Chapter 7. Midnight

“Haa… I’m dying…”

As soon as I arrived home, I collapsed face-down on the bed and only moved my eyeballs to look out the window. Without exaggeration, I couldn’t move a single finger.

“Crazy bastard. Cruel bastard…”

It was already pitch-dark night.

That Johann who made me run until this hour was truly someone who couldn’t be called human.

How can he act so cruelly with a smiling face?

A guy without an ounce of empathy. A perverted bastard who gets a thrill from seeing others suffer.

I muttered the curses I had swallowed all day like a madwoman.

I thought I’d be treated preciously since purifiers are rare, even if it meant dying… I never imagined reality would be this harsh…

Well.

If you think about it a little, it was a natural principle.

How strong would a hero be who is revered by people? And how many trials and tribulations would they have gone through to become that strong?

So this sandbag training now was the entrance to that harsh path.

Damn it!

I didn’t want to live this diligently!

But for now, I had no choice but to do as I was told.

I was too weak now to stand at the forefront of war. Honestly, the ghouls that Seraphina faced in my memories didn’t seem that scary, but anyway, I couldn’t quite imagine what it would feel like to stand on the front lines.

It’s true that I need to build a lot of stamina.

‘Still, I’d rather they train me in purification…’

Until I went to the imperial palace today, I had no idea that such hellish physical training was waiting for me. Not to mention, tomorrow I had to get up even earlier and run to the palace.

What if I can’t get up tomorrow…

Surely they won’t execute me…

Ah, whatever.

‘I’ve been running in the scorching sun since noon, so I smell…’

Amidst all this, I thought I should take a shower.

My mind wanted to get up and head to the bathroom, but my body wouldn’t budge an inch, like a water-logged cotton. My eyelids closed involuntarily, regardless of my will.

My consciousness cut off just like that.

I slept deeply without even dreaming.

* * *

“Ugh…”

My whole body felt like it had been hammered.

I was startled by the metallic scraping sound coming from my mouth.

“What is this… Is this a human voice…”

It sounded like some monster growling.

In the strange sensation of my entire body turning to powder and separating, I surprisingly woke up early in the morning without being late.

“Ah, I’m going crazy. I’m really struggling. For real.”

Even though there was no one to hear, my desire to complain was so strong that I ended up talking to myself.

I tried to raise my body but felt the heavy weight constricting my wrists and ankles, and slumped back down.

These damn sandbags.

Come to think of it, I slept without even washing yesterday.

I didn’t even change my clothes.

My body smelled unpleasant, but I didn’t feel like getting up to wash right away. Instead, I was faced with a dilemma.

Should I lie down a bit longer since I’m going to sweat soon anyway, or should I wash at least once?

As I wavered like that, time passed.

I automatically lost my options.

“Damn. I have to get up now.”

I checked the time and raised my body that felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

I barely managed to get ready and was about to leave the house when I saw Marc standing in front of the door.

“Ah! Sera!”

“Marc? What are you doing here at this hour?”

“Well, I was just…”

What do you mean ‘just’?

As I looked at him suspiciously, Marc scratched his head and mumbled an answer.

“You said you were training at the palace starting yesterday. So I wanted to ask how it went over a beer in the evening, but you weren’t home.”

He glanced at my face and continued.

“I was worried if you had come back in the morning…”

This guy.

He’s always so delicate despite his rugged appearance.

I grinned and patted his shoulder.

“The training was really tough. I got home around midnight.”

“What! How can they do that on the first day?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

Then I lifted both arms to show him. Marc’s brow furrowed as he noticed the sandbags.

This time I alternately lifted each leg. His expression turned to near shock.

“No way! How can they do this to someone as frail as you…”

“A purifier has to stand at the forefront of war, so.”

“That’s…”

…but still.

I could clearly see him swallowing the rest of his words.

Marc pressed his lips together with a displeased expression, then burst out complaining the next moment.

“Even so, this is too much.”

Thud. Thud thud.

As he spoke, he quickly unfastened the sandbags attached to my arms and legs. It happened so fast that I was surprised and exclaimed.

