Chapter 8
"However, learning just the form of swordsmanship is meaningless. You must master the changes in power and the corresponding breathing, all of it. It won't feel much like a magic class. Will that be alright?"
Ethan said.
"That's good. I was tired of magic school classes anyway."
"Tell me a bit about your childhood. I'm curious about the back alley stories."
Ethan thought that since Rebilton had decided to teach him swordsmanship, there was no need to particularly avoid telling his old stories. He couldn't tell everything about his family, but he thought it would be alright up to a reasonable point.
"They say I was in the mansion when I was very young, but I don't remember that. Until I was fourteen, I lived in the city outside the mansion. My mother wasn't well, so she couldn't work other jobs, and my father didn't support us. Using earning pocket money as an excuse, I ran errands for a gang of thieves with my alley friends I'd been close with since I was young. After my mother passed away when I was nine, I just lived in the alleys."
"Errands?"
Ethan cleared his throat.
"Charasen is a large port city. Merchant ships have wealthy sightseers besides merchants, and while the ship is docked, they often relieve travel fatigue in a large city like Charasen. They tend to get distracted looking at the incomprehensible language, clothing, and buildings. Sometimes, they don't properly look after their belongings."
"So you were a pickpocket?"
"...I swear on Era, they were all wealthy people. People who wouldn't face major trouble even if they lost the coin purse they brought out that day."
Ethan briefly checked Rebilton's expression. As far as Ethan knew, Rebilton wasn't from a prominent noble family, nor was he someone who just recited justice and morals he had only read in books.
As expected, although Rebilton shook his head, there was a smile on his lips.
"You were quite a troublemaker. Since coming to school?"
"I've quit."
"Didn't you enter Bien's room?"
"...Except for that."
Rebilton gave a warning.
"Be careful."
"Of course."
Rebilton adjusted his posture and crossed his arms, as if to clear the air.
"Anyway, why did the gang of thieves in Charasen make you run such errands? They could have done it themselves. Conversely, you could pickpocket even without those errands."
"Because people tend to be careless around children. And even if a pickpocket is caught, it doesn't escalate into a serious matter. They might get angry and slap or kick you, but they won't draw a dueling sword."
"Not everyone would be like that."
"That's when the gang of thieves stepped in. They made sure it didn't escalate into a serious matter. Of course, such protection wasn't simply for the sake of the children, but to take the goods the children pickpocketed. The children didn't know the value of the goods and couldn't meet with a fence, so the gang would take the items and give them a small errand fee."
Rebilton said.
"But children don't stay children forever."
"That's right. Sooner or later, such unfortunate things happen."
Ethan said.
"They seemed to see that I was growing taller and getting older. Instead of pickpocketing directly, I was tasked with watching the backs of the pickpocketing children and ran various errands. Since Charasen has three gangs of thieves, trivial fights between gangs were frequent. There were many occasions to use knives. I learned how to counter knives and movement techniques mostly at that time."
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was separate, but Ethan judged that even if he inserted it appropriately, Rebilton wouldn't know.
Rebilton said.
"Hmm. When people think of mages, they usually imagine those who spent their childhood stuck in a room reading books and meditating, barely able to walk, no. Many find even walking difficult. You are still a bit small, but looking at your hands and shoulders, you'll likely grow taller. You probably benefited from your experience roaming the back alleys."
"Perhaps."
"And having heard your story, I think I know a suitable training method for you."
It was a training method Ethan had not predicted at all.
∞
In the dormitory backyard, Ethan lifted a stone the size of his head, held it against his abdomen, and walked. The shirt he wore on his upper body was already soaked with sweat, but for the sake of noble dignity, he couldn't expose his bare skin, so he couldn't take it off.
After walking about ten steps, Ethan put the stone down and said to Rebilton.
"Huff, huff.... Professor."
"Why is that?"
"Excuse me, but what does this have to do with the story I told you?"
"Hmm?"
"Is it perhaps because I pickpocketed and need to be punished or something..."
Rebilton burst into laughter.
"Of course not! Hearing your story, you seem nimble enough to pickpocket and good at running to escape, but you didn't seem to have much need to use physical strength. Lifting heavy things is the best way to build a strong body."
Demi cut in.
<That is true. Weight training helps muscle growth. Many Terrans build muscles this way.>
<And it's what house builders or mine slaves do.>
<That is correct. Those engaged in these occupations are superior in performing tasks compared to those in other professions.>
Rebilton said.
"And it is something you absolutely need."
"I won't be building houses or digging mines though."
"But you have to take the Basic Magic Practice exam, don't you?"
Rebilton continued.
"One of the subjects in the Basic Magic Practice exam is Geoyang (擧揚), which means stone lifting."
Ethan looked at the stone for a moment and said.
"Does lifting it with my hands count?"
"Of course. You can also lift it with Body Enhancement Magic."
"Body Magic too?"
Rebilton looked for a moment at the shallow forest spreading out behind the dormitory backyard.
"There haven't been any cases yet, but it should be fine. There are several exam supervisors for Basic Magic Practice, so the criteria might differ slightly from supervisor to supervisor, but..."
