Chapter 7 : Chapter 7
Chapter 7.
Fifteen years old.
Hadin folded his arms and lifted his chin. His eyes were full of confidence.
“This damn little brat.... I had been thinking my temper had been showing itself rather often these days.”
Should I call it the boldness of a genius, or simply a lack of sense?
“I need to knock the wind out of a fool who thinks he holds the upper hand.”
With that thought, I opened my mouth.
“A condition, you say.... I think you are under some kind of misunderstanding. Since when did you start thinking you were in a position to negotiate with us, whelp?”
“...Huh?”
“I am only treating you politely right now, but what if you did not have that knowledge of alchemy, and no interest in it either? In truth, aside from that, there is nothing left of value in you.”
With just two sentences, I neatly defined the relationship between Hadin and myself.
Hadin’s face stiffened, and the chin he had been holding so high slowly lowered.
“You are a replacement. The kind you simply swap out when a part breaks. And yet you think you are in a position to set conditions?”
The atmosphere had turned ugly, though I had not deliberately aimed for that, so I relaxed my face naturally, as though both my words and my threatening tone had been nothing but a lie.
“...I am joking.”
“......”
To make it clear that I really was joking, I broke into a grin and gave a shrug.
Hadin’s eyes trembled. He pressed his lips tightly together.
He knew it now.
That my words had not been spoken lightly.
On the surface, I had smiled and spoken jokingly, but the difference in status between him and the person standing before him was already so vast it could never be bridged.
“Oh dear, that unfunny joke seems to have ruined the mood. Perhaps I went a little too far?”
I waved a hand lightly to clear the air, then spoke again as though doing him a favor.
“So then, what sort of condition did our little genius want to propose?”
“...Nothing.”
“Oh? Did that bad joke upset you?”
“I said no! I am not upset!”
Was he trying to hide his fear?
He raised his voice, but his eyes kept flickering in my direction. It was obvious he was watching my reactions.
“Do not worry. In case you misunderstand, let me make one thing clear: when I said I would spare no support, that much was not a joke. I stake the name of House Nordiar on it. Will you believe me now?”
At the words spare no support, Hadin’s eyes shook once more.
“Can you take responsibility for those words?”
“You really do not seem to understand what it means when a noble stakes his name on something. It carries quite a bit of weight.”
Not that the name of a drunken scoundrel like me meant all that much.
Still, for now, no one here knew the version of me from my delinquent days.
“...Fine. But in return, I want my family and the materials needed for alchemy to be treated the same way you treat me. Alchemy is a discipline worthy of that much.”
“Who said otherwise? I know perfectly well that alchemy is an important field.”
“Well, at least you are not completely impossible to talk to.”
“Um....”
Hadin’s father, unable to keep up with our conversation, carefully spoke up.
“Does our Hadin truly have that much value? You are promising full support in the name of your house, so this is all rather sudden.”
“...I do not understand it either, Kairun. There should be some proof that he is a genius before anyone decides whether to invest in this child or not.”
It seemed Solpis was just as lost as Hadin’s father, because she groaned under her breath.
“There is no need to worry. I understand that it is difficult to believe, but I am not using noble status to run a scam, and more than that—”
I answered in a voice filled with certainty.
“Your son is worth that much.”
Because he was a genius a hundred years ahead of the history of alchemy.
“Proof that he is a genius, hm.... Right. Hadin is fifteen, correct?”
With confident—no, with certain—steps, I grasped the handle to Hadin’s room.
Ever since entering the house, that door had not been opened even once.
But I could already see clearly what kind of sight waited beyond it.
The moment I pushed the door open—
The walls inside had been covered everywhere in black pen with all sorts of formulas, while alchemical materials lay scattered all over in complete disorder.
Even a layman could tell at a glance that they were advanced formulas of a high level.
“Will this be enough to convince you?”
***
“This is absurd!”
Bang— Cannon slammed his hand onto the desk as he voiced his opposition.
“Ugh, you are loud. Calm down, Brother.”
I muttered in complaint as I picked at my ear, but Cannon showed no sign whatsoever of calming down.
“Calm down?! If you were in my place, would you be calm? Do you still not understand what kind of house Grand Duke Nordiar is?”
“Oh, come on, why would I not know? Thanks to the tutor Grand Duchess Mari attached to me, I have been cramming it into my head until my ears might as well bleed.”
