Keep a close eye on Ruben Seirin.
Stanley, the professor in charge of Imperial Standard Swordsmanship for Lion Heart’s first-year students, spent the entire breakfast mulling over the warning Ribart had given him.
Ruben Seirin.
A freshman who had supposedly crushed Pan Slipel, the most highly anticipated genius among this year’s incoming students, and displayed an astonishing amount of Sword Mana.
That was what the rumors said, but Stanley found them difficult to believe.
If such stories had merely been circulating among the students, he would have dismissed them as another tall tale concocted by children who enjoyed spreading rumors. But Ribart himself had witnessed it, so Stanley could not simply ignore the matter.
Besides that, Ruben Seirin had already spawned far too many absurd rumors in only two days since enrolling.
That he had an obsession with his opponents’ backsides.
That he turned into a wild beast and lost all reason whenever he trained.
‘If the rumors are true, that would make him a genius among geniuses who also happens to be a beast that lusts after his Sparring Match opponents’ backsides.’
It was difficult to decide exactly how much of it he should believe.
With those complicated thoughts weighing on his mind, Stanley entered the First Training Ground, where the first-year White Class had gathered.
“Good morning, Professor!”
The cadets greeted him in disciplined unison the moment he entered.
It seemed their seniors had trained them well.
Stanley looked over the assembled cadets with a satisfied expression, introduced himself, and began his first lesson.
“Good to meet you, cadets. My name is Stanley, and I will be teaching you Imperial Standard Swordsmanship for the next year.”
Imperial Standard Swordsmanship was the most fundamental swordsmanship practiced by every soldier in the Empire.
For that reason, it was a mandatory subject for all first-year students at every academy in the Empire, not merely Lion Heart.
Unlike the Kingdom Swordsmanship practiced in the kingdom beyond the Desert of Death, the Empire’s swordsmanship was an extremely efficient and defensive style.
Its defining feature was its fluidity.
Raising the sword to block, swinging it into a slash, and then driving the tip forward in a thrust—all of those movements flowed seamlessly into one another without interruption.
I could understand all of that perfectly well in my head.
“Aaaaaagh! Why is this so difficult?!”
My body simply refused to cooperate.
“Young Master. You can’t break the flow of your strength there. You need to carry the momentum of the swing directly into the thrust.”
“Ugh, what does that even mean?! How am I supposed to do that?!”
Damn it.
Apparently, my body simply lacked far too much combat sense for me to become a warrior.
At least my physical abilities had improved considerably since coming here, so unlike the first time I picked up a sword, I no longer became exhausted and collapsed almost immediately.
Honestly, I almost wished I would collapse.
Why was everyone else able to connect their movements as naturally as flowing water while I alone moved like a broken wooden puppet, jerking from one motion to the next?!
“Second Form! Execute!”
“Hah!”
At Professor Stanley’s command, the other cadets simultaneously transitioned into the movements of the Second Form.
Naturally, Tyr was also performing the Imperial Standard Swordsmanship flawlessly without the slightest difficulty.
I was the only one floundering because I could not keep up with the movements.
The path of a warrior truly was long and arduous.
“Sigh. Ruben Seirin. Step out.”
“Yes!”
In the end, I was pulled from the formation.
Honestly, that was probably for the best.
At this rate, remaining among the others would only interfere with their training.
“Everyone else, practice the First through Third Forms individually until further instructions.”
After saying that, Professor Stanley walked toward me with the expression of a man who had just been handed a live explosive.
Ah.
I had seen professors make that expression plenty of times at the Magic Academy.
Usually, they looked like that when a student was so incomprehensibly stupid that they had to begin by explaining basic addition and subtraction.
Back then, I had assumed it would always be someone else’s problem.
Damn it.
“Ruben Seirin. What is the problem?”
“I’m having difficulty connecting the movements smoothly.”
“You understand that the swordsmanship you are learning emphasizes efficient defense, correct?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Good. Then how do you think a swordsmanship style that could be called the culmination of efficient defense came into existence?”
