Qi Utilization Art (2)
Professor Morphy continued the lesson.
Scratch, scratch. Characters filled the marble slate, and the cadets' pens moved in tandem.
Qi / Luck / Technique
Qi + Luck = Aura
Qi + Technique = Arts
I jotted the hanja beside the Imperial script. It made the concepts far easier to grasp.
"Whoa, Ethan, what are those characters?"
"Carson, no cheating."
"What? I can't even ask?"
Professor Morphy rapped the slate sharply.
"Technique is the form through which Qi is realized. That is why the two together are called Arts. Stealth Arts, Movement Arts—they are all the same in that regard."
"…"
"If we must draw a fine distinction, however, Stealth Arts and Stealth Techniques are slightly different. Concealment performed without circulating Qi is Stealth Arts. Camouflage and other forms of concealment that actively employ Qi are called Stealth Techniques."
I shifted my pen to the character for Luck.
"Every sentient being is born with a certain measure of Luck. Qi can be cultivated through training up to the limits of one's vessel, but developing Luck is extraordinarily difficult. You may as well regard it as nearly impossible."
The lecture rolled on.
Qi… Luck… Is there some connection to that fog I used to write about?
One thought trailed into the next, knitting themselves into a chain of reasoning.
Qi is like internal energy or the natural force of the world. Luck I still don't get… Technique must mean forms and movements. So technique manuals would be like martial arts manuals?
I drew a line connecting Qi to the character for Luck.
Take refined Qi and add the divine power of Fortune. That is Aura.
I sketched an arrow toward the character for Technique on the parchment.
Take refined Qi and pour it into the precision of Technique. That is Arts.
Something almost clicked into place.
There were three circles drawn on the tattoo I have…
Maybe they were thief-related stats. It felt connected somehow.
"Only when you master the operation of Qi—and the methods of realizing both Aura and Arts—can you truly call yourself a thief. And the foundation of all of it is the operation of Qi."
"…"
"But Aura, in particular, is not something just anyone can wield. Even among the upperclassmen, only a tiny handful can use it. Luck Arts themselves belong to the domain of high-ranking heroes."
A hand shot up among the cadets.
It was Dormuut.
"Do knights not have Qi?"
The question was pure Dormuut, but the professor understood it perfectly.
"Cadet Dormuut! Unexpected. That was a sharp question."
Professor Morphy walked out among the desks.
"A thief's Qi is somewhat different from the mana or divine power of other classes."
He released a burst of blue energy into the air once more.
"Whoa!!"
The cadets' cheers shook the lecture hall.
Wait—thieves can use mana too?
Professor Morphy cleared his throat briefly.
"This isn't what my vessel is meant to hold, so using it for long is hard on the body. Just a short demonstration… Mana has a property of mutual repulsion, so it scatters almost immediately."
The blue energy was swiftly absorbed into the air and vanished.
Near where it had been, a green Qi condensed and took form in empty space.
"Qi, however, has a property of cohesion. Once you succeed in operating it even once, you become able to employ more advanced forms of Technique and Luck."
Professor Morphy clenched his fist, and the green light disappeared.
"Huh? My quill!"
The pen Carson had been writing with shot straight into the professor's hand.
The professor glanced down at it.
"You can graft it onto hand techniques like this."
He returned the pen to Carson with careful courtesy.
"This is really Professor Felix's territory, but… starting now, one by one, let's try applying the principles of Qi to hand techniques."
He clapped once.
Clink.
A pouch of coins appeared in front of every cadet.
"I will walk past each of you. Your job is to keep those coins safe from me."
Professor Morphy slipped a pocket watch into his pouch, tucked a pen into his collar, and fastened a wristwatch on his hand.
"And if any of you can take something from me without my noticing… try it."
The cadets swallowed hard.
"If, within the time limit, even a single one of you succeeds in stealing even a single item from me—"
Professor Morphy smiled brightly.
"—I will gift every one of you a Unique-grade weapon."
"Whoa—!!"
Two full ranks below Legendary, yes. But still the grade of weapon frontline thieves actually used in the field. Sell one at auction and you could buy a couple of houses on the outskirts of the imperial capital.
Fire kindled in every cadet's eyes.
"What I just did was not telekinetic magic. It was a hand technique powered by Qi that seized an object at range."
"…"
"I am not expecting anything nearly so refined or advanced. Even upperclassmen fail this technique regularly. You still have a long road ahead."
