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“Young Master. It seems you’ve taken a liking to those two.”

A man followed Avril as he left the classroom.

It was the shadow guard who usually escorted him closely.

“Two people?”

“Is that not so?”

“My interest is not in two, but in one.”

If it was one, which one would it be?

The guard knew the tastes of the young master he served.

“The woman, then.”

Eleveth.

Her sword was strange.

She would calculate the opponent’s attack trajectory and place her sword in that position.

It was a skill that seemed like watching a magician’s Dispel Magic.

It is said that a master of the sword can block an attack by striking the tip of the opponent’s sword.

Even if she wasn't at that level, it was a talent that offered a glimpse of that level.

Avril did not deny it.

“It’s an unbelievable swordsmanship, but if the sword is wielded incorrectly, it will be a poison.”

Calculations and reverse calculations were one thing, but to perform such calculations freely in the middle of a fast-paced battle was no different from a tightrope walk.

A high-wire act where a single loss of balance meant a fall to death off a cliff.

If one wielded something like that, the end was obvious.

But this time, Avril did not affirm it either.

‘A poison.’

Tightrope walking is a dangerous act where a single slip-up can cost one's life.

But what if one doesn't make a mistake?

What if there was a person who could walk as freely as if on a flat ground, even when asked to walk on a single thread, not a rope?

It was an unbelievable ability, but there was a person who showed such an ability.

‘Cassian.’

In his duel with Gwen, Cassian had wielded a sword much cleaner and more dangerous than the one Eleveth had just shown.

What if Rozalin hadn't stopped the sword?

‘He might have been impaled in the neck by a wooden sword and died.’

That was how much it was a sword that bizarrely twisted and stabbed into a person's vital points.

It was so chilling that even he, who had been watching in hiding from outside the training ground, was terrified.

“The swordsmanship can be saved if possible, and if not, it can be discarded. If the woman is in danger, the man’s sword formation will assist, so look into that and research it.”

“Shall I check the sword formations of the other students as well?”

“One in Class A. Two in Class B. Two in Class C. That much research would be useful for our side.”

“Understood. I will prepare.”

At Avril’s instruction, the guard disappeared back into the shadows.

The information he had gathered would be delivered directly to his private mercenary guild.

And as the strength of that mercenary guild grew, he could take over the Goldline Merchant Guild faster than before his regression.

In this life, he had no intention of wasting time fighting a sluggish battle.

‘Rozalin and Hati decided to be taught by Cassian, was it?’

They had come to Cassian not because he was an excellent swordsman.

It was because he was an excellent theorist and teacher, and because he had eyes that were close to a curse.

The students and the academy.

He had sorted out his surroundings for nearly two months, so now it was time to be paid back.

He slowly looked up at the empty sky and was lost in thought.

If he were to go to him, would he teach him swordsmanship?

‘…….’

He vaguely thought that he might teach him.

Cassian, he was that kind of man.

Avril erased the thoughts of the person who made him unlike himself and started walking again.

* * *

“Teacher, you’re late.”

“It’s still 6 in the morning.”

“Hey, when the monsters were coming in, if you woke up at this time, you'd be called a half-wit. Even the new recruits of the unit wouldn’t wake up like this. What’s the point of sleeping in the morning? We'll all be sleeping forever when we die anyway. If you want to sleep, you can just go to the demons.”

“……I feel sorry for your unit’s subordinates.”

“I was a Great General!”

“All the soldiers of the Empire, the generals, and the soldiers of the countries under the Empire have become pitiful.”

“The ones who would be pitied by you, Teacher, have already run to the demons themselves and are sleeping well.”

Rozalin let out a soft laugh and spun the sword in her hand.

The sword moved dangerously, from her palm to the back of her hand, and around her arm, but it didn't even cut her clothes, let alone her skin.

It was a skill as if the sword were stuck to her hand.

“So, Teacheeer~! You have to watch my swordsmanship well todaaay?”

“Okay.”

For the past semester, Rozalin had been a good support in various issues.

The moment they said they needed me, they were my disciples, regardless of their age or status.

So I'll just do what I can.

“Hyaap.”

Rozalin, in an excited state, instantly took a basic sword stance.

I feel it every time I see it, but Rozalin’s sword stance is very beautiful.

It felt like the Akarind Tree, the guardian tree of our academy, with its branches stretching nobly towards the sky, and its roots spreading firmly beneath the ground.

Each stroke of the sword contained more than twenty meanings, and those twenty meanings converged on a single purpose.

I followed the branches that stretched out long, as if life were spreading.

‘Feet, legs, knees, thighs, pelvis, stomach, upper body to shoulders, arms, neck, and gaze.’

I could clearly feel that the entire body was flowing with a single purpose.

‘I think I get it.’

So I got a sense of what I should tell Rozalin.

Rozalin, who had been showing off her swordsmanship by swinging her sword for a long time, retrieved her sword and caught her breath.

“How was it?”

“The past and present swordsmanship are certainly well blended. You haven’t completely thrown it away.”

“Of course! I swung this sword for, huh? 10 years and, huh? I suffered for 7 years making this, you think I'd throw it away? I can't! But since this is the body of a genius, I mixed it well…… but, hehehe, I also understand that it might look different in your eyes, Teacher! Yup!”

Her speech and posture changed in an instant.

Until she was swinging her sword, she was a confident noble, but now she was just a sycophant.

I let out a small laugh and tapped her left elbow.

“First, the obvious. Your left arm is still awkward. I think it would be good to think more about the role of your left arm.”

“Its role? Uh, to throw it at the opponent when they aim for my heart and neck?”

“You just found what you had lost, and you're already so quick to throw it away.”

