Park Sang-hyeok, a Grade 8 Swordsman and the most senior member of the advanced class, was responsible for keeping the trainees in line.
Most people aspiring to become Swordsmen at the Swordsmanship Institute were either fearless, belligerent, or had criminal records. As a result, even the instructors tended to turn a blind eye when Park Sang-hyeok enforced discipline.
One boy happened to catch Park Sang-hyeok's eye.
It was none other than Kim Ji-han, who had finished training and was heading back to his quarters.
“What's with that kid? Why's he leaving at this hour?”
“Who, sir? Oh, him. I think he's the one the director brought in.”
“Is he a criminal?”
There were two kinds of people the director of the Swordsmanship Institute personally brought in.
Criminals who had committed crimes using awakened abilities, or Awakened with talent for becoming Hunters.
The latter was unlikely.
“Of course he's a criminal.”
After all, if he had talent, he would have gone to the Magic Institute rather than the Swordsmanship Institute.
“What? Then he's passed the Floor 0 test?”
“I suppose so. The director wouldn't be training him personally if he hadn't passed in the first place.”
“But the brat looks young, and he's got the nerve to leave early while his seniors are training their asses off? Gi-han, does that seem right to you?”
“It's definitely disrespectful.”
“You said he's a criminal, right? Bastards like him need to be put in their place before they start getting uppity.”
Park Sang-hyeok rose from the bench press.
Jin Gi-han, another Grade 8 Swordsman in the advanced class, asked him,
“Where are you going?”
“To see the director.”
***
The director had told me something.
The moment Mana left the human body, it lost its controllability and dispersed.
That was why enveloping a sword in Mana was impossible.
‘Then what's this?’
Back in my room, I sat on the edge of my bed and experimented with Mana.
Now that I'd gone from a state of Mana Unawareness to a state of awareness, I could clearly sense the Mana flowing within my body.
And I could do more than just sense it. I could control it too.
For example, Mana was rising from the hand I'd raised.
‘I can't see it, but it's definitely covering my skin.’
It was covering my skin.
That meant the Mana had come outside my body.
I'd been told that Mana leaving the body couldn't be controlled and would disperse, yet mine was maintaining its form perfectly.
Its shape was that of a flame.
And if I changed that shape a little more……
“Oh.”
It became a glove surrounding my hand.
‘So it is possible.’
Controlling Mana that had flowed outside the body, that is.
Then was it also possible to envelop an object in Mana, as the knight in my dream had described?
I picked up a pencil from the desk.
I controlled my Mana and tried coating the pencil with it.
‘It works.’
The pencil was completely enveloped in Mana.
I immediately drove the Mana-coated pencil into the desk.
CRUNCH!
“!?”
Without exerting any force, I had managed to drive the pencil into the desk.
The pencil hadn't broken, and even its graphite tip was intact.
‘Could it be……?’
That phenomenon led me to a conclusion.
Could I have been unconsciously imparting Mana to objects all this time?
It seemed I'd have to test it.
‘Now, what's something suitable to cut……?’
I took another pencil.
After imbuing it with Mana, I stuck it straight into the desk so that it stood upright.
Then I picked up yet another pencil.
This time, I merely held it without coating it in Mana.
I stared at the pencil standing in the desk.
‘That pencil is my sworn enemy. It killed Director Yoon Tae-hyun, the man who saved me from being locked up in prison.’
Just in case, I also tried convincing myself that I intended to cut that pencil down.
Since I'd seen the Blue Line on a wooden training dummy, it ought to work on a pencil too.
And the next moment, the Blue Line appeared.
The end of the line connected to the pencil stuck in the desk.
‘I think I'm starting to understand.’
How to see the Blue Line.
When I sensed hostility or murderous intent from an opponent.
And when I was holding something.
Naturally, the former didn't apply this time, so it had to be the latter.
I swung the pencil in my hand along the Blue Line's path.
SLASH— THUMP— ROLL, ROLL…….
The pencil was cut.
It had been split cleanly in half, leaving a smooth cross-section.
I recalled the sensation I'd felt when cutting through it.
‘I'm certain…….’
In that brief instant, I'd enveloped the pencil in my hand with Mana.
That was something I could recognize now that I could sense Mana.
And now I was certain.
Mana could be imparted to objects.
***
A trainee entered Yoon Tae-hyun's office.
