In August, when the summer heat was in full swing, a big event which shook the entire Hale Kingdom was held.
This didn’t take place in the capital nor in the relatively densely populated northern part of the kingdom.
The six southern families.
Among them a special swordsmanship class was being held by the Pareira family which had a Baron title and that drew the attention of a lot of people.
‘It’s not just the attention.’
As he greeted the guests Marcus wiped his sweat
He did know that a lot of people would come but never did he imagine that it would be this much.
And it wasn’t just the nobles nearby but even people from the far northern kingdoms had come wanting to participate in the special lecture.
The Barons and other nobles who couldn’t come made it a point to send a messenger with letters and gifts.
And that wasn’t all.
Due to the rumors spreading so widely the nobles of Hale Kingdom who didn’t want to come were forced to come as well.
For that reason Harun Pareira set the limit for the visitors to two people per family.
Otherwise the people wouldn’t fit in the Pareira’s training hall.
The young master was truly the greatest boon the family had ever received!
Thinking that Marcus’s face was filled with pride.
The first born of the Pareira Territory who was responsible for the future of the Hale Kingdom was bringing in so many people!
And the top knights of each family who wanted to become stronger were also coming here! Aust to talk with Airn Pareira!
At the sight which he couldn’t even imagine 10 years back his heart raced harder than ever.
However not everyone was looking at this situation with excitement like Marcus.
Kirill was the prime example.
Unable to hide her expression and stop her anxious heart she opened her lips.
“Will it be fine?”
“Will what be fine?”
“Brother.”
“Airn is always fine.”
“No it is a class. I know my brother is strong but teaching is…. A completely different area right?”
“True.”
Lulu nodded.
There was a saying that geniuses can’t teach.
A genius was a being who reached a level with just a fleeting intuition; A level that others could only reach through countless repetition consideration and never-ending effort.
And among those geniuses are people who race through dozens of stairs at a time; stairs that force normal people to climb one by one There are such transcendental existences in swordsmanship as well.
And people called them Sword Masters.
‘Even my brother is called to be one of the most talented.’
Who were the three geniuses being constantly talked about in the continent?
The first was obviously Ignet.
The second was Ilya.
And the third was Airn.
‘Can such a great achiever be able to give a class which normal people can understand?’
That was what Kirill was concerned about.
Not just her brother but even the people who have been by his side were all geniuses!
And such doubts were spread more widely as the more and more knights came here.
“He’s c-coming.”
“Be quiet.”
“Young lord even if the class is weird don’t show it. we didn’t come here to learn the sword. We are only here to build contacts.”
“I understand.”
At those words they saw a blonde young man approaching from far.
At that everyone stopped chatting. And Marcus felt even prouder when he saw this.
The heavy atmosphere and silence spread and Airn stopped walking.
In front of the crowd surrounding him he stretched out his hand showing neither a subservient or an authoritarian gaze.
A brilliant golden sword appeared in the air.
“Oh.”
“That is…”
Airn’s trademark weapon.
It was a weapon capable enough to defeat Ricardo Pinto the son of Sword Master Harrison Pinto who was a candidate for the Land of Proof’s champion spot and break his ‘Numbering Sword’.
Words of admiration flowed from the mouths of the people who witnessed the weapon.
No sword they had seen till then could even fall in line with it.
It wasn’t just when comparing swords.
There was no object that could be compared with it and the same would always be true.
Wooong!
“…”
“…”
The Aura Sword suddenly appeared.
The atmosphere of the hall changed once again as an energy more magnificent than the light on the sword came into their views.
In fact until just a moment ago the way the people waited for Airn was far from how one would think about a Master.
A strong physique a stable gait and a calm face. These were the elements that show that a person is strong but just those things didn’t always mean that the person was a ‘Sword Master’. That was because there was something more intense than any of these things…Sword Aura.
All the doubts they had vanished as they saw it. An atmosphere that only those who had reached the top could create filled the hall.
Everyone who felt it fixed their gaze on Airn without saying anything.
Airn was calm.
He lightly swung the sword four or five times and soon called back the energy.
And then came voices of regret.
It was because most people there had never seen an Aura Sword their entire lives and what they had seen just now was strongly engraved into their heads.
However it had ended too quickly.
