Chapter 26
To set out on an expedition to the Ashen Forest, we had a mountain of preparations to make.
The recruitment notice to make up for our shortage of manpower was actually a lower priority.
Even if we had people, we couldn't manage without supplies and food.
Before the expedition, we had to buy up massive quantities of iron ore, magic stones, and high-quality preserved rations—enough to nearly clean out the market.
The problem was what would happen once we began making large-scale purchases.
Would Rosenthal, which had a stranglehold on the southern markets, willingly hand over the goods?
They were already blocking the trade routes and applying pressure.
If Cardenos started buying up those enormous quantities of supplies under these circumstances...
'Cardenos is preparing for a territorial war!'
—and they would be bound to completely misunderstand it that way.
Nine times out of ten, they would try to block the distribution network and cut off our supplies.
Then they might request mediation from the central authorities, or prepare for war themselves.
Of course, that could be dealt with by officially announcing the Ashen Forest expedition through the Imperial Capital Daily.
If the Ashen Forest expedition were presented as a cause serving all humanity, Rosenthal might have to abandon its economic pressure.
That was wishful thinking.
The real question was whether we could even get started.
We couldn't expect support from the family for the Ashen Forest expedition. We would be lucky if they merely refrained from trying to stop us.
I had to earn a huge sum of money to lay the foundation for the expedition myself, somehow break through the supply lines for food and materials, recruit personnel, and develop the Ashen Forest.
Realistically, it was impossible.
'If I weren't a regressor.'
There was no need to worry too much.
I had a plan for everything.
***
In a corner of the First Training Ground.
I tossed a single red leaf at Julian, who was sitting cross-legged.
"Here. Eat it."
"What is this?"
"Flame Thistle."
What I needed to focus on right now was reinforcing our immediate fighting strength.
Hendrickson was already fully formed, so I could set him aside. Julian's growth was the priority.
"Ugh!"
The acrid, smoky scent stung Julian's nose and drew his brows together.
"You want me to chew and eat this?"
"You can chew and swallow it, or swallow it whole. Just get it into your stomach somehow. It'll become the spark that ignites in your core."
This estate was overflowing with the finest elixirs.
If I gave him something like that, he could weave his ring much more easily.
But I thought differently.
The first sun ring had to be woven through hardship and agony.
Only then would his bones mature and become a truly sturdy martial frame.
Strength acquired too easily was always the first thing to break in a crisis.
"You're not swallowing it? Shall I feed it to you?"
"...I'll eat it."
Julian squeezed his eyes shut and gulped down the thistle.
His body immediately went rigid.
"Cough...! Kheeeugh......!"
It felt as though blazing red flames were surging from his throat all the way to his core.
In an instant, Julian's skin flushed bright red, and the veins throughout his body swelled as though they might burst. His lips split open, and blood seeped out.
I placed a hand on his back in case he suffered an inner demon attack or a fire deviation.
If even a little of the fire qi tried to escape, I intended to calm it immediately.
Just as the practitioner's concentration was important when weaving a ring, the skill of the person guarding him mattered just as much.
I sharpened every one of my senses and felt everything happening to Julian with perfect clarity.
"Grrrrrrr......!"
Julian twisted his body and let out a beastlike scream, struggling desperately not to lose his concentration until the end.
He began gathering the flames around his heart while suppressing them as they raged in every direction.
But that was as far as he got.
"Ghk......! You crazy young master bastard...."
Julian's eyes rolled back as he reached his limit, and he collapsed forward.
I pretended not to hear his last words.
"Good grief."
I nudged the fallen Julian with my toe. He was breathing, but completely motionless—he had passed out.
Hendrickson, who had been watching with his arms crossed, clicked his tongue.
"I knew this would happen. Desire alone won't get the job done."
"Even so, he shaped more than half of it. He was the fellow who stood a coin upright in a single day, so he'll succeed within four days. If things go well, he might even finish it by tomorrow."
I placed my hand against the area around Julian's heart.
Not all rings were the same.
Their density varied according to how much fire qi they compressed, and that density determined their grade.
There were traces of compromise in Julian's ring. He had tried to weave it at a manageable level he could endure.
