Chapter 96
Chapter 96
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: Time Shapes a Person
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“I can’t do it. I don’t want to.”
Lin, drenched in sweat from head to toe, irritably tossed aside the practice staff and plopped down on the ground.
“A mage just needs to be good at magic. What’s all this close-quarters combat? No way!”
The suggestion to teach Lin melee combat had come from Kies.
It stemmed from the tense atmosphere in the party after Lin, separated from his comrades during the Battle of Shuriganaqius ten days prior, had nearly died while isolated.
“Get up, Lin.”
Rista strode over and stood in front of him. Her expression was unusually stern and resolute.
“I’m tired. I don’t wanna.”
“Of course it’s tough. Nothing in this world is easy.”
“Magic wasn’t this hard.”
Rista let out a sigh, as if she couldn’t deal with him, when Lin grumbled back with a sulky face.
“You’ve got a genius-level talent for magic, so it must be hard for you to understand… but you should learn this lesson now.”
“Learn what?”
“Lin, talent doesn’t make a person. Time does.”
“……?”
“The sweat and tears you shed while thinking it’s tough—those moments of time come together to shape the future you. Nothing else but that time.”
Time, not talent… Lin blinked vacantly, and Rista chuckled, extending her hand.
“…….”
Lin stared back and forth between her smile and her hand, then finally grabbed it and pulled himself up.
“Lin, martial arts are just like magic.”
Rista taught him five stances distilled to their purest, most practical essence.
Each stance demanded different muscles and types of strength, designed to thoroughly ingrain the use of the entire body.
“Just like knowing various math formulas makes solving magic easier, once you learn how to use your body, even the first motions become easy to pick up.”
Only Rista and Kies knew this was planned not just for the war, but for the aftermath as well.
Including the sadness woven into it.
After the war ended, Rista hoped it would help the boy she couldn’t accompany on his long journey through life, even just a little.
‘What the hell…’
Weiber, who had no idea the boy was receiving such training from Rista, could only stick out his tongue at Rain’s astonishing growth rate.
Like most people, Rain’s initial movements were clumsy and awkward.
But by the tenth, then the hundredth repetition, he was producing stances comparable to Weiber’s?
‘It’s not just talent. How many hours has this guy been at it?’
Weiber had accepted when Rain asked to be taught setting.
Had he changed his mind?
Absolutely not.
He’d deliberately made it dozens of times harsher, hoping to wring cries from Rain, to make him give up and say he couldn’t do it anymore. But this guy…
- What are you doing? Don’t let the ball drop!
Instead, he was urging more training?
One late night after practice, he’d even said something weird.
- Weiber, you’re really impressive.
- What?
- When I learned from Logan or Nora, it didn’t click, but when you explain it, I totally get the feel.
Was this provocation? Didn’t he know how brutally Weiber had pushed him, pretending it was to make it painful?
Weiber glared suspiciously, but Rain just smirked, patted his shoulder, and dashed toward the [True] dorms.
- See you tomorrow! Good night!
Weiber watched his retreating figure in stunned silence when Kaden’s words suddenly resurfaced unbidden.
- Rain Ludwig is different somehow.
No, impossible.
They’re all the same.
Nobles are all the same. Two-faced, arrogant, haughty, annoying…
“Young master, one more nice serve!”
Logan’s vigorous shout snapped Weiber from his reminiscence back to reality. Along with the sharp crack echoing through the court.
“Gertrude!”
Once again, a serve piercing the corner sharply. But this time, Gertrude Fenton threw herself into its path.
The Fenton family had long pursued both martial and magical arts; Gertrude, raised there, possessed physical abilities that were downright unnatural for her age.
The magic ball, seemingly caught in her demurely clasped hands, spat fierce currents the next instant and bounced back.
“Two consecutive service aces…?!”
Everyone fell silent for a moment at the unexpected turn, then erupted in cheers. Even Christa Warden’s eyes widened.
‘Gertrude was perfectly positioned for that spike serve course. She should’ve stabilized it. But…’
There was only one reason for the ball’s rebound: the defender failing to compute the attacker’s incantation formula.
‘At that speed, chanting the inverse function of an irrational formula?’
Gertrude rubbed her stinging arms from the impact, letting out a disbelieving chuckle.
‘The faster the ball, the less time to compute the formula—that’s basic…’
How many in the nation could receive that perfectly?
“Gertrude, I hear you’ve been getting close to Young Master Ludwig.”
Maya Snark’s cold remark made Gertrude’s eyebrow twitch.
“Are you implying I let it go on purpose?”
“Not exactly.”
“It’s ridiculous. Want to see if you can say that after receiving it yourself, sis?”
The situation was so unbelievable that Maya had no choice but to suspect foul play. Gertrude was a starter who’d claimed her spot right after joining.
“Alright, alright! Super receiver Rowinbelt Kanwer enters the scene!”
A whistle blew, and the figure who appeared ended the tension.
“Everyone, relax. That one-tool serve? I’ll take them all.”
