As Ceres stared at him, the harsh truth slipped from her lips.
“You have no talent for the sword.”
“...I know.”
“You’re terrible at it.”
“I said I know.”
“No, seriously. You’re unbelievably bad.”
“I know already!”
I get it, okay?! You don’t have to keep saying it!
“Then why do you keep doing it?”
If he already knew he had no talent for it, why keep learning swordsmanship and put himself through this?
She was genuinely curious.
Antonian ranked exceptionally well in his academic classes. There was no reason for him to cling so stubbornly to swordsmanship when he lacked the talent for it.
Biting down on his lip, Antonian stayed silent until Ceres frowned and snapped at him to stop before he started bleeding.
He finally answered,
“...Because I like it.”
“What?”
“Because I like it!”
“......”
“Even if I suck at it, I can still do it if I like it!”
The boy shouted through a mix of anger and frustration.
From professors to fellow students in the Swordsmanship Department, everyone constantly told him to transfer to another field. But he didn’t want to.
“I’m going to become like him someday.”
“Like who?”
“The person who first founded our family.”
“...The Mercenary King?”
Ceres stared at Antonian with a baffled look.
Wait. Did he mean he wanted to become a mercenary in the future? Not a knight, but a mercenary?
“Do you enjoy getting cursed at or something?”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
“Nothing. Just curious.”
Ceres sighed as she recalled the mercenaries who frequented the shop.
Mistaking her reaction for disapproval, Antonian lowered his voice.
“Just because I don’t have talent doesn’t mean I can’t have a dream.”
“....A dream?”
Nod.
His oldest memory was his father’s voice telling him stories before bed about the founder of House Drow, the great Mercenary King.
Tom.
Every time he heard stories about him, Antonian would proudly declare that one day, he would grow up to become an amazing mercenary just like him.
“Well... not everyone actually achieves the dreams they had as a kid.”
Ceres scratched her cheek awkwardly.
This was completely unexpected. She had always thought Antonian was rational and mature for someone his age. She never imagined he was holding onto such a childish dream.
Geez, was it okay for someone’s personality to change this suddenly?
“...But I still like it.”
“The sword?”
Nod!
Even though he looked very exhausted, he nodded with all his strength. Seeing him like that, a faint smile appeared on Ceres’s lips.
Her gaze drifted toward the Group B students sprawled across the ground beside Antonian, all of them panting heavily.
Catching on to what she was looking at, Antonian spoke in a weary voice.
“Everyone likes the sword...”
That was why they endured it again today. Even after being mocked and humiliated, they still returned to the training grounds because they loved the sword too much to give it up.
“Hm.”
Ceres quietly studied the eyes of the children before her. Just like Antonian’s, they were filled with anger, resentment, and sorrow.
“Do you want to beat them?”
“Huh?”
“The punks who did this to you. Do you want to make them scrub the training grounds instead?”
“Well, obviously...”
After everything they had suffered? Of course they did!
“Hey, just quit already. You losers can’t even use a sword.”
“The ground suits trash like you best.”
“What? You want another round? Know your place before you embarrass yourselves.”
One by one, the children rose to their feet, gritting their teeth. The humiliation they had swallowed all this time came flooding back.
If they could land one punch on those guys, they felt like they’d die happy.
More than once, they had wanted to throw themselves at those b*stards and rip them apart with their bare teeth, swords or no swords.
But...
Why was she asking something like this?
No matter how upset they were, they understood reality better than anyone.
That was why they knew. No matter how hard they trained, they could never defeat Group A students who had received proper training since childhood and were still receiving it even now.
“You guys...”
Still crouched, Ceres looked around at the students gathered before her.
Then the corners of her lips curled upward.
Their eyes are pretty good.
“Do you want to learn swordsmanship from me?”
***
“What? Where’d they all go?”
“No clue. The moment class ended, they all ran out together like they were possessed.”
“All of them?”
“Yeah.”
