"I'll tell you the most vicious, shitty method I've known in my entire life."
Since Hendrickson went that far, I felt an anticipation I hadn't had before.
In the first run, all I learned from him were attribute techniques.
This time, I would learn something new and different from that.
Gulp
I heard people swallowing around me.
How harsh the training ahead would be. The knights, visibly tense, could only swallow.
"You all have at least one coin in your pockets, right? Those without one, borrow from the person next to you if you have to, but get one in your hand."
After those words, the knights hesitated.
He wasn't telling us to draw swords or take a stance that made focusing easier.
I also had no idea what he meant, but I took out a coin anyway.
Hendrickson tapped the floor of the training ground with the tip of his foot.
"Each of you, flick a coin with your fingertip and stand it straight up on the floor. Anyone who gets it perfectly upright is done. You can go back to the barracks and sleep snoring."
"...Pardon?"
"Stand a coin up?"
Murmurs broke out here and there.
"You call this harsh training? Just standing a coin up?"
"Is it even possible to flick one and make it stand in the first place? Isn't it purely luck?"
"This isn't training, it's just pointless labor..."
They just couldn't openly complain. Doubt and disappointment showed on the knights' faces.
"Before you wag your mouths, try it yourselves and then bark, you empty-headed fools!"
The uproar ended with that thunderous shout.
"Do you think handling a Ring's ember only requires mental strength? Fine control of power, extreme condensation, immersion that binds your ki sense to a single point, the sense of merging with the wind's flow and the surrounding environment. And composure that won't waver even if the sky splits in two. Only when all of these interlock like gears can you barely weave a single Ring."
I nodded slowly at his words.
You only hear what you know.
Control of power and extreme condensation. Immersion that binds the body's ki sense to a single point.
In the process of weaving a Ring, if the flame slips out of control even slightly, it burns your innards.
Also, if you fail to condense it, the heat cools.
The sense of merging with the wind's flow and the surrounding environment.
An ember left sealed will either go out or explode.
You have to place your breathing atop the flow of the atmosphere and use the external environment as fuel for the Ring to circulate endlessly.
Unshakable composure.
That was obvious.
Control and condensation of power, single-point immersion, and the sense of merging-all were based on composure.
Crucially, the only thing that overcame a Mental Demon was composure.
"It's easy to swing a sword a thousand times like a doll without thinking. But can you gain any insight from that? It's pointless. Everything you've done was pointless."
Hendrickson's eyes burned brightly.
"In that same time, the insight you gain from standing a coin once is far greater. Of course, you'll have to flail tens of thousands of times for that single success. Even that process is valuable. Knights aren't made by swords; they're made by time. What makes you grow is hardship and time."
Hendrickson clicked his tongue and added a warning.
"Once could be coincidence. If you manage to stand a coin upright twice in a row, congratulations. You're fully prepared to weave a Solar Ring. So don't just force power into the flick. Don't forget what I said-begin!"
"Begin!"
As soon as the order fell, the knights reluctantly began to crouch down.
Even if it looked strange, it was said by the continent's greatest swordsman. Following it was natural.
Ting! Ting!
Metallic sounds rang out noisily from all sides. Coins rolled this way and that.
"St-stand! Aaagh!"
"Damn, is this really supposed to work?"
They closed their eyes again, focused, flicked the coin, picked it up again, focused, and the process repeated over and over.
A knight swings a sword half his body size as easily as eating a meal.
Seeing them struggle with a thumb-sized piece of metal came as quite a fresh shock.
"Hey, you little runt. You use this."
Hendrickson, who had suddenly approached, threw a coin.
"It's the gold coin you generously gave me. If you treat it as a lucky coin, it might help a little."
"Weren't you just saying not to stand it with luck?"
"You're just as good at picking fights. Let it go in one ear and out the other, you brat."
Looking at the gold coin that rolled to the floor, I frowned.
"It's dirty, so I don't want to take it."
"Look at this little brat's manners."
No, but it really is filthy. There's filth all over it.
I thought war had dulled his sense of hygiene, but it seems he was always like this.
I rubbed the surface of the gold coin hard with my sleeve.
Only after some of the luster returned did I pick it up with my fingertips.
'Put intent into it, and control the power.'
Fine control of power and extreme condensation, immersion binding the body's ki sense to a single point at the fingertips, the sense of merging with the wind's flow and the surrounding environment.
Composure unshaken even by ruin.
I took a deep breath and raised my composure.
Even if I looked like this, I was a body that had gone through all sorts of hardships in my past life and seen the end of Swordsmanship.
Crucially, I had already woven one Ring.
No matter how harsh the training was, it was a piece of cake for me.
'Nothing grand about it. I just need to do what I've been doing.'
Flick!
The gold coin left my thumb, reflected the sunlight, spun, and fell.
The gold coin spinning like a top gradually slowed.
Clang.
