A New Life (2)
Upon arriving at the Kalari Payat Martial Arts Academy, I was immediately guided to the lecture hall by a staff member who recognized me as a newcomer. Though they called it a lecture hall, this being a martial arts academy that prioritized practical training over theory, it was actually an outdoor training ground rather than an indoor classroom.
I joined the class mid-session, but no one bothered introducing me. This wasn’t a school, after all—just a martial arts academy where people paid to attend for a set period. Midway dropouts and late joiners were common. Introducing and farewelling every single one of them would only waste time, wouldn’t it?
Thanks to that, I was able to slip into the lecture quietly and naturally. I’d been a little curious about what there could possibly be to lecture on when it came to clubs, but I soon found out.
“The angle and direction of a full-powered strike differ depending on the shape of the blunt weapon. With a thick bat like this, a vertical downward swing is strongest, of course—but something like a blackjack is different.”
Blunt weapons. I’d only been thinking of clubs when I came here, but there were actually all sorts of them. There were weapons like the blackjack he was explaining now—essentially a weighted pouch you swung—and maces and the like all fell under the blunt weapon category as well.
I’d thought I was just going to learn how to swing a club around. That had been a huge misconception. Part of it was that the trial session hadn’t covered any of this.
So they hadn’t let us try everything after all.
I felt a little baited.
The short theory lecture soon ended, and we moved straight into practical drills. There were many kinds of blunt weapons, but the one that felt most natural in the hand and easiest to learn was still the club.
As I instinctively picked up a wooden club, the instructor spoke.
“Cadet Albrecht, do you prefer the club?”
“Yes, well…”
“In that case, I recommend this for you.”
It was a wooden bat studded all over with iron balls.
“…A Geumswaebong?”
“Oh, you already know of it. Club-type weapons tend to lack the killing power of other blunt weapons, so this should serve you a little better.”
“Isn’t this technically more of a mace, though? It looks pretty heavy…”
“With Cadet Albrecht’s build, you’ll grow used to it in no time.”
Is that so?
I took the Geumswaebong from the instructor and lifted it. It was certainly much lighter than an iron sword or spear, so it was manageable enough in its own way.
“Is it heavy?”
“No, not really.”
“Good. Keeping in mind what this instructor explained earlier, strike that training doll with it.”
“Ah, yes.”
But was it really all right to hit a wooden doll with a Geumswaebong like this? I was worrying that the doll might split apart when I glanced to the side.
CLANG!!!
A man even bigger than me was smashing it with a massive iron hammer, yet the wooden doll didn’t take so much as a scratch.
…Guess I don’t need to worry about that?
It seemed some kind of magical treatment had been applied. Reassured, I raised the Geumswaebong.
CLANG!!
Even swinging it down like that left the doll perfectly fine. Nice.
Curious about what magic could leave it without a single mark, I checked the wooden doll’s status.
◈ Name: Wooden Doll
◈ Grade: Normal
◈ Usage Conditions: None
◈ Effects: None
◈ Status: [Physical Resistance], [Magic Resistance] engravings active.
Not just physical resistance—magic resistance was active too?
In that case…
As he’d explained a moment ago, club-type weapons delivered their strongest force with a vertical downward strike. That was common knowledge anyone would know.
But knowing something and actually doing it with your body were different matters. You almost never got to hit a stationary opponent when swinging a club, so landing a clean vertical blow wasn’t easy. That weakened the club’s impact, which naturally meant the attack wouldn’t land properly. It was simply a limitation of the weapon itself—it wasn’t designed for cutting power in the first place.
There were several ways to compensate, but the easiest method available to me right now was this.
I poured magic into the Geumswaebong. The instructor looked mildly surprised.
“Cadet Albrecht, you can handle magic?”
“Yes, a little.”
I answered simply, then asked back,
“It’s fine to hit it like this, right?”
“Of course. Plenty of cadets want to hone their martial arts with magic, so these wooden dolls have magic resistance applied.”
The instructor spoke with confidence.
“It was engraved directly by the Red Magic Tower, so there’s no chance of it breaking from a magic-based attack.”
The Red Magic Tower. I hadn’t expected to hear that name again here.
She seemed a bit temperamental, but her skill was the real deal.
Anything processed by a tower with someone like that in it would definitely perform as advertised.
“Ah, then I’ll go ahead without worry…”
If the instructor said there was no problem, I could relax. I swung the magic-laden Geumswaebong with all my strength.
KRAAAANG!!! THUD!
Huh?
The sound was completely different from before. I even heard something shatter and hit the floor. Looking ahead, the wooden doll I’d struck with the Geumswaebong had been smashed beyond recognition.
Beside me, the instructor who had just been boldly declaring it would never break wore an expression of pure shock. His eyes were so wide they looked ready to pop out of his head.
“It broke…”
“It… broke, didn’t it…?”
But how had this happened? The instructor’s words hadn’t been a lie. I’d checked the status window myself—the wooden doll had both physical and magic resistance active.
It was a piece commissioned from a magic tower, so it couldn’t have been made carelessly, and it wasn’t as if my magic was overwhelmingly powerful either. I still hadn’t consumed any Ether crystals, so my magic stat was only 130.
