Chapter 10

  ANFIELD

  {Rafinya Saint-Pauli}

  The end of the first term was piling up with increasing workload and complexity. There were new tasks nearly every day, and Dan had to carefully schedule his life in order to make time for his search for Casca.

  After Professor McClaff’s class, the scene shifted to the Sheffield Library—where Dan and Nora routinely came to study. But today was different. Dan wasn’t focused on schoolwork. In front of him was a large map of the surrounding Artheris region, spread wide across the table.

  Nora arrived, holding her books. She paused at the sight, then approached.

  “Mr. Dan, what’s all this?”

  “Tuesday morning is geography class. I figured I’d skip it. Gonna do some scouting around where I live.”

  Since he had knight training early that day, once it ended, he planned to bail.

  “It’s something I should’ve done a long time ago. I need to understand my surroundings. If there’s ever an emergency and I have to abandon the house, I’ll need natural escape routes.”

  “You’re going to cover that entire field, Mr. Fury? It’s massive.”

  “Maybe I’ll skip the afternoon class too. I’ll just have you tutor me later.”

  Dan usually referred to the area around his camp as a wasteland, old battlefield, cursed woods, or something equally dramatic.

  But when he opened a detailed campus map, he finally saw the area’s actual name:

  Anfield.

  “Anfield was a battlefield during the civil war three hundred years ago… so that’s why they say it’s haunted, huh?”

  Nora didn’t know the details, but nodded thoughtfully.

  “You should watch out for leftover landmines, Mr. Fury.”

  Dan carefully traced and copied the map onto paper, then folded it into his jacket pocket.

  “Mr. Fury… by the way…”

  “Hmm?”

  “What will you do if you don’t find Ms. Casca within a year?”

  Dan looked up, locking eyes with Princess Nora.

  “I’ll keep searching. I’ve already gone into debt for this.”

  “So… that means you’ll be in Year Two with me.”

  “Looks like it. Hopefully not.”

  Nora nodded—then Dan countered with a question of his own.

  “What about you? What track are you aiming for? I’ve seen you in everything—knight training, magic classes, engineering labs. Is there anything you can’t do?”

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  “I think I’m going to dual-major, Mr. Fury.”

  “Dual?”

  “It’s allowed, you know.”

  For students who excelled at everything, dual-tracking was a viable option. Gifted students often pursued it.

  Master everything, win everything. If you think you can, why not? Even Casca Saint-Maximin had done both knight and magic tracks.

  “Huh…”

  The scene faded into after-school hours.

  Dan couldn’t shake the idea of dual-majoring. For someone who constantly turned things over in his head, the thought lingered.

  He knew how vital technology was to human society. The prince fully understood its importance.

  “What do you think about dual-majoring in knight training and magical engineering?”

  “Huh?”

  Zeedee, who was in the middle of packing her textbooks, snapped her head around.

  “Your Highness, what are you even talking about?”

  “Hmm…”

  Dan was staring up at a painted mural on the classroom ceiling, pencil resting behind his ear.

  “Dual major sounds interesting. Since I’ve come this far… my science scores aren’t too bad. I think I could manage it.”

  “What did you take this morning?!”

  “Never mind. I’ll think about it later. Let’s go home, Zeedee. I’ve got training in the morning.”

  —

  Tuesday.

  The start of Prince Fury’s intensifying schedule had arrived.

  As instructed by Professor Foden, Dan showed up at the training hall at 5 a.m.—alongside Rafinya Saint-Pauli.

  She was around the same age as Nora—and just as tall, meaning taller than Dan. Somehow, Rafinya looked perfect, like someone who hadn’t just woken up before dawn.

  Her sharp and beautiful features bore the pride of her lineage without question. She and Dan stood side by side, hands clasped behind their backs. Before them was Professor Foden.

  “Right on time, cadets. Let’s begin.”

  What she had prepared was a brutal training program designed to push her students to their limits.

  “Huff!! Huff!! Huff!! Huff!! What is this?! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!!”

  Dan and Rafinya weren’t swinging swords or sparring with training dummies.

  They were lifting weights.

  Because to swing a real sword, one needed mass and muscle to handle blades weighing 20 to 30 kilograms.

  Clang!

  Dan nearly collapsed as he dropped the barbell, pain radiating through every bone in his body.

  “Huff!!... Huff!!... Huff!!”

  “What is this…? What the hell are you doing, Student Dan?!”

  Professor Foden’s voice boomed across the hall—while Rafinya continued her squats like it was nothing.

  Why was Dan in such a wreck?

  Simple. He didn’t know humans needed weight training.

  Back on Diablo, he’d simply run laps around the island every day. It built his stamina, enough to climb mountains with Nora.

  But he’d never done strength training—not once since inhabiting a human body.

  He didn’t know strength and endurance were completely different things. That kind of know-how didn’t exist in Diablo.

  Sure, he could run a half-marathon. But he couldn’t deadlift or squat properly.

  This weakness had already cost him once—he realized that now—when Rafinya had knocked his sword clean out of his hand during their duel. That was muscle weakness.

  “Get up, you coward! Who said you could lie down during my training?!”

  Professor Foden’s bark forced Dan to stand, reset the barbell, and keep pushing through to the end.

  —

  7:00 a.m.

  “Training is over. I’m very disappointed in you, Dan. From today on, you’ll train both morning and evening. If your body can’t even handle a sword, you’re no knight!”

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  Professor Foden spun on her heel and left Dan slumped on the ground—face flushed, soaked in sweat, muscles torn to shreds, equipment scattered all around him.

  “This is the guy who put Trainer Soros in the hospital?”

  Dan turned his head upward.

  Rafinya looked down at him—not just with contempt, but with sheer disdain. Her face was beautiful, but her tone was ice cold.

  After training with him firsthand, she had realized:

  Wait… this guy’s a total weakling?

  She was now questioning everything she’d seen. Maybe it had been a fluke.

  And with the way things looked, Dan didn’t stand a chance at earning an A in the knight track.

  Which meant—no scholarship.

  “Do you think this is a joke? You’re pathetic. You think that body will get you an A?”

  Rafinya threw those words at him and walked away to change into her class uniform.

  Dan turned back to the gym…

  Weight plates, barbells, ropes, kettlebells—all left in a chaotic mess.

  And he was the one who’d have to clean it up… as the weakling.

  “...Sigh.”

  He stood, brushed himself off, and began picking up the equipment Rafinya had left behind—along with his own—then wiped down each piece and returned it to its proper place.

  In the Knight Department, you received no respect without showing strength.

  That… was the reality of this path.