Sword Emperor, Becoming the Young Lady of a Viscount House

Chapter 6

There is a famous anecdote.

When a house was on fire, a mother lifted a fallen refrigerator in an instant to rescue her baby trapped in the master bedroom.

On a smaller scale, there’s the story of a track athlete who shatters their own record when someone chases them from behind.

In this way, humans occasionally exhibit strength far beyond their usual capabilities.

Beatrice called this phenomenon a “Limit.” And she could control this ability at will.

In her past life, she had built a domain uniquely her own, one that no one dared to challenge.

Among the numerous domains she mastered, one was breaking through the physical limits of her body.

Of course, as she was in the body of a young girl now, breaking through limits didn’t allow her to achieve parity with stronger opponents.

But there was one more thing she excelled in.

It was swordsmanship.

The swordsmanship of this world was utterly pathetic.

Swinging a sword with brute force might suffice, but if the opponent was human, things were different.

Swordsmanship fundamentally involved using the opponent’s strength against them.

The stronger the opponent’s power, the greater the danger to their own life, as counters would strike back even faster.

Beatrice concentrated all her strength into a single decisive strike.

The knight was caught off guard and paid the price for it.

That was all.

Nothing more.

However.

Beatrice was not in a good mood.

‘There’s no mana to sense.’

In a world where the foundation was built upon constellations, the mountains she needed to overcome to reach the highest position were endless.

The two tricks she just used wouldn’t suffice.

Beatrice had gone to extreme lengths in her past life to maximize human potential and had extensively studied a power called “mana.”

Just as she had broken through physical limits, she had altered the structure and framework of mana.

The method of utilizing mana was simple: drawing external mana into the dantian to use.

However, Beatrice had discovered a way to bypass that process and use external mana directly.

In other words, she didn’t need to store mana in her dantian and could use external mana immediately as needed.

…The problem was.

‘I never imagined I wouldn’t even be able to sense it.’

She couldn’t feel mana at all.

Using mana required the ability to sense it first.

Her natural disposition was one of leisure.

Having reincarnated into a fascinating world, she was content to enjoy it leisurely.

There was no reason to rush.

She didn’t desire much.

The only thing she somewhat looked forward to was the war that would occur soon.

To sense mana, one needed to wield a sword.

And now, Beatrice was only realizing this fact.

“The… the winner of the duel is… Beatrice Cenci!”

Sizz announced the end of the duel in a flustered tone.

While the result didn’t particularly move Beatrice, it was a different story for everyone else.

“At last, our family has a High-Rank Spirit…!”

“My Lady! When did you form a contract with a Spirit?”

It wasn’t something that could happen by mere chance.

However, there was one possible explanation.

A contract with a Spirit.

Those who contracted with a Spirit could achieve unbelievable feats.

She had experienced it herself and witnessed it countless times.

The knights were convinced that Beatrice had contracted with a Spirit, and not just any Spirit—a High-Rank Spirit.

If she was capable of defeating Arhan, they believed it had to be a High-Rank Spirit.

The knights’ excitement was understandable.

“My Lady! You truly formed a contract!”

Heinrich’s face was full of emotion, with tears welling up in his eyes.

“There was a reason for your confidence… I’m sorry. I, Heinrich, dared to doubt you so uncleanly.”

Beatrice thought to herself.

She didn’t understand why things were progressing this way.

‘If I say I haven’t contracted with a Spirit or whatever it is….’

Even imagining the aftermath was a headache.

‘Let’s leave it be for now.’

She decided not to reveal the truth.

But she did set a small safeguard in place.

“Everyone.”

Beatrice spoke calmly to the gathered crowd.

The knights, who had previously ignored her, fell silent as if struck by lightning.

“Do not speak of what happened today to anyone.”

This was Beatrice’s safeguard.

Her sole reason for demonstrating her skill here was to recruit “high-quality” knights.

In this world, the gap between knights and ordinary soldiers was said to be like that between adults and children.

Securing knights was essential for a more efficient battlefield.

However, she didn’t want this incident to spread to others.

She didn’t want to deal with the hassle that would undoubtedly arise daily.

“…That’s an order.”

When Beatrice quietly added her final words.

-Thud!

The knights knelt on one knee and bowed their heads.

Then, they placed their hands over their hearts.

It was the ultimate gesture of obedience, the expression of their pledge to follow her.

Without any signal, they shouted in unison.

“Loyalty!”

* * *

Beatrice was reading a book titled A Collection of Basic Knowledge from a Subtle yet Deep World.

The title reminded her of something she had glanced at in her previous world, and she had picked it up out of curiosity.

She also needed to familiarize herself with the basic knowledge of this world.

“My Lady, My Lady!”

“You’re loud.”

“My Lady!”

“Stop clinging to me!”

“Ugh, nooo!”

Beatrice looked at Lilith in disbelief.

Lilith was clinging to her, rubbing her cheek against Beatrice’s chest.

She was even acting coquettish.

