Chapter 14

The Retest

They had succeeded in obtaining a Grade 2 runestone.

However, Ethan was worried that using one would cause controversy because it would set him apart from the other trainees. So he pleaded with the instructors and decided to attempt the runestone refinement method in the middle of the night.

Ironically, while Ethan, the trainee, was putting so much thought and effort into the matter—

Walter and Aisha didn’t consider the trainees’ feelings at all.

The answer they had given Ethan earlier had been brutally cold.

—“Even if we gave everyone an opportunity like this, they’d probably all turn it down. They’d probably call you crazy instead.”

—“Isn’t that already the impression you give them?”

Although the unexpected verbal abuse directed at him had left Ethan feeling rather unpleasant,

Don’t worry about it. Just do it.

Ethan soon decided that worrying about it in the first place was foolish and resolved to attempt the runestone refinement method.

In the middle of the training grounds,

Ethan sat cross-legged.

A Grade 2 runestone emitting a soft blue glow lay before him.

Walter and Aisha were also watching silently from nearby.

Walter stood with his arms crossed, staring at Ethan with a heavy gaze, while Aisha observed him with her characteristic cold eyes.

They were there in case anything went wrong.

“Inhale… exhale.”

Ethan slowly took a deep breath.

An enormous amount of mana, incomparable to that of a Grade 3 runestone, poured into his body.

Throb!

The mana immediately began to churn violently, stimulating his nerves.

Cold sweat ran down his back, while a sensation as though his body were burning from within spread throughout him.

Holy crap~ It feels like my body’s burning up.

The mana rapidly traveled through his blood vessels until it reached his heart.

His heart, strengthened by Body Hardening, was able to withstand it.

If he had learned the technique improperly, his heart would have burst.

That was how terrifying the power emitted by a Grade 2 runestone was.

But he couldn’t stop here.

H-Here!

Suppressing the pain, Ethan concentrated his consciousness on engraving the runic character into his heart.

The moment he drew a single stroke of a rune carrying a powerful meaning along the flow of mana, his body immediately began resisting violently.

“Cough…!”

Bright-red blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he coughed.

His entire body convulsed from the agony of his heart seeming to burn alive.

Walter hurriedly tried to approach him, but Aisha raised an arm and stopped him.

“Wait, Senior. Ethan hasn’t given up yet.”

Aisha’s expression was also filled with tension, but there was certainty in her eyes.

“…All right.”

Walter clenched his fists tightly, but ultimately stepped back.

Meanwhile, Ethan began reflecting on the causes of his failure as he attempted to engrave the rune into his heart.

I failed to control the force.

The rhythm was off, so the part I was supposed to engrave shifted.

It wasn’t a mistake that happened only once.

Once, twice, three times.

Whenever he barely managed to find an opportunity during the long ordeal, Ethan attempted the refinement method.

And every time, he failed.

Yet through all that trial and error, there was clearly a positive result.

“Whoo…”

Ethan recalled the breathing method of Hittite Body Hardening and desperately tried to stabilize his mana.

But his consciousness gradually drifted away, until he even forgot what character he was trying to inscribe.

His heartbeat repeatedly weakened, then suddenly pounded violently.

An overwhelming pressure wrapped around his entire body, making even breathing difficult.

It felt as though his entire body were being carved apart with knives.

His heart throbbed violently, sending numbness all the way into his bones.

At some point, rather than thinking, How can I become stronger?, his thoughts began to shift toward, How can I escape this pain?

Even his sense of purpose was beginning to fade.

Is this what dying feels like?

A sensation like he was wandering on the brink of death overwhelmed him.

At that moment, memories from his previous life flashed through his mind.

Days filled with nothing but failure.

A past in which, no matter how hard he tried, he could never break through the wall before him.

But things were different now.

I won’t fail twice.

If he could overcome connections, educational background, and regional ties, then the only thing that mattered was overwhelming ability.

Ethan steeled his heart.

He regained his composure and slowly reorganized the disordered flow of mana.

The mana swirling inside his body gradually settled.

There was no wind on this calm night, yet his hair fluttered in a cool breeze.

At last, the runic character engraved into his heart was deeply etched into place.

At the same time, his mana began to transform.

It felt as though it were harmonizing with the wind and enveloping his body.

Only then did Ethan regain his stability and slowly open his eyes.

Aisha looked at him and asked,

“You survived. How do you feel?”

