Chapter 12
A corner of Aruen Academy.
In the quiet clearing, an early-morning breeze stirred. The spring wind swept by, carrying a chill along with heaps of dead winter leaves and dust.
Whish—
Where the wind had passed,
Lydia and Aria stood beside a rock.
“….”
“….”
The princess and the saintess.
One stood silently with her arms crossed,
while the other clasped her hands earnestly….
They were looking straight ahead.
Unlike the usual mornings, when Arti was soundly beaten and put through his drills, there was a hint of tension in the air today. Two people in the clearing were preparing to spar, their gazes serious.
It was Arti and Mave.
They stood side by side in comfortable academy training clothes. Both held light wooden swords in hands roughened by training.
Not for a one-sided duel, but for a spar.
In silence,
the two sized each other up.
“….”
“….”
As they gradually drew mana up from their second hearts….
Beneath the dawn sky,
the boy and girl shimmered blue.
The sight of two wavering blue auras rising side by side was mystical.
“….”
“….”
Mave's girlish expression vanished, and before long she had returned to the serious face of a knight. Her eyes gleamed sharply between strands of black hair stirred by the wind.
Mave spoke to the brown-haired boy in a resolute voice.
“Arti, you rascal. You’ve reached the realm of ‘Flow,’ after all.”
“….”
“Well, I suppose it’s only natural, since you’re the one who defeated the Skeletal Rider…. When I reached the realm of ‘Flow’ at seventeen, in my second year of training as a trainee knight, the captain called me a once-in-a-century genius. But I see the Kingdom of Gallia is vast indeed. To reach the same realm at the same age…”
“…?”
“Among first-year students in the Swordsmanship Department, who’ve only been at the academy for a month, you and I are the only ones to have reached the realm of ‘Flow.’ Even the upperclassmen would be shocked to hear that.”
“…??”
“I salute you, Arti. I can’t even imagine how many years you must have spent pushing yourself through grueling training…”
“….”
Arti spoke gravely.
“…Mave.”
“Hmm?”
Then he asked Mave, who’d been making a fuss about Flow.
“What’s the realm of Flow?”
“….”
Mave tilted her head and said,
“…Haven’t you awakened your ‘Mana Heart’ and begun circulating mana through your body naturally? You’re making your real heart and Mana Heart resonate, after all.”
“Mana Heart?”
“The second heart that trainee knights and elite soldiers train so desperately. It’s beating even now to circulate mana through your body.”
“I just enrolled at the academy and followed Lydia’s teachings, doing physical training every morning, and this happened…. Honestly, I don’t really know the terms knights use.”
“….”
For reference,
they had enrolled at the academy one month ago.
“….”
In other words….
Mave awakened her mana in her second year of training.
Arti awakened his mana after one month of training.
…That was what it meant.
“Grr…!”
Mave’s face returned to that of a flustered maiden. With a trembling hand, she pointed at Arti.
“What?! One month?! Don’t lie to me! You country bumpkin—! Commoner—!”
“W-well, we’re both commoners, so you shouldn’t say that…”
“Shut up! No! You were born in the countryside, picked up a branch as soon as you were born, and spent years training yourself to the point of bleeding, before finally awakening your Mana Heart later than me—!”
“No, why are you making up someone else’s childhood all of a sudden?! I was just an ordinary farmer!”
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”
“….”
Arti, who had suddenly been given an extraordinary childhood, looked bewildered.
And just as Mave, still blushing, was about to say something else… Lydia, unable to bear watching, stepped in. At this rate, that knight would turn into a lovestruck maiden again out of sheer inferiority.
‘A romantic trigger based on an inferiority complex about swordsmanship? What a troublesome rival. The light’s been going out of Aria’s eyes for a while now.’
Aria was muttering, ‘Another lie….’
Lydia spoke calmly.
“Arti possesses the Sacred Sword ‘Dannan,’ which has the power to heal and purify. That’s why he used its unique healing ability to repeat high-intensity training for a month—training that could have killed an ordinary person. To put it simply, he spent the past month repeatedly experiencing life-and-death situations. Don’t let it get you down, Mave.”
“Life-and-death situations…”
“That’s right.”
“…So he really is the master of the Sacred Sword.”
Mave’s eyes wavered a little.
As someone who had trained with the sword for years, Mave found it unbelievable. But Arti’s bizarre rate of growth…. There was no other way to explain it.
Lydia nodded.
“That’s right. But Arti’s swordsmanship has only just taken its first steps. He reached the realm of ‘Flow’ quickly thanks to training aided by his healing ability. He still has a long road ahead. You already know the rest can’t be traversed with tricks like that.”
“….”
“Mave, there’s no need to lose heart. Your effort and talent are on a level comparable to someone who wields the Sacred Sword. And you’ve done it through effort that pushed you to the brink of death.”
“….”
Mave shyly swept her black hair back again.
“I-I see. If that’s what Your Highness says.”
“Call me Lydia.”
“Li… Lydia.”
“Good.”
“….”
Mave’s lips curled up slightly.
‘…Hehe, I got close to royalty.’
It was a moment that made her pride as a knight swell.
How could there be….
such an ideal member of royalty?
