Academy’s Genius Swordmaster - Chapter 99

[ 99. Second Heart (2) ]

#99

“…Ah?”

White mana wrapped around the blade. Glitter. Ronan’s head turned white at the exact same appearance as Nebula Clazier’s.

“…I guess it’s finally time for me to die.”

Ronan laughed. I thought I slept enough in the airship, but I guess I didn’t. As soon as I let go of my concentration, the light of the sword body faded.

‘It can’t be.’

Ronan closed his eyes. And again, he blew mana into La Mancha. He could feel the mana pulled out of the tumor and flowing down the hilt.

one second. this second. After waiting three seconds, Ronan carefully raised his eyelids. Wow! A blinding flash pierced my retina.

“Fuck.”

The black sword body was flashing brilliantly enough to be used as a light at a party. It was the same no matter how many times I tried. Ronan, who had been standing in place for a long time, turned around.

‘Fucked.’

It was a baju right now, and I didn’t know. I had to figure out why this was happening.

After several trials and errors, Ronan made his way to the Gallerion Hall, the main building of the Department of Martial Arts. Jarodine wasn’t there, perhaps in class, and Secret’s office didn’t know how to get there.

Still, Nabi Rose, the former swordsman, should have known something. profit. When I opened the door to Arena 1, an unfamiliar scene unfolded.

“I’ll start when you’re all here…um?”

Students who were supposed to be sparring were sitting huddled together with their weapons down. Nabi Rose, standing in front of the students, was drawing something with chalk on a huge, portable blackboard.

It looked like a monkey that had been pierced through the chest by a cannon ball, but I couldn’t make out exactly what it was. Her eyes met Ronan’s, and she nodded.

“Long time no see. Ronan. Did you have a good time at the Dawning Tower?”

“…I thought you had a good trip until just now.”

Ronan sighed with a confused expression on his face. Judging from Nabirose’s reaction, it seemed that she still didn’t know what she was doing at the Dawning Mage Tower.

Among the students sitting together was Adeshan. Upon discovering Ronan, she smiled and waved.

“I was going to give a class about cores and auras, but it just went well. Come on, sit down.”

“Core…kills the timing.”

Ronan trudged and sat down next to Adeshan. Maybe it was because he had awakened the mana of the shadows, but his complexion looked much better than before. Seeing the shadow over Ronan’s face, she asked anxiously.

“long time no see. You don’t look good. What’s wrong?”

“I’m done, senpai.”

“Yes…?”

“I’ve become an idiot no different from those bald worshippers…”

“Very bald?”

Adeshan tilted her head at the incomprehensible sound. Ronan sighed again. It was a deep sigh, like spitting out and then swallowing again. Nabi Roze resumed class.

“good. Everyone already knows about the core, but let’s go over it one more time. Ronan, you answer me. What would happen if you poured water into a bowl made of woven straw?”

“…It’s going to leak, right?”

“okay. The uncored heart is like that. A heart made of woven straw. There is no problem in circulating mana, but it is difficult to use it beyond that.”

Adeshan began to write down what she was saying. Ronan realized that he and she were the only students gathered here who hadn’t formed a core.

Nabi Rose explained about the core while drawing hard. I thought it would only be strong in practice, but the theory class was better than I thought.

“After all, making a core is a matter of changing the material of the heart. At least at the level of wood or pottery, you can accumulate mana in your heart and use it as a power source. Now look at this article.”

“…article?”

Except for the terrible drawing skills. Ronan was shocked to realize that the identity of the monkey that had been shot in the chest was a drawing of a knight operating a core. Naviroze explained how to operate the core by pointing to the body of the monkey knight.

“There are many ways to create a core. What I recommend is to train and stimulate the heart steadily with mana. It is the most basic and has no side effects.”

In short, remodeling the ‘existing’ heart through steady training was the basic principle of creating a core. Nabi Rose emphasized the importance of the core several times because it was an essential process in order to bloom aura.

