Chương 29: Dangerous Path

TARION"How are you, fourth circle? To keep those circles, day and night... No, how are you even walking?!" My recruit looked over at my shouting uncle. I sighed.

"Let's walk. Continue recruits. We will back."

"Walk? I know you can barely do that." My uncle mocked me, but he still followed me around to a quiet area of my courtyard.

"Your Hue. Its pulse is unsteady; anyone proficient will notice something wrong." I thought back to the cool foreigner. Another issue to correct.

"Forging with a weak body means fragile, misformed circles. And so quick... Exert more than they can take, and it can spell death for you! Please heed my advice before tragedy befalls you," he pleaded. I smiled.

"I understand. Thank you for worrying about me." I turned to return to my recruits.

"Nephew—!"

"Die in my bed, useless, UNWANTED." I looked Loran straight in his discerning eyes.

"Or die on my feet in battle, needed by my people? What is a better death for a Greystone, huh?" It was like the world had turned silent. All I could hear was my blood rushing.

"All I did was take my life back. Had I not taken drastic measures, I would not be looking you in the eye right now." Laron stepped back as if hit by an arrow.

"I…I had given up. My position. The household. My life. Totally without any hope. But I found my light, my drive." I remembered the locket and rubbed it.

"My purpose. Should I return to the dark room and be safe once more?"

"Tarion…" My brother came out from hiding to stand between me and my uncle. He heard me? Everything? I should have noticed... I heard more ruffling of clothes as my recruits stopped hiding as well. Vanessa's green eyes watched me worry. I hate it. I saw that my words did not sway my uncle much, and I patted him on the arm.

"I know you worry for me, but it is in vain, as I devised a way to work around my weak body. A constant flow of mana. Mobile Meditation." I turned back to my students and said, "Which is what I plan to teach all of you, and I am a prime example of how well this technique works. So, Uncle Laron, I will be okay." I smiled, concealing my twisting emotions. The old knight bit his lips.

"Tarion…You are truly of his blood. Stubborn to a fault." My uncle started walking away.

"Once your duties are finished for the day, please meet me by the library."

"Yes…Uncle." I watched him leave, feeling like I had disappointed him again. I had no choice. Get stronger or die writhing in pain in a nice bed. Get stronger or everything my family has attained through the generations goes up in smoke. Get stronger or she dies. With Vanessa's hand on my back, she consoled me. I gently brought her hand down.

"In my haste, I took the dangerous path. But you can't blame me for trying to be my best for my future wife." As with my uncle, my jokes do not stop her from being worried. With our fingers linked together, I felt that strange pitter-patter in my heart.

"Don't—""I will worry about my husband as I like." She patted my chest, hurting my sternum, and sat back in her spot. It's getting harder to deny. I scanned around and saw faces of concern, staring at me with the same pity that beat old Tarion into a reserved coward. I have to give them no reason to worry. I clapped, and the air popped.

"Stop with the dour faces and sit the fuck down, recruits!" Tarion The vision. A city I vaguely recognise. The City of Menne. The Capital. If so, it must be a vision of the cursed invasion set to happen in two or so years. A near-armageddon that left Osberg destroyed. But even before then, Osberg was nothing, as it once was with my brother governing. Standing no chance against the horde of cursed, the guard was squashed, and the military was eviscerated.

My knights bravely charged into certain death to save thousands with my uncle at the head. TAPLM tells all this in a short text box. Is that all Osberg was worth? The vision served as another reminder of the importance of my mission. I cannot fail another. I snapped out of my daydream to watch my brother practise a parry and slash combo at half-speed. Using the recently learnt mobile meditation, mana flowed through his limbs at an increased rate.

"I can feel less of a load on the circles. How did you create this?" Joshua swiped upward, and a slice of mana flew out. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

"A lot of research, trial and error and luck. You messed up your form."

"Oh bugger." Joshua tried again more slowly.

"Make sure to do this every day for thirty minutes."

"Thirty minutes!?" Joshua complained.

"I am being lenient. Two hours is what you need to work up to." Joshua marvelled at his arm, its meridians full of mana.

"You do this all the time…?" To stay alive, I need to.

"It will become second nature. I just recently got it to where I can sleep with my mana coursing." Joshua's eyebrows twist.

