■ Declaration of War □
A few days later, news of the Demon King’s Army declaring war reached the capital, Oz.
Naturally, Oz was plunged into a state of emergency.
King Oscar immediately strengthened the defenses on the eastern front and urgently dispatched two divisions to the Hamburg region, which would become the front line of the war.
It seemed no one had anticipated that the Demon King’s Army would launch such a surprise declaration of war as soon as winter ended.
Oz condemned the Demon King’s Army for their rudeness to other nations on the Western Continent, but only Nídavellir, with its own pressing concerns, paid any attention.
Around the same time, the death of the former hero, Arthurius, became public knowledge.
The Demon King’s Army had marched with the hero’s corpse, preserved with magic, hung on a pillar to boost their morale and demoralize the kingdom’s forces.
This was something the Demon King and I had discussed beforehand—a purely strategic move to release information.
With a new hero already born, there was no longer any reason to hide the truth.
The people of the capital were shocked by the hero’s death, but they showed no interest in the fate of the other party members.
After all, they had always been mere sidekicks to the hero.
I knew this, but as someone directly involved, it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
No matter how hard we fought, there was no one to acknowledge us.
At least those who knew my face expressed their condolences to my master, but among the general public, hardly anyone mourned the deaths of the other party members.
Everything was about the hero, the hero, the hero.
The spotlight was solely on them, and this was the result.
They only demanded sacrifices from others.
If they succeeded, they rejoiced; if they failed, it was just too bad.
I wanted to break this vicious cycle created by the Church of Courage and the goddess with my own hands.
—
Early in the morning, I headed to the Emerald Tower.
I was slightly surprised when I entered through the back door as usual, as the kingdom’s soldiers were roaming around the magic tower due to the wartime situation.
Given the circumstances, even this place, which claimed neutrality, couldn’t remain entirely free from the chaos.
Avoiding the gazes of others, I boarded a floating stone and descended to the underground training ground.
Thud—
As soon as I landed, grabbing the railing, my master was already there waiting.
The Eastern Continent-style white martial attire and the long hair tied with a white ribbon, rarely seen here, indicated that she had been ready for sparring for quite some time.
As I stepped into the training ground, my master, wrapping bandages around her hands, spoke.
“Today is the last day of training as promised. I’ve already taught you everything I can.”
“I know.”
“Now, it’s up to you to realize what true wind is and why you’ve been training.”
I listened to her words carefully and took out the Storm Bringer from my bag.
Holding one in each hand, I clenched and unclenched my fists repeatedly.
Having insisted on bare-handed combat for a while, it felt strange at first, but I quickly adapted.
Crack—
After firmly clenching both fists, I stared at my master across from me.
“Caldlasth, magic and martial arts are not fundamentally different. Handling mana is an act of expressing your will to the world. If you focus your spirit, the principles of nature will follow you, and you’ll even be able to control the weather at will.”
It sounded like a lofty statement, but in simple terms, it meant this:
“If you don’t like getting hit, you should reach the 7th rank quickly too, right?”
In response, my master simply smiled deeply.
Alright, today I’ll make that mouth, which only spouts harsh words, cry out in pain.
Steeling myself, I took the stance of the Wind God’s Art, which I had been intensively taught over the past two months.
“Sssss…”
It was a perfect mirror image of my master’s stance.
Although my center of gravity had shifted slightly backward compared to before, the weight of the strikes remained the same.
In an instant, mana seeped into my lungs, and the dormant virtual magic circuits began to activate.
Whoooooosh—
It felt as if every cell in my body was awakening.
The wind mana generated from the magic circuits spread through my bloodstream to every part of my body in an instant.
In the underground training ground, where no one came in the early morning.
“Here I come!”
“Come at me!”
With storms wrapped around both arms and legs, my master and I clashed simultaneously.
—
Thud!
The sparring, which felt like a real battle, ended about an hour later.
After exchanging over 200 blows, I stopped thinking.
In a world where everything moved slowly in monochrome, I finally understood what my master had emphasized so much—the essence of wind.
“Seeing” is a crucial act in magic.
Humans rely heavily on their sense of sight, so even a momentary loss of vision can render them powerless.
The Blind spell that Ozma often used was one such magic, and losing sight on the battlefield was as fatal as losing limbs.
Anyway, that’s what I wanted to say.
The eyes of an ordinary person can only take in limited information.
Without the right talent, no amount of training will allow one to sense or see the mana in the air.
What my master taught me was to go a step further—
To read the flow of wind, which, unlike mana, is invisible to the eye.
All living beings have the breath of wind within them.
So, if you can read it, you can respond before your opponent even moves.
In other words—
By reaching the 7th rank through this method, you gain an ability close to foreseeing the future by predicting your opponent’s movements through their breath.
“Huff, huff, huff, huff.”
I gasped for breath.
The breath rising to my chin demanded more and more air.
Soon, the sweat on my face dripped down onto the dirt floor.
“You’ve grown much stronger.”
My master, who had been standing perfectly fine, muttered in a hollow tone while looking at the ceiling.
It was understandable, as I had finally broken through the barrier to the 7th rank at the last moment.
My master said that, in her past life, the 7th rank of a mage was akin to the Harmony Realm.
A state of harmony with nature.
Now, I could control the weather of the natural world at will without resorting to the trick of combining two spells.
It was incredibly exhausting, but the feeling of elation was even stronger.
Finally, I could end this grueling training.
I dragged my sweat-soaked body over to my master.
Her clothes, almost in tatters, barely covered her slender frame, so I draped the robe I had taken off before the fight over her like a blanket.
Then, my master looked up at me and spoke.
“I’m tired, so I’ll rest a bit before heading up. What about you?”
I knelt respectfully and replied.
“I’ll rest at home for a bit and then head to the royal castle. I plan to kill King Oscar and leave Oz for a while.”
“…Then I won’t see you for a while again.”
“It won’t be as long as before, so don’t worry. I’ll end it as quickly as possible.”
As I said this and clenched my fist, my master closed her mouth for a moment and then called my name.
“Caldlasth.”
“Yes.”
“Come here.”
I obeyed her command and moved closer.
Then, her right hand, which had shed all traces of age through rejuvenation, gently caressed my cheek.
“You are my greatest masterpiece. You know that, right?”
“Yes.”
“Make sure you come back alive. I won’t forgive you if you die recklessly.”
“Yes.”
“…I’m a bit tired. I think I can finally sleep well.”
After murmuring this, my master slowly closed her trembling eyes.
Thud!
At the same time, the hand that had been caressing my cheek fell limply to the floor.
—
I laid my master, who had fallen into a deep sleep due to the backlash of using too much mana, on a bench in the corner of the training ground and quietly left the Emerald Tower.
Normally, my legs would have been trembling from mana depletion, but thanks to the Unlimited Power around my neck, I could walk around as if nothing had happened.
That hero brat, keeping such a good thing to himself?
I rolled the smooth, large gemstone in my hand as I headed home.
“I’m back.”
When I opened the door and entered, Barnett and Dorothy, fully armed, were sitting on the living room sofa waiting for me.
“How did it go? What’s the result?”
I shrugged and said to her.
“From now on, call me Caldlasth, the 7th rank Grand Mage.”
Today is the day of the final battle.
