Amid fear and confusion, he flailed helplessly, and Dabi spent quite some time calming him down before he could finally settle.

  But they were soon overwhelmed by the enormous size and terrifying appearance of the approaching space monsters…

  In the end, the two children panicked, screamed together, and wildly pulled their triggers in all directions.

  Soon after, the first sortie of the space warriors ended.

  Yona scored 50 points, and Dabi scored 7. The highest possible score was 1000.

  'Mission failed.' The two children returned carrying their first failure.

  Eat did not hold back encouragement and praise, telling Yona and Dabi that their skills were already quite impressive.

  At his words, the children, who had been dejected, slowly regained their spirits. Smiles returned to their gloomy faces.

  However, Eat’s expression was far too dark. The only hope left to him was praise… he could not stop praising.

  "If we build training step by step starting tomorrow, tremendous improvement can be expected in a short time, space warriors! Well done."

  Thanks to Eat’s continuous encouragement and praise, Dabi and Yona gained great strength.

  Through ongoing training afterward, the children gradually developed fairly skilled control.

  However, they never earned enough points to complete training in a single session.

  Eat chewed on the manual every day. He had to find a way. He sank into deep thought.

  Yona’s score remained in the 450 range, and Dabi’s stayed in the 300 range.

  Unable to find any method other than praise, Eat was about to end the day with more praise again when Yona, deep in thought, spoke up.

  Yona: "Eli!... Right, Eli!"Dabi: "Why Eli?"Eat: "What is Eli?"Yona: "Eli isn’t an object. He’s our friend, Doctor!"Dabi: "That’s right, Eli is good with machines!"Yona: "And Eli is good at games."Dabi: "Yeah, that’s right!"Eat: "...Games?"

  The next day arrived, and Dabi and Yona appeared with Eli.

  And the space warriors began again.

  Eli couldn’t contain his amazement and kept cheering.

  "Whoa~~~~~ Robots~!"

  Excited, Eli waited with his friends for his first robot test drive.

  Soon after, Eli shouted his name loudly and boarded the robot.

  Eli: Whoa~! It smells nice~Yona: Right? It smells good~

  After manipulating the robot a few times, Eli displayed astonishing control in a short time.

  As if balance were ingrained in his body, he handled the robot with incredible precision.

  Then he even placed small objects on his fingertips without dropping them,

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  and controlled the robot as naturally as moving his own arms and legs.

  Seeing his innate talent, Dabi and Yona looked at Eli with subtle envy.

  Before long, Dabi, Yona, and Eli all reached similar levels of piloting skill and waited together for deployment.

  Just having Eli beside them gave Dabi and Yona strength and reassurance.

  Eli: "Ah, I’m so nervous! What is all this, guys! I’m tense!"Dabi: "Don’t worry! I’ll help you!"Yona: "Just trust me, I’ll take them all down!"

  Eat gave the launch command. Moving into outer space, Eli was overwhelmed with emotion.

  'Me… me! I’m in outer space!' Eli felt a thrill run through his entire body.

  Strength surged into his hands gripping the controls.

  Soon, countless demon army forces began approaching before his eyes.

  Seeing the enormous space monsters, far bigger than he had imagined, Eli began to feel a little afraid.

  "Whoa~ they’re real monsters? Why are they so big~"

  At that moment, Dabi charged into the enemy first.

  Yona followed right behind, increasing speed and taking down monsters.

  Encouraged by his friends’ performance, Eli clasped his hands under his chin and closed his eyes briefly in prayer.

  Eli opened his eyes…

  After taking a deep breath to calm himself, he slowly gripped the controls.

  Soon, Eli also began moving slowly toward Dabi and Yona, starting to eliminate the demon army.

  As the battle progressed smoothly, Eli suddenly increased speed.

  Putting away his ranged weapon, Eli drew swords in both hands and plunged into the enemy ranks.

  Then he cut down the charging demon army without hesitation, while Yona and Dabi stared blankly.

  Watching this, Eat threw aside the ice cream he had been eating and stared with tense eyes.

  As Eli increased speed further, Dabi and Yona, who had been standing still watching, also began accelerating.

  Eat observed the situation seriously, watching the two friends learn from Eli’s growth—

  At last, as if he had found an answer, he smiled.

  Time passed, and the children returned excited after completing the mission.

  Their flushed faces made them look like children who had just returned from vigorous play.

  Yona: "Whoa, I’m sweating!"Dabi: "Seriously, following Eli makes you sweat."Eli: "That was so fun~ If we try once more, I think I’ll get used to it!"

  "Whoa!"

  At Eli’s confident reaction, Dabi and Yona felt glad they were with him.

  Eat approached the brightly smiling children, hurrying over in surprise.

  Then he wanted to quickly share their improved results. He believed it could give them new motivation.

  "Yona: 610 points, Dabi: 500 points, Eli: 830 points!"

  Excited by the dramatically improved scores of Yona and Dabi, Eat looked at the children.

  But while Eli showed regret that he could do even better, Yona and Dabi appeared to be losing their smiles.

  Eat spoke louder in excitement.

  "Space warriors, what’s wrong? You should be happy! This is tremendous progress!"

  At that moment, Eat sensed not the joy of achievement, but a strange emptiness in the children’s expressions.

  At the time, Eat did not understand why.

  Then he only realized later that meaningless score competition did not bring the children joy.

  Afterward, Eat tried to smash the scoring machine with axes in both hands.

  The children happened to witness it and desperately stopped him. In the end, they barely managed to settle it by unplugging the code.

  From that day on, the more Eli improved, the more Dabi and Yona learned from him and improved as well.

  They no longer divided individuals by scores. They simply rejoiced together upon completing missions and cared for one another.

  Instead of rough training, Eat gradually realized he had to tend to the children’s hearts,

  so that each one could return with happy memories.

  ---

  The one who had introduced the machine that displayed the children’s actions as scores was the golden owl, Polun.

  This was not part of the king’s orders.

  Polun, who had never spent time with children, had introduced it purely on personal judgment for better results.

  For that reason, when the king received reports of the children’s training process, he was enraged and summoned Polun separately.

  Then he sternly reprimanded him.

  That day, Polun burst into tears on the spot, sobbing so much it felt like buckets could be filled.

  "Bwaaaah~ Bwaaahhh"