It flopped helplessly onto the floor.
"......?"
Something was wrong.
Did a breeze blow in that 0.01 second? Or did the filth throw off the gold coin's center of gravity?
No way. I had wiped the filth off clean.
I frowned and picked up the gold coin again.
This time, I condensed the sensation at my fingertips even more densely, to the limit.
The knights' noisy sounds grew faint and distant at my ears.
Ting! Clang.
Ting! Clang.
Ting! Clang.
I had made a Ring on the first try, yet I couldn't stand a single coin even on the fourth attempt.
Was there a difference between this and making a Ring-
Fwoo-
I shot a glance right beside me.
"...."
"What are you looking at?"
"Nothing. I was just wondering if you could stand it right away in one try, elder."
"You mean me? I used to. Now that I'm old, it's hard to stand it."
"Pardon?"
This shit. Because of that old bastard, my composure was even more shaken.
I steadied my breathing again and hardened my composure.
Then, in that moment, I felt a tap at my fingertips.
I opened my eyes wide and stared at the coin.
On the side surface of the thread-thin coin, between the grooves, I saw a faintly melted mark.
"You noticed quickly."
That damned old bastard.
The beard covering his lower jaw trembled.
"You've already woven one Ring, haven't you? Trials distinguish people. I gave you a trial that suits you."
It's annoying, but he's right.
The four failures were my own mistakes, ones I had only myself to blame for.
When I focused the sensations of my whole body on a single point at my fingertips, I should have noticed the center of gravity right away.
I closed my eyes and sank into my inner world.
"...."
Sound stopped. There was no trembling at my fingertips. The wind brushed my fingertips.
Only the beating of my heart became sound.
I could feel the texture of the wind flowing through empty space.
It wasn't the coolness brushing my cheek. It was a transparent river made by countless air currents.
Which leaf it started from, what trajectory it bent along. How the moisture mixed in the air changed.
Even the sensation of the minute air resistance scraped away by the wind brushing over my skin was vivid.
Even the texture of the cloth covering my skin felt unfamiliar.
The weight of a single speck of dust settled between the fabric.
Even the static electricity generated when the cloth fibers touched the fine hairs on my skin was caught by my senses.
Thump, thump.
The pulsing sound of my heart. The pressure of blood flowing through my veins and the speed of my pulse. From the flow of the atmosphere to the vitality of my heart and blood vessels.
A world where sound stopped and time seemed to stretch abnormally.
This is my world.
The miracle I can stand in this small world becomes a great ambition.
Ting!
I didn't open my eyes. Even when I heard the falling sound, I maintained this state.
It worked.
Right after I heard that sound, I opened my eyes.
There was a coin at my feet.
A single coin standing perfectly upright.
"Huh! Y-Young Master!"
The sounds that had stopped pounded my ears.
"Crazy, how already!?"
"Hahaha! I knew you'd succeed first, Young Master!"
"So it wasn't for nothing that he overwhelmed that knight guy..."
"Young Master! Please teach me too! How did you do it?"
Looking at the gold coin standing tall at my feet, I soaked in a short afterglow.
Composure, control of ki sense, and single-point immersion.
Knowing it in your head and embodying it with your body were different.
The sensation from that brief moment had definitely given me a new insight.
Maybe I could make the second Ring right here and now.
"Sir, stand guard for me."
"Ho. You're going to weave it right now?"
Actually, I didn't even need a guard. There was absolutely no chance of a mishap.
I had now entered the realm of extra-sensory perception. With this sensation, I would succeed no matter what.
I sat down cross-legged just like that.
I had to catch the momentary sensation before it scattered.
Just like when I condensed my ki sense at a single point in my fingertips and balanced the gold coin's minute equilibrium.
This time, it was my turn to tune the second ember surging in my Heart Core.
I closed my eyes slowly. As if submerged underwater, the outside noise grew distant once again.
The first Ring blazed fiercely and began to spin. Using that heat as fuel, I wove a new ember.
Bigger. Fiercer.
"Y-Young Master? Why are you suddenly doing that?"
"Shut up, idiot! He's trying to weave a Ring."
I pressed down with composure so the first Ring wouldn't run wild.
I stretched the second ember thin and long like a thread and wrapped it around the outer edge of the existing Ring.
Fwoosh-!
Before I knew it, the two Rings began to interlock perfectly.
Neither spun ahead of the other; they circulated endlessly in a steady rhythm.
Soon, the heat that seemed about to burn my internal organs quietly subsided.
The Solar blooming from my Heart Core gave me a new thrill.
"You monster."
I snapped my eyes open.
I saw Hendrickson stroking his beard and smiling.
I placed my hand over my chest.
The second Solar Ring was embracing the existing Ring and turning together with it.
"Huh."
A hollow laugh came out.
It hadn't even been a few minutes by my sense of time, and I'd already woven it.
"I'm afraid of my own talent."
