Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Dream
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Three weeks before Kain Manus arrived.
I left Sea in charge of the rest and 'slipped' away.
No, it would be more accurate to say I was 'entranced'.
By the time I came to my senses, I was already heading for the training grounds.
My mind was filled with a single thought.
‘Metamorphosis.’
In truth, the battle with Harun had been a great shock to me.
It was like I’d had a glimpse of the world outside the well.
To be honest, I hadn't expected Harun, who used only modern Aura swordsmanship, to be that strong.
‘All this time, I've been neglecting the potential of Aura swordsmanship.’
Drunk on the thrill of ancient swordsmanship, I had overlooked another path I could have taken.
‘...I thought that even a Grand Master would be no match for me now. What a grave miscalculation.’
To Harun, who wasn't even a Grand Master...
I came dangerously close to losing.
His martial prowess left that strong of an impression on me.
My hand on the hilt of my sword tightened on its own.
I wanted to swing my sword, as soon as possible.
“Sir!”
As I was hurrying along, a little kid playing in the dirt called out to me.
“Oh? Seon?”
Six years old. Seon.
The youngest of our family.
The little guy brushed the dirt from his hands and looked up at me.
“Sir! But what's a dream?”
“Hmm?”
“What's a dream?”
It was an ambiguous question.
Was he asking what my dream was, or was he asking for the definition of the word 'dream'...?
“No, I asked Daisy and Seklan to play with me, but Daisy said they're chasing a dream? So they're busy. But what's a dream?”
“Ah... A dream is...”
I was suddenly at a loss for words.
A dream...?
This word is surprisingly difficult to explain.
“Um... well. Something you desperately want to do. Something you want to become. That's what a dream is, you see? For starters?”
“Oh! I get it! I want to eat whole pork belly for dinner tonight! Like that?”
“Ah? Um...”
It's bigger than that...
Right.
“Seon, what kind of person do you want to be when you grow up? Or what do you want to do?”
“Me? Umm... Mom. I want to see my mom!”
...
Hah...
Your mother is already...
Sigh...
I swallowed the lump rising in my throat and picked Seon up.
“Seon.”
“Yeah?”
“Dinner. You want to eat whole pork belly?”
“Yeah!”
“Alright.”
I patted his head and set him down.
It weighs on my mind, but right now, I have to do what I need to do.
Seon has his part, and I have mine.
That's how relationships were in our family.
In the end, we've endured this long by each shouldering our own burdens...
I said goodbye to Seon for now and continued toward the training grounds.
In front of the training grounds.
I saw a handmaiden from the lord's castle and called out to her.
“Excuse me.”
“Eek! Yes! Yes! Mr. Mayor!”
Mayor?
I guess they use titles like this in Kinalo City. We were all used to being called Count.
Anyway.
“Go tell the chef to make whole pork belly for dinner tonight.”
“Ye-yes! I understand!”
The handmaiden, overly tense, scurried away.
I wondered what I'd done to make her act like that... but then I remembered this city had been conquered twice in a short time. It made sense.
‘It'll get better with time. I should just train.’
With the whole pork belly taken care of, I quickened my pace and entered the training grounds.
There were already people there.
Red-haired Daisy and blue-haired Seklan were engaged in a fierce spar, scattering beads of sweat.
The one peculiar thing was that Daisy was incessantly angry.
“Seriously! Does! This! Make any sense!”
Seklan, while skillfully parrying Daisy's attacks, kept trying to calm the agitated girl down.
“You know. He was worried about us! That's all.”
Clang! Kaaang!
Sparks flew endlessly between them.
The scent of heated bodies, steel, and earth mingled, giving the place the distinct feel of a training ground.
“Worried?! Ha! That means! He left me behind! Because I'm weak!”
“Honestly... we are...! a bit weak...! aren't we?”
“That's what pisses me off the most!! I can do it! I'm telling you, I can! But no one listens to me!”
Kaaaaang.
Listening to them, I understood.
I knew what Daisy's complaint was about.
‘She's sulking because I didn't take her to the war.’
But it couldn't be helped.
The ones who die most in war are the 'young' low-level Experts.
Strong, but not yet mature.
Which is why they end up getting killed even by experienced elite warriors.
Of course, the art of tactics was to minimize such losses, but still, not Daisy and Seklan.
Not even by the slightest chance.
No way.
So, I decided to completely ignore Daisy's complaints.
‘Time to train.’
The training ground was large, so I moved to a far corner and took my stance.
I immediately sank into my thoughts.
‘Balseon told me. The conditions for metamorphosis are overflowing Aura and perfect Aura control.’