…Wait. Magical treatment?
“Ah.”
I suddenly realized why the wooden doll had crumbled so helplessly. It wasn’t because I was especially strong—the structure itself made this inevitable.
My magic nullified the opponent’s magic. I’d briefly forgotten while focusing on learning the club, but the fact that this wooden doll had received magical treatment meant its durability had been raised using magic.
So the same doll that had been perfectly fine when I struck it without magic was now in pieces. My magic had rendered every enchantment on the wooden doll completely nonfunctional.
In short… it was my mistake. Cold sweat beading on my forehead, I turned to the instructor.
“I’m truly sorry for breaking the equipment. If compensation is needed…”
“……Truly remarkable.”
“Pardon?”
Two hands clapped down on my shoulders with a firm thud. The instructor gripping me had a sparkle in his eyes.
“It seems an extraordinary talent has entered our Kalari Payat!!”
“…Excuse me?”
What kind of out-of-nowhere remark was this…
“No one has broken one of these wooden dolls in nearly ten years—yet Cadet Albrecht has done it.”
So someone had broken one ten years ago. But the atmosphere felt strange. Whether the other cadets had overheard the instructor’s voice or not, those training nearby began staring at me.
Then their gazes shifted to the wooden doll I had destroyed.
“…He broke that?”
“This new guy’s incredible.”
“First time since the thirtieth class, isn’t it?”
Unaware of the full story, they simply started praising me as amazing. The instructor didn’t hold back either.
“Your magic is more powerful than your raw strength!”
“…I suppose so.”
This had only been possible because of the unique nature of my power, not because I was strong—but hearing praise never hurt. Still, I worried it might create some strange misunderstanding.
“I look forward to working with you from now on, Cadet Albrecht.”
“Ah, yes.”
I had no idea what he was looking forward to, but there was no harm in making a good impression on the instructor who would be teaching me for the next half year.
“All right. For today, let’s have you train with the Geumswaebong without using magic. Use one of the other wooden dolls here.”
“Y-Yes, sir.”
In other words: don’t smash any more of them. I nodded, withdrew my magic, and began diligently pounding away at a wooden doll.
Pankash, the blunt weapons instructor of the Kalari Payat Martial Arts Academy, watched the new cadet, Albrecht.
Did something go wrong?
He had praised the boy as remarkable, but he still suspected a defect in the wooden doll. There was good reason for that suspicion.
Ten years ago, after a once-in-a-generation genius produced by Kalari Payat had smashed every training wooden doll then in use, the academy had reinforced the magical treatments on the replacements.
Previously they had commissioned the Magic Association of the Shah Zar Kingdom, but the current ones were works of the Red Magic Tower itself.
The Red Magic Tower ranked second only to the Yellow Magic Tower in the field of magical engraving. In fact, when the instructors had deliberately attacked the dolls at full strength for durability testing, the wooden dolls hadn’t taken so much as a scratch.
According to the Red Magic Tower that had taken the commission, nothing short of a high-ranking knight would even be able to leave a mark. Considering that some of the instructors were former regular knights themselves, that assessment had not been wrong.
Since then, not a single wooden doll had broken. Those who came to the academy to train simply never possessed high-ranking knight-level skill.
And yet one had broken—today, at the hands of a cadet who had only just begun learning. It had been perfectly fine when he simply swung the Geumswaebong, then shattered the moment he poured magic into it.
So of course the first thought was a defect. But considering it had held up normally before the magic was applied…
If it isn’t a defect…
Pankash swallowed dryly.
Whether there was a defect or not would need to be confirmed, but one thought had already solidified in his mind. Perhaps someone truly extraordinary had just appeared.
“What?”
Raynes, section chief of magical engraving at the Red Magic Tower, was flustered. The cause was a message that had just arrived via magic telegram.
“One of the training dolls we made broke?”
“Yes, Chief. The contact came from the Kalari Payat Martial Arts Academy…”
“Kalari Payat? We took their commission ten years ago.”
That had been back before Raynes even held the title of section chief.
“And it’s broken now?”
“Yes. They’re requesting we check whether there might have been a defect.”
“Hah.”
Raynes let out a hollow laugh. Even though the item was over a decade old, she couldn’t simply ignore the report. The Red Magic Tower’s warranty period for magical engravings was fifteen years.
“…Prepare for a business trip, Johan.”
“Yes, Chief.”
Her secretary, Johan, withdrew, and Raynes tapped her long fingers against her chin. Given that the tower guaranteed quality for fifteen years, the lifespan of a magical engraving was generally longer—twenty years.
In other words, it was supposed to maintain at least its full performance for twenty years. The training wooden dolls made for Kalari Payat back then had been top-grade. Unless a high-ranking knight came along and literally sliced them apart with a sword, they were not supposed to break.
So why? How?
Raynes did not believe there was a defect in the dolls. The reason she was personally preparing to travel anyway was…
“Who pulled such a cute little stunt?”
She intended to find out exactly who had used what trick to smash one.