99: The Visit (2)

Late evening.

A carriage entered the mansion of Count Welton.

It was the carriage of the Viscount Balle.

“I can’t remember how many months it has been.”

Count Welton, who had come to meet him, hugged the man, his brother-in-law, tightly.

“It has been less than a year since we met at the Eastern Noble’s banquet.”

“Haha. It has been a long time since it’s been half a year.”

“Ha. My lady. It has been long.”

“Welcome, Viscount.”

Sears smilied elegantly at the Viscount’s greeting.

And looked at the two cute girls who were sitting quietly behind the Viscount. They were the eldest, Rebecca and the second, Ash.

“How are you?”

“Ah, hello. I am Ash Balle.”

“I am Rebecca Balle. Please take care of us during our stay here.”

Ash bowed her head like a boy with a slightly nervous face and Rebecca did the same as Sears, by gently raising her dress.

At a glance, it was clear that the two kids had opposite personalities.

The Countess smiled widely at them as she never saw girls apart from her daughter.

And then she realized and asked.

“Did you only come with the kids?”

“She had work, so she handed the kids over to me and went.”

“I don’t know what the work is, but I hope it goes well.”

“It is nothing huge. But, I don’t see Jamie?”

“Jamie must be in training right now. Maybe you will see him tomorrow morning.”

“Training?”

Do people train themselves to use magic?

But what came from the Count shocked him.

“He started learning the sword yesterday.”

“Sword?”

“It is getting chilly, let’s head in and talk.”

“Ah, sure.”

It was the season when once the sun went down, cold air visited.

They went into the mansion and talked.

At that time, Ash, who was following the Viscount, stopped. Since she was at the back, no one noticed if she was following them or not.

She started at one place.

And mumbled as if she was talking to someone.

“Should I look at the one who is training hard? So curious right?”

And the wind blew.

“Let’s go.”

Ash smiled and took a step in the other direction.

26 more.

Clothes were all soaked in sweat. Even though it was a chilly day, his body was hot enough to sweat.

Jamie was taking in huge breaths each time.

“Whew.”

His emerald hair that looked like it was hit by water was swept back.

And looking at his hand, all the skin which was in contact with the wooden sword had peeled off.

There were also traces of cuts and blood clots.

A thousand times was enough. Physically, he was better than yesterday, but other parts hurt.

But it all felt good.

‘The wound will heal in a day.’

It would be because of the Orb of Life, every wound would heal.

Resisting the pain, he clenched the sword again.

After repeating it over 900 times, his body perfectly understood it despite being tired.

Hamilton’s demonstration played clearly in Jamie’s head. That neat swordsmanship, the step and muscle movement.

A near-perfect connection.

Try to follow directly.

Mana was released and it projected into the air and created the Hamilton in memory.

The imaginary Hamilton stood still in the ready position.

“Good.”

Jamie did say he wouldn’t use mana during training, but there was no such promise about not using it for physical assistance.

If it would help improve skills, it would be stupid to not use the magic.

Jamie stood in the same position next to Hamilton.

Beyond the continuous repetition, he understood the movement of body and sword.

Though he wasn’t sure if he could be on the same level as Hamilton.

“Start.”

The figure of Hamilton in mana had moved the sword with the exact same precision as the real one.

And Jamie followed it at the same time.

Their body sizes were different but the way their bodies moved were almost identical.

At that moment, Jamie fell into a trance.

Cut down, stab, cut one side, turn to the other side and then back to the opposite, slash from top to bottom, and again from bottom to top and pull back the sword to aim at the center.

All the movements ended at the same time.

And Hamilton’s form scattered.

“Gasp, gasp, gasp, gasp.”

Jamie took deep breaths.

Extreme concentration used more stamina, yet now Jamie’s head was clearer than ever.

“Is this fine?”

He understood the principle, but it felt like despite repeating over and over he was lacking.

Yet, now something has changed.

First, he didn’t miss nor was he slow compared to Hamilton’s movements, and secondly, the swordsmanship he performed was satisfactory even for him.

“Black. You recorded it properly?”

When Jamie looked into the air and asked, the invisibility was lifted, and Black appeared.

Kik!

Black replied yes, and showed what it recorded a moment ago.

Black was constantly recording Jamie’s training.

Learning from that and reviewing what he was doing. Since he was learning, Jamie thought that it would be right to record and review the perfection of it once the thousand times were done.

Looking at that, he would give out the sign of a flawless magician, but this wasn’t how a magician trained.

And he didn’t think it would be necessary to create any more Hamilton illusions.

“Eventually he’ll…”

It was the time for Jamie to position himself to complete the remaining times.

