048

Before the semester began, the first person to visit me was Pan.

“Pan…?”

Having turned 15, Pan looked a bit more mature.

He had grown a little taller, and his body had become slightly more robust.

His appearance, which had been simply smooth and clean, that of a graceful pretty boy, was gradually preparing to transform into that of a young man.

But the biggest change was in his eyes.

“Yes, Teacher.”

“You've gained confidence.”

“My uncles and the older guys treated me well.”

Perhaps thanks to his time with Hati's mercenary guild, Pan's shoulders, which had always been hunched, were now a bit firmer and broader.

His unique, amiable and gentle impression hadn't disappeared, but the way he met and held one's gaze was clearer and more distinct.

“That's good to hear.”

“It's all thanks to you, Teacher! They said your swordsmanship is incredible. You have no idea how much my uncles praised your swordsmanship manual, passing it around to read.”

“...Passed what around?”

A forgotten memory resurfaced.

The final evaluation last semester wasn't just about catching orcs or high orcs.

It was more about testing which was more useful and effective: the basic swordsmanship theory book or my black history notebook.

But at some point, only the basic swordsmanship theory book was mentioned, and my notebook had vanished from the conversation.

But he took that somewhere and passed it around with whom?

Rozalin, Hati... I won't forget this.

Pan, oblivious to my feelings, just smiled brightly.

You're lucky. You can smile without a care in the world.

Don't you dare build up a black history like mine.

“What about Rozalin and Hati?”

“They said they haven't gathered all the medicinal herbs for you yet, so they'll arrive a day or two late.”

“Really? Then you should come to the training grounds right away.”

I had been wondering when Rozalin and the others would arrive.

I was curious about how effective it would be to teach them what I had realized about mana during the break.

I took Pan to the training grounds.

“You're here?”

Sordian was there, still immersed in his training, swinging his sword as always.

Two months had passed, but he still hadn't grasped the feel of mana at all.

No, maybe 'at all' is a bit harsh.

“It would be a lie to say I felt something, but I think my sword has gotten a little sharper.”

“When you say sharper, are you talking about cutting power?”

“That's right. Well, it's hard to call it a significant difference.”

In other words, all he had gained in two months was a slightly keener blade, and he wasn't even sure if it was just his imagination.

I suspected it wasn't just his imagination.

‘He can't feel it, but a minute amount of mana is constantly flowing. It has found its direction.’

Then what about Pan, who possessed talent superior to others, not just an average student?

“First, why don't you try swinging your sword?”

At my words, Pan nodded, gripped a wooden sword, and swung it in the air a few times.

Sordian, who was watching, let out an "Oh" of admiration.

“Hey, Teacher Cassian. Would it be alright if I spar with him?”

“Do you like what you see?”

“He's improved a lot. I'll get my revenge for last time and have a proper match.”

And so, Sordian and Pan faced each other, and the sparring match began immediately.

“Here I come!”

Pan ran, blatantly aiming for Sordian's blind spot.

He broke the rhythm with his steps in the blind spot created by the eyepatch.

Sordian, as if he knew Pan's moves, skillfully stepped and erased the blind spot.

Over the past two months, he had revised his movements entirely to feel mana.

He simplified the process of swinging the sword and eliminated useless steps.

From that simplicity, a swift sword strike aimed for Pan's chin.

Swoosh—!

Pan maintained his center and deflected the opponent's sword with his upper body's core muscles.

Simultaneously, Pan rotated in a small oval, gaining momentum and closing in on Sordian's body.

The short steps he took broke the rhythm, confusing Sordian as to when and where the attack would come from.

If the blind spot is erased, create a new one.

A spot slightly askew from Sordian's line of sight.

Pan slightly hid his wooden sword behind his body before swinging.

To Sordian's eyes, it must have looked as if Pan's sword had disappeared and then reappeared.

As the sword swept low, aiming for his ankle, Sordian did a backflip, leaping to create distance.

“That's enough.”

This was sufficient to check Pan's current skill and confirm his swordsmanship system.

“Hey, the match was just getting started. Aren't you ending it too quickly?”

Sordian grumbled a little, but it didn't seem sincere.

He had mentioned how frustrating it was to train mana alone during the break, as he couldn't get a feel for it.

He seemed curious to see how Pan, Rozalin, Hati, and the others would feel mana and incorporate it into their swordsmanship.

“You've developed a habit from experiencing many real battles. You unconsciously waste some strength in your arms, hands, and shoulders before swinging your sword. For efficiency's sake, you should get into the habit of applying force more compactly.”

In addition, I pointed out parts where his balance was off when he stepped, and parts where his field of vision became unnecessarily wide in one-on-one combat.

“I'm not saying everything is wrong. Those things can be necessary in a real fight. It's just that they shouldn't come out unconsciously; you should be able to use them flexibly with intent from your basic swordsmanship.”

“I understand what you mean.”

Excluding all those detailed parts, Pan's basic swordsmanship emerged.

I closed my eyes and slowly organized Pan's sword style in my mind, creating a single diagram.

