Even after that, Ihan continued to demonstrate consecutively.
"A mage's magic generally includes telekinesis. And as you just saw, the mass that telekinesis can handle is immense. It's a threatening force. It's no different from a disaster for regular soldiers. However, a knight must be able to resist such disasters. So as not to disgrace the name of a knight."
Ihan gave a signal with his eyes, and Irene astutely used telekinesis.
In an instant.
Pop!
"Did you see?"
"...."
They saw it.
The invisible air current bursting like a balloon in midair.
"The ways a warrior can resist telekinesis are largely divided into three. One is the Aura Method. It emits aura power strongly to disrupt the flow of mana. And another is to resist the telekinesis itself. Well, if you do that, there's a risk of your whole body bursting from the pressure, so it's better not to do it if possible."
"T-Then the third is...?"
"For you without the Aura Method, the third is the only answer."
Pop!
The invisible air current bursting once again.
"It is the 'emission' of force. It contains the principle of the Hundred-Step Divine Fist I just showed you. You can think of it as directly 'shooting down' the telekinesis. Of course, you shouldn't do this kind of thing in front of telekinesis erupting in all directions. You might end up turning to dust."
"Uhh... if they do that, it'll be the mage's body that turns to dust, though?"
Mana is a power close to omnipotent, but that doesn't mean it's truly omnipotent.
One must have the capacity, effort, and composure to handle such an omnipotent energy.
Therefore, emitting telekinesis in all directions is an act of struggling for self-destruction.
It's like firing cannons consecutively with a bare body, so they wouldn't last long before vomiting blood and dying.
"Ah, so that's why that bastard died like that? Good to know."
"...."
...It seems he already had experience dealing with them.
"Anyway, as you saw, if you want to resist telekinesis, you must be able to do what I just did. Well, it's only two things, so you'll be able to learn it easily."
The manifestation and emission of Jing.
It would be a task so easy for them that it would make them yawn.
"...Where are you going?"
However, for those who had only seen the sight of force bursting in midair, it was absolutely not easy.
Why that huge log split in half, and how telekinesis could be shot down.
They still didn't understand the 'principle'.
"Hmm, anyone who understood, raise your hand?"
He did explain.
It was just difficult because it was a sensory explanation.
But surely there must be someone who understood?
He looked at them with such a small expectation, but.
"Kunta, still doesn't understand. Kunta is stupid."
"You're not stupid, Kunta. I doubt anyone understood."
"It's too abstract, Instructor."
He only managed an awkward smile.
He thought Kunta, who was the most similar type to Ihan, would understand...
Hmm, should he have explained it more kindly?
At that moment.
"E-Excuse me..."
A girl who hadn't been expected at all raised her hand.
"I-Instructor, by any chance, do you mean something like this? So far, we've learned how to squeeze out all the strength in our bodies. The reason you emphasized such training might be to increase physical strength, but it's also to make us feel how our physical strength moves, right? You always emphasized that, too."
Levi Volt.
A slender and pretty girl reminiscent of a lush hydrangea, but also a girl who proved she wasn't just frail by completing the training without running away for twenty days.
Such a commendable girl shone with somewhat intellectual red irises as she unraveled what she had felt.
"'Feel the force,' which you always emphasized. It's too abstract an expression, but we did calisthenics, climbed cliffs, and experienced when and how muscles are used, and how training was somehow possible even when it felt like our stamina was completely depleted. Thanks to that, we now know that physical strength doesn't simply come from muscles. All thanks to your classes, Instructor."
Her eloquence is quite fluent.
Perhaps because she's a noble lady, she didn't just speak bluntly, but used a method of acknowledging the other person's contributions.
One might say it makes a person feel good.
However, Ihan liked the explanation more than her elegant eloquence.
"You explained it properly, Chick Number 1. Thank you. I'm a guy who just hits it by intuition, so I couldn't explain it properly, but you made everyone understand like this."
"N-No. You probably already know everything, Instructor; I just explained it a bit more interpretively."
"...The instructor will give you a candy later."
"Eh?"
What a truly good and kind kid.
How can she speak so beautifully and commendably?
The purity, which couldn't be felt from the men whose way of speaking was blunt and whose pride was unnecessarily high, enriched his mind.
'I want to have a daughter just like that.'
A feeling of looking at a much younger sister or a daughter.
Ihan gave her a gaze full of delight, and Levi Volt's cheeks flushed red.
Perhaps because she wasn't used to praise.
'W-What about me? I'm good too, so why doesn't he praise me?'
