TSET ~ 07

Chapter ~ 07

The parade ground fell silent for a moment.

There was something peculiar about the atmosphere as Leonard stood straight, looking at the senior instructor, while the senior instructor met his gaze.

It was a situation in which one might expect the instructor to shout, “What an arrogant brat!” at any moment. However, the senior instructor was one of the three strongest people in the training camp. His experience was on an entirely different level from that of these youngsters.

Having trained thousands of members of the Cardenas family, his discerning eye could see through Leonard, at least to some extent.

‘This child isn’t arrogant, nor is he overflowing with confidence…’

Hundreds of students, not to mention the instructors and himself, were watching him, yet Leonard showed not the slightest sign of wavering.

He was simply still, like a mirror or a perfectly motionless body of water.

It reminded the senior instructor of the heads of Cardenas’s martial organizations—the kind of people who had reached the very pinnacle of strength and, precisely because they had reached that point, appeared almost ordinary.

But even the senior instructor could not bring himself to trust that instinct completely.

‘No, that’s taking it too far. In any case, there’s no doubt that this child exists on a completely different level from the blood relatives I’ve encountered until now.’

Senior Instructor Bruno stroked his mustache as he thought.

‘If I assign an instructor to watch over and protect him, there shouldn’t be any serious danger. We’ll also be able to see his potential. It should motivate the other students as well. He’s an excellent variable to have.’

A person raised like a greenhouse flower could never become truly strong.

The real world—and a genuine battlefield—was a place where someone could possess tremendous physical abilities and an enormous amount of aura, yet still be brought down by someone weaker.

The ability to control variables that might work either for or against you was essential.

This outdoor training existed for precisely that reason: to break the framework of children who had only mastered textbook fundamentals.

Having finally reached his conclusion, Bruno opened his mouth.

“Fine!”

The instructors and trainees alike stared at him in surprise.

Only Leonard seemed to have expected this response.

“If you were arrogant, I would have injured you and assigned you to a random group. If you were merely overconfident, I would have dropped you in the deepest part of the forest. But you’re neither!”

Of course he wasn’t.

This was merely survival training in an artificial forest, with no particularly dangerous monsters or poisonous creatures capable of seriously threatening the children.

The North Sea, where hundreds of li stretched out as nothing but an endless snowy wasteland.

The Poison Mountain of the Southern Barbarians, where even members of the Sichuan Tang Clan couldn’t survive without poison-repelling beads.

The Scorching Desert, which was practically a natural fortress protecting the martial world beyond the borders.

The Sword Emperor, Yeon Mu-hyeok, had broken through all of them without ever falling or being broken.

This situation simply wasn’t enough to make him arrogant or otherwise.

‘Having a slightly younger body isn’t enough to erase that kind of experience.’

In the end, Leonard became the entirety of Group 6 by himself, and throughout the march toward the forest, he drew the attention of every trainee.

No. 1 was visibly irritated at seeing Leonard receive even more attention than himself.

No. 2 watched the spectacle with a smile.

Even while directing the children in her group, No. 3 and No. 4 continued sneaking glances toward him.

Thanks to his sensitive senses, Leonard could feel all those gazes.

He let out a long sigh.

‘Hopefully they won’t bother me once we’re inside the forest.’

It was a genuinely modest wish.

“This is the entrance to the forest!”

The children finally arrived at the forest where the outdoor training would take place after marching for nearly an hour.

Leonard rarely found himself overwhelmed, but after catching a glimpse of just how vast the Cardenas estate was, he was genuinely taken aback.

At this scale, even the imperial palace of the Central Plains would seem like the mansion of a wealthy provincial family compared to the Cardenas estate.

The number of buildings and people Leonard had vaguely seen on the way here alone was enormous.

Among them were even several powerful individuals whom the Sword Emperor Yeon Mu-hyeok of his previous life could not have afforded to ignore.

‘No wonder they’re called the strongest sword family on the continent.’

His competitive spirit kept boiling over, disturbing his usual composure.

Hoo.

A rough breath escaped his lips, carrying a smoldering fighting spirit.

However, the people who saw it interpreted it somewhat differently.

“…He only wavered a little after coming face-to-face with the forest. Perhaps a child really is still a child?”

“He has spent his entire life inside the estate. He may have acquired his knowledge from books or stories he heard from others, but applying that knowledge in actual combat is an entirely different matter.”

