Chapter 196 : Chapter 196
Chapter 196
Training the soldiers was important, but more important than that was teaching the Academy's students.
Each group had been set at ten students.
So I needed to explain what those ten were based on, and how they should move.
"Recently, I attained an enlightenment."
I had told the special class students that I had reached Sword Master.
But this was the first time I was disclosing it before the general students and the public.
Surprise flickered across the students' expressions.
They stared at me with round mouths and blank faces.
The mood was one of disbelief.
"T-Teacher got even stronger?"
"Even stronger from there? What was left to improve?"
"So he is not just like a demon anymore — he is surpassed demons?"
The soldiers and auditors stirred a bit as well, though their reaction was nowhere near as pronounced as the students'.
"I get that he is an outstanding professor. But is he actually good with the sword?"
"For that, his muscles and build are a bit......"
"Nobody has actually seen him fight in person, they say."
"I hear if you badmouth Teacher Cassian, a madwoman appears like a ghost and picks a fight."
"Rozalin Vürhelm."
"And a madman appears too."
"That would be Pan."
"If his disciples worship him that much, can we really gauge Instructor Cassian's skill?"
"Judging by the other students' reactions, his skill does not seem bad."
Come to think of it, I suppose I had never properly shown them my ability.
But a skilled swordsman did not necessarily make a good lecturer.
Even in my own case, the foundational class content I taught students was much the same before and after my enlightenment.
It was only the material for advancing beyond a certain threshold that gained a bit more depth.
"That process, as I have told you, begins with forgetting my sword and the very concept of swordsmanship."
It is not I who swings the sword — I myself become the sword.
The vast existence called nature uses mana to swing the sword that is me.
Therefore, I can become magic itself.
I wrote this concept on the blackboard and surveyed the students.
Most of them looked like they did not understand.
"Very well. Let me call a student up and give an example. Say...... Anna."
"Yes!"
At my call, Anna sprang forward.
Anna was an A-class student who had sparred with Eleveth during last year's first grade evaluation.
Apparently the shock of underestimating Eleveth and losing had driven her to cling to the sword with obsessive fervor ever since.
She had participated in my class with great enthusiasm, and thanks to that she was now a talent who had reached the level of Sword Runner.
Having originally been A-class, her talent had always been sufficient.
"Take a Sword Force stance."
Anna drew her sword and assumed her posture.
At that moment, the energy radiating from Anna's body settled calmly into my vision.
"Good. Let us try a light mid-level cut."
At my signal, Anna swung her sword vigorously as directed.
SHWING!
Her sword was like a swallow soaring gracefully.
The buoyancy — as though kicking off the surface of a stream and bouncing upward — felt as crisp and lively as staccato piano keys.
It was a sword like a cool summer wind.
"What did you all feel from that sword? Let us talk about what you saw. Starting with the knight in the front row."
At my prompt, a middle-aged knight sitting in the very front pointed at himself.
He apparently had not expected me to call on him.
"Yes. You seem to have practiced Aura for quite some time."
"......How did you know?"
"It was noticeable that you were suppressing your Aura with physical force. The way you use your muscles, arms, and legs was the way of someone who handles Aura."
The knight seemed even less convinced by my explanation.
He seemed to think he had not shown how he used his muscles.
People use their muscles constantly in daily life.
Muscles used frequently are naturally activated, and muscles rarely used naturally atrophy.
"Then please, give us your answer."
"Hmm...... The sword is lively. It looks like a simple horizontal cut, but within it, a subtly undulating trajectory that ripples like a wave would be tricky to deal with."
A fairly sharp analysis.
But that kind of analysis alone would not justify a group assignment.
"This time, a student can answer. Let me see...... Taylor?"
This time too, I called on a former A-class student.
Son of a man who had risen to an Imperial barony through battlefield merit, Taylor had been among the top three in swordsmanship at enrollment.
He too was at Sword Runner level.
Perhaps because of that, his analysis of Anna's sword was quite incisive.
"The thighs are the core — and the wrists."
"Why do you think that?"
"The sword's trajectory moves, but the movement of her arms and shoulders is extremely minimal. Rather, what moves most while she swings is a very subtle wrist adjustment, and the constantly shifting legs and thighs that create the flow. That seems to be where Anna's Sword Intent lives."
"Well done."
A murmur of admiration rippled through the room.
As he said, Anna's Sword Intent came from her legs.
Rather than planting her legs firmly for support, she drew trajectories through up-and-down vibration, ready to drive into an opponent's opening at any moment.
For now, the subtle wrist movement was as far as it went, but the moment she found an opening, she would boldly alter the sword's trajectory — like a bird plunging toward its prey.
"As you can see, to express our Sword Intent, it is not the entire body but specific parts that move a little more or a little less."
I drew a human body outline on the blackboard.
"There are a great many muscles we primarily use to express Sword Intent. Among the most representative are roughly these."
