Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: Chapter 35: Hundred Seas (2)
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Hamilton did not impose any limits on the number of practice attempts like before.
He told Jamie to do as many as he could.
“It's difficult.”
The demonstration of Hundred Seas that Hamilton had shown.
It remained vividly in his memory, but replicating it seemed impossible.
The difficulty was worlds apart from linked movements.
One needed at least the skill level for knighthood to even attempt it. Yet Hamilton had asked a beginner of just a few days to try such an advanced technique.
However, Jamie was never one to give up simply because something was hard. On the contrary, he always welcomed new challenges. Above all, Hundred Seas had thoroughly ignited his curiosity.
‘It’s somewhat similar to that guy’s movements.’
The fellow whose face and name still wouldn’t come to mind clearly.
Lately, while learning the sword, that guy’s words had been surfacing unusually often.
He couldn’t recall his face or name, yet they popped up so frequently for some reason.
‘Not bad, though.’
Those words were becoming flesh and bone in their own way.
“Let’s try again.”
Jamie conjured an afterimage of Hamilton and attempted to mimic the movements once more. His feet tangled, he stumbled, and even when things went smoothly, the flow would break, causing him to hesitate—repeating this countless times.
He broke down scenes into seconds via Black, scanned the entire space to analyze behavioral patterns.
He ran simulations and even imprinted the patterns directly onto his body.
After all that, he could imitate it, but true understanding eluded him.
“Phew!”
Mana was depleting.
He was drenched in sweat.
Jamie roughly wiped the sweat streaming down his face as he caught his ragged breath.
‘Hundred Seas is a footwork that seizes control of space through mana.’
Not merely deploying mana, but a resonance arising from the interplay between movement and mana flow.
Even knowing the formula, he couldn’t pinpoint where the flows meshed.
Jamie rose to his feet again.
For now, repetition was all he could do.
He pressed on for hours without pause.
“Argh!”
That furious exertion finally drained him completely.
Flat on his back in the training hall like a starfish, he let out a deep sigh.
“This is maddening.”
Dead ends like this were rare even across both lives.
Mana had always been his to command freely.
Yet the mana used in martial arts differed greatly from magic.
‘I knew intellectually, but experiencing it firsthand—it’s not just different.’
He had only just begun with the sword, far from discussing auras, but Jamie had honed mana his entire previous life.
If aura was ultimately mana’s kin, grasping its mechanism shouldn’t be hard.
He shot upright.
This time, he would hunt for the movement patterns, flows, and mana connection points.
It was just as Jamie stretched to retry.
“Hm?”
A clear, transparent water droplet sailed in from the side.
Jamie blinked at the abrupt intruder.
A water droplet floating in the training hall—no, in midair? What was this?
No mana signature, so not magic.
As far as Jamie knew, only one person in the count’s household could manipulate moisture this way.
Rebecca Valle, the eldest daughter of Viscount Valle’s house and a guest water spiritist.
Sure enough.
“……Miss Rebecca?”
There she was, peeking from the training hall’s corner, head barely protruding.
Rebecca yanked it back in a panic, but too late.
“I saw you.”
“……Hehe.”
She poked it out again, face awkward, letting out the same laugh as her little sister.
“Phew!”
The cold water snapped Jamie’s senses awake.
Water conjured by the lesser water spirit Undine.
It carried a grade-1-or-higher refreshment that lifted his spirits.
“I feel alive.”
The weather had turned downright chilly, but the intense exertion had left him sweltering.
Jamie slicked back his wet hair and thanked Rebecca.
“Thanks. Very refreshing.”
“……Y-yeah.”
Rebecca stood fidgeting, unable to meet his eyes properly—just like at breakfast.
She’d sneak peeks, then flinch and drop her gaze the instant their eyes met.
He couldn’t fathom why.
Morning had too many onlookers and training awaiting, so he’d held back then. But Jamie wasn’t one to bottle up curiosity.
“What’s wrong?”
“Y-yes?”
“You’ve avoided my eyes since breakfast, dodging me constantly.”
“Oh, th-that’s……”
“Did I upset you somehow?”
“N-no, no! Nothing like that.”
Rebecca gauged his face as she spoke.
“Really, nothing.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“Hehe……”
“Shall we sit over there?”
They settled on a bench near the training hall.
Rebecca toyed with droplet-shaped Undine in her palm, her eyes flicking toward Jamie, then away, endlessly.
Jamie wasn’t blind to it.
“Spit it out. You’ve got something to say, right?”
“……”
“Too hard to voice?”
“Not that…… I just don’t get it.”
“Get what?”
“You keep swirling around in my head.”
Jamie’s eyes went wide at the blunt curveball.
“Since the ball, you pop into my thoughts nonstop. My heart pounds, but why?”
“Y-you what?”
“Seeing your face embarrasses me and all.”
Rebecca clutched Undine like a plush cushion.
Her face flushed beet red.
Yet her expression screamed utter confusion at the why.
Just ten years old—an age innocent of romance, brutally honest.
