Chapter 12: Me and My Family (3) | Semi-Coercive Imperialist
I looked up information on the 'Brain-Eater' on the computer.
[Brain-Eater]
[Incident Occurrence Log]
1. March 9, 1037
2. July 3, 1037
3. August 5, 1037...
The creature had killed a total of eight imperial citizens so far, and the most recent case was three days ago.
"If it was three days ago."
That's the day I killed that young Ezenheim.
Quite the amusing coincidence.
"For now, let's move."
I got up from my seat and left the office.
In the first-floor lobby, I ran into Julian, who looked like he had just returned from a mission. His armor was still splattered with wet green blood, and Tiana stood beside him.
Julian is a senior knight. He can bring along any knight he wants for his missions.
He had been my instructor, but this time he hadn't chosen me.
"Where are you headed, Max?"
Julian asked indifferently.
"I've taken on a separate mission."
He tilted his head slightly.
"May I ask what kind of mission?"
"It's the 'Brain-Eater.'"
At my answer, Julian's eyebrows twitched subtly.
He would also be well aware of the Brain-Eater.
"Why bother? There's a reason such old missions stay unsolved."
Knights have records of missions taken and failed. Most want to avoid having failure marks. It affects their career.
"That mission is too difficult for a rookie."
"I'll be fine."
"...If you need support, speak up at any time."
"I will."
After that short conversation, Julian boarded the elevator. On the other hand, Tiana seemed to have something to say to me.
"Hey. Do you even know what the Brain-Eater is?"
"I do."
There had been eight victims over the past three years. In the next year, he would devour four more.
Before the regression, the Brain-Eater operated within the Empire for a while, then vanished suddenly and remained a permanent cold case.
"For three years-"
"I know."
I know Tiana. She's the daughter of a minor noble family.
Before the regression, her family was destroyed in a political struggle, and Tiana herself became a fugitive.
I owed her a small debt. The family that crushed hers was Ebenholtz.
"...Fine. Whatever. Do as you like."
Tiana passed by me.
I left the Knight Order Headquarters. I got in a car and headed to the scene.
The location of the Brain-Eater's last crime was a secluded back alley in the Capital. A narrow alley strewn with trash, the walls of old buildings covered in chaotic, unknown graffiti.
"Sir Knight. You're here."
"Yes."
"The scene itself is like this..."
The deepest part. Beyond the police cordon set up by the imperial police, there were still bloodstains not yet cleaned up.
──Twitch!
As I neared the scene, the black fragment inside my body reacted. It had sensed the scent of its own kind.
"...As expected."
Doubt turned into certainty.
This bastard is also an Ezenheim.
I tapped the black thing near my collarbone and spoke.
"Remember this well. We'll need to track this trail, ugh!"
Suddenly, the virus moved. It yanked me forward, and my body collapsed onto the ground.
Thunk!
My face hit the asphalt. Filthy grime and dirt clung to me.
But the virus was moving. It slowly absorbed the young energy waves embedded in this blood. Strange sensations seeped into my mind.
"S-Sir Knight? Are you alright?"
The detective asked in confusion.
"...It's nothing."
I quickly picked myself up.
Thump─ thump─
I felt the virus's heartbeat.
This thing wanted to tell me something.
"Alright. Where is it? Go ahead and show me."
I was more than willing to listen.
After all, we were bound together by fate now.
***
I moved, using the faint energy waves emitted by the virus as my compass. The location was in front of a classic mansion in one of the traditional noble residential areas of the Capital.
"...Here?"
I asked as I looked up at the spacious mansion, six stories tall. The virus twitched.
According to it, the 'Brain-Eater' was inside.
But this place.
"Only nobles can live here."
An Ezenheim is a noble of the Empire.
Is that even possible?
It's not impossible. In the end, status and origin are just paper and ink, always subject to fabrication.
"...."
Still, I couldn't make a reckless move. The Brain-Eater had killed eight people without leaving a single trace of evidence.
That's how meticulous he was.
And the important question was whether I could actually defeat him.
Jacob was young and inexperienced. The child in the park willingly accepted death. It was essentially suicide.
If this Brain-Eater was the "Lexi" Jacob spoke of, I would need to be extremely careful.
"Confirmed."
The location was already identified, so there was no need to rush.
What I needed now was the strength to definitively kill the Ezenheims. To gain that strength, I needed 'that person'.
Freya.
She was a far better instructor than I had expected.
She might even become my master.
...No, I hoped she would become my master.
***
"Haa...."
I closed my eyes.
I steadied my breathing.
With each inhale and exhale, the mana within my body pulsed.
It was the unique mana breathing method passed down through the Ebenholtz family for generations.
I had been trained in this way of breathing since I was three years old.
Now, I don't even consciously think about how it's done. Just as breathing is a natural act, I simply breathe the way I was taught.
"Hoo...."
This is fundamentally different from modern "mana breathing methodologies", which draw external mana into the body and circulate it.
Ebenholtz doesn't care about the outside. It focuses solely on refining internal mana to be purer, cleaner, and denser.
It's extremely advantageous in terms of environment.
The wealthy, who grew up drinking elixirs or spirit pills like water and were surrounded by machines like mana training rooms or mana respirators from a young age, have no need to pull mana from outside. They only need to make use of what's already accumulated inside them, a very aristocratic approach.
