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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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“…So in the end, the best way is to somehow gather Aether, convert it into Innate Qi, and inject it into Rachel’s body….”
In the end, it was back to square one.
Arthur or Rachel needed a way to gather Aether.
“Aether….”
Arthur muttered that, and Yeon Mi-rae was silent.
I could feel the existence of Aether thanks to Samādhi, but these two couldn’t.
They had only learned of its existence from hearing about it from me, but since there was much they didn’t know about the properties of Aether, they couldn’t get a feel for how to gather it.
“…Wait.”
As we were pondering, Arthur, who had finished his thoughts, asked me.
“You definitely said that the Black Fog and the Awakener System are made of Aether, right?”
“So?”
Had he discovered something?
“Then when Awakeners call the system, Aether will gather, right?”
“That’s right. Strictly speaking, the Awakener System has Aether gather in the Awakeners’ visual organs to show them a message.”
After that, Arthur began to ask me about Aether.
Finally….
“Could you perhaps call the Awakener System for me?”
At those words, Yeon Mi-rae and I called the Awakener System.
Then, the Awakener System showed us a light message, and….
“Get rid of it.”
The message disappeared.
“Call it again.”
The message was displayed.
“Get rid of it again.”
Arthur repeated this.
Yeon Mi-rae and I repeatedly displayed and erased the Awakener System message as he requested while quietly watching him not give up hope.
After several hours had passed like that.
“…The analysis is complete.”
Arthur suddenly said that.
Yeon Mi-rae and I, who were about to repeat calling and getting rid of the Awakener System message as if it were a matter of course, flinched at Arthur’s words and looked at him.
“It’s thanks to you two. Thank you.”
Arthur said that and began to draw out the mana from his body.
“?”
“?”
While I was inwardly admiring the doll, Arthur, skillfully drawing out mana, I couldn’t understand what he was thinking.
However….
Paat…!
Feeling his mana change into another energy, albeit slightly, I kept my mouth shut.
“…As expected, it’s difficult.”
“…Do you even know what you were trying to do?”
At my words, Arthur nodded his head and answered.
“Yes.”
Arthur returned all the mana to his body, then showed what was left and spoke.
For reference, what was left in his hand was….
“I’ve converted mana into Aether.”
It was a lump of Aether, the same as what made up the Black Fog or the Awakener System.
Arthur showed us the lump of Aether and said this.
“If Aether can be converted into anything….”
Wouldn’t the reverse also be possible?
“…Certainly.”
It wasn’t wrong.
Wasn’t the Awakener System actually doing that?
【Paying a usage fee to the user who registered 【Puppetry】.】
And the Awakener System would often take my internal energy under the name of usage fee as well.
Would it be different for other people?
From those who had awakened mana, it took mana. From those who had awakened aura, it took aura.
It took all of those energies and paid them in the form of Aether… that is, in the form of points, to the person who had registered the technique.
This meant that the Awakener System itself had the ability to convert any energy into the form of Aether.
“Even so, to realize it just by feeling Aether….”
Even I was only capable of perceiving Aether or burning it with Samadhi True Fire. I had no ability to manipulate Aether itself.
But what about Arthur?
Perhaps because he was an artificial intelligence, his ability to analyze and manipulate energy was above mine.
At this rate….
“Theoretically, if there’s enough mana, I can create as much Aether as I want.”
And if that Aether was converted into Innate Qi that suited Rachel’s body and was injected into her, Rachel could also recover smoothly.
The advantage of this method was that there were quite a few ways to replenish mana.
Because mana could be replenished as much as one wanted just by buying and drinking things like potions.
Literally, it meant that as long as you had money, you could replenish as much mana as you wanted, and….
“A doll with Arthur’s level of skill could literally rake in money.”
Although he had been forbidden from entering dungeons by Rachel, an ability user of the Aura Master level like Arthur had plenty of ways to earn money without entering a dungeon.
Even if he went about his daily life and only went out in emergencies, such as when monsters appeared from a gate or criminals carried out a terrorist attack, the earnings would be enormous.
“Thank you for your help, Mr. Artist. And Mi-rae.”
Arthur said that, bowed his head, and then began to fly in the direction where the Awakener Association was.
