Chapter 185
Chapter 185
Training Manual
The first training method Kairus decided to try after examining the contents was one that required two people.
“The problem is, I don’t know where this training is supposed to be used.”
That was the issue with the training manual. It didn’t describe how this training was supposed to help, so I had to figure it out purely through my own guesswork.
“We’re doing it with this, right?”
“We have to start with this much weight for now.”
For this training, the maximum output of the battle gear being used had to be limited to 1 horsepower.
“We just have to lift the box together, right?”
The two of us had to stand a certain distance apart, place the box in the center, and lift it using Swift Blade. I didn’t know the original purpose of this training, but I thought it was meant to train control over Swift Blade.
As an added condition, a wooden plate had been placed on top of the box.
“Ah.”
When Elena and I used Swift Blade, the box seemed to lift slightly with a small jolt, but soon tilted.
The wooden plate on top slid off and hit the floor. That meant failure.
“This is harder than I thought.”
It felt different from floating a tissue in the air and keeping it there.
It wasn’t enough for just one of us to do well; we had to match each other. If Elena and I failed to synchronize our Swift Blade, the box lost its balance.
“How many minutes are we supposed to keep it up?”
“Let’s succeed at lifting it first.”
If the purpose was simply to control Swift Blade, then I was already more than proficient. Even so, I couldn’t pass this training easily.
What was the point of matching tempo with someone else?
Elena and I practiced repeatedly for hours with the box in front of us.
“Huff.”
Elena looked at the box with an exhausted expression. If concentration were money, then ours was on the verge of bankruptcy.
We were only standing still, swinging our swords, and moving our limbs, but the excessive concentration alone made sweat pour down.
“You’re still at it?”
Nora, who had been spending time outside, spoke in a tone of disbelief.
“It’s damn hard just to lift it.”
The success rate wasn’t that high to begin with, and even when we managed to lift it once, we couldn’t maintain it for thirty seconds. This training was far more difficult than I had expected.
We couldn’t succeed with a simple thought like creating and maintaining the same level of Swift Blade.
Seeing that we were struggling like this even with Swift Blade, which I considered myself fairly skilled at, was enough to drive me crazy.
“I’m sorry. I should be doing better.”
Elena apologized to me.
In terms of achievement with Swift Blade, I was above Elena. From her perspective, it was only natural for her to think that we kept failing because she wasn’t good enough.
“It’s not your fault.”
Unexpectedly, I wasn’t controlling Swift Blade well enough to satisfy myself either.
“I’m screwing up this training just as much as you are.”
A training that could only be done by people at the same level lacked practicality. If this book were just a collection of that kind of training, it wouldn’t deserve the grand name Training Manual, nor would it be worth placing inside the Featherwing box.
The reason we weren’t succeeding was because both Elena and I were doing something wrong.
“Is that training meant for cooperation?”
Leaning against the wall and watching our exhausted faces, Nora asked. I sank down where I stood to rest and answered.
“I don’t think so.”
Something, something was slightly different. At a glance, it did look like training for cooperation.
Another week passed like that. The weather completely warmed up, and with Bennett City’s lowest temperature rising to 15 degrees, full-fledged spring arrived. When the sun rose, the air turned warm, and flowers and grass bloomed.
“Ahhhhhhhhh! Ack! Ack! Aaaack!”
Elena screamed while grabbing her own hair. We still hadn’t succeeded. Bright spring had arrived with blooming flowers and milder weather, but Elena and I were still in the dim training ground, standing in front of that idiotic box, continuing this moronic training.
“Why don’t you take a little break?”
Meanwhile, Nora seemed to have gone out on her own and come back. She was wearing a pink one-piece dress and sipping iced lemonade through a straw.
…
After quietly staring at Nora, I opened my mouth.
“Have a spar with me.”
“Huh? No, um… sorry, oppa.”
Did I really want to spar, or did I just want an excuse to hit her under the pretense of sparring?
I had suddenly suggested a spar, and Nora began to doubt my intentions.
“It’s not like that. There’s something I want to check.”
“To see how many hits it takes before I burst into tears?”
At Nora’s words, I clicked my tongue.
“I told you it’s not that. Do you want to get hit so hard you actually cry?”
Nora immediately grabbed her weapon and took her stance. If she joked any further, I looked ready to actually hit her.
“A spar out of nowhere, what is this about…”
Muttering like that, Nora took the battle gear prepared specifically for sparring into her hands.
“…Huh?”
At that moment, Nora felt something strange. There was an odd resistance coming from the battle gear she was holding. Should she call it heavy?
After staring at her own battle gear for a moment, Nora corrected her stance and rushed toward me.
As I swung my sword, the wind swept over Nora’s body.
“What, what’s going on!? My body feels weird!”
“My arm feels strange. What I just used wasn’t ordinary Swift Blade.”
As Nora moved her body, the sensation transmitted through her arm felt extremely strange.
If she had to compare it, it was like plunging only her arm into water and swinging it around. I grinned and gave a small nod.
