Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Talent Can Be Considered This (2)A familiar.

To be more exact, an egg that will eventually become a familiar.

It’s a very precious item that can hatch a permanent summon rather than a temporary one. It can be hatched only by the person imprinted as its master by magic imbuement—even if the master is not a summoner.

I carefully took out the glass case that contained the golden egg.

The case, glowing brilliantly after absorbing sunlight, seemed so radiant that I thought it must be of great value itself.

“She told me to infuse it with magic every morning and night, right?”

It was slowly approaching dusk.

I lifted the case up and finally put the golden egg in my hands.

I did not feel anything particularly special.

I suppose that is natural since it’s not time for it to hatch.

“Hm.”

I imbued it with magic and thought of what Clare had told me.

A familiar requires patience and a dedicated infusion of magic for it to hatch.

On top of that, the magic attributes have to match and other difficult-to-meet conditions that have yet to be discovered have to be fulfilled to hatch it.

Since there were not many examples of this before, that was all Clare knew.

Therefore, some eggs have never been hatched because their hatching conditions were not discovered, leading to their masters changing over time.

“Will that happen to me, too?”

It was too early to conclude, but even after infusing it with magic for a long time, there has not been any response from the egg.

This could be natural.

After that, I tried various ways of changing the magic’s flow, such as infusing magic very slowly, and so on, but I could feel no difference in the egg’s shell.

I was neither disappointed nor let down, of course.

“If I want to land it on the first try, that would just be being greedy.”

I was the one who had to silently endure the beatings the foul-mouthed soldiers gave me because they were in a bad mood or because their comrades had died.

Patience is my strongest weapon.

Knock knock.

“Young master, have you finished getting ready?”

“Ah, I’m coming.”

At that moment, I heard Herman’s voice, so I placed the egg back in the glass case and placed it below a window that received plenty of sunshine.

“I am guessing that a sunny location is better than shade?”

I grabbed my short spear and started heading out of the room when…

Whoong.

“Huh?”

I thought I heard some sound.

I approached the egg in disbelief.

“Herman, just a moment.”

“Yes, young master.”

I opened the case and examined the egg.

There did not seem to be any cracks or shifts in positioning.

I could not feel any remnants of my magic, either.

I infused more magic into it just in case, but there was no reaction.

“Eesh.”

It had raised my hopes.

Well, I suppose the thought of having it react overnight is laughable, right?

I put the egg back in the case and got up.

I emptied my mind of thoughts of the egg for now.

What I needed to do at that moment was train my spearmanship and magic.

I had training in tracking with Mother scheduled for later tonight.

“I’ll be off now.”

I held back my feelings of anticipation and left the room to head to the training ground with Herman.

Once we arrived at the training ground, Herman took his place on one side.

After I told him he should sit since I thought he may end up standing all day like last time, I took hold of my short spear.

“Whew.”

After breathing in, I began with a stab.

Training is a continual process however boring and dry it is.

Only after repeating the same movement thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of times can it be perfected.

That is why I did not immediately focus on increasing the number of mana cores I had formed.

Actually, at my current level of growth, even a single mana core was sufficient. I could always walk the same path I had walked before whenever I wanted.

After executing 10 sets of 100 reps, I momentarily set my spear down and took a breather.

“Young master, have some water.”

“Ah, Herman. Thanks.”

While he was handing me water, Herman delivered some praises.

“You look very impressive. The way you manage to do that a thousand times… even seasoned knights would have difficulty executing them flawlessly.”

I smiled at his comment and handed back the water bottle.

It was all thanks to my mana cores.

From the moment you form a mana core, your body becomes energized and does not tire easily.

Even forming a single core could energize the body greatly.

Naturally, mana cores are not all-powerful.

Just because you have good stamina does not mean you can execute a thousand reps flawlessly.

I suppose I can say that patience is required.

As someone who was stomping on battlefields since childhood, this was not particularly difficult to do.

“It gets better if you keep doing it.”

I grinned and took a tart.

I took a big bite and the sweetness of it spread in my mouth.

This was it. It would not be good to have too much of it, but I could not give this taste up.

My previous life is to blame for all of this.

Sugar was too precious a commodity during the war. There was no way for such a precious item to reach the soldiers at the front line.

That’s why I considered sugar quite important. So much so that after forming a mana core and people treated me better, I considered taking sugar as payment instead of money.

Sweets are absolutely the best.

“Please partake.”

“Ah, uh. Yes. Thank you.”

I watched Herman wolf down the tart as soon as those words left my lips. I grinned. He must have really wanted to eat it.

“That was truly delicious, young master. Thank you.”

“Let me know whenever you want to eat some.”