"You have become weird."

"Weird? Let's compare weirdness –""Shhhh," said Joshua with his finger on his lips. I winked.

"Back to training." My brother. The cause of my uncle's death. The cause of countless deaths. I could have snapped his neck and been done with any future troubles. But he had come. The dowager's filth can be washed off before it contaminates him. I walked around the courtyard grass with two wooden swords under my arm and saw Jen sitting still on the grass with her eyes closed. As average as a person could be in this world, her progress is slow, but she does have determination.

It also helps that Kurt was closely observing her progress. I passed her and saw two recruits walking slowly in an oval. For first-circle novices like Vanessa and Charles, slower movements are better for learning the movement of mana around the body. Vanessa strode at a rate of one step every ten seconds, and Charles managed to narrow it to three seconds. I threw a wooden sword at my friend, and it bounced off his head.

"Haha, sorry. Mind a spar like the old days?" Picking up the weapon, Charles smiled, running to me like a golden retriever.

"Slow down before you trip over your fat feet."

"No need to worry about me. I'm not the one making a habit of fainting." Charles put his practice sword up, and I did the same.

"Hey! I had a very exhausting day."

"Your Grace! News from Mouve." Beatrice strutted over with a note. Fuck sake. I put my sword by my side.

"Report","They have located where the spiders originated from and have found something. Strange writings."

"Lands above… Get my bath ready and a coach driver ready for travel. Charles, you can come or train, your choice. Everyone! Fantastic first day, but I have a pressing issue to deal with." I waved goodbye to Vanessa. Runes? There is no end to the bullshit.

"Your Grace. We have found several of these openings all over the slum; this one seems the most intact," Jimmy said outside a destroyed four-storey inn. With my cloak and sword, I looked up at the broken walls from the ground to the third floor. The cursed must have exploded from the interior.

"Escort me." Jimmy guided me through the wreckage with a lantern. Charles and Beatrice stayed behind waiting by the carriage. Stepping over the crushed bodies, Jimmy led me to a massive hole about twenty metres wide. Jimmy jumped in first, beaconing me to come.

"A little gunk, but it's safe." I dropped alone, mana repulsion slowing my descent. I landed with mana armour around my legs.

"The gunk is shit, Jimmy. And it's a lot." Jimmy looked at his breeches, dirtied in brown.

"Heh, no wonder it smells like a pig's sty in here." Stepping up on a walkway with armoured hands, I touched the stone tunnel wall. A sewage system seemed out of place in a mediaeval city like Osberg. Maybe they got inspired by other civilizations. Maybe the writer couldn't stand for shit-filled streets. I examined the tunnel further. From ground to wall, circles were drawn in red with strange lettering. It looks like a shaman spell to invoke a spirit. But it seems twisted. For a different kind of apparition.

"You know how to read them, Your Grace?"

"Somewhat, learned in my spare time."

"You have spare time?" With no YouTube, a bored man needs hobbies. I squatted for a close look. The circles appeared to be destroyed by an explosion with melted stone in the blast zone. Trying to destroy evidence?

"Duke, over here…" I went over to a dark area of the tunnel. Several bodies lay in a pile seemingly drained of all blood. I searched further, and by a ladder leading up to a trap door, a cloaked man sat on the tunnel wall with a hole drilled into his chest. Evidence of a fireball singed his clothes. Explosion and fire damage were evident in the locations. But this one – they bungled. Couldn't destroy evidence quickly enough, I reckoned. I lit the tunnel with bright blue light and looked up.

I increased my senses with all my points, finding even more meticulous camouflage runes were explosion runes, unignited. Fuck. I tapped on mana capacity as fast as I could, filling it up with my 55 points.

"Jimmy! Run!" Hands out, my shield of mana shimmered into a dome. Leaving the lantern behind, Jimmy made it inside the shield as charges explode, bringing down hundreds of tonnes of soil and concrete on to us. The rigid hexagonal shield endured the weight.

"Woooo!" Jimmy wiped his brow.

"That was a close one. Huh? Almost killed because of a maniacal conspiracy? Exciting!!" Jimmy looked around at the dome that saved us.

"So how do we get out of here?" I stared down the fool.

"Dig, officer. DIG."