Kevin expected a few days of peace until the two private armies led by a marquis respectively arrived. Moreover, since he couldn't rely on Jean to fish out intelligence on the current political situation, he decided he might as well spend these days in secluded training.
First and foremost, he brought down the might of his accumulation of mental energy to crack open the third eye once more in the hopes of obtaining more benefits.
Other than a splitting headache, he got to learn the name of the catalog from which his spells were derived; The Disgraced Catalog.
The first chapter of this catalog was the
Now, four spell diagrams hovered in his mind.
Furthermore, since none of the new spells appeared in his mind with a snippet description, he assumed they would prove easier to master and their backlash might also be milder.
With his capacity for mental energy increased and his ability to use
Something Kevin noticed as well was a connection between the number of nodes in a spell and the number of syllables its chant contained; they were matched.
However, the magic books also mentioned that magi with powerful enough mental energy can modify the chants and by extension, the spell.
The books didn't mention how though.
Today marks one week after Kevin returned home from the border. Jean had yet to send him a telegram about things on her end, and the count seemed to give up on the Badger Fiefdom for now.
Dressed in a custom black, Kevine sat on a high tree branch in the castle's backyard while watching Lexia go through her daily practice.
Two black, oval-shaped lumps of energy revolved in his palm, their presence fluctuating with instability.
Suddenly, Kevin's eyes dilated as he hastily tossed the two bullets into the air far away.
Two streaks of black light lagged behind for a dozen paces before the two exploded silently, covering a diameter of 4ft in black light. "Too unstable— the density should have the bullet slowly dissipate into mana over time and not erupt all of a sudden. Moreover, the speed is too slow, not enough control, and two bullets are just too little."
Kevin then fetched out three plastic knives from his chest, took aim, and launched them at Lexia who was weaving through obstacles below.
The three sailed through the air with varying intervals, making way to strike at Lexia's left thigh, right abdomen, and between her shoulders.
Even though the trajectory was in her supposed blind spot from the rear, the little girl stamped her foot deep into the snow, spun around, and kicked up a curtain of white as her trajectory shifted sharply to the side.
The dense curtain managed to slow the plastic knives just about enough for her to pick up their deviated positions and dodge perfectly at the cost of two fallen leaves landing on her ankles.
"Ugh! I was so close!" Lexia slumped to the ground with a frustrated groan, rubbing her pink bare feet. "This is getting too hard…"
Silver flash glimmered in the sky as a short rapier sword fell, impaling the ground next to Lexia.
"Pick it up," said Kevin from high, thrusting himself to land gracefully with a blunt training sword in hand. "That's enough maneuvering practice, for now, you should learn a bit more about taking the initiative."
Lexia gave the sword an anxious look, hesitating as its cold edge gleamed in the light. "This looks dangerous… What if I hurt you?"
"You'll no longer need my guidance the day you do that. Although I transferred a lot of my combat experience into your mind, your body is far from accustomed to it." Kevin shook his head with a click of the tongue.
All magi can use their mental energy to transmit information through the third eye, like a privileged class memory. Since Lexia had awakened, teaching and guiding her with theoretical knowledge was easy.
The difficulty lay in the practical aspects.
Lexia blinked. Then, she picked herself up from the ground and unsheathed the sword from the snow, swinging it casually to familiarize herself with the weight.
She wondered who and when taught her brother how to fight; he wasn't so adept in combat back then.
Did this knowledge suddenly pop into his head when he became a mage? Was it bestowed upon him by the gods? Surely, this fighting style was unheard of in her little world of fancy tales of knights in shining armor.
"Strike to kill!"
Kevin's pupils dilated as his killing intent locked Lexia in place. The little girl shivered; mind going blank for a split second.
This isn't the first time she experienced such a premonition of death as Kevin would occasionally utilize his shallow understanding of
The first time was a tragic scene where Lexia instantly passed out after wetting herself. As the days progressed, she began to slowly take reign of her emotions to the point where this sudden outburst of killing intent could only cloud her judgment for a brief instant. In an actual fight, this instant might decide life or death, but Kevin was deliberately taking things easy on Lexia.
She snapped back to her senses very quickly and stabbed low with her rapier, aiming for Kevin's thigh to intercept his forward charge as her body leaned in.
With a smile, Kevin swept his right foot back as the momentum carried his body into a clockwise spin, slashing the sword diagonally at Lexia's neck.
"Checkmate," Kevin commented lightly with his practice sword resting on Lexia's neck, the latter frozen in a stabbing motion. "You were already caught at a disadvantage, your course of actions should have included retreating to level the ground between yourself and the enemy."
Kevin flicked the wooden sword away and patted Lexia's head.
She hummed a response with a pout, drawing circles in the snow with her bare feet despite the cold. In fact, for a while now, she wasn't all that uncomfortable with cold weather.
"I understand!"
Hugging her short rapier, the little girl ran back to the castle as it was about time for a post-training bath and a good meal. Kevin shook his head, rubbing his chin with a bit of intrigue. Lexia was quite talented and intelligent, too much if Kevin had to judge based on this world's standards.
As he was on his way back to the castle and after entering through the rear gate to the courtyard, the head steward was waiting dutifully to the side with hands clasped behind his back.
"Did you round up the traitors, bandits, and hoodlums from the neighboring settlements?"
"Yes, my lord. I've arranged for all of them in the cells underground… What are your instructions?"
Kevin's eyes flashed. "Hmm, very good. I want you to choose the weakest four of the bunch and set them loose in the rear courtyard tomorrow at dawn, I want them armed as well. It's best if they think that they had the chance of escape but suddenly stumbled across a witness— it's about time for Lexia to score her first kill."