Ethan had succeeded in obtaining a Grade 2 Rune Stone.

However, worried that possessing such an item would cause controversy by setting him apart from the other trainees, Ethan had pleaded with the instructors and arranged to attempt the Rune Stone Refinement Method in the middle of the night.

The irony was that while Ethan, a mere trainee, was putting so much thought and effort into the matter, Walter and Aisha showed absolutely no consideration for the feelings of the other trainees.

Their response to Ethan’s concerns had been brutally cold.

—You think anyone else would accept an opportunity like this? They’d probably think you were crazy.

—Wasn’t that already the impression they had of you?

Although the unexpected verbal abuse directed at him left a bad taste in his mouth, Ethan eventually shook it off.

‘Never mind that. Let’s just get it done.’

Soon, he decided that worrying about it was pointless and prepared to attempt the Rune Stone Refinement Method.

In the middle of the training grounds, Ethan sat cross-legged.

Before him lay a Grade 2 Rune Stone, its surface radiating a faint blue glow.

Walter and Aisha stood beside him, silently observing.

Walter watched Ethan with a solemn gaze, his arms crossed, while Aisha monitored his every move with her characteristic cool expression.

They were there in case anything went wrong.

“Sniff. Hoo.”

Ethan took a slow, deep breath.

An enormous amount of mana poured into his body, far surpassing anything he had experienced with a Grade 3 Rune Stone.

Throb!

In an instant, the mana surged violently, stimulating his nerves.

Cold sweat trickled down his spine, and a sensation like his body was burning from the inside out enveloped him.

‘Holy crap! It feels like my body is on fire.’

The mana rapidly coursed through his blood vessels until it reached his heart.

His heart had been strengthened by the Hittite Body-Strengthening Technique, allowing it to withstand the strain. Had he only learned the technique superficially, his heart would have burst.

That was how terrifying the power emanating from a Grade 2 Rune Stone was.

But he couldn’t stop now.

‘H-Here!’

Suppressing the pain, Ethan concentrated his consciousness on inscribing a runic character onto his heart.

Following the flow of mana, he drew a single stroke of a rune imbued with powerful meaning.

Immediately, his body began to resist violently.

“Cough!”

Blood of a vivid scarlet hue trickled from the corner of his mouth as he coughed.

His entire body convulsed, accompanied by agony that made it feel as though his heart were burning.

Walter, who had been watching, hurriedly moved to approach him, but Aisha raised an arm to stop him.

“Wait, Senior. Ethan hasn’t given up yet.”

Aisha’s expression was equally tense, but her eyes were filled with conviction.

“…All right.”

Walter clenched his fists but ultimately took a step back.

Meanwhile, as he struggled to inscribe the rune onto his heart, Ethan began analyzing the causes of his failure.

‘I failed to control the power.’

‘My rhythm was off, so the section I was trying to inscribe ended up misaligned.’

It hadn’t been a mistake he made just once.

Once, twice, three times. Over the course of what felt like an interminable stretch of time, Ethan managed to obtain an opportunity to attempt the refinement method again and again, only to fail repeatedly.

Nevertheless, his trial and error had produced some positive results.

“Hoo.”

Ethan recalled the breathing technique of the Hittite Body-Strengthening Technique and struggled to stabilize his mana.

But his consciousness gradually drifted away, until he could no longer remember which character he was trying to inscribe.

His heartbeat repeatedly faded into a faint throb before surging violently again.

An overwhelming pressure engulfed his entire body, making even breathing difficult.

The pain was as though his flesh were being carved away with knives.

His heart pounded violently, sending a numbing ache through even his bones and joints.

At some point, his thoughts began to shift.

Instead of wondering how he could become stronger, he found himself asking how he could escape the pain.

Even his sense of purpose was beginning to fade.

‘Is this what dying feels like?’

A sensation akin to hovering on the brink of death overwhelmed him.

At that moment, memories of his previous life flashed through his mind.

Days filled with nothing but failure.

A past in which, no matter how hard he tried, he could never overcome the wall standing before him.

But things were different now.

‘I’m not going to fail twice.’

If he could overcome the disadvantages of connections, academic ties, and personal networks, then the only thing he needed was overwhelming ability.

Ethan steeled his resolve.

Regaining his composure, he gradually brought the disrupted flow of mana back under control.

The mana circulating within his body slowly settled.

Although the air was still and there was no wind blowing, his hair fluttered as if caressed by a gentle breeze.

At last, the rune inscribed on his heart became deeply engraved.

At the same time, his mana began to undergo a transformation.

He felt as though it was harmonizing with the wind, enveloping his body.

Only then did Ethan regain his composure and slowly open his eyes.

