“Did we arrive early?”
“I don’t know… within twenty-four hours isn’t considered late…?”
“They say we are in first place. Isn’t that enough?”
Of course, Chloe’s group had no way of knowing if this was a record or not, so they remained scratching their heads in confusion.
It was a staggering record in the eyes of others, but the features of Chloe—the one most credited with achieving it—were filled with a trace of frustration.
If Chloe had been alone without the rest of her companions, she would have arrived without the time exceeding a single day.
While the rest of the group was about to move according to the instructor’s directions, the noise of the entrance gate caught their attention again and prevented them from advancing.
Upon the instructor telling them to wait a moment, Chloe turned toward the gate, and her eyes widened in surprise to see an unexpected person.
‘He certainly took a path moving away from the road leading to Northfort, so how…?’
Unless he possessed the ability of instantaneous teleportation, this made no sense at all.
“Altair Targon, I have returned.”
The gaze of Altair—who saluted coldly—met the gaze of Chloe. Something strange flickered in his eyes as he stared at her.
Altair approached Chloe with wide strides and smiled mischievously.
“I didn’t expect you to arrive before me. I can no longer call you a puppy anymore.”
Is attacking others a trait of the profligates? Even though they were temporary allies, look at his way of speaking.
Chloe noted a new piece of information in her mind regarding the “principles of profligates.”
Chloe was the curious one about how he arrived this quickly even though he had left the path.
But before she could open her mouth, Lucian—who had lost his title as the “only man” in the group—was standing in front of her in a second.
“How can you liken the lady to a dog, and a small dog at that! It is truly… highly inap… propri… ate….”
Lucian’s boldness gradually faded when he found himself face-to-face with Altair.
The other wasn’t staring at him with anger, but rather looking down at him with a questioning face, and that alone was enough to close Lucian’s mouth and silence his tail.
The instructor—who was accompanying Chloe and her companions, except for Roselyn who had gone to the clinic—led them through a courtyard filled with poorly made structures, until they reached the storehouse-dormitory.
“Left for females, right for males.”
Long connected beds stretched along both sides of the wall, with equipment lockers placed above them suffocatingly close together.
The middle aisle barely allowed one person to pass.
The air inside the storehouse was stifling and humid, nearly preventing breath.
But for those who had suffered hours ago under the scorching desert heat that nearly cracked the throat and killed humans with thirst, the atmosphere of the storehouse seemed moderate, even pleasant.
“How do you sit with such straight posture even in a wretched place like this? Are you truly a profligate?”
As soon as Roselyn saw Chloe’s upright sitting position, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.
“Whenever you sit hunched or relaxed, your head hits the ground. Does your body get used to it or not?”
“In what kind of environment did you grow up, for heaven’s sake…? Even my strict family patriarch doesn’t scold me to sit this straight. I admit, you are out of the ordinary.”
At Chloe’s answer, Roselyn’s suspicion disappeared immediately.
The phrase “hits the ground” was not a lie. It was just that the one who ordered her to do so was not from her family.
The storehouse gradually filled with other people besides Chloe’s group, who had reserved the best spots for rest.
“How did you cross the river? We walked a long way toward the mouth. Is there anyone who went up to the source?”
“We arrived in 47 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds! They say it’s a high record!”
All the new students—who had been cast into the wilderness—returned to Northfort; not without injuries, but they returned.
After receiving their dinner meal, Chloe’s group was summoned to the Dean’s office.
“For the first time in ten years, the names recorded on the Honor Roll are changing.”
They recorded their names and their record-breaking times on the Honor Roll, and each of them received ten points as a reward.
The points were strange in that they were a physical currency, not just a number.
During the final handshake, the Dean stared at Chloe’s hand as she raised her arm to maintain her usual politeness, and asked kindly:
“Your official name in the record, and your method of saluting… both are extremely precise. Do you have a family member serving in the military?”
‘Oh, I showed the traits of the elite unintentionally….’
Chloe was flustered and lowered her hand slightly as she answered:
“Yes. Therefore, I have seen a lot and learned a lot.”
This was true, whether it was her real identity or her forged one.
She thought that from now on, she would distort the angle of the salute a little. Just a little, because the elite spirit within her would not tolerate a major distortion.
* * *
After a deep sleep that lasted a full forty-eight hours, the induction ceremony was waiting for the 87th batch.
The temperature of the storehouse—which was stifling during the day—dropped to cold at night, but it remained better than the wilderness.
The number of those gathered to attend the induction ceremony was thirty people, much fewer than those brought in initially.
After passing through the wilderness survival program from three tracks, the students of the 87th batch felt clear relief after returning to the more comfortable Northfort.
Having overcome all those hardships by their own strength, it gave birth to an arrogance within them, deluding them into thinking they could overcome any difficulty in Northfort.
But this was only the beginning of Northfort.
“I hereby declare the students of the 87th batch officially accepted.”
As soon as the Dean’s announcement ended, shouts of mockery and trash poured in from all directions.
“Welcome to Northfort, you damn perverts!”
“This is the traditional welcoming ceremony in Northfort!”
Rotten fruits, empty cans, paper balls, old shoes, and everything resembling trash flew toward the heads and bodies of the new students.
“Aaah!”
“Ack! The smell! Are they crazy?!”
“Is this a welcome? You sons of dogs!”
Screams, insults, and mocking laughter filled every corner of the courtyard, and the new students ducked in a state of chaos. The more they tried to fight back, the more fierce the trash thrown by the older students became.
Chloe raised her head to escape the projectiles, and a look of genuine shock appeared on her face.
For her—accustomed to the formal and disciplined induction ceremonies of the Central Royal Military Academy—this was a cultural shock.
‘This place… is truly insane.’
What was called a “welcoming ceremony” was actually a way to grind down the pride of the new students.
In Northfort, the students’ resolve is shattered twice: once through the wilderness survival program, and once through this induction ceremony.
It was not called the “Profligate Rehabilitation Center” for nothing.
While Chloe wondered when this rain of trash would stop, she caught a gaze staring at her since the beginning of the ceremony.
When she turned halfway, she saw a young woman with golden hair staring at her intently.
‘Where have I seen her…?’
Chloe felt a familiar intuition prick her chest. No one was supposed to recognize her while she was on a mission.
That lady ended the long gaze when Chloe averted her eyes.
After the ceremony ended, it was time to guide the new students—who had officially become first-year students—toward their dormitories.
The one-eyed instructor ordered them sternly:
“Get your supplies from the storehouse. Starting today, you will not sleep in the storehouse, but in the first-year dormitory.”
The students rejoiced immediately.
“Right, humans cannot sleep in a place like that.”
Roselyn roared beside Chloe with a voice overflowing with sincerity.
They say a person leaves the bathroom with different feelings than when they entered.
Compared to the cold, dry ground in the wilderness, the storehouse was like a heavenly bed, but now after comparing it to the dormitory rooms, it had become worse than a dog kennel.
The instructor led them to the same courtyard filled with the poorly made structures they had passed yesterday.
“Smash it all! All of it! Ahahaha!”
“Now I understand why those who came before us did it!”
“We built this with our own hands and through hard work, and we leave it as a gift for the next batch? Impossible!”
“Finally, we will sleep in a real dormitory!”
The students of the 86th batch—older than them by a year—were smashing the structures with pure joy.
After they had destroyed every piece, even the smallest wooden stick, they carried their belongings and left in different directions with faces full of delight.
The instructor pointed to the courtyard, which had become ruins, and said dryly like a thunderbolt:
“From today, this is your dormitory.”
Did I hear him correctly?