The Hero’s Disciple Has Returned

Implanting an Aura Heart in another person.

It’s an act that’s just as absurd as it sounds.

An Aura Heart is, for a martial artist, the crystallization of their entire life’s effort, not an exaggeration to call it their life itself. In other words, it means giving one’s lived life to another person. Even mercenaries who are blinded by money wouldn’t do such a crazy thing no matter how much they were paid. After all, what good is a large sum of money if you don’t have the strength to protect it? Even parents don’t give their Aura Heart, which contains their accumulated life, to their children. Well, in the case of an old person’s Aura Heart, no child would want to receive such a murky lump anyway. It would be more like poison.

In other words, implanting an Aura Heart isn’t something that can be done by will alone. The conditions are stringent, which means luck must also play a role. Even if everything goes well, there’s no guarantee that the recipient will be able to handle the aura properly. To begin with, it takes a lifetime for a person to handle their own aura. Unless one was an Aura Master in a previous life and reincarnated with those memories intact, it’s unimaginable to perfectly handle someone else’s Aura Heart. The best that could be hoped for is the possibility of being able to handle the foreign Aura Heart due to survival instinct when in a crisis. In other words, it’s not an exaggeration to say that the effect of increasing survival rate is all that can be expected.

It’s literally an action that can only come from the desperate parental love of wanting to feed their child even one more spoonful, the earnestness of parents praying to God for their child not to experience tragedy, the desperation of parents willing to give even their own heart if it means their child can live.

Great Magician William could only guess that implanting an Aura Heart in one’s disciple must be such a noble act that cannot be carelessly evaluated or judged. Despite being a Great Magician. Because even a Great Magician couldn’t hastily judge such a noble spirit.

‘Jade of Steel, certainly a mercenary who was briefly famous for his uncharacteristic traits before suddenly disappearing.’

Although Ellia was young due to his late marriage, William had been in the position of Great Magician for a long time. Being in a high position in one industry for a long time meant inevitably gaining information through various routes. Of course, even in such a position, there are those who live as if they don’t care about worldly affairs and might say, “I don’t know about such things,” but William wasn’t that type. That’s why he had heard quite a bit about Jade during his prime.

However, because he retired so quickly, the alias “Jade of Steel” was not a name everyone knew, as it had only briefly risen to fame before disappearing. As a result, it wouldn’t be strange even if Sera, who knew all sorts of information through countless regressions, didn’t know much about “Jade of Steel”.

That’s why Sera thought that Jade must have been some incredibly strong person to have earned such an alias based on the name “Jade of Steel” alone. It was an easy misunderstanding to make. Of course, an A-rank mercenary was certainly a formidable warrior, but that alone wouldn’t earn the alias “Steel”. To begin with, considering Jade’s usual thoughts, he wouldn’t go around showing off his strength enough to earn such a grand alias.

The reason he earned that alias was surprisingly simple.

‘A mercenary who adheres to principles, a mercenary who lives by his own code. A mercenary who willingly clashes with knights or nobles for the sake of those principles. The alias “Steel” was attached because he never bends or breaks.’

This was the inside story that only those who lived in that era and had good memory would remember now. And William was among them.

“I’m finished. You can put your clothes back on now.”

Jade, fully dressed, asked William.

“…Mr. Ras, so how is my condition?”

William had introduced himself with a pseudonym made from his surname, Laswell. Although Jade was told to speak comfortably, since an upper-class magician was equivalent to a noble, he kept addressing William as “sir” and using polite speech. For William, who was receiving honorifics from his lord’s master, it was tightening his stomach in many ways, but since Jade was a person who never bent, true to his alias “Steel”, in the end, it was William who had to bend.

“It can’t be said to be good, but at least the worst situation has been avoided.”
“That’s a relief.”

His face was utterly calm. Even if it was done with good intentions, it wouldn’t be strange to have negative feelings after suffering so much because of it, but his face showed none of that. As if he had no regrets at all, he was just calm and steadfast.

