Chapter 48 – Ignited Passion

Chapter 48 – Ignited Passion

— Leon Greyrat —

Opening my eyes, I stared up at the canvas of our tent, slowly letting the daze of sleep filter out of my mind and body as I thought about my current condition.

Thankfully, it seemed that I was alive, judging by the fact I was thinking like this.

After an injury like that... it would be more likely that Orsted was just a dream than me having survived, but from how my hands trembled at the memory, the thrum of pain in my chest and arm, as well as the large patch of dried blood I could see on the ground near the destroyed boulder to my side, that was obviously not the case.

So... I lived through that.

Was I... healed?

Yeah, I must have been, seeing that I could squeeze my right hand and wiggle my toes.

Norn and Aisha didn’t have the skill to do this, nor the mana. And Eris didn’t even know healing magic.

A friendly passerby doing this was... extremely unlikely as well.

So who the hell healed me?

Was... was it Orsted?

Did he change his mind for some reason?

Right after embedding his hand through my chest and spine?

Looking down at my bare torso, I noticed the large scar right where I had been stabbed, and looking over at my shoulder, I could see where my arm had been hastily reattached, a jagged line of scar tissue wrapping around like a sleeve.

But to leave a scar like that...

“That fucker... he just did the bare minimum, didn’t he?” I mumbled under my breath.

Either way, seeing this tent that had been set up, and hearing the familiar muffled voices not far from here, it seemed that the other three had survived.

And tilting my head up, I could see that was indeed the case, as the three were currently loading things into the carriage without a visible scratch on them.

Good... that was relieving.

So Orsted must have left them too.

Did he take pity on me?

Well... I wasn’t stupid enough nor prideful enough to hate him for that.

As I rested my head against the makeshift pillow once again, I noticed a lock of hair fall onto my face.

Except, unlike the usual golden colour I was used to, instead, it was... white.

...What?

Creating a mirror with ice magic, I looked at my reflection, instantly taking note of the streak of white that now ran down my hair near the front of my head.

Was that... from my last attack? When I used up all my mana?

I had heard of such a symptom being the result of overusing one's mana, but I never expected to ever have it happen to me, given my much higher-than-average mana stores and reliance on swordsmanship rather than magic.

Still... at least it looked cool... Right?

With me holding up my makeshift mirror, the other three took notice of my awakened state, all simultaneously dropping what they were doing to run over.

“Leon!” “Brother!” “Big Brother!”

Quickly finding myself in the embrace of all three girls, I wrapped my arms around them all, bringing them closer as I heard them begin to sniffle.

Hearing that, I decided to mute the grunt of pain that nearly escaped when they collectively swarmed me.

Haa... I really worried them, didn’t I?

...I would have to be better.

“It’s okay, I’m here. I’m alright. We’re all alright,” I said, soothing them as I ran my hands through their hair in an attempt to calm them down.

My gentle words seemed to do the trick as they all began to settle down, opting to snuggle against me, trying to retain my warmth as their tears dried out.

Honestly, it was so comfy that I could easily fall asleep here, but waiting around on the side of the road would do nothing for our progress, not even mentioning how it would be quite risky.

That aside... I really messed up, huh?

Orsted... this time, he let me live, and let my family live as well, but there was no telling if that would happen last time.

And what about other strong people in the world?

Sure, the Dragon God was ranked as the second strongest, but he dealt with me easily, only ever using one hand to defend and attack.

...That was quite a depressing thought...

Anyway, moving on, if he took me down that easily, then what about the seventh strongest?

Or even the tenth?

And what if they had other advantages aside from their strength and skills, such as the element of surprise, or even a hostage?

One thing was for sure... I had been ignorant.

I had been content with my current growth rate, seeing as I could easily handle most of the population, and was happy following a set path of improvement.

No... I needed to get stronger than that.

Strong enough to fight against the strongest in this world.

I would need to rethink my abilities, destroy the framework I had set for myself and create something new from the rubble.

Yes... I would get stronger... strong enough to etch myself into the Seven World Powers.

Not for fame, nor pride, but for reassurance that next time I would need to fight an overwhelming opponent... I would win.

— Leon Greyrat —

With our group back on the road, making our way through the mountain pass of the Red Dragon’s Lower Jaw, I watched the passing scenery from the coachman’s seat as we rode onward.

Feeling some movement from my lap, I glanced downward, watching as Eris, who was fast asleep, repositioned herself.

