Chapter 355
Chapter 355
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 355
Chapter Title: An Unexpected Lesson
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While Ihan was rushing over, the other students with social connections in the White Tiger Tower received a similar message.
“Professor Ingeldel is asking for us?”
“Tell him I broke my leg.”
Giselle said listlessly, buried in an armchair.
Dergue asked, his face full of worry.
“But, Moradi. What if the professor needs our help?”
“Then you go.”
“…”
Dergue hesitated.
To be honest, he was a bit reluctant to deal with Vice-captain Jean-Cliff.
Any student from the White Tiger Tower who had met Sir Jean-Cliff at a gathering knew. They knew just how difficult an adversary he was.
Once he caught you, you couldn't escape even if you cut off your own arm. He was perhaps a more terrifying foe than an ogre.
“But Sir Jean-Cliff is a great knight. Wouldn't there be much to learn from talking with him?”
“Then I told you, you go.”
“You go, you punk. Don't try to send Moradi.”
“…”
A student who had never met him chimed in, only to be collectively berated by his friends and shrink back.
Is… is he that bad?
Giselle grimaced and bit her lip.
“Just thinking about it gives me a headache… I have to go to the gathering this week anyway since I was invited. There’s no need to get worn out by meeting him early.”
“Moradi. Can I ask you one thing?”
Dergue began cautiously.
“Go ahead.”
“It might be a rude question…”
“Then don’t ask?”
As Giselle retorted sarcastically, Dergue cleared his throat.
“Um… about Ihan inviting us.”
Giselle nodded with a deadpan expression, then drew a dagger and stabbed it into the table beside her.
“??”
“I’m planning to stick one in every time you’re rude. It’s too much trouble to remember them all.”
“…”
I only said his name!
Still, Dergue persevered and spoke.
“I was just wondering if you had some… friction with Ihan.”
“What are you talking about?”
Batrak, who was standing nearby, looked puzzled.
As someone who had also been invited, he didn't understand the meaning of the question.
“Friction?”
“Well… it’s just that.”
“I get it.”
Giselle said, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger.
“That Wardanaz brat invited us, but he wouldn’t do it without a reason. There must be a trap. And why would there be a trap? Because there must have been some friction. Is that what you’re saying?”
“Not exactly… ahem. Ahem.”
As Dergue grew embarrassed, Batrak protested as if wronged.
“There was no friction at all… um… well. It’s true Wardanaz almost got caught because we escaped, but that was like an unavoidable natural disaster!”
“…”
“…”
Every student in the White Tiger Tower—the one reading a magazine in the common room, the one peeling a sweet potato with a knife, the ones wrestling, the one reading a book on Gyeokgu tactics—froze.
“Hey. We should probably avoid that Wardanaz kid for a while…”
“He must be absolutely furious.”
“Damn it. I was hoping to do some bartering.”
“The market won’t stabilize until that bastard releases his supplies.”
Watching her murmuring friends, Giselle shook her head and sighed.
“Who cares if that Wardanaz brat is pissed off or not. He’s always pissed off.”
*That’s because you tried to crush him first, Moradi…*
Dergue thought so but held his tongue for the sake of Giselle’s pride.
“The important thing is, now that we’ve been invited to the knights’ gathering, we can’t not go. Choi, would you be able to refuse?”
“That’s… no.”
For mere squires to be invited to a gathering of knights was a great honor.
Dergue would have gone even if the skull principal was there.
“In that case, um… just remember this.”
Instead of answering, Giselle prepared to stab another dagger into the table and signaled for him to speak.
“When we get there, we keep as much distance from Wardanaz as possible, avoid him until the gathering is over, and stick with the other knights…”
“…Why don’t you just suggest we carry a white flag while we’re at it.”
Giselle was dumbfounded, but Batrak honestly found the idea tempting.
If other knights were around, wouldn't that Wardanaz kid restrain himself a bit, no matter how angry he was?
* * *
When Ihan was studying under Professor Voladi, he had often thought how nice it would be if the professor were a little more talkative.
