Chapter 9

The Swordsmanship Genius Possessed by a God — Chapter 9

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Pedrock, the head butler of the annex, muttered as he looked at his reflection in the mirror.

“More wrinkles again.”

He seemed to have lost some weight, and the dark circles beneath his eyes had deepened.

He looked as though he were on the verge of death.

There was only one reason Pedrock had ended up like this.

‘There really isn't much left now.’

Pedrock sighed deeply as he worked the abacus in his hands.

As the head butler, he was responsible for the annex's finances. The servants' wages, food expenses, facility maintenance, the interest payments due every month, and every other matter involving money fell under his responsibility.

At present, the annex's financial situation was truly dire.

“Um...”

It had gotten so bad that servants came to him almost every day with the same request.

“Head Butler, there's something I'd like to discuss.”

“What is it?”

“My payday was the day before yesterday, but...”

Seeing the servant hesitate to speak, Pedrock let out a deep sigh.

“I'm sorry. I must have overlooked it.”

Pedrock took some gold coins from the safe. In truth, he hadn't overlooked anything. There simply wasn't enough money circulating to pay everyone on time.

If things continued this way, he would have to reduce the already small number of servants.

After finally receiving his overdue wages, the servant glanced cautiously at Pedrock before asking,

“Will everything be all right?”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“With how things have been for us lately.”

At the servant's question, Pedrock answered with a warm smile.

“Of course. Everything will be fine.”

“Ah, that's a relief.”

“I'm sorry for the delay. I'll make sure to pay closer attention from now on.”

Reassured by Pedrock's answer, the servant left the room.

After confirming that the door had closed, Pedrock once again clutched at his hair and let out a silent scream.

It was truly a situation he couldn't even bring himself to speak about elsewhere.

‘To think Vishken would have to worry about money!’

The reason things had deteriorated so badly was none other than the master of this annex.

Allen Vishken.

His master, who had been born with the Curse of Mana Deprivation.

Whenever Allen heard a rumor that there might be a way to cure the Curse of Mana Deprivation somewhere, he spent money without hesitation. No matter how expensive an elixir was, or how accomplished a saint or priest might be, Allen spared no expense.

He had even gone so far as to borrow money from a major merchant guild. Most of the budget the family allocated to the annex was now being consumed by interest payments.

“If only he'd managed to complete his mission...”

“Sorry about that.”

Pedrock, who had been sighing deeply, jumped in surprise and sprang to his feet.

The door had certainly been closed, but he had been so lost in thought that he hadn't noticed anyone entering.

“Young Master!”

“Have you been well?”

The person who had entered the head butler's office was Allen.

Seeing Allen return from his first mission, Pedrock's eyes lit up.

“What about your mission? How did it go?”

“Haven't you heard?”

“Heard what?”

“It was neither a success nor a failure. I won't be receiving a reward from the family.”

“That can't be...!”

At that moment, Pedrock felt as though the hair still remaining on his head was falling out.

If Allen had completed his mission, the family would have issued a separate reward to the annex. And Pedrock had been hoping that reward would come in the form of money.

Even if it was a mission of the lowest rank, the annex's finances were so desperate that every coin mattered.

“Are we really that short on money?”

“I'm dying here, truly.”

Having served Allen for many years, Pedrock spoke openly about all his hardships, unlike when he was dealing with the other servants.

“The servants' wages keep getting delayed, the interest keeps piling up, and I'm not exaggerating when I say we're barely able to afford meat anymore. It's gotten so bad that I've even had to spend my own money.”

“You've worked hard.”

“If it weren't for the Incubation Grass you bought two months ago, things would be much better. Why on earth did those completely useless roots cost a thousand gold?!”

“...They're only useless roots because I'm the one who took them.”

“Uhuuuhuhu.”

Seeing Pedrock finally burst into tears, Allen smiled awkwardly, feeling apologetic.

‘I didn't realize it was this bad.’

He knew the annex was short on money. Even by his own reckoning, there had been no method he hadn't tried during this period in his attempts to break the curse.

But now that he had returned to the past, the situation was even more serious than he had imagined.

‘Well, it's all because they ended up with the wrong master.’

Without Pedrock, the annex would have gone bankrupt long ago. It was only through his efforts and devotion, even spending his own money, that the annex had managed to survive until now.

“It's nothing much, but here.”

