I sat next to Jema on the bed inside the tent.
“Alright, then tell me a story.”
I briefly explained to Jema what had happened since we last met.
“Hmm. But why are you here as the leader of the Knight Order?”
“I was put in charge temporarily.”
It seemed that Jema hadn’t heard about Aila.
“How did you know I was here?”
“I asked around, and they told me.”
“Who did you ask?”
“The Demon King.”
It appeared Jema had come to find me without knowing the location of the base, just hearing that I went south.
“What about the Academy?”
“There are no classes anymore. Everyone is either defending the city or joining the army.”
The Undead army didn’t seem to be concentrated only in the south.
“What’s the situation like in other places?”
“I don’t know well, I’ve just kept heading south.”
“Why did you jump into such a dangerous place?”
I asked Jema about the decision to venture into the territory of the Undead army. If we hadn’t gone for the raid, it could have been deadly to just sit there.
“It’s just moving skeletons and corpses.”
“There were also higher-ranking ones.”
“Seems like nothing special…”
“It’s reckless and dangerous.”
I spoke firmly, looking directly into Jema’s eyes without raising my voice.
“I made a mistake. I won’t do it again.”
“Have you been doing stuff like this the whole time?”
“…….”
“Why so quiet?”
It seemed Jema hadn’t acted wisely a few more times while heading south.
“Sigh… Are you hurt anywhere?”
“None.”
Perhaps luck was on Jema’s side, as there were no serious injuries.
“Oh, but I did run away once.”
“There you go. That was dangerous.”
“It was a really strong guy. He flew in the sky on a strange mount.”
He resembled the high-ranking Undead I had heard about in the meeting.
“Very well done. That guy was probably a high-ranking official.”
“High-ranking official?”
“They’re the ones commanding the higher ranks. Apparently, they’re really dangerous.”
To face such high-ranking officials, the leaders of the Knight Order might all need to come together. It truly was lucky that I managed to catch a Necromancer by myself. It was either because Necromancers were not that strong, or it was largely thanks to the Last Ape.
Although I hadn’t met them yet, the officials stationed in the south seemed unlikely to be easily dealt with. Their subordinates, the higher-ranking ones, all appeared to be remarkably skilled.
“Oh, right. If you have time, teach me some swordsmanship.”
“Why swordsmanship?”
“I haven’t learned it all yet.”
Iwaf, who had overheard my conversation with Jema, looked on in surprise.
“You can’t handle Ririan’s sword?”
“I only learned the basics.”
“Was that how it was back then?”
Iwaf seemed to be talking about the events in Raiden.
“I can teach you, but aren’t you busy?”
Given the wartime circumstances, there wasn’t really any opportunity to learn on its own.
“I’ll just try to blend it with actual combat as much as possible.”
For now, this was the best approach.
“Then let’s go.”
Anyway, Leon and Alex would handle all situations today. Leaving my position for a while shouldn’t be a big issue, but I asked Melorna to call for me if anything happened.
Finding a spot at one end of the training ground, I stood facing Jema.
“Shall we use what we learned at the Academy? Or should it be more practical?”
“Let’s make it practical.”
“Then we’ll use wooden swords.”
I picked up some wooden swords that were roughly carved from wood scattered around the training ground.
“Alright, follow my lead.”
Swish!
The wooden sword Jema held sliced through the air smoothly, making a sound.
“First Sword!”
A swift thrust followed with a ray of light aimed directly at my right shoulder.
It was a wooden sword, but the force behind it appeared capable of inflicting serious harm.
“You’re being careful, right?”
“I’ll be using it seriously since we’re practicing for real combat!”
After that, the speed of Jema’s sword movements was so fast that I could barely follow with my eyes.
I was hit over and over without managing to defend even a single time, but gradually, my eyes became accustomed to the movement. However, not only could I not defend, I couldn’t even evade.
Jema had grown far stronger compared to before.
It wasn’t a lie that I had managed to catch a single Undead commander.
“Why are you so sluggish?”
“I’m not slow; you’ve just gotten faster.”
“That sounds like an excuse.”
Honestly, I admitted that I’ve been focusing primarily on magic lately, making my physical movements quite dull.
The fact that Jema fled from that Undead official indicated that its strength was likely no joke.
“Alright, ready to go again?”
We weren’t structuring the training systematically but rather learning through real combat.
To avoid getting hit by Jema’s wooden sword any further, I had to use everything I could right now.
The first techniques I could use were the basics: slashes and thrusts.
Swish!
I swung my wooden sword as hard as I could in the visible direction, even though I didn’t know where the next attack was coming from.
Clang!
“Now you can defend, it seems?”
Blocking just once didn’t make me confident I could do it.