Senior Instructor Bruno and Gerard exchanged words.

“But he’s still remarkably bold. There are even a few instructors who failed to notice that he wavered.”

“He’s a completely different person from the one he was before visiting the infirmary. It seems the Owls even checked whether he was a spy.”

At those words, Bruno’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“And?”

“Clean. Not a single stain.”

“That’s a relief. I won’t have to cut down a child with my own hands.”

“We’ve been even more thorough about identifying them ever since five years ago.”

Five years ago, several collateral descendants whom Cardenas had not been paying much attention to were recruited by foreign powers, and their children were sent into Cardenas as spies.

Naturally, the outcome had been disastrous.

There was no way such an act could go undetected inside Cardenas, a place comparable to a dragon’s lair or a tiger’s den.

Through the children, the knights uncovered their parents and everyone behind them, and blood was spilled mercilessly.

Even the children who had become involved in what was essentially an act of treason could not escape responsibility.

“I don’t want to talk about that day anymore.”

Bruno shook his head several times before turning his gaze away.

He looked toward the distant sky and gave an order.

“The sun will set in another three hours. Let’s get all the children inside before then.”

“Understood.”

Gerard gave a slight bow before leaping onto the platform in front of where the children had gathered.

“Attention!”

His booming voice immediately focused the trainees.

“From this moment on, each group will receive camping equipment and instructions under the guidance of its leader. You will enter the forest in order from the smallest group to the largest! Group 6, being the smallest, will enter first, fifteen minutes from now! Understood?”

“““Yes, Instructor!”””

The reason for sending the smaller groups in first was simple.

The larger the group, the more resources and territory it could occupy.

So they were being given a chance to claim some territory first.

That advantage, however, was by no means absolute.

“Inside this forest, you are permitted to fight trainees from other groups and take their resources or badges! If you submit those badges to an instructor stationed at the designated locations, you will receive points that can be exchanged for food or equipment! Naturally, the higher the number on the badge, the more points you will receive!”

The rule was clearly designed to encourage the trainees to compete for one another’s resources.

The moment they heard it, the expressions of the group leaders changed.

At first glance, Group 1 had the advantage because of its large numbers.

But the reverse was also true: they had more badges and points that could potentially be stolen.

There were no rules prohibiting alliances or cooperation between groups, either.

They could eliminate their most dangerous opponents first and then determine who was superior afterward.

“Hmph! Let the weak ones band together as much as they want. I’ll be the one who wins!”

Absolute confidence—the kind that came from believing he could defeat all three of them even if he had to face them simultaneously.

No. 1 glared at No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 in turn without averting his eyes once.

None of the three group leaders showed the slightest fear as they met his gaze.

Only Group 5 held its breath, afraid of provoking any of them.

After all, they had no higher-ranked number who could serve as their focal point, so becoming prey was practically inevitable.

‘They’re giving us quite a lot of supplies for survival training. Perhaps surviving in the wilderness is merely a secondary element, and the real objective is having the trainees fight one another.’

Regardless, Leonard was busy unpacking the camping supplies he had received and sorting them into things he would and wouldn’t use.

He had no need for something like a one-person tent.

“No. 25, aren’t you going to use the tent?”

“Yes.”

“…You’ll have to bear the consequences of your own judgment.”

“Of course.”

An instructor who had been watching Leonard sort through his equipment tried to intervene, but Leonard’s firm attitude left him with no choice but to back down.

Leonard removed nearly half of the contents from the backpack he had initially received before finally stopping.

He kept essential items such as emergency medicine and flint, while removing almost everything else, leaving behind only one or two portions of perishable food and heavy tools.

‘This should be manageable to carry.’

There were some other items that could have been useful, but he had made his decision based on his current physique.

No matter how extraordinary the Cardenas bloodline was, greedily overloading this body would create problems later.

Too much is as bad as too little.

Anything else he needed could simply be obtained somehow inside the forest.

That was when—

“May I speak with you for a moment?”

A boy who had deliberately made his presence known behind Leonard spoke with a smile.

It was No. 4.

Unlike No. 1 and No. 2, his appearance was almost ordinary.

Neither particularly handsome nor ugly.

He was a boy with thin-framed glasses covering his eyes and a gentle smile that seemed fixed in place like something from a still-life painting.

