"From now on, we will proceed with sparring using the magic techniques personally taught by the Elder. Everyone, find a partner."
As I stood still, Choi In-ha approached, clapping the dust off his hands. His aura flared as if he were facing a lifelong enemy.
"I won't go easy on you."
"Glad to hear it. I'll let you take the first move."
"Haaap!"
Gone was the gentle personality he'd shown before. Choi In-ha charged forward aggressively.
I blocked and evaded all of his attacks while landing my own strikes with precision.
"Damn it!"
Frustrated, he suddenly lunged at me and swung his fist.
Whoosh—!
A half-beat faster than before, his punch tore through the air.
I barely managed to block it in time.
"…That one was good."
"Huff… huff…"
Breathing heavily, Choi In-ha furrowed his brows.
"How long… are you going to keep looking down on me like that…? Let's see."
He rushed in again.
Arrogant, but I actually found it satisfying.
The gap in our abilities was undeniable. Yet, rather than giving up, Choi In-ha was focused solely on finding a way to win.
Had this been when we first met, he would have immediately backed down after realizing the difference between us.
'Among the cadets here, he's one of the more capable ones. But in the grand scheme of things, his talent is… just average.'
Choi In-ha's talent wasn't bad, but it wasn't outstanding either.
Over the past few weeks, he had improved rapidly. However, his growth was more striking in areas beyond raw combat ability.
His mindset had changed.
They say the eyes are the window to the soul.
The burning determination in Choi In-ha's gaze surpassed even some of the top-tier students.
The resolve and transformation he showed that day had continued even now, weeks later.
While many cadets still harbored resentment and resisted my authority, Choi In-ha had fully committed to improving himself—and he was succeeding.
"Take this seriously!"
I had been holding back, but now he was yelling at me for it.
Choi In-ha stepped forward heavily.
He swung a spinning kick infused with magic.
'It's a feint.'
Sure enough, instead of following through with the kick, he planted his foot and dove in for a tackle.
I caught him in a headlock and dropped to the ground.
A simple but effective grappling technique.
"Guh… kuh!"
Choi In-ha groaned, flailing his arms.
After struggling for a while, he tapped on my arm.
"Ngh… I… I lost."
I released him and stood up.
He gritted his teeth in frustration.
Even that expression pleased me.
The training continued without pause.
One by one, the cadets rotated through their sparring matches.
I surveyed the training grounds.
'They've changed. They really have…'
The atmosphere of the duels was intense.
It was hard to believe these were just children who hadn't even reached adulthood yet.
Even if Class 5 was called the "trash heap," the cadet academy of the Soongmuiga family was still an elite institution.
'But some of them still don't get it.'
Most had improved, but a few remained stubborn.
"…I'm next."
A cadet with a perpetual scowl stepped in front of me.
One of the more resentful ones—his name was Kim Bo-sung, if I remembered correctly.
He had always been half-hearted in training.
"…I don't like you."
"I never asked you to."
"You were born lucky, with the right bloodline. From the very start, we're on different levels. You can act like this because you were gifted at birth… but we're not like you."
"Bloodline? Starting points?"
I scoffed.
Did he have any idea what it meant to be a bastard son in the Soongmuiga family?
"Shut up and fight."
I curled my finger, motioning him forward.
***
Even after her lecture ended, Lee Kyung-hwa lingered near the Class 5 training ground.
'Should I watch my little one for a bit?'
She hid in the shadows, avoiding her nephew's gaze so he wouldn't scold her for slacking off.
'Wow, my baby is ruthless!'
Just then, she watched as Lee Cheol struck his opponent's vital points after knocking them down.
He had restricted his magic usage to an appropriate level, but there was no hesitation in his movements.
'Reminds me of myself back in the day.'
Her eyes darkened with nostalgia.
These days, brutal training methods had fallen out of favor, but to her, this level of rigor seemed perfectly appropriate.
Back in her cadet days, the academy had been run by hardened veterans of the Great War.
Their training wasn't based on efficiency or structured plans—it was all about raw survival and desperation.
"…I really can't stand that bastard."
Then, a sneering voice reached her ears.
"Even if he's a bastard son, he's still different from us. His physique, his abilities… he must have awakened his powers already. He started ahead of us from the beginning."
"Yeah. We've been working hard too, but what would he know? A direct descendant could never understand the struggles of those who have nothing."
