Chapter 65
Chapter 65
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 65
Chapter Title: The Former Chosen One (5)
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By the time the drinking session with the Fourth Training Ground members wrapped up, it was already dawn.
Everyone hated to part ways like this, but with the unit assignment announcement scheduled for early the next morning, they had no choice but to scatter.
The last one remaining at the table was Ray.
“Theo.”
“Yeah?”
“Can… Can I come again?”
For some reason, Ray asked this while avoiding Theo’s eyes, fidgeting nervously.
Was she worried he might tell her not to?
Theo could tell she’d agonized over this question for a long time before finally voicing it.
“Do whatever you want.”
“Really…?”
“Yeah. We’re friends now. Friends are always welcome.”
“Friends…”
Ray murmured the word over and over, then broke into a radiant smile and nodded vigorously.
“Yeah! Thanks!”
Her smile was brighter than ever before.
* * *
Theo slipped carefully into Camellia Palace.
It was so late that everyone should be asleep, so he moved quietly. But then he noticed the dining area lit up brightly.
‘Did someone forget to turn off the lights?’
Heading over to switch them off, Theo froze in surprise.
“Oh my, Young Master. Coming home at this hour? You have to move early tomorrow morning—how do you plan to manage your condition for the day if you stay out this late?”
“I didn’t drink a drop, so I’m fine. More importantly, why are you still up?”
Cecilia sat alone at the dining table, without a single maid or butler in sight.
Her slightly flushed cheeks suggested she’d been enjoying some strong liquor.
Sure enough.
On one side of the table sat a wine bottle plunged into an ice bucket.
She picked it up and waved it in front of Theo.
“I’m in such a good mood today that I had a glass. Why? Is it strange for your mother to do this?”
“No. I’ve just never seen you like this before…”
“Hohoho! True, I’ve never let you see me drunk. Not even for a moment could I afford to show any weakness…”
Her murmured afterthought stabbed at Theo’s heart.
Then Cecilia beamed widely.
“How about it? Won’t you be your mother’s drinking companion?”
He’d planned not to touch alcohol until he turned twenty.
‘But this should be fine.’
For some reason, Theo wanted to talk more with his mother—about everything.
The conversations they’d never had, the misunderstandings, their true feelings. Maybe this was the chance to share them all.
He also needed to thank her for Evelyn.
“Yes. If it’s alcohol from you, Mother.”
“To think my dream of sitting side by side with my son, sharing a drink, is finally coming true! Sit here?”
Theo took the seat across from Cecilia.
Clink!
The mother-son drinking session stretched long into the night.
* * *
The next day, 6:11 a.m.
Wellington entered the Fourth Training Ground with his usual drawn-out yawn.
He couldn’t skip the dawn training.
‘Habits ingrained in the body are terrifying. I thought about resting today, but that feels even harder.’
The afterparty had continued in small groups even after parting with Theo—third round, fourth round, and beyond.
Wellington and Erika, who hadn’t touched a drop because of Theo, went especially wild.
Determined to make up for lost time all at once, they chugged desperately, turning it into a binge.
The other members hyping them up as the heroes of the Awakening Ceremony hadn’t helped either.
Thanks to that, he was now suffering a pounding hangover.
‘No, originally, the North treated you as a full adult and warrior from fifteen, and the Awakening Ceremony was the rite of passage… Ugh! My head.’
He’d made it to the training ground out of habit, but… he wasn’t sure he could even grip his sword properly.
Seriously considering heading back to the barracks to rest, that’s when—
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…!
A fierce wind noise came from somewhere.
A sound all too familiar.
‘No way?’
Wellington turned and let out an involuntary chuckle.
“That stubborn…!”
As always.
Theo had arrived first, slowly swinging a zweihänder larger than himself as he warmed up.
Slow and deliberate, yet each swing held profound depth and subtlety.
As if imitating and sparring with some invisible opponent.
Wellington realized Theo was reviewing the insights from the Awakening Ceremony.
“Breaking records and still training harder… Haha, unbelievable.”
What really drew Wellington’s wry laugh was something else.
-Does that guy never want to rest?
‘Was it the fourth round, or fifth…? Sybil went to fetch Young Master Theo and saw him sharing drinks with Lady Cecilia at Camellia Palace…?’
That meant he’d drunk all night and was back at the training ground before dawn for more training.
How could anyone be that relentless?
No, maybe that’s exactly why he grew so fast.
Wellington steeled his earlier-weakened resolve and joined the training.
Meanwhile.
Swish-swish—
Theo’s swordplay was speeding up.
He was so immersed he hadn’t even noticed Wellington’s arrival.
Lost in a trance.
-Young Master. What is it you wish to see?
Last night. His mother’s first question to him echoed in his mind.
-I heard from the maids. You declared you’d fully enter the throne race. I wanted to hear the details. You’re a deep thinker, so there must be a reason behind it.
Theo had laid bare his inner thoughts one by one.
Cecilia listened quietly for a long while, then smiled faintly.
-I see. If that’s your thinking… Understood. If it’s that.
Her smile then held an ambiguous meaning.
As if she’d never stand in his way.
Her eyes sparkled with more vitality than ever…
‘She’ll tell me when the time comes.’
