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“Would you like to come in? It's not very spacious.”

As she said, Berlis's office space wasn't very large.

The office space provided for her was spacious, but it was so full of various magical tools and books that there was hardly any room to step.

“You can just sit somewhere around there.”

The place she pointed to, calling it 'somewhere', was a spot where books as thick as a human head were piled up haphazardly.

Are there no chairs? No, but is it really okay to sit on books?

While I was flustered like that, Berlis, as if to demonstrate, hopped onto the pile of books and sat down.

The books and trinkets were literally a pile of books, so they didn't budge with that much movement.

Still, it's a bit awkward.

I also sat down on a pile of books on one side.

I could feel the hard texture of the hardcover book against my backside.

“Didn't you used to dislike magic~?”

Berlis said, chuckling.

It was a little annoying, coming from someone who clearly knew why I came to dislike magic.

“You were the one who experimented on my body as you pleased, saying the imbalance between my body and mind was fascinating.”

Whether she knew my feelings or not, Berlis laughed cheerfully with her characteristic "Ahaha".

“People who have felt mana can't help but be curious about it. Ask me anything~. I may not look like it, but I'm a teacher~.”

As she said, she was a magic instructor at Akarind Academy.

And a very competent 4th-circle instructor at that.

It was time to put aside personal feelings and ask about mana.

I spoke ramblingly about what I had felt while swinging my sword and my personal impressions of mana.

“...So I want to create a textbook to convey this sensation to people.”

“Ahaha~ You can't.”

“Pardon?”

“I didn't mean 'can't' as in it's forbidden. It's a bit of a different story.”

Berlis's slitted eyes narrowed.

Her dark yellow pupils scanned me.

“Your hypothesis comes from a complete misunderstanding of mana. I think you misunderstood because the first time you felt mana through my magic was so shocking~ This is my fault. Am I disqualified as a teacher—?”

“Could you please explain it slowly, one by one?”

“Yes~.”

She clapped her hands.

And in an instant, the surrounding space completely changed.

Just a moment ago, I was in Berlis's office, but now I was sitting at a desk in a school classroom.

When I placed my hand on the desk, I could feel the hard texture of the desk.

The sensation on my backside was still there, but it was hard to tell if it was the feel of a book or a chair.

And Berlis, wearing a witch-like pointed hat, was smiling sweetly in front of the blackboard.

“This isn't mana, it's magic.”

“...Yes?”

“What you talked about, Teacher Cassian. The thing that imbues swordsmanship, makes the sword sharper, and eventually even cuts through magic. That's not mana, it's magic.”

“Mana and magic.”

“Yes~ Mana is just a material. For example, let's say it's high-quality wood. And a magician is holding a carving knife.”

The example was good, so I could immediately picture it.

So, in the end, mana is just a raw material and nothing else.

It can be anything, but it can do nothing on its own.

“Without a purpose, mana doesn't move, it just exists. So you have to reverse the order. It's not about feeling mana first, but about imbuing mana with will so that it can be felt!”

I also understood what I had done wrong.

Rozalin, talking about Pan's swordsmanship, said that I had established the concept of 'Mana Road' and then created how to use it.

So I became too fixated on the existence of mana.

The key is how a swordsman will use magic that cuts through magic.

“But many theory books and magicians' records say they felt mana first. So I thought that for us who use swords to utilize mana, we also have to feel mana….”

“That's all nonsense spouted by idiots who know nothing about mana. Ahahaha, I don't know what kind of magic they're talking about to say such things.”

The world distorted.

As if looking at the world through a convex or concave lens, the screen stretched and bent sideways.

Berlis stood at the center of it.

Berlis's body flickered, stretching and shrinking repeatedly.

And yet, her vertical yellow pupils stared at me.

“Magic is a fantastical power. Carving wood to make a wooden bird, carving wood to make a wooden horse, it's still just carving. What's fantastical about that? It's just carving. For it to be a fantasy, that wood has to have life, to fly and to run.”

“....”

Was it because of tension?

Or for some other reason?

My body was frozen stiff, and I could hardly move a single fingertip.

On the other hand, the entire world except for me was shaking uncontrollably.

Bookshelves collapsed and bookshelves flew around.

The spines of books were torn, and black lines were drawn across the sentences on the pages.

It felt like a mocking voice was cackling at me from a distance.

It was strange.

“Haha, haha.”

But with a weak laugh, the unidentified energy that had been constricting my body disappeared in an instant.

“Eeeh. I got a little excited. I showed you something unsightly.”

She rubbed her cheek, her slitted eyes open again.

As I stared at her without a word, she quickly finished her explanation as if to clear the atmosphere.

“We can breathe even if we don't feel the air. Mana is the same. You're a bit unique, Teacher.”

“...Yes.”

I just nodded in response without saying anything else.

It was because I judged that it would be dangerous to listen to her any longer.

