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Since Vanessa had mastered up to the 5th-circle, this was likely a 5th-circle spell.

Moreover, since it had consumed Ghislain’s mana, its destructive power would be nothing to scoff at.

If all of this were to be activated, the training hall would be shattered, and the people outside would suffer serious injuries.

Guuuuuung!

Ghislain quickly began to block the flow of mana swirling inside Vanessa’s body, one by one.

As the flow of mana diminished, the magic circles flickered and distorted.

‘This is dangerous.’

He couldn’t keep holding on like this forever.

But if he let go, Vanessa’s life force would be entirely drained.

Unless she stopped it herself, the spell would continue to activate endlessly.

Even if it was risky, he had to forcibly wake her up.

“Hmph!”

Ghislain released his mana, instantly blocking all the mana roads inside her body.

With all paths blocked at once, the chaotic mana surging through her body also stopped.

Without missing that moment, Ghislain shouted loudly.

“Open your eyes!”

Thwack!

The sheer volume of his voice shook the training hall, and finally, Vanessa regained her senses.

Fsss…

The countless magic circles floating in the air lost their light and vanished.

Confirming that the turbulent mana had subsided, Ghislain slowly withdrew his hand from Vanessa.

“Cough!”

Vanessa doubled over, coughing up blood.

Even as she writhed in agony from the turmoil within her, she felt a sense of euphoria.

At last, she fully understood what mana felt like.

The tiny speck of mana now settled inside her body brought her absolute certainty.

“Urgh!”

Even as she continued coughing up blood, she laughed. It felt as if a blockage within her had been cleared.

In her hazy state of mind, she looked at Ghislain.

The person who had made her feel mana. In this moment, she felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude.

Ghislain, too, looked at her and smiled in satisfaction.

‘It went as planned. Though, it could have been disastrous if anything had gone wrong.’

To feel mana and immediately attempt multiple chants—this was an outcome far beyond expectations.

As Ghislain, looking pleased, smiled, Vanessa cautiously asked,

“Why… why did you do so much for someone like me, whom you’ve just met?”

“Well, because I need your strength. You’ll help me, right?”

“Do you really think… I can be of help to you, Young Lord?”

Hearing this, Ghislain responded with a chuckle, as if he found her words amusing.

“Of course, you’ll be a great help. Now that you’ve felt mana, I’ll properly teach you the mana cultivation technique. I’ve got something that’s just perfect for you.”

Seeing the playful look on Ghislain’s face, Vanessa couldn’t stop herself from shedding tears.

She had been fortunate enough to meet a good teacher and enter the tower, the most prestigious in the North, but reality had been cruel.

Mediocre talent, the contempt of those around her, and no matter how hard she tried, nothing changed.

It had only worsened after her teacher died.

She had fallen from a wizard’s apprentice to a mere servant, enduring every kind of hardship, yet no one had acknowledged her.

Even the other servants bullied and ostracized her, simply because she had once been the disciple of a wizard.

In the Magic Tower, she was neither a mage nor a servant, just a stranger.

For someone who had never belonged anywhere, an unbelievable miracle was happening to her now.

Vanessa’s lips moved slightly.

“…I want to.”

“Huh? What did you say?”

She genuinely wanted to be of help to him.

“I….”

The young lord standing before her had broken all the shackles that bound her with an unknown force.

She felt an overwhelming desire to repay him.

Vanessa mustered a bit more courage and spoke again.

“I want to be of help to you, my lord.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m good at putting people to work. You’ll need to be prepared.”

Ghislain laughed cheerfully. Vanessa smiled as well.

Ghislain crouched down to meet her eyes.

“Welcome to Ghislain’s Mercenary Corps, Vanessa.”

* * *

Under Ghislain’s guidance, Vanessa officially began training in mana cultivation.

He had modified the mana cultivation technique of the Ferdium family, tailoring it so she could safely gather only mana.

If Count Ferdium and his vassals knew, they would have fainted.

It was an unspoken taboo among the nobility to alter a family’s secret technique or to teach it to someone unrelated to the family.

But Ghislain didn’t care about such things in the slightest.

“If you could use the cultivation technique I practice, you’d progress even faster.”

The mana cultivation technique Ghislain used was designed specifically for his body, so he couldn’t teach it to anyone else.

