Chapter – 08
“Who does that brat think he is?”
Midorant didn’t like the way Pirancheva interacted so casually with the soldiers and knights. Not only him, but Cedrin and Shimid also felt the same dislike for Pirancheva.
Their hatred stemmed from jealousy, as Pirancheva was the youngest among the trainees yet had the best results.
“Tch, acting all high and mighty…”
While they might find it irritating, there were also children who liked Pirancheva.
These were the three children not part of any clique: Anthony, Scully, and Pavel.
“Pirancheva, be careful. Midorant’s gang is planning to get back at you for what you did to them.”
Even though the three children liked Pirancheva, they didn’t particularly try to become close friends with him. They just occasionally informed him about what the other cliques were up to.
They knew that as long as the cliques remained focused on Pirancheva, they themselves would be left in peace.
Their purpose for training here was to become knights of the Eastern Marquisate, not to fight with cliques.
They feared that getting involved in petty squabbles or problems arising from them could lead to being expelled from the Marquisate or failing to become knights, so they tried to keep their distance from the cliques as much as possible.
A combination of these various reasons made the three children friendly towards Pirancheva.
From Pirancheva’s perspective, he was satisfied just to avoid having his time taken up by yet another conflict.
“Can’t you hurry up and line up?!”
At the voice of Knight Captain Foren, the knights lined up in the training grounds.
The knights’ training was conducted directly by Captain Foren.
While the knights trained, the trainees had to handle their chores.
They had to take care of the knights’ equipment, bring combat gear and arrange it on the display stands, among many other tasks.
The other trainees disliked this kind of work, but Pirancheva worked harder than anyone else.
Although it was an experience from a game, not reality, he knew all too well that no matter how much stamina one had, it was never enough.
The distance to carry the equipment back and forth wasn’t much, but making the trip hundreds of times had a similar training effect to running several laps around the training grounds, so he carried the equipment more diligently than anyone.
Captain Foren and the knights seemed not to pay attention to these trainees, but they observed their every action and reflected it in their evaluations.
It was unknown what criteria other families used to select knights, but for the Eastern Marquisate, the most important factor in choosing knights was character.
This was because if one’s character was upright, major problems wouldn’t arise because of it.
If physical strength was weak or swordsmanship was lacking, one could train and learn, but character wasn’t like that.
Due to the Eastern Marquis’s way of thinking, instead of recruiting existing active knights, a program was established to teach them from a young age and raise them to become the family’s knights.
Trainees like Pirancheva were unaware of this fact, so while some slacked off on these chore-like tasks, others, like Pirancheva, thought of this as training too and worked hard.
“Look at him, trying to look good in front of the knights.”
Some children, seemingly displeased with Pirancheva’s hard work, whispered behind his back.
Then, one child approached Pirancheva, who was carrying a heavy load, and bumped into him as if by accident.
“Whoa…!”
*Clatter.*
Pirancheva lost his balance due to the heavy load and fell.
“Ah, sorry. Didn’t see you.”
As the child who bumped into him spoke while laughing, his gang giggled.
“Yeah. Be careful next time.”
Pirancheva spoke as if it were nothing and began picking up the items that had fallen to the floor.
The children, who had been expecting something interesting to happen, made disappointed expressions upon seeing Pirancheva’s compliant demeanor.
After Pirancheva finished gathering his load and left the spot, the face of the child who had picked the fight turned red.
Perhaps thinking Pirancheva was ignoring him, he fumed before turning away.
Once the trainees finished preparing for the knights’ training, they took a short break.
Midorant, Cedrin, and Shimid’s gang gathered separately, and the three trainees not part of any clique gathered together to rest.
Pirancheva rested apart from everyone, but even while resting, he pondered the relationship between the Mana Circle and Mana Hall.
“Captain Foren used mana. And I reacted to that mana.”
Pirancheva had an excellent mana sensitivity. In a way, it might be a blessing that he had entered Pirancheva’s body.
“It seemed like he used a part of the mana spread throughout his body, not the mana from his Mana Hall. If he had used the mana from his Mana Hall, I would have lost consciousness before even feeling anything.”
Pirancheva recalled the memory of that time. There wasn’t much specifically that came to mind.
He just felt the mana move, and then he was struck. Nevertheless, Pirancheva focused on his sensation and continued to think.
Then, something suddenly occurred to him.
“When a mage uses mana, they use the mana from their Mana Circle and resonate it with external mana to cast spells.”
Pirancheva compared the mage’s method of spell manifestation to the knight’s situation.
“If a knight uses the mana in their Mana Hall to stimulate the mana spread throughout their body, enhancing the power of their swordsmanship or physical abilities…”
Once his thoughts reached this point, Pirancheva came up with another mana theory.
“What if a knight who created a Mana Hall used external mana instead of the mana accumulated in their own body? Wouldn’t their abilities increase even more?”
Pirancheva didn’t think it was impossible.
“If this becomes possible, one could use magic and swordsmanship simultaneously without even consciously intending to.”