Were she babbling “I’ll marry so-and-so when I grow up!”, he’d chuckle it off.
But ten wasn’t that naive.
Jamie’s head throbbed. He still harbored guilt toward Jane, but reincarnated or not, Rebecca was only ten.
More crucially, even vowing change from his past life—could a person truly transform overnight?
He remained utterly obtuse about love, feeling no such stirrings for the opposite sex.
“Uh…… um.”
Which part of him had hooked her?
‘I’m handsome, sure.’
Jamie’s narcissism ran deep by default.
But beyond that, their sole interaction had been a brief chat in Simon Count’s garden.
Weighty words, yes—but enough to spark infatuation?
‘Ten-year-old girl logic is its own beast?’
Or perhaps Jane’s soul meddling.
As his former lover, drawn to Diablo Volpir’s lingering essence.
‘Feels kinda guilty.’
Jamie had zero plans to date anyone.
This body was seven. Romance? Marriage? Absurd.
Arranged noble unions abounded, sure—but no whispers of it, nor any desire to entertain.
“Ah. Heard from Ash—you summoned an upper spirit?”
“Ah. Yes.”
“Congratulations!”
Out of words, Jamie pivoted topics forcibly.
“Truly impressive. An upper spirit!”
“Just a few seconds.”
“Plenty can’t manage even that.”
Rebecca melted under praise.
She squeezed Undine harder, bashful, yet a sly smile betrayed her delight.
Who disliked compliments, really?
With the ice broken, even reticent Rebecca posed a question.
“But you’re training the sword, Young Master?”
“Yes. Started a few days back.”
“You’re already such a great mage.”
“Magic alone feels lacking. And it’s tough.”
No wooden sword in hand, yet Jamie swung habitually.
Rebecca observed, then remarked.
“Your movements look stiff.”
“Right? Still awkward…… Wait. What’d you just say……”
“Ah. N-not me…… Endairon commented on your earlier motions.”
Endairon.
The upper water spirit.
Earlier motions meant Hundred Seas.
Prior to that—direct communion sans summoning. Astonishing, but irrelevant now.
“The upper spirit said that?”
“Y-yes……”
Rebecca nodded faintly.
But how?
Upper spirits wielded immense power, yet were mere nature’s fragments.
Grasping human techniques? Unlikely.
Normally dismissed out of hand, but Jamie grasped at any thread now.
He pressed.
“Exactly how did it sense that?”
“Said it feels like they’re playing apart.”
“Playing apart?”
“Doesn’t know human arts well, but body feels unnatural. Movements should flow naturally—like right foot forward cues left arm, left foot right arm—but yours twists forcibly……”
Unnatural.
Forcing body twists.
Jamie could execute Hundred Seas. Understanding? No. But mimicry? Easy.
He’d dissected Hamilton’s patterns and sequences endlessly, even tested on his own frame.
Movements shouldn’t look forced.
Yet Endairon deemed even that unnatural.
‘Why?’
No answer came to his solo query.
Inevitable.
Without grasping Hundred Seas, answers stayed locked. They’d arrive upon mastery.
Rebecca went on.
“Like flowing water, wind’s whim. Surrender to the flow. You can do it, Young Master.”
Surrender to flow.
Water cascades downward.
Wind roams free.
All natural.
Mana, nature’s force too.
‘Right. Everything I’ve tried was unnatural.’
Forced analysis. Forced imitation.
Mana wielded artificially.
Wrong approach.
Jamie stood.
Rebecca watched his back as he strode to the training hall, silent.
A translucent water wolf beside her murmured intriguedly.
Just walking, yet mana softly enrobed Jamie’s flesh. Unlike prior brute force.
He comprehended mana. Natural, so space brimming with it—inevitable.
And Hundred Seas unfolded.
Hundred Seas wasn’t mana tuned to motion. Nor motion to mana’s flow.
Utterly misguided.
‘A technique harmonizing both simultaneously.’
Jamie’s core: mage.
Thus, mana was merely used.
He understood it—archmages must.
Issue: never considered oneness with mana.
No need before. Mana as spell ingredient, mindset unchanged.
But now? No spells.
‘Hundred Seas—a martial form.’
Thought he’d grasped the sword somewhat. Wrong target.
Swordsmen. Martial artists wielding mana—that posture.
Now, he sensed it dimly.
‘Like so.’
Body trails mana’s path.
Hundred Seas’ form: mana flow’s optimal route.
Past family head self-realized this?
Insight unveiled more.
Meridians unclogged, legs extended fluidly.
Mana swelled.
At the dazzling mana’s heart enveloping space, Jamie danced.
‘Mana lightens the body.’
Unlike spellborne levity.
Flesh and mana unified.
One with nature. Indeed, Hundred Seas deepened that fusion.
‘Magic, wielded thus?’
Fresh epiphany tugged him onward.
‘Deeper here.’
Mana pooled in legs.
Space-mana dominance.
Layered spell atop.
Unnamed. Freshly forged.
Enemy imagined, leg slammed down.
Boom—!!!
Light erupted.