A Name and a Single Sword
"A different exam?"
Raon tilted his head. The graduation exam for Zieghart trainees was typically a simple affair—sparring matches between the trainees themselves, or completing a course the instructors had designed.
But looking at Rimer's sly expression, this clearly wasn't going to be an ordinary test.
"You've all got way more experience than the other trainees, don't you?"
Rimer clicked his tongue and wagged a finger.
"Duels of honor, battles where your life was on the line, even fighting with the weight of rank behind you. You've already been through everything a full-fledged swordsman would face."
He wasn't wrong. The trainees of the Fifth Training Ground hadn't accumulated as much as Raon had in his previous life, but they'd still gained far more experience than House Robert or the trainees of any other training ground. Handing kids like that an ordinary exam would be pointless. They'd all pass it without breaking a sweat.
"An exam is supposed to be a chance to grow faster than usual. A half-baked test wouldn't do you any good, so I changed the contents."
"Hmm..."
"That makes sense."
Everyone nodded at Rimer's explanation. Having watched Raon's exploits and fought alongside him, the trainees wanted to climb higher than becoming ordinary swordsmen. Their reaction was only natural.
"So what exam will we be taking, then?"
Burren raised his hand and leaned forward.
Rimer's expression shifted in an instant. The neighborhood uncle who'd been cracking jokes vanished. A heavy, razor-sharp presence settled across his back.
"Survival. You'll cast aside your status as Zieghart trainees and go out into the world with nothing but your name and a single sword."
"S-survival...?"
"Ugh!"
"Just our name and a sword?"
Survival. It was an exam none of them had even remotely expected, and every trainee's mouth fell open.
"I get why you're shaken. This is a different beast from the graduation exam you were expecting. But this is a trial you need."
Rimer perched on the edge of the platform and looked down at every last one of them.
"You're overflowing with confidence right now. You beat the trainee knights of the Owen Kingdom, you survived a war with Eden, and you even took elixirs that strengthened both your aura and your bodies. And on a smaller scale, there was that fight with the Sixth Training Ground, too. Well, someone in particular did a lot of the heavy lifting."
He glanced sideways at Raon.
"I want you to go out there with those swollen heads of yours and see just how vast this world really is."
"Hmm..."
The trainees were too stunned to speak, but Raon nodded on his own.
He's right.
Just as Rimer said, what these trainees needed most—now that both their bodies and minds had grown stronger—was real combat. Fighting with their own strength, independent of their family's power, would carry them to even greater heights.
"That said, I'll accept refusals."
Rimer raised an eyebrow and smiled faintly.
"You've been eating meals the family prepared and sleeping in beds the family provided. Surviving out there on your own isn't going to be easy. This time, neither I nor the instructors will be going with you. You could actually lose your lives."
He nodded slowly.
"So for anyone who's scared, I've got another graduation exam ready. If you want to refuse, think it over carefully and tell me tomorrow."
"Hmm..."
"Uh, a different exam?"
"Don't need that crap."
Unlike the trainees rolling their eyes in thought, Marta flicked her hair and shook her head. She stepped forward, her dark eyes flashing.
"Survival? I've been doing that since I took my first steps. Bring it on."
Marta snorted as if she didn't care what exam they threw at her.
"I'm fine with it as well."
Burren stepped forward, his voice even. There wasn't a flicker of hesitation in his deeply settled eyes.
"A graduation exam themed around survival. As you said, Instructor, I believe this is an opportunity to take the next step. I accept."
"Two already, huh?"
Rimer grinned and held up two fingers.
"I-I'll do it too!"
"Me too!"
"Put my name down as well!"
Once Burren and Marta signed on, the rest of the trainees threw up their hands and shouted to join, one after another.
"Good. That's good."
Rimer clapped and smiled every time a trainee volunteered.
"Runaan."
Raon turned and called to Runaan, who was standing there in a daze. She was tapping her foot in time with Rimer's clapping, as if none of this particularly concerned her.
"What about you?"
"What about Raon?"
"I'm doing it."
"Then I will too."
She stepped forward and said she'd join. Just like that, all forty-two trainees had raised their hands. Only Raon remained.
"Raon. What about you?"
"Of course I'm going."
