Chapter 31
A vacant lot on one side of the West Annex.
"Hah... hah... hah!"
"C-can't run anymore..."
"Is this really... related to magic training...? Damn it!"
The three who had barely been holding on collapsed like dominoes as soon as one of them gave out, falling to the ground in a heap.
"Haaah... Kain's running with us, so we can't even complain..."
Edward said, watching Kain already far ahead.
Kain glanced back at the three of them sitting together, then stubbornly finished his lap and stopped in front of them.
Bolio looked at Kain with a fed-up expression and said,
"Hey, aren't you tired? I feel like I'm going to die."
"Kain looks tired too... Look. He's panting as well."
"It's amazing how he looks like he's about to collapse but keeps running..."
"Did he secretly do some stamina training while we weren't looking?"
Kain took a few deep breaths, then wiped his sweat and said,
"Stamina isn't the problem. It's your rotten willpower that's the issue."
In reality, Kain's stamina was not much different from Edward's or Fohn's.
In fact, today he hadn't had much time to recover after a duel that had pushed his mana circuits to their limit.
If he hadn't been relying on willpower, Kain would have collapsed even before the three of them.
"You could have run more."
"Hey, I ran with all my might! I really felt like I couldn't take another step."
"No, you could have run more. The fact that the other two kept running until one of you collapsed is proof of that. You didn't want to be the first to give up, but you were ready to sit down, thinking, 'This is enough,' as soon as someone else did. Am I wrong?"
"That's..."
The three of them tried to say something but then closed their mouths.
"Get up."
"Are we running again right away...?"
"You've rested enough while talking, so you need to run again."
"W-was that resting?"
"Hey, what if we collapse like this? If we collapse, we won't be able to train, so isn't that a net loss? Just pushing us relentlessly isn't everything!"
Kain firmly shook his head at Bolio's last resistance.
"I'll stop you when you reach your limit, so all you have to do is move."
With his countless experiences of pushing disciples to their limits, Kain knew better than anyone what a person in their true limit looked like.
"Raise your hand if you really can't go on."
Bolio already raised his hand.
"Slap yourself in the face with that hand. Then you'll be able to move more."
"Damn it!"
***
"Stop."
Thump.
With Kain's words, the three of them collapsed on the spot.
Huff, huff, hah.
Unlike before, the three of them didn't say anything.
To be precise, they didn't have the strength to speak.
They could only pant heavily with the relief of finally being finished.
"Hmm."
He had considered pushing each of the three individually to their absolute limit by precisely measuring their individual limits, but he decided against it considering it was the first day.
It was also because the three of them had similarly poor stamina levels.
Kain gave them minimal rest, and when their breathing had become somewhat regular, he spoke.
"Get up."
Bolio's breathing suddenly became a little irregular.
"Get up without trying to slack off. We're not running again."
Their breathing calmed down a little at those words.
The three of them, almost dead on their feet, slowly raised their upper bodies.
"Is there something else...?"
"W-we should have just said we'd start tomorrow..."
"Damn it..."
Kain nodded.
"From now on, you're going to use magic. Sit up straight and each of you use one magic you're confident in."
Their expressions brightened a little at the word magic after only running mindlessly, but soon darkened again.
"Use magic in this state...?"
"Hurry."
Perhaps thinking it was better than getting up and running again, the three of them staggered and sat cross-legged.
"Fire Needle."
"Fire Needle."
"Fireball."
As expected, Edward and Fohn chose Fire Needle, and Bolio chose Fireball.
Soon, their magic began to take shape above their hands...
"Huh...?"
"W-wait a minute."
"What's wrong with this?"
He almost let it slip.
Those were their go-to spells, the ones they had relied on to catch snow rabbits in the snowy mountains.
They were spells they had practiced so much that they could cast them instantly even if startled awake. Yet now, they faltered and scattered before fully forming.
"This can't be... Wait. I have enough mana."
"I-I'll try again."
"I just wasn't focused properly that time!"
Having never experienced this before, the three of them seemed rather shocked and quickly tried to cast their spells again.
Bolio, in particular, widened his eyes in disbelief at the fact that he couldn't even successfully cast a 1st Circle spell properly.
"Hmph."
But the result was the same.
"It's not working...?"
"I-I just can't focus..."
"It's because you made us run like that and then told us to do this!"
"No. You can do it. Keep trying until the end."
"Damn it!"
It seemed unreasonable, but having repeated minimal rest and running until now, they had already begun to realize that if Kain said they could do it, they probably could.
Eventually, the three of them took deep breaths again and concentrated with all their might to keep their spells from dissipating.
And after several failures, all three of them managed to complete their spells, albeit barely.
"Ugh...!"
"Hold it like that. Keep going."
Of course, completing the spell wasn't the end.
Following Kain's instructions, the three of them tried their best to maintain their spells until the very end.
"Stop."