Probably to officially register as an Awakener and earn money.
Since he had been forbidden from entering dungeons by Rachel, he must have flown off without even telling her, so that he wouldn’t be forbidden from doing other things as well.
“…But Master…”
“Hm?”
Yeon Mi-rae, who had been silent for a while because she couldn’t feel the existence of Aether, asked me.
“Can a doll recover mana on its own?”
“…Probably not?”
“Then Arthur will need someone else’s help to recover the mana to create Aether, right?”
“That’s right.”
And in many cases, it required the mana of Rachel, who was his master.
“Then even if he tries to earn money secretly for Rachel like that, he’ll eventually get caught by Rachel, won’t he?”
“…That’s right.”
“Then Rachel, who has no intention of letting Arthur do dangerous jobs, will forbid him from earning money again, and….”
“……”
“In the end, aren’t we back to square one?”
“Well….”
Arthur will take care of that.
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The next day.
After the academy ended, Arthur, who had come to visit Rachel in the bed next to mine, said that he had registered with the Association as a standby reserve yesterday, and….
“(No.)”
“!”
Rachel said no firmly.
…I felt a sense of déjà vu.
“(…Really no?)”
“(Yes. No.)”
At Rachel’s firm words, Arthur let out a sigh.
Was he going to give up on the method he had just found?
“(It can’t be helped….)”
Arthur said that and drew the curtain of the hospital room.
So that the other people in the room couldn’t see them.
“?”
“(Wait. Why the curtain….)”
“(Are you really not going to allow it?)”
“(W-wait a minute…!)”
…What were they trying to do in the hospital room…?
Thup.
As I was having that thought, an auntie who had been hospitalized in the same room approached me and covered my ears.
“Shh. Little kids shouldn’t hear this.”
“……”
After that, Rachel, with a red face, had allowed Arthur to earn money.
Later, when I heard from Arthur, he said that he hadn’t done anything inappropriate, but had only given her a massage.
“So please don’t have any strange ideas.”
Arthur had brilliantly succeeded in his negotiation with Rachel, and in the end, he had earned money and began to buy mana potions for Rachel.
Rachel had drunk the mana potions he had bought, injected the mana recovered by the effect of the potion into Arthur, and Arthur had converted all the injected mana, except for what needed for his own body’s maintenance, into Aether, and then converted that into Innate Qi that suited Rachel’s body.
Just as there were individual differences among people, Innate Qi also varied from person to person.
Arthur had injected the thus-created Innate Qi into Rachel, and at that, Rachel had slowly begun to get healthier.
“(Rachel. I bought more!)”
Arthur, who saw her getting healthier, had tried to earn money even more actively and feed Rachel mana potions, and….
“(Take it easy! I haven’t even finished the mana potions you bought last time!)”
“(Ah, sorry.)”
…Rachel had been horrified and had gotten angry, saying that she couldn’t drink anymore.
Well, although potions were made to be as easy to drink as possible, drinking dozens of bottles of it at once would be, as expected, too much.
Meanwhile….
“Uhm… It’s okay to be discharged, right?”
“According to the tests using all of modern medicine and magic, he came out as normal, so in principle, that’s right, but… in the first place, we couldn’t figure out the reason why this child suddenly had a cerebral hemorrhage.”
“And I can’t understand how he became perfectly fine in one day.”
While in the hospital, I had become a topic of discussion for the doctors.
A cerebral hemorrhage of unknown cause and a recovery ability of unknown cause.
Of course, I knew the reason, but since the doctors couldn’t figure it out at all, they had been at a loss.
But perhaps because they had judged that it was unreasonable to keep me, who showed no problems, in the hospital anymore, they had decided to discharge me.
“Hoo….”
Crack.
Being cooped up in the hospital for a while, my body was stiff.
Since I hadn’t stopped being active through the doll, I hadn’t felt stuffy, but since I had spent most of the day lying in bed, my body had stiffened.
“Are you okay, Master?”
To loosen my stiff body, I had come to the clearing on the mountain where we usually trained, and Yeon Mi-rae asked me that.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
My body was just a little stiff. It didn’t hurt or anything.
This much would be loosened up quickly with just a little movement.
“…But you shouldn’t do anything reckless again, okay?”