“N-no. How could I dare to…”

“It’d be a hassle for the chef to bake just one.”

“…Thank you.”

I took another bite out of the tart and enjoyed the breeze blowing from the south.

Suddenly, Leila came to mind. Was she practicing hard? If she mistakenly fired a magic bullet in the carriage, she would surely get in trouble with the duke.

I thought of Leila’s swordsmanship as well.

She was talented, in her own way.

Like how she so confidently declared she would surpass her brothers and become the next family head—that I had somehow contributed to that put a smile on my lips.

Should I have sparred with her?

Would that not have been awkward, sparring with a spear against a sword?

“Hm…”

After contemplating it briefly, I wrapped the short spear, put it down, and got up from my seat.

Then I went to the weapon rack and picked out a practice sword.

“Young master? Are you going to train with a sword?”

“Ah, yeah. I just want to try it once.”

Now that I thought about it, I had not wielded a sword even once after being reborn.

I was enjoying learning a new weapon and I could not bring myself to grab a sword under Father’s expectant gaze.

However, neither could I abandon my talent for swords which had completely changed my past life.

I had thought I would swing the sword someday…

And that day looked to be today.

I picked a short sword out. I was a bit surprised at how different its center of gravity was from a spear’s, but that was only for a brief moment.

Swish swish.

After swinging it in the air a few times, I quickly picked that familiar feel back up.

The weapon I had swung millions of times on the battlefield as a matter of life and death.

I got into a proper stance.

Then I tried basic movements such as horizontal slash, vertical slash, and diagonal slash.

“Not bad.”

I had not lost my touch with it at all.

Perhaps it was due to the young age of the body I was in, but I was neither fast nor powerful. Nevertheless, I was satisfied. Sёarch* The Novёlƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Should I train both of them from now on?”

One day with the spear. One day with the sword.

I did not think it was a bad plan.

I continued for ten minutes.

Finally, when I put the sword down, I could see Herman’s blank expression.

“Young master… When did you train in the sword?”

I was a bit flustered.

Because I had swung the sword around as if it was not my first time even though it was my first time in Dane Sogres’ body.

Ah, should I say I had seen it in a dream?

I was debating this when…

“As expected… You’re a genius. You even have talent in swordsmanship…”

Hm.

Being a genius makes things convenient.

* * *

Peace had finally come to the castle which had been bustling during the celebration. Count Sogres stretched and yawned as if he could finally take a breather.

“Whew. Since it’s like this every year, I’m tired.”

But the celebration this time had borne a lot of fruit.

As many as 30 aristocratic families had attended the celebration.

It was a reaffirmation that various nobles had taken an interest in the southern area.

The majority of them hoped to establish good relations with House Sogres.

With the war over, the southern area, with such a great climate and abundance of resources, made the nobles drool.

However, none of that could compare to the attention his son Dane Sogres had drawn.

‘The fight with Count Tyren’s eldest son was unexpected but he handled himself wisely, uncharacteristically for a child.’

Count Sogres was happier about how Dane handled the situation than the fact he defeated Digron.

How Dane explained the situation logically, and of course, how calm he was in front of adults, gave undeniable proof of his talents.

The count was satisfied with everything.

Of course, he was also happy that Dane defeated Digron.

However, truth be told… he was probably a little too happy.

“It would be nice if he behaved a bit more like a child.”

It would be nice if he threw tantrums sometimes, badgered people sometimes, or acted like a child at times. On one hand, it felt like a loss.

Was it because he had learned so much from his sisters?

Or was it because his talent was so excessive?

If other people heard his thoughts, they would tell him off for having such thoughts, but this was his youngest, after all.

And as such, he wanted to dote on Dane for a long, long time and watch him grow up for a long, long time.

“I wonder if my daughters did well on their exams?”

Perhaps he wanted to send Dane out into the world a bit later than his two daughters, who ended up in the academy.

Given that the two of them had demonstrated talent in magic and summoning, he had no choice but to send them to the academy, but Dane was different.

At the very least, he wanted to use properly teaching Dane spearmanship as an excuse.

“Mmm. It’s about time for him to go.”

With that in mind, it was time for him to go train spearmanship with his son.

Count Sogres got up and stopped to look at his weapon Dragon Tail he had left in one corner of his office.

And with a big smile, he picked up Dragon Tail.

“Should I let him swing it once?”

It would not be easy with a seven-year-old’s body, but he was sure Dane’s interest in spearmanship would deepen if he just tried to hold it.

And so Count Sogres headed to the training ground with Dragon Tail, which he had not held in a long time, and was appalled at what he saw.

“A sword…?”

His son was training not with a spear, but with a sword.

In that instant, his heart dropped.