The Shadow's Lesson in the Thief Arts
A voice, tender and profound, grew even deeper.
“The portion of my power that once descended upon this Thief Academy has vanished without a trace.”
She stepped forward slowly, each footfall measured.
“I may be omnipotent, yet even I find my strength restrained in this academy that has produced a Divine Slayer.”
“… ”
“So the true essence of my being remains sealed within the shrine in the deepest layer of this Ebos.”
Ethan tilted his head.
“We always referred to that as not omnipotent.”
“Th-that’s nonsense! I am omnipotent, you insolent thing!”
Ethan nodded politely.
“I see. I’ll find it for you.”
“Really?”
She seized the outstretched arms of the goddess.
“I stake my very life on locating it.”
“Such fervent devotion—precisely what I hoped for!”
It was no mere act. Without clearing even one such major episode, the Imperial Seal could never be recovered.
And a transmigrator who ignored such instincts usually paid for it dearly.
Ethan bowed with perfect courtesy.
“Ethan Cass, second son of the Cass family, swears to faithfully fulfill the oracle of Goddess Vespera.”
A smile bloomed across Vespera’s face.
“Contract established.”
“..Eh?”
Her eyes curved like the first crescent moon.
“What a warmhearted child you are.”
Vespera’s gentle hand returned to cover Ethan’s right hand.
Chiiik.
A glowing red line, as if branded by an iron, appeared across the back of his hand.
“Aaaah!”
The searing pain struck his nerves. Ethan clutched his wrist and trembled.
“Just hold on a little longer, and I shall grant you the rest of my power.”
“Does this hurt that much?!”
“Hold through it I said.”
The goddess’s grip was terrifyingly strong. Ethan had resisted with every ounce of strength he possessed from childhood, yet it was useless.
“Huff… huff…”
He regained his senses and looked down at his right hand. The original triangular tattoo had upgraded; a white line now marked it with a triangle and, at each vertex, a perfectly circular filled-in shape.
Vespera rose once more into the air.
-When you find the Piece of the World, we shall meet again, child.
-You have passed my trial after two hundred long years.
-Walk your path with your own will.
-And come find the Piece of the World.
-Only then will the thing you desire reach you.
Fog once again veiled his vision.
Consciousness drained away.
He opened his eyes to his own room.
He had returned to reality.
“So it was a dream…”
He looked at his right hand. The fine tattoo was still there.
“It wasn’t a dream.”
Ethan slowly stroked the back of his hand and smiled.
Clang.
The prison door opened.
Sapphire Dormitory students stood waiting.
“Come out.”
His long, short day of imprisonment had ended.
*
Ethan walked out of the prison like a freed criminal, clutching his clothes and belongings in both hands.
“Get out.”
Without even a farewell, he stepped out of the Sapphire Dormitory courtyard.
Female students passing by spotted him, flushed, and hurried away.
“What are you doing, not going?”
“Didn’t you buy the Sapphire Dorm entry ticket from me?”
“I already paid, so what else do you want?”
The atmosphere here was completely different from Ruby or Topaz.
“Talkative types are the worst.”
Shhh.
A cold wind blew.
Upperclassmen and classmates.
These Sapphire Dorm students were heartless, utterly so.
“If you leave prison, you should at least give everyone a white rice ball as etiquette.”
Ethan put the belongings in his pocket and walked into the yard.
Thud!
A slab of tofu flew at Ethan’s face.
“Eat this.”
Sera stood with a pout, hands on her hips.
“What is this, Sera Barakin?”
“You’re out now! Eat tofu and come to your senses!”
Ethan picked up the tofu piece and said.
“I don’t like beans.”
“You eat the bean-fermented soup perfectly well!”
“That’s for the flavor.”
Sera turned her head sharply and started walking toward the path.
“Mmm~”
When Ethan stayed behind eating tofu, she spun around and grabbed his arm.
“You don’t even know where the Dagger Arts classroom is.”
“How kind. Not very thief-like.”
“I was always kind! And Professor Gaham made me come fetch you!”
From beside them came continuous snort sounds.
‘Do dark elves really speak so many onomatopoeia in this world?’
Who knew?
The two boarded the monorail toward the Wolf Dormitory, home of Dagger Arts class.
*
A colossal wolf-head sculpture hung from the ceiling of the classroom. The floor was solid and dark earth, and the space was vast, nearly an arena.
Sera sat and rubbed her knees.
“So… are you okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“You got beaten up by the Caion gang, right?”
A bad feeling hit him. No way.
Did Dagger Arts class have Caion too?
Bad feelings always came true.
