“No. Isn’t swinging a sword all the same? How different can the advantages really be?”
Liam asked again, as if he truly couldn’t understand.
Seongbaek clicked his tongue, as though asking how he couldn’t see it.
“If you have eyes, look at the traces left on those pillars.”
On the thick wooden pillars scattered around the training ground, deep sword scars carved by each person remained.
The height was different, the length was different, the depth was different.
I swallowed a gasp inwardly.
I thought I knew what Seongbaek was trying to say.
As he walked forward, he pointed to the groove on the first pillar.
“Because he lowered his body and dug in from the left flank, the hole formed on the lower left. He stuck close and thrust explosively before withdrawing quickly, so the scar is narrow but deep, and the mark where he scraped as he pulled out is clearly visible.”
As he said, it was a deep scar.
“This one belongs to Sir Dande.”
Dande nodded.
“It seems to be my scar.”
Seongbaek nodded in return and pointed to the next scar.
“When charging, he keeps his body low, but the moment he thrusts the sword, he straightens up to accelerate. That’s why the scar is relatively high. He used his long limbs to stab and slash from afar, then withdrew using the recoil. That’s why the scar is long and shallow. Since he kept distance, there’s naturally no scrape mark from pulling out.”
As he said, it was a clean scar.
“This one is yours, Sir Liam.”
It was as though he completely understood the movements of both knights.
“Do you now see what’s different?”
Liam looked at me, struck dumb as if honey had been smeared on his mouth.
I opened my mouth.
“Indeed, the strengths of both knights are clearly revealed. Sir Dande shows astonishing mobility with his innate strength, while Sir Liam delivers clean attacks by utilizing speed.”
“Correct. Very accurate. Then, Young Master, would you care to analyze your own scar?”
Following Seongbaek’s words, I looked at the scar I had carved into the wooden pillar.
Although mixed with the scars of the two knights, mine was deeper and longer, making it easy to recognize.
“It seems I put in a little too much strength.”
“That is correct. When swinging the sword, you unconsciously have the habit of thinking you must cut through armor as well. It appears you were deeply impressed by techniques meant for cutting armor or iron plates.”
“Yes. That is true.”
It seemed right.
After all, the true iron sword Daiodel was the first man who showed me swordsmanship that felt like magic.
I unconsciously thought that if I mastered such techniques, I could stand against magic.
“Because of that, even for the briefest moment before swinging, you tense your muscles to gather strength. If my guess is right, you’ve also built up your body recently, haven’t you?”
“Yes. Originally, I had a much thinner frame.”
“I see. Now you can gather sufficient strength even without those unnecessary movements.”
I flexed and then relaxed my newly thickened forearm.
“I will keep that in mind.”
“Please continue.”
“The height is inconsistent. Sir Dande and Sir Liam always aim at similar heights and places, but for me, the direction of the thrust, the height, and the direction the sword withdraws from are all different.”
“Why do you think that is?”
I briefly frowned.
In good terms, it was free-spirited; in bad terms, it was all over the place.
“I’ve never systematically learned swordsmanship and relied purely on instinct, so it seems that’s why.”
At my answer, Liam and Dande let out low groans.
Knight swordsmanship specialized in killing mages wasn’t complicated.
But from the very beginning, I had honed all sorts of techniques not to kill mages, but to fight against magic itself.
Seongbaek nodded.
“I think the same. It’s like building a tower without a foundation, yet the center of gravity is so exquisitely balanced that it shoots straight up to the sky.”
He added,
“It’s not that the Young Master lacks the foundation of knight swordsmanship. It merely falls short of the level of technique you yourself desire.”
“Then what kind of training should I do from now on?”
Seongbaek looked at me, then at Dande and Liam for a moment.
He stroked his white beard with a thoughtful expression.
“Improvement means strengthening strengths and compensating for weaknesses. It would be best if the two could roll together.”
Seongbaek cleared his throat and looked at Dande.
“First, Sir Dande. You are a knight who charges forward recklessly. Your innate strength is extraordinary. But being reckless also means being predictable.”
For a knight who must face mages of overwhelming firepower, that was a fatal flaw.
