Chapter 10….
The Beginning of Training (2)
There was a certain hill so steep that even grown men were known to stop at least once to catch their breath.
At its summit, two middle-aged men had set down their bundles and were enjoying the wind blowing across the peak.
“Ugh… I can’t keep doing this much longer. Maybe after this last trade run, I’ll finally call it quits.”
“Retire? Don’t be ridiculous! You’ve got that late-born kid of yours to raise. You should be earning every coin you can! Having a child at your age just proves you’re still full of vigor!”
The two peddlers, resting their weary bodies from a grueling trading journey, traded trivial jokes.
After chatting idly for a while, one of them suddenly stopped mid-sentence and turned his head.
“…Hey. Don’t you hear something strange?”
“A sound? What sound?”
At the unexpected remark, the other man instinctively turned his head as well.
At first he wasn’t sure, but soon he, too, heard it—the “strange sound” his companion had mentioned.
Zkkiiiik— zkkiiiik—.
An unpleasant, grating noise that oddly scraped at the nerves.
The merchants’ brows furrowed deeply.
“What the hell is that?”
“No idea.”
As they tried to guess the source, they soon realized one thing.
Zkkiiiik— zkkiiiik—.
The eerie noise was gradually getting louder.
“I-Is it coming this way?”
“G-Grab the luggage first!”
If the sound was growing clearer and louder, it meant something unknown was approaching.
Having wandered the continent for years and gathered plenty of experience, they instinctively slung their packs over their backs, ready to flee at a moment’s notice.
Just then—
The steady grating sound was joined by something else.
Zkkiiiik— ugh!
Zkkiiiik— hnngh!
Strange groans clung to the tail end of the grotesque noise.
That was enough to halt the merchants’ retreat.
And then, the source of the bizarre sounds finally peeked over the hill.
Zkkiiiik— hheeeh!
At the top of the hill, the first thing to appear was a round head crowned with striking black hair.
Zkkiiiik—.
The grating sound rang out again.
“Gah!”
Along with a pain-filled exclamation, a boy’s face slowly rose over the horizon like the sun cresting at dawn.
He looked so utterly exhausted that even the peddlers, just watching him, felt sympathy pains.
And soon, the thing causing the boy’s suffering revealed itself.
The merchants blinked.
‘Is that… a cart?’
Of course, it wasn’t just any cart.
It was a—
“Hey! You ill-mannered brat! If all that missing courtesy of yours had gone into muscle and stamina, you could’ve crawled up this hill on your hands!”
…a cart carrying a loud, cantankerous old man.
Zkkiiiik—.
“Ugh…”
“You’re just pulling one lousy cart, yet you’re making sounds like you’re taking a dump!”
“Ghk.”
“At this rate you’re gonna soil yourself! Absolutely!”
“Y-you damned… old fossil.”
“Chuckle. You already did, didn’t you?”
“Y-you cursed geezer!”
Shouting hoarsely at the top of his lungs, the black-haired, golden-eyed boy—Yuri—ground his teeth as he dragged the cart.
At long last, he stepped onto the hill’s summit.
Zkkiiiik—.
The cart rolled forward and stopped right in front of the two dazed merchants.
And then—
Thud.
Yuri collapsed like a corpse.
“Ghk… hhaah…”
Sprawled on the ground as if he might stop breathing at any moment, he pitifully stretched out a trembling hand toward them.
“W-water…”
Though they were strangers, the merchants couldn’t ignore the shaking hand.
Figuring they might as well save a life, they hurried over and pressed a leather waterskin to his lips.
Gluuuug—.
Yuri gulped it down so desperately that the waterskin shriveled in an instant.
“Gaaah!”
He belched loudly after draining it dry.
With moist eyes, he tightly grasped one merchant’s hand.
“Y-you’ll be blessed.”
“A-are you alright, lad?”
“I-I’m fine. More importantly… how long does it take to get from here to Chrom Port?”