"Hmm. Even you, the top trainee, answering that thoughtlessly? You have no idea where I'm sending you all."
Rimer stuck out his lip with a sly look.
"That's fine."
Raon didn't take the bait. He simply smiled.
"It'll be hard enough to kill us, I'm sure. But you wouldn't give us a trial we couldn't overcome."
"You..."
At those words, spoken with such certainty, Rimer's expression shifted. It wasn't quite pleasure—more like a flicker of surprise.
Rimer knew every trainee's strengths, weaknesses, and quirks, and he'd tailored his teaching accordingly. Raon had only recently come to understand it, but most of what Rimer did was for the trainees' sake. His actions and his tone were light, but his thoughts ran deep. There was no reason not to trust him.
"I feel the same."
Burren stood beside Raon and nodded.
"You're lazy, you never keep appointments, and you're addicted to drinking and gambling—but when it comes to teaching, you're the real thing."
"Hmph."
Marta turned her head, but she didn't argue. That meant she more or less agreed with Burren and Raon.
"My disciples thinking of me like that... it really hits me right in the chest."
Rimer made sniffling noises, pretending to cry. He seemed to be playing it off as a joke, but the way his mouth curved into a crescent moon made it obvious he was genuinely pleased.
"That doesn't mean I'll go easy on you. You'd better prepare thoroughly."
He reached back, and an instructor handed him a sheaf of documents.
"Normally I'd wait a week to tell you, but since you've all agreed, I'll let you know where you're going right now."
"Are we all going to the same place?"
Burren raised his hand to ask.
"Not a chance."
Rimer wagged a finger.
"You all pretend otherwise, but you've got a strong tendency to lean on one particular guy."
His gaze turned to Raon, and the trainees' eyes followed.
"Hmm..."
"W-well, yeah..."
"He's got a point, honestly."
The trainees smacked their lips, more or less conceding Rimer's point. They'd started out jealous of Raon, even hating him. But after training together, fighting together, and surviving crises together, they now followed him with genuine loyalty.
"It's encouraging that you've grown closer, but one-sided dependence isn't a good thing."
Rimer smiled gently as he looked over the trainees one by one.
"Through this exam, become swordsmen that others can rely on."
"Yes, sir!"
"Understood!"
They could feel the sincerity of their instructor, and the trainees raised their voices until the training ground itself seemed to shake.
"All right, then..."
Rimer opened the booklet the instructor had given him.
"Burren Zieghart."
"Yes, sir!"
"You're going to the Lewin Desert in the west."
"Understood."
"Marta Zieghart. You're going to Cyan Gorge in the east. And..."
Rimer didn't wait for their replies. He rattled off their destinations one after another.
"...Runaan Sullion. You're going to the Katam Jungle in the northwest."
"Okay."
"Last one. Raon Zieghart."
Every trainee's name had been called. Only Raon remained.
"Yes."
"You're going northeast. Habun Castle."
"Habun Castle..."
Raon narrowed his eyes.
He's sending me somewhere brutal.
Habun Castle sat even further north than Zieghart—one of the warzones that fought three hundred and sixty-five days a year against the monsters pouring out of the North Sea and Sterin Mountain.
It'll definitely help, though.
Even with the Ring of Fire and the Cultivation of Ten Thousand Flames, he still hadn't fully recovered the instincts of his previous life. If he threw himself into that battlefield, he might well develop a killing intent and a set of senses that surpassed even his past life.
"You've got a month until departure. Gather information on where you're going, think about how you'll prepare, and decide what to bring. All of that is part of the exam."
Rimer closed the booklet and lifted his chin.
"Yes, sir! Understood!"
The trainees' booming reply carried both the anticipation of growth and the anxiety of the unknown.
"The others will have it rough too, but you're going to suffer."
Rimer stepped down in front of Raon, his gaze turning vicious.
"That place is so relentless you won't even have a gap to sheathe your sword. They call it Battlefield Hell."
"Hiiieeek!"
Dorian, who'd been assigned to Habun Castle alongside him, went pale and his legs started shaking. Raon snorted a laugh at the sight.
"Hell's fine with me."
"Huh?"
"If I come back after overcoming hell, imagine how much stronger I'll be. And besides..."
Raon's eyes gleamed with anticipation as he nodded.
