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“They how do you store mana in your body?” I asked with curiosity. What he said does not make sense. “If a knight does not need a mana heart, then what is mana’s point in our body? It’s not like you can make mana rings like a wizard.”

“We do,” he said without looking at me.

“What?”

“The knights use mana by weaving rings like wizards,” he says.

I found myself laughing at this remark the same way he laughed at me after finding out about my mana heart.

“It wasn’t a story for you to laugh at,” he said rather defensively.

The mood suddenly shifted. It was as if a child changed the world’s most precious heirloom into candy and bragged about it. He looked a tad bit confused, his expressions not so clear, and his eyebrows were drawn together. It was then that I realized something wasn’t right.

***

During the time I spent as a sword sealed away in the royal palace, a lot had changed. Four hundred years was more than enough to change the world I had known into something so utterly strange and alien. All the common sense and systems I was familiar with no longer exist in this world.

There was once an old saying that knights crossed the realm of superhumans through mana hearts. And it was only 200 years ago when knights first discovered that they could use mana more efficiently by connecting several rings instead of mana heart.

“Why?” I asked.

“It’s easier, quicker, more stable, and outright stronger,” uncle replied.

Even if I agree that the mana chain is more efficient, it doesn’t make sense to me that the entire notion of mana hearts no longer thrives. It was hard to accept this. In my time, a chosen few soared to superhuman status thanks to mana hearts. Their achievements were never trivial, and their stories were considered to be legendary. It’s unthinkable that the practice of making mana hearts had died while I was locked away in the palace.

“It was about 220 years ago that all the continent’s top two Sword Masters were dethroned by the knights who climbed using the power of the rings.” His tone was a little stern.

“What does that imply?” I asked.

“It simply means that there is nothing that makes no sense. Geomgi pulled out a ring that had the property of breaking the heart. No one has made mana hearts since then. Its concept died with this.” Uncle said, “it is about that time that famous martial arts scattered across the continent abandoned the tradition.”

“100 years ago, when Count Eli, who insisted on mana hearts until the bitter end, fell completely, mana hearts became a substandard tool used only by mercenaries,” uncle said, continuing his lecture.

Uncle clicked his tongue. He asked me why I bothered to learn such old-fashioned techniques as if he had seen through me, and as if he seemed to know what was going on in my head.

“How would I have known all of that!” I blurted out with frustration quite evident on my face.

“It’s strange, common senses is unknown,” he said, making a mockery of my ignorance.

Uncle’s face was awful, and I wasn’t very fond of him since we met. But now I know for sure that I dislike him with a burning passion.

To further prove his point about mana chains being superior, he handed me a book.

***

“The mana Chain Basic Theory,” written by Burno Bourdorf, the eighth successor of the 16th disciple Werner Rachel, the founder of the mana chain, Ernest Altringen, and compiled by Gregory Hessley

I surely did not like this book after reading its title, and I am equally sure I do not want to read it. But the curiosity of knowing what happened in the past 400 years that changed the system so drastically began to gnaw its way up, and I found myself opening the book.

From Sword Beginner to Runner to Expert and Master, the words of the knight I knew had become obsolete. The new age was full of unfamiliar concepts. “Circle” for wizards, “Chain” for knights, and the number of rings for dividing the status of knights.

“Single Chain”, “Double Chain”, “Triple Chain”, “Quad Chain”, and lastly, “Penta Chain”.

These foreign words were used to refer to the status of small knights. The knights that uncle mentioned who brought down the top 10 Sword Masters of the continent 220 years ago were only “Quad Chain”.

They weren’t even Penta. If not even the strongest of mana chain knights can bring down the strongest of those who trained using mana hearts, what more can their Penta Chain knights do?

I was so immensely proud of the mana heart inside my body. It was a feat that I had to struggle to accomplish using this new body. But now, it feels just like another useless lump in my body.

I can’t believe that just a few moments ago, I was so confident despite losing all of my powers in exchange for this fat prince’s body. But the knowledge of hundreds of years of the prosecution was nothing like the power I lost. That power was something I could take back with enough time. But this was a separate matter.

I was already skipping through the pages of the book. Some of the pages had turned yellow and had the characteristic odor that tells you that the book is old. Its pages were already fragile too. I continued to think while my right hand turned the pages.

「Basic concept of mana chain ductility」

The concept that utterly destroyed a legacy of my time was described as a recipe in a second cookbook. I could not stop myself from looking at it with contempt and hate.

