Surprise was surprise, but separately from that, the offer was worth weighing on its own terms.
In my past life Neik never took a disciple.
Nor did he ever teach the sword to anyone.
Even his eldest son Stellan never studied directly under him.
Stellan was an excellent swordsman too.
But only by the standard of ordinary martial artists.
By Neik's assessment, he wasn't at a level to achieve true greatness.
Stellan's talent lay somewhere other than the sword.
Extreme administrative ability, and astonishing tactics and strategy.
So in his lifetime Neik never expected outstanding achievement from Stellan as a swordsman.
And that Neik was offering to train me under him.
This is a chance without equal.
The Three Great Houses are in a loose alliance.
There is moderate exchange between them, and a fair amount of friendly trade.
So sending children to one another to study happens now and then.
In any case, being trained by a superhuman eyeing the Eighth Circle is a chance without equal.
If I have to take up the sword anyway, studying under a Sword Master is a gain any way you look at it.
But one thing.
"I was taught that nothing in this world is free."
"Douglas has not raised his children carelessly. Sending my son to Facial to study might not be a bad idea."
Oh, that's not bad, is it?
Aizel might even like it?
Anyway, so what does he want from me?
Neik gave the answer at once.
"You will train under me until you reach the Fifth Circle. You will spar with me once every ten days."
It made me tilt my head.
Any way you looked at it, those terms favored me.
Doesn't it mean he'll teach me until I reach the Fifth Circle?
And on top of that, sparring with a Seventh Circle swordsman once every ten days, letting me learn the things a body internalizes?
What is this?
Neik Renhardt isn't such a kind man.
Nor is he a man who puts effort into raising up the next generation.
Neik's personal interest, as I know it, is one thing.
The sword.
Dismantling the world completely through the sword.
Understanding the world's truth through the sword.
Why would such a man go out of his way.......
'Hey, what do you make of it?'
-Hah, Master, are you an idiot?
'What was that, punk?'
-What was it that first made that monster take an interest in you?
'When I dismantled [Coercion].'
-And what did you use then?
'The only thing I can use is Ether....... Ah!'
That's it.
To Neik's eye, my Ether must have seemed remarkable.
'He must have seen the Ether that broke [Coercion] and decided there was something to it.'
-He wouldn't have recognized it as Ether, though.
'Obviously not. Even you, a Seventh Circle before the regression, never sensed or recognized Ether.'
-Exactly. Which is why he's curious.
'You worked out that Ether was the cause, but you can't get any further than that?'
-I don't know the man, do I?
'Fair enough. To fill you in....... That man's only interests are the sword and ascending to the Eighth Circle. So when a man like that sees a Third Circle martial artist break his signature technique that easily, of course he takes notice.'
-So you're saying a Sword Master of the Seventh Circle thought he might break his own wall through the technique of a mere Third Circle?
'More precisely....... if there's anything new at all, he checks it first. That's the accurate version.'
-The man really is mad for the sword.
An offer with no downside to accepting.
It's good for me because I get proper training.
And the better side of it is Neik's.
Not that it's good for Neik. I mean that what's good for Neik is an even bigger gain for me.
If Neik should gain an enlightenment through me, a certain possibility opens for me as well.
And in the unlikely event that Neik reaches the Eighth Circle?
Then I would have helped the first superhuman in history to reach the Eighth Circle get there.
A gain for me any way you look at it.
No reason to refuse.
But it wasn't something to agree to blindly.
I have my own schedule and my own plans.
"Thank you for the fine opportunity. But I have a few conditions."
"What are they?"
This is where Neik's character truly excels.
None of that hidebound attitude of 'how dare the likes of you set conditions.'
"I will go to my home House and return in half a year."
"Half a year?"
"There is something I must go and do."
"Very well. I will write a letter; obtain your House's permission."
"Second, at seventeen I intend to enroll in the Academy."
Puzzlement spread through Neik's eyes.
"Are you at a level that requires enrolling in the Academy?"
"The Academy isn't merely a place of learning."
But Neik looked as if he found that hard to understand.
Well, I understand the reaction.
There are many universities and academies on the continent.
But there is only one place called simply 'the Academy', with no qualifier attached.
Legnion Grand Academy.
The Academy's purpose is twofold.
The first is, naturally, a place of learning.
It covers every field, not only swordsmanship and magic but the humanities, the basic sciences, and engineering.
So the Academy is a military officers' school and a comprehensive university at once.
And the continent's finest scholars serve as its faculty, offering a varied curriculum.
So the Academy is where the highest level of learning can be pursued.
The second is connections.
The Academy is otherwise called a small continent.
Members of the imperial family and the children of the Empire's nobles almost all enroll there.
That isn't all.
The princes and princesses of the kingdoms invested by the Empire, and talented noble children besides, strain every nerve to get in.
Finally, the children of the continent's Three Great Houses frequently enroll as well.