Thanks to that, he avoided the worst possible outcome of falling prey to an inner demon.
'He's my exact opposite.'
I had filled mine to nearly one hundred percent purity, suffering inner demons and mental delirium in the process.
Julian's instinctive choice wasn't wrong, but by my standards, it was a little disappointing.
"Wueeeeeeegh!!!!"
"Ah, fuck."
Julian vomited a torrent of filth like a waterfall.
I avoided getting splashed by pulling away quickly, but my eyes still took a direct hit.
Expelling impurities from his body was a good sign, but damn it. Couldn't he show a little consideration for the person watching?
"Elder, when this guy wakes up, please teach him some swordsmanship. Let him rest for about ten minutes while he's unconscious. He should recover quickly in that time. Make him clean up the vomit himself."
"Um......"
I sensed a small presence behind me.
When I turned around, Celine was peeking her head out from behind a pillar.
She wasn't wearing her usual flowing dress, but clothes that were easy to move in.
"Big Brother."
Celine approached with quick, light steps.
She clasped her hands together and looked up at me with sparkling eyes.
"I want to learn magic too now."
***
"Aaaaaagh―!"
"Stop whining! We haven't even started yet!"
"Kgh......"
A shrill scream rang out from far away.
It seemed Hendrickson's instruction had begun.
This was training under none other than a Swordmaster. No one could last even a day without extraordinary resolve and mental fortitude.
I sincerely prayed that I would hear Julian's screams again tomorrow.
"Big Brother. Do I have to learn through that kind of suffering too...?"
I turned away and went back to what I had been doing.
Celine glanced toward Julian and swallowed hard. She looked a little frightened.
I smiled affectionately and tousled Celine's hair.
"No, you don't need to suffer through anything so brutish. Your path is that of a mage, not a knight."
Celine's talent lay in magic, not Cardenos swordsmanship.
The coming destruction could never be stopped through my power alone.
Growing 'my people' and drawing out their potential.
That was more important than my own growth.
Celine's talent, in particular, was clearly overwhelming.
If nurtured properly, she would become an enormous boon to all of humanity.
"For now, sit down comfortably."
Celine sat demurely on the floor. She looked uncomfortable, but insisted it was comfortable.
I squatted across from her and lowered myself to her eye level.
"I'll explain the basics first. Solar is a ring. Luna is a mind-path. Mana is represented by stars."
A mage's hierarchy was generally called a 'rank,' but it could also be expressed in stars.
They described their achievements as engraving stars in their mental worlds and using them to embroider constellations.
"As you know, seven stars is the highest realm. The stars embroidered in the mind can also manifest in the caster's body."
"In the body?"
She really knew absolutely nothing.
And yet, the fact that she was interested in magic despite that—and possessed talent beyond all reason—was ironic.
"I'll use a seven-star mage as an example. The seven stars they form manifest in the brain, the center of the palm, the Baihui acupoint, the two eyes, the glabella, the vocal cords, and the heart. Those seven stars come together to form a single constellation."
"Big Brother, how do you know all that?"
I thought for a moment before answering.
"I studied a little so I could teach you."
In truth, there was an eighth star above the seventh.
The eighth star was a halo that followed behind the caster. Lucia had always had a halo following her.
"Creating the first star is the hardest. So it might be difficult to do it today. No, it will be difficult."
Rings, mind-paths, and stars were all the same. The first step was half the battle.
Strictly in terms of difficulty, rings were the hardest, followed by stars, then mind-paths.
What a bunch of fucking bastards, walking the easiest path.
"Let's start by getting a feel for it. A knight's ring and mind-path have a somewhat different nature. The foundation of magic isn't storing mana in your body. Before that, you have to completely empty your mental world."
The reason I knew mana cultivation methods despite not being a mage was because of my memories from my first life.
In the past, Lucia had personally taught me the Imperial Family's secret mana-breathing method.
It was the finest breathing technique, one that allowed even me, a complete outsider to mana, to sense some energy.
Since this was her first day, I intended to explain its essentials briefly.
