The Price of Strength
If you don't mind.
"Th-that's enough! The winner is Count Leng Dust!!"
"Are you kidding me?"
"What just happened?"
"Did he just... shatter a steel sword with a wooden training sword?"
"How is that even possible? Is he a monster or what!?"
Tall stature. Broad shoulders. A knight standing calmly with neat brown hair and a handsome face, reaching out a hand to the loser first. His name is Leng Dust. He is a first-year academy student who hasn't even been a Count for a year yet.
His opponent was the third-ranked powerhouse of the third year. Of course, unlike their grade, Leng was naturally older. But for a noble student, who had been rigorously trained for over two years to be deployed to the Magic Beast Front, to lose to a commoner-born knight was a significant shock. It was as if the time the nobles had spent training—to fulfill their noble duty, to survive the fight against the magic beasts—had been completely invalidated.
"That was a good sparring match."
"Yes. Thank you for the match. ...Sir Dust. By any chance, do you intend to remain as a vassal of the Duchy after graduation?"
"Yes. My sword is pledged to Valentia."
"Haha. I wanted to scout you, but that's a shame. My family isn't exactly lacking in standing, but to think the opponent is a Duchy... I'll have to go to my family's knight order and see if there are any knights like Sir Dust."
"Thank you for your kind words. If you'll excuse me."
That was why, at first, there were quite a few guys who cursed Leng and struggled to tear him down behind his back. But now, there are none. Because he’s already on an 18-game winning streak. He crushed all the top-ranking students to earn those wins. Everyone now acknowledges the rumors surrounding Leng, only looking up to him with awe and reverence.
Now, among the students, the evaluation of Leng was shifting toward discussions of whether he would win or lose if he sparred with the fourth-year students, who were currently conscripted at the Magic Beast Front, when they returned to the academy for their early second-semester leave.
'If only Brother were alive, I would have been able to see his face at the start of the second semester.'
"Young Master?"
"Sir Leng Dust, the Knight of Loyalty, Judgment, and Undefeated. Were you looking for me?"
"Please, really, don't do that."
Leng, whose titles keep increasing, still acts like he wants to die only when he's in front of me. It was only four days ago that he was having seizures just from seeing me due to the aftereffects of over a week of physical modification. At first, I thought I'd wait a bit, so I left him alone. But he kept making stupid mistakes, like dropping utensils whenever I spoke to him, or bringing me cold water with coffee beans in it when I told him to make coffee, so I just gave him a proper "adjustment" once.
The 21st-century (?) knowledge that a broken "Dol-soe" (servant) can be fixed if you hit it was quite useful.
"You've improved quite a bit."
"It is all thanks to you, Young Master. To think the knight order training was actually training to break my body... It’s truly a new experience to be able to use my body like you, even if only slightly."
"Oh. You can use it like me? Then go back and let's have another round today."
"No. I apologize. I misspoke..."
"No, that was a notification."
"......"
A subordinate's delusions must always be corrected quickly. It is truly dangerous for him to mistake the gap between me—who has optimized every physical action by trying to move my body with my brain since the moment I was born—and himself—who simply had his broken muscles repaired and his misaligned joints treated by forcing mana over them—for equality.
"Y-Young Master."
"Yeah?"
"I! I still broke through the wall of the 4th Grade this time!"
"So what?"
"I-I'm saying I don't have any delusions..."
"No. You are having a very big delusion. The fact that you don't even know where you're delusional is the bigger problem. If you don't fix it quickly, you'll eventually catch a disease where your head falls off."
"Kuh...!!"
Today, too, Leng sheds tears of joy at the news that the Young Duke will personally oversee his training. I heard a phantom sound in his gritted teeth saying, 'I don't want to get hit anymore,' but it was truly just a phantom sound. It’s already been half a year since I started living with Leng; at this point, I can predict his thoughts and words just by looking at his expression.
"Princess Lilit. Have you been peaceful?"
"I have been... Yes. I've been so peaceful that I'm bored."
And honestly, I think I know everything this one is thinking, too. Princess Lilit, with her blue hair—the symbol of nobility—tied back today. It seems she's quite bored lately because her classes don't overlap with mine.
"Say. Young Duke, you used a sword, didn't you? Why are you taking the Magic Manifestation course?"
"Your Highness."
"Yes?"
"I have never shown myself using a sword 'at the academy', have I?"
"!"
The Princess covers her mouth in surprise and looks around. Look at her making a mistake the moment she gets a little comfortable, even after I told her not to act out. I have never used a sword at the 'academy'. Not even once. I had no reason to show it, and I had no intention of learning from anyone.
"Please, could you be more careful?"
"Ah. Th-that, I'm sorr..."
"That's enough. You are being too informal with Her Highness. Young Duke."