‘Her shining blonde hair is dazzling, she has a flawless figure, a calm and clear-headed mind, and she’s even well-versed in swordsmanship…. She truly is the ideal royal of the “Kingdom of Knights.” I’m proud to be a citizen of Gallia.’
For her sake,
she wouldn’t hesitate to give her life.
Mave glossed over how the princess knew so much about the Sacred Sword. She could tell well enough from the silver-haired girl standing dazed beside her.
‘The Saintess must have advised her, since she’s right there.’
Aria, who had heard the whole story, was horrified.
“What?! The Hero could have died?!”
“….”
‘…So that wasn’t it.’
Just as Mave was about to glance at Lydia curiously.
Arti clapped a hand over his mouth and cried out.
“Gasp?! Life-and-death situations…?! Wait, Lydia! What exactly have you been making me do…?!”
“That’s right! What if the Hero had been badly hurt—!”
“I only had him do it after seeing that the Sacred Sword had chosen him. Surely you don’t think I bear Arti some personal grudge. Both of you, trust me.”
“….”
“….”
Arti and Aria started to say something, then stopped.
They could vaguely sense from the atmosphere what was going on. The training Lydia and Arti had done every morning was valuable enough to astonish even Mave, the top student in the Swordsmanship Department.
‘Honestly, carrying a rock and Lydia around, doing push-ups and running doesn’t even feel hard anymore. But even so, this is beyond anything I imagined….’
‘So the Hero really did grow stronger quickly by following the princess’s teachings. I knew it, but this is beyond what I imagined….’
That princess
was beyond their expectations.
“….”
“….”
The two sighed in unison.
Once Lydia sensed that things had settled down enough, she looked at Mave.
“Our conversation has gone off on a tangent. I unintentionally interrupted the swordsmen’s spar. Go on and continue.”
“….”
“There’s no need to feel intimidated by Arti. You’re starting to realize it yourself, aren’t you? That fellow may have the Sacred Sword, but there’s still plenty he doesn’t know and he’s unpolished as a swordsman.”
“…Yes.”
Mave nodded. What mattered now wasn’t why the princess knew so much about the Sacred Sword.
‘What matters now is fighting as an equal and winning. So before that, I should explain a few things to him.’
Mave looked at Arti and said,
“Country bumpkin.”
“What, you idiot knight?”
Arti replied curtly. There was no reason for one commoner to use honorifics with another.
Mave smiled at his attitude. This kind of emotional clash was part of what made swordsmen so interesting.
“I’ll explain it to you as a special favor. You and I are walking the first of the three paths of mana—the path of ‘Flow.’”
“The first….”
“It’s a realm reached by the kingdom’s elite soldiers and outstanding trainee knights. Even at an academy full of exceptional talents, there aren’t many. Thirty at most, maybe?”
“That few?”
“That’s right. And the next place we must aim for is the path of ‘Ignition.’ A long, arduous road that can’t be compared to Flow… the realm of ‘Ignition,’ where true knights stand.”
“Ignition…!”
A spark-like image flashed through Arti’s mind.
Like a flowing river—‘Flow.’
Like a burning flame—‘Ignition.’
“Those who walk the path of Flow gain nothing more than superhuman stamina. But those who walk the path of Ignition make mana flash along their swords, and can speak of true swordsmanship. Only those who reach that realm can call themselves elite knights, regardless of their social standing.”
“What is true swordsmanship?”
“It’s a realm where, instead of merely swinging a sword, you can embody the principles of the world.”
“Principles…?”
“…To put it in commoner terms, your sword shoots out sword energy, and you become damn tough and cool.”
“Whoa…!”
Arti tilted his head.
“Mave, then what’s the last path?”
“….”
Mave didn’t answer. She looked at the brightening dawn sky, a gleam beginning to shine in her eyes. Just saying the word made her heart itch with excitement.
“A path that shines like the sun—‘Aurora.’ In the Kingdom of Gallia, only two people have reached it… the captain and the commander of the royal guard. It’s a realm granted only to a tiny handful of geniuses.”
“Au… rora?”
“In commoner terms, you’d call it…”
Mave smiled brightly. Her smile shone in the sunlight.
“A Sword Master!”
“A Sword Master…!”
It was a dream.
A dream every boy and girl in the Kingdom of Gallia had from the moment they first gripped a branch. A dream realm where they could hold the world at the tip of their sword and perform miracles.
Mave said,
“Someday, I’ll reach it no matter what. What about you?”
“!”
Arti shuddered.
Sword Master.
It was the realm of the Hero Aruen.
It was the realm of Aurora, shining like the sun.
‘Do I want to reach that place…?’
“….”
Instead of answering, he picked up his wooden sword.
And admitted it to himself.
Not as the Hero wielding the Sacred Sword.
But as a boy holding a wooden sword in his hand,
he had begun to dream another dream….
‘I’ll do it…!’
It was the clearest answer of all.
Lydia watched him and smiled quietly.
Beside her, Aria rested a hand on her chest, her face a little flushed. In the sunlight, it was not the ‘Hero’s’ face, but the ‘boy’s,’ that shone brighter than anyone else’s.
And then.
Mave picked up her wooden sword, too.
“All right, come on, Arti! Let’s settle this properly!”
“Hah—!”
The two wooden swords clashed with a brilliant ring beneath the morning sun.
“Clack—!”