TSEDK 13

Chapter 13

Ethan looked around as he entered Aisha’s office.

The room was neatly organized, filled with books and stone tablets inscribed with runes, along with an assortment of intricate magical tools.

The atmosphere was awkward, given how sudden the invitation had been.

‘Collectors tend to have some sort of personality defect.’

Fang was cold and calculating, though his demeanor could vary depending on the situation.

Walter was generally kind, but when it came to training, he was like a cunning demon.

Vanguard, the director, was reckless and terrifying.

And finally, Aisha, who had practically dragged Ethan all the way here, was cold and composed, yet strangely emotional about certain things.

Just like right now.

She sat at her desk with her arms crossed, studying Ethan.

Her eyes were sparkling.

“So, what did Mr. Fang say about me?”

“He didn’t say anything except your nickname.”

“Tsk. You’re no help at all. Is that all? Why did you say Mr. Fang came looking for me?”

“How would I know?”

“Hmm. How disappointing. I guess I’ll have to put you back where you came from.”

Ethan glared at her, looking utterly dumbfounded.

She had dragged him here out of nowhere, only to dismiss him like this. Given Ethan’s temperament, that was not something he could easily let slide.

“Shouldn’t you be the one making a guess about why he came looking for you?”

“…”

Perhaps he had hit a nerve, because Aisha furrowed her delicate brows before answering.

“I did promise once that I would help him train a successor someday, but…”

“But?”

“How on earth is someone like you supposed to be Mr. Fang’s successor?!”

It was an outright insult, but Ethan was generally the type to make good use of situations like this.

“So you doubt Mr. Fang’s judgment for choosing me.”

Ethan spoke with a crooked smile, and Aisha was visibly flustered.

“W-What are you talking about?! I trust Mr. Fang more than anyone else in the world!”

“And I don’t know what kind of position you hold, either, so I can’t exactly trust you without question.”

At Ethan’s words, Aisha raised both hands in surrender, as if admitting defeat.

“Fine. I apologize for being rude to you earlier. In return, you should refrain from saying anything strange to Mr. Fang.”

‘Now we can finally have a proper conversation.’

Ethan gave a slight nod, and Aisha began introducing herself in earnest.

“My name is Aisha Kranchard. Officially, I’m a Second-Class Collector, but rather than collecting, I work primarily as a researcher known as a Rune Meister.”

“You research runes?”

Aisha nodded.

“The mana purification method used by Collectors, which relies on runic characters, originally developed from the techniques of my Kalaharim clan.”

“What?!”

Ethan was taken aback by this unexpected revelation.

The Kalaharim clan.

According to what Ethan knew, they were one of the founding families who had helped establish the Astar Empire. They were also known as a small clan that practiced sorcery.

“You’ll learn more about the relationship between the Collectors and the Empire once you become one. But if I start explaining the background, we’ll never finish. Look into it yourself.”

“…I will.”

“Good. Since the purpose is to help train you, let’s discuss your current condition while we work. Your mastery of Body Tempering seems fine, but I suspect you’re having trouble purifying mana.”

Ethan narrowed his eyes at her keen observation.

“How did you know?”

“Because I’m a Rune Meister. When it comes to purifying magic through runestones, I can help you much more than Senior Walter can. I can assess your current condition at any time.”

Aisha inscribed runic characters in the air and began scanning his mana.

Ethan stood quietly as he felt a sensation like electric currents coursing over his entire body.

A moment later, Aisha sighed.

“So your Body Tempering training is actually making things worse. Am I right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Ethan explained everything that had happened with the mana purification method. Aisha listened carefully, then raised one corner of her mouth.

“Based on what you’ve told me, my theory is that you need to use at least a Second-Class runestone to purify mana through runes. The problem is that the risks are too great. That’s probably why Senior Walter found it so difficult to deal with.”

“Yes, exactly.”

Aisha sighed before speaking.

“Phew. Simply inscribing the runes isn’t enough. Before you can use a Second-Class runestone or higher, you need to establish a proper foundation in runic characters.”

She tapped the runestone on her desk and shot Ethan a sidelong glance.

