"Huff... Huff..."
Fang Raon, with his body at the verge of breaking down, stumbled out of the snowy forest and arrived back at the mansion.
He was the last one to arrive.
When he approached the mansion, he saw Rock step outside with his arms crossed, looking straight at him.
"You are late!"
"Huff..."
Fang Raon breathed heavily, checked the time, and saw that he was half an hour too late.
Thus, it only meant one thing.
"Let’s improve your basics now, shall we? Do Basic Slashes and Basic Parries without an activation word till both of them are level 3."
Rock said and tossed him a training sword made of wood.
It wasn’t any ordinary wooden sword. It was unbalanced,and the handle was wrapped in worn leather.
"You’ll be doing the training here. Outside. Of course."
Rock said, and headed back inside, where everyone else was training hard in the warm training room.
"Haah..."
Fang Raon picked up the wooden training sword, looked at the snow that was slowly falling from the sky, and took a stance.
’...Basic Slash... Basic Parry...’
It was freezing.
He wanted to chug down a healing potion to restore his health back to full, and it would also warm him up.
However, he had a feeling that if he did that, it would make Rock very disappointed in him.
Without further ado, he started swinging his sword, and unlike with Hard Slash, Basic Slash was much easier to do.
It was just an overhead slash.
[+1 Basic Slash Mastery]
[+1 Basic Slash Mastery]
In that moment, a distance away, Ragnar, Abigail, and Poppy stepped out of the mansion and saw him training outside.
"...It’s Fang Raon."
Poppy whispered.
She wondered why he was training outside while everyone else was inside and then thought about approaching him.
"We should go now."
Abigail said to her.
They were planning to head straight to the 15th floor’s tower. They already acquired the required tower key from Rose Records.
Rose Records had close to fifty of those keys, so they didn’t mind giving one away to them.
"Shouldn’t we say goodbye to him first?"
Poppy asked.
It felt weird to her to just leave without saying anything to him.
"Yesterday was already the goodbye. We all knew that it was the last time we would be together, so I don’t think anything more needs to be said."
Ragnar said.
Abigail agreed with him.
"...Okay..."
Poppy whispered, her voice barely audible, and she then followed behind the two of them, her gaze lingering in the direction of Fang Raon.
They were soon out of sight.
...
"...I don’t see all the hype."
At the upstairs window of the mansion, looking down at the training Fang Raon, Waylen said with a sharp look.
He was standing alongside Della, Miranda, and another member of Rose Records, Rickard. They were the ones making the decision on the team leader of the Fourth Line.
"To me, Machary looks far more impressive. He has impressive physical attributes, he has already befriended everyone in the Fourth Line, and he looks like someone that can quickly earn everyone’s respect."
Rickard said.
"I don’t think we should make a haughty decision. I was able to see Fang Raon with my own eyes, and he is capable of making very smart decisions."
Miranda said.
"...So can Machary, right? I saw the stream. His weakness is that ego of his, but that can be fixed, and I don’t think he would make the same mistakes in a real situation."
Rickard said.
"What do you think, Della?"
Waylen asked.
"Why did my grandfather choose this training now? It’s not something that he usually does with new recruits."
Della asked with a frown on her beautiful face.
The others didn’t think much of it, as Rock was known for his ruthlessness in training and probably just wanted to bully the new students a little bit.
"I think my grandfather knew that Fang Raon wouldn’t be able to make it in time here. He knows him very well, after all.
"They trained together on the 6th floor, after all.
"For some reason, my grandfather pushes Fang Raon harder than anybody else. It can only mean that he sees something in him that others don’t.
"Usually, if anybody is late at arriving here, Grandfather would shout at them and look very disappointed.
"But not with Fang Raon..."
Della squinted her eyes.
She also thought that Machary looked far more impressive, and without Fang Raon here, she would’ve already made him into team leader.
"Maybe he is Rock’s illegitimate child or something, hahahaha!"
Rickard laughed, but Della didn’t find it as funny, and Miranda elbowed him in the waist, making him double over in pain.
"Ugh..."
"At the end of the week, I think we should do that test. Don’t you all agree? It is the best way to be sure of our decision."
Waylen said.
Everyone nodded their heads as they agreed.
"...I think Fang Raon will be at a disadvantage when that time comes. It looks like Fourth-Liners would prefer Machary as their leader.
"They might not listen to Fang Raon’s orders."
Miranda said.
"I am sorry, but if Fang Raon can’t make them listen, then he definitely shouldn’t be a team leader. It’s a minimum requirement for a leader to be able to lead and have their team follow them."
Waylen said.
Della nodded as well.
...
Swoosh!
Late in the night, the Virtual Reality Pod’s glass lid opened up, revealing a tired-looking Fang Raon.
"...Is everything alright?"
Chaewon asked as she lifted him up from the pod and lowered him into the wheelchair.
She noticed how weak and tired he looked.
"Yeah... I just want to go to bed."
Fang Raon whimpered weakly.
She nodded and took him to the bed, but before she could ask anything, she noticed his eyes close.
He started snoring very quietly. He had fallen asleep right away.
’He must be very tired...’
Chaewon thought.
She caressed his face, brushing his hair out of his face, and smiled to herself, and took a glance at his lips.
She shook her head, turned off the lights, and whispered, "Good night," before stepping out of the room.