Chapter 110 – Declaration of War
A few days later, the news that the Demon King’s army had declared war reached the capital, Oz.
Naturally, that put Oz in an emergency.
King Oscar immediately strengthened the vigilance on the eastern front and dispatched two divisions to the Hamburg direction, which would be the front line of the war.
It seemed that he did not expect that the Demon King’s army would suddenly declare war like this as soon as the winter was over.
Oz complained to the other countries of the Western Continent about their rudeness, but only Nidavellir, who immediately caught fire, was the only one who listened.
And around that time, the death of the former hero, Artorius, was known to the world.
In order to boost the morale of the Demon King’s army and lower the morale of the kingdom’s army, they marched with the corpse of the warrior hanging on a pole.
This was something that Maou-nim and I had discussed beforehand, and it was a thorough disclosure of information from a business point of view.
As long as a new hero has been born, there is no reason to conceal information any longer.
While the people of the royal capital were shocked by the fact that the hero had died, they were not at all curious about the fate of the other party members.
Well, it must be because they were the warrior’s sidekick from the beginning.
I knew it, but from the point of view of the person concerned, it was bound to be quite bitter.
Even if I risked my life to fight, it means that no one recognized me.
At least it seemed that people who knew my face went to see Master, saying they were sorry, but it was safe to say that few ordinary citizens were saddened by the deaths of other party members.
Anything warrior, warrior, warrior.
It happened because the spotlight was focused only on that one.
They just force others to sacrifice.
If you succeed, rejoice, if you fail, don’t.
I wanted to break this vicious cycle created by the Church of Courage and the Goddess.
With my two hands
***
Early in the morning, I headed to the Emerald Tower.
I was a bit surprised when I entered through the back door as usual, but it was because it was a wartime, and the Kingdom Army was wandering around the Mage Tower.
As the city is a city, it seems that even this place, which claims to be neutral, could not be very free from the turmoil.
Avoiding the gaze of the others, I got on the floating stone and went down to the training ground in the basement.
Thud-
When I arrived and grabbed the railing and jumped down, Master was already there and waiting for me.
The East Continental white uniform, which is hard to find here, and the white hair tie tied with long hair indicated that preparations for Dalian had already been completed a long time ago.
As I stepped into the training room, Master wrapped bandages around her hands and said,
“Today is the last training day that I promised. I have already passed on everything I can teach you.”
“I know.”
“What’s left now is for you to realize yourself. What true desire is and what you are training for.”
I listened carefully to Master’s words and took out the Storm Bringer from my bag.
Hold both hands, one in each hand, and repeat the squeezing and opening of the hands.
There was a sense of difference at first, perhaps because he insisted on bare-handed fighting for a while, but he quickly got used to it.
Kwak-
Finally, after clenching my fists, I stared at Master standing across from me.
“Kaldrasche, magic and martial arts are not fundamentally different. In other words, handling mana is an act of expressing your will to the world. If you think of your spirit, nature’s reason will follow you, so even the weather in the sky can be changed at will. It will be a dragon.”
It’s a fairly bizarre story, but to sum it up in a nutshell, this is what it means.
“If you twist what suits me, you’re telling me to quickly become the 7th rank, right?”
Then Master replaced it with a deep smile on his lips.
Alright, today I’m going to have to pluck the sound out of that harsh mouth.
I made up my mind, and for about two months, I took the rider ceremony of the wind horse technique, which was taught by Master as an intensive tutor.
“Sueuuuuu…”
It is exactly the same posture as if you are looking in a mirror.
Compared to before, the center of gravity was slightly moved back, but the heaviness of the blow was the same.
In an instant, mana seeped into the lungs, and the dormant virtual magic furnace began to move.
Oh oh oh —-
It feels like the cells of the whole body are awakening.
The mana of the wind generated in the magic furnace spread through the bloodstream and spread all over the body in an instant.
An underground training ground in the early morning that no one visits.
“Going!”
“Come!”
With storms wrapped around both arms and legs, Master and I collided at the same time.
***
Thud!
It was about an hour later that the sparring, reminiscent of a real battle, ended.
I stopped thinking about it after the number of attacks exchanged with each other exceeded about 200.
In an achromatic world where everything moves slowly, I was finally able to read for the first time that it was the grain of wind that Master had been so emphasizing.
Seeing is a very important act magically.
Since humans rely heavily on vision, especially among the five senses, if they were to be sealed even for a moment, they would be incapacitated in an instant.
Blinds, which Ozma often used, were one of those types of magic, and losing sight on the battlefield was as fatal as losing limbs.
Anyway, that’s what I want to tell you.
The normal human eye is limited in the information it can accept.
If you don’t have the right talent, you can’t feel or see the mana in the air even if you train your whole life.
What Master taught me, going one step further-
Unlike Mana, it was an eye that could read the invisible wind flow.
Living things contain the wind called breath.
So if you can read it, you can respond before the other person even moves.
In other words-
If you reach the 7th rank in this way, you will have the ability to predict the opponent’s movements in advance through their breath, close to future foresight.
“Whoops, whoops, whoops, whoops.”
I let out a heavy breath.
His breath filled to the tip of his chin, and he kept asking for more air.
Before long, sweat dripped from his face and dripped onto the dirt floor.
“You’ve gotten a lot stronger.”
Master, who was originally standing there, looked up at the ceiling and muttered in dismay.
That would be the case, because at the last moment I finally broke the wall of the 7th tier.
Master said that, in comparison to his previous life, the 7th rank of a magician is Cho Hwa-kyung.
That is, a state of harmony with nature.
Now I can control the weather in the natural world without resorting to the expedient of combining two magics.
It was hard enough to die, but more than that, the feeling of joy was stronger.
I can finally finish this damn training.
I led my sweaty body to Master’s side.
The clothes that were almost rags couldn’t cover Master’s slender body, so I covered her body like a blanket with the robe I had taken off before the fight.
Master then looked up at me and said,
“I’m tired, so I’m going to take a break and go upstairs. What are you going to do?”
I replied politely on my knees.
“I’m going to take a break at home and head to the royal castle. I’ll kill King Oscar there and leave Oz for the time being.”
“…Then I won’t be able to see you again for a while.”
“Don’t worry, it won’t be as long as before. We’ll end it as short as possible.”
After I said that and clenched his fists, Master closed his mouth for a moment before calling my name.
“Kaldrash.”
“Yes.”
“Come here.”
Following Master’s command, I moved a little closer.
Then Master’s right hand, which had erased all the traces of the years through the half-role cycle, carefully stroked my cheek.
“You are my greatest masterpiece. You know that, right?”
“Yes.”
“Be sure to come back alive. Dying at will is unforgivable.”
“Yes.”
“…You look a little tired. You should be able to sleep soundly after a long time.”
After Master muttered that, she slowly closed her trembling eyes.
Took!
It was at the same time that the hand that had been caressing my cheek fell helplessly to the floor.
***
After spending too much mana on the bench in the corner of the training hall, I quietly slipped out of the Emerald Tower.
Originally, her legs would have trembled due to the depletion of her mana, but thanks to the Unlimited Power that was worn around her neck, she was able to walk around as if nothing had happened.
Hero bastard, you were using this good thing by yourself?
I headed home, rolling a thick gemstone that felt nice to the touch in my hand.
“I’m home.”
When I opened the door and went inside, Vanessa and Dorothea, already fully armed, were sitting on the sofa in the living room, waiting for me.
“How did it go? The result?”
I shrugged her shoulders and told her.
“From now on, call me the 7th tier Grand Mage, Kaldrash.”
Today is the day of decisive battle.
