Resisting Talent
“……”
“……”
A cold wind blew between the two facing each other. The tips of their swords pointed at the ground, as if they had bowed their heads in defeat.
“People naturally accumulate mana in their bodies from the mana diffused in the atmosphere,” Lianna began explaining softly.
“It doesn’t build up infinitely just because you don’t use it. The amount of mana the body can accept from birth is fixed. Anything beyond that gets naturally expelled.”
Through breathing, sweat, excretions, sleep, and more. The body prevents excess mana buildup through various means. Too much mana could cause mana saturation syndrome, where the body swells up, or mana calculi, crystals forming in the organs. Mentally, it might lead to mana mania.
“Your capacity is overwhelmingly deficient. To be honest—”
Lianna hesitated for a moment, fumbling as if unsure how to put it.
“Not quite a wolf… maybe a bit less than a dog. No, not even a bit.”
“……”
“I’m not sure about trees, either. But definitely more than a flower. That much I know.”
“More than a flower? That’s your idea of comfort?”
Lianna pressed her lips tight. Isaac, who knew her well, caught the consolation in her final words. But to an outsider, it might have sounded like mockery.
“Well, aura isn’t everything, right?”
Silberna, who had been listening from the side, offered an awkward attempt at reassurance. In truth, inability to wield aura wasn’t a critical weakness. The Great Master didn’t handle it at all.
“I haven’t used aura much myself. And Father barely does.”
The Kaldias family held a somewhat skeptical view of aura. Not because they couldn’t wield it, but because their spear techniques were developed assuming ordinary soldiers—who rarely handled aura.
“I agree. Wielding aura doesn’t make you strong by default.”
Lianna added to Silberna’s point. It simply raised the bar; mastery didn’t guarantee superiority.
“Still, I need it.”
Isaac needed aura. Especially after clashing with Sharen’s Red Aura—that conviction had only solidified.
“……”
“……”
As the two women pondered alongside him, lost in their own worries, a bell tolled from afar.
Dong! Dong! Dong! Three times.
“Sounds like an assault on the front wall.”
Silberna slung her spear over her shoulder and broke into a run. The other two followed.
* * *
The front wall assault dragged on until lunch. It ended when Silberna’s spear pierced the named beast leading it—a troll.
The battle, starting early morning, finally wrapped up past noon. Now Isaac was back inside the fortress, heading to the infirmary.
“Th-thank you— urk!”
“Easy. You’ve still got thorns in you. Don’t talk.”
Isaac had escorted a soldier pierced by a thorn the troll had fired— one he himself had dodged. Feeling responsible, he’d brought the man here.
“Whew, what a morning…”
A mage with striking dark circles bustled around the infirmary, checking the soldier. Isaac wondered if he’d use healing magic. Instead, he just disinfected with a large pair of tongs, yanked out the thorns, and staunched the bleeding. That was it.
Watching this, the mage grinned wearily and clanged the tongs together—clang clang.
“When I first got deployed, I brought tweezers. Tossed ’em all now. For thorns as thick as an arm, tongs are king. Borrowed these from the kitchen head.”
“Isaac here.”
“Oh, sorry—didn’t even introduce myself.”
The mage rubbed his hands on his robe.
“Vivian. Mage Tower affiliate.”
“Doesn’t seem like you just do magic.”
Isaac muttered, glancing at the other treated soldiers on their beds. His basic medical knowledge seemed exceptional—more than healing spells.
“Haha, healing magic’s rare. Unless it’s life-or-death, I handle it myself. Gotta know this stuff to even attempt healing spells.”
His haggard look contrasted with an oddly approachable vibe. The exhaustion probably spoke to how grueling Mallidan Wall deployments were.
“Mind if I ask something?”
Perfect timing. Isaac could consult an expert on the mana issue that had plagued him since dawn.
“Eh, cafeteria’s just got watery soup right now anyway.”
Vivian joked with a grin.
“What’s on your mind?”
“My innate mana storage is quite low.”
Vivian’s smile faded slowly. His previously mild eyes sharpened with keen intelligence.
“I’d like to increase it. Any methods?”
“Hm.”
Vivian nodded, strolled to the window, and pointed out with a smile.
“Jump.”
“……”
“Rebirth. That’s the only way. Do you know where mana is stored, Sir Isaac?”
Like an actor on stage, Vivian strode back, his voice rising with excitement.
“The heart. The heart. Who in the world swaps hearts and lives? Never seen it. Never even heard of it.”
“……”
“That’s why it’s called a core. Mana core. And why mages are so rare.”
Vivian beamed with pride, hand over his chest like guarding a treasure.
“It’s set from birth.”
Mages and their chosen-people complex.
Isaac recalled that mages operated differently. Unaffiliated with any kingdom, the Mage Tower ran independently. Their hierarchy was binary: mages and non-mages. Nobles and royals were just mana-less rabble to them.
