Chapter 669
Chapter 669
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 669
Chapter Title: Special Training from Hell
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669.
The next morning.
Ar, who had been sound asleep in her sleeping bag, instinctively began to twitch her nose.
A moment later.
Her eyes flew open, and with a wild cry, she shot upright.
“Waaaaah!”
Screaming, Ar squirmed, trying to get out of her sleeping bag.
“Did something happen?”
Iliana, who had been sleeping beside her, asked with a drowsy face.
“I smell something delicious!”
Since the expedition began, they had been subsisting on simple meals like jerky and bread.
As such, Ar’s craving for a proper meal was desperate.
“You guys not coming?”
“The president said we could sleep in as much as we want. I’m choosing sleep.”
Iliana burrowed deeper into her sleeping bag.
The other girls seemed to feel the same way, showing no intention of moving.
They had minimized their sleep during the expedition.
While the hero candidates all possessed great stamina and mental fortitude, a couple of sleepless nights weren’t enough to leave them utterly exhausted.
Even so, the desire to sleep soundly when given the chance was an undeniable human urge.
“You lazy bums!”
“Who are you calling lazy, you gluttonous cat?”
“Leave her be. She’s just an animal.”
Driana chimed in, agreeing with Iliana’s grumbling.
Ignoring them, Ar headed out of the tent.
“Ar’s making all that noise, yet these three are sleeping just fine.”
Iliana glanced at Chelsea, Eliza, and Aina, who were sleeping peacefully in their sleeping bags, then muttered quietly as if seizing an opportunity.
“Chelsea and Eliza. You dense idiots. Personality-disordered freaks.”
The moment she finished, Chelsea and Eliza extended their hands from within their sleeping bags.
Chelsea’s hand was open, while Eliza’s was a fist.
Having lost at rock-paper-scissors, Eliza emerged from her sleeping bag with an irritated expression and approached Iliana, fist clenched.
“W-Wait! I wasn’t talking about you… Aaaargh!”
After punishing Iliana, Eliza returned to her sleeping bag.
Just then, Ar came back into the tent.
Without a word, she scooped up Driana and Iliana, sleeping bags and all, tucked them under her arms, and carried them outside.
***
“You beast! Unhand me!”
“What is this?! I can’t even get any sleep!”
Despite Driana and Iliana’s protests, Ar paid them no mind, dragging them outside and dumping them on the ground.
“I brought them! Black Rabbit!”
“Yeah, thanks for the hard work. Here, food.”
“Wow!”
Ar beamed as she accepted the bowl of stew from Leo.
“Is it because you’re all so young? Full of energy in the morning, I see.”
“Wow, you’re a good cook.”
“Gasp! Master Dweno! Sir!”
Driana, startled, scrambled out of her sleeping bag in a hurry.
“Ack! The president?!”
Iliana yelped and tried to crawl back into her sleeping bag.
Driana reached into Iliana’s sleeping bag, attempting to drag her out by force.
“How rude! In front of Master Dweno and Sir!”
“Wait! Let me just wipe my drool… Aack! Let go! Hey! Let go! You brutish dwarf!”
“Ahahahahaha!”
Enniha clutched her stomach, laughing at the two bickering girls.
Finally, seeing the two on their feet, Enniha formed a rectangle with her thumbs and index fingers, framing Iliana within it.
“Hmm~ Looking at you like this, Iliana, you have quite good proportions. Want to be my model?”
“A model? Should I have her strip right now?”
“Will you let go?! You perverted dwarf!”
Iliana shrieked as Driana grabbed the hem of her clothes.
Watching them, Leo rested his chin on his hand.
‘Did he learn that whole nude model thing from this elf?’
“Well, it’d be nice if you stripped, but I can’t force you if you don’t want to, can I?”
Enniha shook her head.
At her reaction, Leo stared intently at Dweno.
“What’s with that unpleasant look?”
Leo replied to Dweno’s puzzled question.
“I knew a dwarf who adamantly insisted he was an artist.”
“And?”
“He’d go on about art and spout nonsense about needing a nude model… I’m starting to think he was just a pervert after all.”
“And why are you looking at me?”
“Just because.”
Leo shrugged as Dweno scowled.
“Anyway, why did you drag me out here?”
“Master Dweno asked for Driana, and the Black Rabbit asked for you.”
“The president? Why?”
“It’s nothing major. First, let’s have something to eat, shall we?”
Leo smiled gently as he kindly ladled out some stew.
Iliana nodded and accepted the bowl.
“Mmm! This is delicious! It’s just how I like it!”
“I tried to make it to your taste.”
“Really? President! You even remembered what I like! I’m so touched!”
Iliana jumped up and down with joy.
“Want some of this too?”
Leo placed a sausage he had been roasting on a skewer into her bowl, and Iliana promptly speared it with her fork.
She then cupped her cheeks, a blissful smile on her face.
“It’s so good.”
“Eat up.”
“Okay! Okay!”
Ar, who had been watching from the side, subtly scooted away, putting some distance between herself and Leo.
‘Suspicious.’
Ar’s eyes narrowed.
Her wild instincts were screaming at her to get as far away from Leo as possible.
“By the way, Iliana.”
“Yeah! Yeah!”
“I noticed during the expedition that Duran has caught up to you in speed.”
“Oh! That?”
Iliana said nonchalantly while eating her stew.
