Clatter clatter.
After finishing their rest, the carriage continued moving up and down the sloped roads.
Having eaten their meal and even enjoyed delicious cookies for dessert, Ed, Fon, and Bolio were full of motivation as they approached their training.
“Yahoo! Cain, I set a new personal record this time!”
“Really? Did you manage to maintain it for over 10 minutes?”
“Yes! I even endured all the big jolts.”
Ed boasted with an incredibly proud expression.
“Good. From now on, gradually increase the size by 5 centimeters at 1-minute intervals, and maintain it as is from the 5th minute onward.”
“Awesome! Finally, the next level!”
“I, I also succeeded… for 10 minutes!”
“Aaahhh! Damn, that was hard! Ed, your commotion at the end almost broke my concentration!”
“How is that my fault? If you’re going to be shaken by that, you might as well start over from the beginning.”
“Damn it, I’ll let it slide since I succeeded!”
Perhaps because the three had started competitively at similar levels, Fon and Bolio also soon completed the 10-minute endurance test.
“Wow, I’m dying. I feel like I’ve already used half my mental strength.”
“Phew. I should rest a bit before doing the next one.”
“So even Bolio makes weak sounds.”
“Shut up! I’m just preparing for any potential combat situations.”
“We, we should prepare. I want to rest a bit too…”
Having achieved their first target time, all three collapsed and took a rest without exception.
“…”
Meanwhile, Anyas was still observing without participating in the training.
‘There must be something…’
Chomp.
Anyas ate one of the two cookies she had separately received and saved earlier while looking at Cain.
‘Wait, doesn’t he do his own training and just watch the other kids?’
Anyas also wanted to doze off a little or rest comfortably, but she couldn’t do so for fear of missing Cain’s training.
Whether he knew Anyas’s feelings or not, Cain was looking at the exhausted Ed, Fon, and Bolio with a faint smile.
It was a smile that seemed somehow pleased.
‘What, Cain makes that kind of expression too.’
Since his base expression was so emotionless, she thought smiling wouldn’t suit him, but it was more tolerable than expected.
‘Though I still can’t easily imagine him laughing brightly.’
Anyas, who was struggling to imagine Cain laughing brightly, soon shook her head.
‘This isn’t the time for this.’
Deciding she couldn’t just wait forever, Anyas cleared her throat with a “Ahem.”
Then she asked Cain casually.
“Cain. But does that really help? How often do you need to cast magic while moving? Wouldn’t it be better to just practice magic itself in that time?”
It was a seemingly reasonable question.
Fundamentally, magic was delicate work requiring a high degree of concentration.
Therefore, it was best to cast magic while stationary to minimize variables.
Moreover, unlike knights or mercenaries, since they annihilated enemies from a distance, there was actually little occasion to cast magic while moving.
If the situation wasn’t favorable, they might use defensive magic, but if a situation arose where a mage had to move while being chased by enemies, that should be considered an irreversible case.
However,
Cain’s answer was simple and clear.
“Even if there aren’t many occasions to use it, there’s an unbridgeable difference between knowing how to do it and not knowing. If you’ve ever had your life hang in the balance even once due to that difference, you wouldn’t say such things.”
“…As if you’ve ever had your life hang in the balance.”
Anyas looked at Cain as if it were absurd. Then she subtly brought up the question she really wanted to ask.
“Well, fine. Let’s say that’s essential good training as you say. But if it’s so good, why aren’t you doing it?”
It was a kind of probing question.
‘To answer this question, he’ll have to mention his own training in some way.’
And Anyas’s thinking was on target.
However, the content was quite different from her expectations
.
“Because I already completed this training long ago. And…”
Cain pointed to the area near his heart.
“If we’re talking about training, I’m doing it right now.”
“…What?”
“You can’t see it, but I’m organizing the mana inside my circle and slowly accumulating it.”
Indeed, Cain had been continuously building the foundation of his fire-element circle while Ed, Fon, and Bolio were training.
This work had now become as automated as breathing for Cain.
The reason Cain could achieve a level several times faster and more solid than other mages was because he did this work without rest.
But Anyas, who had heard the answer she so desperately wanted, had a half-dazed expression.
“Organizing and accumulating mana inside the circle… You’re doing that?”
“Is there a problem?”
“No…”
Anyas was at a loss for words.
‘Of course, theoretically speaking, organizing the mana inside the circle and gradually accepting and accumulating pure mana is a good thing.’
When such high-purity mana accumulated and settled firmly in the circle, one could use magic with greater power even when casting the same spell.
For all she knew, if one built up the circle to its extreme limit, no matter what flying genius came along, they wouldn’t be a match in terms of magical power in that circle.
‘But who does that from the 3rd circle?’
However, that was merely idealistic theory found in books.
In reality, no one actually organized mana and built it up solidly from the lower circles.
Why?
‘When you’re busy trying to reach higher circles, when would you have time to sit around building that up?’
Human lifespan was limited, and the 9th circle, known as the human limit, was like a dream realm for ordinary mages.
Throughout history, there weren’t that many people who had reached the 9th circle and earned the title of Grand Mage on the continent.
This was even more so after the “Great War” about 200 years ago, when the mages of prestigious families who had served as teachers were annihilated and numerous family secret techniques were lost.
Anyway, when they needed to run at full speed toward that dream realm of the 9th circle, wasting time in lower circles was the epitome of inefficiency.