Astin, the greatest genius in history who even blasphemed the gods.
Today's work made me grow one step further.
"The second Ring is usually the easiest to weave."
"And it's easiest to kill the mood with one line."
This time, aside from the time, neither the mind-gnawing Phantom Pain nor a Mental Demon came for me.
Beginnings are half the battle.
In the process of weaving Rings, the harshest hurdle was undoubtedly the first Ring.
Because you had to create something from nothing and adapt to the pain of burning your entire vascular system.
Since I'd gotten past that, the second was bound to be easier.
Of course, from the moment you go beyond the fourth Ring, it's a different story.
From then on, it's a crazy act that wouldn't be enough even with two lives.
'Except for me.'
I had woven up to eight in my past life. Up to five was only a matter of time.
Fwoo-!
I calmed the heat with my breathing, then pressed the ground and stood up.
"Young Master. Do you really think that makes sense?"
"Honestly, I'm not even surprised anymore. You've taken all the talent in the world."
"To think belated awe is this frightening..."
Was it because I'd shown them so much? Their reaction was weaker than before.
I glanced sideways at Hendrickson.
He still had his arms crossed, but his pupils were trembling faintly.
"Even when you had only one Ring, you were unusual. Your Ring was special."
"I know."
I'm very good at self-objectification.
It wasn't self-flattery; objectively, the quality of each Ring was high.
"Now that you've woven the second Ring, I want to see your Swordsmanship too. Want to cross blades once?"
"It would be an honor. Shall we do it right now?"
Ooooh
The knights looked at us with excited eyes. My shoulders rose for no reason.
"Come. I'll face you with one arm only."
"Are you ignoring me? Please face me with both arms."
"Take a joke as a joke, will you?"
"Aren't you all pushing yourselves too hard? Have some cold water first."
A clear, lively voice cut in from a distance.
I turned and saw Celine handing out ice water and towels with her maids.
"Oh my, my lady. Thank you."
"I was just thirsty, haha."
The knights crowded over and received water to drink.
Even while drinking, they didn't stop flicking their coins. It was a fine appetite for improvement.
In a few days, one or two might succeed.
Tap
I felt a touch at my side. Hendrickson had set down his staff and poked my side.
"Who is that girl?"
"She's my younger sister."
"Your younger sister? Hah, she grew up fine without resembling you at all. Is she a bastard?"
To think being a bastard could be a compliment. I learned that for the first time.
"Unlike me, she has plenty of cute sides."
"Brother."
Celine smiled brightly and came to my side.
She handed me water, but her gaze was on the groaning knights.
"What is everyone doing? It looks like they're flicking coins."
"Right, flicking coins. They're trying to flick them with their fingertips and stand them upright."
"This is a training that really drains a person's blood. I'd rather run 100 laps around the parade ground."
"Seriously. We'll be up all night today, phew!"
Curiosity shimmered in Celine's round eyes.
After a moment, she picked up a coin lying on the floor.
"I want to try it too."
Her enthusiasm was admirable.
But I was worried she'd sit there and waste time pointlessly.
If she tried a few times and couldn't do it, I'd have to show her.
It was about time I heard 'Brother, you're so cool!'
Celine sat on the ground like the others and took a comfortable posture.
She placed the coin on her thumb and lightly closed her eyes. It was nothing more than imitating the knights.
Ting-!
She lightly flicked the coin with her thumb.
With a cheerful friction sound, the copper coin spun through the air and fell to the floor.
The coin should have fallen over right then.
"....Huh?"
"Huh!"
"W-what!?"
I heard neither the sound of it falling nor rolling.
The coin stood straight on the floor without moving.
In just one try.
"What the..."
The words came out without me realizing.
I could only express my feelings with "What the hell."
"Hmm!"
Hendrickson cleared his throat and steadied himself.
"It's like catching a mouse while a cow steps backward. It's just beginner's luck. It stood by chance, so try once more."
"Uh, yes!"
Celine obediently picked up the coin.
And as if she had no thoughts at all, she flicked it indifferently.
Ting-!
The coin spinning like a top stood upright on the floor again.
"......."
"......."
Silence fell.
Even Hendrickson, who had dismissed it as luck, was struck dumb.
Soon he looked back and forth between me and Celine.
"The bastard is better than the legitimate child."
I couldn't say anything back. Honestly, I couldn't believe what I'd seen either.
Hendrickson picked up the gold coin at my feet. I wondered what he was doing, then he handed it to Celine.
"Here. It's a lucky coin. You keep it."
"Thank you. But who are you?"
That old man really knows how to leave people speechless.
“Hey, you can't just give something away and then take it back!”
“Then stop complaining and get it right on your first try. Like she did.”
“If you'd given me a proper coin, I would've gotten it on the first try, too...”
“Try being even half as talented as her. Then maybe you'd manage it in two tries.”
"Hehe. But who are you?"