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Chapter 396 - World Tree (1)
“There is a lot of dirty work to do!”
“Move your hand if you have time to grumble.”
“Damn it. Do you like this situation?”
“Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘If you cannot avoid it, have fun?’”
At the words of the girl that has now matured, the red-haired boy frowned.
“You have always been sincere, even in the past.”
“You always complain, even in the past.”
“What?”
Lennon shouted glaring at Ann who didn’t say a word. Ann shrugged and put the thick books on the shelf one by one.
They had been doing this for two hours already, but the books they had to sort out were still full on the ground.
It would have been easy to sort them with magic, but since these were precious books, there could be a problem if they used mana to touch them.
So right now, the two of them were organizing these precious, forbidden books.
“Phew. When I was assigned here, I thought I could just stretch my feet and relax.”
“With a high position comes great responsibility.”
“I can see you are doing well.”
Now, Lennon and Ann were in charge of the city, which was once called the Magic World.
They were both seventeen now, but they were the immediate disciples of Diablo Volfir, the King of the North, and so they were entrusted with this role as their magic skills improved.
Of course, this place wasn’t the same as before. As all the powers in the north were focused on the Black Tower, the Magic World became lonely.
And the Seldam Kingdom no longer existed, so this place became a huge magic warehouse.
This was better.
“I thought I could live like a free man.”
“You are living in this world and saying that?”
“What else could I say? I went through that harsh school for three years. Don’t I deserve a break?”
“Rest means dying and resting, kid~”
“Who is a kid?”
Even though the two became the leaders of the city, they still fought each other as usual.
“Rather than that, did you hear about it?”
“About what?”
“Teacher’s little sister.”
“Ah, Sarah Welton.”
Lennon nodded as he heard the story.
He had seen her a long time ago, so he remembered her face. The cute girl who knew nothing about the world and who looked like a round bun.
He remembered that she was three to four years younger than him. However, he heard she had participated in a mission to recover a powerful investment.
Originally, she was supposed to visit the Black Tower once, for the sake of meeting.
“I heard that she refused to visit the Black Tower this time.”
“Uh.”
“What could be the reason? It was her chance to see her brother after a long time.”
Even Lennon knew, to some extent, the problems that the Welton family was going through.
But he didn’t understand what Jamie was thinking. He knew his family loved him despite his choice.
That was what he thought.
“I don’t know. Anyway, it seems like just Miss Isis and a few warriors came.”
“I see.”
“I am a little worried since it is the problem of Teacher’s family and not someone else’s.”
“Hmm.”
Lennon said nothing. Their teacher was no longer the same.
They wouldn’t care if it was just a personality change, but everything about him changed.
To the extent that he had turned cold even towards his own disciples.
‘Even if he treats us coldly, I won’t say anything.’
To him, Lennon and Ann could just be strangers.
But how much did they suffer? It hurts them, even more, to imagine how difficult things were for Jamie’s family.
It must have been horrible since Count Welton, who was holding the family together, died.
“Since we cannot do anything, let’s just do our jobs well.”
“Right.”
“Rather, did you know? The one from the Valle family, the day from tomorrow.”
“Ah. Is it that time already?’
Ann sighed as she opened the calendar with magic and looked at the marked dates two days from now.
“There is a ton of work to do.”
“They are the ones heading to the ‘World Tree’ so they need to be careful.”
“Do not worry.”
The kids were working while laughing and fighting at times.
They were still young, but after going through all kinds of storms, they had turned into adults.
“Let’s finish this quickly. We have a lot to prepare.”
“Faster, stronger!”
“Hah!”
Sara swung her sword fiercely at the instructor.
The thin blade swiftly cut through the air and grazed the neck of her instructor. However, her instructor easily managed to evade it by pulling his head back and pushing Sarah’s thigh with his foot.
“How many times have I told you that your lower body is defenseless when you are swinging your sword?”
“Sorry!”
“An opponent who is even slightly stronger than you can find your weak points. If your lower body gets hit, you cannot move. And what if that immobility becomes permanent?”
“You cannot properly defend yourself.”
“And when that happens, you die. You need to quickly get rid of the blind spots you are showing. Only then will you be able to combine your skills and your defense.”
Sarah nodded at the words of her instructor. Her breathing rose, and sweat poured down like rain, but she didn’t put the sword down.
“Once more please!”
“Come.”
Her instructor was Karlovan, a Ran warrior.
He was the one who took Hasyath’s place as the captain of the search party at the Rotomo Strait.
He was one of the most talented people among the Rans, and he intended to train Sarah while Isis was away.
‘But despite lacking, she is pretty sharp.’
Karlovan cut down Sarah’s sword and immediately countered whenever he noticed a blind spot. Each time that happened, Sarah would always tumble down, but she would get back up and attack.
