Chapter 85
Translator: Yonnee
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After talking aimlessly all night, I finally managed to get Ca.s.sion to lay back down on his bed.
Ca.s.sion kept saying he’s fine, but I wasn’t fine with it.
First of all, he was still a patient, so this couldn’t go on.
While I sat on the sofa that was beside the bed, I reached forward to sweep aside a lock of his hair that was clinging to his forehead.
“Once autumn comes, there will be a hunting festival. You know about this, right?”
“You mean the one that takes place around October?”
“Yeah. And after that, there will be a ball to celebrate the hunting festival.”
When my hand brushed against the top of his brows, his black eyelashes trembled slightly.
However, even at that moment, the gaze beneath the lashes was directed only at me.
Seeing this pleased me somehow, so I deliberately touched his brows once more.
With his lashes trembling slightly again, Ca.s.sion replied.
“Since you’re mentioning it, does that mean I’ll have to partic.i.p.ate?”
Instead of an answer, I gave a small chuckle. This silence was also another way to say yet.
Though the verbal answer still came later.
Well, it was only after his eyelashes trembled three more times that I opened my lips to speak.
“Yes. You have to go. Where else should you go if not there. That’s the place where you can show off and run wild.”
‘Show off’ and ‘run wild’.
Ca.s.sion’s brows rumpled slightly as the two phrases that were mentioned bothered him a bit.
“It won’t be at the ball, but at the hunting festival, right?”
“Yes. That’s why you should focus on getting well and training hard. I’ll have a new sword made for you.”
“What about my face? Of course, I’m not sure if anyone will recognize me anyway, but it might be better to cover my face.”
I can understand what he’s worried about.
The hunting festival was one of the biggest events that the imperial family regularly held.
Most of the aristocracy would attend, and naturally, the high n.o.bles would as well.
As it was just around the coming-of-age ceremony, and while he was as good as declared the successor to their duchy, Leo would certainly be present.
His and Ca.s.sion’s mother as well.
“Don’t worry.”
With my hand touching his hair still, it went down to caress the man’s cheek.
His expression was grim as he was contemplating over the matter, but his face soon grew stiff as though he had become a broken machine.
His cheek was smooth.
“I’ll give you a mask so that you won’t get recognized.”
And it was a tad bit hot as though its temperature had risen.
While hardened like that, he stared at me with those dark eyes, but he soon leaned his cheek against my hand.
Even throughout this small movement, his eyes did not leave mine at all.
“I guess you really aren’t feeling well. Seeing as how you’re letting yourself be pampered like this.”
“…You too, though. Don’t you still have a slight fever?”
Again, I laughed instead of answering.
Right, I did think to myself that I still might have a slight fever.
With my back facing the window, the dim light of the dawn broke through.
* * *
Within a few days, Ca.s.sion recovered from his sickbed completely.
Truthfully, even though he had been sick, it’s still funny how he had that fever.
Still, after his clean recovery, Ca.s.sion immediately jumped back into his training.
The mention of the ‘hunting festival’ along with the recent funeral where he met Leo seemed to be a pretty good motivation boost for him.
Every day, there seemed to be flames surging in his black eyes.
As Ca.s.sion gritted his teeth again, there came a change in his training schedule.
Because he was set to have a match with another knight before this, his training had been divided into 60% swordsmanship and 40% magic. This time, however, it was changed to 30% swordsmanship and 70% magic.
Ca.s.sion was aiming to become the head of a mage household, not a knight household, so it was only natural for his training to be this way.
Thanks to this, Logan had become busier in the last few weeks.
Nowadays, Ca.s.sion’s training started being focused on incorporating his magic into his swordsmanship.
This was so he could be endowed with the t.i.tle of a ‘mage knight’.
Since there was no concept of a mage knight in this world, when I first mentioned it to them, Ca.s.sion, Logan and Diana had been greatly taken aback.
However, their astonishment was only for a short moment.
If it’s something they had to do anyway, wouldn’t it be better to jump right into it without hesitation?
Those three people—and Blanca as well as she received the news—put their heads together and began to think about this deeper.
‘The most ideal fighting style is close combat swordsmanship with long-range magic, right?’
‘But then it might be difficult to get the right timing to do the spell incantation. If he shows an opening in his defense in the middle of a battle…’
‘The usual outcome is death, yes.’
‘Also though, I don’t think it’s possible for me to do this and that.’
They tried and tried, but failed to think of a good solution over and over.
However, failure was the mother of success.
After weeks of countless attempts and failures, the fighting style of a ‘mage knight’, which didn’t even exist before this, gradually took hold.
As a result, the form of a mage knight that they’d come to develop was ‘a man who can create a magic sword’.
Starting with a chain of magic while wrapping the sword with mana, the sword itself would then become a ‘man-made magic sword’.
Truthfully, it wasn’t something likely to happen because it was easier said than done.
Mana was an expendable energy and it would take some time to use it as a charge, so it wouldn’t be easy to conjure enough mana to make a solid ma.s.s that would take the shape of a sword.
And if something were to go wrong in the middle, it wouldn’t hold out for long and his mana would just run out.
But, then again, who exactly was Ca.s.sion?
He’s someone who’s been born with the character setting of, ‘unfortunate genius’.
Well, that’s a thing of the past now.
Since he could wield his mana properly this time, he wasn’t an unfortunate genius anymore.
