11

Some top-notch Knights and first-class mercenaries used manna to reinforce their bodies and the blades of their weapons. The swordsmanship, which prominent noble families possessed exclusively or famous swordsmen declared as their signature skills, contained its own method of using manna force.

It depended on the personal affinity to manna and the swordsmanship used, but the blade covered with manna force was reinforced multiple times. Top-class swordsmen, who could adequately use manna force, were able to cut steel armor or a steel-framed shield easily. When they used manna force, the blade of their weapon was covered with bluish energy, and the more intensively trained swordsmen were, the more distinct the energy got. It’s not easy, of course, to train manna force. Even taught with high-class swordsmanship and trained intensively and adequately, it took decades to become a swordsman capable of using manna force.

Andrew was one of the top-notch manna force users in the Icarus Empire. Actually, he had been considered one of the top three swordsmen in Icarus until he met William Cronos. After William had defeated him, he spent his whole life researching the secrets of the Aura Beam.

Andrew couldn’t accept that he lost to William, not being able to defend against a single blow of William’s blade. Andrew had trained swordsmanship for more than thirty years by then. He had studied almost every kind of swordsmanship, including the Adelian family’s secret techniques, in the whole Empire regardless of its origin. He had even studied the swordsmanship of the Cronos family. Therefore, Andrew had been confident he wouldn’t lose to anyone in a sword fight. The confidence, however, was shattered by William’s new skill.

Technically, you could not describe William’s movements as swordsmanship. Step – stab, step – slash. Those were moves even a beginner swordsman was capable of. However, when the incredible speed and the overwhelming power of the red Aura Beam were added to the basic movements, they became invincible skills. Andrew could not overcome the fatal force of the glittering red beam, and his manna-enforced steel sword was destroyed at once as if it was a rotten wooden sword.

If Andrew had been defeated being purely overwhelmed by William’s sword skills, he might have accepted the result. Andrew spent his whole life afterwards trying to solve the secrets of William’s new skill.

Andrew paid a lot of money to the Thieves Guild and the Intelligence Guild. He visited every acquaintance who might have information on the Aura Beam. Consequently, he was able to approach the secrets to a certain degree. But the more information he got, the more he despaired. It seemed that the Knights, who traditionally trained manna force, would never be able to acquire the Aura Beam.

Andrew had pledged in front of his father’s grave that he would avenge their defeat by exploiting the Aura Beam. The only goal of his life was to kill William and get the gold mine back to his family. He even trained himself in swordsmanship with his left hand to the former level he had achieved with his right. However, despite his every effort and hard work, he could not find sufficient information on how to learn the Aura Beam.

“If William has found the way to get to the Aura Beam, there should be exact information about it somewhere in the world.”

Eventually, Andrew went on a trip seeking clues. Though he had wandered all over the continent for about twenty years, he couldn’t find the correct path. Half abandoning his hopes, he decided to stay in Derevnya in the Forest of Evil Spirits. By then, he was too old. He had started to feel nostalgic about his hometown.

“What happened to the family……?”

Andrew did not think about his family when he wandered for clues, but he started to worry about his family constantly as he got older. It was not difficult to guess what happened to the family during his absence now that the gold mine, the most significant source of the Marquisate’s income, had been taken away. It must have been hard to maintain the Knights and the troops on the estate's agricultural income alone.

Besides, Andrew’s youngest brother Peter, who succeeded the title of Marquis against his will, was good at civil service rather than military. He would have become a good lord in a stable and peaceful time, but he was not an adequate leader in the time of crisis. Although at the time, Andrew had blindsided his brother by dumping the responsibilities of the family’s fate on Peter for his search for information, he could not help but worry now. He wanted to go back home and spend the rest of his life there, but he could not. He was ashamed to go back to the family he had deserted for his greed and revenge.

“I could have confidently returned home if I had figured out the Aura Beam……”

Having realized that he might fail to obtain Aura Beam until the end of his life, he did his best to reinforce the manna force on his Aura Blade. But he had not achieved a satisfactory result.

Nature’s manna did not stay in one place for a long time. It tended to move constantly. So, Andrew could not concentrate the manna force on his blade to more than a certain degree by any means. He murmured harshly.

“There’s nothing I can do.”

Exhausted by the memories, Andrew heard Id’s voice.

“Breakfast is ready.”

The table outside was filled with food. It was a special diet with salad, smoked bacon, bread, cheese, and butter. Andrew’s thick eyebrows raised.

“Where did you get cheese and butter?”

Carefully looking at Andrew, Id replied.

“There was too much smoked meat in the warehouse. So I traded some meat for Aunt Anna’s cheese and butter. If you don’t like them, I won’t do it again.”

Having looked at cheese and butter silently for a while, Andrew nodded.

“This is good. Trade the meat in the warehouse as much as you like. There’s too much, as you said.”

Id’s face brightened.

“I got it.”

Not very sociable, Andrew rarely interacted with the villagers. Unlike Id, he had not dared to trade the smoked meat for other food produced by villagers. It had been a long time since he had had butter and cheese, so the breakfast was especially delicious.

After the meal, Andrew went to the backyard for training. He trained in the way James Billford had revealed to him. Though he did not make any significant achievements with this method, he could not stop training just in case. Standing in the middle of the backyard, Andrew pulled a scroll out from a small bag.

Scrolls with complex shapes and letters made it possible for ordinary people to use magic. At first, a mage had to draw a magic diagram on a parchment to make a scroll. Then the mage had to infuse manna force into the parchment so that magic could be released and used by tearing it. As the final step, the mage had to reprocess the parchment for prolonged storage of the magic in the scroll. Of course, not every magic could be contained in a scroll. The sorts of magic, which were possible to be contained in the scroll, were quite limited. Anyhow, the demand for scrolls was high since it was never easy for ordinary people to learn magic.

Andrew used a couple of scrolls almost every day, putting his lingering feelings about Aura Beam on display. He counted the scrolls remaining in the bag, which were only enough for half a month of training. He smiled bitterly.

“I have to hunt several evil beasts soon...”

Hunting evil beasts was the only way for Andrew to purchase scrolls from the Nordburg Wizard Tower. Compared to other scrolls implementing high-circle magic, the scroll he used was not so expensive since it contained only a simple basic spell. This particular scroll functioned to collect surrounding manna to a limited cylindrical space of two meters in diameter and two meters in height for a couple of hours. The high-density manna slowly swirled up and down in the cylindrical space.

This scroll was initially developed for apprentice mages who train themselves to carve the first circle on their heart. Mages usually were not good teachers. For the mages who taught their disciples, drawing a magic diagram on the ground for each of them every time was a very tiresome task. So, mages made scrolls in bulk and let their disciples use them during their training sessions. Andrew purchased these scrolls to practice his manna breathing.