Book 12 Chapter 21
Side Story Part 2, Chapter 14
The Child Who Weaves Hearts (14)
“Head!”
Early spring of the year 1441.
Three years had passed since Friede, the Oracle of Hwaryong, fell into an eternal slumber.
“You mustn’t fear the opponent’s eyes. Look into their eyes, into their heart! This time, the flank!”
Clack, clack… The cheerful sound of wood striking wood caused the cherry blossoms in the garden to swirl pink.
Miria’s sword strikes were pressing Nen.
More than pressing, she was training Nen to read the opponent’s mind and instinctively connect it to defense.
“Sister, Nen, Big Sis!”
From Rain’s arms, Ellaham giggled, cheering for her sister, and Rain also waved a cheering stick made of magic.
“Win, Nen, win! Defeat that madman and execute justice!”
Like Rain, Miria also wished to pass on everything of her swordsmanship to Nen.
However, Nen was a soul with extreme aversion and fear of hurting anyone.
If she could integrate that mind-reading ability with swordsmanship, she would be almost invincible, but Nen seemed unwilling to use that power for violence.
‘Then there is only one answer.’
Train her not as a power to harm, but as a power to protect.
For now, she taught defense skills, but the experience and fundamentals gained here would later shine in moments where ‘something must be harmed to protect something.’
Nen wanted to resemble everything about Rain, so it became a very good bait to entice her into spear-fighting training.
‘I can have her transfer the skills acquired in spear fighting to swordsmanship later!’
However, Nen seemed to feel an intrinsic distance from the sword, a material inherently born to cut something.
Miria changed her mind.
Instead of waiting for Nen to change her interest from spear fighting to swordsmanship later, she would create and teach a swordsmanship style that uses a spear.
“That’s right! Once blocked, immediately rotate your body! Shift your center of gravity to your right foot to gather inertia in both hands! Thrust or cut, choose the opponent’s weak point!”
Nen loved Rin’s keepsake, the Golden Staff, and desired to use it freely.
This seemed to be because she had seen firsthand how Rain used staff techniques when Setsnen was bound to Rin as a wish-fulfilling orb.
Akki and Mir each had their unique combat methods, but Nen wanted to inherit Rain’s. Miria utilized this desire to the fullest.
‘According to my plan, at the moment Nen reaches the realm of Geomgang (sword energy)…’
The spear-sword technique currently being designed would also be completed.
“Excellent! Just like that!”
Nen also lacked talent in body control.
‘But talent is not only innate but can also blossom through effort.’
If innate talent is the sun, then diligently polished intuition becomes the moon through experience.
‘Even if it doesn’t shine brilliantly, at night it shines brightest among the countless stars!’
Miria repeatedly vowed that even if it took decades, perhaps a lifetime, she would perfectly teach Nen the spear-sword technique she was currently designing.
‘Understood, Nen?’
Miria smiled at Nen, who was thrusting the staff at her with a cute Kiai. Nen also smiled brightly and nodded.
“I understand!”
“A gap revealed in a smile! Yahoo! My victory!”
“That’s cowardly!”
Miria thus expressed everything to Nen. Without letting her words and thoughts differ.
Even knowing Nen’s shortcomings, she didn’t hide them and suffer inwardly, nor did she blame her.
Miria would first think of improvements and convey that thought to Nen.
“Now let’s eat dinner, and then check the raw materials for tomorrow’s bread!”
Rain was already cooking, carrying Ellaham in a baby carrier.
Rin’s cooking skills, having learned the basics from Dean Atlante and hunting cuisine from Cies, were quite outstanding.
In her previous life, she had showcased monstrous dishes that even cooked some kind of monsters, but in this life, it had somewhat calmed down.
“Finished, fried goshawk eyeballs.”
“…”
“Just kidding… Hahahaha!”
Feeling a threat to her life from Miria’s murderous gaze, Rain immediately took out another dish.
Rin was best at northern-style dishes and skewers. For Miria, who was a Centralite in her previous life and a citizen of the Republic in this life, the latter suited her better.
Nen also liked skewers; in fact, she seemed to like anything Rain made.
“Seriously. Do you know what she was like before? When I told a sad story involving a kestrel, she suddenly caught a kestrel, popped its eyeballs, and made some kind of seasoned dish out of it to give me.”
“Really?”
“Yes! She was just an eyeball enthusiast, and it was so difficult. If I said I didn’t want to eat it, she’d accuse me of being a regionally prejudiced hero. Seriously, seriously, seriously!”
“I’m curious!”
“I’ll try to recall it now, so read my memory.”
“That’s horrifying!”
Rain screamed and covered Nen’s eyes. Though it would be useless since she could read memories.
“Hey, why on earth would you show that to our innocent Nen! It was something made in childhood mischief!”
Is complaining about their husbands to their children a common trait among women worldwide?
Rain felt the weight of being a patriarch.
And once again, he wanted to shout to the world: Never get married.
“Mischief, my foot! It was all sincere!”
“It was not?”
“It was!”
“No no no no no no no no no no. Nen, absolutely not, don’t be fooled. That’s all her delusion.”
“Delusion?”
“Yes yes yes yes yes yes! Absolutely yes! Nen, don’t be fooled! A hero doesn’t lie!”
“Sir, don’t you know that a Great Sage is nobler and more honest than a hero?”
“I’m one of only two heroes in all of history to receive the title of Hero among the Paequeeriers? There were three Sages.”
“Idiot! There were only two Great Sages, including the first mage, Emissa Page, and me!”
“Funny! I’m also one of only two, excluding my senior, the first Paequeerier Sarandis Alter Naisemon.”
“Then it’s a tie.”
“No, you became a Great Sage in the 15th century and I became a hero in the 12th century, so I’m the senior. I’m more magnificent, right?”
