Episode 34
Chapter 12: Struggle, Seizure, Enjoyment (Part 4)
The Qingaseok training finally ended at nine o’clock that night—only after the Tona brothers collapsed side by side.
They didn’t just fall down; both brothers were completely drained, physically and mentally, and had passed out cold.
“Pathetic,” Jed scoffed, clicking his tongue as he called over the medical staff. But from Jin’s perspective, it wasn’t pathetic at all.
‘Making it this far is incredible,’ Jin thought.
He was still standing on his own two feet, though his legs trembled wildly and a persistent ringing echoed in his head.
The grit the Tona brothers had shown today deserved praise. Honestly, Jin himself had been on the edge. If the training had gone on for just thirty minutes longer, he wouldn’t have held out either.
The medics loaded the Tona brothers onto stretchers.
“Tell your brothers this: if they plan on collapsing during tomorrow’s training too, they shouldn’t bother showing up at all.”
“Yes, sir.”
As Jin left the secret training ground, his thoughts drifted to Runcandel.
‘Judging by Uncle’s reaction, I’m one misstep away from falling out of favor. If the training had gone on any longer, I’d have collapsed too… I’ll have to be more careful from now on.’
Meanwhile, Jed watched the spot where his nephews had just left, thinking to himself:
‘The Tona brothers held out much longer than expected. Heh, they really are Runcandel through and through. But the youngest…’
Despite being two years behind his older brothers, the youngest hadn’t collapsed today. Two years is a huge gap during growth, yet he endured.
‘What a shame, what a shame! Why did he have to be born the youngest?’
The Jin Jed had seen today possessed the highest talent among Siron’s thirteen children. Even compared to Joshua, the heir apparent, Jin was clearly superior—if not Luna.
But he was just too young.
Jin was barely fifteen.
Even if he trained diligently from now and became a 9-star knight by thirty, Joshua would already be leading the family by then.
Slowly but surely, the power of the headship was already shifting to Joshua.
‘If only he’d been born ten years earlier, he’d have had this Runcandel family in the palm of his hand…!’
In this situation, Jin’s growth and talent could potentially cause fatal turmoil within the family. Ten or fifteen years from now, if Jin became the family’s strongest and aimed for the throne…
How much damage would that do to Joshua’s Runcandel? And in the meantime, how much of an opportunity would that be for Runcandel’s enemies, like Ziphl?
With these thoughts, Jed sighed deeply.
‘For now, I’ll just watch. Since Luna values him, maybe Jin will end up like her—a shadow that simply protects the family.’
The future and growth were full of countless variables. Jin might die on a mission or suddenly lose his will and leave Runcandel to become a wanderer.
Kids go through all sorts of things growing up; it was too early to make a definitive judgment.
A month passed, and it was now March 1795.
From the very first day, the ranking war between Jin and the Tona brothers had begun, but since they spent every afternoon holed up in the secret training ground, no real fights had broken out.
After Kazin Romero’s defeat at Jin’s hands, the cadets refrained from bothering the youngest division even when the young masters were absent. That was because Mew and Anne had ordered it.
As Jin expected, they decided not to interfere inside the training ground anymore.
They had lent their faction support, but the Tona brothers had come back broken on the first day—there was nothing more to expect from them.
“…It’s so quiet, it’s starting to get on my nerves,” Mesa said, brushing dirt off her clothes. They had just finished morning training, and their outfits were a mess. The other cadets standing nearby looked the same.
“Do you think the young masters are okay every afternoon?” Bellop asked, worried.
Mesa snorted. “Are we really at the level to worry about the young masters?”
“But sometimes, we hear loud bangs and screams from inside the secret training ground… The medics rush around frantically. The other day, the Tona young masters were carried out on stretchers before their training even ended.”
“Don’t worry and just focus on training. Remember what the young master said? A mission will come soon. And it’s going to be a damn tough one.”
Right now, except for Mesa, Skut, Jushen, Taimant, and Kiko, the youngest division’s members were all below the average skill level of the intermediate class.
Eddington, Sierra, Fields, and Bellop weren’t ready for missions yet. Bellop was talented but still struggling mentally.
“I don’t want to be a burden to the young master. So let’s work hard. We have to reach at least 3-star rank before the first mission.”
“Yeah. Thanks to Jin young master, we haven’t had to deal with any turf wars.”
The cadets nodded with determined faces.
“Attention, everyone!”
Mael Trasyl, the intermediate training class instructor, shouted. There were three instructors in the intermediate class, all Runcandel’s guardian knights. Mael was the head instructor.
“The first missions for this year’s intermediate class have been assigned. There are five missions. Those whose names I call, step forward. A total of 60 cadets will be dispatched.”
The perpetual cadets showed no reaction, but those who had been in the intermediate class less than three years looked tense.