Explaining things with attack after attack instead of words—what was that, if not beast-like?
But after meeting someone truly talkative, his opinion had changed slightly.
“I’ve heard so much about you. I’ve wanted to meet you and hear your story ever since then, and it’s truly a remarkable thing. The Wardanaz family is the greatest magical family in the Empire, is it not? I remember seeing the head of the Wardanaz family from afar when he visited on official business quite some time ago. When a great drought struck the western Empire due to a mana backflow, the family head moved seawater wholesale, desalinated it, and created a reservoir. Did you know that reservoir still exists? The name of the reservoir is…”
*This is insane.*
Ihan glared at Professor Ingeldel, his eyes filled with a sense of betrayal.
He had called me so urgently, and for this!
Are professors, in the end, beings who are destined to betray their students?
*I’m sorry.*
Professor Ingeldel apologized with his eyes.
He hadn't been able to think of any other way.
“Speaking of which, you’re the scion of the Alpha family, correct? What about it? What are your thoughts?”
“Uh… ugh.”
Angrago, who had been brought along and was now stuck listening to the conversation, had been dozing off and jolted in fright.
*What were we talking about?*
*Help me…!*
As Angrago looked at him with teary eyes, Ihan sighed and cut into the conversation.
“By the way, Sir Jean-Cliff.”
“Oh. Do you have a question?”
Jean-Cliff paused his speech for a moment and adjusted his attire.
As a parrot beastkin, Jean-Cliff had colorful and brilliant feathers, and his clothing was no less splendid and varied.
Anyone seeing him would think he was a dancer, not a knight.
“We’ll be attending the knightly order’s gathering this week, won’t we? Since it’s a meeting of knights, I feel I shouldn’t show a shameful display of swordsmanship.”
At Ihan’s words, Professor Ingeldel’s face lit up and he nodded.
After hours of non-stop talking, he thought they were finally moving on to swordsmanship.
“You have nothing to worry about. Why? Because you are, above all, from the Wardanaz family. The Wardanaz family is a renowned magical family, so for you to display such sword skills is in itself enough for the knights present to…”
“Still, I want to be prepared!”
Ihan hastily cut him off.
If he let his guard down for even a moment, Jean-Cliff would hijack the conversation.
Just as a skilled swordsman seizes the initiative and unleashes a one-sided barrage, so too did Jean-Cliff.
“In that case, I shall explain the swordsmanship of each participating knight one by one…”
“How about you show him directly, Sir Jean-Cliff!”
Professor Ingeldel also shouted desperately, as if this was his only chance.
Jean-Cliff hesitated for a moment. Professor Ingeldel didn’t notice, but Ihan could tell what it meant.
*He’s disappointed he can’t talk more!*
There were occasionally professors like that.
The kind who were disappointed they couldn’t just keep chattering on one-sidedly…
“Very well. Let’s do that.”
Thankfully, Jean-Cliff stood up, holding a longsword with extravagant pure gold decorations.
Watching his back, Ihan suddenly felt a sense of doubt.
*Is he really a skilled swordsman?*
Moradi had said so, but Ihan made it a rule to be suspicious of anything she said.
Besides, all the skilled swordsmen Ihan had met so far had the appearance of people madly obsessed with the sword.
A shabby coat, a single sword at their side, and eyes gleaming brightly—that somehow made them seem like great masters. But seeing a splendid, dust-free formal suit and a decorated sword, he somehow couldn’t feel the same sense of trust…
* * *
“Ugh!”
Ihan was sent flying backward.
Just as he had against Professor Ingeldel, Jean-Cliff shattered Ihan’s rock-wall-like swordsmanship and broke through.
To his surprise, Jean-Cliff was a powerhouse on par with Ingeldel or Alarlong.
Jean-Cliff clapped his hands in astonishment.
“Magnificent! I didn’t expect you to be this skilled!”
Ihan coughed and sputtered. He had thrown his body back, exploded as much mana as he could into his sword, and finally infused his body with mana to block, yet the impact was still immense.