“Having lived without it, I found that it wasn't a big problem. It was just inconvenient when my back was itchy or when I was washing.”

There was nothing she couldn't say.

How should I explain this?

“I think you can tense and release a lot of muscles.”

She could use her left hand to increase the elasticity of her entire body.

If not that, her arm to shoulder could provide a stronger recoil when she bent or straightened her body, or when she moved.

She could add strength, or she could add variation.

“I’m not saying to use your left hand for everything. Just to assist.”

“The left hand is just for assisting…… hmm hmm.”

Besides that, I told her about various things I had seen, such as her gaze at the moment the swords connected, her posture and the direction of the sword, and the angle.

The lesson with Rozalin was very enjoyable, and one of the reasons was that Rozalin would engage in a debate with me on my points.

“You have a habit of push-cutting or pull-cutting. Wouldn't it be better to do that with more accuracy?”

“Hmph, but unless it's at that level, push-cutting or pull-cutting is much more impactful, you know? I prefer efficiency over a swordsmanship that is perfect.”

“It's because of the transition to the next stance. The recovery is difficult.”

“I can just slide and move forward! Here, like this?”

Even if my eyes were good, I couldn't grasp everything perfectly.

The conversation with her helped to broaden the frame of my thinking.

As we talked, giving feedback for about two hours, it was already 8:30.

Soon it would be 9 o’clock, the morning work hours during the vacation.

“Hmm…… Teacher.”

At that moment, Rozalin, who had been looking stiff throughout the lesson for some reason, opened her mouth.

“Why don’t you talk about mana?”

“Does swordsmanship need mana?”

When I first met Rozalin, she had mentioned Pan’s growth as my achievement.

One was the theorization of a new concept of swordsmanship using footwork.

And the other was the invention of a way for swordsmen to use mana using the Mana Road.

But I had a rough idea of how I had made the first one, but I had no idea about the second one.

“I told you, I hate mana in the first place.”

“That's what's so strange. Why would a person like that think of mixing mana into swordsmanship? But, I saw Pan use his sword with mana, you know? So I know how strong that is.”

Rozalin once again unfolded her story, as if showing off her old martial arts.

“Honestly, with this sword formation and all, there’s a limit to how a swordsman can deal with monsters or demons. The real deal is magic, which boasts explosive dealing. Kuh.”

If God creates the laws of nature, magicians twist those laws to create order.

Their skill in creating fire, wind, lightning, and ice from thin air was certainly marvelous and destructive.

“And the ones who are best at handling that magic are the demons. Do you know how scary they are? Huh? If they just stomp their foot once, they go shuk shuk to a far away place and then spat, kwang, aaack!”

“……I don’t understand at all.”

“But the one who sliced that up was Pan, you see!”

A sword that cut magic, not monsters.

It was a miracle impossible without a weapon like a mithril sword or orichalcum forged by the legendary race of dwarves.

“But you’re a mana-phobe, Teacher. Why did you come to hate mana? Did mana extort money from you on the street? Or did mana tease you for being a klutz who can’t swing a sword?”

Hmm, maybe?

At my agreement, Rozalin, who had been speaking playfully, froze.

“What? There's a spellcaster bastard who beat up our Teacher?”

Her eyes were spitting fire, and it looked like she would find the opponent and start swinging her fists at any moment.

“It's not like that. It's just that I saw how low mana can make a person.”

“Hmm, what on earth did you see?”

“Berlis. Have you heard the name?”

“Huh? Why does that name sound familiar? Wait a minute?”

Rozalin furrowed her brow and put a finger to her head, lost in thought.

If she had come back 10 years, she might not know.

“She’s our academy’s magic instructor.”

“Ah, come to think of it, I think I remember hearing that name…… huh? But wait a minute. We have a magic instructor at our academy?”

We did.

And a 4th-circle magician, who was hard to see in a rural academy like this.

“A 4th-circle, you say? That old man should be taking a seat as a royal magician, what is he doing in a place like this? Why?”

Rozalin’s words were not an exaggeration.

The current master of the Empire’s Magic Tower, who was said to be the strongest in the world, was at the 6th-circle level.

And below him, the Empire’s royal magician was at the 5th-circle.

The magicians at the academy were usually at the 2nd or 3rd-circle level, so a 4th-circle was an overqualified talent for a magic teacher at a rural academy like this.

That was why the Chairman had given Instructor Berlis quite a lot of power and authority.

“She lectures for only one semester a year and spends the other semester traveling outside, focusing on her research.”

“A 4th-circle deserves that. No, it’s amazing that they’ve managed to keep her from traveling for half a year. A person like that is lecturing? Why don’t I have her lecture then?”

“You didn’t like her.”

At my words, Rozalin looked frustrated, as if she could barely remember.

“She has some…… personality issues.”

“Why. Is her hobby killing people with magic? Or does she gamble with magic?”

Similar, but the order was wrong.

“She doesn’t kill people, she handles the dead.”

“……?”

“She’s a necromancer.”

Rozalin’s jaw dropped.

A 4th-circle necromancer.

That meant a black magician who could have taken a seat as a royal magician of a kingdom was a professor at the academy.

“If that gets out, assassins from the Empire will be dispatched immediately!”

“It didn’t get out.”

“But you know, Teacher!”

“Except for me.”

It was all because of that incident that I had come to hate mana and the race of magicians.

“She’ll probably be back soon.”

She had left last summer vacation, so it was about time for her to return.

And a week later.

She returned.

“……Wow. The school reeks of a freshly baked cleric. What happened while I was away?”

“The filthy servant of the devil is running her mouth.”

For the first time, Yuria showed her emotions, with her fangs bared.

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