Group A students arrived at the training grounds as usual, only to pause in confusion when they realized the usual Group B students were nowhere in sight.
“Did they finally give up? Took them long enough to figure out their place.”
Iron Belgial, the son of Count Belgial, snickered under his breath while the students around him laughed along.
“They acted so stubborn when they were going to quit. It’s hilarious it took them half a year to realize how pathetic they are.”
“Well, thanks to you, at least we got separate classes.”
Iron Belgial was the one to petition for the swordsmanship students to be divided according to skill level.
Naturally, Count Belgial had supported the idea as well. He hated the thought of his son attending lessons alongside talentless students from insignificant families.
Sharing ordinary lectures was one thing, but seeing those fools swagger around with swords despite having no talent was downright ridiculous.
After being told day after day to know their place, it seemed they had finally gotten the message.
“This is boring. Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
With no reason left to stay at the training grounds, Iron and the other Group A students turned and walked away leisurely.
***
“U-Um... Ceres?”
“What?”
“Are you seriously telling us to climb that?”
“Yep.”
“For real?”
“For real.”
“Us?”
“Yeah. You guys.”
“......”
Antonian and the others could only stare blankly at the enormous stone mountain towering before them, too overwhelmed to say a word.
When Ceres first asked if they wanted to learn the sword from her, everyone stared at her in confusion. After all, no one had ever heard that Antonian’s older sister knew swordsmanship.
Naturally, the most dumbfounded person there was Antonian himself.
“What are you talking about? Since when do you know how to teach swordsmanship?”
“Just try it once. You won’t regret it.”
...Since when did her sister become a scam artist?
The suspicious smile on Ceres’s face only made Antonian and the others instinctively shrink back. It felt like she was trying to lure them into some trap.
“What do you have to lose?”
Still, her next words made them waver.
Well... compared to their current situation, wouldn’t anything be better than this?
But then...
“Where exactly is this place?”
At the suspicion dripping from his voice, Ceres chuckled.
“A training ground.”
More precisely, it was the training ground Grace Ellesia herself used most often in the past.
“Why is there something like this inside a cave?”
“Good question. Why would something like this be here?”
“Stop joking around!”
Antonian frowned and stamped his foot.
When they first followed Ceres into the mountains, they assumed she was taking them there for physical training. They all knew their stamina lagged far behind Group A students, so none of them complained.
But the place Ceres brought them to was a cave hidden deep in the mountains.
Before they could even question why they were entering a cave, they froze in shock.
Past the giant iron gate hidden in the depths of the cavern was a completely unimaginable world.
“A stone mountain... That’s really a stone mountain, right? Why is something like that inside a cave?”
“H-How should I know?! What’s with that waterfall? And that river? And why is there a snow-covered mountain in this season?! Eek!”
“H-Holy crap, that’s real snow! Why is there snow at this time of year? Am I going crazy?!”
The children pinched each other’s cheeks and stomped on each other’s feet as if trying to confirm they weren’t dreaming.
Why they kept sacrificing the person next to them instead of themselves was anyone’s guess.
Even in the middle of all that chaos, Antonian alone kept his attention fixed on Ceres.
“Ceres, seriously, what is this place? How do you know about somewhere like this?”
“I found it while taking a walk. It’s less than twenty minutes from the house.”
“Do you expect me to believe that?!”
Ceres looked at Antonian with a pleased smile. Among all the trembling children, he was the only one who had managed to keep hold of his senses.
Look at him, yelling at his great and noble older sister like that. He’s gotten pretty bold lately.
She suddenly felt the urge to teach him a lesson about hierarchy, but decided to let it slide for now.
“Don’t worry. You won’t die.”
“Who’s even worried about that right now?!”
“I’m serious.”
No matter how badly someone got hurt in this place, they would never become crippled or die.
Because—
This is a magical space.
A magical training ground Artia had created for her long ago.
The stone mountain, the snow-covered peak, all of it had been made through magic.
Most importantly...
Training here produces the best possible results.
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