Chapter 38
One hour had passed since the lights-out bell.
Behind the main building's supply warehouse...
Two shadows sat facing each other in darkness untouched by moonlight.
"I'll start with the conclusion."
Theron spoke quietly.
"You can't avoid the examination."
"It covers every trainee."
"If you pretend to be sick..."
"The medical officer will simply come to your bed."
"Then what?"
Isaac frowned.
"You didn't drag me out here at night just to tell me we're finished."
"There is a way."
Theron lightly tapped his own chest.
"I still have a Death Sigil."
"...What?"
Isaac's brow furrowed.
"You said you removed it."
"You said the Blood Jade Fruit burned yours away."
"Just like mine."
"It burned the real one."
Theron's voice remained calm.
"What I have now is fake."
"A replica Death Sigil made from mana."
"If someone only brushes over the outer texture..."
He looked at Isaac.
"They can't tell it from the real thing."
Isaac stared at him.
Then slowly understood.
Theron had once told him he survived a similar examination.
At the time...
Isaac had barely thought about what that meant.
"...So you're telling me to make one too?"
"Yes."
"You're insane."
Isaac almost laughed.
"I've never learned how to sculpt mana like that."
"You don't need to learn."
Theron answered.
"You already know."
"Know what?"
"The texture."
Theron glanced toward Isaac's chest.
"You carried it around your heart for years."
"And several nights ago..."
"You burned it away one strand at a time."
"You told me you'd never forget the feeling."
"That it was burned into your body."
"..."
"Then reproduce what your body remembers."
Theron explained.
"You're not the type to memorize through theory."
"You move according to instinct."
"What temperature did it have?"
"Where did it hide?"
"How did it cling to the heart?"
Theron's eyes narrowed.
"Your body remembers all of it."
Isaac opened his mouth to argue.
Then closed it.
He did remember.
Far too clearly.
That cold, sticky texture behind each heartbeat...
Sometimes he could still almost feel its ghost around his heart.
"...Fine."
Isaac pushed his hair back and leaned against the wall.
"Let's do it."
"Because if I can't..."
"We're all finished anyway."
The first night was a disaster.
"Dead."
Theron traced the mana membrane Isaac had formed around his heart.
Then gave the judgment.
"This is just a lump of mana."
"It's not a Death Sigil."
"...What's the difference?"
"Temperature."
Theron placed a hand over his own chest.
"The Death Sigil is cold."
"And it doesn't breathe."
Isaac frowned.
"Mana is alive."
"It moves slightly with its owner's breathing and heartbeat."
"But a Death Sigil is dead."
"No matter how the heart beats..."
"It remains completely still."
Theron pointed at him.
"What you made moves every time you breathe."
"...This is bullshit."
The second night...
Was not much better.
"It's still warm."
"It didn't move this time."
"You killed the movement."
Theron nodded.
"But not the warmth."
"The moment the medical officer's mana touches it..."
"The temperature will expose it."
"Damn it..."
Isaac scratched the back of his head in frustration.
Removing warmth from mana...
Was like removing breath from one's own breathing.
Using something living...
To imitate something dead.
Simple words.
An enormous difference.
Even after sacrificing entire nights...
The gap barely narrowed.
"At this rate..."
Isaac groaned.
"I'd be better off getting food poisoning on examination day."
"If you want to be carried into the infirmary and examined more thoroughly..."
Theron shrugged.
"Go ahead."
"...I was joking."
Isaac closed his eyes again.
Theron looked calm.
But time was leaking away inside him like sand.
The moment Isaac was exposed...
The investigation would reach the plan before half a day passed.
Nearly four hundred lives...
Now rested on one boy's fingertips.
Then...
On the third night...
Isaac changed his approach.
He stopped trying to create the Sigil.
Instead...
He remembered it.
The night the Red Flame Herb burned his heart.
The sensation of the final strand stubbornly clinging before it snapped.
Cold.
Attached directly beside his heart...
