How to Teach a Hero at the Academy

Chapter 6: The Janitor of the Academy (3)

Sarrifis was a small village surrounded by forest.

A place where the subspecies of Baobab trees called the Giant's Nape was abundant.

Therefore, from afar, a pillar of light born through forbidden arts pushed its way through the sturdy leaves. A streak of light that had soared from underground was chewing up and swallowing the entire village.

Survive, survive, survive.

Her mother's whispers burrowed into the young Monika's ears. Her mother's embrace as she ran, holding Monika. It was soaked in sweat and had grown cold. Monika just squeezed her eyes shut and tightened her right hand, which was gripping her mother's collar.

And so, she let go.

Her mother's voice grew distant.

Monika opened her eyes.

Her small body, floating in the air.

It was because her mother had thrown her with all her strength.

Monika,

Monika Lohengrin,

──You must survive!

Her mother's voice echoed distantly.

Had time stopped?

Monika thought.

And rightly so, for her mother's form being devoured by the pillar of light was so incredibly slow. Her flesh scattered, her expression melted away, and her mother evaporated as if she had never existed in the first place. Monika slowly stored her mother's final moments in her heart.

And so, what had stopped was her heart.

Without being able to harbor sadness, anger, or even a sliver of emotion,

Monika reached out her right hand towards her mother who had disappeared without a trace.

She felt like she had to.

The pillar of light that chewed up even the clouds.

It reached right before her nose.

‘I knew I wouldn't be able to reach it.’

Falling to the ground like a crushed raindrop,

Monika thought, blinking her wet eyes.

‘……But.’

I didn't know I would never be able to reach out my hand again.

Her right arm, severed as if by a lie.

Where had it gone?

Wringing out her hazy consciousness, Monika let out a hollow laugh.

‘Please, be holding onto my mother.’

* * *

“Your skills are quite impressive.”

Tarkan opened his mouth.

On the outside, he wore a sardonic smile, but on the inside, he was trembling with bewilderment.

‘More than half of my guards are dead.’

“Don't get cocky just because you killed a few of my men.”

The surviving men were just groaning and crawling on the floor. With such a commotion, the remaining forces at the base should have reacted by now, so why wasn't even the sound of a cough being heard?

‘Did he kill them beforehand? That can't be. To have slaughtered my men with a brat on his back.’

“You know about the Frozen Color, right? It's a criminal organization that operates beyond national borders. I am supported by them. If you harm me, they won't let you go.”

Abel nodded his head. He pulled the trigger of the repeating crossbow, confirming the kills again and again. While his men's death throes echoed like laughter, Tarkan gripped the handle of his battle axe.

‘……Damn it, I can't believe this.’

He had never imagined he would see such a sight.

“You seem to be struggling.”

“Th, the sword is heavier than I thought.”

Sharing a single sword,

Abel and Monika were conversing.

“Do I really have to fight Tarkan?”

“Do you have any aversion to killing a villain?”

“I don't know since I've never killed anyone, but I don't think it would feel good.”

“It doesn't matter. You will overcome it.”

“Why don't you just assure me that I'll become the continent's greatest swordsman instead.”

“It will be possible one day. You are still very clumsy.”

“You really……, are out of your mind.”

Monika let out a sigh.

She wiped the cold sweat running down her cheek with her shoulder. Supporting the sword with her trembling left arm, Monika still thought everything felt like a dream. To think the day would come when she would raise a sword against Two-Tongued Tarkan. Tarkan must be just as bewildered. Monika peeked at Tarkan's flushed face.

Their eyes met.

Monika looked away.

Tarkan took that as mockery.

To look away even with me in front of you……,

“There's a limit to mocking me!”

Tarkan's canines flashed.

A reddish-black line appeared on the handle of his battle axe.

‘Manticore's Tail’.

Tarkan's battle axe was an artifact smuggled in during the Mirror War.

“Did you say Abel? I don't know how great an artifact your sword is, but I can't just stand by and watch a one-armed brat put on a show!”

“It seems there's a misunderstanding.”

Abel opened his mouth.

“Monika is not putting on a show. It seems this child doesn't know how to do such things.”

What's that supposed to mean now.

Monika stared at Abel with a frown.

“And one more thing, this sword is not an artifact.”

What does that mean?

Tarkan's eyes, buried in muscle, flashed.

