The Academy’s Savage Swordsman

4. smile a little

Being alone with a bride candidate who received a passing grade, I encountered a problem.

It was that children of this age did not know what to talk about and play.

On Earth, I’m old enough to enter kindergarten, and the children in kindergarten will burst out and build friendships just by farting, but aristocrats – and fiancees, too, can’t commit such filthy things?

I looked at the glass for a while and thought about what to talk about, then burst out laughing.

“hahahahaha-!”

“… Why are you laughing?”

“Does it make you feel good when you smile? You laugh too!”

It was a fairly coercive tone, but as if she wanted to avoid falling out with her fiancé, Yuri forcibly lifted the corners of her mouth and smiled.

It was said that people living in cold places have less developed facial muscles, and Yuri’s smile was also very awkward.

I couldn’t hold back that laugh that even made me look stupid.

“What, have you ever laughed?”

“… yes.”

“Someone said he never laughed. Hey, put your hands up.”

I grabbed Yuri’s cheeks and forcibly pulled her up. It was not soft enough to feel like glutinous rice cakes, and filled my hands.

With steel-like patience, I put up with her cheek kneading, and I ordered her to smile.

Only then did Yuri start to laugh clumsily, and although it was still shabby, I smiled and let her cheek go.

“Yeah, that’s what I mean.”

“… it hurts.”

“Since ancient times, a woman has to be pretty when she smiles. When you go back to your house, practice smiling from now on. Understand?”

“… Practice laughing?”

“yes. It is a promise.”

She looked at me as if I was taken aback by my words, but what should I do? If your future husband has practiced smiling, he will.

As I was making an appointment with my future bride with my little finger, the lady-in-waiting who had left to get refreshments returned belatedly and smiled as she looked at the two of us intertwining her fingers.

“Oh my gosh, Bocchan. You already held hands with the princess… .”

“Ah, yes.”

“It looks like the princess likes it.”

“Okay, would you like some snacks?”

“Yes, here it is.”

The lady-in-waiting immediately set the refreshments, and I picked up the cookie in the middle and held it out to Yuri.

Looking at the cookie I held out, Yuri hesitated whether to take it or not, then carefully handed it over to me and began gnawing at it like a squirrel.

As we saw earlier in the restaurant, she had a great appetite.

‘They don’t even feed the kids in the North… ?’

It was delicious enough to make me think so, so I gave it all to her without even touching the cookies.

You have to be able to make concessions like this in order to see your future bride grow up.

It was late at night as the lady-in-waiting and I gazed at Yuri eating cookies.

* * *

“Are you going back already?”

“yes. count. It’s a pity, but… Because construction is busy.”

late evening. The time when only the starlight and moonlight shining in the sky illuminate the ground. The Duke said he would go back to the North.

If this was the case, I wondered why I had come, but what would I do if the duke was busy and wanted to go back? have to go back

“——The Duke.”

“Ah, did you have a good talk with your daughter-in-law?”

“I have something to tell you.”

“what? Or maybe I don’t like my daughter… .”

“Yes, there are things I don’t like.”

As if a bomb exploded at my words, the count and the duke looked at me at the same time.

Soon after, an indescribable pressure came over me, but I am a man who speaks his mind. With a trembling heart, he proudly opened his mouth.

“It was awkward to smile. When you return to the manor, please practice smiling well.”

“—Ha, ha ha ha. yes. don’t mind me Anything other than that?”

“Ah, until I pick you up, please feed me some food and take good care of me.”

“Yeah, don’t do that. ——Count, you have taken good care of one son.”

“… … It is an honour. dismissal.”

The duke carefully stroked my hair and got on the carriage. Watching the carriage leave in the distance, I turned around only after the carriage disappeared over the horizon.

The count laughed dejectedly at me.

“… you really He is my son, but he is not normal.”

“—Dad, don’t you have anything to do right now?”

“Right now, but… … .”

“Then, please keep your promise now.”

“What promise?”

“It’s training. You said you would teach me.”

The count, who looked at me as if he was taken aback by my words, immediately changed his gaze and began to press me with a sharp force that he doesn’t normally show.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“Many people fell on their knees without being able to become knights. Can you say goodbye?”

“Sure.”

I was confident. It’s not because this world is in a game, it’s not because I’m reincarnated as a character in a game.

Because I was having fun swinging the sword myself.

Because I had the mental strength and knowledge to hone my innate talents.

“Whose son am I?”

“Kyle… … .”

At least, the original Kyle Meyer was ready to grow up to the point where he was not ashamed.

Hearing my words, my father stared at me as if he was slightly moved, then opened his mouth with a nod of his head.

“good. Then, starting tomorrow, I will teach you my family’s secret swordsmanship and Aura.”

“From today… .”

“Can not be done. Because learning Aurors requires prior preparation. Wait until tomorrow.”

The word I hate the most is ‘from tomorrow’, so I tried to start today somehow… … The Count flatly refused.

I can’t help it if I need to get ready, I nodded in agreement and went back to my room.

I thought I would stay up all night in anticipation of learning an aura, but as soon as I lay down on the bed, I fell asleep.