Allen took some gold coins from his pocket and handed them to the struggling Pedrock.

“Twenty gold coins.”

“Twenty gold...! B-but didn't you say your mission had failed?”

“I told you it was put on hold, not failed. Besides, this is the money I received for handing the bandits over to the kingdom's guards.”

During this mission, Allen had captured the bandits alive instead of killing them and handed them directly over to the kingdom's guards.

The twenty gold coins were the reward for capturing the bandits alive. And from the moment Allen received that reward, he had been thinking about the annex's financial situation.

It would barely make a dent in their depleted finances, but at least it should be enough to settle the overdue wages.

“And I'll be heading out again in about four days. Please prepare my luggage by then.”

“You're going somewhere again? Have you already been assigned another mission?”

Concern and anticipation flashed through Pedrock's eyes at the same time.

Allen had returned without properly succeeding in his very first mission. Although Pedrock didn't know the details, things clearly couldn't have gone smoothly.

But at the same time, given the annex's financial situation, it was also true that Allen needed to return from a successful mission.

“It's not a mission. There's just somewhere I need to go for personal reasons.”

“Where would that be?”

“The Viscounty of Villerman.”

“Villerman?”

Pedrock tilted his head in puzzlement before asking as though he had suddenly remembered something.

“Are you referring to that newly discovered dungeon?”

There was a dungeon in the Viscounty of Villerman, located in the Owen Kingdom.

It wasn't a particularly remarkable dungeon. Just another ordinary dungeon in a small kingdom like Owen. That was the extent of Pedrock's understanding of it.

“Surely you don't intend to go there? In person? Why would you waste your time on something like that?”

His reaction suggested he couldn't understand why Allen would bother visiting such a useless place. In truth, Allen had expected that response.

But at this point in time, Allen was the only person who knew the dungeon's true value.

‘It won't be a waste of time.’

The dungeon's true value would not be discovered until three years from now.

‘The treasure discovered there caused quite a bloodbath. The Flower of Stars, in particular, was an elixir coveted by the Quin family, the Empire, and even Vishken.’

The Flower of Stars was an extremely rare flower that bloomed perhaps once in a century. Containing an enormous amount of mana, it was also a precious elixir.

Among all the elixirs Allen could obtain at this point in time, the Flower of Stars was the most potent. If he could acquire it, he would be able to gain a tremendous amount of mana at once.

“There's something I need to obtain there. I've received some fairly reliable information, so don't worry too much.”

“Are you trying to cure the Curse of Mana Deprivation again? Who told you that? That there's a way to lift the curse there? Young Master, that's—”

“Oh, right.”

Allen interrupted Pedrock, whose concern was steadily growing.

“My curse is gone.”

“Pardon?”

A brief silence followed.

But soon, as Pedrock grasped what Allen had said, his eyes widened in astonishment.

“...Whaaaaaat?!”

His eyes grew so wide they looked ready to burst as he asked again, seeking confirmation.

“I-is that true?”

“Have I ever joked about something like this?”

“N-no, you haven't. But h-how did it happen?”

“It's difficult for me to explain the details. Just as I don't know why I was born with this constitution, I don't know why the curse disappeared either.”

Allen expected Pedrock to be delighted.

After all, he would no longer have to spend money trying to lift the curse. The enormous financial burden that had been devouring their funds was finally gone.

But instead, Pedrock's eyes reddened with tears.

He simply...

“You've endured so much.”

Pedrock clasped Allen's hand tightly.

“You really, truly have endured so much, Young Master.”

Tears welled up in Pedrock's eyes.

He recalled the time when Allen had first learned about the curse.

How could such a young child have worn an expression like that? Even now, Pedrock could not forget it.

The true curse had been engraved not on Allen's body, but on his soul. After learning about the curse, Allen had become an entirely different person.

Feelings of defeat and persecution, bitterness and obsession with finding a cure.

Every time Pedrock watched Allen deteriorate because of those things, it felt as though his heart were being torn apart.

And now that curse had finally been cured.

Seeing Pedrock lower his head and sob quietly, Allen once again felt a lump rise in his throat.

At this moment, Pedrock was thinking about the suffering Allen must have endured before anything as trivial as the annex's financial situation. And he was rejoicing as though it were his own good fortune.

Regret and guilt washed over Allen for having made someone like him suffer so much.

