The Reincarnated Archmage’s Journey

Chapter 128: Their Provocation (3)

“Not the same method as them……. I’m curious?”

Alfric asked as well.

If it was a different method from Livia and Kabir’s, that meant it wasn’t the same kind of destructive act they had committed against Etar’s family.

Just what kind of counterattack Etar was preparing, and whether it would truly be effective.

Alfric was curious about that too.

“First, could you follow me without asking for more details? I’m asking you. If you go along with it, I think we can carry it out in the near future.”

Etar asked for a definite answer.

“I’m in favor. We’ve been hiding for far too long. Now that Lord Arkis is here, is there really any reason to keep hiding?”

Alfric replied confidently.

“But is it really okay for us to decide this on our own without informing Lord Arkis? If he finds out later, I think he might get angry…….”

On the other hand, Tresha showed a passive attitude.

The three of them were faithful disciples of Arkis Aimer.

No matter how much the era changed, the fact that they were that mage’s disciples never changed.

Therefore, for Tresha, the thought that ‘shouldn’t every action be taken only after receiving permission from the master?’ was dominant.

Moreover, since the current state of the Magical Society had begun entirely from Tyrant, who had once been his disciple, it could ultimately be seen as a series of matters connected to Arkis Aimer.

Under such circumstances, it was impossible to resolve something important while excluding the person concerned.

It could be misunderstood as not trusting the master.

“I’ll tell him separately later.”

Etar decided to take responsibility.

“……If that’s the case, then I’m in favor as well.”

Only then did Tresha agree.

“Alright, I’ll contact him separately.”

With his business finished, Etar pushed his wheelchair and returned to his school.

From the day after I met Alfric and Tresha and enjoyed dinner with them, I came out to the training grounds carrying dumbbells.

Then I sat quietly and sank into thought.

I was once again chewing over what the swordsman had taught me in the Underworld.

‘Stamina that lets you run for a long time, strength that doesn’t get tired even if you hold a sword all day.’

I didn’t know the exact definition of stamina, but since it came from a swordsman’s mouth, it clearly meant it was one of the important elements.

Mana, the essential resource a mage needs to manifest magic.

Mana was also composed of three elements.

Quantity, density, and size.

Then which of these three elements of mana did the stamina that the swordsman spoke of correspond to?

That was what I carefully speculated about.

Was it because I had lived a life far removed from swordsmen?

I still couldn’t find the answer.

But I realized one thing.

‘In the end, it means a swordsman can’t get by with just strength alone, right?’

It meant that tireless stamina was just as important an element as strength.

In other words, the problem wouldn’t be solved just by building strength with these dumbbells.

I thought that both were important resources that needed to be trained.

So I decided to give up on today’s dumbbell training.

My body was still heavy, and every time I walked my joints ached, to the point that if I forced myself to lift them, it only brought pain that made it feel like my arms would be torn off.

‘They said stamina meant being able to run for a long time, right?’

Then all I had to do was keep running.

With that thought, I began running alone across the vast training grounds.

And after about four steps, I understood why stamina was related to strength.

After all, when you run, it’s not just your legs that move—your arms swing back and forth as well. And since I was already in a state of full-blown muscle pain from dumbbell training, I couldn’t even move with proper form.

Not being able to pick up speed was a secondary issue.

Right now, because of the muscle pain, after running a few steps my body naturally stiffened, and I came to a stop on the spot.

“Haak…… kahak…….”

In the end, I collapsed in the middle of the training grounds, unable to move any further.

My heart was beating abnormally, as if it would punch a hole through my chest and jump out at any moment, and my temples began to throb.

I had sweated so much that my uniform was completely plastered to my body, to the point it wouldn’t come off.

When, in my life, had my body ever been this exhausted?

Even if I added up everything from my memories of my past life until now, it felt like today was the first time.

‘Do…… swordsmen do this every day?’

It was a pain different from the dumbbells.

I wondered whether pushing the body this hard could really be called training, but the fact that swordsmen lived like this didn’t change.

This act must be the same as mages reading magic books and researching magic.

‘……I don’t want to get up.’

While I lay there resting, that thought completely dominated my mind.

If I stood up again, I’d have to run, and then it really felt like I would collapse.

But I decided to force myself to forget such weak thoughts.

During the time I had disappeared, Etar had gone so far as to secretly send even his children into the Draco Family in order to get through this situation—extreme actions he couldn’t handle alone.

If I kept resting here just because my body felt a little tired, it would be belittling Etar’s efforts, and at the same time, it would mean I wasn’t qualified to be a master.

I staggered as I barely got up and started running again.

Even though the pain had doubled rather than subsided despite resting for a while, to the point that I was clenching my teeth, I absolutely did not give up.

Repeating to myself that there wasn’t much time left that I could stay at the branch school, I kept running, and running again.

When my legs completely stopped moving, I picked up the dumbbells and swung them like a sword, and when my arms became too exhausted to move, I repeated the cycle by running again with my legs that had recovered even just a little.

In that way, I continued training my arms and legs in the training grounds.

That was when—

“Artel! So this is where you were! I contacted you through the Mob, but you didn’t answer, so I was wondering what you were doing. But…… what are you doing?”

While I was training by swinging dumbbells like a swordsman’s sword, Hei entered the training grounds.

“…….”

I quietly stared at Hei.