“Duran is just so tenacious, you know? I guess he didn't like losing to me in speed, so he must have trained like a madman. It’s not just Duran; Chelsea and Eliza seem to be about as fast as me now too.”
“Hmm. Did you not practice the unique magic Luna created for you?”
“I did, but… for Lightspeed Sword to get any faster, my body needs to get stronger.”
The unique magic created by Luna and named by Iliana.
Lightspeed Sword was a spell that accelerated the body, which meant it placed a heavy burden on the user’s physique.
In other words, a stronger body was essential to achieve greater speeds.
“So, a lack of fundamentals?”
“Yep! So time will solve everything! I’m still growing, after all!”
Hahaha! Laughing, Iliana was about to spear a sausage with her fork when—
“So you’re saying you spent the entire vacation slacking off.”
“That’s right! Huh?”
Iliana, who had answered cheerfully, felt something was off and turned her head.
There stood Leo, wearing an infinitely kind smile.
‘Was the president always capable of such a warm smile?’
The question briefly crossed her mind, but Iliana’s thoughts remained simple.
‘Hehe. It’s nice to see him smile like this! He’s moving past being a handsome boy and starting to feel like a handsome young man.’
If Chelsea had seen that expression, she would have turned pale and screamed at Iliana to run. But Iliana remained blissfully unaware.
‘…Is her danger sense completely offline?’
Ar muttered to herself, breaking into a cold sweat.
“Iliana.”
“Yeah!”
“Starting today, you and I are going to do some special training.”
“Yeah! Huh? What did you say?”
Iliana, who had answered without thinking, suddenly snapped to attention, her eyes wide.
“The Founder of the Nebula herself was so impressed by your talent that she created a unique magic just for you.”
The expression vanished from Leo’s face.
The color drained from Iliana’s.
“And now you’re letting that magic go to waste. Are you even human? This is just casting pearls before swine. I’m going to make a person out of you.”
“I-I’ll be a pig!”
“No. Once you finish eating, we start training.”
“…”
At his words, Iliana’s hands trembled as she put down her spoon.
It was a ploy to delay the start of her training as long as possible.
“Ah, you’re finished? Then let’s begi—”
“N-Not yet!”
Iliana, looking like she was about to cry, resumed eating.
“And Driana.”
“What is it?”
“I was planning on training you as well, but…”
Leo glanced over at Dweno.
“I had a little chat with this young man, Leo, at dawn. We’ve decided that I will be the one to train you.”
“R-Really?!”
Driana’s face lit up.
“Yes. From what I hear, this fellow planned to train you in wielding powerful flames. I was thinking of teaching you the art of blacksmithing, which also requires the ability to handle intense fire. I heard his training methods are similar to mine, so I decided to take you under my wing.”
Driana looked deeply moved.
“I will do my best!”
Dweno nodded with a satisfied look at Driana’s vigorous response.
Watching this, Ar approached Leo.
“What kind of training is Master Dweno going to put Driana through?”
“You remember the Howling Vocalization Method training Ar-on and I put you through?”
“How could I forget that! You threw me in the water and tortured me!”
“Torture? It was clearly training. And in the end, see? The water knew the answer.”
“Ugh.”
Ar shuddered.
Looking at her, Leo said.
“It’s the opposite version of that.”
“What! That sounds so easy! It’s not fair!”
Ar protested indignantly.
Leo looked at her and said.
“You were lucky, Ar.”
“Huh?”
***
Ar, who had come to observe Driana’s training, muttered, utterly dumbfounded.
“…What is this hell?”
*Fwoooosh—!*
“Kyaaaaaaaaaa! It’s too hot! Master Dweno!”
“Endure it! Endure! The hotter the fire, the stronger the steel! The same applies to the body!”
“Aaaaargh! I’m going to die in here!”
“Dwarves don’t die easily! So stay in there and endure!”
Driana was being burned inside a massive forge.
Dweno forcefully pushed her back in every time she tried to escape.
“Now, pick up the hammer!”
“How am I supposed to lift a hammer in this situ… Aaaaaargh!”
Driana’s desperate screams echoed.
‘The opposite of being thrown in water and water-tortured was being thrown in fire and fire-tortured?’
They were currently at Dweno’s workshop.
And in the open space outside the workshop…
“Aaaargh!”
A golem wielding a giant greatsword swung it at Iliana with incredible speed.
Iliana shrieked as she narrowly dodged the attack.
“Black Rabbit, what happens if she can’t dodge that?”
“She dies.”
With shackles enchanted with weight magic on her wrists and ankles, Iliana was frantically moving to avoid the golem.
Leo shouted at her.
“If you want to live, move!”
“Hey! Leo Flove! I’ll get you for this! Hiiiiiiik!”
Iliana, who, unlike usual, was screaming Leo’s full name, dodged another of the golem’s attacks.
‘That’s another hell over there.’
Ar, dripping with cold sweat, tried to sneak away from the scene.
For some reason, she had a feeling that if she stayed, she too would experience a personal hell.
“Ar.”
Startled by Leo’s voice from behind, Ar slowly turned around.
“Come here.”
Ar cautiously approached Leo, her eyes darting around.
“Can you take out Brave?”
“Ah…!”
Ar’s ears perked up, and she hurriedly retrieved Brave from her subspace.
“Dweno.”
“Hm? What is it?”
Dweno turned around.
Leo pointed at Brave and said.
“Do you think you could fix this sword?”