The Academy’s Hard-Headed Swordmaster

Alone with the fiancée candidate who had passed the test, I ran into a problem.

I had no idea what kids this age talked about or played.

On Earth, she would be kindergarten age, and kindergarteners bond over something as simple as farting, but nobles—especially fiancées—couldn’t do such vulgar things, could they?

While pondering what to talk about with Yuri, I let out a hearty laugh.

“AHAHAHAHA—!”

“…Why are you laughing?”

“Because laughing makes me feel good? You laugh too!”

It was quite a forceful tone, but perhaps wanting to avoid a rift with her newly met fiancé, Yuri forced a smile, pulling up the corners of her mouth.

Wasn’t it said that people living in cold regions have less developed facial muscles?

Yuri’s smile was incredibly awkward.

I couldn’t stand that foolish-looking smile.

“What, have you never smiled before?”

“…No.”

“What kind of kid has never smiled? Here, let me see.”

I grabbed Yuri’s cheeks and pulled them upwards.

Cheeks as soft as mochi filled my hands.

With ironclad patience, I resisted the urge to squish them and instructed her to give me a smiling wink.

Yuri finally began to smile awkwardly, and although it was still clumsy, it was at least something resembling a smile.

I grinned and released her cheeks.

“There, that’s how you do it.”

“…It hurts.”

“A woman should have a pretty smile. When you go back home, practice smiling. Got it?”

“…Practice smiling?”

“Yeah. It’s a promise.”

She looked at me as if I was absurd, but what could she do?

If her future husband tells her to practice smiling, she has to.

As I was making a pinky promise with my future bride, the maid who had left to fetch refreshments returned.

She looked at us, fingers intertwined, and smiled warmly.

“Oh my, Young Master. Already holding hands with the Princess….”

“Ah, yeah.”

“It seems you like the Princess.”

“I get it, can I have the snacks now?”

“Yes, here they are.”

The maid quickly set out the refreshments, and I picked up a cookie from the center and offered it to Yuri.

Yuri hesitated for a moment, looking at the cookie I offered, before carefully accepting it and nibbling on it like a squirrel.

As I’d seen earlier in the dining hall, she had quite the appetite.

‘Do they not feed children in the North…?’

She savored it so much that I didn’t even touch the cookies, giving them all to her.

For the sake of seeing my future bride grow up healthy, I could make this small sacrifice.

As I and the maid watched Yuri nibbling on the cookies with a warm gaze, it soon became late at night.

* * *

“Are you leaving already?”

“Yes, Count. It’s a shame, but… I have a busy schedule.”

Late evening. A time when only the starlight and moonlight illuminated the earth.

The Duke said he would return to the North.

I wondered why he even came if he was going to leave so soon, but what could I do if the Duke was busy and had to leave?

“—Duke.”

“Ah, did you have a good conversation with my daughter?”

“There’s something I wanted to say.”

“What is it? Is it that you don’t like my daughter, perhaps…?”

“Yes, there is something I don’t like.”

At my words, both the Count and the Duke looked at me as if a bomb had exploded.

Immediately, an indescribable pressure washed over me, but I was a man who spoke his mind. With a trembling heart, I spoke boldly.

“Her smile is awkward. Please make sure she practices smiling when she returns to her territory.”

“—Ha, hahaha. Yes, I’ll see to it. Is there anything else?”

“Ah, please make sure she eats well and is taken care of until I come to get her.”

“Yes, I will. —Count, you’ve raised a fine son.”

“…It’s an honor, Your Grace.”

The Duke gently patted my head and then boarded the carriage.

I watched the carriage depart, only turning around after it had disappeared beyond the horizon.

The Count looked at me and let out an exasperated laugh.

“…You really are… something else, even for my son.”

“—Father, you’re not busy right now, are you?”

“Not at the moment, but….”

“Then please keep your promise now.”

“What promise?”

“Training. You said you would teach me yourself.”

The Count looked at me in bewilderment, but then his eyes sharpened, and he began to press me with an intensity he rarely showed.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“Countless people have knelt, unable to become knights. Are you certain you can do this?”

“Of course.”

I was confident. Not because this world was inside a game, not

because I was reincarnated as a game character.

Because I enjoyed wielding a sword.

Because I had the mental fortitude and knowledge to hone my innate talent.

“Whose son do you think I am?”

“Kyle….”

At the very least, I was ready to grow into someone who wouldn’t shame the original Kyle Meyer.

My father, seemingly touched by my words, gazed at me and then nodded.

“Alright. Then starting tomorrow, I’ll teach you the family’s secret swordsmanship and Aura.”

“Starting today….”

“No. Preparations are needed to learn Aura. Wait until tomorrow.”

‘Starting tomorrow’ were my least favorite words, so I tried to start today no matter what… but the Count firmly refused.

If preparations were needed, then it couldn’t be helped. I nodded in agreement and returned to my room.

I thought I would stay up all night with anticipation for learning Aura, but as soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep. It felt like only 10 seconds had passed before morning arrived.

“Hmm… Sweet.”

