"Did I make a mistake somewhere?!"
Silence answered him.
No one dared raise their head. No one dared meet his gaze. The silence felt so thick it could almost be touched. Even the wind in the courtyard had died down, as if it wanted no part in this.
"You're just twisting the facts," Achilles shot back, but all the pride had drained from his posture. His shoulders had sunk slightly, his confidence had weakened, and his blue eyes trembled.
"It's easy to talk when you weren't involved in any of it. You weren't there with us. You're just turning black into white and white into black. What exactly are you trying to achieve?"
Grey nodded with a trace of appreciation. At least someone in this crowd had the guts to argue with him.
"Excellent question," he said aloud. "What do I want?"
"But I'm not the one who should answer it." His voice hardened. "That's a question you should be asking yourselves."
A pause.
"We've already established the most important thing," Grey continued. "Right now, you're trash. A rabble. A crowd of mouths that need to be fed, watered, and treated just so they don't drop dead."
"So let me ask you this. What do you want? To remain freeloaders? To take the vacant spot hanging around my neck? To keep living exactly the way you lived before, hiding, starving, and gratefully picking up scraps?" By the end of his speech, his voice had nearly risen to a shout.
The words struck one after another, giving them no chance to breathe.
"Do you really want to stay as garbage that everyone kicks around whenever they feel like it?!"
No one stepped forward to answer.
Every teenager stood there holding their breath, their faces burning with humiliation. They were so red it looked as if they could barely breathe. They had nothing to say against his arguments. Shame had lodged itself deep inside their hearts, leaving them utterly disgraced.
Everyone here shared one thing in common. They were all people from the bottom of society. Slaves, homeless children, orphans, and beggars. People no one would ever bother asking about.
It was only natural. What sane person would dare provoke the nobility? It was far easier to prey on street children.
Why do others get a happy childhood while I don't? Why can't I remember my parents? Why can others play and laugh, swim in the lake, and complain about some tiny injustice while we fight over a crust of bread? What makes us worse than them? Why do we have to survive instead of live?
They never dared ask those questions aloud, afraid of hearing the answer, but those thoughts had echoed in their hearts more times than they could count.
Grey could clearly sense their mood. This was exactly what he wanted. To make them fall so low that only one path remained: upward.
He changed his tone once more. The harshness vanished, and his voice became calm, almost fatherly, as if he hadn't been humiliating them a minute ago but genuinely cared for them.
"There's a saying: what doesn't kill us makes us stronger," he said calmly. "And I'm certain every one of you desperately wants to gain strength."
He paused briefly, giving his words time to sink in.
"If you had strength, would those cultists have dared use you as sacrifices? If you had strength, would you still be starving? If you had strength, would I dare speak to you the way I'm speaking right now?"
Grey swept his gaze across them, unhurried.
"The only reason I'm telling you all this, reopening your old wounds, searching for your flaws, and picking at them, is to bring you back to your senses."
"Just look at yourselves in a reflection. Dead eyes. Confusion written all over your faces. You don't even look like people anymore. You look more like corpses."
His voice began to rise again.
"Don't you have any desires?"
"Don't you want revenge?"
"To corner those cultists and make their lives worse than death?"
"To look down on others, knowing that no one would ever dare lay a hand on you?"
He broke into a shout and stepped right up to them, so close that every word came with hot breath and flying spit.
From his previous life, Grey knew many ways to motivate soldiers, but humiliation remained the most effective of them all. It worked without fail. Like yin and yang, like positive and negative, like ripples on water that inevitably built toward a splash.
When despair was pushed to its absolute limit, it was inevitably replaced by something else: all-consuming primal fury.
Perhaps after losing his positive emotions, Senior Grey had somehow become an expert on negative ones. Perhaps the thirst for sadism hidden deep inside him had grown stronger. Whatever the reason, he had unquestionably become better at manipulating people's emotions.
And when he noticed the atmosphere rapidly slipping out of control, he didn't ease up.
On the contrary, he increased the pressure.
"Why are you silent, you pathetic creatures?!" Grey roared. "Answer me! Are you going to keep living like pieces of shit?! Like garbage waiting to be thrown away? Do you want people to step on you and humiliate you like dirt beneath their feet? Do you want me to keep humiliating you?!"
The moment those final words left his lips, one of the youngest children, the same boy who had been the main target of his shouting, hesitantly forced out a reply, barely above a whisper.
"No..."
Grey's gaze immediately locked onto him.
"Louder."
"NO!!!"
"NO!" the others followed.
First came one more voice. Then two, three, ten...
A moment later, the entire backyard was filled with shouting. Harsh, hoarse, broken cries, but genuine. They screamed with all their strength, as if trying to tear out everything that had been building inside them for years.
Grey nearly jumped with joy. Right now, he felt like the conductor of an orchestra, and he was very pleased with his performance.
"Good! Good! Good!" he repeated the word three times. "That means there's still hope for you, and you're not completely worthless trash yet."
With those words, Grey sat back down in his chair, leisurely crossed one leg over the other, and looked down at them. No longer as broken victims, but as raw material that had finally begun to take the shape he wanted.
"Maybe I am trash. But you're no better than me. You're a cripple who can't even cultivate. You just took advantage of our situation."
He spoke slowly, as though reading someone else's thoughts aloud.
"We'll see how long you can keep humiliating us."