After a moment of thought, she looked directly at him again.

“But do you even understand runic characters properly?”

“You’re supposed to teach me, aren’t you? You’re a Rune Meister, after all.”

“If you want my help, shouldn’t you at least have that much of a foundation already? I’m busy, too. I don’t have time to teach you all the way from the beginning.”

Aisha snorted, leaving Ethan at a loss.

Mana purification was practically essential if he wanted to work as a Collector in the future.

If Walter, his training instructor, couldn’t help him, then Aisha’s assistance was indispensable.

‘There has to be some way to persuade her.’

Then he remembered.

The moment when the normally cold Aisha had become strangely emotional…

Among the fragments of memory that had casually passed through his mind, there was one word she had paid particular attention to.

That word was Fang.

‘No way!’

Ethan suddenly realized something.

‘It’s still just a hunch, but there’s no harm in testing it.’

“Then how about this?”

Ethan spoke casually.

“If you teach me the runestone purification method, I’ll give you something that belongs to Mr. Fang. Even though I don’t have anything yet.”

At that moment, Aisha’s ears perked up.

“I’m not interested.”

But she rejected him.

Ethan patiently tried to persuade her once more.

“I’ve already made an agreement to work under Mr. Fang. Don’t you want something that belongs to him?”

“W-What kind of person do you take me for?”

“Come on. Maybe a hat or a handkerchief. Something he might lose, you know? I’d just happen to pick it up.”

With every item Ethan mentioned, Aisha’s shoulders twitched ever so slightly.

Ethan struggled to suppress his laughter.

‘Is this actually working?’

It was.

Aisha was in the middle of an intense internal struggle.

‘This is an utterly ridiculous deal… But if it’s something that belongs to Mr. Fang…! I’ll be the one losing out if I don’t make this trade!’

Strictly speaking, she would be the one losing out in terms of both time and mental effort.

But if she failed to acquire something belonging to Fang, she felt it would become a lifelong regret.

Aisha narrowed her eyes and stared at him for a while. Then she uncrossed her arms and sighed.

“…I suppose I have no choice. Fine, let’s do it.”

“…Seriously?”

“What? You’re the one who made the offer!”

Aisha tried to act nonchalant, though her face seemed slightly flushed.

Ethan shook his head, looking utterly incredulous.

‘Ha. I didn’t actually think that would work.’

“I’ll let Senior Walter know, so you’ll be receiving my instruction for the time being. It won’t be easy, so prepare yourself.”

Aisha put on a prim expression, and Ethan chuckled at the sight.

…In any case, he had gained a proper teacher, so it was a win for him.

“Not in a short period of time.”

Aisha stood with her arms crossed, looking at Ethan as she spoke firmly. Ethan responded with a puzzled expression.

“Don’t I just need to learn the fundamentals of runic characters well enough to use a Second-Class runestone?”

“Sounds easy when you put it that way, doesn’t it? The fundamentals you have in mind and the fundamentals I have in mind are on completely different levels. This should explain it.”

Aisha unfolded the schedule she had prepared.

Ethan’s face stiffened as he examined the strictly structured training plan.

Even at a glance, it looked like it would take more than a month.

“…Won’t I fall way behind my peers if I spend that much time on this?”

Aisha’s lips curled into a cold smile.

“Your peers? In five years—no, even three years from now, most of them will be dead. Does competing with your peers really matter when you look at it that way? I can say this with certainty: it means absolutely nothing.”

Why was it that, despite the scornful expression on her face, her otherwise emotionless features somehow seemed sadder than anyone else’s in the world?

Looking at her, Ethan could only offer a single response.

“…I’ll work hard without complaining.”

And so began a new month of training.

What he had to do was simple.

He needed to study, one by one, the origins and meanings of the thirty-two runic characters derived from the Kalaharim clan.

Aisha’s explanation was just as simple.

“Inscribing a runic character means imbuing mana with your will. Simply memorizing the characters is pointless. Understanding their meanings and using them accordingly—that’s the key.”

There were thirty-two runic characters to master.