‘No matter how much you excel in lower circles, once you move to the next level, you’ll just realize how trivial the previous level was.’
It was the same principle as complex formulas appearing easy once you learned more difficult theories and formulas.
When you couldn’t guarantee achieving the 9th circle even after training magic for a lifetime, wasting time in lower circles was nonsensical.
‘So cases where this work is actually done fall into two main categories.’
Either doing it desperately when you’ve lost hope of advancing further in higher circles, grasping at straws.
Or doing it after acknowledging your limits, trying to use the strongest possible magic at that circle level.
‘But he’s doing this while growing so quickly?’
Looking at Cain’s eyes and judging from his personality based on his words and actions so far, he didn’t seem to be lying.
‘There’s no benefit to lying about this either.’
If he wanted to deceive, he would have said “I’m taking a break from training right now,” not “You can’t see it, but I’m doing it right now.”
‘He’s probably really doing it. But he likely has other training methods he doesn’t easily show in front of people.’
Though disappointing, it wasn’t without harvest.
There was plenty of time, so she could observe carefully from beside him.
“Alright. Got it. I should try it when I have time too.”
“People who say that invariably never do it at all.”
“…I’ll make time to do it.”
“Good.”
Anyas sighed and sat in a corner to start the mana organization work Cain had mentioned.
It was inefficient training that required a lot of effort while having virtually no immediate effect, something even magic books didn’t recommend.
‘Still, since Cain is doing it, I should try it earnestly at least once…’
Clatter!
“Damn it!”
How the hell is that bastard Cain doing this?
When Anyas, who had only been watching until now, started training while grumbling, Cain nodded with satisfaction.
Perhaps thanks to Cain’s warning, the atmosphere inside the escort stone itself had loosened considerably compared to the beginning.
The mercenaries who had been sitting inside glaring at them with displeasure now either looked elsewhere entirely, or when their eyes occasionally met, they quickly looked away first and chatted among themselves about other topics.
‘Still, that’s fortunate.’
Since it was a final warning, he had instilled a firm sense of caution, but in his experience, there were always people who couldn’t understand even after such warnings.
‘If all the existing escort mercenaries died shortly after departure and only additional escorts remained, it would be troublesome for future mission reports.’
So it was better for them to survive if possible.
‘I almost killed them in an instant.’
When he heard words insulting the family, Cain had reflexively almost pierced the mercenary captain’s throat.
If he hadn’t recalled Harman’s words just before, he probably would have done so.
In his previous life, when Harman discovered that Cain had turned mercenaries who were badmouthing the disciples of the Sears family into thousands of ice fragments on the spot, he held his forehead.
—Uh, hmm. Sein. Even so, they’re mercenaries who are part of the mission, so annihilating them is a bit…?
—If I move a bit more diligently, I can finish such work without any problems. Those guys wouldn’t want to work on missions with the disciples they were badmouthing either, so I gave them what they wanted.
—Still, the degree of your action was severe… No, rather than saying this… This time it’s connected to our family too. Our money is also invested in the guild. And even if you move diligently, you’ll have less time to pay attention to the disciples, and the probability of variables occurring in the meantime will increase, won’t it?
Sein nodded after a moment.
—Indeed. My thinking was short.
—Sigh… Usually I wonder if you have emotions, but when it comes to family or disciples, you sometimes act incredibly emotionally.
—I’m sorry. And I’ll compensate for the money your family spent with my personal funds.
—Forget the money. From next time, if they don’t directly harm you or the disciples or plan to do so, as long as they’re not enemies, how about giving them a chance with a warning once… no, up to twice at most?
—…I’ll think about it.
—If you do that, the day will come when you gradually develop human standards too. …Probably.
Recalling that advice in a similar situation, Cain was able to restrain his anger in time and end it with a warning.
He didn’t know whether he was developing the human standards Harman had mentioned.
‘Harman definitely said “at most” twice, and I gave them opportunities up to twice, so that should be considered sufficiently human, right?’
Considering the insulting remarks about the family that the mercenaries had made, it was an extremely generous treatment.
—That guy called Young Master Cain or whatever idiot is stepping forward saying he needs to search…
—What kind of young brat has such murderous eyes.
—He’s really an idiot, I tell you. His face looks exactly like that.
—He has that particular vicious look. I don’t like those eyes anyway.
‘I can endure any amount of gossip about me. Such remarks don’t particularly bother me. But…’
While Cain was thinking such thoughts.
“Monsters!”
“Snow leopards! Snow leopards have appeared!”
Shouts came from the carriage in front.
At the same time, the mercenaries finally stood up with brightened expressions.
“Oh, they finally appeared!”
“Hah, I can already smell the money!”
“With snow leopards, just the hide and teeth alone are profitable.”
Since spoils obtained during escort duty belonged to whoever caught them, prey of a reasonable level was something to welcome from the mercenaries’ perspective.
However,
Whoosh!
“…What was that just now?”
“What just passed by?”
It wasn’t just the mercenaries who were surprised.
“Huh? Where did Cain go?”
With movement too quick for even the disciples to notice, Cain instantly grabbed the upper rod outside the escort stone, spun around once, and climbed onto the carriage.
Cain extended both hands toward the groups of snow leopards charging from left and right.
Then he muttered quietly.
“Giving you a chance was one thing. Know that there won’t be any share for you guys for a while.”