“So this was it. I think we can end the spar here.”
Just now, through that exchange, I finally understood the original purpose of the box-lifting training that I had wrestled with for a week without even sleeping properly.
Interference.
The core of the box-lifting exercise hadn’t been cooperation, but interference. I immediately told Elena what I had realized.
“So in simple terms, it’s like reversing tug-of-war.”
Elena said that as she listened to the explanation.
“Yeah, that’s a good way to put it.”
In tug-of-war, you pull the rope to make it taut and compete in strength. What Elena and I had been doing was the opposite—pushing the box to make it taut and competing in force.
“That’s why the battle gear used for this training had an output limit.”
If the output was limited, then the maximum wind that could be produced was also fixed. In other words, if both people fully utilized their battle gear’s output, the force of the wind pushing would eventually be the same.
Then the box would stop dead in midair. The result of that was exactly what had just happened to Nora.
“Mountain Valley Wind or Downward Wind can restrict an opponent’s movement, but their efficiency is low.”
They were methods of using wind to press down on the opponent’s entire body. But if one became accustomed to this training…
“You can push or pull specific parts of the opponent’s body at will.”
If the whole body was being crushed, you only needed to grow accustomed to that force. But if only one part, like an arm or a leg, was being interfered with, overcoming that and continuing to fight was much harder.
“Because it breaks their balance?”
Elena nodded as if she understood. Even when carrying the same weight, there was a big difference between carrying it evenly on your back and carrying it with one arm.
Only then did I let out a long breath and look out the window.
From the beginning, it hadn’t been a training that required us to gauge each other’s strength and adjust accordingly. And I had also discovered a new application for the Swift Blade I had been using all this time.
Most likely, all the training recorded in the Training Manual held this level of value. The training for Cloud Seizing Art and Moonwalk would be no exception.
“I’m glad I at least got a grasp on it before the regular meeting.”
At today’s regular meeting, I would receive my share of the profits earned from operating the canal.
“After the meeting, let’s practice a few more days and then look for the tail feathers.”
Now that I had the feel for it, we could succeed within a few days. After finishing my shower and changing clothes while recalling the other training methods that had caught my attention, I checked the time.
“I guess I won’t need a coat anymore.”
The weather had completely warmed. I headed straight to the Operations Committee meeting room.
When I opened the door and walked in, I saw Lucas, his entire body covered in tattoos. Skillfully shelling edamame with one hand, he spoke.
“Look at your eyes. What, did you get insomnia or something?”
Because I hadn’t been sleeping properly lately due to training, the area under my eyes was indeed darkening like it was rotting away.
“What about the others?”
I casually picked a chair and sat down as I asked.
“They’ll come when it’s time. Want some?”
I shook my head roughly in refusal. Leaning back in his chair and staring at me, Lucas opened his mouth again.
“I’ve got some interesting news.”
“Let’s hear it.”
If he wasn’t going to tell me, he wouldn’t have brought it up in the first place. I rang the bell to call someone over and asked for a cup of coffee.
As coffee was poured into the cup, Lucas tossed a bean into his mouth.
“Seems the Empire’s Minister of Finance is looking for mercenaries.”
…
One of the businesses Lucas’s people operated publicly was mercenary work.
They were skilled, did anything for money, and didn’t cause unnecessary trouble.
If someone was looking for mercenaries, that meant the story would almost inevitably reach Lucas’s ears.
The fact that Simid Kellogg was searching for mercenaries also meant he was preparing to truly set things in motion.
“With the weather warming up, I guess a thief is about to break into someone’s house.”
Sipping my coffee, I answered casually. He might know more details, but there was no need for him to spell them out to me.
“Must be some thief—maybe even a former Knight Commander.”
“Are any of your guys mixed up in it?”
At my question, Lucas examined an empty bean pod and replied.
“Well… we received the terms. Short-term contract. Three months.”
I let out a small sigh inwardly. Crime had a hard time escaping the eyes of Bennett City.
And treason was a particularly large crime among crimes.
It wasn’t just Lucas who found this suspicious.
Donovan, who dealt in all sorts of stolen goods, was probably starting to get a sense of it as well. Treason meant war, and war required supplies.
If it was a fight between nations, supplies could be prepared legally. But war materials for treason had to pass through the realm of illegality at least once.
Donovan and Lucas were starting to notice something strange. And since Cecilia’s touch reached every kind of contract entangled with this city, she had likely caught on too.
If three members of the Operations Committee had sensed it, there was no way the Barenza siblings hadn’t.
Something was about to happen in the Empire. And at the center of it seemed to be the Minister of Finance.
That much speculation was something all the committee members gathering here were probably making.
Then what would the next line of thought be?
Elena Kellogg was acting together with me. If so, then I would likely know the more precise details.
It was only natural for their thinking to reach that point. That was why Lucas was subtly probing me like this.
It seemed that the serious issue I would face in this meeting wouldn’t be limited to protecting the profit distribution ratio from the canal.