The Dean of the College of Martial Studies.
As the dean representing its numerous departments and divisions, he wielded considerable authority.
And with that authority came equally considerable expectations.
That very dean now felt as though he were sitting on a bed of thorns.
Silence hung over the President’s Office.
He wished the President would say something, anything at all, but the man merely devoted himself to his paperwork without uttering a word.
Perhaps he was deliberately putting on a display, as though to say, Look how much extra work you have created for me.
Several hours passed.
By the time the tea the President had served him had gone completely cold, the Dean had maintained his silence throughout.
He knew that anything further he said would only make him more of an eyesore.
Even so, he found it difficult to accept that he had made a mistake.
The Dean closed his eyes and recalled the previous day.
“I am Toscantana Aiden Peacevolt. …Though I have not been formally invested by the Imperial Family, I am unofficially the lowest-ranked of the Empire’s Three Swords, and its third Master.”
Unlike other professors who attempted to make an impact from the very beginning of a lecture, Aiden’s introduction was remarkably plain.
Yet no one present dared dismiss him.
A Master.
One of fewer than ten beings worthy of that title among all the races of the world.
Simply hearing him identify himself as one was enough to exert tremendous pressure.
Other Masters included the Witch who had guarded the Great Plains for several centuries, the Paladin who called himself the Sword of God of the Holy Kingdom, the Great Hero who had united the Beastfolk Tribes, and the legendary Great Warrior of the Middle East who had brought the Ten-Year War to an end.
Even those figures had only reached that realm in the middle or latter portions of their lives.
Never before had anyone placed his name among them at the age of only twenty-seven.
The very existence of Masters was one of the reasons the Empire could stabilize its vast territories and continue to exist as an empire.
Naturally, the Empire’s treatment of Masters was no less generous than that of any other nation.
Even setting aside the fact that Aiden was the future Duke, a single word from him could wield virtually unchecked influence.
And yet the reason Aiden had come here as a professor was……
‘Politics is a nuisance.’
Whether the Imperial Family brought him in as a son-in-law or appointed him Commander of the Imperial Court Knights, they would inevitably shower him with favors and attempt to bind him to their side.
He wanted none of that.
Being mobilized whenever trouble arose?
Standing at the front lines?
Absolutely not.
A respectable excuse that he needed to teach students, combined with a life where he could leave work on time.
That was about the right balance……
“Forgive me, but may I ask one question first, Professor… Aiden?”
Aiden gestured for him to proceed, and the elderly professor cleared his throat.
“I heard the subject of your course is the Aura Cultivation Method. Does that mean your intention is to help students deepen their understanding of Aura?”
“Understanding Aura……?”
Aiden sank briefly into thought before responding as though he had just been asked something obvious.
“Can someone who cannot even manifest Aura be called a swordsman in the first place?”
“Hmm… But Professor, Aura is hardly something one can manifest so eas—”
“They will manifest it.”
Aiden’s notoriously insufferable personality emerged as he unconsciously interrupted the man.
His expression had hardened, and the words came out almost like a rebuke.
Every professor in the room fell silent.
“One of my students being some filthy half-baked excuse for a swordsman who cannot even meet that bare minimum? If anyone heard of such a thing, I would be so ashamed that I would have to resign my post. I will not tolerate it.”
Only after the words left my mouth did I realize what I had said.
‘Damn it……’
This body’s personality really never went anywhere.
Thanks to that, my plan to proceed in a solemn and courteous manner had collapsed before I had even properly begun.
What I had originally intended to say was nothing more than—
I intend to draw remarkable improvement from my students.
That was it.
I could only marvel at how such a simple intention had somehow emerged as something so twisted and abrasive.
Still, marveling at it changed nothing.
My personality remained the same.
When I lowered my voice into a warning growl, the atmosphere became even colder.
Even I could feel it.
Yet no one objected.
Perhaps they had interpreted even my arrogance as an expression of confidence.
As though I were declaring, ‘Do you truly think I cannot accomplish something so trivial?’
‘Ah. I see.’
Most of the people here were retired servicemen who had achieved respectable accomplishments in their youth and later earned positions as professors.
But even those accomplishments were insignificant compared to Aiden’s.
They could not easily contradict him.
The pressure carried by the name Aiden far surpassed anything I had expected.
“I may have become somewhat agitated, but my opinion remains unchanged. If a student of mine cannot even accomplish that much, then they may as well not have taken my course at all.”