“It was once an artifact, but now it is just a lump of iron.”

Even the finest artifacts were bound to wear down with the passage of time.

Abel knew this better than anyone. Humans live for at most a hundred years, dwarves for three hundred, and elves for five hundred. Only Abel, who had not let go of his beloved sword for longer than that, could testify.

“All that is left in this sword is its master's name.”

Ion Blanche.

Abel pronounced her name.

‘Ion Blanche…….’

Monika mulled over the name.

Because an inexplicable sadness could be seen in Abel's stoic expression.

“……Huhut?”

On the other hand, Tarkan tilted his head and laughed.

He stuck out his tongue and licked the sweat pooled on his philtrum.

“Hhehe……, hheh-hahahahat!”

Soon, a burst of laughter erupted.

Was it a lie intended to make him let his guard down? He wouldn't know until their blades clashed. But all the weapons Abel had used so far were all damaged. The sword might be nothing but trash as well. What of it? If so, he would be an opponent he could be even less at ease with.

A monster of a man,

I'll face you with all my strength.

“Cut the crap!”

Tarkan's green eyes flashed.

A menacing glint of light drew an arc as it rushed towards Abel.

“Take a half step back with your left foot and put your strength into your right foot.”

Abel whispered to Monika.

Monika's eyes widened for a moment, then she instinctively followed Abel's command.

“Take a short breath in.”

Hoo-eup, and.

Monika swallowed her breath.

The back of her neck stiffened.

“You're doing well. Then now……”

Grip the hilt with all your might.

Before Abel's words could even end,

──Chaeng!

The sound of clashing steel.

Tarkan's complexion was stained with horror. Monika was the same. They had only clashed blades, but Tarkan, who had been pushed far back, was barely managing to maintain his stance.

‘What is this……!’

Tarkan bit his lower lip.

‘Manticore's Tail’ was a striking-type artifact.

Through the spell engraved like a line on the axe handle, it was a weapon optimized for breaking other artifacts.

He had clashed with it with all his strength, yet Abel's sword was unharmed.

Moreover, he was the one who had been pushed back.

‘I……, blocked it?’

Looking at such a Tarkan, Monika thought.

Her hand was tingling. No, her whole body was trembling.

She had only thought that Abel would block it if her life was in danger, and had never expected to deflect the axe blade herself. She shouldn't have the muscles or the will for that…….

‘Aura.’

Abel's eyes narrowed.

Monika hadn't noticed, but a translucent green light was seeping into her left hand.

‘Can she handle Aura innately?’

Aura was a power brought forth by imbuing one's belief into a weapon. It was a high realm that Holy Knights struggled to reach. A Holy Knight who had mastered Aura could wield their will like a blade. That was why the form of the Aura was manifested differently according to the belief held by the Holy Knight.

Monika's Aura was still nothing more than a flurry of light.

It must be because the belief that needed to be tempered was absent.

“──You bastard!”

Tarkan's monstrous roar echoed.

The sound of heavy footsteps. The sound of metal tearing through the air.

Tarkan rushed towards Abel.

Abel let out a short breath. He reached out his left hand and wrapped it around Tarkan's axe handle. After deflecting the attack as it was, he swung his arm horizontally. Tarkan stumbled and fell on his own.

“Are you toying with me!”

Tarkan, who had quickly gotten up, rushed at Abel.

Tarkan's offensive, having lost its composure.

It just felt dull.

Deflecting Tarkan's attacks one after another, Abel looked at Monika's Aura, which was staining his beloved sword.

A thick and unruly shape.

Like a vine that had just broken through the soil.

Even if she released it, only a clumsy Aura Blade would scatter.

However……,

“You must have grown up in a good place.”

Will is forged by life.

Abel was convinced that Monika's life had begun in a beautiful place.

“What does that……”

Monika muttered with a dazed expression.

But she said it.

“Sarrifis was……, a beautiful place, but……”

Monika's lips parted without her knowing.

“Think of that place and extend your sword.”

It's fine if you don't cut down Tarkan. It's fine to tremble in fear, and it's fine to hesitate until the very end.

Abel whispered to Monika.

“Your will has yet to form any resolve, so for now, it is fine to just long for your lost homeland.”

“Cut the crap!”

Tarkan's grasp was aimed at Monika.

