Standing in the kitchen, Mi-Yung sized him up and down, and had no intention of holding back.

  “Looks to be around alright. Five feet, five inches? Something like that? You aren't very tall for your age.”

  “It's average. I like to say it like that.”

  “Your muscles say otherwise.” She muttered, noting the back and defined lines around the upper spine section and both arms—the muscles there were fairly abnormal.

  “I worked on the farm, and... as you've said, Rank 0 affects the body, and my ten-year-old one is no different. Camp Roshwell and Miss Anderson were understanding and helped me secure a decent job for training and peace. It solved a lot of issues, and it felt calm and busy. I trained, but most of it was brutish, so I know how to fight, but not how to battle.”

  “Because of your Emblem? Emotions?”

  “And people. I am pretty sure my Emblem doesn't influence outside too much, am I right? I read about it, and figured out a lot of ideas that I couldn't figure out before.”

  “You didn't mention people. Does it act... like a more personal Ego? Specific cases might add new clauses.”

  “Ask Luke.”

  “Oh, I think I am getting it a little. Emotions are weird.” Mi-Yung hummed and circled him, poking his back, chest, belly, and even thighs or his arms.

  The crimson-shining Emblem remained quiet, shimmering in waves and creating only a few hues due to the bright morning. It had been like this for a while, and William wasn't in any emotional distress, even if he felt he was.

  “There might be conditions for more answers, William.”

  “For what?”

  “For a lot of things. This might be one such thing, and there is also the proper Awakening. Interesting. Maybe I won't do it after all. Alright, dress up. I will put forth a schedule. Follow it.”

  William reluctantly put on his clothes and listened to her.

  “From morning to around noon or 6 PM, you will learn with me or by yourself. Then, you are going to train under my guidance.”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “Do you want one?”

  William didn't say anything.

  “That will last ten days. Food is resolved. Rest will still happen at night, and training will be judged and determined by myself.”

  “I don't hate work, Mi-Yung. I don't dislike a lot of things.”

  “Haven't heard of a gym before?”

  “No? It is a place where people intentionally work out. Strange place.”

  “I want to see your life and spirit.”

  “I don't think it is that bad.”

  “Wanna bet on that?”

  “Why not? If I complain, I will let this Emblem go out in one way or another, and you want to see it, right?”

  Mi-Yung smirked, nodded in approval, and felt good about this idea. “I will get changed, so eat something before the first day begins.”

  With that said, she left, and William wondered if he should be more worried about his life, body, or spirit. Maybe his Emblem was more worried, but how could he be sure of it?

  In a way, he couldn't refuse her after all that grace she bestowed on him. William wasn't so shameless as to not see reason in grace. Mi-Yung helped him tremendously. He felt he almost didn't deserve even half of it.

  On the first day, his visit to the library went as he expected. Without Ellie and Celeste, things got easier, but Mi-Yung was always behind him, lecturing or observing him with unusual intensity.

  She made use of her position and talked to him like a guide. Like that, the first day was over, and with rays of the sun still visible, they left the library.

  Mi-Yung led him to no particular place. It was part of a military complex located within the Central District, situated away from the public yet still close to everything, which William found surprising because it was a military base in a literal public district.

  He realized it was hard to see, yet upon closer look, it was nothing extraordinary. He walked into a large training facility, where standard military activities were underway.

  But it went deep. A lot deeper than William expected. Mi-Yung led him straight to the special gym, where metal equipment and machines added weights and styles to push human boundaries to another level, including specifically designed Walker equipment. Some were even made of stones, or large slabs of metal his size, and machines looking like unhealthy, weird contraptions.

  William gulped, watched how she turned, and pointed to a treadmill.

  “How many miles can you run in an hour?”

  “Maybe I should show you its angry face...” William scowled, scratching his Emblem over his long-sleeve shirt.

  “Didn't hear that. Bets are bets.”

  “I am starting to hate them,” William sighed, rolled his sleeve, and got to work.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “I will give you an hour. If the miles are not to my satisfaction, you won't win.”

  “Give me a break. Tell me the number.”

  “Number? Well, in the past, there used to be a thing called a marathon. Top-of-the-line athletes managed it in over two hours. I will allow an additional hour under less stable conditions, as it remains challenging. It is dozens of miles, by the way.”

  “I am not an athlete.”

  “But you are a Walker. I will watch your pace and body. Come on. Run. I will be fair and won't specify more details because I don't know what you are capable of. Ah, but I do know what others are capable of, and I know youths who can finish these marathons like nothing.”

  Not that an actual running ever killed a freaking Dark. William didn't think it was that important to compare himself with others. He felt there was no crack in his heart as he began to move his sorry legs.

  Half an hour later, he kept his breath in pace with his legs, and miles clicked under the mechanism on a little analog screen right on the treadmill. It had no electricity whatsoever. It was a true work of machinery.

  “Have you learned breathing exercises before?” Mi-Yung asked as he ran, and she watched his back. At this point, she forced him to get his shirt off and watched him sweat and his muscles move.

  “A little.”

  “From whom?”

  “Dann. A friend.”

  “Oh, I think Luke mentioned him. Reports did as well.”

  “What?” William said simply, realizing how annoying it was to talk while running. It wasn't as easy as it sounded. Training like this was never his thing, so it made sense.

  So far, it had been easy because it was far from being painful.

  “Reports, William. Miss Anderson got most of it from you, and her research has its pages, but that is about it. I have them. There were also personal folders and a sight of history, and you spent a while around Canada and a few camps. It is not your point, nor mine. It shouldn't be anything new for you.”

  “I see...”

