While Kenji was adventuring, fighting monsters, and getting into strange situations, his classmates were passing through some hellish training.

The Army of the Empire didn't want to train newbies on the field of battle, since it would take too much time to do so. Nonetheless, the Emperor dispatched one of his best men to do the job.

Colonel Gregory Gillford. The best man on the Empire when it comes to training regimen. He made the weaklings of the Empire, who were trained by another noble before Goldguard’s ascension to the throne, into the best soldiers it could have.

The previous noble didn’t care about the army, he only wanted to fill his pockets with money, and that was one of the many reasons why the previous Emperor lost the conflict against Goldguard.

Incidentally, Gregory was the son of said noble. His father, in the past, was a good man, even training his own son into the art of war. Alas, after reaching the post of Colonel, he fell on the mud, only wanting more money, instead of power.

“To train these… Greenhorns. Why me? I have the army to train. Although, Your Imperial Majesty has been ignoring the conflicts, recently.”

Walking through the black adorned hallways of the Wyrmstone Citadel.

The Bastion was located at the foot of a mountain, but it had an elevation prior to the capital, where the many districts were located. The Wyrmstone Citadel, was the elevated place above the city, but below the Bastion main quarters, where the Emperor lived.

Gregory walked through the halls, and arrived at the training grounds, seeing his men, and the ‘False-Heroes’. He looked exasperated, due to the fact he knew what would happen to these young ones. It is dreadful remembering what the Emperor does to these people, he thought.

“Attention! Colonel Gregory has arrived!”

A man, above on a wood tower, shouted that, and his men in the training grounds, stayed in a straight position, looking ahead of them and waiting for orders.

“At ease, soldiers!”

At his words, the knights relaxed, and, turning around, and finding their position in training, started it.

“So, you are the ones this time.”

His comment wasn’t exactly one of admiration.

Heroes. People of another world, who are summoned to this one, to slain certain threats that normally the people of this world are incapable of. Which, in the mind of the Colonel, was a big lie.

If people from this world, who battle frequently against monsters and frequent wars can’t deal with these things, how can people of a peaceful world can, then? Was the honest feelings of the Colonel.

“You have something to say to us, old man?”

One of the students said. The men in training heard that. Alas, they didn’t say a word, nor tried to beat the boy up. They simply… Stopped their training, opening ways for the Colonel, and waiting for his response.

“Hoh~ A greenhorn called me ‘Old man’? Yes, I have something to say, brat.” He walked towards two of the training knights, taking their iron swords. “You are nothing more than a brat, yet your words deemed myself useless. Let’s see who is the useless one then.”

He gave the student one of the swords, and walked a bit, taking some distance. The student looked to the sword, and to the colonel.

“W-Wasn’t this supposed to be practice?”

“Hoh~ My men train like this every day, and you doubt my methods? Weren’t you very useful, brat?”

Like gasoline to the fire, the Colonel taunted the student. Assuming a battle position, albeit very clumsy, the student put himself to the test.

One of the knights was the referee, and when he gave the permission…

“Began!”

Tching!

The sword in the hands of the student was tossed to the side, and the sword was right at his throat. Not a single movement was wasted on the Colonel motion. With a final glare, which wasn’t only a glare, the student fell on his butt.

“Winner! Colonel Gregory!”

All of the knights had a smug expression on their faces, and looked towards the students. Their expression said: How’s that?! That’s the colonel for you, damn brats!

With that demonstration, no one dared to challenge the Colonel’s authority anymore. No one stupid enough that is.

While the Colonel trained the close combat types on the training grounds of the citadel, the others, related to magic, were being trained by Ayduin in the library Inside the Bastion.

I need to keep an eye on Emerys, or else he might not do his tasks.

He was walking in the library, getting all the books related to magic that some of the ‘False-Heroes’ needed.

He was, in fact, impressed. Not only some had the potential to use magic, but some even had very rare or unique magic. Especially Watanabe Naomi, Hayashi Tatsuo, Hiroto Yuki, and their professor, Matsumoto Yumi.

But to think that they had these magics? Hmph!

In short, Ayduin was jealous. He didn’t care about how much time he needed, people he needed to sacrifice, or anything, in the search of magic. And surprisingly, the magic he didn’t have, was exactly what these 4 people had.

Watanabe Naomi, had [Life Magic]. Hayashi Tatsuo, had [Death Magic]. Hiroto Yuki, had [Time Magic]. And lastly, Matsumoto Yumi, who had [Nature Magic].

She isn’t even an Elf, and I, who am one, doesn’t have such a thing. Maybe… I can ask the Emperor for…

As an Ayduin who was lost in thought reached the students, he let his thoughts wander off, and focused on the task at hand.

