Chapter 345: Just When I Thought the Interviews Were Over

“I-I’m exhausted……”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

I muttered with a heavy sense of fatigue and slumped onto the table in the reception room, now emptied of applicants. Esparda was organizing documents while offering words of appreciation, looking as cool and composed as ever. He is an iron man. Esparda No. 28. No, if there were twenty-eight Espardas, it would be so terrifying I’d probably cry. Let’s stop thinking about that.

My exhaustion led me to think about such trivial things as I stared blankly into the void. Ah, my body feels so heavy.

Around sunset, with that lethargic atmosphere hanging in the air, the door was flung open from the outside with great force.

“Lord Van, good work today!”

It was Dee. He entered the room wearing a magnificent smile that showed off his sparkling white teeth.

“Lord Van, since we have no time today, training will be for only one hour! But please, rest assured! I have devised a special training regimen so that this single hour will have the density of more than half a day’s worth! Put simply! We shall perform half a day’s worth of training all at once without splitting it up! You will exchange blows with me while running side-by-side! In a real battle, you cannot always fight in the same conditions as training, after all! Indeed, swinging your sword while running, blocking opponent’s attacks while running, and dodging! It is strange that I did not think of such a good training method sooner!”

Dee, who was in high spirits, started spouting something outrageous, causing Khamsin to knit his brows.

“Commander Dee. That is a bit……”

“Mumu!? Khamsin! Do you want to try it too!? Very well, then let us do it with the three of us!”

“Eh!?”

In the blink of an eye, the number of victims increased. However, no matter how I thought about it, the content of the training was insane. This was a matter of life and death.

“E-Esparda! We’re going to die, so please stop him!”

When I hurriedly pleaded with Esparda, he nodded deeply and spoke.

“Fumu…… Sir Dee. It is getting late, and we are short on time for what comes after this. Could you shorten it to about thirty minutes?”

When Esparda said that, Dee looked disappointed, but then he suddenly gasped as if realization struck.

“Mumu! In that case, how about exchanging blows while climbing a somewhat steep mountain……! Ooh, that might be a good idea!? Alright, now that it is decided, let us head out immediately!”

“Eh? W-While climbing a mountain, you say!?”

“That will definitely cause casualties……!”

Pale-faced, I questioned Dee’s sudden idea, but only his usual hearty laughter came back in response.

“Wahahahaha! Alriiight! Things are getting interesting!”

As a result, Khamsin and I were hauled away by Dee, who was grinning and showing his teeth. Till and Arte were flustered, but there was no way they could stop him.

“Now, we have arrived! First, I shall have the two of you run ahead, and I will chase after you!”

“……Eh?”

The place Dee brought us to was, unexpectedly, something like a rock-climbing spot. No, it was a slope that could technically be called mountain climbing, though a very intense one. However, there were rocks clearly larger than Dee scattered all over, and it looked like it would be extremely difficult to advance while climbing over them.

“Eh? We’re climbing this?”

I asked back, but Dee simply nodded, showing his white teeth.

“……Lord Van, let’s do this seriously. If we don’t give it our all, Commander Dee is going to catch us.”

“……Just running here makes me want to believe this is a lie.”

As I was having that conversation with Khamsin, Dee closed his eyes, crossed his arms, and began counting.

“One, two, three……”

“What!? What is that count!?”

“H-Here I go!”

While I was surprised that Dee suddenly started counting, Khamsin kicked off the ground with cold sweat running down his face. He was fast. It shows that he does three times more training than I do every day.

“W-Wait, Khamsin! Don’t leave me behind!”

“I’m sorry! But I think he will go easy on you, Lord Van!”

Khamsin shouted that apologetically as he skillfully found footholds that looked easy to run on and dashed up the slope. Watching him climb the mountain by repeatedly jumping like an alpine goat, I genuinely thought, This is bad. No matter how I looked at it, I wouldn’t be able to catch up to Khamsin. However, Dee would undoubtedly surpass even this.

“R-Right! If I run while setting traps or something……!”

Desperate, I, Van, started running while thinking of things that definitely didn’t belong in swordsmanship training. Behind me, there was the figure of Dee, energetically counting.

“A-A cage……! No, a wall! If I create a wall that can’t be climbed!”

I ran while desperately racking my brain.