Morphy gave a small smile and activated the watch on his wrist with a crisp click.
"Then we begin."
He paused for a moment.
"Though, would it be better if I put out the lights, or…"
Rattle.
Every head turned toward the sound.
"…Huh? What was that?"
"What just happened?"
"Ethan…?"
Wait.
"Ethan Cass…!"
Professor Morphy's eyes went round as saucers.
I looked down at the pocket watch resting in my palm.
"Ah. I stole it by accident."
And so, for the first time in my life, I had committed theft.
Mom, Dad, I'm sorry. Your son grew up wrong.
The cadets and Professor Morphy both stared at me with their mouths hanging open.
In the end I was hoisted onto their shoulders and paraded around.
"Th-that's enough."
I bounced helplessly through the air.
"Whoa! Ethan is our class hero!"
"Insane! Thanks to Ethan we're getting Unique weapons!"
"On top of the bracelet I gave you last time, I'll give you a necklace too, Ethan!"
"Hey, that necklace is more expensive than a Unique weapon, you idiot!"
The technique I had used was a perfect long-range snatch—something that would have been called "void seizing" in the old martial arts novels.
"Is he really a freshman who just enrolled this year?"
Professor Morphy let out a hollow laugh.
The very fact that a brand-new cadet had pulled it off was already absurd.
And I had gone one step further.
"Performing a long-range snatch without using any Qi of his own… this is the kind of story that belongs in the academic journals…"
Morphy could see it clearly.
"Instead of Qi he didn't possess, he gathered the ambient Qi already present in the lecture hall and fired it in a single instantaneous burst."
The fog-like haze that had clung around me had indeed been the natural Qi of the world.
"Even being able to gather Qi that distinctly is already extraordinary."
That fog I had created—that was a level of Qi collection technique that normally required a thief a full decade of training to achieve.
And I was still only a seventeen-year-old boy.
"In a way, the future of the Empire might rest on that young man…"
Professor Morphy had stood at the lectern for many years and had seen every strange student there was to see.
Even so, Ethan was something alien—something he could not put into words.
Witnessing a case he had never heard of, never even imagined, in decades of teaching, Morphy felt a chill and lightly bit his lip.
For a thief, creative and eccentric thinking was vital. When you had to lay precisely flowing Qi atop Technique, that kind of mind was essential.
Heh.
"Ethan Cass… in creativity alone, he has already reached Master level without exaggeration."
A boy who already possessed Master-class Qi operation skill, yet possessed no Qi of his own.
A research subject.
One question still remained unanswered, though.
This kid…
"Why is Qi pooling around his feet?"
The faint mist that seemed to creep and swirl—there was no doubt it was natural Qi existing in the world.
It was so subtle that even Morphy, a high-ranking thief himself, had failed to notice it without deliberate concentration.
Haha…
If he is doing it on purpose, the talent is enough to drive a man mad.
Morphy set aside the tangle of thoughts and brought the class to a close.
"…That will be all for today."
"…"
"Your homework for Qi Operation Arts is to discover, by next week, what nature your own Qi possesses. If you can determine its color and inclination as well, even better."
The cadets answered in unison.
"Yes—!"
"Then I will see you next week."
Students rose from their seats one after another.
I packed up and was about to leave when—
"Um… Cadet Ethan!"
"Yes, Professor?"
Professor Morphy suddenly stepped right up beside me.
"Look at me for a moment."
"? Yes, sir."
His eyes were gleaming. I felt a twinge of unease.
Don't tell me he's going to ask me to join the thief graduate program…
Please, anything but that.
It turned out to be nothing of the sort.
"I would like you to serve as my teaching assistant for future classes."
"What do I get for that?"
Professor Morphy tilted his head.
"A scholarship, of course?"
"How much?"
"Fifty silver a week, I believe."
Insane.
In this world one gold coin was worth about ten million won, and it took a thousand silver to make one gold… so one little TA gig paid two million won a month?
The thought of earning money suddenly filled me with enthusiasm.
I'll ask Sera to buy a food-delivery flying beast with this money.
"I'll do it."
"Excellent. You made quite an impression today, Cadet. You may go."
"Is there anything I need to prepare as your assistant before the next class?"
Morphy thought for a moment, then cocked his head slightly.
"Cadet, do you yourself believe you possess sufficient aptitude as a thief?"
"Pardon?"
