"You may begin."
Before any of the three even thought of releasing their Wind Blade, Jinto's voice reverberated.
"Gent, you motherfucker, you pitiful excuse of a human, you feces-infused bratty clown. It was the misfortune of heaven and earth to birth a lowly being such as you. Your life is as worthless as an ant…"
Insults upon insults came crashing down. The profanity was too much to bear on the ear.
Master Hector stared with wide eyes, his expectant gaze toward this competition distorted in the blink of an eye.
"Isn't this too dishonorable?"
Some students didn't know how to react to the sudden change. The absurd mess of the scene was too much of a spectacle.
Pff
Some students couldn't contain their laughter. Laughing sounds rang out.
"Haha, ain't Jinto too funny? 'Feces-infused'—how creative." Dylan rolled on the ground as he held his stomach.
"Shut up." Aldering scolded, but she too was going to burst out laughing at any moment.
"Haha, Jinto didn't disappoint. This is a good show indeed! Just look at him!" Paul pointed out while trying to contain his laughter.
A handful of students knitted their brows. They had placed their money on Gent. Naturally, they weren't pleased to enjoy the scene in front of them.
Gent's face was fully enraged, his face nearly turning as red as a tomato. He heard the students' voices as well as the upcoming insults.
"Brother Gent, why don't you cast? Your pathetic Wind Blade may decide your victory, who knows?"
"That's right! With a win, I can make this bastard shut up. He is only resorting to insults because he knows he can't win. I just need to put in my all, and all of this will be worth it."
Swoosh
He cast the spell successfully. The sound from the Wind Blade rang out at once, striking the mannequin. The spell shot through the mannequin, managing to strike its chest area. Half of the mannequin slowly slid off, as it was cut at a slight angle, prompting one of the men to quickly replace it.
As soon as he was done, Jinto continued with his barrage.
"Your mother must've thought she had taken a number two, thinking her excretion came out of the wrong hole when she birthed you. How can a waste like you miss the neck completely? Your family ancestors are probably rolling in their graves by now, looking at the incompetent descendant they had the misfortune of creating. Hmph! If I were them, I would have jumped myself into the mouth of a wolf. Having you as offspring is such a disgrace—I would consider ending it all!"
"Shut the hell up!" Gent barked back. None of his composed demeanor showed. Now he resembled a beast that had been enraged.
"Oh? Why are you so angry? It's not my fault you're an utter waste, unable to fulfill the contents of the bet at once. You can only blame your poor ability at hand. Let me tell you, putting the blame on others isn't good. Let this be a lesson from me. Maybe if you just pour your heart out, you might win? Who knows." Jinto shrugged.
Gent gritted his teeth so hard they nearly cracked. His face contorted in an extreme manner. His eyebrows furrowed heavily, creating deep wrinkles on his glabella. His face resembled a bright red tomato, veins on his forehead starting to take shape.
"You're only resorting to tricks because you know you don't have the ability! Let's see just what you have in store, eh?"
"Okay."
Jinto concentrated, making sure all aspects to successfully cast were ready.
Swoosh
Jinto shot out his Wind Blade with a flick of the wrist. In a short time, the spell struck the mannequin's left arm, slicing it completely off, prompting it to fall to the ground.
Seeing what his opponent had managed to accomplish, Gent saw an opportunity to lash back, seeing as Jinto had done worse than him.
"Haha! Isn't this your so-called skill? It seems the true trash was alongside me all along. You pathetic—"
"Ah, that? It was just the wind that made me miss." Jinto picked his nose as if there was nothing out of the norm.
Some students couldn't take it anymore. The shamelessness was too stunning. What wind? There wasn't a speck of wind blowing to deflect a spell. It was simply blabbering.
"How shameless." Dylan rolled on the ground as he pointed out.
Saro, who had failed to even graze the target earlier, suddenly felt much calmer. At least he didn't have it as bad as some others. And in that, he found solace.
Aldering was long gone, full-on laughing now, but as a lady, she was trying to compose herself in an appropriate manner. At this point, though, she had stopped caring, completely joining in with Dylan.
