312 – Fishing is going well. (1)

Claude took the lead and asked.

“What training are you talking about?”

Is there really a need to ask for help with training when there’s so much work to do? Until now, the Lord had trained alone. The only time he trained with someone else was during his sparring sessions with Gillian.

Ghislaine shrugged it off as if it were no big deal.

“Just continue with your usual work and tell the knights to ambush me. I won’t retaliate or hold anyone accountable for the attacks. Just keep the use of mana to a minimum or avoid it altogether. Of course, I won’t use it either.”

Once again, he’s saying something crazy. Amid the blinking eyes, Belinda asked.

“Young Master? What kind of training are you planning to do?”

“Well, it’s a continuation of the training I was doing before. To put it simply, I’m trying to improve my body’s defense by taking some hits.”

“……Usually, that leads to serious illness, you know? You’re skilled enough to understand that.”

“It’s fine. You know my recovery ability, right? I’m just planning on slightly increasing the intensity of the training.”

“Please don’t. It would be dangerous to get attacked without using mana properly.”

When one reaches a level of being able to use mana, even without consciously wrapping it around their body, their flesh hardens to some extent. The body begins to harbor mana bit by bit.

So, without needing to draw up mana, one’s senses become sharper, and physical abilities improve.

At Ghislaine’s level, he likely harbors more mana throughout his body than most knights.

But there are limits. Human skin is more fragile than one might think. Without proper mana manipulation, it’s impossible to defend against steel weapons.

Despite Belinda’s advice, Ghislaine shook his head.

“No, it’s essential for me right now. It won’t take long. Just a few days should do.”

“Why on earth are you doing this?”

“If I push a little more, I feel like my senses will level up.”

Ghislaine’s training had reached a point of half success. With just a bit more effort, he felt like he could block attacks from a novice knight’s mana assaults with his body.

However, the training method of getting pricked and letting his body respond automatically had hit a wall at some point.

He already knew where he would be attacked before the attack even happened in his mind. He had reached a level where just thinking about a thrust would cause mana to gather at that spot.

‘This isn’t right. Knowing and reacting holds no meaning.’

The ultimate goal was to allow for sudden attacks anywhere and to reflexively block and counterattack.

He thought about asking the dwarves to make some devices, but that too would inevitably establish patterns, which fell short of Ghislaine’s goals. In the end, the best training is real combat, and if that’s too difficult, it must at least be as akin to real combat as possible.

Belinda clicked her tongue at Ghislaine’s absurd training method.

“Can you please take care of yourself? What kind of knight would attack you here, Young Master?”

Ghislaine was the lord of this territory. Who would dare to attack someone like him with ease?

“I think there would be quite a few.”

At Ghislaine’s words, Claude nodded. Still, Belinda opposed.

“No! I won’t allow that! If you get even a scratch on you, I won’t stand by and do nothing. Do you understand?”

At her warning, Ghislaine spoke playfully.

“Why don’t you give it a try, Belinda? I’ll buy you a ‘Sharnel’. Just give me a wound.”

“Young Master! Don’t play such dangerous games!”

Flutter!

Pachachachachang!

Dozens of daggers erupted from various parts of Belinda’s body.

Ghislaine was taken aback and immediately summoned mana. The momentum was too strong for him to ignore it.

Tatatatang!

He swatted some away with his hands and dodged others, pulling his body back.

As all the daggers fell, Ghislaine looked at Belinda in astonishment.

She slightly turned her head and mumbled.

“I didn’t mean to… I just got a little angry for not listening, so I thought it would end quickly… It’s not like I wanted something… Ah, that’s stopping me.”

“…….”

Coincidentally, Belinda had made the first move. With that, there were no further objections.

Clearing his throat, Ghislaine spoke to Gillian.

“Since randomly attacking won’t be effective for training, let’s conduct training and select someone to ambush daily. I’ll say that anyone who inflicts proper injuries will receive a gold coin as a reward.”
“If we just throw everything at the training, it won’t work out, so let’s conduct the training and choose someone to ambush daily. We’ll offer them a reward of gold coins if they inflict proper damage.”

“……Understood.”

Gillian sighed, contemplating whether to intervene, but it was clear that his objections would be ignored anyway.

Thus began the lord’s ambush training. Initially hesitant, the knights soon found joy in attacking Ghislaine.

Ghislaine didn’t really counterattack. He avoided only the attacks that felt a bit dangerous, while taking shallow ones like they were nothing.

He also suppressed his mana as much as he could.

So, no matter how skilled Ghislaine was, he inevitably took injuries. Those who managed to hurt him received rewards.

Gold coins dropped with every hit? Who could ignore a walking treasure chest?

“Here it comes! My gold coins!”

“Today, they’re mine!”

“It’s a chance to hit the lord!”

Some knights mixed personal feelings into their strikes, but for whatever reason, they hit Ghislaine diligently.

Since they couldn’t just follow Ghislaine around all day, they were limited to one opportunity a day.