Lee Kyung-hwa's eyes narrowed.
"I knew it from the moment that guy, who started from a completely different point, began spouting outdated ideology. A spoiled rich kid like him…"
Feeling dumbfounded, Lee Kyunghwa stared blankly between the trainees and the training ground.
Then, she approached them.
"Hey, kids?"
"Gasp! M-Madam—! Ah, you're still here?"
"Those words just now… You weren't talking about my little one—no, my student, were you?"
The trainees had no idea how to respond.
After all, the person standing before them was a direct elder of the Soongmu family. And they had just been badmouthing Lee Cheol, who, although illegitimate, was still a direct descendant.
On top of that…
'Her e-expression…'
They had thought of her as a cheerful and friendly elder, but at this moment, her face was radiating an icy chill.
"S-Sorry…"
"Speak up."
"W-Well… We're sorry. We just spoke a bit harshly. Please forgive us!"
So they really were talking about Lee Cheol.
Unbelievable.
How could they say such things—especially to Lee Cheol, of all people?
"What do you know to say such things to that child?"
Lee Kyunghwa clenched her fist tightly.
She didn't even know why she was getting this angry.
She wasn't ignorant of the fact that their words were ultimately meaningless.
She had heard such things countless times herself when she was a trainee.
People like them always existed everywhere. No matter how much you showed them or explained to them, they never believed it.
She knew the best way to handle it was to ignore them.
Yet, despite knowing that, she found herself speaking anyway.
At her reprimand, one of the trainees scowled.
"Young master… doesn't really understand either, does he? We've worked incredibly hard too. But every time, he treats us like we're nothing."
It was Kim Boseong—the trainee who had just been injured during training.
"Isn't it only natural that we're different? We grew up in different environments, after all."
Was it just teenage rebellion? Or perhaps resistance to the changing atmosphere of the class?
Kim Boseong blurted those words out, but soon realized that he had crossed the line.
He was merely the son of a weak vassal family, yet he had just talked back to a direct elder.
He tensed up, expecting to be scolded any second now.
However, what Lee Kyunghwa said next was not a reprimand.
"You really don't know, do you?"
"Huh?"
"Well, perhaps it's better that way. If you knew just how different that child's day is from yours, you'd realize that your lives are nothing more than child's play in comparison."
Child's play.
It was a phrase that the youngest illegitimate son often used.
Hearing it again, Kim Boseong and the other trainees' expressions contorted.
'What the hell… What makes that bastard so different…?'
Kim Boseong clenched his fist tightly.
'Fine. Let's see for ourselves.'
His defiance finally reached its limit.
Kim Boseong started watching Lee Cheol closely—even during regular training hours and while Lee Cheol was instructing the other trainees in additional drills.
After all the training sessions ended, Lee Cheol sat down, gasping for breath.
'See? He's no different. He keeps talking about struggle and effort, but in the end, it's just because he was born different from us.'
Kim Boseong planned to follow him after training.
If someone who claimed to live a life of struggle ended up living no differently from them, it would be the most laughable thing ever.
He gathered a few trainees to accompany him—he needed witnesses to prove his point.
"But… is this okay? Wandering around the main house's grounds like this…"
"We're still trainees, so it's fine. Besides, we're not going anywhere dangerous. That bastard doesn't even live in the direct family's residence."
"Yeah. How long are we just going to let that direct descendant push us around?"
"I never liked him from the start. Let's see for ourselves and confront him about it."
Thus, a group of trainees began secretly tailing Lee Cheol.
As soon as training ended, Lee Cheol started walking somewhere.
It was the research institute.
'…Well, I guess it makes sense. That elder did say she was his teacher, so maybe he's training there or something?'
The trainees loitered nearby, pretending to do other things as they waited for him to come out.
One hour passed. Then two.
'It's already nine o'clock…?'
Some of the trainees, exhausted from training, were starting to doze off against the walls.
"Ugh, Boseong, I'm heading back. I'm too tired from today's training. Who knows how long that guy's gonna stay in there? We still have training tomorrow…"
One by one, they began leaving.
Another hour passed.
At 10:15 PM, Lee Cheol finally exited the research institute.
The once-confident young man now had slumped shoulders, his face worn with exhaustion.
