Raon dashed forward and slashed his sword. The burning blade mercilessly ripped apart the evening air.
Creak!
The aura’s reverberation after splitting the ground gouged the floor of the training ground like a beast’s claw.
It was a dash type sword technique, created from combining the ‘Star-Combining Sword’ and the last movement of the ‘River Footwork’.
‘Not bad.’
Raon nodded, spinning his sword. Even if one saw through the technique, it would’ve been difficult to block it because of its great power and speed.
‘And of course, that’s not all.’
It was a surprise attack that could be used whenever or wherever, like a knife hidden in the back.
It couldn’t be helped that he kept thinking about surprise attacks, since the temperament of an assassin still seemed to remain.
He turned his head around, hearing a humming sound. Runaan was watching her sword with blank eyes.
However, the bottom of those blank eyes were shining slightly. It was an expression full of expectation. It seemed like she wanted him to teach her the technique.
“Haap!”
As if she was copying him, Runaan kicked off from the ground and thrust her sword in the air.
Without any speed, power, nor the principle of a surprise attack, all she was doing was copying his posture. However, since her talent and abilities were excellent to start with, the movement was going to be pretty difficult to block.
“Is this right?”
Runaan swung her sword a few more times, then tilted her head to ask him whether that was correct.
“Rather than that, with the legs—like this…”
Since he thought she might end up killing someone in a spar, he corrected her posture a little.
Whoosh!
When Runaan’s posture was mostly corrected, a cool wind came over the training ground’s walls. Rimmer had arrived.
When he arrived on time, he entered by kicking open the front door. When he was late, he came in over the walls.
That meant that it was already past the end of training.
“Hmph!”
Rimmer sat at the edge of the platform and looked down on the trainees.
“Instructor, you are ten minutes late.”
“Good job on your training today.”
Ignoring Burren’s remark, he turned his head.
“Ten minutes are enough time to swing a sword ten thousand times.”
“Haa? That’s going too far! Ugh!”
Rimmer frowned after answering Burren’s ridiculous statement. He seemed to have realized that was his purpose.
“Ahem. Anyway, I have two things to tell you today. The first is about the sixth training ground.”
“The sixth training ground?”
“What about it?”
“It’s where those who’ve failed here went, right?”
The trainees tilted their heads, asking why he was suddenly talking about the training ground where the dropouts went.
“Apparently their pride was hurt because of the way that the Owen Kingdom’s envoys belittled them and only asked to spar with the fifth training ground. They are now training until they bleed in order to catch up to us.”
Rimmer grinned, saying that he was proud of the sixth training ground’s trainees.
“The direct line and the collateral that dropped out due to injury also joined them recently, and they are training using the most difficult method, so you shouldn’t be careless. Do your best every moment so that they won’t catch up to you.
“Yes.”
“Ehh…”
“Well, it’s not even possible to catch up.”
The trainees pouted. Since they’d made a huge gap already, they didn’t seem to feel the necessity to be careful about them.
“Hah.”
Rimmer nodded, as if he had already expected that reaction, and told them the second bit of news.
“There will be very special training next week.”
“Wh-what is it?”
Dorian, who was already scared, started trembling.
“Special training, huh?”
“What is it? What else is left to do?”
Since Rimmer had done many strange things in the past, every trainee felt uneasy, not just Dorian.
“Of course it’s a secret.”
“Ah…”
“Instructor, you have to tell us in advance what kind of training it is so that we can prepare ourselves.”
Burren raised his hand and argued with reason, but of course it didn’t work against Rimmer.
“It’s not fun if I tell you. No matter what it is, you’ll be able to do it if you train hard enough.”
“Hmm…”
Since he wasn’t wrong, Burren pouted and lowered his hand.
“But if I were to give you a hint…”
Rimmer raised one finger and smiled. Unlike his usual light or cheerful smile, it was filled with an intense fighting spirit.
“It’s a real battle.”
“A real battle?”
“That was unexpected.”
The trainees’ eyes widened at hearing that it was a real battle instead of a spar.
“It’s not unexpected, but it was about time. Since you said you would prepare, I’ll tell you one thing for sure.”
The craftiness around in his expression started to disappear. His smile was instead filled with a frightening amount of seriousness.
“You should be prepared for bloodshed.”
***
After training, Rimmer left the household and went to the entertainment street located in the western suburb.
——————
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He walked down the street while humming and entered the pub called the ‘Wooden Lotus’, located at the eastern end.
