"You really think that'll catch an animal?"
At the foot of a mountain outside the barracks.
Kaisen watched doubtfully as Rohan set a simple trap.
He had always wondered how Rohan caught his prey, but he had never imagined the method would be this simple.
"What matters is whether an animal gets caught in the trap."
"You think an animal will pass through there?"
"Yeah. A wild boar."
"Tsk. I prefer rabbits. Wild boar has that gamey smell......."
Rohan raised his head and looked at Kaisen.
"Ahem. W-Wild boar is good meat too."
Kaisen cleared his throat.
Rohan turned away again and silently set more traps.
"Hey, Rohan."
"Yeah."
"Well, um... I-I'm... Fuuuck."
"......?"
"...I'm sorry! It was clearly my fault for looking down on you. Using the technique was going too far as well. I apologize."
Rohan asked without expression.
"Why is that something you need to apologize for?"
"What?"
"You only did your best. That's what sparring is for."
"Uh......."
"If anything, I was able to grow because you fought with everything you had."
Kaisen felt as though he had been struck in the head with a hammer.
This bastard was not saying it out of consideration for him. He genuinely felt that way.
After all, Rohan never said things he did not mean.
His thoughts churning, Kaisen closed his mouth.
After setting the traps, the two moved to the plains.
It was where Meiwa and the spies had teleported before.
Rohan turned around and spoke.
"Teach me. Condensed Explosion."
"All right. I'll do my best to teach you too."
Whoosh.
Kaisen drew his enormous sword.
"You saw it earlier, right? Watch closely. I don't know if you can do it with your body still underdeveloped, though."
"What do you mean, my body is underdeveloped?"
"You'll see."
With that, Kaisen adjusted his stance.
There was no special movement.
All he did was plant his feet firmly, yet the dirt caved beneath them.
Rohan's eyes narrowed.
The force that began at Kaisen's toes surged upward through his calves.
Twitch. The muscles of his thighs visibly came alive.
Veins bulged, and it looked as though something were writhing beneath his skin as it crawled upward.
Following the path of the force, it was like a snake slithering up his legs.
'His muscles... are amplifying it.'
Only then did Rohan understand why Kaisen had reacted skeptically.
The technique began with a solid body.
It could not be achieved solely through skill in handling mana or learning techniques.
His body first had to withstand it.
"Watch closely, kid."
Kaisen did not stop there.
Twisting his waist added more force, and the momentum that climbed his spine passed through his shoulder and flowed into his arm.
His elbow straightened, his wrist twisted, and at the end, all that force gathered at the tip of his sword.
Condensation.
As if the force scattering in every direction were being sucked into a single point, it was compressed into the sword's tip.
And then.
BOOM—! A deafening blast battered his ears.
For an instant, only the ringing roar of tinnitus filled Rohan's ears.
His hair whipped wildly, and his clothes flapped violently.
"Ptooey, ptooey. Well? Isn't it killer?"
Spitting out the mouthful of dust, Kaisen grinned triumphantly.
Rohan did not answer.
His mind had already gone elsewhere.
'Toes. Calves. Thighs. Waist. Spine. Shoulder. Arm. Sword tip.'
The flow was clear.
What mattered to Rohan was how the force traveled.
And the final instant when that force contracted into a single point at the tip of the sword.
"What, are you going to try it?"
"Yeah."
Rohan answered Kaisen briefly.
Steadying his breathing, Rohan put strength into his legs.
As if following the exact path Kaisen had taken.
He moved the force from his toes to his calves, from his calves to his thighs...
Then he could feel it distinctly.
As he followed the same path, the scattered force gradually gathered into a single stream.
'It works.'
He twisted his waist and added more force.
The force climbing his spine passed through his shoulder and flowed into his arm.
Finally, it reached the tip of his sword.
And then.
Whoosh—!
...Nothing happened.
There was neither light nor explosion at the sword's tip.
'Why?'
Curiosity flooded Rohan's mind.
The force had unquestionably gone in, and the path had not been wrong.
If the problem had simply been his physical strength, only the power of the explosion should have differed.
As Rohan puzzled over it, Kaisen soon clutched his stomach and burst out laughing.
"Hahaha! That is impressive. I only showed you once, yet you followed the path exactly."