Even his polite speech made him appear more mild-mannered.

Leonard merely tilted his head, as if telling him to go ahead.

“Haha, thank you. You’re quite taciturn, aren’t you? In that case, I think you’ll like the proposal I’ve brought even more.”

“If you’re asking me to join your side—”

“No. Well, it’s not entirely unrelated to that.”

No. 4 cut him off a moment before he could refuse, then continued with an awkward smile.

“You don’t like being bothered by others, do you, No. 25? If you simply put your name down as a member of my faction, I’ll make sure the other factions don’t interfere with you. You won’t need to help me or fight alongside us.”

Leonard inwardly chuckled at those words.

He had wondered why the boy seemed familiar.

He reminded him quite a lot of the snakes he had encountered in the Zhuge Clan.

People who lowered others’ guard with smiling faces and scholarly appearances, only to stab them in the back.

Compared to those snake bastards, this boy’s disguise was nowhere near as convincing.

‘Is he planning to use me to raise the value of Group 4—or rather, his own value—and then join whichever faction emerges victorious? And afterward, if I leave, he’ll deny everything he said and dump all the blame on me.’

Leonard could easily see through No. 4’s scheme thanks to his experiences in the martial world.

But he had no intention of spelling out the details and refuting them.

Doing so would only make his opponent more wary.

So Leonard responded to No. 4’s scheme with the crude, straightforward approach favored by the Sword Emperor Yeon Mu-hyeok himself—a swordsman’s method of simply forcing the issue.

“Get lost.”

“What?”

“I don’t trust people who have nothing but a long tongue. If you’re going to deny that, then fight me here.”

The trainees who had overheard their conversation were stunned.

Who would have thought that someone would challenge a direct descendant to a fight—especially right before the outdoor training had even begun?

And yet, strangely enough, they felt their own blood beginning to boil.

It was the first time they had consciously felt their instinct as martial artists.

“You’re… arrogant.”

For the first time, a crack appeared in No. 4’s previously gentle expression.

“I understand why No. 1 hates you now. It’s self-loathing. But you’re not as strong as No. 1.”

“You talk as if you know everything, but it seems you don’t have the confidence to back it up. You’re just wagging your tongue without drawing your sword.”

“You’ll regret this.”

“Make me regret it.”

Crunch.

No. 4 ground his molars together and drew his wooden sword.

The instructors did not intervene.

They simply watched.

With hundreds of pairs of eyes fixed upon them, No. 4 naturally swung his wooden sword, aiming for Leonard’s neck.

A straightforward horizontal slash.

TAK!

At some point, Leonard had drawn his own wooden sword and blocked it.

Attack and defense.

It was a single exchange, a single hap.

Yet for some reason, No. 4’s eyes widened as he muttered,

“How…?”

Most of the trainees looked as though they had no idea what had just happened.

But some trainees and instructors were retracing the strange sensation they had felt moments earlier.

Leonard, who had recognized the cause of that abnormality before anyone else, smiled with genuine interest.

The abilities possessed by the direct descendants were all fascinating.

‘This guy’s ability is interesting, too. He didn’t interfere with my perception. Did he simply ride along with the natural flow?’

Like water flowing.

Like wind passing by.

An attack that was truly natural.

‘No. 2’s eyes should be able to respond to it… but if she were caught off guard, even she might take a serious hit once.’

It was a power that prevented the opponent’s perceptive abilities from recognizing the attack—a force that could make someone stand still and take a sword strike even when it was being swung directly in front of their eyes.

It resembled Musak—the legendary art of killing without killing said to exist in the assassin world.

A state similar to killing without killing intent or murderous aura.

Even his unnaturally non-threatening appearance might have been a byproduct of this ability.

Leonard wanted to face him again after he had properly matured.

With that thought, Leonard withdrew his wooden sword.

Then he whispered to No. 4, who had completely lost his fighting spirit.

“Don’t rely too heavily on that ability.”

“…What?”

“If you delve deeper into swordsmanship instead of relying on schemes, you have more than enough chance of defeating No. 1 or No. 2.”

No. 4’s eyes widened at the sincerity of the advice.

“W-Wait…!”

No. 4 belatedly tried to say something, but Leonard had already slung his backpack over his shoulders and begun entering the forest.