"Don't force external mana into your body. Imagine the inside of your body as a pitch-black night sky without a single ray of light. First, empty your distracting thoughts and create complete darkness."
"I'll try it."
"As you do that, imagine the world's energy entering your body whenever you inhale. When you exhale, imagine the turbid energy inside your body leaving. Then you'll naturally sense the brightest light within you. You have to seize that first light."
It was a somewhat vague explanation, in truth. It was a method that relied on the caster's senses rather than something that could be learned through study.
I deliberately taught her this despite knowing how vague it was, in order to gauge the extent of Celine's genius.
Before my regression, she had fallen into depravity and become a six-star witch, and she had stood a coin upright on her first attempt.
'If I'd left her alone, she probably would have reached seven stars.'
Celine squeezed her eyes shut and began regulating her breathing. Her small, wheezing breaths gradually became steady.
If Celine really was a 'genius,' she would show results even with such an incomplete explanation.
I stood up and moved behind her.
In case of a mana backlash, I placed my palm against her small back.
It wasn't a ring, so I didn't have to worry about her dying, but it was still dangerous.
"Forming your first star won't be easy. It usually takes six months at the longest to sense energy, or at least a month even in the shortest case."
I hadn't given her an elixir or equipped her with basic knowledge.
She was turning the mana in the air into a star of her own through nothing but sensation, intuition, and innate sense.
No one could expect to be full after their first spoonful.
Today, the priority was gauging Celine's potential. Along with that, she needed to become familiar with the concept of mana.
"Uh....... Big Brother?"
Less than three minutes had passed since she closed her eyes.
Celine slowly opened her eyes.
"What, isn't it working? Even if it isn't, don't get too impatient. It's like that for everyone at first."
"No, it's just... I think I managed to do it."
"......What?"
"Really. You explained it so well, Big Brother."
She managed it? In three minutes? And she didn't even look as though she was joking.
I focused my senses through the palm resting on her tiny back.
A distinct foreign sensation traveled along my palm.
"Vrrrmmm―!"
A flow of mana pulsed rhythmically.
It wasn't merely a current of mana flowing through her. After making one circuit through the body's internal pathways, it had condensed at her heart.
"......Huh."
I was so dumbfounded that all I could do was let out a hollow laugh.
The time it took Celine to become a one-star mage: three minutes.
In just three minutes, she had not only sensed mana but also created a single star.
This was far beyond anything that could be covered by the word talent.
If raised properly, she would unquestionably become a formidable force capable of stopping the destruction.
"Astounding."
A gruff voice came from behind me.
Hendrickson had approached without my noticing. Julian lay sprawled in the distance, panting heavily.
Hendrickson examined Celine with his sharp eyes.
"I expected her to have some talent, but I didn't realize it would be this extraordinary. She created a star after only a few breaths."
His eyes held pure amazement. There was also a hint of inexplicable suspicion in them.
"However, one thing puzzles me."
"What is it?"
"Magic is ninety percent bloodline by nature. Cardenos has dealt exclusively with swords and fighting spirit for hundreds of years. How could such magical talent emerge from a family with such an extreme martial constitution? I could understand if it were merely moderate talent, but..."
I knew that all too well myself.
Unlike a knight's martial constitution, magic was particularly dependent on bloodline.
As one carried on the legacy of one's predecessors through generation after generation, magical talent advanced dramatically.
But that wasn't always the case.
"There are exceptions everywhere. It was about time a mutant appeared in our family, wasn't it?"
"A mutant. Hmm......."
Still, it made no sense.
Hendrickson muttered quietly to himself, but I paid him no mind.
The world was unpredictable. Nothing was absolute.
"Big Brother, I did well, right?"
Celine looked up at me from her seated position.
She had no idea what kind of feat she had just accomplished.
She just kept grinning like a puppy begging for praise.
That aside.
Celine's face, viewed from above, was devastatingly cute.
"Oh, my, you did wonderfully. You little glutinous rice cake, joraengtteok, marshmallow-cheeked thing."
"Eeh... it huhts......."
The fact that she didn't resemble me in the slightest only made her look cuter.
If she'd looked like me, she'd have been creepy.