Chapter 23 - Damn Reincarnation

Mana Training

“I cannot promise to take you as my apprentice.”

Eward looked at Lovellian, suppressing the excited pounding of his heart. His sparkling eyes were filled with hope and longing for the future. But Lovellian was not in a position to grant that youthful wish unconditionally.

“The Red Tower, where I serve as tower master, specializes in summoning magic among the many branches of magic. So, young master, the first thing you will do upon arriving in Aroth is undergo a standardized aptitude test.”

“What if... I have an aptitude for summoning magic?”

“That would be wonderful, but an ordinary aptitude will not be enough for you to become my apprentice.”

Lovellian drew a clear line. For a moment, Eward looked disappointed, but remembering Gilead and Theonis seated beside Lovellian, he changed his expression.

He could leave this stifling family.

That alone was cause for joy. Even if he did not become Lovellian’s apprentice, the prospect of leaving the family and going to another country made his fingertips tremble.

“There are a great many mages who wish to become my apprentices,” Lovellian continued. “In Aroth, your status as the legitimate son of the Lionheart family will not define you, young master. Unless you possess enough talent to eclipse the other mages, I cannot take you as my apprentice.”

“... Yes.”

“... Aroth will not give you special treatment for being a Lionheart, but before I am the Red Tower Master, I am Lord Gilead’s old friend... So you will have many opportunities, young master. I will shield you from those who condemn such preferential treatment, and provide an environment where you can practice magic suited to your aptitude.”

Every word made Eward’s heart pound. Yet he dared neither answer too eagerly nor smile. With timid eyes, he watched Theonis and Gilead for their reactions.

“... The choice is yours,” Gilead said. “You need not worry about what I think. If you want to go, you may go.”

“... Father...”

“Eward.”

Theonis, who had remained silent until now, fixed her gaze on her son.

“This is an opportunity your father has given you. Accept it with gratitude.”

“...”

“What reason is there to hesitate? Ever since you were small, you have shown far more interest in magic than in wielding weapons such as swords or spears.”

Eward hesitated, unable to answer.

“For your sake, I summoned several mages from the capital. Unfortunately, none of them were suitable to become your teacher.”

That was misleading. The mages invited from the capital to teach Eward were renowned figures who could have attained considerable standing in the magic towers had they remained in Aroth.

They had failed to become his teachers because Eward himself had been unable to devote himself to magic. This stifling family suppressed his desires and his freedom.

“Eward.”

Theonis’s eyes narrowed.

Eward feared his mother’s gaze. He feared her far more than his father, the family head. She was always hovering around him, monitoring everything he did.

“You must not forget. You are the legitimate son of the Lionheart family. You are my son, the son of Theonis, and you are destined to become the head of the main family.”

He hated those words. They frightened him. They weighed on him. Unable to answer, Eward lowered his eyes.

“Please do not forget that, even in Aroth.”

“... Theonis.”

“I am merely encouraging my son as his mother.”

Gilead tried to intervene, but Theonis glared at her husband with icy eyes. She did not agree with his decision. She hated bringing Eugene, that child of uncertain character, into the main family. An adopted son? What a joke. Had taking a concubine and spawning a pair of twins still not been enough for him?

She did not want to send Eward to Aroth, either. If Eward, the legitimate son, left for Aroth, that damned Anisilla would go wild with joy. That much was obvious.

But.

Theonis knew she had no choice but to send Eward to Aroth. That vexing son, though the main family’s legitimate heir, had not been born with abilities worthy of his bloodline. Even his temperament was weak and naive. Keeping him in the main household would do nothing to improve his skills.

“... Eward.”

Theonis clasped her son’s hand in hers. Without saying anything more, she gazed into his face. Eward forced himself to meet her eyes.

That night, Theonis spent a long time talking with Eward in his room.

Tomorrow, Eward would leave for Aroth with Lovellian. Theonis hoped he would become Lovellian’s apprentice. Even if he could not, she hoped he would build his own strength by associating with the many mages in Aroth.

She hoped he would acquire power unavailable in the main household, and forge connections that would support him.

“You are the legitimate son of the Lionheart family.”

Theonis repeated that reminder again and again.

“Yes. Yes, Mother.”

Unable to lift his downcast eyes, Eward repeated the same answer.

