After the startling scene, none of the children backed away from the blood oath. This surprised Heero. He thought that a few or even dozens of kids would back out, intimidated by the oath.
But not only did the kids back down, they became even more determined to enter the Heero Academy.
Their Guardian even encouraged the children and their juniors. Thus, 162 children officially became the first generation of Heero Academy students, including the 2nd Prince of the Royal Kingdom.
*** ***
Late in the afternoon, right after the after-party, Heero and his groups gathered in his room.
Everyone in the room was looking in the same direction, at Heero. Their faces showed that they wanted to ask something, but none of them opened their mouths.
Finally, Kang Dong-Woo could no longer contain his curiosity and opened his mouth: "Master, is the blood oath really effective? Why didn't I sign the blood oath?"
Everyone in the room except Hong Yu was curious about the Blood Oath. It was too surreal, something hard to believe, but it happened.
As for Kang Dong-Woo's second question, he was slapped on the head.
Pyak!
"Stupid! It's because your master trusted you, so you don't have to sign the blood oath!" Kang Seo-Yeon slapped her brother's head for asking such a stupid question.
But then Heero's next statement shocked the whole room.
"It's fake!"
"The blood oath is fake. I just wanted to scare them so they wouldn't do anything bad in the future!"
Heero said lightly as if it were nothing. After that, he took a sip of the coffee that Hong Yu had prepared for him.
Hong Yu already knew. Heero had told her when she and her sister had helped Heero prepare the beast's skin. But to hear it from Heero's mouth and to see it with her own eyes was something completely different.
Even now she was still shocked that her husband was capable of such a thing.
"F-fake!? But how?" Kang Seo-Yeon blurted out.
"Was the thunder fake? It can't be, right? It was too real to be fake!" Bai Xin Yue had the same opinion as Kang Seo-Yeon.
She could tell that the thunder was not fake. The same for the others.
"No, the thunder was real! But it has nothing to do with the Oath! I called it! First I..."
Heero raised his right hand, then his palm glowed red. It was the same sign as when the children had signed the blood oath.
Heero told them all the secrets behind the blood oath. He told them nothing.
"To fool the children into believing in the oath, I have to fool you as well!"
"You've got us! That's great, even we are fooled by the oath..." Bai Shuang'er muttered in return.
Heero shrugged and held out his hand, "The first recruitment is done! Tomorrow, I will have to choose some heroes to be my students! Do you have any recommendations?"
His question was directed at the heroes in the room, Sun Zhou Yi, Musashi Hirata, Bai Xin Yue, and Kang Seo-Yeon.
"Why don't you vote for yourselves? Next Monday, the Hero League will open a great recruitment campaign to fill the gap left by the dead after the war against the specters!"
Bai Xin Yue immediately gave the solution. But then she frowned as she realized something.
"Didn't they inform you?"
She thought that the person in charge had not sent the information to Heero. After all, Heero was still new in this field and she had heard that not all of the Heero instructors had agreed to appoint young Heero as Chief of Hero Instructors.
She thought someone was pulling strings and not informing Heero about this big event. The event was quite big, as the Hero League had to make up for their loss.
Hearing these words, Heero immediately checked his smartwatch. He checked his mail, and sure enough, there was an unread message from the Hero League.
"Ah, I'm busy recruiting. I didn't check my mail..." Heero scratched his head sheepishly.
"I see... So next Monday..."
*** ***
Monday, Martial Hall of the Heero Academy, 5 am:
Heero gathered his 162 new students. According to his rules, the students had to stay in the dormitory that the academy had prepared.
Everyone agreed without exception. Even the children from the core area had to come to the outer area.
Standing in front of the kids, Heero had a carefree look on his face. In front of him were piles of training rings. Each of the training rings weighed 5 kg.
As for the children, they stood up straight with discipline and solemnity on their faces.
Some of the children looked at Heero nervously, while the others were excited to begin training.
"As you know, we officially start training today. I don't care where you come from or who you are, there will be no special treatment for anyone!"
"Whether you are talented or not, you will all have the same start. We will start with the basics, your foundation. We will begin by training your body!"
"Take two training rings and put them on your ankles!"
With his words, the children took the training rings. Surprisingly, the kids were quite disciplined, they lined up properly and took the training rings one after the other.
Heero was satisfied, while Kang Dong-Woo and Xu Lingxun stood behind him with a smug look on their faces.
They had gone through the same thing and knew how hard the basics were.
"Let's guess how many will quit in the first week? The loser will treat the winner to Xing Hotpot!" Kang Dong-Woo suggested a bet to Xu Lingxun.
Xu Lingxun did not immediately refuse the bet. He seriously scanned the children.
His master told him that half of the disciples were chosen because of their origin. Half of the 162 new disciples were from the outer region.
As someone who had experienced the desperation and suffering of life in the outer region. Xu Lingxun believed that all the children wouldn't give up this chance to change their lives.
Moreover, his master did not charge these children. They entered the Academy free of charge. But of course, the children from the inner region had to pay a high price to enter the Academy.
He believed that the children from the outer region wouldn't give up halfway.
So Xu Lingxun only scanned the children from the inner region. He was interested in betting. After a quick scan, he placed his bet: "Five at most! What about you?"
"Kukuku... Then I will bet 13! The kids from the inner region never experienced the hardship of our master's intensive training..."
Heero overheard the discussion of his two youngest disciples. He rolled his eyes at them and interjected, "Stop this nonsense... Get ready to lead them out!"
"Yes, Master!"
Then Heero looked back at the 162 children. They were all wearing training rings.
"Your first training is running! Follow your senior brothers!"
Surprisingly, none of the children questioned the running. They followed his instructions well and followed Dong-Woo and Xu Lingxun.
With a satisfied smile on his face, Heero walked out of the academy.
Outside the academy, two women were waiting for him, Bai Xin Yue and Kang Seo-Yeon. A new Star-X SUV was parked next to them, a car bought with the academy's money, a car prepared for Heero.
"I told you, I can take the bullet train. You don't have to pick me up," Heero shook his head, feeling sorry for the two women.
"Pfft... If you feel sorry for me, you should smile more often," Kang Seo-Yeon replied with a smile.
"What's that?" Bai Xin Yue pointed at the thing in Heero's hand.
"This is?" Heero raised his hand. Something like a box wrapped in yellow cloth. It caught Bai Xin Yue's attention.
"This is a lunch box made by love!" He replied with a blissful smile.
It was a lunch box made by Han Ying. She woke up early in the morning just to make this lunch box. It showed how worried she was on her husband's first day at work.
With just one lunch box, Heero was deeply touched. He could feel the love behind the lunch box.
Bai Xin Yue realized that she had just stepped on a mine. She immediately changed the subject, "How are the children?"
"The children are surprisingly well-behaved! I thought the children would cause trouble or something. It was surprising..."
Bai Xin Yue managed to change the subject. Both girls let out a sigh of relief. If they did not change the subject, they would be overwhelmed by envy and jealousy.
*** ***
Standing behind a pane of glass, Heero looked down. Below him was a huge arena where the test took place.
He looked at the countless people who were being tested to become a hero. Heero just looked down with a blank expression.
He simply could not believe that the test in the mouths of the two girls was like this.
"This is the test?" Heero asked confused to which they noded in affermation.
"Are you kidding me?!!??"