He’s a genius, period.
Besides that, he was endowed with a body that had a vast amount of mana along with an innate mana affinity that he was born with.
Even without having to utter the incantation, he could still wield his mana and cast the spell properly.
He could easily break the barrier between theory and reality.
As a result, even in the middle of practice battles, it was possible for him to transform a sword into a magic sword that easily.
Just by touching a sword, he could make electricity ripple through it, thereby making a blazing magic sword.
In close range combat, he could fight using his general swordsmanship skills, while with long range, he could immediately shoot out the magic that was wrapped around the blade of his sword.
Since the magic spell had already been cast, there would be no gap between his swordplay and his magic wielding.
Indeed, this was the fighting style of a ‘mage knight’ that was envisioned for him from the start—someone who was good at both close range and long range combat.
‘That… Doesn’t that look like aura?’
One day, Diana observed Ca.s.sion’s sword and said this.
Indeed, it’s just as she mentioned. The magic sword, which was coated with mana, was giving off an enigmatic glow.
It looked as if blue and red flames were being intertwined as it glowed.
The sight of it was quite mysterious, so it looked like the sword was instead wrapped with aura.
Still, it was quite different from the real deal.
Well, anyway.
‘The only swordmaster in this world is Duke Valentine, so…’
Only one person in the entire empire. Additionally, it was a duke.
How many people exactly would have actually seen the aura wielded by such a person?
If people who had never seen the real deal, the moment they see Ca.s.sion’s sword, they would one hundred percent think that it’s ‘aura’.
There’d be a lot of noise about it for sure.
Later on, once it’s revealed that this power came not from swordsmanship but from magic, then there would be a whole lot more clamor.
And, of course, that’s what I intend to happen.
After Ca.s.sion successfully raises his name in the future, wouldn’t it be better to carry with him at least one positive attribute?
Since we’re going up against the main character here, it’s imperative to exert this much effort.
The long box I’m holding right now was also part of this ongoing effort.
Inside this box was a one-of-a-kind item that could never be found anywhere else in the empire, and it was prepared especially for Ca.s.sion, who had become the empire’s one and only ‘mage knight’.
I designed it myself, and I commissioned Blanca to have it made, so it’s clear that this is the only one of its kind in this world.
After several weeks of its production, it was completed only today.
“Have you received the sword?”
A voice rang out in the room even as I was the only person inside.
The voice was coming from a crystal ball that was on the table.
It was a crystal ball for communication, which I received from Blanca the other day. Long distance video communication was possible through this.
‘Blanca said that it’s available only in her guild.’
Over the round crystal ball, I saw the Madam’s wide smile.
Instead of picking it up myself, I asked Diana to do it on my behalf.
Ever since the unexpected encounter with Leo at the funeral, I’d become apprehensive about getting involved with him.
It felt as if I got hit by the original plot.
So, I decided to be a little more cautious for the time being.
The big event that was the hunting festival was coming up soon, so I intend to twist the original novel’s plot there as well.
When carrying out an insurrection, was it not a virtue to hold one’s breath before the main event?
Refraining from going out was also part of that tactic.
Because of this, I sent Diana to retrieve the item, but Blanca wanted to check the delivery status with her own eyes.
With the case containing the sword in my hands, I shook it in front of the crystal ball.
Blanca smiled and nodded as though she was satisfied to see this.
“I put so much effort into this sword, so I wanted to make sure it arrived safely to you. And the name of this sword is…”
“Whip sword.”
As I answered briefly, I opened the case.
Click. Accompanied by the sound, the whip sword, the creation of which I had entrusted to her, was now in plain sight.
I took out the sword and set down the empty case.
“Right, whip sword. I’ve never heard of such a sword in my life.”
As I listened to Blanca speak, I examined the sword carefully.
Its scabbard was black. And over that black exterior, there was a subtle engraving of blazing flames.
A fleeting thought pa.s.sed through my mind that it seemed to represent both Maxwell and Ca.s.sion, and so it made me chuckle briefly.
Gripping the hilt, I drew the sword from the scabbard.
Shrrng.
As soon as it was unsheathed, the sound of the sharpened blade cut through the air.
With its slightly vibrating atmosphere and its fricative sound, the blade’s quiet ringing resounded throughout the room.
I examined the blade carefully.
The form of a whip sword was a bit unique.
It looked like a regular sword at its base form, but it would stretch out like a whip once inner strength were to be imbued into it.
This sword, however, would react to mana instead of inner strength.
When looked at closely, the exceptionally thin lines on the sword could be seen.
Once the sword would stretch out from those lines, it would then take on the form of a whip that could be swung.
At the center of the sword were microfibers sustained by mana or inner strength.
After counting over 50 fine lines over the sword, I looked up at Blanca.
“It’s perfect.”
“I did my very best to make it according to your instructions.”
At the restrained praise she received, Blanca gave a captivating smile.
She was overflowing with uninhibited confidence.
Since her confidence was justified, I answered with a nod.
“Have you tried to test it?”
”Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do that. I don’t have anyone around me who can handle aura or mana, so I didn’t have the chance to modify the sword…”
“Well, indeed, that’s something that couldn’t be helped.”
Right, it was impossible.
Because after all, the only people who can wield this sword were Ca.s.sion, Duke Valentine…
And me.
Just the three of us.