Chapter 288: Side Story – What Do You Want to Become? (3)

“So all the rabbits died?”

In a small inner courtyard beside the head of the family’s office.

In that hidden corner of the manor, the heavy whistle of a sword echoed through the air.

“It’s quite frightening when you put it that way. It’s even giving me chills.”

Whoooom— Wooooom—

It was a sword that looked absurdly heavy.

A training weapon forged without any concern for practicality, using enormous amounts of steel solely to increase its weight.

Rutiger’s muscles swelled to their limits as he wielded that gigantic sword with a single hand.

“As I recall, Emil’s sister never reached that level.”

At Rutiger’s observation, Jager, who was drinking tea beside him, nodded.

Emil’s sister, who had arrived two years earlier, had certainly not been like this.

Though that did not mean training her had been easy.

“What if we assigned a knight exclusively to him? Right now, Sir Ramund is even here…”

“No.”

Whoooom—

Rutiger immediately rejected Cade’s suggestion.

His response was so firm that it made it clear he had no intention of discussing the matter.

“If all we wanted was to train a swordsman, then you would be right. But what we want to train is a knight.”

If the goal were merely to develop skill with a sword, Cade’s proposal would make sense.

But Rutiger did not want Emil to grow up simply as someone who knew how to wield a sword.

“The North must be protected. And what is it that we must protect? For what things do we raise our swords?”

What must be protected?

What is important?

What possesses true value?

What is good, weak, young, and vulnerable?

“To discover those answers for himself, he needs to interact with other people. Children usually discover who they are through their relationships. It is an area that we adults cannot teach.”

Every genuine life begins with an encounter.

When you and I meet, our world becomes broader and deeper.

Rutiger wished to pass on something more valuable than mere techniques.

Not only to Emil.

But to all the squires who came to Bayezid.

“Why is no one answering? Don’t you think you can handle it?”

The shoulders of the assembled knights trembled.

Because they were ashamed that they had tried to choose the easy path, even if only for a moment.

“Protect the potential of the young, knights. We are Bayezid.”

And with those words, Rutiger raised the heavy sword once more.

“Bayezid never negotiates with a child’s potential.”

Whoooom—

The burst of air struck their ears.

That sound conveyed far more than ten speeches ever could.

And the knights lowered their heads before silently withdrawing.

***

“Is that what you call holding a shield?! My eighty-year-old father would hold it better than you!”

“That thing you threw wasn’t a dagger! It was merely a hope of hitting something! Open your eyes when you throw something, you damned optimist!”

“I told you to stop crossing your feet when you move! Did you come here to dance? Or did you come here to flirt with girls?”

“Wow…”

The squires could barely react to the knights’ constant shouting.

The instructors seemed possessed by a completely different energy.

Compared to the previous day, the intensity had increased dramatically.

And the boys were beginning to resemble dead fish.

“What’s wrong with the knights all of a sudden? Did they eat something weird?”

“I don’t know. They keep shouting that Bayezid doesn’t negotiate.”

“The old men of the North are completely insane…”

Shields.

Thrown weapons.

Hand-to-hand combat.

The training continued without rest.

And little by little, the souls of the squires seemed to leave their bodies.

It had been so exhausting that the chaotic fight from the previous day had already vanished from their minds.

Thanks to that, the relationship between Emil and the other boys was gradually returning to normal.

“Attention, everyone! I will now demonstrate mounted lance combat!”

Hiiiiiih!

It was time to learn horsemanship.

And while the other children lay exhausted on the ground, Emil was the only one whose eyes still shone with excitement.

Because he still believed that among so many horses, there had to be at least one willing to carry him.

“No. No. Not you, Emil.”

But reality was much colder than his dreams.

“Why not? I can do it well.”

“Are you really asking me that?”

Sovanin, the knight in charge of horsemanship, frowned when he saw the innocent expression Emil was pretending to wear.

“The horses won’t even go near you. The lesson can’t start while you’re here.”

We’re not going to negotiate with your education.

But there are things that simply aren’t possible.

And we’re not foolish enough to force them.

