Episode 6
* * *
At that time, eight-year-old Dale had three teachers.
Sepia, the elder of the Blue Tower who teaches water attribute magic. Black Duke, the father of Dale and the lord of the Black Tower who teaches dark attribute magic. Finally… … .
Hot breath rose above the frosty, chilly dawn air.
Phew!
In the wide training ground prepared for the knights of the dukedom, Dale swung his wooden sword. And the one who returned the wooden sword was Sir Helmuth Blackbear, who led the Night Raven Knights directly under the Duke of Saxony.
The moment Dale’s wooden sword swung, Sir Helmut easily applied his strength to block it.
Right then.
Dale’s sword, swinging towards Sir Helmut’s wooden sword, coiled around his sword like a snake and swerved away from the center. The art of softness overpowering strength.
‘Wow!’
However, he, one of the seven knights of the continent, would not fall for such a trap. However, he did not need to use all his strength.
Sir Helmut pretended to fall into Dale’s trap and dropped the sword he was holding.
“Haha, Your Majesty! This is quite the achievement!”
And then, looking at the wooden sword he was holding spinning around in the air, he raised both his hands and laughed heartily.
“Hey, you were watching me on purpose.”
Sir Helmut held his breath when he heard Dale’s words.
“… … It is truly regrettable that His Majesty has taken up the path of the devil.”
With the consent of his wife Elena, the Black Duke officially accepted Dale as his disciple. That was just a short while ago. In the first place, Dale was the son of the Black Tower Lord before he was the eldest son of the Duke’s family, so it was an inevitable conclusion that Dale would walk the path of black magic through his father.
However, in the eyes of the Continental Seven Swordsman Helmut, Dale’s swordsmanship was anything but ordinary.
The overwhelming talent I felt when I fought against the strongest knight of the past, Lord Badel, the Divine Sword. A glimpse of that talent is being felt in the tip of the sword of this child who is only 8 years old.
The divine sword Lord Badel, who was once defeated by the ‘Warrior’… … A raw stone that may rival the sword he possesses.
But what can be done about feeling sorry? This child already has the best magician on the continent, and is blossoming with magical talents befitting that status.
‘Why did heaven give such compatible talents to one person?’
Even if you become a wizard, I hope you will not neglect your physical training, so I teach you how to use the sword. However, once you become a wizard, you will not be able to utilize the aura of your danjeon.
Just as wizards process mana into the form of ‘magic’ by spinning it around the circle of their heart, skilled knights accumulate mana in their dantian and use it as a form of power called ‘aura’.
Even though the source of the sword and magic abilities is the same, the organs within the body that utilize them are separate.
The regret Helmut felt every time he taught Dale was indescribable.
But more than that regret, the emotion that drove Sir Helmut’s passion was a sense of wonder. Ordinary magicians are far from using their bodies. Magicians always have a considerable number of escort knights on the battlefield, and they supplement their own lacking physical abilities with outside help.
But is it really necessary to hold a sword and practice physical asceticism?
Even for Dale, it would be an excessively harsh education for an eight-year-old. However, Dale’s way of thinking was different.
‘I don’t want to neglect my physical training by relying on escort or defensive magic.’
The principle itself is not difficult for even a child to understand.
However, even veteran wizards who have been on the battlefield for decades find it difficult to truly understand this principle. In fact, most of the wizards that Lord Helmut slaughtered on the battlefield were those who had fallen into such complacency.
Oneness.
Whether or not he can stop that very encounter will determine the life or death of the wizard who gave the knight his distance. And Dale understood this fact more clearly than anyone else.
An 8-year-old child who had never even seen a battlefield!
Swordsmanship is ultimately a skill for killing people. And to Sir Helmut, who has spent his entire life honing the ‘skill of killing people’, Dale’s fighting instincts were like something given to him by heaven.
That is why Helmut’s passion as a teacher boiled over even more.
Even if he did not walk the path of the sword, young Dale was the ‘brilliant diamond’ that Sir Helmut had been searching for.
* * *
That afternoon.
The basement of the Saxon Duchy. The entire vast underground cavern was a gigantic workshop dedicated solely to one wizard.
Black Ball’s magic workshop.
Right there, Dale was immersed in a new practice with his father.
However, he does not immediately revive the dead or move corpses. Rather, when he heard from Dale that he had acquired such rudimentary necromancy, the continent’s greatest necromancer clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘Are you saying that you revived the object without even knowing what you were moving?’
For Dale, who had been secretly expecting praise, this was an unexpected sight. After that, the first thing the black ball handed to Dale was a set of incredibly thick books.
A medical book that records the anatomy of humans and various living things, as well as the movements and principles of bones, internal organs, and muscles. It is a level of specialized knowledge that only 21st century surgeons would ever encounter.
Only after I had read those books to the point where they were stuck in my head did Black Gong begin to teach me practical magic.
In his workshop, the Black Knight places the stuffed goblin’s corpse, like a mummy, on the altar.