Aisha looked at him and asked,

“You survived. How does it feel?”

Ethan caught his breath and gave a brief reply.

“I feel like I can finally get started properly.”

As he spoke, his eyes had become much deeper and sharper than before.

Unfortunately, that lasted only about three seconds.

Overcome by exhaustion, Ethan promptly lost consciousness and collapsed.

Aisha calmly checked the pulse in his neck before looking at Walter.

“He’s completely exhausted. We should take him to the infirmary, Senior.”

“You want me to carry him?”

“Is there a problem?”

“Fine. Fine. I suppose I have to.”

At Aisha’s withering glare, Walter quickly backed down. He picked Ethan up and slung him over his shoulder.

Warm sunlight streamed down onto Ethan’s face.

The brightness was warm yet irritating, gradually bringing his consciousness back to the surface.

His body felt heavy, as though every limb were limp and weighed down.

He barely managed to open his eyes. Beyond his blurry vision, the morning sunlight poured into the room.

“…Ugh.”

As he groaned and sat up, he heard a crisp crunching sound beside him.

Turning his head, he saw Aisha casually eating a sandwich.

She chewed lightly and glanced at Ethan before speaking in a tone that suggested she was accustomed to situations like this.

“Impressive. You were out for ten whole hours. You couldn’t even dream of receiving this kind of special treatment at the training camp.”

Aisha smiled slightly as she added the remark, leaving Ethan staring at her in disbelief.

‘I nearly died, and this is what she says to me…’

He grumbled inwardly.

He understood that she had come from the training camp, but he had genuinely come back from the brink of death.

Still, something else mattered more to him at that moment.

‘What happened? Did it work?’

Ethan closed his eyes and carefully examined his body.

He was still exhausted, but a powerful force had taken root within him.

He felt as though, if he wished, he could unleash a raging whirlwind and sweep away everything around him.

The rune inscribed on his heart felt as though it had become a part of him.

‘So this is how it works?’

Just as he was about to test his newfound power, Aisha stared intently at him and slowly spoke.

“If you wreck the infirmary, do you think you can handle the consequences? Mr. Danish, the medical officer, is so strict that he won’t even listen to the Vanguard commander’s orders.”

Simply hearing the name of the Vanguard was enough to make Ethan’s mana dissipate.

As Ethan stared blankly at her, Aisha crossed her arms and continued.

“Calm down. Let’s talk first.”

Ethan abruptly came to his senses and shook his head vigorously.

His awareness returned to reality. Once the atmosphere was suitable for a conversation, Aisha looked at him seriously and asked,

“Actually, I couldn’t identify the character inscribed on your heart. What rune did you carve?”

Ethan was momentarily taken aback.

The experience had been far too chaotic.

He vividly remembered the sensation of the rune being inscribed, but he couldn’t recall which character had actually been engraved.

His life had been in danger at the time, leaving him no opportunity to pay attention to such details.

He answered honestly.

“To be honest… I don’t remember. Right now, all I can picture is an image associated with the wind, so I probably inscribed something like Gale (ᚦᚱᚨᚷᛁ) or Still Wind (ᛊᛏᛁᛚᛚᚨᚳᛁᚾᛞ).”

Aisha crossed her arms, thought for a moment, and nodded.

“You used an expensive Grade 2 Rune Stone for the refinement, but if you can’t even provide a proper report on the results, Senior Walter is going to get torn to pieces. Are you sure you’re okay with that?”

“Well, I’d rather have the instructor make that sacrifice than suffer the consequences myself…”

Even at a time like this, Ethan managed to deliver such a cheeky response that Aisha burst out laughing, finally losing her composure.

“Pfft! All right, all right. I’m just joking. Get some rest.”

She patted Ethan on the shoulder a couple of times to ease his tension, then stepped outside.

As she walked down the corridor, she murmured to herself,

“Gale…?”

Given that the phenomenon Ethan had produced was clearly connected to the wind, his answer wasn’t entirely wrong.

And yet, something didn’t sit right with her.

Immediately after Ethan had completed the Rune Stone Refinement Method, something unusual had happened.

It wasn’t just the wind. Something else had stirred within his body.

As she recalled that moment, the scene flashed before her eyes.

When the rune had been inscribed onto Ethan’s heart, the air around him had warped, and a transparent light had spread outward. It had looked as though light and shadow had merged into one, writhing together.

Even the fluctuations in his mana had been irregular, constantly changing.

Whatever it was, it went far beyond something as simple as wind. There was something much deeper and more complex at work.

Yet even she couldn’t decipher its true nature.

Aisha gave a self-deprecating chuckle.

“I’m a Rune Meister, and runes are still a mystery to me.”

She shrugged lightly and continued down the corridor.

