CH 6

You could use this magic pattern to control the wind from the mountain, even making a hot summer day cool.

"Watch what happens when someone gifted with magic touches this pattern..."

I lightly touched the magic pattern with my fingertip.

The time I tested with the ducal house's wizard, a gust turned my lab into a mess.

Nothing happened with the magic pattern now.

Whooosh.

The wind stayed the same, didn't get stronger or change direction.

"...There should have been a reaction. Too bad!"

My body had no magic gift.

I wished I could do magic. I had so many things I wanted to try.

I knew magic basics by heart, and even remembered some more advanced magic.

"Try touching it, Sir Brown. You might have a magic knight's gift."

"Yes, my lord."

I was hopeful, but Brown's touch didn't make the magic pattern react either.

I gently touched it again, hoping it was wrong. The wind got stronger.

'So it's just no gift.'

It was a rough magic pattern, not good for detailed tests.

But if someone couldn't use even this magic pattern, they should have quit trying to do magic a long time ago.

"Tom."

"Can I try touching it too?"

"Yes. But be gentle. If the pattern disappears, even if you have a gift..."

Pop.

Tom touched the edge of the pattern with an innocent smile.

Whooosh!

A fresh breeze blew.

Sir Brown turned to me when he saw the change.

"Does...Tom have a gift?"

"Yes, a small one. But in a barren place like Hebron, even a small gift is rare."

"Wow! Does that mean I'll be a wizard?"

Tom's freckled face lit up as if he were already a great wizard.

He dreamed big, not knowing how hard it would be.

I saw my younger self in him.

'I'll use your gift. I'll nurture it and use it until it's used up.'

I didn't answer, so Sir Brown asked me.

"What kind of gift does he have?"

"If he works hard, he could be a 3rd class wizard by the time he's sixty. I've heard that a more gifted person would make a strong wind blow this pattern."

"Ah...!"

That was all the gift was.

Reaching 3rd class took a lifetime of hard work, and without a good mentor, even reaching 2nd class was tough.

Hiring a wizard to teach was expensive.

Sending them to a school was a bit cheaper, but even the Royal Academy, which got royal funds, was still too costly.

Smaller schools like Saint Paul, Lorenz, and Cyrus asked for two to four times the cost of the Royal Academy.

'5th class by the time he's thirty, maybe 6th class depending on how hard he works after that?'

Using the secret method of Duke Vreio, who could turn a dog into a dragon, Tom could reach the rank of Grand Wizard.

But to get there, I'd have to help as much as the Vreio Duke's family does.

Even the famous Vreio family only gave full help to their own family members.

It took that much to do it.

'If he follows my way well, he can reach the 4th class. If he tries hard, even the 5th class is possible.'

People with Tom's level of magic gift usually got dropped after their gift was found out.

It cost too much time and money to train them.

But Hebron needed all the talent it could get.

Even if it was smaller than Tom's, any gift had to be found and used.

"We need to put this on the city gates."

"So, you want to let the wind in through the city gates."

Brown said, and I nodded.

"We get two things done at once. Depending on what happens, we could also let the wind out. Out of 400 people, there must be at least one more person with a magic gift, right?"

That afternoon, everyone touched the magic pattern on the city gates.

It was carved into the stone, so it didn't erase easily, but I also added a few extra lines to stop other wizards from copying the pattern.

'Just one more, as I thought.'

She was a little less gifted than Tom, but there wasn't a big difference in skill.

'Found her magic gift at thirty-two...'

Tom was already older than most at fifteen, but at thirty-two, Miriam was way too old to start dreaming of the future.

Most people here didn't live past fifty.

"I'll train both of you to be Hebron's wizards."

"Yes, my lord!"

"Am I... am I going to be a wizard too?"

Miriam looked surprised.

She had worked in the Hebron house since she was thirteen, as my personal servant.

After 18 years as a maid, becoming a wizard was more shocking to Miriam than it was exciting.

'If they have a gift, I'll train it. I'll make Hebron a place where anyone can dream big.'

In my old life, I wanted to be a law maker.

I wanted to be in charge of teaching the rules of the Haryan order.

But I couldn't dream, even with my gift.

My family's dreams came first.

-Everyone, no matter where they are in life, should be free to dream.

That was the favorite law of the Xenon royal family.

The law wasn't for me, though.

It's because I wasn't born with the right level of talent for my noble family.

"It won't be easy. You have to be ready. If you're not, it could go really wrong."

"Yes, my lord!"

Unlike Tom, who answered with a loud voice, Miriam looked worried.

She had wide, nervous eyes.

She looked like she was worried she might lose her job as a maid.

Or maybe she was worried she wouldn't be able to learn complex magic, since people say magic is hard.

"Miriam, you can keep taking care of me like you always do and just come when it's time for magic lessons. Once you can do magic, I'll give you a bonus every time you use magic to help with work. Until then, I need you to support me. How does that sound?"

