“Mr. Kunon, are... are you really going to teach us real skills? Will we actually have the strength to defeat monsters?!” a boy stood up and asked excitedly.
“I have one more order to add: from now on, you will call me Instructor!”
“Yes, Instructor!”
“Good!”
Kunon nodded with satisfaction at the boy and then said, “To answer your question—as your instructor, I would never fool you. If I weren't here to teach you real skills, what would be the point of establishing this practical combat course?”
Hearing Kunon's reassuring answer, the students became even more excited.
But at that moment, another student asked weakly.
“Instructor Kunon... will we all have to go to the battlefield to face the Demon King's army in the future...?”
As soon as those words were spoken, a suffocating silence fell over the classroom. Deep fear surfaced on nearly everyone's face.
Indeed, no matter how glorious defeating monsters might sound, it could not overcome the deep-seated dread these young boys and girls felt toward the Demon King's army. That was a cataclysm capable of destroying the world.
“...”
Kunon's expression grew a bit more serious. He sighed and said:
“Regrettably, even if you wanted to go to the front lines, you might not necessarily qualify. I'm teaching you these things now only so that if a day comes when the people currently protecting you can no longer do so, you will have the strength to protect yourselves.”
Kunon's words made the students breathe a sigh of relief, but their moods also grew somewhat depressed. It was a contradictory feeling: although they feared the Demon King's army, not even having the qualifications to face them left them feeling frustrated...
“Instructor Kunon!”
At that moment, a boy stood up and spoke with a firm voice.
“In the future, I will definitely become a member of the Allied Coalition to defeat the Demon King!”
Everyone looked at the declaring boy in shock, and Kunon was also highly pleased. He was indeed a promising sprout, and it seemed his eye for talent hadn't deteriorated too badly.
“Very good! Young man, what is your name?!”
“Reporting, Instructor! I am Ander!”
“Ander, is it? I will remember you. Sit down. I hope to fight alongside you on the front lines in the future.”
“Yes, Instructor!”
Ander sat back down as ordered, but at this moment, countless gazes gathered on him. There was envy, admiration, and also shame...
Regardless of what thoughts they harbored toward the practical combat course and the enemies destined to appear in the near future, the preparatory school's practical combat class went ahead in full swing.
...
...
Whistle—!
Whistle—!
Sharp, piercing whistles kept ringing out from the edge of the playground.
“Hurry up in the back, hurry! What are you using those two legs of yours for?!”
“...Three more laps! Pick up the pace!”
“...The last three to reach the finish line will be penalized with an extra three laps!”
“Ah, no—!”
“You still have the breath to complain? Then make it five extra laps!”
“...”
Whistle—!
As the final whistle blew, dozens of boys and girls collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion, panting heavily.
Meanwhile, the culprit behind their state, Kunon, stood at leisure with hands behind his back and a blade of grass in his mouth. Looking down at them, he scolded them without mercy, “Look at yourselves! What a pathetic sight! You're so slow, even a slime could crawl faster than you! Do you want to become fertilizer for slimes?!”
“But, Instructor, fifteen kilograms is too heavy!” someone protested.
“Heavy?”
Kunon's eyes widened.
“Bah!” He spat the chewed-up blade of grass onto the ground and barked, “Who said that just now? Step out of the line!”
A boy stepped out reluctantly.
“Reporting, Instructor... it was me...”
Kunon walked up to him step by step until his chest was almost pressing against the boy's face. Towering over him, he looked down and said word by word, “It's only a fifteen-kilogram weight. Is it really that heavy—?”
“...”
Faced with the instructor's intense, oppressive presence, the boy broke into a cold sweat and did not dare to utter a single word of dissent.
“Fifteen kilograms—!”
The instructor slowly paced away from the boy, walking back and forth in front of the crowd. He then pointed at everyone, wearing a look of deep disappointment, and scolded:
“Only fifteen kilograms and you already can't take it?! If you had to carry swords, hold wands, and wear armor, would you just give up walking entirely?!”
“...”
The boys and girls remained silent, not daring to speak. After all, the person who had just spoken back was still standing at the front.
Kunon was very pleased with the students' attitude, and his gaze swept back and forth across them.
But when his gaze swept past a certain individual, his newly satisfied heart felt as though it had crashed into a massive boulder.
...This girl, she ran ten laps with a fifteen-kilogram weight, and she isn't even out of breath.
The person Kunon was looking at was none other than Shulim. Entirely unlike those around her who were drenched in sweat and gasping for breath, she didn't have a single drop of sweat on her, and her breathing was perfectly steady.
However, since everyone else was currently exhausted out of their minds, none of them had the energy to pay attention to how others were doing.
“...Ahem. You, Ander!”
“Yes, Instructor!”
Hearing the instructor suddenly call his name, Ander immediately replied and stepped forward out of the ranks.
The others naturally cleared a path for him, as this kind of scene had become a common occurrence since their sudden physical conditioning training began.
Because Ander had been training with his parents, his physical stamina was much better than the others. Right now, his breathing was only slightly hurried, and he only had a light sweat on him.
“Put on twenty kilograms of weight and run two laps. Show them whether a fifteen-kilogram weight is actually heavy or not!”
“Yes, Instructor!”
Ander walked over to the weight bags on the side, added another five kilograms to his load—bringing it to twenty kilograms—and began to run.
“Look at yourselves! He's the exact same age as you. Why can he do it while you can't?”
While Ander ran, Kunon unsparingly began his nagging lecture.
“You're all just too lazy! You don't work hard enough! What do you think you are, dragons? Do you think you can grow stronger just by eating and sleeping all day?! You're humans!”
“...If you just worked a little harder and made a small step forward every day, you'd make a giant leap in a year! It's precisely because you don't work hard enough that you are still standing still!”
“Instructor, I'm done.”
While Kunon was still in the middle of his passionate speech, Ander finished his two-lap run with the twenty-kilogram load.
“Hmm, well done!”
Kunon looked at Ander, who was now breathing heavily with sweat beads on his forehead, and gave a brief word of encouragement. He then said:
“Come, tell everyone. Is twenty kilograms heavy?”
Ander was taken aback. He turned his head to look at his classmates, who were staring at him with intense gazes. After some thought, he replied:
“...Instructor, I think it varies from person to person. It's not heavy for me, but for—”
“Did you all hear that? He said it's not heavy—!”
Ander: "..."
The other students: "..."
“Ander, return to the ranks first.”
“Yes...”
“And you, return to your spot!”
The boy who had been standing at the front for a long time immediately felt as if he had been granted a grand pardon. He scurried back into the ranks with his head lowered, not daring to meet the eyes of anyone around him.
Rate on N.U.