Chapter 14 - Start of Hero Training

With the arrival of a new dawn, the Summoned Heroes began their day with an unarguably delectable feast.

Juicy meat burst with an eruption of addictive flavour the moment they sunk their teeth in, fluffy bread whose warmth spread throughout their bodies, and much more.

Compared to other, certain individuals forced to fend for themselves in the lawless wilderness outside the palace walls while scavenging like a vulture for remains, it was undeniably plain sailing for the students, with not much to complain about overall.

Today was the third day since arriving in this world; yet another day of gradual adaptation with high tensions.

Many of them, harbouring some kind of homesickness internally, felt the desire to return home burn ever stronger. Like a continuously growing flicker of flame in their hearts, it became more of a challenge than anticipated to get used to the circumstances.

Those who had families to miss, pets or younger siblings to look after, or those who held dreams and aspirations for their future on Earth―all such visions of an ordinary life were squashed and effaced out of the blue, leading them to feel lost and without a cause.

However, the reason they were brought here in the first place was for a cause, was it not?

With the explanation of the princess fresh in their minds, they each knew of the position and duty abruptly forced upon them.

Whether they liked it or not, they would have no choice but to follow along with the sole cause; the responsibility that came with the title of Hero.

As a result, division naturally occurred within the class.

Those who accepted the new face they represented and who resolved to fight for the duty they were summoned to fulfil.

Those who opposed the preposterous obligation forced upon them; unwilling Heroes who resisted the temptations of the kingdom.

And then, those who stood on neither side of the fence. Those who didn't know what to do, what they wanted, or what the right choice was, and as a result, failed to come to a conclusion.

In the end, whatever side they felt they resonated with, nobody had an eternity to decide.

Time wasn’t everlasting, and there too would come a day when they would be faced with no choice but to change.

No matter what stance anyone took on the matter of being Heroes.

No matter what premature decision anyone had come to.

All they could do was sheepishly follow along until that time came.

The time to make an irreversible choice.

----------------------------------------

Third day of life in the royal palace.

Roughly forty-five minutes had passed since the students were rudely awakened by the resounding palace bell and recovered their mood by eating breakfast.

“Greetings, all.”

A knight with silky scarlet hair stood before the class with a stern expression adorning her face.

“I’m Camilla, the Royal Knight Order’s Third Division Captain. You may call me Captain.”

She was familiar to those paying attention on the first day, and even more so to those who noticed her brief presence during the start of the ranking ceremony the day before.

“Today, we will begin your physical training.”

With a strange tone that was simultaneously gentle yet austere, she spoke to the class with crossed arms.

“First of all, you must be anxious about experiencing real combat for the first time in your cradled lives. But, rest assured. It’s not like we’ll be sending you to the front lines any time soon, so you may raise your heads and erase those gloomy looks.”

They wouldn’t be fighting on the front lines?

What made her words the least bit trustworthy was the addition of ‘any time soon’.

Those who trusted in the kingdom smiled at her words and attitude, but anyone who was sceptical could only hope that what she was saying was the truth.

“As the first days are merely to educate your weak selves, we’ll be covering the basics of how to properly move your body.”

“You are not going to be killing anything for the time being, so forget about combat for now.”

Her words stung coldly into their consciences and hearts.

It was a rather frightening string of words to be told as kids of the modern age, but they all understood the distinct concepts and values this world held contrary to their own.

That, too, was something important they would have to adapt to.

Perhaps, more so than anything else.

“Before you can even think about touching a weapon, we will shape your bodies into those worthy of wielding one. Start by stretching; my knights here will assist you should you require it.”

Everyone already wore clothes bestowed to them that were more flexible and easier to move around in than their school uniforms while also enabling healthy perspiration. Thus, there was no need to change and they were able to get right into it.

They began the training with energy and excitement, but perhaps such naive enthusiasm turned out to be a mistake.

For what they were quickly faced with, was nothing but pain and despair.

“You there! You’re too lax, keep stretching! Yes, like that! Good! And you! That is the wrong posture for that exercise! Yes, that's better! Ah, you, that’s going a little bit too far! Don't push yourselves too far! Oh, but don't take that as an excuse to relax! Hey!”

