Just as I had known the futures of the cadets from other classes, I also knew the futures of the cadets in Class 5.
'Just because they call this place a garbage dump doesn't mean these guys are actually trash.'
These cadets weren't talentless. The very fact that they had made it into the academy in the first place meant they were not ordinary.
They were simply the ones who had received no support, had no backing, and had faced countless failures until they broke too early against the harsh wall of reality.
'They're no different from me.'
They had nothing, so all they could do was work hard—harder than anyone else.
And in the end, they had no choice but to compromise with reality.
What they needed right now wasn't kind words or empty motivation.
They needed to be whipped into action before they could wallow in their half-hearted despair.
That was why I said it.
"I'll cut you down."
I meant every word.
And words spoken with true conviction always carried weight. The cadets could feel it, too.
'…He's serious.'
They felt as if the air itself had sharpened, cutting into their lungs.
"You. Come up."
I pointed at the nearest cadet.
"…Why should I listen to you?"
The cadet replied with a rebellious glare.
"Then run. Tuck your tail between your legs, like you've always done."
"Just because you're a direct descendant doesn't mean you can insult me like that."
"Oh? That's a fancy way of saying you're scared."
"Hah… Haha! Fine!"
With a single leap, he landed on the sparring platform.
"Haaahp!"
Before the duel was even formally declared, he suddenly swung his spear at me.
An attack that could hardly be called honorable. Not even particularly skillful.
Yet, it made me smile.
"At least you're somewhat useful."
Instead of dodging, I stepped forward.
"…!"
The cadet had clearly expected me to evade or block. His eyes widened in panic.
Clang!
At the same time, I swung my sword, striking the shaft of his spear.
The spear wobbled violently. I leaped over it and swung my sword straight at the cadet.
"Hngh!"
The cadet desperately twisted his body to avoid the blade.
"Damn it!"
Frustration flashed across his face as he adjusted his stance and began swinging his spear in rapid succession.
Fast, consecutive strikes.
He was trying to keep me at a distance, using his weapon's reach to his advantage.
I deflected his spear shaft with my sword and dashed in close.
Crack!
My fist slammed into his jaw.
"Urgh…!"
His eyes went blank as he collapsed. He tried to prop himself up with his spear, but his arms gave out, and he slumped back down.
That was the end of him.
"Next."
I let my sword drop slightly and looked down at the other cadets.
Their faces were filled with shock.
* * *
The duels continued.
Even for me, continuously fighting against older boys in a battle of endurance was exhausting.
If I had used magic, it might have been different, but I hadn't spent a single ounce of mana. I was fighting them all with nothing but my still-developing body.
"Gah!"
Another cadet fell.
"Huff… Huff… Next."
I brushed back my sweat-drenched hair and looked at Choi In-ha.
"…Are you really going to keep going? If you push yourself any further, you'll get hurt."
Choi In-ha's face was tense.
The atmosphere among the cadets had shifted.
Apart from the ones already sent to the infirmary, the remaining cadets were on edge.
"I already told you. Next."
Choi In-ha gritted his teeth.
"Then, next—"
Clang!
The sound of weapons clashing echoed through the training ground again.
I had completely overwhelmed them until the eighth match.
But once I passed the tenth, they were lasting longer against me.
The only time I had to catch my breath was in the brief moments between fights.
No matter how much I had trained, my still-growing body had its limits. And that meant I was starting to take some hits.
Thud!
A cadet wielding a blunt weapon landed a clean strike to my jaw.
For a moment, my vision blurred as my knee buckled.
"…Did… did it work?"
The one who landed the hit looked more shocked than anyone.
Sensing an opportunity, he charged at me while I was down.
Flash!
At that moment, I suddenly straightened my bent knee and tackled him.
"Ugh…!"
We rolled across the ground in a mess, but in the end, I was the one who ended up on top, pressing my sword against his neck.
"…I surrender."
"Huff… Ugh!"
I staggered as I tried to stand up, my vision spinning.
Using my sword as a cane, I steadied myself and slowly rose to my feet.
"Next."
Shudder.
The moment Choi In-ha saw my eyes through my disheveled bangs, a chill ran down his spine.
I had taken a direct hit to the jaw—it should have been difficult for me to even stand.