For the first time Airn spoke with a smile in a relaxed way.
“There are so many different people who have come… I pondered a lot about what content should be talked about. I was worried that some might get bored if I went over the basics and some wouldn’t learn anything if we skipped ahead…”
Wheik!
Wheik!
Swish!
Three times… Airn swung the sword three times in a light manner.
And naturally as he took his stance the entire attention of the people in the hall fell on him. Although it was nothing like the Aura Sword not a single person felt bored.
It wasn’t just them Marcus Kirill Lulu and even his parents were also looking at him.
Airn was calm.
In a firm tone he continued speaking not being swayed by anything else.
“…so from start to finish I decided to cover it all.”
Finally the swordsmanship class of the strongest swordsman of the Hale Kingdom began.
The content that Airn focused on was ‘seeing’.
It went over how to be aware of the opponent’s movement and how to receive an attack.
Furthermore he also explained that in order to attack the opponent it was important to understand the intentions and actions of the opponent.
So the basic part was ‘seeing’ or observing.
How they could look close to dodge or attack well.
It was a pretty normal thing to do but if it was done properly then it was a whole different story.
The first part Airn went over was the ‘shoulder’.
“Most of the beginners that started using swords tend to only look at the blades of the opponent. I did that at the start too. As I followed the blade of the sword I would find my eyes getting dizzy. But…”
If you focus on the shoulder that dizziness would be reduced by half.
Airn who exhaled calmly swung the sword.
“It isn’t the sword that moves. Before that the arm and then the shoulder moves. If you find it difficult to match with the swordsmanship of an opponent during a match because of being too conscious of their sword try focusing on the shoulder which is relatively close to the source of movement. From now on I will perform the movements more slowly.”
It was a kind and accurate explanation.
All of the theory was followed by clean and standard movements.
Everyone nodded their heads.
Especially the young lords who were just entering the path of the sword showed intense reactions.
They were immersed in Airn’s explanation who pointed out the mistakes that beginners do and suggested easy solutions.
But not everyone was like that.
Some of them thought that this was all information that they already knew. And some of them couldn’t even relate to it.
However that wasn’t the end of the class.
“As I said before… the movement of the sword is important but even more important than that is the source of the movement. The various muscles and joints that work for that movement to happen… It would be really nice to be able to see all the movements at a glance but I think everyone knows that it would be difficult. This is why we narrow our focus and move. Always keep this in mind : sword to shoulder shoulder to waist and waist to feet.”
Airn’s words flowed out like a gushing river. It was completely different from the past.
This was partly because of the thorough preparation he did before but it was also because of his main characteristic feature that made him who he was.
He…
…was a genius
Especially when it came to hard work.
No. The word Genius of Hard Work was more appropriate.
Airn went through each process more carefully and firmly. So he had a more stable growth.
The important thing was that these movements didn’t change despite him reaching higher.
“It doesn’t end just because every body part comes into view. They can use tricks to mess with the mind or use a number of diversions. To deal with that you need to read your opponent’s intentions in advance. What you need to pay attention to here…is the eyes of the opponent.”
Even for geniuses this was a very difficult thing.
Airn was being serious. He did his best to wield the sword and even after doing that for so long he would still sometimes feel lost.
There was no reason he shouldn’t re-check himself just because he had reached a certain height.
To those who had not reached his level there was no way he couldn’t give them this advice.
He slowly retraced the process he had walked through and explained it to the audience.
When the class that had continued for hours like this was finished.
Clap!
Clap clap!
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
The sound of applause erupted from someone’s hand for the first time and it kept increasing.
It wasn’t because he was a new hero and neither was it because they came to build a relationship with the Sword Master.
It was sincere appreciation for the lecture itself.
Even Baron pareira felt his eyes turn red at this.
“Before this ends I would like to say one last thing.”
Airn opened his mouth which made the hall go silent.
The young man in front of them wasn’t someone born with just talent. They didn’t say it out loud but everyone knew it.
He must have put in a tremendous amount of effort until now. To the point where the title of ‘lazy prince’ was nothing more than a misunderstanding.
Airn didn’t even know what they were thinking.
He didn’t care.
What he wanted to say was…
No what he wanted to show them… began then.
“You all… why do you all hold your swords?”
