My current realm was the Nascent Soul Realm.
It was two steps away from the Ascension Realm and, by this world’s standards, strong enough to contend with a Master-rank Awakened Ability User.
After reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, one concern had become clear. Unlike in my previous world, the power of my Cold Yin Severed Meridian was steadily growing stronger.
A Severed Meridian was merely a constitutional problem. There was no reason for it to grow stronger simply because I had, yet for some reason, it was keeping pace with my growth.
Things had reached the point where cups were freezing. Cold energy extending outward on its own was by no means a good sign.
Knock, knock.
“Come in.”
The visitor was Thalia. She looked as tired as I did, as though the knight order members had been hounding her.
“These are the documents you requested.”
She placed a stack of papers on the desk.
“How are the members doing?”
“They are full of anticipation and motivation.”
“No, their current level.”
Thalia tilted her head slightly.
“To be honest, Shaka alone could deal with every other knight order member within an hour. The sentence still holds if you replace Shaka with Thrudal.”
“So they have no foundation at all.”
“Yes. They possess Awakened Abilities, but their degree of training is not greatly different from that of ordinary people.”
“We will have to focus solely on basic training for the time being.”
I rose from my chair.
“I am entrusting the training schedule to you. If anything urgent arises, contact me through Lily.”
What was urgent right now was my own problem. This sign gave me a truly bad feeling.
“Actually, there is something urgent right now.”
Thalia spoke as though troubled.
“What is it?”
“It concerns Shaka. I believe Lord Iden needs to see it personally.”
***
The knight order had begun creaking from the very start, immediately after recruiting its members. While receiving reports, I heard something unexpected from Thalia. One of the members was refusing training and disobeying orders.
It might have been a minor matter. Wherever people gathered, conflict was bound to arise.
Normally, it was something that should have been handled by the vice commander. The reason she had come to report it to me was because the troublesome member was Shaka, who was supposed to become a squad leader and lead the knight order in the future.
I canceled my afternoon schedule and headed to the training hall. Perhaps rumors had spread, because the headquarters was already in an uproar.
No, it was worse than merely being in an uproar.
Dozens of members lay scattered across the training hall like fallen leaves. They did not appear injured. They were simply sprawled out as though dead, unable to move.
And like a flag, a girl whose dark circles were long enough to reach her philtrum stood tall in the very center of the fallen members.
“Your Highness, Young Lord Iden.”
She lightly bent one knee toward me.
“I am sorry. I did not intend to cause a disturbance.”
“What happened here?”
“It is nothing. I merely taught them who was stronger.”
Thrudal was visible in a corner of the training hall as well. Unable to support his enormous body, he was clutching his head with both hands.
“Thalia told me that you refused training.”
“The vice commander misunderstood. As you can see, I am training more diligently than anyone.”
“She specifically refused swordsmanship training.”
Thalia added from beside me.
I looked at the wooden swords scattered at Shaka’s feet.
It appeared that this training had originally been a swordsmanship match.
“Why did you refuse swordsmanship training?”
“Because I am the strongest.”
Shaka’s eyes gleamed.
“I can overwrite the insignificant thoughts in people’s heads with my own. I can make them writhe in the misery of existence and shove swords into their own mouths. I am already the strongest, so why waste time swinging sticks?”
“I heard that your Awakened Ability is powerful. But there will be plenty of opponents against whom that ability does not work.”
“No one can stop me. Not monsters, not demonkin.”
Shaka’s voice was full of conviction. It was confidence too firm to dismiss as the bravado of a fifteen-year-old girl.
Moreover, she had actually neutralized Thrudal, a Grade 3 monster. That alone reduced the number of people in the duchy who could face her to fewer than ten.
This really was an emergency.
Even Thalia, a Master-rank powerhouse, would find it burdensome to contend with Shaka’s Thought Projections ringing through her mind.
This was perfect timing. It would be good to establish discipline now.
“You are mistaken if you believe that you are the strongest, Shaka.”
Her brow furrowed.
“I am loyal to Lord Iden, but that does not mean you may force a mistaken belief upon me.”
“I’m the strongest.”
“…Pardon?”
I pointed at my chest with my thumb and spoke with even more confidence than Shaka possessed.
“You do not have to follow me because I am the Duke’s son. You follow me because you are weaker than I am.”
Shaka was only briefly flustered before she thrust out her chest and declared her ambition.
“I am the strongest. Even if Lord Iden is weaker than I am, my loyalty will not change.”
“Thalia, give me a sword.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The members began to murmur. Without a word of objection, Thalia handed me a sword. Her trust in me did not waver in the slightest.
“Two people cannot both be the strongest, can they?”
Shaka giggled.
“That is true, but I cannot fight Lord Iden.”
“If you hesitate because I am your lord, then I swear in Lord Solitas’s name that I will hold no one responsible for anything that happens from this point onward.”
“I am a Mental-Type Awakened Ability User. Once I use my power, there can be no holding back.”
“If you defeat me, I will exempt you from swordsmanship training.”
She still did not look eager.
“And I will make you my personal guard.”
“…Do you truly mean that?”
Suddenly, Shaka’s eyes blazed with ambition.
“I do not take back what I say.”
“Very well. If those are the conditions, I will do my best.”
“But if you lose, you will willingly obey your superior’s orders. What do you say?”
“Yes. If I lose, I will become the vice commander’s slave.”
