Growth
Honestly…
This kind of kills the mood.
Jun and Fortuna stared at Robin with faintly complicated expressions.
He had the look of a stern, middle-aged father figure—rugged charm, taciturn bearing, the very picture of paternal authority. And yet the man couldn’t so much as raise his voice to his own daughter. A hopeless softie.
You really never could tell what a person was like just from the outside.
Jun, how long are we going to stand here watching this? I can’t take any more.
Same here. Just hang on a second.
A grown man whining that he didn’t want his daughter to hate him was not a pretty sight. Jun hurriedly opened his mouth to redirect Robin’s attention.
“How exactly should I teach Heni? I naturally awakened my mana core, so I don’t know anything about artificial awakening.”
“Until Heni’s mana core forms, all you have to do is pour mana out while she’s standing on the magic circle I prepared. Actual instruction comes after that.”
“A magic circle? What does it do?”
“It keeps mana from dispersing back into ambient mana, and it condenses it so it can’t spread out. Wealthy families use circles like this to force their children to awaken mana cores.”
“Oh! So you didn’t just cave to her demands without any plan.”
If what Robin said was true, even someone with zero affinity for mana could gradually build some by spending time on that circle. Higher affinity meant a higher chance of a mana core blooming. In Jun’s estimation, a circle like that might be harder to come by than an ordinary cultivation method.
The thought made him suddenly uneasy.
“You obtained that legally, right?”
“…I happened to learn about it while I was working as a training instructor for the Guild.”
“So is that legal or illegal? Don’t turn your head—look me straight in the eye and answer.”
Robin tried to casually glance away. Jun darted into his line of sight. After the same little dance repeated several times, Robin finally let out a deep sigh.
“It’s illegal. First-class Guild intelligence, so don’t go blabbing about it. If the Guild finds out…”
“Something unpleasant happens to us. Got it. In exchange—”
“I’ll teach you a technique of equivalent first-class value. How’s that?”
“Heh. Deal.”
Jun nodded, thoroughly satisfied. Keeping one secret in exchange for a top-tier technique was more than a fair trade. He could have reported the circle to the Guild in Lemumni and claimed a reward, but he doubted they’d give a proper payout to some orphan, and he had no desire to snitch on someone close to him. Doing so would mean throwing away the training instructor he’d lucked into, plus every connection he’d built over the last ten years. No matter how he looked at it, reporting was a losing deal. Better to take a quiet little profit and move on with a clear conscience.
“Then when do we start my training? Heni’s already asleep, so today won’t work. Tomorrow, fair and square?”
“No. We start now.”
Robin said it, then disappeared into the shed and came back with practice swords, spears, bows, and the like, thrusting them into Jun’s arms. He told Jun to follow and started walking around behind the cabin.
“Whoa!”
“Not bad at all.”
When Jun and Fortuna arrived behind the cabin, they both let out sounds of admiration at the training ground waiting there. It was a little small for a mountain clearing, but it was cleaner and better maintained than the village self-defense force’s yard. Faint footprints still lingered in the center, as if someone had been using it until very recently.
“No need to worry about his skill, then.”
Fortuna nodded in satisfaction as she studied those footprints. Could someone of her level really gauge an opponent’s ability from footprints alone? Jun found it a little hard to believe, but it was good news either way, so he simply nodded along.
“Hang the weapons on the rack.”
“We’re not using them right now?”
“Not yet. You still haven’t properly handled aura, have you? First we get you used to it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jun did as told and set the weapons on the rack. The thought that real training was about to begin made his heart pound. Once everything was stowed, he hurried over to Robin, who stood in the middle of the yard. Robin nodded with the pleased look of a drill instructor watching a sharp new recruit.
Why does this feel like I just re-enlisted in boot camp?
The excitement that had been thumping in his chest cooled in an instant. Suddenly anxious, Jun snapped into a perfect “attention” stance like a fresh trainee on day one. It turned out to be an excellent decision.
“Hmm. Looks like we can skip the mental conditioning. If you’d been full of empty pride or arrogance, I was planning to beat it out of you properly.”
“H-how, exactly?”
“Nothing beats repetitive drill, punishment PT, and a good thick stick for straightening a man’s head.”
Robin answered with an uncharacteristically deep smile. At some point a hefty club had appeared in his hand. Training hadn’t even started, and Jun was already regretting every life choice that had brought him here.
So he’s the type whose whole personality flips when he gets into something?
Apparently. But… what are you doing right now?
Can’t you tell? I’m changing clothes.
