I turned five.
A modest party was held for my birthday.
Apparently, this country doesn't have a tradition of celebrating birthdays every year.
But when a child reaches a certain age, it's customary for the family to give a gift.
Those ages are five, ten, and fifteen.
Since fifteen marks adulthood, it's nice and straightforward.
Two, actually.
A real sword—long and heavy for a five-year-old to hold—and a shorter wooden one.
The real sword was properly forged, with an edge and everything.
Nothing a child should be carrying around.
"A man must carry a sword in his heart—to protect those precious to him—"
This lecture went on for quite a while, so I listened with a smile and let it wash over me.
Paul was in high spirits as he talked, but eventually
Paul gave a wry smile and wrapped up with, "Just make sure to store it away except when you need it."
What Paul probably wanted to give me was the awareness and resolve that comes with holding a sword.
From Zenith, I received a book.
"Because
What she handed me was a botanical encyclopedia.
I couldn't help but let out a "Whoa."
In this world, books are probably expensive to begin with.
Paper-making technology exists, but there's no printing technology—everything is hand-written.
The encyclopedia was thick, with detailed illustrations and careful, easy-to-understand explanations.
I wondered how much it must have cost.
"Thank you, Mother. This is exactly what I wanted."
When I said that, she pulled me into a tight hug.
From
A modest thing—a stick about thirty centimeters long with a small red gem at the tip.
"I made this some time ago.
Since Rudeus had been using magic from the very start, it slipped my mind, but... a master is supposed to craft a staff for a student who can use beginner-level magic. I'm sorry."
So that was the custom.
Roxy had been reluctant to be called "Master," but she apparently couldn't bring herself to ignore tradition.
"Here you go, Master. I'll treasure it."
When I said that, Roxy made a bitter face.
--- Starting the next day, serious sword training began.
The basics centered on swinging drills and forms.
Using a wooden training dummy set up in the yard, we checked form and striking technique.
Sparring with my father to train footwork and weight transfer.
That sort of thing.
Fundamental stuff, and thoroughly enjoyable.
In this world, swordsmanship is taken very seriously.
The heroes in books are almost all armed with swords.
A few carry axes or hammers, but they're a minority.
Nobody carries a spear.
That's because the cursed Spurd tribe used tridents.
Spears are demonic weapons.
That's the common knowledge here.
A few such demons did appear in books, playing the role of indiscriminate killers that slaughtered friend and foe alike.
Maybe it's because of this cultural background that the swordsmanship here is superior to what I knew in my previous world.
At the mastery level, practitioners can cleave boulders in a single stroke or launch sword waves to strike distant enemies.
Paul, for instance, can easily split a rock.
I wanted to understand the principle behind it, so I flattered him a bit and he demonstrated for me several times.
His young son, already capable of advanced magic, was clapping his hands with delight—Paul must have felt pretty good about that.
Well, no matter how many times I watched, I couldn't quite grasp the principle.
Since I couldn't figure it out just by watching, I asked him to explain...
"It's like you stomp in and—shing!"
"Like this!?"
"You fool! That's more like—grunt and thud!
Stomp and shing! Lighter, more nimble!"
That's roughly how it went.
This is just speculation, but I think the swordsmanship in this world uses mana.
Unlike magic, which manifests visibly as spells, swordsmanship channels mana into body reinforcement and strengthening of metals like swords.
Otherwise, how could anyone move at supersonic speeds or cleave through rock?
Paul isn't even conscious of using mana.
Which means he can't explain it.
But if I could replicate the technique, it would essentially be the same as learning body reinforcement magic.
I had to give it my all.
--- In this world, there are three mainstream sword styles.
The first is the Sword God Style.
An aggressive school of swordsmanship that treats offense as the best defense—speed-focused, with the sole objective of landing the first strike on your opponent.
Seize the initiative and deliver a killing blow.
If you can't finish them off, repeat hit-and-run tactics until you do.
If I had to compare it to a style from my previous world, it would be something like the Jigen-ryū of Satsuma.
The second is the Water God Style.