Ethan caught his breath before giving a short answer.

“I think I can finally begin properly now.”

With those words, his gaze was much deeper and sharper than before.

But that lasted only about three seconds.

Fatigue soon overwhelmed Ethan, and he lost consciousness and collapsed.

Aisha calmly checked the pulse in his neck before looking at Walter.

“His stamina is completely depleted. I think we need to take him to the infirmary, Senior.”

“You want me to carry him?”

“Is that a problem?”

“Yeah, yeah. I suppose I have to.”

Under Aisha’s sharp glare, Walter immediately backed down, picked Ethan up, and slung him over his shoulder.

Warm sunlight shone down on Ethan’s face.

The bright glare was warm yet irritating, slowly bringing Ethan back to consciousness.

His body felt heavy and completely limp.

When he barely managed to open his eyes, morning sunlight streamed into his blurred vision.

“…Ugh.”

As he groaned and sat up, he heard a crisp crunching sound beside him.

He turned his head.

Aisha was calmly eating a sandwich.

She casually chewed while giving Ethan a sidelong glance, then spoke as though this were perfectly normal.

“Impressive. You were out for ten whole hours. You can’t even imagine getting this kind of special treatment at the training camp.”

Aisha smiled faintly as she added that, while Ethan stared at her in disbelief.

I nearly died…

He grumbled inwardly.

No matter how accustomed he had become to the training camp, he had genuinely come back from the brink of death.

But something else was more important right now.

What happened?

Ethan closed his eyes and carefully examined his body.

He was still exhausted, but there was an intense power residing inside him.

If he wanted to, he felt as though he could summon a raging whirlwind and sweep away everything around him.

The rune engraved into his heart felt as though it had become a part of him.

Is this how it works?

The moment he tried to release his power as a test—

Aisha stared intently at Ethan before slowly opening her mouth.

“If you wreck the infirmary, do you think you can handle the consequences? Mr. Danish, the medical officer, is so strict that he doesn’t even listen to Commander Vanguard.”

Simply hearing Vanguard’s name caused Ethan’s mana to dissipate.

Ethan stared blankly at Aisha, and she crossed her arms before speaking.

“Calm down. Let’s talk first.”

Ethan quickly came to his senses and shook his head vigorously.

His awareness returned to reality.

Once the atmosphere became suitable for conversation, Aisha asked him seriously,

“Actually, I couldn’t figure out what was inscribed into your heart. What character did you engrave?”

Ethan was momentarily flustered.

That moment had been too chaotic.

He clearly remembered the intense sensation of a rune being engraved, but he couldn’t remember what character had actually been inscribed.

His life had been in danger at the time, so he hadn’t had the luxury of worrying about such details.

He answered honestly.

“To be honest… I don’t remember. Right now, the only image that comes to mind is that of wind, so I think I may have engraved something like Gale (ᚦᚱᚨᚷᛁ) or Stillwind (ᛊᛏᛁᛚᛚᚨᚳᛁᚾᛞ).”

Aisha crossed her arms and thought for a moment before nodding.

“You used such an expensive Grade 2 runestone for the refinement, and if we can’t even properly report the result, I’m fine, but Senior Walter is going to get torn apart. Are you sure you’re okay with that?”

“Compared to me suffering, I think it would be better if the instructor sacrificed himself…”

Even at a moment like this, Ethan’s shameless answer was enough to make Aisha burst out laughing, destroying her usual poker face.

“Pfft! That’s enough. I was joking. Get some rest.”

Aisha patted Ethan’s tense shoulder a couple of times before heading outside.

As she walked down the corridor, she murmured quietly,

“Gale…?”

The phenomenon Ethan had produced was clearly related to wind, so it wasn’t entirely wrong.

But something didn’t sit right with her.

Immediately after Ethan completed the runestone refinement, there had clearly been an unusual change.

It wasn’t only wind.

Something else had been swirling within his body.

As she recalled that moment, the scene flashed before Aisha’s eyes.

The instant the rune was engraved into Ethan’s heart, the air around him distorted and transparent light spread outward.

It was as though light and shadow had merged into one and were writhing together.

Even the mana’s fluctuations hadn’t been consistent. They had continuously changed.

It was something far deeper and more complex than simple wind.

Yet even Aisha couldn’t interpret what it was.

She gave a self-deprecating laugh.

“I’m a Rune Meister, and I still find runes difficult.”

She lightly shrugged and continued walking down the corridor.

