Chapter 176: Ariartelle (1)

Alchester slowly drew his sword. His stance hadn’t changed much, but Eugene felt a completely different sense of presence coming from Alchester. Right now, in Eugene’s eyes, Alchester’s fighting spirit didn’t seem to have been aroused, but the usual sense of foppishness couldn’t be felt at all.

Instead, there was an extreme sharpness. Even in his previous life, it was rare for Eugene to have seen someone whose entire sense of presence resonated so closely with their sword.

‘...If it’s in terms of sharpness alone, then he’s even better than Gilead,’

Eugene judged.

In terms of swords, such changes in presence should only correspond to a swordman’s inner nature. That was why Alchester’s sharpness came as even more of a surprise.

“...The Great Vermouth was able to wield such a wide range of weapons and magic that he was even called the Master-of-All, but Orix Dragonic only ever used a single sword.” As he stared down at his drawn sword, Alchester continued, “In the following three hundred years, the Dragonic family has continued to develop the swordsmanship left by our founding ancestor. ...Even though I am a distant descendant, I’m fully aware of the serious hardships my ancestors were forced to bear while doing so.”

“What hardships are you talking about?” Eugene asked curiously.

“Sir Orix Dragonic had the strength of a half-human-half-dragon, but his strength wasn’t passed on to the future generations,” Alchester said regretfully as he shook his head with a bitter smile. “It’s said that Sir Orix could emit a sword-force as tall as a mountain peak and as wide as a castle wall, but it was impossible for the later generations to do the same. My ancestors and even I didn’t have a huge reserve of mana like Sir Orix did, nor did we share the same aptitude with mana that all half-human-half-dragons have.”

That was only natural. After all, Orix wasn’t a real half-human-half-dragon, and he had gained his strength by consuming a Dragonheart all by himself. Eugene had also once shared a Dragonheart with his companions in his previous life, so he was well aware of how much mana was contained in a single Dragonheart.

“...However, my ancestors didn’t give up,” Alchester declared proudly as he extended his sword.

Fwoosh!

The blue light of his sword-force wrapped around the blade. There wasn’t anything special up to that point, but the change that occurred after this caused even Eugene to feel surprised.

The sword-force had suddenly swollen significantly.

After examining Alchester’s sword-force without saying a word, Eugene nodded with an exclamation, “...Aha.”

He had figured out the method used to perform such a technique. The sword-force that Alchester had emitted just now could be said to have reached the pinnacle of efficiency. He had emitted his sword-forced with the minimum amount of mana required, then combined the mana in the air into his sword-force. By doing so, it was possible to amplify the strength of his sword-force by infusing more mana.

However, this technique wasn’t necessarily without its disadvantages. Using mana that hadn’t been processed by his Core resulted in a corresponding loss in Alchester’s control over the power and density of his sword-force.

In other words, this sword-force wasn’t actually as powerful as it looked. At this moment, if Eugene pulled out his own sword-force, which was generated through the White Flame Formula, and clashed with Alchester’s giant sword-force, Eugene would be able to destroy it with just a few collisions.

“It’s not as impressive as it looks,” Alchester muttered as he waved the sword around. “That’s why it ended up being named the Empty Sword. The biggest problem with the Empty Sword is its sustainability and durability are far too poor. It also can’t be used properly in places with low levels of mana, and the longer you activate the technique, the weaker it gets.”

“...I see,” Eugene said with a nod.

“My ancestors tried various methods to reduce this technique’s shortcomings, and they managed to succeed to some extent,” Alchester said.

“How so?” Eugene asked, feeling intrigued.

Being good at mana manipulation in his previous life, Eugene had also tried to develop various methods to extract the maximum amount of power from the little mana he had. By doing so, he had managed to create the method of Ignition, which deliberately overloaded the Core in exchange for power.

Ignition still proved useful even now that he had managed to accumulate a much larger amount of mana through the Cores formed from the White Flame Formula.

‘Instead, it’s actually even better than when I used it in my previous life.’

Whether in terms of the body or the Core’s performance, the conditions provided by the White Flame Formula were overwhelmingly better than those Eugene had enjoyed in his previous life, so the stability and output of Ignition when used with the White Flame Formula had increased significantly.

In Eugene’s opinion, it seemed like this Empty Sword could also be useful when applied with the White Flame Formula.

