Chapter 6 - Not All Legacies Are in the Same Class (3)

The Dragon Slayer my uncle showed me was not completely the same as the Dragon Slayer I knew.

It wore the shell of Dragon Slayer, but its substance had been hollowed out, and as my uncle had said, it was nothing more than a dull blade fit only to be used as a Training Sword.

In truth, I had known from the beginning why Dragon Slayer had come to be treated as this trifling scrap of a Training Sword.

The Dragon Slayer I saw from my uncle lacked the Will to Slay Dragons.

Perhaps that was only natural.

Because this was that kind of era now.

Because this was an era where people reached higher realms through a technique called chains, not through one will and one heart.

The damned Mana Chain.

Even I had never imagined that even Leonberk's descendants would have abandoned the Mana Heart and chosen the Mana Chain.

It was not some old junk to be thrown away like a worn-out shoe.

But unfortunately, it seemed my dear friend's descendants had no eye for discerning treasure.

They had made their choice, and the result was the false Dragon Slayer before my eyes.

"Hoo."

I exhaled deeply and cooled my tangled thoughts.

But even after cooling my head like that, my heated heart was still hot.

The artificial heart I had formed by gathering mana had been writhing ever since it saw that half-formed Dragon Slayer.

That is fake.

It is not your other half.

At my denial, the seething mana settled.

As if it had understood me.

"... For someone like you, who does not even know how to grip a sword, there is no sword more suitable than this."

Even while I calmed myself, my uncle kept talking as he pleased.

He, too, thought it was not fair to enter the wager using only a Training Sword, but even so, he had no intention of teaching me his family's swordsmanship.

If I wanted to learn some other swordsmanship later, he did not care whether I pestered my mother and requested another teacher or not.

He went on and on, but in the end, his point was that it would be impossible to win the wager with Dragon Slayer alone.

"So..."

"I need none of it."

I cut my uncle off.

"I will not learn any other swordsmanship."

Then I declared it.

"That sword is enough for the wager."

My uncle looked as though he had much to say, but as always, he took a step back and maintained the attitude of an observer.

"Do as you like."

It was a single sentence that fully revealed his intent that he did not care what decision I made.

"The running and basic stamina training stay as they are."

"Learning the sword forms will be done afterward."

My uncle adjusted my training schedule as though nothing had happened.

Wooden-sword training was added to the monotonous list of exercises, and from that day on, I began learning the fake Dragon Slayer that had been altered, weakened, and reduced to something insignificant.

If I had my way, I would have shown him the true Dragon Slayer for all to see, but unfortunately, my current body could not handle the true Dragon Slayer.

This flesh was far too frail to withstand the slash that had once cut even through a dragon's scales.

The Mana Heart was the same; one wrong move, and my still-immature heart could shatter.

So I trained in the fake Dragon Slayer my uncle had shown me.

As my uncle said, the fake was exceedingly excellent to learn as a Training Sword.

I held the wooden sword and repeated monotonous slashes and thrusts.

While I did, my body was slowly changing.

The muscles needed to wield a sword were being made, and my body was being shaped to step in and step back properly.

And so another month passed.

『After arduous training, you have succeeded in changing your constitution.』

『The [Morbid Obesity] trait has changed to [Obesity].』

『Your metabolism will become more active due to the change in constitution.』

Messages rang out.

『Through repeated training, you have become somewhat accustomed to using your body.』

『The [Clumsy] trait has disappeared.』

『The effects of exercise will greatly increase.』

It was the moment when the two months of hard training I had never missed for even a single day finally bore a small fruit.

Moreover, my changes had not occurred only on the outside.

『After steadily accumulating mana, your constitution has changed.』

『The [Mana Sensitivity Disorder] trait has disappeared, and the [General Mana Sensitivity] trait has been created.』

My dreadful mana sensitivity had risen to an ordinary level.

It was thanks to my desperate gathering of mana.

It was truly tremendous progress.

But I had not the slightest intention of being satisfied with this much.

I still had ninety thousand li ahead of me.

I raised the intensity of my training even further.

Even after completing my daily routine with my uncle, I stayed alone in the training ground and continued training far more often.

It was difficult, but at the same time, it was enjoyable.

I had always only watched from behind.

Even if I had been a wise advisor and an excellent teacher, I had always been nothing more than a third party.

The effort and passion I poured in had been nothing more than nourishment that grew others, not me.

Not now.

This sweat, this effort, and these results were all wholly mine.

That fact let me feel a sense of accomplishment I had never once felt until now.

I was growing.

Even if that achievement was still insignificant, I was definitely becoming stronger.

My flesh was more encouraged than ever, and my mind was endlessly uplifted.

The more that happened, the more I raised the intensity of my training.

Nothing but training entered my eyes.

"...!"

I stamped hard and stepped forward.

"...op!"

I swung the wooden sword with all my strength.

"Stop!"

But before I could fully thrust out the wooden sword, someone grabbed my body.

"Uncle?"

My uncle was glaring at me with his face badly distorted.

It was an emotional expression I had never once seen from him until now.

"Did you not hear me tell you to stop!"

My uncle roughly snatched my hand.

"Huh?"

The palm he forced open was completely torn to shreds.

Ripped, burst, and covered in bloody pus, the pain came rushing belatedly, and my mind, which had been uplifted as if drugged, plummeted in an instant.

PATTER PATTER.