The problem was that Beatrice hated being disturbed when she was focused on something.

So, without thinking, she pushed Lilith away.

“Ouch! You’re so mean!”

“…….”

She hadn’t expected her to be thrown back like that.

It seemed Lilith was more fragile than she appeared.

-Thud.

Beatrice sighed and closed the book.

Then, she extended a hand to the fallen Lilith.

“Get up.”

“Sniff… sniff…”

Lilith covered her mouth in shock.

“Can I really hold the noble lady’s hand…?”

“Stop acting ridiculous and get up.”

Beatrice, with a hint of irritation, grabbed her hand and pulled her up.

“And my noble body, is it alright to touch that too? Absurd.”

“Ack—! Lady, that statement was a little suggestive…”

“Heinrich!”

Beatrice sharply called out to Heinrich, who was still chuckling foolishly.

“Y-Yes, my Lady.”

“Take this person… And you, how much longer are you going to act like that!”

She had intended to order Heinrich to drag Lilith out, but seeing his state, she changed her words.

“Ahem… I-I’m sorry. I just can’t stop laughing…”

In truth, Heinrich was already under restriction.

He had been laughing for over an hour or two, so she had angrily told him to stay confined to the corner.

“There’s no one proper here, no one proper.”

She sighed deeply, almost a lament.

“My Lady,”

“What.”

She plopped back down into her chair.

It was said to be made by a master craftsman, and it was so comfortable that she often sat in it.

For a medieval era, it was surprisingly ergonomic.

“Could you at least tell me in secret? Which Spirit you made a contract with?”

“Lilith, are you planning to selfishly monopolize such a great honor? …Tell me as well.”

-Bang!

“Kyah!”

Lilith screamed sharply. Beatrice had suddenly slammed the table.

“You people.”

“Y-Yes!”

“Y-Yes, my Lady.”

“Get out. All of you.”

Pointing at the door with her finger, she firmly added,

“I want to be alone.”

…Beatrice Cenci, age 16 in this world.

Today, she wanted to be alone.

* * *

After confirming that everyone had left, Beatrice resumed reading her book.

“Now I can finally focus.”

Now that all the uninvited guests were gone, her mind felt at ease. She should have done this from the start.

She began calmly sorting through the thoughts floating in her head.

In truth, the book was merely a pretense.

She only needed an environment where she could think deeply for a long time.

“…Must I tread the same path again?”

Her thoughts circled back to the starting point.

The moment she realized she couldn’t sense mana, one memory came to mind.

She recalled when she first encountered mana in her past life.

It was in her second year of wielding a sword.

One day, as she was deeply focused on her training,

She suddenly thought,

-The air feels irritating.

It was after she had swung her sword hundreds, thousands of times.

Perhaps it was due to her extreme exhaustion, but even the air she felt with each swing became bothersome.

That desperate feeling led her to sense something—mana.

Mana not only eliminated air resistance but also made the impossible possible for a human.

This was why she could grow stronger purely through her ability, even without the miraculous power known as the Backing.

But now, she couldn’t feel it.

This was a problem she had never considered.

Up until the moment of her death, she had sensed mana as naturally as breathing.

No one consciously thinks about breathing.

Thus, she only realized now that she couldn’t feel mana anymore.

‘The war is coming soon. Can I manage this?’

It had taken her two years to sense mana the first time.

Of course, having done it once, she could probably save some time,

But how long it would take was anyone’s guess.

It might even take longer than before since this was an entirely different world.

‘Or perhaps….’

There was a way to forcibly sense mana.

It was arguably the most practical method.

If she could gather even a handful of mana, she could recover some of her past skills.

The method involved using internal techniques to accumulate mana in her dantian.

It was a simple and straightforward approach with low difficulty.

In her memory, she held knowledge of the highest-level internal techniques.

As a modern mana technique, it would likely differ fundamentally from the ones of this era.

The problem was, storing mana internally came with a significant downside.

The more she accumulated internally, the harder it became to control external mana.

She had experienced this issue once before.

Out of curiosity, she had stored mana internally, but it took her five years to undo the process.

‘Back then, I think I formed three rings.’

That was just enough to create sword energy.

Beatrice began pondering.

This decision might shape the next ten years of her life.

How could she not deliberate carefully?

-Knock, knock.

At that moment, someone knocked on the door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Heinrich, my Lady.”

Beatrice frowned.

“I said I wanted to be alone.”

“That may be, but the sword you requested has been completed.”

As soon as she heard that, she jumped to her feet.

“Is that true?”

Then, she hurriedly opened the door.

“The sword has been made?”

“Yes, it just arrived at the estate.”

Beatrice smiled brightly.

This was news that swept away all her concerns in an instant.

‘I’ll think after I hold the sword first.’

The long-awaited sword had been completed.

It was truly joyous news.

Moreover, Beatrice’s method of sensing mana essentially required wielding a sword.

The timing of this news couldn’t have been better.

She quickly grabbed Heinrich and ran off to fetch the sword.