“Chrom? Hmm… on foot, about four days.”
“Four days…”
Yuri’s face stiffened slightly at the mention of four days.
Watching him, Johann let out a cackling laugh.
“What? Think you can’t make it? Planning to quit here? Not a bad idea.”
“……”
“Tsk, tsk. I must’ve misjudged you. What’s the point of living if you can’t even overcome something this trivial?”
“……”
“Oh dear, when will this halfwit ever become a proper man?”
“Ghk!”
“You might as well give up and die. It’d be easier for both of us. If you’re going to quit, hurry up about it. I don’t want to waste my time.”
Watching Johann crouch on the cart, snickering, veins bulged across Yuri’s forehead.
“You damned…”
Grinding his teeth, Yuri forced himself to his feet.
“Th-thank you for the water.”
He gave the merchants a brief nod and grabbed the cart’s handles.
Zkkiiiik—.
The cart shrieked again as it began moving forward.
Staggering, slow.
Yuri carefully guided it down the steep slope.
After the uproar passed—
“…What in the world was that?”
“Y-Indeed…”
The two merchants simply stared blankly at Yuri’s retreating figure.
Meanwhile.
Huff— huff—.
Descending the hill with hot breaths spilling from his nose, Yuri clenched his teeth.
‘Damn it…’
This wasn’t right.
No matter how many times he thought about it, it just didn’t feel right.
But he couldn’t complain to anyone.
This was all his own doing.
“Damn it…!”
The moment the curse left his lips, the hellish past three weeks replayed vividly in his mind.
He ran while pulling the cart. He walked while pulling it. When he rested, he rested leaning against it.
He even ate and drank while dragging it.
Sleep?
Only when he collapsed unconscious could he shut his eyes.
If anyone had seen him, they’d have said it wasn’t training—it was madness that ruined the body.
And they wouldn’t have been wrong.
Worse yet, Yuri’s body was already deteriorating due to his oversized soul.
Wouldn’t excessive physical training only make things worse?
But strangely—
‘What the hell… it’s working?’
He should have coughed blood and died by now.
Yet, astonishingly, his stamina was increasing day by day.
On the first day, he lasted less than two hours before vomiting and fainting. After waking, he’d drag the cart again, retching.
For the first few days, that was routine.
But gradually, the number of times he fainted decreased, and the time he could pull the cart increased.
By today, even climbing hills felt almost manageable.
‘Damn it… if only it didn’t work…’
Every day felt like dying, yet he could clearly feel not only his stamina but even his health improving.
It was bizarre.
‘I don’t know what that old man did, but this ridiculous cart-pulling is definitely helping me.’
Given that, what choice did he have?
He had to keep pulling.
Of course, beyond the effectiveness of the training, there was also his pride: “Would I really give up over something this trivial?!”
And so, despite the constant nagging from behind, Yuri kept pulling.
“Hey! I can see your legs trembling! Can’t you move faster? At this rate, when do you think you’ll reach Chrom?!”
“……”
“The balance of the human body starts with strong legs! And there’s nothing more important for a man than his lower body! Ahem!”
“I’m dying here… and you’re still spouting nonsense to dirty my ears?”
“Hey! It’s not nonsense! One day it’ll all become flesh and blood to you, so listen carefully!”
…Though he said he pulled silently, that wasn’t entirely true.
Yuri had tried many times to destroy the cart.
Physical pain? I can endure that if it makes me stronger. That’s my choice.
But—
There’s no way I’ll tolerate that cursed old man sitting comfortably and flapping his gums! I’d rather carry a boulder on my back than let him rest easy!
So he’d resolved to smash the cart.
Then at least the old man would have to walk until they got a new one.
He tried several times.
He took deliberately rough paths.
He “accidentally” tipped it.
He even secretly hurled large rocks at it.
But—
‘Damn it! Is this thing made of solid steel?! Why is it so sturdy?!’
