Lieutenant Dyester inspected Martha for a few seconds before taking a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He drew one of them and lit it up with his forefinger before falling silent.
Martha and Khan respected that silent moment. It was evident that the soldier was reviewing some emotional memories. Lieutenant Dyester didn't seem able to move his eyes away from the girl, and his expression grew darker as the seconds passed.
"Captain Abe Weesso was a good man," Lieutenant Dyester eventually said. "He followed me until the end. He even saved my life a few times. I had to hold his hand when he died."
Khan and Martha continued to remain silent. Martha's identity had clearly broken through Carl's mental barrier, but they had yet to understand where that situation would lead.
"His granddaughter is in the Global Army now," Lieutenant Dyester scoffed. "Every kid in the world can't wait to jump in this cycle of death. You come here thinking that war is a game."
Lieutenant Dyester's leg began to tap on the floor. The memories of Istrone had made him nervous, and his cigarette didn't manage to calm him down.
"I can still hear the screams," Khan decided to speak. "I can still recall the suffocating scent of charred flesh and the revolting images of the corpses. Don't use your pain to insult me."
Martha and Lieutenant Dyester shot a surprised glance toward Khan. Martha tried to pull his uniform to remind him of the reason behind that meeting, but the soldier ended up feeling ashamed when he inspected Khan's face.
Lieutenant Dyester could see the same pain that afflicted him in Khan's eyes. Those azure irises didn't belong to a boy. They created the gaze of a man who knew loss, sorrow, and death.
"Forgive my words," Lieutenant Dyester suddenly said, and his behavior ended up stunning Martha. "I often forget that I'm not the only one in pain. It wasn't my intention to insult you."
Khan sighed before sitting on the steps behind him. His eyes continued to inspect Lieutenant Dyester, and the latter didn't move his gaze away from him either.
Martha felt out of place. She was unfamiliar with the tension that had fallen on the basement. Part of her understood that she was the only kid in the room.
"Weesso girl," Lieutenant Dyester eventually broke the silence. "Your relationship with Abe can force me to grant you any favor. Are you sure that you want to waste it for this kid?"
Khan didn't turn toward Martha. He didn't want to beg her nor ask for any favor. Martha had to decide that on her own.
Martha looked down toward Khan's hair. Her eyes went past his physical features and tried to sense the immense struggles he had to overcome to reach his current state.
The Weesoo family was poor, but it was still inside Ylaco. Martha was incredibly rich compared to every citizen inside the Slums. She only had to overcome minor political issues throughout her life, but she had never experienced actual pain.
"Do it," Martha announced. "Use this favor for him. Take him under your wing."
"Are you really sure about this?" Lieutenant Dyester replied. "You won't be able to take it back once the training starts."
"He is right," Khan asked while turning toward his friend. "I can always find another way, but this is about your family. You don't have to use it for me."
"What are you even saying?" Martha's face broke into a smile. "I'm only passing his favor to you. You'll owe me a big one from now on."
Martha then turned toward Lieutenant Dyester and continued. "He is a tricky one. Don't ever let him talk if you want to remain safe from his ploys."
"I'll make him regret this decision a few times," Lieutenant Dyester smiled.
"Good," Martha said before turning toward Khan again. "Make sure to get as strong as him, at least. I don't want to lose value on this investment."
Khan didn't know how to thank Martha for that chance, so he limited himself to say a silent "thank you" with his lips. The girl's smile broadened as she nodded and climbed the staircase back to the surface.
The trap door opened and let Martha out of the basement before closing again. Only Khan and the Lieutenant remained in the room, and they studied each other in silence for a while before exchanging a few words.
"You got a nice girlfriend," Lieutenant Dyester said. "Being young sure is fun."
"She's only my sparring partner and a friend," Khan explained. "Also, I plan to respect her words. I'll become stronger than you and repay this favor."
"You have been in the camp for only two weeks," The Lieutenant laughed. "I bet you know nothing about warriors and mages. You would have more respect for me otherwise."
"I'll try not to use my mocking tone when I call you Master," Khan smirked.
"And I'll start to call you kid once you become a human being in my eyes," Lieutenant Dyester snorted. "You have a mere twenty percent attunement with mana. Even roaches can reach it, so that will be your new name until you improve."
Khan didn't reply. He didn't care about names or titles. He continued to sit on the step, but his legs began to shake in excitement.
