Chapter 4 - Not All Legacies Are in the Same Class (1)

My uncle clicked his tongue and continued.

"No knight learns such an outdated technique."

"Then how in the world are they supposed to accumulate mana in their bodies!"

If knights did not create Mana Hearts, how were they supposed to use mana in their bodies? It was not as if they created circuits and stored mana like Mages.

"That is how they do it."

"What?"

"Knights also weave circuits and use mana, just as Mages do."

It was so absurd that I simply laughed.

"I did not say that to make you laugh."

The look my uncle gave me was like he was watching a child who knew nothing of the world proudly showing off a hundred-won coin he had traded a fifty-thousand-won bill for.

Looking at that face, I realized for the first time that something had gone wrong.

* * *

A great deal of time had passed while I was stuck in the Royal Vault. A full four hundred years had gone by, and during that time, the world had changed far too much. So much so that the common sense and systems I knew had been overturned from the roots.

Apparently, the days when knights sought the realm of superhumans through Mana Hearts were now a thing of the past. Apparently, knights had begun linking multiple circuits instead of a single Heart to use mana more efficiently as far back as two hundred years ago.

"Why in the world?"

Why would they go through the trouble of making multiple circuits when they had a perfectly good Mana Heart?

"Because it is easier, faster, more stable, and stronger."

My uncle replied in a tone that said I was asking the obvious.

"Ha."

Fine. Let us say, for the sake of argument, that this thing called the Mana Chain or whatever truly was that efficient. Even so, it made no sense for the very concept of the Mana Heart itself to become obsolete.

I had seen countless people reach the realm of superhumans through Mana Hearts. The heights they attained and the achievements they accomplished were not so insignificant that they could be dismissed just because one training method had changed.

"Two hundred and twenty years ago, the continent's ten greatest Sword Masters all suffered crushing defeats. At the hands of knights who had reached their heights through circuits."

After that, the Sword Masters were challenged countless times and lost again and again, until they were eventually reduced to combat strength measuring sticks, or punching bags.

"That makes no..."

"There is nothing impossible about it. Sword energy drawn out through woven circuits had the property of shattering sword energy drawn from the heart. After that, no one created a Mana Heart anymore."

Apparently, that was also around the time the famous martial houses scattered across the continent abandoned their old traditions.

"A hundred years ago, when the Eli family, who had clung to the Mana Heart until the very end, completely fell, the Mana Heart became a low-grade method used only by mercenaries."

And here was an idiot using that low-grade method meant only for mercenaries?

Ha ha ha. It was so absurd that all I could do was laugh.

"Did you read some heroic novel somewhere?"

My uncle clicked his tongue. He said there were people with excellent secret arts all over the place, so why had I gone and learned such an outdated technique of all things? My uncle looked at me as if I were something pathetic.

"How was I supposed to know that!"

"It is common sense. It is stranger not to know."

My uncle's face as he clicked his tongue and spoke was infuriatingly hateful. I had not much liked the man from the first time I met him, but now I disliked him even more intensely.

"Read it. I brought it so that, if you had any interest in the sword, you could read it on your own instead of bothering me for nothing. And now it seems I get to use it like this."

My uncle held out a book.

* * *

「Basic Theory of the Mana Chain, written by Bruno Burdoph, the eighth-generation successor of Verner Ratchel, the sixteenth disciple of Ernest Altringen, the founder of the Mana Chain, and compiled by Gregory Hessler」

I forced open a book whose title alone made me not want to read it. If I wanted to fill the four-hundred-year gap, I had to read it whether I liked it or not.

"The times really have changed."

Starting from Sword Beginner, then going through Runner, Expert, and Master, the knightly terms I knew had become moldy old words. The new era was full of unfamiliar concepts.

Mages had [Circles], knights had [Chains], and the standard for dividing a knight's level was the number of circuits.

[Single Chain], [Double Chain], [Triple Chain], [Quad Chain], [Penta Chain]

Apparently, these unfamiliar words were what referred to the levels of modern knights. And apparently, the knights who had reduced the continent's ten greatest Sword Masters to punching bags two hundred and twenty years ago had been [Quad Chain] knights.

"Not Penta, but Quad..."

The Mana Heart that had settled completely into my body felt especially vivid. The thing that had looked so lovely to me until yesterday now felt as unpleasant as a tumor inside my body.

"Ha."

Even when I entered the body of a fat, bloated scoundrel, and even when I lost all the powers I had accumulated over hundreds of years because of it, I had been confident.

As long as I had the know-how from hundreds of years of my life as a sword, lost powers and the like were nothing.

In truth, I had overcome my wretched aptitude and succeeded in creating a Mana Heart. I believed that, as long as I had enough time, I could regain my former strength whenever I wished, and that belief remained firm.

But that and this were separate matters.

After all the trouble I had gone through to grow my Mana Heart, I was now in a position where I would be broken the moment I met someone who had learned some secret art called the Mana Chain that I had never heard of or seen before. It would have been stranger if I had felt good about it.

Even as my thoughts continued, my hands kept turning the pages, and my eyes followed the writing that filled the yellowed paper.