* * *

The day after the banquet, many people left the main estate. Lovellian departed for Aroth with Eward, while Gargis and Dezra returned to their own households with their parents.

The nobodies whose names were not worth remembering had left as well, so the annex should have been empty. Instead, its servants bustled about from early morning.

From now on, Eugene and Gerhard would use the annex. Gilead had intended to bring them into the main mansion, but Eugene had not wanted that.

He was being considerate of his father, Gerhard. Living in the main mansion would inevitably leave Gerhard worrying about the main family’s opinions. Living separately in the annex would be more comfortable for everyone.

“I look forward to continuing to serve you.”

Nina bowed deeply. Her position had not changed. At Eugene’s request, she would remain his personal attendant.

She knew he had done that out of consideration for her.

“Is there anything you need me to bring from Gidol?”

“I don’t need anything, so just pack your own things, Father.”

Despite the dull headache of his hangover, Gerhard could not rest. He had to go to Gidol with workers from the main household. Since he would now be living in the annex, he needed to collect what remained at his mansion there.

The knights who had served him for years. The servants and workers. He could not bring everyone, but he would select those who wished to come and bring them to the main estate. He also needed to leave people behind to manage the mansion in its owner’s absence. With generous enough wages, there would be no shortage of volunteers willing to stay.

“The things in the annex are much better than what we have at home, so don’t bother bringing anything we don’t need.”

“It still hasn’t quite sunk in... Are we really... going to live here from now on...?”

Gerhard gave a disbelieving chuckle and looked around the annex. It should have sunk in several times already, yet reality still felt like a dream.

‘... It’s real.’

Seeing his son’s broad grin, Gerhard felt his heart swell. He embraced Eugene once, then climbed into the carriage the workers had prepared.

“Make sure you do plenty of bragging while you’re there.”

Eugene smiled as he saw Gerhard off.

And so the morning of his first day as an adopted son passed. Ordinarily, Eugene would have begun training, but instead he stood motionless in the training grounds.

Today was important to him in several ways. Not only was it his first day living as an adopted son, it was also the day he would begin training mana for the first time since his reincarnation.

Mana training began with perceiving mana. Mana existed everywhere in the world, but no amount of conscious effort would make it visible to the eyes. Like a sense, the ability to perceive it had to be developed first.

There were two broad approaches to that development.

Breathing and physical conditioning.

Breathing training accumulated the mana suffused through the air by breathing it in, while physical conditioning accumulated mana through bodily movement. Neither was easy, but if one had to choose, breathing training was superior. Once the breathing method became second nature, every movement could draw in mana. Physical conditioning made that difficult.

In his previous life, Hamel had trained mana through physical conditioning. Later, following Senya and Vermouth’s advice, he had converted his method to breathing.

‘The Lionheart mana-training method uses breathing.’

Naturally, simply breathing was not enough to train mana. The breathing required for mana training demanded a knack much like magic.

“You’re out early.”

Gion Lionheart approached Eugene, leading two horses. Without surprise, Eugene bowed to him.

Last night, after the banquet ended, Gilead had summoned Eugene. Now that he had become the main family’s adopted son and the Bloodline Succession Ceremony was over, it was time for him to begin mana training in earnest. Gilead had called him to explain the process in detail.

A spirit vein.

Land where mana gathered.

Deep within the main family’s forest lay a spirit vein accessible only to those of the main family’s bloodline. It was not a natural formation, but one Vermouth the Great had personally created three hundred years ago.

Only the main family’s children could benefit from its power. Cyan’s outstanding aptitude doubtless contributed to his ability to produce sword aura already, but the spirit vein had also played a considerable role.

‘He made an artificial spirit vein. A monster through and through.’

Even Eugene found that hard to comprehend. Did that mean he had forcibly twisted the flows of the earth to create a spirit vein? And it had remained intact for three hundred years?

‘Crazy bastard.’

It did seem possible for Vermouth. But... rather than admiring his godlike prowess, Eugene could not help feeling a perverse resentment. What the hell had happened to his mind in his later years that he had gone so far as to create a spirit vein to guarantee his descendants’ glory?

‘Taking more than ten wives, fathering dozens of children, dividing the main family from the collateral branches while going on about legitimacy, creating the Bloodline Succession Ceremony...’

