The fight was over.

“Haah, it’s over……”

“I didn’t think we’d really catch the monster.”

Rina and Wolf were sitting on the ground at some point, taking rough deep breaths and savoring the sweetness of rest.

“We really won!”

“Yeah, it’s because Erika worked hard.”

“Hehe……”

Erika came running with bouncing steps, hugged me to her chest, and expressed her joy with a beaming smile.

“Ugh, it’s a bit tough……”

“You can rest now.”

“Yeah!”

While supporting Erika, who was sliding to the ground on wobbly legs, I rolled my eyes to scan the surroundings.

“Chirp, chirp──”

The sound of crickets that had been audible since some point when silence fell.

And the bright moonlight illuminating the forest full of such beautiful sounds.

The fight was over.

The beautiful scenery I hadn’t been aware of during the battle with the monster came into view, the tense muscles relaxed, and my heartbeat calmed down.

‘It’s peaceful.’

To the extent that it couldn’t be thought of as the space where blue blood had been splattered in the air and life-and-death struggles had occurred just moments ago. Although the air was clearly cold, my mood felt somehow refreshing…

The occasional gentle breeze tickling my nape and the sensation of my hair swaying and softly settling on the back of my hand gave me a tranquility I had never felt during the training.

“Haah.”

I sat with my legs stretched out and arms propped behind me, looking up at the night sky and savoring the forest atmosphere.

“Yena!”

“Hm?”

“Now about your cheek……”

“Ah.”

Then I encountered Erika approaching with big steps.

“Hehe……”

She blinked her sparkling eyes repeatedly.

She fidgeted with both hands.

And while doing so, she gradually closed the distance with me.

‘She didn’t forget.’

Rather, she remembered it too well.

Seeing her hands floating towards my face and her restless behavior as if she couldn’t hold back something, it was clear how much she had been waiting for this moment.

“Okay.”

“Re-Really!”

And I nodded willingly towards such an Erika.

‘A deal is a deal.’

Although I’m not particularly keen on it, what can I do? As it was a promise I made, I should keep it. I can’t damage the most important trust in human relationships by saying I don’t want my cheek to be touched, can I?

Thud─

But it wasn’t time to give the reward now.

“Huh?”

“No, not today but tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow…?”

“It’s still time to focus on survival training, and there’s a risk that monsters might appear again. I’ll let you touch after the training is over.”

I continued speaking while stopping Erika’s palm that was closing in.

We mustn’t lose the tension, as officer candidates we should show a serious attitude during training, so there’s no luxury to fool around here…

I gave many reasons, but in fact, there was only one.

‘I’d prefer if she touched in a cleaner state.’

Erika’s body was covered in bloodstains from the brawl with the monster, and of course, her hands on her upper body were no exception.

No, that area was the dirtiest.

Debris about the size of rice grains that seemed to have fallen from the monster’s body, hardened blue blood…

My brows furrowed.

Imagining that touching my skin.

When the training ends, time will be given to wash our bodies, and then we’ll be in a much cleaner state. If she absolutely must knead my face, that time would be somewhat better.

“Ah, ah……”

From an expression with sparkling eyes and twitching mouth corners, to a face with drooping shoulders and protruding lips,

“Rest now.”

“Okay……”

I left Erika behind and moved my steps.

Where to?

“Yena……”

“Tsk, why are you coming here?”

Towards where the rest of the team members were resting.

“You did well, Rina.”

Finally arriving, I encouraged Rina, who was looking at me with a dazed face, and patted her shoulder a couple of times.

‘She did give her best.’

Even though her mana was depleted and her whole body was enveloped in fatigue with a severe headache, she didn’t collapse until the end and kept illuminating the surroundings.

She deserved to be praised for her efforts.

No matter how well I commanded, if visibility had been completely blocked, wouldn’t everything have been meaningless?

Rina had helped make my command meaningful.

Whatever conflicts she might have had with me in the past, it was an unchanging fact that she had contributed sufficiently to the fight against the monster, and it was right to give her the corresponding praise.

“You did well too, Wolf.”

“Ha! I don’t want praise from the likes of you.”

Of course, Wolf’s case was different.

“If it weren’t for me, you’d have already collapsed.”

“……”

“Think of it as me specially stepping up because it’s team training. If it weren’t for Rina, I wouldn’t have helped at all.”

Is this what the epitome of an unlikable person is like?

Even when highly evaluating his skills, he goes beyond that to elevate his own merits by disparaging others, and judges based on the outdated notion of social status.

Indeed, he lived up to expectations.

‘I was pathetic for thinking well of him for a moment.’

I glared at Wolf with a look of contempt.

Still, seeing him identify and block the monster’s attacks with his naked eye, I thought that although his personality is trash, he does his best in situations that should be taken seriously…

But that was a complete miscalculation.

Wolf exceeded the limits of my thoughts.

‘Nobles are truly incomprehensible……’

Thinking about it, it had been like this since the past.

Even in the days when I was still enjoying this world as a virtual world rather than living it as reality, when I encountered nobles, most of them were trapped in pathetic ways of thinking.

Most of them clung to meaningless things like dignity based on bloodline or status even after the Great War ended and the political system of society was completely overturned.

Isn’t that why they failed?

Except for a very small number who read the future in times of upheaval and changed their mindset or responded accordingly, most paid for their karma and disappeared at some point.

‘Somehow these two seem to be of that type……’

I alternately gazed at them with interest,

“That’s enough now.”

Rina, who cut off Wolf’s words and mediated,

“Haha, I was just joking.”

And Wolf, who played it off with a brazen attitude, while stroking my cheek and jaw with one hand.

