Chapter 16 : Chapter 16
Chapter 16
“Accepted?”
The surprised child asked with wide-open eyes.
“Of course! Accepted!”
Despite Lina’s repeated warnings over the past few days, the corners of my mouth crept up at the fact that I had discovered a gem.
As soon as I saw the child’s trembling eyes, I quickly lowered the corners of my lips, but my awkward expression only made me look sharper.
Seeing the child’s face, which looked like it was about to burst into tears at any moment, I hurriedly called Rylae to take the child away, then joined Reina on the first floor to head back to the castle first.
“Is it really over now?”
“We’ve put out the most urgent fire, so to speak.”
In one week, we had found a total of 20 people, including the child we just discovered.
Since I had started thinking I’d be lucky to find even one, this was a much bigger harvest than I had expected.
“Now, all we have to do is teach them well during the remaining time.”
Of course, it wasn't impossible that they wouldn’t acquire even one of the twenty traits.
Even if I were to guide them myself, if the 20 people receiving the guidance didn't genuinely think that way, they would gain nothing.
So–
I could no longer stand by foolishly.
“Reina.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Behind Reina’s bright smile, I could see a faint sadness.
She was the face I saw the most, spending the entire day with me from the moment I opened my eyes until just before I went to bed.
How could I not know the shadow cast upon that face?
“Would you perhaps like to try training with the others?”
“Pardon? Ah… I, I’m fine.”
A lie.
Contrary to her words and waving hands, her eyes trembled and her voice was laced with moisture.
The time we spent together was too long for me not to have read the envy in Reina’s eyes as she watched the accepted students training with Lina over the past few days.
“I don’t have any talent, do I? Right? You said you would only pick people who showed talent……”
Ah.
Was that what she was worried about?
“You don’t need to worry, Reina. You possess a talent that shines brighter than anyone else’s.”
A talent that shone as brightly as the child I had just met.
If I were greedy, I would have wanted to hide this shining gem.
Perhaps if she had wanted that, I would have hidden her talent and concealed its light, never letting anyone know.
So that I would never lose my one and only ally in this world.
“Really?”
Her smile was so bright that a part of my chest ached, and an excuse unknowingly slipped out.
“It’s just that you’re my one and only dedicated maid, Reina, so I didn’t want to give you any difficult tasks.”
“Then I’ll do it! Even if it’s hard, I want to be of greater help to you, Young Master!”
The road back to the castle felt unusually shorter than usual as I listened to the voice of Reina, who chattered nonstop out of sheer excitement.
* * *
Two maids working at the Moner family’s Lord’s Castle watched Ian and 22 women running relentlessly from a distance.
“What in the world are they doing?”
“You know how kings boast about how many concubines they have? Isn’t it something like that?”
“Then why are they running?”
“Why, you ask? They say running is the best for ‘nightly affairs,’ don’t they? With that many partners, he wouldn’t last the night.”
“The things you say!”
Even after the two shook their heads at the young lord’s eccentricities and returned to the castle, Ian’s party did not stop their running.
Ian's group, dressed in leather armor and running since dawn, looked to anyone like they were in the middle of training, but no one in the Lord's Castle paid any particular attention to the mad young lord's bizarre behavior.
On the contrary, the grim rumors only grew, suggesting that Ian’s madness was worsening by the day, or that he had finally lost control and laid his hands on the maids, resulting in several being kicked out while pregnant.
* * *
“Hah, hah, hah.”
Ian’s footsteps finally came to a halt around the time his panting breath reached the tip of his chin, and the bitter smell of gastric juices spread.
Undoing the leather armor that was stickily soaked in sweat, I turned around and saw the group, who looked more like they were forcibly dragging their bodies than running.
“Heuak!”
“Finally!”
“We’re saved!”
I smiled slightly as I watched the group lie down on the spot as soon as they stopped.
They were young girls with an average age of 18.
It was natural for them not to be used to this kind of running, yet I was proud of how surprisingly well they had adapted in just a few days.
After watching them sprawled on the ground for a while, I approached Lina.
