Chapter 20

The outskirts of Oratio, where the Apex Tournament was in full swing, were rather quiet.
The street shops had closed, there were no customers looking for shopkeepers.
In such a place, there was a stray cat napping in the sunlight.
And there were also two people disturbing the cat’s sweet sleep.

“Ahyohyo.”

Serpens thumped various parts of his body.
Perhaps this was the most painful walk he had taken since meeting Lucas.
Or so Serpens was thinking.

“Ahyohyohyo!”

He deliberately let out a loud sigh.
It was in the hope that Lucas would feel even a hair’s breadth of guilt.

“Was there anything you realized from watching?”

Unfortunately for that hope, Lucas had no interest in the boy’s pain.

“That Lucas is incredibly strong?”
“……That is not what I asked.”
“Viento? That elf is incredibly handsome.”
“……That is not what I asked either.”
“The arena was incredibly big.”
“……Not that either.”

Serpens tilted his head.
He knew what Lucas meant.
But he wanted to mess with him a little, even if it was only like this.

“Hmm……. That Lars person did something amazing!”
“…….”

Lucas looked down at Serpens.
At the killing intent directed at him, Serpens forced a smile.

“It was a joke, a joke. I learned something incredible. Something incredible.”
“……I look forward to hearing it.”

Serpens recalled Lucas’s fight.
Most of the movements were impossible for his eyes to follow, but he had been able to see the general flow.
He did not know whether that was the answer Lucas wanted.

“When you fought that muscular lump with the axe, you closed the distance because of that little guy, right? From the archer’s position, if an ally and an enemy are stuck right together, it’s hard to shoot recklessly.”
“…….”
“And the reason you caught the arrow instead of dodging or deflecting it was so you could throw it back like you did and make use of it.”

Lucas’s eyebrow twitched faintly.
What the boy had said were the answers he had wanted.
That made them answers he had expected even less from the boy.

‘So he has an eye for it.’

It was difficult for someone without even the basics to watch something and learn from it.
That was why Lucas, just as he showed nothing outwardly, had not expected much either.
One of the two things Serpens had said.
Even if it had only been something similar, he had intended to nod and move on.

“What is this silence? Are you actually impressed or something?”

Serpens rubbed his nose.

“…….”

Lucas did not continue speaking.

Instead, he raised his thumb.
It lasted less than a second, but to Serpens, it was a shocking moment that felt as if he had been struck in the head.

“……Eh?”

Lucas turned his back and began moving indifferently.

“What was that just now?”

Serpens, caught off guard, raised his own thumb as well.

Had he seen it wrong? Had the meaning of a raised thumb changed without him knowing?
Serpens was swept up in confusion.

“Lucas! Can’t you do it just one more time?”

Serpens’s voice was full of excitement.
The boy walked after Lucas with the corners of his mouth rising beyond his control.

“Do it just one more time! Just one more!”

Had he ever been praised by anyone?
At least, there was no such memory in Serpens’s mind.

That didn’t mean he had felt disappointed.
Because he had thought that things like others judging him were useless.

“Can’t you really do it just one more time?”

But the boy’s heart swelled strangely.

“Please!”

Even if he would not admit it himself, Serpens was ultimately a twelve-year-old child hungry for praise.

“Really, just one more-”
“Shut up.”
“Yes.”

“Ha. Aren’t you sick of this pattern?”

Serpens said this while enduring the nausea churning in his stomach inside the carriage.
Walking, then carriage.
Walking, then carriage.
He knew there was no particular other means of transportation.

But because of his damn motion sickness, Serpens’s irritation had reached its peak.

“I am not sick of it.”
“No, why? You’re a man with plenty of money, so why is it the same pattern every day!”
“Is there another method besides walking or riding a carriage? Taking a ship is inefficient, and it is not as if we can ride around on a magical summoned beast.”
“But……!”

After thinking for a moment, Serpens eventually realized that the carriage was the best option.
Walking or carriage.
If not that, would he not have to experience zero gravity while being held by the nape?

