By Zephyria 
Hap, haap! The class had started quietly, but as an hour passed, many students began letting out battle cries that sounded like screams. The act of expending all their strength to exhaust themselves had no clear beginning or end.
They weren’t refining their sword forms with precise movements and power, but were simply trying to drain their energy.
Even when first practicing swordsmanship in the Central Plains, they learned the Three Calamities Sword Technique, but such brute force was rarely seen. As I tried to swing my sword without using internal energy, I too began to feel drained, and the back of my martial uniform grew damp with sweat.
As if by chance, it was the hottest time of day, and under the scorching sun, the panting children gave up on keeping quiet and gasped for breath.
Swoosh!
A ticklish energy approached from somewhere, and without thinking too deeply, I swung my sword and cut it down, leaving me bewildered. As I snapped my head up, my eyes met Professor Mustang’s.
He was smiling. While smiling… he was drawing out his aura like threads and tickling the students’ forearms.
Aura? Mana? I didn’t know what to call it. It felt more appropriate to call it magic, but the energy was clearly something that branched off from the path of the sword. Puzzled by this bizarre act, I stood frozen and looked around.
Those who could already use aura stopped in surprise, looking at the professor, or at the students who had stopped like them. But the students were spaced far apart, and those who knew nothing continued to shout “Hoo-ah! Ha-ah!” as they brought their swords down from above.
“…Hoo. That guy could probably play cat’s cradle with internal energy…”
A sigh of admiration escaped my lips. Not the martial artists I’d met here, but a ‘marvelous deed’ that described such strange and outlandish acts.
I was certain that not only had I never heard of such a thing in my past life, but no one in this life would ever use aura this way.
Like Energy Sword Control or Telekinesis, levitating and catching a sword or an object in mid-air wasn’t an unimaginable feat if one could properly gauge the timing.
To extend energy far, one simply needed to use a lot of it. It wasn’t much different from scooping soup with a spoon by enveloping a wide area, or binding and swinging energy like a rope.
But what madman would draw out such thick, blunt internal energy, less than a fraction of a fraction of a sixty-year cycle, to tickle others! And to think of using it as a means to make those without opened eyes feel aura!
My head felt numb as if I’d been struck, and I couldn’t help but chuckle in disbelief.
As I laughed, Professor Mustang, who had been watching me, raised his index finger to his lips and made a shushing gesture. It was proof that he could move his limbs freely even while tickling students with aura.
His actions were so cute and amusing that curiosity arose. As I regained my stance, the professor, sensing my intent, immediately extended his aura towards me.
It felt like the tail of a young kitten brushing against my body.
It was a careful and gentle act, like taking a blind person’s hand and leading it into water, saying, “This is water.”
As if to wipe away the sweat from my tired body, he poked my forehead, patted my back, and widened the area to press down firmly.
He then narrowed the end to tickle me.
I bit my lip again, suppressing my laughter. My sword stopped.
I couldn’t bring myself to swing my sword; it was too funny. Those who had opened their eyes and could see aura were in the same predicament as me, and those who could feel it but not see it paused mid-swing, looking bewildered.
And those dullards, those cute ones, their strength completely gone, their legs trembling, their five senses dulled and their sixth sense heightened, only then would they furrow their brows and concentrate even harder, saying, “Huh?”
It was like a mother hen carefully breaking the eggshell for a chick that couldn’t hatch. It might not work the first time, but if this was repeated many times, it seemed possible to forcibly awaken aura.
In the Central Plains, martial artists with weak Qi sense would often travel to famous spots throughout the martial world.
Places with grand mountain ranges, large, wide lakes, or deep valleys where energy gathered but couldn’t escape were called ‘Spirit Veins’, where spiritual energy converged.
Sitting in a lotus position in such places, they would spend five days or a month regulating their energy to absorb the natural energy into their bodies. It was a crude method, but they accepted it as necessary when trying to break through a bottleneck.
When I took advanced swordsmanship classes, I had felt a degree of admiration and envy as to how so many young ones had awakened their Qi sense so early. Now I knew the cause was this teacher.
He was a great and formidable individual, though perhaps not as much as Maelo Sanson. I had heard that some people were better at inspiring others than at their own martial arts, but I had never seen such an unconventional method in my two lives.