And the reason I had decided to teach this course was……
I lowered my tone again and shifted into the cadence of a lecturer.
“Recently, I observed a second-year student from the Department of Knighthood named Aisel. Her level was surprisingly low despite being ranked second in her year. When I was her age, I had already been approaching the threshold of Master.”
A heavy silence descended.
And alongside it, anxiety slowly began to ignite.
He was unprecedented.
There had never been anyone like him in recorded history, and perhaps there never would be again.
Some even exaggerated that humanity might never again produce a genius equal to Aiden.
Naturally, if he attempted to judge ordinary students by his own standards, not one of them would survive.
If anything, because those students were themselves geniuses praised as the finest minds of the Empire, there was concern that encountering the genuine article might simply crush their confidence.
I knew that as well.
So I added what was almost an unnecessary clarification.
“Of course, I have no intention of applying my own standards to the students. None of them possess the aptitude required for that in the first place.”
Even though the remark might have irritated the professors, no one objected.
After all, the ‘aptitude’ Aiden referred to meant nothing less than the potential to become the fourth Master.
The standard was so absurdly high that no one even felt inclined to argue.
“But that does not mean I can tolerate some half-baked fool—no, something even less than that—calling themselves a swordsman while incapable of using Aura. I will make sure they can use it.”
Someone swallowed audibly.
A being whom most could barely even approach, much less receive guidance from, was going to teach them personally.
He was saying that he would personally lead students all the way to the realm of Aura.
Another professor raised his hand.
“How do you intend to teach them?”
“Experience.”
My answer was brief.
Few things were as uncertain as experience.
And few things were as reliable.
‘The truth is, I simply do not know how to teach it through anything other than experience……’
Unless I relied on the knowledge I possessed from my days as director.
“There is a saying that excessive courtesy becomes discourtesy, so I will speak plainly. Though I may rank lowest among them, I am still one of the Masters who stand at the pinnacle of an entire field. From the summit, one inevitably sees many things that are invisible from below.”
I slowly began elaborating on my one-word answer.
“I will turn the experiences of my own failures into lessons of flesh and blood for the students. My immediate objective for this semester is to awaken Aura in as many of them as possible.”
“Your immediate objective?”
“Of course. Once they awaken Aura, there is still somewhere higher to go. I have no intention of abandoning them merely because they managed to awaken it.”
Once they entered that realm, they needed enough mastery for Aura to feel as natural as their own bodies and limbs.
Mastery.
After uttering the word, I swept my gaze over the assembled professors as though asking whether anyone had further questions, then closed my eyes.
“Then let us begin the rehearsal.”
I snapped my fingers.
Pure white spread outward.
It seemed almost detached from the world around it, a jade-white radiance spreading without regard for light or shadow.
Within it, feathers began to flutter into existence one by one.
Then they poured forth as though released from something that had held them tightly compressed.
WHOOOOOSH—
Like stars exquisitely carved into the night sky, the shimmering feathers did not disrupt the space around them.
Instead, they blended gently into it.
They looked simultaneously natural and conspicuous.
Beautiful.
Rather than beauty deliberately manufactured by human hands, it seemed more appropriate to call it the beauty of nature itself.
Looking closely, some feathers were damaged.
Others were incomplete.
But precisely because of those imperfections……
“Is that why it looks so natural?”
The professors each let out sounds of admiration at the phenomenon I had created.
‘I still cannot wield the rapier as naturally as my own body, but……’
At least I could somehow manipulate mana.
‘Because this is practically part of my body.’
Calling it merely mysterious failed to capture its profound elegance, yet calling it an illusion ignored how unmistakably real it appeared.
It resembled a feather-stuffed pillow bursting open and scattering its contents everywhere.
Though there was no wind inside the lecture hall, the feathers drifted as though carried by a breeze.
Within moments, they filled the entire room, swaying gently as their color gradually became clear.
Pure white.
One professor reached toward a feather that had drifted close to him.
It fluttered just beyond his grasp as though genuinely swimming on a current of air.
Eventually, he caught it.
The instant it entered his hand, it dissolved, leaving behind a pale blue afterglow.
Only then did everyone understand.
They appeared utterly real, but they were all illusions.
Because they were empty forms without physical substance, they did not obey gravity and could remain floating near the ceiling of the lecture hall.
“Good heavens……!”