“Of course Caion’s here too?”
“He was with Iska, wasn’t he?”
“That’s the throwing art. Caion and I have almost overlapping classes anyway.”
We’re doomed.
Dagger Arts meant one-on-one duels. Caion would definitely point at him.
“This time it’s no joke.”
The third son of the Grand Duke who protected the Northern border of the Empire.
Caion Valterr.
He trained only with swords until death in the North.
Even as a first-timer, he would be far better than Ethan.
“Oh! By the way, I saw that guy practicing Dagger Arts all the time.”
“How do you know if he’s practicing or not? You’re in Topaz Dorm.”
“My senses are sensitive! Every day I felt red anger coming from the training grounds.”
She added,
“I overheard just now. If you come, he’ll kill you.”
“… ”
Ethan playfully flicked his shoulder.
“Try hard! From how you caught the dagger earlier, you looked pretty skilled.”
Oh right.
He had trained a lot after meeting some fate.
He subtly raised his right hand.
“… ”
Sera probably couldn’t see the tattoo.
“Ugh… but this is my first time in a real duel, so I can’t help being nervous…”
Bam!
The arena door slammed open.
“..!”
Wearing a silver-mane coat over the Thief uniform.
Ethan stopped talking to Sera.
A cold, ash-gray gaze fixed on him.
“Ethan Cass.”
“Caion Valterr.”
Ethan asked curiously.
“Did you buy the Sapphire Dorm entry ticket cheap from me?”
“Cheap…! I ripped off an entire mansion’s price, yet you still have a conscience?!”
Caion had also bought an entry ticket. Of course it wasn’t out of goodwill—just because he paid a lot.
He had to pay at least ten times what other students did.
“Clink.”
Caion flipped his fist and punched his own shoulder.
A Northern battle cry.
‘Why does a Northern guy get this fired up?’
In an instant the students joined in.
“Ooh, Caion Valterr! So you really wanted to fight Ethan Cass!”
“What a clash of egos between two geniuses! Today will be remembered as the day of two-talent rivalry!”
“Seeing the top cadet Ethan clash with the Northern ashen blade Caion? I can’t contain myself! Good choice signing up for the same class.”
‘This is a pain.’
Ethan quietly stroked his right hand.
‘I’ll win, of course.’
He smiled calmly.
The time to clash with the sword-master Caion had come.
*
Dagger Arts class was pure tension.
Because the dagger flew before the instructor.
Clang!
“Aaaah!”
“Ugh!”
“What the hell is this?!”
Daggers flew from thin air and collided mid-air.
The floating daggers drifted to one corner of the arena.
“You can’t even handle attacks of this level. Where did the agility from the Dormitory Scramble go?!”
The sound of Imperial boots rolling echoed in the center of the arena.
“You came to Dagger Arts class very well!”
Her expectant eyes swept the students.
“… ”
But she couldn’t find the child she wanted.
“Hmm… does Ethan Cass not take Dagger Arts?”
“It’s a required class; dropping it would be a huge blow, yet I can’t know.”
“Perhaps he’s already taking the advanced bow-art class?”
She finished her thoughts and shouted loudly.
The voice carried mana without a magic mic and shook the arena.
“I am Lena Croix, the instructor! Most of you saw me in the Scramble, so I’ll skip the introduction.”
She lifted her head; her bright red ponytail whipped.
“My title is Instructor, but please call me Professor.”
Gasps erupted from the male students.
“He really is the Empire’s number-one beauty… pairing up with Professor Yuzha!”
“You’re unreasonably gorgeous even among your race!”
“Hey, if you include the other races, the Topaz Dorm’s third seat isn’t so shabby either, is she?”
Female students whispered too.
“Kyah! So cool! Are you taking direct disciples?”
“I’ll die soon if it’s not Dagger Arts! Next to Lena Croix Professor…”
“I want to hug that rugged figure once!”
Ethan couldn’t understand the situation at all.
‘She’s pretty, but is that all?’
Clank!
“Each of you, step forward and receive a practice weapon!”
He picked up a wooden dagger that looked exactly like a carrot.
Because it was soft wood, the killing power was practically zero.
When the students sat again,
“Real weapons are hard to carry and impossible to hide. It’s absurd for a thief to carry a real weapon.”
Lena plucked one of the floating daggers and pointed it at the wall.
“You all must become familiar with this dagger.”
She flicked it without looking.
Thud!
The dagger embedded in the empty wall with a sound.
“Huh? What?”
“If it’s a wooden doll, there should be one on the opposite side.”
“Is the Professor making a mistake too?”
But when she retrieved it, a miracle happened.