I've already been through a real hell.
"D-do you really have to do that?"
When they returned to the Annex with news of the graduation exam, Helen trembled and shook her head.
"Habun Castle is one of Zieghart's barrier fortresses. I've heard powerful monsters pour out of there endlessly. They said they'd prepare a different exam—do you really need to go there...?"
"This is for me—"
"He should go."
Before Raon could speak, Sylvia set down her fork and knife and nodded.
"But that place is incredibly dangerous..."
"He should still go."
Sylvia shook her head at Helen, then looked at Raon.
"It's an opportunity for Raon to grow."
Ever since the duel with Raiden, she no longer saw Raon as a child. She regarded him as a swordsman. A swordsman who'd earned the right to be called one.
That didn't mean Sylvia wasn't worried. The hand holding her water glass trembled, ever so slightly.
"Mom's right."
Raon lowered his eyes under the worried gazes of Sylvia, Helen, and the maids.
"Just as the instructor said, this is less an exam and more an opportunity to grow. When an opportunity comes, you take it."
"Yes. That's the right way to think about it."
Helen and the maids still looked like they had plenty to say, but Sylvia—who had lived a martial artist's life—was different. She was acknowledging him now, fully and without reservation.
This is a relief.
Helen, as head maid, had considerable say, but she couldn't override Sylvia. With her mother's consent, his training from here on would be much easier.
"I'll go train, then."
Raon pushed his empty plate aside and stood.
"Raon."
As he was about to head to his room, Sylvia turned.
"If you're going to do this, prepare thoroughly. So you can handle whatever happens."
"I will."
Raon nodded with a look of quiet reliability and went into his room.
"My lady. Are you truly all right?"
"Hah. How could I be all right?"
Sylvia's hands, clenched around the water glass, trembled. Her only son was going somewhere dangerous. There was no way her heart could be at ease.
But still...
Unlike Helen, she knew what a martial artist was. She knew what a swordsman was obsessed with. Even if she hated it, she had no choice but to let Raon go. Even if she tried to stop him, he would go anyway. Sending him off without holding him back was the right thing to do for the boy.
"I'm still worried, though. It's such a dangerous place..."
"Being worried is only natural."
Sylvia nodded.
"Which is why we have work to do."
"Work, my lady?"
"Yes. We need to do everything we can to keep things as they are, so that when Raon comes back, he can rest in comfort."
She looked around at the maids, then smiled brightly. It was a smile that hid the unease a mother—and the mistress of the Annex—was allowed to feel.
"My lady..."
The maids nodded in silent agreement, moved by her words.
Judiel looked at Sylvia and Helen and quietly clenched her fist.
Even knowing he would leave in a month for a place they called a battlefield, Raon's daily life remained the same.
He trained at dawn as always, went to the Fifth Training Ground to receive instruction from Rimer and the instructors, and stayed until the very last in the evening to continue his practice. The intensity, however, was on an entirely different level from before. It was enough to make Burren and Marta, who were watching, feel sick of it—and enough to leave Runaan exhausted and falling behind.
"Huu..."
After a full week of training so brutal it wore even his formidable will down to the edge, Raon returned to the Annex. It was late enough that everyone was asleep, so he opened the window and slipped into his room.
"Hmm..."
The room was so clean not a speck of dust could be seen, and a gentle fragrance drifted from his clothes and bedding.
They didn't have to go this far.
Despite the thought, a smile formed on his lips. He was grateful to Sylvia and the maids for making sure he could always come home to comfort, no matter when he returned.
"Hah..."
Raon exhaled and sat on the edge of the bed. The recent training had been exhausting even for him, and sleep was already pulling at his eyelids. He was about to lie down when he felt something on the bed.
"What's this?"
He tilted his head and pulled back the blanket. A small booklet lay underneath.
"This is..."
As Raon read the booklet, his eyes went wide. It contained information on Habun Castle—the place he was headed. Geographical details, information on the monsters that appeared there, even profiles of the people stationed at the castle. Who had given this to him was obvious.
Judiel.
She'd prepared this intelligence the moment she learned he was going to Habun Castle.
"Tch."
A bitter taste touched the tip of Raon's tongue, and he clicked his lips.
"I'll need to settle things properly before I leave."