Zed pointed next to the three kids.
Over there were roundish balls of metal piled up like mountains, and several tables standing next to those piles.
“Bring those tables and steel balls here.”
“How many of them should we move?”
Zed smirked maliciously at Haytona’s question.
“Four tables, and as many steel balls as you can.”
The three boys began moving the tables and balls towards the center of the hidden area. The steel balls were heavier than your average person. Moreover, when they picked one up, they felt something dense moving around inside.
‘What are these?’
As he moved the steel balls, Jin scanned through his memories, and confirmed that he had never seen these objects in his past life.
Yet, he wasn’t surprised about that. From what he had deduced, these steel balls were used to teach the direct Runcandel descendants the clan’s swordsmanship. However, Jin wasn’t talented enough to enter the intermediate class and train with his uncle in his first life.
Thud, thud.
Each time they dropped a ball to the floor, it left dents on the hard ground.
Zed only told them to stop after the three boys moved around fifty of those steel balls.
“Do you know what these balls are?”
He asked as he placed one of them on a table. The ball was now sitting slightly below the height of Zed’s waist.
“No, sir.”
“These steel balls are called Clear Stones, because you can hear a clear echo resounding when you hit them.”
The Tona twins tilted their heads in confusion. They couldn’t understand why they needed these stones in order to train their swordsmanship. Meanwhile, Jin didn’t show his emotions, but he was curious to know how they’d end up using these Clear Stones.
Zed slowly unsheathed the sword attached to his waist and placed it against the Clear Stone.
“I will swing my blade down onto this ball a total of three times. Try comparing the sounds that are created.”
The first swing. Zed didn’t put much force behind his sword and simply lowered his blade onto the ball lightly.
Thoomp…
A rather thick and murky sound echoed in the room. It felt as if one would feel nauseous by listening to it for an extended period of time.
“Not a pleasant sound, isn’t it?”
Soon enough, Zed striked the ball again. This time, his swing contained far more strength and speed than before.
Claaang!
This time, a pure and elegant sound worthy of the Clear Stone’s name resonated in the room. It felt like the sound entered their ears and soothed their entire bodies from the inside.
“Oooh!”
The twins exclaimed simultaneously. Jin’s eyes also widened as he stared at the Clear Stone.
“Hm, it’s also quite pleasant for me to listen to. It’s been a while since I last heard this sound. As you have seen, the Clear Stone emits a thick and murky sound when you hit it weakly, but creates a beautiful sound when hit with the perfect amount of strength.”
It was a simple principle.
But Jin was concerned about how Zed didn’t tell them what this ‘perfect amount of strength’ was exactly. Thus, he soon realized the purpose behind this training method.
‘The goal of this exercise is to create that beautiful sound every single time you strike the Clear Stone.’
Striking it with the perfect amount of force and speed once would be easy to achieve. But after observing Zed’s behaviour, it seemed that achieving it every single time was a much harder exercise.
They would have to strike the ball countless times until they found the perfect strength. However, the boys would most likely be distracted by the unpleasant sounds created by their imperfect strikes every time.
Even so, just because their concentration has been disturbed doesn’t mean they could abandon this exercise. In other words, this exercise was also to train their willpower and mental strength.
‘But why did he say he’d strike it three times?’
The first and second swings were to show the importance of fine control over one’s strength.
The third swing would most probably be for the same objective. Jin couldn’t see another reason behind hitting the Clear Stone.
‘We’re doing this exercise since it fits the Runcandels’ physical capabilities quite well. Uncle said that this training was simple and unsophisticated. However, there’s far too few dangerous hazards in this exercise.’
The Runcandel-style swordsmanship was all about overpowering another and ruling by force. In other words, their techniques were powerful enough that it could potentially harm its user. Thus, there was no way the training exercise that was only accessible to pure-blooded Runcandels would be so safe and risk-free.
‘There was definitely something shaking around inside the Clear Stones when I picked them up. It felt and sounded like some piece of metal…’
Ah!
Jin found the answer to his question as Zed raised his sword one last time. He then immediately grabbed the back of the Tona twins’ necks standing on both of his sides and pushed.
“And now, the third strike.”
