Reincarnated as a Dragon and Raised by a Demon

After class, Jema and I stepped outside the Academy.

The teacher, who was always standing at the entrance, questioned us in detail about our purpose for going out.

“Work?”

“Yes. Don’t you know?”

“Right. Be back before it gets late.”

We headed toward the factory complex.

This is where various items for the kingdom are produced and shipped.

Although I hadn’t been here in a while, nobody was there to greet Jema.

“Oh, you came.”

A middle-aged woman recognized Jema and took her to a quiet room.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I thought you quit since you hadn’t come out in so long.”

“I was a bit ill. Are you still in need of workers?”

“Huh? We’re not looking for anyone.”

The middle-aged woman spoke, looking at me instead of Jema.

“We need people for heavy labor.”

She slowly scanned me and smiled wickedly.

“Well then, we’ll be going.”

“Sure. If you need a job, come back again~.”

The woman continued to look at me as she spoke.

As we stepped outside the factory, Jema’s expression was quite distorted.

“Are you okay? We need the work.”

“It’s fine; the job she mentioned is referring to a bed.”

“What? Why?”

“She couldn’t do it with her husband, so she targets young boys. Ririan, are you perhaps interested?”

Jema looked down at me with a serious expression.

“No.”

“Right, it’s concerning that she targets still-young Ririans like you.”

“Yeah, it probably is.”

I agreed with Jema’s words as we walked around the factory complex.

Fortunately, there was a factory run by fellow Magi tucked away in a corner of the complex.

“We should help each other as Magi.”

“What kind of work do you do here?”

“We infuse items with magical power. Most humans can’t handle mana.”

Although anyone at the Academy can handle mana and it’s not special,

most average humans cannot manage mana.

Items that use mana in everyday life become unusable once they run out of mana.

This place could be described as a factory or shop that replenishes that.

“This is completely a battery charger…”

“Huh? Battery?”

“No.”

The person in charge showed us how the workers at the factory were going about their tasks.

They were pouring mana into everything from small items to large ones.

There were about 15 people working, making it a small operation.

“Are all of you Magi here?”

“Of course. Who would walk around in this country looking like a Magi?”

The factory manager looked at us with a puzzled expression.

“We can’t help it since we’re already known.”

I recently learned that Magi take on a human appearance when interacting with humans.

“So that’s why there aren’t any Magi in the streets.”

“Exactly. Is there a reason to get killed?”

“Then how do you hire people here? It must be hard to confirm if they’re Magi?”

“There’s someone who verifies that.”

Jema and I decided to join that factory.

Of course, I couldn’t handle mana yet, so I decided to help with carrying things.

The pay here was quite decent.

Jema earned 9 Cooper, and I earned 5 Cooper.

My pay was essentially at the level of manual labor.

Still, there was a reason we chose to work here.

The work here involved charging mana.

It was my chance to observe how others handle mana.

After a day of observation, I realized something.

They all handled mana far too comfortably.

During break time, I approached the workers subtly to ask how they managed to handle mana.

“You squeeze it from inside your body.”

“Like a thread from your head.”

“It feels like water flowing from your fingertips.”

Each person had their unique method and feeling.

“By the way, I feel like I am commanding the mana.”

That was Jema’s way of using magic.

When we returned to the dorm room that evening, I tried all the methods that people had suggested.

None of the methods helped at all.

The day when we didn’t see the teacher watching us in the hallway,

we heard about special training from Solche.

We settled in a corner of the underground training facility.

“I will teach you swordsmanship.”

“But I already know swordsmanship, don’t I?”

“Still, it’s the swordsmanship of this country.”

Jema demonstrated the Latnian swordsmanship in front of Solche.

Solche observed Jema’s swordsmanship and showed a very satisfied expression.

“I will teach you combined with the Roran royal swordsmanship.”

“Is that okay? That’s the swordsmanship of an enemy country.”

“We’re not so rigid like other nations. If it’s a technique that can be used in actual battle, we accept the techniques of enemy countries.”

Solche demonstrated a mix of the swordsmanship from the two empires.

When the target dummy was split in half and fell to the ground, it shattered into pieces.

As I marveled at this, Solche sheathed his sword and said,

“Well, you’ll be able to do something like this with a year or two of training.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Solche left Jema to continue learning Latnian swordsmanship.

“The issue is with you, Ririan.”

“I’ve already learned up to Latnian imperial swordsmanship.”

“That’s the physical training part.”

Solche took a look at me and then split the wooden sword he was holding in half.

Snap!

“Do you want to try learning a dagger?”

“Isn’t that not swordsmanship?”

“If you learn some simple magic, you’ll be able to control the distance to your enemy as you wish.”

Thinking about it, that didn’t seem like a bad choice.

As I nodded, Solche snapped his fingers.

“I’m not skilled with daggers, though.”

“Then shall we start over there?”

Alium, who had taken out a dagger from his robe, moved to the corner.