I marked circles on the head, shoulders, both arms, upper body, legs, ankles, and both feet.
Ten spots in total.
"You must become not ten separate people but a single person. So for that purpose, let us run an interesting test. Starting now, I will randomly select nine students."
I deliberately excluded the knights and auditors.
For this kind of thing, students who followed my instructions well were better.
I picked eight more students and grouped them with Taylor and Anna as one team.
I arranged them roughly in the shape of a human body and had everyone draw their swords.
The result was clumsier, more haphazard, and messier than expected.
Who would be a good opponent?
Right.
"Kantaros."
"Why me of all people?"
"Because you are the Iron Wall."
"Damn it — I have been a paper wall for a long time now, Teacher!"
Even as he grumbled, old Kantaros rose from his seat.
He took his shield and went to stand before the students.
With a thud, the shield was planted in the ground.
Despite his protestations, his shieldwork — honed to a true level — was no different from an iron wall.
So this sword should, to some extent, be blocked.
"Then take your stances. Everyone draws their sword and points it at Kantaros."
At my signal, the students all drew their swords and began targeting Kantaros.
Since they were all students who had learned the sword to some degree, each person's Sword Intent mingled in a complex tangle.
But that would not do.
This class was, after all, about becoming a single body.
"You are Anna's head. Within a complex array of trajectories, you must find the opponent's openings. So think of your sword as an eye, and become an arrow that points at the opponent's weakness."
I refined the eyes.
"You are Anna's legs. You must move ceaselessly. But that movement must always be a taut contraction and relaxation — ready to thrust the entire body into the opponent's weak zone at any moment."
I refined the legs.
I stripped away their individual Sword Intents and merged them to move as a single body.
Their formation was still awkward, but the trajectories of their swords gradually converged into one.
Trajectories crossed with trajectories, and each person slowly came to understand their role within their domain.
The light in the students' eyes slowly merged into a single hue.
That hue was the very same as Anna's.
"Good — cut!"
At my signal, the ten students moved in organic unison.
It was still a bit rough around the edges, but their movements, however crudely, resembled Anna — her movement.
And at the tip of her sword.
HUMMM——!
There was power loaded in that would have been believable even for a Sword Expert.
Kantaros gritted his teeth and gripped his shield firmly with both hands.
"Damn it all — this is why I did not want to come out!"
Aura blazed from the shield.
BOOM——!
An enormous impact exploded, and the ten students were thrown back.
The brief moment of immersion was gone.
The students wore expressions like people jolted awake from sleep, struggling to grasp their surroundings.
And in front of them.
"Urgh...... I lost. Damn it."
Kantaros, holding a shield bent more than halfway, was coughing up blood.
"Sir. Please go receive treatment."
I attended to the students along with Kantaros.
Looking them over, a few had suffered internal injuries and were badly shaken.
Because they had not fully shed their own Sword Intent before Anna's was forcibly imposed, their mana seemed to have tangled.
Still, the injuries were minor enough that there should be no serious problems.
"Had those ten students been one group, they would likely have passed the midterm."
The students who had remained without needing treatment looked at me with a huh? expression.
Something like regret and frustration.
"Do not make that face. I cannot give you the exam after having taught you everything."
All I could teach them was the direction — where to aim.
"Discuss among yourselves what kind of people your groupmates are, what Sword Intent each of you ten possesses, and what kind of body you will draw from that. As you just saw, it should not be too difficult."
Every single person in the class stared at me in disbelief.
Hm? Why?
I just showed them.
Center it around Anna, place people here and there, and in one moment — BAM!
"Surely you are not finding this difficult?"
Something this simple?
Oh, come on.
***
After class ended, I stayed behind and sat in the empty classroom for a moment.
Students and auditors filed out slowly.
They would be heading to their other elective classes.
But some people did not leave.
Roughly five hundred in total.
The soldiers.
"Latrine."
"Yes, Teacher."
"Please assemble the personnel at Training Ground C. I will rest for about five minutes and then move."
"Understood."
Under Latrine's lead, the soldiers filed out one by one.
I watched them briefly, then closed my eyes and leaned back in my chair.
'I am tired.'
Even without moving my body directly, guiding students was quite taxing.
During the brief recharge, I mentally reviewed the swordsmanship of the Crownhardt knights.
'Doing it the Lionheart Knights way would be best after all.'
The Lionheart Knights operated a swordsmanship designed for an entire knight order.
Knights moved in organic coordination, slowly shaving away the opponent's advantages and ensnaring them — a devouring swordsmanship.
I would take the method but infuse Crownhardt's unique spirit.
'I need to create a formation that makes up to five hundred people move as one body, yet can flexibly shift into units of two, three, eight, one hundred eight...... adapting to the situation.'
Five minutes.
In that time, I roughly organized my thoughts and stood up.
It was not difficult.