Griffinballer’s second-year back-row player stepped out, replaced by the nimble, small-statured third-year Rowinbelt stepping onto the court.
‘That guy…’
Weiber’s eyes narrowed, and scattered sighs leaked from the stands.
“Hm?”
Rain Ludwig looked puzzled at the stirring crowd as Logan handed him the ball with a whisper.
“Rowinbelt Kanwer. Griffinballer’s hard receiver.”
“Ah, so that’s him…”
“Don’t let up, young master. The moment they adapt to your serves, it’ll get tough.”
Hard receiver—think a specialist who only receives (can’t attack).
Got it.
Then the goal is to make sure he doesn’t touch it. Minimum three points from my serves.
“Here goes.”
First step: left foot.
Three approach steps, then coil power from the calves for takeoff.
Draw needed force from abs and lats, twist the torso fully back, then load all that tension and repulsion into the ball.
‘Feels good…!’
The instant he smashed it viciously, it was a perfect serve spike toss—euphoric even.
Or so he thought.
Before the crack of impact faded, another exploded from afar. In the blink of an eye.
“Whoops, sorry! Slight miscalculation!”
Rowinbelt, fluidly receiving and rolling once on the floor, said that as the ball leisurely crossed the net.
But since the formula’s answer was wrong, possession returned to the challengers.
Lilian took an underhand stance at the landing spot.
“Chance ball!”
But the moment that easy ball went up, the challengers panicked.
Rain dashed to the front-center setter spot… but Weiber, standing there, didn’t budge—instead leaping up.
Breaking his own rule to set? No, just a habitual jump after a momentary lapse.
“……!”
Awkwardly mid-air, he shifted from set to spike motion—not tossing, but smashing down.
“Where?!”
Griffinballer wasn’t fooled by such a clumsy two-touch fake. Two blocks rose instantly, slamming the ball back into their court.
An eerie silence fell.
Colder, sharper than the silences Rain’s prior serves had induced.
Logan narrowed his eyes, tensing his muscles.
“Weiber, you didn’t… plan this, did you…?”
Weiber was just as flustered, but his pride wouldn’t let him call it a mistake and apologize.
So he turned silently, meeting the gaze—surprisingly, the one mediating was the most wronged party.
“It’s fine, Logan. No need to get heated. It’s just one point—we’ll get it back.”
“But young master, that guy did it on purpose!”
Logan’s anger was well-founded.
What kind of player was Weiber?
Lionheart’s starting setter.
No way he’d make such an absurd error. Helping Rain from the start was suspicious too. Clearly joined to throw the game.
“On purpose? Nah. He knows it was his mistake.”
But the paragon of character.
Rain Ludwig, who should’ve rebuked Weiber more than anyone, just shook his head.
“If we nitpick every little thing, it never ends? He’ll just tense up and mess up more. No need for that between us, right?”
He flashed a bright smile at the wide-eyed, bewildered Logan and Weiber.
“We gathered to have fun. Let’s enjoy it.”
That was the warrior’s mindset the boy had learned from Rista three hundred years ago—a remnant of the truth that illuminated an era.
Nora, Kaden, and Lilian, watching the near-explosion from the side, each smiled in their own way.
Owen, the professor with arms crossed in the stands overlooking the court, smiled too.
‘Lumped together as the Eight Great Academies, but rivalries abound, and their disciples usually get along worse than better.’
Hard to believe he’d united five such disciples, but after that display, it made a bit of sense.
- Damn you, Logan, hanging out excessively with that paragon lately! Word’s spread all over school!
- Th-that… Big bro told me to get close? I’m just acting!
- You rotten Logan! Daring to lie to my face? Should I shit in your mouth to make you speak truth?
Only after the grilling did Logan sheepishly confess.
- Rain Ludwig is… somehow, a bit different.
- Different how?
- Treats me like a real friend. And he’s a noble—at that, heir to one of the Five Great Houses…
- You? You, less than a monkey?
- Yes. That’s why we got close. Makes me want to help him with anything…
Yes. In Rain Ludwig’s world, the nobility’s ingrained hierarchy didn’t exist.
In this <Delaiten>, there were only comrades exploring magic together.
That pure mindset—not from blood or wealth—was what made Rain Ludwig a true noble.
‘And that draws not forced submission from status, but heartfelt obedience from deep within.’
A faint smile bloomed on Valensidis’s lips, reaching the same thought as Owen.
‘Like butterflies drawn to a flower’s scent.’
* * *
At that moment, the § rune etched into his left palm ignited, and Rain gasped at the bone-scraping pain, drawing a sharp breath.
A new stroke was added to the rune.
He always wore a glove on his left hand to hide it, so Rain himself didn’t know why… but if Rudiyën were nearby, such a scene would’ve been visible.
Socrafres.
- You can inherit the 'Unique Magic' research progress from the surrounding environment.
- Progress: 49.8% -> 50%.
- 'Unique Magic' understanding reaches 50%.
>>>
Brante.
- Change point in magic circuit confirmed: Flow Sovereign -> Flow Sovereign - Alert (유량세존 => 유량세존 - 경).