I arrived at the three-story house with Perrya and first guided her to the living room.
“Please have a seat here.”
“Yes.”
Perhaps feeling a bit tense, she was quite stiff in her posture.
“Let me tell you in advance, I do not use mana techniques.”
“What? Then what about the mana hole…?”
“Someone else will explain it to you, not me.”
At my words, a slight shadow crossed Perrya’s expression.
Since Jema was momentarily away, I talked a little about Perrya while waiting for her to return.
“Alex took me in after both my parents passed away from illness.”
“I see. How did you learn magic on your own?”
“There was a magic book I saw that described how to gather mana.”
“It must have been difficult to obtain a magic book in Roran, right?”
While it would be available in textbooks or various books if it were Latnia, it was extremely hard to come by in Roran.
At the Academy, they taught through practical training rather than books, so there were not many cases of magic being documented in texts.
“There aren’t many people looking for it, so if you try, you can obtain it.”
“I see.”
I wanted to check later when I had the time.
After Jema returned, I introduced her to Perrya.
“It must have been tough gathering mana in your heart, especially when using magic.”
“After healing, I do feel a bit fatigued.”
“Your body must be under a lot of strain. Just a moment.”
Jema rose from her seat and moved next to Perrya.
She reached out and placed her hand in the middle of Perrya’s chest, as if checking something.
“Mana is scattered all over your body.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Yes. If it keeps accumulating and goes unchecked, it will cause problems later.”
It was akin to blood pooling in one area in the body, which could lead to bursting veins.
Uncontrollable mana circulating in the body is like carrying a ticking time bomb.
To impart the Heart Technique right away, Jema took Perrya to the building’s rooftop.
When training mana techniques, being outdoors is preferred over indoors.
Even when indoors, if possible, the windows must be wide open.
The two settled in a spot on the rooftop that overlooked the cityscape.
I watched from the side as Jema guided her, refining my own mana.
“Alright, let’s start with a deep breath.”
“Yes.”
Jema gently placed her hand on Perrya’s lower abdomen.
“Breathe in, and breathe out.”
After about an hour had passed, Jema had Perrya change her posture in various ways, focusing solely on breathing.
“You’re not moving at all.”
“I’m sorry….”
“No, there’s no need to apologize.”
I was curious why they weren’t immediately moving the mana in her body.
“Isn’t there a way to just move the mana inside your body?”
“You can’t. If you try to move it without being able to control it, it’s dangerous.”
There’s no choice but to wait for it to naturally flow out.
After the breathing exercise, light calisthenics began.
As she moved, I began to see mana slowly escaping from Perrya’s body, even late into the night.
“Okay, now try sitting down.”
It seemed we were finally starting in earnest, as I saw mana gathering in Perrya’s palms.
“Don’t gather from outside. Use what you have in your body.”
I saw a small, ball-sized amount of mana flowing out onto her palm.
When looking at Perrya’s body through the mana lens, I confirmed that the accumulated mana had significantly decreased.
“Now, try to float that which came out of your body into the air.”
Perrya began to spin the mana sphere she squeezed out of her body in the air.
“Don’t let it burst.”
“This is difficult.”
“You’re doing well.”
By morning, Jema’s lesson had come to an end.
“Good job. For a while, refrain from using magic, and come back when all the mana in your body has emptied.”
“Not even a little bit?”
“No.”
Perrya bowed to us and headed back.
“Phew. That was tiring.”
“You’re teaching better than I expected.”
“I used to explain things to Catherine sometimes.”
Thanks to that experience, it seemed Jema had figured out how to teach magic to humans.
Having stayed up all night, we returned to our rooms to sleep.
It had been about a week since we heard the report of the undead army on the move.
I thought they would attack within a day or two, but so far, there had been no activity.
Reports said that the airborne units were flying around, confirming they were still halted at a certain point.
While they didn’t seem likely to attack right away, the news that their numbers were growing day by day was not very welcome.
The way they were increasing their forces involved summoning specialists among the commanders.
These summoning commanders created subordinates to summon in their place, gradually increasing their numbers.
However, if the commanding officer overseeing them dies, the soldiers weaken significantly.
As a major war looms, we are not the only ones feeling uneasy.
In the meantime, Perrya had emptied all the residual mana left in her body.
I had been testing the swordsmanship Jema had imparted to me.
Jema was not only correcting my swordsmanship but also assisting Perrya in creating her mana hole.
“You need to strike upwards from below there.”
“Like this?”
With a whoosh!
Having moved my body for a few days, I was finally able to swing the sword at quite a fast pace.
