The following day Gero started to train together with Vince once lessons were over.

“Are you ready? You’ll probably ask me to end your miserable life once the training is over.”

Hearing those words, Gero felt a shiver run down his spine. Yet, he couldn’t back off after he accepted Vince’s conditions.

“I-I’m ready…”

“I didn’t hear you well enough!”

“I’m ready!”

“You can do better, but now isn’t the time. We have only a few hours before sunset. So, let’s start with something easy. You see that backpack there? I prepared it for you. Pick it up and run around the training field fifty times.”

“Fi-Fifty times?”

“That’s the warm-up. Once you are done with that, we’ll move on to other exercises.”

“That’s the warm-up…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll join you in training! Now, go.”

“Yessir…”

And thus, Gero started running. He would have usually gone into an existential crisis, but he was too busy running to do so. Existential crises were a luxury only those who had too much time on their hands could go through.

Together with him was another boy who ran as if it was a morning jog.

***

“What are they doing?”

Nicole Ware seeing Vince and Gero together every afternoon, got curious. Thus today, she decided to follow them to see what they were up to.

And what awaited her was two idiots running around a field for hours with backpacks on their backs.

Both were sweating buckets, but it was clear that Gero was worse off.

After they were done running, they moved on with their training. Arms, chest, back. Nothing was left untrained.

“Don’t they get bored doing all of this?”

Eventually, they moved on to fighting practice. The sun had already set, yet they kept ongoing.

Vince picked up a wooden stick and started relentlessly attacking Gero. Being as fearful as he was, the poor guy would start trembling just seeing that stick after all the beatings he took.

This resulted in a one-sided beating. It was, in fact, so one-sided Nicole wondered whether Gero was training his endurance.

‘Well, I saw enough. I can go now. They are just doing boys’ things. And here I thought they could be doing something secret…’

As she crawled away from the bush she had hidden in, she heard Vince’s voice resound.

“You’ve been watching this whole time, and now you go away without even saying hi?”

‘Oh, I’ve been found out. And long ago at that. Maybe I shouldn’t have hidden in a green bush with my red hair…’

It was too late for regrets, though. Being left with no other choice, Nicole dusted off her clothes and stood up.

As she walked, she noticed a suspicious-looking bush… But after staring at it for a few seconds, she just shook her head and went where Vince and Gero were.

“Good evening!”

Hearing her energetic self, Gero stared at her with a piercing gaze.

‘It’s like he’s complaining about abandoning him with this demon…’

“Nicole, why don’t you join us in training? I promised I would turn Gero into the best tank of our year, so you may as well join in!”

“Well… I don’t…”

Before she could finish the sentence, Gero smirked and finished the phrase in her stead.

“Yes! I’m sure she’d really love to come and participate in this totally human training.”

“Very well, then! Every day once the lessons are over, come here!”

“But… but… I haven’t said anything!”

“Here, here. Don’t be scared. It’s going to be painful, but in the end, you’ll be grateful!”

‘Why is he smiling as if he just got himself a new toy?’

Thus the training resumed with a new participant.

Starting from that day, both Nicole and Gero were always seen exhausted no matter what hour of the day it was.

***

A few weeks later.

It was a day like many others in cultivation class. As always, the teacher, Kris Ware, walked through the desks while the students meditated.

As he climbed the steps to reach the desks further away, he sensed something. The mana in the whole room was pulsing.

‘What? Is someone awakening?’

Following his mana sense, he rushed to the source of the ripples. There, he found his little sister, Nicole Ware.

‘She’s awakening? This early?’

His premonition soon became true. With the whole class staring at her, Nicole created one big final mana ripple.

“I awakened!”

She had become the second of her year to awaken.

Grabbing Vince’s shoulders with her two hands, she started shaking him.

“I did it! I did it!”

“Y-yes, I s-s-saw. Could-d you stop shshshaking me?”

“Oh, sorry. I was simply too happy!”

Before she could go on, her older brother grabbed her by the arm. Making her rotate, he then touched her back with his hand.

‘It’s true! The mana core has taken form!’

“Congratulations, little sister! You really awakened!”

‘Incredible… I wonder what the ancestors will say when I tell them…’

***

Just a few days later, Estelle Von Sideria announced having awakened as well. Not long after, both Andre von Rais and Theo von Macht awakened during cultivation lessons.

After that, in a matter of weeks, the number of awakened increased to just over twenty, including Gero, Vince and Zack Lipsgold. Thus they became the third party to fully awaken after Estelle’s and the Prince’s.

But the stunning news didn’t end there! Merely three weeks after her awakening, Estelle Von Sideria announced having broken through from the Early-Dawn Stage to the Dawn Stage.

‘So they decided to slightly lift her seal, after all. They probably didn’t like Nicole Ware stealing the limelight. Thus they had to do this to get Estelle back in the limelight. Even at the cost of outshining the Prince briefly. I didn’t expect it at all.’

