Chapter 57
Chapter 21 Gathering Talents (2)
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Jade, resting his head against one arm, looked at the people standing in a line before him.
Their genders and ages varied, but they had exactly one thing in common.
They were all frozen stiff.
Though Jade had said nothing in particular, all thirteen had gone rigid as statues, nervously watching his every move.
“You came looking for me?”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
“Why?”
“I came because I want to learn from you!”
One particularly burly man, wearing the most spirited expression of the bunch, answered in a booming voice.
It was loud enough to make the not-very-large parlor-cum-office echo.
Grrrr.
Whid, who had been napping in Jade's arms, opened both eyes sharply and glared.
Unlike usual, Whid fixed the man with a fierce, reptilian stare.
“Gasp!”
At Whid's fierce gaze, the man sucked in a breath.
Though Whid was adorable enough in this form to make anyone want to pet the creature, its true form was a giant drake.
Thus, the man's body began to tremble.
“You don't have to speak that loudly. I can hear you if you answer softly.”
“S-Sorry!”
Grrr!
Whid growled as if to say he was still too loud.
Its teeth, dazzlingly white against its skin, were bared.
“I-I’ll correct that.”
“Good. Back to the point: you want me to teach you?”
“Yes. I imagine we all feel much the same.”
“That’s right.”
At the man's words, those who had been quietly listening one by one chimed in agreement.
Spirit arts were a rare ability, but that did not necessarily make them a remarkable one.
It was Jade who had overturned that prejudice.
He had also proven that humans could form contracts with high-ranking spirits just as well as elves.
That was why they had all come to learn his secret.
It was too vague to train on their own.
“But why should I teach spirit arts to you?”
“Uh, well…….”
“If accepting me as a disciple would be too much trouble, I’ll offer my body.”
“What?!”
At the unexpected remark, the men and women alike made disgusted faces.
But Jade was the most shocked of all.
Jade was horrified when a middle-aged man who looked well over thirty—not a beautiful woman—offered his body.
“Ah, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not into that. I like women! I mean I’ll repay you with physical labor.”
“Good grief.”
“You should have said it that way. You made us misunderstand.”
“Exactly. We thought you were into that, my lord. We wondered if you knew something we didn’t.”
“Hahahaha.”
At the spirit mages' chiding, the middle-aged man's face reddened in embarrassment.
He had blurted it out in his haste and chosen the wrong words, so the middle-aged man laughed awkwardly and repeatedly bowed his head.
“Repay me with physical labor, huh.”
“We heard you’re raising apprentice spirit mages. We want to learn alongside them!”
“I’m only an unremarkable low-ranking spirit mage, but if you’ll accept me, I’ll devote the rest of my life to your marquisate!”
The spirit mages cried out desperately at Jade, who still looked hesitant.
Since no one had ever taught them, they had been forced to learn haphazardly.
Of course, that did not mean they had never looked for another way.
However, high-ranking spirit mages were rare and, as rumors claimed, cared nothing for worldly affairs.
Even if they wanted to meet elves, they could not unless they happened to have a connection with them.
So the moment they heard rumors about Jade, they had all rushed here.
“If your goal is to learn, there’s also the Royal Academy. You all know they recently established a Spirit Studies Department, don’t you?”
“We do.”
“The crown prince personally selected its faculty. So if you want to learn spirit arts, I think you’d be better off going there.”
“I want to learn from you, my lord. The Royal Academy’s professors may also be skilled, but you are the kingdom’s greatest spirit mage.”
The middle-aged man, who had left everyone tense with a single sentence, spoke as though he had not even considered another option.
Yet everyone nodded in agreement at his words.
As if the Royal Academy had never even entered their consideration.
“You’re a strange bunch. You’re turning down the easy path.”
“You can’t become the best by always taking the easy path. And personally, we’re all grateful to you, my lord. You showed the continent how strong a spirit mage can become.”
“Honestly...”
Faced with thirteen pairs of eyes brimming with admiration, Jade shook his head.
Looking at them, it seemed obvious that they would stubbornly refuse to listen no matter what he said.
-I don’t think accepting them would be bad. We have the beastfolk, but it’s true that we’re short on troops.
-Let’s create a Spirit Knight Order! We’ll create the continent’s first knights who use spirit arts! You were planning to raise the ten we already had that way, too!
-Aren’t they all rather old for that? They probably have plenty of combat experience, though.
At a glance, they all looked like mercenaries.
They were not exactly battle-hardened veterans, but they certainly looked like people who had been through the grind.
The ten children had greater potential, but the thirteen people before him were ready-to-deploy combatants.
‘Not bad.’
Spirit mages were rare, so their eagerness to learn was understandable.
The problem, however, was that Jade had no particular desire to teach spirit arts.
He had never learned it from anyone in the first place.
His current level was something he had achieved by working his way up from scratch, entirely on his own.
As a result, he was not confident he could teach others, nor did he want to teach them his techniques.
Even the children he had recruited after their paths crossed had only been taught the basics; Jade had taught them none of the techniques he regarded as his secret arts.
Thud!
When it became clear that Jade was reluctant to accept them, the middle-aged man abruptly dropped to his knees.
He had done so because it seemed they would get nowhere otherwise.