The Three Great Houses were joint investors at the Academy's founding, still make enormous donations, and hold key posts on the board, so their bloodlines can enroll without examination.
Beyond that, the foremost minds in every field from across the continent come to the Academy for the highest learning.
It's a melting pot of connections.
But.
To Neik's eye, that was the strange part.
If I'm learning from him, a Sword Master, would the Academy's professors and instructors satisfy me?
The same goes for connections.
A bloodline of House Facial, one of the continent's Three Great Houses, has no reason to be desperate for connections.
So there are two reasons the bloodlines of the three Houses enroll.
Wanting to study something they can't learn within the House.
That was my case before the regression.
I'd judged the Academy better than the House for learning magic more deeply.
Administration, economics, and the rest are also better at the Academy than at the House.
Otherwise, amusement.
Those who wanted to escape the House, savor freedom, and live licentiously went to the Academy.
And since I appeared to fall into neither, he said what he said.
But I need the Academy's connections.
To me, who knows the future, the Academy is an enormous buffet where I can claim in advance the many talents studying there.
"I enjoy socializing."
"Do you?"
"Yes."
I answered firmly to the question thrown as though to pin me down.
At that Neik asked with a subtle expression.
"Then you mean to reach the Fifth Circle before enrolling in the Academy?"
Huh?
Is that where this lands?
A rare smile spread across Neik's face.
My dismay must have shown on my face for an instant.
'Hey, is that doable?'
Honestly, in my past life I was a Sixth Circle dark mage.
Before I became a research slave, a Sixth Circle mage.
Neither one is a martial artist.
So I couldn't judge it well.
-Wouldn't it work?
'You think?'
-You have that cheat of a Sovereign Body Art, and you handle Ether directly, so shouldn't it be possible?
I thought it seemed doable too.
But I couldn't be certain.
Then Neik spoke abruptly.
"Don't agonize. It is enough."
At that assurance the tension went out of me.
But what came next was a piece of work.
"If it isn't, I will make it so."
"Eh?"
Why does that sound like 'I will kill you'?
Still, one thing is certain.
I can reach the Fifth Circle at seventeen.
Because Neik is not a man who speaks of the impossible.
Though the process.......
I'll omit the detailed explanation.
"Hoo!"
I let out a short sigh and tried to erase my anxiety about the future.
It's something my future self will go through anyway.
Agonizing over it now is meaningless.
To begin with, if you study under a superhuman like Neik Renhardt, that road won't be a road for humans.
One way or another, it's coming.
"I have a question."
"What is it?"
"Is there a reason you alone returned early from the Eastern Expedition?"
Before the regression, the Eastern Expedition of my fifteenth year didn't end this quickly.
He returned at least twenty days later. And held a parade with the expeditionary army.
The parade was an important event for raising the army's morale, so Neik saw to it without fail.
But now he had returned alone.
In other words, history had changed.
I had to know the reason.
There was a strong chance it was a change caused by my regression.
"A feeling."
"A feeling?"
"Call it an intuition that cannot be explained logically. I felt somehow that I ought to, and I have now confirmed the feeling was correct. And I will return to the expeditionary army."
A long explanation, unlike Neik.
-Ah, this! It's insight. Insight.
Velkarion cut in suddenly.
'Insight?'
-No, precisely speaking it isn't insight. That belongs more to the realm of observation and logic. Uh....... How should I put it? Once you enter the Seventh Circle, there's a thing like that. Like foresight, you sometimes get the feeling you have to do something. Ah, right. I used to call it Sensory Insight.
'There's such a thing?'
-It was the same when we first met. I had the feeling something dangerous was about to happen and that I should prepare.
Hm, now that he mentioned it, I'd heard of it too.
Archmages and Sword Masters sometimes act in advance as if they had foreseen something.
This must be one of those cases.
Velkarion elaborated.
-You know how people talk about reading the heavens, or seeing the future? That's all Sensory Insight. Though it doesn't manifest every time.......
I roughly understood.
Because Chloe and I had come to House Renhardt, Neik had gotten the feeling he should go to the mansion.
Before the regression Chloe never came, so no such thing happened.
I'd learned roughly what I needed to know.
"I gratefully accept your offer."
"Wait a moment."
Neik nodded, took out letter paper, and wrote something.
Then he undid a necklace and drew out a ring hanging from it like a pendant.
House Renhardt's signet ring.
A method fitting Neik, a knight who found wearing anything on his hands a nuisance.
He melted wax, stamped the seal at the letter's end and on the envelope's closure to complete it, and handed it over.
"Thank you."
"Then I will look forward to half a year from now. I recommend you train steadily."
Huh? Something felt missing from the end of that sentence again.
If you don't want to die.
Exactly those words felt missing.
"I will look forward to half a year from now."
Neik nodded and gestured, and I left the office at once.
The time to go back had come.
To House Facial.