“Mission 1 is monster extermination. The target is goblins. For details, see Second Butler Petro. Assigned cadets: Denkello, Atan, John…”
“Mission 2 is VIP protection. The targets are rookies from the Minche Blacksmith Association. It won’t hurt to make a good impression on them, right? Assigned cadets: Houston, Bading…”
“Mission 3 is also monster extermination. The target is orcs. And the operation zone is an unprotected area. Assigned cadets… hmm…”
Mael’s hand froze as he flipped through the papers. He furrowed his brow, double-checking the names.
‘The operation zone is unprotected, and all are rookies… Jin young master will be upset. It’s unlikely they’ll all come back alive. But I can’t complain to the captains.’
Clearing his throat, Mael continued.
“Mesa, Skut, Taimant, Kiko, Jushen, Eddington, Sierra, Fields, David. Petro will give you the details. Good luck to you all…”
Gasps rippled through the intermediate cadets. Facing orcs in an unprotected zone, it wouldn’t be surprising if more than half of the youngest division died.
Yet, no one protested the instructors.
Since the captains had decided, they had no choice but to comply. And if anyone was to protest, it was Jin’s faction leader’s responsibility—not the cadets’.
Of course, if Jin himself went to the captains and argued, he could probably change the personnel for Mission 3—either by negotiating directly or borrowing Luna’s influence.
But even that would be a misstep.
It would only admit that his faction was underqualified. And borrowing Luna’s power would prove Jin himself unworthy.
It was a dead end. The youngest division had no choice but to carry out Mission 3.
“Instructor, what about Missions 4 and 5?”
“Those are assigned to the young masters. You don’t need to know. That’s all! After the meal, those called will rest until the mission begins. Deployment is in two days.”
As the instructors left, the cadets immediately began to murmur.
“Oh man, what are they going to do?”
“At least four or five won’t come back…”
“At this rate, it’d be better not to have a faction at all.”
“I told you, picking the wrong faction only leads to bloodshed.”
“Poor guys.”
The cadets from Mew and Anne’s faction, including Kazin, smirked coldly and nodded.
“We better prepare the coffin and incense, heh heh.”
“We should hold a proper funeral. Only two days left—might as well start drawing portraits and writing wills.”
“Ha ha ha, tell them to come back safe, cuties! Or maybe ask Jin young master for help? ‘Please save us, please save us!’ Hee hee hee.”
The cadets belonging to Mew and Anne chuckled as they looked at the youngest division. Taimant bristled and tried to stand, but Mesa grabbed his shoulder.
“Hold it. We can’t beat them yet, and causing trouble right before the mission won’t help.”
“But those bastards…!”
“Sit down and shut up, Taimant. You’re only making things harder for the young master. Do I have to spell it out?”
Taimant huffed and sat back down.
“…What do we do?”
Sierra sighed. The rest of the youngest division wore grim expressions.
“What else? This is Runcandel. When ordered, we obey. We’ll do whatever it takes to succeed and come back. That’s the only way to shut those jerks up.”
Mesa ground her teeth, but even she trembled slightly at her fingertips.
It wasn’t fear of death. It was the fear of being a burden to Jin on their very first mission.
Boom!
“Ahh!”
“Hey, Tona!”
“Ugh!”
Heytona’s Qingaseok exploded. It was already the third blast today. A flying iron ball narrowly missed Daytona and headed straight for Jin, who was focusing intently.
Daytona took a hit to the chest, and Jin got struck in the side. If it had been his Cheongaseok that broke, he might have understood, but a stray iron marble bouncing off from the side was something even Jin couldn’t do anything about.
Jade, meanwhile, seemed completely indifferent, sitting back in his chair and reading through mission documents as if none of it mattered.
“Ugh, damn it!”
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Daytona. Uh… Jin. Little brother, yeah. Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to…”
Hesitantly, Daytona stepped closer to Jin, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. Seeing that, Jin couldn’t help but wonder if these Tona brothers were really the ruthless killers everyone feared.
“It’s fine. But from now on, you guys handle that corner over there.”
“Okay.”
The Tona brothers grunted as they moved the Cheongaseok and table to the corner. They weren’t just being obedient—they’d come to realize the truth in their uncle’s words after spending a month together.
—Don’t ever challenge the youngest until you’re strong enough. If you want to live long, that is.
To the brothers, Jin was like a ghost. While they had only just started breaking the Cheongaseok once or twice a day, Jin had been shattering it five or six times daily for several days now.
“Today, I’m going to make a clear sound. No matter what.”
The iron marble that hit his side throbbed painfully. His bones seemed fine, but his breathing suddenly grew shallow and ragged.
Huff, huff.
Jin closed his eyes and steadied his breath. Naturally, the surface, hardness, and weight of the Cheongaseok formed vivid images behind his closed eyelids.
Just as the pain in his side threatened to break his concentration—
“Huh?”
A strange sensation suddenly washed over him. Somehow, he could precisely sense the direction the iron marble had come from.
“What the…? Why do I feel this all of a sudden…?”
He opened his eyes to check the marble’s trajectory, but Jade was already rising from his seat. Jin and the Tona brothers quickly straightened up and stood before Jade.
“You’ve been assigned a mission.”