It was Park Sang-hyeok, a Grade 8 Swordsman from the advanced class.
“Oh, Director. You've seemed busy lately. Have you been well?”
“Oh, what could I possibly be busy with? The trainees working to become Swordsmen are the ones who are busier and have it harder. But what brings you here?”
“You know that kid you brought in, Director?”
“Ah, you mean Mr. Kim Ji-han?”
“I don't know his name, but he looks pretty young. How old is he?”
“Seventeen.”
“Is he a criminal, by any chance?”
Yoon Tae-hyun nodded with his characteristic smile.
Park Sang-hyeok's expression turned serious as he asked,
“What crime did he commit?”
“He killed two people.”
“Wow…… A vicious criminal, all right. And so young, tsk. How about I straighten him out? One look and you can tell he's trouble.”
“Don't.”
Yoon Tae-hyun continued to smile as he spoke.
“You'll die if you do, Mr. Park Sang-hyeok.”
“…….”
Park Sang-hyeok stared at him blankly for a moment.
Yoon Tae-hyun was certainly smiling, but his eyes weren't.
He was seriously warning him that he could die.
“Why would you put it like that? That's rather hurtful.”
“Please don't misunderstand. I don't mean that I would kill you. I mean that Mr. Kim Ji-han might.”
Park Sang-hyeok was dumbfounded again.
Me? Killed by some seventeen-year-old brat who, by any estimate, hasn't even been Awakened for a full week?
“……Is that brat supposed to be someone special?”
“It's not exactly that he's someone special…… but there is something about him. More importantly, Mr. Kim Ji-han isn't the sort of person who needs to be disciplined for causing trouble. And if discipline is necessary, the instructors will handle it.”
Park Sang-hyeok scratched his head awkwardly at Yoon Tae-hyun's words.
What the director said wasn't wrong, but it still left a bitter taste in his mouth.
It seemed obvious that he was giving that criminal special treatment.
Ordinarily, the director often let him enforce discipline without interfering.
“Fine, I get what you're saying, Director. But if that kid starts acting up, I won't just stand by and watch.”
Director Yoon Tae-hyun nodded silently.
Just as Park Sang-hyeok was about to leave, he made one request.
“If you ever intend to spar with Mr. Kim Ji-han, please make sure you call me.”
“Jeez…… I'll take it easy on him. Easy.”
Park Sang-hyeok couldn't believe the warning that he might die.
***
The next day arrived.
As usual, Director Yoon Tae-hyun came to see me, and we headed to the soup-and-rice restaurant.
After a hearty meal, Director Yoon Tae-hyun explained the training curriculum he'd prepared.
“Let's put physical training aside for today. I've arranged a curriculum focused on classroom instruction: information about the Tower, hand signals, rules of conduct for Swordsmen, and so on.”
“Won't there be any stamina training today?”
“Would you like some?”
I nodded.
Personally, there were a lot of things I wanted to test about this power.
“Can I use quite a few wooden training dummies?”
“How many would you need?”
“Hmm…… Ten.”
“I'll have them prepared. Then shall we say lectures in the morning and physical training in the afternoon?”
I nodded.
“Very well. The beginner classroom is on the second floor. There should be a sign on the door reading ‘Beginner Class,’ so please go in there.”
I nodded and headed up to the second floor.
Director Yoon Tae-hyun, on the other hand, went down to the basement.
Apparently, he had some business in the underground training ground.
When I reached the second floor and opened the glass door, I saw a moderately spacious hall and a short, straight corridor.
Along the corridor were doors marked ‘Advanced Class,’ ‘Intermediate Class,’ and ‘Beginner Class.’
I made my way toward the Beginner Class.
BANG—
When I opened the door and stepped inside, several people had already taken their seats and were preparing for class.
Two men and two women.
Since I'd been told I was the youngest Hunter, they were probably all older than me.
I looked awkwardly at the older trainees before sitting in an empty seat.
As at school, I chose a seat right at the front.
“Who's that?”
“He looks really young.”
“Hey, who are you?”
One of the women asked me.
To be honest, all this attention was pretty embarrassing.
I'd hardly ever spoken to girls even when I was at school…….
Scratching my head awkwardly, I said,
“I'm Kim Ji-han. I'll be attending classes starting today.”
“A trainee? You're a trainee too?”
“How old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
“Gasp!”
“Seventeen? Did you say seventeen?”