Grey narrowed his eyes.
"Does anyone here think that?"
No answer came.
But he wasn't expecting words. The raised heads, crooked smirks, and wary looks told him enough.
"I know I'm right. Even though you've signed a contract and become my subordinates, you still don't trust me. You still look down on me. And that's normal."
"But you're still wrong!" He smirked and suddenly slammed his palm against the armrest.
"Yes, I'm just a cripple. That's a fact. But then explain one simple thing to me. How did I end up in a better position than all of you put together?"
"Luck? No. That's a word people love to use when they don't want to acknowledge someone else's efforts."
Grey straightened his back.
"I was the same kind of slave as Garen, Reus, Kai, and Alen. More than that, I was weaker. Lower in the hierarchy. More useless. They'll confirm it. So why am I sitting here lecturing all of you instead of the other way around?"
He pressed a finger against his temple, pointing at his head with the expression of someone sharing the truths of heaven itself.
"Because of this! I used my brain! This little head contains a great deal of knowledge. From the history of the continent to petty schemes, from gambling to the secrets of cultivation. And I've used all of it without stopping."
"Nothing in this world comes for free! To gain something, you have to sacrifice something else. That's the law! Even someone like me has to pay a price. And believe me, that price is high!"
Now he had their full attention.
Everyone here knew his story. They knew who he had been and what he had gone through. And if not for Reus's guarantee, none of them would have been standing in this courtyard today. Just imagining the scene of a crippled nobody daring to lecture cultists and walking away unscathed was enough to make their blood boil. Grey's performance that day stirred them far more than any grand speech ever could.
Their eyes could not hide their excitement, and their hearts beat faster and faster.
"Alright, that's enough lofty talk." Grey waved a hand. "You've all been lucky enough to escape your pursuers and even survive long enough to meet me. But that's where your luck ends!"
He rose from his chair again and clasped his hands behind his back.
"Let me ask you this. Do you want to become first-rate experts? Do you want to surpass those who are better than you? Do you want to become something greater than a mere guard dog?"
He smirked.
"Do you want to live as luxuriously as I do? Do you want to become strong? Stop starving? Look down on everyone else? Take revenge on those who wronged you? Did you ever think that TODAY you would be given a chance at a better life? You can strive for the peak together with me! Become legends! You can change your miserable fates TODAY!"
The scenes he described made every teenager swallow hard.
Their eyes shone with almost fanatical fervor. Their breathing turned ragged. Their hearts pounded like mad. Overwhelmed by anticipation, each of them licked their dry lips.
They wanted it.
Far too badly.
A living example stood right in front of them.
So how could they possibly refuse?
Into the silence, Grey shouted, "DO YOU WANT IT? YES OR NO?"
"YES!" fifteen voices answered at once.
Fifteen hearts beat in the same rhythm. The shout soared into the sky, startling birds from their perches, and for a moment it seemed as though the heavens themselves trembled from the sound.
"In that case, listen to my commands! From this moment on, I give orders and you carry them out. If I tell you the sky is pink, then all of you will believe me. If I tell you to go left, then you will go left, even if there's fire or a mountain of swords waiting there."
"I will train you without mercy. And I don't care which of you thinks they're special."
His voice turned icy, and his eyes gleamed like those of a madman. Even he had fallen under the influence of the atmosphere he had created.
"All of you should know one fact: during my training, some of you may lose your lives or be crippled for life. But rest assured, your sacrifices will be worth it! This is not a threat, nor is it a figure of speech. It is the price you'll have to pay for the strength I'm offering."
He paused, letting the words sink in.
"Think carefully! I'm not joking. This is your last chance to change your mind. You will never be given this privilege again!"
"Those who are certain, step forward! Those who are afraid, stay where you are! Your contracts will remain valid. I'll provide you with food, and in return you'll do the dirty work. I'll warn you one more time. Other than the dead, no one will leave before the training is over! So make your choice here and now!"
"I'll count to three..." Grey raised a hand and curled his first finger. "One..."
As if on command, seventeen people stepped forward.
That small step carried such determination that it seemed even the ground beneath their feet trembled. Sunny and Hope, whom Grey had summoned the day before and who had remained at the estate until now, were no exception.
The former rat's gaze toward Grey changed once again.
It no longer held respect.
Only fanatical devotion remained.
Grey saw it.
He knew exactly what he had done.
Through humiliation, he had shattered their fear. Through contempt, he had driven their morale to its peak. At this point, they wouldn't hesitate even if he ordered them to charge at cultists with their bare fists.
Ambition burned within them once more. Heavy, vicious ambition soaked in bloodlust.
A single thought lived in every heart: to go all the way. Never bow their heads. Live and die without regrets. Become legends.
At that moment, nothing remained in their minds except ambition.
Since his rebirth, Senior Grey felt truly connected to this world for the first time.
A connection born from humiliation.
Within him, the flame of AMBITION blazed to life, so fierce that even gods would have been unsettled by it.
Today marked the birth of the first generation of warriors beneath the gray banner.
Born under oppression.
Born beneath the shadow of death.
Born with a single purpose: to climb toward the peak.
Grey closed his eyes, spread his arms wide, and tilted his head back, allowing the boiling blood to flood his consciousness.
His pupils pulsed almost imperceptibly.
"Junior... do you see this?" he said quietly. "This is what I meant when I spoke of ruthlessness."
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