‘Damn motion sickness. I’ll overcome it somehow.’

Lucas’s leaps were out of the question.
With motion sickness, he only had to get dizzy and throw up.
But Lucas’s leaps felt like his heart was dropping.
The more he did it, the more he could feel his lifespan shortening.

“So. Can you do it?”

Lucas asked while looking out the window.

Serpens thought about the intent of the question and soon gave his answer.

“Probably impossible.”

Fighting without separating from the enemy in order to keep an archer in check.
It sounded impressive, but realistically, it was impossible.

Not only did he lack confidence that he would not be pushed back in close combat, but was there any guarantee the archer wouldn’t shoot his own ally?
Perhaps after he became stronger someday, but for a while, Serpens had no confidence in doing that.

In the first place, he wondered if he would ever even have to fight people.

“Yes. That would be the case.”
“Then what should I do? There might come a time when I have to use that kind of fighting method.”
“There will be someday. As you said, with your skill, it would be impossible.”
“Ugh.”

Lucas turned his head and looked at Serpens.
The faint sunlight coming in lit up the boy’s light brown hair.

“So you need to improve your skill. Enough to calmly solve the problem if such a situation arises.”
“I said I got it.”

Serpens stuck out his lip.
Lucas was right. If there was something he could not do, then he simply had to work until he could do it.
But was that effort not hard?
Once they returned to Lucas’s house, hellish training would clearly be waiting for him.

“……Then aside from those two. Was there anything you realized from the elf?”
“I couldn’t even watch except for the beginning. Did you not see the state I was in earlier? I almost died under a pile of stones.”
“I see.”

Lucas and Viento’s sparring was the sparring Serpens should have watched most carefully.
It had been a duel between sword and sword, and the opponent was an Aura user.
And fairly high-level Aura at that.
If he had only been able to observe it, it surely would have been a great help.

‘I should consider this much well done.’

Even so, he couldn’t blame Serpens.
It was enough that he had read the sparring with the previous two.

“Since we’re talking about Viento.”
“……?”
“What was that strange energy? A heat haze?”

Serpens rubbed his chin.
The wavering green energy Viento had released.
From the moment that appeared, the aftermath of the sparring had grown worse.

‘It was probably from then that fragments of the broken arena started flying in.’

For a moment, goosebumps rose all over his body.
He remembered the rock-sized fragment that had grazed his cheek.
If his luck had been even a little worse, he would already no longer be of this world.

“It is called Aura.”
“Aura?”
“I will have to explain from the basic principles.”
“Egh. I don’t really like principles. I’m the practical type.”

Lucas ignored his words and began explaining.

“There are broadly two ways of fighting in the world. Martial combat and magic. Those who train martial combat and magic to a certain level each develop something called Aura and Mana.”
“Aura and Mana?”

Lucas nodded.

“The two are similar, but they are clearly different methods. Aura is energy drawn from inside the body. Mana is energy drawn from the outside, such as from nature.”
“Aura is on the martial combat side, and Mana is on the magic side, right?”
“That is right.”
“Is Mana comparatively easier to handle?”
“Why do you think that?”

Serpens waved his finger around in the air.

“Because all magicians know how to use Mana, but I haven’t really heard of martial artists who use Aura.”
“…….”

Lucas thought quietly.
Aura and Mana.
Which one was easier to handle?
It was something he had never thought about before.

For martial artists, Mana they could not handle was a luxury.
Magicians could not use Aura due to their physical conditions either.

Martial artists used Aura. Magicians used Mana.
They used what suited them.
That was all.

Then was there any need to compare the two?
No. No matter how he thought about it, it was a useless comparison.

This kind of argument was bound only to cause conflict.
Different things were simply different.

“Both are difficult to handle.”
“Well. I guess they would be.”

Serpens frowned.
It felt as if something had entered his brain but flowed right back out.
It was the feeling that he understood it but would not be able to explain it.