“Can a minor even become a Hunter?”
The last question came from a brown-haired man.
I shook my head and answered,
“I'm not really sure either, but I think it's probably because I committed a crime.”
“Gasp! You committed a crime?”
“What crime?”
“Didn't you guys watch the news?”
The speaker was a fierce-looking man who reminded me of a school bully.
He grinned as he spoke.
“That's him, isn't it? The bastard who cut off the heads of a National Assembly member and his son.”
“!?”
“The decapitation murderer!?”
“W-was that really you?”
“……Yes.”
I answered in a dejected voice.
“It wasn't intentional.”
“How the hell do you cut someone's head off without meaning to? This guy's seriously insane. Heh-heh.”
At the bully-like man's words, the other woman and man looked at me fearfully.
Things had become terribly awkward.
I sighed and, having little choice, decided to demonstrate my ability to explain myself.
“It really wasn't intentional. Could I borrow something long from you?”
“Something long?”
The woman with long black hair handed me a fifteen-centimeter ruler from her pencil case.
As soon as I took it, I enveloped the ruler in Mana.
“Can you see this?”
“See what?”
“Oh, right. Mana isn't visible, is it? I've coated this ruler in Mana.”
“……?”
“You coated it in Mana?”
“What do you mean?”
“Uh…… It'll be easier to show you than explain.”
I lightly scraped the Mana-coated ruler against the desk.
SCRAAAAAPE—
It left a gouge in the desktop.
“““!?”””
The older trainees stared in disbelief.
One of the men even rubbed his eyes, wondering if he'd seen it correctly.
“Wow!”
“How did you do that just now? You barely brushed it, and it left a mark like this?”
“I coated the ruler in Mana.”
“Wow, that's amazing. Do they teach things like that at the Swordsmanship Institute?”
Something about their conversation struck me as strange, so I asked,
“Do you know that Mana becomes impossible to control once it leaves the body?”
“……?”
“Then how did you do it?”
Ah.
I realized something when he said that.
These older trainees haven't learned it yet, have they?
“You know about Mana Awareness and Mana Unawareness, right?”
“Ugh…… Suddenly I'm getting PTSD…….”
“That hurt like hell.”
“When I committed that crime, I was still in a state of Mana Unawareness. I didn't intentionally cut anyone's head off. They attacked me, too.”
“Oh, so you're saying you accidentally coated something in Mana while you were unaware of it?”
“Yes.”
I went on to explain what had happened back then.
I told them that the person whose head I'd cut off was a notorious school bully, that he'd attacked me five against one, and that I'd accidentally killed him while fighting back because I had no other choice.
I added, for the record, that I was the one.
Naturally, I also told them all about the bully's terrible character.
The longer I explained, the less wary the older trainees became.
“Wow, that bully was a real fucking bastard. He beat a girl so badly in middle school that she had to be hospitalized?”
“More precisely, he tried to rape her, and when she resisted, he beat her. Everyone in the neighborhood knew what he'd done, but they kept quiet because his father was a National Assembly member.”
“Wow, good riddance to that bastard. That's a load off my mind.”
BANG—
Just then, the door opened.
“Ah, the instructor's here.”
“Hello, Instructor.”
“Yes, hello.”
The person who entered was a woman wearing glasses, an instructor I hadn't met before.
Apparently, she was in charge of the class.
At that moment, the brown-haired man cheerfully asked her,
“Instructor Tae-hee, will we be able to learn how to do this later?”
“Pardon? Learn what?”
“How to coat a sword in Mana.”
“……?”
Instructor Kim Tae-hee looked as though she wasn't sure she'd heard correctly.
“Mana on a sword? In other words, you mean enveloping an object in Mana?”
“Yes.”
“That's impossible.”
Instructor Kim Tae-hee continued firmly.
“Mana loses its controllability once it leaves the body.”
“Huh? Then how did Ji-han do it?”
“But Ji-han can do it.”
“……What did you say?”
Instructor Kim Tae-hee's expression stiffened.
The older trainees pointed at the desk and said,
“Look here. Ji-han just coated a ruler in Mana and scratched the desk like this.”
“…….”
Instructor Kim Tae-hee's mouth fell wide open.
She looked unmistakably flustered.
“J-just a moment. Ji-han, stay right where you are and behave yourself. D-Director!!”
With that, Instructor Kim Tae-hee hurried out of the classroom.