They viewed it as similar to their physical education classes at first, but as time dragged on, they began to feel the pain of authentic physical training.

It wasn’t something meant for ordinary 16-year-olds.

Snap-!

“Agh, god...! My hamstring―I think it tore...!”

Thud-!

“Ahhh...!! Cramp! Ah! Cramp...! Help! Ow...! Help me!”

They couldn’t afford the consequences of slacking about when it came to the exercises as they could during school.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Stop whining! You're just stiff; keep moving!"

Camilla herself seemed to be getting into the role of instructor quite well, too.

“Haaaaahhh... I’m dying... My back... It's broken...”

Following an entire hour of such stretching and basic exercises to 'warm their bodies up', many students paled at the thought they weren't even a third of the way done, but distracted themselves by noticing something particularly distressing.

“Uhm, excuse me, Captain! My stats are exactly the same as before... Shouldn’t I have at least gotten some increase in Dexterity or something after all of that?”

Of course.

“Hm? You seem to be mistaken.”

Regrettably, the answer was a big fat ‘no’.

“Training your body does not influence your Status; they are separate matters. Status attributes merely enhance an individual’s level of physical power with the body as the base; they do not magically make your physical body any stronger than a normal person.”

There were some who still didn’t understand, so while they were taking a short break, Camilla explained it like so.

“For example, imagine that Person A and Person B both have a Strength value of 50. Both are given an equal time of 100 years to train and Person A started rolling a boulder up a mountain every single day for those 100 years while Person B lazed around all day and did no training during that time. Despite both people having a Strength of 50, who do you think will be stronger in the end?”

If one person did physical training for a hundred years and another person did no training for the same length of time.

Even if they both had the same value of Strength, they couldn’t possibly be equals in reality.

Naturally, the answer would be Sisyphus-- er, Person A.

“Just because there is no visible increase in attribute value does not mean a person’s body isn’t growing.”

Put another way, although the process is a lot slower and more painful, it was still just like increasing the attribute number―it simply didn’t have a numerical value attached to it.

"Physical training will always help to strengthen your body, no matter the values of your Status."

Growth without an overreliance on status values.

In this way, the students were able to quickly understand the importance of physical training.

Although it was surprising for the students to hear that the people who lived in a world where the existence of a Status System was common sense didn’t overly rely on its convenience, it was something they had to accept as well.

"But Ma'am, this is too painful. Why can't we just raise our Status numbers? It's so much faster and easier, isn't it?

When asked about this by one of the students, Camilla turned to them and replied with a slightly darkened expression.

“That is because... Hyperfocusing on any one aspect of training will never yield ‘sufficient’ results in the eye of that person. It is only with a balance that you can grow healthily and with stability. Furthermore, the quick and easy route is often not the most desirable, for various reasons.”

So, they would undergo the training whether they liked it or not.

Even those who never intended to pick up a weapon in the first place and those whose meek talents wouldn't allow for participation in combat were still required to train their bodies.

Thus, the students went through a series of strenuous physical training exercises not even a Spartan would enjoy.

How long would they have to endure? There was no sign of the end in sight.

It was only the first day and they already wanted to give up.

It would be hell, but at the end of the day, they knew.

In a world like this.

In a world where training like this was commonplace, perhaps even a necessity.

Seeds of apprehension were sowed within their hearts.

If it was truly necessary?

That only made them feel worse.

A faint fear of what required such intense training to face began to surface.

----------------------------------------

During lunch, the recently dubbed “Kickass Party” held a rendezvous in Ryan’s room to discuss things.

“Aight. Kickass Goon #2, it’s time. Tell me what’cha got.”

Scratching his head, Nicolas Baum, aka ‘Kickass Goon #2’, protested.

“Can we do something about the names?”

“Why, what’s wrong with it?”

“I don’t like being called Kickass Goon #2, that's what's wrong with it.”

"......"

A moment of silence passed with the two's faces unflinching.

“It ain’t wrong, though. You’re the second goon of the Kickass Party, so Kickass Goon #2 makes sense.”

“...Kaitlyn, can you help me out?”