Unlike its elegant name, the pub was old-fashioned and messy. The seats were full and deafening noise was coming from the people talking all over the place.
Rimmer nodded, apparently enjoying the messy atmosphere, and approached the middle-aged man sitting alone on the right side.
“You’re early.”
Sitting in front of the middle-aged man, he grinned.
“Because magicians have enough time to waste.”
The middle-aged man was wearing a black robe. He was reading a book when Rimmer spoke to him and he nodded.
“It’s been a while, Sir Rimmer.”
“How have you been, my dear drinking companion?”
“Well, I’ve been living well, and idle.”
“You look relaxed, thanks to becoming the vice master of magic tower.”
“Haha. Isn’t Sir Rimmer the one with plenty of time to spare? The title ‘salary thief’ was created for you.”
The middle-aged man grinned, closing his book.
“Since I’ve been pretty busy recently, I miss the days when I used to do nothing but drink with you.”
“I heard you spend a lot of time with the trainees, that you look after them with utmost care.”
“Well, it’s not that much.”
Their conversation went as smooth as velvet. It looked like they were close acquaintances.
“Verbin. What have you been doing recently?”
“Since Sir Rimmer doesn’t come out to drink any more, reading books has been my only joy in life recently.”
The man named Verbin shook the book he was holding.
“Since researching and reading books are the only things to do in the magic tower.”
“That’s true.”
Rimmer nodded, looking at the magic book in Verbin’s hand.
“So, why did you call me out today? Judging from your expression, it wasn’t simply to have drinks together.”
“I did want to drink, but I also have a request.”
“A request?”
“Since my students have become pretty talented, I want to let them experience a real fight against monsters.”
“Hmm. In that case, you could’ve made an official request.”
Verbin tilted his head. Letting trainees fight the monsters was one of the official curriculums. There was no reason for him to visit him personally to make a request.
“I’d like to add a few things.”
“What would you like to add?”
“Since my boys are pretty strong, the normal monsters won’t be helpful at all.”
“Ah. I heard they beat up the knight trainees from the Owen Kingdom.”
“Well, yeah.”
Rimmer grinned with a sharp noise. He was in a good mood, almost as if he was drunk, from receiving compliments on his students from an old friend of his.
“I want to strengthen the monsters that would fight against the trainees. At around an advanced sword beginner level.”
“It’s possible. A guy who entered the magic tower a few years ago is specialized in summoning and controlling monsters. He can even make a worm have the power of a dragon.”
“I-is that even possible?”
“That was a joke.”
“Ah, seriously…”
“Well, a worm can’t become like a dragon, but it’s pretty easy to make an orc an advanced sword beginner. Although we can’t strengthen many of them at once, and it’s only limited to one at a time.”
Verbin murmured that it wasn’t really a difficult task.
“Thank you. And one more thing.”
“What is it?”
“Can you use the hallucination magic to make the monster look like a human?”
“That’s also an easy task. Since they are children that haven’t even reached an Expert’s level, one artifact with hallucination magic would be enough.”
“Great. Please do that, too.”
Rimmer flicked his finger and gulped down the beer on the table at once.
“But wouldn’t the trial become too difficult to overcome for the trainees if strengthening and hallucination magic are used at the same time?”
Verbin furrowed his brow, caressing his glass.
“It will be difficult enough for them to fight against an orc with strengthened physical abilities. If they saw it as a human, they won’t even be able to swing their swords properly.”
“Hell yeah! This is the taste!”
Rimmer exclaimed, slamming down his glass of beer on the table.
“What did you just say?”
“I said it would be difficult for the trainees to win. Monster strengthening is one thing, but it’s really difficult for little children to kill a monster that they see as a human.”
“It’s fine. Because my students are swordsmen, not little children. Moreover…”
Rimmer grinned. Anticipation and joy were mixed in his dark green eyes.
“They are strong, both in body and mind.”
* * *
* * *
The magical lamp chased off the darkness in the fifth training ground.
Most of the trainees had returned to their homes, but some children still remained, swinging their swords.
Runaan Sullion was one of them. Staying in the training ground, she practiced the stab that Raon had shown her.
Pang!
Runaan lowered her posture and thrust her sword. A fast and powerful strike pierced through the air, but it didn’t feel right.
‘I can’t do it well.’
Raon’s stab was smooth and relaxed, rather than powerful. It felt so natural that she didn’t even realize he was about to stab.
