Chapter 9: Stirring Up Trouble

"

Ha!

"

With a shout, Angelica raised her wooden sword high, stepped forward, and poured all her strength into a downward slash at the training dummy before her.

Crack!

The wooden sword struck the dummy and stopped at the ninth ring of the target.[1]

Angelica pulled back her wooden sword and resumed a stance of vigilance. She used the breathing techniques she had learned at school to expel a cloud of white mist, quickly restoring her energy.

At this rate, I should be able to summon my first sword spirit this month,

she thought.

As a sorcerer university with hundreds of years of history, Sword and Roses University had countless ways of guiding and training sorcerers. Training props, like the dummies before Angelica, were specially crafted to teach novice swordsmen.

The dummies appeared to be simple wooden posts from the outside, but inside, they had a hardened core marked with ten rings. When a trainee[2] could cut into the tenth ring of the core with a single stroke, it meant they had grown strong enough to summon their first spirit.

Generally, swordsmen could summon three types of One-Winged spirits, namely the Slash, Thrust, and Cut spirits. Since Angelica practiced slashing techniques, she naturally aimed to summon a Slash spirit.

She paused for a moment to catch her breath. By now, the training dummy had returned to its original form. It was as though Angelica had never struck it at all.

This was what made Sword and Roses University's training hall so formidable. No matter how badly damaged the dummies were, they would recover almost instantly. As long as the student had the energy, the training could continue indefinitely. In the end, it would only be the students crawling out of the hall with shaky legs.

Boom!

Just as Angelica resumed her slashing, the training hall doors burst open, and she instinctively looked up.

Scenes like this were rare. Despite the constant shouts and sweat filling the training hall, it was normally a place of strict order. Anyone daring to cause trouble risked having dozens of hot-blooded swordsmen-in-training coming at them for a very "intimate chat."

In the previous term, Angelica had a few persistent pursuers, but none ever dared approach her in the training hall. A single disapproving frown from her was enough to summon the surrounding students to uphold justice.

Hot-blooded, reticent, pugnacious, and brimming with testosterone. These were the hallmarks of the training grounds.

There was even a well-known joke at Sword and Roses University, stating that some boys initially took up the sword to impress a girl, only to end up training just to outdo the other boys. Perhaps it wasn't that love lost to strength, but that, compared to the complications of romance, the pursuit of raw power was simply easier.

But tonight, complicated love had stepped unbidden into the domain of power.

A young woman with a silky ponytail, the luster of a ruby, appeared in the doorway. Her skin was so fair it seemed to glow, her features so exquisite they looked sculpted by an artist. She had a slender waist that could be circled with a single hand, and her long, straight legs completed the portrait of striking elegance.

A rose that should have bloomed at a grand soirée had instead blossomed here, amidst a forest of swords.

Yet what drew the students' attention most was what she held in her right hand: a wooden training sword.

Angelica watched as Sonya crossed half the hall, took her place before an unused training dummy, and raised her wooden sword to begin training. Her mind was full of questions. "Sonya?"

She held no ill will toward Sonya, but in Angelica's understanding, Sonya was the kind of person who would never touch swordsmanship.

Unlike the elegant, floating female swordsmen portrayed in the Fantasy Epics and Knight Dramas screened on the Cineramas, real-life swordswomen had to train their bodies to surpass even men in strength, just to summon spirits, master spells, and acquire techniques.

Calloused hands from swinging swords were a given, and arms, legs, and even waists would grow muscular and toned through constant training. The beautiful actresses in the Cineramas, performing dazzling swordsmanship with barely any muscle, simply didn't exist in real life.

Even spirits would not acknowledge physically weak sorcerers. Stories of spirits fleeing when swordsmen grew old and feeble were common in Angelica's childhood.

Some said swordswomen possessed a "beauty born of strength," but in Angelica's observation, far more male students pursued delicate Water Class sorceresses like Sonya and Iris than sought after swordswomen.

She had to admit, graceful Water Class sorceresses like Sonya and Louisa simply looked more refined than masculine female swordsmen like herself.

But she wasn't dissatisfied. After all, while she trained, Sonya and the others would be indulging in makeup and skincare. Everyone got what they pursued.

So Angelica was stunned.

If Sonya is only just beginning swordsmanship training, wouldn't she be abandoning all her previous hard work? It would not only set back her progress in the Water Class sorcerer disciplines, but also compromise the looks she has so carefully maintained.

However, when Angelica noticed a handsome youth not far from Sonya, still in full training gear despite the heat and wiping sweat from his brow, she immediately understood what was happening.

Felix Vlozrada was a first-year student like them and a prodigy in swordsmanship.

Felix was also trying to summon his first spirit. Unlike Angelica, who sought the Slash spirit, Felix aimed to summon the Vlozrada family's exclusive spirit, the Wave spirit.

A sorcerer's first spirit was crucial and often shaped the course of their entire training. Hence, noble clans would go to great lengths to provide their prodigies with the most suitable training methods, ensuring they could summon the strongest and most fitting first spirit.

Even smaller noble families, like Angelica's, possessed their own exclusive spirits. It was just that those methods weren't suitable for her.

The Wave spirit was undoubtedly stronger than the Slash spirit, and Felix's cultivation far surpassed Angelica's. His sword skills and training intensity were well beyond those of their peers, earning him the reputation of the number one genius swordsman of their grade.

In the final swordsmanship competition last term, Angelica had lost to Felix, but she accepted the defeat sincerely. Felix was not only more talented but also worked harder. He had fully earned the title of genius swordsman.