Turning his head to her, Nicolas felt ready to beg on his hands and knees if he needed to.

Unfortunately, the person in question only averted her gaze with an awkward half-smile.

“I... I don’t know if there’s anything I can do... Sorry...”

“......”

His face paused as he stared at her, horrified.

“Ah. Oi. That’s Kickass Goon #1 to you. Never forget.”

“......”

“Eh? What?”

“You know what? Nicolas, I apologise. I misspoke. Ryan, we need to have a chat about these names.”

Hearing her stern voice come out yet again, the person in question rolled his eyes and waved his hand at her.

“Ugh, fine, fine. I’ll stop messin’ around, so save it for later. Anyway, you get what I asked for?”

Now that things had moved on to actual business, Nicolas heaved a breath of relief and raised the corner of his mouth at Ryan's question. Taking out a few papers from a satchel bag he had previously requested and handing them over, he gave an explanation of what he had found while Ryan roughly scanned through them.

“Last night, I tried investigating the knight, physician and apprentice healer who Jae supposedly attacked when he escaped, but I’m still not entirely sure about the whole thing since there is a lot of conflicting evidence. What I saw when I went there myself was the three of them all resting in the infirmary, unscathed.”

He mentioned the three didn't appear to be injured in any way, but in a world where even restoring lost limbs with magic wasn't an impossibility, could something like that even be considered suspicious?

There was no conclusive evidence either way, so it was hard to tell what the truth of the matter was at the moment regarding those three.

“I see...” Ryan muttered with a hand to his mouth. His gaze was glued to the papers Nicolas handed him.

“If they were attacked, they would’ve been healed, so no wonder there were no injuries. Though, that snake only said the knight was knocked out. Once he woke up he should've been fine, so what point is there in havin’ him rest still?”

If he was, as Nicolas said, unscathed, then whether he was actually injured or not shouldn't matter.

A royal knight―he should've been a guy with a high level of endurance and toughness, so hearing that someone like that was still resting in the infirmary after an entire day had passed was undoubtedly odd.

He knew the truth could only be one of two things:

Either that the princess’ story was true, or the whole thing was a cover-up.

Ryan could only see the whole situation as the latter, but he knew it was more important to take his own biases into consideration when looking at the facts, so he tried not to base a judgment on inconclusive evidence.

“Basically, I wasn’t sure how to conclude it, so I actually went around again early this morning and managed to find a couple of things. Since the princess said the royal knights were the ones who caught him, I decided to check the barracks and knights' quarters out for a bit and overheard some of them among the Fourth Division mention ‘the deserter’.”

Deserter.

There was always the possibility they were talking about a renegade soldier or knight who had genuinely fled from the kingdom’s forces for whatever reason, but considering the circumstances, they found it to be an unlikely coincidence.

“I didn’t hear much about it since it seemed to be a taboo topic to discuss, but I transcribed everything I heard on the second paper there, so you can take a look if you want.”

Rustle.

Flipping to the second page, Ryan scanned through and nodded.

“I’ll check it out later. Anythin’ else?”

“Yes. Actually, one place I didn’t expect to find anything in but checked out anyway was Jae’s room.”

For the first time since being handed the papers, Ryan’s eyes flickered to Nicolas.

“Go on.”

He was immediately intrigued.

Jae's room.

It should've been a place with no evidence since he attempted to flee before the class had even been here for a day, but the mere fact Nicolas was now mentioning it had to be because he indeed found something there.

Not just Ryan, but Kaitlyn also peeled her ears with an expression of piqued curiosity.

“So, I did find something underneath a stack of paper on the room’s desk. It looked like Jae was trying to hide it in plain sight as there weren't many other places to throw it away without it being quickly found.”

Reaching into his bag again, Nicolas pulled out a folded sheet of paper as he spoke.

“Fortunately, it looks like I was early enough that the knights hadn’t been able to clear it out yet, or maybe they had but didn't find this, but anyway take a look here.”

He unfolded the paper to reveal its scribbled contents, causing both Ryan and Kaitlyn's eyebrows to wriggle with perplexion.

Sitting like an ancient relic in Nicolas' hands.

"This is..."

Undeniably.

It was a map.