Huh?
How am I supposed to know that?
I stared at Professor Stanley in confusion.
He apparently had no intention of waiting for my answer, because he drew the wooden sword at his waist and casually held it in one hand.
“By getting beaten to hell until people figured it out.”
Uh.
I have a very bad feeling about this.
“From now on, I will attack only along sword paths that can be blocked using the First Form. Put what you have learned into practice.”
“What?”
No discussion allowed.
Without even smiling, Professor Stanley began beating me with an utterly serious expression.
“Where did your low block disappear to in the middle of that?!”
THUD!
“Are you planning to do nothing but defend?! If you don’t counterattack, the thing you’ll lose is your life!”
THUD!
“You can’t even execute the First Form of Imperial Standard Swordsmanship! Can you truly call yourself a cadet of Lion Heart?!”
THUD!
Aaaaaagh!
Why are you doing this to me?!
I’m a beginner!
I tried executing the First Form exactly as I had been taught, but there was no way I could keep up with Stanley’s movements.
For a moment, I considered using Physical Enhancement.
But I could not rely on such a shallow trick forever.
If I failed to learn this properly now, I would never improve in the future.
Endure it!
THUD!
“Guh!”
But if sheer determination were enough, anyone could become a warrior.
Stanley’s wooden sword struck the back of my neck, and the impact rattled my medulla.
The signals from my central nervous system abruptly cut out.
Darkness swallowed my vision.
It was a familiar sensation as I surrendered myself to the encroaching blackness.
To put it simply, I fainted.
My body really was ridiculously frail.
“You. I’ve been watching you for several days now, and you truly are pathetic. I can’t sense the slightest potential for becoming a warrior from you. How did someone like you obtain the White Blessing?”
Absolute darkness.
Even when I tried to open my eyes, I could not feel them.
When I tried to move, I could not feel my body either.
I could not find even the faintest trace of any part of my physical form.
And from somewhere within that darkness came an unfamiliar voice.
‘Where am I?’
“Inside your own consciousness. Your body is an absolute wreck, yet your mental strength is absurdly powerful. It took far too long for me to synchronize with you. I have truly never encountered anyone like you.”
What an unpleasant voice.
I could not tell whether it belonged to a man or a woman.
It was completely androgynous.
But I could clearly hear the mockery in its tone.
There was an arrogance to it, as though the speaker believed its very existence was nobler and superior to everyone else.
I had encountered quite a few beings that gave off this sort of impression in my previous life.
‘A Spirit?’
“Hah, perceptive, aren’t you? The more I see of you, the stranger you become.”
‘State your name.’
“Hmph. Insolent human. Do you even understand your current situation? If your vessel is incapable of containing me, I will consume you completely and leave you a broken husk. If you survive, perhaps then I will tell you my name.”
A Spirit that refused to reveal its name.
So it was cursed.
Apparently, the flower I had taken from Britz was not merely some miraculous blessing after all.
I did not know exactly what curse afflicted this thing, but judging by the way it was trying to consume a human consciousness, it could hardly have been wholesome even before being cursed.
Unfortunately for you, you chose the wrong opponent.
In my previous life, I had even fought a Spirit King head-on.
A vessel?
A veeeessel?!
An ordinary person would have panicked in this situation and simply submitted to the voice invading their consciousness.
But I was not an ordinary person.
This was ‘my’ consciousness.
That thing was nothing more than an intruder trespassing in my territory.
Surely it had prepared itself for the consequences of invading someone else’s domain?
‘Nameless Spirit. I suggest you reveal your identity immediately.’
“Kahahaha! A brat who has lived only sixteen human years dares threaten me? And what exactly will you do if I refuse? Hahaha. How adorable— What… what is this?!”
I spread mana throughout my entire consciousness in the shape of a net, then slowly began tightening it.
I doubted it had ever experienced an attack like this inside the consciousness of a supposedly inferior human.