*What kind of power sword style is this…!*
Unlike his appearance, Jean-Cliff was a swordsman who wielded a terribly powerful sword style.
A swordsmanship that abandoned all feints and variations, unleashing attacks only along the shortest path.
Each and every one of those attacks contained a dreadful amount of power.
If such an attack were blocked, the swordsman would also be in danger, but Jean-Cliff didn't seem to care about that at all.
“Even among knights, it is extremely rare for someone to take a blow and get back up as quickly as you did, Master Wardanaz. The squires should have seen this. Oh, by the way. Did you know? Mana isn’t just for magic; it can also be used to completely control one’s own body. Just like how you blocked that attack…”
Ihan immediately kicked up a cloud of dirt. As the dust rose, Jean-Cliff looked at Professor Ingeldel in admiration.
For a boy from a great family like Wardanaz to use such a trick.
There could only be one reason.
“To think you taught him even this!”
“N-No…”
Professor Ingeldel was flustered.
*I didn't really teach him that, though?*
Jean-Cliff sent Ihan flying once more. Ihan rolled over and over, immediately preparing a counterattack.
“I am also well acquainted with Sir Alarlong’s Rock Wall Sword. I doubt there’s another heavy sword style like it in the Empire. You must have learned the first five forms of the opening half, Master Wardanaz? Seeing as you haven’t perfectly mastered aura.”
Compared to other sword styles in the Empire, the Rock Wall Sword had fewer and simpler forms.
Alarlong hadn't even taught the middle or latter forms. The gist was that it was dangerous before one mastered aura.
“That is correct.”
“The Rock Wall Sword has quite a few aspects that overlap with my own swordsmanship. That’s why seeing you, Master Wardanaz, reminds me of the old days…”
Ihan tensed up.
*Don't tell me he's about to start a story about his past now?*
Fortunately, Jean-Cliff did not.
“If you don’t mind, I would like to recommend a certain technique to you. Here. Watch.”
Jean-Cliff condensed the muscles throughout his body, drew up his mana, and executed a thrust as if he were being shot forward.
The attack burst forth with a roar that tore through the air. The technique itself was simple, but the flow of mana contained within it was utterly savage.
“You must be wondering why I’m showing you this form now. You’re right. Since you are already learning the Rock Wall Sword well, there is no real need to learn a technique from another style.”
*But I learned all sorts of miscellaneous techniques last time.*
“However, the reason I recommend this form is because you already know how to draw out a considerable level of mana.”
While their swords clashed, Jean-Cliff was surprised by the fact that Ihan knew how to draw out mana.
And not just drawing it out and imbuing it, but to the point where the mana was visible to the naked eye.
Using it like that without the proper skill would quickly deplete one’s mana and leave them crippled. That was only possible for a swordsman who knew how to circulate mana to some extent.
Just a little further from here was the stage where one could materialize aura!
To be at that level at his age.
*Truly magnificent!*
…Of course, Ihan hadn’t reached an epiphany just before mastering aura; he was just ignorantly wasting mana by pouring it in, but Jean-Cliff didn’t realize that.
“This form will be of great help in learning the sensation of turning mana into aura, going beyond simply drawing it out.”
“Such a… is it alright for me to receive something like that?”
Ihan was slightly flustered.
There was nothing more frightening than a favor with no strings attached.
According to what Jean-Cliff was saying, he had just been taught one of the techniques of his own sword style, which was by no means a small favor.
“Of course. Should not all knights devote themselves to nurturing the young knights of the Empire? Become a fine knight! I pray we meet again someday after you have built your renown!”
Jean-Cliff, caught up in the mood, spoke with solemn gravity and turned away.
*I've imparted it coolly, now it's time to make a cool exit.*
Staring blankly at Jean-Cliff’s retreating back, Ihan and Professor Ingeldel finally came to their senses and spoke.
“But…”
“This is… Einrogard, a school for raising mages…?”
No matter how diligently they taught swordsmanship, it wouldn’t produce a knight.