  “Now, increase the pace. You are slacking off.”

  William had to adjust his legs to increase his pace per hour. He began to run faster and faster, and his breathing, blood, and heart started to shift after the seventh mile.

  Mi-Yung figured it was a satisfactory result. It meant William wasn't weak-willed, and her first little knock had decent results. Blood flow, muscle exhaustion, and lungs, coupled with stamina, were incredibly important, and any Rank 0 Walker demonstrated a bit of inhumanity.

  This was good. Outside, he might have experienced many things where adrenaline or common sense didn't matter, yet he never stopped functioning, and training didn't initiate survival. The living did. It was more brutal than that, and for the past two years, his foundation had undergone a significant change. Mi-Yung thought it weakened him.

  But that breathing? It seemed to be a technique she didn't hear about at this level. Half an hour later, William was lapping for breath, yet kept running like a madman.

  He kept his maximum pace going for two whole minutes, and his running speed exceeded Mi-Yung's expectations.

  “Fine. Stop. You win.”

  “Ha...” William lapped for breath and still ran because he didn't know how this fucked up contraption even worked. Then, he even forgot what the bet was about and what he had won.

  Mi-Yung slapped her forehead, grasped his shoulder, and pulled him up. William still moved his legs and arms, gasping for breath. He no longer felt like a hamster on an endless wheel.

  “That was... dreadful...” William muttered in disbelief and noticed the fifteen miles on the screen.

  “Welcome to the training regimen I did when I was five.”

  “...”

  “There are at least ten types of machines and styles that could show your Rank 0 sequences and degrees of your flesh, bone, and nerve concepts. Your Emblem is part of it, no matter what you said to me before, and it influences it regardless of anything. It is the law, and of course, we know how to push it forward. Prepare yourself, William.”

  Frankly, William never thought he wanted to go wild and show his Emblem off like today. Still, people were watching, the military men got curious about a Lower Pillar's visit, and he was too busy catching his breath.

  In short, it wasn't all that bad.

  ***

  With many days ahead of him, where William didn't hold himself back under any circumstances, things changed, worsened, yet not deteriorated to a complete shitshow.

  Days after the hideous, contraption-oriented hell-training, he was alone in the library for a single rare day. Mi-Yung excused herself because tonight was that day. No training would prepare him for it. It was that kind of day, and he didn't look forward to it.

  The Emblem Association was waiting. It was an interesting place that he had read about, and even Mi-Yung explained more topics related to it. She called it one of the best research facilities humanity could ever produce at the current time. It had many levels.

  Heads, the so-called chiefs-in-charge, were the highest people who worked in that place, while the person in charge was the Association Pillar—a Rank 8 Walker who was an actual scientist and a very clever, yet powerful person.

  There were also numerous Walkers who worked under Heads, assembling, pulling, and creating all sorts of research they could muster. Forced Awakening was included because that entire procedure was in its place, and it was inseparable from it.

  During these ten days, William met almost nobody else besides Mi-Yung. Luke seemed busy, and Ellie and Celeste had a lot of work to do, though he had met them a couple of times, either because they were worried or they wanted to check on him.

  The upper floors were the best for this, as these rooms made a lot of sense for such visits, including fused learning, and so on.

  Why?

  Mi-Yung still wanted to give Celeste her attention because why the hell not, if she had nothing to lose with it? It was a rather simple reason that stemmed from Dreadus and their little conversation in the Assembly.

  This gave William a rare moment of calm before the storm. It was very quiet. Too quiet.

  He didn't want to end up working his ass off all the time, and the workload she gave him wasn't small. He worked out a lot, and the past few years, along with whatever Rank 0 gave him, changed, diverted, and worked like a charm.

  William even noticed small differences in his physique after a few days, with his arms getting more pronounced and his legs and back feeling tighter and more flexible. Was it because of Mi-Yung's massages or those freaking contraptions that flexed his limbs and muscles?

  Mi-Yung argued it was the effectiveness of his already suitable internal Arcana, which most Rank 0 Walkers had. Much of it lay dormant, neither utilized nor acting in accumulation toward the Awakening.

  William wondered if this guiding force through him was a problem for his Emblem, or if it was convenient, conceived by his Emblem alone, or if his body training was the entire point, and why he felt better.

  Mi-Yung answered it recently. She said that everything was connected, and preparing the body, mind, and knowing what one should expect was the true charm of any Awakening.

  In that sense, he failed to recognize this truth, work, and nature of the Rank 0, even with lessons and reading about it. He misunderstood it or didn't want to get it.

  A large majority of the Emblem's internal flow gathered and grew up with a person before it cracked. The accumulation was the primary concern, and so were the various effects that accompanied it. Rank 0 created a small crack, or cracks, providing the body with benefits and a new kind of sensation. Or it gave Emblem a way out...

  Sometimes, youths couldn't even notice it, and William wasn't used to thinking about it at all, and didn't plan to change it. Mi-Yung accepted it for what it was, as it wasn't really a problem.

  After going over the upper floor, he found a shelter on the cultural floor, where he wasn't alone.

  There was Celeste, not so far away, snuggled on a sofa and leaning into a book. Ellie was aside, sitting and writing her plans down to fill her enjoyment in silence.

  There were multiple big sofas in the corners of the floor. There were even rooms with screens, computers, and a projector with seating for lectures, seminars, or meetings.

  Unfortunately, this kind of culture was hardly on William's mind over the past few days. With Mi-Yung behind him, he didn't waste time in this place, and barely visited it, so it was his second time in this place in ten days.

  He met this pair here, and his peace was no longer an option.