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Chapter – 07
Pirancheva was in the private training ground prepared by Marquis Eastern, sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed, meditating. It was a habit she had maintained since she was even younger, and her posture looked incredibly comfortable and natural.
While meditating, Pirancheva thought incessantly.
‘Magic manifests through elemental arrays, using forward sequences, reverse sequences, and twists. But mana used with a sword isn’t as complex as magic.’
From what Pirancheva heard from the knights of her family, the basics involved moving the mana within the body into the sword. They emphasized that through continuous, repetitive training, the body must first internalize this through muscle memory.
‘The human body has something called meridian pathways.’
The one currently inhabiting Pirancheva’s body was a person whose consciousness had crossed over from a world called Earth, a world with a developed scientific civilization.
He remembered not only the knowledge of this world but also the studies and knowledge he had learned on Earth.
When he was on Earth, in a country called Korea, he was intelligent enough to attend the top university. His professional knowledge, as well as his vast array of miscellaneous common sense, were a great help in living here.
Pirancheva was currently pondering how to create a new system of mana hall, or mana circle, that could simultaneously utilize swordsmanship and magic.
‘And through the meridians, one can move Ki, or the energy called mana in this place.’
Pirancheva mobilized all the knowledge she possessed.
‘I need to create a dantian, but the problem is the information about the dantian isn’t clear.’
The dantian that Pirancheva envisioned could be understood as a mana hall or mana circle in this world. The problem was that a mage’s mana circle and a knight’s mana hall were created in different places, not the same one.
‘A mage’s mana circle is created in the heart, which can be said to be the source of human life. On the other hand, the location where a knight’s mana hall is formed is not clear.’
The mana hall that knights spoke of was about using mana accumulated in the body through training; they couldn’t precisely point to a specific location and say, ‘This is where the mana hall is.’
‘If I create a mana hall in the heart like mages do, there’s the advantage of being able to circulate mana throughout the body quickly, just like blood circulates through arteries and veins. But if I use mana excessively while engaging in intense movement, it seems like the heart wouldn’t withstand it and might burst.’
Pirancheva judged that she needed to remove such limitations to face a dragon.
‘I don’t know where a dragon’s mana heart is, but those creatures definitely didn’t create it in their hearts.’
Pirancheva, lost in solitary meditation, suddenly remembered the wuxia novels she used to enjoy reading on Earth to pass the time.
‘There was something that likened the human five viscera to the energies of the Five Elements and explained it. There are related materials in Korean traditional medicine, and they even use it for treatment, so maybe the content of wuxia novels isn’t entirely nonsensical.’
Pirancheva probed her memory.
‘The Five Viscera refer to the heart, liver, pancreas, lungs, and kidneys. These belong to Yin…’
The memory of the content surfaced in Pirancheva’s mind as if it were a lie.
‘The Six Bowels refer to the gallbladder, stomach, large intestine, small intestine, bladder, and triple burner (sanjiao). These belong to Yang, which surrounds Yin, and it was said that just as the inside and outside achieve harmony, the harmony of Yin and Yang must be achieved…’
As Pirancheva’s thoughts expanded, she even recalled the correlation between human organs and the Five Elements.
‘The heart is Fire, the liver is Wood, the pancreas is Earth, the lungs are Metal, and the kidneys are Water. The Five Viscera influence each other. Wait, the heart is Fire…’
Pirancheva had a feeling that perhaps she really could create a mana circle somewhere other than the heart.
‘Fire corresponds to the fire element among the elements… Is it because the mana circle is created in the heart that even within the same circle, fire attribute magic becomes more powerful?’
If that was the case, then if she wanted to make water attribute magic powerful, she wondered if creating a mana circle in the kidneys, which possess the nature of Water, would increase the power of water attribute magic.
‘Maybe there’s a possibility…’
Based on the hypothesis she created, Pirancheva began researching its feasibility.
***
*Paaang!*
Pirancheva’s days flowed like a spinning wheel, following an incredibly tight schedule.
In the mornings, she underwent the same training and drills as the knights and children. In the evenings, she received private lessons related to swordsmanship from a knight.
This was part of the promise with Marquis Eastern, who had agreed to teach her swordsmanship, so both the teaching knight and the learning Pirancheva did their best.
‘She’s growing at a rate noticeable day by day. This isn’t the level of someone simply learning swordsmanship out of curiosity.’
Foren, the knight captain teaching Pirancheva swordsmanship, was constantly amazed by her rate of improvement.
*Swaaaak!*
They trained with wooden swords, not real ones, but the weight of the sword was the same as a real sword, per Pirancheva’s request.
“Taaat!”
As Pirancheva thrust her sword straight forward with a shout, Foren lightly evaded it and then struck down on the linearly extended sword, causing it to fall from Pirancheva’s hand.
“Ugh!”
Pirancheva grimaced, feeling the force transmitted to her grip.
She thought she would retrieve her sword first by dodging Foren’s strike, but Foren was faster and stronger than she had anticipated.
‘It’s clear Foren is teaching at a level matching mine.’
She had definitely become stronger since first arriving at the Marquis’s household, but whenever she faced Foren, it always felt like the first time she fought him.
“Shall we stop for today?”
“Yes, thank you. But, Captain, where do you rank among the Empire’s knights in terms of strength?”