Pirancheva was lost in thought for a while. Then he murmured quietly.
“What would happen if I created a Mana Circle in the dantian?”
There were numerous magic theories on the continent.
Among these theories, some were proven, while many others were discarded after failure.
If one’s mana theory was recognized by the Magic Tower and proclaimed under its name, becoming an accepted unique magic theory among mages, one could establish a school and teach magic.
However, most of these mana theories were quite similar.
“Break’s over!”
A voice then broke Pirancheva’s concentration, and he stood up with a regretful expression.
“I’ll have to think about it more deeply in the evening.”
***
Half a year had passed since Pirancheva came to the Eastern Marquisate, and he was now eight years old.
Perhaps because of his steady training during that time, Pirancheva’s body was well-proportioned despite being only eight years old.
While the other trainees focused on strength training to build power alongside physical training, Pirancheva did not.
He concentrated on flexibility training to balance his body and core exercises to stabilize his center, doing only the necessary amount of strength training.
Of course, since he always prioritized training to build stamina, he had grown unrecognizably in just half a year.
“Pirancheva, do you want to die?!”
Even now, after half a year, Pirancheva was still bickering with the cliques.
“Can you kill me?”
“Th-this… this……”
“Stop. Unless you want to get beaten up.”
Midorant’s gang had challenged Pirancheva six times and been brutally defeated all six times. Still, because they disliked him, they continued to pick fights, but were often ignored by Pirancheva.
The other cliques also still disliked Pirancheva, but instead of stepping forward to fight themselves, they egged Midorant on to make him fight Pirancheva.
“Anyway, these guys… If they keep this up, one of them will really end up with a crippled leg.”
Midorant, who growled at the sight of Pirancheva but became cautious when Pirancheva spoke a single word, was now almost cute to him.
“Go ahead and try.”
“Really try? Come here. I’ll break one of your legs for you.”
***
Between the Eastern Marquis’s main domain and the Isran territory stood Mount Mantoba, where many monsters lived.
During warm seasons with abundant food for the monsters, there weren’t major issues, but during cold seasons when food became scarce, the monsters would descend to the inhabited territories to attack or assault merchants and travelers passing through Mount Mantoba, causing damage.
Therefore, every year when the cold season approached, the Eastern Marquis would launch a subjugation campaign to reduce the monster population, and this year too, a monster subjugation was planned for the first month of the season.
“Since the cold winter is approaching soon, we plan to cooperate with Baron Isran to subjugate monsters. Please make the preparations.”
When the Eastern Marquis planned a monster subjugation, the execution was handled by Knight Captain Foren, who took charge of preparations, deployment, and the subjugation itself.
“As I always say, don’t take it lightly just because it’s a familiar task. Prepare the troops well so that the soldiers and knights don’t get injured.”
“I will do my best. And, Marquis.”
“Speak.”
“For this subjugation, I would like to include the apprentice knights to give them real combat experience.”
To become a knight of the Eastern Marquisate, one must first become a trainee, then a knight trainee, an apprentice knight, and finally a knight. One had to go through these steps.
Even if one passed all these stages without repeating a year, it took ten years to become a knight.
Considering Pirancheva’s case, even if he advanced without repeating a year once, he could only become a knight trainee before entering the academy at age twelve; anything higher was impossible.
“How many apprentice knights are there?”
“Twelve.”
“Very well. Proceed as you said.”
“Then I will prepare.”
“By the way, how has Pirancheva been lately? Still the same?”
A smile formed on Foren’s lips.
“Yes. Unchanged. He is proactive in training, gets into squabbles with the other trainees, spends time alone, and lives his life that way.”
The Eastern Marquis nodded.
“What about his talent? Has your opinion changed?”
Foren had spoken to the Eastern Marquis about Pirancheva before.
“Yes. He is highly intelligent and has excellent comprehension. And his ability to learn physically is too fast for someone from a mage family. Above all, Young Master Pirancheva does not rely on his talent and act arrogantly; he works hard. And his effort isn’t ordinary; it’s as if there’s a real sense of desperation in it.”
“Is that so?”
“If Young Master Pirancheva seriously begins to learn swordsmanship, he could sufficiently reach the level of Master.”
At Foren’s words, the Eastern Marquis momentarily showed a surprised expression before returning to his usual demeanor.
“Have you praised anyone so highly recently? I don’t think you praised even my daughter that much.”
“That’s because Lady Elina neglected swordsmanship, saying she would learn magic… Conversely, I think Young Master Pirancheva probably didn’t receive such a good evaluation from Count Amand.”
“Do you think so?”
“Yes. While I praise Young Master Pirancheva, if we consider talent alone, he cannot match Lady Elina. The same would likely be true for Lady Elina. No matter how outstanding her magical talent, it probably doesn’t surpass Young Master Pirancheva’s.”
Pirancheva and Elina were children talented enough to be called the empire’s best.
“Hearing that is somewhat comforting.”
Foren slightly bowed his head.
“I will meet with Baron Isran to coordinate the dates, so please prepare everything well.”
