The Unbearable Lightness of a Kiss #4
After the experiment ended,
I intended to demand answers from Cordelia.
Honestly, killing and reviving a person for half a day was crossing the line. I deserved hazard pay at the very least.
I was about to protest, but...
"...Talia, Talia? Pull yourself together. I'm fine. I'm okay, so please calm down."
"I am sorry, Lord. I am so sorry. I am sorry. Because of me, because of me... I'm so, so..."
Oh no, Talia was broken!
Well, she had been pushed to her limit.
After all, she had been forced to watch me die hundreds of times while bound and gagged. It was only natural her sanity had shattered.
"Calm down, Talia. Just calm..."
I was so busy soothing Talia that I completely missed my chance to get angry at Cordelia.
Not that she would have listened even if I had.
"Ah, right. I should thank you for cooperating with the experiment, Edwin."
Cordelia spoke with a smile.
But I couldn't bring myself to smile back.
She had literally gouged my chest open, and now what?
Cooperating? My ass.
This crazy bitch. See if I ever help her again!
"As a reward, I'll help you with your aura training. Do you want to increase your aura output? Or perhaps your precision? Or switching it during combat?"
"Thank you so much!"
...As I've mentioned before,
I am a weakling.
For the sake of revenge, it would be foolish to pass up any opportunity to grow stronger.
A little trivial pride was nothing.
I could always get my refund from her massive tits later.
I answered, acting like a well-behaved dog.
"Woof, woof. Is there a way to fight a strong enemy in a situation where I can't release my aura?"
"Unable to release aura? You make another interesting assumption."
Cordelia licked her lips, looking at me with the eyes of a professor staring at a promising graduate student.
I suddenly felt it might be a blessing that I had no talent for magic.
"There is a way, of course. You can still manipulate aura internally, right? The assumption is only that you can't release it outward?"
"Uh... yes?"
Since physical reinforcement through aura worked perfectly fine.
Hearing my question, Cordelia stared at me with intrigue for a moment.
Then, as if she had realized something from my question, a smile spread across her face.
"Aha... so that's what it is? I get it now."
What? Why? What now?
What is 'that'?
Stop smiling so mysteriously to yourself and explain!
I furrowed my brow.
"What do you mean by 'that'? What is it?"
"Hmm, playing dumb, are we?"
"No, I seriously don't know."
"Really? Let's leave it at that, then. Anyway, will that do? Are we assuming you have a weapon?"
Ugh, there she goes again, talking to herself.
Come to think of it, this woman has a strong tendency to jump to conclusions.
Just like how she saw my wound and immediately assumed it was an assassination attempt.
"Yes, we are assuming I have a weapon."
"Is that so?"
But whatever.
It didn't matter what kind of misunderstanding she was having.
What mattered was finding one more way to fight when a monster popped out in my dreams.
Cordelia nodded, intrigued.
"Then you must utilize a weapon. If you were bare-handed, physical reinforcement through aura circulation would be your only option, but with a weapon, the story changes."
"Does a weapon even matter if I can't release aura anyway?"
"If you can't release it, then don't."
"What kind of sophistry is that?"
Here we go again.
Fantasy-style Zen riddles.
I hate this kind of stuff.
Even in martial arts novels, I skim through the enlightenment scenes.
Fortunately, Cordelia began to explain while demonstrating.
"Look. This is aura, right? Normally, you emit this aura outside your body to use it."
She picked up a wooden stick rolling on the floor and explained as she infused a vivid aura into the stick and pulled it back out.
"But with this method, instead of sending the aura outward, you circulate it only within your body and the sword. Like a closed circuit."
"Wait, how can I infuse aura into the sword if I can't release it? That makes no sense."
"No, that's not it. Don't think of it as infusing aura. Accept the sword as a part of yourself."
Again, again, again!
Using nonsense logic.
"All things possess an inherent force. The same goes for a sword. Especially a sword, as its master's aura circulates through it, it begins to hold power on its own, almost like a living creature."
"I get that, but I don't see the connection between that and accepting the sword as a part of myself."
As I grumbled, Cordelia demonstrated once more.
"Look at this. I'm not holding this stick right now."
She opened her hand holding the stick.
But instead of falling to the floor, the stick remained stuck to her hand as if glued.
Oh.
"Fascinating, isn't it? Right now, I've connected the circulation pathway of my aura to this stick. If focusing aura is called release, then this should be described as Aura Adhesion."
She explained kindly.
"Of course, it will be difficult for you to do this. Connecting aura with external objects is a feat only possible for someone at the level of a Sword Master."