The only way to bloom a person’s unique mana, the aura, was to wait for transformation while accumulating the absorbed mana in the core or circle. Before long, Nabi Roze concluded his words.

“Nothing is given without effort. Devote yourself to training thinking that you are changing straw into steel one by one.”

After finishing the theory quickly, she started the practical class as always. Except for Ronan and Adeshan, the others were instructed to engage in sparring by actively using their cores.

Only the two without a core had to swing their swords at the scarecrow from a secluded corner. Nabi Roze said.

“Don’t be too offended. Because the two of you are special. Think of it as taking the time to make a big bowl.”

“i know. But, Instructor, I have a question for you.”

“what?”

“Is there any possibility that two types of mana can be expressed from one core?”

“does not exist.”

It was a sharp assertion like a cut. Ronan, biting his lip, asked the question again.

“Never? no matter what?”

“Exactly nothing is known so far. It’s impossible unless you have two hearts.”

Ronan sighed with his eyes closed. It was also not a normal situation.

“okay. Damn…but what could this be?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I… I think I have a core.”

“what?”

Nabi Rose’s eyes widened. I didn’t think I would be that surprised if my independent daughter announced the news of her pregnancy. Instead of answering, Ronan tugged at the hilt. The mana oozing from the tumor dyed the sword body pure white.

“This…!”

“But again, it doesn’t come from the heart. Am I being sold to a zoo now?”

“The nature of Mana has completely changed. What the hell happened?”

“So. Oh, can you see the glitter?”

“Is it shiny?”

“it’s nothing.”

Ronan let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the flash that could distinguish Nebula Clazier was only visible to his eyes. Butterfly Rose put her hand on Ronan’s chest and muttered in a voice mixed with interest.

“…Really. Something that functions as a power source has settled down next to the heart.”

“Is it a core? It wasn’t made for a very good reason, but to be honest, it’s kind of scary.”

“You can see it. If you see any signs of going wrong, I’ll fix it, so give it a try.”

Butterfly Rose pointed at the scarecrow with the tip of her chin. Ronan clicked his tongue once and grabbed the hilt.

‘Yeah shit. I knew.’

It sounded reckless, but he also knew that direct confrontation was the only answer. La Mancha disappeared from sight for an instant. Awesome! The scarecrow fell into dozens of pieces.

“fast…!”

Adeshan exclaimed. It was a sword that reached the peak. It was difficult to follow the sword path even after strengthening body vision with shadow mana.

However, Ronan and Nabi Rose maintained a calm expression. It was a speed that was not much different from the previous swordsmanship that was fed with mana.

“Looking at it this way, I don’t know. Try to show your sword skills.”

“Maybe.”

Suaa – A strange breathing sound flowed from Ronan’s lips. This time it was a sword. As he focused his mind and swung his sword, a crescent moon-shaped sword was fired along the sword path.

Kwaaang! The sword flew in a straight line and pierced the scarecrow’s neck, exploding. Along with the stone dust, lightning flashes like butterfly dust flew in all directions.

“shit.”

Ronan frowned. Again, there was no significant difference in terms of power or range. Sensing a change in his body, Ronan widened his eyes.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…what is it?”

“Your complexion is not good. Are you okay?”

“Wait a minute… Huh, something’s weird…”

He didn’t even move yet, but his breath was up to the bottom of his chin. The ship seemed to consume more energy than usual when shooting swords. Ronan, whose legs suddenly gave out, collapsed into his seat. Seeing the drastically deteriorated complexion, Adeshan exclaimed in embarrassment.

“Ro Ronan…! wait. I’ll bring you water.”

Adeshan ran to the office. The sword’s light went out. Ronan tried changing the power source back to the original heart just in case. His breathing slowly returned to normal, and strength began to return to his legs.

“Ha… what is this doing…”

“Is it operated separately from the existing core? Interesting.”

