By Zephyria 
After the three-day birthday banquet ended, I began training.
At first, I ran around the martial arts training ground with just my body. Even though I knew it was natural for my child’s body to recover quickly after a good wash and sleep, even if I ran a bit too hard, it was very enjoyable.
When dawn broke, I practiced breathing and regulating energy, waited for a servant to help me dress, and then went to the martial arts training ground to run fifteen laps.
After returning, washing up, and learning simple etiquette, history, and letters from my tutor, I took a midday nap.
Once the hottest part of the day passed, I put on armor and ran five laps around the martial arts training ground. Then, I spent about two hours practicing horse-riding stances and the Three Calamities Sword Technique before washing up and having dinner.
Afterward, I had a tea time with my parents indoors, then did some personal study or practiced calligraphy before going to sleep.
For the first three days, my parents watched with surprise and concern. After ten days, they called a physician for a check-up. However, when this training continued for over fifteen days, both my parents were astonished and let me do as I pleased.
When I was at the Namgung Family, I attended lectures with various direct and collateral relatives of my age. However, having a tutor to teach me only what was necessary as it came up made my body feel more comfortable.
While convenience in training could be detrimental and should be guarded against, having a tutor who patiently taught me at a pace suited to my learning speed allowed me ample free time.
I knew that excessive training at a young age could hinder proper growth, so I tried not to be impatient.
I also heard that the knights of the Count’s family had extended their training hours, inspired by watching me.
Originally, knights were supposed to divide their duties and training between night and day in three shifts. However, they voluntarily began attending the morning training sessions.
The Ernhardt family seemed to be more of a scholarly lineage than a martial one, so the knights’ discipline was not particularly strict. Yet, the martial pride of not wanting to fall behind a five-year-old who trained for four hours every day made them diligent. It was a gratifying development.
“Young Master Mikael, do you not practice shield training separately?”
“I know there is training suited to my body. The sword techniques the knights are currently using are the Imperial Swordsmanship, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s a swordsmanship that uses the shield to guard the left and rear while attacking in eight directions forward and two directions to the right.”
“It must be a swordsmanship intended for territory wars.”
“It is indeed a swordsmanship for war.”
“If one can block an opponent’s weapon with a sword, then what I hold in my hand can be called a shield, whether it’s an iron sword or a wooden sword. I am satisfied with this.”
The captain of the Magnolia Knights, who had been observing the knights’ training, nodded with a peculiar expression after a long moment of thought and left.
As I began my hundred downward strikes, I could faintly hear him asking the vice-captain from a distance. His question was whether modern fairytale heroes carried only swords without shields.
Hearing that, I became curious and looked through the fairytale books I owned. All of them depicted heroes holding both shields and swords.
The family crests engraved in gold and silver on each shield looked quite stylish, so I briefly considered whether I should practice shield techniques, but I abandoned the idea as I was accustomed to the Namgung’s sword.
❖ ❖ ❖
Time flew by like an arrow. My body grew considerably with the daily training.
I became comfortable speaking with several boys and girls around my age, and I grew accustomed to a life of boating in the summer and reading books by the fireplace in the winter.
I also gained a younger brother six years my junior and a younger sister eight years my junior.
The small pony I received as a gift for my tenth birthday grew into a fine steed the following year, bringing me joy.
My iron sword, which was consistently lengthened in weight and length to match my growth, was finally allowed to be sharpened when I turned thirteen.
My Dantian, which had been as small as a grain of rice, expanded to the size of a bird’s egg when I was twelve.
This was achieved without any Spiritual Medicine, accumulating thirty years’ worth of internal energy. It was a path I had traveled once before, and it was possible because I started with a pure body where both the Ren and Du Meridians were open.
Around that time, I sparred with the knights of my family once a week and never lost.
Memories from my previous life flooded back frequently.
In my past life too, I first held a real sword at thirteen. I was praised highly for being a head taller and broader-shouldered than others my age.
Since it was a tradition and custom of the family to go on a wandering knight’s journey at twenty, I had my first kill at fifteen, bringing down a bandit dragged to the family.
To prevent me from being terrified and meeting a terrible fate after experiencing my first kill in actual combat, the elders of the family had procured wicked individuals beforehand.
Here, in the Empire, it had been over forty years since a war broke out with a neighboring kingdom.
