Charon also seemed to have realized that this night ambush had been orchestrated by the instructors.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be here saying things like that.
In any case, even though I had been so openly mocked, I remained calm.
Even though he was strong, I felt disappointed in him focusing so much on competition even though people could be dying all around him.
But it would be ugly to respond with anger at such an open taunt from a disappointing person. If I did, I’d be saying I was on the same level as him.
As I just looked up at him without giving a response, Charon glared at me with anger before leaving.
Afterward, he continued to shoot his arrows like mad and kill monsters.
Is he that desperate for points?
Compared to the other young heroes, it could be said that Charon was a head above them in skill.
Compared to Hector, Sellen, Evan, and so on fighting over there...He had distinguished himself even amongst the geniuses.
From what I could see, his talent was similar to theirs, but he had enough experience to create a gap.
Charon had probably endured countless battles with his life on the line from the moment he could think straight.
Since he was a person of such caliber, this exercise probably wasn’t fazing him all that much.
It meant that he could maintain a calm mind and move efficiently...
But for some reason, I could sense some impatience in his movements. It felt as if he was being chased by someone.
It was unexpected to see from such an experienced fighter, but I decided to stop thinking about him and proceeded to look out for the other young heroes.
I’d been serious when I’d said that they were too young to die.
And so time passed once more...
Boom...!
As the giant centipede fell over with a thud, silence filled the area for a moment.
Evan was the one to break the silence with his tired voice.
“...It’s over.”
Flop.
I saw many other young heroes collapse to the ground as their tension flew away.
I could also see a few of them still diligently checking the surroundings for more enemies.
Although we had gotten through the danger, the field was filled with silence rather than cheers.
Clap, clap, clap.
Sudden clapping broke the silence.
A few young heroes rose in surprise, but there’d been no need.
An instructor had arrived.
“Incredible!”
I’d been wondering who would clap in this situation, but I understood when I saw his face.
The Instructor of Martial Arts, Juan, wore a bright smile as he spoke.
“You were incredible in your defense. The techniques this time were as incredible as expected.
“Instructor?”
“Just what is this...”
Looking at the few young heroes who still looked shocked, Juan continued, “I congratulate you for passing our first special test, young heroes.”
“...!?”
Murmurs started to break out; there seemed to be a lot more who hadn’t realized this than I’d expected.
“A test?”
“W-wait... Was the monsters’ attack...”
“Yes. It was a scenario crafted by us.”
“...”
Seeing him answer so casually, the young heroes froze up.
A few faces started to become red with rage.
“A scenario!”
“How could something like this be a test?”
“I-I nearly died just now!”
But then, contrasting Juan, a colder voice appeared.
“So?”
It was the Instructor of the Hunt.
Not just him, but many more people appeared, and I tilted my head left and right as I saw their faces.
All the grand masters are here.
A total of eight people.
Although it wasn’t the full 10, they still looked pretty intimidating as the knights of the main house flanked them like two wings.
The Instructor of the Hunt spoke with ice in his voice.
“Did you just say you were about to die? Then that’s a relief. One of the goals of the training camp is to make you experience the danger of death.”
“Th-that’s...”
“Still... this is going too far...”
“Too far?”
The Instructor of the Hunt smirked.
It seemed to be a habit of his that popped up whenever he got annoyed.
“I will ask you this. While living as a hero, do you think you will never encounter an ambush? I will say this now, today’s exercise was very kind. We woke you up in advance, and we even gave you time to prepare yourselves before the ambush truly began. If this were a real ambush, you would have had no such freedoms. By the time you’d sensed something was off and opened your eyes, a knife would’ve already been stuck in your neck.”
Hearing that, one of the bigger guys replied, “S-still, this isn’t real yet, right?”
Seeing how he had a tail, he probably wasn’t human.
“An excuse like that makes me want to personally bring you halfway to death.”
“Let’s stop there, Teacher Tanko. We aren’t here to criticize them, are we?” said the Instructor of Martial Arts, reviving the atmosphere.
“...”
“Look here. Surprisingly enough, all the young heroes survived. Although this isn’t without precedent, we must still acknowledge that this is an incredible result.”
The Instructor of Martial Arts started clapping again.
At that, I could see a few of the grand masters and knights clapping as well.
“...”
However, there were a few who stood there looking serious until the end.
Looks like not all the instructors are friendly with each other.
I could feel that there was a divide even between them.
I logged into my memory the faces of each instructor who was standing still.
“As stated before, this was a test, so each young hero was marked based on their performance. It’s late today, so your results will be relayed tomorrow.”
“...Then are the tests over for today?” Hector asked, and the Instructor of Martial Arts nodded.
“Yes.”
Only now did gasps and sighs of relief flood out.
A few of them immediately turned to go back to their rooms.