Yet, my eyes still burned like a raging volcano.
'This is just an academy. Just a mere sparring match.'
Choi In-ha's hands trembled slightly.
"Choi In-ha. Call up the next cadet."
Despite being battered and gasping for breath, I still spoke with unwavering confidence.
Choi In-ha drew his sword.
"…I'll be your final opponent."
"Is that so?"
Even though I had been pushed to my limits, I grinned.
"Come on up, Choi In-ha."
***
Choi In-ha climbed onto the training platform with a hardened expression, his sword lowered.
Before the signal to start was even given, our blades clashed.
Clang!
The other cadets held their breath as they watched the duel unfold.
Compared to the start of the training session, my swordplay had become rough, my movements more exaggerated.
My technique had always been unpredictable, but now I was relying more on feints and quick improvisations.
Unorthodox moves, and more unorthodox moves.
I would swing my sword only to follow up with a kick, or close the distance to force a clinch and drag the fight to the ground.
There was only one reason for this.
'He's so exhausted he doesn't even have the luxury to attack properly!'
Choi In-ha clenched his teeth.
The duel had been going on for over an hour and twenty minutes.
All the breaks combined had barely added up to five minutes.
"…Why are you pushing yourself this hard?"
Whoosh! Clang!
I didn't answer. Instead, I lunged at him again.
The fight was completely one-sided.
I was barely managing to block, while Choi In-ha kept pressing forward.
Yet, despite his relentless assault, he never once landed a decisive hit. Meanwhile, I kept exploiting even the smallest openings to strike back.
'Why is he doing this? What does he hope to gain? There's no reward, no recognition—this is just a meaningless sparring match.'
He couldn't understand why I was fighting like this.
No matter how much of an outcast I was, I should still carry some dignity as a direct descendant.
But right now, I was swinging my sword like this platform was the edge of a cliff.
As if I had staked my very life on this fight.
"Kh!"
Whoosh! Swish!
Logically, Choi In-ha should have been the one winning.
Yet, the one actually landing the decisive blows… was me.
What was the difference between him and me?
Why was this happening?
He couldn't comprehend it.
'No… deep down, I already know.'
The difference between us—
It was our fighting spirit.
Choi In-ha clenched his teeth.
The reason he felt so uncomfortable watching me fight—
It was because I possessed something he had forced himself to forget.
'I used to be like that, too.'
He recalled the two years he spent repeating his cadet training.
No matter how hard he tried, he could never surpass the talented heirs of prestigious families.
If they had at least been arrogant or ill-mannered, he could have hated them for it. But they had been raised with discipline from childhood—possessing not just talent, but also character and diligence.
In the end, because he had to survive in this world, Choi In-ha changed his way of living.
Chasing after something with all his might—that wasn't what a happy life was.
Rather, choosing the right moments to compromise, finding a reasonable path—that was another way to live.
And he had thought that was what it meant to grow up—to become an adult.
'I knew it. I was just running away. Just rationalizing it as growth.'
Slash! Boom!
Swords clashed violently.
Choi In-ha stared at Lee Cheol.
Had he ever been this desperate?
Had he ever wanted to win this badly?
Ambushes, unorthodox moves, dirty tricks—had he ever gone to such lengths just to win?
Fwoosh—
A spark ignited in the pile of ashes he had long left to burn out.
'I don't know. I don't know. But…'
There was one thing he was certain of right now.
He wanted, more than anything, to defeat that arrogant bastard of a bastard!
But—
Whoosh! Crack!
In that instant, Lee Cheol's sword swung from a blind spot and snapped his fingers.
"Guhhh…!"
He lost.
A terrible pain shot through his entire body.
His sword slipped from his grasp, and all he could do was collapse to his knees.
Then, he heard Lee Cheol's voice, firm and unwavering.
"I win."
***
I looked down at Choi In-ha's fingers, twisted in an unnatural direction.
Then, struggling to catch my breath, I turned toward the cadets below the platform.
"Haa… Take him to the infirmary."
"It's not over yet!"
A furious shout erupted from behind me.
"Urk!"
Whoosh! Clang!
I barely managed to block the sudden strike from Choi In-ha.
'A left-handed sword?'
He let his broken right hand hang limp and wielded his sword with his left.