Throughout the process of learning the runestone refinement method and Hittite Body Hardening, the trainees of the 65th Class endured endless repetition and countless hours of patience.

At first, even handling runestones had been difficult for them.

Now, however, they could channel mana steadily despite their ragged breathing, and they had mastered the basic principles of Hittite Body Hardening, further refining their ability to control their bodies.

Runestones infused with mana were piled up throughout the training grounds, faintly emitting blue light, while mana flowed smoothly from the trainees’ fingertips.

The training grounds, once covered in unfamiliar black dirt and dust, were no longer strange to them.

Each trainee had begun applying the techniques they had learned in their own way and refining them through practice.

But the training wasn’t over yet.

During the final month, the trainees faced a new task.

Before beginning the curriculum, Walter spoke.

“Out there, people sharpen their knives and call us crazy bastards, lunatics, and money-grubbing freaks.”

“…”

The trainees looked somewhat uncomfortable.

They already knew that while knights and mages were generally welcomed wherever they went, tax collectors were commonly treated as monsters whose sole purpose was to collect taxes.

Even so, after enduring all this hardship, being treated as nothing more than monsters…

It was a bitter reality.

Walter shrugged.

“Don’t worry about it. Not a single person who called us that was ever normal anyway. Starting today, the next thing you need to learn is the law. Why do we need to learn the law, Koren?”

Koren answered with an uncomfortable expression.

“Because we must collect taxes based on legitimate grounds rather than collecting them unjustly.”

“Correct, but not quite enough. Ethan, why do you think we need to learn the law?”

Obviously.

Remembering the brutal lessons Lowfang had taught him back when he was a guildmaster of thieves, Ethan answered honestly.

“If tax evaders exploit loopholes in the law to avoid paying taxes, shouldn’t we apply other laws to them and collect the taxes anyway?”

“What kind of nonsense is that?! Are we thugs?!”

Koren shouted in disbelief, but Ethan didn’t even pay attention.

If anything, he doubled down.

“No. We’re worse than thugs.”

“Eek!”

“Enough.”

Walter gave a bitter smile.

“From a legal perspective, that’s the wrong answer. But in the real world, tax collectors sometimes have to go that far to collect taxes. Learning this is about making sure we don’t become the ones who get exploited.”

“…”

Faced with such a harsh reality, the trainees were temporarily left speechless.

“Well then. Let’s begin.”

With Walter’s short, decisive declaration, the trainees moved from the training grounds to an auditorium where desks had been arranged.

For the next two months, they would learn not merely combat techniques, but the actual roles and responsibilities of tax collectors.

The atmosphere in the auditorium carried a completely different kind of tension from the training grounds.

Seated before tables piled with books and documents, the trainees read through texts and studied the various laws.

Walter wasn’t the only instructor.

Active tax collectors from various fields also personally lectured them, teaching them tax-collection procedures, tax structures, administrative processes, and more.

At first, sitting at desks and studying the law felt unfamiliar and tedious to the trainees.

But they soon began to realize that the combat skills they had learned were not simply about possessing strength.

They had to operate within the framework of laws and principles.

“So becoming a tax collector isn’t something you can just do on a whim.”

“Exactly. There’s so much to learn.”

They also held discussions based on actual cases.

The trainees debated fair methods of taxation and ways to prevent corruption, considering what kind of tax collectors they wanted to become in the future.

They also learned practical knowledge such as record-keeping procedures and the process of admitting evidence, gradually accepting that their role was something far beyond that of simple warriors.

And so, the final day of their education approached.

Walter stood at the front of the auditorium and slowly looked over the trainees.

After enduring both training and study, their eyes now shone with a firm resolve unlike anything they had possessed at the beginning.

So I’ve completed another class’s training.

He pushed aside the bittersweet yet refreshing feeling in his heart, took a breath, and spoke in a firm voice.

“Your training is over.”

The auditorium instantly fell silent.

The trainees waited for what he would say next.

Walter crossed his arms.

“Now it’s time for you to prove yourselves.”

Rebecca immediately raised her hand.

“What do you mean?”

Walter snorted.

“Obviously, it means your graduation ceremony is just around the corner.”

The trainees looked at one another, holding their breaths.

But Walter wasn’t finished.

He stepped forward and delivered his final declaration with force.

“We’re beginning the mock tax-collection operation.”

The trainees instinctively straightened their backs.

Now, the real test was beginning.