The gulf between the Vermouth Eugene remembered and Vermouth, the founder of the Lionheart family, was far too great.

“Are you nervous?”

“I’m excited.”

Eugene answered with a broad grin. He set aside his questions and resentment toward Vermouth. In any case, he had become the main family’s adopted son, and Gilead’s consideration had earned him access to the spirit vein. Gion had also agreed to personally assist his introduction to mana.

“It won’t be easy,” Gion said. “Mana... certainly exists, but you can’t feel it. I’ll help you, of course, but since this is your first time, you’re going to struggle quite a bit.”

“Am I?”

“Yes. The younger you are, the easier it is to feel mana. As you grow older... your sensitivity to energy becomes duller. Your body gets used to not feeling mana.”

Eugene knew that too. Just as unused senses grew dull, so did the sense that perceived mana.

“Cyan and Ciel began learning mana at six. Eward... my sister-in-law was so insistent that he started at five.”

Gion looked back at Eugene with a wry smile.

“Even starting that young, Cyan and Ciel took three days to feel mana. Eward... Hmm... Was it a week?”

“Is that a long time?”

“No, it’s remarkably fast. Children from the collateral branches usually begin around your age, and apparently it takes them a month just to ‘feel’ mana. Accumulating that mana little by little in their bodies and becoming clearly conscious of it takes several more months.”

Eugene nodded slowly. Gion glanced at him, then hastily added, “Ah... It won’t take you that long. The whole point of the spirit vein is to make sensing mana quicker and easier. And I’ll be helping you.”

“How many days do you think I’ll need?”

“Hmm... Ten days...?”

Gion spoke with a sheepish smile. That was a lie. He thought ten days would be remarkably fast. Thirteen was not particularly late to begin learning mana, but neither was it particularly early.

‘The spirit vein doesn’t guarantee that he’ll feel mana, either...’

That was why Gion had come. He would need to remain at Eugene’s side for a while.

“First... what matters is feeling mana. The spirit vein has a high concentration of mana, but in addition to that, I’ll send mana directly into your body.”

“So I can feel it more easily?”

“Exactly.”

This, too, was an enormous privilege. A master of Gion’s caliber would be assisting him from the very first stage of learning mana.

‘They really are taking good care of me.’

He had expected to receive a few mana stones at most. He had never imagined they would let him enter a spirit vein and even assign him a guide.

“Ten days... Then do I have to stay at the spirit vein with you for ten days, Sir Gion?”

“It’s in the middle of the forest, but it has everything we need. There’s a house, though it isn’t large... The servants will bring food and daily necessities.”

“Wow, that sounds fun.”

Eugene spoke with a childlike smile.

‘Ten days, my ass.’

Behind that innocent smile, he was thinking something quite different.

‘It won’t even take ten minutes, you bastard.’

He simply had not trained mana and accumulated it in his body. That did not mean he could not feel it.

‘Well... feeling it and drawing it into my body are two different things.’

He was excited.

Would this extraordinary body soak up mana just as well?

Deep within the forest, far from the mansion, stood a quiet cabin. Vermouth had created the spirit vein three hundred years ago, but the cabin looked tidy, as though it had been regularly maintained and repaired ever since.

“Wait here for a moment. Not that there’s much to look at.”

“All right.”

Gion dismounted first. Taking a ring of keys from inside his clothes, he began undoing the cabin’s locks one by one. They were no ordinary locks. Without the family head’s permission, even the correct keys could not open the door.

Meanwhile, Eugene also dismounted and looked around. He had entered the forest just yesterday, but had not ventured this deep.

He surveyed the dense trees. Small animals and insects were visible too, but there were no monsters. This vast forest was managed as part of the main family’s territory.

‘With an atmosphere like this, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an elf.’

Three hundred years ago, when Helmuth’s Demon Kings had begun their rampage, the races that suffered most were not humans, but elves and dragons. As Helmuth’s ominous power grew stronger, elves died in droves, while dragons perished en masse fighting the Demon Kings.

... Even now, with only two of the five Demon Kings remaining, neither race had recovered from that past catastrophe.

“Come in.”

Lost in complicated reflections, Eugene turned.

“It’s clean.”

“It has all sorts of spells on it.”

