The Legend's End
Leng Dust had never truly understood it before.
He was a knight of the Valentia family—a man of exceptional talent for a commoner, having shattered the wall of the 6th class at the age of twenty-four. Yet thanks to the young master he served, he had recently come to the painful realization that none of his past efforts or gifts had ever truly bloomed. With his lord’s guidance, he had grown at a staggering pace, leaping past the 5th class and smashing straight through the barrier of the 4th class. On top of that, he now carried an excessive noble title and epithets he could scarcely accept. He had become a rising star among the nobility, strangely revered by hot-blooded young aristocrats in their early twenties who even cast envious glances his way. Each morning he still slapped his own cheek, half-convinced it was all a dream.
“Young Duke… please listen without misunderstanding.”
“Of course, Professor. I won’t misunderstand. Speak freely.”
And right now, once again, Leng’s common sense was being ruthlessly dismantled in real time through the person he called master.
“Really, truly, please don’t misunderstand… the mana resonance… it seems the result will be quite different from what you hoped for.”
“I see.”
“Yes… b-but! Please don’t be too disappointed! These days it’s a wonderful era—even those who cannot handle mana directly can use magic tools or cast spells! Besides, Young Duke, you achieved a perfect score and took first place in the last midterm, didn’t you?”
“My practical examination placed me 274th out of 276.”
“Eek?! That’s true, but still! It’s incredible! The last exam was brutally difficult—the second-place score was only 570 points, yet you beat them by a full 130! So…”
“Improving individual combat strength remains a distant goal. It would be wiser to prepare myself for rear-line duties at a desk. That is the advice you’re giving me, correct?”
“I-I wouldn’t put it so bluntly! But yes, I thought that direction might suit you! Of course, with Count Leng Dust at your side, there would be no issue even if you stood on the front lines…!”
The professors who had once looked down on the young master and talentless students had been largely purged after the previous dungeon incident. Beatrice, now a marchioness, had apparently poured a staggering amount of money into the faculty. As a result, an enormous number of professors had been disciplined or outright dismissed. The magic professor before them was merely a second-year assistant professor, a poor soul forcibly promoted to fill the sudden vacancies. He and Carix were the same age, Leng had heard.
“P-please forgive me… I’m sorry for my incompetence…”
“Professor.”
“Hik!! Ah—I’m not a full professor yet, so please just call me assistant professor…!!”
“How could this possibly be your fault, Professor? The only flaw lies in my own lack of talent. It’s perfectly all right. Thank you for speaking honestly.”
The young master’s gentle voice seemed to burrow softly into the other man’s mind as he spoke those kind words with perfect clarity. He reached out naturally and took the trembling hands of the (prospective) professor, steadying them. The entire scene looked like something from a stage play.
“However, I have no desire to give up. I would like to continue receiving your guidance. Would that be acceptable?”
“Of course! Of course!! If the Young Duke desires it, I will assist you in any way I can! B-but… your practical scores…”
“Yes. Please evaluate me exactly as you observed. I have no interest in falsifying grades simply because my results are poor due to my own inadequacy.”
“R-really…? Your practical grade for this semester is confirmed as an F. If you continue attending magic lectures, you’ll need to take supplementary classes during the break, you know?”
“Ah. I see. Still, Professor, my lack of talent is not your fault. It would trouble me greatly to inconvenience you even during the break. If there is another path I might take—”
No one knew that the young master was the true architect behind the academy’s upheaval and the previous marchioness’s downfall. Yet everyone knew the Valentia ducal house had intervened in the matter. Thanks to that reputation, the female professor—who had been trembling on the verge of tears moments earlier—was now perfectly calm. She negotiated ways to salvage his grades, and the young master rose from his seat.
When he emerged from the magic professor’s office, Leng could not hold back the sigh that escaped him.
“Why? Is it so hard to understand?”
“Is this… something that should be understandable?”
“If you intend to remain at my side, you’ll need to understand such things.”
No. This was simply too much. Leng had trained his entire life to become a knight. Even after achieving that goal, he had never encountered anything like this.
“Just how do you accomplish it? To completely erase the mana inside your body… even a professor cannot sense it. This reality is beyond my comprehension.”
