Early the next morning, Lance rose to practice swordsmanship.
This time, instead of the Piaoqi Kingdom’s Basic Military Swordsmanship, he chose [Spirit Fox Swordsmanship], the style Poirot had learned from Viscount Lane.
Fox displayed its analysis.
[Spirit Fox Swordsmanship]
Elite-grade swordsmanship.
Long-term practice can improve physical attributes.
Estimated result after 300 complete practice cycles:
Constitution +0.3
Strength +0.2
Agility +0.3
Prerequisite: mastery of basic swordsmanship.
Compared with the six simple movements of the basic military style, Spirit Fox Swordsmanship emphasized technique far more heavily.
‘More than twenty movements…
Learning the whole set is more than twice as complicated.’
Lance replayed the image of Poirot demonstrating the style.
With the master chip’s help, he broke the complete sequence down into individual movements that could be practiced separately.
‘No need to rush.
I only started learning swordsmanship to strengthen this weak body.
Magic is still the most important thing.’
Following Fox’s guidance, Lance raised his wooden sword and practiced one movement at a time.
…
Two hours later, he had finally grasped the essentials of the first of the twenty-eight movements.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, set the wooden sword aside, and rested.
‘Fox, at my current pace, how long will it take me to complete three hundred proper practice cycles and gain the physical improvement?’
Fox replied: [At your current learning rate, mastering the correct form of all movements will require at least two weeks.
During that period, approximately twenty repetitions should meet the required standard.
Once the complete form is mastered, your practice rate will increase.
The first stage of training should then be completed within approximately one additional month, allowing you to reach three hundred qualified repetitions.]
‘Nearly two months?’
Lance frowned.
He had expected the process to take time, but that was still longer than he wanted.
‘Is there any way to accelerate the training?’
Fox replied: [None has been identified yet.
My database for this world remains incomplete.
Greater exposure to local materials may reveal another method of accelerating physical development—for example, the murloc blood used previously.]
‘Don’t remind me about the murloc blood.
Its side effects caused enough trouble already.’
Fox replied: [Based on the final physical result, the side effects do not necessarily make the treatment unacceptable.
Another two-week cycle is projected to increase both Constitution and Agility by approximately 0.1.]
‘And if the side effect happens again?’
Fox replied: [Haven’t you already found a way to handle it?]
Lance nearly choked on the response.
Sometimes having a master chip this intelligent was not entirely a blessing.
The previous side effects had created an awkward personal complication involving Bonnie, and Lance had no desire to repeat it.
Fox said: [If you refuse to use murloc blood, I will increase the priority of searching for an alternative.
However, finding another material with an equivalent strengthening effect may be difficult.]
Lance considered his current condition.
All three of his physical attributes were close to 0.7.
Another two weeks of murloc-blood treatment should raise his Strength and Constitution to that threshold, while Agility would still be short by 0.1.
If he could make up the remaining difference, he would qualify to activate a subchip.
In a world full of danger, one more functioning subchip could dramatically improve his ability to survive.
For all the small tricks and swordsmanship he had learned, he was still protected largely by his father’s territory and status.
‘All right.
One more treatment cycle.’
He made the decision after a long moment.
The earlier complication still made him uncomfortable, and the poison Fox had detected in his food the night before remained another warning that he could not afford to become careless.
…
A voice suddenly came from behind him.
“Lance, you said you would teach me swordsmanship.”
He turned in surprise and found Irene standing there.
She seemed uncomfortable under his gaze and lowered her head slightly before repeating herself.
Lance noticed the distance in her tone.
She no longer called him “Brother Lance” with the easy affection she once had.
Now she simply called him Lance.
He felt awkward as well.
What had happened recently had clearly left tension between them.
But if Irene truly intended to avoid him, why ask him for sword lessons?
She could have gone to Eric or any number of other people.
Unable to make sense of it, Lance simply nodded.
“What swordsmanship have you learned?”
Irene shook her head.
“Then we’ll start with the basics.”
…
The morning passed quickly.
Teaching Irene the fundamentals was awkward at first, but for the rest of the session Lance lost himself in the pleasure of training.
Spirit Fox Swordsmanship was far more complex than the basic style, yet Lance discovered that his learning speed was increasing.
Once he had mastered the first movement accurately, the later movements seemed to reveal a faint underlying pattern.
He could reproduce them more naturally and with surprising precision.
‘Is this what martial-arts novels back on Earth used to call comprehension?’
He wondered whether his improving learning speed was connected to becoming a wizard.
Wizards were people with unusually clear minds to begin with.