‘Come to think of it, Hei passed the swordsman school entrance exam too, didn’t he?’

I had no intention of asking Hei to teach me that secret.

Since Hei had also stayed continuously at the orphanage in the Underworld, he clearly wouldn’t have trained his body like a swordsman either.

Still, since even I could tell that he had a body unsuited for a mage, I wanted to check just how much he could lift.

“Hei, try lifting this.”

I said as I handed him the lightest 1kg dumbbell.

“It looks interesting. What kind of thing is this?”

Hei lightly held it in his hand and moved his arm back and forth.

There wasn’t the slightest sign that he found it heavy.

“They call it a dumbbell. It’s something swordsmen use when they train.”

“Ah-ha. Huh? Why is something belonging to swordsmen here?”

“……I know, right.”

I just brushed it off like that.

In this situation, saying that I had briefly gone down to the Underworld to get it would have been even stranger.

As always, Hei didn’t harbor any particular suspicion, and he didn’t ask any more questions about the dumbbells either.

Instead, I asked something else.

“How is it? Is it heavy?”

“Hmm, no?”

“Do you remember when you were carrying firewood along with the teacher during the 3rd Class fire element lesson?”

“Of course I remember.”

“Compared to then?”

“The firewood was way heavier!”

Hei answered as if asking whether that was even a question.

After that, Hei tried lifting all of them by type, and it was when he lifted the final weight, the 20kg dumbbell.

“Oh, this one’s a bit hard to lift.”

He said it was hard, but unlike me, his arms weren’t shaking or anything like that.

Compared to my body, Hei’s strength was on an entirely different level.

To use a mage comparison, if my body was Class 0 right now, Hei’s body was practically Class 10.

“Hei, do you think you could hold that and keep swinging it like a sword for about an hour?”

“It’d be tough, but I don’t think I couldn’t do it?”

Hei put on a confident expression.

“Hei, you haven’t done any special training or anything, right?”

Since I didn’t remember living together with Hei at the orphanage, I asked as if I were certain.

“Yeah. This is the first time I’ve seen something like this too. The orphanage didn’t have anything like this, did it?”

As expected, Hei’s body was simply something he was born with.

Just like the swordsman from the Underworld had said, those with the makings of a swordsman were different from the start, and Hei was a student who perfectly fit that talent.

“By the way, what was the swordsman school entrance exam like? I wasn’t there at the time, so I don’t know.”

It was one of the things I had been curious about for a while.

Hei thought carefully, then opened his mouth.

“There were two tests. One was wearing really thick iron armor and running around the orphanage playground.”

Stamina that doesn’t get exhausted.

It definitely seemed like a test meant to check that.

“Did you just have to run?”

“No, you had to be fast too. You had to make a full lap within a set time.”

“How long was that set time?”

“Five minutes.”

“…….”

The orphanage playground was quite large, just like the training grounds we were in now.

That was because a lot of orphans at the orphanage needed space to run around and play together, so as a result, the playground itself had a large area.

But finishing a lap of such a place within five minutes.

If you weren’t wearing anything, it would be entirely possible, but could an eight-year-old really finish it within five minutes while wearing heavy armor?

It meant that the swordsmen truly selected only students with outstanding physical talent.

“Do you remember how heavy that armor was?”

“Hmm, it was probably a little heavier than this dumbbell.”

“…….”

To think he passed while wearing something heavier than a 20kg dumbbell.

It was an unbelievable result.

“And what was the second one?”

“They gave us a huge sword and had us cut a wooden dummy that was set up beforehand.”

By a huge sword, it was probably similar to the sword carried by the swordsman who had taught me the swordsmen’s training methods.

I couldn’t even properly lift it, yet Hei not only held it, he was able to exert its power perfectly.

‘The skeleton suitable for becoming a swordsman that that swordsman talked about—Hei has that.’

Listening to Hei’s explanation made it sink in once again just how incredible a body you needed to become a swordsman.

“But why are you suddenly curious about that?”

“Huh? No. It’s nothing.”

“Anyway, are you going to keep staying here? It’s about lunchtime now, so we should go eat.”

“Food, huh…….”

Because of the grueling training, my body was already completely exhausted, and I didn’t even feel like eating anything.

“No, I need to do a bit more.”

I refused Hei’s suggestion.

Right now, pushing myself to train my body was more important than eating.

“Kiena’s really worried about you. Yesterday too, she asked to eat dinner together, but you said you were sick and rested. You look fine right now, so to ease Kiena’s worries too, let’s eat together today.”

But this time, unlike usual, Hei spoke to me a bit forcefully.

“…….”

That was true…….

Avoiding meeting her altogether didn’t seem like it would help my training either.

If I showed that I was fine now and honestly said that I had things to do during the vacation so I wanted to spend time alone, they weren’t kids who would say they hated that.

If being a bit uncomfortable today meant the days ahead would be easier, wouldn’t it be the right choice to willingly do so?

“Alright, let’s do that.”

For the sake of the remaining vacation, I accepted Hei’s suggestion.

Anyway, once the semester started, Former would take care of grabbing hold of me, so I only needed to worry about the remaining vacation.

While Hei contacted Kiena through the Mob like that, I neatly put the dumbbells away in the training grounds.

Then I headed to the cafeteria together with Hei.

‘I have to do it again this afternoon anyway.’

There were no days off in my plans.