His previously dull, lifeless eyes were now burning with intensity.
He refused to accept defeat, even switching hands to continue fighting.
"No, it's over."
A match was a match.
No matter how exhausted I was, I wouldn't fall for an attack swung by an unfamiliar hand.
Swoosh! Bang!
I slipped through his offense, striking his chin and slamming the flat of my blade against his right side.
Choi In-ha staggered before collapsing.
"Just stay down."
It was a clean hit. A strike to the chin shakes the brain; a hit to the right side targets the liver.
Wobble—
And yet, Choi In-ha still tried to stand.
His balance was completely off, but he trembled, swaying like a drunkard, using his sword as a crutch—just as I had done earlier.
"It's… not over yet…"
"Hah."
I almost laughed.
Through his disheveled hair, I saw his eyes.
The very fire I had been searching for in Class 5.
"Raaahh!"
Choi In-ha pushed off the ground, swinging his sword.
I didn't dodge.
His balance was already broken—his blade missed me by a mere inch before he crumpled to the ground.
His body twitched once, then went completely still.
'He's unconscious.'
My legs trembled, but I forced myself to stay upright.
I looked down at the cadets from atop the training platform.
Then, gripping my dented, chipped sword, I spoke.
"I have lived each second as if it were an hour, and each hour as if it were a year."
Every breath I took was a battle.
This world was full of people far greater than me, full of things beyond my control.
"I know how easy it is to compromise and live comfortably. But if you don't fight for every moment as if your life depends on it, you will lose everything and be trampled into the mud. So I fought—against myself, against everything around me."
I knew better than anyone the despair of defeat. The wretched end that awaited those who gave up.
That's why I could never surrender.
"Have you ever lived like that?"
I raised my battered sword toward the cadets.
A training sword, now dull and bent.
"This—this is what struggle looks like."
And in the end, I seized victory with this ruined blade.
And I would continue to do so.
"You, who treat this as nothing more than child's play—"
Thunk!
I flung my sword forward.
The broken weapon landed heavily at their feet.
"In a place like this, you'll be devoured in no time."
…
Once the cadets had left, I leaned against the platform, trying to steady my breath.
'I overdid it a little.'
Even though I had used magic to heal myself the moment the duel ended, my body was still worn out from the strain.
Even after the unconscious Choi In-ha and the others had left, I remained seated on the platform.
'They're better than I expected.'
At first, I had been furious.
I had nearly regretted coming to Class 5.
But they weren't completely hopeless.
"You went too far."
A voice called out.
From a distance, Instructor Lee Jung-ho approached with a stern expression.
"You saw everything?"
"Yes. No matter how I thought about it, I couldn't just walk away."
It was a relief he hadn't tried to stop me.
Not that it would have changed anything.
"Four with fractures, three with internal injuries. Unlike you, those children weren't born with a blessed physique."
"If they want to survive in Seongmu Academy, they need to be able to laugh off wounds like that."
Lee Jung-ho simply stared at me in silence.
"They all have their own circumstances. In-ha, despite coming from Seungmu Orphanage, is an incredibly hard worker. Young-ha comes from a crumbling branch family—"
"Instructor Lee Jung-ho."
I cut him off.
"Do I really need to explain something the cadets themselves have already understood? To you, a supposed instructor?"
"…"
Lee Jung-ho's eyes trembled.
"Becoming an instructor at a young age, being passionate about your students—I respect that. There aren't many people like you in Seongmu Academy, and that makes you valuable. You're a good person."
But.
If Class 5 had fallen this far, it was Lee Jung-ho's duty to set them straight, even if it meant playing the villain.
"Do your job properly. These cadets aren't just from any random school. They are Seongmu Academy's cadets."
I had rested enough.
Slowly, I got up and headed for my room.
Lee Jung-ho remained silent, watching my retreating figure.
And as he did, he recalled a conversation from not long ago.
'So Jang-wook was right…'
—Jung-ho, if you've become an instructor at the academy, you'll likely cross paths with the youngest heir. Be careful. I saw the same fire in him as in the family head.
Jang-wook, from the Blood Tiger Squad. The man who had briefly overseen this year's naming ceremony training.
'Do my job properly, huh…'
Lee Jung-ho looked down at his open palm—then clenched it tightly.
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