Throughout their training in the Rune Stone Refinement Method and the Hittite Body-Strengthening Technique, the trainees of the 65th class endured endless repetition and a long test of patience.

At first, even handling Rune Stones had been a struggle. Now, the trainees could circulate mana steadily even while breathing heavily. They had also mastered the fundamental principles of the Hittite Body-Strengthening Technique, further honing their ability to control their bodies.

Rune Stones imbued with mana lay scattered across the training grounds, emitting faint blue light, while magical energy flowed smoothly from the trainees’ fingertips.

The training grounds, once covered in black dirt and dust, no longer felt unfamiliar. Each trainee was refining their skills in their own way, testing the techniques they had learned in practical exercises.

But their training wasn’t over yet.

With one month remaining, the trainees faced a new assignment.

Before the next stage of the curriculum began, Walter addressed them.

“People out there call us lunatics, psychopaths, and money-grubbing bastards. They slander us and turn their blades against us.”

“…”

The trainees looked somewhat uncomfortable.

They knew perfectly well that knights and mages were generally welcomed wherever they went, whereas tax collectors were commonly regarded as monsters whose sole purpose was to collect taxes.

Still, after enduring all this hardship, being treated as nothing more than monsters was a bitter reality to face.

Walter shrugged and continued.

“Don’t worry about it. Not a single person who’s said such things has ever been normal anyway. Starting today, you’ll be learning law. Why do you think we need to study the law, Koren?”

Koren answered with an uncomfortable expression.

“Because we must collect taxes on a legitimate legal basis rather than impose them unfairly.”

“Correct, but that’s not quite the whole answer. Ethan, why do you think we need to study the law?”

‘Isn’t it obvious?’

Remembering his experiences at the hands of Lowfang during his previous life as a master of the Thieves’ Guild, Ethan answered honestly.

“If tax evaders exploit loopholes in the law to avoid paying taxes, shouldn’t we apply other laws to them, even if we have to, so that we can collect what’s owed?”

“What kind of outrageous nonsense is that?! Are we thugs or something?!”

Koren shouted in disbelief, but Ethan didn’t pay him the slightest attention.

If anything, he responded with even greater bluntness.

“No. We’re worse than thugs.”

“Ugh!”

“That’s enough.”

Walter gave a bitter smile before speaking.

“From a legal standpoint, that’s the wrong answer. But in the field, tax collectors sometimes have to resort to precisely those methods if they want to collect any taxes at all. The reason we study the law is to make sure we aren’t the ones getting taken advantage of.”

“…”

Faced with such a harsh reality, the trainees fell silent for a moment.

“All right. Let’s get started.”

With Walter’s brief, decisive declaration, the trainees left the training grounds and moved into a lecture hall furnished with desks.

Over the next two months, they would have to learn not only combat techniques but also the practical duties and responsibilities of being tax collectors.

The atmosphere in the lecture hall was tense in a way that differed from the training grounds.

Seated before tables piled high with books and documents, the trainees read through legal texts and studied statutory provisions.

Walter was not the only instructor. Experienced tax collectors from various fields also delivered lectures, teaching them collection procedures, tax structures, administrative processes, and other essential subjects.

At first, the trainees found it unfamiliar and tedious to sit at desks and study the law. Before long, however, they began to understand that the combat techniques they had learned were not simply about raw strength. Their authority had to operate within the framework of law and established principles.

“So that’s why becoming a tax collector is no easy task.”

“Tell me about it. There’s so much we have to learn.”

Discussions based on actual cases followed.

The trainees debated fair tax collection practices and measures to prevent corruption, reflecting on what kind of tax collectors they wanted to become.

They also studied practical subjects, including record-keeping and the procedures for admitting evidence, gradually accepting that their future roles demanded far more than the skills of a warrior.

And so, the final day of their training arrived.

Standing at the front of the lecture hall, Walter slowly surveyed the trainees.

After months of training and study, their eyes now shone with a determination far stronger than when they had first arrived.

‘Another class has completed its training.’

With a mixture of bitterness and relief, he put those thoughts aside, took a breath, and spoke in a firm voice.

“Your training is over.”

The lecture hall fell silent.

The trainees looked at one another, holding their breath as they waited to hear what he would say next.

Walter crossed his arms and continued.

“Now it’s time for you to prove yourselves.”

Rebecca immediately raised her hand.

“What do you mean?”

Walter snorted and replied,

“What else? It means the graduation ceremony is just around the corner.”

The trainees exchanged glances, holding their breath.

But Walter wasn’t finished yet.

He stepped forward and delivered one final, emphatic declaration.

“We’re commencing the mock tax collection operation.”

The trainees instinctively straightened their backs.

Now, the real test was about to begin.