Olsen: "…"
Master Hector brought his palm to his face, burying into it.
"How unsightly…"
Gent barked back angrily. "What wind? There's no wind—"
"Look at this wind." As soon as the words left his mouth, Jinto pursed his lips in an 'O' shape and blew air into Gent's face.
Gent felt the air, his face submerged in a light man-made breeze that smelled like soup.
Pff
Several students couldn't contain it anymore. Many rolled on the ground while holding their stomachs. Some tried to cease their laughter; they reminded themselves of the bet they had placed, worry growing on their faces.
Gent was so agitated he felt like he was about to vomit blood. His eyes started to show red veins as he stared angrily at Jinto.
Jinto pretended to yawn. "Why are you looking at me? Please cast so we can settle this thing quickly."
"You! Bast—"
Swoosh
Jinto smirked. "Why are you talking so much? You bear too much resemblance to a stray dog that can't stop barking."
The Wind Blade struck.
"Look, I hit the upper chest. Maybe I'll hit the neck? Hehe."
Looking at the mannequin, its lower half remained standing while its upper half was on the side. As Gent looked, a man was already quickly moving to replace the mannequin.
Seeing this, he reminded himself of why he was here in the first place. He had to finish this off to wash away this humiliation. After this, he would teach Jinto a good lesson. His mana surged, and with an exhale, he prepared to cast.
Guh
Unlike what he was expecting—to release a Wind Blade—instead, blood came out of his lips.
Cough cough
Gent sensed something wrong as he started to cough up blood. His face grew pale as paper, his red-faced appearance suddenly vanishing entirely. He wiped his mouth with his right hand, only to see traces of blood on it. He staggered to the ground, seemingly too weak to stand.
Thud
Swoosh
Jinto did not waste the opportunity. He cast quickly as Gent suffered backlash.
"Too ruthless, too ruthless! He planned for Gent to suffer backlash!" Dylan realized.
Aldering quickly added, "This Jinto is more cunning than I thought!" In her mind, her perception of Jinto shifted completely. She had thought to never take someone's appearance lightly. Jinto had an honorable air around him, but that image had now quickly shattered into that of a cunning and vicious snake.
"Two more chances left." Jinto concentrated on his last attempt, only to strike the upper thigh of the mannequin. Unlike Melissa, he wasn't good at aiming at long distances. This past week, he had trained, but the number of times he had managed to hit the neck was negligible compared to all his attempts. It was only yesterday that he understood the inner profundity of the spell, and for that, he had to thank a certain person.
…
The day before…
"Dammit, it's a day away, and I'm only making dents? Slicing off this thing is impossible!" Jinto had grown frustrated with his training bearing no results. Time and time again, he could only make dents of various degrees on the target. To make it worse, Gent had not appeared either, so he had no information about the other party.
Jinto stopped casting. He took out a mana stone that looked completely drained of its mana, resembling an ordinary rock.
"Here, let me lend you my mana stone." Paul offered.
"No need." Jinto lightly rejected the offer, absorbing whatever remained from the stone into his fissure.
Paul sighed. "You've been at it for almost a week. How could making dents be possible? We saw Olsen strike it cleanly—there's definitely something more to the spell."
"Yeah, I've figured that out. As for the secret, it is shrouded in mystery. I'm afraid only Olsen and Gent could know of it."
"Maybe it wouldn't be too bad being a personal assistant for a week."
"Oh please, that would be hell. But it looks like I'm doomed to be one. If only I hadn't accepted so rashly, I wouldn't have been in this position. Yet again, Gent pushed it publicly, and I had no option but to accept." Jinto admitted his defeat.
"Once it's over, let's teach him a special lesson." Paul blinked with his left eye.
Not caring for the repercussions of such a dishonorable action, Jinto smiled. "The greatest of lessons."
"If Melissa were here, she would say something along the lines of 'You know that would make our family lose face blah blah blah,' and 'What would the other students think of us? They would say we are some barbarians blah blah blah.'" Paul mocked the missing Melissa.
Jinto laughed. "Haha, that's right, or 'Paul, you muscle ape, all you think of is fighting? Not you too, Jinto!' while she shakes her head in disappointment. If she were to hear this, we would be going through it right now."
