1. Preparations for Running Away (3)
Perhaps thinking Jaden was his last hope, the youngest obediently came out, and Jaden took him to his private training ground.
Aiden looked at him with a puzzled expression and asked,
“Why are we here……?”
“Pick up a sword.”
“Pardon?”
As Aiden tilted his head, baffled by the sudden order to pick up a sword, Jaden personally tossed him a wooden sword reinforced with an iron core.
“Swing it.”
Jaden had thrown him the smallest wooden sword in his private training ground and told him to swing it, and Aiden hesitated with a flustered expression. Of course he was confused; Jaden had said he would fix him, only to suddenly bring him to a training ground and tell him to swing a sword.
“Hurry.”
At Jaden’s urging, Aiden swung the sword with an expression that said he had no choice. Then Jaden, standing beside him, frowned and said,
“Don’t do it half-heartedly. Do it properly. Swing with all your strength.”
At Jaden’s words, Aiden, though he clearly had no idea what was going on, corrected his posture and swung.
Though he was only six, he seemed to have learned at least the basics of swordsmanship, and he swung the wooden sword with a posture that had a certain form to it.
Seeing that, Jaden quietly asked,
“The auditory hallucinations?”
“They got worse.”
When Aiden answered in a tearful voice, Jaden nodded.
“I’m going to show you a sword technique from now on. Try to follow it exactly.”
At Jaden’s words, Aiden simply stared at him with teary eyes.
Jaden exhaled slowly, adjusted his stance, and began to swing his sword at a measured pace.
The true form of the Lion Sword Form he had learned during the beta test.
He began to unfold the White Lion Sword Form, which only the head of the family was allowed to learn. It was a sword art of a realm so distant that his own level could not dare to imitate it, but he could at least mimic the shape.
At that moment, Aiden’s eyes began to change.
He instinctively watched Jaden’s swordsmanship and began muttering something. At the same time, with dazed eyes, he began to follow Jaden’s White Lion Sword Form.
“Is it an assimilation phenomenon?”
As if his guess had been correct, Jaden looked at Aiden, who had become assimilated with something.
Even though Jaden had stopped the White Lion Sword Form midway, Aiden was continuing the sword form all the way into the latter half on his own.
“So it really was the soul of the divine beast that contracted with the first family head.”
The King of White Lions, bound to the family, who had waited until a soul worthy of the first family head appeared, only to fade away.
That soul had now assimilated into Aiden’s body and was reproducing the first family head’s sword form exactly.
Perhaps because it was such a high-ranking soul, it had not been caught by the countless spells placed throughout the mansion; and perhaps because it had been worn down over a long time and grown faint, even the current family head, a Master, had not detected it.
Such a soul had completely assimilated with Aiden because of Jaden’s White Lion Sword Form.
As Jaden watched the perfect White Lion Sword Form born from Aiden’s genius and the assimilation of the King of White Lions, what he felt was……
“Damn talent-cheat bastard.”
Looking at Aiden, who was still moving his sword while assimilated, Jaden sighed and raised his own sword as well.
Seeing Aiden display a talent so overwhelming that it could not even be compared to his own, he did not even feel like being jealous.
But the others would have been different.
For those who were, within the family—no, even by the standards of the continent—objectively close to geniuses, the feeling of seeing a true genius must have been bitter jealousy.
If someone as dull as him felt this much jealousy, the others would have felt it even more.
That was why the despair and jealousy they felt upon seeing a true genius must have driven Aiden to his death.
But Jaden was different.
He already knew full well that this body had no talent, and in his mind he still pictured his real self from the real world.
“Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!”
Even so, to drive away the jealousy that quietly raised its head, he swung his sword.
Basic swordsmanship was perfect for clearing away useless thoughts.
It was only the repetition of a simple action—mindlessly drawing the sword downward to create a single perfect sword line—but the more he repeated that simple action, the more he felt his posture settling into something closer to perfection.
His past experience of mastering countless miscellaneous skills, and the experiences of watching masters’ swords right beside him, melted into his blade.
‘Is it like this?’
Recalling the sword of a Master swinging on the battlefield, Jaden unconsciously reviewed it as he swung his own sword.
In truth, even someone with innate talent like Aiden had to practice a sword art countless times before it was engraved into his body and he could perform it perfectly.
If even a genius had to do that, then there was no other way for Jaden.
The only reason he could keep pace with Aiden was because this was basic swordsmanship.
A simple engraving of the sword path.
Unlike engraving the White Lion Sword Form, which was several times more difficult than the Lion Sword Form famed for its complexity, engraving basic swordsmanship was so simple it was almost easy.
“Hoo…… Are you done?”
“……Yes.”
“You’re not a ghost, right?”
At Jaden’s question, Aiden gave a slight nod.
Seeing him like that, Jaden smiled faintly and said,
“Are you going to keep training?”
“I think I have to.”
“Then come here and train.”
At Jaden’s words, Aiden’s eyes widened.
“Is that really okay?”
“Yeah. Though before that, you’ll have to receive a bit of training from me.”
“Training?”
Aiden tilted his head.
His expression seemed to ask, as if in all innocence, what Jaden could possibly teach him.
It was a look filled with pure curiosity, but after barely suppressing the urge to smack him, Jaden opened his mouth.
“It’s simple. You’ll spar with me a bit.”
“Pardon? But……”
“The knights are using your private training ground anyway, aren’t they?”