“So. I roughly understand what Aura and Mana are. Mana is fine since I won’t be using it anyway. How do I use Aura?”
“Train.”
“Train?”
“Increase your stamina, build your muscles, swing your sword, and accumulate experience.”
“Hmm? That’s all?”
“You must do it every day until your muscles feel like they are tearing. Even if muscle pain comes the next day, you must grit your teeth and do it. There are no rest days. Is that ‘all’?”

Serpens thought hard.
The training he did at night, though only now and then.
His palms had torn, and the next day, he couldn’t even walk.
Of course, there was pride in it, but his body suffering was a different matter entirely.
If he gritted his teeth and did it, he could do it, but…….
It certainly was not “all.”

“Fine. I’ll have to try, then.”

The image of himself using Aura.
Wasn’t it rather cool?

‘And with that power…….’

Serpens clenched his fist tightly.
He didn’t know the exact difference in skill.
But so far, there had been no one who had clashed with Lucas to that extent.
If he could use Aura……. If he became that strong…….

‘At least I wouldn’t have to worry about others’ reactions when helping someone. Like Lucas.’

Thinking back on what happened at the Quantums Merchant House made him shudder.
He had been angry about having his money taken.
But what angered him most was his powerless self.
Even though he had clearly been in the right, he had no choice but to run away.
He never wanted to do that again.

“How long do I have to practice?”
“I do not know.”
“You don’t know?”
“It varies greatly depending on the individual. You have to look at how outstanding their talent is, how much time they spend in pure effort, and whether they have the luck to grow as much as they work.”
“Heeh……. That’s hard.”

Serpens scratched the back of his head.
It didn’t matter how long it took.
If he worked hard, would the effort not bear fruit?

Serpens was someone who always stole the bread he had set as his target.
He was not a boy who would give up on his life’s goal because it was difficult.

“How long did it take you, Lucas?”
“……Four years.”
“Hooh……. Then I’ll do it in three.”

Clatter.

No sooner had Serpens finished speaking than the carriage stopped.

The cry of an excited horse. The panic of the young coachman.
The sound of violent horse hooves gradually drawing closer.

“What is it? Did a wheel come off?”

Serpens stuck his head out the window.
Serpens’s upper body, which had been moving noisily to grasp the situation, soon stiffened.
The boy’s stiff body slid back inside the window.

“Lucas? I think something has happened.”
“…….”

Lucas grabbed his greatsword and got out of the carriage.
The first thing he saw after getting out was an arrow lodged in the rear wheel.
It was a crude arrow whose fletching was not finely made.

This sort could largely be divided into two types.
It belonged either to a monster or a group of raiders.

This time, it was certainly a group of raiders.

Dudududu.

The ground shook as if an earthquake had struck.
This carriage had no cargo compartment and was only for carrying people.
They must have known there was nothing worth plundering.

Even so, a group of raiders that had to number at least twenty was charging toward them.

What were they after?
Well, it didn’t matter.

In the years that had passed since he refused the position of Great Knight Commander of the imperial court.
Lucas had killed people a few times.

Tat.

A rather heavy leap.
Even so, Lucas was above the raiders in an instant.

Whoosh-.

With one movement, three heads flew off.
The horses, startled by the blood, began to thrash, and the raiders drew their swords.

It didn’t take long for the raiders’ battle cries, once full of fighting spirit, to turn into screams.
And it wasn’t even ten seconds later that even those screams could no longer be heard.

After Lucas’s family passed away.
There were moments when his emotions, long since gone cold, revived for an instant.

Raiders.
Especially when he killed raiders who targeted carriages, anger boiled inside him.

“…….”

And the time it took Lucas to kill a group of over twenty raiders was only fourteen seconds.

At the horrific sight that unfolded before his eyes, the young coachman couldn’t close his mouth.

Serpens, too, forced himself to calm his trembling heart this time.
Lucas clearly wore the same expressionless face as usual.
But he was more brutal than usual.
He couldn’t know the reason.
Even if he knew the reason, he didn’t think he would be able to understand it.