Chapter 127
The King of the Tirkan Kingdom, Edalharen Jimir, stared in disbelief at the imperial army that had already advanced to the outskirts of the capital.
Though it was a small kingdom, they had managed to survive this long through careful diplomacy and the tactical use of their military, taking advantage of the kingdom’s geographical strengths.
But now…
“…Is this truly the end for the Tirkan Kingdom?”
It was just one man.
A single individual with the title of Aura Master led this army.
How could it be that because of this one man, the soldiers of a kingdom with a history spanning hundreds of years had crumbled?
And so easily at that.
At that mont, a middle-aged man next to Edalharen spoke.
“Your Majesty, it is too early to give up. If we focus our defense around the capital, even they will not be able to breach it easily.”
“…Very well. Let’s hold on to whatever hope we can,” Edalharen said in a voice that sounded half-defeated.
And then, suddenly—
“Your Majesty!”
“What’s happening?” Edalharen asked, startled by the soldier who burst into the chamber.
Could it be that the defenses had already been breached?
But the soldier, kneeling with labored breaths, urgently spoke.
“The enemy forces… have changed direction.”
“…What?”
“Where are they headed?”
The soldier’s following words caused everyone in the room to gasp in shock.
* * *
Clang!
Even though it was a wooden sword, it made a sound like tal tearing.
For the first ti, Damian successfully blocked an attack.
Barely managing to defend with his spear, Damian saw Hainel’s lips curl upward into a faint smile.
“Hoo, that was a good move just now.”
It had been fifteen days since Damian had co to Hainel’s estate.
Each day, without fail, Damian had ended the day by fainting from exhaustion. But the interesting part was that the ti he could hold out was gradually increasing.
And today…
“From now on, things will be different,” Damian declared.
For two weeks, Damian had been knocked out helplessly, unable to do anything.
Every day, he gritted his teeth, no longer approaching each battle as if he were learning, but instead with the intensity of soone determined to kill Hainel.
“Hup!”
With a sharp inhale, Damian thrust his spear toward Hainel’s ankle.
It was a small target, hard to hit, but there was no hesitation in Damian’s attack.
Ssssh!
Damian’s spear tore through the grass, moving swiftly toward Hainel’s side.
Hainel effortlessly stepped back, avoiding the strike.
“…”
Hainel stared at Damian, thinking to himself how remarkable this was.
No, perhaps “amazing” was a more fitting word.
‘To improve this much in just fifteen days…’
Now, Hainel could sowhat understand what Damian had ant when he said:
—I have no talent.
At first, Hainel thought it was just humility.
No, beyond humility—it seed like false modesty.
At just fifteen years old, how many people on the continent could wield such skill?
But now, after fifteen days, Hainel could no longer dismiss Damian’s abilities as re talent.
It was due to Damian’s relentless effort.
Despite the ti he spent unconscious, Damian focused all his waking hours on training.
He obsessively clung to Hainel’s every word, determined to learn. He lived as though he wouldn’t waste even a single second.
At dawn, he practiced his mana technique.
From morning until he fainted, he sparred with Hainel.
And once he woke, he would practice correcting the flaws he had realized during the sparring sessions.
‘What a stubborn boy,’ Hainel mused.
What kind of life must he have lived to possess such unwavering will and dedication?
A smile crept onto Hainel’s face as Damian continued his relentless assault. And then—
Clang!
“This attack is unnecessary. Right now, instead of deceiving your opponent with feints, a single swift, decisive blow would be more effective.”
“I’ll rember that,” Damian replied.
But his movents didn’t stop.
He was putting everything he had into trying to land a hit on Hainel.
Thud!
Hainel blocked Damian’s spear with his wooden sword and then leaped back, widening the distance between them.
Watching Hainel move completely out of range, Damian’s eyes narrowed.
Before, Hainel’s movents would have been impossible for him to follow.
However—
Wooong!
Damian focused magic into his legs and stomped hard against the ground.
Boom!
The ground where Damian had stepped caved in slightly.
Swoosh!
With a speed akin to an arrow fired from a powerful bow, Damian shot toward Hainel.
For the first ti since their training began, Hainel’s eyes flickered with surprise as Damian closed the distance.
‘This boy…?’
Hainel thought to himself.
Had Damian really learned to control his magic in such a short ti?
But there was no ti to dwell on it.
This was the first true danger Hainel had faced since they started sparring.
Ssshhh!
The spear, now accelerated by Damian’s charge, was aid directly at Hainel’s chest.
At this mont—
‘It will hit,’ Damian thought as he gritted his teeth and shifted the magic in his legs to his arms, focusing intently.
The magic that had resisted Damian’s control until now—
‘Listen to …!’
This ti, the magic responded to his intense will without resistance, moving quickly.
Woooong!
With a powerful vibration, the spear struck Hainel’s chest.
Bam!
A thunderous crash echoed.
It sounded as if tal had been torn apart, and Hainel’s body was forced backward.
It wasn’t that Hainel retreated of his own will—he had been pushed back by Damian’s attack.
However…
“…Damn it,” Damian muttered through clenched teeth.
He had been certain his attack was perfect, but in that split second, Hainel had blocked it with the flat of his sword.
“Ugh…!”
On top of that, had he moved too much magic too quickly?