With that answer, Gion led Eugene inside. They descended the stairs leading underground.

“I can start right away, can’t I?”

“... Huh?”

Startled, Gion turned to Eugene. After blinking blankly for a moment, he nodded with a wry smile.

“Go ahead.”

Enthusiasm was a good thing. Still, Gion could not help feeling a little concerned.

Eugene Lionheart. That child was exceptionally gifted. Gion acknowledged it himself. Though he had witnessed neither Eugene’s duel with Cyan nor his performance in the Bloodline Succession Ceremony, the accounts alone were enough to tell him. And there was the way the boy moved, evident in every gesture. He was so light on his feet that it was hard to believe he had never trained mana.

‘... Using your body well and handling mana well are different things.’

Gion knew that all too well. He, too, had been called a genius countless times since childhood. Yet despite his exceptional martial talent, it had taken him a very long time to become comfortable with mana.

‘I hope he doesn’t get his hopes up only to be disappointed...’

That was what worried Gion. The more aware someone was of their talent, and the prouder they were of it, the more bitterly failure hurt.

I’m supposed to be a genius. Why can’t I do this?

As a child, Gion had needed quite some time to overcome that frustration. He had eventually broken through the wall, but his first introduction to mana and the process of mastering it had been grueling.

‘... His confidence must be at its peak right now.’

Eugene’s very existence broke precedent in Lionheart history. Never before had a child from a collateral branch defeated a main-family child in the Bloodline Succession Ceremony, nor had one been adopted into the main family. On top of that, he had received Wynnyd from the Treasury and gained permission to enter the spirit vein.

Even grown adults would be astonished. How pleased and proud of himself must a mere thirteen-year-old be?

Whenever those thoughts surfaced, Gion’s expression darkened with mixed feelings. He knew his worries were premature, but he could not help fearing that Eugene would be crushed when confronted with reality.

Had Eugene been able to read Gion’s thoughts, he would have clutched his belly with laughter. Frustration over his own genius? He had already been through that shit three hundred years ago.

Vermouth the Great.

At his side, Eugene had learned time and again what a ‘genius’ truly was. Compared to that man, not a single person in the world could rightfully claim to be a genius. Only Vermouth could call himself one. The word genius existed for Vermouth.

Eugene.

Hamel knew that all too well.

‘Hamel the Fool.’

When he first saw that name in the fairy-tale book, Eugene had wanted to tear its anonymous author apart. But on calmer reflection, it was not entirely wrong.

Hamel had been a fool. Senya, Anise, and Moron had not considered Vermouth a rival. To them, he was a companion with whom they had faced life and death. A friend.

Hamel had felt the same, but he alone had sought to surpass Vermouth. He alone had opposed Vermouth’s opinions.

“Sit in the middle there.”

The underground chamber was an empty cavern. Pointing to its center, Gion continued.

“First, try breathing without thinking about it. Becoming aware of the mana around you is where it begins.”

“Yes.”

Mana existed, but could not be felt. To accumulate it in the body, one first had to become capable of sensing it. Only then could actual ‘training’ begin.

“The mana-training method handed down in the main family was inherited from our ancestor, Vermouth the Great.”

‘Oh.’

That was what he had been waiting to hear.

“It began the same as the methods used by the collateral branches, but now it’s completely different. So much time has passed... and the collateral branches cannot inherit the original method.”

Vermouth the Great had drawn a firm line between the main family and its collateral branches.

Every collateral branch had its roots in the main family. Long ago, Eugene’s ancestor had also belonged to the main household, but had been pushed out after failing to become family head.

The ancestors of the collateral branches who were pushed out in that way were placed under an inviolable binding.

They could not pass the original mana-training method they had learned in the main family down to their descendants. The collateral branches could pass on only a derivative method, different from the main family’s original. Vermouth had created that derivative method as well, but naturally, it was less effective than the original.

“The White Flame Formula.”

Mana rose within Gion’s body. Radiant white mana coiled around him.

It looked as though he had cloaked himself in flames.

Eugene did not know the name White Flame Formula.

But he remembered that distinctive appearance.

Vermouth.

The highly concentrated mana he wielded had always manifested as pure white flames like those.

Whenever he advanced with it enveloping his entire body, the scattering embers of mana had looked like a lion’s mane.