“Even so, don’t you think that among all of them there’s at least one that would get along with me?”

“No.”

“And how can you be so sure? There might be one.”

Realizing he was not going to convince him, Emil’s eyes began to narrow.

That irreverent look made Sovanin remember certain events from the past.

And a chill ran through his body.

“Vlad… I mean, Squire Emil. During this lesson, you’ll be learning something else. Those are direct orders from the commander.”

Your father couldn’t do it either.

And you think you can?

Sovanin remembered perfectly the chaos Vlad had caused twenty years earlier whenever horsemanship lessons came around.

That was why he was not influenced in the slightest.

“Now. Right. Out.”

“Tch.”

Sovanin pointed toward the exit of the training grounds with absolute firmness.

And Emil got up with obvious displeasure.

“How lucky you are, Emil. Take me with you.”

“Uuu… Northerner without honor.”

Hampton and Tarenian, covered in dirt from head to toe, looked at Emil with envy.

The training had been so brutal that even Renvar, who normally would have taken the opportunity to provoke him, merely stared at him with an empty expression.

“Damn it. What if I really never learn how to ride?”

As he walked away, Emil glanced back toward the training grounds with an expression full of longing.

“Even a sack of potatoes would ride better than you, idiot!”

“I’m so jealous…”

Those who were training were suffering.

But Emil was suffering even more while watching them.

At this rate, he might die without ever riding a horse even once.

While everyone else rode majestically, he would end up running behind them swallowing dust.

‘What a disaster.’

Emil’s shoulders slumped as he sighed.

“Hehe. How is it that such a small child sighs as though he carries all the problems of the world?”

“Huh?”

As he walked along dejectedly, someone spoke to him with a laugh.

“You look like an old man carrying all the worries of existence.”

“Grandpa!”

Emil exclaimed as he immediately recognized that voice.

The person waiting for Emil was Ramund.

He was not wearing his usual comfortable clothes, but a leather armor befitting a knight.

Although it was not steel armor, the natural dignity of a knight emanated from him even at more than eighty years of age.

“Come on. Didn’t you say you wanted to learn Body Reinforcement? I assure you it’ll be more fun than mounted lance combat.”

Hearing that it would be more fun than mounted lance combat, Emil nodded vigorously.

He would learn to ride a horse later.

But even he knew that opportunities to learn such an advanced technique did not come around every day.

***

Body Reinforcement.

Ramund’s personal secret technique for strengthening the body through aura.

Unlike ordinary knights, who channeled aura through their swords, his approach was so unique that even the founding king, Kihano Frausen, had acknowledged it.

“No, no. I told you to block using your joints!”

Smack! Smack!

Ramund’s arm, wielding a rod, left afterimages as it moved.

It was impossible to believe that speed belonged to a man over eighty years old.

“It hurts! It hurts, Grandpa!”

“Of course it hurts! That’s why I’m telling you to block!”

Of course it was going to hurt.

Because aura was flowing from Ramund’s left eye.

To pressure a young and agile Emil with his aged body, he needed the support of aura.

“What kind of Body Reinforcement is this?! You’re just hitting me!”

He was supposed to be teaching him Body Reinforcement, yet all he seemed to do was attack him.

Emil had seen that technique before thanks to his father.

And he knew perfectly well that it looked nothing like the impressive ability he remembered.

“You brat! This is exactly what Body Reinforcement is! The essence of the technique is learning how to take hits without them hurting!”

But the original creator was just as frustrated.

As sad as it sounded, the technique had been born precisely from trying to find a way to suffer less when getting hit.

“If you’re attacked from every direction, not even a Swordmaster could withstand it!”

During his years of glory, Ramund had been known as the Unbreakable Vanguard.

He had always stood on the front lines.

He had been stabbed, slashed, and beaten countless times.

And when a person was pushed to the limit again and again, he inevitably began to think.

“That’s why you must form a triangle with your stance and present the hardest part of your body.”

Thus, the mitigation stance was born.

Ramund called it the triangle stance.

Whenever an attack came, the toughest part of the body had to be presented forward like the tip of a triangle.

