050

“Sword Aura? Ooh, the name sounds like it would shine resplendently, and I feel an immense power, like the spirit of the continent and the fantasy-filled breath of a long-lost dragon…”

“Give me your honest opinion.”

“It's too grandiose.”

“As expected.”

Rozalin's reaction left a bad taste in my mouth.

I had named it Sword Aura as if in defiance of Berlis's words, saying I would breathe life into the sword itself, a tool…

But Hati, Rozalin, and Sordian's reactions were more like, 'What on earth is that?'

“The sword is a tool, that's right.”

Hati took the morning star in his hand and swung it once.

Woong, the sound of it tearing through the air vibrated and struck my body.

“And so are my weapons. In the end, isn't it all about smashing and breaking things?”

“Well, it's not that I don't understand your story or ideals, Teacher. I also hate what that annoying old hag said! So even tools can have value! That's what I think, but…”

Rozalin made a humming sound and glanced at Pan.

“Pan never mentioned anything about Aura.”

Pan was sitting quietly on one side of the training ground, his eyes closed in meditation.

“He's never taken that posture either.”

“I've created a theory.”

As I created the concept of Sword Aura, I could vaguely grasp the path to reach it.

‘First. All swordsmen, knowingly or unknowingly, move mana when they swing their swords. It's just that they can't feel it.’

Then how can I make them feel this mana?

Berlis said that I should create magic, not mana.

But I felt that wasn't enough.

‘It's different from magicians.’

According to the theory books, magicians create something called a Mana Heart in their hearts, where they accumulate or draw mana to manifest magic.

In other words, they process mana into their own.

However, swordsmen don't accumulate mana like that; they let it flow.

They let mana flow using all the muscles, bones, and nerve fiber bundles in their entire body.

And the destination of the mana is the sword.

‘Sordian said the cutting power of his sword seemed to have increased slightly.’

That had to be pushed to the extreme.

‘To do that, expanding the pathway is the best way.’

If they can't feel mana, it must be because it's too familiar to them.

I was awakened by a light shock of mana because I was a body where mana couldn't pass, a body without mana.

That means, if these people also expand and change their bodies beyond the range of mana they can handle, wouldn't they be able to feel and handle it?

“That's the posture I devised for that purpose.”

To activate the pathway through which mana flows, Pan was sitting in a slightly more complex posture than the usual casual sitting position.

He inhales mana through his breath and circulates it within his body.

Therefore, he touches the sole of his foot, a pathway for mana, to the opposite thigh, and his hands also block the area below his navel.

A twisted circle.

Like a snake biting its own tail, a loop (∞) with no beginning or end is completed in the body's pathway.

It creates a pathway that only accepts but has no exit, widening the pathway in a sort of dam-like form.

‘Of course, even so, it would only be a very small amount.’

The pathway wasn't completely blocked in the first place, and the mana that had completed one circulation could leak out again through the entrance it came in.

But I had a certain degree of confidence in this method.

‘It's similar to the way holy power is accumulated.’

The beings of the Holy Kingdom become stronger in holy power the deeper their faith is.

Then what is the best way to build faith?

Prayer.

Huddled before a statue of a god, hands clasped, eyes closed, praising the god.

‘It's about rotating the received holy power within the body.’

I had also verified this through my conversation with Yuria.

That's why Pan trusts me and is training so hard like that.

“It's unfamiliar. No, of course I'm not doubting what you're doing, Teacher. You've always been finding the right answers, so you must have found the right answer this time too. But it's just that I've never seen these things in the future.”

“The me of that time and the me of now are different. The me of now has you all.”

At my words, Hati and Rozalin's eyes turned to me.

Rozalin had a slightly surprised expression.

“According to you, I had no one by my side. I must have figured out what Berlis said somehow after many twists and turns.”

But now, there is Yuria to verify the theory, and Rozalin and Hati to build hypotheses with successful cases from the future.

And there was Pan, who trusted and followed with confidence.

...And in any case, there's also Avril.

“Uh, um…”

Rozalin's face flushed slightly as she let out a silly laugh.

She's weak to praise.

“Tsk tsk. Big Sister. Don't forget why we went through all that trouble. Don't get all dazed just because you got a compliment again.”

“Again! Huh? Do you know how rare this compliment is? It's different from the empty compliments teachers throw around while coddling you! You can feel the sincerity, the sincerity!”

There was sincerity in her words, but was it a compliment worthy of such praise...?

As I looked at her with a slightly bewildered expression, Rozalin cleared her throat with a keum and handed me a bundle.

“Here you go.”

“...What's in it that's wriggling?”

“Ehehe, it's better for your mental health if you don't look.”

Wondering if there was really a centipede inside, I cautiously opened the bundle.

It was a snake.

Fortunately, it didn't have two heads, but the center of its forehead was stained red, and it had no eyes.

Its scales shone with a translucent silver-white color even in the dark bundle, and a reddish aura flickered in and out as if it contained fire within.

“This is...”

“It's called a Magma Snake, a mythical creature found only deep in the desert. It only lives in lava zones! It's full of yang energy, so it's the best of the best restorative foods! And among them, it's really good for men, but as a disciple, it's a bit awkward for me to say it out loud, keuh…”

“You've never eaten it either, Big Sister.”

“When I joined your mercenary guild, the guys were constantly chattering about this to me.”

Setting aside the identity and purpose of this snake, the point is that I have to eat it.

It's probably better than a centipede.

“It's not about cooking and eating the snake meat separately, but drowning the whole thing in a medicinal solution and then drinking the essence that comes out of the snake's body in one gulp.”

I take it back.

I looked up at Rozalin with a horrified expression.

Rozalin chuckled, saying that's why she told me it wasn't good for my mental health, and took the bundle back.

“Do I have to eat it…?”