On the contrary, the magical girl who had never received such praise felt unjustified.
[Irene. You lost. You are prettier, but we lost in dignity, sob sob.]
'...To hell with dignity.'
The girl, who was the best as a siege weapon but had an F grade in dignity, became thoroughly displeased.
Unaware that the delicate feelings of the girl had been hurt, Ihan focused his attention on Levi Volt.
'She's commendable.'
A commendability with a different meaning from just before.
The past 20 days.
During that time, everyone was fierce to the point where one couldn't say who worked harder than whom, but there would be few who were as fierce as Levi Volt.
'She woke up the earliest, and trained more dangerously than anyone else.'
She has mental strength, no, furthermore, she has sheer grit.
She just looks frail and weak, but her hidden disposition is rigid and strong.
Knowing that she was at the latest starting line, she doesn't rest her efforts and gives it her all.
Thus, at the end of striving and striving again, she has now just started running from the starting line.
And at quite a fast pace.
Even if the mystery of Bulkan might have helped, her efforts shouldn't be disparaged.
'I shouldn't just treat her as a mere chick anymore.'
The girl was no longer just a noble lady, but had become a martial artist.
I didn't know what circumstances made her want to become a martial artist, but Ihan only looked at her resolve and results rather than her circumstances.
People who work hard are always commendable.
Therefore.
"Levi Volt."
"Yes? Y-Yes!"
"Why are you like that?"
"N-No..."
She was called by her proper name for the first time.
Just because of that, her heart trembled.
It felt as if she, as an individual, was recognized, rather than the young lady of the Volt family.
"Levi Volt. Listening to your explanation, I could tell that among those present here, you have the highest understanding of [Jing]."
"B-But compared to the others, my body is still..."
"You're far from enough. However, that can't be helped. Unlike you, the others have trained for over 10 years."
"Yes..."
"However."
"?"
"What's important is not the 'period'. Sometimes, how dense and intense the time spent is more important than the period. In that sense, Cadet Levi Volt may have started late, but she has made the right start. This is something you can be sufficiently proud of."
"...Instructor."
Words that unnecessarily made one choke up.
He was acknowledging her efforts, and furthermore.
"Therefore, I, the instructor, wish to directly offer help to such a cadet, Levi Volt."
"What kind of..."
"Originally, the instructor likes to treat people fairly. So, I'll give Cadet Levi Volt one specially kind teaching."
"??"
An explanation she still couldn't understand.
Certainly the instructor, no, adults seem to have a side of twisting explanations to make them difficult.
As she blinked her eyes, Ihan suddenly approached her, and he.
"From now on, this instructor will briefly place his hand on the cadet's back. Will that be alright?"
"Yes? Y-Yes?!"
"If you allow it, then I shall proceed. For your information, I have absolutely no impure intentions. I'd like you to know that."
"U-Uh, yes. I-It's fine."
It's a bit embarrassing, but she's already rolled around in Bulkan and seen every unsightly and unseen sight.
Wouldn't it be a bit funny to be shy about it now?
Above all, she knows the instructor isn't that kind of person.
Thus, she relatively readily allowed him to touch her body, and Levi Volt...
"Hup!"
Couldn't help but gasp.
"-What the instructor can do for you is only to guide the way. However, this experience will surely become one that greatly narrows the gap between you and the other cadets. I sincerely hope it helps, Cadet."
"...."
...The girl's mind was completely blown away right now.
Embarrassment and such had disappeared long ago.
To that extent, the girl was experiencing something astonishing, no, a 'miracle'.
'T-This is...'
Rumble-!
The palm lightly resting on her back.
It was an incredibly hard palm, reminiscent of cast iron.
However, what appalled her even more than that cast-iron-like palm was the intense 'pulsation' flowing in through the palm.
The pulsation of force.
The intense pulsation overflowing from the muscles, bones, and tendons was fully transmitted to the girl, and feeling this, sweat poured down her body like crazy.
'C-Compared to this, I am truly nothing more than something shabby.'
The ferocity of a gigantic, so relentless and majestic wave.
As the passion of the wave was transmitted directly throughout her body, it was soon an experience like a miracle, an awe that humanity must have felt when they first discovered the great traces of nature.
And as the violent surge of such a wave, the pulsation, came into contact with the girl, she could also sense the shabby flow circulating within her own body.
An infinitely weak pulsation.
If he was a tidal wave of the sea, she was nothing more than a tremor spreading over a calm puddle.
Just as a sense of disappointment was about to spread...
"Is that all you felt?"
"Yes?"