“Alright, that’s all for today. If anyone felt something ticklish, please raise your hand.”
“…Uh, me!”
“I think I felt it too!”
“Yes, how did it feel?”
“…Um, does aura usually feel on your cheek first?”
Kruhk, I couldn’t hold it in and covered my mouth with the back of my hand.
Those who already knew were busy trying not to laugh and didn’t raise their hands. The bewildered looks of the ignorant ones were incredibly amusing and hilarious. If I had my way, I would have been clapping my feet and giggling like the beggars from the brothel district.
Douglas Mustang replied nonchalantly.
“Well, I didn’t. Did you, student?”
“Uh… no…?”
“Think about it carefully, and for the next class, just rest without thinking about anything. Today is the first day, so we’ll stop here. Good job, everyone.”
I wanted to tell them about the various things that had happened, but there must be a reason for letting them discover it themselves. The students, wiping their sweat and tidying their martial uniforms, bowed to the professor and left with bewildered or giggling expressions.
I remained until the end, then cautiously approached the professor. Benjamin, who had been waiting as if expecting me, followed with a puzzled look and stood nearby. However, while I had no intention of broadcasting it to everyone, there was no need to hide it from those close to me, so I opened my mouth.
“Professor, I have a question.”
“Yes, what are you so curious about?”
I had thought so from the beginning of class, but despite his dark and imposing appearance, his way of speaking was surprisingly gentle. His body was tall, and his shoulders and chest were broad, so his voice should have boomed, but the way he whispered in a low tone felt strangely ticklish.
Seeing his aura-thread play earlier, I could infer quite a bit about his disposition.
“I have questions about the aura I’ve learned. After enrolling, I noticed that the Knight trainees at the academy seem to draw external energy into their entire bodies to strengthen themselves… that’s how they train.”
“Hmm, that’s usually how it’s done…?”
“I store energy within my body and then draw it out. I imagine a virtual space around my navel, refine and store aura there, and then draw it out like this when needed…”
“Uh…?”
I wasn’t confident in explaining it verbally. So, I directly circulated my energy and accumulated a faint, hazy aura on my sword.
My realm was still insufficient to create a clear sword energy, but with Professor Mustang’s Eye Technique, I believed he could fully understand the method. He intently observed the flow from my lower Dantian, middle Dantian, and down to my arms.
Due to my body’s fatigue from swinging the sword, I couldn’t maintain this clumsy aura for long. After showing it for a moment, I dispersed my internal energy and re-sheathed my sword.
“From what you were doing earlier, Professor, didn’t you directly grasp the ambient energy and fix it at a point external to your body, rather than using it within yourself? I’m curious how you view storing mana within a person’s body.”
“Huh, you saw that in detail. I thought you were too busy laughing to notice.”
No, saying it like that made it funny again. But it didn’t seem polite to grin at the professor up close, so I bit my lip and endured it. Hearing the person next to me let out a stifled chuckle, I tried even harder to hold back. Mustang continued his serious reply.
“Most of humanity cannot feel mana, but there are definitely people who come into contact with the non-material realm from birth. Spirit Masters are usually like that, and so are some Wizards and Swordsmen. Just as young children put interesting things in their mouths, those close to the non-material realm might try to embrace mana once or twice. But most give up quickly.”
“Why is that?”
“Because it hurts. Aura is the energy of nature, and you can’t just play with it without sufficient effort and understanding. It’s similar to how a child who gets a strong static shock avoids touching rough fabric. Generally, only magical plants that lack pain receptors or one’s own body can accumulate mana. This is also not common.”
“…Have there been no attempts to accumulate aura within the body?”
“Why wouldn’t there be? People who tried to accumulate aura in some part of their body, though often considered eccentrics, have existed for generations. Accumulating aura in the arm alone, or on the skin to enhance it, was the most common behavior, but usually, the biological tissue in that area couldn’t withstand it, leading to necrosis, requiring treatment and abandonment. As far as I know, there’s only one creature that stores mana in its heart…”
“…There is…?”
“By any chance, and this is just a wild guess, you know.”
The flow felt familiar. I knew Douglas Mustang was about to say something strange.
“Young Master Michael Ernhardt, are you perhaps a Dragon?”
It was a terrible, foolish question.