Under normal circumstances, it would be absolutely unthinkable to use a direct-line family member’s private training ground for personal purposes, but the youngest spent most of his time shut in his room and had no particular connections. That was what had made the knights bold enough to dare commit the reckless act of using a Leonhardt bloodline’s private training ground.
“First, you’ve recovered some strength, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then grip your sword.”
Jaden smiled wickedly as he said that.
“A few days will be enough. I’ll change that weak personality of yours down to the bone.”
“Wh-what do you mean by……”
Aiden looked at Jaden with fear-filled eyes, but the moment Jaden took his stance, he immediately charged forward.
Aiden reflexively blocked the path of his sword, then continued blocking Jaden’s attacks with a flustered expression.
But the experience of having been knocked around countless times in his previous life did not simply disappear.
Though it had been a realm he had forcibly raised through artifacts, he had once reached the fifth stage.
Aiden might be a genius, but he was still nothing more than a fledgling; playing with him was more than possible. Jaden pressed him hard with all sorts of underhanded methods he would not expect, surprise attacks, and miscellaneous skills honed through real combat experience.
“Hah…… hah……”
“Is this all you’ve got? Is that why your mother died like that?”
“Kgh! Brother!”
“Pathetic. Your mother must be weeping in the afterlife.”
To the boy who had collapsed from exhaustion, Jaden deliberately spoke cruelly and made him rise again.
What Aiden needed now was venom. Making him cast aside the weak personality that was gnawing away at his genius was what Jaden had to do now. Even if the result was that Aiden turned into a monster, it was still necessary.
‘Because when the time comes, he’ll have no choice but to become a monster anyway.’
When countless monsters swarmed in like packs of dogs, he would have no choice but to become ruthless just to survive.
If that was the case, it was far more beneficial to make him harbor venom from the start and grow stronger quickly.
“If you’re pissed, come at me.”
At Jaden’s words, Aiden lunged at him reflexively, but in the end, he fell prey once again to Jaden’s miscellaneous skills, backed by countless experiences.
Even if he did not fall for the same trick twice, Jaden had hundreds of miscellaneous techniques he had learned on the battlefield.
At the very least, until he left this mansion next year, he had enough tricks to torment the boy, and in terms of actual skill, Jaden was still far above him.
In the end, Jaden spoke to Aiden, who lay sprawled out on his back.
“From now on, come here every morning at seven. Mornings will be for your own training, and afternoons will be sparring like today.”
With those words, Jaden returned to his room without even waiting for an answer.
And when the next day came, he saw the youngest there before him, already training.
“You’re early?”
“……Yes.”
“Then shall we begin training?”
Jayden smiled brightly and trained in the basic sword forms.
Aiden, too, began training in the opening section of the Lion Sword Form.
The White Lion Sword Form was too much for Aiden, who had yet to even master the basics, so he was training in the foundational Lion Sword Form instead.
Now and then, Aiden would look to him as if asking whether his posture was correct. Each time, Jayden properly demonstrated the Lion Sword Form from the beginning, left him to train on his own, and then immersed himself in practicing the basic sword forms.
And the afternoon was sparring time.
Without the slightest mercy, Jayden beat the boy black and blue…… no, spent a satisfying time letting him build experience that was practically like real combat, then repeated the same routine the next day as well.
Then, perhaps because the boy had suddenly grown curious, he asked him.
“Brother, aren’t you going to train in the Lion Sword Form?”
As though he found it strange that Jayden only trained in simple basic sword forms every time, Aiden asked with his eyes wide and round.
Jayden gave a bitter smile and said,
“It doesn’t suit me.”
“Pardon?”
Aiden tilted his head, as if he couldn’t understand for a moment.
“I’m saying the Lion Sword Form doesn’t suit me.”
At Jayden’s answer, the boy still tilted his head with an expression that said he couldn’t comprehend it.
To Aiden, the Lion Sword Form was merely a basic sword form, but to some, it could be a difficult high-level sword form. Since he was still young, he couldn’t understand that.
“There’s also the fact that my talent is mediocre, but from the start, the Lion Sword Form and I just don’t fit. That’s why I’m training in the basic sword forms.”
“That can’t be. When I look at your swordsmanship, Brother……”
Aiden trailed off and looked at Jayden’s sword.
The straight, unwavering line of his blade was so clean that the current Aiden could take it as his goal.
Even the lion beside them had said it wasn’t bad.
But that only meant it was decent for his age. It was something that could only be said because they did not know that, in the end, the limits of his talent were clear, and the rate of his improvement would dwindle.
“Well, I suppose it can look that way right now. In any case, I’m only training like this because the Lion Sword Form doesn’t suit me, so don’t worry about it.”
“……Yes.”
When Aiden answered with an expression that still said he didn’t understand, Jayden deliberately provoked him to change the subject.
“By the way, do you think you can win today?”
“Today, I definitely will!”
Watching Aiden clench his fist as he spoke, Jayden chuckled and swung his sword.
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Saying so, Jayden began training in basic swordsmanship again.
As always, with this training repeated once more, Aiden also took up his sword again and began to train.
In that way, their simple daily routine of individual training in the morning and sparring in the afternoon repeated itself. By the time one month became two, the family head seemed to judge that they had recovered to a certain extent and had the individual instruction sessions, which had been put on hold in the mornings, resume.
As a result, individual training was pushed to the afternoon and sparring to the evening, creating a fairly tight schedule.
Even so, both Jayden and Aiden completed the schedule without much difficulty, and several months passed like that.