The knights here primarily killed monsters, not people. Out of a total of about fifty, more than twenty knights had not experienced killing.
The Ernhardt territory was a prosperous and safe place, so I had never actually seen a monster.
They said there were monsters ranging from tiny creatures as small as dwarves to terrifying beings far exceeding the height of a three-story building. However, it was said that martial artists who had reached First-rate or Peak could handle them without being overwhelmed, as long as they weren’t isolated.
When asked if I didn’t behead bandits, they replied that there weren’t many bandits, and even wicked murderers were generally kept alive until brought before the authorities for judgment.
Around this time, I often told those who marveled at my swordsmanship that I learned it in dreams, gaining an absurd level of trust.
When I mused aloud, “Did I live my previous life too intensely and get reincarnated into such a cozy place?” a knight who had been teaching me various things laughed out loud.
“Young Master, you must have lived in a very terrifying place in your past life.”
“Indeed. Over fifty knights died, piling up like mountains. The demons were said to lead a million-strong army, but it looked like over a million to me… The ones swarming in black were all the enemy, and the ones shattering white were all allies… corpses piled up like mountains, and the flowing blood was like the sea…”
“Do you know that our territory’s population is about 800,000, Young Master?”
“Of course.”
“…I am always glad to serve such a brilliant Young Master.”
By this point, I was accustomed to people just smiling, doting on me, and not believing me, no matter what I said. I would casually let slip traces of my past, as long as I didn’t mention specific names.
While people from other families never uttered such things, the servants, knights, and my parents at the Ernhardt Count’s mansion clearly believed I thought of myself as a Sword Master who saved the world in a past life.
I had no desire to explain the Demonic Cult, the Heavenly Demon, or the Nine Sects and Five Great Clans of the Central Plains one by one. Nor was there any need to insist that I was not a great Sword Master or hero in the past, but merely an ordinary martial artist.
It was enough if they saw me as just a diligent knight-in-training who dreamed and honed himself.
After sparring, I would flick my sword, its edge gleaming.
This was also a habit from my previous life. It was said that one had to shake off the blood from the blade to reduce slippage when swinging the sword next.
While unnecessary movements should be eliminated, this was a habit I didn’t change, having heard that monster blood was stickier than human blood.
“To awaken your aura at thirteen, you truly are a genius, Young Master. Even Prince Kiadris, famous as the youngest Sword Master, didn’t awaken his aura until he was sixteen.”
“He probably didn’t run laps around the martial arts training ground since he was five, though.”
“That’s true.”
As we laughed boisterously and prepared for the next spar, the knights suddenly turned their heads in the same direction.
The footsteps running towards the martial arts training ground were light but noisy. I knew who was running towards us without needing to see.
I handed the towel I was using to wipe my sweat to a servant and moved away from the training area, which was slightly lower in elevation, to greet the new arrival.
“Mikael! Walk a little slower. You’ll fall.”
“Brother! Brother! You got a letter!”
It was my younger brother, Mikael Ernhardt, who most faithfully believed and followed my claim of being a hero who saved the world in my past life.
The boy, now seven years old, could barely read words yet, but he was overly excited after learning a new word recently.
I embraced the young boy who charged at me like a wild boar.
The letter envelope he brandished in one hand already showed signs of being torn open and was half-crushed from being held so tightly.
I didn’t need to take the contents from his tiny hand to guess what it was, so I didn’t pay it any mind.
“So, what you’re holding must be the early admission permit for the Sieran Imperial Academy.”
“Early admission! The Empire’s youngest genius! Genius and prodigy!”
“Then, your brother will become the Empire’s youngest Sword Master, a genius and prodigy.”
As I casually soothed the child, laughter erupted again from the knights.
“Young Master Mikael, if you go to the Academy, you won’t be able to play with Young Master Mikael every day like you do now. Are you still happy?”
“Don’t make the child cry for no reason, Sir Ventus.”
“It’s okay! I’m going to the Academy too! Time passes quickly.”
“You’re so spirited. Then I’ll go to the Academy first and wait for you, Mikael.”
The tone was unmistakably like someone he took after. I ruffled the young Mikael’s hair and kissed his forehead several times.
The way the young child clung to me so affectionately felt more like a grandchild than a brother, making all the times I doted on him worthwhile.
Since the Academy is a three-year program, it was unnecessary to mention that by the time Mikael enrolled, I would have already graduated and several years would have passed.