As if she knew my thoughts, Berlis took a step back with a regretful look.

The surrounding scenery melted away like it was dissolving in water, and soon I was back in the same place as before.

“Thank you.”

I immediately stood up from my seat.

“Teacher.”

Just as I was about to leave the classroom, Berlis's voice caught me from behind.

“Mana is just a tool. What's beautiful is magic. Focus on the magic and don't give too much affection to the tool. A tool is just a tool.”

It was definitely Berlis's voice, but for some reason, it felt as if something else wearing Berlis's shell was speaking to me.

If a voice had a texture, this one would have a rough, thick skin.

I felt a sense of crisis, as if it would grab my shoulder and tear it off.

I carefully opened my mouth, trying my best not to show such fear.

“Come to think of it, I've never heard why you came to this Akarind, Teacher. I came because I like creating theories like this.”

“Me?”

As if she had never expected to receive such a question, Berlis fell into thought.

I slowly took half-steps until I reached the door.

“I'm… looking for a good tree.”

Is that a metaphor for mana, which she mentioned earlier?

“I hope you find it.”

“Hahaha, see you next time~.”

As soon as the greeting was over, I rushed out of the office space.

Immediately after, I walked almost at a run towards the training grounds.

‘Yuria? Pan?’

It was hard to know what I had just experienced and felt.

It was completely different from the movement of mana that had awakened my soul.

I felt a sensation of my body stretching and shrinking, the world distorting and changing while I was in a situation where I might be helpless, but I didn't know why I could feel the world distorting, no, I shouldn't know….

“Great Master.”

Whak, the world brightened.

I hadn't even realized it had gotten dark.

I didn't know since when my gaze had been wandering aimlessly, why my body was drenched in sweat.

I knew nothing.

What woke me up was Yuria, wearing the Akarind Academy uniform.

She was staring at me with her purple eyes.

“Do not go too deep into the world of a magician.”

She seemed to have grasped my situation in an instant.

Belatedly, I felt a cool and refreshing energy moving in my body.

It seemed she had restored my disordered mind with holy power.

“The 4th-circle are people who have denied the existing magic system and built their own. It is easy to be absorbed into their mental world.”

Ah, so that's why the world was distorted.

Berlis's world, should I call it anger, or was it filled with self-righteousness, stubbornness, and a sense of inferiority that everyone else was wrong and only she was right.

Usually, she seemed easygoing, but perhaps that was Berlis's true inner self.

And the moment I glimpsed it, she must have quickly finished her explanation and kicked me out.

‘...An experience I don't want to repeat.’

Still, thanks to Yuria, I was able to endure without losing my reason.

“Thank you.”

“Do you still think you should listen to what even a villain says, Great Master?”

Yuria had said that there was no need to listen to a villain's story, that they should just be left as evil.

She was probably reprimanding me for going to Berlis so defenselessly.

“...But thanks to that, I learned something.”

The reason Berlis is at this academy.

‘She said 'tree'.'

Berlis said not to have feelings for a tool.

Coming from anyone else it would be one thing, but hearing it from a necromancer who deals with corpses and dolls, it gave me a creepy feeling.

Above all, what she is looking for is a tree, a tool.

What kind of tool could be found at the academy?

I needed to watch her in many ways.

I pushed aside all those worries and returned to the dormitory.

‘Still, I learned what mana is, and what direction I should pursue.’

I shouldn't obsess over Mana Road, but find out what the result is.

I sat at my desk, cleared my mind, and immediately took out my notebook and wrote a single word.

‘Swordsman’

A person who fights with a sword.

On the battlefield, a swordsman has nothing to rely on but his sword.

He must block, deflect, or parry the opponent's attack, and cut down the opponent.

That is why a swordsman runs at the very front, showing his back to his allies.

‘Magician.’

The world is unfair to a swordsman.

A magician uses mana to freely manipulate all the laws and order of the world.

They could slaughter swordsmen by comfortably creating and shooting fire from a distance.

‘Demon.’

Even such magicians were nothing compared to demons.

And the future, 10 years from now.

The one who fought at the very front, even cutting through time, was a single swordsman.

‘Pan.’

So I had to create Pan's sword.

A sword to cut down magicians, demons, and all that absurdity.

It is layered on top of the swordsman's sword, but in the end, the direction and form it pursues does not deviate from the sword.

Sharper than a sword, lighter than a sword.

And yet, in the form of a sword, like a sword.

‘Mana Sword? Sword Enchant?’

A few names flashed through my mind.

I didn't like them.

The name of the sword, the energy, Berlis's words not to have affection for mere tools, me who sat there powerlessly, Yuria who had not yet transcended good and evil, and the impending invasion of demons, all of it.

‘Ah.’

To cut down all those things.

I gave the sword not a name, but life, breath (αύρα).

‘Sword Aura.’

That was the magic, the swordsmanship, and the path I would walk from now on.

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