“Get down!”
Jin shouted as he shoved them forward. The surprised twins fell to the ground along with their little brother due to his strength.
As soon as they touched the floor, the twins were about to hurl curses at Jin, but could only blink their eyes in shock as they watched the situation unfold.
Booooom!
With Zed’s final swing, the Clear Stone exploded with a deafening roar.
And from within it came hurling out dozens of steel marbles. They flew in all directions like arrows. An average person would’ve easily died from being pierced by all these powerful projectiles.
“Eh… Huh?”
“Wha—!”
The astonished twins stared at their surroundings. They felt their heart drop as the marbles rolled around on the ground.
“The youngest has great instincts. These Clear Stones have been designed to explode if they sustain too great of an impact.”
Zed spoke with a pleased smile on his face.
Jin got up and dusted himself off. It seemed that his uncle wasn’t in his right mind either. He had put his nephews in life-threatening danger without a word of warning beforehand.
Was anyone in this clan actually sane?
In any case, Jin began to ponder.
‘Every Runcandel has gone through this training. Since most of my siblings have been taught by Uncle Zed as well, they somehow survived this hazardous demonstration.’
In Jin’s case, he had survived the explosion by getting on the ground in time thanks to his instincts. The Tona twins had survived thanks to their brother.
Then what about all the others?
“You three are the first ones not to get injured during the Clear Stone’s demonstration session since Luna. Other than her and you boys, all your other siblings were gravely wounded by the steel marbles. You can think of this as a rite of passage.”
As they watched Zed laughing out loud, the Tona twins once again realized that their upcoming adventures in the intermediate class were full of pain, agony and struggles.
Meanwhile, Jin felt proud by the fact that they were the first ones to be unscathed after Luna.
“Uncle, may I ask you how Eldest Sister Luna avoided these steel projectiles?”
“Hm, you’ll get upset if you hear about it. At least, all your other siblings got upset when they heard what she did.”
“I do not mind.”
“Technically speaking, Luna couldn’t avoid the marbles like you. In fact, none of your siblings managed to avoid them all. She just received them head-on, but didn’t get injured. She was just that robust and strong…”
Just as Zed had warned them, it was a somewhat disheartening story.
Even so, Jin was quite satisfied. Had one of his siblings avoided all the pellets while being ignorant of the dangers of this demonstration, it would’ve meant that they were more gifted and talented than Jin himself.
“In any case, I assume that you three have understood the content of this exercise. From today onwards, you boys will spend your afternoons swinging your swords onto the steel balls every day. You’ll only stop when you’re able to strike the Clear Stones in any circumstances and successfully create a clear and beautiful sound each time.”
***
Luna’s room.
The woman in question was spending a peaceful and relaxing time inside, sipping on a cup of tea with her nanny.
‘It’s about time the youngest starts to show some results from our Mind’s Eye training sessions. It’ll hurt if he gets hit by the Clear Stone’s projectiles, but I’m sure he’ll manage to do something about it. It’s so gratifying to watch him grow up and get stronger.’
Siiip.
“Lady Luna.”
“Yes, Nanny?”
“I believe that Lady Anne and Myu are quite suspicious. There was the incident where they tried to keep Young Master Jin in check to take into account.”
The two of them were conversing about the potential suspects behind the ‘assassination attempt’ on Jin when he was merely a year old.
There has already been an assassination attempt against me. I’ve never talked about it to anyone else. Not even Gilly. And due to that incident, my fight has already begun.
Ever since Luna first heard Jin’s words when she visited him at the Storm Castle, she has been searching for the culprit to this day. She hadn’t given up even after five whole years.
It was because she greatly cared about her youngest brother, but that wasn’t the only reason.
It was a long-established and traditional taboo within the clan for a pure-blooded Runcandel residing in the main house to aim for the life of a family member that had yet to leave the Storm Castle.
If Luna informed Cyron about this incident, it would cause great chaos within the clan. However, she judged that doing so wouldn’t benefit Jin, so Luna decided against reporting to her father.
Moreover, they had no evidence to show Cyron about this attempted assassination.
“Hm, it’s true that those two are very domineering and tend to step over their boundaries, but I don’t think so. Would they be crazy enough to attempt to assassinate someone inside the Storm Castle?”