"...There haven't been any cases yet."
"But...!"
Rebilton pointed to a stone larger than the one Ethan had just lifted, about the size of an adult man's chest, and said.
"If you lift a stone that an ordinary person couldn't lift, any supervisor will naturally recognize it as magic."
"...Although there haven't been any such cases yet."
Ethan felt that his strength had recently improved. It wasn't simply from lifting stones. The breathing technique he learned from Rebilton was working properly.
In the case of general Mana breathing techniques, such as the Yurmus breathing technique that those who wish to enter magic school learn, the inhaled Mana is drawn up and converted into Magical Power inside the skull.
On the other hand, the Mana breathing technique used for Body Magic that Rebilton taught, the Ruure breathing technique, draws the inhaled Mana down and converts it into Magical Power in the lower abdomen. It's similar to the family techniques of ordinary knights.
However, as long as it is a Mana breathing technique, Mana Sensitivity still remains a problem. A Mana breathing technique is a methodology for inhaling the faintly dispersed Mana in the atmosphere and accumulating it in the body, separate from the atmospheric breathing required by living creatures, and if one cannot sense Mana, such a breathing technique can be futile.
Fortunately, in the case of the Ruure breathing technique, while the amount converted into Magical Power is relatively small, one could accumulate Magical Power even if they were very insensitive to Mana. Although the Magical Power accumulated in the lower abdomen couldn't become a general form of magic, one could still possess abilities different from those who couldn't.
"By the way, Professor Rebilton."
"Why is that?"
"Even if we assume stone lifting is possible, what about the other Basic Magic Practice exams?"
Rebilton seemed to ponder for a moment before saying.
"How about we pass at least one for now?"
Ethan suppressed a sigh and walked towards the stone Rebilton pointed to.
∞
After about a month, Rebilton told Ethan that he seemed to have gained muscle strength and learned how to operate the Magical Power within his body, and assigned him additional training. Running around the magic school grounds or teaching basic swordsmanship stances were things Ethan could understand. Teaching him to climb trees or do tumbling didn't make much sense, but thanks to his inherent agility and the strength gained through training, it wasn't too difficult.
It wasn't until two months had passed that the training Ethan had expected began. It was swordsmanship sparring with Rebilton. However, Ethan's level was too low for it to be considered proper training, and the time was short. And Rebilton's focus wasn't on that. The newly added training was rope wrestling.
Rope wrestling is a type of wrestling widely practiced by sailors in the southern regions, a game where two people grab hold of a single rope and push and pull to knock the opponent down. It was also a game played in Charasen, where Ethan lived, and Rebilton said that since any kind of wrestling was fine, he chose one that Ethan was familiar with.
"All fights are wrestling."
Rebilton said.
"A fight isn't simply won by the person with the most strength. It's won by the person who knows where and how strength moves, and uses that strength to trip the opponent. There's no better game than wrestling to learn fighting. Swordsmanship and Combat magic, and even war, are merely complicated wrestling matches."
Rebilton didn't go easy at all. Ethan kept falling and getting injured, and spent his days utterly exhausted, falling asleep as if collapsing from fatigue, but because he hadn't felt like he was properly learning anything during the last semester, the training time spent with Rebilton was nothing but enjoyable.
∞
And around three months later, during the week the semester began, Rebilton called Ethan. It wasn't the dormitory backyard or the Combat Magic Society workshop he usually saw, but the great hall usually used as a dining hall.
Ethan thought it was another new training method, but it wasn't.
"You have to meet an Empire mage."
Ethan asked again.
"Is it because of Count Vine?"
"That's right."
Rebilton explained the inside story.
"It seems Vine was more deeply involved with the Empire than we thought. The Empire is taking issue with Vine, who belonged to the Imperial Inquisition, being expelled from Yurmus Magic School. They're saying that Vine and Bien were driven out because there's a black mage at the magic school."
"Yurmus isn't a vassal state of the Empire, is it? It's only natural to discover and punish a spy."
"But there's also the antipathy mages, including the Council of Mages, have towards black mages. Above all, the Empire is a country incomparable in size to Yurmus. If the Empire has such suspicions, Yurmus needs to provide an explanation. Whether it's genuine suspicion or merely a pretext, we don't know."
Rebilton patted Ethan's shoulder.
"More importantly, it's true that there's no black mage at our school. The Dean and other professors agreed to accept an investigator from the Empire. The Empire also took care to send someone from the Madowon rather than the Imperial Inquisition. You'll probably meet with them as a reference witness, Ethan, but there won't be any major trouble."
Ethan felt a cold sweat break out on his back.
<What should I do?>
<There should still be time, User.>
Ethan said to Rebilton.
"So, when is the investigator coming?"
Rebilton said with an awkward smile.
"I don't know why, but it seems the Empire side made a very quick decision. It's quite rude, but the Dean spoke with the informant who had already arrived and made that decision. They say he's likely someone of sufficient standing to do so."
"That means...?"
"They are already here."
As the main doors of the great hall opened, about a dozen Mazok walked in.