novelraw Chapter 92 : Chapter 92
Chapter 92 : Chapter 92
092
[Aura. An arrogant name. To breathe life into a sword? Is such a literary figure of speech really effective?]
The scroll that the number 4 teaching assistant brought connected me to a person who was Avril's third older brother.
"The number 4 teaching assistant will show you."
That night, I took the number 4 teaching assistant and taught him Aura.
"Take your stance slowly. Your stance is not one of attack. Rather, it is focused on being able to withdraw your body and escape at any time, on deflecting any attack once and breaking the opponent's balance."
I extract the sword's intent from his stance and refine the stance to match the sword's intent.
Then, after maintaining a state close to meditation, I stood behind him, grabbed his sword, and swung it to open his Mana Road.
After repeating this for about a week, a very faint Aura appeared from their swords.
The teaching assistants disappeared from the day they started using Aura.
I don't know if they went back to the owner of the scroll, or if they were killed by Avril's subordinates the moment they awakened their Aura.
[That Aura thing, is it true that everyone who learns it becomes a human butcher?]
The scroll that the number 3 teaching assistant brought connected me to a person who was Avril's older sister.
"The number 3 teaching assistant will show you."
The day the number 3 teaching assistant disappeared.
The number of mercenaries, which had been 95 excluding the teaching assistants, decreased by 12 to 83.
I couldn't tell where they had disappeared.
However, from the next day, the demeanor of the mercenaries who appeared at the training ground became menacing.
"What's wrong?"
But they couldn't openly question me.
That's because, unlike the first day's class, Rozalin, Hati, and a few Firestorm mercenaries were guarding my surroundings.
They were all people who had awakened their Aura, and since there was a shortage of teaching assistants, they had voluntarily offered to help with the training.
"I'm telling you, we're helping you. You should be happy about it."
Rozalin covered her mouth with the back of her hand and cackled.
“What a rotten personality,”
Ulf clicked her tongue at the sight of her.
[I see. What do you want? Money? Status? Honor? If you want, I can create a marquis title for you in the Empire. If not, I can create an academy under the imperial capital for you.]
The scroll that the number 2 teaching assistant brought connected me to a person who was Avril's second older brother.
"That's not what I want."
[Just playing hard to get won't raise your value.]
"I will recite a portion of the textbook. Please test it on your side, and after verifying its effectiveness, calculate whether it is profitable."
I sent exactly half of the textbook through the number 2 teaching assistant.
It was about how to refine one's sword intent.
And the next day.
[My escort swordsmen say it's all a scam. They say that swinging a sword is for cutting down opponents better, and that there's no meaning beyond that.]
Avril's second older brother continued to curse me as a fraud, saying that I would not succeed in any action in the Empire.
Yet, in between, he did not forget to say things that seemed to be trying to win me over.
He said that it was useless in his opinion, but since everyone else was greedy for it, he would take out some insurance.
After that day, the number 2 teaching assistant quit being a teaching assistant and volunteered to train among the other mercenaries.
The excuse was that he was not feeling well.
It seemed that he had decided to side with Avril.
[……The sword intent you mentioned, there's someone who has realized it. It's only one out of twenty people, though.]
The scroll that the number 5 teaching assistant brought connected me to Avril's second older sister.
[He said his sword has become stronger. Is this possible just by clearly refining his will?]
"It seems he has mastered the stances in my manual well. Is he a person who has mastered the basic manual?"
[So that was your book too.]
"It's effective if you learn them together. If you add the latter half of the textbook to it, you'll be able to use a complete Aura."
[I see. This hand is a failure. Next time, I'll prepare a proper stake and sit at the table.]
But the next contact never came.
The number 5 teaching assistant also disappeared.
Only Avril and Raipen came looking for me.
"It seems you have misunderstood what I said."
Raipen chewed on his cigarette behind Avril.
But the important thing was his hand.
He was constantly fiddling with the sword that was slanted at his side, as if he were demonstrating to me that he could draw it at any moment.
"I don't see that leader of the Firestorm mercenaries."
Raipen muttered as if to himself.
It was a tone of voice as if he were confirming the situation and organizing it in his head, rather than speaking to me.
"Rozalin and Ulf have gone home. It's not working hours, so I can't keep them here. Ah, the same goes for Shasha."
"The employee benefits are good."
"Did you dismiss them because you're enough on your own?"
At Avril's words, I smiled brightly.
He wasn't wrong.
Because now, there was a sword at my side as well.
Usually, I would practice techniques with a wooden sword indoors or take stances to put in the textbook.
But now it was a real sword.
Because I had predicted that they would react and come to find me today.
"Do you not understand what I mean by teaching my mercenaries Aura to clean up the capital? They will become a military force, they will become the swords to slay the Giant-Block, and they will become the vanguard to slay the demons that will continue to appear in the Belmein Kingdom."
I stared at Avril.
He looked tired, with dark circles under his eyes as usual.
