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After the camp meal, which was basically stuffing our cheeks with spit-roasted food, there was one hour of an after-meal rest. The well-bred students that were used to eating good food were showing digestive problems and looked quite listless.

Perhaps having a stomach that could digest this kind of food was one of the knights’ many talents.

Afterwards, we were going to head to the training grounds and experience their training firsthand. That’s how it should’ve been…

“What are you doing here?”
“Why are you so cruel, my honey?”
“Dad, that’s gross.”
“Gahh!”

However, Lyell, Maria and Gadius appeared before us and blocked our way. Seriously, what the heck are these people gathering here for.

“Dear students of Raum’s Magic Academy. These three honorable Dragonslayers will be joining in on the inspection. Today’s training will be quite heated up, so I hope you experience it to the fullest!”

Someone that looked like a veteran knight with a gouged out scar near his left eye declared. After that, we were divided into 10-person groups and were made to experience the programs of each platoon.

It turned into quite a big mess right from the warm-up run, where students started to drop out one after another. I looked at those students with indifferent eyes.

“What a careless bunch.”
“You say that, but you were the first to drop out, Nicole…”
“Mom, you are supposed to keep that to yourself!”

I was currently lying in a shade at the training grounds, with my head on Maria’s lap. Given my lack of stamina, I collapsed before even finishing the hemicycle of the run. Truth be told, a lap around this place was quite a long distance.

One side of the training grounds was probably around 300 meters, so the entire lap ended up being somewhere around 1200. Repeating that 5 times made it close to a 6km run, and that was done as a warm-up.

There was no one among us students that managed a second lap. Considering that we were just 10, Letina was quite something to have managed one and a half lap.

All the boys were directing envious gazes toward the knights that easily finished all five laps. They did it all while wearing light armor. They were definitely stamina monsters. Ahead of those knights were two idiots that continued on to the 6th lap.

“Oho? You’re hanging quite well there, Gadius!”
“I can’t go losing to humans when it comes to toughness!”
“You are already retired, so why don’t you retire from this race too? It’s hard to match my speed with the short legs of a dwarf, isn’t it?”
“B̲u̲l̲l̲s̲h̲i̲t̲!”

Looking at us students getting annihilated by knights seemed to have ignited some kind of flame in them. The two joined on the race from the third lap but still managed to finish five laps faster than the knights. They were clearly running with all they had.

Still, the stamina of Dwarfs was quite something, considering that Gadius could keep up with Lyell who had the Gift of Toughness. Then again, he wouldn’t have been the tank of our party if he wasn’t that tough, but seeing it in action was still astonishing.

By the time the knights who finished their fixed distance and were already finishing their stretches, the two finally returned satisfied after their tenth lap. Gadius was out of breath as expected, but Lyell wasn’t in the slightest.

The knights were directing lukewarm gazes at them, as if looking at monsters. By this time, most of the students were back too.

“W-Well… As expected of the Six Heroes… I guess?”
“Hm? Oh, sorry for cutting into your training.”

Lyell answered the knight that walked over to hand them towels with a nervous expression. The knight secretly felt put off by his refreshing smile.

1200 meters per lap, and ten of them at that. It was not a distance one could run so casually. And yet, Lyell acted as if he had returned from jogging in his back garden.

“That much is given.”
“He sure is tough, huh.”
“Rather, Gadius is the weird one of the two.”
“They’ve been rivals when it came to stamina since the old days. They even competed by getting intentionally hit by a Giant to see who would endure it better, you know?”

Cortina settled near us and joined the conversation with an exasperated voice. I was also a witness to their battle, or rather, a participant. But the very first punch knocked the living daylights out of me, after which Maria nursed me back to health while yelling at me.

An average person would’ve gotten knocked out like me. Actually, it’d be strange if you didn’t die. I should be praised for staying alive.

Those two, however, kept enduring its attacks like nothing. The giant was the one to start crying after it got punched back at the end.

“Okay, err… Next is the practice swing. Everyone will take their respective weapons and do a hundred swings down and a hundred up.”

The scar-faced knight gave instructions to the rest of the knights. They also handed fake swords at us, so the ones willing could join in. Of course, I volunteered too, but…

“I…Can’t…Anymore…”

I collapsed and ended up in Maria’s care yet again. The fake swords that they gave us were pretty small, but they were still far heavier compared to my katana. In the first place, my battle style focused on short, decisive battles, so I hardly had opportunities to swing a sword a hundred times.

I wanted to be praised for trying my hardest and managing fifty swings.

“I could’ve swung more if only I could use threads.”
“Eh? Did you say something?”
“N-Nothing!”

Maria who was massaging my arms asked back. I hurriedly shook my head to dismiss it.

“Now that I think about it, Cortina, since my parents are here, does that mean Finia is too?”
“Actually, I’m not sure about that. How is it, Maria?”
“Huh, we haven’t brought her with us. Someone has to look after your house, right?”

Looks like she was house-sitting this time as well. In the first place, it’s weird that we’ve been dragging her everywhere as we pleased.

“Okay! It’s time to start one-on-one practices. Choose your partner and do a mock battle with them.”

In accordance with his order, the knights formed pairs and started crossing swords. Naturally, these fake swords would not leave an injury in most cases even if they took a direct hit. The students wouldn’t be allowed to join this training… I was under that impression.

“Would you students like to try it as well?”

One of the knights provided a fake sword that seemed to be made from what looked like bamboo wrapped in paddings.

“If we use this, it wouldn’t hurt even if you get hit, let alone leave an injury.”
“Oh, so you even have things like this, huh?”

Cortina observed that sword with big interest. As he said, there was no worry of injury with something like this. She was probably considering including it in our lessons.

“Maxwell. This looks interesting, so let’s use them at the academy.”
“You make it sound so simple… But yes, I’m interested in it too.”
“Then adopt them. Your pocket money should be enough to cover for it, shouldn’t it?”
“Yours should be enough too, shouldn’t it!?”

She was being quite unreasonable, but in the end, Maxwell lost to her in arguments and was made to buy them. But he said he would write it off as expenses, so he sounded strangely stingy there.

This old man’s economic sense was impossible to understand. He used his pocket money for funding our travel expenses, yet he was being stingy when it came to something as silly as this.