Just when they thought an eternity had passed, they released their spells at Kain's voice.
"Hah... huh... hah..."
Sweat poured down their faces and bodies like rain.
"How does it feel?"
At Kain's words, they replied, half dazed.
"What... is this?"
"W-why is it so hard...?"
"I feel like I'm going to die, seriously."
It wasn't a proper answer, but Kain explained.
"Making you run wasn't just to train your stamina, but also to make you feel the sensation of using magic when your physical and mental strength are almost completely depleted."
When humans are pushed to their limits, they instinctively seek efficiency.
The more they struggle to produce the desired results with the limited resources they have, the more they realize how to use those resources more efficiently.
"Just now, you somehow gathered your almost exhausted mental strength and completed your spells. Your physical strength was completely depleted, so all you had to rely on was a little bit of mental strength. And now, think back. Have you ever completed a spell with such little mental strength before?"
The three of them looked at each other and shook their heads.
"No."
"T-to be honest, from the middle onwards, I thought I wouldn't be able to succeed."
"...Me too."
And only after answering with their own mouths did they have expressions of dawning realization.
"Wait a minute... then we've been able to succeed with this much mental strength all along, but we..."
Kain nodded at Edward's words.
"Do you understand now how much mental strength you've been wasting while using magic?"
"W-wow..."
"Crazy."
"I just got goosebumps."
Perhaps the spells they had cast while recklessly burning through their mental strength flashed through their minds, as the three of them clutched their heads.
"Realizing it isn't the end. You need to strive to become accustomed to the sensation of completing magic with minimal mental strength. Once you do that, you'll naturally be able to use stronger magic with greater mental strength. Controlling and transforming magic, or calculating additional formulas, will also become much easier."
The three of them listened intently to Kain's explanation with their mouths open.
Unlike when they had been told to just start running earlier, their eyes now held a keen light.
"If you try casting magic tomorrow morning after your physical and mental strength have recovered, you'll immediately understand what I mean."
It will be like running with heavy sandbags on and then taking them off.
"I see...!"
"Ah, of course, physical training itself is also important. Physical strength and mental strength are inseparable, and in real combat, as well as when carrying out long-term missions outside, physical strength is a solid foundation. As you experienced today, if your physical strength is depleted, your mental strength won't be intact either."
The three of them looked a little pale at the mention of physical training. But they soon nodded.
"Okay. I'll continue to do physical training diligently in the future."
"Yeah. It's damn hard, but if it's definitely effective, there's nothing we can't do."
Bolio groaned and pushed himself up, placing his hands on his thighs.
"Anyway, thanks. I feel like my perspective has broadened a lot."
"M-me too."
"Thank you, Kain. If I just keep training hard like this, I feel like I really might be able to reach the 3rd Circle soon!"
Edward and Fohn also rose from their spots with brightened expressions.
Kain then tilted his head in confusion.
"Alright, the determination is good. But why are you getting up?"
At his words, the three of them froze.
"W-wasn't that the end?"
"Don't tell me there's more...?"
Kain nodded as if it were obvious.
"If you've felt the sensation of your physical and mental strength being depleted, then you also need to feel the sensation of using magic with minimal mana when your mana is almost gone too."
And in the vacant lot, the splitting screams of the three echoed.
***
"Alright. That's enough for today. Good work."
Kain told the three that he would give them feedback on their magic once they became somewhat accustomed to this sensation, and then sent them back.
"I-I feel like I'm going to die."
"Will we... be able to make it back to our rooms?"
"Damn it, I'll definitely sleep well tonight."
"I feel like I'll fall asleep the moment my head hits the pillow."
"B-but we should at least wash up before sleeping."
"My body is completely drenched in sweat..."
Edward, Fohn, and Bolio staggered towards their respective rooms with movements that made them look like ghouls from a distance.
If it had been just a little darker, it wouldn't have been strange for a passing disciple to scream and hit them with a Fireball.
Kain quietly watched them go.
'All three of them have decent grit.'
Especially Fohn, who was rather timid, had endured well, allowing them to progress without any major issues.
At this rate, he might be able to give them feedback on their fire magic within a week, and it might not be impossible for them to reach the 3rd Circle before the exam.
However,
'Hoo. How did I end up teaching fire magic to my clan disciples...?'
In fact, the current Kain had no particular reason to nurture disciples who used fire magic, not even ice magic, with such meticulous care.
'Those three are all talented in their own way, and if they work hard while receiving instruction, they'll be able to advance faster than others even without my direct guidance.'
He could rather spend that time focusing more on himself, but.
'Still...'
Kain looked down at his hands.
'They are Siers clan disciples, after all.'
Over two hundred years ago, when the Siers clan flourished and rose to become one of the four great noble clans.
Kain had diligently nurtured his disciples in his own way, but objectively, the gap between the 'Sein Siers' of that time and the rest of the disciples was enormous.