Fortuna answered Jun’s bewildered question with playful nonchalance and transformed the veil on her head into a bright red baseball cap of the sort guerrilla drill instructors loved. For reference, an angel’s garments were sacred vestments—essential equipment that could be repaired or redesigned freely as long as one had divine power.
“Mm, perfect!”
She finished the look with a pair of sunglasses, completing the full guerrilla-instructor ensemble, and nodded in satisfaction at her own appearance. Then she spread her wings, flew up, and planted herself beside Robin with arms crossed, radiating pure intimidation.
Robin studied her carefully.
“Hmm. Somehow you look like you carry real weight. Especially those black glasses—they’re excellent.”
“Want me to make you a pair?”
“You can do that?”
“Here. Catch. They disappear if you get too far from me, so be careful.”
Fortuna condensed divine power into sunglasses and handed them over. Robin put them on and nodded with the same deep satisfaction she had shown earlier. When she declared that they suited him wonderfully and threw in a black cap as a bonus, the corners of Robin’s mouth climbed all the way up toward his cheekbones.
Jun’s mouth, by contrast, kept drooping into a miserable pout. Just as Fortuna had said, the guerrilla-instructor look suited Robin so well that simply standing there looking at him was enough for PTSD to stick its head up and wave hello.
Why did I ever tell her about my past life…
Jun cursed his earlier self for dumping stories of his previous life on her just to raise her favorability when they still barely knew each other. Far too late for regrets now.
“For smooth training, we’ll set designations. From now on you will address me as Instructor. I will call you Trainee Jun.”
“Then call me Assistant Instructor!”
“Acceptable. Permission granted.”
“Yay!”
Fortuna was ridiculously excited. Through the soul bond Jun could feel her sadistic glee and pure enjoyment; he looked at her with thoroughly dead eyes. He didn’t protest or object, though. Given the energy the two of them were putting out, any backtalk would only get him counterattacked for being insolent. He’d rather swallow his pride and just get the training over with.
“Trainee. How far have you run your Aura Core?”
“I’ve only ever spun it up lightly, just to check that it worked.”
“Then push it to the limit starting now. We need to know your ceiling before we set training intensity.”
“Yes, sir!”
Jun answered loudly, closed his eyes, and poured every scrap of focus into the Aura Core sitting in his lower dantian.
Hummm~
The core vibrated pleasantly. Control wasn’t difficult—he’d been handling cores day in and day out for ages. What felt completely new was the way mana raced through his entire body, neither leaving nor staying still in one place. Not that he disliked it. On the contrary…
I could get addicted to this.
Every single cell felt like it was waking up and growing stronger. His senses were sharper than they had ever been, and unmanageable power flooded every limb.
“Hoo…”
He wanted to test the strength right that second, but he exhaled and reined the impulse in. His high, abundant mental fortitude made it possible.
“He suppressed the sense of omnipotence on his own. Remarkable. No empty pride, no arrogance, and now this… you’ve grown splendidly.”
“Of course! Who do you think raised him?”
Robin’s genuine admiration made Fortuna puff her chest out proudly. In truth it was the elixirs and his traits doing the work, not her, but Jun saw no reason to say so out loud.
Is this really something to make such a fuss over?
When Jun asked why it mattered so much, Robin shook his head.
“An Aura Core’s first activation produces an especially powerful sense of omnipotence. If you’re not careful, the owner’s temperament turns foul overnight. That’s why tradition has a master or a skilled fighter standing by to snuff that feeling out immediately.”
Come to think of it…
When Leon first awakened his Aura Core, Leonard had almost forcibly dragged him into a spar under the pretext of “testing the core’s performance.” Leon had refused at first, then charged in full of swagger the moment the match started—only to get knuckle-rapped until he was on the verge of tears without landing a single real blow. At the time Jun had assumed Leonard was just messing with him. Apparently that was the proper procedure all along.
But when Heni awakened her Aura Core, Leonard stepped in personally too, didn’t he? Why didn’t Robin… ah.
He couldn’t bring himself to hit his own daughter. And he definitely didn’t want her to hate him.
Jun nodded in understanding and spoke.
“I see. Then could you put that club away already? I shut the omnipotence down myself, so there’s no need to beat me with it. It’s so intimidating I can barely breathe—hurry up.”
Robin smacked his lips in mild disappointment and set the club on the ground.
“Whew…”
Jun let out a sigh of relief.
Unfortunately, it was far too soon.
“All right, Trainee. Come at me.”
“…Did I do something wrong?”
Why has he been so eager to hit me this whole time?!