For example, let’s say you gave money to a beggar father and daughter out of pity. But then, if you found out that you didn’t have enough money for your own dinner because of it? Would there be anyone who wouldn’t feel regret at that point? Wouldn’t everyone start thinking things like, “Why isn’t the father working for his daughter instead of begging?”

Above all, what he lost wasn’t just money. It was an Aura Heart containing the efforts of a lifetime as a martial artist. To say he has no regrets after losing that?

For a Great Magician, an A-rank mercenary isn’t honestly that impressive of an existence. After all, a Great Magician is a transcendent being, so from the perspective of a transcendent being, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that mercenaries who strut around proudly about being A-rank with just the level of a master look like nothing more than neighborhood punks. But at least Jade couldn’t be seen that way.

In the eyes of Great Magician William, Jade looked almost like a saint.

“You said it was the elven breathing method? You should always be mindful of it.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Did you obtain such an amazing technique during your mercenary life?”
“No. Sera discovered it by chance, and thanks to that, I also had the opportunity to learn it.”

William easily knew it was Sera’s creation. After all, his lord was a person so transcendentally strange that nothing she did would be surprising. Since it wasn’t strange for a strange person to continue doing strange things, William just accepted it with a feeling of “I see~ I see~”.

‘What kind of life did she live… Did she perhaps regress?’

It was a fantasy that he could never have as a Great Magician, but because his lord was so strange and kept getting stranger, William had come to think that even such a fantasy was quite possible.

“How is Sera’s life?”
“You mean the candidate’s life?”
“She’s not a picky eater, so I’m not worried about her eating, but…”
“……”

No, she’s extremely picky and I, as the cook, am having a very hard time. Even when I cook with the ingredients she wants and using the recipes she specifies, she shakes her head and puts down her spoon every time. She’s even controlling her metabolism and living on starvation.

William momentarily wanted to strongly refute, but knowing that he might end up being roasted by Sera’s Aura Blade if he said something unnecessary, he suppressed his momentary urge and endured. He wanted to live happily with his daughter for a long time.

“Is she doing well?”
“Yes, she’s doing well. Sometimes she spends time alone quietly looking towards the north. I think she was thinking of you, Master.”
“…Is that so?”

It was partly true, but not the whole truth. It wasn’t sometimes, but often. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it was her daily routine to stare blankly towards the north direction whenever she had a chance. But if he told this truth as it was, there would certainly be no good reaction from his lord, so he only told part of the truth.

“Here’s a letter from the candidate.”

He didn’t bother to explain how many papers were sacrificed and how many trees’ dedication became meaningless for that letter. As mentioned before, William valued his future with his daughter too much.

“My child seems to have caused a lot of trouble for you, Mr. Magician. I’m sorry.”
“Not at all. It’s only natural to do this much for the candidate.”

William was genuinely happy because this was much better than being treated as a cook. Great Magician William was definitely being tamed by Sera without even realizing it himself.

“And these are potions. You need to take them consistently.”

Although William made them, all the preparation for the potions, from the production recipe to everything needed, was done by Sera. It was too strange how a sword-wielding lord had such deep knowledge even in potion-making, but as mentioned before, strange things were naturally strange, so William was able to pass through without raising unnecessary questions and incurring his lord’s anger.

“To think you’d take care of me to this extent. I have nothing I can give you in return.”
“Not at all. You’ve already given me a lot. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I have a mountain of debt to repay to Master.”
“…?”

Jade made a face of incomprehension, but

William, who knew there was an overwhelmingly high chance of facing unpleasant consequences from his lord if he babbled about this issue, could only smile.

Everything he said was sincere. If it weren’t for Jade, he would surely have died because of that massive energy. And if that had happened, his daughter would have died without being able to cure that terrible disease. It was possible because Sera was there, and Sera was able to use that Anti-Aura because the Aura Heart containing the earnest wish of a master for his disciple to return safely was inside Sera.

That’s why for Great Magician William, there were now two benefactors whose debt he couldn’t repay even if he devoted his entire life. One was naturally Sera, and the other was Jade, Sera’s master.

Jade had become the benefactor of a Great Magician without even knowing it, but he couldn’t know that fact at all right now.