“On the contrary, I don’t understand why you all keep exposing such things. How do you maintain organs and functions that don’t exist without even feeling mental fatigue?”
The young master spoke as though this were the most natural thing in the world. He had only awakened his mana a week ago. Recently he had reached a level that made even the marchioness teaching him magic click her tongue in astonishment. And yet he could erase his presence so thoroughly that not even a professor could detect it. Honestly, even Leng—who stayed closest to him—would not have believed the young master had awakened mana if he had not witnessed it himself.
“It’s simple. Erase the imaginary organ called the mana core and expel all the energy known as mana outward.”
“No, no, no. How does that even work? Mana flows through the blood vessels—!”
“That’s exactly why I said it doesn’t. Why would anything except blood flow through blood vessels? Are your veins made of tungsten?”
“Tung… sten? Pardon?”
“If energy powerful enough to detonate air circulated through your blood vessels, you should have been vomiting blood from every pore and dying each time you used mana. That would be normal.”
“Uh…”
The young master shook his head in clear frustration, which only made Leng feel more frustrated in turn. So all this time, they had not been using mana from their blood vessels at all, but energy gathered somewhere else entirely? Yet every time he used it, his blood had felt like it was boiling. Just where did the young master acquire such incomprehensible knowledge, and how did he keep pioneering entirely new realms with it? Leng could not understand at all.
“Enough. Stop trying to understand. This is the normal method. You’ve simply been running on faulty code that somehow still functions. Touch it and it breaks.”
“…You could have just said ‘live as usual’ instead of making it sound so complicated.”
“I answered because you asked… Ah. Have I been hitting you less often because I’ve been training with the marchioness? Perhaps I should set a proper quota again.”
“I’m sorry!”
He had only asked a question and ended up earning another beating. In any case, the young master now wielded mana with literal freedom. He could erase it, create it, strengthen his body like a knight, and even cast magic—all at will. He had become a monster. Which made Leng desperately curious about exactly what level his lord had reached.
The chance to find out came sooner than expected.
“Young Duke Carix!! Let’s talk for a moment!!”
The news was delivered by an enraged Princess Lilith, who came running, and Jena, who looked unusually flustered.
*****
A few hours earlier, Lilith had been feeling unbearably wronged and miserable.
“…I can’t see him.”
“Your Highness? What are you saying all of a sudden? Has your eyesight failed?”
“That’s not what I mean!! The young duke! I can’t see the young duke!”
“Well, he hasn’t gone anywhere, so of course you can’t see him.”
“No! Even with Clairvoyance I can’t see him!”
After the fall of House Beatrice, everyone knew the rumor that the Valentia ducal family had tightened the noose around them from behind in a political maneuver. It was also an open secret that Princess Lilith had been the one orchestrating everything to solidify the royal faction. Because of that, she had been forced to build and maintain a royalist faction at the academy—something she had never wanted—and her days had become relentlessly busy.
“Ah! Could he have awakened his mana?”
“Even if he has, there’s no reason he should be able to block Your Highness’s magic when you are a 6th class mage. You simply haven’t been training your magic and have been wandering around drinking tea with your faction instead. Your skills have declined.”
“No! When I try to observe Count Dust while he’s apart from the young duke, I can see him. And if anyone hears you, they’ll think I go around drinking tea because I enjoy it!”
“Why are you looking at Sir Dust again? Rather than peeping alone, show me too. When exactly are you going to reach the 5th class?”
“Jena. You’ve grown rather bold lately, haven’t you?”
“The resignation letter I wrote because of Your Highness remains safely tucked in my bosom at all times.”
“Ugh!”
In the midst of this unwanted, hectic routine, Carix-watching had been Lilith’s little dopamine sanctuary. But ever since Carix awakened his mana, learned magic, and reached a realm where he could completely block her clairvoyance, that sanctuary had remained empty.
“I’m going to die… The thrill, the pounding excitement is gone…”
“Why not watch the other students? The top freshman this year is quite skilled. They say he’s already a 6th class knight.”
“Even Count Dust is 4th class.”
“Sir Dust is an exception to all rules.”
“I’ve seen exceptions far above even him multiple times.”
“That person is simply a monster.”
In the end, Lilith had grown so bored she had begun pestering the 3rd class knight Jena to perform sword dances for her entertainment. Still, she carried out her duties diligently—maintaining the royal faction, obstructing the nobles’ recovery, and suppressing discord among the students as much as possible.
