Chapter 10. 5. What is Needed for Growth
"It's a bit chilly."
At an early hour when most people were still wandering in dreamland, someone appeared at Tarajan Academy's training grounds.
It was Lumian Kalad, now a second-year student at the Knight Academy. After loosening his stiff body from the night, he slowly began running around the training grounds.
One lap, two laps, three laps.
After five laps, his breathing became rapid and sweat trickled down. After catching his breath for a moment, Lumian stretched again and walked toward the exercise equipment in the corner of the training grounds.
And then he began his proper workout.
"Heup!"
"Haap!"
"Haaap!"
As the weight increased and the repetitions continued, Lumian's face twisted in pain.
But he didn't stop. Even in situations where an ordinary person would think 'this should be enough' and give up, he insisted on completing a few more repetitions, driving his muscles to their limits.
He didn't let his form collapse even when it was difficult. Lumian performed what was essentially ascetic training as if he lived only for today.
"What's this? Someone's already working out."
"Never seen that guy before..."
The knight cadets who came out to the training grounds late looked at Lumian with curious eyes.
There weren't many people diligent enough to train at the crack of dawn, so they roughly knew who each other were.
In that situation, a new face naturally drew interest. While doing their own training, the cadets occasionally glanced at Lumian.
And they were surprised.
"Wow, that's intense."
"He's going that far?"
Overtraining.
To anyone watching, it seemed like he had exceeded his limits, yet he moved once more. His clothes, completely soaked as if caught in heavy rain, showed his current state. The cadets clicked their tongues at Lumian's intensity while simultaneously wearing worried expressions.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Huu, hoo. Okay..."
He couldn't even properly respond when a senior was speaking to him. In that state, he moved again.
To handle higher exercise intensity, endurance was essential, and endurance increased when pushing oneself to the limit.
Lumian began his cool-down exercises with his whole body exhausted.
Watching him run around the training grounds, a few upper-year cadets showed interest in their eyes.
"He's physically weak, but..."
"I'm looking forward to seeing him later. If that intensity continues for a year, no, just one semester, who knows how he'll change."
"Though it'll be tough. Hmm, shall we make a bet?"
"But who is he? Was there a guy like that in the lower years?"
"Ah, you're a second-year, right? Do you happen to know who that is?"
"...He's a guy named Lumian Kalad. He's nothing special."
A large cadet swinging his sword beside the upper-year cadets answered with a dissatisfied expression.
He was in a very bad mood right now.
He had dragged his exhausted body to morning training to make a good impression on the successful seniors, but the guy who wasn't even treated as a human until last year had taken all the attention.
These seniors hadn't even asked for his name.
"Damn it."
He quietly cursed.
The large cadet didn't know. If he had done even half, no, even one-third of the training intensity Lumian did, the seniors would have shown interest. He didn't realize that merely pretending to train couldn't catch anyone's eye.
'Working out that crudely will only lead to injury. You need to do it gradually, without rushing, like me, to grow without problems. Effort needs to be done smartly to be effective!'
Watching Lumian, who had come out much earlier but was returning to the dormitory around the same time as him, the large cadet grit his teeth. He sincerely prayed that some part of Lumian's body would break down.
But he didn't know.
While Lumian currently still had a long way to go in physical aspects like stamina and strength...
Wooooong
He had reached a higher level than anyone at Tarajan Academy, even the professors, in terms of Aura utilization.
And he didn't know that Lumian was a veteran knight who had broken through his limits more than anyone else at Tarajan Academy.
"Huu. A bit better."
Lumian, who had tended to his body with Aura cultivation, stood up.
His body still ached, but since he had enhanced his body's recovery ability through Aura, it would improve soon.
Lumian coughed artificially and stood in front of the full-length mirror in his room. He looked at his bare body with a serious face and tensed his upper body.
Pop!
His chest muscles twitched ever so slightly. Lumian smiled with satisfaction.
"Excellent. Very excellent. When you look right after exercising, my body is actually quite decent."
To others, it was such a faint change that they would scoff, but in his eyes, it looked different.
It had only been a week since he started exercising. But Lumian looked at his growing body with a happier face than anyone.
***
Lumian's changes weren't limited to this.
Throughout his classes, he showed a completely different appearance from the previous semester. This was especially true in theory classes.
"Lumian Kalad. Do you know what changes a medium-to-large monster undergoes when affected by a high-ranking demon's mental corruption?"
"Yes. I know."
"Please explain."
"First, the color of the pupils changes to black or red. Physical ability increases explosively, and depending on the individual, some have improved sense of smell and hearing, and some awaken special abilities. The most commonly confirmed special ability is..."
"Hmm. Excellent. You may sit down."
The children looked surprised seeing Lumian answer without being flustered by the professor's question.
Compared to his low swordsmanship skills, Lumian had achieved decent grades in theory classes. But that only meant decent compared to swordsmanship - he wasn't at the level of giving perfect answers to sudden questions like now.