I fought desperately to keep my expression under control.
Is he testing me?
Documents tucked under one arm, he rose and patted my shoulder.
"Think carefully about it until next week. That is a personal assignment from me to you. You may leave now."
Professor Morphy had dismissed me.
"I'll take my leave, then."
"Take care, top student."
I left the professor's office with a faintly puzzled look on my face.
We received our training uniforms.
Near the student hall, in a small building equidistant from the four dormitory wings, the cadets gathered in a tight cluster.
"The location of this temporary dorm is strangely perfect."
I never thought I'd end up back in this dump.
"Ethan! You've come to rescue us from our suffering in this temporary dorm wing!"
"No, I got caught too."
"Th-that can't be…"
The 1st Dormitory cadets came running, but I waved them off.
"Get lost. Why do you heirs of powerful houses swarm me like girl fans every time I step outside?"
Except for Sapphire Dormitory, I was popular among the cadets.
In truth it was largely my own fault.
No matter how much of a bunch of shitty thieves they are, I can't just abandon people from the same dorm.
That damn Special Forces sense of camaraderie kept kicking in, and I kept looking after the cadets left and right.
"Unless you're bringing me a campus map, stop acting like you know me from now on."
"We come to the annex every time and you're never there!"
"Bunch of stalker fans."
From behind, a green-haired cadet stepped forward.
"Ethan, need a map?"
My shoulders gave a sudden jolt.
Flutter.
"This is a map we barely managed to get from the warden."
"…What?"
"We added extra notes for you."
I snatched it open in a hurry.
"…Huh."
It was unmistakably the campus map I had been searching for so desperately.
"What's this blank space, though?"
"Oh, those are the areas we haven't explored yet."
"Explored?"
Had they drawn the map themselves?
"Yeah! We kept getting free good food from you, so we figured we should do something in return. We wandered around whenever we had free time and made it."
"Go thank Sera for that."
"…Sera's popular! She's got so much presence I can't even get close."
Sera has presence? What was that supposed to mean.
The way her face always turned bright red whenever she looked at me—was she actually angry the whole time?
Either way, this was a massive haul.
When I had asked Warden Dermond, she had flatly refused to give me any map, leaving me completely stuck on how to find the club buildings.
I might be able to find a lead on the Imperial Seal sooner than I thought.
One step closer to the imperial treasure.
"This is an incredible gift. Thank you."
Hearing gratitude from me—a rare event—made the cadets' eyes light up.
"Ethan!! On my honor as a baron, I'll be loyal to you!"
"I'll stake my knighthood!"
"We'll stake our blacksmith guild workshop!"
Why were they suddenly offering guarantees like this?
These idiots would have fallen for a rental scam if they'd been born in twenty-first-century Korea.
I decided that someday I would have to give the 1st Dormitory thieves a proper anti-fraud briefing so they wouldn't get ripped off.
"Gather over here!"
Dermond brushed the dust off a desk with one hand, then lifted a chest and began pulling out neat black training uniforms one by one.
"I will distribute the new training uniforms to you. Come forward one at a time and take yours."
Until now, the Thief Academy's Novice Cadets had never really had a proper school uniform.
Maybe because everyone showed up in their own personal thief gear. Nobles sometimes wore famous formal attire made by the Empire's official Thief Master tailor. Commoners without money just bought basic kits from the Adventurers' Guild.
I thought the outfits looked all over the place for a school. So this was why.
"Make sure you take the size you were measured for! If it fits when you put it on, it fits!"
The cadets' body sizes varied so wildly that making the training uniforms must have taken a long time.
Carson held a uniform up against his shoulder and frowned, thick brows knitting.
"I can't give up white clothes…"
"You should give up a little."
"A thief never gives up!"
Sera, on the other hand, seemed to like hers.
"It's so pretty!"
"Pretty."
"Ethan, you have zero talent for reactions."
Carson gave my arm a couple of light punches.
"Let's head back to the hideout, Ethan."
"Understood."
We each took our new training uniforms and returned to the hideout.
…
Wait. Hideout?
Do Novice Cadets even have hideouts?
Carrying an uneasy feeling, I left the temporary dormitory.
My room in the Ruby Dormitory annex.
I looked at the cadets who had somehow clustered around me and opened my mouth.
"Why is this your hideout?"
"S-sorry, Ethan, please don't kick us out…"
My room had become the cadets' party house.