‘She is at a level that is difficult to compare with the Ran kids.’
The Rans were a race born with higher physical strength.
It would take them less than a month to fully master a weapon once they picked it up, and it would take them about twenty years on average to reach the Master level.
And when hit with the wooden sword, it would be painful enough to make someone scream in so much pain.
Karlovan had no doubt that the wooden sword would hit Sarah on the side.
However, as if denying that entire thought, Sarah quickly crouched down half a beat earlier on the other side.
Without missing that delay, she held back the sword she was wielding and blocked the wooden sword.
Pak!
Her sword was lodged into the wooden sword.
Sarah immediately grabbed the wooden sword with her other hand, leaned her body to the back, and pulled her sword out with her weight.
Karlovan was wielding a wooden sword, so his center of gravity was slightly tilted forward.
Sarah’s light body used the dragging force of the sword to pull him forward, and she kicked her foot as hard as she could.
Puak!
“Ack!’
“Still far away.”
However, Karlovan quickly regained his balance and slapped Sarah on the forehead with the palm of his hand while lightly dodging the kick.
Sarah spun around in the air and fell down.
Karlovan looked at Sarah, who was unconscious on the ground, and stretched out his hand.
“Amazing.”
It didn’t look like the side was bait.
If it was a real battle, he wouldn’t have played along, but he was fooled since it was a spar.
Even so, it was an undeniable fact that he had suffered.
Sarah succeeded in deceiving Karlovan, who was considered a great warrior among the Rans.
Even though it didn’t end well, it was nice.
‘Among the warriors I taught, was there anyone who flustered me this much?’
There wasn’t one.
Didn’t Isis learn the sword from him as well? But even when he was teaching her, there was definitely a difference in how he was flustered.
If there was a little difference, at that time, Isis was in the process of completing her sword training, and this child, Sarah, was still very young.
In terms of growth potential, it was difficult to compare her with Isis.
Had she been a Ran and not a human, Sarah might have been named the strongest swordsman in history.
‘No. Maybe even now… am I jumping too far?’
Karlovan snorted and picked up Sarah, who had fainted.
“Ugh…”
As the sun went down, Sarah held her forehead and slowly opened her eyes.
Then, as she looked at a familiar ceiling, she sighed.
“I passed out again.”
Sarah raised her body with a frown at the throbbing pain all over her. Seeing that some medicine and bandages were applied all over her body, it seemed like she had received treatment when she was unconscious.
Anyway, she did get hit pretty hard today.
She looked to the side and saw a bottle of medicine lying there.
It was the Ran race’s special recovery medicine.
Eating it relieves fatigue, so it was almost a cheat drink.
Unfortunately, the injured parts hadn’t recovered, and just the tired feeling in her body was relieved.
“It is a problem with how great the effect is.”
Even if you didn’t die from the training, if you ate this, you would be fine and be able to rest without feeling any pain in your body.
But these days, because she was earnestly training the sword with passion, she has stopped drinking this medicine and running so hard that she feels like she will die.
‘3 months.’
It has been a little over three months since Isis began teaching her in earnest. Recently, Karlovan has been acting as her instructor and has been looking after her sword training since Isis was busy.
She was told to die each day for three months, but just how strong has she become?
Of course, she knew that there was no dramatic growth.
Still, since she was steadily gaining experience points, she must have gotten stronger than before.
‘But it’s still a long way off.’
This was not enough for her to be able to stand proudly in front of her brother. Sarah was originally supposed to go to the Black Tower with Isis, but she chose not to.
It was because she didn’t want to meet her brother Jamie in her current state.
It wasn’t like she was scared. She was prepared to a certain extent, and there was this moment when she felt detached from her brother, who was said to have changed.
She couldn’t accept it.
Being weak, she couldn’t get herself to stand in front of him. So she would go there once she got stronger. But until then, she would train to death.
“Awake?”
It was then that she heard a familiar voice and turned to see Mero walking towards her.
“Euk? Why is Mr. Mero here?”
“Karlovan told me to wait until you wake up.”
“Ah.”
“A meal has been prepared so you can eat later. I will go and take a deep breath~”
He walked out while yawning loudly.
Sarah looked at his back and thanked him.
“Thank you as always.”
“It is fine. Ah! And after you finish eating, the High King wants to see you.”
The High King meant Hasyath.
Since Isis was the new King, he was pushed into the advisory role.
Isis said she didn’t want to be the King, but seeing how much she grew, Hasyath was stubborn and pushed for it.
Sarah tilted her head.
“Why?”
“Well. I guess there is something worth fighting for.”
Sarah’s eyes shone at the word ‘fighting.’
It was good to get stronger through training, but getting stronger in real battles has been proven many times.