But that was not the only thing the professors noticed.
The feather that had disappeared into a blue afterglow—
had been mana.
Every feather filling the room was Sword Energy formed entirely from mana.
As though asking whether they had only just realized it, I clapped my hands once.
CLAP.
Every eye returned to me.
“This is my Aura.”
The Aura of a Master.
At its earliest stage, Aura merely manifested a property.
But at its ultimate extreme, it became something visible like this.
After considerable deliberation over what such a thing could possibly be called, there seemed to be only one fitting name.
The Phantasmal Sword.
“Aura reflects the wielder’s Inner Image. It expresses, in complete detail, what lies within the user’s heart, the state of mind with which they wield Aura, and the intention behind it.”
After introducing the concept, I provided myself as an example.
“As you just witnessed, my Inner Image is pristine, immaculate, and pure. Untainted purity in its rawest form. You may consider that to be the essence of my Inner Image.”
I tapped the decorative rapier I had brought along as I continued.
In truth, I had barely drawn it before.
“I use a rapier, so I place considerable importance on lightness. The lighter my body, the faster I can thrust. At the same time, evasion and immediate counterattacks require an elusive quality, something that always seems just beyond one’s grasp.”
“So that is why you chose feathers?”
“Correct. A flock of white feathers. That is the fundamental nature of my Aura.”
Yet the professors still seemed unsatisfied.
Aiden nodded, showing that he understood their doubts.
“A knight uses Aura not merely to demonstrate their level of attainment, but for its destructive power. What you are wondering right now is, ‘What destructive power could feathers like these possibly possess?’”
I had expected as much.
I set upright the wooden board I had brought with me.
Then, without even drawing my sword, I casually snapped my fingers and released the Aura in the form of a feather.
Only one.
A single tiny feather drifted gently through the air.
And in the next instant, nothing remained of the wooden board but brutally shredded sawdust scattering across the floor.
The young professor who had earlier reached out to catch one of the feathers went deathly pale.
I gave him a faint smile.
My intention was merely to convey that the feathers possessed sufficient destructive power.
Judging by everyone’s bloodless complexions, however, their interpretation seemed somewhat different.
“Every feather you thought looked so natural just now is one of my Killing Moves. Is it not rather naive to openly scatter danger everywhere while announcing that you intend to kill your opponent?”
In other words, during actual combat, the instant someone became entranced by their breathtaking beauty, they would be sliced apart just like the wooden board that had been reduced to sawdust.
The sound of someone swallowing echoed clearly through the lecture hall.
“As I said, Aura reflects the Inner Image. Through that Inner Image, one can conceal Aura’s destructive power or amplify its visual presence. Therefore, the moment an Inner Image takes complete form……”
It would become a realm of its own and give birth to Aura.
“And understanding one’s Inner Image ultimately requires a fundamental understanding of oneself. The sooner that image takes shape, the sooner one can reach the idea of imbuing Aura with a particular property.”
As though deciding that this explanation was sufficient, I placed a hand on the desk.
“Thus, my course will teach the students the process through which I formed my Inner Image before becoming a Master.”
For the first assignment, having them write a report about themselves should suffice.
The professors barely registered Aiden’s final remark.
They were already convinced of one thing.
This professor’s course was going to shake the entire College of Martial Studies.
***
Back in the present.
As the Dean recalled that rehearsal, he felt the blood of his younger days beginning to stir again.
He had retired only after reaching a wall that prevented him from advancing any further.
Yet the thought had begun to creep into his mind—
perhaps, if he attended Aiden’s lectures, he might be able to challenge that wall once more.
And precisely because the lecture had inspired even such an undignified thought in him, the Dean had overlooked one decisive mistake.
Professor Aiden’s course was a general elective.
It was not held in the Grand Lecture Hall like [Pure Magic Theory].
Nor was it open to the entire College of Martial Studies.
Only a portion of students from the Department of Knighthood were permitted to register.
Worse still, its capacity was only forty students.
That day, the professors who had observed the rehearsal had returned to their own students and showered the course with praise.
‘I watched Professor Aiden’s rehearsal today. If you fail to take that class, you will be the only ones losing out.’
Their enthusiastic recommendations had ignited tremendous interest……
But the capacity was forty.
Registration was restricted to the Department of Knighthood.
Students majoring in other departments within the College of Martial Studies could not even apply.
Complaints from parents began pouring in……