"Did they teach you some moves already, Roach?" The Lieutenant asked.
"The shadow step and the palm force," Khan explained.
"No wonder you wanted to avoid the martial arts of the army," Lieutenant Dyester scoffed. "Did you try using them while deploying mana?"
"I discovered my attunement only an hour ago," Khan replied.
"Stand up then," Lieutenant Dyester said while stretching his legs on the table and tilting his chair. "Perform the palm force on the metal bars. The real training will start once you manage to bend them."
Khan remained speechless. He didn't even know how to deploy the mana, but Lieutenant Dyester had ordered him to bend metal bars meant to hold soldiers.
"Go on," Lieutenant Dyester hurried Khan. "It's still early, but the curfew will eventually arrive, and I'm giving you only one week to succeed in this task. It will be pointless to teach you anything if you can't pull it off during this period."
"But I have to attend my lessons on the other days!" Khan complained.
"Better to start right away then," Lieutenant Dyester laughed while throwing his cigarette away.
Khan found the request unreasonable, but he didn't dare to complain again. He stood up and walked toward the nearest cell before visualizing the move he had practiced during the past week.
'I still can't use the right moves every time,' Khan thought while bending his legs and preparing the attack. 'I can only do a perfect execution half of the time. I bet it will be even less now.'
Khan took a deep breath before attacking. His waist rotated, and his arm followed that movement before landing directly on one of the metal bars.
A sharp pain spread from his palm, but Khan didn't budge. He limited himself to inspect the metal bar before repeating the technique.
"You aren't even trying to use mana," Lieutenant Dyester shouted at some point. "That energy won't magically come out. You need to move it alongside the technique."
Khan took another deep break before focusing on his nape. He didn't enter the meditative state, but he still managed to see the azure energy flowing through that spot. Moreover, he noticed that a few parts of his body now featured small azure lumps.
Khan disregarded that detail to focus on the exercise. He had never tried to move the mana in a specific direction, but that seemed necessary to perform the attack.
His mana flow started to increase as he opened his eyes and performed the palm force. His hand hit the metal bar again, but a sharp pain spread from his shoulder at that time.
"Your arm moved too quickly," Lieutenant Dyester commented. "The mana didn't manage to reach your palm, so it released its power in your shoulder."
'Mana is dangerous,' Khan thought before closing his eyes again.
Khan tried to test the speed of his mana. He checked how fast it could go before reopening his eyes and focusing on the palm force.
His control over mana was still lacking. Khan understood that he couldn't make it match the palm force's speed. That was simply impossible at his current level.
'I need to make a slower version of the attack,' Khan decided before taking his position and executing his move.
His focus split between his body and the energy flowing from his nape. Khan moved slowly, trying to make the mana follow his waist and arm.
A faint low noise came out of his palm when it hit the metal bar, and a tingling sensation spread through his entire arm. He had successfully fused the flow of the mana with his technique, but his target didn't show any damage.
"You still need to perform the actual technique to bend the metal bar," Lieutenant Dyester explained. "A flawless execution is useless if it lacks power."
Khan smiled when he heard those words. The Lieutenant had called his previous execution "flawless". He had basically revealed that Khan was on the right path.
'I only need to make it faster now!' Khan exclaimed in his mind, and the world around him disappeared as his entire focus went on the exercise.
Hours inevitably passed. A drone brought the lunch to Lieutenant Dyester, and the latter ate while Khan continued to practice.
The afternoon went by, but Khan was still there. His hunger didn't make him flinch. He had never stopped trying to deploy the correct palm force, and his speed was slowly reaching the intended level.
'His mana capacity is top tier,' Lieutenant Dyester thought while checking his phone. 'He has been at it for more than ten hours, but he still has mana to waste.'
The phone marked eight fifty pm. Khan needed almost an hour to return to his dormitory at a normal pace. It was nearly time for him to stop training, and Lieutenant Dyester had also decided to send him away in the next minutes.
However, a distinct low noise eventually spread through the basement and startled Lieutenant Dyester. The soldier saw Khan crouching on the floor and gasping for air, but he didn't miss the smile on his face.
Lieutenant Dyester moved his eyes to the cell at that point. A tinge of disbelief spread on his face when he noticed that one of the metal bars had slightly bent.