Melissa had tagged along with the company earlier in the day, but after a while, she decided to leave, opting for a relaxing bath and some free time back at the Fang household. She had expressed how tired she was from all this training, saying that her hair was in need of being newly done.
The sun had begun setting, dyeing their surroundings in a deep crimson veil. The illusionary moon in the sky had slowly begun to take shape into hard edges, forming the night sky living beings were used to. Accompanied by the stars, it formed the starry night.
"We are the only ones left here now. Slowly, students have begun to stop training, but you've remained here until sunset. The bet truly has you on a leash."
"Haha, just like back then when we broke my dad's vase and sought to buy a replica of it to not let him find out."
"Hm, it wouldn't have happened if you didn't want to play hide and seek inside."
"Who agreed in the end?"
"Let me remind you that the financial scar still burns deep within my heart. I can forget but never forgive." Paul touched his heart, acting in a pained way.
"I had to fork up my meager savings too, don't forget. Well, in the end, all was fine. We even hid it from the maids for some time, praising the heavens they kept quiet."
"Indeed."
Jinto stepped closer to Paul, touching his right shoulder with his palm.
"Let's go. We'll save this energy for tomorrow."
"For tomorrow."
Crossing the few narrow streets that separated the academy from the Fang household, Paul and Jinto entered the household to tend to their affairs. Although Jinto didn't show it outwardly, he was frustrated in his heart. To him, defeat was imminent.
The sun had completely set, marking the moon to stand tall within the night. Jinto got up from his bed and slowly lit up the candles scattered through his room. As he lit them up, a knock was heard at the door.
"Come in."
The door creaked as it opened to reveal a figure wearing a servant's attire.
"Young master, dinner will be served shortly."
"I'll be there in a few."
Sarina saw Jinto's face, and from the looks of it, he had something troubling him. His movements were somewhat sluggish, and his eyebrows were slightly knit. Even his tone of voice was different from what it usually was. For Sarina, who had lived for seven hundred years, sensing such peculiarities wasn't a problem, as she had accumulated her experiences on how humans worked.
"Is there something wrong, young master?" Sarina asked innocently, putting on a worried face.
Jinto shook his head. "It's nothing of importance, no need to be so worried."
"This young master of mine isn't someone to wear his emotions on his sleeve, eh?" Sarina thought, amused.
"Well, I may just be a simple maid, but who knows? A change of perspective can add value. Even if it's small, it is important to let emotions out once in a while. I heard it's better for mental health to not bottle them up."
Jinto stood on his spot. He thought for a few seconds before sighing. Wasn't this kind of his personal maid to begin with? They both grew up together until this time. All this time, he had kept his worries to himself so as to not let others be burdened by his burdens, but sometimes it was truly burdening! Furthermore, this was a way to get closer to having a friend. With all these factors, Jinto had made his decision.
"Let me start…"
Jinto recalled the whole story of what had transpired on the training ground—from the bet with Gent to his training, his speculations regarding the spell, and about Gent knowing the secret behind Wind Blade.
"I see. This lad made a bet with the young master of the Joto family in front of the students in the training grounds. He had no option but to accept, as his dismissal would be seen as weakness and a loss of face towards the family. The elder's grandson and Gent seemed to have been working together. This aligns correctly with my memory—the Jotos had struck some kind of deal with the elder. As a result, it led to the Fang family collapsing. His failure in slashing through the target is a result of omission of knowledge, most likely," Sarina thought as Jinto finished telling her his experiences.
"That's weird. Why did Olsen slash the mannequin in a fell swoop while others struggled? Coming from a great background does wonders. But if he could do it, then I believe you can too, young master."
Jinto sighed. "It's nothing but impossible now. Tomorrow is the day of the proficiency test. I'm afraid there's no time. After a week, I still haven't managed to do it."
"Hmm." Sarina pretended to think before she said, "In my eyes, if only Olsen can do it, it means he is withholding some type of information that normal students don't. Maybe the inner function of the spell lacks something that makes it impossible to unleash its full power."
