As the first day had passed by, the second day of training for Damian had now finally begun. Only this time, severe bruising and soreness now enveloped his body as he tried to survive the morning training.

However, even under an incredibly uncomfortable aching, Damian seemed unexpectedly slow and lackluster as the training passed—so much so that someone besides him had started to take notice.

"Hey…are you ok?"

As Damian struggled to keep up in the morning running everyone had to do, a familiar figure spoke up, knocking him out of his stupor. Turning to the right as he jogged, he faced that same fidgety girl who had tried to help him up earlier after his duel against Valyn.

To Damian, she was someone he had always sort of ended up with during any of their instruction since they both tended to lag behind the others.

"...I'm doing alright. I'm in a lot of pain right now, but I haven't lost consciousness yet, so all good, I guess." Damian replied in a neutral tone.

"Oh…that's good?" The girl questioned.

'Well, can I really say it's been alright? What the hell was that noise in that empty library? Not to mention, what do the runes on my arm truly mean? Is there a deeper story to both my runes and everyone else's runes than that is known? Too many damn questions.'

"...Okay, I guess." the girl said, following Damian's uncomfortable silence.

Sighing lightly, Damian shrugged away the complications.

After their brief exchange, the two continued to jog at a relative pace of each other almost out of awkward politeness.

Unable to handle the silence any longer, Damian spoke aloud:

"...So what's your name?"

"It's Mika."

"That's cool…my name is Damian."

"..."

Unsure of what to say, the two remained quiet for the rest of the run.

***

At the end of their morning training, Damian felt somewhat conflicted with how he left their earlier interaction. Although he was neutral to the idea of making a few friends, he felt that as two struggling individuals, it would only be right for the weak to stick together.

Of course, he did deny her courtesy when she tried helping him up after his duel with Valyn, but now he almost regrets his actions since making any amount of companions will always be an upside to an extent.

Spotting her in the distance, he made his way over to her—signaling for her attention:

"Hey, Mika…if you're able to, would you wanna go get lunch with me and a friend of mine?" Damian asked, somewhat unsure if she would accept after yesterday's interaction.

"Uh…sure?" Mildly shocked at the invitation, Mika leisurely agreed.

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***

Sat at a table with Aricin and Mika, Damian scrunched his brow at the unexpected fourth guest sitting and eating their food with them.

"So…how did you two meet?" Damian asked, glancing at Yulie eating across from him.

"I'd like to ask you the same question as well. Since Yulie was assigned to the same group as me, we've talked a few times and eventually, she asked if she could join us for a meal." Aricin explained.

A little skeptical, Damian nodded:

"Makes sense I guess…Mika and I talked during the morning training and we're actually both in the same group too."

"Well, enough with the introductions. I'd like to ask about how you all somehow ended up at this boring outpost built out in the middle of nowhere." Aricin spoke up, attempting to engage the group.

The first to answer his question was Mika:

"It wasn't anything special, my family lives a modest life around the middle rings of the city and it's nice. Unfortunately, I couldn't make the cut for university, so…I got sent here."

"Yeah…sounds exactly like what I went through. It's pretty unfair that the requirements for getting into the safe and easy life are so high." Aricin sighed, somewhat bitter at their situation.

"I'm sorry, but what's going on exactly? I'm not too familiar with any of this." Damian inquired.

"It's just that, for any family that can afford it, they try to prepare their kids for an exam they are forced to take. The results dictate how easy one's life will be. If you pass, they send you to an inner-city school with better safety, opportunities, and education. From there, students can become wealthy businessmen or get government positions. Those who fail the requirements are sent to the outposts beyond the city where the environment is way harsher and standing out in the world becomes far more difficult." Aricin explained.

'Is that how the world works? Then I guess Mika and I sticking together as weak people would be pretty ironic if you consider that this whole outpost is a center for incompetent rejects—in the eyes of the city, we're all weak. But if we all suck, why the hell is Yulie here? Even that Valyn guy was pretty talented as much as I hate to admit it.'

"How do you not know this Damian? Did your family not tell you about this?" Mika asked, surprised at his lack of basic information.

"Family? No no, I have no family."

The three of them looked at him with a hint of pity.

Damian's eyes widened at their gazes before lightly shrugging.

"It's not a big deal or anything. I simply lived at an orphanage all my life until I was old enough to work and that was it—at least until I obtained runes, then everything changed and I suddenly ended up here."

Now that the three of them had spoken, everyone's eyes fell on the quiet girl with ashen hair.

Noticing their gazes, she calmly spoke.

"I'm here due to some family conflicts." Clearly not wanting to elaborate, Yulie ended her comment there.

In understanding, Aricin changed the subject swiftly. The four continued to talk before parting ways for training.

At the end of their conversation, Damian managed to learn quite a bit about the city and their lives, but throughout the break, his eyes always seemed to glance toward Yulie in curiosity. Something interesting was that her eyes actually held the same dashed glow as he had except she wasn't wearing contacts.

Another thing Damian was extremely curious about was what exactly her runes read like. Were they also some sort of cryptic storytelling, or something else?

***

Going through the day in a constant state of fatigue, Damian made his way to where he had his imprinted lessons with Kley and Yulie. Upon his arrival, he spotted Yulie sitting on the dirt training ground while holding a strange object.

Unable to withstand the curiosity, he decided to walk up to her and find out what the mysterious item in her hand was.

"Hey…can I ask what you're holding in your hand?" Damian asked, perplexed.

"It's just an artifact of mine." Yulie calmly glanced up from where she sat.

"Huh…neat," Damian commented.

'Must be a rich people thing.'

The small object looked to be some sort of sphere, but he couldn't really find anything particularly interesting about it. Unsure of what to make of the bizarre item, Damian changed the subject.

"Hey, not to be rude, but why did you wanna eat with me and Aricin today? From what I've heard, you aren't exactly someone who hangs out with others." Damian asked in interest.

"Kley asked me to get to know you since it's good to make connections with imprinted," Yulie replied—her indifferent eyes glued to the strange glowing device.

'So that was the reason.'

"By the way…if it's alright with you, could you teach me swordsmanship?"