“There are elixirs aplenty. You know Helmont’s Rose Liqueur, right?”
His tone stayed polite, but his demeanor didn’t.
“Physical enhancement ties deeply to mana density. But it doesn’t increase capacity.”
Treading on a mage’s sacred truth clearly irked him.
“Sadly, some things are fixed at birth.”
Vivian bowed with a smile.
“That’s why people obsess over geniuses. They have what we never could.”
“……”
“Satisfactory answer?”
“Somewhat.”
Isaac nodded, his expression unchanged from before. No hint of surrender on his deeply contemplative face.
“……”
“Doesn’t seem like it landed.”
Vivian looked annoyed. He’d poured effort into explaining and convincing, yet nothing had shifted.
“Listen. There’s a Mage Tower paper—‘Correlation Between Growth Environment and Mana Storage’—”
“If your mana had been low, you’d have quit being a mage, right?”
“Now you’re interrupting… Obviously. It’s talent. Why challenge the impossible? Just quit.”
The realm was inaccessible even to those without any gift.
“But some people can’t.”
Only someone like Isaac—who’d never quit swordsmanship despite his leg injury—could say that.
“We’re not compatible, then.”
Deeming the talk pointless, Vivian pouted and turned back to the soldiers. Isaac scratched his cheek awkwardly, watching his back.
I get along better with Jonathan’s type anyway.
Jonathan, who idolized Arandel and became a Helmont knight against his instincts. Isaac saw echoes of himself in the young man.
No point prolonging the chat, so he headed out—
“Ah, there you are.”
Silberna, today’s star, stood in the hall.
“……Weren’t you going for lunch?”
“Together, right? Ta-da.”
She held out a basket packed with sandwich fixings.
“Cafeteria now means jumping straight into round two. Easier on the stomach this way.”
“When’d you prep this?”
It looked fresh, but not today’s work. Prepared yesterday, maybe? Though Silberna didn’t seem the type to do it herself.
“Ahem, does it matter?”
Anna did it.
Not a big deal anyway.
“Come on, I’ve got something special.”
She rummaged and revealed a smoked hunk of meat wrapped in large green leaves. Fresh from today, it steamed with a rich smoky aroma.
“Amazing, right? Ever heard of northern troll meat? Tough raw, but smoked northern-style? Next level.”
Pfft.
“Hey, why laugh? This is rare stuff.”
She nudged his shoulder playfully and dragged him along, grinning.
“Let’s go. Find a spot out of the wind and eat these sandwiches together.”
Shouldn’t think this way.
If she had a tail, she’d pass for a puppy—wagging eagerly behind her.
Thud.
“Ah.”
Just then, Vivian emerged from the infirmary. Heading for lunch, he glanced their way, gave a curt nod, and went off.
Silberna eyed them both, confirmed Vivian was gone, and asked,
“What happened? He’s usually pretty friendly with folks.”
“Hm……”
Isaac briefly explained poking at a sore spot. Silberna nodded with a complicated look.
“Never heard of anyone increasing their mana capacity, either.”
Isaac hadn’t, either. Not even in the future, a decade from now.
She glanced at his troubled face and ventured carefully,
“You giving up?”
“Hm?”
“On aura.”
“No?”
Isaac replied as if it were obvious, making Silberna’s lips twitch upward.
“Why? You can’t. Not with your mana.”
“Always been that way.”
He gave a wry smile and kept pace with her.
“Impossible, wasted effort, delusion. After hearing that crap my whole life, it barely registers. Besides—”
Vivian’s truths hadn’t scratched his resolve.
“I’ve never made an effort that turned out meaningless.”
Scratching his cheek, he added. The knowledge from his Silent Sword days formed his foundation now. Still laying groundwork, but he was advancing, step by step.
“You rascal.”
Silberna slapped his back with a laugh.
“Worth it? Pray to the goddess every night.”
“Why?”
“You never know. She might get moved and drop an enormous enormous enormous gift!”
She flung her arms up dramatically. Outside now, they bantered idly.
“Enormous enormous enormous? Why the extra one?”
“That enormous.”
“What?”
“Whatever! Find a spot. Smoked troll sandwiches are enormous enormous enormously good.”
Buoyed by today’s heroics, maybe. Isaac brushed it off, scanned around, then paused.
“Just us two?”
“Too much? We’re friends.”
“W-well, yeah?”
“Don’t overthink it, married man.”
What was this? He’d used his marriage to gently rebuff her before. Now it felt like she was using it as an excuse to get bolder.
“What’s wrong, hubby? Call your wife if you want.”
“No, it’s fine.”
His curt reply.
“Knew it.”
Her mischievous whisper was snatched away by the northern wind, sadly lost on Isaac.