Chapter 5 - Not All Legacies Are in the Same Class (2)

The presence of a true knight, faced for the first time after losing my powers for hundreds of years, was not something I could handle.

To be honest, I completely chickened out.

If the Royal Knights had not raised their own presence to protect me, I might have shown a rather pathetic sight.

No, perhaps I had already looked pathetic enough.

Thinking that my uncle had seen me like that wounded my pride. It was all because of this useless, overgrown body. The problem was these slabs of flesh that amplified even the slightest tremor several times over. My fleshy face simply would not obey my control.

"My centuries of life as a sword have gone to waste."

To think I had chickened out before my opponent had even drawn his sword. The self-loathing was no small thing.

"Whew."

I let out a sigh and calmed myself. Then I sorted out what I had seen in my head.

"A Quad Chain..."

That presence that had risen like a tidal wave and those savage eyes resembled certain beings I had once known.

Sword Masters.

Superhumans who could do anything as long as they had a single sword in hand; my uncle was the same as them. If there was any difference, it was only that what had made my uncle a superhuman was not one heart, but four circuits.

"The world really has changed."

I could see the blue sky. It was the same blue I had seen hundreds of years ago. But the world beneath it had changed so much.

"Your Highness!"

As I was lost in sentiment, a maid came running in a panic.

"The Queen is on her way here!"

"What? Why again!"

When I shouted, the maid told me the whole story. The commotion at the training ground had already reached the Queen.

"Tell her I'm not here!"

"Y-Your Highness!"

At my absurd insistence, the maid looked ready to cry.

"The Queen has arrived!"

In the meantime, the Queen arrived. I saw the Queen, attendants dangling all around her, actually clutching the hem of her skirt as she hurried over in little steps.

Damn it. This woman is seriously hard to deal with.

Her extreme motherly love, and the way she treated me like a child, were all uncomfortable. That was why I wanted to avoid her if possible, but I had ended up facing her again.

"Ian!"

Her steps grew even faster when she spotted me.

"What happened?"

She asked the Royal Guard. Her eyes remained fixed on me.

"The boy provoked me, so I simply entertained him for a moment."

The answer came from an unexpected place. I turned my head and saw my uncle, who had approached at some point.

"Provoked you? What did this child do?"

"He asked whether I was qualified."

The Queen looked as if she wanted to know the details, but my uncle did not seem inclined to speak at length.

"You should go back now. Surely you do not think I would harm this boy."

You did, though. Harm me, I mean.

I made a show of rubbing the backside he had kicked, but no one was looking at me. Feeling awkward for no reason, I quietly lowered my hand.

"Even if he is lacking, he is still your blood and your nephew. I hope you will not forget that, Brother."

"It is because you coddle him so much that it grows harder and harder to do anything with him."

It was such a reasonable statement that I nodded without thinking. The Queen's love for her child did feel excessive. She must have had some influence on the scoundrel's temper as well.

"So you go back. And you, follow me."

When I asked why, my uncle clicked his tongue.

"Training."

Now that he mentioned it, I remembered that today's training had not even begun yet.

* * *

"Huff, huff!"

My breath had risen all the way to my chin, and my body felt as if it would collapse at any moment. But my uncle had still not told me to stop.

For the sake of my pride, I refused to be the first to tire out and fall. Somehow, I would endure and endure until that mouth told me to stop first.

I had definitely been thinking that until just a moment ago.

"Get up."

After running and running, my legs gave out and I rolled across the ground. But far from stopping the training, my uncle forced me back to my feet.

Wait, this man. I think he just smiled.

I definitely saw it. The faint twitch at the corner of that man called my uncle's mouth.

What the hell. Is this man taking his anger out on me right now?

"Let me say this, just in case."

My uncle suddenly spoke.

"I have already erased what happened earlier from my mind."

Watching him spout words I had not even asked for, I could tell that my uncle had very much been dwelling on the fact that I had provoked him.

After acting so magnanimous all by himself, it was beyond ridiculous.

"With that kind of grit, I am sure you will earn recognition."

"Double Chain? You would be lucky to beat even a Single Chain."

"If it is too hard, give up. Then you will have no more reason to suffer."

My uncle's revenge was not limited to simply working me into the ground. Every remark he tossed out from time to time scraped away at my insides like that.

"Then we stop here for today."

Only after I had rolled across the ground a dozen or so times did my uncle stop the training. By then, saying I was battered all over was not nearly enough.

"Huff, huff."

I lay sprawled on the ground and looked up at the sky. I heard footsteps. When I turned my head, I saw my uncle moving away. He looked as though warm farewells between uncle and nephew had never even crossed his mind.

Well, I had not the slightest desire for that either.

I glared at his hateful back, then forced myself upright. My body did not feel like my own, and only after groaning for a long while did I barely manage to take the posture I wanted.

"Whew."

Sitting there, I steadied my breathing. The breath that had risen all the way to my chin sank back to my chest, then to my stomach. I slowly drew the surrounding mana into my body.

And with that, my daily routine ended. No, I thought it had ended.

"Your Highness. I have been waiting."

When I returned to my bedchamber almost crawling, a middle-aged man with a goatee greeted me in front of the door. He was someone I remembered seeing when I planted the amnesia excuse.

"The royal physician?"

"I am overwhelmed that you remember this humble one."