Just as expected, it immediately became flustered.
That was what you got for barging into someone else’s home and acting arrogant.
“Stop! How dare an inferior being—!”
Apparently, it launched a mental attack.
The Spirit began peeling away the shell surrounding my consciousness in that pitch-black world, attempting to attack my mind directly.
But would that really work?
“What is this shell…?! This is…. Grand Master?!”
That’s right, you bastard.
I’m a ‘former’ 10th-Circle Grand Master.
I did not know what sort of creature this was, but apparently it was some cursed Spirit forced to survive by parasitizing human minds.
An existence like that had no chance of invading my mental world.
While it stammered in panic, my encirclement continued closing around it.
The instant my mana touched it, the Spirit would be absorbed into my consciousness and disappear completely.
“W-Wait! Stop! Please! I was wrong!”
‘Is that how you ask someone for mercy?’
“Please stop! I’m sorry!”
You should have done that from the beginning.
‘Reveal your identity.’
“I am Admuasil, a great Spirit now forgotten by the world. Once, I ruled the vast snowfields of the north….”
Admuasil.
I had heard that name before.
I vaguely remembered learning in a mage studies class at the Academy that an extremely long time ago, he had been defeated by the Spirit King and extinguished.
If I remembered correctly, he had once embodied the entire northern tundra.
‘Why are you here?’
“After I was defeated by the Spirit King, I was given a chance to revive once every thousand years…. I was cursed to transform into the flower humans call the ‘White Blessing’ and consume a human body. Once I found a suitable vessel, I intended to become a Spirit of the north once again….”
I see.
He must have suffered damage nearly equivalent to complete annihilation at the hands of the Spirit King, yet he had somehow survived even in that state.
Spirits really were extraordinarily difficult beings to erase completely.
Of course, if I moved my mana even slightly right now, this Admuasil or whatever his name was would disappear for good.
‘I see. Unfortunately for you, it seems I ended up containing you. I’m sorry, but I prefer having my consciousness to myself. I’m afraid you’ll have to disappear.’
“W-Wait! I can be useful to you!”
‘…Speak.’
“You must have felt it yourself. Ever since accepting the White Blessing, your body has been growing stronger at an astonishing rate. I can make you far stronger than you are now!”
‘How?’
“If you give me a small portion of your consciousness, I can help you not only improve your physical abilities, but also learn techniques!”
Oh.
Now that was tempting.
Giving him part of my consciousness still felt unpleasant, though.
My combat instincts were practically nonexistent at the moment.
Had I not just been knocked unconscious by Stanley without even managing to touch him?
If I wanted to become the strongest warrior according to my plan, I did not have enough time.
At my current pace, even after a hundred years, I would not reach Locke’s heels.
For now, I should at least hear him out.
‘Fine. Explain how it works.’
“When you are unconscious—when you faint or sleep—I can allow you to practice whatever techniques you wish for as long as you want.”
‘Hmm…. Can we try it immediately?’
“If you give me some space.”
Hmph.
Cunning bastard.
Giving part of my consciousness to a highest-ranking Spirit like this was practically suicide.
Unlike mortal humans, Spirits lived for eternity.
Eventually, their overwhelming mental strength would consume mine.
Even if I was an Archmage and could delay the process, I would ultimately be swallowed by this creature.
However—
What if I could persuade him?
After all, this creature had endured even this humiliating curse because he wanted to set foot in the world again.
But that only mattered if the world continued to exist.
Perhaps he would listen to me.
‘Admuasil, ruler of the tundra. Even in your eternal existence, you’ve never encountered someone like me before, have you?’
“Well, I suppose not. A sixteen-year-old human becoming an Archmage? Heaven and earth might as well overturn themselves.”
‘Exactly. No mortal could possibly reach this level in only sixteen years. Yet I did. How do you think that was possible?’
“…Get to the point.”
‘I regressed from a world thirty years in the future.’
