Notification (2)
The city of Silverfall, where the main estate of the Greysel family was located.
In the dim forest outside its castle walls.
"Ow! Young master Ian! Could you help me untie the string on my back? This thing... I just can't get it loose!"
Sophia was struggling to take off her trailing dress.
"I'm coming."
Ian approached Sophia from behind and took hold of the dress string.
"Can you see well?"
"It's dark, but it's enough."
-swish, swish.
"...? How in the world did you tie this?"
The knot was even tighter than when she was tied up after being kidnapped by bandits.
Upon closer inspection, it was a butterfly knot, intricately made with two strings.
"This will take ages to untie. It'd be better to just cut it."
"W-what!? Then I can't wear it again!"
"It's just the string. Doesn't matter. I'll buy you a new one."
"Ack! No way! That string alone costs more than double my salary! Why buy a new one when it's not just a few pennies! Just..."
"It's fine."
-snip!
"Eek! Eeek! What have you done to my dress!"
"Hurry up and get changed."
"Sniff... My dress..."
A moment later, Sophia finished changing and called Ian.
"Young master, I've finished changing."
A shirt and long pants.
She was now dressed in everyday wear, commonly worn by city dwellers.
"Haaa... The head butler is going to scold me too. Throwing away a maid's uniform, which is the mansion's property, as I please..."
"It was meant to be thrown away from the start. You were captive in a mountain hideout for four days. No way would washing that be enough to fix it."
"I guess that's true... but the head butler didn't see it."
"Then say I threw it away."
"Honestly, I doubt even that excuse would work."
Ian chuckled.
"That's true."
"Ugh... I'm done for..."
While chatting, Ian also finished changing into an ordinary shirt and pants.
"Don't worry about getting scolded. Anyway, as soon as we get the notification from the Sword Dragon Hall, we'll be out again. You probably won't even run into the head butler. Afterward, there's no reason to ever return to the mansion."
"R-right! Ahh, I'm nervous! I'm actually going to get into the Sword Dragon Hall...! Will I be able to adapt?"
"It'll be hectic at first. There'll be a lot of difficult problems. But if we solve them one at a time together, we'll get used to it quickly. I promise."
"Now that you say that, I feel relieved... But really. Young master, have you noticed that you've changed a lot these past few days?"
"..."
"How to say it... You're way more positive than before, much more confident, and seem more mature..."
"..."
"Ahem! Anyway, I'm just going to believe in you and follow! Don't leave me alone, okay?"
"I won't leave you alone. Don't you bail out on me later, saying it's hard."
"Don't worry! That'll never happen! We promised at the banquet, remember? We'll see this through to the end!"
"That's right, we promised. We won't give up halfway no matter what. If you break it, you have to swallow a thousand needles."
"Yes! Then you promise too! If you leave me behind, you have to swallow a hundred billion needles!"
"A-a hundred billion... Got it."
Ian and Sophia hooked their pinkies and promised again.
'Sophia, you've made a promise with me. You can't quit of your own accord anymore.'
Without fail.
So that, no matter what enemy appears before you, you'll be able to protect yourself.
'You're going to go all the way with me.'
A promise to never give up and see it to the end.
She had to become a Grandmaster together with Ian.
* * *
After coming out of the forest, Ian and Sophia found a room at an inn.
The inn was located right next to the city gate.
From the window, they could see the city's main road at a glance, so if the Hisperion mail carriage arrived, they'd be able to spot it immediately.
"So all I have to do is watch here for the mail carriage, right?"
Sophia put a chair by the window and sat down.
"That's right."
As soon as they confirmed the mail carriage, they could dash straight to the mansion and snag the notification letter, minimizing their time at the estate.
With some luck, they wouldn't even have to encounter Hugo or the head butler; they could just nab the notification letter and leave.
'It would have been better if we could intercept the mail carriage and snatch the letter directly.'
But on the street, it was hard to verify identities, and the notification letter was an item that absolutely had to be delivered to the mansion, so dropping by the house was unavoidable.