As soon as morning came, I quickly went to find my father.

* * *

Inside the carriage returning to the Dukedom, the Duke looked at his expressionless daughter and asked,

“Did you talk much?”

“……Yes.”

“Did you like him?”

“I’m not sure.”

Yuri said so, recalling Kyle’s image.

He laughed for no reason, asked strange questions, and was someone she couldn’t quite define, but….

He shared his cookies with her.

Watching his daughter silently contemplating, the Duke remembered Kyle’s words.

He had said her smile was awkward.

Come to think of it, he didn’t think he had ever seen his daughter smile.

“Yuri.”

“Yes, Father.”

“Smile.”

“—Like this?”

At the Duke’s words, Yuri forced the corners of her mouth upwards. Just as Kyle had taught her.

However, it was still just as awkward, and after seeing his daughter’s smile, the Duke quietly looked out the window.

“……It seems we have something to work on when we return.”

“Yes. I understand.”

The two returned to the North quietly and swiftly.

Vowing to perfect her smile before their next meeting.

* * *

Early morning.

When I visited the Count’s bedroom, I learned of the existence of a training ground exclusively for the Head of the family and direct descendants.

A secret training ground, shielded on all sides.

The Count pointed to a magic circle drawn in the center.

“Can you see that?”

“Yes.”

“Step inside.”

Following the Count’s order, I stepped into the center of the magic circle.

Sitting in the very middle and looking at the Count, he smiled at me.

“What did you learn from Sir Leon?”

“Um… Swinging a sword?”

“Anything else?”

“Well, something about the four powers….”

“That’s a magic circle to measure those powers.”

There are four powers in this world:

Aura.

Force.

Magic Power.

Divine Power.

These four powers all have different properties and different innate aptitudes.

The magic circle was necessary to determine those aptitudes.

I wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of learning something after knowing my aptitude beforehand, but I understood the Count’s reasoning.

‘It’s better to know what your child is good at and teach them accordingly.’

It was better to see them flourish in a field they had talent in than to watch them struggle trying to become a magician when they had no aptitude for magic.

It was also better for the learner to study something they had an aptitude for.

Of course, there was no guarantee that one would have an aptitude for what they wanted to learn.

“Don’t worry. You are the eldest son of House Meyer. You are sure to have a talent for Aura.”

Saying that this was more to check for other aptitudes, the Count reassured me.

I nodded absentmindedly, and the Count immediately activated the magic circle. As he muttered something, the magic circle began to glow.

After feeling the same unidentified power that I felt from the Duke wash over me, the Count spoke as if it was only natural.

“It seems you have no aptitude for Magic Power.”

“That’s a shame.”

Since I was in a fantasy world, I wanted to try using magic at least once… but unfortunately, it seemed magic was out of the question.

Next, a warm energy and a cold energy began to swirl around me.

However, when I didn’t show any particular reaction, the Count shook his head.

“No aptitude for Force or Divine Power either.”

And finally—a fierce, beast-like energy that felt like it would tear everything to shreds surged through me.

As I sweated, trying to control the energy, the Count shouted as if to make me focus on his words.

“Follow my breathing from now on! Don’t answer!”

Then, the Count began to breathe in a very peculiar way. Inhaling when it seemed like he should exhale, exhaling when it seemed like he should inhale—a dizzying breathing pattern.

However, not long after I started following his breathing technique—I felt something stirring within me.

Soon, I became so focused that I couldn’t even hear the Count shouting, and I succeeded in controlling this energy.

‘Warm, but… violent.’

I knew very well that this energy surging through me was Aura.

And I also knew how to control it.

‘Breathe.’

The most important thing for a human being was breathing. Breath was life, breath was existence.

Controlling one’s breath was akin to controlling everything.

As I slowly breathed, following the breathing technique the Count had taught me, the wildly rampaging Aura began to move according to my control.

The problem was, I didn’t know what to do with it from here.

In martial arts novels, they talked about circulating Aura through the eight extraordinary meridians and the twelve principal meridians, but there was no way I, who had only a few years of gym experience, could do such a thing.

In the end, all I could do was watch as the Aura accumulated within me spread throughout my body, following the flow of my heart.

“—You’ve succeeded.”

The Count, who had been watching, looked down at me with an expression of amazement, bordering on disbelief.

I looked back at the Count, continuing to breathe.

“It usually takes a few weeks to even sense Aura… Such talent….”

Leaving the astonished Count behind, I stood up, now breathing naturally, and drew the wooden sword hanging on the wall.

The Count chuckled at my eagerness to learn swordsmanship as soon as I awakened my Aura, but that wasn’t my intention.

‘It’s suffocating!’

The Aura filling my body was pressing against my insides like an overinflated balloon.

I wanted to release this Aura as soon as possible, so I instinctively channeled it into the wooden sword.

The Count, who was about to explain something, stopped and stared at the wooden sword flowing with Aura, his face a mask of shock.

I looked up at the Count and grinned.

“What do you call this, Father?”

“……Expert.”

On the first day I learned about Aura, I reached the same level as the Count.