Lumian, speaking comfortably without trembling voice or showing any fluster, felt very awkward to the children. While worrying that the professor's questions might turn to them, they kept glancing at Lumian.
"Not a bad answer."
"Not bad, Lumian."
"Very good. You focused in class. Lumian Kalad?"
It wasn't just the Demonology class. Lumian showed excellent performance in Chivalry, Military Science, and General Education classes as well. Accordingly, the children's surprise only grew.
In fact, this was a natural result. The strongest knight who had even subjugated the Demon King in his past life couldn't be ignorant of demons and monsters, nor could he be ignorant of chivalry.
Military Science wasn't his specialty, but answering cadet-level questions was laughable, and General Education was nothing to worry about since he had escorted royalty.
Lumian just had to pretend to take notes diligently while actually writing down plans (or delusions) about how to seduce women in his notebook, then pretend to answer the professors' questions sincerely. Just that alone rapidly increased the professors' evaluation of him.
"Lumian from Class E has been working very hard lately."
"Yes. Until last year, he was an unnoticeable student, but he's improved a lot."
"I wonder what happened during the break?"
"Well, young people can change greatly from very trivial reasons. Since he's changed positively, there's nothing to worry about."
Passing by professors chatting in the building corridor, two female students from Class E whispered with surprised expressions.
"...They were talking about Lumian just now, right?"
"Yeah. The professors seem to view him favorably."
"Well, certainly... something has changed. Right?"
"That's what I'm saying. He looks the same on the outside, but it's like he's become a completely different person?"
'Good. Very good. My image is improving.'
And Lumian heard exactly that conversation between the female students. Even though they were quite far away, with his hearing enhanced by Aura, there was nothing he couldn't hear.
Lumian lowered his head. He, who had been grinning foolishly like an idiot, soon hardened his expression and sighed.
'Now I need to start taking action.'
Lumian had succeeded in building a much better image than last semester in just 5 days.
The children no longer ignored him. He couldn't tell if they harbored goodwill toward him, but it was certainly much better than when he was treated as a dropout.
However, Lumian still lacked confidence.
He sighed.
"Huu."
In his plans (delusions), Lumian had already spoken to women dozens of times.
If only he spoke to them! He could do everything. In his imagination, women with whom he had dated, slept with, married, and even had sons and grandsons with already numbered over ten.
But in reality, he couldn't do that.
The sense of inferiority accumulated over 60 years as a eunuch held him back. Even if the original owner of the body had a bright personality, it might have been different, but that wasn't the case either.
When it came to dating, Lumian was more cowardly than any other man at the academy. It meant he couldn't even attempt to move forward.
'No! This won't do!'
Lumian, who had been sitting at his desk with his head down, suddenly stood up.
He needed to find a breakthrough. For that, drastic measures were necessary.
With a determined expression, he walked toward one corner of the classroom with wide-open eyes.
"Teoro."
"...Did you just call me?"
"Yeah. There's something I want to say, shall we go outside for a moment?"
"...!"
The noisy classroom instantly became quiet.
The combination of Class E's worst underachiever and best top student was that shocking.
Moreover, the underachiever had spoken first. Freckles whispered to the large cadet.
"N-no way. That guy isn't trying to pick a fight with Teoro Shutgarn, is he?"
"Your breath stinks, so shut up. Before I beat you up."
Though speaking roughly, the large cadet thought Freckles was right.
Teoro Shutgarn, who had the most outstanding skills in the class, didn't openly bully Lumian like they did.
Rather, he treated Lumian as if he didn't exist completely. As if looking at a dropout he didn't even want to associate with.
'He might not have liked that point.'
The large cadet laughed with his mouth covered.
No matter how much Lumian had changed and strengthened, there was no way he could win against Teoro. He looked at the two with eyes filled with malicious anticipation.
"Ha. Alright."
Teoro Shutgarn burst into a hollow laugh and nodded.
He headed outside with slightly annoyed, quick strides, and Lumian quickly followed him. The children were curious about their conversation, but they were too afraid of Teoro to follow them.
"What is it? What's going on?"
"Is he planning to duel or something?"
"Are you crazy? Teoro ranks 2nd or 3rd in the entire grade... even most seniors can't match him."
"Ah, really?"
Close friends gathered in twos and threes to discuss the two.
What could be the reason Lumian called Teoro out? Was it to repay the humiliation he felt from being ignored? If they fought, could Lumian win?
Leaving many speculations behind, the two exited the building.
Teoro spoke to Lumian with a dismissive expression.
"You're not thinking of jumping me, are you? Beating some idiots and acting all high and mighty like this is a bit pathetic."
"Of course not. I called you to make a request."
"What? A request?"
"Yes, a request."
Lumian's tone became stiff from tension. Though he was moved by burning desire, some shame rose up since this was his first time making such a request openly.
But he had to do it. For his own growth, Lumian was prepared to do anything.
He spoke with burning sincerity.
"Please become my dating teacher."
"..."
Teoro Shutgarn wore a blank expression.