042

“First of all, I think the part about the Mana Road being blocked is worth listening to. I'll look for a way to deal with this.”

“Are you going to bring more elixirs like the Mandrake?”

“The Mandrake had the function of removing waste products from the body. But you said your body is blocked by yin energy. Then, from the desert, the two-headed centipede or mushrooms that supplement the body's yang energy, a phoenix egg……”

From Rozalin’s mouth, a string of names of ingredients, from seemingly okay to ones I didn't even want to touch, flowed out.

A phoenix egg was one thing, but a two-headed centipede? Was that even a properly edible ingredient?

“They're perfectly edible, so don't worry. And Hati and Pan are in the desert right now, anyway!”

Rozalin bragged, as if telling me not to worry, and then retreated.

And what was left was Yuria.

Perfect timing.

Through what Yuria had just said about Berlis, I had thought of a topic connected to our last lesson.

“We talked about what humans should consider right and wrong in a world where God has disappeared.”

Yuria nodded, as if she remembered the content of the last lesson.

“There’s a good case, so let's talk about this. You think Berlis is a bad person.”

“Do you not think so, Great Master? I think everything she does is extremely suspicious, in fact, if you think about everything from her narrowly opened eyes to that bizarre pink hair……”

“Here, we can think of one question. Should we not follow the words of an evil person because they are all wrong?”

Yuria’s eyes were fixed on me.

“I don’t understand the meaning.”

“God's distinction between good and evil is clear. But is a human being also a being with a clear distinction between good and evil?”

No.

Humans are complex beings.

They can be good one day and evil the next, and good and evil can be reversed for no reason at all.

The son of a farmer who tills the fields suddenly kills his own father.

A guard captain who was unmotivated in his duties suddenly solves a 20-year-old cold case.

There are slaves who murder the masters who saved and cared for them as children, and there are nobles who, for no reason, release their wealth to help people who have suffered from floods or forest fires.

“That complexity is what it is to be human.”

As she listened to my explanation, Yuria’s pupils gradually darkened and became gloomy.

For a moment, it felt as if a purple energy was undulating in her eyes.

It was a part of the holy power I had seen during the battle.

“We know clearly what is good and what is evil. After our death, we are judged for our good and evil deeds on the scales of heaven, and our destination, heaven or the demon realm, is decided.”

“But, God is dead. Then, will not God who abandoned this world be punished?”

“……blas, phemy……”

“Yuria. You said you were an apostate, right? Then question and erase the absolute.”

Yuria’s head slowly bowed towards the floor.

She seemed to be deep in thought, her head bowed, without a single movement.

Seeing the faint holy power flowing from behind her, she might be gaining some sort of realization, just as I did when I was lost in thought.

Would this be enough for today's lesson, and probably for the time being?

I waited until Yuria had organized her thoughts and raised her head, then I escorted her to her dormitory and returned to my own.

Now, what I had to do was write a letter.

‘A letter, it’s been a while.’

The last time I wrote a letter was when I was at the Imperial Royal Academy…… was it about 5 years ago?

It felt quite strange to be writing a letter to someone I didn’t even know, in front of a letter paper.

‘She said her personality is eccentric and she's mentally unstable, so a letter is better than meeting her in person.’

The people they called strange were really strange.

And this time, even Yuria was serious enough to try and stop me.

So this time, I decided to obediently follow their opinion.

‘Her name was Ulf, was it?’

I slowly began to tell my story to the person Rozalin and Yuria had taught me about.

The theory of the Mana Road that a 4th-circle magician named Berlis had talked about.

And the fact that she had said that eight or nine of my lines were blocked by something full of yin energy.

And even the story that this created a discrepancy between my intellectual realization and my body, causing problems.

‘Now that I’ve written it down, it’s quite a lot.’

And maybe because I had created a few theories recently, starting with the basic manual.

The way it was written was almost in the form of a thesis.

The length of the letter was about 6 pages.

‘……It's okay. A 6th-circle magician would probably be crazy about theories, so this format might be easier to read.’

After finishing the letter, I placed it on one side of my desk.

Now it was time for something more exciting than a letter.

‘Theory.’

I took out my old creation notebook.

It was a notebook where I had written down various swordsmanships to create a basic theory.

In the empty space of the densely filled notebook, I drew a simple stick figure.

‘Nine entrances and intersections.’

The Mana Road was said to be a power that drew in external mana and sent it out.

But because the mana doesn't come in…….

‘No. The Mandrake was said to remove waste products from the body. It’s not blocked, it’s severed.’

I checked the moments when I felt severe pain whenever I swung my sword.

It was when I took a stance and rode the flow.

The pain usually started when I took a stance, but it was still bearable.

But whenever I swung the sword and tried to extend my energy in a certain direction, the pain would reach its peak.

‘She said my life was in danger.’

I interpreted Yuria’s warning differently.

What if it was because I was just sucking in the external mana and scattering it into my muscles and nervous system without filtering it?

‘She said Pan’s sword was a sword that cut magic.’

Common sense dictates that mana can only be cut by mana.

Then what cut the magic must have been mana, not the sword.

In other words, when a person swings a sword, don't they naturally draw in external mana and swing it like a sword with excellent cutting power?