What fueled the girls' gossip even more was Felix's background.

Despite being from the countryside, Angelica knew that the Vlozradas were one of the Five Pillars of the Starry Council and the most prominent nobles in the Starry Kingdom.

Duke Vlozrada, known as the Starforger Duke, controlled Starry Kingdom's most advanced steel factories, with interests spanning civilian, military, and governmental sectors. He was arguably the most influential person in the nation.

As the Duke's second son, Felix should have attended Truth University, so no one understood why he had come to Sword and Roses University instead. Many secretly speculated he had fallen out of favor with the Duke.

Even as an out-of-favor son, Felix was still a scion of the Vlozrada, which firmly placed him in the upper echelons of society. Naturally, many sought to use him as a stepping stone for their own advancement.

Felix's social skills were as formidable as his swordsmanship. He would have a different girl on his arm every week, switching partners faster than he changed his clothes.

At his busiest, Angelica had seen five different girls visit the training hall on five consecutive days. She herself could barely collapse into her own bed after training. Hence, she couldn't help but feel a mix of admiration and disbelief at his stamina.

How did he manage these trysts after such grueling training?

With top-tier skills, striking looks, and endless rumors swirling around him, Felix was unquestionably the center of attention in the training hall. If Sonya had any special motives, her target could only be Felix.

However, when they had been on good terms as dormmates, Louisa, Adele, and Sonya had all made it clear they would keep their distance from him.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Nobles like Felix were destined for political marriages arranged by their families. Chasing him would only land them in the ranks of insignificant ex-girlfriends.

Angelica was more of a romantic at heart and disliked their blunt utilitarian approach, but she had to admit they were right. None of Felix's girlfriends had lasted more than a week all year.

Is Sonya here for Felix? But aside from him, there is no one else who could catch her eye...

While Angelica was pondering this, Sonya had already begun training in earnest.

"

Ha!

"

Matching her shouts to her breathing, Sonya swung at the training dummy, but failed even to cut its surface.

Angelica watched for a while, shaking her head repeatedly.

Her main hand's unsteady... her off-hand is weak... her footwork's sloppy... and her body feels sluggish. None of her moves has any semblance of proper form.

She is still wearing her usual fine garments and hasn't even changed into training clothes more suited for movement.

Even her shouts sounded coquettish rather than strong. She's not training. She's putting on a show, trying to get attention. Whatever she's aiming for, it sure isn't swordsmanship.

Angelica ignored her and focused on her own training.

Slacking off is meaningless. A sorcerer trainee's efforts were for themselves alone, not for anyone else.

Swordsmanship demanded the unity of mind, body, and technique. Focus was everything. Every stroke required total concentration: how much strength to apply, how much to hold in reserve, the rotation of the shoulders, flicks of the wrists, shifts of the feet, and so on. A stroke was considered complete only when every detail aligned.

When a student's skill became precise enough to stir ripples in the Virtual World and cross the boundary of reality, they would finally be able to summon a spirit from nothingness and claim the pass to become a true Winged Sorcerer.

At her current level, Angelica needed a short rest every three strokes, a longer rest to relax her muscles every thirty, and nine hundred strokes in two hours made up a full session. That was enough to leave her exhausted, collapsing into bed the moment her head touched the pillow after her bath.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!"

A few minutes later, Angelica could no longer contain her irritation.

Sonya has already made nearly a dozen strokes without any rest. She is basically fooling around.

It was natural for Angelica to feel anger. It was like sitting through a difficult, serious exam while a frivolous student flipped the paper open, scribbled without reading the questions, and muttered, "This is easy! Piece of cake! Can anyone really not do this?"

Every other student would feel disrupted. What Sonya was doing now was exactly that.

Just as Angelica was about to open her mouth to scold her, she hesitated.

I might have been wrong about her. Her movements may still be clumsy and unpolished, but she's following the Swordsmanship Manual to the letter. Every stroke carries her full force. Sweat streams down her forehead. She's not swinging randomly.

Moreover, compared to a few minutes ago, her sword skills had noticeably improved. She could now nick the outer ring of the training dummy with her wooden sword!

The hall's overall training pace was still affected, but Sonya had at least established a foundation, something that would normally take months for an ordinary trainee to achieve.

Angelica wondered,

Has she practiced swordsmanship before?

Still, she believed Sonya hadn't come to train truly. If Sonya kept swinging like this, she would collapse from exhaustion within minutes, gaining little more than a fat-burning workout.

Ah, I see! She must be here for body sculpting! I've heard of that.

Angelica felt she finally understood Sonya's aim, but she still doubted Sonya would last much longer. Even after years of training, Angelica could manage only 256 sword swings over eleven minutes in a single session. For a novice like Sonya, sustaining a flurry of swings for several minutes without rest was already impressive.

Feeling a bit tired herself, Angelica paused to catch her breath and secretly counted Sonya's strokes, planning to offer pointers once her form began to falter.

I don't expect Sonya to take swordsmanship seriously, but if I can spark even a little interest, that would be a success.

1. A training dummy (甲像) usually has a target pattern carved or painted across its torso. The design consists of ten concentric circles, with the first ring on the outermost edge and the tenth ring at the innermost point, directly adjacent to the hardened core. These rings allow instructors to judge a student's accuracy, as well as their control over force and angle. ☜

2. The raw term was 剑术师学徒, which translates literally to sorcerer trainee. However, given the university setting, I’ve opted for

students

in most contexts, as it reads more naturally. I reserve the term

sorcerer trainee

for inner thoughts or passages that emphasize their training. ☜