"What do you mean? Is there no spell like that in Essence of Winter?"
Syon tilted his head, realizing that the bleached-blond-haired youth wasn't just trying to make some small talk and was actually upset about some sort of misinformation.
"What? No, of course there is! Soul of the Mountain. But the talk about Essence of Winter not having any internal spells is ridiculous! What else was I using during my training and all those duels this whole time?"
"...I would assume swordsmanship…?"
While the teacher on the training ground was beginning to explain how the swordsmanship magic system differs from the others, Rotsard furrowed his brow with a confused expression and pointed out, making Syon blink repeatedly and answer as he saw it while meaningfully glancing at the presentation taking place below.
"Don't be ridiculous, I swore off even touching a sword, I wouldn't be practicing swordsmanship as training, and especially not during duels! I wouldn't risk killing any of the students I faced!"
"..."
Rotsard groaned, rolling his eyes at Syon, but that made him stare at him in silence as if expecting a follow-up for a joke…
…that never arrived…
"Wait… No, listen! I'm not talking about actual swordsmanship, as in the style of combat with a sword! I'm talking about THE Swordsmanship Magic System!"
"...you're messing with me…"
Syon fully turned towards Rotsard and said, while staring at him with a completely serious expression, while Rotsard leaned back and said, just as taken aback as before.
"I'm very sure that you were using swordsmanship this whole time, not only that! You… you were having duels against people using swordsmanship for weeks!"
"No, I wasn't!"
Syon pointed out, but Rotsard just called out with a baffled expression.
"Ye… Yes you were! That white aura that's something between light and smoke! That's a sword aura! That's from the swordsmanship magic system!"
Syon raised his voice, utterly disgruntled.
"Wha…?! Th-that cushioning spell was from a different magic system?!"
"You've got to be kidding me… WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY CUSHIONING?! EVEN THE MOST BASIC SWORD AURA MAKES ANY BLADE SHARPER AND STRONGER THAN STEEL! AND EVERY FOLLOWING ITERATION MAKES IT MORE DANGEROUS!"
Rotsard gasped, taken aback, triggering a rather wild response from Syon as the vice headmaster ended up standing right up and shouting at the youth while getting red in the face from exasperation.
"...?"
"..."
That was not left unnoticed, as the whole event on the training ground went silent with people locating the source of the shouting and staring at the window in which Syon and Rotsard were standing.
"O-oh… Sorry for that! Please, continue! I'll keep it quiet, I promise!"
Syon wasn't angered enough to miss so many eyes on him and ended up calming down and apologizing, raising his hand and calling out with a guilty expression.
"You know that I have mana sight! If I tell you you were fighting with people using the swordsmanship magic system, I mean it! If you weren't using spells from Essence of Winter to counter them, then you must have been using swordsmanship! No. Not must. You WERE using it! I saw it! Swordsmanship uses raw mana, that's why everyone capable of using magic can learn it regardless of what magic system they were born with! And you were doing just that! It even involves perfect mana unity, too! How could you not know that?!"
Syon switched back to his indoor voice and lectured Rotsard, with his expression still looking as if he could not believe that the bleached-blond-haired youth was serious with him regarding the matter.
"I… I didn't know! No one ever taught me any swordsmanship to begin with!"
Rotsard himself turned away, crossing his arms and putting up his shoulders defensively as he grumbled the response.
"Look! Look! See?! They all activated it, even student Edemsworth, who said she never practiced it!"
It seemed that Syon missed Rotsard's complaint as he leaned out the window, pointing at the presentation participants holding up another set of pages with glowing mana circulation patterns.
"That doesn't change the fact that I was never taught anything like that!"
"A child of the Vallhall family, even an adoptive one, not knowing a thing about swordsmanship? Give me a break! At least think of something believable to say!"
Rotsard mumbled under his breath, but this time he was heard, and Syon shook his head while unleashing a deep sigh.
"..."
Rotsard glanced at him over his shoulder, but didn't say anything this time. His expression darkened, and he glared back at the presentation below.
The four participants were now holding up pages with a much more complicated pattern that the bleached-blond-haired youth recognized as the circulation pattern for mana in The Joy of First Snow.
No matter how much they tried, Justin and Oliver couldn't even inject the pattern with mana in the first place.
Surprisingly, Amelia was able to do at least that, but her level of completion for the pattern had barely started, and stopped at around one-fifth, even when the girl was gritting her teeth and focusing so much that beads of sweat started to appear on her face and drip down her forehead.
Even Saria wasn't as efficient as Rotsard expected her to... She completed the pattern properly, but her snowball was just that. An actual snowball containing barely any mana or power, truly something comparable to a 1st tier spell of the classic magic style.
"Hmm…"
"To her defense, she's probably way better with other spells. As was already said, there is no actual official starting point, and different people teach their kids different spells as their first ones."
When Syon furrowed his brows and let out an intrigued voice, Rotsard was quick to explain. Perhaps even too quick, making it a bit obvious that he wanted to cover for his cousin.
"What's your deal with her in the end? Honestly."
"...!"
Syon picked up on it easily and looked at the bleached-blond-haired youth, tilting his head and squinting his eyes.
"A…. Th-those earlier patterns don't look all that difficult to complete! How about I will try it together with my meditation method?"
"Wha…?! I was going to ask you about just that! Yes! Definitely an excellent idea!"
Taken aback by the question, Rotsard hurriedly changed the subject, and Syon eagerly swallowed the bait right up, without batting an eye.