“Like this,” Alchester said as he drew on his mana once more.

Another layer of mana was added on top of his unstable sword-force. The sword-force and this new layer of mana did not mix. Instead, the mana just covered the surface of the sword-force thinly. This layer of mana then slowly tightened, condensing the unstable sword-force. Once done, another layer of sword-force was added to the surface. The whole process was then repeated.

Eugene felt a sense of pure admiration. Alchester was adding layers of mana and sword-force alternatingly on top of the actual blade, like adding coats of paint.

“...It’s quite the difficult process,” Eugene muttered with a nod of amazement.

What Alchester was doing was extremely difficult. By repeatedly coating the sword, the power of the sword-force was amplified and stabilized, but this process of coating required an incredibly high ability in mana manipulation.

“It gets harder the more layers you add to it,” Alchester said as he stared at his sword.

The sword-force had now taken on a deep dark-blue color. The shape of the actual blade was no longer even visible.

“Even for me, stacking eight layers is my limit,” Alchester admitted. “...I first succeeded in stacking a layer when I was twenty-one years old.”

That was the age at which Alchester had participated and won the Imperial Martial Arts Tournament. Alcester smiled and dissipated his Empty Sword. The condensed mana flowed back into the air.

“You’ll probably do even better than me. When I was still your age...,” Alchester paused in recollection. “Haha. I was so much weaker that I couldn’t even begin to compare with you.”

“...Isn’t the Empty Sword the Dragonic family’s special technique? Is it really alright for you to teach it to a member of the Lionheart clan?” Eugene asked hesitantly.

“The Dragonic’s martial heritage isn’t limited to just the Empty Sword,” Alchester proudly declared as he returned his sword to its scabbard. “As the head of the family, it’s my honor to offer one of the Dragonic’s martial techniques to you, who’ll soon become the future center of the Lionheart clan. Of course, that’s only if you want to learn it, that is.”

“Is there any reason for me to refuse such an offer?” Eugene asked with a smirk.

After he had been reincarnated and learned the White Flame Formula, he had never once felt a shortage of mana.

‘Except for when using the Moonlight Sword, that savage blade, that is.’

Now that the Eternal Hole had been grafted on with the Ring Flame Formula, the power of his Cores had been amplified to their limit. What if the Empty Sword was added on top of that? That meant there wouldn’t be any mana depletion even if he continued to emit his sword-force for days. Being able to superimpose his sword-force like that would also be an interesting trick.

* * *

A week had passed since Eugene had first arrived at the Dragonic mansion.

During the mornings and afternoons, he taught Leo, and in the evenings, Alchester guided him in using the Empty Sword at the Dragonic family’s training ground.

‘This is insane,’

Alchester thought to himself, unable to hide his astonishment.

Currently, Eugene’s sword was wrapped up in some grayish-white flames. This wasn’t a sword-force made purely from the White Flame Formula. With the technique of the Empty Sword, the mana in the air was drawn in as fuel for the sword-force, then another layer of sword-force was added to its surface.

At first, this caused the sword-force to look like a dark ray of light, but, little by little, the color of the sword-force was lightening up. This is because the White Flame Formula, which burnt high outputs of mana, was burning the impurities out of the unrefined mana.

‘...This should allow me to form an Empty Sword without compromising the power of the White Flame Formula,’

Eugene thought to himself in satisfaction.

Even if he had already accumulated a strong foundation to work on in the past, to think that Eugene would actually succeed in forming the Empty Sword in just one week. After seeing this with his own eyes, Alchester felt like part of his common sense was collapsing.

“...If you were a woman, I would have used everything in my ability to get you engaged to Leo,” Alchester confessed wistfully.

“Don’t say something so disgusting,” Eugene said with a shudder as he stared down at his Empty Sword.

It was hard to get the balance just right. If he reduced the output of the White Flame Formula, then the power would decrease, but if he maintained the high output, then the stability would fall.

No matter how much mastery of mana manipulation Eugene had carried over from his previous life, he couldn’t get used to performing such a difficult skill right away. This kind of skill required a tremendous level of practice in addition to the sensitivity and talent needed to even start practicing it.

‘...For now, this balance is the best I can maintain,’ Eugene admitted.

If that’s the case, then how about stacking it? Eugene connected his Cores through the Ring Flame Formula, and the five Stars rotated together, amplifying his mana.