"Sir Jena. It’s been a while. My apologies."
Jena, the knight who intervenes when the situation becomes one where the Princess seems to be apologizing to me, her subordinate. With her healthy, bronze skin and practical muscles that were cleanly compressed—unlike Leng's—she was a knight who was quite highly regarded.
"Then, I will head into the classroom first."
"Y-yes."
Leaving behind the Princess, who sighed in relief as if she were glad I didn't press her mistake further, I took my seat in the classroom.
"Then, let's practice mana resonance and manifestation again today. Everyone, close your eyes, focus on your dantian, and try to sense the mana gathered in your body."
The class on magic manifestation and mana resonance, which I had wanted to learn, was added after the midterms. Because noble students learn mana resonance at their families from a young age, and if they have talent, they even learn magic conversion before entering. This class, which can be taken after the first-year midterms, seemed to be for commoners who had talent but lacked the means due to their family circumstances.
"Young Duke Carix. Can you still not feel the mana?"
"......Yes."
I am the Young Duke who participates in such a class and only rolls his brain. The truly maddening part is that this class is neither scientific nor theoretical; everything is abstract. Where is the dantian in the body? In Oriental medicine, they say it's about 5cm below the navel. But I have already grasped my entire body with my brain. There’s nothing there but the lower rectus abdominis and the core, so I don't know what I'm supposed to feel. Besides, they say mana is life. Like blood. They say mana flows through the blood vessels. But me, who has grasped my body with my brain? I don't know. People aren't supposed to feel the blood flowing in their own bodies, right? Isn't that hypersensitivity to internal sensory perception or an abnormality in the hallucinatory nervous system?
"Hmm... Young Duke, your talent for this is really...... Well. Do try your best."
A long-haired professor with a glasses-wearing, despicable impression flows out a mocking voice and approaches another student who is concentrating. This is only the third time I've met him, but seeing him say 'talent... talent...' every time he comes by, his personality must be truly shitty.
"Oh! As expected of Princess Lilit. That is an amazing talent."
"Hoo━"
The student the professor approached next was Princess Lilit, who was sitting in a cross-legged position, sweating as she concentrated. She wasn't practicing mana resonance or manifestation in the first place. What she was doing now was the cultivation of magic power. It was the act of converting mana, which usually just sits idly in the body, into magic power and accumulating it as energy. In other words, she was studying ahead of our class content. Being royalty, she had obviously already completed early education.
"Now, now. Everyone, a round of applause for Her Highness. If you all work hard, you can become like Her Highness the Princess. Of course, a minimum amount of 'talent' is essential."
Looking at the majority of commoner students who still couldn't handle mana properly as if they were pathetic, the professor stretched his thin eyes into an even more despicable expression and said that, finally looking at me.
"Leng."
"Yes?"
Leng, who was groaning like a dog with constipation because he was forced to follow me—even though he is a mana knight—since the target he had to guard was taking a magic resonance class, tilted his head at my voice.
"Take that professor down, too."
"Yes."
If I were the Leng of the past, I wouldn't know, but to me, the master of the current Leng whose upward trend never stops, any bastard who doesn't look at me with pretty eyes is subject to censorship. He must have looked at my late brother with those same eyes, after all.
"That makes 8 people."
Even if it looks like I'm playing around, revenge is always in progress.
*****
"Hiccup!"
"Sigh. Your Highness. Why on earth... No, never mind."
The training ground in the backyard of my quarters. Leng, whom I had crushed as scheduled earlier this morning, was sprawled on the floor, and the Princess and the knight Jena were standing in front of me, sweating cold sweat. The situation had come to this for no big reason. The Princess, unable to suppress her dopamine addiction and curiosity about strength, had been caught by me while peeking at Leng's training near my quarters.
"I-I'm sorry."
"No. But I have a genuine question. Why do you come and watch in person? Your Highness, you have magic, don't you?"
"Ueh...?"
"Your Highness, you know how to use stalking magic."
"I-it's not stalking magic!? More than that!! How did you know that...!!!"
I saw it in a game. That’s the only talent you have. [Clairvoyance], which players also called voyeur magic. It is the magic the Princess awakened as her main ability.
"I remember you hinted at it during the previous self-defense combat class. So, why on earth are you doing this stalker behavior?"
"I-it's not stalking..."
"Your words toward Her Highness are excessive. Young Duke."
The shrinking Princess. The knight trying to force her spirit. I looked at the two and chuckled.
"Aren't you two the ones who are excessive for coming to peek at someone else's training? To begin with, Sir Jena. Even Her Highness the Princess cannot be confident in this situation, so why are you confident?"
"Th-that is..."
"Is this the average character of the Royal Knight Order?"