Yet never once warmed by it.
A completely foreign chill.
Isaac poured mana into that memory.
He did not carve a shape.
He used memory itself as a mold...
Then let mana enter and harden.
"..."
Theron sent out a thin probing strand.
This time...
He remained silent for a long time.
Across the surface of Isaac's heart.
Into the shadow behind each beat.
Again.
Again.
Finally...
Theron withdrew his probe.
For the first time...
He smiled faintly.
"I can't find it."
"...What?"
"Even though I know it's fake..."
Theron looked impressed.
"I can't tell where the imitation begins."
Isaac collapsed backward on the floor and released a huge breath.
"Haaaaah..."
"This is killing me."
"One more thing."
Theron raised a finger.
"During the examination..."
"Maintain it while breathing normally."
"If you get nervous and your heart speeds up..."
"The texture may shake."
He continued.
"And medical officers read faces before they read hearts."
Isaac looked toward the ceiling.
"Faces."
"The examination will probably take two or three minutes at most."
Theron explained.
"During that time..."
"Look as bored as humanly possible."
Isaac grinned.
"That part I can do."
He sighed.
"Being bored is what I've practiced most on this island."
The night before the examination...
They performed one final test.
Without warning...
Theron grabbed Isaac's shoulder.
Then immediately sent probing mana inside him.
"Hey!"
"The medical officer won't give you time to prepare."
Isaac's heartbeat jumped.
But the texture lying over his heart...
Did not move.
Cold.
Dead.
Theron withdrew his mana.
"Good."
He nodded.
"Your heart is on your side now."
"Stop playing around with people's hearts."
Isaac rubbed his chest and glared.
But a faint smile had appeared on his lips.
The line outside the infirmary on examination day...
Was longer than the meal line.
"Hey, is it true that a good result increases your meal grade?"
"They're reporting it to the Inspection Delegation."
"So being healthier has to be better, right?"
The children joked nervously.
Miro stood around the middle of the line, constantly fixing his clothes.
"No need to be nervous."
Theron spoke while passing.
"They're only checking your condition."
Miro smiled and nodded.
"Yeah."
"I've been eating better lately."
"I'm confident."
Something about that answer felt sad.
Theron watched the small back for a moment.
That child also had a leash around his heart.
He simply did not know.
...Please succeed, Miro.
That was all Theron could wish.
The line moved faster than expected.
The examination was simple.
Height.
Body condition.
Scars.
Missing limbs or injuries.
Then the medical officer placed a hand over the chest and examined the mana channels.
For most trainees...
That truly was all.
They had no reason to create fake Death Sigils.
Miro finished first.
He waved excitedly from far away.
"Theron!"
"They said I'm healthy!"
"My meal grade went up too!"
"Good."
Food was power on this island.
His happiness was natural.
Theron raised a hand in response.
Then...
"Next."
Isaac's turn.
The infirmary smelled of herbs and ink.
The middle-aged medical officer did not even look up from his document.
He pointed toward the bed.
Isaac removed his shirt and sat.
A cold palm pressed against his chest.
Something thin...
Slid beneath his skin.
...Here it comes.
Isaac kept his breathing steady.
Over his heart...
The fake leash he had created across three nights rested as still as death.
The probing mana traced the shadow of each heartbeat.
Then moved behind it.
Then...
Stopped.
One breath.
Two.
The medical officer's brow narrowed slightly.
"...Have you had a fever recently?"
Isaac's heart seemed to drop.
But his face looked unbearably bored.
"Not a fever."
"I exhausted myself during training a while ago and felt sick for several days."
The medical officer kept examining.
"Your mana channels show traces of intense heat."
"...Maybe that's from then."
"I was sick all night."
The medical officer raised his head.
He studied Isaac's face.
Nothing but boredom and mild annoyance.
"...Take better care of yourself."
He withdrew his hand.
"Next."
Isaac dressed.
Then walked out with his normal pace.
No one except him knew...