“That’s enough for a warm-up. We’ll start individual exercises after a ten-minute break.”
The individual exercises were nothing more than each person swinging a sword, bow, axe, spear, or mace a hundred times and then switching weapons, but those with shining traits would be able to find a suitable weapon without difficulty.
That would make it easier to teach them appropriate skills.
It was the most efficient training method I had devised with Lina, who had already acquired a trait.
“If there’s anyone who seems to have decided on a weapon, train that person first. And tell anyone who can’t find a suitable weapon to come see me separately.”
“Yes.”
As Ian turned to leave after giving the order, Reina, drenched in sweat, followed beside him.
“Shall we rest for a bit?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Ian headed to the training grounds with Reina, who had her fists clenched tightly, and watched as she swung a sword, bow, spear, and axe in turn.
‘Hmm… It seems there’s no weapon that particularly suits her.’
It wasn’t that Reina couldn’t handle weapons well.
As a maid of the Lord’s Castle, she had periodically learned minimal self-defense skills, and she was also strong for her build, so she handled most weapons without awkwardness.
“I really can’t tell. I’m sorry……”
“I told you there’s no need to be sorry. There’s no guarantee that a suitable weapon is here. Next, let’s try a dagger, an axe, and a staff-type weapon.”
“Yes!”
Watching her move to find a suitable weapon after a vigorous nod, Ian also took a dagger from his pocket and gripped it.
“Shall I get started, too?”
My personal training time had been ridiculously short lately, and the skill gap between Lina and me had widened quite a bit.
After realizing that I couldn’t win against Lina in a spar despite having a better trait and starting at the same time, I had been gradually increasing my personal training time by cutting down on sleep.
It was still far from enough, but time and the traits I would gain in the future would surely solve that.
Ian’s body, holding the dagger, moved slowly.
Following his unique breathing method, mana seeped into his muscles, and the infused mana strengthened his muscular power.
Then, after slowly condensing all his muscles, he exploded the mana at a single point.
Pang!
The dagger tore through the air as it advanced.
A one-hit-kill stab, with no artifice mixed in.
[Proficiency of Kill has increased.]
Unlike other secret arts, the secret art of the Ghost King had no forms or formalities.
The martial art of the Ghost King, created with the sole intention of killing the enemy before one’s eyes, consisted of only three movements: slash, stab, and throw.
A fighting style for an assassin that did not even consider clashing swords with an opponent, it boasted a simple yet brutish lethality.
‘A little faster.’
As he walked following the Ghost King’s footwork, the Ghost Step, Ian’s form began to blur.
As his body quickened, the dagger’s movements also became faster and faster, and the sticky killing intent of an assassin filled the training ground.
* * *
[Not enough mana to use the skill.]
[Not enough mana to use the skill.]
Clang!
The dagger that was advancing like a thunderbolt fell futilely to the ground, and a sense of exhaustion washed over my entire body.
“Keoheok!”
As Ian, who had been training without even realizing his mana had run out, collapsed to the ground, Reina approached, handed him a towel, and asked.
“Are you alright?”
“Sorry, looks like I overdid it a bit.”
I had intended to practice for a short while as Reina chose her weapon, but it seemed much more time had passed than I thought.
The area around the training ground was filled with sword marks that were impossible to believe were made with a dagger.
‘I was able to move mana much earlier than I thought.’
Despite having wielded mana for less than a month, a faint amount of mana had begun to be imbued in the dagger.
This was proof that I had now moved past the 2nd grade beginner level of circulating mana within the body with a breathing method and entered the 3rd grade user stage where I could actively utilize mana.
A satisfied smile appeared on Ian’s face as his eyes traced the sword marks.
“Ah, how about you, Reina? Did you find a weapon you like?”
Unable to move an inch due to mana exhaustion, I asked Reina while still lying on the ground.
She hesitated and bashfully held out a weapon.
“…A battle mace?”
“Yes……”
Ian’s eyes sparkled as he identified the weapon.
In Lost Chronicle, there weren't many classes specialized in battle maces.