“Let’s start by causing the disease of the dead.”
The reason it is called a soldier and not a corpse is because it is not a magic that simply raises a corpse.
Just as elemental magic can be given individuality through formulas, necromancy can also be used to improve the form of revival according to the will of the magician.
Among them, raising a corpse specialized for battle. A warlock without skills can only raise an ordinary zombie even with the corpse of a sword master, but a warlock with high skill can raise a death knight with the corpse of a common soldier.
Dale concentrated his consciousness and focused on engraving the necessary formulas into it.
He recalls the knowledge he learned from the anatomy book and weaves threads of magical power into the goblin’s body.
Necromancy, as is commonly thought, is not really about bringing the dead back to life. If I had to make a comparison, it would be closer to the skill of a puppeteer who manipulates puppets.
And Dale wove the goblin’s corpse with that very magic thread, and the formula he carved into it was──.
Hardening. Hardening of the outer skin through promotion of rigor mortis.
The goblin’s corpse staggered to its feet, its movements stiff and unnatural at first glance.
‘It’s different from moving a rabbit.’
The body of a goblin that walks on two legs was something that was difficult to handle without understanding the principles that resided within it. Moreover, necromancy was a purely unknown discipline that even he himself had no knowledge of in his previous life.
That’s why that fact made Dale’s heart beat even faster.
“It was a good idea to strengthen the goblin’s outer shell by promoting rigor mortis.”
Watching that scene, the black ball smiled with satisfaction. It was a smile that the father could not hide. However, it was only for a moment.
After the smile, a cool-headedness befitting the greatest black magician on the continent takes its place.
“However, corpse strength──in other words, muscle contraction has the side effect of restricting the movement of the corpse more than necessary.”
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“Are you saying there is a better way?”
In response to Dale’s question, the black ball simply snapped its fingers without saying a word.
‘… … !’
At that moment, an ominous dark force rushed through the room. The hardening formula Dale had added was released, and the muscles quickly relaxed.
Crunch! There was a crunching sound.
“The ribs are organs that protect the internal organs.”
It was the sound of the bones inside my body twisting.
“But there is no need to protect the internal organs of the dead.”
The black ball continues speaking.
“──Then what are we going to do with the bones that are no longer needed?”
That was the answer to Dale’s question, given by the continent’s greatest warlock.
Kwajik!
To his horror, the goblin’s stomach twisted and a ‘bone blade’ emerged from his hand. A white blade with a cold chill. It was part of the ribs that had wrapped around the goblin’s intestines just seconds ago.
“Understanding the structure of the object and reconstructing it into a form that suits the purpose.”
He turned some of his ribs into impromptu weapons. As he said, there is no reason for a dead man to protect his internal organs.
The black ball snapped its fingers again.
Kwajik!
Once again, the goblin’s bones and muscles twisted into strange angles, like a ghost’s joints in a horror movie. But Dale could sense the shape of the distortion.
‘All elements necessary for survival are being eliminated, and the body is being rebuilt solely for combat.’
A goblin born from the hands of the Black Lord. Sharp bone blades sprout from all over its body. It is armor that protects the goblin, but at the same time, it is also a sharp blade to tear apart its enemies.
It wasn’t even at the level of being revived. There was no trace of his former appearance.
Perfect modification.
It was truly a case of rebirth.
A monster with fighting power that is not only several times greater than its original strength, but also dozens of times greater.
“Do you know the spirit that the Black Tower pursues?”
Just then, the black ball opened its mouth.
Dale shook his head without answering. It was not that he didn’t know. Of course, he had to pretend not to know. But the real reason for his silence was different.
Because I just wanted to hear it from his own mouth.
“──It is the truth.”
The continent’s greatest black magician answered.
“And the truth always exists in death.”
Dale held his breath quietly at the words of the black ball. However, what followed was completely unexpected to Dale.
“That’s why you have to understand.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The weight of life in order to reach the truth.”
The weight of life.
“… … .”
Only then do you realize that the black magic that people fear and whisper about as the magic of death is actually an act that is possible only because you first understand life.
For Dale, who had devoted everything to killing, it was an irony beyond compare.
Because he had shed countless amounts of blood throughout his life without ever knowing the ‘weight of life’.
Killing, killing, and killing again.
* * *
A few months later.
A woman’s excruciating screams echoed from the bedroom of the duke and duchess. Dale was looking anxiously out the window of the castle outside the bedroom.
“Confucius!”
And soon, at the sound of the old woman’s voice calling his name, Dale ran into the bedroom without hesitation.
“Dale.”
A father and mother smiling at each other calmly. And a young life next to them.
The bloody lump, whimpering and crying, was wrapped in a blanket and held preciously in Elena’s arms.
“You have a younger sister who looks just like you.”
Elena smiles like a mother after a difficult birth.
“Would you like to hug me?”
Dale, with Elena’s help, carefully held his sister. For the first time in his life, he felt the weight of life. It was as heavy as a thousand pounds, yet as light as a feather.