“Stop whining like a child with a cold. That annoying necromancer has blocked and severed your energy with yin energy. That's why I went all the way to the desert to get something good for yang energy. You have to eat it! Do you know how much this costs?”

“You spent money?”

“Mercenaries like us can't easily get things like this. You have to hire professional trackers and buy information.”

Money.

Come to think of it, I had the jewels I received from Viscount Chestra.

I told Hati and Rozalin the names of the jewels, gold coins, and medicinal herbs I had received.

“I received this much, will it be useful?”

And the jaws of the two of them dropped.

“...Wow.”

“We traveled the world and spent money, but you, Bro Teacher, sat here and earned three times what we spent.”

“Three times?”

“He's a Viscount of the Empire, but he's quite generous, isn't he? It's his son, and his fourth one at that. He spent thousands just for reforming one son?”

Hearing the explanation, it seems I received a very excessive reward.

Should I return it when Bridget comes back?

If not, maybe I should give the medicinal herbs to Bridget little by little to make him stronger.

“Don't be like that. You should eat everything you received! Huh? Bridget or whatever, the weakest person at the academy is you, Teacher!”

“You brought something to solve that, didn't you?”

I suppose I have to eat it.

Should I ask Avril again to prepare the reagents for the mixture?

As I was thinking that.

“No. This time, we prepared everything! That's why we were late!”

At Rozalin's signal, Hati let out a keum! and snorted, then began to take out various items.

His thick, huge hands began to take out medicinal herbs, glass flasks, reagents, and a small pot, laying them on the floor.

Hati sat down in his spot and began to check each reagent and prepare it.

He put grass in a mortar and ground it, then extracted the essence of the grass and put it in a flask.

He added spices that looked like pepper and herbs, and put a few things I didn't want to know the identity of into the flask and shook it.

Among them, I saw some familiar-looking medicinal herbs, from a smaller-sized mandrake than the one I ate before to various other things.

On one side, a pot was boiling over a fire.

It looked like a scene from a campsite, where someone was cooking a high-class stew.

“R-right now?”

“There are only two days left until school starts. Hurry up and eat, hurry up and collapse, and hurry up and recover! Don't collapse awkwardly where we're not around, collapse in front of me, the Great General (a defeated general)! Yuria, the Saint (an apostate)! Hati, the subordinate! And Pan, the Sword Saint (just a student)!”

Hmm.

Collapsing in front of others is a bit embarrassing.

This is a good opportunity.

‘It's a chance to verify if my theory is really correct with my own body.’

I was told my pathways were blocked.

So let's eat that medicinal herb, take the posture Pan is taking, and forcefully circulate it through the entire pathway.

If my hypothesis is correct, when I eat the medicinal herb, its energy will be amplified and I'll be able to absorb a lot of it.

“It's ready.”

I don't know how he boiled it, but a chilling energy was felt from the entire pot.

Then, Rozalin put the Magma Snake into a flask and poured the solution from the pot into it.

Chiiiiiiik—!

Steam erupted from the flask like cold water being poured on a fire.

The wind was so strong that Rozalin's hat, who was holding the flask, flew back, but Rozalin, as if she knew, stared at the flask with her eyes wide open.

After about 10 minutes, the steam disappeared and a gentle heat began to rise.

“Here. Drink it up before it gets cold!”

When I grabbed the flask, I felt a gentle heat in my hand.

It seems hot.

I squeezed my eyes shut and drank the reagent in the flask.

* * *

The new students gathered in the auditorium looked around with various expressions.

Nearly 300 new students.

This scale was not easily seen unless it was a famous academy in the Imperial Capital.

But of all places, for a third-rate academy in a rural backwater of the kingdom to have such a scene.

Perhaps because of that, the faces of the people gathered were quite different.

Those who had originally planned to enter Akarind Academy were often of a rather plain and ordinary impression.

Low-ranking nobles of the Belmein Kingdom, or the children of merchants doing business nearby, talented commoners, and so on.

But on the other side.

The faces of the students who had come after hearing the rumors of last year's final evaluation were nothing short of spectacular.

Every piece of clothing they wore was of a luxurious quality that commoners couldn't afford even if they worked their whole lives.

From their shoes to the light accessories on their heads, they were full of embroidery, and many accessories were accented with small jewels.

Above all, their expressions were different.

“Hmph, I wonder what the head of the family thought was so great about this countryside to send me here.”

“What's so great about catching one or two orcs!”

“The young master of the Goldline Merchant Guild is quite mischievous. What does he expect to get out of playing tricks in a place like this.”

People who wore arrogance due to the nobility of their birth.

Those who looked down on their surroundings and lived off the natural goodwill of those below them.

In their eyes, no matter how newly renovated, the old auditorium of Akarind Academy was unlikely to be satisfactory.

What annoyed them most of all was.

“Besides, that teacher who teaches swordsmanship can't even wield a sword properly, they say.”

The rumor about the instructors.

When their parents suddenly pushed for their enrollment in a third-rate academy called Akarind Academy, the students, one and all, sought out rumors through their own networks.

Their information network was inferior to their parents', so they mostly approached graduates to gather information about the academy, and the content was shocking.

‘That teacher who can't even wield a sword properly and only nags is an outstanding instructor? That's ridiculous.’

‘Hey, are you mistaken? What would an Imperial noble be doing there... The worst, weakest swordsman of my life was a teacher there!’

The worst and weakest swordsman.

The thought of such a person nagging them this way and that, claiming to teach them, made their insides twist.

‘I'll completely humiliate him in the first class.’

There were more than a few students who vowed to show him a thing or two by provoking a duel.

As they each held such thoughts.

“Now, we will begin the entrance ceremony of Akarind Academy!”

With the voice of one instructor, the entrance ceremony began.

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