And I recalled Abrahal's face from a few days ago.
Who of the two had more work to do?
‘Abrahal seems to handle more work on an even larger scale than Avril.’
Yet, there was no sign of fatigue on Abrahal's face.
He was cheerful and energetic, and had a charisma that naturally inspired trust.
"You've been pushed into a corner by Abrahal."
At my words, Avril's eyebrows twitched.
Raipen was no longer fiddling with the hilt of his sword.
He was gripping the hilt tightly, as if he would draw his sword and cut me down at any moment.
"The fact that you, Avril, have regressed here must be because you defeated Abrahal in your past life. But after meeting and talking with Abrahal from afar, I can tell. You didn't defeat Abrahal. Abrahal lost."
“……”
"Just as the Saintess Ganemia died and Yuria took over, Abrahal must have died with the appearance of the demons, and the siblings ended up killing each other."
I had met all the other siblings.
It was clear that they could not defeat either Abrahal or Avril.
"You were the last one left, and you had to embrace this guild. Did you need a justification because you were the youngest who had survived after killing all your siblings, and so you invested in the final war of humanity?"
“……”
As he lowered his head, his long bangs cast a shadow over his eyes.
Thanks to that, I couldn't see his pupils clearly.
"So in this life, you prepared for a fight, mobilizing even the knowledge of the future to win properly. That was the reason you rushed here first. But that only provoked Abrahal. To the point where he would capture a regressor and lock them in his own prison to extract information."
The regressors were all busy.
Rozalin, Hati, and Ulf.
But the busiest of them all was, of course, Avril.
He had been doing something without rest since the first time I met him.
But what if that passion and diligence were actually an obsession?
"So you must have rushed here without looking at other people properly."
Not all diligence leads to good results.
So, a diligence that is not even a bad obsession could only lead to worse results.
"At first, I was just thinking of using the teaching assistants to lure the political rivals here and hand them over to you."
Avril was trying to stab the Empire, starting with the academy.
He wanted to distribute the textbook, spread rumors, and bring endless talent to the Empire.
If so, shouldn't I reveal my competence a little more to lure the political rivals here?
So I selected the mercenaries, taught the teaching assistants who seemed to be spies, and tried to leak information through them.
But my mind changed when the mercenaries first demonstrated their martial arts.
‘Bridget and Eleveth.’
The mercenaries' swordsmanship resembled theirs.
They were dangerous.
Unlike the Firestorm mercenaries, it was clear that they were specialized in dealing with people.
Even the green-haired man had picked fights with people based on his mood.
To bring students into a space like that?
The violence and gloomy aura that Eleveth had shown throughout the semester endlessly lingered in my eyes.
'How dare you.'
To throw a student who has just entered the academy into the midst of people like that?
Not as a teacher, but to use students in his own dirty fight?
Not a graduate who has a clear will of their own, but a 14- or 15-year-old student who has just entered...
"I couldn't forgive it."
So I turned the tables.
Abrahal seemed to have perfectly read my intentions.
After talking to me a few times, he had withdrawn without receiving any information from me.
'You don't want to be used, is that it?'
Perhaps the price he mentioned was the price of letting his other siblings and Avril fight each other.
If that really happens.
‘Shasha is not needed.’
When all my words were finished, Avril slowly raised his head.
His eyes flickered with the most gloomy light I had ever seen.
It was not the cool-headed appearance that Avril usually showed.
"You've run wild as you pleased."
His eyes held inferiority.
His eyes held frustration.
His eyes held betrayal.
His eyes held pain.
His eyes held anger.
Various emotions, each with its own dark light, seeped into his eyes.
Bitterness, rage, annoyance, hostility, contempt, disillusionment, disdain, resentment, hatred, pettiness, greed, fear, hysteria, panic, impatience, suspicion, anxiety, isolation, hurt, discouragement, gloom, alienation, grief, despair……
Numerous negative emotions painted black on top of the black circle.
That color created the look in Avril's eyes.
It was a look so terrible that it took my breath away.
I take a breath.
In that short moment between breaths.
Ping!
A sword flew silently to split my face in half.
I dodge it by pushing the balance of my entire body backwards.
The sword gently rotated around the pillar of the dormitory door.
Saaaaa—.
With a creepy sound like a snake slithering, the sword flew towards me, drawing a bizarre curve in the air.
It was a sword that resembled a snake as much as its sound.
Clang!
My hastily drawn sword and Raipen's sword collided.
But Raipen's flamberge scraped against my sword and slid towards me.
Before his blade could pierce my heart, I pushed his sword up with my own.
Chaaang—!
Raipen, as if not to miss me, took a big step forward and raised both arms.
The sword changed its angle again and plunged down towards my abdomen.
But.
'His chest is open.'
At that moment, I raised my sword's intent and activated my Aura.
I felt my whole body go numb, and it felt like blood was draining from my fingertips.
The sword, which was sliding with powerful force, cut through the flamberge and plunged down towards the opponent's chest.