“Very well, let’s start the lesson.”

Throughout the next few days, which was only a week, they trained. And were put into lots of bad situations. The close combat types were put inside some kind of arena, and had to defeat the monsters inside. All of that together. And afterwards, alone.

As for Magic, they’d learn about it more deeply. First, feel mana. Second, change said mana. Thirdly, use said changed mana. And after that, were put to fight against the same monsters from the arena, and to use them to not be killed.

As for the ones tasked with healing, they were doing so. But the methods were quite… terrifying.

They needed to heal the monsters that were on the brink of death. Heal the monsters, not being killed by the monsters. Then, they would need to heal the people who fought in the arena, and even sometimes use their healing, while the people were fighting.

Of course, some gave up midway. They thought they would be heroes, and all that, but seeing as the difficulty only raised, they’d give up. They wanted to go outside, and see the world. As for that, the Emperor didn’t care. Of course, they were given warnings about the world, but that was a matter for another time.

The ones who stayed, and even continued the training, were as following:

Aoki Raiden. He had good capabilities when it came to swordsmanship. In fact, he was able to leave a scratch at Colonel Gregory's cheek. That was something the knights couldn’t be able to succeed. Small feat, but enough to warrant respect from the Colonel. Alas…

The boy is good. A shame he’s going to have such a fate. (Gregory)

Suzuki Mari. She had one of the rarest classes in the world, [Samurai]. Such class was only available for those who practiced the art of the blade. Not swordsmanship, but [Blade Arts]. She even had a skill called [Iaijutsu], which left the Colonel surprised at its usefulness.

Interesting. I would like to know more. Maybe I can take this girl as my protege. (Gregory)

Watanabe Naomi. She was the healer of the group, a Priestess. Her capability in wielding [Life Magic] was impressive. And in a week of studying and practicing, she even evolved such skill to [Animancy], albeit not with all of its capabilities.

Good. Such power shall be mine on time. (Ayduin)

Takahashi Hideo. He was mainly a [Slasher]. In short, he used a scythe as a weapon. Albeit it being a tool, nonetheless. Beyond such class and weapon, he had access to [Shadow Magic]. He could dwell on the shadows of others, even conjuring them to his protection. Although he focused more on the scythe than the magic, he was a very good person in the aspect of battle.

He IS good. Alas, he would be wise to control his pride. (Gregory)

Yamada Nara. She was a girl who trained in [Archery] in her previous world, so she was very good in this one. Having access to [Wind Magic], and able to use it to augment her arrows to reach high speeds, even making them as fast as a bullet.

If I were to compare them to the archers of the Empire… She is much better than them. (Gregory)

Nakamura Yuji. A [Monk]. Albeit an idiot. He is careless, and gets into bad situations very easily. On the training grounds, and even on the arena, he would be able to defeat his foes. But… Not without any injury, some even reaching fatal ones. Alas, he is very good when he is in [CQC].

A mindless beast. He even has the [Berserker] class with him. (Gregory)

Hayashi Tatsuo. In short, a [Necromancer]. Since he started to train on his [Death Magic], it evolved pretty quickly into [Necromancy]. Even then, he has only access to the basic repertoire of skills. Nonetheless, he left Ayduin speechless, when he was able to summon an Lich, when training his skills. But what scared the most out of him, was his coldness towards using dead bodies. It even left Ayduin afraid.

He is dangerous. Now that he has access to [Necromancy], I doubt that he won’t do it. (Ayduin)

Hiroto Yuki. He was the most promising in question of proficiency. He had the class [Chronomancer], and even [Motion Magic] since the beginning. He trained the hardest, since his magic would depend on his focus, and he was the first one to be good at spell casting while under pressure. He was the second to acquire the Title [Focused Freak], even.

Such focus. And such magic. If he can reach the maximum of his capabilities, he can even acquire [Space Magic]. (Ayduin)

And lastly, Matsumoto Yumi. Her classes were directed towards teaching, nothing more, nothing less. In fact, she was able to ‘Translate’ very well what Ayduin said, and made her students learn faster than anything before. Even her [Nature Magic] was perfect, albeit she had difficulties in using it’s full potential.

Quick on the uptake, slow at practice. But interesting nonetheless. (Ayduin)

As time passed, they were tasked in defeating a monster in the forest that an adventurer was incapable of doing. The adventurer was, of course, Kenji. Alas, the beast that they were tasked with, was already defeated, but they did defeat another one, a Rose Reaper.

They defeated the beast rather easily, if you can see a giant monster, with a rose head, and scythe-like arms, being overwhelmed by 8 humans. After they defeated the monster, the Colonel saw their flaws, and put them into a much harder training.