“If it's come to this, I'll take this brat hostage and……”

The words that followed did not reach Monika.

Pushing through the thick voice of the half-orc, only Abel's voice was transmitted clearly.

“──Cut.”

Why was it?

Monika pulled her arm back according to Abel's words. It was an instinctive movement. Why am I so compliant with this man's words? He's a monster I only met a day ago, so absurdly strong that I can't figure out his true intentions.

No clear answer came to mind.

Just that strength entered her left hand.

The Aura extending out of the blade,

Monika couldn't see it because she had squeezed her eyes shut.

“……I'll, I'll cut!”

The sword moved at the same time as the young command.

Abel silently supported Monika's strike.

The blade did not reach anything.

But the mass of Aura,

became an Aura Blade and began to cut through everything around.

It was as if thick stalks of grass were surrounding the building,

──Kugwagwang!

Soon, the building began to sink.

Monika, surprised by the roar, opened her eyes wide.

“That was a good strike.”

Abel, who was speaking indifferently, came into view.

The magic staff held in Abel's hand was shining.

There was no sign of Tarkan.

While a circular protective barrier surrounded Abel and Monika, the two were sinking floor by floor along with the floor. Thump, thump, thump. Monika's body jolted every time a floor collapsed.

“Did I……, really do this?”

No way.

Monika muttered.

“When I was young, I could only cut one side of a wall……”

“Even that is not something anyone can do.”

Did they really forbid her from holding a sword because she broke the house?

Abel realized that the judgment made by Monika's mother was reasonable.

“That can't be. All knights know how to break a wall, don't they? I heard the capital guards talking. They said if they hadn't taken an arrow to the knee, they would have cut down a fortress……”

“That's the knights' bluff. With their sword strikes, it would be difficult to even cut the flesh of a beast. That's why they tolerate outlaws like Tarkan.”

“B, but……!”

Monika let go of Abel's hilt.

She rubbed her left hand against her body.

She shook off the weight she had been supporting until now.

“……Actually, didn't you cut it down?”

Monika's gaze, stained with disbelief, turned to Abel.

It was true that she couldn't fully trust Abel, but more than anything, she couldn't trust herself.

“It was all your skill.”

It was neither praise nor criticism. Abel spoke only the truth in a toneless voice.

The two had reached the ground at some point. While debris from the building surrounded them beyond the protective barrier, dim sunlight began to seep through the cracks.

Swish──,

Abel swung his beloved sword.

A gentle gesture.

‘……A margin?’

It feels like I saw a margin.

Monika thought so.

For a moment, her vision turned white, and the debris of the building was turning into powder and scattering. Beyond the dust that disappeared on the wind like sleet, Tarkan, who had been crushed under the rubble and had lost consciousness, was revealed.

“Can you believe it now. If I had cut it, it would have been a little cleaner.”

Abel said, dispelling the protective barrier.

Abel walked towards Tarkan with a languid expression.

“……Mr. A, Argento.”

Monika said, walking after Abel.

“Call me Teacher Abel.”

“Teacher……, Abel……”

Monika muttered with pouted lips.

“I……, I can't quite believe it. All of this……”

“It's fine if you don't believe it. Because I believe in you.”

Pushing through the dust, Abel thought.

If she was an innate Aura user, she should have become a student at CIAR in the first place. Not only that, but the Papacy should have made an effort to recruit Monika. It was just that because she was born in a remote place, and because she didn't know her own talent, it all came to nothing.

Of course, there were many mountains to climb.

“As I said, training starts today. First, let's go hand over Tarkan to the Capital Defense Force.”

Abel looked back at Monika.

Dawn was breaking behind Monika.

“Your power is based on Aura. It's fine if you don't know what that is for now. You'll have to start with the process of building the foundations of swordsmanship.”

And also……,

What else should I teach this child?

Abel, who had been thinking so, wore a faint smile.

“I'll also teach you how to write well.”

“My writing?”

The paper notes that had encroached upon Monika's residence.

Abel recalled the terrible handwriting engraved there.

“Monika Lohengrin, your handwriting is terrible.”

“I know.”

Monika said with strength in her neck.

Her cheeks, which had unknowingly flushed red.

“Even a goblin would write better than that.”

“I, I know that too!”

Monika shouted, squeezing her eyes shut.

A resounding shout decorated the morning in the slums.