The very few nobles who survived to the end and maintained their authority, and the rest who declined, unable to read the world with their stupid heads,

Doesn’t Rina correspond to the former and Wolf to the latter? I don’t know about their parents, but at least these two remind me of the types of nobles representing society.

It was quite interesting to observe.

“Yena.”

“Hm?”

“Did you really learn from your father?”

As I was silently looking around at Wolf and Rina like that, I ended my thoughts, removing my hand from my chin at the sudden question.

“Yeah, because he was a mage officer.”

“Hmm……”

And I looked down at Rina, the recipient of the question, who had an expression of obvious concern, biting her lips and shaking her eyes vigorously.

Although the fierce battle had come to an end, wrinkles still abounded on her forehead. She watched me with a face that seemed to have deepened in internal conflict rather than before.

‘Is she doubting?’

It certainly is a situation to be suspicious about. But considering Rina’s behavior so far, she doesn’t seem that perceptive, does she?

“Is there a problem?”

The surest way is to hear the answer directly from her.

“Speak comfortably.”

I opened my mouth, spreading my arms wide.

“You wouldn’t have received separate command training, so if you’re really a cadet…… Um, it’s nothing. Just…… I asked because your command skills weren’t bad.”

However, I couldn’t resolve my curiosity in the end.

“Is that why you spoke?”

“……Yes.”

“No other questions?”

“I don’t have anything particularly curious. Even if I did, I can ask later as we promised…… Isn’t focusing on training the top priority right now?”

Because Rina didn’t open her mouth anymore.

“But earlier……”

“I think it’s about time we should move, so shall we get up? Why don’t you go bring your friend quickly?”

I tried to ask again at Rina’s apparent attempt to forcefully end the conversation, but Wolf suddenly stepped in and cut off my words, ending it, so I couldn’t resolve my doubts in the end.

“Hmm, let’s do that.”

I straightened my bent waist at Wolf’s words.

‘I can ask later as Rina said.’

Isn’t there plenty of time? There was no need to drag out the conversation right now when the cold embracing our bodies and darkness enveloping the surroundings. As an aside, a quiet anger did rise against Wolf.

“Then you go to the clearing first. I’ll follow with Erika. Let’s set that place as our lodging from earlier.”

“Alright.”

Only after hearing Rina’s affirmation did I move my body.

‘He’s really grating on my nerves.’

I can tolerate everything else, but I absolutely can’t forgive someone interrupting my words… Indeed, I shouldn’t show mercy or forgiveness to Wolf.

Crunch─!

Clenching my fist and licking my lips.

“Erika, let’s go!”

“Yeah!”

I took a step.

---

The end of the training approaches.

When this night passes, the long schedule will end.

“Hmm, hmm, hmm……”

But Serti fretted, holding his forehead with his hand. The end of survival training meant that they had finally completed the education without any issues, which should be cause for joy, but he frowned.

‘Why can’t I sleep like this?’

Because time wasn’t passing.

Usually, drinking a glass of vodka and closing his eyes was enough for time to pass well. Today, unlike usual, he had even drunk three glasses of vodka.

But sleep wouldn’t come.

Although his body was tired, his mind was clear.

“Hmm!”

Unable to bear the sleep that just wouldn’t come, Serti finally opened his eyes.

Thud, gulp gulp─!

Then he grabbed the water jug placed on one side of the desk, poured it into the glass with vodka residue, and downed it.

With the mind thus awakened,

“Bring in the chief researcher!”

-Ye-Yes. Understood!

He immediately shouted into the intercom placed on the desk.

‘There’s been no news at all.’

How could he be calm when he had just sent the armored monster to the training ground? He wanted to hear at least some simple news about how things turned out with Yena’s team.

Only then did it seem his eyes would close.

The person he just called was also the man who visited the office in the evening, for that reason. He was the chief researcher in charge of overseeing the armored monster.

“It should be about time for news to come……”

Isn’t it past midnight now? No matter how long the battle dragged on, it shouldn’t exceed three hours, right? In the end, a conclusion must have already been reached, so it was a situation where he just had to wait for the chief researcher’s answer.

‘Surely they didn’t run away.’

Serti looked anxiously beyond the solid door, towards the corridor where the chief researcher would be coming, just in case.

What if it turns out there was nothing special? What if Yena’s team had trembled at the majesty of the armored monster and fled?

“It would be heartbreaking……”

It was clear he would feel like a child waiting for Santa who finally receives the gift box and unwraps it, only to find a chemistry textbook instead of the toy they were expecting.

In fact, he could have forced them to confront each other.

But he didn’t do that.

‘If it were other children, it might be different.’

A child from the Streman family that rules the Empire and a former princess who had served as such, that team had people that even the Federation’s research director would be hesitant to touch.

It would have been different for other children.

Even if they lost their lives, they would just be ordinary commoners or noble families at best, and would have been buried naturally as it had been in the past.

But Rina and Wolf.

Those two were different.

It was obvious that the Empire would investigate the circumstances, and if it were revealed that the armored monster was not an original specimen in the training ground but one I had brought in by my own arbitrary decision,

“Hmm.”

I’d be dragged to the gulag.

I hated that even at the cost of my life.

Above all, it’s true that I value research data, but isn’t my life even more important to preserve?

I must live.

Only then can I research.

Creak─

Just then, the door opened.

“Hmm, you’ve come?”

“I greet you, Director Comrade!”

Serti gestured to the researcher who was saluting with big steps.

“How did it go?”

“Th-That……”

He didn’t bother with formalities like saying the angle of greeting was insincere or that it had been a full 2 minutes since the intercom message was relayed.

The only thing he wanted to hear now was the answer to his question.

“The, the armored……”

That’s why he was shocked.

“What?”

“Th-The armored monster has been eliminated!”

Because the words of the man he had been anticipating so eagerly,

Contained unbelievable content.