The royal physician expressed his honor with his entire body. I had felt this before, but he was a man who gave off an ambitious, career-minded air.

"Why did the royal physician come?"

I narrowed my eyes and asked what he had come here hoping to scavenge, and the royal physician rolled up his sleeves as he answered.

"Please allow me to examine Your Highness's august body."

It was obvious without even looking that the Queen, who could not bear even the slightest harm to her son, had sent him.

Her smothering meddling, seriously...

I was shaking my head when the man called the royal physician strode toward me. A pure white flash gathered in his hand. I was horrified.

"No!"

Startled by my sudden reaction, the royal physician stepped backward. He must have been quite shocked, because the healing light he had gathered in his hand had vanished before I knew it.

"Y-Your Highness? Did this humble one perhaps make some mistake..."

"Mistake? Not yet. But you almost did."

"This humble one is foolish and does not understand Your Highness's words..."

"I am saying none of that matters, so just leave."

The royal physician resisted, saying he had the Queen's command.

"Go! I said go!"

But when I acted fierce enough to kick him in the ass, he could not hold out any longer and vanished as if fleeing.

"Your Highness. Why did you not receive the royal physician's healing magic?"

After the royal physician disappeared, the Royal Guard asked. It was Karl Ulrich, who had been newly assigned to the Prince's Palace before.

"Because healing magic is poison to me."

Overworked muscles tear, swell, and become even stronger. But if I received healing magic, the muscles would heal completely. Before they had any chance to harden.

My hard work rolling around the training ground all day would come to nothing.

I absolutely could not allow that.

I was huffing to myself as I thought of the wretched man who had tried to blow away my entire day, when I suddenly felt a gaze.

Karl was looking at me with a surprised face.

"Ahem."

Feeling smug for no reason, I cleared my throat.

* * *

The next morning, when I shuffled to the training ground, practically crawling, my uncle was waiting for me.

"It seems the royal palace does not have any particularly skilled Mages."

"Think whatever you like."

When I answered indifferently, my uncle furrowed his brow.

"Surely you did not refuse healing magic."

"Would you accept it, Uncle, when you know perfectly well it would be poison?"

There was no reaction like Karl's. My uncle merely nodded once.

"Run. Until I tell you to stop, just like yesterday."

I started circling the training ground without complaint.

Ugggh. I am dying.

My whole body screamed. Every time I kicked off the ground, it was so hard that my knees felt as if they would buckle. But I held it in.

That damned pride of mine.

I endured with the single-minded determination to somehow lose weight and humble that hateful uncle of mine.

"Stop."

I had just braced myself, assuming in advance how much he would work me today. But my uncle stopped the training far earlier than I expected.

"I naturally assumed you would receive healing magic."

It was far too blunt to call an excuse, and far too stingy to call an apology. My uncle simply looked surprised.

"We will stop here for today."

My uncle stared at me, declared the training over, and disappeared.

"Ugh."

That was when my body, which had been holding on because of my pride, collapsed.

"I really am going to die."

* * *

The next day, and the day after that, my daily life did not change.

I ran around the training ground every day.

My body, unable to shake off the previous day's fatigue, swayed however it pleased, and the pain rising from my abused muscles put me to the test with every step.

But I gritted my teeth and endured.

Because I could not do anything unless I shed this damn mass of flesh.

My uncle likewise did not demand anything else of me. My uncle tried to control me thoroughly.

Running, walking, and resting all began and ended with my uncle's words. My diet, perhaps because my uncle had also done something about it separately, had changed completely from before. Meat and vegetables with almost no seasoning tormented me greatly, now that I had just awakened to the pleasures of eating.

Under the pretext of making me lose weight, my uncle interfered with every part of my life.

But even that uncle of mine left one thing alone.

The Mana Heart.

My uncle did not care what I did with the Mana Heart. Whether I groaned as I gathered mana during rest, or secretly circulated mana during training to raise my exhausted body back up, he paid not the slightest attention.

His attitude was as if whatever I did with some worthless Mana Heart was not worth his notice.

Like that, a week passed, and then a month passed.

"Hm?"

My uncle, who always stood in the middle of the training ground empty-handed, was holding something today.

It was a wooden sword.

"You should know at least a bit of swordsmanship for my wager with you to hold, should you not?"

My uncle, who spoke with an indifferent face, raised the wooden sword upright.

"This is the kingdom's Training Sword, which the kingdom's knights learn when laying their foundations. I do not intend to show it to you many times, so open your eyes and watch carefully."

Saying he had no intention of teaching me the swordsmanship of House Ballorhard, my uncle showed me the kingdom's Training Sword as if tossing me alms.

But that sword form was strangely familiar to my eyes. Though it had been altered and parts had been omitted, I was certain.

"You said this was the sword the kingdom's knights learn when laying their foundations?"

However my uncle took my question, his expression hardened.

"It may lack sharpness because it is a Training Sword, but it is faithful to the fundamentals, so it is not so bad for beginning swordsmanship."

A tone as if even this was more than enough for the likes of me.

"It lacks sharpness. It is not so bad..."

I laughed without meaning to.

"So that is how people judge this sword."

Because I knew better than anyone what that swordsmanship my uncle looked down on truly was.

It was one of the traces I had left in the world long ago.

Dragon Slayer.

The sword that had slaughtered the mad dragon was being treated as some trifling Training Sword.

It was so ridiculous.