"Then why didn't it work for me?"
"You think it'd be called a secret technique if following the path was all it took?"
Kaisen approached and tapped the tip of Rohan's sword with his finger.
"The answer lies in rotation. That's the secret of Condensed Explosion."
"Rotation?"
"Yeah. Think of a fallen leaf blowing in the wind. How does it move?"
A fallen leaf.
Rohan recalled a windy day.
Fallen leaves did not fly in a straight line.
They spun around and around, winding about a single point.
Even as they seemed to scatter, at some point they were drawn into the center.
'Rotation.'
It was as though lightning had flashed through his mind.
Come to think of it, mana had spun as it gathered when he refined his mana heart as well.
'Rotation was the answer.'
Rohan immediately readjusted his grip on his sword.
His heart pounded.
"You're going again?"
"Yeah."
"Hahaha! You're tenacious. It'll be hard. You think it'd be a secret technique if understanding the principle were enough?"
Kaisen chuckled, but Rohan did not hear him.
His eyes were already fixed on the tip of his sword.
'Rotation. Rotation, huh...'
He drew up his strength again.
This time, he followed the same path.
It began at his toes, rose into his thighs and waist, then passed through his spine to his shoulder.
Perhaps because it was his second attempt, the force moved more smoothly than before.
He could feel his body gradually learning the path.
The instant the force reached the tip of his sword, Rohan held his breath.
Then he twisted it.
He forcibly twisted the mana that had followed the force, making it rotate at the sword's tip.
Crackle... At first, it resisted.
The mana, on the verge of scattering, collided with itself and flew in every direction.
The force he had gathered seemed ready to disperse at any moment.
Rohan's brow furrowed.
'Just a little more.'
Using mana, he seized the force that seemed ready to spring away at any moment.
Then, to make it rotate, he focused every nerve on the tip of his sword.
Rohan's hand trembled from the unrefined force.
But he did not release it.
Just a little more......
As if tearing at it, as if twisting it, without letting it lose its center.
That was the moment.
'It's gathering.'
The force that had seemed about to spring away stabilized, and this time he could feel it gathering.
The mana scattered around him began to rush toward the tip of his sword all at once.
It lasted only the briefest instant.
Even so, Rohan felt it clearly.
It was when he thought the force had been condensed to its limit.
He released the condensed force as it was.
And then.
Fweee.......
An extremely faint light flashed at the tip of his sword.
An endlessly small gleam that looked as though a single breath might extinguish it.
It was too pathetic to call an explosion.
Rohan bit his lip.
Before any sense of accomplishment, disappointment at its inadequacy washed over him.
"D-Did you just cause an explosion?!"
"Yeah. You said the answer lay in rotation."
"No, even after being told that, there are more people than you can count who fail their entire lives......."
Kaisen's jaw dropped.
Why else would it be called a secret technique?
Most people failed to master it even after endless practice.
Even among those born in the Rookie mountain region, more than half never learned it in their lifetimes.
Yet this lunatic had already imitated a technique he had seen for the first time moments ago.
And Kaisen had only given him the hint of 'rotation'?
'What the hell is he?'
Of course, its power was abysmal.
But Kaisen knew.
Output was not the issue.
This bastard had just opened the door.
Rohan, however, ground his lip between his teeth as if dissatisfied.
"It's still pathetic. This isn't enough."
For a moment, Kaisen was at a loss for words.
Did he even know what he had just accomplished?
Rohan, who had looked dejected, abruptly curled the corners of his mouth upward.
'......?'
It was the same kind of smile Kaisen had seen during their spar earlier.
A chill ran down Kaisen's spine as he asked.
"Why are you smiling? It's unsettling."
"Thanks."
"What?"
Kaisen narrowed his eyes at the unexpected words.
It was a first.
Never before had words of thanks left Rohan's mouth.
'But the face of this thankful bastard.......'
It was not the expression of someone expressing gratitude.
A wolf that had found its prey.
Greed filled his face.
"Rotation......."
Rohan murmured as he looked down at the tip of his sword.
'My body is still underdeveloped.'
He needed another method to use the technique.
'Rotation... Rotation... Wait.'
An idea flashed through Rohan's mind.
What if he added an opposing force to the rotating force?
Would the force and the force opposing it not release tremendous energy when they met?
