21

Having struck Niklay’s sword several times and forcing him out, Andrew looked at Levin and said.

“Why don’t we stop this confrontation here? In fact, in the past, I was the Commander of an Icarus Knights’ Order.”

Looking at Andrew’s Aura Blade with a frightened look, Levin decided to step down in the name of saying that he was the former Commander of an Imperial Order. Even if Andrew was a wandering Knight, if he was a former Knight Commander of Icarus, the fact that his Knights lost to him was not going to be a big deal. Levin Judged neither himself nor his rival had any chance of recruiting Andrew. As Levin looked at Nikolay, noticing his superior’s intention, he sheathed his sword and backed away. Nikolay was also frightened by Andrew’s intense Aura Blade.

As Ivan, Vladimir and Nikolay retreated to the other Knights, Andrew slightly nodded to Levin wordlessly and approached Id and Sasha. He could not talk anymore since blood poured out of his various wounds. Andrew went back to the inn where the tavern was along with Id and Sasha. Sasha hurriedly brought a key and opened the door to a double room. Andrew vomited blood as soon as he entered the room. Id gave first aid and put Andrew in bed, then told Sasha.

“Can you bring a priest or get a good potion?”

“It’s too late to call a priest now. I’ll find out early tomorrow morning. It’s not easy to get a potion made of sacred power from a high-ranking priest, but I think it’s possible to get one made by a mage. I’ll go find out the price.”

The potion was liquid medicine made either of sacred power from priests or by the manna force of mages. It was effective in treating both internal and external injuries but was generally expensive. Although it was widely circulating because the sale of potions was the primary source of revenue for the temples, not only was the potion that the high priest instilled with divine power difficult to obtain, but the price was unreasonably high. Lying in bed, Andrew opened his eyes and said.

“I’ve spent almost all the gold coins buying scrolls, so I don’t have enough money to call a priest or buy a potion. Don’t worry. This wound will heal after a night’s sleep. The Mayor may change his mind, so let’s go back to the forest as soon as tomorrow dawns.”

Hearing that, Sasha said, kneeling beside the bed.

“Please take me with you, too. I can do anything well if you ask me to. The guard named Boris will surely retaliate against me after you leave. Since I’m an orphan, no one in this city will protect me.”

If Andrew had not accepted Id, he would have also worked as a clerk at a tavern of an inn in Nordburg like Sasha. He was the only one who actively defended Id when Boris’ lie cornered him.

“Sasha is in danger of retaliation for trying to help me. I hope you accept him.”

Andrew barely smiled, slightly nodded and fell asleep. Tired due to the eventful day, Sasha lay on the floor and fell asleep, too. Id lifted him up and laid him in the empty bed, and then he sat on the floor next to Andrew’s bed with his legs crossed and started manna circulation. Recently, Id had been practicing his manna circulation without magic diagrams because he was out of scrolls, but that was not the only reason. He thought it was more important to refine manna in his manna hall and circulate it in his body to assimilate with each body part than to absorb more manna into his body. Even if Id did not control manna, once he concentrated on the manna hall in his lower abdomen, the manna circulated in his body by itself, developing its paths. Having originally only distributed inside the torso, the manna later made its paths all over his body, including his limbs, with the only exception being his head.

Having been absorbed in training for a while, Id put his hand on Andrew’s chest as his breathing became rough. He did not mean to do something, but it was a casual act since he was worried for Andrew, who was in pain. As Id was circulating the manna in his body with his hand resting on Andrew’s chest, manna concentrated on his palm, and warm energy flowed through his palm into Andrew’s chest, which gently wrapped the wounds on the ribs and lungs. Though Id was taken aback by the unexpected flow of manna, he calmed down soon and observed it with his mind’s eye, not engaging in the movement of his manna.

The following day, the three hurried out of Nordburg and headed for their forest residence. Looking much better than the previous night, Andrew looked back on Id and said.

“I guess I’m too old now. I was barely able to subdue three Knights under a Viscount of Scandia, not even Imperial Knights.”

“I’m sorry. You’ve been badly hurt due to me…….”

Andrew’s wounds were quite severe. Nikolay’s shield cracked a couple of ribs and tore a part of the left lung. Although Andrew spoke like it was nothing to reassure Id the night before, sleeping overnight would not have healed them. It was almost a miracle that he was able to travel the long way without proper treatment.

“Did you treat me last night?”

Andrew remembered that warmth had wrapped around his wounds as Id had touched his chest though he had been half asleep, and then he had fallen asleep deeply, breathing comfortably.

“I don’t know what happened either. I was training in manna circulation and was worried due to your rough breathing, so I put my hand on your chest and then suddenly, the manna moved by itself. I’m not sure if it treated your wounds.”

“I don’t think we will need to buy any expensive potions.”

Smiling, Andrew indirectly thanked Id.

“It was justifiable that you tried to protect my weapon. As my apprentice, you did what you were supposed to do, so don’t disparage your actions. Your fault lies elsewhere, which is you are not strong enough yet. Given our goals, you should easily subdue mercenaries without killing them. So, don’t worry about anything else and focus on your training.”

“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Now that you’ve got a good sword, you have to familiarise yourself on how to handle it.”

Sasha’s eyes glistened with unknown expectations as he listened silently to the conversation between the two. After a four-day journey, the three returned to their residence in the woods, and Id returned to his daily routine. He built up his stamina by running in the woods, learned swordcraft from Andrew and trained in manna circulation on the magic diagram. He spent all his time training, except twice a day to cook their meals.

Andrew experimented with whether Sasha had any intimacy with manna or not. Although Sasha tried breathing manna the way he learned from Id next to the magic circle when Id trained manna breathing and tried manna training on the magic diagram, unlike Id’s case, the manna hall did not yet appear in his lower abdomen. However, Sasha’s talent in swordsmanship was no less than Id’s. Sasha, who learned swordsmanship from Andrew and Id, went on to grow remarkably.

Four years later, after Sasha joined the other two, he was more than an adequate sparring partner to Id. Unlike Id, who used speed-based sword techniques concentrated on attacks, excluding the defensive technique, Sasha’s swordsmanship was a paragon of Andrew’s orthodox swordsmanship. In a way, the Knight Andrew Adelian’s true successor might be Sasha, not Id. After realizing that from an early stage, Andrew taught Sasha with as much care as Id. When they had first met, Sasha had been shorter than Id, but he grew in physique running in the forest and hunting the beasts as well as being well-nourished. Four years later, he grew taller and had a larger physique than Id. One hundred and eighty-five centimeters tall and covered with fine muscles, Id had a more slender physique. In contrast, Sasha, who was over one hundred and ninety centimeters tall and had a great muscular body, was a huge man.

After the three-on-one showdown at Nordburg, Andrew had become weaker and weaker over time. It was true that there was a noticeable change after the Nordburg showdown. However, it was uncertain whether it had been because of the aftereffects of the wounds, mental shock of realizing that he had become too old to handle even the Knights on the periphery, or a natural aging phenomenon at an age over seventy. Andrew even struggled to be Id’s training partner after Id became sixteen years old. However, Andrew did his best to impart any more of his sword theory, knowledge and experience to Id.