She did not need to become a slave, though.
Thus, a match was arranged between the strongest knight order member and the Duke’s third son. The members even slapped their fallen comrades awake so that not a single person would miss the duel.
Shaka and I faced each other in the center of the training hall.
Did I need to explain the importance of this fight?
I did not want the knights to follow me merely because my status was high.
They would fight for me, perhaps die for me, and perhaps one day travel to the distant Demon Realm to retrieve a dragon’s heart.
That said, I did not possess some grand ideology capable of inspiring people.
All I could show them was overwhelming strength.
“Let us begin.”
Shaka half-closed her eyes.
My master had once told me that wherever there were Daoists who walked the Righteous Path, there were also Daoists who walked the Demonic Path.
The Demonic Path was a way that sought to elevate one’s existence by using humanity’s negative emotions—malice, killing intent, envy, and the like—as energy for the soul.
That was exactly how I felt while facing Shaka.
She had not yet used her ability. She had merely opened her half-closed eyes and looked at me. Yet the malice dwelling within her was so deep that I felt as though I had stepped into the entrance of Avici Hell.
There was nothing in her glass-marble eyes but endless darkness.
I began reciting the Great Void True Scripture in my mind. It was a scripture recited by Daoists who walked the Righteous Path when facing the Demonic Path, driving out all wicked energy and setting the heart upright.
“…I will begin.”
Shaka’s lips parted.
― Iden Esterji.
Hm?
It was a strange experience. For an instant, it felt as though Shaka’s mind and mine had become directly connected. Then her intent was conveyed there in the form of words, at an astonishing speed.
― You were born after freezing your mother to death. Your attendants may have offered excuses that you wanted to hear, but you know the truth.
Remarkable. Her voice approached in a very persuasive form within my mind.
My mother’s death was still an unresolved incident, and she had struck directly at my weakness. Moreover, including my previous life, I had been connected to the fates of two mothers.
― But was your mother truly the only person you killed? Were you the only child your mother could have borne?
No, I had never considered that angle.
But was that really a point she was allowed to press? I was the Duke’s son, was I not?
She had been told not to spare any means or methods, so I could not complain.
My mother had been a family-oriented person and had eagerly anticipated a future with children. A person like her could have had many more children besides me.
― Yes, surely there would have been many. Your mother was a loving woman.
― But the object of her love was not the Duke.
What?
― You know that our esteemed Duke thinks of nothing but work. He leaves home at the slightest mention of war or anything else. Your mother entered the household as his second wife, and there was already a large difference in age between them. She could not spend her entire life gazing at an old man who did not even think of coming home.
This was nonsense. My mother’s letters had not mentioned Father even once, but I believed she was not someone who would commit such infidelity.
― You know that your hair color differs from Lord Mabel’s and Lord Chris’s, do you not?
My hair color was because of my Cold Yin Severed Meridian. My hair had been in this state in my previous life as well.
― You may think it is connected to your ice ability. Naturally, the fact that a handsome, highborn nobleman with white hair just like yours comforted your mother at her side would mean nothing to you.
…That would be difficult to verify.
― The truth is, you do not resemble the Duke at all. The Duke is manly and dignified, while you are delicate like a woman. If I were you, I could not confidently claim to be the Duke’s son anywhere.
…….
― Incidentally, that nobleman is dead. The Duke brought him to the front lines, but he was someone who had never learned to fight in his life.
― To summarize, you are a cuckoo’s child. You drift elegantly across the lake as though you had been a swan from birth, but none of it was ever meant for you.
― I can hear them. Can you not? The whispering voices that point at your white hair. The things said by people who know of your mother’s conduct.
― The truth is always uncomfortable. The fools around you never tell the truth.
― Why do you struggle? If the Duke names you his heir, the Esterji bloodline will be severed. Is that what you want?
It truly was incredible. Without allowing me a moment to breathe, she poured a voice of tremendous persuasiveness directly into my mind. No matter how powerful someone was, they would have been helpless before this kind of attack.
But I was someone who had cultivated my mind for an entire lifetime as a Daoist and had experienced a previous life. To bring me down, she would likely need to attack both of my lives at once.
Even so, Shaka’s ability was remarkable. Its persuasiveness, its insight…
If not for the Great Void True Scripture, I might at least have become angry.
I opened my eyes sharply.
“What on earth……”
The malice that had washed over me receded. In its place, Shaka was staring at me with wide eyes.
She suddenly clasped her hands together.
“I am sorry. Lord Iden endured far too well, so I said far too many things that I should not have said!”
“…No, it is all right. I was the one who made the oath.”
“How is this possible? You are the first person my ability has failed to affect. Not demonkin, not monsters, not ogres—no one has endured for more than ten seconds until now!”
“Do you want to know?”
“Yes!”
“Then train hard.”
I spoke to her firmly.
“You need to prepare for situations where your ability does not work.”
Shaka’s Awakened Ability was not yet perfect. At present, she could only use her innate insight to persuade her opponents, but if she acquired mana of High Grade or above, I would have needed to use Daoist Arts rather than merely recite a scripture to oppose her.
“Yes, I will train hard.”
She was unexpectedly obedient. She still seemed to burn with determination.
“Perhaps next time—”
“Next time, we will fight with swordsmanship.”
To make sure there was no misunderstanding, I emphasized it once more.
“With swordsmanship, understood?”
“Yes!”