She casually revealed that she was at the level of a Sword Master.
It wasn't particularly surprising at this point.
"But you only need to connect a single sword with your aura. Since the sword is familiar to you. Instead of putting your power into the sword like you usually do, accept the sword's power as a part of yourself."
I didn't fully understand, but it was worth practicing nonetheless.
It meant I could use aura under certain conditions, right?
Just as I began to harbor hope, a voice came from behind.
"Lord, you mustn't."
Talia's firm voice.
Having regained her senses at some point, Talia glared at Cordelia and me as she spoke.
"Do not listen to that witch. It sounds plausible, but it is absolute nonsense."
Cordelia's eyes narrowed.
She looked at Talia with interest and asked,
"Absolute nonsense... How interesting. What do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what I said, Professor."
Talia took a step forward and said,
"Connecting aura to a sword? That is absurd. The pathways of aura cannot be opened and closed at will like that. Furthermore, if you fail to control it, the aura could run wild, evaporating all the aura in your body and potentially killing you."
"It's not absurd, child. It's just a little difficult."
"It amounts to the same thing. In the first place, even if one uses such a shortcut, it is difficult to apply practically in real combat. Since you would have to focus on the aura flowing into the sword as well, there is no reason to learn such a method."
"There is a reason to learn it. Didn't we assume a situation where he cannot release his aura?"
"There is no such situation!"
Talia spoke through gritted teeth.
Her eyes burned with deep hostility toward Cordelia.
Ah, of course, I had hostility too.
It would be stranger not to feel hostile after being stabbed like a pincushion.
But the problem was...
My situation is far more desperate than Talia knows.
Listening to their debate, I understood the gist of it.
Talia's argument was the orthodox view.
Trying to use tricks as a beginner was difficult and highly likely to fail. So, stick to the basics! That was her point.
On the other hand, the method Cordelia suggested was to mimic a high-level technique in my own way.
A bizarre shortcut that only a powerhouse—and someone who wasn't a swordsman herself—could come up with.
But in the end, it was a trick.
Under normal circumstances, the orthodox view was correct.
I didn't overestimate my talent. I didn't want to use a method that might injure me during training.
But,
I hate dying because I played it safe even more.
As I've said, I wasn't in a position to be picky.
I had found a loophole to return to the previous room, but there was no telling how long that would remain viable.
Besides, it's a universal law of fiction that unorthodox demonic arts using shortcuts make you stronger faster than pure, orthodox martial arts that build from the basics.
Whether it was a trick or not, if it could make me stronger right now, then learning it was the right choice.
"So, what will you do? If you don't want to, there are other ways. I could help you with your aura circulation..."
So, in response to Cordelia's question, I shook my head.
"No, I will practice the method you taught me."
"...Lord!"
Talia cried out in surprise.
But Cordelia merely smiled.
"Yes, a wise choice."
Talia stared at me with anxious eyes, but I ignored her.
If she asked why I was assuming a situation where I couldn't use aura in the first place, I had no way to explain it to her anyway.
"What should I start with? Should I use my sword?"
"No, it's better to practice with an object rich in mana at first. That way, you can naturally open your aura pathways and accept it."
She picked up the wooden stick from earlier and channeled power into it as if injecting something.
The wooden stick began to emit a faint glow.
"Here, try it with this."
As I gripped the stick, a heavy sensation washed over me.
When I reflexively tried to inject my aura,
"No. That's not it. Not injection, but acceptance. Feel the power of this stick and accept it as a part of you."
Cordelia immediately corrected me.
Hmm, I couldn't get a feel for it at all.
If only I could use the Pale Cameo.
That was the perfect skill for this kind of 'getting the hang of it' training.
Maybe there won't be a penalty. Should I test it? No, if I do that and the difficulty of that other world spikes to hard mode, I'll be in deep trouble...
"Ah, let me help you."
Cordelia snapped her fingers, and in an instant, all surrounding sound vanished.
Wait, what was this?
Cordelia projected words in front of my eyes to communicate.
"Don't be startled. I've blocked your hearing. Shutting out other senses will make it easier to feel the flow of aura."
"So I just do it like this?"
"Yes. Focus on the mana in the stick and accept it. Keep trying until you succeed."
Cordelia smiled warmly.
She looked so beautiful when she did that.
Yet, the memory of her plunging a sword into my chest with that very same smiling face was still so vivid that my body shivered involuntarily.
Right, idle thoughts later. First...
Focus, focus.
I slowly closed my eyes and began to concentrate on the sensation of the stick at my fingertips.