I could not see the Spirit’s face, so I could not read his expression.
But through the world of consciousness, I could feel his emotions.
Admuasil was burning with extraordinary curiosity.
“Thirty years in the future?! You regressed? Good heavens. Even that arrogant Spirit King has probably never heard a story like this. Then you’re saying that thirty years from now, you became an Archmage and returned to the past while retaining that power?”
‘That’s right.’
“Interesting. What is the world like thirty years from now?”
‘Hell. Most living creatures on this continent are exterminated. Dragons, humans, dwarves, elves. All of them.’
Admuasil’s emotions shifted from curiosity to intense agitation.
I could even sense a trace of anger.
“I don’t believe you. This world is not weak enough to collapse in only thirty years.”
‘It wasn’t destroyed by anything belonging to this world. We had no proper name for them, so we called them beings of the Otherworld. One day, they appeared from the east and swallowed the continent at an astonishing speed.’
“…Impossible. If beings that powerful invaded, the dragons would never have remained idle.”
‘They eliminated the dragons first. The beings of the Otherworld possessed the ability to weaken their opponents’ greatest strength. The dragons had their Dragon Tongue Magic sealed and were exterminated.’
Admuasil fell silent for a moment.
He was probably trying to determine whether I was telling the truth.
But every word was true.
And for me, revealing these facts for the first time since my regression left an indescribably bitter feeling in my chest.
“You humans may be greedy creatures, but you are powerful as well. How did you fall so easily?”
…That was a difficult question to answer.
Still, I needed to tell him the truth.
‘Because of me. In order to counter the appearance of the first Archmage in centuries, every human nation on the continent began accelerating the cultivation of mages. As a result, the balance of power between magic and the sword collapsed. Then the beings of the Otherworld, which weakened their opponents’ strengths, took magic away from humanity.’
Yes.
If not for that, perhaps we might have had a chance.
Even now, I thought about it hundreds of times every day.
If only I had not become an Archmage.
Perhaps all those people would not have needed to die.
“…Your story is as difficult to believe as the fact that you are a sixteen-year-old Archmage.”
What a suspicious Spirit.
Well, I supposed words alone would not be enough.
Instead of answering, I used my consciousness to transmit the memories of my previous life like a panorama.
Only an instant passed, yet decades of horrific memories swept through the space occupied by Admuasil and me.
And the Spirit witnessed them all.
“Hah…. Is that really…? Was all of that real?”
‘Yes. It was real. Do you believe me now?’
“…I have no choice but to believe you.”
His voice sounded somewhat subdued.
Perhaps I really could persuade him.
It was time to bring this tedious negotiation to an end.
‘Great Spirit Admuasil. In this life, I intend to walk the path of the sword rather than magic despite possessing the body of a mortal. I will do it to prevent the destruction of the world.’
“…”
Admuasil did not answer.
But I continued.
‘To accomplish that, I need your strength. Lend me your power so that I can achieve my goal and save this world. When my lifespan reaches its end, I will give you my body. Provided you swear a Spirit’s Oath.’
He would have to wait several more decades, but to Admuasil, who lived for eternity, that probably would not feel particularly long.
Just as I expected, the Spirit did not spend long considering my final proposal.
“Very well. I, Admuasil, former ruling Spirit of the tundra, shall aid you. In return, the moment your lifespan comes to an end, I shall take your body. This is a Spirit’s Oath. Now grant me a portion of your consciousness.”
Success?
I truly did not want to give him any of it, but I separated a small portion from the farthest edge of my mental world.
It felt almost like tearing off a piece of land and turning it into an island.
The moment I did, Admuasil’s presence became far clearer within that space.
I saw a youthful boy with silver hair, dressed in something resembling a white one-piece robe.
“Then we shall begin immediately!”
Admuasil smiled brightly and abruptly pulled my entire consciousness into his domain.
At the same moment, the physical body I had been completely unable to feel suddenly returned to my senses with astonishing clarity.