Vince, who knew the truth about Estelle’s cultivation, wasn’t shaken in the least.

‘The Prince will probably soon breakthrough as well. Even if he’s not the crown prince, the royal family won’t let their descendants be easily outshined. They’ll start feeding him expensive elixirs until he breaks through. He isn’t talented enough to break through on his own.’

And as he predicted, the Prince broke through, just two weeks later.

***

During a weekend, Vince and Gero went out of the academy on their own.

Soon an escorted carriage came and picked the two of them up.

“Thank you again, Gero. Weren’t it for you, I wouldn’t have been able to do this.”

“Ah, don’t worry! It’s only thanks to you that I managed to break through this early!”

“Now then, let’s go, shall we? This way, you’ll get out of the way the first of the two favours, I asked pretty quickly.”

“I-I agree. Let’s go.”

Making a hand gesture, Gero made the carriage depart.

After an hour of carriage, they reached the desired location. It was a building in the outer skirts of the city. And yet, it was trafficked as much as the buildings downtown.

“Put on your hood now, Gero. It’s always better not to be seen here. Remember where we are. Even though it’s legal, it’s highly frowned upon. Especially by higher nobles.”

Everyone who entered the building wore one. Some even had masks on top to not be easily recognised.

Listening to Vince’s advice, Gero put his hood on and jumped out of the carriage.

“It was hard getting my parents’ permission for this, you know?”

“Just tell them it’s you paying back a favour. And if they ask why I need one, just tell them that my family is divided into factions. The rest should be just self-explanatory.”

“I don’t get why that would be a good reason.”

“Come, now I’ll explain to you as we walk.”

The two of them, along with two of the guards, went inside the building. It wasn’t exceptionally decorated, but it was well-kept nonetheless.

Once they walked in, they saw cages everywhere. But inside of them, there weren’t animals. There were humans.

“I could get an attendant from my family, but then I’d be suspicious he’s a spy. Thus, the only way for me to have peace of mind is to get a slave contracted through a soul contract. I cannot use my family’s money as I’d raise suspicions on how I spent it.”

‘I’ve experienced it myself. Soul contracts are extremely powerful. It’s the best way for me to do what I need to.’

“How is this related to the other favour you asked of me, though?”

“In no way at all.”

“Oh, it makes sense now.”

‘Hey, you believe what people say all too easily!’

As they walked by the cages, they saw all kinds of people in them.

“Anyway, don’t worry too much about the price! My parents gave me a lot since I awakened this young.”

‘You sounded happy to have your money spent by me… now I almost feel bad. Well, it was an equivalent trade at least.’

As they passed by a cage, a girl just a few years older than them suddenly grabbed both of the bars and started shouting.

“You two, young masters! Buy me! I’m one of the most beautiful ones in this place!”

‘One who doesn’t want to end up bought by some old man, huh. I have a feeling we’ll see many.’

Vince walked towards the cage and read the tag at the bottom of the page.

Name: Christa
Age: 12
Can read and write, and knows some basic etiquette.
Virgin
Price: 5 gold

Vince then brought out a few sheets of paper and a pen. On it was a kind of test.

“If you can answer correctly to all of that, I’ll buy you.”

Confident in her upbringing, she took the pen and paper and started answering the questions.

But soon, her face turned as dark as it could.

“Wh-what is this test!?”

“Time is over; hand it back.”

Rapidly going through it, Vince made a quick evaluation.

‘Although her education isn’t bad, her mentality is trash, and her potential is terrible. Onto the next one.’

She had answered only one question right out of the whole paper. And that was enough to make Vince say that her education wasn’t bad.

One could only wonder what kind of test this was.

“W-wait! Won’t you buy me?”

“No. You are not fit for my needs.”

As Vince walked away, a heavily guarded man went in front of the cage. He didn’t even bother hiding his face or wearing a hood.

“This one, I like her! I’ll buy her.”

The girl burst into tears. The fate she most wanted to avoid had come her way.

But Gero, who had witnessed the scene, couldn’t let it happen.

‘Don’t tell me…’

“I’ll buy her instead! I’ll pay seven gold for her!”

“Gero, are you sure? That’s seven times the average income of a family. And saving her won’t save all the other slaves in a similar condition. It would just be an act of self-satisfaction.”

Gero hesitated a little after listening to what Vince said, but after looking at the girl’s crying face, he steeled himself.

“It-it doesn’t matter.”

As he said that, the old guy who had first planned to buy the girl went and stared at Gero.

“Junior, you dare? I already said I bought her, so get your ass out of here.”

“I won’t back off! The one who offers the most shall get her!”

“Ahahah. Kid, you have some galls. Fine, whoever offers the most shall get her! I offer ten gold!”

‘Oh god… this is not going to end well. I have this feeling.’