Because of that destructive mana running wild in my body, I couldn't swing the sword properly and collapsed.

‘……It makes sense.’

Once a hypothesis is established, it must be verified.

I recalled the swordsmanship with the most destructive power among the ones I knew.

‘Perdius de Lionheart’s swordsmanship.’

The captain of the Empire’s Lionheart Knights and the pinnacle of the sword in this world.

It was a sword that could tear apart even large monsters with a single slash.

I closed my eyes, recalled Sir Perdius’s swordsmanship, and slowly went over it.

Hold the sword, prepare, and cut.

‘Phew.’

I let out a breath to relax and went outside the dormitory.

There was also a training ground near the faculty dormitory.

It was a training ground for the instructors’ self-development.

And there, as if it were natural, Instructor Freutche was swinging his sword.

“2,321! 2,322!”

He was swinging a stone sword carved from a solid block of stone.

I knew that thing weighed almost 30kg, and he had swung it over 2,300 times.

It was a training method that was truly like him.

“Oh, Teacher Cassian! What's up? Are you here to train?”

Perfect timing.

“Freutche. I'm going to do a swordsmanship training now.”

“Hey. Why would you do something that hurts your body? You're just going to fall over and be in pain again, aren't you?”

“I probably will. No, I think I definitely will this time.”

At my words, Freutche blinked as if he didn't understand.

“If, by any chance, I’m in a lot of pain or having a hard time, will you call Yuria?”

“The exchange student from the Holy Kingdom? Uh, yeah, I can do that much, but, what? Did you come up with some radical training method?”

Radical, it is.

Instead of answering, I stood in an open space a little away from him.

I tapped the sand, which had been laid down for comfortable training, with the ball of my foot a few times.

After smoothing the ground a few times, I took a stance.

I extended my front foot and supported myself with my back foot.

Not facing forward, but at an angle.

My front foot could move forward, but my back foot was positioned to retreat at any time, and I naturally bent my knees.

I thought of the sword as being in its scabbard and placed it at my side, then lightly placed my right hand on top of it.

“That’s……?”

Beside me, Freutche let out an exclamation as if surprised.

But I couldn’t respond to his words; I felt a tingling sensation throughout my body, as if my blood wasn’t circulating.

And I knew.

‘It’s mana.’

This pain was similar to the sensation I had felt when Berlis awakened my soul.

I had never been hit by magic in my life, so I hadn’t known that this pain was mana pain.

‘If I had known that, I would have refined my swordsmanship a little sooner.’

Did my past self get hit by magic while listening to Berlis’s kind explanation?

I pushed all those useless thoughts to one point and slowly erased them.

The surrounding wind died down, and what was left was only the goal.

‘Move the mana along the path.’

Now I think I understood what the concepts of swordsmanship and the sword path were.

It wasn't just about moving the muscles, but about drawing a single formula using the external mana with the entire body.

— You’ve understood.

It was a shock, as if the world were speaking to me.

The pain I felt in my body intensified in an instant.

“Kuh.”

I heard a cracking sound from my clenched teeth, and at the same time, I felt hot blood flowing from my jaw.

My vision blurred, but funnily enough, my mind became clearer.

In the midst of the jumble of information and knowledge, I instinctively realized.

The essence of Sir Lionheart’s swordsmanship was explosion.

‘Ah.’

I heard a ‘poong—’ sound.

No.

Whether I heard it.

Or whether I didn’t.

I couldn’t tell.

Beeeeep—

Because a ringing in my ears deafened me to all other sounds.

A pain as if my arm were being torn off.

When I came to my senses, I was rolling on the ground.

As soon as I opened my mouth.

A gasping, choking sound.

No words came out.

No.

What I had said.

What sound had come out of my mouth.

I don't know.

My vision went out, but beyond the pitch-black world, I could feel my body swaying.

Freutche.

It seemed he was hurriedly carrying me and running to Yuria.

Every minute, every second felt as long as dozens of hours.

It was as if all the senses in my body were gone.

And then all the senses in my body felt like everything, over and over again.

My consciousness was slowly fading.

But.

Thank goodness.

Because I got it.

* * *

Rozalin looked down at her teacher lying on the bed.

A person who had been perfectly fine had suddenly almost severed his own arm.

He was a swordsmanship instructor, of all people.

For such a person to almost lose his right arm.

‘……I think that dog-like bastard said something strange.’

Rozalin’s gaze turned to Yuria, who was lying in the bed next to Cassian.

In the process of fixing Cassian’s arm, Yuria had fainted twice in a short time.

She had lost consciousness as if relieved, only after releasing her holy power to the point where her face turned pale.

Two days had passed since the two of ahem had been lying there.

Neither of them had regained consciousness.

Rozalin bit her lower lip hard.

Teeth marks were left, and blood flowed, but she didn’t even feel the pain.

Rozalin took a letter from her pocket.

It was something she had taken from Cassian’s dormitory.

‘I don’t feel like it, but…….’

Ulf.

Full name, Ulf Tekireo Bralius.

A 6th-circle magician living in the great forest of the northwest.

And…… the Wolf King’s twin sister.

‘I have to contact her.’

It seemed she had to send her a letter.

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