"Try to focus more fully and deeply. Then you'll be able to feel something even more interesting."
"...."
The girl followed those words.
Because, just for now, he appeared to her as a superhuman she dared not defy.
She reflexively followed his words and dug deeper into the pulsation flowing through her body, and at some point...
"...Huh?"
The girl realized.
That the force existing within her body wasn't just muscles, bones, tendons, and such.
Thump, thump-!
Representatively, the heart.
Was the heart something that beat so dynamically and powerfully?
It's strong.
The organ supplying blood to the shabby girl was neither shabby nor weak at all.
It was endlessly intense and admirable.
Surge-!
What about the flow of blood riding the beat of the heart?
It's tremendous!
So this is what blood vessels are, something so fast, reckless, and brave.
"Do you think you understand?"
"...Yes."
"What do you think you understand?"
"T-That everything that makes up who I am... is not trivial at all."
The girl thought she was a weak being.
But she was wrong.
Each and every element composing her body was so fierce and vast.
Levi Volt, no, humans are this amazing.
"Although I may be an infinitely insignificant, dust-like existence compared to the shining sun and stars out there, still, I too could become a star!"
"You use refined expressions, perhaps because you're a noble lady."
"T-There's no other proper way to express it!"
The girl was excited.
Without feeling embarrassed, she confidently put force behind her argument.
If anyone realized how fierce this pulsation, the force flowing within their body was, they would act like this.
"Then show me."
"Yes?"
"The force you expressed as a star."
"...."
"Are you unconfident?"
"T-That's..."
"Have confidence. I am helping you right now."
"!!"
"Try it. Connect the pulsation, that force, from your shoulder to your elbow, and then from your wrist to your fist."
"...."
"You can do it. Right now."
"...!"
At his words, which continued with certainty, Levi Volt tried gambling for the first time in her life.
Not knowing whether it would work or not.
A gamble that didn't know what effect it would have on the girl's body.
But she was intoxicated right now.
By the pulsation within her that even she didn't know.
Like that, the girl.
Whoosh!
With her own will, she clenched her fist and thrust it out.
A punch that was still infinitely clumsy.
However, that punch.
Pop!
"....Ah!"
It wasn't weak.
She burst the force.
The 'emission of force' from her clench.
Confirming that she had done it for the first time, the girl opened her eyes wide.
Her fist hurts.
Since she discharged force with a body that wasn't yet fully matured, it must have taken a toll.
But just for this moment, she didn't care about such pain at all.
Because.
"I-I did it! I-I...!!"
"Yes. You did it entirely with your own strength."
"Yes!!"
Because compared to this emotion, this joy, the pain was nothing.
"Don't forget. That is the path you must devote yourself to for the rest of your life."
"I will absolutely, absolutely never forget...!"
The 'blooming' of a new sensation.
An unforgettable emotion and encounter.
The girl would never forget the emotion and joy she felt at this moment today.
Because it was an 'ecstasy' she wouldn't be able to forget even at the end of her life, whenever it may come.
* * *
'Do they not realize what they've just accomplished?!'
Roan was appalled.
Being this appalled was probably a first in his life.
What Ihan and Levi Volt had accomplished wasn't just a simple act of emitting force!
'It can replace the Aura Method.'
An extraordinary feat shown by a frail noble lady who hadn't even received proper training for a month.
It was still weak, but it would clearly continue to develop further.
Although the process was harsh and difficult, the important fact was that it was a power that could be obtained solely through effort, not something like bloodline.
And the fact that it could replace the Aura Method meant.
It would become a dagger that could crush the privileges of knights, no, even further, the nobles.
'Yes, that's it. That's what I wanted!'
It was the first time.
He had ever yearned to have something this much.
'I was arrogant.'
He finally admits it.
That before entering the academy, he was a foolish bastard full of arrogance.
He thought he knew everything, that he was just attending the academy to supply talent anyway so he didn't need to learn anything, and that there was no one who dared to teach him.
...But he was wrong.
Look ahead right now.
Isn't there someone who gives him tremors, someone who teaches a way for a human to become a superhuman, even if it's not the Aura Method?
'It's funny for me to say this, Instructor.'
Roan wondered, but couldn't help but think.
Perhaps throughout his past and present lives.
'Could you become my first master?'
That he might have a master worthy of respect for the first time.
The young lion, who was arrogant but had enough qualifications to be arrogant, harbored such expectations, and at the same time.
'If it's you, you might be able to become the main character of my [Fervent Wish].'
The fervent wish he harbored.
The main character of the revolution, that is.