“Refrain from nonsense.”
“Oh, you can’t refute that, can you?”
As he was about to refute, Nen started laughing uncontrollably. When Nen laughed, Ellaham also gurgled with laughter.
Nen’s ability, Telepathy.
A fragment of that sorrowful power.
Later, when that ability awakens, Nen will be able to project her laughter onto others’ hearts and conversely absorb sadness.
“Nen, don’t you want to go take the exam?”
Nen always helped with housework by Rain or Miria’s side. Currently, she was washing dishes with Rain.
“Exam?”
“Yes, at your level, Nen, you could probably take the Bandoran (1-star) ranking exam.”
“Is it a good thing?”
“Of course! It’s a symbol that Nen has become a mage. You can boast about it to anyone.”
Nen’s eyes brightened for a moment, but then she cast her gaze down sadly.
“I’m scared.”
Rain flicked his finger at Nen’s face, sprinkling water.
Nen’s sadness quickly turned into laughter.
Nen also started flicking her fingers, following Rain.
“Isn’t it fun?”
“It’s fun!”
“Listen carefully, Nen. Every challenge in this world is like this. If you succeed, you can be happy with your achievement, and if you fail, you can be happy that you clearly understood what you lacked. There’s nothing to be scared of. Enjoy every challenge. Understood?”
Nen pondered Rain’s words, then smiled brightly and nodded.
That smile was so lovely.
Rain resumed splashing water, until Miria’s iron fist landed on his crown.
“You splashed water everywhere. What if mold grows in the kitchen! And what if Nen’s good skin gets damaged!”
“I apologize. But even so, for a Shinseiji (7-star) mage like myself, dealing with a bit of mold is something I could do while picking my nose. Isn’t this a bit excessive?”
“Are you talking back? Do you want to be hit more?”
“I apologize.”
“Good.”
* * *
If one used the power of a Great Sage, creating dozens of fake identities was trivial.
Those who wished to be favored by the Great Sage were everywhere.
Even without revealing her true identity, Skalji or Caban Ludwig could procure suitable identities.
Rain created a disguised identity for Setsnen, deliberately setting her age at 18.
Nen was born in 1426.
More precisely, she was freed from the Dragon Slayer then.
“But… unlike the grown-up Akki or Mir, Nen looks younger than fourteen. Is that okay?”
“We can just say she looks young for her age, what’s the problem?”
There was also a method using a transformation spell roughly learned from Valensidis (written as such, read as illicitly copied from Bel Sidious).
Otherwise, there was a method of expanding the cognitive impairment field that Zernix used.
Currently, Rain was using this method in conjunction with the barrier placed by Yoshuhar, and since no one recognized Rain, its performance was very reliable.
“I think it would be fine to just honestly say she’s fourteen. Then people would adore our Nen, saying she’s a genius magical girl.”
Miria smiled, stroking Nen’s hair.
“I like that too, but if she acquires a rank at too young an age, she’ll receive excessive public attention. Her disguised identity might be discovered.”
Rain already reigned as a god-like being, so he didn’t receive jealousy.
However, if it became known that Nen was mentored by such a Rain, the envy she would receive would be immense.
“Even in my Rin days, I suffered immense jealousy until I reached Aquizard (5-star).”
In Rin’s case, it wasn’t a big problem, actually.
Since her personality was indifferent to competition or jealousy with others and focused solely on the pursuit of magic.
But the tender-hearted and sensitive Nen would be deeply hurt.
“You must have been the same, weren’t you?”
“That’s true. I was pretty, and my skills were absolutely insane.”
Miria flicked her hair softly and smiled. Rain’s eyes narrowed.
“Do you know? Lately, you’re trying to go back to your Lista days. That crazy hero.”
“Are you asking to be hit? Come here. If you wish, there’s nothing I can’t do for you.”
“No, absolutely not.”
“Good.”
The Bandoran ranking exam.
Many underestimate it as 1-star (even Rin frankly dismissed it), but in fact, countless ordinary people cannot even attain this single rank.
From the Bandoran rank, one can join the Magic Alliance, and it essentially guarantees a livelihood for life.
“If a dragon took years of study to barely get Bandoran… waves of scorn born from jealousy would come, and I don’t want Nen to suffer such gazes.”
Nen’s magical talent, while not as outstanding as Rin’s, definitely exists.
However, the reason it took this long was that Nen’s heart needed time to be trained to be able to be taken among the crowds of people.
But those consumed by envy would not understand such reasons. Miria smiled brightly at Rain’s serious words.
“Yes, you’ll handle it well. So when is the exam?”
“It’s held in summer and winter. Or was it every season? Or once a year? I can’t quite remember.”
“Why don’t you know that?”
“Because I wasn’t interested.”
Hadn’t Rin’s ranking exam in her time also been taken due to an unavoidable wager?
“Anyway, since there are many applicants for Bandoran (1-star), it can be taken in any city in the Empire. Let’s take it in the closest southern city.”
“No, it’s been a while, so let’s take it in the Central region and greet your in-laws too.”
“Ah, that’s troublesome. Why there again?”
“If I say jump, you jump.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Upon checking with the Magic Alliance, the current 15th-century Bandoran exam was held once in summer and once in winter.
After applying for the summer session, Rain taught Nen more magic for two months.
He allocated a leisurely month for the journey up to Richland in the Central Empire.
On the morning of their departure, they closed the doors of [The Bursting House] and set up a triple barrier. Theft would not be tolerated.
Nen, dressed for travel, wore a worn-out conical straw hat, and her appearance itself was utterly cute and adorable.
Miria held Ellaham, and Rain held Nen’s hand.
And they headed towards the Empire along the old Republic road, bathed in the dawn light.