## Chapter 147 – The Non-Hero
Sever the delusion.
“An irresistible impulse, dejaaaat—!!!”
The next day, I visited the Swordsman’s Guild to calm my troubled mind. Though troubled, it was an education I paid for, so I had to do it no matter what. I couldn’t make it yesterday, after all. In the end, I woke up in the middle of the night and went back to sleep. So it was morning. Even I thought I was doing it too much.
Anyway, delusion.
I must sever the delusion.
I let out a battle cry.
“You didn’t show up yesterday, but you’ve gotten sharper? Something must have happened?”
—Clang!
I unleashed the repeatedly refined Swordsman’s Combat on Karin, pouring out a fierce attack. It was the ultimate swordsmanship, embodying the very impulse of my soul, but it was shattered before even four exchanges could pass. My sword, knocked away, flew into the sky.
“Ugh!”
Shate, who was watching nearby, paled and dodged the flying sword.
“Haa… haa…”
“Sharp, but no focus. What happened?”
I was out of breath.
Karin, who approached, tapped my shoulder with a wooden sword and asked.
“…I’m very troubled because of a woman.”
“The hell did I just hear?”
“Two women say they like me, what am I supposed to do?”
I received forgiveness from Claudia, no, not forgiveness. I held Winia and reaffirmed Claudia’s thoughts. There were no problems, but an indescribable feeling remained in my heart.
I, Kim Katter, thought I had to sever it.
“Are you indirectly asking me to kill you?”
“I’m serious.”
“…”
Judging by her reaction, Karin was indeed an old maid (estimated -〉 confirmed). Somehow, the sharpened blade of the wooden sword dug into my shoulder.
“…If she’s your girlfriend, is that the one who came to watch once?”
“Yes.”
“There’s another one besides her?”
“It just happened… no, it’s a bit ambiguous to say there is.”
“You’re really fucking amazing.”
Karin dragged over an orc barrel and sat down.
I retrieved my sword in the meantime.
Karin frowned, propped her chin, and glared at me.
“Hmm… I don’t think you’re particularly good-looking enough to be popular with women. Or do Mirkesha men appeal to the women here? More than that, I always think, aren’t you thinking of cutting your hair? If you just cut that off, I think you’d be quite presentable.”
“Excuse me? My hair? According to the teachings of my tribe, cutting hair is an impossible act.”
“That’s impossible.”
My body, hair, and skin are received from my parents.
Rather than that, I just haven’t been managing my hair well lately.
“Well, whatever you look like. The result is what it is. So I tried to sever that troubled mind.”
“I thought you were sharp, but you had no focus. Worrying about women during swordsmanship, that’s a serious crime. If it were a real battle, your head would have flown off already.”
“I just want to sever this delusion.”
“Delusion, huh.”
According to Eastern legends, a sword called Baekrugeom can sever human delusions. Inspired by that legend, I tried to sever my delusion with my sword, but with swordsmanship that hadn’t reached a certain level, it was impossible.
“I didn’t know I’d be giving advice while teaching swordsmanship.”
Karin sat down for a moment and pretended to ponder. The reason I said “pretended” was because she got off the orc barrel in less than three seconds.
“I don’t know much, but you should do swordsmanship in times like these. In fact, verbal counseling is useless anyway. If words could solve everything, who would suffer? In the end, you have to move your body.”
She came down and started speaking plausibly with a plausible face.
“Grab a sword. If you do swordsmanship, you’ll be fine. Even if you don’t get better, your skills will improve, right? That’s all that matters.”
“That’s a good saying. I never imagined those words would come out of the Guild Master’s mouth.”
“Hmph. Or how about going outside and killing something? Go to the slums and kill a robber. There’s plenty to kill in the world. Maybe that’ll make you feel better.”
“Hearing that makes me come to my senses. Give me back my impression, you fuck.”
Back to sparring.
—Clang!
This time, Karin went a little easier on me, and the exchange continued up to seven times. Perhaps giving me a break at crucial moments was her way of counseling. After seven consecutive attacks, I got a bit of a feel for it.
Still, confiding in an elder about these feelings seemed to relieve me quite a bit. Is this the counseling effect? I don’t know if there’s such an effect, but there probably is something similar in professional medical terms.
Just as I was about to drive in the eighth attack, Karin’s sword tip aimed for my philtrum. After listening to some feedback and moving back a bit, I started sparring again.
—Clang!
—Clang!
While wielding the sword, I fell into thought again.
There’s no such thing as affection in this world.
It’s just fucked up, fucking fucked up.
Because there was only pain.
“Thinking about nonsense again?”
“…”
But Claudia and Winia, whom I’ve grown attached to, are different. Claudia was the first to make me feel human warmth since coming to this world, and then Winia. I felt warmth in a world full of pain.
—Clang!
That’s why I can’t help but be serious about these two women.
It’s natural to be serious about women you’ve grown attached to.
In a world stained with the pain of having to live in solitude, there’s Claudia, a woman who loves me and whom I love, and Winia, who gave me indelible pain but also says she likes me.
How should I conclude about these two? Born in a monogamous world, can I allow myself to embrace two women at the same time?
The more I thought about it, the deeper the 고민 became.
“Thinking about nonsense.”
“Ugh!”
—Thwack!
Karin, who had gotten close without me noticing, struck the top of my head with a chop. The world turned white with the shock that made my head spin, and I collapsed to the floor.
“Focus on swordsmanship. I won’t go easy on you anymore.”
“…Yes.”
I continued training until I was drenched in sweat. Surely, when my body was tired, I couldn’t think of anything else. Is this what it means to be a martial artist? Karin knew exactly how to shake off delusions.