Perhaps the others felt the same, because all of them dropped to their knees before Jade at once, as if on cue.
“I swear loyalty to you, my lord! Please accept us!”
“I’ve thrown everything away and come here! Please give me just one chance! If you teach me spirit arts, I’ll do anything!”
Being a spirit mage might sound impressive, but spirit mages were not treated particularly well among mercenaries.
Their ability was indeed special, but that did not make them extraordinary or irreplaceable.
Anything a low-ranking spirit could do, a mage could do as well.
That was why they were all desperate.
They had never even seen a mid-ranking spirit, so to them, Jade, who commanded high-ranking spirits, was like a ray of light in the darkness; they stared at him as though ready to cling even to his trouser legs.
“Fine. I’ll give you a chance. There’s no harm in having plenty of talent. But each of you will have to prove that you’re talented.”
“Thank you! We’ll work hard!”
“We’ll prove our abilities!”
Jade accepted them for the time being.
Compared with the size of his domain, his forces were still lacking, so he intended to watch them for now.
If he decided they were useful, he would keep them; if not, he planned to send them away.
The decision was his to make.
-We have more subordinates!
-Let’s make sure they don’t just learn the mana cultivation method and run off.
-That’s my specialty! Jade only has to lend them the mana! We’ll take care of the rest ourselves!
Most of them had barely any spirit affinity, but at least they had some, so Silestin and Elestra seemed fairly welcoming.
That did not mean they trusted them wholeheartedly, however.
Not every spirit mage loved and cherished nature.
So the two spirits intended to keep a very close, dispassionate eye on the thirteen.
-We can’t teach them the mana cultivation method right away. Even the basic cultivation method is not something one can obtain easily. There’s a saying that you shouldn’t pass it on to just anyone.
-Buinbujeon (非人不傳)?
-It means you shouldn’t casually teach techniques to just anyone.
-Oh!
Silestin's eyes sparkled.
It seemed like a phrase that fit the current situation perfectly.
Besides, the thirteen were the ones at a disadvantage.
“Alfredo.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Guide them to where Parzali and the children are staying. Since they’re all spirit mages, they’ll be better off staying together.”
“Understood.”
Alfredo answered politely.
At his words, the thirteen's eyes sparkled.
They had not expected to meet so soon those Jade had personally selected.
“Don’t look down on them just because they haven’t been learning for long. Our kids aren’t pushovers.”
“We’ll learn with the mindset of starting over—as juniors!”
“Well, we’ll see about that.”
Despite their overflowing enthusiasm, Jade did not readily trust them.
They had only met for the first time today, and Jade knew all too well how unreliable people's resolve could be.
They were all brimming with motivation now, but once training began, some would slack off or give up.
Or, as Elestra had said, they might take only what they wanted and run away.
‘If they came here because they genuinely want to learn, it won’t be a bad thing for me either.’
Although the trio of knights was diligently training the apprentice knights and soldiers, there was no harm in increasing the number of people who could fight.
It would also provide good stimulation for the ten children.
So Jade thought either outcome was fine.
If they took only the techniques they wanted and ran, he could simply make them pay the price.
“We’ll head out first!”
“Yes, yes.”
Jade answered halfheartedly as the thirteen saluted him with crisp discipline, as though already standing at attention.
Yet despite Jade's reaction, the thirteen's eyes shone.
As though they were determined to earn Jade's recognition.
-It feels like a new wind is blowing through the marquisate!
“I think so too.”
-Could Jade end up changing the history of the continent?
“It’s not like I particularly want to. I just want to quietly return to my homeland without making any significant impact on the Arphedia Continent.”
Jade shook his head.
His wish was simply to return quietly to the world he had come from.
His current position was merely an intermediate step toward achieving that goal.
That was why he wanted nothing to do with incidents or trouble.
Despite having become bona fide spirit mages by forming contracts with spirits, the ten children's lives had not changed much.
Alongside training in spirit arts and mana cultivation, they never neglected physical conditioning.
Jade was not raising them to be mere spirit mages.
And the children themselves had no intention of becoming ordinary spirit mages.
“Ngh!”
“One more lap!”
“You can do it!”
The ten children had gone beyond merely running with their chosen weapons; they now circled the training grounds with sandbags strapped to both legs, and Ged secretly nodded.
Perhaps because they came from a village near the Great Forest, they all had remarkable tenacity.
You would expect at least one of them to try to cut corners or slack off, but strangely, there was not a single child like that.
“Huff! Sob!”
“Urk! Bleeegh!”
By contrast, the spirit mages, former mercenaries who had begun physical training with them yesterday, were slumped all around the training grounds and vomiting as if on cue.
There were slight differences, but most of them had about the same level of stamina.
“I thought we’d finally found our rhythm.”
“Can’t be helped. We suddenly have more people.”
“How long do you think they’ll last?”
Illait came up beside Ged with a mischievous expression.
Illait pointed with his chin at the thirteen people slumped around the grounds, too dazed to get up.
“Who knows.”
“They’ll hold out for now, if only because of their motivation or ambition, but you know that alone won’t carry them far, right?”
“I know. I also know that without the drive or grit, they’ll have a hard time keeping up with the children’s physical training.”
“And they’re all older, too.”