Chapter 14: Duchy of Inferna [5] Amalgam[ 2]
"I can use a sword."
There was a moment of silence. Nothing could be heard but the howl of the wind and the distant clash of steel.
Elara and Iris were staring at me, their faces frozen in astonishment.
Had I said something wrong? Had I, once again, revealed something I shouldn’t have?
Iris was the first to recover from her shock.
"Well, Cassian... when you say you can use a sword, you just mean you can swing one, right? I mean, anyone can swing a stick."
Then, her voice took on a more serious tone. "Because... for a person to wield their mana both externally like a mage to cast spells, and internally like a warrior to strengthen their body or create a sword aura... That’s something that’s never been heard of. They say it’s impossible."
Without taking my eyes off them, I replied in a flat, emotionless voice. This wasn’t a boast, but a statement of fact.
"No. I can use both."
This time, it was Elara who broke the silence. The astonishment on her face was gone, replaced by the sharp focus of a predator.
Her eyes gleamed. Without a moment’s hesitation, she grabbed a wooden practice sword from a nearby weapon rack and tossed it to me.
I caught the sword in mid-air by instinct. The hilt fit perfectly in my palm, its balance surprisingly familiar.
"We need to test this," Elara said, her voice a command. With her eyes, she pointed to a training dummy at the other end of the field, a wooden figure covered in countless sword marks.
"Strike that dummy using a sword aura."
In that moment, I felt every eye in the training ground on me. The soldiers practicing their swordplay had stopped; the apprentices studying magic had ceased their murmuring.
Everyone was looking at this strange, quiet boy standing next to Iris and Captain Elara. I could hear their whispers. Some wondered who this new rookie was, while others were fixated on my appearance—my white hair and red eyes.
I took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and summoned the memories of that moment I fought Dr. Aris.
It was painful to pull that memory from the wreckage of my mind. I remembered the pure rage I felt, the will to survive, and the searing energy that had filled my body.
Slowly, I began to feel that energy again. Mana. It began to circulate in and around my body, like blood in my veins.
First a tingle, then a warmth... With every second, I could feel my strength increasing, my muscles tensing, my senses sharpening. This was body enhancement.
Next, I imagined channeling that internal energy into the wooden sword in my hand. I thought of it not as a tool, but as an extension of my body.
I felt the energy flow down my arm, through my fingers, and seep into the very grain of the sword. The sword felt like a limb of my own, a part of my will.
Finally, I had done it. The energy of my body and the sword had become one. When I opened my eyes, I could see a faint, flickering halo of mixed black and red light around the wooden sword. A Sword Aura.
I made no flashy moves. I simply took one step forward and swung the wooden sword at the target in a simple, straight slash.
The moment my sword touched the dummy, there was no dull "thwack" of wood hitting wood. Instead, there was a sharp "whoosh" and a momentary flash of black light.
And then, the wooden dummy, as if cut by an invisible, razor-sharp blade, split perfectly in two right down the middle. The top half slowly slid sideways and fell to the ground with a thud. The cut surfaces were so smooth, they looked as if they had been polished.
An absolute silence fell over the training ground. Only the howl of the wind could be heard.
Elara’s eyes shone with the disbelief of someone who had just witnessed the impossible. Words spilled from her lips in a whisper I couldn’t hear.
The silence was shattered by Iris’s ecstatic scream. "Wow! Cassian! You were telling the truth! You’re amazing!"
She ran to my side and hugged my arm, practically bouncing with excitement.
"This... this is incredible! You might be the only person in the world with a talent like this!"
Her eyes were sparkling with admiration. "Ahh, you show us something impossible every single day..."
I slowly turned my head from the bisected dummy to the wooden sword in my hand, which was still faintly shimmering with red and black light.
"I guess we can take lessons from Elara together now, can’t we, Elara?" she asked. Her eyes gleamed with a mix of admiration and playful mischief.
Her excitement was so contagious that it managed to dispel some of the tense atmosphere around us.
Elara slowly tore her gaze from the dummy and turned to me, then to the cheerfully beaming Iris. The look of utter shock on her face gave way to a weary resignation. She let out a deep sigh, as if her entire perception of the world had just been rewritten and she was struggling to process this new reality.
"I suppose... I suppose I have no choice." Her voice was like that of a commander admitting defeat, yet it also carried the seeds of a new curiosity, of an undiscovered potential.
The rest of the day turned into the most frustrating hours of my life. As soon as she got over the shock, Elara transformed into a full-blown drill sergeant.
The momentary awe of witnessing an impossible talent was replaced by merciless discipline. We started from the most basic, most boring detail of swordsmanship: stance.
"No, your feet are wrong! Shoulder-width apart! Bend your knees slightly, lower your center of gravity!"
Hours passed with me just trying to find the correct stance. My body was instinctively accustomed to fluid, lethal movements, but this rigid, fundamental posture felt like torture.
Every muscle burned, every joint ached. The slightest mistake—shifting my weight to the wrong foot or tensing my shoulders—was met with the swift descent of Elara’s wooden sword on my head.
A sharp "thwack" and a jarring pain in my skull.
"Focus, rookie! The stance is the foundation of everything! If your foundation is rotten, everything you build on it will collapse!"
Frankly, I was starting to think Elara was enjoying this, like a child who had found a new toy.
The situation was grating on my nerves. With every blow, I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to suppress the rage boiling up inside me.
I could hear Iris, who was watching from the sidelines, trying to stifle her giggles. Her hand was over her mouth, her shoulders shaking with laughter. Seeing her carefree joy, her sparkling eyes, all the anger inside me would instantly vanish. I couldn’t say a thing. I could only take a deep breath and endure Elara’s next "thwack" and scolding.
After the grueling training, a time for rest finally came. I was in my room, having tea and dessert with Iris.
"Aren’t these cakes delicious?" she mumbled, stuffing a large spoonful into her mouth. Her eyes were shining with happiness.
"By the way, Cassian, do you know how old you are?" she asked suddenly.
"If I remember correctly, I’m twelve."
"So you’re one year younger than me! I’m thirteen," she said, before shoveling another huge slice of cake into her mouth. It was her sixth piece. The girl’s love for sweets was incredible.
"Iris," I said, a little hesitantly. "Could you teach me how to read and write?"
She was surprised by my sudden request. She slowly placed her fork on the edge of her plate. Then, her usual warm smile appeared. "Of course! How about we start after dinner? But I warn you," she added, wagging a finger with playful seriousness. "I’m a much stricter teacher than Elara."