Of course, Ebenholtz's rivals criticize it as outdated.
"It's classic."
The person who became my instructor called it "classical".
"There's a mysterious subtlety to Ebenholtz's breathing. That's why it can only be fully mastered in childhood, and if you miss that window, you can't learn it. Also, it costs a hell of a lot. I'd say just the medicinal ingredients poured into your body alone probably cost at least 50 million."
Cost-performance-wise, it's the worst, but cost isn't an issue. While others aim for 100 efficiency with a cost of 100, Ebenholtz aims for 130 efficiency with a cost of 5000. Because they know very well what that difference of 30 means.
I wiped away my sweat and opened my eyes.
"But why do you know so much about the Ebenholtz family?"
"Teachers are supposed to know a lot."
She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.
"Now, draw your sword."
Mana breathing was merely the warm-up.
The instructor extended a long sword to me. The width of the blade was similar to a standard sword, but its total length reached 1.6 meters. It was the long sword of the Ebenholtz family.
"The sword of Ebenholtz is, at its core, a noble's sword. It seeks not brute force but a flowing grace. That's why it favors slashing."
I gripped the sword. I assumed the standard posture from the Ebenholtz manual.
"Just like the manual. But your body's too stiff. Don't keep your back so rigid. Hold the sword as comfortably as possible. What do you think a noble is?"
"Why are you bringing up nobles now?"
"Because Ebenholtz wields the most aristocratic sword of all. You clueless fool. Pay me more money."
"...."
I let my body relax. My instructor furrowed her brows.
"No. That looks pitiful."
"What do you want me to do, then?"
"Think about it. Do nobles always stand upright? Like an angry cat? No, right? But do they slump around like beggars? Also no."
Suddenly, I thought of my father, Sebestian.
He was formal but not rigid, firm but not stubborn. He was relaxed but never lazy, dignified but not arrogant. He was someone in whom contradictory traits existed in perfect balance. If the soul had weight, his would be tempered to an immeasurable heaviness.
A man of high refinement.
A 'true' noble.
Could I become someone like that, too?
...I am his child.
Whether I like it or not, I am a seed of Ebenholtz, the son of Sebestian.
Blood is thicker than water, and genetics cannot be denied.
Ebenholtz, which I once struggled to escape from, has come back to me.
"Haa...."
Quietly, I relaxed the grip on the sword in my hand.
I maintained just enough strength not to lose hold.
I let my shoulders and elbows soften, but kept the weight of the blade concentrated at the tip.
"...Yeah. That's it. Your frame and posture are good, so the form comes alive. And just because it's a long sword doesn't mean you have to grip it with both hands. Only if you can control it perfectly."
I lowered my left hand and gripped the long sword with just my right. The heavy weight reverberated through my entire arm.
"Now swing it. Don't think about anything else, just focus on executing a single perfect slash."
I swung the sword with all my strength.
Swaaash─!
The long sword sliced through the air with a sharp sound. I put my whole body into that single slash.
Freya said,
"Moron."
"What now?"
"I told you to swing it. Focusing only on the perfect slash. That took way too much effort."
"Of course it takes effort to make it perfect."
"Tsk. You don't get it."
She shook her head.
"Can't be helped. Keep repeating it. Until you can swing it at least ten thousand times a day. That's the Ebenholtz First Movement."
"How the hell am I supposed to do ten thousand a day? My arms will fall off."
"If you're using that much force, of course you can't. Keep your mindset clear. Like a real noble, not a fake one. Make one perfect slash through tens of thousands of attempts."
"...."
"What are you staring at? I said do it, damn it!"
Whoooosh!
I swung the sword for now.
Whoooosh!
I thrust the long sword into the air. Every time the blade moved forward, I felt like I was being pulled along with it.
From before, this long sword of Ebenholtz was fucking uselessly long.
Whoooosh!
I was soon out of breath.
"Haa, haa, haa."
My heart hurt. Every muscle in my body screamed like it was about to tear apart.
Around the 300th swing, I collapsed to my knees.
"Get up."
The instructor grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet.
"...Hm."
She touched various parts of my body, then chuckled under her breath.
"Indeed. You recover quickly."
I frowned, but in truth, the fatigue and pain vanished not long after. My body felt light again.
It was probably due to the effect of the 'Mana Core'.
Thanks, I guess.
"Homework. Until you can roughly swing ten thousand times, there's no next lesson."
"...Yes, understood."
This person is strange. It feels like she's freeloading blatantly, but it doesn't seem half-assed.
Ding-ling-ling-ling─
The lesson-end alarm rang as usual. Freya asked,
"Got any plans for today?"
"Yes. I have a real estate appointment. I'm planning to rest for a bit before going."
"Mm~ Really? You have a lot of money. I'm envious."
"Well then. I'll be heading out first."
I tried to go outside, but she blocked the training room door.
"What now?"
"Don't kids these days offer any tokens of appreciation to their teachers?"
"...What?"
She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.
"Show some proper respect for your teacher, dammit."
"You already get money from my father."
"Are you a papa's boy? You should have your own sense of standards!"
"...."
I took out my wallet from the inside pocket of my coat. I handed her a few bills. Her face scrunched up. I pulled out three more bills. It got a little better, but her expression still had creases. I just gave her everything in the wallet.
"Alright. Good job~ Rest well now~"
Her smile lit up.
Crazy bitch.