"Ugh...!! No!! I'm sorry! I sincerely apologize for peeking at the training! However, separate from me having to apologize, it is true that your behavior toward Her Highness has crossed the line!"
Jena's ears were flushed red, visible even over her bronze skin. Perhaps she had tried to stop the Princess, but couldn't, and now that they had been caught together, she was incredibly embarrassed. Being a guard knight is also quite an extreme job. I understand.
"I will be careful as well. So please, you two try to ensure this doesn't happen again. And Your Highness. Don't use Clairvoyance on me from now on."
"Hiccup!?"
Was she really using it? Is this dopamine-addicted Princess not even afraid of me? No. It's certain that she is afraid, but why on earth can't she cut off her interest in me? It's a thought structure I don't even want to understand.
"I'm sorry. But! I really just watched..."
"That is exactly why it's wrong. I told you last time, too. I am a crazy bastard with injected social skills. If you don't cross the line, I'll treat you well, but if you cross it, I'll tear you apart along with the line."
"D-didn't I not cross the line? I didn't cross it, right? Right...?"
"Stalking is... it is true that you crossed it."
"Jenaaa!?!"
The bronze female knight covered her face, seemingly embarrassed even after answering herself. And the Princess, who looked like she was truly going to cry due to her subordinate's betrayal. Anyway, since nothing would come of scolding the two any further, I decided to end this here━━
"Young Duke."
"Yes?"
I was in the middle of finishing the conversation and trying to grab the hind legs of Leng, who had become a corpse, to drag him away. The bronze female knight Jena stopped me with her words.
"I know I have no shame even after peeking, but may I ask you one thing?"
"The reason Leng suddenly became strong?"
"Th-that's right."
In this situation, that was the only thing a royal knight would be curious about regarding me. It must have been an obvious answer, but perhaps she was so flustered that her words were stolen, the female knight covered her mouth and lowered her eyes.
"Hmm. I don't want to tell you just like that."
"Then, are you hoping for some kind of compensation...?"
"Leng. Get up."
"Kyaaak!?!"
""!""
When I gave him an acupressure point strike that opened his eyes at the back of his head, Leng's corpse, which had been dead, jumped up like a zombie.
"Sir Jena here says she wants to have a round with you."
"Yes? Me?"
"Eh, eh... Yes? Oh, Royal Knight? Ah! Your Highness, Count Leng Dust offers his greetin-kyaak?!"
"Don't use trite and pedantic lines, just grab your sword."
No one is expecting your greetings. If I give him acupressure on the back of his neck in that sense, Leng, who was seizing like a burning squid, quickly came to his senses and stood in place, grabbing his sword.
"I-I'm a bit flustered suddenly. Are you telling me to spar with Sir Dust?"
"Then would you like to make it a duel? You can make it a fight to the death."
"......"
"Haha. I'm not joking. Unclench your expression."
"Usually, you should say it's a joke in that situation..."
This Princess is saying strange things again.
"I said it wasn't a joke because it wasn't a joke, and I said it because your skin will only get more wrinkles if you keep your expression crumpled. Did you really think you could get the secret to someone else's strength with words? Leng. What do you think?"
"Yes? Me, suddenly?"
"If I were to make someone strong 'easily. Without pain. Without feeling a single bit of agony,' just because they are a royal knight serving the Princess, unlike what I did to you, what do you think would happen?"
"Naturally, I'd kill them, right?"
"!!"
The subject is missing. But the Princess and Jena both understood. The subject who would kill them now was not the Young Duke, but the royal knight, Jena.
"That is how it is. So, try to defeat Leng. The secret to becoming strong is after that."
"...Yes. I think I was the one who was rude. Sir Dust. I apologize."
Jena, too, is a knight who was always training to become stronger. But Leng, who couldn't even follow her footsteps until a few months ago, how much pain did he endure to gain such strength? And yet, she had tried to easily find out how he became strong with her three-inch tongue. Since that was certainly rude, Jena apologized.
"Ah...? Ah!! No, no!! That's not what I meant! Augh!! Young Master, really...!!"
Leng, who had answered with his true feelings for a moment, grumbled as he realized his subject had been directed at the royal knight. Of course, there was no one to listen. Now, only the two knights remained on the training ground.
"Royal 3rd Grade Knight Jena Prix. I request a sparring match with Count Leng Dust."
"Valentia Duchy Knight Order 4th Grade Knight Leng Dust. I accept your request."
Huh? I doubted my ears for a moment. Jena was a 3rd Grade knight? I had told them to spar as a test because her vibe seemed similar to Leng's, but she's 3rd Grade?
"Leng."
"Yes!"
"Don't die."
"?"
I wondered if he could hold out against her skill. I became slightly anxious.