He felt a sign of someone behind.

Something was getting close to the training hall and the other thing with it didn’t seem to be alive- a spirit? Or something which didn’t exist in this world.

Did an intruder sneak into the mansion?

Jamie developed mana around him without casting anything and used teleportation.

“I don’t know who it is, but they sure have the guts to break into the Welton mansion….!”

“Kyak!”

Jamie said as he moved behind the intruder and tried to stab with the wooden sword.

However, seeing that the person was a small girl, he changed the direction of the sword.

Tang!

The wooden sword struck the floor.

He almost smashed the head of the girl.

Jamie looked at the intruder with a slightly startled look.

A girl who wrapped her arms around her head.

And when nothing happened, the shocked girl looked up.

Ash began to cry.

“Y-You scared me!”

Jamie kept tapping the sword to his shoulders and looked down at Ash who was kneeling.

“Did you forget what I told you the last time?”

“Hehe…”

Ash smiled with innocent eyes which said ‘I know nothing’.

Jami didn’t know what to do with her.

“How did you come here?”

“With father.”

“Viscount Balle is here?”

“Yes. Sister too.”

Her older sister Rebecca Balle.

The reincarnation of Jane, Diablo Volfir’s former lover.

She is here now.

Jamie’s expression went stiff. Ash, with a sly smile which a child shouldn’t have, seemed to mistake it.

“Seems like you missed my sister?”

“What?”

“The last time I saw you, you seemed a little in love. Hehe.”

It was something similar, but Ash was mistaken. After all, she was still 8 years old.

It was funny that she had such deep thoughts.

Even Jamie felt it.

‘She seems to have grown.’

The energy of the wind could be felt around Ash.

It is natural because she has a contract with a wind spirit, but it was quite different from the energy of the spirit.

‘To already keep a spirit around her.’

The Elementalist summons the spirits from the Spirit Realm when needed. However, only an Elementalist who reaches a certain level is able to keep the summon spirits in the living world without sending them back.

Jamie wasn’t an Elementalist, so he didn’t know the details, but he knew that to have such a level, one had to be at least of intermediate level.

Ash was still 8 years old. She was known to be a genius due to her great affinity, but it was too early for her to be an intermediate Elementalist.

However, having felt the spirit around her, he couldn’t help but believe them.

“I guess you didn’t just stay at home and play?”

“So you noticed?”

When Ash asked with twinkling eyes, Jamie snorted.

Ash started laughing and began to speak.

“Like usual I was doing training with a spirit, but a high spirit came to visit!”

“… high spirit?”

The high spirits are spirits which were the highest ones, except for the Spirit King who is above them and unlike the low ranking ones which have similar appearances, they have their own unique appearance.

Which meant they had a lot of power.

Jamie encountered high spirits in his previous life, and their power was close to natural disasters.

And such a spirit, approached Ash?

“Yes! The high spirit. The name is Lipid.”

Lipid.

As the high level spirit of wind, it was a famous spirit that assisted the King of Wind Spirits, Sylphid.

“What did he say?”

“Didn’t say anything. Just looked at me and then disappeared, but from the next day my affinity improved and I could keep Siliph in the real world.”

Though the real purpose was unknown, Ash ended up being the youngest intermediate elementalist.

It was a talent the world would have focused on, if not for Jamie and his growth.

But at Ash’s next words, Jamie was shocked.

“Sister was even better. She can already summon the highest ranked spirits. Though they don’t stay longer than a couple seconds.”

“… what?”

“I knew that even you would be shocked. Huhu!”

Ash shrugged triumphantly.

But Jamie didn’t hear it.

Although Rebecca is young, she was summoning spirits, and was only 10 years old.

“My father was very, very, very, very, very, very, very shocked. Said it made no sense.”

Viscount Balle, the 3rd greatest elementalist the Kingdom knew of.

What could Rebecca summoning spirits mean?

It was a pity, but Rebecca’s talents were incomparable to Ash’s.

Right. Now Rebecca was on par with Jamie.

It meant that she was on the same level as a 9th class magician.

‘… maybe because of the reincarnation.’

Rebecca was born into a family of Wind Spirit users, but a water spirit contacted her first and made a contract.

It wasn’t just a matter of her talent.

Jamie was sure of it.

‘The Spirit King’s consideration.’

The King of Water Spirits, Elquines, was taking care of the soul of the former contractor.

Ash, who saw Jamie, jumped up in surprise.

“What is it?”

“I forgot.”

“What?”

“That my father told me to not speak about it.”

Jamie looked at Ash with a pitiful look.