A full year had already passed since Shuren began living at the Knight Training Center.
Aside from how stifling the place was, there was nothing particularly difficult about life there for him.
He diligently followed the training center's curriculum and continued to distinguish himself.
But not every trainee was doing as well.
Some accumulated too many penalty points because of poor grades and were expelled.
Others could not endure the life there and left voluntarily.
There still were not many of them, but one thing was certain.
There were trainees who failed.
For young children, the environment of the Knight Training Center was filled with stress.
“Hey, get lost!”
“You're in the way, so hurry up and move.”
Some trainees vented that stress through violence.
The culprits behind the commotion were Jake's lackeys.
They swaggered into the training hall.
“Haah…….”
The trainees who had arrived first let out quiet sighs and moved aside.
The lackeys went to the center of the training hall and claimed the space for themselves.
But perhaps even taking the spot without any resistance was not enough for them.
“What are you still doing here?”
One of the lackeys picked a fight with a trainee who was practicing nearby.
“This is where I usually train…….”
“Don't you know the center belongs to us? You're in the way, so get the hell out!”
The lackey threatened him.
The trainee looked aggrieved.
And understandably so.
He was some distance away from the center they had occupied.
Even if the boy at the edge swung his sword as widely as he could, it still would not reach them.
“You don't need to take up that much space, do you? It'll already be cramped once the others get here. You're just making it even tighter.”
Unable to endure it, the trainee argued back.
“……What was that? You talking back to me?”
The smug look vanished from the lackey's face, replaced by anger.
“Look at this bastard. Just because we all have the Pellantz surname, you think we're in the same position?”
He rolled his shoulders and glared at the trainee.
“Pfft! Ehir, how weak do you look for him to talk back to you like that?”
“Boo, what a disgrace to Lord Jake. You're not even worthy of being his subordinate.”
The other lackeys pointed at the boy called Ehir and mocked him.
“……You heard them. What are you going to do about it?”
“What?”
“You embarrassed me in front of everyone. What are you going to do about the honor I lost because of you?”
The trainee was dumbfounded.
None of this would have happened if Ehir had not started the fight in the first place.
“I need to restore my honor. A duel.”
“What?”
It was always like this.
Whenever Jake's lackeys found someone they did not like, they challenged them to a duel and vented their anger on them.
“Heh heh. Good luck.”
Before the trainee realized it, one of the lackeys had shoved a wooden sword into his hand and patted him on the shoulder.
The trainee had been forced into a duel he never wanted.
“Here I come?”
The instant Ehir finished speaking, he charged.
“W-wait!”
CLACK—!
The trainee clumsily raised his sword to block the wooden blade rushing toward him.
“Urgh!”
But Ehir's strength was tremendous.
A single blow numbed the trainee's arms so badly that he dropped his wooden sword.
“Hey. Pick. The. Wooden. Sword. Back. Up.”
Ehir punctuated every phrase with a punch.
THUD! THWACK!
The trainee could only curl into himself to make the beating hurt as little as possible.
“Whew. Don't act up next time.”
Ehir looked down at the battered trainee with a satisfied expression.
The other lackeys snickered as they watched.
Not a single trainee tried to stop them.
Neither did the instructors or assistant instructors.
Just as Ehir himself had said, not everyone bearing the Pellantz surname stood on equal footing.
The families Jake and his lackeys belonged to wielded tremendous influence within the Pellantz Family.
Everyone at the training center feared the consequences of treating them carelessly.
Besides, they had gone through the formality of calling it a duel.
Anyone who interfered unnecessarily might bring trouble upon themselves instead.
“What?! Is this some kind of show?”
Ehir barked at the people watching.
The trainees immediately read the mood and moved even farther away from Jake's lackeys.
“Oh, Lord Jake!”
“You're here!”
When Jake entered the training hall, the lackeys hurried over, fawning on him.
“We saved you a spot.”
“Come train with us.”
Jake nodded and joined them.
They called themselves his subordinates and ran wild, but he allowed it because their behavior ultimately benefited him.