Technically speaking, Jin hadn’t been the target of an assassination attempt, but rather the target of the ‘Bladed Illusion’ curse. However, Luna wasn’t aware of this truth yet.
“To be truthful, I believe that there’s the possibility of Young Master Jin having lied to you. He was only 10 years old back then, so isn’t it highly likely? We haven’t found out anything after all these years.”
“I don’t think Jin lied to me. Back then, he was wary of me. Not because he found it awkward to interact with me for the first time ever, but because he was on guard. His gaze… It was the gaze of someone whose life was being threatened.”
“Then should we investigate Lady Myu and Anne for the time being?”
“Yeah, I’ll leave it in your care. I’m more concerned by the fact that we haven’t discovered anything so far. Something’s wrong… I have an ominous presentiment.”
“I feel the same way. But I’m more concerned for you, Lady Luna. I’m worried your siblings will break your heart again.”
“Haha, I’m already in my thirties, Nanny.”
Luna hid her bitter smile with her teacup.
***
And so, a day went by. 𝑖𝘦.𝘤𝑜𝘮
Jin and the Tona twins had yet to create a beautiful sound by striking the Clear Stones. Fortunately, there were still no incidents where someone accidentally burst the steel balls.
Thooomp…!
Thuud…!
The unpleasant noises have been echoing inside the hidden training room for four hours straight.
‘I can declare with certainty that amongst all the training I’ve done in my life, this is by far the nastiest.’
These abominable sounds had been disturbing his concentration. The twins had already vomited on the ground a couple of times. In the meantime, Jin was sweating buckets, but somehow managed not to let go of his sword and drop to the ground.
In the morning, he had experienced the intermediate class’s hellish training, and in the afternoon, he was constantly hitting the Clear Stones; Jin was on the verge of death. He couldn’t get used to these unpleasant sounds and echoes no matter how hard he tried to.
“Take a five-minute break.”
As soon as the words left Zed’s mouth, the three boys sat cross-legged on the floor. However, the Tona twins’ posture was terrible as they were exhausted both mentally and physically.
In fact, the five-minute break wasn’t quite a ‘break’.
According to Zed’s training regime, the boys had to hold their swords straight and cover them in aura while sitting upright and maintain that position during the so-called ‘break’. So the break was, in other words, an exercise where they were training their aura.
Jin’s hands were trembling as they squeezed the sword’s handle, whereas the Tona twins couldn’t even hold onto theirs properly.
While it was the nastiest training Jin had ever experienced, it wasn’t the most difficult one.
In his past life, Jin had trained several dozens of times more than others in order to become a 1-star knight by the age of 25. Compared to his despairing and miserable days back then, this exercise with the Clear Stones was somewhat bearable.
‘The purpose of this training was to increase our aura’s destructive power in the first place.’
Zed had destroyed the Clear Stone without using any aura, but that was only possible because he was an 8-star knight. The three boys first had to train and develop their auras in order to strike the Clear Stones with enough force to make a beautiful sound, let alone make them explode.
“Daytona, Haytona. Sit straight. If you can’t endure this, you won’t be able to survive within the clan.”
As Zed spoke calmly, the twins fixed their postures with tears in their eyes. It was tear-jerkingly difficult for them, but Jin knew that they would successfully become flag-bearers of the clan thanks to his past life’s knowledge.
‘Even my stupid brothers managed to become flag-bearers in the past, so there’s no way I won’t be able to do it.’
Therefore, there was no need for Jin to feel impatient.
The boy closed his eyes and focused his senses on the aura covering his sword.
Thooomp, Thooooomp.
Even though he could hear the residual auditory hallucinations from the echoes earlier, Jin kept his eyes closed and concentrated. He was quite good at erasing all distracting thoughts and keeping his eyes closed.
‘I noticed it the first day as well, but that kid… he’s quite something. The Tona twins aren’t doing so badly either, but this one… He might even break Luna’s record.’
Zed praised Jin in his mind but didn’t express it out loud.
He could always praise the boy when he broke Luna’s record.
𝑖.𝘤ℴ𝘮