"Haa… Let's keep going…"
Lee Cheol muttered those words and then headed somewhere once again.
'Finally going home. But so what? It won't be anything special.'
But he was wrong.
Lee Cheol wasn't heading toward the residential area but to the training grounds reserved for direct lineage members.
There was no way they could follow him in there.
In the silence of the midnight training grounds, the sound of relentless training echoed loudly, audible even from a distance.
"Graaah! Huff! Huff!"
They couldn't see what was happening, but Lee Cheol was letting out cries that were almost screams as he swung something powerfully.
Another two hours passed, and the date changed.
Some of the exhausted cadets finally gave up and returned home.
"Boseong, that illeg—no, the young master is seriously amazing."
One of the cadets who had followed them clenched his teeth in embarrassment.
"Let's stop this. He didn't even say anything wrong. We should work hard like him…"
"…I never skip personal training either. There's no difference."
Kim Boseong clenched his fists.
When Lee Cheol finally emerged from the training grounds, his body was in shambles.
His entire body was drenched as if he had taken a shower, and his legs wobbled unsteadily with exhaustion.
'Just… what…?'
At last, Lee Cheol returned to his quarters. They nearly got caught a few times, but by keeping their distance, they managed to avoid detection.
"Hey, you there! Who is it?"
They were caught a few times by patrolling warriors, but after showing their cadet uniforms and explaining that they were following Lee Cheol, they were let off.
"The young master does wander around at night every day… but I didn't expect him to have cadets trailing after him."
Every day.
That phrase lodged in Kim Boseong's mind like a thorn.
"Ah, well, we had something to take care of…"
"Normally, this would be considered a violation. Go back at once."
Despite the reprimand, the cadets continued to tail Lee Cheol.
After leaving the training grounds, Lee Cheol finally entered his room.
It was already 1 a.m.
By then, not a single cadet remained.
Kim Boseong alone remained, gazing up at Lee Cheol's room.
'The lights… aren't turning off.'
There was no sign of the lights dimming.
He couldn't see exactly what was happening inside, but a woman, likely a nanny, was seen carrying books back and forth. Perhaps he was studying.
Another hour passed.
"..."
Despite his exhaustion, Kim Boseong forced himself to keep looking at the window, where the light refused to fade.
He still heard the sound of memorization and the turning of pages.
"…Let's go back."
Forcing himself to take heavy steps, Kim Boseong finally turned away, casting one last glance at the only illuminated room in the darkened world.
***
The cadet dormitory was entirely self-regulated, meaning there were no instructors to wake them up.
Perhaps due to the lack of sleep, his eyes ached as if they were going to pop out.
Dragging his heavy body outside, Kim Boseong once again spotted Lee Cheol, who had come out even earlier than him.
Maybe it was because of what he had seen last night.
The side of Lee Cheol he had never noticed before—the exhaustion, the hidden struggles—became visible to him.
'He's tired.'
Even if he was born with the superior physique and deep magical reserves of the direct lineage of the Soongmu family, could he really function normally on just three or four hours of sleep at the age of thirteen?
'Why? He's a direct descendant of Soongmu.'
What about himself?
After returning from cadet training, he would rest, watch TV, or play games.
He often did personal training too, but he also made sure to get enough sleep, rest, and entertainment.
'Why… why does he go that far? He has no life outside of this.'
He was confused.
Before he knew it, Kim Boseong was standing right in front of Lee Cheol.
"What is it?"
He had no idea what to say.
"If there's nothing, get ready. The instructor will be here soon."
"…Aren't you tired?"
Kim Boseong blurted it out.
Lee Cheol frowned for a moment before his eyes gleamed as if he had realized something.
"You were one of the ones following me, weren't you?"
He knew?
That wasn't important right now.
"B-But you're from the direct lineage, so you have support, and your starting point is different, and…"
A jumble of words tumbled out in a mess.
Lee Cheol, with an indifferent expression, said,
"I've lived like this since I was young. Before I entered the cadet academy, I used to get a little more sleep. Do you think I wouldn't be tired after sleeping so little?"
"Then why do you go that far?"
His life was too harsh, too devoid of warmth. Why did he have to live like that since childhood?
"You already know the answer."
Just then, the instructor, Lee Jeongho, stepped up onto the inspection platform.
Kim Boseong stared blankly for a moment before clenching his teeth.
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