Yeon Mi-rae said that while looking at me.
Both the time she had seen me spit out my internal organs after using the Mind Sword, and this time when my brain had been strained from seeing something beyond the crack…
From my perspective, it was at a level I could handle, but from Yeon Mi-rae’s perspective, it must have looked precarious.
“By the way… Master, would you mind taking a look at my swordsmanship?”
Yeon Mi-rae handed me a wooden sword and asked that.
A sword….
Come to think of it, Yeon Mi-rae had absorbed Arthur’s swordsmanship while sparring with him last time.
Thinking that, I lightly took a stance and stood in front of Yeon Mi-rae.
“Alright. Come at me.”
“Yes!”
Yeon Mi-rae said that and swung the sword in her hand.
I focused on evading her sword rather than blocking it and watched her closely.
‘…Fortunately, she wasn’t consumed by Sir Sergei’s swordsmanship.’
The swordsmanship Arthur had used was created by the soldier, Sir Sergei.
But it was swordsmanship that didn’t suit Yeon Mi-rae.
‘If Sir Sergei’s swordsmanship is composed of a heavy sword that consumes the enemy’s territory and overwhelms them, or a hegemonic sword where each blow aims for a fatal wound….’
Yeon Mi-rae’s sword was composed of an illusionary sword that mixed real moves between feints, and a changing sword that changed the sword’s trajectory at any time to make a surprise attack.
Since the directions they pursued were completely different, if she used Sir Sergei’s swordsmanship as it was, it would have an adverse effect on Yeon Mi-rae instead.
As if Yeon Mi-rae also knew that fact, she had only referred to Sir Sergei’s swordsmanship and was continuing on her own path.
Of course….
‘Below.’
Yeon Mi-rae’s sword bent sharply and tried to aim for my leg.
It was an excellent surprise attack, but I held the sword I was holding in a reverse grip and stabbed the flat of Yeon Mi-rae’s sword.
At that, Yeon Mi-rae’s sword, which was already moving low to aim for my leg, was embedded into the ground, and before Yeon Mi-rae could respond, I performed a palm strike with my hand that wasn’t holding my sword.
“Keok?!”
My hand touched Yeon Mi-rae’s abdomen, and from the shock of the palm strike, she floated slightly in the air.
Seeing that, I lowered my head and at the same time, raised my leg and sent her a kick.
Pow!
“Ugh?!”
Yeon Mi-rae, who had been struck in the head by my foot, stepped back and caressed the parts that had been hit, and I pulled out Yeon Mi-rae’s sword that was stuck in the ground and spoke.
“Not bad. At this rate, you’ll be able to win against an opponent of the same level as you for the most part.”
“Hoo… Is that so?”
I nodded my head.
The attack that had aimed for my leg just now was something I could react to because it was me. If it had been someone of the same level as Yeon Mi-rae, it would have been a difficult attack to avoid.
…At least as far as I knew, there was no ability user in Korea who could avoid the attack she had just made.
Aura Masters of a similar level to Yeon Mi-rae might be able to avoid a fatal wound, but even they would have to be prepared to lose their mobility against it.
And since losing mobility in a fight between swordsmen was quite a big penalty, it was highly likely that Yeon Mi-rae would win afterwards.
‘Of course, the story would be different if I widened the scope not just to Korea but to the whole world.’
It was when I was having that thought.
“Haaaah….”
Yeon Mi-rae let out a dispirited sound and sat down on the ground.
It seemed that after the sparring ended and she had received my evaluation, her tension had been released.
“Why were you so nervous?”
“Well, I’m being evaluated by you, Master, so how can I not be nervous….”
At Yeon Mi-rae’s words, I smiled slightly inwardly.
This situation was completely opposite of what I had experienced pre-regression.
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T/N – Well, that was resolved quite easily. I would say BS to how Arthur replicated Aether only a few hours after observing the MC and Mi-rae pull up the system, but I then remember that the Awakener System itself is probably an AI made from Aether, so an AI made from mana like Arthur could probably pull this off. Maybe?
Also, the part where the MC’s ears got blocked by a well-meaning Auntie while Arthur gave Rachel a massage behind the curtains was pretty funny. Got me to chuckle a bit.
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