“I didn’t think you would master up to the five-fold sword in just a few days.”
“Really?”
“Yes. It took me a long time to develop that far.”
Jema said I should aim to master the six-fold sword as soon as possible.
She explained that a new realm would open up from the six-fold sword onward and that I needed to move even faster than now.
“Oh! I think I got it!”
Perrya exclaimed joyfully while rubbing her lower abdomen.
Looking at her body through the mana lens, I saw a mana hole the size of a child’s fist forming in her lower abdomen.
“How do you increase the size of this?”
“That’s what the mana heart technique is for.”
“When do I learn it?”
“This is all I’ll teach you.”
Alex asked me to help Perrya create her mana hole.
And surely, Alex must have the mana technique she wanted to impart to Perrya.
Jema had conceived the plan to teach the mana hole creation without jumping straight into the mana techniques.
I had only thought about the creation of the mana hole through the mana techniques; Jema grasped the intentions hidden within Alex’s words as conveyed to me.
“Go back and tell them that a mana hole has been created.”
“Is that enough?”
“Yes.”
Perrya returned looking somewhat dazed.
I remained on the rooftop to start memorizing the swordsmanship Jema was demonstrating.
“You can combine the first sword to the sixth sword into one.”
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Accompanied by the sound of slicing through the wind, fierce, successive attacks shot out.
“This is the twelve-fold continuous attack.”
“It looks complicated.”
“You’ll understand once you master the six-fold sword.”
From the first sword to the fifth sword, the movements are simple, while the six-fold sword has slightly unique actions.
I didn’t know why these movements were used, but I memorized them however I could because they were deemed necessary.
I understood it in my head, but when it came time to actually move, my body didn’t cooperate well.
“It feels like I need one more arm.”
“I thought so too. Why do we only have a pair of arms?”
It’s a common thought for anyone learning the swordsmanship that Jema was teaching.
“But did you create all this on your own?”
“Don’t you remember? My swordsmanship is based on Latnia Empire’s sword techniques.”
While the sword techniques that formed the basis were from the Latnia Empire, I had no idea what was packed inside.
That part was not taught to me by Jema.
“Anyway, if you learn up to here, there shouldn’t be a problem in actual combat.”
Originally, learning the same movements would have taken several months.
Since I learned it to be usable in actual combat, it felt somewhat hastily assembled.
Jema also commented that I barely passed.
“But do you have any secrets to being able to swing quickly?”
“Swing it a hundred times a day.”
“Do the twelve-fold continuous attack?”
“No, from the first sword to the fifteenth sword.”
Just in simple calculations, that’s over a thousand times.
To meet that daily count, I had no choice but to keep swinging and gradually speed up.
“We have urgent news!”
Melorna rushed up to the rooftop, panting.
“They’ve confirmed that the undead army is advancing from the south!”
Upon hearing the report, Jema and I immediately flew south from the rooftop.
Soldiers were already thoroughly prepared for battle along the castle walls.
We climbed a little higher to observe the undead army’s formation.
According to reports, there were said to be hundreds of thousands of undead.
However, it didn’t appear that the incoming forces reached that number.
They seemed to be roughly in the thousands, a similar number to when the previous Raden was attacked.
At the forefront, I spotted Ahom confidently advancing, riding a ghostly steed.
As the undead army approached the southern gate of Harfen, there was a loud boom!
With the sound of a massive explosion, several shells flew forcefully.
The shells that fell among the undead stuck firmly into the ground.
Kaboom!
As the shells embedded exploded simultaneously, the surrounding undead soldiers were caught in the blast.
The flames released from shells imbued with fire magic dealt considerable damage.
The skulls hit by the blast were obliterated, yet those that remained gathered and continued their advance.
Seeing that for the first time, some soldiers appeared slightly stirred.
“The enemy is not an undead who dies!”
As someone shouted, the soldiers’ cheers echoed from within the castle.
Amidst the storm of shells raining down, the undead army advanced with shields raised, fighting for survival.
“Legions of doom, march forth!”
Ahom raised his sword and shouted from the front lines.
Instead of the cheers of the undead soldiers, the cold and heavy sound of footsteps echoed across the ground.
Thud. Thud.
The sound was not that of military boots, but of bones and flesh shattering.
I descended from the castle walls and met Python, who was on standby.
“That guy is the commander who was next to the officer.”
“I recognize him.”
It was Ahom, who had suddenly vanished during our battle earlier.
I wondered where he had gone, and it seemed he was summoned next to the officer to join the fight with the knight order along with Python.