“Before becoming a Junior Thief, you must possess this level of precision. Understood?”
A vision-sharing screen floated in the arena air.
On the mana-operated screen, the dagger tip zoomed in.
A tiny bug, the size of a rice grain, twitched at the tip.
“Wow! On the entire planet! You aimed that precisely at the tiny bug!”
“Insane skill… you didn’t even turn your head!”
“Me too, can I handle the dagger like that?”
The students’ eyes burned with motivation.
“Actions speak louder than a thousand words.”
Excellent educational theory rooted in military spirit.
A majestic voice filled the arena.
“You are not knights. Thieves primarily perform stealth and ambushes, so in nine out of ten cases you won’t face someone head-on.”
“… ”
“And it’s better to drop the expectation that you can defeat a knight or magician of similar level in a straight fight with these puny things.”
Students listened intently.
“But.”
Whoosh.
“Still, a great thief must handle that one case, so you’re learning Dagger Arts!”
A dagger rose from her hand into the air.
“Dagger Arts is simple! It packs the mystery of attack and defense into each action.”
“… ”
“It is not expressed as any particular act. It is the natural transition from one motion to the next that flows into attack and defense.”
Professor Lena dropped two floating daggers and caught one in each hand.
“I’ll give an example.”
Clang!
Two swords whirled at invisible speed.
It looked like a video tape had been spliced; motions skipped.
“Waaah!!!”
Gasps exploded.
Lena moved not even a hair on her head and spoke.
“This motion is Pierce. Moving to a slashing stance from Pierce naturally produces Pierce Slash.”
Hooong!
“And from Slash moving back to Rapier allows you to cast two at double speed.”
Chok!
Hooong!
Paaak!
Motions continued one after another.
The students’ mouths stayed open at the speed that left afterimages.
‘Even I can’t follow with my eyes.’
Because she had received power from Vespera. That was the only reason he could analyze the motions.
‘I see. That was the Point Technique too.’
Same as what Felix Professor taught in Hand Techniques class.
Moving from one point motion to the next.
That very movement was attack, and the prior motion became the defense.
‘Clear and intuitive.’
Ethan thought it was far more useful than stealth class, which he wouldn’t have been able to learn anyway.
Yuzha Professor would have dragged him away screaming into the crocodile pit.
“Rapier Slash depends on whether you take Rapier or Slash first; its purpose changes accordingly.”
Air split along the path of the blades and explosive wind pressure erupted.
The arena floor indented slightly with each movement of Lena.
Even without releasing weapons, the power was that immense.
It was truly worthy of the Third Seat of the Round Table.
Clack!
“From now on, practice Slash against the wooden dolls one by one!”
Training time began immediately.
“You can’t do Rapier-Slash yet, so repeat basic Slash a thousand times!”
A collective “Hiiieek—” of shock rose from the students.
Ethan simply walked down and stood before the wooden doll.
He quietly stroked the back of his right hand, then lifted the wooden dagger.
“Fresh meat…”
“?”
Caion’s arrogant voice came from the side.
“From how you handle the dagger, I can tell your level even without looking, you brat…”
“Hey, you!”
Lena’s sharp voice cut him off.
“Ever since the Scramble, why do you keep sticking your nose into other dormitory students?!”
“… ”
“Over there is where Ruby Dorm students practice! Come over here!”
Caion returned to the Sapphire Dorm students with a face full of resentment.
Lena tilted her head.
‘Did Ethan Cass start from the beginning…?’
‘He hid his aura so well I couldn’t detect it?’
‘I’ll have to ask Professor Yuzha how much stealth he learned later.’
Lena Professor was making an absurd misunderstanding.
*
What the hell?
‘I still don’t get it?’
Tap!
Thud!
Ethan was simply stabbing at the wood like normal.
Honestly, the speed was so ordinary it was embarrassing to say.
No reaction from the tattoo on his right hand—no glowing, no movement.
“Fog… aren’t you giving me any fog?”
No Beijing-cheek-smudging smog either.
Clang!
Thud!
‘Are the Dagger Arts graduates better because of that? The others seem to be almost done.’
The students beside him looked like they had already completed a thousand repetitions.
“I have no talent for Dagger Arts.”
When he copied the movements of the semi-transparent thief master, a huge epiphany hit him.
Who knew?
Cling!
Lena’s two daggers collided in mid-air.
“Now we’ll practice actual combat!”
A collective “Eeee already?” echoed from the students.
“Quick real fights make you grow fast. Everyone, line up in formation!”
And the show everyone had been waiting for began.
“Ethan and Caion! Step forward.”