“It’s not a bad trick, is it?” Uncle said, breaking my focus.

Just skimming through one book forced me to accept that Mana Chain had replaced Mana Heart. Mana Chains certainly had the potential. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but laugh after I finished reading the book. My concerns no longer remained.”

“Altringen, Altringen,” I repeated like an incantation that would help me remember when and where I heard that name before.

I closed the book and examined the cover. The title on the time-worn cover was unnecessarily elaborate. One of the founders of the mana chain, “Ernest Altringen”. Somehow, the name was familiar.

A long time ago, there was a man who was neither a prosecutor nor a wizard, but a hybrid. He picked out a great sword, asking who would fit the name “Sword Castle”. He ended up devising a different technique to revolutionize the mana concept, and his last name was “Altringen”.

***

Uncle’s gaze was still the same the next day. He still begrudged every breath I take, and he made no efforts to hide it. He flaunted it like a medal of honor that separated him from those he deemed lesser men. Each time he pierces me with his gaze, I feel like he is looking at a prodigal son who ruined his future because of an irreversible mistake. It makes me wonder just what kind of other mistakes this prince had done in the past before he died.

A long time had passed before he talked to me again.

“Can you understand now?”

I nodded in response.

“Then you should know by now how foolish you were,” he said, his words teeming with sarcasm.

“I was impatient, but not foolish,” I said abruptly but with care so that he won’t notice my irritation. He looked sour, as usual.

His eyes stuck on me for a moment, reading me like a book with open secrets to exploit. Then, he asked, “you haven’t fully read the book, have you?”

“I read it. Many times,” I insisted.

“Then, you didn’t grab the meaning properly,” he retorted as if he was sure of it.

“I understood what I needed to understand,” I replied quickly.

Uncle took a step back, crossed his arms, and pierces his eyes straight into mine. I could not stare back, so I turned the other way, telling myself I didn’t need his approval.

“Okay, then. Enlighten us with what you have learned!” He jests, his mouth curling upward to emphasize his obvious distaste for his nephew.

“Mutual complementarity, rotation, and resonance between rings”, I said confidently. It was a summary of the mana chain softening method that I organized in my own words the night before.

“Hmmm!” was all uncle could say. I’m not sure if its another jest or the closest he could ever come to an approval. He turned his gaze towards the escort knights looking at me from a distance. “Well, it doesn’t matter. It’s all useless to you anyway.”

“Exactly. What should I do now? I don’t think I made a mistake.” Regret filled me the moment those words left my tongue. Uncle’s eyes bore through me as though it sees another fool.

“Isn’t there something you want to admit, or is it still unknown?” he asked. His voice was indifferent and showed no sign of concern. It proved how insignificant I was to him.

“No, both.” I laughed but quickly regretted it. Uncle did not answer. He met with a disapproving silence and star. His firm face tells me he didn’t like my laugh the same way he does not approve of anything I do.

***

Stupid! Bale Balahard clicked his tongue while staring at his nephew.

“What makes you think that you are special?” he quips.

His nephew did not answer, but Bale knew what was going on in his mind. “Some of the mercenaries are like you. They mistake themselves for being a hero like the ones they heard sung in songs of the past. They dwell in there, and this blinds them of their reality. Do you know how they all are?”

His nephew stayed silent. It was as if he had nothing left to say. “They couldn’t cross just two rings, and they all fell out.” Bale wanted his nephew to realize what a blunder he had made. He wanted him to learn from it and not just escape reality.

“As per your mother’s wish, I will guide you.” He admitted, but only because he didn’t want to make his sister sad.

He stretched his shoulders and straightened his back in a challenging manner. He looked like a giant every time he did this despite his age.

“I am Bale Balahard, commander of the Northern Third Corps, Captain of the Black Lancers and Count of the Kingdom, and a knight of four rings.” He was as fierce as the storm, and his voice had a tinge of pride in it. Visor! The court knights pulled their swords out all at once and pointed them at the uncle. He didn’t even blink.

“That’s the name of the one who stands behind you.” His nephew realized one of the names that symbolized his uncle. His eyes shone, and he tried to hide the bright smile that tried to spread across his face.

“You were an article in the Quad Chain.” His plump cheeks obscured his expression.

“Don’t make another noise.” Uncle was once again smiling.