Book 1 Chapter 217

217

As the story of the Rumern unified entrance examination spread across the continent, confusion arose in many regions.

Traditionally, Rumern held separate exams in the western, northern, eastern, southern, and central regions.

However, the unified examination was a completely different system from what had been used until now.

For the applicants, the disappearance of regional exams and the sudden requirement to take a unified exam inevitably caused confusion.

There were no restrictions on applying for the Rumern entrance examination.

The method was to travel to the designated examination location and participate in the exam.

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

In other words, costs such as warp gate fees and accommodation expenses would arise.

But with the unified examination, if the test location changed, greater expenditures than expected were unavoidable.

While wealthy noble families had no major problems, many commoners also applied for the Rumern entrance examination.

Naturally, the voices of dissatisfied applicants were inevitable.

However, when a new announcement was delivered, these complaints disappeared.

Rumern decided to cover the warp gate fees and accommodation costs for all applicants of the Rumern entrance examination.

Applicants only needed to bring their admission ticket issued by their respective regions.

It was an astronomical expense, but Rumern did not mind.

As the financial burden disappeared, the number of applicants naturally increased.

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

The difficulty of the Rumern entrance examination was extremely high.

Every year, countless applicants with insufficient skills lost their lives.

Moreover, the exam situation was even broadcast live in real-time.

No one wanted to risk their life with mediocre skills or be publicly disgraced worldwide.

As people across the continent focused their attention on the Rumern entrance examination, the capital of the Rodren Empire, Lorend, was designated as the examination venue, drawing the attention of the entire world.

While a great commotion was unfolding regarding the Rumern entrance examination,

six individuals appeared at the training ground of the Zerdinger family.

They were none other than Leo and the knights.

"The, the training ground!"

"We're back!"

Karin, Julan, and Valerie cheered, clinging tightly to the training ground's main gate.

Karin and Julan even showed an intense reaction, kissing the main gate.

Seeing this, Austin stared intently and said,

"What kind of disgrace are you showing in front of Young Master Leo?"

"Young Master Leo doesn't really care about things like this."

"That's right, Brother Austin."

Karin and Julan, at 14 years old, were the most lively of the five.

Valerie, who was the same age, tended to be as large and composed as Austin, so these two were in charge of setting the mood within the knight order.

Seeing the two act childishly, Austin stared even more intently.

Although Martina was the de facto leader, it was Austin, the eldest, who maintained discipline among the knights.

Startled, the two immediately stood at attention.

Watching them, Valerie shook her head.

"Young Master, what shall we do?"

"Go back to your rooms and rest. I'm going to meet Uncle Zis."

"Yes."

At that, Martina signaled for the knights to disperse.

Karin, returning to her room with Martina, said,

"I missed my bed so much!"

"Hehe. Me too."

"Young Master Leo's training certainly seems to have helped a lot, but…! It was still so hard! Especially the sleeping arrangements and meals!"

Karin shook her head as if disgusted.

Sleeping in the mountains was no problem.

The problem was when they tried to sleep.

Leo didn't leave the knights alone even when they were sleeping.

Just as they were about to fall into a deep sleep, stones would fly at them like ghosts.

Of course, they weren't imbued with aura, but they flew at a very high speed.

Therefore, being hit while off guard was a daily occurrence.

Being hit was fine.

The problem was that if they were hit, they had to undergo physical training with Leo for 30 minutes.

Calling it physical training was closer to torture.

Thanks to that, they had to constantly vomit for three weeks, day and night.

Meals were also self-sufficient.

Another problem arose here.

Leo would raid the ingredients the knights had gathered without warning.

If they were off guard, not only could they not sleep, but they also had to starve.

Naturally, all the knights became edgy.

"I barely slept. Ugh! Even though I'm a knight, my skin is a mess!"

Karin, who cared about her appearance like a teenage girl, made a tearful face.

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

Seeing Karin like that, Martina gave a wry smile.

Martina was also a mess.

'Still, Young Master Leo must have suffered the most.'

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

In other words, it also meant that Leo was the one who had rested the least.

'Yet he's perfectly fine… He's truly amazing.'

Martina shook her head, thinking of Leo.

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

"Kya~ Hot water!"

Martina burst into laughter at Karin's jumping around, enjoying the hot water.

It was when the two had washed themselves, changed into clean clothes, and were leaving the shower room.

"Oh dear. Look at this, girls."

"The hero candidates have arrived, haven't they?"

Other Zerdinger trainees giggled, looking at Martina and Karin.

Their eyes held clear mockery.

Seeing that, Karin's expression hardened with indignation.