Jinto began to think. "Inner function? Hmm, that may be true, but why would Master Hector not reveal it further?"
Sarina didn't speak, letting Jinto be alone with his thoughts.
"Maybe he wanted us to figure something out?"
"Yes, that's what I'm thinking." Then Sarina laughed embarrassingly as she scratched the back of her head and said, "I may just be a simple servant, but can you say what Master Hector taught you guys? Maybe I can figure something out, with your permission, of course."
Jinto thought about it. It was against the clan rules for mortals to learn magic, but what magic could they learn if they had no fissure to begin with? So he explained.
"He had said that there are four main things regarding spells. Firstly, there's mana—without sufficient fuel, spell casting will result in backlash. Secondly, the proper mana flow regarding the spell must be fulfilled accordingly in order for it to not result in backlash. For example, the Wind Blade spell needs to flow from the fissure to the palm. Thirdly, there is intent—only with a clear mind can one cast successfully, neglecting feelings such as anger or sadness. Lastly, visualization—without a clear image in my mind of what the spell looks like, it will fail, resulting in backlash."
"I see." Sarina pretended to think with her right hand on her chin as she squinted her eyes, ultimately saying, "The word 'intent' is too peculiar. If it just meant clearing of the mind, why not name it calmness or tranquility—something along those lines? In my humble opinion, wouldn't intent be your intention? For example, aren't your intentions with the Wind Blade spell to cut the target?"
Jinto's eyes widened. The maid in front of him was making complete sense. The word "intent" was too peculiar to just mean tranquility of the mind! There was indeed something else.
"My guess is that by calming your mind and getting rid of emotions, you are seizing your intent to cut."
"Therefore resulting in a loss of power!" Jinto's voice grew louder as he spoke, realizing the missing component he had been overseeing all this time. He looked at Sarina, his eyes now viewing this maid in a completely different light entirely.
"This might be it. It does make sense. But why does it not result in backlash? Unless it is the lowest priority of the spell and not the third most important component." At once, Jinto realized the missing pieces of the puzzle.
Sarina laughed embarrassingly. "Haha, you still have to try it, young master, as I am not a magician and not qualified to speak on such things. I have another theory too. Isn't the mind of a human too erratic? Let's say I tell you to think of a pink elephant now. A pink elephant. Pink elephant."
At Sarina's words, Jinto couldn't help but think of a pink elephant.
"See? You are probably thinking of a pink elephant. For this problem, I think it's proper to fully visualize the concept of what truly is that you're trying to imagine for it to be fully effective. We can imagine things that are rooted in real life, but completely new things never seen before and inspected are difficult. So, I say that in order to fully visualize, one must materialize it into the real world."
Jinto exclaimed in realization inside. The human mind was too chaotic. He had only managed to visualize Wind Blade because Master Hector had drawn it on the board.
"Wait, he drew it. Yes, drew it!" Jinto thought.
"In order to visualize the material world, a drawing would be the best way." Jinto put his palm on his head. How had he not realized it sooner?! After deprecating himself, he quickly went to his desk, pulled open a couple of compartments, and took out a book, quill, and ink to do some sketching.
"Sarina, I'm thankful. You seemed to have loosened up my bottleneck. Haha, you might just be the most capable maid in the whole estate." Jinto praised Sarina for her words.
Sarina slightly bowed. "You jest, young master. Sometimes one needs a different perspective on things. It was only a matter of time."
Jinto shook his head as he continued to sketch and said, "Don't undermine your abilities. You are truly smart. Today I had eyes but failed to see how bright the maid before me shined. Without your help, I would be stuck, unable to break free from my limitations." Jinto had now begun to see Sarina as a capable and dutiful maid. In his eyes, he was truly lucky to have somebody of this caliber by his side.
"Now the question is how to win the bet. I've only learned of the underlying secrets today, and the bet is tomorrow. What do you think?" Since Sarina had given words of wisdom, Jinto planned to hear Sarina out on what she thought he could do.
"…This," Sarina pretended to be unwilling to say her next words but continued, "may sound a bit too ugly, but if it's for the young master, then here is my plan…"