Nabi Rose touched her chin as if she was interested. Ronan let out a curse word in his mouth. Currently, I couldn’t find any difference from the existing cursed heart. No, it was worse.

It was fortunate that the existing heart and mana barrels were not shared, but it was only a slight increase in the total amount of available mana. And that’s something loud enough to be used at banquets. Gradually, anger began to rise.

‘Nimi, is it the end of just shining? Is it just harder?’

“I’ll look after the other students first. Try it in a way that doesn’t overdo it.”

Navi Rose, who was observing Ronan, turned his back. It was a strict class time, so I couldn’t just pay attention to him.

Ronan, who was holding his breath, stood up. He couldn’t understand what had happened to him.

‘There must be something more.’

The unknown power source was probably created under the influence of Vajra. Good or evil, it was a core that originated from a being with tremendous power, but this couldn’t be the end.

Ronan changed the power source again. At the same time as his body became heavy, sparkling mana rode up his sword body.

Ronan, who moved in front of the senior scarecrow, took his stance. It was known that the scarecrow for advanced players made of discarded magic engineering articles was about ten times harder than a normal scarecrow.

Most of the training consisted of sparring with Schlieffen and physical training, so it was the first time I’d tapped on this. Ronan looked up at the scarecrow and tilted his head.

“hmm?”

The armor the scarecrow was wearing had the Grancia family pattern engraved on it. It must have been received as a support item from Grancia.

I felt an unknown sense of deja vu. A knight wearing the armor of Grancia. Eventually, Ronan, who had recovered his memory, nodded. It had already happened several months ago.

‘You look like that child. Were you surprised?’

The high-ranking scarecrow in front of him resembled Sir Dolan Conchesto, who was an escort knight for the Duke of Grancia. A spy for Nebula Klagie, he sneaked into the dormitory in the middle of the night and tried to kill Ronan. Ronan, suddenly recalling the way Dolan used to fight, shrugged his eyebrows.

‘Come to think of it, the way he manifested his aura was unique.’

“Is Ronan okay now? Here’s water…”

Adeshan with a canteen was approaching from behind, but Ronan didn’t notice her presence. Without thinking, Ronan raised his leg and stamped the floor with his right foot.

‘Did he do it like this?’

thud! A shimmering mana wave spread with a dull sound. Adeshan, who was carrying a canteen, lost his balance and stumbled.

“Kyaaak!”

“senior?”

Ronan turned his head. The image of Adeshan falling down caught my eye. Ronan, who hurriedly threw himself, grabbed her and the canteen that was flying in the air at the same time.

“Thank you…”

“What tripped you?”

“Is that so? what?”

Adeshan looked around in a confused voice. There was nothing to trip over on the flat stone floor.

Suddenly, Ronan’s eyes scanned the floor and landed on Adeshan’s leg. with chaeng. La Mancha slipped out of his hands. Swear words leaked from Ronan’s mouth.

“What the fuck.”

“what’s the matter?”

Ronan didn’t answer. His gaze was still on Adeshan’s leg, exactly around the ankle. Suddenly, Ronan squatted and grabbed her calf.

“What are you doing?”

“This…!”

Embarrassed Adeshan blushed. She desperately tried to pull Ronan away, but he clung to him like a cicada and didn’t move.

Something like a thin tree root was wrapped around her ankle. The sprinkling of sparkling mana was very similar to Dolan’s aura.

‘What the hell happened?’

In the circumstances, it seemed clear that he had manifested himself. It was in the midst of the new year in my head with growing doubts.

Chow! Suddenly, the space right next to the two turned upside down. An elderly gentleman with a beard walked out with dignity.

“long time no see. Ronan-kun.”

“K Kratyr?!”

“I was looking for you. If it’s okay, together… um?”

Adeshan widened her eyes. It was Krava Kratir, the principal of Phileon Academy.

Everyone’s attention was focused, but Ronan was only focusing on Adeshan’s ankle.

“…Did this old man interrupt an important moment?”