The First Circle
Ignoring Lee Baek, who was practically vibrating with excitement, Alex stepped out into the backyard, drew his sword from its sheath, and gripped it with both hands.
"It feels strange, picking it up again after so long."
His body had held a sword just yesterday, but his soul hadn't touched one in twelve years — and the gap between them was unmistakable.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Alex swung the blade lightly a few times, trying to coax the old familiarity back into his hands.
[Hmm… you don't exactly feel like a munchkin, do you?]
Tilting his head at the sight of Alex swinging the sword so clumsily, Lee Baek sounded genuinely puzzled.
[Wait… are you actually just weak?]
Alex had no idea why the lich sounded so disappointed, but disappointed he clearly was, so Alex answered.
"Of course. I never had proper training."
[Funny, though — you seem halfway decent for someone who didn't.]
"My sister and brother-in-law taught me."
[Ah.]
At the mention of the missing sister and brother-in-law, Lee Baek went quiet.
Meanwhile, Alex loosened up his body, ran through a few more swings to warm his hands, and settled back into his stance.
He was no longer the casual figure from a moment ago. Every line of him was drawn tight with focus.
It was true he'd never been formally taught — but that didn't matter.
He had spent twelve years watching the most perfect, most brilliant, most admirable, most amazing, most adorable teacher in the world.
Alex thought of Leo the Hero.
His nephew, who had pushed through the grief of losing his uncle and begun training alone in the study with a basic swordsmanship manual.
Unlike Alex, who had struggled even with his sister and brother-in-law guiding him, Leo had mastered the manual perfectly, entirely on his own.
'And later on, the teacher we met praised him as a phenomenal talent, too.'
Alex had spent twelve years at that boy's side, watching every single day.
He knew exactly what posture to take, what mindset to hold, how the sword was meant to move.
Alex stilled his heart, wrapped his hand around the grip, and cut down with all his strength.
Shreeek—!
The keen blade split the air with a sound entirely different from before.
Shweee!
Without pausing, Alex swept the sword left and right in perfect form, eyes never leaving the blade, applying just the right measure of force.
Tap! Tak!
His feet, too, moved with deliberate care against the ground.
'Strong when strength is needed. Soft when softness serves.'
'Exactly the way future Leo did it.'
[…Oh.]
Lee Baek's low murmur of admiration never reached him.
Alex's entire being was fixed on the sword.
How much time had passed?
By the time sweat rolled down his temples, Alex finally exhaled the breath he'd been holding and came to a stop.
Then he looked down at the sword his sister had given him, a small smile tugging at his lips.
"Not bad at—"
[AAAAGH!!]
The rest of the word — '—all.' — was buried under Lee Baek's wail.
[My back! My shoulders! My arms!]
[Why does everything hurt so much?!]
"…Can't be helped. I'm not flexible enough, and I'm using muscles I've never touched before."
Trying to unfold proper swordsmanship through a farmer's body that had only ever trained itself halfheartedly and alone, it was only natural something would strain.
[Doesn't it hurt, you?]
[Whatever pain I feel is because YOU're hurting!]
Alex pressed at the joints that ached here and there. It stung, certainly, but nothing worth fussing over.
"I'll probably be sore tomorrow."
[AAAAGH!!]
Lee Baek, feeling pain for the first time in decades, let out a proper groan of agony.
[Sense-sharing is NOT unconditionally a good thing… and I can't even plug my nose to block it out, can I?]
[Alex, be careful with this body from now on.]
[I don't want to be in pain.]
Mm.
Can't promise that, thought Alex, tuning out the groaning lich and letting his mind move on.
Thanks to all the swordsmen he'd met in the 'future,' Alex's eye for a blade was beyond question — and what he saw told him everything he needed to know.
'My brother-in-law was right. I do have a decent talent for this.'
If he built on the techniques he already knew, training step by step in the image of Leo the Hero, he could become a swordsman of real skill.
"Good."
Alex's hand tightened around the sword.
The magic lesson began right after.
[Alright! Let's try forming a circle!]
[This part usually takes a while, but who knows with you.]
"If I borrow your senses, shouldn't it come easily?"
With the abilities of a lich, a few days might have been enough to turn Alex into an archmage.
[Nope, not how it works.]
[If I borrowed your eyes and nose, could I control them? No, right?]
[Just like I can't pinch your nostrils shut for you.]
Lee Baek giggled.
[All I do is let you feel mana. Everything past that is on your own ability.]
Alex deflated a little at that, but he let out a light sigh and steeled himself.
Right.
Life was never that easy.
"So what do I do?"
Lee Baek, now the instructor of the world's very first magic swordsman, launched into an enthusiastic explanation.
[Remember yesterday, when I said mana is like a boulder?]
[Even inside a boulder, there are grains as small as sand. Picture drawing those in with a deep breath — that's absorbing mana.]
[Imagination is everything.]
Just as Lee Baek said, Alex breathed — reaching for the tiny motes of mana drifting in the air around him.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
And then, from the sea of mana filling the space around Alex, the smallest particles began slipping into his body, smooth as water.
[…Already?]
[I figured it'd take you a few tries at least!]
[Alex, your talent is insane!]
Even as Lee Baek chattered on, Alex kept his focus and pulled the mana steadily inward.
[Now picture a thin stream of water flowing through the inside of your body.]
[Your mana circuit — the pathway mana travels along — is far too narrow.]
Lee Baek explained it step by step.
[A mana circuit is widest at birth and narrows as you grow. That's why mages start training when they're children.]