“Why are you crying? Even I'm not crying. And how old am I now? You're still calling me Young Master? It's embarrassing.”

Allen laughed, trying to make light of the situation.

“Anyway, I'm not going there to do something foolish in an attempt to break the curse, so don't worry too much.”

“Sniff, yes. Understood. In any case, congratulations. This old butler is...”

“Enough! I told you to stop crying! More importantly, could you prepare something simple for me to eat? I'm hungry after all that walking. Something like a sandwich would be nice.”

“Yes! Understood. I'll prepare what you usually enjoy.”

With his eyes still red, Pedrock hurried away. From the way he left, it seemed likely he would secretly wipe away his tears somewhere Allen couldn't see.

Watching Pedrock leave, Allen spoke silently to himself.

‘Just wait. I'll make sure to bring back a fortune for you.’

________________

After satisfying his hunger with a simple sandwich and coffee, Allen headed to the small training ground attached to the annex.

Pedrock had told him to rest and recover from his journey, but Allen was so restless that he simply couldn't bear to stay still.

Shing.

The sword slid smoothly from its sheath. He had drawn a sword tens of thousands of times throughout his life, but never before had it felt so exhilarating.

‘I've really been holding back for a long time.’

He hadn't had an opportunity to swing his sword while traveling with Lucas.

They had already lost considerable time obtaining and consuming the elixirs, so they had traveled by carriage on an even tighter schedule.

Throughout the journey, Allen had been thinking about what he would do once they arrived. Even if the amount of mana he possessed was no larger than a mouse dropping, the thought of swinging his sword with mana in his body made his heart pound.

Whoosh!

Allen's sword cut downward in a vertical stroke. He repeated the same movement several times.

Then he changed the trajectory, swinging it in various directions.

Vertically, horizontally, slashing, thrusting, and striking upward.

After performing several basic movements, Allen frowned.

“It's heavy.”

The weight of the sword in his hand didn't feel the way it used to. Come to think of it, the last time he had wielded a sword had been in the distant future.

There was an enormous difference in the level of his physical conditioning. His grip on the sword was weaker, as were his shoulders that swung the blade and the core muscles that supported his body.

He had realized it immediately after returning to the past, but once again, he was reminded that his body was no longer what it had been.

“It'll take some time to adjust.”

There was a considerable difference between simply moving his body and wielding a sword. If he had spent the past few days adapting to his new body, now it was time to adapt to the sword.

Allen continued swinging his sword without rest until he was gasping for breath. Once his stamina had been depleted to a certain extent, he sat down.

With both his mana and stamina exhausted, it was time to practice his cultivation technique.

‘I need to properly learn how to use mana, and I need to start cultivating it as well.’

A cultivation technique replenished depleted mana and, in the process, allowed one to accumulate more of it.

Although elixirs offered a shortcut to obtaining mana, the foundation of mana accumulation still lay in cultivation techniques.

‘Master used to say that mana recovers in greater amounts each time it's completely depleted.’

In that respect, mana was much like muscle. Each time it was torn down and recovered, it grew larger and stronger.

That was why beginners improved so quickly. Allen decided to enjoy this blessed period to the fullest.

As soon as his mana was depleted, Allen sat down and began cultivating.

Fortunately, he had never forgotten the incantations of his cultivation technique, not even for a moment.

As he drew mana from the outside into his body, his depleted reserves began to replenish. Mana circulated pleasantly throughout his body.

It was his first time experiencing the sensation of a cultivation technique functioning properly. It felt as though he were observing the inside of his body through the eyes of a third person.

How much time had passed like that?

[Mana has increased by 1.]

His mana had increased not long after he began cultivating.

Had mana always been this easy to obtain?

Allen found it strange. Come to think of it, throughout his cultivation, he had felt an unfamiliar sensation somewhere deep within his body. It was thanks to that sensation that his mana had increased so quickly.

‘What is it?’

Soon afterward, Allen discovered an unfamiliar energy residing somewhere below his abdomen.

An enormous mass of mana that seemed impossible for someone with a mana stat of merely two to possess.

As Allen tried to identify the mysterious energy, he forgot even to recite the incantations and opened his eyes wide.

‘Don't tell me—’

Allen's face lit up.

The energy from all the elixirs he had consumed over the years in his attempts to cure the curse had remained completely intact within his body.