Irwyn stood under the noon sun on the 2nd day of the special training course, everyone still faring quite well despite the sleepless night. Their bodies were strong enough to handle one all-night training without much trouble, but Irwyn wouldn't push them into another one. He was standing on the side in order to allow his pupils to properly focus. Not that most of them needed that at this point.

Elizabeth and Alice looked on with a great deal of schadenfreude. Their clothes still bore clear remnants of the cloud dust, and so did their still teary eyes. The reason for their expression was the boy standing by one of the barrels, staring at a fistful of the cloud dust grains with bloodshot eyes. Desir’s clothes had a significantly thicker layer of orange filth covering them, and the far worse state of his eyes clearly showed that he had suffered quite a bit more than the two girls.

After taking in a deep breath Desir threw the grains above his head and focused. Mana instantly leaked from his body and turned into intangible tendrils. Before the grains even reached the top point, those extensions of Desir’s mana thinned even further until they became completely incorporeal and invisible. With the full exertion of his will, Desir’s eyes danced along the grains which now quickly fell towards him. One by one they were drawn to the ground by the force of gravity, some bouncing off Desir’s clothes, and a few even getting attached to the remnants of dust on his clothes. Yet none of this distracted Desir, his glare still aimed above, and as the grains vacated the sky, a sphere of metal chunks began to gently levitate downwards.

“Finally!” Desir exclaimed, overjoyed, as the ball of iron landed in his palm. In that moment of happiness, he even allowed a bit of mana to leak from his body, just enough to detonate the grains which had attached to him. The only thing that saved him from another coughing fit was his quick dash to the side.

“Congratulations,” Irwyn smiled from the side as the girls chuckled at Desir’s oversight, “With this, the three of you had passed the first step.”

“I am not sure whether I want to see what comes after this,” Desir grinned as he dropped the iron pieces. The blood vessels in his eyes were still very distinct, however, the youth seemed quite satisfied with finally achieving what he just did.

“I believe you, in particular, will find the next stage the easiest,” Irwyn just smiled and threw Desir a bottle of liquid. When the boy looked back questioningly Irwyn could only explain: “A simple potion, it will soften the suffocating feeling in your lungs and help your eyes recover.”

“Didn’t we have to suffer through those after effects for hours after we were done?!” Alice seemed almost outraged at the injustice as she huffed.

“Those things are toxic,” Irwyn reminded, making Desir almost choke on the potion he was already chugging down, “This little is fine considering your bodies are relatively strong, however, too much and there will be severe side effects. I am confident he will definitely not need one for the next stage. For now, follow me,” Irwyn finished as he was already turning around and the trio followed him, leaving the leftover barrels behind. They had walked for only a few steps when Alice noticed something was out of place.

“Was that shack always here?” she asked as she stared at the cruel instruction on the side of the clearing.

“No, it definitely wasn’t,” Desir frowned as he looked at Irwyn.

“As I had said previously, this garden is a folded place,” he said as though that was a perfect explanation. When he saw that the others didn’t seem to understand he continued, “If the Blackburg house had wanted a large place for the garden they could have asked for someone to create a realm for far cheaper, both initially and annually, than this folded space,” at this point he took out a black badge with the Blackburg sigil. Everyone present could clearly see the potent mana reeking off the enchantment which seemed almost unreasonable for an item like that, “Those who bear this sigil will always be just a few steps away from what they want within the garden, while those who dare tread without any care will be lost in these woods until they are rescued or die.”

“Holy shit,” Desir cursed while Alice and Elizabeth looked stunned, “In that case, why the hell did we have to walk all the way to the clearing?” Desir then realised something.

“The mage who crafted this formation was not awakened, only at the peak of the fourth tier,” Irwyn explained, “That shack in front of you is about the largest thing it can completely shift, and moving humans is unsafe at best. I will let you know that the path to that clearing is in fact 4 times longer than what we had walked. Now, let’s enter,” Irwyn didn’t let them ask another question as he waved his day and opened the door.

Upon entering the trio quickly noticed that unnatural darkness covered half of the room, completely hiding anything that might lay there. Even their simple magical probes were completely blocked off.