"I'm counting on you."
If it was quick, the Hisperion mail carriage could arrive as soon as tomorrow.
No matter how delayed, it would come within three days.
Even so, from the second day onward, it was better to check at the mansion just in case.
"Just endure for two days."
"Gosh, this is nothing. Compared to working at the mansion, this is way easier. Don't worry, just leave it to me!"
"I trust you."
"Yes!"
While Sophia kept watch for the mail carriage at the window, Ian immersed himself in cultivating his aura.
'The goal is to advance my aura level to High-rank User within two days!'
So far, he had focused only on recovering the damage to his dantian and mana circuits, so his current level was barely at the novice-rank User stage.
The lowest among all who could wield aura.
Since he'd been unable to store aura in his dantian, his aura reserves had been woefully insufficient.
'But now, I can accumulate aura.'
[《Sophia's Dantian and Mana Circuit》Projection Progress: 88.7%]
Thanks to diligently projecting and transplanting Sophia's dantian and mana circuit, Ian's impairment was almost completely cured.
The healing would be complete by tonight, and if he used the Heavenly Dawn Technique without stopping for the next two days, he would undoubtedly reach High-rank User level.
'Let's get started.'
To be honest, reaching High-rank User in just two days from novice was normally impossible.
From novice to lower, intermediate, high, and even peak, there were walls of enlightenment to break through at every stage; if he tried to accumulate that much aura at once, his mana circuit could overheat and be damaged, and his dantian, if expanded too quickly, could tear apart.
However, for Ian, who in his previous life had reached Peak Swordmaster, breaking those walls of enlightenment held no difficulty, and even if his dantian and mana circuits were damaged, he could instantly heal them with the Authority of Projection. There would be no problem with overexerting himself.
'I just have to endure the pain.'
And so, for two days, Ian devoured the elixirs he had purchased in bulk at the Hisperion Main Estate in place of meals, running the supreme cultivation method, Heavenly Dawn Technique.
'Grrk!'
Whenever his mana circuit overheated and broke from excessive cultivation, he overlaid Sophia's mana circuit to heal it; whenever the rigid dantian expanded and tore, he repaired the dantian wall with the Authority of Projection.
After two days...
[《Sophia's Dantian and Mana Circuit》Projection Progress: 100.0%]
The aura impairment Ian harbored was completely healed with the Authority of Projection,
'The sensation of aura flowing through my whole body... I truly missed it.'
His aura level, just as planned, reached High-rank User.
'To reach High-rank Aura User at 14...'
In his previous life, Ian had only become an High-rank Aura User at 20.
Compared to that, he achieved this result six years earlier.
'And it took five years to push from there to Early-Stage Swordmaster level.'
Struggling through walls of enlightenment, that was five years.
Now, having already surpassed all those walls, present-day Ian would never need five years to become a Swordmaster again.
'The only problem is sheer aura quantity. No matter how late, within four years from now. With luck, by eighteen, I'll become a Swordmaster...!'
If things went well, maybe even at 17, or even 16.
'Even Hisperion's fifth head, Ragnar Hisperion, hailed as the mightiest swordsman in history, only became Swordmaster at eighteen.'
Even Yuria, who was called a once-in-a-generation genius, only became Swordmaster at twenty in the previous life.
If Ian became Swordmaster before eighteen, it would be a legendary achievement engraved forever in human history.
'And on top of that, I have the Authority of Projection, and the endlessly growing Gluttonous Greatsword, vladiark...'
In ten years, even facing all seven of those detestable grand dukes of the Demon Realm alone didn't seem completely impossible.
'But I must not get complacent. I can't let my guard down.'
In the previous life, even Yuria, with her godlike strength and power, suffered grave injuries at the hands of the Demon Realm grand dukes and was left crippled.
'If you fall to those fiends, you can't even heal yourself so easily.'
Ian's disability had been a simple deformity, easily cured with the Authority of Projection, but the grievous wounds Yuria suffered at the hands of the Demon Realm grand dukes in her previous life were different.