With this restriction, the way they ambushed started to get crafty. Without anyone telling them, they all began to behave like assassins.

They would scout out Ghislaine’s path ahead of time and lie in wait, or ambush him out of nowhere while he was working.

“Wow, I didn’t expect such an effect.”

Ghislaine couldn’t help but smile at the unexpected bonus. As everyone took hiding and cover seriously, their skills improved quite a bit.

Thanks to their meetings and exchanges of advice, they were using their brains in the process.

This situation was exactly what Ghislaine had hoped for. It was a technique to train against attacks he wasn’t consciously aware of.

“I need to dull my senses even more.”

The problem was that Ghislaine’s senses were too acute. Because of the skill gap, he could sense where the hidden opponents were, making ambushes slightly less effective.

He had to find a way to dull his senses enough to take hits.

Whoosh!

Out of nowhere, Gordon appeared and slashed at Ghislaine’s arm, laughing.

“Hehehe, my skills have really improved, huh?”

“Hmm, you’re quite useful now.”

“I got hurt, so you owe me money.”

“Right, keep trying harder.”

“Hehe, I did it!”

He definitely told everyone to suppress their mana, but everyone secretly infused it with mana because they wanted the cash.

Surprisingly, as the days passed, they were getting hurt less and less.

Ghislaine let it be, thinking it was a good thing. As the opponents gradually increased their mana, their bodies couldn’t keep up anymore.

It was definitely not an easy task. If he got hit too quickly, the mana would gather, and before he could block, he would get hurt.

“My body needs to respond faster.”

In his usual conscious state with his senses activated, there wasn’t a problem. He could dodge before the attack even made contact and could block with his mana.

However, when he dulled his senses, he could only notice the attack after it had started. Once he sensed it and gathered his mana, there was a limit to how much he could react. He still couldn’t block attacks above a certain level effectively.

“Hmm… maybe I need to increase the intensity a bit.”

The body needed to feel a danger to survival and change accordingly. Since he began to receive actual knight attacks, he was beginning to see results from his training.

Ghislaine wandered around the castle, lost in the same thoughts every day. Then one day, someone blocked his path as he was walking, as usual.

“Why?”

It was Ascon, wearing a rather cheeky expression.

“Can I try attacking too?”

“Huh? You don’t know how to use mana, do you?”

Now, it was difficult to injure Ghislaine with regular attacks. Even if he consciously suppressed his mana, Ascon’s uninfused blade would only lightly graze his outer skin.

That wouldn’t provide any sense of danger to his body or draw out proper reactions.

But Ascon continued, eager to give it a shot.

“Isn’t it unfair to only give the knights a chance? I want to try too.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“You’re granting permission, right?”

“Yes, that’s what I’m saying.”
“I’ll try a mental attack then.”

“……?”

Before Ghislaine could say anything, Ascon’s mouth opened first.

“Hey, you piece of crap, because of you I almost starved to death at this age, chewing on powder and whatnot, you son of a—, living like a damn fool, you crazy bastard, ugh……”

“……”

The foul language flowed incessantly. It felt almost sorrowful.

Behind Ghislaine, who was chuckling in disbelief, Belinda rushed over with an expression like an evil spirit after hearing the news.

Ascon was immediately dragged away with his words ‘shibarri’ and locked up in a prison.

Without skipping a beat, Ghislaine’s training continued afterward.

As it seemed like his speed was slowing down a bit, Ghislaine increased the number of personnel that could participate in the raid and the limit of times they could come.

He also loosened the constraints on mana even more than before.

From that moment on, the knights became bolder in attacking Ghislaine.

Ghislaine even received dangerous attacks head-on now. There were times he got severely injured and had to be carried off, and there was an instance when one of his arms almost got completely severed.

“You young master! Please stop it!”

“Lord, it’s getting increasingly dangerous!”

“This is not training; it’s exploitation!”

Belinda and the retainers all started to stop him. His body was already covered in wounds, and the more wounds he had, the slower his recovery speed became.

Still, Ghislaine stood firm.

“No, I’m getting better at this.”

The body doesn’t lie. The change had started the moment he was stabbed in the heart.

Even without conscious effort, his body maintained a tense state, and every time he was attacked, the speed at which mana gathered in those areas increased little by little.

His senses became unbelievably sharp. Even though he deliberately suppressed and dulled them, they were much sharper than before.

Moreover, unexpected effects begun to manifest.

‘This is…’

Daily injuries and constant attacks. After dodging death’s threat multiple times, his body started looking for a new survival method.

There was a limit to how fast mana could move from the core. It wouldn’t speed up beyond a certain point.

So, the body naturally attempted to distribute mana throughout itself gradually.

Even without Ghislaine’s conscious effort, it was as if the first stage of the core was activated across his whole body.

‘Wow, I can’t believe this will work.’

This was a technique Ghislaine had devised and attempted long ago.

If he continuously activated mana throughout his body, it would inevitably deplete. To recharge the depleted mana properly, he would have to practice or take sufficient rest.