Since Lance had started meditating, he had also felt his energy grow more abundant and his thoughts sharper.
These changes did not belong to the physical attributes Fox could measure, and the chip could not directly examine the deeper workings of his brain.
Even without numbers, Lance could feel himself becoming stronger day by day—physically and mentally.
That feeling was deeply satisfying.
More importantly, it gave him even greater motivation to work.
At noon, Lance did something unusual and ate in the main hall with Viscountess Nancy and his younger sisters.
With Fox screening his food, he no longer needed to avoid the table completely.
He simply tested what he ate first.
Perhaps his sudden appearance at lunch caught Nancy off guard.
Fox detected no toxin during the meal, so Lance ate heartily.
Before leaving, he even took two pieces of bread back to his room.
Nancy offered several false pleasantries.
Lance answered with equal politeness.
After lunch, the First Madam followed her usual habit of taking an afternoon nap.
In summer she slept in the castle’s rear garden, where a vineyard was managed by two of her distant relatives.
‘Nancy sleeps beneath the grape trellis every afternoon.
Today shouldn’t be any different.’
Lance had left the table early.
He slipped into the vineyard while no one was watching.
He rarely came here, but the former owner’s memories gave him enough familiarity with the layout.
Beneath a dense canopy of vines stood a well-made reclining chair.
A small table beside it held grapes, bananas, other fruit, and several cups of water.
Lance smiled coldly.
He dropped one completed Beating Grass seed into one of the cups, then stepped back and scattered another seed along the path between the grapevines and the vineyard exit.
Beating Grass was a genuine Tier 0 magic item and extremely valuable by ordinary standards.
Lance had successfully made only four seeds.
Spending two merely to teach Nancy a lesson was extravagant.
‘Now I just wait for the show.’
He found a concealed place nearby and hid.
Before long, voices came from the vineyard path.
“Luna, how are things going?
Why did Lance appear in the dining hall at noon today?”
It was Nancy.
Luna?
So she belonged to Nancy as well.
Lance’s expression sharpened.
That explained why the woman had treated him with such contempt.
“Don’t worry, Madam.
I already arranged everything through Hogg.
Even Bonnie knows nothing about it,” Luna whispered.
“It won’t be long before he becomes useless.”
“Hmph.
He was useless to begin with.”
Nancy entered Lance’s view and sat on the reclining chair.
“If Lane weren’t protecting him, I would have gotten rid of him long ago.”
“Of course.
How could someone like Lance compare with Young Master Griffin?” Luna flattered.
Nancy smiled in satisfaction.
“My son is naturally superior to May’s.
The viscount is sentimental, so he kept Lance and indulged him all these years.
I won’t.
The future master of Windwatch Castle is destined to be my son.”
“Lance will not touch a single piece of the estate the viscount leaves behind.”
Lance listened in silence, his eyes narrowing.
He concentrated his mind and quietly spoke a short incantation.
The cup beside Nancy suddenly shattered.
Both women jumped.
A seed burst from the broken cup, swelling as it rose.
In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a coarse green plant nearly a meter tall.
Even more terrifying were the two long green arms growing from its sides.
Each ended in a palm nearly three times the size of an ordinary person’s.
“Ah!”
Nancy and Luna screamed together.
Nancy had barely risen from the chair when the Beating Grass swung one long arm and slapped her across the face.
Smack!
A red handprint appeared instantly.
The blow knocked her to the ground, where she lay stunned.
And Lance had deliberately limited its force.
A Beating Grass was a real magic item.
At full strength, the force behind its attacks could kill several ordinary adults.
‘For Father’s sake, I’ll stop at teaching you a lesson this time.’
The plant did not care whether Nancy had had enough.
It sprang after her and continued striking as she tried to crawl away.
Hidden nearby, Lance almost laughed.
So this was what “slapping someone in the face” really looked like.
“Help!
Help!”
Nancy shouted in panic.
Luna finally recovered from her shock.
“Someone!
Come quickly!
Help!”
She turned and ran for the vineyard exit.
Two short men appeared along the path—the distant relatives of Nancy who managed the vineyard.
Luna looked as though salvation had arrived.
She had barely taken a few steps toward them when a green shadow suddenly rose in front of her.
Her face went pale.
Smack!
Smack!
Smack!
The sound of another Beating Grass echoed through the vineyard.
For a moment, mistress and maid found themselves in almost identical situations: Nancy crawling on the ground trying to evade the relentless plant, and Luna being driven backward by repeated blows.
The two vineyard keepers rushed over, saw the scene before them, and stopped dead in disbelief.