Wounds left by the grand dukes carried curses and deadly toxins.
Because of those curses and toxins, Yuria couldn't absorb any medicine properly, her aura dispersed at the tiniest provocation, and even the Authority of Projection couldn't heal her dantian.
'Letting your guard down around the Demon Realm grand dukes is pure lunacy.'
Of course, things were far better than in the previous life, and he was confident he'd become much stronger than Yuria had been... but still, complacency was forbidden.
'I have to push all my powers and divine weapon to the utmost limit—not just able to take on the seven grand dukes, but even more at once!'
To rescue Yuria, and to prevent the tragedies of his previous life from happening again.
"Gasp! Young master! Young master!"
As he was running his cultivation, lost in these thoughts, Sophia suddenly called to him in an urgent voice.
"There's a carriage!"
"The mail carriage?"
"Yes! It's got the Hisperion celestial sword insignia in huge letters! It's heading straight for the mansion!"
"Right on time—exactly two days."
It was time to head back to the mansion.
"Good timing."
* * *
The moment they spotted the Hisperion mail carriage, Ian and Sophia left the inn.
Ian told Sophia she could wait at the inn, but Sophia insisted it was better for them to go together rather than being alone, so she followed along meekly.
After quickly hiring a carriage and riding down the main street, they reached the Greysel estate in no time.
"Young master! Hurry! Quickly, quickly!"
"... You seem more impatient than me."
"Let's just swipe the notification and get out fast!"
"Yeah, I have no intention of staying long either. Let's go."
As soon as they got out of the carriage, Ian and Sophia headed for the mansion's mail storage.
If the Sword Dragon Hall notification hadn't yet ended up in Hugo's hands, it should still be there.
"Oh, oh!"
"There they are!"
"Sophia and him...!"
"Those wretches...!"
"They've finally come. Finally."
Dozens of servants passed by as they crossed gardens and hallways.
"Even after going to the sword ritual, this place is as usual."
"Yeah, it is."
On the faces of the servants who looked at Ian, there was open anger and contempt.
"Because of them...! Geez!"
"I heard they embarrassed themselves at the sword ritual too? Pulled out a hunk of scrap metal, huh?"
"Ha! That's what happens when you run off from the mansion for no reason!"
"Just ended up causing trouble for the rest of us..."
"Ugh, only the innocent ones like us have to suffer."
"Can't you just behave quietly for once?"
It seemed that, because Ian had left the mansion, Hugo had vented his anger on the servants.
"Got slapped by Hugo, but they take it out on me instead."
Ian's position among the mansion's servants was not good.
Because Hugo, the master of the house, treated Ian like a parasite and openly ignored him, the servants followed suit by mocking and looking down on Ian.
"Ugh, so annoying! We won't ever have to see any of them again after we get into the Sword Dragon Hall anyway! Let's just beat them all up before we go!"
"No, calm down. Our goal is the notification letter. Let's just grab it and get out of here as quickly as possible."
"Young master, aren't you even angry!?"
"Nope. As long as I have you on my side, that's good enough."
"H-huh! A-ack! Seriously!"
Even as Ian said this, Sophia was still too upset to calm down, stomping in frustration.
"Hmph! Just you watch! I'll get my revenge! I'll succeed as a swordswoman in the Sword Dragon Hall, make you the Greysel family head, and become a knight! Then I'll track each one down and put them in their place until they beg for forgiveness!"
Ian couldn't help but laugh.
"Sophia, even two bodies wouldn't be enough for all that."
"I mean it!"
"Even so, I appreciate the sentiment."
If that's how Sophia felt, then Ian would simply protect such a Sophia.
"But first, we need to get the Sword Dragon Hall notification letter."
Without the notification, they couldn't enter the Sword Dragon Hall, so Sophia's ambitions would all come to nothing.
"Yes! Let's hurry up even more!"
"Right. Let's sprint."
They had to secure the notification before Hugo had a chance to burn it.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Sophia's a loyal one.
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】