Foren thought for a moment before answering Pirancheva’s question.
“The standard for strength is not objective. Everyone has their own criteria, so it’s difficult for me to give a specific rank. But in my subjective opinion, there are probably less than a hundred people in the Empire who could defeat me.”
“Wow, so you’re one of the top hundred knights!”
She had already heard from Marquis Eastern that he was one of the Empire’s top ten knights.
“That’s my subjective view. Others’ evaluations might differ.”
Pirancheva tilted her head and asked again.
“Then, Captain, could you attack me with your full force and knock me out?”
“Knock you out?”
“Yes. I keep feeling the same way during our swordsmanship lessons, which is why I’m asking.”
Foren didn’t answer.
“Please use mana on me…”
—If it’s not an excessively unreasonable request, grant it.
Marquis Eastern’s words came to mind, and Foren nodded. Seeing this, Pirancheva picked up the sword that had fallen to the floor, created some distance from him, and readied her stance.
“Hoo.”
Foren let out a single breath and spoke to Pirancheva.
“Then, here I come.”
“Yes!”
At that moment, Foren’s figure disappeared from before her eyes, and she soon experienced her vision going dark.
‘This is… the skill of a knight at the peak of the Empire…’
That was the last of Pirancheva’s consciousness before it cut off, and Foren was there to catch her as she fell.
‘She reacted for an instant.’
Of course, he hadn’t used his full power.
No matter how exceptional Pirancheva was, she was just a seven-year-old child. Although he had adjusted to her level, it wasn’t a movement so slow that a child could react to it.
“Perhaps young master Pirancheva might have more talent for swordsmanship than magic.”
***
Pirancheva opened her eyes in her bedroom. She lay still for a moment, blinking, before an unknowable smile formed on her lips.
“I felt the mana move.”
Although Pirancheva couldn’t see Foren’s movement, she had reacted slightly to the movement of mana.
And she could tell that the mana was generated throughout his body, moved to his legs, and created that explosive, instantaneous movement.
“It seemed like he was using mana accumulated in his body. It wasn’t using concentrated mana stored in a mana hall.”
Pirancheva was sure of it.
That also meant that even without showing his true strength, Foren could subdue Pirancheva in an instant.
“If Captain Foren used all his power, how strong would he be? The Marquis mentioned he’s one of the Empire’s top 10 knights, but in reality, couldn’t he be even stronger?”
Pirancheva thought that perhaps Foren wasn’t just a knight ranked in the top ten of the Bardua Empire, but maybe one ranked in the top ten of the entire Frances continent.
“While I’m here, I’ll learn as much as I possibly can from Captain Foren.”
***
Pirancheva woke up early and left her room. It was dawn, before sunrise, but Pirancheva’s daily routine always started from this moment.
She warmed up lightly at the training ground and then ran around the drill grounds. She ran slowly, as if jogging, but kept it up for an hour without rest.
The soldiers patrolling for the safety of the lord’s castle were familiar with this behavior of hers; seeing him run the drill grounds even made them feel a sense of admiration.
“Not missing a single day and doing that is no easy task. It seems he has some kind of desperation.”
Most soldiers thought this when they saw Pirancheva working so hard.
They believed that desperation drove him to devote himself to training and practice to the point of straining his body.
“Uncle Medson, I see you’re on duty today.”
“Yeah. Pirancheva, what are you up to at the crack of dawn? If you exhaust yourself like that, will you even be able to train properly later?”
“Don’t worry. I was born with good stamina.”
Pirancheva interacted with the people working at Marquis Eastern’s castle without formalities. His sociability was so exceptional that it was hard to believe he was the youngest son of a Count’s family, often surprising even Marquis Eastern.
Because he interacted with everyone so informally, no one thought of Pirancheva as the child of a high-ranking noble family.
“Hey, kid, even so, if you get hurt, you’re the only one who loses. Working hard is good, but you also need to rest properly to stay safe.”
“Okay. I’ll do that, Uncle. Take care.”
“Alright, you have a energetic day too.”
Pirancheva would have brief conversations like this with the soldiers patrolling the castle grounds while going about her tasks.
She continued her jog like that, and around daybreak, Pirancheva would regulate her breathing on the drill grounds, cooling down the heat radiating from her body.
Around this time, trainees, soldiers, and knights would begin gathering one by one at the training ground.
“Good morning.”
She would greet those coming to the training ground in a bright voice.
‘They aren’t NPCs from Freedom, but the conversational skills and methods of gaining favorability I learned while interacting with them in the game are a great help.’
Before opening his eyes in this world, on Earth, he was what others would call a shut-in or a hikikomori, so dedicated to Freedom that he rarely left his house.
If he hadn’t gone to the gym to exercise, even his parents might have thought he had died in his room, he was so immersed in Freedom.
Having spent ten years in reality and thirty years in the world of Freedom, he met countless NPCs and players, fought, and repeatedly became friends, eventually becoming known as an insider in the Freedom world to a degree he himself found commendable, adventuring across the continent with many players.
“You’re out early again today.”
“I’m doing my best to live diligently and to the fullest.”
He always had a bright face, so people treated Pirancheva well. However, there were those who disapproved of him, namely the clique of trainee recruits.