“And you still went and did this! Do you even understand what you have done just now?! Neither Father nor I were consulted at all, and yet you went ahead and made an alchemy contract! You damned scoundrel brat!”
“So?”
“So? You are actually saying so? What do you think Count House Maron will make of us now, when we were planning to build ties with them? We of Nordiar settle for nothing less than the best! And yet we signed an alchemy contract with Aureum, a house that knows nothing of alchemy beyond the basics?!”
Cannon’s voice rang throughout the entire reception room.
“Honestly. I told you to calm down.”
The sight of me sitting there in utter calm, in stark contrast to his fury.
That must have infuriated Cannon even more, because he turned to Father and shouted.
“Please say something, Father! To this bastard of an illegitimate son who went ahead and pushed through a contract on his own! This damned little scoundrel still seems not to understand the position he is in!”
“Mm....”
Atlin Nordiar let out a low sound.
His eyes were closed, and he looked deep in thought, but even I could tell there was restrained anger and discomfort hidden inside him.
“...Kairun.”
“Yes.”
“This was not something you did thoughtlessly.”
“Of course not. I am the sort who proves things through results. If I did not have confidence, I would never have done it in the first place.”
“...And how do you intend to prove it? These so-called results. I also know that Aureum is nothing remarkable beyond its mana stone mine.”
Under Father’s sharp gaze, which seemed capable of seeing through anything, I spread all five fingers.
“Ten years? No. Five. Within five years, Aureum will catch up to the Maron of today, and after ten years, Aureum will unquestionably surpass the Maron of ten years from now.”
“...Can you take responsibility for those words?”
“If not, then what? Should I cripple my mana heart and walk out of this house?”
“......”
Perhaps he had not expected the very condition he himself had set during the test to be thrown back at him in my own words, because Father’s brow tightened slightly.
“You really do not understand the weight of what you are saying....”
“Of course I do. They are my own words, so I know them better than anyone.”
Cutting Cannon off, I glanced at Father.
After a moment of visible thought, Atlin Nordiar nodded.
“Very well.”
“Father! You cannot! What in that boy do you trust?”
“But you will keep your word. The part about crippling your mana heart and being cast out of the family.”
His voice carried anger.
It was permission, but not ordinary permission.
Not that I could not understand Father’s anger.
“Very well. They are my words, so I will honor them. But in that case, I would like to stake something as well. Rewards and punishments ought to be fair, should they not? If there is risk, there should also be a matching return. If my plan succeeds, it will be because of my efforts alone.”
“You are a consistent one, I will give you that. ...What is it that you want?”
“I will tell you later. For now, let us leave it as a debt you owe me.”
“......”
The Grand Duke merely nodded without a word.
“Perhaps he is thinking this would be a fine opportunity to remove a troublesome nuisance. What, exactly, am I in your mind?”
...For now, I decided to set that thought aside.
There was too much I still had to do.
***
The next day.
At the training grounds, Cannon threw a wooden sword at me.
It rolled across the ground and stopped at my feet.
“Pick up the sword, scoundrel—no, Kairun Nordiar.”
“...Why?”
“Ha. What now? I have been working hard enough already to keep my temper in check these days. He is not helping.”
Was it because Cannon still harbored such resentment over the contract I had made with Aureum?
Without warning, he called me out to the training grounds and told me to take up a sword.
No one needed to ask what his intention was.
“Violence under the name of education, is it?”
He had never liked me to begin with, so after yesterday, his irritation must have reached its limit.
“...Why the sword? My swordsmanship lessons with the tutor have not even begun yet.”
“If you want to fully carry out your ambitions in Nordiar, early education is essential. Is it not?”
“What a convenient excuse.”
...Though I could not say I disagreed with that entirely.
“And besides, I do not see what the problem is if I am personally offering to help train your swordsmanship. My sword, honed in real combat, is superior to anything some mere tutor could teach.”
“...Naturally.”
It was true that my body had not yet been properly trained.
I had run across that absurdly vast training ground every day, but after spending years as nothing more than an experimental subject, my body still could not keep pace with the spirit that wished to run.
And while gaining real combat experience was important, it was equally important to keep that experience from rusting away, to maintain it forever honed to a sharp edge.
I picked up the wooden sword from the ground. The weight in my hand felt familiar.