Ethan traced their origins, researched their etymologies, and used the tip of his staff to retrace their strokes in the air dozens, even hundreds, of times.

From the moment he woke up until he went to sleep, Ethan repeated the process endlessly.

As evening settled in, Ethan held his staff and began inscribing the characters he had learned into the air before Aisha.

Green mana shimmered as flawless runic characters appeared in the air.

When he inscribed Yr (ᛇ), wooden vines writhed and moved as though they had come to life.

When he inscribed Ken (ᚲ), flames burst into existence. When he inscribed Lagu (ᛚ), cold raindrops scattered through the air.

Afterward, he could control their movements according to his will. Yet the more he learned, the more troubled Ethan became.

‘…This is difficult.’

Even inscribing a single character could produce dozens, even hundreds, of possible variables.

The circle magic practiced by modern mages was highly stable and powerful. Its casting process also helped stabilize the resulting spell.

By comparison, rune magic appeared to modern mages to be nothing more than an inefficient form of magic that was difficult to understand and even harder to interpret.

‘Even so, its potential far surpasses that of circle magic.’

Ironically, Ethan became even more fascinated by rune magic.

Memorizing the characters was easy, but understanding and mastering their meanings required him to pore over no fewer than forty books.

Even if the four most talented trainees among the sixty-fifth cohort had been gathered together and made to study the same material, their patience would likely have been pushed to its limits.

Ethan, on the other hand, excelled precisely in this kind of work.

It was because, in his previous life, he had survived circumstances far harsher than these.

Night had fallen over the training grounds.

Ethan gripped his staff tightly and inscribed runic characters into the air.

Green mana shimmered as the character Tiwaz (ᛏ) appeared clearly before him, causing the ground to tremble faintly.

Then he inscribed Jera (ᛃ), and the surrounding air grew noticeably heavier.

Watching the runes interact and respond to one another, Ethan wiped the sweat from his brow and bit his lip.

‘One more time…’

He adjusted the mana with his fingertips and inscribed Tiwaz (ᛏ) once more as the final character.

A much stronger vibration than before rumbled beneath his feet.

“…!”

Startled, Ethan raised his staff.

At that moment, the runes’ effects faded.

He had cut off the flow of mana himself.

Watching him quietly, Aisha stood with her arms crossed and drew a slow breath.

‘He’s making me nervous.’

Normally, someone at this stage would lose control of their mana, causing the runes to go berserk.

But Ethan wasn’t merely memorizing the characters or repeating their forms. He was intuitively learning to sense the flow of the runes themselves.

‘…And he’s fast.’

Before long, she found herself impressed.

His speed in understanding the structure and combinations of runic characters was beyond anything she had imagined.

It wasn’t simply a matter of having an exceptional memory. He handled the runes as though he already knew them from years of experience.

However, a familiar voice interrupted her admiration.

“Looks like he’s improved tremendously under your guidance.”

Aisha turned her head.

Walter, a black-haired man with sharp features, was approaching her.

He glanced toward the training grounds and gave a faint smile before adding,

“At first, I thought he was just someone who specialized in Body Tempering. But under your instruction, he’s clearly showing a different side of himself.”

Aisha listened without changing her expression.

Then she turned her gaze back to Ethan and spoke calmly.

“Even so, it means nothing unless he can inscribe the runes properly, Senior. Skill alone isn’t enough. Runes are an act of imbuing something with your will. No matter how much he practices, it’s meaningless if he can’t inscribe them correctly.”

At her cold tone, Walter shrugged as though sighing.

“You’re still as strict as ever.”

Aisha said nothing and remained where she was.

Watching her, Walter suddenly seemed to remember something and asked,

“But aren’t you curious about Ethan’s news? That’s actually why I came here.”

Only then did Aisha look at Walter and ask briefly,

“Has it been approved?”

Walter nodded casually.

“Of course. Vanguard, the director, would never overlook the most promising talent in the training center, would he?”

He spoke lightly on purpose, but soon grew more serious as he continued.

“Still, he’ll be the first to use a Second-Class runestone. We have to account for the possibility that he might die.”

“…”