“Sir Dande, you must learn soft directionality. You need to be able to redirect that power wherever you wish. I will teach you a free-spirited swordsmanship that is not bound by fixed forms.”
Dande bowed his head.
“Thank you very much.”
Seongbaek nodded back and turned his gaze to Liam.
“Sir Liam. You are a knight who presses forward with speed. But if you obsess only over speed and technique, you can never defeat someone with truly thick blood. No matter how fast your sword is, it cannot be faster than lightning.”
Liam bit his lip and acknowledged it.
“You need strength. You must be able to draw weight from that speed. I will teach you a solid swordsmanship with precise forms and precise directions.”
“I will work hard.”
Finally, Seongbaek looked at me.
“Young Master, your swordsmanship is instinctive. That talent cannot be confined within mediocre forms. However, sometimes freedom becomes a prison without bars.”
I understood.
I had heard similar words once or twice in my previous life.
If you don’t know how far you can go, you only go as far as you know.
“I will teach the Young Master a swordsmanship with loose framework footwork and many continuous strikes.”
“Continuous strikes?”
“For example, a slash like this.”
Seongbaek drew his military sword and swung it.
He relaxed his elbow, slashed diagonally upward to the left, then downward, then thrust-like to the left again.
To someone who didn’t know, it would look like messy swordsmanship, but to my eyes, I could see just how incredible those continuous strikes were.
I couldn’t help but exclaim.
“Such—!”
“You recognized it.”
“The first slash targets the pelvis, the second the neck, the third the armpit. Relaxing the elbow leaves room to dig into any opening that appears?”
“Exactly. But that also means my swordsmanship still has far to go.”
“Far to go? That’s excessive humility. Please don’t say such things. What I just saw felt like the polished magic of blue blood.”
“If it’s the Young Master, you will be able to raise this swordsmanship to an even higher realm. For example, your swordsmanship might not be complex continuous strikes, but unfold like a single graceful curve.”
I imagined the scene Seongbaek described and felt my heart race.
The biggest reason I couldn’t help but feel excited was that I felt I could actually perform the scene he spoke of.
Each individual movement is concise, yet when gathered they flow together.
At the same time, the gathered movements can be released at any time and split back into individual strikes.
“The time we spend here will be enjoyable.”
“I, too, will enjoy the time teaching.”
“Winter will pass in the blink of an eye.”
“I think so as well.”
***
The piled-up snow flattened under its own weight.
Dande, Liam, and I swung our swords in the middle of winter until we sweated.
Seongbaek taught military swordsmanship to the officer-mage candidates during the morning and half the afternoon, then spent the late afternoon with us.
“Sir Liam, Sir Dande. Am I not right?”
“Yes?”
“What do you mean, sir?”
“That those who look down on knights and swords can never become officer-mages. That if they roll and roll, they will naturally come to resemble someone worthy of it.”
The training ground was built like giant stairs, layer upon layer.
From the upper part, I looked down at the officer-mage candidates.
Their hair was either tightly tied or cut short.
There wasn’t the slightest tremor in the hands gripping practice military swords or in the eyes staring at the charging knights.
“They’ve all changed.”
Dande said.
“I shouldn’t say this myself, but the future of the family looks bright.”
Liam muttered with an expression that mixed worry about whether it was proper to say this with pride.
“Yes. That’s how it should be. They must not fall to knights of other families.”
I nodded.
At that moment, Seongbaek beckoned us from below.
“Isn’t he calling us down?”
As soon as Dande spoke, Liam sheathed his sword as if he’d been waiting and stood up.
“Let’s go quickly.”
“Wait a moment, Liam. We were in the middle of a bet, remember?”
Dande tried to grab Liam, but Liam flew down the slope like a bird.
I followed the two knights, exhaling white breath mixed with laughter.
When we reached the lower training ground, the officer-mage candidates looked at us with strange eyes.
Eyes filled with competitive spirit, wariness, and the occasional trace of goodwill.
“You’re all working hard in this cold weather.”
Seongbaek, standing on the platform, looked down at us with dignified eagle-like eyes.
He, too, had changed since our first meeting.
“I called those three because some of you are finally approaching graduation.”
“What do you mean by that?”
A tall blond officer-mage candidate raised his hand high.