The polar opposite of the Sword God Style.
A defensive style centered on deflection and counters.
Devoted to pure defense, it rarely takes the offensive.
But at the mastery level, practitioners can supposedly counter any attack.
Any attack—including magic and projectiles.
It's the swordsmanship favored by court knights and nobles—people whose role is primarily to protect.
The third is the North God Style.
This is less swordsmanship and more military strategy.
It includes techniques for emergency wound treatment in the middle of battle, or making maximum use of whatever's nearby.
The fighting style is utterly unpredictable.
Think Jackie Chan, but with swords.
Since it allows combat even with injuries or missing body parts, it's popular among mercenaries and adventurers.
These are called the three great styles, and practitioners exist all over the world.
Those who wish to reach the pinnacle of swordsmanship are said to knock on the doors of each school and swing a sword until they die.
But such people are few.
If you want to get reasonably strong without too much trouble, the basic approach is to sample several styles and cherry-pick the best techniques.
Paul, for example, primarily trains in the Sword God Style but has dabbled in both the Water God and North God styles.
Whether it's the Sword God or Water God, either one alone is probably too specialized to make it in the world.
Incidentally, swordsmanship ranks are classified as: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Saint, King, Emperor, and God.
The "God" in each style's name comes from the founder's nickname.
The first Water God Style swordsman was also a magician who could wield God-ranked water magic.
God-ranked swordsmanship and God-ranked magic—apparently, that person was ridiculously strong.
Also, when referring to swordsmen, you'd call them "Water God" or "Water Saint," while magicians are called "Water
For example, Roxy is a "Water Saint-class magician."
--- I decided to study two styles: the Sword God Style and the Water God Style.
Offense from the Sword God, defense from the Water God.
"But Father, from what I've heard, the North God Style seems the most well-balanced?"
"Rudeus, don't talk nonsense.
They just fight with swords—that's not swordsmanship."
"I see."
The North God Style was apparently the most discriminated against, even among the three.
Or maybe Paul just personally dislikes it.
Despite that, Paul is apparently skilled in the North God Style too.
"Rudeus, you seem to have talent for magic, but there's no harm in learning swordsmanship.
Become a magician who can withstand the Sword God Style's slashes."
"A magic swordsman... is that what you mean?"
"Hm? A magic swordsman is a swordsman who can use magic.
In your case, wouldn't it be the opposite?"
How was that different?
Whether you transitioned from warrior to mage or from mage to warrior, a magic swordsman was a magic swordsman, right?
Either way, training in swordsmanship would have applications for magic too.
The problem was that Paul performed body reinforcement unconsciously, so he couldn't teach me.
I'd have to figure it out on my own somehow.
But was this something I could learn just by training my body?
I'd need to uncover the principle somehow...
"......So, you don't like swordsmanship after all?"
While I was deep in thought, Paul asked with a worried look on his face.
Was it because he'd been told I had a talent for magic?
Paul seemed to be troubled, thinking I might not want to train in swordsmanship.
But please don't misunderstand.
It wasn't that I disliked sword training.
I just preferred studying one-on-one with Roxy in a room over sweating it out in the yard with a sweaty, musky man.
I was an indoor person.
That said, it was a matter of preference.
Since I'd decided to live seriously in this world, I'd put effort into both sword and magic.
"No, I want to get just as good at swordsmanship as I am at magic."
Paul looked genuinely moved by those words.
He nodded happily and raised the wooden sword.
"Good, then let's start the striking drills.
Come at me!"
Simple enough.
Magic and swordsmanship.
I didn't know which one I'd end up relying on in the end.
Honestly, either was fine.
"Yes, Father!"
But filial piety was something you should start practicing early.
In my previous life, I'd been nothing but a burden to my parents until the day they died.
If I'd been kinder to them, maybe my siblings wouldn't have kicked me out of the house so suddenly.
So I needed to cherish my parents.
--- Around the time I took my first steps into swordsmanship, my magic lessons had advanced into far more technical and practical territory.
"What happens if you sequentially generate a waterfall, geothermal heat, and a freezing domain?"
