Turning Chapter 1343

“Considering you kept falling into other thoughts from the start, your movement is good today.”

“Pardon? Uh.......”

Melvern, who had been leaping here and rolling there to avoid Yuder’s attacks, flinched in surprise and tumbled. Normally, Yuder would have thrust the practice sword in right then, but he didn’t; he lowered his arm instead.

“Look. Before, by now your attempt to use your ability would have stopped, but it’s still holding, isn’t it.”

“Ah....... That’s true.”

Melvern stared, bewildered, at the light floating over his palm. It was the first time he’d kept that lump of light—by which he could contact Crown Prince Ezein—even while falling. Moreover, by this point his fingertips should have begun turning black, and yet they were still clean.

Behind him, the two mages who had been silently observing opened their mouths round in interest and admiration. Yuder casually shifted his body so Melvern wouldn’t see their faces and spoke as if nothing were unusual.

“What did you do before coming here?”

“At dawn... I went to join the Cavalry rookies’ training.”

That had been advice Yuder had given some days ago. Melvern was suffering because his heart wouldn’t obey even while his head judged it fine, so Yuder had expected that if he met someone like Elpokin, he would gain some realization.

‘But that fellow should still be living in the infirmary and not coming out for training....... Did someone else help him put his mind in order?’

The answer became clear with Melvern’s next words.

“But there were people who came out to the training ground earlier than I did. It seemed they’d gotten fidgety during hospitalization in the Medical Unit and come out for a short walk... as I talked with them, I had a small realization. After that, that conversation hasn’t left my head up to now, so I must have looked as if I were lost in other thoughts.”

‘......Aha. So the ones who are hospitalized sneaked out saying they’d train while no one was around.’

Though Melvern kindly softened it to “a short walk,” Yuder easily grasped the truth hidden behind it.

There had been a few times when Cavalry members injured and hospitalized had ignored the recommendations of Inon and Lusan and come out to train. He’d heard none of the rookies had done such a thing yet, but it seemed the three currently hospitalized had already been thoroughly steeped in the Cavalry’s ways.

‘If Lusan the priest caught them, they’d be let off, but if Inon catches them, they’ll die.’

Well, that was something they would learn by experiencing it for themselves. Tidying up that thought, Yuder nodded.

“I see. May I ask what realization you gained.”

Melvern withdrew the light resting over his palm. He looked into empty air for a moment as if retracing his memory, then smiled faintly.

“It’s embarrassing, but... until now I thought all Cavalry members used their abilities proudly without any worries. Since they’re all so skilled, and people with that much pride had gathered. But it turns out they were experiencing the difficulties I go through as well.”

“.......”

“Among those I spoke with, one person said, ‘I do it because I hate it.’ He hated the difficulties and gazes he suffered as an Awakener, and felt they wouldn’t get better going forward either, but even knowing that, he acknowledged those feelings just as they were and put in effort....... Somehow, that struck me strangely hard. Perhaps even more so because the person whom I felt was very strong in both body and mind said he wasn’t fine because he was strong.”

“.......”

“Perhaps all this time I was so buried in the thought that I had to overcome the difficulties I go through positively, as if they were nothing, that I couldn’t properly see those around me.”

Even knowing the mages were behind him, Melvern confessed his thoughts without hesitation. Certainly, something seemed to have changed within him.

“Until yesterday, I refused to face the fear and terror inside me and only tried to avert my eyes by getting angry no matter what. Because I felt I was lacking, unable to keep calm in any situation like Baron Aile.”

“I appreciate the kind opinion, but I’m not a person who keeps his composure as well as I seem. And there’s no need for you, Sir Melvern, to become like me.”

“Yes. I’m only now learning that a bit.”

Melvern laughed aloud, refreshingly.

“The truth is, I’m someone who blames himself terribly and thinks uselessly too much. Now that I know it’s possible to improve °• N ?? v ?? l i g h t •° even if I acknowledge such negative feelings just as they are, I thought I’d just live with disliking what I dislike going forward... That’s the thought I had. And then it even feels like my ability is working better.”

A very good realization.

It seemed he had finally realized for himself what Yuder had felt during their first training.

However.......

‘For a change in mindset of just this level to make the backlash of his ability not appear at all is a bit strange. What is this?’

