"Come on, Soren! You're falling behind!"
Professor Thalia's voice rang out across the training grounds like a bell.
Soren gritted his teeth and forced his legs to move faster.
He was currently halfway through an obstacle course that looked like it had been designed by someone who hated human beings.
Rope walls, narrow beams, pits filled with traps, all of it strung together in a cruel line that demanded both strength and agility.
The class [Physical Conditioning & Endurance] was held outdoors in the crisp morning air.
The sky was clear, but Soren didn't have the energy to appreciate it.
His lungs burned, sweat glued his shirt to his back, and his arms ached from pulling himself over the last wall.
It was only the first period of the day.
'Why… did I think… this was a good idea…'
He had taken the class on Amelia's recommendation.
"You'll need it. Your body is weak," she had said.
At the time, he had accepted it.
He knew she was right; he needed a stronger body to keep up with everything else he was trying to juggle.
He just hadn't expected this.
When he first arrived at the training field that morning, his impression of Thalia had been… normal.
She was cheerful and friendly, her tone playful as she introduced herself.
"Good morning, everyone! I'm Professor Thalia," she had said with a bright smile. "This is Physical Conditioning & Endurance, but you can think of it as 'How Not To Die from Running Out of Breath in the Middle of a Fight.'"
Students laughed, relaxed by her easygoing manner.
Soren had thought, naively, that it might not be too bad.
Something similar to training with Amelia, or in other words, tough, but manageable.
Then introductions ended.
And hell began.
Now, his legs felt like lead as he landed from a jump and nearly stumbled.
"Are you alright, Soren?"
A familiar voice spoke from just ahead of him.
'Then there's this bastard…'
Soren lifted his head and glared weakly.
Alex was running the course at a steady pace, barely breathing hard.
His blonde hair was tied back, his uniform shirt rolled up to the elbows, a light sheen of sweat on his skin, making him look as if he had just warmed up.
Soren couldn't understand people like him.
"How… the hell… do you… do it…?" Soren panted, dragging himself over another low wall.
His breath came in short bursts.
Alex laughed.
"Well, to be honest," he said, effortlessly hopping over the same wall," I've been training since I was a kid. So this is nothing."
"It's unfair," Soren muttered.
Compared to his life on earth, filled with modelling, light gym work, and basic fitness, Alex's background was on a completely different level.
A knight-in-training from childhood, endless drills, exercising from dawn till dusk… it added up.
For someone like Soren, who had only recently started truly pushing his body, this course was almost lethal.
'I'm finally starting to understand Felix's jealousy…'
He forced himself onward, refusing to stop; his pride, though meager, wouldn't allow him to collapse halfway through the first class.
By the time he reached the final section and stumbled across the finishing line, his vision was faintly blurry.
He bent over, hands on knees, chest heaving.
"You're doing better than I expected, though," Alex commented.
Soren slowly turned his head and squinted.
"The hell is that supposed to mean…?" he managed.
Alex nodded toward the course behind them.
"For starters, you actually completed it."
Soren followed his gaze.
The obstacle course stretched behind them like a cruel maze.
Several students were still somewhere in the middle, struggling to get past certain sections. A few had already collapsed on the sidelines, groaning.
Soren realised, dimly, that he was standing closer to the front of the group than the back.
'...Huh.'
Sure, he felt half-dead, but he had finished.
He let himself tip backwards and collapse onto the ground, staring up at the sky.
The cold dirt against his back felt almost pleasant.
"Whatever," he muttered.
He closed his eyes for a brief, blissful moment of rest.
Then Thalia clapped her hands.
"Alright!" she called out. "Good work on the first run, everyone. Next, we'll be rerunning the course with weights applied. Form a line, and I'll hand each of you the load I deem appropriate."
Soren's eyes snapped open.
He stared at the sky for a second, expression blank.
"I want to die."
Next to him, Alex chuckled.
"Come on," he said, stepping into Soren's field of vision.
He extended a hand down toward him.
Soren looked at it.
There was a time, not too long ago, when an outstretched male hand would have made his throat tighten, and his body recoil, trauma tangled with instinct would have forced him back.
Now, his heart only gave a small, uneasy beat.
He exhaled once, then reached up.
The grip was firm and steady, pulling him up with ease.
For a moment, they were close, closer than he ever would have tolerated before the dungeon, before everything.
Nothing happened.
No flashbacks.
No nausea.
Just mild discomfort buried under physical exhaustion.
"Thanks," Soren said.
"Any time," Alex replied with a grin.
Soren released his hand and trudged toward the line forming in front of Thalia.
'...Guess I really did change a bit,' he thought, half dazed.
Even if it was only with Alex and Felix, it was still something.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
"I'm going to die…"
Soren lay sprawled across the cafeteria bench, his arms dangling over the sides, his head tilted back so he could stare blankly at the ceiling.
Everything hurt.
Muscles he hadn't even known existed were burning.
His legs felt like they were filled with sand, and his arms were trembling slightly just from holding his own weight up.
Around him, his friends sat at the table, eating their lunches.
Felix poked his tray with a fork and raised an eyebrow.
"Was it really that bad?" he asked.
