Chapter 20

Episode 20: The Night After the Duel

…The night after the duel with Eliza Rowlett and being safely released from Restia.

Shion was, as usual, training in magic at the C-class student practical training ground.

He activated “Limit Acceleration,” maintaining it until his magic ran out while remaining stationary.

After a dozen seconds, his magic ran out, leaving him gasping for breath and drenched in sweat.

With his blood vessels swollen abnormally and enduring the intense pain from the magic depletion, he sat on the ground, drinking a potion to wait for his magic to recover.

Once his magic was restored, he stood up again, activated “Limit Acceleration,” and this time practiced moving his body significantly while maintaining the state.

When his magic ran out again, he drank another potion, waited for recovery, and then practiced quickly activating and deactivating “Limit Acceleration.”

Next, he tried activating another magic spell while maintaining “Limit Acceleration,” continuing this cycle.

All these actions were part of his training to master “Limit Acceleration.”

From the day he first activated “Limit Acceleration,” he had trained without a single day off, without any compromise.

Even now, it was only at a superficial level of performance, but when he first succeeded in activating it, it was far from usable.

The first time he activated “Limit Acceleration,” he could only maintain it for about 0.1 seconds, immediately running out of magic and fainting.

Shion was born with a natural affinity for “Limit Acceleration,” but that was only by his standards.

…For him, being able to activate high-level magic, regardless of its usefulness, was enough to say he had the aptitude.

Before, Shion had tried to activate countless high-level magic spells but couldn’t even manage to activate a single one.

During those days, his merchant parents obtained a rare magic book that wasn’t even available in the national magic library.

It was a magic book entirely written in Dragon Tongue.

Dragon Tongue is a unique language used by dragons and dragonkin, different from the common language widely used around the world.

Many demi-humans, including dragonkin, originally lived without interacting with humans, but over time, various demi-humans began living alongside humans, and the number of half-demi-humans, so-called half-breeds, increased.

As a result, humans inherited much of the magic and culture unique to demi-humans.

Dragonkin excelled in handling magic and possessed several unique spells, and people created many magic books translated into the common language.

However, spells that had no users among the dragonkin or no humans to inherit them were not translated, leaving only magic books in Dragon Tongue.

One of these was the magic book for “Limit Acceleration,” which Shion’s parents had acquired.

To attempt to activate this magic, one first had to learn Dragon Tongue, and Shion, upon receiving the book from his parents, immediately began studying it.

A unique magic created by a clan with dragon blood. A magic long forgotten, with perhaps no users left in the modern world.

The possibility that “Limit Acceleration” might become a unique magic only Shion Kurosaki could use in the modern world thrilled him beyond measure.

──”A trump card only I possess,” there was no other phrase that could shake Shion so deeply.

With his parents’ help, he learned Dragon Tongue while deciphering the “Limit Acceleration” magic book, memorizing its structure and incantation.

He didn’t succeed in activating it from the start, but after thousands of attempts, he finally succeeded.

Even then, the duration was a mere 0.1 seconds.

A heavy burden on his body, unable to move a muscle as 0.1 seconds passed, immediately running out of magic.

The magic he had devoted an enormous amount of time to was far from usable.

Any ordinary mage would have immediately dismissed it as “this magic isn’t for me.”

But Shion was different.

Having desperately studied countless magics without being able to activate even one, the fact that he could activate “Limit Acceleration,” even at an unusable level, convinced him that “this will be my trump card.”

From the day he first succeeded in activating it, he had trained “Limit Acceleration” without a single day off.

Believing that one day, it would truly become his trump card.

In today’s duel with Eliza Rowlett, Shion could only avoid Eliza’s magic, and by any measure, it was a clear defeat for him.

Eliza Rowlett was an opponent Shion would lose to a thousand times out of a thousand.

An opponent with an absolute difference in talent, magic, and everything else.

However, “Limit Acceleration” undoubtedly surpassed Eliza Rowlett’s trump card, “Destructive Piercing Rain of Wind Arrows.”

The effort Shion had accumulated, the edge he had honed, was surely nearing her throat.

If only he could have maintained “Limit Acceleration” for a few more seconds, if he could have unleashed another attack magic while maintaining it, if he could have used “Limit Acceleration” more skillfully… perhaps he could have landed a blow on her.

“Limit Acceleration” held the potential for Shion to surpass A-class mages.

──Shion was convinced that the magic he had chosen was not wrong.

Lacking talent in magic, he worked harder than anyone in the academy, yet his growth was slower than anyone’s.

Even after years of extraordinary training, he could only manage to walk for a dozen seconds while “Limit Acceleration” was active.

But no matter how small his steps, he always moved forward.

He never stopped.

Believing without doubt that one day he would become the strongest magic swordsman.

Thus, he continued his daily training today, and would continue from tomorrow onwards.

Click the heart to easily show your support. (Login required)

Support

Login if you have an account

Learn more about the reading experience possible with Kakuyomu.