「Basic Concepts of Mana Chain Refinement」

The key principles of the secret art that had completely buried one of the traditions that once dominated an era were written there as if they were a recipe from some cheap cookbook.

But the actual contents were not like that.

"So this is not some completely ridiculous trickery."

Just by skimming through one manual on a surface level, I had no choice but to accept the flow of history that had led to the [Mana Chain] replacing the [Mana Heart].

The Mana Chain clearly had the potential to deserve that. Nevertheless, when I finished reading the book, I had no choice but to laugh. The concern and unease no longer remained.

"Altringen, Altringen."

I closed the book. I ran my eyes over the cover. On the tacky cover, I saw a title written with more care than necessary. 「Basic Theory of the Mana Chain, written by Bruno Burdoph, the eighth-generation successor of Verner Ratchel, the sixteenth disciple of Ernest Altringen...」 One name written at the very front lodged itself in my eyes.

"I thought that name sounded familiar."

A very long time ago, some hybrid bastard who was neither swordsman nor Mage had come to visit. The bastard had suddenly drawn his sword, saying he wanted to determine who was worthy of the name [Sword Saint].

A bastard who used a strange technique that violently disturbed his opponent's mana. Yes, that bastard's surname had been [Altringen].

"So what happened to that bastard again?"

* * *

The next day, my uncle's gaze as he looked at me was still the same. It was the gaze of someone looking at a wastrel who had ruined his own future with an irreversible mistake.

"Do you understand the situation now?"

After a long while, my uncle asked. I nodded.

"Then you must also know just how foolish a choice you made."

"It was hasty, but I would not go so far as to call it foolish."

Of course, my uncle's expression immediately filled with displeasure.

"It seems you did not read the book."

"I read it all. Several times."

"Then you must not have understood it properly."

"I understood as much as I needed to."

My uncle took a step back and folded his arms. His expression seemed to say, Go on, try babbling about what exactly you understood.

"Mutual complementation between circuits, rotation, resonance."

To that uncle, I listed a few short terms. They were the key principles of the Mana Chain refinement method as I had organized them in my own way the previous night.

"Hmm."

My uncle's gaze turned toward the Royal Guards watching me from afar. He seemed to think I was showing off with things I had heard from them.

"Well, it does not matter. They are all useless to you anyway."

You were not going to become a knight, and now that you had already created a Mana Heart, what importance could the key principles of the Mana Chain possibly hold? My uncle spoke indifferently.

"That is true. What can I do now about something I have already learned? Besides."

A strange light appeared in my uncle's eyes. He seemed to have thought I would cry and throw a tantrum.

So what? Should I at least pretend I was dying of regret?

They say other people's rice cakes always look bigger. But somehow, the rice cake in my own hand looked far bigger to me.

"I do not think I made a mistake in the slightest."

My uncle's eyes looked as if he were seeing the greatest fool under heaven.

"Do you not want to admit it, or do you still not understand the situation?"

His indifferent voice fully contained my uncle's true feelings as he looked down on me.

Facing that blatant contempt, I,

"Neither."

simply smiled.

"Have you ever heard the phrase, a difference in class?"

My uncle did not answer. Perhaps he disliked my smile, because he only glared at me with a stiff face. Looking at that uncle, I asked.

"Not all Mana Hearts are the same Mana Heart."

* * *

What an idiot.

Vale Ballorhard clicked his tongue as he looked at his nephew. The sight of him cutting off his own possibilities with his own hands, then boasting of that paltry achievement, could not have been more pathetic.

"Do you think you are special?"

His nephew did not answer. But Vale knew all too well what his nephew was thinking.

"There are occasionally people like you among mercenaries. People who are deluded into thinking they are heroes from hundreds of years ago."

Those who were drunk on dreams of the past and could not see reality,

"Do you know what happened to all of them?"

His foolish nephew was the same as them.

"They all fell before they could even surpass a mere two circuits."

He needed a lesson. Vale had to show this wild, ignorant wretch just how grave a mistake he had made, and just how high the walls of the world were.

"Double Chain. If you defeat a Double Chain knight."

So that he would never leap about like a mudskipper again. So that his sister would never be saddened because of him.

"I will become your guardian, as your mother wishes."

"I do not know what sort of person you are, Uncle."

Would you be worth that much? His nephew seemed to be asking that.

At that ridiculous provocation, Vale squared his shoulders and straightened his back. With that tiny change alone, he became a giant.

"I am Vale Ballorhard, Commander of the northern third corps, captain of the Black Lancers, and a count of the kingdom. I am one of the Five Silver Lions who follow Your Majesty, and a knight who has woven four circuits."

A presence rose violently like a storm.

CLANG!

The Royal Knights drew their swords all at once and aimed them at Vale. Even before those chilling blades, he did not so much as blink.

"That is the name of the man who may one day stand behind you."

Looking at Vale, his nephew singled out one among the many names.

"So you were a Quad Chain knight."

His plump, fleshy cheeks twitched. Vale could not tell what kind of expression that face was trying to make.

"Do not go back on your word later."

His nephew was probably smiling.