Raindrops battered my body.

It seemed I had not even noticed it was raining.

"You fool!"

"What training do you think you are doing on a day like this!"

It was raining rather heavily, but it was cool and nice.

I was about to talk back to my uncle's fussing, but after belatedly seeing the scenery around me, I closed my mouth.

"Uh..."

A spot slightly off from the center of the training ground, in other words, the ground right beside me, had been scorched black.

It was an ugly mark that had not been there when I started training.

RUMBLE! CRASH!

The sky told me what had left the mark.

A lightning strike.

The blackened spot was where lightning had struck.

I measured the distance between myself and the ground the lightning had clawed through.

Barely ten steps.

Cold sweat flowed belatedly.

"If it had been a live blade, you would not have escaped disaster."

At my uncle's words, I nodded without thinking.

It was fortunate that it had been a wooden sword.

If it had been a live blade, the place where the lightning fell would not have been the ground of the training ground, but the tip of my sword.

And I would have become one well-cooked pig, sprawled on the floor of the training ground.

At the horrifying image, I shuddered without realizing it.

At that moment, a message rang out.

『You have completely awakened from an extreme state of concentration.』

『However, your body still remembers that extreme sensation.』

『The [Hyperfocus] trait has newly been created.』

If I focused like that twice, I was liable to get struck by lightning and die.

"Today's training ends here."

At my uncle's declaration, the mad training in the rain was forcibly brought to an end.

"Y-Your Highness!"

On the way to my bedchamber, I met that royal physician again.

"Today, please do not reject my hand..."

"Here."

I held out my hand to the royal physician, who spoke with a solemn face.

The royal physician saw my palm, sticky with bloody pus, and was horrified.

A pure white flash was already dwelling in the hand the royal physician hurriedly thrust out.

I hardly know what to do with myself.

Hundreds of years ago, there were not many skilled Mages.

In the great war that swept across the entire continent, amid fierce battles that never ceased, the ones who always fell first were the Mages, and most of the Mages who survived suffered from severe mana shortages.

It was impossible to enjoy the luxury of receiving healing magic for mere scratches on the flesh.

Even if that person was a commander leading an army.

"Your Highness, do not resist, and put your mind at ease."

After cleanly healing the wounds on my palm, the royal physician poured healing light over my entire body this time.

The fatigue of the body that had been dragged around and abused by a mind uplifted to an abnormal degree melted away like snow.

Whoa.

I could get addicted to this.

I was smiling within that languid yet pleasant sensation when I suddenly felt eyes on me.

When I turned my head, Karl Ulrich and the other knights were looking at me with strange faces.

"Why?"

I asked the reason, but they did not answer.

They merely carefully led me, now that my treatment was finished, into the bedchamber.

* * *

The experience of that day when lightning struck made me look back on myself.

I was not perfect as I was now.

It felt as though my mind, which had lived as a sword, and the weak flesh of a scoundrel had not yet perfectly found a compromise.

Some might look at my state and say my mind had transcended my body.

But this was not that.

Right now, it was more like the mind that had been a sword was grabbing the weak body's leash and dragging it around.

That was why I had pushed my body beyond its limits that day.

Everyone hopes to surpass their limits and advance one step further, but transcendence always comes at a price.

And with my current body, I could not pay that price.

I had seen countless people collapse and break that way.

Though I had never imagined I would do such a foolish thing myself.

It seemed I needed to compose myself.

"His Excellency Count Ballorhard instructed us to forbid any training at which he is not present."

It seemed my uncle had thought the same as me, because he had even personally left instructions with my knights.

"I am going for a walk."

"I will escort you."

I had left the room thinking of taking a walk to ease my stifled mood, but a whole string of hangers-on attached themselves to me.

I tried to shake off the Royal Knights, but soon gave up.

Looking at their honest, stubborn faces, I felt it would only tire my mouth to say anything.

"Hoo."

I had resolved to enjoy the luxuries I had never enjoyed during the days when I lived as a sword, but in reality, I spent the whole day sitting around training.

Well, what does it matter?

As long as it is enjoyable.

Training with my own body was also a luxury I had not enjoyed before, if one could call it that, and I shook off my thoughts.

"Hm?"

As I wandered around nearby, lost in thought like that, I saw a whole crowd of people approaching from far away.

"His Highness the Third Prince has arrived!"

I wondered who it was, and it seemed to be that scoundrel's brother.

"I heard you suffered an accident, but you look quite well."

If he was the Third Prince, then he was certainly that scoundrel's younger brother.

But the eyes of that younger brother looked sinister, as if he wanted to devour me.

Ah.

Right.

This little shit was an outcast.

I belatedly recalled that scoundrel's personal relationships and ended up snickering.

"Yes."

"I heard you became so enthralled with the legend our founder established that you tried to recreate it yourself and drove a sword into your own body?"

The one called the Third Prince mocked me.

I mocked him along with him.

Even thinking about it again, the scoundrel's death had been ugly.

When I cackled and laughed along with him, the Third Prince's face turned serious, and he snapped at me.

"Have you no shame?"

"Thanks to you, Brother, the royal family's honor has fallen to the ground, yet you can still laugh?"

"Yeah."

"I can."

"Tsk."

"Even after nearly dying, you have not changed at all."

He sounds just like his father.

I was recalling the king's words I had heard one day when the Third Prince suddenly asked about how I was doing lately.