“Choose one of those three. If you can block his charge, I will personally recognize that candidate as having graduated.”
“Really?”
“You can’t take it back later!”
Enthusiastic reactions burst out here and there.
A lady with seaweed-like wavy hair gripped her practice sword and laughed “keh-keh” laughed, while a huge man with short red hair flexed his thick forearms.
“Of course it’s real. Why would I have anything to gain by keeping you here longer?”
Seongbaek, having said that, looked at us.
It was the mischievous smile of a playful old man.
I whispered quietly to Dande and Liam.
“Sirs.”
“Yes, Lord Anplus.”
“Just say the word.”
“Roll them without mercy.”
Dande received a practice iron sword from Seongbaek’s disciple knight and answered.
“I shall obey faithfully.”
Liam blew warm breath on his practice iron sword and said,
“That is exactly what I wished for.”
The first to step forward was the huge red-haired man.
He pointed at Liam and shouted loudly.
“I challenge you!”
Liam, with his curly blond hair tightly tied back, smiled wickedly.
“I gladly accept, my lord.”
Hearing that laugh, the young noble swallowed hard, as if imagining something ominous.
Ten paces apart, the two faced each other.
Right now, these two were no longer an officer-mage candidate young noble and a knight.
They were a mage with nothing left but a sword, and a knight who had lived looking only at the sword.
They nodded once to each other.
The spar began.
In that instant, Liam charged like a crossbow bolt.
“Uh, uh?”
“Why is he so fast?!”
The officer-mage candidates sent shocked gazes.
Liam shook his spider-like limbs and reached the red-haired noble’s face in a single breath.
The red-haired noble must have trained hard too; without panicking, he thrust his practice military sword and stepped back.
Compared to a knight’s sword, a military sword was nearly two hand-spans longer.
Therefore, the judgment to create distance was valid.
But Liam already knew that intention perfectly.
And he also knew how to deal with it.
“I won’t be that easy!”
Liam, smiling wickedly, swung his spider-like arm refreshingly.
The knight’s sword that shot out like an arrow CLANG! struck the crossguard of the military sword hard.
With a loud CLANG!, the red-haired man fell backward still holding his sword and landed on his backside.
It was powerful force and weight created by speed.
“What the—?”
The red-haired man looked up at Liam with a dazed expression.
Liam smiled warmly and extended his hand.
“Please continue your efforts!”
Dande sighed.
“That habit of deliberately shaving the opponent’s pride is really his bad point.”
“Then how do you plan to win?”
Dande smiled faintly.
“Just watch.”
Soon, Dande’s match began.
“What is this! Why won’t it hit?!”
The lady with seaweed-like wavy hair swung her practice military sword like a windmill.
Dande laughed “heh-heh” just like her and struck then withdrew.
It was unbelievably graceful movement for such a huge body.
He stepped forward and poke stabbed with his knight’s sword then withdrew, rolled once on the ground to dodge the military sword, then poke stabbed the thigh and withdrew again.
It was leisure born from strength.
The lady screamed and swung wildly, but in the end, after twenty minutes she couldn’t land a single hit and collapsed onto the ground.
“Lady. Let us continue our efforts together. I barely dodged as well.”
Dande spoke in a solemn voice and stepped back.
Liam whispered.
“Barely? He was about yawned while dodging.”
Having witnessed the martial prowess of the two knights, the young officer-mages wore expressions beyond embarrassment—almost absurdity.
So it was only natural that they looked to me as the next opponent.
“I suppose I look the easiest.”
“A line is forming.”
“Go show them what’s what!”
Liam and Dande said.
“Yes. No choice, I suppose. No choice at all.”
I rolled the young officer-mage candidates who challenged me across the ground like pebbles.
“It seems everyone will have to work much harder for a while longer.”
Seongbaek said as he watched the last three candidates—who had attacked me three-on-one—all lie flat on the ground.
The candidates wore expressions of having been thoroughly beaten and sent resentful glares my way.
“Indeed. With this level of skill, if they went to the battlefield they would easily fall to knights of other families.”
I agreed beside Seongbaek.
Though I said that, in truth their skill wasn’t bad.
At the very least, no one closed their eyes or retreated in fear beforehand.
The future of the family is bright.
I muttered to myself.
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