"Kaisen, what happens if you reverse the force of Condensed Explosion?"
"What? What the hell are you talking about?"
Kaisen stared at Rohan as if he did not understand the question itself.
"Never mind. Forget it. Go on ahead."
"What? What are you planning to do?"
"There's something I want to test."
Seeing Rohan's expression, Kaisen could not answer.
He had the distinct feeling that he had taught Rohan something terribly wrong.
***
Time passed, and the day of deployment arrived.
Soldiers began gathering at the drill field from early morning.
Clank, clank.
Armored soldiers formed ranks, while a long line of wagons for the transport operation stood to one side.
Rohan also stood in formation with the members of the Fourth Squad.
'......Not enough.'
His gaze remained fixed ahead, but his mind was brimming with other thoughts.
Rohan had not rested in the meantime.
By day, he trained with the unit. By night, he continued training alone.
He kept practicing the Condensed Explosion he had learned from Kaisen as well.
But.
'It's far too weak.'
It did not even bear comparison with Kaisen's.
'My body isn't trained enough.'
Condensed Explosion was a technique that drew up the power of the entire body and concentrated it at the tip of the sword.
From the very beginning of the technique, there was no avoiding the difference between Kaisen and him.
Rohan looked down at his hands.
His body had grown considerably compared to before.
Even so, it was still the body of a fifteen-year-old.
He could not match the power produced by a body honed for decades like Kaisen's.
'I need another method.'
One thought had not left his mind for days.
'Counter-rotation.'
Mana condensed while rotating in one direction.
He would drive a force rotating in the opposite direction into it.
If the two opposing forces collided at a single point.
He might be able to produce far more power than the current Condensed Explosion.
'I think that's the key.'
He had tried countless times, but the results were unimpressive.
'I'm missing one thing.'
There had to be a way.
Rohan bit his lip.
If only he had a little more time.
"Everyone, attention!"
That was when it happened.
A booming voice resounded across the drill field.
At the same time, Rohan's train of thought broke.
Shupern had already ascended the platform.
"......."
The murmuring voices of the soldiers disappeared one by one.
So did the sound of armor striking armor.
And the sound of hands fiddling with sword scabbards.
Soon, the entire drill field fell silent.
Rohan glanced around.
The atmosphere was different from usual.
Some men smiled as if nothing were wrong.
Others gripped their sword hilts with grim faces.
'......War.'
Only then did the word feel a little different.
Shupern slowly swept his gaze over the soldiers.
His eyes reached the far end of the drill field.
Then he spoke.
"Today, we march onto a battlefield."
It was one brief sentence.
The air over the drill field grew heavy in an instant.
"The Niagara Gorge you must pass through is known as the Gorge of Death."
No one answered.
"There is a high chance the enemy will be waiting. Some of you may die."
Shupern paused for a moment.
"Some of those standing here may never set foot on this drill field again."
The smiles vanished from the soldiers' faces.
Shupern quietly watched them.
"Are you afraid?"
No one answered.
"Of course you are."
Shupern's voice rang low across the drill field.
"I have gone to the battlefield countless times. I've watched comrades die, and I've buried with my own hands men who shared drinks with me the day before."
Shupern slowly drew his sword.
Shing—!
The sharp blade flashed in the morning sunlight.
"Even so, we return to the battlefield."
Shupern looked at the soldiers.
"Because there are people behind us whom we must protect."
There were families.
There were friends.
There were people living their ordinary lives.
"If we retreat here, they will be the next ones forced to take up the sword."
Shupern's voice gradually grew louder.
"That is why we go. We fight. We stop them."
The look in the soldiers' eyes changed.
Shupern thrust his sword high into the sky.
"Return alive."
His voice shook the drill field.
"Every last person who leaves this place today will return to this drill field. That is my order to you."
For a while, not a sound could be heard.
Then.
Shing—! A sword was drawn somewhere.
And then.
Shing! Shiiing—!
Dozens, then hundreds of swords left their scabbards in unison.
Shupern shouted.
"Waaaaah—!"
A roar erupted.
Hundreds of voices merged into one.
It was a roar loud enough to shake the ground.
Shupern thrust his sword forward.
"White Wolf Knight Order."
He drew a short breath.
"Deploy."