However, the Instructor of the Hunt’s cold voice stopped their steps.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
The young heroes who had been swaying left and right turned around with despair.
“You’re not babies. You need to pick up after yourselves after creating a mess.”
“Sorry...?”
The Instructor of the Hunt pointed to the corpses of the monsters littered around the field and smiled.
“Clean it all up.”
“...”
* * * * *
* * * * *
The morning of the next day.
I woke up feeling a little tired.
“Hmm...”
If I, who was used to not sleeping a lot, had woken up like this, the other young heroes were probably struggling to even get up.
“Ugh...”
As expected, I heard something like a zombie waking up in the bed next to mine.
Evan had lost his usual bright aura and looked quite depressed.
He got up out of his bed like a floppy seaweed. His movements were rather spooky to look at.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeeaaaah...”
Probably not.
I just patted him on the shoulder without saying anything and left.
Upon exiting to the field, I found that it was filled with zombies.
Well, I guess it was to be expected since they’d had to work all night and hadn’t been able to sleep properly.
I yawned a little as well, but that was because the sun wasn’t out yet.
When the day became brighter and I could bask in the sunlight for a bit, my condition would improve.
Though I tended to feel extremely tired in the evenings.
At that point, someone walked out of the instructors’ lodge.
It was the Instructor of the Hunt, wearing his signature cold expression.
“...”
It felt as if the air around us froze with just his entrance.
Even the young heroes who’d had their noses held high seemed to understand which of the instructors they needed to be careful around in this training camp.
The Instructor of the Hunt maintained his signature expressionless face as he checked the members before nodding to himself.
“Follow closely today as well.”
Then he started to run again.
This morning run might become part of the routine for the training camp.
I liked it.
There was nothing better than running to increase overall stamina.
The top-performing members were similar today.
Charon was the one at the very front, and behind him were Sellen and Hector at practically the same speed.
Behind them were Evan, Mir, the next Nightwalker tribe leader, the daughter of Rubyeta, and the only son of Chevalier...
My speed was similar to yesterday’s, but my ranking fell quite a bit.
It seemed everyone was starting to understand the importance of points and was trying even harder.
I wasn’t worried.
For me, getting a good mark didn’t mean too much.
While having these thoughts, the run came to an end.
“Huak... haak...”
“I’m... going... to die...”
Fewer young heroes had dropped out than yesterday, but the field was filled with their collapsed bodies.
I recovered my breathing while drenched in sweat.
Thankfully, today’s morning schedule was a bit freer.
In addition to the allotted time for breakfast, we were even given a short break afterward. It seemed the instructors also knew that the sudden test yesterday had been a bit too much.
Although it was only 30 minutes, a few of the young heroes used it to catch up on their sleep.
After that, we gathered on the field again.
“...We really have no time to rest.”
“I wish I had just an hour to sleep.”
“It’s a relief that the morning lesson is with Instructor Juan.”
As they said, the Instructor of Martial Arts, Juan, climbed atop the platform and began to speak with his signature smile on his face.
“Good morning, everyone. You must be tired, right? You can all sit down.”
“Uwah.”
“Thank you...!”
The young heroes all fell to the ground and sat down.
“There is a short announcement I need to make before the morning lesson. It is the results of last night’s test. We watched that battle carefully and recorded our observations. We have objectively marked each and every one of you.”
It hadn’t even been yesterday. It had happened early today before dawn.
If the instructors had truly marked everything, that probably meant they hadn’t slept either.
The young heroes who’d had what amounted to naps were all like this, but the instructors looked fine.
“It would take too long to announce everyone’s marks, so we’ll only announce the top 5. They’re also the only ones who will receive points. From first place to fifth, you will receive 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2 points.”
Murmur.
The young heroes were surprised at the high point rewards.
“First, I will announce fifth place. Evan Helvin.”
“Ah...!” Evan exclaimed.
Judging by his expression, he was half proud, half regretful.
I nodded for him.
Considering his future fame, this might be a low ranking, but Evan was still growing.
“After him, we have Hector Bednicker at 4th, and Sellen Goodspring at 3rd.”
Hector’s expression hardened, and Sellen looked calm.
It seemed she agreed that that was her current ranking.
However, she suddenly looked around as if something had come to her mind before looking directly at me.
It seemed she was curious as to what my rank was... but there was another person’s gaze on me as well.
Someone ten times more persistent and a hundred times more tiresome than Sellen.
Charon Woodjack’s burning eyes were glaring at me.
“Ah. I did forget one thing. Just like this ambush, there will be a Special Test once every week. But for just this test, instead of points, the one ranked 1st will receive a special reward.”
A special reward only for 1st?
After saying something that would obviously make the young heroes murmur amongst themselves, the Instructor of Martial Arts smiled.
“The special reward will be explained after all the ranks are announced. Then, in second place...”