“Where did that come from?”

“I was hiding in Solche’s shadow with magic.”

“Are you always like that?”

“No, only today because I wasn’t sure.”

The place where Alium and I were located was in a corner of the training area, making it hard for people to see us.

Solche was a teacher hired for this place, but Alium had to hide since he was an outsider.

When Alium spread his cloak, dozens of daggers tumbled out.

“Pick one you like.”

“Then I’ll take this one.”

Click!

The moment I picked up the dagger, Alium’s dagger lunged out at me.

“This weapon is used in very close situations.”

“Please be a bit gentle.”

Even though I thought I was reacting quickly, it seemed I had just grazed my cheek, and warm blood flowed.

“Honestly, I’m doubting if you’re really a child.”

“Is that how I attack then?”

Swish!

Alium easily evaded my attacks.

“Your movements are too big and slow.”

After attempting several attacks, I realized the harsh truth.

I was utterly powerless.

I couldn’t even use magic; my sword skills were just swinging it around.

“With this level, you couldn’t even kill a rat.”

“I know without being told.”

After a few meaningless attacks, Alium’s dagger touched my neck.

“Right now, it’s behind you. If it were real combat, you’d be dead.”

“It seems I don’t have any talent with daggers.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve never successfully attacked me once.”

Feeling somewhat confident about my strength, when I heard that it was slow, I swung with all my might.

Even that, Alium brushed off with an unconcerned expression.

“So you’re going to give up just because you swung your sword once and found you have no talent?”

“There are plenty of talented people at the Academy.”

“Really? So you’re just going to try once and then quit?”

Alium handed me the dagger again.

“This kind of swordsmanship is for real combat. Talent doesn’t matter.”

“What do you mean by that…?”

“In short, as long as you kill the enemy, that’s all that matters.”

When Alium removed his cloak, wounds appeared all over his body.

“If you had exceptional talent, wouldn’t you not die?”

“Well, there would certainly be a lower chance of dying, right?”

“Still, you would die.”

I tightened my grip on the hand holding the dagger and thrust it upward.

“Yeah. If you catch them off guard like this, it’d be good. If I had taken a bit of energy from them, I might have been able to cut them.”

After that, Alium drew his sword and started swinging it.

“You can use a sword too?”

“Our intelligence department learns a lot of things.”

Clang!

When I blocked Alium’s powerful swing of the sword, my hand went numb.

“Wow… you’re the first to block this.”

“Really?”

“Usually, kids your age get blown away if they get hit with this.”

It seems that my only advantage, strength, was actually quite helpful just now.

But then, all the edges of the dagger broke off.

“Let’s try making a sword tomorrow.”

After seeing the condition of the dagger I held, Alium left that remark and returned to Solche’s shadow.

Since Jema was still busy with Solche, I faced the target dummy.

The attacks I vividly remember.

Deep cuts and stabs into the wrist, side, and neck.

Any strike would result in a critical injury if allowed even once.

It seemed that Alium’s attacks were not typical swordsmanship.

Following Alium’s advice, I reduced my strength and swung the dagger.

An upward motion that cut through the wrist of the target dummy and stabbed at its heart.

With two daggers, I moved each in sync with the same movement, and they looked like the fangs of a beast.

I thought that this technique might be useful in actual combat.

“That’s it; slowly focus.”

I briefly watched Jema’s training under Solche.

A bluish aura gathered on the sword, and it changed color at will.

“Our Magi infuse mana into the sword instead of divine power.”

“So that’s how it was possible to mix the two sword styles.”

“Exactly.”

Infusing mana into the sword.

I looked down at the dagger I held.

A dagger worn down and missing its edges.

If I infused mana into this, it would become sharper than any famous sword.

Now that I thought about it, Alium didn’t use any mana when facing me at all.

It could be taken as a sign that my current skills were so inadequate that he didn’t feel the need to use mana.

Even after this day’s lesson ended, I didn’t leave the training area.

I picked up a wooden sword and struck at the target dummy.

The empty training area was filled with the sound of me hitting the target dummy.

Thud!

As everything fell silent, I stopped swinging the wooden sword.

My whole body was drenched in sweat, and the sound of my heartbeat made my ears feel muffled.

It felt similar to when I focused on my mind in the previous room.

If I pushed a little further, it felt like I could discover some revelation.

I swung the wooden sword.

My heart beat faster.

Swoosh—

“Ah! Hot!”

I dropped the wooden sword from my hands.

My hands felt like they were on fire.

I sat down cross-legged on the ground.

The heat from my palms climbed my arms and reached my chest.

Finally, as the heat reached my heart, my vision brightened.

A single blue flame was flickering to life.

As I cautiously reached out my hand, a pleasant warmth spread throughout my body.

The training area came back into view.

I slowly reached out my hand.

Whoosh!

The wooden sword that had fallen before the target dummy was pulled into my hand.

I had grasped mana.

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