“Oh?”
“…What is it this time? Another noble’s letter? I really don’t want to drink any more tea! I once drank twenty cups of Darjeeling in a single day!”
“It’s not that. It’s a letter my master sent me.”
“Oh…? Oh! The only other 2nd class knight in the kingdom besides Father—Jena’s master?!”
The princess, forced into unwilling dopamine detox, latched onto Jena like a desert refugee who had found an oasis.
“What does it say?! Could it be that he has finally crossed the wall into the 1st class? The transcendent realm where one can split the sky with a sword—something only found in the Empire—!”
“He is the master I respect most, but he is advanced in years. The last time I saw him, he was using his sword as a walking cane.”
“But he’s still 2nd class! He’s only in his seventies—there’s still hope! The Empire’s 1st class only crossed over in their sixties!”
“Your Highness, the difference between one’s sixties and seventies is vast. Besides, though he may be seventy now, in two years he will be eighty. As his disciple, my only wish is for my master to enjoy a long, healthy life.”
“Wasn’t beating the young duke also one of your dreams?”
“That is a wish.”
“What’s the difference between a dream and a wish?”
“A dream can come true through effort. A wish is merely something you hope for, so it never does. …Hm?”
“Why? Why? What did Sir Walter write?”
“…He says he will be visiting the academy.”
“Ooh?!”
My dear disciple Jena,
I shall soon visit the academy. After hearing of the knight named Leng Dust—who rose from the 6th class to shatter the wall of the 4th class in mere months—I have grown curious. I wish to meet him in person.
— Walter Abrams
Jena, having read the letter, looked visibly shaken. Her master—the former Knight Commander of the Valcart Kingdom, the man who had reached 2nd class before the current king yet was called second-in-command due to his age—had written that he wanted to meet Count Leng Dust.
“Ooh…! Oh? Ooh?? Why?”
The atmosphere had suddenly become all about Count Dust.
“I… contacted him previously. I told him a knight who had been 6th class had surpassed the 5th class and broken the 4th class wall in less than two months. I even mentioned that he defeated me in a match. It seems my master became interested after hearing that.”
And because she had only developed interest in the opposite sex at the late age of twenty-seven, she had also provided detailed reports on his personality and appearance.
“Uh… Jena. Weren’t you hoping for your master’s long life?”
“I am, yes?”
“Meeting the young duke… that will be fine, won’t it?”
“Your Highness!!”
Jena knelt before the princess and released a knightly aura for the first time in a long while.
“Please summon only Count Leng Dust separately! If it is Your Highness’s command, the young duke will not refuse!!”
“Jena… have you grown to dislike me?”
“Your Highness!! I beg for your mercy!!!”
The princess finally understood why the nobles’ pleas for her father to “have mercy” were called interlayer noise.
Thus do I, Lilith, Princess of Valcart, grant permission for Sir Leng Dust to meet with Sir Walter Abrams—royal knight of Valcart, master of the 3rd class knight Jena, and former 2nd class Knight Commander.
“However, the young duke has not granted permission.”
“Why?!”
The princess frowned, clearly not having expected refusal. Abrams? What was that, some kind of tank? Did reaching 2nd class mean you had to advertise yourself as a human battering ram? The angry princess had come running, only to hear something so absurd there was no reason to accept it.
“Young Duke! Why not?! This is an opportunity! A 2nd class knight could teach Sir Dust the sword—!”
“If someone takes the knight I’ve personally built up, teaches him a few sword tricks, and then tries to steal him away as a disciple, do you think I would be happy? Or upset?”
“Ugh…”
“Young Duke. Neither Her Highness nor my master intends any such thing. Of course, my master holds Sir Dust’s talent in high regard and might take him as a disciple, but even a few years of instruction would never make you regret—”
“I need ‘now,’ not a few years. Leng is one of the three vassals closest to me—equivalent to my own fingernails. To have a former official suddenly call for such a vassal and demand I hand him over… am I permitted to treat this as a declaration of war?”
“Declaration of—?!”
“Fingernails…? I thought I was at least your right arm?”