And so Jake's group trained comfortably as though the place belonged to them, while the other trainees quietly practiced while keeping an eye on them.
A short while later.
THUD, THUD, THUD—!
Shuren arrived at the training hall.
The pounding sounds came from the equipment strapped to his body.
Shuren was deliberately wearing a steel vest, with sandbags tied around his lower body.
It was an extraordinary measure to increase his strength.
“Oh, there he goes again.”
“Seriously, that's ridiculous.”
“Is his brain made of stone?”
But the lackeys, unaware of Shuren's intentions, merely mocked him.
Shuren ignored them as if they did not exist and headed toward his usual spot.
His place was at the very edge of the training hall.
He did not need much space anyway, and it was the ideal location to avoid getting tangled up with Jake's lackeys.
Without letting the atmosphere of the training hall affect him, Shuren began his own training.
Thrusting in multiple directions.
Slashing.
And blocking.
Shuren continued swinging his sword while stubbornly adhering to solid fundamentals.
Despite the steel vest and sandbags weighing him down, the wooden sword moved lightly in his hands.
As Shuren became completely absorbed in his training—
“Whoa, sorry!”
One of the trainees hurriedly stopped his wooden sword and apologized.
A moment later, and the blade might have struck Shuren.
“What happened?”
Shuren asked as he looked at the trainee.
“W-well…….”
Shuren soon understood.
It was because of Jake's lackeys.
They had driven the surrounding trainees away so they could spar among themselves, and the resulting crowding had interfered with Shuren as well.
“Sorry. I couldn't help it either.”
The trainee apologized to Shuren.
Shuren sighed as he looked at him.
‘They're completely terrified of them.’
The atmosphere among this year's trainees was terrible.
It was the result of Jake, who was considered talented even among the direct line, forming a clique with children from influential branch families.
If Shuren continued letting them run wild like this, there was a good chance he would keep getting inconvenienced just as he had now.
But he could not simply go around beating all of them up by himself.
If he did, Shuren alone would have to bear all their resentment.
‘Maybe I should stir the others up a little.’
With that thought, Shuren looked at the trainee who had apologized to him.
“Hey. What's your name?”
“Me? Peyon.”
“All right…… Peyon. Let me ask you something. Is this training hall their private property?”
Shuren pointed toward Jake's group.
“Huh? No…….”
“Then why are you giving them your spot?”
“But if we go against them…….”
“If you do, what?”
The trainees nearby began focusing on the conversation between Shuren and Peyon.
“We get hurt.”
Even putting aside the influence of their families, what frightened them was the group's actual strength.
“You know it too! Their families pour support into them. They've even learned their families' secret arts. How are we supposed to fight them?”
“Good grief…….”
Shuren was dumbfounded.
Were kids these days really this weak?
“So have you ever fought them?”
“……No.”
“Then why are you already scared when you haven't even fought them? Do those family secret arts make them invincible or something?”
Shuren knew Jake's group's habits well.
They were cunning.
They bullied children they disliked through the perfectly legal means of duels.
Which meant they never fought several against one.
Those boys only wanted to flaunt how strong they were.
They might travel around as a group, but they considered ganging up on someone shameful.
As long as a person had enough individual skill, there was no reason they could not fight back against bastards like them.
“And the rest of you listening.”
Shuren looked around.
When he suddenly addressed them, the trainees' eyes widened.
“From what I can see, there are at least five or six people here who could beat those idiots in a fight. Why are you all so scared?”
Even after Shuren said that, none of them answered.
He deliberately made eye contact with them one by one.
But they merely lowered their heads.
“You came here to become knights, yet you've got this little backbone…… Keep giving everything away like that and you'll eventually get pushed all the way to the edge of a cliff.”
It was also a warning Shuren was giving himself.
After all, that was how the Flamer Family had been absorbed by the Pellantz Family.
“Hey!”
At that moment, one of Jake's group shouted angrily.
“You think you're the only ones here? I've been listening to you for a while now…….”
CRACK.
The lackey rolled his neck and walked toward Shuren.
“When you said ‘those idiots,’ were you talking about us?”