Although he wasn't a Sword Master, as the captain of the Royal Guard, Balseon was an expert in Aura theory, second to none.
What I learned from him had to be correct.
An Aura that not only fills the body but overflows.
If you can bind it all to your body without letting it escape, at some point, the Aura begins to expand the vessel of the body itself.
That is metamorphosis.
‘I'm not worried about Aura control. The problem is the absolute amount of Aura.’
My current Aura capacity was well below the average for a Sword Master.
It couldn't be helped.
I'd spent too long with my Aura broken.
If I diligently practiced an Aura cultivation method from now on, would I be able to attempt metamorphosis in five years at the earliest?
Even with the Vanroah royal family's secret, top-tier Aura method, 'Iron Heart (鐵魂)', it seemed it would take that long.
‘But I think I can shorten that time.’
Woooong—
Vanroah cried out in my hand.
Even though I wasn't moving my Aura, a haze shimmered from the tip of the blade.
That transparent haze definitely contained Aura, however faint.
‘Sword Ki draws in mana and even forges Aura.’
I had seen it, experienced it, and done it myself.
Mana is ultimately drawn to pure will.
And the Sword Ki spewed out by a Sword Spirit is the purest will, faithful to the single purpose of 'cutting'.
When Sword Ki is manifested, the mana in the atmosphere is drawn in and compressed, eventually becoming Aura with tangible power.
Of course, it was a trivial amount of Aura.
The cutting power of the Sword Ki itself was paramount; the generated Aura merely served a supporting role.
But I,
was thinking of using it a little differently now.
The idea was simple.
What if I could absorb the Aura created by the sword?
Wouldn't I be able to drastically reduce the time it takes to reach metamorphosis?
‘In a way, the sword would be cultivating for me, right?’
The only problem was that the Aura produced by the Sword Ki was clearly different from the Aura of my Iron Heart (鐵魂).
For one,
it was transparent.
The Aura produced by Sword Ki had no color.
Should I call it primordial Aura?
Compared to the dark blue Aura of Iron Heart (鐵魂), or the faded golden Aura that Harun produced, it was weak and featureless.
‘If I absorb it as is, it will clash with the Iron Heart (鐵魂) Aura and shatter.’
But I felt there had to be a way.
What came to mind now was a low, resolute voice.
‘My master... said so.’
Grand Duke Laitena Celsius.
The man who had led me to the state of Geomtak had said it.
[Geomtak means the sword becomes a part of you.]
Yes. Vanroah is already a part of me.
It reads my mind and makes decisions that are more 'me' than I am.
[It's not that you're ordering it to do something; it moves simply because it has become a part of you.]
Vanroah is already like my heart or my stomach, a part of me that moves on its own.
Therefore,
[Although it's classified as the state of Geomtak, it's merely a step on the path to 'Sword-Self Unity'.]
In a way, I have already taken a step into the realm of 'Sword-Self Unity'.
And if that's the case,
‘If the sword and I are truly one... there's no reason Vanroah can't cultivate Iron Heart (鐵魂), is there?’
I believe.
In truth, nothing is certain.
I chose to believe.
That the sword and I can truly be one.
Wong— Woooong—
Vanroah's Sword Ki cut through the air, following my trembling, outstretched hand.
Sometimes my hand led, and at other times, Vanroah led.
When I look,
it's true. Vanroah is on the path I intended to take.
Did the sword move on its own?
Or did I guide the sword?
Is there even any meaning in such a distinction?
Hwoong— Hwoooong—
I swing without rest. No, I dance. With Vanroah.
In the fading scenery around me, familiar faces flicker and disappear.
“...What the. When did that old man get here?”
“One minute he's your brother, the next he's an old man... What is it with you?”
“It's what I feel like, okay?”
Daisy and Seklan noticed me, lingered nearby for a bit, then disappeared.
“Well... I was wondering where he went, and here he is.”
“...Let's just go, sis.”
“Go where?”
“Ugh!”
Katrina and Baren also watched me for a moment before finding a spot nearby and starting their own training.
“Oh? Sir Rivera, you're out here too?”
“...I came out because I figured I'd get beaten up more later if I was the only one slacking off.”
“He's more than capable of that. If you skipped out, you'd probably get special training from Lansen, you know?”
“...How dreadful.”
“...Dreadful indeed.”
Rivera and Saltsran passed by as well.
Lookranser, Catch, Sea, Mika, Gepetto... they all came, watched me, and then started training off to one side.
I didn't stop for a single moment.
I kept dancing.
Even the sounds around me began to fade away.
“...How long is he going to keep this up?”
