'He hasn't… seduced our mother, has he?'
Hearing those words, Arlan's eyes turned cold.
Elira raised her eyebrow, clearly in doubt. Arlan, however, shook his head.
'You should stop reading that perverted book of yours. It is ruining your mind.'
Before poor Elira could defend her novel, Arlan turned away, ending their connection and stopping the eye conversation.
Elira nudged him, even pinching his arm, but the commander was already used to her antics. His focus was more on Kael and his mother.
"The theory behind Sword Aura is simple enough. You infuse your Mana into your sword, the sword shines, and you cut your enemy. The problem is execution, it needs practice."
Veylara began as she gave Kael an iron sword for practice.
"Doesn't sound very difficult."
Kael muttered as he stared at the sword and swung it a few times to get used to it. He put away the wooden sword they just used for the warm-u* and focused on doing what he was told instead.
Veylara just chuckled as she waited for Kael to continue, and within a few seconds,
The sword in Kael's arm started shining, making him frown.
"That's it? That's Sword Aura?
That's disappointing."
He commented casually.
He was expecting something more difficult.
Veylara took the wooden sword in her hand and touched Kael's shining blade with it, and the moment she did it,
A crack appeared on Kael's sword, and very quickly, the crack spread like a web, and as if a mirror, his blade shattered into pieces, falling to the ground.
"Disappointing indeed."
Veylara smiled as she glanced at Kael, who frowned.
"I told you, didn't I? The theory's simple, it's the execution that's the problem. You need to infuse the perfect amount of Mana into the sword for it to work.
Put more, and you break it, like what happened just now. Any less, and it won't work."
"Shouldn't you be telling me this before?"
Kael questioned as he furrowed his brows, and once again, the siblings flinched at his words. Talking back to their mother was…
This is just the beginning."
Veylara, however, just laughed it off.
The siblings widened their eyes in surprise.
Their mother was... laughing instead of lashing?
They two could already see their world falling apart.
'I told you, he seduced her.'
'Shut up, I won't believe it.'
'Does this mean I have to call him Father?'
Elira tilted her head, and Arlan's mouth twitched in annoyance. Once again, he decided to ignore his sister, who seemed to have lost her mind.
"Pick up another sword."
Veylara muttered as she pointed at the swords kept behind Kael.
"So this is why there were so many swords here, huh…"
Kael finally realized.
He picked a second sword and glanced at Veylara.
"Is there something else I should know about?"
"Yes, a lot of things."
"Why not tell me then? Would it not be better than wasting swords ?"
Once again, he was questioning her methods, something that would have added another bruise to the siblings' faces if they had done it, but…
"There are thousands of different theories since different people face different problems. Should I talk about them all?
Why not have a world tour and go around asking problems different warriors faced while learning Weapon Aura? Maybe knowing all that will help."
Veylara just countered, not doing anything else.
Veylara ordered, and Kael did as he was told.
This time, he started slow. Since he needed to infuse the perfect amount of Mana into the sword, he decided to put it in bit by bit. Once he felt like it was enough, he would stop.
Once again, his sword started to shine. The glimmer, however, was comparably weaker, so Kael continued.
He was noting how much Mana he had infused so he would remember it for the next time. Soon, however, his frown deepened as he continued to slowly infuse Mana, and the sword continued to shine brighter and brighter.
He had already surpassed the amount he infused before, and yet, it didn't break.
The blade somehow weakened and bent down, making the sword unusable.
Once again, Kael stared at Veylara for an explanation.
"You infused Mana too slowly. Instead of forming a Sword Aura and strengthening your sword, it started to alter the properties of your sword. This is something blacksmiths use, not swordsmen.
Veylara explained calmly.
"So I need to do it in one go?"
"And how am I supposed to know how much Mana I need to infuse?"
"If there was a way to know that, I would have told you already."
"So it is just trial and error?"
"For a warrior new to all this, pretty much."
"So I just need to try it again and again till I finally do it?"
"Yes, that is what trial and error means."
Veylara nodded with a deadpan look on her face.
"That still doesn't sound very complicated."
Kael muttered. He felt like he was missing something.
Wouldn't he just need to remember the amount of Mana he infused? Once he did that, he would be able to master Sword Aura.
That sounded… a little too easy.
And Veylara, knowing what he was thinking, clarified.
"Every sword you select, depending on its craftsmanship and the metals used, would require a different amount of Mana to activate Sword Aura.
It isn't just trial and error, else a warrior would need hundreds of similar swords to get one usable sword.
You need to understand the very sword itself, learn how to feel the sword. The amount of Mana you need to infuse in a weapon for it to work should come to you by instinct.
When you reach that state, that is when it can be said that you have learned Sword Aura.
As I said, the theory is not complicated here. The difficult part is the practice. The aim is to train your instincts, something there is no certain path for."
Veylara explained, and the siblings, who saw their mother explaining things , couldn't help but feel that this training was too… peaceful.
The two turned towards each other and,
'I want to see blood.'
They groaned, sitting on the floor with bored looks on their faces.