After finishing his attack, Damian’s hand, which held the spear, was now in imnse pain, radiating throughout his entire arm, causing him to grimace.
“Argh!”
Overwheld by the pain, Damian dropped his spear and fell to one knee.
It felt as though his muscles were tearing apart. But then—
“Don’t try to control the magic forcefully—let it flow out slowly.”
As Damian collapsed, Hainel approached and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Then, Hainel began dispersing the magic that had gathered in Damian’s arm by infusing it with his own mana.
Swoosh
Amazingly, the sharp, cutting pain started to fade.
“…It feels much better now,” Damian said.
“That’s good to hear.”
Hainel lightly patted Damian’s shoulder before turning his gaze toward his wooden sword.
“…”
Who would have thought? A crack had ford in the wooden sword, crafted from the branch of a thousand-year-old ironwood tree.
Surprised by the unexpected power behind Damian’s attack, Hainel looked at him and asked, “Have you found so of the answers?”
“I’m not sure yet. I think I just forced my magic to move because I didn’t want to lose.”
“That’s exactly it.”
“…What?” Damian asked, confused.
Hainel pointed at him and explained, “Your magic has a very solid but wild nature. If I had to compare it to sothing… it’s like a bull in a bullfight.”
“A bull in a bullfight?”
“Yes, a bull. You need to focus on controlling the bull, not the fight itself.”
Hainel was telling Damian that he needed to learn how to suppress his wild magic with strong willpower.
“Your magic requires imnse control to be harnessed effectively. That’s why the caster needs to be even stronger to handle it.”
Hainel hadn’t given Damian the answer imdiately because knowing the answer wasn’t enough—you had to break through the barrier yourself to advance to the next stage.
And now that Damian had broken through, Hainel’s explanation was more of a guiding lesson.
“You know this too, don’t you? That when you move magic quickly, it creates explosive power at that point.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that.”
Damian could manage that level of control.
Or so he thought.
But the movent he had just perford…
‘…Was everything I’ve done up until now nothing more than child’s play?’
A flurry of thoughts raced through Damian’s mind.
He lowered his head, his face hardening in deep contemplation.
At that mont, Hainel lightly patted his head.
“Still, that move you just made—it was quite good. Don’t forget that feeling.”
“…I understand,” Damian replied with a nod.
It was an emotion he hadn’t felt in a long ti.
No, perhaps he had felt it long ago… back then…
‘A feeling I haven’t had since long ago.’
—Well done, Damian!
The distant mory of his childhood, now faint and blurred, resurfaced.
He rembered his father’s voice, filled with pride, as he patted Damian’s head and smiled warmly.
A ti in his life when everything was happy.
For the first ti since returning to this life, Damian recalled a mory from his childhood.
* * *
The imperial army, which had been stationed in the northwest of the Spanian Kingdom, began to move after having been in a standoff for so ti.
It had seed as if the empire had deployed the Aura Master Galveron to keep the Tirkan Kingdom in check.
“So, they’re finally moving,” General Mateurus of the Spanian Kingdom said, frowning as he read the letter delivered by a ssenger.
“Send word to the Baroque Kingdom imdiately. Dispatch our fastest ssenger.”
“Yes, sir.”
Even if the ssage was sent now, by the ti it reached the Baroque Kingdom…
Mateurus let out a small sigh.
The situation wasn’t favorable, but…
“We must defend our land ourselves.”
Only then could they maintain good relations with the Baroque Kingdom in the future.
“…It is truly regrettable that we lack strength.”
Though the Spanian Kingdom was the largest of the small kingdoms, given the power struggle between the Cartelia Empire, the Baroque Kingdom, and the Artian Kingdom, they had beco little more than a vast, weak nation.
Mateurus turned to his subordinates.
“Strengthen the capital’s defenses. No matter what, we must hold the capital.”
“Understood!”
Defending the borders with their current forces was impossible. In fact, could they even call that land theirs anymore?
Watching his subordinate walk away, Mateurus couldn’t help but feel troubled.
anwhile…
In Valphate, with the Caion Unit—
“…The captain has not returned yet.”
“I’ve already sent word to Sergeant Damian. For now, we need to move the unit toward the Spanian Kingdom, and until Damian returns, you’ll take command,” Leonhark said.
Dianal hesitated.
Could he truly fill Damian’s shoes? He had his doubts.
But…
Clench
As a soldier, following orders from higher command was the most important duty.
And just moving the unit to the Spanian Kingdom…
“Understood,” Dianal said, nodding as he imdiately began organizing the unit.
Given the situation, they would need to depart right away.
Facing the unit, Dianal addressed the soldiers.
“You’ve all been briefed and know what to do.”
Everyone understood what he ant.
This would be their first ti heading into battle without Damian present.
But…
“There’s no need to worry. We’re not being thrown into combat right away…”
Even if they did end up fighting…
“We’re still the Caion Unit. We can’t afford to show weakness just because our captain isn’t with us.”
“That’s right.”
“Exactly!” Kyle and Jerka added, one after the other.
The rest of the soldiers nodded in agreent.
Dianal smiled slightly at their words before addressing the unit once more.
“When the captain returns, we’ll greet him with pride. Understood?”
“Yes, sir!”
The soldiers’ loud voices echoed in response.
Thinking of Damian, Dianal quietly issued the order.
“Full unit, march out.”
Reviews
All reviews (0)