“And what happens when you form a triangle? First, you reduce the area of impact. And then? Since the part being presented is usually a joint, you can naturally connect it into your next movement.”

Reducing a surface into a point to disperse force.

Absorbing an incoming attack and turning it into an offensive opportunity.

A stance that mitigated damage through convergence while combining defense and offense.

His explanations were crude, but this was a genuine revelation born from countless life-and-death situations.

“That’s why you need to learn how to take hits properly. Only then will you have the chance to strike your enemy.”

Ramund cleared his throat proudly after sharing that invaluable lesson.

However, Emil was barely listening.

His eyes were filled with tears as he rubbed the sore spots.

“Instead of this… my father would become much stronger and things like that.”

Grandpa, I don’t understand all those complicated things.

Just teach me how to become strong.

“Haaa…”

Ramund sighed as he watched Emil grumbling with puffed-up cheeks.

‘To begin with, he still can’t use aura…’

Although he seemed like a spoiled child, his complaints were understandable.

After all, Ramund’s method consisted of getting hit until you understood it.

Even as training, it was far too harsh an approach for a boy barely thirteen years old.

‘His father had at least already awakened aura when he learned it.’

Vlad had learned—or rather stolen—Body Reinforcement after awakening his aura.

In addition to his talent, he had already mastered the fundamentals of aura control.

That was why he had learned it so quickly.

And back then, Vlad had been around seventeen years old.

Compared to the little boy standing before him, the conditions had been much more favorable.

“Becoming stronger can wait until you awaken aura. For now, learn the fundamentals.”

But there was no alternative.

Because I don’t have time to wait for you to grow up.

“Aaah! It hurts! Grandpa, it hurts!”

Seeing Emil writhing in pain hurt Ramund as well.

If he had been a more intelligent person, he might have been able to turn his experience into theory and design better training methods.

But that was not his talent.

He had simply devoted his entire life to surviving.

“Endure a little longer, brat! All of this will become blood and flesh someday!”

Ramund truly believed this would help him in the future.

It was a valuable technique that might one day save his life when he found himself between life and death.

That was why he kept trying to engrave his teachings into Emil’s body no matter what.

“Grrr…”

After dozens of strikes.

Just as tears began rolling down Emil’s cheeks and falling to the ground.

An animalistic growl emerged from his chest.

“Kyu! Kyu!”

With the sound of shifting cloth, a yellow creature suddenly poked its head out from inside his clothes.

The mole.

Squeezing its button-like eyes tightly shut, it shot an accusatory glare at Ramund before raising both arms.

“Kyuuuu~~~!”

Bzzzzing!

“What the hell?!”

An instant later, a golden wave swept across the small training ground.

It shone so brightly that it could even be seen from the area where mounted lance training was taking place.

Upon seeing that light, Renvar involuntarily shuddered.

“What is this…?”

Thus, a shining boy was born.

And a mole completely motionless like a statue within his chest.

Seeing the child blessed by a spirit, Ramund’s eyes widened.

“…It doesn’t hurt anymore. It really doesn’t hurt anymore.”

The blond boy stood wrapped in a gentle yellow light.

With tears still gathered in his eyes and his nose sniffling.

Exactly the same child Ramund had known since he was small.

“Look at this! When the mole does this, the body becomes tougher.”

But what was this pressure he was feeling?

Ramund had stopped breathing.

And without realizing it, he was searching for his sword.

The instinct of a knight who had spent his entire life on battlefields forced him to react that way.

“That’s why the other time, when I fought those boys from the Center… Grandpa?”

Those innocent eyes looked at him in confusion.

But behind that pure gaze lay an inheritance that could not be denied.

“Grandpa, are you okay?”

Do you want to become tough?

Do you want to stop getting hurt?

Then simply do it.

Because you were born for it.

“…Emil.”

The desire to become stronger.

And the spiritual blessing capable of fulfilling that desire.

The instant those two elements came together, a possibility capable of becoming the toughest existence in the world began to bloom within Emil’s eyes.

His pupils, split vertically like a dragon’s, seemed to proclaim exactly that.