Fwoooosh!

His Empty Sword shook strongly.

‘It’s collapsi.... No, it hasn’t collapsed yet. I need to immediately adapt to the increase in mana and adjust it,'

Eugene reminded himself.

The amount of mana he had first added to the flames had been random. However, Eugene immediately began to reassess and adjust the amounts. With this, he was able to add another layer to the Empty Sword. At two stacks, the grayish-white flame burned with even more intensity, then gradually began to burn with a blue light.

Cracrack!

A sound like space itself being crushed began to echo throughout the training ground. Alchester looked around in bewilderment. All the mana in the training ground was being sucked into Eugene’s flame.

‘Is this really just two stacks?’

Alchester thought in disbelief.

Slowly even lightning began to mix into those increasingly fierce flames. Cold sweat started to drip down Eugene’s forehead, but his eyes unwaveringly focused on his mana. Mer also stuck her head out from within the cloak to stare at the flames.

Black spots began to appear on the flames.

Pooow!

The Empty Sword scattered into thin air. Eugene let out a deep breath and lowered the sword. No, that thing couldn’t be called a sword any longer. Cracks had spread throughout the blade, and it shattered the moment it was lowered.

“...Hahaha...!” Alchester let out an incredulous laugh and shook his head. He had sensed an unbelievable amount of power coming from it, even though it only held two stacks. The layering failed only because the power was too great.

That Empty Sword had contained a pure ‘power’ that went beyond the limits of the technique. That was why Alchester couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine. Among all the great warriors who had made a name for themselves throughout the continent, how many of them would be able to receive a direct attack from that sword?

“Phew,” Eugene let out a deep sigh and let go of the broken sword hilt.

His fingers were trembling slightly. Not much of the mana from his Cores had been used. The recoil when the Empty Sword had dissipated wasn’t all that great either. But his fingers were still trembling because of the pure bliss that he was feeling.

‘I reached it,’

Eugene silently rejoiced.

It wasn’t an illusion. The moment when black dots had been mixed into his Empty Sword, the power that Eugene had held in his hands barely reached the heights that Hamel had held in his heyday. This brought Eugene great joy. He thought he’d be reaching the Sixth Star of the White Flame Formula soon, but for the moment, Eugene was still stuck at the Fifth Star of the White Flame Formula.

Even so, he had managed to hold in his hands the same level of power he had once held in his prime. So what if he hadn’t managed to control it properly? He might not be able to control that level of power now, but he would be able to control it in the future. As long as he could improve his proficiency in the technique through hard work, he just needed to keep training until he could easily use the complete version of the technique.

‘If I lower my standards in terms of the balance, I can increase the number of layers. However, the power won’t be as explosively amplified as before. For now, this is the optimal configuration, and I have no choice but to further adjust the details as things progress...,’

Eugene gathered his thoughts and raised his head.

Alchester still had a look of admiration on his face. Eugene had yet to find any clues regarding the dragon, but he had already reaped an excellent reward for coming to the Dragonic family just by acquiring this Empty Sword.

“Thank you very much,” Eugene said sincerely.

The black spots he had seen earlier, their intense color, remained stubbornly stuck inside Alchester’s mind. Instead of feeling jealous and resentful of this young genius in front of him, Alchester was wondering whether he could apply what Eugene had shown him to his own swordsmanship.

‘...How amazing. Even though I’ve been practicing the Empty Sword for decades... to think that my eyes would be opened to its further possibilities,’

Alchester marveled.

That was why Alchester couldn’t help but feel that it was all the more bizarre. The level of skill that Eugene had just shown was so high that it seemed impossible for him to have reached such heights at the mere age of twenty, even considering the fact that he was a genius. Alchester felt like he could sense the skills of a warrior who had trained for decades coming from Eugene.

“...I’m the one who should be grateful instead,” Alchester belatedly responded with a smile and a bow of his head. “Thanks to you, I feel like I can still learn something new at my late age.”

Alchester had thought that he had been close to the limit of what could be reached, but it turned out that was just an absurd and delusional arrogance on his part.

Without erasing the smile drawn on his face, Alchester continued speaking, “It seems that there’s no longer any need for me to supervise your sword practice.”

“You’re overpraising me,” Eugene humbly denied.