“...Don't tell me we have to stay here until he's done training?”
“It's already been two days... This is overkill.”
“I'm jealous of Sea. She gets to skip out to do administrative work.”
Fading further away.
Only Vanroah and I remained, dancing.
“He's still at it?”
“Katrina's going to collapse at this rate...”
“Seriously, why is she so competitive about everything?”
“...Huh?!”
“What.”
“Right now... over there...!”
“Huh...?”
“The Aura??”
“What is that!?”
The murmuring of the others grows more distant.
I can't hear it.
And what remains...
is not me,
nor Vanroah,
but simply a single 'dance'.
* * *
At some point, the gazes of everyone gathered in the training grounds turned to Lansen.
Wooooong—!
Wong—!
Vanroah rang out magnificently, like a bronze bell, and following its resonance, a dark blue Aura breathed.
What was so strange about a Sword Master's blade being wreathed in Aura?
But when that Aura was so immense, the story was entirely different.
The Aura writhed and moved, following Vanroah.
Sometimes it gathered like a whale, other times it scattered like a storm.
Like a sudden downpour, like the long dragons the Easterners believed in, like a deep lake,
the Aura.
It swelled endlessly, moving back and forth between Lansen and Vanroah.
“What... is that. It's terrifying...”
Even Katrina, who had been engrossed in her own training until the very end, finally turned her gaze toward Lansen.
‘Terrifying,’ she said, but the emotion etched on her face was actually 'awe'.
She could see it.
The immense Aura was being sucked endlessly into Lansen's body.
Months.
Lansen was swallowing in a single breath an amount of Aura that might take years of cultivation to obtain.
And yet, his body didn't just go 'Pop!' and explode—his Aura control was astounding.
Watching this, mesmerized, Katrina suddenly grit her teeth.
“Are you just going to stand there and watch?!”
Katrina turned her back.
She gripped the hilt of her sword even tighter.
“That! That's the swordsmanship Lansen taught us! He's just applying it!”
The gazes of the dazed onlookers gathered on Katrina.
“We can do it too!”
Fwoosh!
Katrina swung her sword.
She thought of only one thing.
‘Listen to the sword's voice (Dokgeom). After that... amplify the sword's voice, and finally, accept the sword's energy into your body (Chegeom)!’
Just as Lansen had taught her.
Above the orange Sword Aura coalesced on her blade, a faint Sword Ki shimmered.
The ancient Sword Ki that had saved her life in the fight against Sword Master Barkan.
She was now trying to look toward the next step.
* * *
Even as everyone else followed Katrina's lead and resumed their training, Daisy remained frozen in place, unable to move.
It was the same for her friend of the same age, Seklan.
“...”
“...”
The 178cm Seklan.
The 167cm Daisy.
The two stood side by side, watching Lansen.
“Beautiful... our brother...”
Daisy murmured. Her gaze wasn't fixed on the immense Aura.
But rather, on Lansen's dance.
The sword and person as one,
a Sword Dance (劍舞).
She couldn't take her eyes off it.
As if he had become partners with his sword.
Dancing together.
Suddenly, Daisy looked down at her own sword.
“...Could I ever treat my sword like that?”
Perhaps,
just maybe.
Like the older brothers and sisters who always ignored her and tried to boss her around. Maybe she had been wielding her own sword just as willfully.
Daisy slowly took her stance.
Cherishingly.
Listening to the voice of her sword, just as Lansen had emphasized.
Then, Seklan, who was beside her, mirrored her movements.
He was thinking something a little different from Daisy.
‘The sword... it feels like it's calling to me.’
Wong—
Wooong—
A small, almost inaudible vibration traveled up the hilt of his sword.
It felt as if it were saying this:
‘You can do it too.’
‘It's okay to be a little more ambitious.’
He was not of the Vanroah bloodline, but an ordinary orphan who had been knocking around Kushan City.
A boy who, despite living like family with his older brothers and sisters, couldn't help but be wary and stand a little apart.
As Seklan gripped the hilt of his sword, a will he never had before surged into his hand.
And there was a child watching this entire scene.
Six years old.
Seon.
In the child's eyes, the training ground shone with a myriad of colors.
Against the backdrop of the immense, dark blue Aura emanating from Lansen, the Auras of his brothers and sisters bloomed, each with their own color...
“Haaah...”
Seon let out a sigh, overwhelmed by a feeling he had never experienced before.
“It's so pretty...”
There are certain kinds of memories.
Memories that, once seen, are never forgotten.
This very moment was etched into Seon's heart just like that.
The whole pork belly was completely forgotten,
in such a perfect moment.