Even a steel cart should’ve broken by now under that abuse.
Yet this rotten, ancient wooden cart didn’t even get scratched.
How did that make sense?
‘That old geezer definitely tampered with it. That has to be it!’
Otherwise, there was no way.
Creak—.
Grinding his teeth again—
“Hey! Did the cart-puller die? Even a maggot rolling along would be faster!”
Yuri erupted.
“AAAAAAH!”
His legs sped up with his scream.
Johann cheered gleefully.
“Oh! You’ve finally caught up to maggot speed! Faster! Faster!”
“You cuuuursed ooooold maaaaan!”
“Right back at you, brat!”
“Gaaaah!”
With a scream filled with agony, the rickety cart raced down the hill—
Toward the south, where the Cradle awaited.
Yuri opened his eyes.
A clear blue sky filled his vision.
‘I fainted again.’
After three weeks of this, even fainting and waking had become routine.
‘It’s still bright… so I must not have been out long.’
Lately, the time he remained unconscious had been getting shorter.
The last time, he’d woken up after barely an hour.
Common sense said a body pushed that far shouldn’t recover with such little rest.
Yet miraculously, each time he awoke, Yuri felt completely renewed.
Even now—before fainting, his limbs had felt weighed down with iron; now they felt light as feathers.
“Grrrah!”
Stretching wide, he looked at Johann, who lay idly in the cart, wiggling his feet.
‘That old geezer must be doing something to me while I’m out.’
Otherwise, this absurd recovery made no sense.
As Yuri narrowed his eyes suspiciously—
“If you’re awake, move. What are you doing lying around?”
The nagging came as reliably as ever.
Without thinking, Yuri hurried to grab the handles and pull.
He flinched at his own reflexive movement.
‘Ah… I’ve been conditioned.’
After three weeks, his body moved on its own.
A wave of sorrow rose within him.
But sorrow aside—
His body continued dragging the cart steadily.
After some time—
“How much do you know about martial mana arts?”
For the first time, Johann spoke of something other than useless nagging.
Something constructive.
Startled, Yuri stammered.
“Uh… I guess I know about as much as most people?”
“And what exactly is that?”
“Well, that martial mana arts developed rapidly after the ancient Easterners settled on this land… and that their knowledge blended with ancient techniques to form the foundation of what we use today?”
“So you’ve picked up bits here and there?”
“Yeah. I heard it from a retired mercenary once. I was a bit curious about it back then.”
“Oh? And what else did you learn?”
“That’s it.”
“……”
“He said if I wanted to hear more, I’d have to pay. So I quit.”
“Tsk.”
“Oh! He also said since it’s a martial art that uses mana, it’s hard to master—but if you do, you’ll never have trouble earning a living with a blade. Then he told me to hurry and bring money.”
“…You don’t know nearly as much as you think.”
“No?”
“You’re not wrong. But you’re not right either.”
“Then what is it?”
“Martial mana arts are the discipline of training the body while accumulating mana, rooted in proper martial theory. It also refers to any act of manifesting magical power through the body.”
“…Magical power?”
“Magical power is the measurable force produced by mana. One unit of magical power means producing one unit of force with one unit of mana.”
“So 100 magical power means one unit of mana producing 100 units of force?”
“Oh? Not bad.”
“…Who are you calling stupid?”
“If magical power is higher, one is generally stronger. Though it’s not the only measure, it’s widely used. At the Cradle you’re headed to—and even in official certification exams.”
Johann continued.
Even an untrained person could sometimes produce over 1 magical power using innate mana.
One needed at least 1,000 magical power to qualify for the official First Rank examination.
Mana measurement was costly—but graduates of the Cradle could measure theirs freely.
Listening to the basics of mana and magical power for the first time, Yuri focused deeply.
Then, unable to suppress a burning curiosity—
“So…”
He asked the most direct question anyone would.
“How much magical power do you have, old man?”