Perhaps he was pleased by how obediently I had taken it up, or perhaps he was thrilled by the thought that he would finally get to beat me senseless.
Cannon nodded with a grin full of delight.
“Good. That is how a Nordiar ought to be.”
“Yes, yes. Let us get this over with.”
“Fine. I will end it quickly.”
He said that, but—Cannon gripped his sword and took his stance.
“He is well-trained.”
The distance between his feet was exact, the strength in the hand gripping the sword was naturally controlled, and the balance of his upper body did not waver.
Even though his opponent was nothing more than an illegitimate son who supposedly knew nothing of the sword, Cannon’s ready stance had no openings. It was as if he meant to fight in earnest.
One of Nordiar’s rules:
Never let down your guard, no matter who your opponent is.
“Carelessness lasts but a moment. Its consequences endure forever.”
In that sense, Cannon was following the rule well.
Though the opponent was what he was.
“I will let you have the first move. Come.”
“......”
Gripping the sword, I rushed forward and exchanged the opening strike.
Even if it was only a wooden sword and not a real blade, it felt good to wield a sword again after so long.
Even the heavy sound of wooden blades colliding was pleasing.
The senses from my previous life began to awaken.
Was this what it felt like to become intoxicated by the sword?
“...Not bad.”
“You disappoint me if that is enough to surprise you.”
A brief lull.
From several steps away, Cannon spoke with obvious surprise.
But surprised or not, that was one thing.
Disliking me was another matter entirely.
“...From now on, I am going all out.”
A blue light began to gather around his sword.
“You are using aura in a spar...? Brother, you started this first.”
Aura—or sword aura.
The crowning power of a caster-type mana heart, which refined mana and infused it into a weapon.
Cannon demonstrated the power that only one who had reached the rank of Sword Expert could wield.
“It cannot be easy to pour it into a wooden sword. Not at his current level.”
Even so, perhaps because he had inherited the blood of Nordiar, his talent at least deserved acknowledgment.
And yet—Compared to the realm I had reached, it was still pitifully insignificant.
The moment Cannon came charging at me without a clue what he was doing,
I prepared to strike back.
Ideally, I would have liked to test the power of a Grand Master, but my mana heart was not ready, and there was no chance a wooden sword would endure it.
In that case, only one option remained.
“This is perfect timing for a test.”
I drew out one among the countless manas of monstrous creatures slumbering inside my mana heart.
“A Troll.”
A creature so weak that three people with only the most basic grasp of mana hearts could handle it.
It was only that level of monster, but precisely because it was only that level, it was perfect for testing the use of monstrous mana.
The wooden sword imbued with the mana of a Troll took on a faint green glow.
Ordinarily, this would have been a feat impossible for another five years, but just as I had expected, my mana heart had not shattered, which meant I could use it from this moment onward.
If I had infused it with my own pure aura, the wooden sword would have felt light. But the green aura infused with the Troll’s characteristic power made it far heavier than usual.
That heaviness would become destructive force as it was.
“Aura? Impossible! How long has it even been since you entered the Grand Duke’s house?!”
“What is impossible about it? I am, after all, a child of Nordiar as well.”
Apparently it infuriated him that I emphasized the word Nordiar with a shrug, because a vein bulged across his forehead as he charged at me.
“You bastard! Do not speak the name of Nordiar so lightly!”
And then the two wooden swords, each carrying a different kind of aura, crashed together in midair.
In a single exchange, Cannon’s wooden sword bent like taffy and then snapped.
My own wooden sword shattered Cannon’s and, as though it had fulfilled its duty, split with a loud crack and broke apart as well.
Both swords were destroyed.
Cannon stood there dumbfounded, unable to understand what had happened.
Well, of course he was.
A greenhorn who had hardly ever held a sword had just blocked an attack infused with his aura.
“...You, where did you learn that? And that power just now... what was it?”
“You were the one who said early education is essential. I simply did a bit of studying in advance.”
Apparently still unable to process what he had just seen, Cannon’s expression was quite something to behold.
Enough to blow away all the stress I had built up lately.
Perhaps because I had awakened the sensation of using mana again after so long, my hand tingled.
But even that tingling felt good.
“It feels a little awkward to say this myself, but yes. If I have to put it into words, then let us call me a genius scoundrel.”
I casually tossed the broken sword to the ground and turned my back on Cannon.
“Still, I am going to need a proper sword. One that can withstand my mana.”