Though, she was still resting her head on my leg.

After staying up all night as a lookout, she was quick to fall asleep, letting the constant rumble of the carriage soothe her to soothing slumber with my leg as her pillow.

“Hehe~ Not there~” she giggled, a small trail of drool dripping past her lips.

...What was she dreaming about?

If I didn’t know that she desperately needed the rest, I would definitely be pinching those cute cheeks right about now.

Sighing with a smile, I turned my head to glance behind me, feeling a familiar tuft of maroon-coloured hair tickle my nose.

Aisha and Norn were in the carriage, and while they weren’t sleeping, they did make sure that their backs were to mine so we were touching as they read.

Honestly, ever since I woke up, the three haven’t let me out of their grasp, let alone their sight.

Not that I could really blame them after something like that...

Anyway, one thing was for sure... to stop anything like that from happening again, both to me and my family, I needed to get better.

But... how would I do that?

Luckily, the good thing about getting overwhelmed by an opponent like Orsted, was that I was able to learn quite a lot from our short battle.

First, there was the way he used the Water God Style’s Flow seamlessly with his bare body.

While Master had done that before, back in Roa, it was... not to that extent.

And his touki... it wasn’t the usual enhancement.

Rather, it was layered. Like threads sewn together into a protective cloth.

...I needed to rethink a lot of things.

Touki, magic, mana... and then combat as a whole.

Ah, and also that wave of mana Orsted used to stop my healing magic.

What would I even call that? Magic nullification?

But it didn’t nullify. Rather, it overwhelmed the mana I was using in the spell with his own, disturbing the spell formation and my mana control...

So... disturb magic then. I needed to practice that too.

And then, with all those pieces, I needed to make a combat style that merged them together seamlessly, cutting out any fat for an efficient, overwhelming combat style as the final product.

“Mmm, Leon...” Eris mumbled, temporarily breaking me out of my thoughts.

Smiling down at her, I ran my hand through her hair, scratching behind her ear as she curled up closer to me.

Cute.

Right. I needed to get stronger, that was for sure.

That’s right.

I was selfish, so if she wanted to be mine, she would have to be happy staying that way.

That was me.

Leon Greyrat.

A wrathful, selfish, greedy man.

“I’m already yours... dummy,” she said, leaning down to kiss me.

Trailing kisses down my cheek and to my neck, she stopped only to whisper in my ear, “So... do what you want with Eri... nyan~”

The thread snapped.

And so, following her request, I did exactly that, only after casting a detoxification spell for birth control, of course.

I was more than happy to paint her scary memories with new, exciting, and happy ones, and I wanted to do so long into the future.

Because I loved Eris Boreas Greyrat with all my heart.

And she loved me with all of hers.

And thus, we showed our love in the purest form possible, long into the night, embracing the newfound affection, lust, and ignited passion we held for each other.

— Leon Greyrat —

Stretching out my calves with a smile, I took in a deep breath of the amazingly clear morning air, only tainted by the smell of fresh food cooking on the nearby stalls.

The world... it truly was beautiful, huh?

And more than that, last night was extremely beautiful as well.

Sex... it was... amazing.

As well as extremely fulfilling.

Both in the physical and emotional sense.

So much so that I could easily find myself addicted.

Perhaps... I truly was a Greyrat, huh?

I think... I could understand my brother and father a bit more after experiencing it.

It was a bit awkward at first, but soon enough we both found our rhythm, leading to a different type of pleasure I could have never imagined before.

And by the sounds from last night, it was the same for her as well.

With our supernatural stamina, we were able to go long into the night, the only thing stopping us from going until dawn being the sound of the bedframe cracking under our movements.

Not wanting to pay extra for the stay, we put a stop to things there, but with both of us cuddling close after the act, and Eris wearing a content smile as she fell asleep on my chest, I would say we were both more than satisfied.

However, I did need to cast some healing magic on both of our hips in the morning.

And she was a swordswoman strong enough to deal with a Saint-ranked swordsman... if Sylphy and Roxy ended up working out and we got to that level of our relationship, I would have to be sure to calm myself.

Anyway, after washing off in the bath together, she quickly left for the market to buy something alone, not letting me join her, and not telling me what she was getting.

But that was fine.

After all, I did want to eat breakfast with my sisters.

What I didn’t want, however, were the raised eyebrows from both the innkeeper and Aisha herself, my cute little sister sending a knowing grin my way throughout the entire meal.