Martina sighed softly and patted Karin's shoulder as if to tell her to ignore them.

Just as Karin, with tightly pressed lips, was about to ignore them and leave.

"Did you want to remain Young Master Leo's knight order even if it meant lying?"

"That's enough. Don't waste Young Master Leo's time unnecessarily."

Martina paused, watching them laugh and speak.

Then she turned her head.

"Do you think we're like you?"

"What?"

"We, at least, chose to become Young Master Leo's knight order for our own reasons. We didn't cleverly choose Young Master Leo for advancement after his true worth became known, like you."

"Ma-Martina unnie!"

Karin, flustered, tried to pull Martina away.

Martina shrugged off Karin.

"What did you just say?"

"Are you done talking?"

"No, I'm not! Rumern entrance examination? Young Master Leo told us first. That we could enter Rumern! He affirmed our potential!"

Martina's brown eyes burned fiercely.

"Just as we chose Young Master Leo, Young Master Leo chose us. Talk all you want. You'll never become Young Master Leo's knights, will you? As long as Young Master Leo believes in us, we will never give up!"

"Ha? You must not see anything after doing that special training or whatever, huh?"

"No matter how much you struggle, you're still only mid-ranking trainees, aren't you?"

Martina scoffed at the mocking trainees.

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

"Kik? Then, shall we spar, Martina?"

Whiz-!

The Rumern trainees always carried a wooden sword, which was swung at high speed.

Martina clenched her fist, looking at the wooden sword that stopped right in front of her nose.

"Fine. Let's fight."

"Confident, are we? Then how about a bet? If you lose, you resign from Young Master Leo's knight order."

"Good. What will you do if you lose instead?"

"We'll resign as Zerdinger trainees."

Martina said, looking at her with a disdainful expression.

"Agreed."

"Hehe. Then I'll see you at the training hall in thirty minutes."

Martina, who had been watching their backs as they left the shower room with giggles, made a tearful face.

"Karin! What should we do?!"

Karin sighed deeply.

"Martina unnie sometimes has a tendency to get carried away."

Karin scratched her head and shrugged.

"Since it's come to this, what can we do? We have no choice but to face it."

***

All of Zerdinger's trainees gathered in the training hall.

Seeing that, Julan made a tearful face.

"Brother Austin… What do we do now?"

"I'm sorry, guys."

Austin shook his head at Martina's apology.

"No. It was bound to happen eventually."

Austin, Julan, and Valerie also suffered ridicule from the high-ranking trainees as soon as they returned to the training ground.

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

Julan made a gloomy face at Austin's words.

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

They didn't feel like their skills had dramatically improved in just one month.

Especially in their spars with Leo, they had been unilaterally beaten until the day they returned.

"They really don't see anything, do they?"

"How should I defeat them?"

The high-ranking trainees chuckled, looking at the five.

"I'll go first."

Austin, with a tense face, picked up his wooden sword and stepped onto the training hall.

Seeing him, a trainee as muscular as Austin stepped up.

While all the trainees watched the two spar,

"It's Young Master Leo."

"Young Master Leo came to watch?"

The trainees started murmuring as they spotted Leo standing with his arms crossed at the back of the training hall.

"I still don't understand Young Master Leo."

"I know. The high-ranking trainees want to become knights, so why did he go training with those guys for a month?"

The Zerdinger trainees wore expressions of incomprehension.

It was while they heard those words and scoffed.

"Young Master Leo. Don't stay at the back, come watch from the front."

A strongly built boy came forward to Leo and spoke.

"Who?"

"My name is Endion Terias."

Seeing Endion confidently introducing himself, Leo recalled a knight named Pierce he had met at a party a month ago.

'Is he that man's son?'

Thinking that, Leo put on an indifferent expression and walked forward.

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

All the trainees here had trained with Celia and had seen Lis several times.

So they knew the overwhelming skill of Celia and Lis.

A Zerdinger bloodline who surpassed Celia to become the class representative and followed Lis to become the student council president.

There might be those in Rumern who looked down on Leo, but not here.

If one became his knight, their position within the family was as good as set.

He was literally an object of admiration and someone they wanted to serve.

'Isn't he recruiting more knights?'

'Lady Celia's knight order has a quota of 30 people.'

'Next time, definitely…'

Everyone looked at Leo with longing eyes.

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

"Young Master Leo…"

Austin bowed his head apologetically.

Austin also knew how much effort Leo had put into training them for a month.

But now they had foolishly made a bet over their position as knights.

He couldn't help but feel guilty towards Leo.

Seeing Austin like that, Leo chuckled.

"Austin."

"Yes, Young Master Leo."

"Go easy on them."