Of course, Melvern’s realization was excellent. Since Yuder’s expectation had been fulfilled, they could expect further growth going forward.

But the fact that no backlash appeared at all when he had used his ability was a different matter. Yuder’s goal had been to slow the speed of the symptoms of ability backlash he suffered, not to make them not appear at all.

‘That’s impossible to begin with.’

No matter how strong the ability-user, if he used his ability a lot, he would eventually experience overload symptoms. If one grew stronger, the road to get there could be farther and longer, but one could not be perfectly fine. Yuder himself was no different.

However... there were indeed Awakeners who knew how to pull a trick that made that possible for a very short time.

‘Don’t tell me.’

Yuder stared for a moment at Melvern’s intact fingertips and asked, as if testing:

“Are you not tired right now.”

“Mm. No. I don’t feel particularly tired or sleepy yet.”

“By any chance, when you met the rookies at dawn and spoke with them, did you receive Glowe’s blessing?”

At that, Melvern’s eyes opened wide.

“Ah....... Yes. How did you....... Do you perhaps know what blessing I received?”

So it was. As far as Yuder knew, the only one who could produce such a phenomenon at present was Glowe.

With a disconcerted face, Melvern told him that Glowe had read his cards to comfort him. But because something completely different came out from what Glowe had expected, it had ended with no one knowing the exact contents of the blessing.

“It was a card called Radiant Sorrow, and Miss Glowe herself said she didn’t really know its exact effect. She said she’d tried using it on herself but nothing changed, and it was the same when she used it on someone else....... As for me, right after that card came out, I felt my body grow slightly light and warm for a moment and that was it, so I figured it was a blessing that helps with a change of mood.”

Well, Yuder could understand her saying that.

‘Radiant Sorrow....... That’s a defensive card that temporarily blocks the aftereffects the blessed target will suffer.’

If that card was used on a non-Awakener, at most it would only produce the effect of having taken a painkiller for about a day or sleeping a bit better. Given that present Glowe was less capable than the Glowe of the previous life, there was a high chance she wouldn’t have experienced even that level of effect.

But in the previous life, Glowe had used that card very usefully.

‘Radiant Sorrow’ could temporarily dam up an Awakener’s ability aftereffects. Even someone dangerous to the point of being on the verge of rampage, if he received that card’s blessing, could endure a few more hours. Yuder could not count how many times Glowe had returned alive from the jaws of death by the power of that card.

‘But even if present Glowe used that card on herself... since she can only use her ability once a day anyway, she would have no choice but to feel nothing.’

The Glowe of the previous life sometimes used her ability dozens of times in a row, so that card was extremely useful. Anyone could understand how tremendous it was, in a life-or-death crisis, for a person who suffered aftereffects that made him faint immediately and sleep for months when overload came, to remain fine and awake even a few more hours.

That card had also saved the lives of countless Cavalry members who, having gone out on missions with Glowe, had nearly faced danger due to rampage crises.

And now, that power was greatly helping Melvern, who feared the aftereffects of his backlash.

Though he knew something even Glowe herself did not know at present, he could not answer honestly. Looking at Melvern’s eyes, opened wide with surprise and doubt, Yuder quietly opened his mouth and replied:

“I have seen an Awakener other than Glowe who possessed a similar power. It’s difficult to explain in detail, but it seems certain that that blessing’s power is helping with your aftereffects, Sir Melvern.”

“Ah.......”

“Good. Since it’s turned out this way, let’s do it properly once before the blessing’s effect wears off. Try again while fully feeling the mages’ gazes.”

There was no need to hear an answer. Yuder surged in at once with the practice sword in hand.

Melvern’s scream rang out.

After training ended, Alik chased after Yuder as he was heading out.

“Yuder! Watching training today reminded me of something... I know you’re busy, but could we talk for a moment?”

He was busy. He had to go meet Kanna and Gakein right away to hear the report on the merchants they’d captured this time, and then immediately go to be fitted for ceremonial attire with Kishiar.

But it wasn’t so much that he couldn’t hear a single line from Alik.

“What is it.”

“About those aftereffects that gentleman supposedly suffers. Are they perhaps related to physical transformation?”