He glared at Shuren.
“Who else is playing at being the boss around here?”
Shuren answered with a faint smirk.
“Hah…… Come to think of it, you've never been beaten by any of us, have you?”
“I've always behaved myself.”
“All you've got is a mouth.”
The lackey furrowed his brow.
“Anyway, you called us idiots, right? Thanks to you, my honor has been damaged. I think I'll have to restore it with a duel.”
“No thanks.”
“Pwahaha! What, are you scared? Where'd all that impressive backbone go from when you were lecturing everyone a minute ago?”
Shuren shrugged.
“You seem to be misunderstanding something. I'm not saying I don't want to duel. You're just a weakling, so you'll go down in one hit from my wooden sword.”
“……What?”
“Then someone stronger than you will come challenge me next, right? I'll beat him, then the next one will challenge me…… Ugh. I'm tired just thinking about it.”
Shuren looked past the lackey toward Jake.
“If you're going to fight me, have Jake come out and let's settle it properly in one match. If he doesn't want to, stop bothering me and go play among yourselves.”
The lackey's face turned bright red.
‘Looks like he's finally run out of things to say.’
Shuren was relieved.
It was not as though knights were chosen based on how good they were at running their mouths.
Shuren was about to return to his training.
“You want me to come out?”
“…….”
But it seemed their leader had finally become angry.
Step, step.
Jake walked toward Shuren.
“I never liked it. That red hair of yours. It doesn't suit the Pellantz Family at all.”
‘As if I wanted to become a Pellantz. I woke up and found my family already ruined.’
Shuren did not bother saying that aloud.
“Kid. You don't actually think having the same surname makes us equals, do you?”
“You're a kid yourself, so what are you talking about?”
“……Since you don't seem to understand, I'll explain. There's an enormous difference between the direct line and the branch families.”
“……So you're telling me to know my place and crawl?”
“And your family…… it's already ruined, isn't it?”
What?
Shuren's brow twitched slightly.
“A duel. The justification is that you insulted my subordinates and damaged their honor.”
“What a benevolent leader we have here.”
Shuren welcomed this turn of events.
If he took Jake down, the other lackeys would not dare make a sound afterward.
“But are you sure? It'll be pretty embarrassing if the leader gets beaten.”
“What?”
“I'm just saying you shouldn't do something you'll regret.”
Shuren could feel Jake's anger rising.
“Assistant Instructor! Please officiate our duel.”
Jake's pride seemed to have been badly wounded.
He went so far as to request a formal duel rather than an informal one.
The assistant instructor nodded.
***
THUD! THUD!
“Shuren. Are you going to duel while wearing all that?”
“Yes, Assistant Instructor. I don't think he's worth the trouble of taking it off.”
“……Understood.”
For a moment, the assistant instructor looked dumbfounded.
“You bastard!”
Jake was openly furious.
He gripped his wooden sword tightly, looking ready to charge at any moment.
After confirming that both of them were prepared, the assistant instructor spoke.
“The duel will be fair and honorable. You will fight until one side surrenders or becomes unable to continue, but attacks intended to inflict fatal wounds are forbidden. Whatever the result, both sides will accept it.”
The two nodded.
“Then I will begin the duel.”
Those words marked the start.
Jake immediately drew up his mana.
‘He's stronger than the last time I saw him.’
Shuren recalled when Jake had torn a chunk out of the training dummy.
He had grown stronger since then.
‘Jake, that fool……!’
The assistant instructor was alarmed.
Jake intended to use his family's secret art from the very beginning.
The assistant instructor realized this could become dangerous.
If Shuren took that attack head-on, he could suffer a serious injury.
Just as he was debating whether he should intervene—
“Family Ultimate Art, Wave…….”
Before Jake could finish speaking—
Shuren shot forward.
The tip of his wooden sword aimed straight at Jake's solar plexus.
THUD—!
Jake's body lifted into the air.
“Assistant Instructor. I won, right?”
Shuren grinned as he watched Jake fly away.
CRASH!
Jake rolled several times before finally coming to a stop.
All the color had drained from his face.