The Heavenly Demon Can’t Live A Normal Life [EN]: Chapter 204

The sky was just starting to get light. The air was cold and sharp. Chris took a deep breath of the dawn air and began the training for Roman Dmitry’s personal soldiers.

“Let’s start with jogging,” Chris announced.

The training seemed easy at first. They started with a slow run to warm up. Flora Lawrence ran with the men, and she kept up easily.

Her breathing was steady. People often think that staff members are not strong, but Flora had trained hard in archery, and that included exercise.

Slowly, the pace got faster.

Flora’s lungs started to feel the cold air, and she needed to breathe faster. She focused on controlling her breath.

*Just one mistake.*

If her breathing became too fast and uneven, she might fail. She didn’t want to be the first one to fail in this week-long test.

“Haa… haa…” Flora’s breath came in gasps.

An hour had passed.

Her clothes were wet with sweat from the morning run. Steam rose from her tied-up hair. Her skin felt cold from the air, but her body was burning hot. *This is much harder than I expected for a morning exercise,* she thought.

She knew that most armies only jogged for about 30 minutes in the morning. But for Dmitry’s soldiers, this long run seemed normal.

Just when she thought they were about to stop, Chris turned onto a narrow path leading up the mountain.

*No… could it be?*

Her worry became real.

The jogging was not ending; it was just getting harder.

Chris started to run up the steep mountain path. Her breath rushed to her throat, making her head spin.

Her head felt light and dizzy.

If she had known it would be this hard, she would have saved more energy. She never imagined they would run uphill after an hour of jogging.

Most of all, she was amazed by the other soldiers. They were still running strongly, their breathing steady. Unlike her.

“Haa… haa…” Her breaths were now short and ragged.

She couldn’t control her pace anymore. It was just about putting one foot in front of the other.

Flora Lawrence pushed herself with sheer willpower. Chris saw her struggling but still trying hard. He raised his voice so everyone could hear.

“Morning jogging is about survival!” Chris shouted. “The battlefield doesn’t care if you’re tired, hungry, or not feeling well. You won’t always fight when you are ready. You must push yourselves every day, to your very limit. Only when you feel like you can’t go on, like you might collapse, will you understand the true meaning of battle.”

*This isn’t just exercise.*

*It’s about staying alive.*

To survive in a place of blood and death, training had to be this hard.

“Everyone needs to be strong, no matter what their job is,” Chris continued, his eyes seeming to fix on Flora. “Even if you think you only need your brain. Your work isn’t done in a safe room. It’s on the battlefield, where danger can come at any moment. If you are weak and can’t move when you need to, you will die. The same is true for everyone. Even those who carry supplies – their legs must be strong enough to keep going, no matter the ground.”

It felt like he was speaking directly to Flora, pointing out her weakness.

Chris looked at Flora Lawrence, who was now behind the others, and spoke about the harsh truth of war.

His words hit her hard.

She knew he was right. That’s why she had trained. But Dmitry’s army trained at a level she had never imagined.

One hour of warm-up jogging.

One hour of hard running up the mountain.

Two hours of jogging in total. It was finally over.

Flora Lawrence had finished the run, even if she was far behind the others. Her face was pale and she was covered in sweat, as if it were pouring rain.

Her legs trembled.

She had even been sick a few times while running. Her head was spinning, and all she wanted to do was collapse.

But she clenched her jaw. She wanted to look strong, even now. But then, Chris spoke words that made her heart sink.

“Now, we will start sword sparring!”

The training wasn’t finished.

For Flora, the real torture was just starting.

* * *

*This training is insane,* Flora thought.

Even with their bodies exhausted, they started sword sparring. Chris explained the reason.

“On the battlefield,” Chris said, “the most important thing is to fight well even when you are completely tired. In the first ten minutes of a fight, when you are fresh, you can fight your best. But after ten minutes, you will feel incredibly tired, like heavy weights are tied to your body. That’s when the real fight starts. If you can still control your body with your mind, even when you are out of breath and your arms and legs feel heavy, then you will be able to defeat any normal soldier.”

The goal of the training was clear: push them to their breaking point.

They were forcing the soldiers to fight at their absolute limit.

Everyone was already very tired from the long run, but they started the sword sparring without a single word of complaint.

“Hoo…” A soldier gasped for air.

*Tap.* Swords clashed lightly.

*Clang!* Then, the sounds became louder as the sparring began in earnest.

It was like a real fight.

A Dmitry soldier breathed deeply and attacked his partner with force.

Even though they were exhausted, as Chris had said, their attacks were still fast and strong.

He pushed his opponent back, aiming for weak points. But the other soldier defended himself skillfully.

The sparring was intense and fierce.

All over the training ground, soldiers were fighting with everything they had.

Flora Lawrence watched, amazed by what she was seeing.

*Is this normal training?* Flora wondered.

Dmitry’s training…

It was incredibly hard.

Even knights, who train their bodies their whole lives, would find this too much. But Dmitry’s soldiers seemed used to it.

And not only that, but look at how they were fighting!

Even after running for two hours, they were sparring with a fierce and dangerous energy.

Suddenly, she remembered Dmitry’s army on the battlefield.

They were so strong.

They had crushed the famous Cronos Empire soldiers. Even when they were attacked by surprise, they never lost their formation.

At the time, she just thought they were incredible.

Roman Dmitry’s soldiers had pushed back their enemies completely, even when they were tired and outnumbered.

*The reason is this training.*

It was all because of this.

They did this crazy training every day. How could they *not* be strong?

*Actually,* Flora thought, *the idea of hard training is simple. But it’s hard to do in real life because soldiers get angry when they are pushed too hard. But Dmitry’s soldiers are different. They don’t complain. They train hard and want to improve.*

Perfect control over his men.