After that, out of ten attacks, I managed to block three or four.
“This is the First Sword.”
“Is there more?”
“There are up to the Thirteenth.”
I thought it was practically impossible to learn all of them in a day.
That day, I learned from the First up to the Third sword through hits from Jema.
The First and Second swords were based on slashes and thrusts.
The Third was a swift cross-motion, but I simply couldn’t replicate it.
No, while it was possible to mimic the motion, the effectiveness was far too minimal when I attempted it.
Additionally, even variations weren’t something I could anticipate, as I had ended up being hit unexpectedly.
“Ugh… ugh…”
“Alright, let’s continue this in the tent.”
I was skeptical about what kind of training we could do in the tent, but I returned anyway.
After quickly having dinner, Jema sat me down on the bed.
“When you imbue the sword with mana, you can release its energy.”
“I know that.”
“Just to clarify, it’s not mana you’re throwing.”
“Huh? I imbued it with mana. That mana should be able to fly.”
“It’s not that simple.”
As Jema looked around, he asked Melorna to bring any unused cloth.
“Is this enough?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
Melorna brought over a piece of old leather.
Receiving the leather, Jema held it in one hand and raised his index finger with the other.
I could distinctly see the mana gathering on Jema’s fingertip.
Then, Jema lightly swiped his finger horizontally across the leather.
Swish!
The leather split in half without even his finger touching it.
“Did you see? Does it seem like mana went out?”
“No.”
The mana merely remained on Jema’s fingertip.
The energy released was entirely something different.
It felt like a minimized version of the energy the Demon King used with the Sword of Wind.
“That’s called sword energy. In fact, it’s mixed into the swordsmanship I showed you today.”
Only then did I understand why I hadn’t been able to avoid Jema’s attacks.
Despite having dodged, I had felt impacts more than once or twice.
“It’s a good technique, but it seems quite similar to throwing mana, doesn’t it?”
When I threw mana against Ahom, its power wasn’t bad.
“There’s a difference in the power you can output.”
Even with just a finger, I could cut through something as flimsy as old leather.
If it were a sword, it might just pierce through sturdy iron armor.
“I’m not teaching you this; rather, repeat today’s sparring with your eyes closed.”
“I’m remembering it, but does that help?”
“Just give it a try. You can sleep afterwards if you want.”
I nodded in agreement and laid my head on the pillow.
As I closed my eyes, thinking of today’s sparring, I felt a light weight beside the bed.
When morning came, I rubbed my sleepy eyes and barely got up.
The fatigue from the previous day’s raid mission and sparring had piled up, and I hadn’t been able to do much of the training Jema had told me about.
In the morning Knight Order meeting, I heard that the base had had a peaceful night.
This was because we had handled the Undead army that was in the nearby city.
However, there were concerning news shared at the meeting.
“The Knight Order on the Python side has retreated in battle against an Undead commander.”
Even with the strength of three Knight Order leaders, they couldn’t withstand it.
“Even with three of them present?”
When Alex asked, Leon slowly nodded.
“Furthermore, that commander is coming our way.”
“This place can’t fall!”
Frey raised her voice slightly as she spoke.
If necessary, they could move the base, but this place was quite an important strategic point.
If it fell, the cities behind it would be completely defenseless!
Sitting back and waiting passively wasn’t an option.
“There are two methods,” Leon cautiously began to present them.
“One is that we confront their army first. A full-scale war.”
“And the other?”
Alex almost dismissed the first suggestion and immediately asked about the next.
“It’s a defensive war. We move the base inside the city and hold out in the castle.”
“I personally prefer the defense.”
Alex chose to support the defensive option and looked toward me and Frey.
“What do you guys think?”
“I think it might be better than a full-scale war.”
I also agreed with the defensive strategy.
If we were crushed in a full-scale war, there would be no further options left.
After the meeting ended, the base began to move busily.
They started executing the plans to prepare our retreat to the city.
The troops were ordered to send people into the city to evacuate civilians.
Returning to the tent, I conveyed the information discussed in the meeting to the members of the order.
“The order has retreated…”
“That seems like they were targeting the official.”
Eliminating the enemy commander is the easiest way to win a war.
It sounds easy when said, but implementing it is quite difficult in practice.
The base completed its preparations to leave in just half a day.
Forces, including the elves of the forest, began to descend the mountain.
“What’s the name of that city?”
“Harfren.”
The city I saw descending from the mountain appeared to be a harbor city adjacent to the sea.
It was clear that it was at least three or four times larger than Raiden.
When we arrived in the city, long lines of people were leaving on land and boats at sea were taking people away.
On a normal day, the city would be bustling with activity but now it was eerily quiet.
