If it weren't for Callen's overwhelming friendliness and extrovert energy, my encounter with Sera Adelmann might've gone much worse. In fact, I've never been more thankful for him.
"Wait, this food is good! Why waste time eating at the Mosaic when you can just eat here?"
Sitting to my right, Callen is currently in the process of scarfing down his dinner. Right after Sera spoke to me, he came out of the sparring ring begging me to get dinner. The three of us ended up in Argent Hall's cafeteria, which is considerably better than me being alone with her. To my surprise, he had no idea who she was, which is strange since he knew me from the news.
Similar to me, she had no idea how to deal with Callen. She played along because she wanted to speak with me, but I can tell from her expression that she's a bit uncomfortable with him at the table.
"So, can you tell me now? About that arcane art you used?"
"It's-"
"Pale flames that reveal weaknesses, is it?" Sera interjected. Her mouth was smiling, but her eyes weren't.
"Oh, is that what it is? Wait, is that why you were only aiming for my left? I've never heard of an art that can pinpoint a weakness to that degree."
"It's... yeah, that's basically it. I can't tell you the intricate details, though."
"Mm, it's fine. If anything, I didn't actually expect you to reveal anything, especially if you have a hidden card like that."
I shrugged. I have bigger secrets than that.
"By the way, how do you two know each other?"
Before I could speak, Sera responded.
"We took the practical exams together."
"Really? That's cool... hold on a second."
He turned to me with a curious expression on his face. There's an excitement in his eyes that I haven't seen before.
"You have mana reversion, right? What did you do to pass the practicals?"
I traded glances with Sera, checking to see if she was fine with me talking about it. She rolled her eyes, which I assume means that it's fine.
"There was a bit of a haginn incident, and the two of us defeated one together."
As I spoke, she smiled. Why does she have that scary smile? I fear what she'll do to me when we're alone. I know I lied to her, but is it that serious?
"Holy—a haginn? Wait, that was you guys? I heard about the incident because my practicals also got postponed, but I didn't know the specifics about who was involved."
I nodded, which seemed to amp up his excitement.
"Wow, that's actually impressive. No doubt in my mind that it was because of your arcane art. Well, your other skills are sloppy, so I assume this flower over here did a lot of the heavy lifting."
He gave Sera a wink, which she returned with an incredibly repulsed look. He seemed to take it without being offended, though.
Now that I think about it, doesn't Callen also have mana reversion? He uses 'Blade of Chivalry' like me, though on a much better level. I wonder how he did during the practicals.
"Can I ask you a question?"
Callen's eyes widened. "You're taking an interest in me?" he asked sarcastically.
I was about to smack his shoulder, but something within restrained me.
"Sorry. Go ahead," he said.
"How have you advanced your 'Blade of Chivalry' to that point? Those with mana reversion have clear limits when it comes to the Blade of Chivalry, but your mastery of it is beyond my understanding."
He tilted his head in confusion.
"Oh, did I never tell you?"
I frowned. "Tell me what?"
"That's my family's art. I'm a hal-Byrne, second-in-line to succeed the house."
I froze. That... makes a whole lot more sense now. I didn't know a whole lot about the hal-Byrnes in specific, only certain details related to the Blade of Chivalry. I suddenly feel incredibly embarrassed about trying to use his own martial art against him. Since he has both the oath of his bloodline and the constitution that comes with it, it's no wonder that his skills are excellent.
"By the way," he continued, "you should give up on using the Blade of Chivalry."
"Eh?"
What was he talking about? Surely he knows that I can't use arcane arts without it?
"I don't know where you learned it from, but if you're trying to make up for mana reversion, there's a more efficient way of doing it, you know?"
I narrowed my eyes in confusion. I know that he's part of the lineage that developed the Blade of Chivalry, but I'm not sure if I can believe him. Hela, a divine, was the one who told me to pursue that martial art since it was something I learned in a previous life.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you're clearly not suited to the Blade of Chivalry if we take into account the way you fight. Fast, elusive, and deceptive—these are all complete opposites of what you're trying to use. If you're like a snake, then the Blade of Chivalry is like a lion."
"So, what am I supposed to do about that?"
"Well, you just need to learn... wait, I'm beginning to remember why you don't know about it. Sorry, I forgot it's supposed to be a bit of a secret..."
Great.
"...but I don't really care about things like that, so I'll go ahead and teach you!"
Is he a saint? He must be a saint. I suddenly felt bad about the way I treated him. Well, not that bad.
"The art of spirit vein control is not a skill specific to 'Blade of Chivalry'; it's just that it's so difficult to do without incorporating certain movements. The reason why our strikes are slow and powerful is because we need to circulate our arcane art or mana through our own spirit veins before channeling them into an external medium. As a result, we can significantly amplify the power of our attacks, and really, it's the only martial art my family needs. But you, you don't need that extra power. You just need to activate your arcane art."
I never really thought about it like that. I just assumed that the Blade of Chivalry was the only means through which I could use 'Hela's Authority'.