[By your age, the circuit's almost completely sealed. No matter how gifted you are, becoming a mage is nearly impossible.]
Alex knew this already.
It was why mages refused to take on any student who wasn't young, talent or no.
How many gifts had withered away that way?
How many of them, alive in the world, might have kept the age of ruin from ever arriving?
'And to think that was supposed to be me.'
Alex laughed bitterly to himself — too busy wandering with his sister as a child, then too busy farming once he'd grown, he'd never even known what he carried.
Even now, having returned to the past, it should have been just as useless.
[Except I'm here, aren't I!]
—if his teacher hadn't happened to be a lich, that is.
[A mana circuit this narrow? No problem at all!]
[Let's clear a path to the heart, nice and slow.]
Lee Baek guided the mana through a full circuit of the body, all the way to the heart.
[No, a touch lower. Good. Now move it just two millimeters like that.]
Sharing one body with his student, it turned out, made teaching immeasurably easier.
[You actually did it.]
He'd asked for two millimeters, and Alex had genuinely moved his mana those two millimeters. Lee Baek couldn't help but marvel.
[If you'd started learning as a kid, you'd have been an archmage for sure.]
Mana was willful by nature, hot-tempered, always straining to move on its own — and this man was steering it with that much precision? On the very first day he'd ever felt it?
Even Lee Baek, who had watched countless geniuses in his time, had no choice but to be impressed.
Whew.
Alex poured his concentration into Lee Baek's instructions and kept the mana moving.
Lee Baek made it sound easy, but Alex was sweating, straining every corner of his mind.
Without the mental fortitude he'd forged in the 'future' alongside the Hero's party (not that the Hero's party ever knew), he'd have collapsed from exhaustion in minutes.
Along the mana flowing through his circuit, he could even sense faint sensations he'd never registered before.
[Now picture the mana inside your heart curling into a ring. Press it down firm, like kneading dough, so it doesn't fall apart.]
The analogy was a bit much, but Alex did as he was told, gathering the mana pooled in his heart and trying to shape it into a round loop.
But the tiny particles refused to hold together — scattering again and again, like droplets of water slipping between his fingers.
Alex frowned, just deep enough to crease his brow, and kept molding the mana into a ring.
And then, at last—
The ring of mana was complete.
[You just built it on the first try?!]
[And it's thick, too! Most people's first ring is way thinner than that.]
[At this rate, your second circle won't take long at all?]
Lee Baek's praise was completely sincere.
Had he possessed hands, he would have clapped until they stung.
[That's your First Circle ring. The mana inside it answers to you and you alone now, Alex.]
[Unlike all that unruly mana outside, which ignores everything you say.]
Whew—
Alex exhaled a long breath, opened his eyes, and moved a dazed hand to his chest.
He could feel his heart pounding — and inside it, a First Circle ring turning slowly, steadily around.
He was really, truly a mage now.
It was hard to believe, and yet his chest swelled all the same.
'Now…'
Making Leo happy had just become that much easier.
That alone was enough to satisfy Alex — and to fill him with gratitude toward Lee Baek.
[Well, since we've come this far, let's cast something!]
[Elemental magic's the obvious place to start, right?]
[I don't know how things work here, but where I'm from, black magic was absolutely forbidden.]
Said Lee Baek — a man who had become a lich in a world where it was forbidden.
"It's the same here. Get caught, and the Holy Empire sends inquisitors before you can blink."
[Then elemental or unaligned magic it is.]
Alex thought for a moment at that, then spoke up.
"No. Once I'm skilled enough to hide black magic properly… teach me that too."
[Black magic?]
At the surprise in Lee Baek's voice, Alex answered in a low, resolute tone — the voice of a man who had already made up his mind.
"Because you never know what the future holds."
If the worst moment ever came again, Alex was prepared to offer up his very soul to save Leo.
[Hm. Fair enough.]
[Understood.]
[Then let's start with fire magic.]
Lee Baek taught in a way even Alex — touching magic for the first time that day — could easily follow.
[Magic is will.]
"Will?"
[That's right. Paint a complete image in your mind, and desire it from the very bottom of your heart. Powerfully, desperately, sincerely.]
[I want to cast this spell, no matter what.]
[Then your mana goes and makes that will real.]
Alex, who had been listening closely to the explanation, asked a question.
"I don't need formulas?"
[You need them for magic circles and items. Or for casting above your own level.]
[But at its core? Mana you can handle, and a perfect will. That's all.]
It was a magic entirely different from that of Solenium's mages, who built their craft on written formulas.
[Got it?]
"Yeah."
[Then let's cast one.]
Alex and Lee Baek readied themselves.
[The incantation is "Fire."]
[Since it's your first time, anchor it by raising your hand and choosing the spot. Later you can train to cast on thought alone — much more convenient.]
"Got it."
Alex stretched his hand out in front of him.
[Picture a flame kindling before your palm.]
[How big? How hot? What color? How brightly does it burn?]
[The more specific the image, the better your odds.]
Alex summoned a single flame in his mind, exactly as instructed.
The size of a fist, about as hot as the cooking fire he knew so well, red in color, glowing like a campfire.
[Now spin your First Circle ring. Send the mana coming off it down the circuit and out through your hand.]
[About this much mana will do.]
The moment he obeyed, mana began gathering before his palm, almost before he noticed.
His own mana. A perfect will.
And the incantation.
"Fire."
In the same instant, a flame bloomed to life before Alex's hand.
A flame the size of a grown man's head.
Blazing furiously, searingly hot.
[Whoa! First try!]
[Told you the talent was real!]
[…But why is it so BIG?]