No matter how many times she watched, she couldn’t understand how he’d done that.
She looked towards the indoor gymnasium. Raon was currently doing his muscle training, and she didn’t want to bother him.
‘Let’s try a few more times.’
Getting ready once again, she thrust her sword into the air. She tried changing her posture, but the strike wasn’t really different.
‘One more time.’
The sound of a blade piercing the air changed slightly. The speed and power were reduced slightly, but the edge of the sword seemed a bit relaxed.
She stopped moving her hand when the moon rising from the east moved by the size of two creases on a finger.
“Haa.”
Runaan visibly nodded.
‘It worked, a little.’
She still had a long way to go before catching up to Raon, but the last movement of the ‘Star-Combining Sword’ had clearly changed. Despite its strength and speed being reduced, its combination and smoothness had become far better.
T/N: The ‘Combination Sword’ will be referred to as the ‘Star-Combining Sword’ from this moment on.
“Hmm.”
Runaan looked at the indoor gymnasium once again. The light was still on, and shouts of concentration from Raon, Burren, and Martha could be heard.
While she was wondering about what to do, she remembered what her mother had told her.
“I’ll have the bead ice cream ready for you, so come back early on the weekend.”
‘I gotta go.’
Runaan immediately returned the training sword. Deciding to ask him about what she was lacking next week, she left the training ground.
It was when she was about to run towards the training grounds outside in order to quickly return to where the maids were waiting that it happened. A man’s shadow was visible in a dark alley.
“Runaan.”
As she was about to pass by and ignore him, the shadow took a step forward and called her name.
“Ah…”
Runaan stood still. Her eyes, which were always blank, were shaking as if they were hit by a wave.
The man appeared. With short silver hair and dark purple eyes, he was a handsome young man with an appearance similar to Runaan’s.
“Bro…ther?”
“It’s been a while.”
Runaan took a step back with trembling lips, and the man took three steps forward, smiling softly.
Syria Sullion.
He was Runaan’s older brother, and the man who put his name on the Twelve Stars of the Continent as the biggest genius in the history of House Sullion.
“Ah…”
However, Runaan—who’d seen Syria after a long time—was as white as a sheet, as if she’d encountered a powerful opponent instead of her older brother.
“Runaan, didn’t I tell you to not make that face?”
Syria smiled. His smile was relaxed, and his speech was soft.
However, if one looked at his expression carefully, they would’ve felt terrified. Because unlike his mouth, his eyes weren’t smiling at all.
“Ugh…”
Runaan clenched her teeth and lowered her head. As if she forced her turbulent emotions to calm down, her trembling purple eyes settled down in the darkness.
“Yes, that’s how you should be.”
Syria kept smiling and approached Runaan to stroke her head.
“It looks like Rimmer’s training is pretty good. You’ve become stronger than I thought.”
He bent over and met Runaan’s eyes.
At that moment, the mask on Syria’s face was dropped. His expression was as stiff as a rotten tree, and the light disappeared from his eyes. He looked like an emotionless monster.
“I hope you won’t be doing things like going onto a battlefield, or dueling with your life on the line.”
His voice also changed. It was a terribly dry voice, like the desert’s north wind that dried lives up to death.
“Aah…”
Runaan’s shoulders trembled. Grabbing her own hands, she stepped backward.
“Hmm, did it become weaker? I need to carve it into you again.”
Syria put his hand in his coat’s inner pocket. He took out a round-eyed squirrel.
“Was Ruby the name of the squirrel you used to raise?’
“B-brother?”
Runaan stopped stepping back. She extended her hand towards the squirrel, trying to grab it.
“You will remember now. The way Ruby died, and the reason you became afraid of blood.”
“W-wait!”
Syria smiled with his immobile eyes and put force on his right hand. With a blasting sound, his hand that used to hold a squirrel in it only had a handful of bloodstains remaining.
“Aaargh!”
Runaan screamed and sank to her knees, but nobody could hear the sound because of the energy barrier that Syria had put up.
“Runaan.”
Syria approached Runaan, who was on her knees. He whispered in her ears with a lifeless voice.
“You are mine. Until that day comes, don’t do anything dangerous or difficult.”
“Ah…”
“Just keep breathing until I need you…”
Bang!
As Syria was about to brainwash Runaan, a thundering noise resounded throughout the alley.
A blonde-haired boy appeared through the dust rising from the crumbled ground. His red eyes were staring at Syria.
“Who are you?”