“Well… It’s sweet.”

As soon as morning came, I quickly went to my father.

* * *

In the carriage back to the dukedom, the duke looked at his expressionless daughter and asked.

“Did you talk a lot?”

“… … Yes.”

“Did you like it?”

“I do not know.”

Saying that, Yuri recalled Kyle’s image. He was a person who laughed for no reason, asked strange things, and couldn’t clearly say what kind of person he was… … .

handed out sweets

Looking at his daughter who was silently worried, the duke remembered what Kyle had said. Did he say that his smile was awkward? Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen my daughter smile.

“glass.”

“Yes, Father.”

“Try to laugh.”

“—You mean like this.”

At the Duke’s words, Yuri forcibly lifted her cheek. Just the way Kyle taught me.

However, it was still very awkward, and the Duke, who saw his daughter laughing, quietly looked out the window.

“… … I have something to do when I go back.”

“Yes. All right.”

The two returned to the North very quietly and swiftly.

Promising to make a perfect smile until the next time we meet.

* * *

Early moning. I found the Count’s bedroom and for the first time that day, I realized the existence of a training ground dedicated to the family head and direct lineage.

A secret training ground covered on all sides. The Count pointed to the magic circle drawn in the middle.

“Did you see that?”

“Yes.”

“Go inside.”

Following the Count’s order, I stepped into the middle of the magic circle. I sat in the middle of the magic circle and looked at the Count, who smiled and looked at me.

“What did you learn from Sir Leon?”

“Well… Are you wielding a sword?”

“Other than that?”

“Well, the four powers and whatnot… .”

“It’s a magic circle that measures it.”

There are 4 forces in the world.

Come on.

force.

mana.

divine power.

These four powers all have different characteristics and different innate endowments.

What was needed to find out that quality was the magic circle.

I didn’t like it very much to learn something by finding out my talents in advance, but it wasn’t that I didn’t understand the Count’s feelings either.

‘It would be nice to know what my children are good at and teach them.’

It’s better to see them win and win by teaching them in the fields they’re talented at, rather than seeing them groaning about becoming a magician even though they don’t have any talent for magical powers.

From a learner’s point of view, it’s better to learn something with qualities. Of course, there is no guarantee that you have the qualifications in the field you want to learn.

“Don’t worry. You are the eldest son of the Mayer family. As much as your talent for Aurors is certain.”

The count comforted me by saying that this was more like checking talent for other abilities.

I nodded without thinking, and the count immediately activated the magic circle. As the Count muttered, the magic circle began to glow.

After feeling the unknown power that I felt from the duke sweep through my body, the count opened his mouth as if it were natural.

“You seem to have no talent for magical powers.”

“It’s a shame.”

Since I came to the fantasy world, I wanted to use magic at least once… Unfortunately, the magic seemed to have gone beyond water.

Continuing, warm and cold energy begin to sweep around my body.

But when I didn’t react as expected, the count shook his head.

“No talent for the Force, no talent for divine power.”

And lastly—like a fierce beast, an aura that seemed to tear everything to pieces rips through my body.

While breaking out in a cold sweat and controlling his energy, the Count shouted loudly as if to focus on his words.

“From now on, follow me and breathe! Don’t answer me!”

Then, the Count began to breathe in a very peculiar way. If you think it’s an inhalation, you exhale, and if you think it’s an exhalation, it suddenly changes to an inhalation—a breathing method that makes your head dizzy.

However, not long after following the breathing method——I felt something breaking through my body.

Soon after, after concentrating so much that I couldn’t hear the Count screaming, I managed to control this energy.

‘It’s warm, but… It’s strong.’

I know very well that this energy that penetrates my body is coming. And how can I control this.

‘Breathe.’

Breathing is the most important thing for humans. Breath is life, and breath is life.

Controlling your breath is the same as controlling everything.

When I breathed slowly following the breathing method taught by the Count, the aura that had been rampaging like crazy soon began to move according to the control. The problem is, now I don’t know what to do here.

In the martial arts area, they said that it was the qi-kyung arm vein or the twelfth vein, and poured aura into the body, but it was impossible for me to do such a thing, having only been doing gymnastics for a few years at most.

In the end, all I could do was watch the auras accumulated inside my body spread throughout my body following the flow of my heart.

“—You succeeded.”

The Count, who had been watching this, looked down at me with a look of amazement as he was dissatisfied.

I looked at the count without stopping breathing.

“Originally, it would take weeks to even feel the aura… Such a talent… .”

Leaving the startled Count behind me, I got up and took out the wooden sword hanging on the wall.

As soon as I realized the aura, the count burst into laughter at the greedy look of learning swordsmanship, but that was not what I was trying to do.

‘stuffy!’

The aura that filled his body was compressing his internal organs like a full balloon. I wanted to expel this aura as soon as possible, so I instinctively poured it into the wooden sword.

The Count, who was trying to explain something, stopped and looked down at me with a shocked expression as he looked at the wooden sword with the aura flowing.

I looked up at the count and grinned.

“What did you say about this, Dad?”

“… … Expert.”

The first day I learned Aura, I reached the same level as the Count.