Even he found it difficult to control its unstable flow, and if someone else tried to learn it, their body would likely explode.

“A war will break out soon. When it does, your magic will be crucial.”

Ghislain explained to Vanessa what was to come.

When things suddenly happen, it’s easy to lose your footing and miss the right moment.

She needed to be prepared so she could handle things properly when the time came.

“But I still can’t use magic properly….”

“That’s fine. You’ve already mastered spells up to the 5th circle, haven’t you?”

“Y-yes, but I’m short on mana….”

Vanessa hadn’t gathered much mana yet.

No matter how gifted someone is, there’s no overcoming a lack of time.

With the small amount of mana she had accumulated, she could only cast very simple spells.

Flick.

A small ball of light, no bigger than her fist, floated above Vanessa’s palm.

It was a 1st-circle spell, ‘Light.’ This was her current limit.

She looked at Ghislain with a worried expression.

How could this possibly be of any help in a war?

“W-what should I do? This isn’t going to be much help….”

“You can’t help that your mana is lacking. I’ll handle that, so just focus on your training.”

Though still anxious, Vanessa nodded.

“When will the war start?”

“At the earliest, in a month. At the latest, within two months.”

It had already been a month and a half since they had left the Forest of Beasts.

The enemies had likely already received word and begun preparing for war.

Ghislain hadn’t been idle during that time either.

For the first month, he used the money from selling the runestones to gather mercenaries.

Then, for the next fifteen days, he spent his time teaching Vanessa the mana cultivation technique.

Although it took a long time, it was a necessary preparation to win the war.

* * *

Once Vanessa reached the stage where she could gather mana on her own, Ghislain reduced the time he dedicated to her and began handling the tasks that had piled up in the meantime.

“Gillian, how is the training of the mercenaries progressing?”

“No problems. They’re now better than most soldiers from any regular estate.”

Gillian answered with a satisfied expression.

The mercenaries focused their training not on individual combat strength but on moving in coordination with one another.

Since they had gathered people with a certain level of skill to begin with, the results quickly showed.

After a brief moment of thought, Ghislain gave an order to Gillian.

“Then let’s take them to the Forest of Beasts.”

Ghislain led about three hundred mercenaries back into the Forest of Beasts.

Though they had destroyed the monster habitats when they first carved out the path, it was inevitable that new monsters would be drawn to fill the empty space.

To prevent monsters from establishing themselves again, they had to regularly clear the area.

“This time will be easier than the first, so don’t worry.”

The mercenaries who had been in the forest before smiled confidently.

The newly recruited mercenaries, on the other hand, followed behind them with tense faces.

They had already cleared the path and secured the flesh and blood of the Blood Python. As long as they didn’t stray from the path, it would be much safer than the first time.

With more people, Ghislain and the mercenaries easily swept away the wandering monsters in the area and gathered a large quantity of runestones again.

After assessing the remaining number of runestones, Ghislain let out a long sigh.

“I’ll need to be more sparing with them from now on.”

Runestones weren’t an infinite resource. Although there was still a lot left, after two large-scale harvests, the reduction was noticeable.

Leaving the management of the mercenaries to Gillian and Kaor, Ghislain returned to the castle.

“Alright, time for me to get some training in as well.”

He knew that if he became even a little stronger, it could mean saving one more life.

As he was about to head to the training ground, the vassals swarmed him.

They had rushed over, filled with anticipation as soon as they heard that more runestones had been brought back.

“Young Lord! Please, give us some runestones!”

“We have a use for them.”

“Come on, give us some! Hand them over!”

The vassals stubbornly pressed him. With no other choice, Ghislain reluctantly gave them a small portion of the runestones.

He couldn’t hand out too much because he had specific plans for them this time as well.

It wasn’t a situation where he could simply go into the forest every day, exhaust himself fighting monsters, and bring back more.

The vassals complained about the shortage, but Ghislain snorted dismissively and sent them away.

After that, he focused solely on his training for a while.

His daily routine consisted of physical conditioning, weapons training such as swordsmanship, and finally, his mana cultivation practice.

“It’s really a shame I only have one body.”

Once his training was done, he checked on the progress of building the roads and fences in the Forest of Beasts.