“Elizabeth to my right, Alice to the middle, and Desir to my left,” Irwyn didn’t explain as he instructed and his commands were quickly followed. Irwyn now stood behind the trio which was staring right into the darkness before them.

“I have only one command for you right now,” he waved his hand and flames churned, enlightening the second half of the room in an instant. Besides the poorly constructed walls of the shack, there were only three silhouettes in the newly revealed area, each facing either Alice, Elizabeth or Desir. They could not exactly be called people with certainty, as they were all gowned in monotone brown and battered linen clothing and thick leather sacks completely covered their heads. Moreover, each of them was bound to the ground by tightly attached chains which shone dimly. The one facing Desir was of petite and tall frame, most likely a man, or a very flat-chested woman with a tumour which looked like Adam's apple. In front of Alice was a burly mass of meat, the sheer amount of muscles bulging from beneath his clothes identified him as almost certainly a man. On the other hand, the figure in front of Elizabeth was the exact opposite, a fragile frame of beauty barely peeked out from beneath the not well-fitting clothes as did the noticeable breasts of the prisoner. Before Alice, Desir and Elizabeth could properly take that all in, Irwyn’s command sounded: “Kill the prisoner in front of you!”

"What?!" Alice cried out as soon as she comprehended the command. However, just as her words sounded, overlapped thuds already sounded in the room. Unsurprisingly, one of them was caused by Desir, who without any hesitation sent a dark projectile directly through his target's heart. The body spasmed one more time and quickly fell down to the ground.

On the contrary, what surprised Irwyn was the source of the second thud. In the furthest right corner stood a petite figure which hadn't been there before, holding a long and slightly curved single-edged blade with a minimalistic armguard. Blood was dripping down the weapon, and its source was clear: The decapitated body on the ground.

"That is surprising," Desir explained as he examined the blood-stained blade in Elizabeth's hands as well as her surprisingly tranquil expression, "When have you killed before?"

"I haven't," Elizabeth shook her head and looked at Desir questioningly, as though she didn't understand why he would ask that particular question. If she was anyhow disturbed it did not show on her face. That made Desir's expression shift from surprise to a frown.

"Why?" A shaken voice broke them from the conversation. It was Alice who was shaking as though an avatar of pure terror materialized in front of her very eyes. Desir was about to say something, but Irwyn waved at him to assure his silence.

"Why do you hesitate?" Irwyn placed his hand on the trembling Alice's shoulder and whispered into her ear.

"This is wrong! He is defenceless. I…" Alice retorted as she barely managed to form her thoughts.

"You chose to pursue revenge," Irwyn reminded sternly, "Did you expect to achieve that without staining your hands?"

"I…" Alice could not answer that question without hesitation.

"The man in front of you is a criminal. Someone who slaughtered innocent women and children for his own pleasure or gain. He deserves to die," Irwyn pressured Alice as he grasped her wrist, aiming her hand at the man's heart. All she needed to do was manifest her power, "You need just a single thought,"

But she didn't.

At least a minute passed as the room was seemingly frozen in place. Elizabeth and Desir were withdrawn to the side, unwilling, or perhaps not daring, to interrupt Alice and Irwyn.

"I see," Irwyn sighed and let go of Alice's hand which fell to her side, and her head sunk. She was shaken, but relief entered her eyes when she believed it was over. While Alice just stood behind, Irwyn walked over to the last living prisoner and recovered the sack covering the man's head as well as the choker which prevented him from speaking until now. Beneath appeared a scared man whose face was contorting between fury and fear.

"Whoever you are, you will not get away with this!" the man yelled as soon as Irwyn removed his choker, "Do you have any idea who I am!?"

"No," Irwyn shook his head and played dumb.

"I am none other than Severus Hide!" the man was taken aback momentarily when he heard Irwyn's answer, but then he quickly began to introduce himself, "A trusted knight captain in the service of count Bearhide himself!" the man exclaimed with tangible pride in his voice. From the corner of his eye, Irwyn saw that Alice, who had almost calmed down, had once again begun to violently tremble and even looked up at the man.

