Book 1 Chapter 217

As news of the Lumern unified entrance exam spread across the continent, chaos ensued in many regions.

Traditionally, Lumern held separate exams in five regions: West, North, East, South, and Central.

However, the unified exam was a completely different format from anything seen before.

It was understandable that examinees would be confused by the sudden shift to a unified exam, with the regional exams disappearing.

The Lumern entrance exam had no restrictions on who could apply.

Once a test location was decided, applicants would travel to that region to take the exam.

However, the expenses required to attend the entrance ceremony had to be borne by the applicants.

This meant costs such as warp gate fees and accommodation.

But if the test location changed due to the unified exam, expenses could easily exceed expectations.

Wealthy noble families were generally unconcerned, but many of the students applying for the Lumern entrance exam were commoners.

Naturally, dissatisfied voices from the applicants were inevitable.

However, these complaints vanished as soon as a new announcement was made.

Lumern announced that they would cover the warp gate and accommodation costs for all applicants to the Lumern entrance exam.

All examinees needed to do was bring their admission tickets issued in their respective regions.

Despite the astronomical costs involved, Lumern did not hesitate.

With the financial burden removed, the number of applicants naturally increased.

Of course, there was no surge in the number of applicants.

The difficulty of the Lumern entrance exam is extremely high.

Every year, a significant number of applicants who lacked the necessary skills lost their lives.

Furthermore, the exam conditions were broadcast live.

No one wanted to risk their life with insufficient skills or suffer global humiliation.

As all eyes across the continent turned to the Lumern entrance exam, and with its venue set in Lorend, the capital of the Lodren Empire, the world's attention was drawn to it.

Amidst the great commotion surrounding the Lumern entrance exam.

Six individuals appeared in the training grounds of the Zerdiger family.

They were Leo and his knights.

"It's… the training grounds!"

"We're back!"

Caryn and Julian, along with Valerie, cheered and clung to the main gate of the training grounds.

Caryn and Julian even kissed the gate, showing a fervent reaction.

Seeing this, Austin glared and said, "What is this behavior in front of young master Leo?"

"Young master Leo doesn't really care about these things."

"That's right, brother Austin."

Caryn and Julian, at 14 years old, were the most energetic among the five.

Valerie, who was the same age, was as big and dignified as Austin, so these two served as the mood makers within the knight corps.

Austin glared even harder at the two who were acting spoiled.

While Martina was the de facto leader, it was the eldest, Austin, who maintained discipline in the knight corps.

The two, startled, snapped to attention.

Valerie shook her head at their behavior.

"Young master, what should we do?"

"Go back to your rooms and rest. I'm going to visit Uncle Ziss."

"Yes."

At his words, Martina signaled the knights to disperse.

Caryn, returning to her room with Martina, said, "I missed beds so much!"

"Heh. Me too."

"Young master Leo's training was definitely helpful…! But it was still too tough! Especially sleeping and eating!"

Caryn shook her head as if she had had enough.

Sleeping in the mountains was not a problem.

The problem was when they slept.

Leo didn't let the knights rest, even during sleep.

Just as they were about to fall into a deep slumber, stones would fly as if by magic.

Of course, they weren't imbued with aura, but they flew at an incredibly fast speed.

Therefore, it was common to get hit if they let their guard down.

Getting hit was fine.

The problem was that getting hit meant being subjected to physical training by Leo for 30 minutes.

What was called physical training was almost torture.

As a result, they had to live with nausea day and night for three weeks straight.

Meals were also self-sufficient.

Here, a problem arose again.

Leo would stealthily raid the food supplies the knights had gathered.

If they weren't vigilant, they not only couldn't sleep but also had to go hungry.

Naturally, all the knights became edgy.

"I barely got any sleep. Ugh! Even as a knight, my skin is a mess!"

Caryn, who cared about her appearance as a teenage girl, had a dejected look.

With her brown hair and green eyes, she was quite pretty.

Seeing such Caryn, Martina gave a wry smile.

Martina was in a similar state.

'Still, young master Leo must have suffered the most.'

For the past month, Leo had pushed the five trainees relentlessly.

In other words, Leo was the one who had rested the least.

'But to see him looking so well… he's truly amazing.'

Thinking of Leo, Martina was dumbfounded.

After unpacking their bags in their rooms, the two immediately headed to the shower room.

"Kya~ hot water!"

Martina burst into laughter at Caryn, who was jumping around enjoying the hot water.

After the two had cleaned themselves and changed into clean clothes, they were leaving the shower room.

"Oh my. Girls, look at this."

"Ah, the hero candidates have arrived?"

Other Zerdiger trainees snickered as they looked at Martina and Caryn.

Their eyes held clear mockery.

Seeing that, Caryn made a defiant expression.