"If that's the case, I'm okay with it, my lord."

Only then did Miriam look a little less worried.

"Miriam, give some wolf jerky to Tom. And the soup he was eating this morning."

As soon as Tom got the jerky, he ate it quickly.

It was probably his first meal of the day.

Like most people here, he only ate one meal a day.

'Yeah, being poor is the biggest problem.'

You can only train talent if you can live comfortably.

Anyone can dream, but to let everyone dream, they have to have enough to eat.

"Sir Brown."

"Yes, my lord."

"We have to take control of the eastern forest."

"What?"

I've learned in the last few days that Brown can make a lot of different faces.

He looked at me with surprised eyes.

"Don't look at me like that. There's a saying that a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Let's just start with what we can do."

After hearing my plan, Sir Brown got the Hebron soldiers ready in the training field.

There were 30 soldiers.

14 of them guarded the castle walls and the guard posts outside the castle, and about 100 more were ready to go if there was an emergency.

The ready forces were just armed people who weren't called on or trained unless there was an emergency, so their training and weapons were a mess.

The full-time soldiers, who got paid by the barony, had spears and shields, and wore old leather armor.

Even though they trained every day, the soldiers' stances were a mess.

Their discipline was so bad that I couldn't find one soldier standing right.

'I need to teach the soldiers real martial arts too. But I can't make a different martial art for each one. The Monolith Spear Technique is the most practical.'

The Monolith Spear Technique was a martial art the Monolith Viscount family taught their strong soldiers.

It was a powerful spear technique that could be used even without aura techniques, and it was really strong if you added just a bit of aura.

It wasn't good for people who wanted to reach higher levels, but it was perfect for the Hebron soldiers.

"Your job isn't hunting. You just have to keep the creatures in the forest from coming into Hebron. You can do that, right?"

"Sure!"

The soldiers stood in a line between the castle wall and the eastern forest.

The only ones who were actually going to fight were Brown and me.

We could wait until the soldiers had basic training before they joined the fight.

My parents were standing on the eastern castle wall.

They looked worried, and my mom sighed and waved at me.

I was the only child of the Hebron Baron family.

Being part of a family where children were so important, I grew up thinking I had to continue the family line.

But that belief was shaken.

'I have a brother who's 20 years younger!'

My mom was in the early stages of pregnancy.

They had been hoping for almost 20 years, but no other children had been born.

They had given up, but then they got this blessing.

Maybe that's why they've been so close recently.

My dad put running the land on hold and only focused on my mom.

My dad wasn't very good as a lord.

He only acted like a lord once a year when he paid taxes to the royal family, and then he didn't worry about his land.

But as a husband and a dad, he was great.

He loved his family a lot.

"Let's go."

"Sure!"

I went to the edge of the eastern forest with Sir Brown.

We could hear beasts roaring in the forest.

There was one road, which was only used when we had to pay taxes.

We used that road to hire a group of mercenaries from outside, and the Hebron Baron's Army went to the royal family with them.

I put a pebble in the sling.

I knew how to use a bow, but I wasn't very good with it.

Instead, I took the sling I had played with since I was a kid.

It was a weapon the shepherds of Hebron usually used.

Whooom Whooom Whooom! Squeak! Thud!

There was a loud noise.

The pebble flew deep into the eastern forest and hit a tree.

Scared birds flew up, and a few beasts ran out.

"Two Ash Wolves, one raccoon."

Sir Brown said.

He ran towards the Ash Wolves, and I quietly moved to the side to aim at the raccoon.

When I used aura with the sling, the leather of the sling got tight like it was going to break.

Whooom Whooom Whooom! Squeak! Thud!

The charging raccoon was hit by the pebble and fell over.

It couldn't get back up.

Its head was crushed and there was a lot of blood.

"I'll take one of the Ash Wolves."

I moved ahead of Sir Brown.

We each took a wolf and started to clean them, not caring who started first.

Clang!

I cut off the front leg of the Ash Wolf that jumped at me.

I knew doing so meant getting a good price for the hide.

On the other hand, Sir Brown attacked the Ash Wolf wildly.

While avoiding its attacks, he hurt its stomach, neck, eyes, and legs.

I pushed my sword into the neck of the Ash Wolf.

Brown also finished off his wolf a bit later.

"Look at the wolf bodies. Can you see the difference between the two?"

"...You killed the wolf quickly to spare its pain. You're really kind-hearted."

Sir Brown said in his own way.

"What are you talking about? Isn't it obvious that you need to kill it without damaging it to sell the hide for a good price? Why did you attack it like that? We can't even get half the price now."

"Ah...!"

Sir Brown's feelings were easy to read on his face.

He tried not to show he was disappointed, or maybe he tried not to feel that way himself.

"Be more careful next time. And you tend to puff out your chest when you swing your sword, you need to fix that. Like this."