"Does that mean I should just learn spirit vein control on its own?"
"Oh, definitely not. In the end, you'll still have to rely on a martial art to control the flow of magic within your body and force it into the target's spirit veins. A martial art that is swift, flexible, and capable of casting arcane arts using someone else's spirit veins not only exists, but I also know of how to use it. Well, for the most part. It exists as a foundation for the Blade of Chivalry, so it's nowhere near as developed. However, I'm sure you can take advantage of it much better than I can."
I nodded, then felt confused. "If it's the foundation to the Blade of Chivalry, why is it a secret?"
"Well, how did you learn the Blade of Chivalry?"
'Synchronization' aside, I had Heflin help me find information on it and tried to replicate it as much as possible. In the end, I only managed to get it to level 2. I'm not sure why he's asking...
"Oh. The foundation is intentionally left out so that people can't learn the Blade of Chivalry so easily."
"Bingo. I can't say I agree with my family gatekeeping the method, though. It's all because of outdated principles or whatever. If I become the head, I'm doing away with all of that."
Sera suddenly cleared her throat, turning our attention towards her. She looked extremely peeved as she got up to leave. "I've got places to be, so I'll be heading out now." Her lips curved into a sly smile.
I'm getting a bad feeling about this.
"I must say, the two of you seem awfully close. Are you roommates, by any chance?"
"Yup," Callen replied.
I tried to pinch him under the table to get him to stop, but I can already tell I can't stop him.
"Really? Where are you staying?"
"We're in Argent Hall, room 316," he said all too gleefully.
I have a feeling he's doing this on purpose. That playful tone and the way he's looking over at me gives me that impression.
"Is that so?"
Sera leaned over the table, hovering her face near mine. She slid me a note with some writing scribbled on it, then whispered.
"I recommend following what's on the note. I know where you live, after all."
She pulled away and left with an uncharacteristic smile, sending chills down my spine. Callen leaned closer to try and peek at the note, but I pulled it away from him. He pouted a bit, then went back to his carefree smile.
"What a nice girl," he spoke. "I didn't take you for a lady-killer."
I scoffed. "Never say that again."
"Haha, maybe win against me in a fight and I won't."
I rolled my eyes. "Anything else you can tell me about the Blade of Chivalry's foundation?"
"Huh? I forgot we were talking about that. There's not much I can tell you about right now besides its name: 'Ironveil'. The rest will have to wait for when I actually show you."
'Ironveil'. It doesn't ring a bell. Normally, a lot of the concepts I learned about in my previous resets feel familiar, but this one doesn't. I'm not sure if I suffered from mana reversion in every life, but given that Hela never once had me complete the tutorial in full, I had to have dealt with it several times.
"Also, in theory, it should still prove useful once you've cured your mana reversion. 'Ironveil' is a defensive martial art that consists primarily of counters, and while you won't be able to feel spirit veins as well, you'll still be able to get something out of them."
I raised my eyebrow. "Why are you assuming I can cure my mana reversion? It's not like the treatment grows on trees. It takes an incredibly rare elixir or a top-level mage to cure it."
Callen shrugged. "Something tells me to expect big things from you. I've got good intuition about people, you see. I wouldn't be surprised if you stumbled upon the elixir or befriended an archmage during our time together."
I felt a bit of amusement before it quickly faded away. "We'll see if that intuition of yours is real or not eventually."
Out of nowhere, he patted me on the back, though it felt like a big slap. Callen let out a hearty laugh while pulling me in for a hug.
"Ha! Sounds to me that you've accepted I'm not going anywhere else any time soon."
I pushed him away, annoyed. "More like given up," I grumbled.
Callen was a bit too merry for the rest of the night. It took a few hours before I could convince him to let me sleep.
"Orientation is at 9:30AM tomorrow. What are you gonna do if I oversleep?"
"Sorry, sorry. I'll let you be... for now."
I sighed.
I tapped on the PDA strapped to my wrist, causing a small hologram to appear. After unlocking its functions during check-in, I learned that it has quite a few handy apps installed. One of them was a special alarm clock that made little noise, and instead alerted the user through intense vibrations.
"What time do you plan on waking up tomorrow?" I asked Callen.
"Uh... the amphitheater is like a 15 or 20 minute walk from here, and I don't take too long to get ready, so probably like 8:45?"
I had a feeling he didn't understand the concept of arriving early, but that works for me. I set my alarm for 8:00. The moment I got into bed, I suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion crash into me. Until now, I didn't realize how tired I was.
Before long, I was in the comfortable embrace of nothingness.
—
"..."
"I sincerely wish that you can be happy in this life, Ilyin."
"..."
"But right now, you are still empty."
"..."
"I hope you can accept them into your heart. It was my mistake for isolating you for so long."
"...?"
"Time is running out, so I can't stay any longer. From now on, I'll take care of our mission... you just take care of yourself."
Wait-
"I hope that if we meet again, it'll be a pleasant reunion."
!!!
[The divine, Hela, is no longer watching you.]