Martina sighed softly and patted Caryn's shoulder as if to ignore them.

Just as Caryn, biting her lip, was about to ignore them and leave.

"Did you lie to stay in young master Leo's knight corps?"

"Cut it out. Don't waste young master Leo's time."

As they spoke, laughing, Martina stopped.

Then she turned her head.

"Do you think we're the same as you?"

"What?"

"We chose to become young master Leo's knights for our own reasons. We didn't opportunistically choose young master Leo for advancement after his true worth became known, like you did."

"M-Martina unnie!"

Caryn, flustered, tugged at Martina.

Martina shook off Caryn.

"What did you just say?"

"Did you say everything?"

"No, I haven't said everything yet! The Lumern entrance exam? Young master Leo told us first! That we can enroll in Lumern! He affirmed our potential!"

Martina's brown eyes blazed.

"Just as we chose young master Leo, young master Leo chose us. Talk all you want. You'll never be young master Leo's knights! As long as young master Leo trusts us, we will never give up!"

"Ha? Did you get special training or something and lose your senses?"

"No matter how much you struggle, you're only mid-tier trainees."

Looking at the trainees who scoffed at them, Martina snorted.

"How long do you think you'll be stronger than us?"

"Kick? Then do you want to spar, Martina?"

*Swish-!*

The wooden swords that Lumern trainees always carried were swung at high speed.

Seeing the wooden sword stop right in front of her face, Martina clenched her fist.

"Yes. Let's have a match."

"Are you confident? Then what's the bet? If you lose, you'll resign from young master Leo's knight corps."

"Agreed. But what if you lose?"

"We'll resign from being Zerdiger trainees."

Looking at her with a condescending expression, Martina said, "Agreed."

"Heh heh. Then, see you in the training hall in thirty minutes."

Watching their backs as they left the shower room, laughing, Martina made a sad face.

"Caryn! What do we do?!"

Caryn let out a deep sigh.

"Martina unnie sometimes has a tendency to get heated."

Scratching her head, Caryn shrugged.

"Since it's come to this, what else can we do? We just have to go for it."

***

All the Zerdiger trainees gathered in the training hall.

Seeing this, Julian looked sad.

"Brother Austin… what do we do now?"

"I'm sorry, everyone."

Martina apologized, but Austin shook his head.

"No, it was bound to happen someday."

Austin, Julian, and Valerie had also been subjected to ridicule from the upper-tier trainees as soon as they returned to the training grounds.

"Since it's come to this, let's show the results of our training."

At Austin's words, Julian looked dejected.

"It's true that we've gotten stronger through training, but it's only been a month."

He didn't believe their skills had dramatically improved in just a month.

Especially during sparring with Leo, they were one-sidedly defeated until the day they returned.

"Don't you see anything? "

"How should we defeat you?"

The upper-tier trainees chuckled, looking at the five.

"I'll go first."

Austin, with a tense expression, stepped onto the training ground with his wooden sword.

A trainee, as muscular as Austin, stepped up to face him.

While all the trainees watched the two spar.

"It's young master Leo."

"Young master Leo is here to watch?"

The trainees began to whisper as they spotted Leo standing with his arms crossed behind the training ground.

"Young master Leo doesn't understand either."

"Right. The upper-tier trainees want to be knights, so why did he take those guys for a month of training?"

The Zerdiger trainees wore expressions of incomprehension.

As he heard this, he chuckled.

"Young master Leo. Instead of staying in the back, please watch from the front."

A robust-looking boy approached Leo and said.

"Who?"

"My name is Endian Terius."

Seeing Endian introduce himself confidently, Leo remembered a knight named Pierce he met at a party a month ago.

'Is he that person's son?'

Thinking so, Leo approached with a indifferent expression.

As the trainees made way, everyone looked at Leo with admiring eyes.

All the trainees here had trained with Celia and had seen Rhys multiple times.

Therefore, they knew the overwhelming skills of Celia and Rhys.

He was a bloodline of Zerdiger who surpassed Celia and became the student council president after Rhys.

While there might be those who disliked Leo in Lumern, it was not the case here.

Becoming his knight was as good as securing his position within the family.

He was literally an object of admiration and desire.

'Are they not recruiting additional knights?'

'Lady Celia's knight corps has a capacity of 30 people.'

'Next time, definitely…'

Everyone looked at Leo with longing eyes.

Leo, who had come to the very front of the training ground, looked at Austin with his arms crossed.

"Young master Leo…"

Austin lowered his head as if in apology.

Austin also knew how hard Leo had worked to train them for a month.

And now, they had gambled away their knight corps positions like this.

He couldn't help but feel guilty towards Leo.

Seeing such Austin, Leo chuckled.

"Austin."

"Yes, young master Leo."

"Go easy on them."