Chapter 36
Time moved quickly.
Training during the day.
Cultivation at night.
From the outside...
Every day looked exactly like the previous one.
But beneath that routine...
Everything was changing.
"Three people from Section Nine reached Two-Star yesterday."
"Our section has thirty-two now."
"More than half."
The number of trainees reaching Two-Star steadily increased.
Eventually...
It passed two hundred.
A number impossible to imagine only one month earlier.
One cultivation formula had changed the entire training facility.
However...
This is where the problem starts.
Theron sat inside the cultivation room at night, counting the reports from each section.
His expression was not entirely pleased.
Once the number crossed two hundred...
Progress slowed dramatically.
Everyone who could advance easily...
Already had.
The remaining trainees...
Were those standing at the bottom edge of talent.
Even with the improved formula...
They kept slipping against the wall.
It was not because they lacked effort.
If anything...
Those children sacrificed more sleep than everyone else.
But a wall did not open merely because someone knocked often enough.
Theron remembered Miro from the meal line several days earlier.
"It feels like I'm almost there..."
The small boy had looked exhausted.
"But at the final moment..."
"Something just suddenly blocks me."
Miro reportedly cultivated twice as long as most.
Yet his name still had not entered the Two-Star list.
And he was not alone.
Nearly half the remaining trainees were the same.
How many can cross in the remaining time?
That number...
Would become the number of people capable of crossing the sea alive.
Theron crushed the growing weight in his chest through cultivation.
Every night...
He released and withdrew his black Aura.
Manifestation to suppression.
One breath.
Then another.
His unstable Aura gradually took complete form.
The atmosphere of the facility finally changed completely several days later.
"Attention all sections!"
"Beginning today..."
The morning announcement echoed.
"We are entering a special maintenance period!"
The entire training facility stirred.
"The Inspection Delegation arrives in two weeks."
"Until then, repair the training grounds, repaint the dormitories, and inspect all equipment."
"Understood?!"
The moment the words "Inspection Delegation" were spoken...
Even the instructors changed.
Men who looked like demons to trainees...
Lowered their voices around one another.
They became busy checking documents.
Training intensity noticeably decreased.
Meal quality subtly improved.
Fresh whitewash appeared over old walls.
A hell that had existed for decades...
Was decorating itself for guests.
"What exactly is this Inspection Delegation?"
"Why are the instructors acting like that?"
"I heard..."
Someone lowered his voice.
"Whenever the Inspection Delegation leaves..."
"Several trainees disappear."
"D-Disappear? Where?"
"If anyone knew that, it wouldn't be a rumor."
Dark whispers spread among the trainees.
The name created more fear than curiosity.
More anxiety than expectation.
And the person carrying that weight most heavily...
Was Berton.
The Head Instructor spent day after day pushing the instructors.
He personally inspected every corner of the facility.
He watched rehearsals for high-ranking trainees.
"The final demonstration will be Theron's."
Berton's voice was firm.
"Keep his condition perfect until then."
The greatest achievement of this generation...
Would be presented in the brightest place.
And the more effort Berton put into the inspection...
The more tightly surveillance closed around Theron.
Amid all that noise...
Theron quietly finished his calculations.
Two weeks.
The original two-month deadline...
Had somehow become two weeks.
Preparation was only half complete.
The Red Flame Herb remained inside the valley.
The ship had not arrived.
Not a single Death Sigil had been removed from another trainee.
And most importantly...
Theron still had no hands beside him truly carrying the plan.
...It's time.
That night...
Another folded note appeared inside Isaac's clothes.
Late night.
At the eastern edge of the facility...
Two boys faced each other atop a coastal cliff.
The sound of waves swallowed their voices.
"...What insane board is it this time?"
Isaac spoke first.
His tone sounded as casual as usual.
His eyes did not.
He already knew.
Theron would never summon him here in the middle of the night for something small.
Theron went directly to the point.
"I'm keeping my promise."
"...Promise?"
"I said I'd call you first the next time I planned something like this."
Isaac's eyebrow twitched.
"...Tell me."
Theron looked toward the sea.
"I'm leaving this island."
"..."
Then...
"Not alone."
His gaze turned toward Isaac.
"All four hundred of us."
Isaac froze.
"Two weeks from now..."
Theron continued.
"We're leaving on the ship carrying the Inspection Delegation."
Only the waves filled the cliff.
Isaac remained silent for a long time.
Not because he was wondering whether Theron was joking.
He had learned that Theron did not joke about things like this.
He simply needed time to swallow the size of what he had heard.
"...Ha."
Eventually...
Isaac exhaled.
"You know that's insane, right?"
"I know."
"Overturning one test is nothing compared to this."
Isaac's voice lowered.
"You're turning the entire island into our enemy."
"Every instructor."
"That snake of a Head Instructor."
"And..."
"The Inspection Delegation."
"I know."
"Fine."
Isaac frowned.
"Let's say we somehow steal the ship."
"Who's sailing it?"
"How many trainees here have ever even been on the sea?"
"The sailors who brought the ship will still be on it."
"...You're going to make them work?"
"At swordpoint?"
"I'll handle that."
Theron's answer came without hesitation.
"That's the final knot."
Isaac was speechless.
This insane bastard had clearly drawn and erased this entire night inside his head dozens of times already.
Then Isaac shook his head.
"No."
"Everyone has heard what happened to people who tried escaping."
"Those trainees who built a raft and went out to sea..."
Isaac spoke.
"Their bodies washed back ashore three days later."
"But they hadn't drowned."
He lowered his voice.
"No wounds."
"Every one of them died clutching their chest."
"Eyes wide open."
"..."
"The ones who tried swimming."
"The ones who hid inside supply ships."
"The same thing happened."
Isaac looked toward the black sea.
"Leave this island... and your heart stops."
Every trainee had heard that story.
The adults called it the island's curse.
The children feared it enough that most never even dreamed of the sea.
"I don't know if it's a curse or what."
Isaac continued.
"But one thing is certain."
"People who leave this island die."
Theron's answer completely broke what Isaac expected.
"It's not a curse."
"...What?"
"There is a reason."
Theron raised one finger and pointed directly toward Isaac's chest.
"Something was engraved onto your heart."
Isaac stared.
"...What are you talking about?"
"Death Sigil."
Theron's voice remained calm.
"A magical brand placed on the heart of every child brought to this island."
"It remains asleep under ordinary conditions."
"Then..."
His eyes became cold.
"The moment its owner gives the command, it destroys the heart."
Even the waves seemed to become distant.
Isaac stared at Theron's face.
He knew this was not a joke.
But the words themselves were almost impossible to accept seriously.
"...There's what inside my heart?"
"Do you remember when we were first taught the Mana Method?"
"When everyone gathered in the lobby."
"Of course."
Isaac frowned.
"Those bastards told us to memorize the whole thing in one day."
"Something they probably couldn't even do themselves."
Theron nodded.
"And the pill they gave us."
"The one they said would help improve mana."
Isaac's eyes slowly changed.
"That was the Death Sigil."
"...The Death Sigil?"
"The people who escaped died clutching their chests."
"The island walls are low."
"The instructors let hundreds of trainees move around without worrying about escape."
Theron's gaze darkened.