His back was soaked in sweat.
"Next."
The medical officer checked the list.
"...Theron."
Theron sat on the bed.
Then noticed someone else standing in the shadows of the infirmary.
The Executioner.
A man who should have had nothing to do with a medical examination...
Watching with folded arms.
...So that's what this is.
Theron almost laughed internally.
The grand net called "every trainee examination"...
Had probably been aimed at him from the beginning.
The same people who had searched his admission records...
Now wanted to look directly inside his body.
The medical officer placed a palm over Theron's chest.
This examination lasted much longer.
More persistent.
The probing mana repeatedly traced the texture behind Theron's heartbeat.
Then even tested the edges like someone pulling at loose threads.
They were clearly determined to discover where Theron's abnormal strength came from.
Theron felt all of it.
Yet his eyes remained casually fixed on empty space.
The fake Death Sigil remained perfect.
His Four-Star realm...
Completely hidden.
There's nothing you can find.
In his previous life...
Theron had reached Seven-Star.
Some medical officer responsible for trainees...
Had no chance of exposing him.
Eventually...
The man withdrew his hand.
Then gave a small nod toward the Executioner in the shadows.
"No abnormalities."
Everyone in the room understood what that nod meant.
"..."
The Executioner never spoke.
He merely stepped away from the wall and glanced once toward Theron.
Theron bowed politely.
Inside...
His calculations were completely different.
The suspicion still exists.
But today, they erased one piece of evidence from their minds.
One day...
They would discover exactly how expensive that mistake had been.
That evening.
Assembly.
The Executioner's announcement was short.
And heavy.
"Attention."
"The arrival schedule of the Inspection Delegation has been finalized."
Before the murmurs could spread...
He continued.
"Fifteen days."
"Until then, every section will continue preparing the dormitories and training grounds."
"Today's examination and evaluation results will be reported to the Inspection Delegation in full."
"That is all."
The moment assembly ended...
Excited voices broke out.
"Fifteen days!"
"So if we survive another fifteen days, we'll finally get meat?"
"I heard training gets cut in half during inspections!"
Children counted days with their own expectations.
Among them...
Theron and Isaac's gazes briefly met.
No words were needed.
Fifteen days.
To most children...
It was simply the time until better meals arrived.
To the instructors...
Preparation time to display Hell Island's achievements.
But to Theron and Isaac...
It was the amount of time remaining before nearly four hundred lives were placed on the table.
That night...
Shortly before lights-out...
Isaac pulled a folded paper from his clothes.
"The thing you asked for."
A list organized by section.
Beside each name...
Small circles and crosses.
While cultivating together...
While sparring...
While meeting in meal lines...
Isaac had used his instincts to evaluate each person.
"Circle means they've passed Two-Star or are right at the threshold."
Theron studied the page in darkness.
His eyesight, sharpened in his previous life, missed nothing.
There were many crosses.
Far more than circles.
"...Around one hundred seventy."
Theron quietly counted.
"Even if everyone at the threshold advances..."
"We may barely reach two hundred."
"..."
"Fifteen days."
Theron's voice hardened.
"Until then..."
"Turn every cross you can into a circle."
Isaac nodded.
"What about the Red Flame Herb?"
"For four hundred people, that's going to be a huge load."
"If you pick it..."
"The heat fades within three or four days."
Theron looked briefly toward the southwest.
"There's no point collecting it early."
"We move right before the operation."
"The valley has more than enough."
Isaac understood.
"The problem isn't quantity."
"It's time."
"As always."
"Exactly."
Theron folded the list.
One line carried Miro's name.
A cross remained beside it.
"Can we do this?"
Isaac asked.
Theron looked toward the night sky.
He knew how children from this island disappeared in his previous life.
This time...
He had come this far to reduce that number by even one.
"It's not about whether we can."
Theron started walking.
His voice was low.
"It's something we have to do."
Fifteen days.
Hell Island's final season...
Had begun.