For someone as skilled as Ghislaine, he could recover a bit just through breathing, but eventually, he would run out of all his mana.

There was also the issue of needing to consciously manage mana.

‘That’s why I wanted to increase my reaction speed.’

Right now, mana was autonomously moving to protect his body.

Moreover, it even started replenishing the consumed mana little by little, like breathing through the skin and respiratory organs.

Though it was an extremely small amount compared to when he was practicing mana control, it was still absorbing the surrounding mana on its own.

In this way, when continuously faced with life-or-death situations, the human body can achieve remarkable evolution.

‘I need to tweak the mana control technique a bit more.’

He felt how the mana was currently moving within his body. Using this, he thought he could enhance the mana control technique once again.

‘Perhaps…… I could increase the number of cores even more than in my past life based on this.’

In his previous life, his limit was creating 5 cores. While having more cores added burden to his body, the rapid depletion of mana was also a problem.

However, even with just 5 cores, Ghislaine had reached a supreme status as one of the ‘Seven Dominators’ of the continent. It was hard to find anyone who could match him there.

Using the realizations he had now and evolving from them, he felt like even more was possible.

“Good.”

Ghislaine smiled pleasantly. The brief spark of inspiration from his training had provided him with insight for the future.
Because it had given clues for the future.

As soon as the core of stage one began to return on its own without conscious effort, the body gradually became accustomed to that state.

And the effect was astonishing.

“I’ve come again today!”

Ten knights suddenly appeared, swinging their swords toward Ghislaine from all directions.

Their swords were all surrounded by a faint blue light.

An attack that could only be considered at the level of a novice knight.

Until now, such attacks had been enough to injure Ghislaine’s body because he had suppressed his own mana.

So this time, Ghislaine also didn’t draw up his mana. He simply accepted the attacks with his body as usual.

Ka-ka-ka-kang!

“……?”

The knights who succeeded in their attacks wore puzzled expressions.

Why did it sound like steel was being struck, even though they had cut into flesh?

Confirming the situation, the knights gasped in shock.

“W-what?!”

“How did this happen?”

“You used mana, didn’t you? You said you wouldn’t!”

Ghislaine’s body was perfectly fine. His clothes were torn, but there wasn’t even a small scratch on his skin.

At their cries, Ghislaine finally scanned his body roughly and nodded.

“Hm, this should be enough for now.”

Without consciously using mana, he had entered a state of using the core of stage one continuously. Thus, the knights’ attacks had entirely missed their target.

Of course, the knights hadn’t put forth their full strength either. They only delivered attacks at a truly novice level. If they had unleashed their real strength, they could have inflicted serious injuries.

“From today, the lord’s ambush training is concluded.”

There was no need for further practice of being ambushed. Though still weak, a new foundation had been established.

What needed to be done next was to develop and strengthen this further. The goal was to naturally activate the core of stage two, stage three, and aim for even higher realms.

At the declaration of the end of the ambush, the knights wore slightly disappointed expressions.

‘Ah, the side income was pretty nice over the past while.’

‘It could have been better if we just had a bit more time.’

‘I did enjoy the thrill of hitting the lord.’

The biggest disappointment was the loss of entertainment, but that wasn’t all. The knights thought the same as they watched Ghislaine wander off.

‘He’s becoming more and more like a monster.’

What they thought was insane training actually had real effects. The knights who were considering trying it out themselves soon shook their heads.

Only the lord could do something as crazy as that.

*

Territory development was progressing smoothly. There was plenty of work, but when had there ever been a time without tasks for Penris?

Since everyone was used to the usual tasks, there were no problems with the progress.

They were breaking down old residences, merging villages, and fortifying the fortress. They expanded necessary workshops and sought more efficient ways to utilize Desmond’s abundant resources.

Road construction was also underway here. As roads were built, the movement of resources sped up, making the pace of territory development incomparable to before.

Of course, it wasn’t without its problems.

Claude was scratching his head, looking at the mountain of documents stacked on his desk.

“Hm… we’re still short on administrators.”

Desmond’s retainers had all been killed.

Even though he was selecting some usable individuals from lower-level officials through thorough interrogations, the territory was vast and there was a lot to do, so there simply weren’t enough people.

“Sigh, where should I find more recruits?”

Rumors about him had spread all over the Seiron Academy, so it seemed challenging to bring someone from there. Ultimately, he would have to recruit people from elsewhere again.

“For the time being, I can’t take on any more work.”

Even now, one person was doing the work of nearly ten. If more tasks were added, it would really become unmanageable.

The lord was also focusing on training, wondering if there were any new tasks at the fortress. It seemed better to concentrate solely on training the soldiers and development.

On a day when Claude was feeling relieved, Ghislaine barged through the door and declared.

“I will now start new ventures.”

“……”

“I’ll establish the Penris Magic Research Institute and create a magic corps.”

Claude’s face contorted in shock.