“No. I seriously mean it. In the first place, your sword... it’s already so perfect that I don’t know what to advise you on. The only advice I could give you was tips on how to practice the Empty Sword,” Alchester readily admitted.

At first, he had thought that he would be able to at least spend a month giving Eugene just such advice, but Eugene had become so proficient in the Empty Sword that he didn’t need any advice in only two days. And now, after a week, Eugene was already able to reach up to the second stack all on his own.

“...I’ve heard a lot about you from Leo as well. Leo seems to enjoy your tutoring a lot,” Alcester remarked happily.

“It’s all thanks to the fact that Leo listens well,” Eugene prevaricated.

After disciplining that brat in their first meeting, Eugene had guided Leo in his mana training. Since his talent was outstanding, Leo quickly understood Eugene’s instructions. Although it was impossible at the moment, in a year or so, Eugene expected Leo to be able to develop his own sword-light.

“...I have nothing more to teach you, so I’d feel guilty to keep you in our mansion any longer. You may return to the Lionheart clan whenever you wish,” Alchester said, feeling that this was the right thing to do.

After his son had learned the basics of mana from Eugene, starting four days ago, the two had begun holding lessons outside, with Eugene also guiding Leo into learning martial arts. At first, the knights sworn to the household had been dissatisfied with their one and only young master being taught by a member of the Lionheart clan, but after seeing Eugene tutor Leo, they no longer expressed such dissatisfaction.

Although he was just tutoring a child, they couldn’t help but acknowledge the physical capabilities that Eugene had revealed. No matter how many rumors they might have heard about Eugene, it was much quicker for them to understand what kind of person he was by looking at him with their own eyes instead of just hearing about him.

Given his youth, Leo had a lot to learn, but Alchester had nothing more to teach Eugene. It was impossible to teach Eugene any of their other Secret skills, apart from the Empty Sword, and it was also impossible to lecture this child on his basic skills when his basic skills were just as polished as Alchester’s.

“If you say so, then I will leave tomorrow,” Eugene said after bowing his head.

He left the training ground. It was late at night, and the air was cool — perfect weather for a walk. Eugene went straight across the garden to the mansion without tossing a backward look at the training ground.

[You’re leaving? But you haven’t discovered anything specific yet, have you?] Mer asked with a puzzled expression.

Only for Eugene to reply with a grin,

‘There are a few things that have caught my eye.’

During the week spent at the Dragonic mansion, Eugene had reduced his sleeping time to look around the mansion in the early mornings. He avoided the eyes of the many servants and knights and didn’t even step close to the floor Alchester was on.

That said, he hadn’t neglected to explore that floor. He had just done so in daylight when he was relatively free to act; he had devoted himself to his search while pretending to be looking at the art displayed on the top floor.

But he hadn’t found any traces of the dragon. There weren't even any special locations in this mansion like the Lionheart estate’s leyline.

After struggling to find anything, Eugene decided to rethink the matter from the beginning.

‘Back to the Dragon Fear,’

Eugene recalled.

If a ten-year-old child was capable of unconsciously exuding Dragon Fear, there was no way that it would have gone unnoticed.

But when he had used a perception spell, he hadn’t been able to look inside Leo’s body. It wasn’t because of the magic resistance in Leo’s body that his spell had failed to see through Leo. If Leo had that much magic resistance in the first place, then Eugene wouldn’t have been able to force the stream of water that Leo had shot at him back into the kid’s own mouth and nose.

When Eugene first felt the Dragon Fear, he had been casting a detection spell while holding Leo’s wrist. So Eugene thought that Leo had unconsciously resisted his magic and exuded the Dragon Fear in response.

But that wasn’t the case now, was it? The Dragon Fear was just a simple warning from somewhere else. But a warning against what?

After organizing all the things that he had learned in the past week inside of his head, Eugene stopped walking.

He was in front of Leo’s room. The door was locked. There weren’t any traces of people in his surroundings. From the moment Eugene entered the mansion, he had cast an invisibility spell and hid his presence as much as possible. Eugene placed his hand on the doorknob and immediately cast a spell.

The door opened without a sound. Eugene slipped into the room. He saw Leo sleeping on top of his large bed, dead to the world. Eugene dispelled the invisibility spell and approached Leo.

