Published: January 17, 2026
“Ugh, I’m so tired…”
“Good work.”
Muttering with a heavy sense of fatigue, I collapsed face-down on the table in the reception room, now empty of volunteers. Espada, with a calm expression, offered words of encouragement while organizing some documents. A steel man. Espada Number Twenty-Eight. No, if there really were twenty-eight Espadas, that would be terrifying enough to make me cry. Better stop thinking about that.
Lost in such trivial thoughts born from exhaustion, I zoned out, staring blankly into space. Ah, my body feels so sluggish.
At dusk, when that lazy atmosphere lingered, the door suddenly swung open with force.
“Lord Van, good work!”
It was Dee who appeared, entering the room with a dazzling smile, his white teeth gleaming.
“Lord Van, today we don’t have much time, so training will last only one hour! But don't worry! I’ve devised a special training that packs more than half a day’s worth of intensity into that one hour! And that is precisely this: instead of dividing the half-day training into parts, we’ll do it all at once! While running, I’ll run alongside you and we’ll duel with swords! In actual combat, you can’t always expect to fight under the same conditions as training! So, we swing swords while running, block and dodge attacks while running! It’s strange we didn’t come up with such an excellent training method sooner!”
Dee was in high spirits, saying something outrageous, while Kamushin frowned.
“Chief Dee, surely that’s…”
“Hmm!? Kamushin! You want to try it too!? Alright, then let’s do it with the three of us!”
“What!?”
The number of victims increased in an instant. But honestly, the content of this training was absurd. This was a matter of life and death.
“E-Espada! Please stop this, or someone’s going to die!”
I hurriedly pleaded with Espada. He nodded deeply before speaking.
“Hmm… Rear Guard Dee, it’s late today, and we don’t have enough time afterward either. Could you shorten it to about thirty minutes?”
Upon hearing this, Dee looked disappointed but then suddenly brightened.
“Hmm! In that case, how about climbing a somewhat steep mountain while dueling with swords?! Oh, that might be a good idea! Well then, let’s head there at once!”
“Wha? C-Climbing a mountain while… what!?”
“That would surely kill someone…!”
I asked, pale-faced at Dee’s idea, but his usual hearty laugh answered me.
“Wahahahaha! Alright! This is getting interesting!”
As a result, with Dee flashing his teeth in a smile, Kamushin and I were dragged along. Til and Arte looked flustered but there was no way to stop us.
“Alright, we’ve arrived! First, you two run ahead, and then I’ll chase after you!”
“...Huh?”
The place Dee led us to was, shockingly, like a rock climbing spot. Well, it’s a pretty intense slope, but you could call it mountain climbing. However, there were clearly larger rocks scattered around than Dee himself, and overcoming them while moving forward looked tough.
“W-What? We’re climbing here?”
I asked again, but Dee just nodded, flashing his white teeth.
“...Lord Van, we have to do this seriously. If we don’t give it our all, Chief Dee will catch up to us.”
“…Just running here already feels impossible to believe.”
While having this conversation with Kamushin, Dee closed his eyes, crossed his arms, and began counting.
“One, two, three…”
“What!? What’s that count for!?”
“G-Going now!”
Surprised by Dee suddenly counting out loud, Kamushin wiped his cold sweat and pushed off the ground. Fast. Training three times more intensely than me every day shows.
“Hey, Kamushin! Don’t leave me behind!”
“Sorry! But I think Chief Dee will go easy on Lord Van!”
Kamushin shouted apologetically as he skillfully found footing to run up the slope. Watching him jump repeatedly like a mountain goat living high up the peaks, I honestly thought this was bad. There was no way I could catch him. But Dee would surely be even faster than Kamushin.