"You are actually a captain of the count's knights?! You must have great achievements in that case, right?" Irwyn acted amazed as he directed the conversation exactly where he wanted it, "Did you perhaps even participate in the raid of Steelmire?"

"Of course," the man was now focusing his gaze on Irwyn who was standing more to the side of him, and his tone even turned jolly as the conversation led him to believe this was just a large misunderstanding, "In fact, I was even in the vanguard!" he laughed, convinced by his illusion of safety, "I still remember that day. I was close by when my liege ran his greatsword through the neck of… guh," his recollection was suddenly stunted as Severus felt a sudden impact on his body. Looking down he quickly noticed the giant gaping hole in his chest cavity. Around the same time, the pain began to overload his nervous system and Severus opened his mouth to scream, however, the remnants of his lungs could not gather enough air for a shriek. A normal person would have already died, and even Severus' extraordinary vitality was rapidly shrinking. Not long later his lifeless corpse fell to the floor, his expression filled with surprise and pain. His body nearly torn apart by a single attack.

"In the end you did it," Irwyn congratulated Alice as he already stood by her side. But she was still shaking, in fact, the intensity of her trembling increased significantly as her head over again fell down.

"What is going through your head right now. Do you perhaps think you became a monster?" Irwyn did not let her be instead he grasped her chin, raising her head to his eye level. When their eyes met, Alice tried to look away but Irwyn did not let her. Mana surged from his hand, freezing Alice in place through sheer pressure, "Don't look away. What you have done cannot be undone."

Soon, tears began to run down Alice's cheeks and swiftly became a downpour. She was still looking at Irwyn as her face got covered with more tears and snoot. Her distress was clear, and Irwyn knew that if he pushed her any further it would not achieve the intended effect.

“Killing does not make you a monster,” Irwyn said and Alice just weakly starred on, “You are a chick, about to hatch. Perhaps you cannot shed the shell yourself, but I am going to help you. Drink this, and you will feel better,” Irwyn’s stern tone became warm instead as he put an open bottle to Alice’s lips. With few gulps, she swallowed the potion and fell unconscious into Irwyn’s embrace in merely a few seconds.

“That was... unexpected,” Desir exclaimed after a couple of seconds.

“We all have our weaknesses,” Irwyn shook his head, “She was taught kindness in youth, and those ideals persevere despite everything she had gone through. Deep-rooted morals and codes require extreme conditions in order to rewrite. I held it off until now in hopes to reduce the impacts on her psyche and the risks involved when you put someone under extreme emotional distress, she is quite brittle after all.”

“Is she truly suffering this much?” Elizabeth approached, taking the limp Alice away from Irwyn, “I barely felt anything.”

“You are different,” Irwyn smiled slightly, “The suffering you went through a long period of time since early childhood laid the foundation of who you are. I will admit that I also had my hand in shaping the way you view the world today. In other words, you had been preparing for this since before we first met,” although Irwyn said that even he was slightly taken aback by Elizabeth’s decisiveness. Her apathy towards death was unusual for someone who had just killed for the first time, especially for a child, “Alice lived in a relatively peaceful environment for her entire childhood. When that world broke, she nearly shattered with it. In a hostile world like this, kindness is the cruellest thing a parent can teach their children.”

“What do we do now,” Desir asked after a few moments.

“Take her out from the building and wait for me, I will clean this place out. I will spare you from training in the next few days since all of you could use a break,” as Irwyn finished speaking Elizabeth quickly carried Alice out, apparently not affected by the other girl’s weight, and Desir followed right behind.

“I didn’t even need to use this,” Irwyn sighed as he began to burn away the three corpses. The sack covering the decapitated head of Elizabeth’s victim swiftly burned away, revealing the expression of a terrified girl in her late teens, perhaps early twenties. Her hair was long and ebony black, and Irwyn could even still recognise some features he had noticed back when he had seen this girl at the Brinewood manor. The next moment, the flame engulfed that last remnant too. It took just a few seconds for the room to be cleared out, only ash and terrible stench were left in the room.

“I can also probably use the break,” Irwyn shook his head as he turned around. The things he witnessed today almost reminded him of things he really didn’t want to recall. Perhaps a short break would be the ideal way to change his frame of mind.