In the black space, a 15-year-old Pan, holding a sword, slowly swings it.

And within his body, a blue light flowed slowly along the trajectory of the sword.

‘Pan's characteristic is his irregular and free steps. And his mana breaks in the same way.’

So, the way he created irregularity had to be changed.

Not a haphazard irregularity that could use all the rhythms in the world, but a method of organizing the steps that could utilize mana, and increasing the number of possible cases to near infinity.

My thoughts accelerated, and Pan's swordsmanship and steps were organized.

‘Who will Pan face as he grows up?’

I drew various people in front of Pan.

Students his age, like Bridget or Eleveth.

And slightly older students from the promotion or graduation classes.

People beyond Sordian, like Hati or Rozalin.

‘If demons appear.’

Humans cannot imagine something they have never seen.

So I substituted the monsters I had seen.

Numerous orc tribes and high orcs.

Even trolls and other monsters I had only seen in pictures as a child.

Pan stepped and swung his sword in front of such monsters.

Among the steps my imagination created, I remembered a few that had a free flow and harmonized well with mana.

With each step, he dodged a monster, instantly approached an opponent, and pushed the destructive power of the sword to its limit.

After facing monsters for a while, Pan faced me.

He took a concise step towards me and smiled playfully.

Hook.

He swung a sword that came from nowhere.

My eyes opened, and the darkness lifted.

“Let's do this.”

I briefly explained the swordsmanship and steps I had seen in my head for Pan.

It was more of a task of modifying and simplifying a few details he was already using, rather than creating something new.

Thanks to that, Pan had no trouble understanding the explanation and nodded as if he understood.

“Then I'll try moving like that.”

Pan took a few steps back, took a stance, and began to swing his sword through the form.

The steps were concise, and the sword's trajectory was both irregular and clean.

Sordian, watching from the side, was so impressed he clicked his tongue.

“Well, I'll be. He just corrected a few details that didn't even seem that different, but it's incredibly powerful.”

His learning ability was certainly fast.

Perhaps because he had gained confidence, his hesitation was gone. At this rate, he could likely gain the upper hand even in a spar with the promotion class, no, the graduation class students.

But what was important wasn't that kind of sword style.

‘Mana.’

Every time Pan swung his sword, the muscles in his body flowed from the tips of his toes to his fingertips with a single will.

And mana would do the same.

If he continued to put his will into the sword like this, observing the energy within his body according to that will, and feeling the flow of that energy….

“Hmm.”

Pan slowly lowered his sword.

Then, with his characteristic timid expression, he glanced at me.

“I don't know.”

Is it still too much for him?

Sordian snorted as if it were obvious.

A faint smile graced his face, indicating he was relieved by Pan's failure.

“I told you it wouldn't work on the first try.”

“But in the future, Pan….”

“Hey, don't think in the past tense so much. It seems you regressor-types don't know the worries and suffering Pan went through until he awakened his mana.”

I looked at Pan.

He was dejected, perhaps because he felt he had failed to satisfy me, and he was fidgeting while watching me.

“It's okay.”

I ruffled Pan's hair once and comforted him.

“I was the one who was impatient, so don't worry too much. Let's continue to train this from now on.”

“Yes, Teacher. But this… uh… isn't there something like a book?”

“A book?”

“Unlike other swordsmanship instructors, you said that a basic system is important and made a swordsmanship manual for us. But there's nothing like that for mana….”

Ah.

Pan's point made me realize what I had been missing.

When I left Captain Perdius to train in swordsmanship, how I had laughed at the knights who only spouted onomatopoeia like swoosh, thwack, zap, pew, boom, without a single proper theory.

Being good at handling a sword and teaching the sword are different.

That's why creating an educational theory and establishing a system.

That was my goal and my values.

‘I was so engrossed in the idea of learning and teaching mana that I forgot.’

Me, who was clumsy with my body, and the student who was skilled in swordsmanship.

Moving away from this structure to the structure of me, who had awakened mana first, and the student who couldn't even feel mana, I must have been momentarily intoxicated.

“Pan, thank you.”

“Huh?”

“Thanks to you, I think I've come to my senses.”

And leaving the two behind, I immediately went to the library.

Because I had felt and realized it myself, I had neglected to study.

That shouldn't have been the case.

Since the concept of imbuing a sword with mana didn't exist in the world, I needed to know more about mana to organize it properly.

“Are there any books on mana?”

“Mana… There might be some very basic introductory books, but I don't know if they'll be helpful.”

With the librarian's guidance, I found and read two mana theory books.

‘This isn't it.’

The contents of the theory books were a mess, just like the cheap swordsmanship theory books floating around in the market.

It wasn't that there was no theory on mana, but the explanation was far too insufficient to create a mana theory for swordsmen.

I needed an explanation from someone who understood and knew mana better.

In Akarind Academy, there was only one such person.

“Oh my. What brings you here~?”

“I want to learn about mana.”

Berlis's thin, slanted eyes curved softly.

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