The fighting style of subduing an opponent by breaking their bones rather than killing them was not only inefficient in war, but heavy mace-type weapons were also at a disadvantage against faster weapons like swords or spears.
‘Inquisitors, Clerics and Paladins, Battle Mages, maybe? Ah, there is one more.’
For a moment, I felt both disappointment and joy.
Any class that handled divine power would be a great help to my future plans, but without divine power myself, there was no way I could obtain a related trait.
Of course, the biggest problem was that I didn’t know the secret art of the Clerics, which was secretly passed down only in the Holy Empire.
‘Should I start believing in a god from now on?’
As I was having a brief, silly thought, Reina asked in a worried voice.
“Is this one no good? Actually, I wish it were a bit blunter and throwable… but there wasn't a suitable weapon.”
“Ah, no. It’s not that it’s no good… huh?”
Reina caressed the spiked mace as if she were genuinely disappointed not to have found a suitable weapon.
By the way, if a mace became blunter and throwable, isn’t that… just a flail?
I hastily had a servant fetch a flail from the armory and handed it to Reina.
She accepted the flail with a happy expression.
‘There’s only one trait I know of that uses a flail as a weapon…….’
There were almost no classes that used the brutish and hard-to-handle flail.
It was looked down upon in the first place as a weapon used by mercenaries who couldn’t handle mana or to show off their strength.
The hero who had made such a flail his symbol was none other than…….
‘Blood Fiend.’
The Blood Fiend, who appeared on fierce battlefields where the frontlines were being pushed back after the monsters' major southward advance began, was a hero more infamous than famous for attacking both friend and foe once he saw blood.
Nevertheless, since he was one of the heroes who could certainly stand against a legion with his own strength, I had memorized the secret art, but…….
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?”
“Yes! I really like it!”
I let out a small sigh at the sight of her polishing the flail with a handkerchief as if she had received a precious gift.
‘It’s fine. Just because she likes a flail, there’s no way she’d have the same trait as that Blood Fiend, right?’
There was no way there was only one trait that used a flail among the tens of thousands of traits.
Surely there must be a calm and elegant trait that suited Reina.
“Hoo. Alright, let’s begin. I’m sorry, but there’s only one thing I can teach you.”
As Reina manipulated her mana according to the words and phrases Ian uttered, her expression grew increasingly dazed.
* * *
“Damn it.”
With a deeply furrowed face, I looked back and forth between Reina, who was swinging her flail excitedly, and the trait window.
To think that out of all the countless traits, she would get one like this.
[Thirst for Blood]
An unquenchable thirst left by a noble who craved blood.
-Attack power and attack speed increase the more blood you see.
-Proficiency of Berserker-related skills increases faster.
-The more blood you see, the more you are engulfed in a thirst for blood and madness.
[The trait has been enhanced due to a special privilege.]
[Thirst for Blood is enhanced to Desire for Blood.]
-Attack power and attack speed increase the more blood you see.
-Proficiency of Berserker-related combat skills increases faster.
This was clearly the trait of the Blood Fiend.
For a mere trait to increase attack power and attack speed the more blood she saw, this was closer to a skill than a trait.
‘No, isn’t this a curse, not a skill?!’
The problem was the clear debuffs of madness and thirst for blood, which were as prominent as its overwhelming performance.
For me, who had Immovable Mind and Steel Heart, it wouldn’t have much of an effect, but it was different for Reina, who had no way to resist status ailments.
‘No. Calm down. It’ll be fine. I just have to make sure she never sees blood.’
Just as I was steeling my resolve to shake off my persistent worries.
CRASH! KWA-KWANG!
Through the suddenly shattered wall, Reina walked out with a distinctly lighter expression on her face.
Even though she had only been swinging the flail alone in the training ground without a single enemy, blood was flowing from the scratches all over her body, and her eyes, curved into a crescent, glowed red.
‘Make sure she never sees blood… No, let’s at least make sure Reina doesn't bleed on her own flail.’
Ian swiftly changed his plan and made a new resolution.