That was Roman Dmitry’s real power.

He gave them clear rewards and showed them that their hard work paid off. This made them trust him completely.

This trust had grown stronger as they defeated Barco, Hector, Benedict, and even the mighty Cronos Empire.

The soldiers started to believe that if they trusted Roman Dimitri, they would live.

Because they believed this, they followed him even when the training was very hard.

Enthusiasm blazed in everyone.

They engaged in fierce sparring. Swords clashed loudly. Men grunted and yelled as they fought. Dust rose from the training ground, creating dangerous situations like a real battle.

They did not worry about injuries.

They had faith that Roman Dimitri would take responsibility for any accidents. Dimitri had always taken care of any injuries quickly and effectively.

What had happened before led to this scene.

Flora Lawrence swallowed hard. The air felt thick and hot, like standing too close to a fire. She felt parched by the intense heat coming from the men.

“I can’t give up either.”

It was difficult.

Her muscles screamed with pain, but Flora Lawrence also went to one side and joined in the sparring. The stamina exhausted by the running showed no signs of recovery.

Fortunately, she had not yet been assigned an opponent.

She was simply practicing swordsmanship against a scarecrow, but Chris’s sharp eyes did not allow her to rest for a moment.

This situation would have made most people feel self-doubt.

But Flora Lawrence was different.

Even as her arms trembled, she gritted her teeth and showed the same enthusiasm as at the beginning.

‘There’s no need to be impatient yet. I am not a combat resource, so I am bound to be lacking in physical training.’

Not yet.

Her turn to prove herself had not yet come.

Their roles were different.

Flora Lawrence accepted her shortcomings and instead thought about the meaning of the training.

A few days later.

Chris reported to Roman Dimitri.

“So far, she has been carrying out the training without any major problems. She collapsed as soon as the first day of training was over. On the second day, she fainted from running and showed symptoms of dehydration, but when she came to, she showed a willingness to carry out the training no matter what. Of course, she has not yet fully adapted to the training, but there are no particular disqualifications.”

Lack of physical strength was not a disqualification.

If they had wanted perfect people from the start, none of Dimitri’s soldiers would have remained.

People from ordinary backgrounds, like Henderson.

The reason they were able to reach their current level was because of their willingness to train no matter how tired they were.

Therefore, the week-long test was a process of confirming their will.

Even if they knew how difficult Dimitri’s training was, if they had the will to endure it, the path to development was open.

The problem was Flora Lawrence’s role.

“Her combat ability was not very outstanding. Her archery is quite accurate, but her practical skills are poor. She showed a very weak performance in close combat. Definite improvement seems necessary in this area. And…”

She was a strategist.

If so, the area she had to prove in the test was strategic ability rather than combat ability.

“In the tactical training that took place on the third day, she showed a completely different side of herself than before. The group that included Flora won nine out of ten times. They lost once to a strategy they did not expect, but even in that unexpected situation, they found a solution to the end and overturned the situation several times.”

He slid the data forward.

It was a record of what had happened in the tactical training, and Roman Dimitri read it carefully.

Nine victories.

They followed the standard.

It was a standard strategy that minimized variables, but the noticeable point was the last defeat.

For the most part, they followed the standard strategy. But they also showed a very good ability to improvise.

In fact, the one defeat was only because Kevin, the opposing commander, had attacked a truly sharp point. Even so, Flora Lawrence’s abilities were undeniable as they fought to the very end.

Moreover, Flora Lawrence showed this level of ability even though she had not yet adapted to Dimitri.

Roman Dimitri asked.

“Chris. Do you think Flora Lawrence is necessary in Dimitri?”

To that question, Chris answered without the slightest hesitation.

“Yes. I am certain that Flora Lawrence is a necessary resource for Dimitri.”

The week-long test was the moment to put an end to it.

The end of the rebellion.

The founding of Dimitri Duchy.

A fortnight had passed since then.

Just as Dimitri was falling into a peaceful life, Thomas, who ran a restaurant in Dimitri, rushed off somewhere.

‘There should still be groceries.’

Recently, Dimitri was enjoying a tremendous boom.

People flocked to work in the iron mines, merchants opened stalls to trade with them, and naturally, the entertainment culture also developed.

It was truly a world where it was good to make a living.

Thomas was also on his way to get groceries because so many customers were coming that he ran out of them earlier than expected.

Usually, all the groceries were gone in the morning.

Thomas’s steps could not help but be hurried, thinking that he might not be able to get the groceries he wanted.

It was then.

Thud!

Crash.

“Kuh.”

He was about to enter the alley when he bumped into a man.

The man, who had a slender build and covered his face with a robe, gave Thomas a cold look.

“Keep your eyes open.”

It was a strangely threatening voice.

Thomas was about to say something in response to the surging pain, but he quickly lowered his head after seeing the other man’s eyes.

Because he was in the business of dealing with people, he could roughly sense it just by looking at their eyes.

The other man gave off a rather threatening aura, and his past experience told him that getting into a fight with this type of person would lead to bloodshed.

“I’m sorry.”

Thomas’s judgment was correct.

With the quick apology, the man averted his gaze and moved somewhere.

After walking like that for a while, the man entered an alley where people rarely passed. Several people suddenly appeared from around him like shadows.

Their appearance was ordinary.

They looked like people you could easily find on the street, and the man said in a quiet voice.

“The plan will proceed three days from now. Until then, do not cause any trouble as much as possible. Gather information such as Dimitri’s security system. I will explain the exact plan at this place two days from now.”

“Understood.”

The men retreated.

Then, as if they had appeared, they disappeared quickly, like shadows fading in the dark.

And then, the man who had given the order also moved his steps into the darkness of the alleyway.