On top of that, he still had to oversee Vanessa’s training, so he couldn’t afford to waste a single moment.

There were also some bothersome issues, but with so much to do, he didn’t even have time to properly look into them.

“I can’t figure it out. Why is this happening?”

Since the battle with the Blood Python, his recovery rate had slightly improved.

As his recovery improved, his rest periods shortened, and as a result, he had more time to handle other matters.

In urgent situations like the one they were in now, this change was a positive one, but the fact that he didn’t know the reason for his body’s transformation left him feeling uneasy.

Power that you don’t fully understand or control isn’t true power.

“Is it related to that after all?”

There was only one possible reason for the changes in his body.

Ghislain sighed and shook his head.

There was one way to confirm if his guess was correct, but it would require risking his life.

With the war looming, he couldn’t afford to take that risk.

“I’ll have to check after the war is over.”

For now, he had no choice but to focus on his basic training.

While Ghislain focused on his personal training, the mercenaries continued to refine their teamwork through constant drills.

Whenever Ghislain had some free time, he would visit Gillian to check on their training progress.

The newly recruited mercenaries were quite pleased with the current situation.

In reality, their tasks consisted of training, occasionally dealing with monsters in the forest, and protecting the workers building the roads.

The workers handled the road construction so carts could pass, as well as building fences on either side.

Since Ghislain had scattered the Blood Python’s blood and personally swept the area of monsters once more, the mercenaries rarely had to step in.

“Wow, this is a lot easier than I expected. We just train and occasionally deal with a few monsters.”

“The Forest of Beasts isn’t as dangerous as the rumors made it out to be, is it? Sure, I heard they struggled when they first broke through, but… who knows if that’s even true?”

“And we’re being paid war wages on top of it. Hahaha.”

With their high pay and the expensive equipment they had been provided, the morale among the mercenaries was quite high.

However, not all of them were genuinely loyal to Ghislain.

He hadn’t done anything particularly impressive to win their hearts, and they hadn’t spent enough time together to develop a strong bond.

Yet, none of them dared to disrespect him.

The veteran mercenaries who were deeply loyal to Ghislain kept the newer recruits in line through sheer force.

From the moment he started increasing the number of mercenaries, Ghislain had intended to control and manage them through the veteran mercenaries already loyal to him.

With money and force at his disposal, he had no trouble keeping the rowdy mercenaries in check.

“But these guys sure are training hard. Do they have some intel that someone’s really planning to attack?”

“Come on, do you think war is that simple? It takes at least a year just to prepare for something like a territorial war.”

“Our young commander probably doesn’t know much about war. He seems to think you can just launch an attack whenever you feel like it.”

“Well, with all those rumors about runestones, I’m sure there are plenty of lords licking their lips, so it’s no surprise he’s nervous.”

“But if an attack actually happens, do you think we can defend this place? It’s not exactly a stronghold, is it?”

“We’re fine for now. By the time rumors spread and the lords start paying attention, we’ll just pull out once they start making their moves.”

Before signing the contract with Ghislain, the mercenaries had already considered how long it would take for the rumors to spread and for other lords to prepare for war.

They didn’t expect an immediate invasion, which is why they accepted the contract in the first place.

Of course, they couldn’t be entirely at ease, but any mercenary knew that a certain level of risk was part of the job.

Aside from that slight unease, they were actually quite satisfied with the laid-back country life.

“Ah, this is so easy. If only every job were like this.”

“Yeah, but there’s nothing fun to do around here.”

“It’s a bit boring being in the countryside. How about we play a game?”

One day, as the mercenaries were lounging about, comfortable as usual, a single mercenary came running in, breathless and shouting.

“S-something big! Something really big just happened!”

The mercenaries, who were getting ready for a game, lazily glanced at the guy rushing in.

In this estate, “something big” was never actually that serious.

It was either a worker getting hurt during construction, someone trying to mess with Kaor and getting beaten up, or someone slacking off in training and getting scolded by Gillian.

“What is it? Did someone get hurt?”

“Did you get beaten up by those mad dogs again?”

“Or is the old man calling us for more training?”

The mercenaries chuckled, amused.

But once they heard what the panting mercenary said, their laughter died instantly.

“It’s war! There’s really a war happening!”