Theo now had unwavering trust in Cecilia.
No need to worry.
The one thing demanding his attention now was singular.
His new path forward.
-The most essential for that was growth and swordsmanship to match.
Flash—
Fortunately, the foundation for it was building steadily.
‘Flying Sword Style’s techniques are based on fast, sharp strikes and free-flowing movements unbound by fixed forms. Perfect secret art for me using Deathbite.’
Theo was now focusing on Flying Sword Style and Wind-Thunder God.
The Wind Lord’s secret arts.
Of course, the Wind Lord’s true transmission had gone to Evelyn, so what Theo pursued was slightly different.
The intent embedded in the incantations.
The Wind Lord’s personal history.
‘Wind-Thunder God isn’t much different from Flying Sword Style. The traces in the crystal cave were all carried by wind. Sometimes fast, sometimes fierce, sometimes explosive, sometimes gentle… Before losing reason, the Wind Lord sought to refine it.’
Using hatchling synchro, Theo analyzed the Wind Lord’s movements minutely and divided them into five stages.
Gentle Breeze.
Gale.
Gust.
Storm.
And… Typhoon.
The wind’s powerful flows, varying by intensity and direction, meshed perfectly with thunder-attuned mana.
Especially as a panacea to reconcile Theo’s heavy greatsword with swift strikes.
‘It’s clear. Mastering these two secret arts and the Wind Lord’s insights will let me leap forward.’
What Theo now trained was the first stage: ‘Gentle Breeze.’
Drawing ambient wind to swirl around the body.
Mastered well, it sped up movements without strain.
And next… the sword could be cloaked in wind too.
Naturally boosting attack speed.
Adding another trump card.
Theo aimed to complete Gentle Breeze before official assignment and missions.
Thud!
Swish—
Whoooosh—
The wind began to gather.
* * *
“Ugh, my head…”
“That’s what you get for chugging like that. Honestly.”
“Shut up…! Urp!”
Erika, pale-faced, couldn’t even snap back at Holkus properly and barely suppressed her dry heaves.
Even circulating mana nonstop to shake off the hangover did nothing—it was torture.
Holkus was tsking and patting her back when—
Theo suddenly thrust something at Erika.
“What… is this?”
“Medicine. Helps with hangovers. Tastes awful, though.”
“Ugh, thanks.”
Erika downed it thoughtlessly, then immediately spat it back up.
Urp!
“Damn it, what the hell! Gross!”
Holkus jumped back in shock, but Erika glared at Theo with fierce eyes.
“You, you, y-you’re trying to assassinate me, aren’t you?”
“Told you. It tastes bad.”
“Even so, how can anyone drink this…!”
What Erika had drunk was ‘special celery juice.’
The future Blood Sword Emperor’s elixir refinement that Theo always made and drank.
To others, just bizarre-tasting food.
“Keep at it, and it gets tolerable.”
“Ugh, still no.”
“Well, if you hate it, can’t force you.”
Theo shrugged.
He’d given it for its real effects, but no point pushing if she refused.
“Anyway, hope the assignments end quick…”
Erika muttered, glancing at the waiting room entrance.
The three now awaited their unit assignments.
The White Dragon Knights consisted of five ‘teams,’ each with 70 to 150 members handling different missions and goals.
Team 2 mainly scouted demon seas,
Team 3 guarded the great wall, etc.—each with unique specialties.
Thus, rookies’ assignments were carefully deliberated.
Erika and Holkus hoped for the same team if possible,
but knowing it unlikely, they just prayed not to scatter too far.
‘I’d prefer Team 1 if possible.’
Unlike the siblings, Theo eyed Team 1, the White Dragon Knights’ elite, dubbed the ‘Demon Dragon’s Guard.’
The core team performing most missions with Julius.
Naturally, ideal for rapid promotion.
Plus, Evelyn was there.
‘Wonder how it’ll go?’
Assignments shaped ‘rookie training,’ heightening curiosity when—
Creeeak!
The waiting room door swung open as Evelyn entered.
Familiar faces like Selphred and Arin followed.
‘…?’
Theo tilted his head, puzzled.
Evelyn was Team 1, Selphred and Arin Team 5—different teams.
Same for the others.
But.
The biggest question: their expressions were gravely serious.
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Evelyn Nereville, newly appointed Team 5 leader. I’ll be your direct superior from now on.”
Erika and Holkus’s faces lit up instantly.
Assigned together as hoped.
But Theo’s hardened gravely.
‘Team leader changed? Suddenly? Team 5’s leader was definitely Trainer Isben then?’
Trainer Isben was the White Dragon Knights’ most seasoned veteran knight.
Even more experienced than Julius; when issues arose, Julius sought his counsel, and leaders and knights respected him deeply.
With over five years until retirement.
For his position to be replaced?
Something had happened.
-Something even Theo didn’t know.
“Normally, you’d undergo basic education and training for the next three months to build your knightly qualities… But urgent matters force us to skip it all.”
Erika and Holkus exchanged glances. Theo’s eyes darkened deeply.
Evelyn’s lips parted slowly.
“In three days, all three of you deploy to the front lines.”
“……!”
“……!”
“……!”