Seriously... I watched her all the time, so when did she ever learn about that stuff?

Either way, with them currently doing their own thing in their room, I decided to take advantage of the idle time I had found for myself, as well as the inn’s rather large backyard, to do some morning training.

My sword cutting through the crisp morning air, I went through the very familiar motions as my mind turned to the other reason I came out here.

To think.

More specifically, to think about how I would improve my combat abilities from now on.

The first step, before I embarked on any haphazard training, was to lay out what needed to be done.

A clear training plan.

So... first and foremost was that layered touki Orsted so helpfully showed me, and quite literally, ingrained into me.

It wasn’t the type that everyone in the world was used to using, where it formed inside and over the body and weapon like a shell or armour.

No, it was more like chainmail... A collection of fibres and threads that interlaced, becoming overwhelmingly strong.

It made sense.

With such a structure, it was extremely stable, where even if one ‘fibre’ was cracked, the structure as a whole would remain unperturbed. And there was also the elasticity, flexibility, and tension distribution that it offered.

That explained Orsted’s insane defence.

And as for moving fast... he did something similar to what I did to cut him with my sword.

Tracing a ‘path’ with touki and letting his body follow it.

After waking up from the battle, I realized that much of my soreness was not from the barely-healed injuries, nor my depleted mana.

Instead, most of it was from the backlash of using that technique with my body.

But with that new touki technique that increased my defence... I might be able to use it without worrying too much about any backlash.

Next, there was how he used his body for sword attacks.

That one was just a mix of getting better at unarmed combat while perfecting the touki technique.

I would still prefer to use the sword, of course, but it would be useful to learn as well. Both for when I didn’t have a sword on hand, as well as to weave such attacks into my regular swordsmanship.

Then, there was disturb magic, and in the same vein, combatting it.

Luckily, I could easily train both with what I had in mind by simply trying to ‘disturb’ a spell with one hand and trying to keep it going with the other.

As I had discovered with my limited experiments, sending waves of pure mana outward... wasn’t exactly so simple.

It had to be directed, concentrated, and done with enough accuracy and precision to target the spell’s ‘core’.

...There was no such thing as a spell’s ‘core’, at least from what I knew, and that’s what made it so difficult.

Very complicated and conceptual, yes, but with enough practice... I could do it.

Next was compressing magic, as well as making my magic more efficient.

I wasn’t like my crazy brother, who had a seemingly infinite amount of mana and an enhanced power to the mana itself.

To create an attack that could harm that monster, I needed to be able to compress it to insane levels, while also doing it efficiently, so that I didn’t get any more white hairs.

That was easy to understand, but putting it into practice may be quite difficult.

Anyway, next, I needed to create more unique magic with the freedom that mana offered.

I always knew that this world’s concept of spells was much too rigid, but somewhere along the way, I found myself content with my breadth of knowledge, where the only thing ‘unique’ about my set of spells was my lightning bolt attack.

No. I needed to grow my arsenal to create unique, overwhelming attacks using my talent, raw skill, and knowledge of science.

Magic so overwhelming that powerful opponents would be immediately defeated when they encountered it, and so unique that onlookers wouldn’t have a clue of how to stop it even after seeing it multiple times.

And then, there was my swordsmanship.

I needed to redefine it.

Before, I thought it would be fine to act as a more advanced version of my father, seamlessly switching from style to style as it suited me.

But that wouldn’t work.

Rather, it would limit me to the maximum power of all three styles added together.

Instead, I needed to multiply that power.

And to do so, I needed to mould them together instead of simply switching between them.

Luckily, I believed I was already on this path if that sword strike that was able to reach Orsted’s neck, combining Dance of Deluge and Longsword of Light, was any indication.

I needed to do more of that and to do so, I would have to go into it with an open mind, careful not to be trapped by the predefined standards of this world’s swordsmanship, while also growing the number of ‘ingredients’ I could use by learning more techniques.

And finally, and most importantly, I needed to bring all of these elements together.

It would be a lot of work and a lot of effort... but if I wanted to contend against the true monsters, the strongest of this world, I would have to do it.

All so that when my power is needed... I will become strong enough to be considered one of the Seven World Powers.

All so that I would never be overwhelmed again, and always be there to defend my family.

That, I promised.

My resolve hardened, I returned to swinging my sword, this time with a new sense of vigour that caused whirlwinds to form at the end of every swing.