One Month
Dong—
The dawn bell tolled.
The sound slipped into my ears while I was still half-asleep. It was ringing somewhere in the Healing Sanctuary, and the early morning was so still that even the faint note carried with perfect clarity.
I shifted once under the covers.
Ugh, I'm so damn tired...
It was the moment just before sunrise. The light filtering through the gap in the window was pale, and the air in the room was cool. When I stuck a hand out from under the blanket, the chill found me at once.
My body felt heavy, but by now I was used to that much.
After several days of waking at roughly the same hour and rolling myself out of bed the same way, my body started answering the Sanctuary bell before my mind did. It felt a little like boot camp.
I sat up slowly.
"Haa..."
I let out a short breath, perched on the edge of the bed, and set my feet on the floor.
The cold climbed up through my soles. A little more of the sleep fell away.
I straightened my clothes roughly and opened the door. The corridor was still quiet. Only the candles deeper in the Sanctuary flickered low, and from farther off came a faint sound like water coming to a boil.
I went to the wash area and scrubbed my face with cold water. The chill running down my cheeks snapped me fully awake.
Then footsteps approached from farther down the corridor.
It was Priest Edrick. He was looking my way with that same blunt expression as always. In the dim hallway, his face looked a little intimidating.
I shook the water off and dipped my head lightly.
"Good morning."
"You're awake."
"You're up early too, Father."
Edrick's brow shifted a fraction.
"Have you ever seen me sleep in?"
"Uh... no...?"
He let out a breath that was almost a snort and flicked a glance over my face.
"Training grounds again today?"
"Well... yeah?"
"More diligent than you look."
Thud.
A cup of water from the table was shoved in my direction. His tone was curt, but his hands told a different story.
I snorted a quiet laugh and picked up the cup.
"Thanks."
"Just come back alive."
"Nice to get a blessing first thing in the morning."
"Stop talking nonsense and get out of here."
I drained the water and stepped outside.
The edge of the eastern sky was beginning to pale. Somewhere a clear birdcall sounded, and as I headed for the training grounds behind the guild, the gravel crunched under my feet.
As always, Garen was already there.
The first thing I noticed was the broad back and shoulders. The man always stood like that. Diligent almost felt like too small a word for him.
I walked up and opened my mouth.
"Morning."
Garen turned his head slowly.
"A little early today."
"Tried getting up a bit sooner so I could match when you get here."
"...Good thinking."
"Oh, praise!"
"Don't get carried away."
"Aww..."
I grinned and picked up a wooden sword. The feel of it in my hand was familiar now. Still rough and clumsy, sure—but no longer strange.
Garen took up a wooden sword of his own.
"Come."
"Yes, sir."
The second the word left his mouth, I closed in.
The first exchange was already fast.
I raised the wooden blade to meet Garen's motion, blocked, then twisted the sword to let the force glance off before the shock could spread through me.
Crack!
The sound of wood striking wood shattered the dawn air.
I stepped in again at once. As I caught the wooden sword Garen swept in from the side on the flat of my blade, I dropped my center of gravity and cut upward from below.
Whoosh.
Garen slipped past it as if it were nothing.
Shit. He dodges that?
The counter came immediately. I twisted my shoulder, slipped it, and took the next blow. My palms rang with the impact, but I didn't lose the sword.
The strike that came for my thigh a moment later, I couldn't avoid.
Thud.
A heavy jolt shook my lower body.
"Ugh."
"Focus."
"I am focusing...!"
A few more exchanges flew back and forth.
Block, deflect, press in, counter.
Garen's sword was still heavy and fast. I had clearly improved from the beginning, but at every decisive moment his movement only deepened.
That feeling was strangely familiar.
Suddenly I remembered the first time I came to this place—the moment Roy had wrapped something around his sword and swung.
"Enough."
Garen spoke shortly.
I planted the tip of the wooden sword on the ground and caught my breath.
"Hoo..."
Sweat ran from my forehead down under my jaw. Garen, by contrast, stood there with not a single breath out of place.
"Not bad."
"Right? Felt like I held out a little better today."
"...A little."
"I'll take that little and be grateful."
I steadied my breathing once more and asked,
"Hyung-nim."
Garen stopped the hand that had been reaching for a water bottle.
"Back in the goblin den. I saw Roy wrap something around his sword when he swung."
"And."
"At first it looked like the magic Mari uses, but thinking about it now, the feeling was different. What exactly is that power?"
Garen was silent for a moment.
After that short pause, he spoke.
"What Roy uses is not mana."
"...Then what is it?"
"Aura."
Aura.