Soren let out a small, hollow laugh.
"Was it that bad? Was it that bad?" he repeated, voice slightly unhinged.
Esper sipped her drink, watching him with amusement.
"Don't you still have more to do after lunch?" she asked.
The light in Soren's eyes went out.
"..."
"You broke him," Felix commented.
Soren stared at the ceiling tiles, wondering if he could somehow ascend through them and escape all responsibility.
It wasn't that he hated physical activity.
Back on Earth, he had gone to the gym to keep his body in shape; he had disliked it, calling it a waste of time, but he could handle it.
This was different.
Almost four nonstop hours of physical exertion.
First and second periods filled with [Physical Conditioning & Endurance] under Thalia's cheerful tyranny.
Then, immediately after, [Basic Weaponry & Stances], a practical class that had them drilling basic movements over and over until their arms screamed.
He glanced at the timetable in his mind.
And after lunch…
[Mana Control & Enhancement].
He wanted to cry.
"Why the hell did you shove them all into one day?" Felix demanded.
Soren's head snapped up slightly.
"I thought it would be easier!" he shot back, sounding deeply wronged. "If I keep all the physical stuff to one day, I can rest on the others!"
Felix just stared at him.
"...Soren," he said slowly, "you do realise that those classes are meant for knights… right?"
The words sank in like a stone dropped in water.
Soren blinked.
It was only then that he truly processed that fact.
The students in those classes weren't just random academy kids; most were Martial Studies majors, many from higher classes than his.
They had grown up training their bodies for combat.
Soren, meanwhile, was technically an Arcane Studies student with physical stats worse than some class E Martial Studies students.
He dropped his head back onto the bench.
"I'm a fucking idiot," he muttered.
He had assumed that the academy would adjust the difficulty to account for lower-class students; he had forgotten that the "minimum" for those courses was already far above what his body was used to.
"It'll be okay," Amelia said suddenly.
Soren shot up at her words, ignoring the flare of pain in his muscles.
"And you!" he snapped, turning to face her.
He summoned his timetable from his inventory.
"What the hell is this?"
He jabbed his finger at the [Duelling] slot on Friday afternoon.
Amelia looked away, rolling her eyes slightly as if she had no idea what he was talking about.
Soren stared at her.
He wasn't that stupid.
"Pfft," Esper let out, unable to hold back a laugh.
Olivia pressed a hand to her mouth, shoulders shaking slightly, while Alex tried to hide his smile behind his cup.
Felix smirked, clearly enjoying the show.
Soren's gaze didn't move.
"..."
Amelia continued to avert her eyes.
"..."
Silence stretched for a few long seconds.
Finally, she cracked.
"It'll help you…" she whispered.
Soren didn't respond.
"You can learn a lot from it," she added, still avoiding his gaze. "Your fundamentals in real combat are bad. You rely too much on instinct and surprise. Duelling will fix that."
"..."
He kept staring.
"...I'm sorry," she finally said.
The apology was small but sincere.
Soren held the stare for a moment longer, then exhaled deeply and let his body flop back down onto the bench.
"Asshole," he mumbled as he closed his eyes.
Felix chuckled.
"Sounds like you're having so much fun," he said dryly.
"My hubby is strong," Esper added, leaning forward with a grin. "He'll manage, right?"
Soren ignored both of them.
He let his thoughts drift, matching the slow burn of his muscles.
The cafeteria was filled with noise, cutlery clinking, people talking, chairs moving, but it all felt like it was happening far away.
He could feel the edge of exhaustion tugging at his consciousness, trying to drag him under.
Then, suddenly, his head lifted.
"...Huh?"
He blinked his eyes open as the world tilted for a moment.
Something soft pressed against the back of his head.
The hard wood of the bench disappeared, replaced by warmth.
His field of view shifted to the side, and when his vision refocused, all he could see directly in front of him was fabric.
White shirt.
The rise and fall of someone's breathing.
He rolled his eyes up.
Amelia's face hovered above him, closer than usual; she looked down at him with her usual relaxed expression, though there was a small smile at the corner of her lips.
She had shifted closer and gently pulled his head onto her lap.
One of her hands was resting in his hair, fingers lightly threading through it, stroking from crown to nape in slow, steady motions.
'...This again.'
Soren let out a small sigh.
"This won't make me forgive you," he muttered.
Amelia's hand paused for half a second, then resumed the same gentle rhythm.
"Sorry," she said.
Her voice was quiet, but there was a hint of amusement there.
She knew that his words didn't match his actions.
If he truly hadn't forgiven her, he would have pulled away already.
But he didn't.
The others at the table watched the scene with mixed expressions.
Soren let their reactions fade into the background.
The steady motion of Amelia's fingers through his hair was calming.
The aches in his body didn't vanish, but they seemed to dull slightly.
The bench under his back felt less like a board and more like somewhere he could actually rest for a moment.
His eyelids grew heavier.
'Just for a bit…'
He listened to the muffled sound of the cafeteria, to Amelia's quiet breathing above him.
Slowly, without even realising it, his thoughts blurred at the edges and slipped away.
Soren drifted off to sleep on Amelia's lap.
————「❤︎」————