“Marc! I’ll die if you take these off!”

“How would they know if there’s no one watching you?”

“Huh…?”

Is that so?

As I stuttered, caught off guard by this unexpected point, Marc continued.

“From the looks of it, your whole body seems to be suffering from muscle pain. Can’t you just put on the sandbags right before entering the palace?”

“Are you a genius?”

No, I think I might be a fool.

I thought I had to follow the Emperor’s orders unconditionally without thinking.

This smart Marc!

I smiled, feeling better.

“Then shall we jog slowly?”

“…To the palace?”

Marc asked incredulously.

Only then did I tell him that I had to run for four hours to get to the palace. That bastard Jesuf lied about it taking three hours without even knowing how to properly assess a person’s physical condition.

Sigh…

Thinking about it again, I felt cheated and was angry about everything from start to finish.

Still, Marc coming to check on me this morning was lucky for me.

Clop clop clop.

A moment later, I was sitting on a horse that Marc was riding. Marc’s arms holding the reins on either side of me acted as sturdy supports.

“Urgh…”

“Are you okay?”

Still, the bumpy ride was unavoidable.

“It feels like my butt is going to separate from my waist.”

“…Want to just run instead?”

I shook my head at his worried voice. Having just my butt separate was better than my entire body falling apart.

Understanding my condition, a small ‘Alright’ was heard from behind. Soon after, I could feel him taking deep breaths through our touching backs.

I turned my head back and asked.

“Marc, what’s wrong? Are you out of breath?”

“Huh? No, it’s nothing.”

As he said this, he awkwardly held his breath, then turned his head and exhaled with a ‘Phew.’

“……”

Only then did I grasp the situation.

Ah, this is unnecessarily embarrassing.

Maybe I should have washed my hair before coming out. Tsk.

* * *

In novels, the male leads often discover the female lead’s hidden secrets through their remarkably outstanding abilities, meticulousness, or by chance.

It was the same in this book I was possessing.

[…was a fatal weakness for her, but she tried to hide it with a noble heart. Even if this secret were to be revealed to the world, it would only tie Aveline’s hands and feet. Even now, because of the men surrounding her, she couldn’t fully run to where she was needed…

But she didn’t know. That the heroes already had an inkling of what her secret was. That they suspected it might be the same weakness as Seraphina’s, who died in the Battle of Agulena.]

Like this, there was no use in hiding anything from the male leads.

So I was secretly nervous.

If I don’t wear the sandbags and don’t run from home, would I get caught?

But that was an unnecessary worry.

I wasn’t the female lead but an extra, so I wasn’t receiving obsessive attention from the male leads, and all their nerves weren’t focused on me.

Besides, I hadn’t even met two of the three male lead candidates yet.

Anyway, I confirmed that this level of secret could be kept without being discovered.

I sat in an alley a fair distance from the palace, chatting with Marc, then killed some time before attaching the sandbags to my hands and feet. Then I ran around the area a few times to work up a sweat.

“How is it?”

“It’s enough. You look like you’ve run all the way from home.”

“Yeah.”

It wasn’t particularly nice praise, but it was what I needed to hear right now.

I said goodbye to Marc with my breath appropriately labored and headed towards the palace’s main gate. Fortunately, neither Jesuf nor Johann were waiting in front like yesterday.

I guess they meant for me to come to the garden in front of the Imperial Palace on my own.

Having perfectly grasped their intentions, I greeted the guard.

“Hello.”

“You’ve worked hard, Miss Seraphina.”

Looks like the news of my training has spread even here.

One, two, one, two.

Chanting inwardly, I jogged to the garden where I had run in circles yesterday. Anyway, the palace was unnecessarily large, so it took quite a while to get from the main gate to the Imperial Palace.

“You’re not late.”

When I arrived at the garden, I saw Johann sitting leisurely on a bench, reading a book. He spoke without even raising his head, hearing my panting breath.

For some reason, Jesuf wasn’t around.

“Hehe. I woke up early in the morning.”

“You must be tired.”

Johann slowly raised his eyes. And at his next words, I froze like ice.

“I heard you arrived close to midnight.”