The name landed with weight.
I asked almost at once.
"Then how do you learn Aura?"
Garen looked at me briefly, then said evenly,
"Aura is not a force that comes from muscle. You feel the mana flowing through your body, seize it, and make it your own power."
"...Mana?"
"Yes. It's in the air, in nature, and inside you. Mages use it in the form of magical energy. Warriors use it in the form of Aura."
I looked down at the hand gripping the wooden sword.
"Then aren't they basically the same thing?"
"The root is the same. The way you handle it is different."
Garen lifted the water bottle, then set it down again.
I asked almost immediately.
"Then... can't I start learning it right now?"
Garen regarded me for a moment.
"Awakening to Aura varies wildly from person to person. There are kids who grasp it young. But far more never touch it even if they train until they die. At the fast end, a few months. Usually years. Plenty never manage it at all."
A few months. Years.
Suddenly it felt very far away.
I worked my mouth, then asked,
"Then... is it impossible to use both Aura and magic?"
This time Garen answered at once.
"Impossible."
"Why?"
"Once a power hardens, it cannot be changed. The form of the force you build up inside your body sets, and you can only use that one kind."
Garen tapped the ground with the tip of his wooden sword.
"Aura and magic. A human who uses both properly... I have never seen one."
It was a short line, but it lingered strangely.
No class change? Hmm... honestly, I've got to at least max out the swordsman path first.
I was quiet for a while. Then, finally, I asked,
"Then... would you teach me how to use Aura?"
Garen spoke without any particular change of expression.
"One month."
I shot back at once.
"...Sorry? One month?"
"Including everything you've trained so far, come every single day for one month. And show me growth."
Garen looked straight into my eyes and added,
"If you're the kind of man who can endure that, then I can teach you how to reach Aura."
My breath caught for a second.
"For real?!"
"Just because I teach you does not mean you will be able to use it right away. Do not misunderstand."
"Aww... still, teaching me at all is huge."
"I'll give you the chance. If you grow properly by the end of the month, that is."
Garen picked up the water bottle.
"Don't be impatient."
"...Yes, sir."
"You're the type who grows quickly. Build from the foundation for now."
The words landed strangely like comfort.
One month.
Compared to the vague stretch of years, that was better. A distance that almost felt within reach. A distance you might touch if you simply held on.
I wanted it.
After training ended, I turned my steps toward the Healing Sanctuary.
The whole way back, my head was full of what I had just heard.
Aura. Mana. One month.
As I passed deeper into the corridor, I caught Roy's face through a gap in an open door. He looked far better than before. His eyes were clear, and even lying there he seemed much more at ease than he had at first.
I almost walked past—then my feet stopped for no good reason.
Then Roy's voice came from inside.
"You just going to stand there?"
I stepped in, a little awkward.
"You're awake."
"Yeah. A little while ago."
"How's your body?"
"Well, I don't feel like I'm about to die right this second."
I laughed quietly.
Roy looked at me for a moment, then narrowed his eyes.
"Your face looks off."
"...What?"
"Something happen?"
"I just... want to use Aura like you do, Roy."
"That so."
"Yes."
"...Getting impatient?"
"A little."
Roy let out something close to a dry laugh.
"You don't need to make that face."
"Still... everyone else has a power they use."
"And."
"I'm still just a civilian. A kid who only knows how to swing a sword."
Roy rested his head back against the bed and said,
"If you hold on long enough, you'll end up gripping it."
It was a short line. But Roy's words lodged themselves in my head.
"Surviving is a skill too. You stepped into the party in my place, and you're still alive alongside Mari and Kaya. That's a skill. You're doing well. Everyone just figures that out too late."
A brief silence settled.
I sat down in the chair beside the bed for no particular reason and asked,
"When did you first feel Aura, Roy?"
Roy looked up at the ceiling for a moment.
"...About half a year after I started training. Until then I was just swinging a sword. The first time I felt something flowing inside my body was around then too."
I listened quietly.
"When I tried to grab it, it scattered. When I forced it, it snapped. Building a core came much later than that."
Roy stopped there.
"How much later?"
Roy answered shortly.
"Two years."
My eyes widened a little.
"Until then it was only that almost-but-not-quite feeling. You can sense Aura in your body, but stacking it, binding it, and turning it into a core is a whole other conversation."
I swallowed without meaning to.
"Manifesting Aura for the first time came after that. Even after I made the core, for a long while I couldn't properly put it into a sword. Just a brush that came and went. The blade felt a little heavier, the tips of my fingers a little hot—that was about it."
"Then... after that?"
Roy smiled, just barely.