Part of the reason was that ice magic itself was difficult and hard to master, but.
'Frankly speaking, I didn't dedicate that much time to my disciples in my past life.'
Even physical training was often done by gathering them when he himself was training.
The magic tomes he created by organizing his own enlightenment were also largely intended to allow them to learn uniformly from books rather than teaching them individually face-to-face.
'And I thought that was the most efficient method.'
In fact, it couldn't be said that it was the wrong method.
Sein Siers further increasing his own mastery, gaining more enlightenment, and accomplishing more things on his own always brought greater benefits to the entire clan in the long run.
Because he did so, the clan was able to rise rapidly, eventually joining the ranks of the four great noble clans, and the treatment the clan received within the empire also rose to a level befitting that status.
'Moreover, Desmond has begun to move in earnest...'
To stop Desmond, who called himself the incarnation of a demon god, Sein Siers had no choice but to pour even more effort into refining his own mastery.
'And, one way or another, thanks to that, he was able to stop Desmond.'
But Sein Siers knew.
While he was focused on himself, there were open rumors outside the clan that the Siers clan was 'a clan with nothing to see but Sein Siers' and 'a clan that would be nothing without Sein Siers.'
Even his own disciples didn't deny those words and accepted them.
-Senior, I'm stuck on this part and I can't figure out the solution at all. Should we ask the Clan Head to take a look just once?
-Hey, don't you know how incredibly busy the Clan Head is these days? He even went out to Cameron himself and only returned yesterday, and he's been researching magic without even sleeping at night.
-I did see the light on in his study...
-Yeah, man. That's right. The Clan Head is practically supporting our entire clan single-handedly, so we shouldn't be a hindrance, let alone ask for help. Go look at the magic tome one more time. I'll help you with any parts I can.
-Thank you, Senior.
-Lower your voice a bit. If the Clan Head happens to hear you, he might not be able to ignore it and try to help.
-Oh, that sounds kind of good?
-You little brat?
-Just kidding, haha!
He recalled accidentally overhearing such a conversation but pretending not to notice in order to finish the research he was working on at the time.
'And the result of that was...'
The disciples of the Siers clan who fought against Desmond's followers without Sein Siers were driven to the brink of annihilation.
'...That's how the Siers clan became what it is now.'
Of course, there's a high possibility that the Bederman clan was meddling behind the scenes.
But even so, if the disciples had been a little stronger.
'If I had paid a little more attention to the disciples.'
Would the clan have fallen this far?
Would they have declined to the point of losing the inheritance of ice magic and being driven to the fringes?
And.
'Could I have upheld the words my teacher left me, asking me to lead the clan well, until the very end?'
Kain clenched his outstretched hand tightly.
'...The past cannot be changed.'
That's why Kain didn't want to repeat the mistakes he had made in his past life.
'For the clan to prosper in a healthy way, the disciples must become strong.'
There are limits to what one person can do alone.
'I have to teach them fire magic for now, but that doesn't matter.'
Even if the Siers clan recovered their ice magic and Kain later became the Clan Head, he had no intention of casting out the disciples who had already learned fire magic.
As Harman had said, the friction between fire and ice magic clans was just a superficial war of nerves that started from a feeling of losing out on a piece of the pie.
'Whether they've learned fire magic or ice magic, the fact that they are disciples of the Siers clan doesn't change.'
Hmm, still, any new disciples he takes should probably be in the ice magic line.
Anyway, the existing disciples who want to continue using fire magic can stay as they are, and those who have talent in or want to learn ice magic can be helped to dismantle their fire magic circles and build new ice magic circles.
'Even if they newly learn ice magic, their experience using fire magic will be a great help.'
So...
'The reason I'm teaching those guys with such care is solely because they are disciples of the Siers clan.'
Kain nodded.
'It's definitely not because I've personally grown attached to them, or because I think they're admirable.'
Kain nodded again.
The Clan Head of the Siers clan had to be fair and just, with an iron will.
"Are they gone?"
While he was lost in thought, Edward, Fohn, and Bolio had disappeared from his sight.
"I should run about ten more laps and then go in."
Kain turned around and took a step towards the vacant lot.
He had sent the weaklings back first, but for Kain, this much was nothing that his willpower couldn't handle...
Thump.
Ah, come to think of it, he had dueled Hayden today. And he had pushed himself quite a bit.
"Young Masterrrrr!"
Hearing Alice's voice like a hallucination from afar, the fallen Kain slowly closed his eyes.
"Young Master! Are you alright? The others have returned to their quarters, but when I didn't see you, I came to check..."
Snore. Snoooore...
"Young Master...?"
Alice watched Kain, who had fallen asleep with a peaceful expression, and soon smiled quietly.
"If you sleep in a place like this, even a mage can catch a cold."
And she carried the sweat-soaked Kain on her back and returned.
