Shuren intended to give him the duel he wanted.
‘I'll crush him so thoroughly that this becomes our last duel.’
The corners of Shuren's mouth curved upward.
***
Since Shuren had shut himself inside his room, Jake trained alone at the training hall.
There was no reason to panic just because Shuren was absent.
Jake merely had to repeat the things Shuren made him do every day.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH—!
Jake was sweating heavily as he trained when—
CRASH—!
The training hall door flew open violently, and someone appeared.
It was Ivan.
‘Was today the day that bastard's confinement ended?’
Ivan looked toward Jake, breathing heavily through his nose.
“Shuren! ……What? He's not here?”
Ivan also knew that Shuren always came out early to train.
That was why he had come looking for him.
When Shuren was nowhere to be seen, disappointment crossed his face.
“Guess he's human after all. He even oversleeps.”
Ivan grinned.
“Then I'll go wake him up myself.”
Ivan turned to leave the training hall.
“S-stop!”
“……What?”
Ivan turned only his head toward Jake.
Jake did not know why, but his mouth opened on its own.
“You're Shuren's lackey, aren't you?”
Ivan snorted.
“You're supposed to be direct line, yet you've got no pride and cling to that freak? You're the one disgracing the entire direct line.”
Ivan provoked Jake.
Jake could not argue with him.
“I'm not interested in you. Shuren's dorm is Building 105, right?”
Jake did not answer.
But Ivan took his silence as confirmation.
‘I can't let that bastard go there. Shuren probably hasn't finished consolidating what he learned yet!’
If Ivan barged in at a crucial moment, Shuren's Mana Circuits could be ruined.
“A-a duel! Ivan!”
That was the only thing Jake could do to stop him.
***
Shuren headed toward the training hall without being late.
Normally, he was the first to arrive, but today he had been delayed while consolidating his realization.
He watched the other trainees running toward the training hall and went inside.
‘Hmm?’
The moment Shuren entered, he sensed something strange.
The training hall was usually quiet, but today it was unusually noisy.
‘……What?’
Shuren witnessed a strange sight.
Jake and Ivan were fighting each other with swords in hand.
Wanting to know what had happened, Shuren grabbed a nearby trainee and asked.
“Hey. Why are those two fighting?”
“Ah, h-hello…….”
The trainee awkwardly greeted Shuren before answering.
“I don't know…… They were already fighting when I got here.”
Shuren shook his head.
‘Looks like nobody here knows what happened.’
He decided to ask Jake later and watched the duel.
THWACK—!
Jake and Ivan were fiercely clashing wooden swords.
‘They look evenly matched at a glance, but Jake is definitely at a disadvantage.’
That was only natural.
Ivan had boasted the greatest combat ability even among the trainees of his own class.
There had been no one among his peers who could match him, to the point that people compared him to trainees from the class above.
The only reason Jake was managing to hold out at all was because he had recently been training with Shuren.
‘Why the hell is that bastard fighting Ivan?’
That was what puzzled Shuren most.
Jake was not an idiot.
He knew perfectly well that fighting Ivan was beyond him.
Yet he was still fighting with everything he had.
THWACK! THWACK—!
Ivan pressed him with speed.
Jake grimaced, apparently struggling to keep up.
‘Hmm.’
Shuren considered the situation.
Strictly speaking, he and Jake did not share a particularly deep relationship.
Shuren obtained information from Jake, and in return, he taught him.
It was a contractual relationship.
And even though Jake currently bowed his head to Shuren inside the training center, he was still a child of the direct line.
‘Though his family has thrown him away for now.’
In the end, the Pellantz Family was still the enemy Shuren had to overturn.
Part of him wondered if he should simply stand by and watch Jake lose to Ivan.
Besides, if Jake wore Ivan down like this, that would benefit Shuren.
If Shuren challenged Ivan immediately afterward, Ivan's pride would never allow him to refuse.
‘But something in one corner of my chest is itching.’
In his previous life, true to the blood of the Flamer Family, Shuren had valued loyalty above all else.
‘And the result was betrayal by someone I thought was my friend.’
That was why, in this life, he had vowed to live solely for rebuilding his family and taking revenge on Pellantz.
‘I'll watch the duel to the end.’
Having made his decision, Shuren folded his arms and remained silent.
‘……Yeah. I'll watch. I'll just watch.’
Shuren repeated the thought inwardly.
‘…….’
But he simply could not endure the uneasy feeling.
In the end, Shuren chose to follow his emotions rather than his reason.