"A fog forms."
"Correct. And how would you dispel that fog?"
"Um, I'd use geothermal heat again to warm the ground."
"That's right. Show me."
By using multiple elemental systems in sequence to generate phenomena—this was called "composite magic."
Magic textbooks might include spells for making it rain, but for some reason they didn't include spells for creating fog.
So magicians combined spells from different systems to replicate natural phenomena.
In this world without microscopes, the principles behind natural phenomena probably weren't fully understood.
Composite magic was packed with the ingenuity of past magicians.
Well, I wouldn't need to go through all that trouble.
I just needed to cast the rain-making magic right at ground level.
But intentionally generating natural phenomena...
That made sense to me.
With a little thought, I could probably do all sorts of things.
"So magic can do anything, huh?"
"It can't do anything—don't be overconfident.
Just calmly and methodically handle what you're capable of and what needs to be done."
Roxy scolded me, but my mind was dancing with words like railgun and optical camouflage.
"Besides, if you go around boasting that you can do everything, people will start pushing work onto you that you can't actually handle."
"Is that from your personal experience, Roxy?"
"It is."
I'd need to be careful about that. Having extra work dumped on you was the worst.
"But would there really be people who push that much work onto a magician?"
"Yes. Advanced magicians aren't exactly plentiful, after all."
Apparently, only about one in twenty people could fight.
And among those, only one in twenty were magicians.
Something like that.
So magicians were roughly one in four hundred.
Magicians themselves weren't particularly rare, but...
"Someone who studied properly all the way through magic school... in other words, an advanced magician... that would be one in a hundred magicians, I'd say."
Advanced magicians: one in forty thousand.
If you could wield intermediate and advanced magic plus composite magic, the range of things you could do expanded dramatically.
That's why they were in such high demand.
Even household tutors in this country needed an advanced-or-higher certification.
The qualification carried real weight.
"There's a magic school?"
"Yes. Any major nation has one."
So they existed after all. I'd suspected as much, but a magic school...
Was this it? The school arc?
"But the largest is certainly the
Oh, a university too.
"How does that university differ from other schools?"
"It has excellent facilities and instructors.
You'd receive lectures that are more modern and advanced than what other schools offer."
"Are you a graduate of the university, Roxy?"
"Yes. Though, magic schools tend to be rather prestigious institutions, so as a demon race member, I could only get into the magic university..."
Apparently, the kind of magic school attended by noble children in the Kingdom of Ranoa would reject you on the spot just for being a non-human species.
Discrimination against demon races was gradually decreasing, but it was still quite strong.
"The Ranoa Magic University doesn't have strange rules about status or pride.
Unconventional theories won't be rejected as long as they're correct, and by accepting various species, research into each race's unique magic has been advancing.
If Rudeus wants to pursue the path of magic, I'd recommend the magic university."
Her own alma mater probably played a role in that glowing recommendation.
Well, that was something for the future.
If I enrolled at five, I might just get bullied.
"I think it's still a bit early to decide on that..."
"You're right.
Following Paul's wishes and pursuing the path of a swordsman or knight is fine too.
There were even those who earned a knight's title and then studied abroad at the magic university.
Don't think you're limited to just one path—sword or magic.
There's always the path of the magic swordsman."
"Yes."
Still, while Paul worried that I might not want to train in swordsmanship, Roxy seemed anxious that I might not like magic.
My mana reserves had been growing lately, and I was starting to understand the principles better.
Because of that, I'd been attending lessons with a distracted air more and more.
Looking back, I'd been forced into magic lessons against my will at age three.
After two years, I'd probably grown tired of it.
Maybe she'd picked up on that.
Paul saw my talent for magic, and Roxy saw my enthusiasm for swordsmanship.
Each was pointing me toward a middle path, for different reasons.
"But that's still a long way off, isn't it?"
"For Rudeus, yes."
Roxy smiled with a hint of loneliness.
"Though, I suppose I don't have much left to teach you.
With graduation approaching, it's fine to have this kind of conversation."
...Wait, what?
Graduation?