“But Guild Master.”
“Hmm?”
In the meantime, I remembered something I had always been curious about.
“Do you know anything about mana?”
“I know it very well.”
I stood up, dusted off the dirt, and asked.
That’s right. Mana.
Mana that grants humans superhuman power.
I had always been curious about this.
“Is it possible for mana to suddenly appear or something?”
“Do you want to have mana?”
“Well, who wouldn’t want to have it? Anyway, I have a question. Isn’t the feeling different between us swordsmen or those who engage in close combat and mages?”
“Martial artists accumulate mana in their bodies, and mages create rings in their hearts.”
“Accumulate mana in the body…”
I asked Karin how to accumulate mana. Of course, I didn’t have high expectations. There’s no way such a thing could be conveyed through words, and it wasn’t information that she would easily tell me.
I just wanted to know what mana was.
“Hmm… I learned a secret technique from my family to train and accumulate mana in my body. Ah, you can’t ask me to tell you this. It’s a secret.”
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of doing that. I just didn’t know anything about it, so I just wanted to hear a story.”
“Well, it’s not difficult to tell you. It’s not like you’re the only one who’s asked me.”
Karin continued.
“Training to accumulate mana in the body. This is called Mana Training Method, right? Most noble families have it. It’s something that has been systematized by improving and repeatedly refining the know-how and methods accumulated from previous generations while engaging in war.”
“Hoo, Mana Training Method.”
So that’s why most nobles are so damn strong.
They train in these things professionally from a young age within their families, so they can’t help but be strong. Karin is also from a noble family, after all.
“Well, but if you can only accumulate mana with the training method, then it’s impossible to accumulate mana in the first place, right? Of course, there are cases where it manifests naturally even without training in the training method.”
“That’s very interesting. What kind of cases are those?”
I exaggeratedly reacted and induced Karin’s explanation. I’ve learned from experience that the easier it is to open your mouth, the better you are at adding interjections.
“Sometimes mercenaries awaken mana on the battlefield. I’ve seen a few. I think there might be the truth in the beginning in the movements they take during battle or in the intervals between their intense breathing. The training method is a similar kind of thing. It must have been created by chance to fight better just by fighting.”
“Th-that can’t be!”
I twisted my body while tearing at my hair. This wasn’t an exaggeration, it was really that amazing of a story. An ordinary mercenary who only did war awakened mana!
“Don’t act like that and just shut up and listen.”
“Yes.”
I almost got hit.
Anyway, Karin continued.
“That’s just what I know. Well, if you’re interested in mana, try killing hard too. From experience, all the mercenaries who awakened mana were top-notch killers. As I said, you have talent.”
“Is there really no answer other than killing? Listening to the Guild Master, it feels like this world is like hell.”
“Didn’t you know? If you know now, that’s enough. This world is hell. The people who live in it are all similar to demons. So you have to kill them all.”
She’s not right in the head after all.
“You’re crazy.”
“Just kidding. One more time and we’re done. I can’t watch over your physical training, so grab someone and do it together. This time, I’ll only defend, so let’s see how far you can go.”
“Yes.”
This time, I shook off all thoughts. Exerting extreme concentration, I pierced in like a sharp needle and swung my sword. Karin only defended as she said. Once, twice. And three times. I advanced one step at a time and poured out the offensive as I had learned.
There were some slightly 불안한 parts, but she didn’t counterattack. Perhaps that was her way of counseling, as I had inserted eight consecutive attacks in that way, but my hand got twisted.
“Hmm, but this is quite decent. Try harder.”
“Yes. I’ll see you next time, Guild Master.”
“Okay.”
That’s how the morning swordsmanship training ended. It was a helpful time in many ways. It helped me organize my thoughts, and I think I got a bit of a clue about professional swordsmanship. Then, should I do some physical training and go back?
“Katter. Let’s do it together.”
“Shate.”
Shate, who had been watching nearby, approached.
I greeted him appropriately, took off my clothes together, and ran around the training ground.
“I’ve been watching you, and your swordsmanship is really fierce. But you seem to have 고민, what’s wrong?”
Shate, who was running next to me, asked with a good-natured smile. Come to think of it, he was quite handsome, and I could feel the force of someone who had made about ten women cry.
“What should I do if two women cling to me at the same time?”
While running, I looked straight ahead and said casually.
“Two women?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s common. There are a few cases, but first, are the two women on good terms, or bad?”
“Well… not really? To the extent that they don’t care about each other?”
Claudia doesn’t care much about Winia, but Winia seems quite 신경쓰는. Still, there’s no bloodshed even if they’re together, so you could say they don’t 신경쓰는.
“Hmm, are the two women courting you at the same time? But the two women are 심드렁 to each other?”
“It’s a little different, but it’s probably similar.”
Shate seemed to think based on his experience based on my explanation. There was no need to explain in detail, so I just answered yes.
“That’s a bit of a unique case. Usually, they try to fight each other.”
That’s what I’m saying.
“Then it would be wise to accept both of their hearts.”
Is this the best? Are you sure?
“Yeah. Thanks for the good words. I think I can be friends with you.”
“Hehe. I’m glad I could help.”
Nothing has been resolved, but I decided to be polite since he took the time to answer me. Is this a difference in values?
Claudia says it’s okay, and Winia says she doesn’t care.
But I’m a son of a bitch who thinks I only have Claudia and 바람, and Winia is discussing responsibility. A publicly recognized 양다리 situation.
My head is going to explode, 씨펄 진짜.
Anyway, it’s muscle training with Shate.