Are you insane? If an arm ignored the brain’s commands and betrayed you, you would be strangled or stabbed to death. Fingernails, no matter how hard they struggled, could at best dig into the palm or damage a few nerves. Carix had no intention of entrusting anyone with any part that could reach his neck.
“I wondered why you looked so serious, only to find you were trying to interfere with my affairs again. Your Highness, it seems that playing around with the royal faction has made you forget how this particular human operates. I’m hurt.”
“Did you just say… hurt? Ugh!!! Don’t make me laugh!! Who exactly have I been playing with?! You’re the one who dumped all the politics I never wanted to do onto me!! And now that you’ve awakened your mana and learned magic to completely block my clairvoyance, the least you can do is listen to this much!!”
“How did you even find out about that?”
The princess had begun throwing a genuine tantrum. Carix had expected her to back down, but with her face flushed and eyes glistening with tears, she looked truly pitiful.
“…Have you been that bored?”
“If you show me something like that every day and then suddenly block it all, how could I not be bored?!”
Hm. She was a princess, yet her choice of words was rather… direct.
“They say the top student from last week’s practical is a freshman who is already 6th class…”
“Jena said the same thing! After seeing nothing but 4th class and 3rd class knights and whatever kind of insane monster you are every single day, how could a 6th class even register?! Weren’t you supposed to be the smart one?!”
“……”
She wasn’t wrong. Given her personality, secretly watching would have been enjoyable—at least until he had sensed mana and awakened the vibration attribute to block her clairvoyance.
“Sigh. So you want to watch this master of Jena’s spar with Leng, and you’re asking me to yield?”
“Yes! Honestly, isn’t that something you can concede?! I’m not even asking to take Sir Dust for myself! If Sir Walter truly tries to take him, I promise I’ll stop it too!”
As Carix softened slightly, the princess regained her usual tone. Still, it was bothersome. Above all, memories from his previous life were slowly resurfacing.
This looks like an event tied to the main quest.
The player character would clear the first raid, realize his own shortcomings, and meet a powerful figure from whom he could obtain additional skills. That was the quest where one met this 2nd class tank and received training. He hadn’t noticed immediately because his previous self had been an inveterate skipper. There had been a scene where he met an old man and learned a skill, but he had skipped the old man’s name without even reading it.
“Young Duke. I am not trying to interfere with your plans. Please at least give Sir Dust the chance to hear the offer and choose for himself.”
Seeing that Carix truly disliked the idea, Jena made a bitter face and pleaded. She had probably known that if the princess asked directly, he would refuse. But her rational affection for Leng was already over seventy percent. She clearly wanted to give the man who might become hers the opportunity to grow stronger.
“……Sigh. Leng.”
“Yes.”
“What do you want to do?”
“To be honest… I would like to at least spar with him. He is a 2nd class knight, after all. For someone who was once merely a common knight, this could be the first and last chance to cross blades with the man who was once the kingdom’s strongest sword. If you forbid it, I would feel regretful.”
Yet if Carix told him not to, he would refuse without hesitation. Leng was not an ungrateful wretch. He would always put Carix’s words first. Still, having met the fate and opportunity known as Carix and reached his current level, he would want to test himself—how far he could reach without the monster that was his lord.
“………When will he arrive?”
“It seems he will arrive tomorrow.”
“That’s quite the rushed schedule.”
The old man was in a hurry.
“Ha. Very well. However, I will absolutely not meet him—no matter what happens.”
“Oh! How unusually considerate of you, Young Duke!”
“That is what I was hoping for as well!”
“You made the right decision, young master! That’s right! No matter if he is 2nd class, he is a man in his seventies! If you hit someone like that by mistake, he could die!!”
“?”
These bastards? He had known from the start that the target was only Leng, but their lines were truly something else.
And so, the following evening.
“Young Duuuuke!!!”
“Oh my?!”
“Ah, you startled me. I sent Leng away, didn’t I? Why are you screaming again?”
They had been training magic alone with the marchioness when the princess suddenly burst in by herself. Both of them tilted their heads in confusion.
“Wa…! Wa! Wa! Wa!!”
“Wa?”
“Wawa?”
“Sir Walter!! Sir Walter has been murdered…!!!”
The old man who was supposed to come and grant Leng a new skill had instead thrown an incident at them and departed for the afterlife.