As soon as the red-haired man carried Rohan into the building, the onlookers began to comment on what they had seen.
In Mai's group, the older woman said, "Another victim of the Palace of Death. Honestly, these young people have to value their lives more. I would understand if he took this kind of risk in the future, but it doesn't make sense for him to do it now while knowing nothing about the tower."
The blonde woman said, "That's true, but it does give him a charm, don't you think? A brave man is always good."
"Indeed, but he has to be alive. Otherwise, there's no point in this courageous nonsense."
"Yes, that's right."
Mai then said, "Can't he survive?"
The older woman said, "It's not impossible, but it's not far off either. I'd say that ninety-nine percent of the people who ate that thing would die."
"I see."
"Well, let's go back inside. I still have a lot to show you about our school."
"Okay."
The women then went back into the building they had come out of.
Meanwhile, in the Iron Castle group, the tall man said, "Wow, you were right, Rein. Even though there wasn't a fight, the whole situation was still a lot of fun."
Rein said, "Fun? You know that one person died at the end of all this, right?"
"I know, but that was a consequence of the decision he made."
"Hahaha, I'm kidding. I also found the situation quite amusing, and as you said, he decided to kill himself, so there's no reason to be sad about it."
"Well, now that that's over, let's get back to school. I still have to see the training room and the kitchen."
"Don't worry, I'll show you everything little by little. Come on."
The two then entered the Iron Castle school building.
Meanwhile, in the building where Karin was, seeing the situation coming to an end, she turned away from the window, and said, "That was better than I expected. I can't wait to see what happens next time."
The bearded man next to her then said, "I didn't want to be a party pooper, but-"
Before he could finish speaking, Karin said, "Hey! Don't tell me anything! I don't want any spoilers! Let's continue the tour of the school."
"... Okay. Please accompany me."
Meanwhile, on Dominic's side, he saw everything most closely, as he was practically behind Rohan when he ate the black sphere.
He was shocked by the whole situation and thought, 'Is he dead?! It's a good thing I didn't hear what that redhead was saying! If I'd eaten the orb, I'd be dead!'
He then remembered the vision of Rohan's death, and said, "That's what you get for not listening to me. Pay more attention to the advice of others in your next life." and then left in the direction of the other schools.
The news of what had happened spread to all the schools on the road, which caused some people to say, "I can't believe there's already been one person who died."
"Well, that was the only fate that awaited you when you tried to enter the Palace of Death."
"That's true, but I kind of understand him. As far as I knew, he was the participant who got the 'F' grade. That was probably his only alternative besides spending months training to improve his grade."
"Yes, but I would still have chosen to train. Even more so if you put yourself in his shoes, who doesn't know anything yet."
"Hm, you're right. He really was crazy to do that."
...
Sometime later, inside the Death Palace building, Rohan, who was the main subject of most of the schools, was lying on a bed on the floor. He was covered in blood, and his skin was so pale that he was almost transparent. He looked more like a corpse than a living person.
Next to him, the red-haired man was watching him, and after a while, he thought, 'The situation is very complicated. He could die at any moment. It's been a few hours, and he's still in this state between life and death. Most people would have died by now. Should I give him the medicine? No, it's too early to decide if he deserves it.
The red-haired man was about to get up when he suddenly saw something that made his eyes widen. He then approached Rohan and looked closely at his face.
After a while, he noticed that Rohan's skin had regained some color. This made him say, "It's not possible! He's recovering?!"
The red-haired man watched Rohan for a while longer, and after making sure that he really was recovering, albeit very slowly, he said, "I wasn't mistaken. He really is recovering. Well, in that case, I don't need to waste any more time."
He then left the room and returned after a few minutes with a red sphere very similar to the black sphere that had left Rohan in his current situation.
He then sat down next to Rohan and said, "Well, looks like you're out of luck, kid. I was honestly hoping you'd die. After all, you don't look like the kind of person who's going to put up with my training."
"You clearly only decided to eat the black pill because of the situation you were in at the time. I would even say that in no other situation would you have eaten it. Well, maybe that's part of your destiny."
The red-haired man then used one hand to open Rohan's mouth, threw the red pill into it using the other, and closed his mouth again.
He then got up from the floor and said, "Well, now it's up to you to recover." and then left the room.
...
A few days passed, and Rohan finally regained consciousness.
He thought, 'Where am I?' and then began to open his eyes.
The first thing he saw was the ceiling of what looked like a room. After seeing this, he tried to look around, but with just one slight movement, he felt an enormous pain that made him give up the idea.
He then said, "Where am I?! Why does my neck hurt so much?"
A voice then said, "You've finally woken up. I was beginning to think you'd fallen into a coma or something."
Rohan looked in the direction of the voice without moving his head and saw a red-haired man coming through what looked like the door of the room he was in.
Rohan said, "Who are you? ... Wait! You! It's your fault I'm like this!"
The red-haired man approached Rohan, sat down next to him, and then said, "Hey, I know it was me who offered you the black pill, but it's too much to say that it was me who left you like this. After all, I didn't force you to eat it; I just gave you the opportunity."
"Even so! Who offers a person a poison like that to eat?! I can't even describe the pain I felt. Before I lost consciousness, I thought I was going to die more than once."
"And yet you didn't die. Surprising, isn't it?"
"I swear if I could move, I'd punch you!"
"Hahaha, it's a shame you can't, isn't it?" Right after saying that, the red-haired man put his long pipe in his mouth and, after a few seconds, took it out, blowing the smoke in Rohan's face.
Rohan then said, "Hey! I'm really going to punch you when I can move!"
"Feel free to try, but I doubt you'll be able to do anything with that hideous body you've got."
"Hey, don't talk about my body like that. It's a great body, and it has never let me down."
"Well, maybe that's true in the world you come from, but here, you couldn't have a worse body. Why do you think your test grade was 'F'?"
"... What can I do? I never liked sports, and it wasn't necessary to have an athletic body to survive in my previous world."
"Make no mistake. That's not why you got an 'F' on the test."
"Wasn't it?"
"Of course not. Think about it. As far as I know, all the other people who took the test with you got an S, didn't they?"
"Yes."
"Now remember them. They all seemed to have athletic bodies?"
"... Now that you've said that, apart from one of them, the others seemed to have quite normal bodies ... But if it's not this that influences the test score, what does?"
"The degree of impurities."
"Impurities? What's that?"
"The name is self-explanatory. They are impurities that exist inside our bodies. Everything we eat and drink has them, and over time, they accumulate in our bodies."
"Hmm, so you're saying that it's my fault that my grade is so low because I've ingested a lot of impurities during my life. In comparison, the other people who took the test with me didn't ingest so many impurities, and that's why they got a high score, right?"
"Not necessarily. What decides the amount of impurities in a person's body isn't the amount they eat. After all, everything we eat has some amount of impurities, and there's no way of identifying the amount of impurities in it."
"If that's the case, what defines the amount of impurities in our bodies?"
"What defines it is the amount of impurity that our bodies can expel. Each body can expel a certain amount. The greater the amount, the higher the grade in the test."
"So my grade was 'F' because My body has difficulty expelling impurities, right?"
"No, your body can't expel any impurities. It can't even tell what's an impurity and what's not."