"I became a Sword User in the fourth year after I started training."
"..."
"Not especially fast, not especially slow. I just held on to the end."
The room went quiet for a moment.
It hadn't been talent. He had simply held on until the end.
After a pause, I asked,
"How old are you, Roy?"
"Twenty-seven."
"I'm twenty-five."
"Yeah."
I blinked.
"So you're my hyung."
One corner of Roy's mouth lifted a little.
"Guess so."
I cleared my throat once for no reason and said,
"Then... can I call you Roy hyung?"
He didn't smile outright this time, but the look in his eyes eased a little.
"Yeah. Call me that."
That short permission felt strangely good.
I smiled for no particular reason.
"Get well soon, Roy hyung."
"Yeah. You don't collapse first either."
"I'm working on it."
"Then that's enough."
Silence drifted for a moment.
"Hold on. The one who endures is the one who wins in the end."
"...Are you trying to comfort me?"
"Shut up."
"Heh."
"Get out there and go make some money."
"Got it. Rest up."
"Yeah."
I stepped out of the Healing Sanctuary.
Roy's voice was still left in my head.
Two years. Four years.
I didn't even know whether that was fast or slow. All that remained was the part about holding on until the end.
When I reached the front of the guild, Mari and Kaya were already waiting for me.
Mari was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, looking up at the sky, and Kaya stood quietly beside her.
"You're late."
"Got smacked around a bit by Garen hyung-nim, what can I say."
"You do that every day... but why are you coming from over there?"
Mari pointed toward the Healing Sanctuary with her chin.
"Ah, training finished early, so I stopped by to see Roy hyung for a bit."
"Yeah?"
"Yep. And I learned something new today."
"What."
I hesitated for a second, then said,
"That there's a lot of cool stuff in the world."
Mari looked at me like I was some kind of weirdo.
"What are you even talking about."
Kaya scanned my face once and asked,
"You're not pushing yourself too hard, right?"
"I'm fine~"
"Hard to believe."
"Why does nobody ever trust what people say..."
"It shows on your face."
After handing the request over to Luce, on the road into the forest, my head was still a mess.
So I tossed a question at Mari beside me.
"Is everything you use magic, Mari?"
Mari glanced at me once.
"What else would it be."
"Just... curious. I thought it was all throwing fireballs, but it doesn't seem like that."
"How provincial."
Mari snapped that out and fell silent for a moment. But she didn't look like she could leave it there.
"Magic isn't just power you pour out hard."
Her tone had grown a shade clearer than a moment before.
"Just now I wasn't only throwing a fireball either. I blocked the path the scout type would bounce toward and opened a gap for you to go in. I cut the flow before the two warrior types could pile on at once."
"Oh..."
"So magic is a lot more delicate and complicated than it looks from the outside. Just because it looks flashy doesn't mean it's all the same magic."
There was a little more life in Mari's eyes. She was still sharp-tongued like always, but the moment magic came up, the texture of her clearly changed.
I said it honestly.
"Magic... is pretty cool."
Mari shut her mouth for a second. Then, eyes averted, she muttered,
"...Obviously."
Kaya laughed softly beside us.
"Mari, you seem a little excited now that magic came up."
"I am not."
"You are, though."
"Ugh... shut up!"
I swallowed a laugh.
Cute.
After that, a few more fights followed one after another. The flow Mari had described started to become visible in actual combat. The direction a fireball flew, the timing of the spreading flame. It wasn't just an attack. It was opening a path.
When the fighting ended and I was catching my breath, Kaya's side caught my eye this time.
If magic was the side that shook the board, Kaya's power was the side that held the allies together. The thing that kept me from collapsing even when I went in too deep.
I flicked the blood from the tip of my sword and asked,
"Is the power you use different from magic, Kaya?"
"Yeah. Different."
Kaya answered shortly.
"It's Holy Power."
"Holy Power..."
"It isn't a force you draw out like mana. It's closer to receiving it and handling it. Healing, support—all of it comes from there."
"So not just anyone can use it."
"Right."
Kaya looked ahead for a moment, then added,
"It's also the power you need first when people have to be kept alive."
That line suited Kaya perfectly.
Even after running the request, eating, washing up, and coming back, only three names remained in my head.
Aura. Mana. Holy Power.
My hands stopped even while I was counting the coins I'd earned today.
I was the only one who still had nothing.
I want to use it too.
One month.
If I endured the month Garen had named, stacked myself up, and stayed alive, then at the very least I could learn the way to reach Aura.
That was enough.
I meant to hold on—and in the end, I meant to take that power in my hand.