He cast another detection spell. It still didn’t work. Eugene kept up the spell as he looked around the room. There was nothing special. Eugene checked on Leo, then placed a hand inside his cloak.

Eugene pulled out a small dagger and held it close to Leo’s neck. He didn’t release any killing intent. However, his actions showed no signs of hesitation. The moment his sharp blade touched Leo’s neck, however...

Whoosh.

The same Dragon Fear as last time attacked Eugene.

[Sir Eugene...!] Mer called out.

Eugene didn’t freeze, immediately springing into action. Where had it come from? The feeling was fleeting and light, but now that he was aware, he had enough time to figure out the truth. Eugene’s eyes quickly scanned the room.

His eyes landed on the closed windows.

Crackle!

Lightning flashed up from his feet, and Eugene’s body accelerated explosively.

“...Huh?” Leo woke up, rubbing his sleepy eyes.

‘I thought I heard something just now...?’

But there was no one inside his room.

* * *

Caught up in a floating sensation with his feet being lifted off the ground, Eugene felt like it was being stretched out and then quickly pulled somewhere else.

‘A Warp?’

The floating sensation ended in an instant. The ground suddenly reappeared, but Eugene landed on his own feet without any unsteadiness. Then, without any loss of composure, he lifted his head.

A dangerous feeling pressed down on his whole body. As if to tear his entire existence into pieces, a wave of violent Dragon Fear poured at him from the front. Eugene felt like every hair on his body was standing on end, but even as this feeling of intimidation washed over him, his shoulders remained upright.

“...Just who are you?” a voice demanded.

In front of a fireplace, a woman with red hair that was even brighter than the flames of the log fire was glaring at Eugene. She seemed to have been reading until just recently, as she was sitting in an armchair with a thick book resting on her lap.

“I’m Eugene Lionheart,” Eugene replied without avoiding her gaze. “...Are dragons these days all so voyeuristic?”

Eugene slowly turned his head and looked behind him. An entire wall on one side was made of glass, and like a piece of stained glass, it was divided into dozens of different screens that each reflected a different scene.

Among these screens were some showing Leo’s room, the hallways of the mansion, the garden, and even the training field.

“...How did you find out?” the dragon spoke up once more. “You shouldn’t have been able to find the door with your magic. I changed the entire Draconic incantation so that you wouldn’t be able to peek at it with your irritating detection spell.”

“But you didn’t do that on your first day, did you?” Eugene asked.

“...How could I have known that Akasha’s owner would come to visit and cast a detection spell?” the dragon muttered with a click of her tongue.

As expected, the Dragon Fear that Eugene had first sensed from Leo wasn’t because Leo himself was resisting the detection spell. The dragon who was watching through the glass window had sent him a warning, fearing that her peeping would be exposed by the detection spell. She hadn’t sent a warning again after that because she had changed her Draconic incantations to evade Eugene’s detection magic.

“...I know that there’s no actual dragon blood mixed into the blood of the Dragonic family,” Eugene spoke up without any concern on his face. “Also, I’ve actually experienced Dragon Fear personally. When you first sent the Dragon Fear as a warning, I was convinced that a dragon was here.”

“...You say that you’ve felt Dragon Fear before...,” the dragon muttered as the Dragon Fear that had been oppressing his whole body disappeared. The dragon tilted her head slightly to the side as she blatantly stared at Eugene’s face before eventually saying, “...Eugene Lionheart, a descendant of the Lionheart clan. Did you hear about me from Carmen Lionheart?”

“No,” Eugene denied.

“As it should be,” the dragon nodded. “Her meeting with me was accidental, and she even swore an oath in Draconic.”

It seemed that even this dragon hadn’t suspected that Carmen would get the urge to show off whenever a mention of the word ‘dragon’ came up.

“...If you know about Dragon Fear, that means you must have met a dragon. But I can’t believe that. There’s no way that you, Eugene Lionheart, could have met a dragon,” the dragon insisted.

“I have no reason to lie to you,” Eugene argued. “I met a dragon—”

“No. You definitely have never met a dragon,” the dragon interrupted, narrowing her eyes. “My name is Ariartelle, a member of the Red Dragon Flight and the only dragon to still keep her eyes open. Since I have never met you before, when you claim to have met a dragon, it must be a li—”

This time it was Eugene’s turn to interrupt, “I am Hamel.”

Ariartelle froze with her mouth open.