Academy City Arcazam is the place where Solminati Academy was founded. It is famous across the continent as a true city of learning. The academy sits at the very center of the city, surrounded by roads that spread outward in the shape of a spider web.
In the northern part of the city, political institutions—including the executive branch—and the grand residences of wealthy nobles and high officials from various countries are gathered together. To the east lies the civic district, where many academy students and ordinary citizens live side by side. The south is the commercial district, the economic heart of the city, where goods and merchandise from every nation flow in and gather.
An adventurer's guild also stands in the commercial district, allowing students to take on jobs according to their rank. The western district is home to craftsmen—blacksmiths, doctors, tailors, and more—who bring skills from every country and compete fiercely with one another every day.
Beyond the city walls, roads stretch out to the east, west, north, and south. However, dense forests blanket the land along each route, making it difficult for people to pass through freely. Many demonic beasts inhabit these woods, ranging from weak monsters that ordinary people can defeat to powerful ones that only veteran adventurers can handle. Still, the truly dangerous demonic beasts live deep within the forest, so they rarely appear near the city or the roads.
In one such forest, hidden away from prying eyes, stands a single hut. In the garden in front of it, a boy and an old woman are locked in a fierce sword fight. The boy is Nozomu Bountis, a dropout from Solminati Academy. The old woman is named Shino.
Shino overwhelmingly dominates the bout. It isn't even comparable to Nozomu's spars with Mars back at the academy. During school matches, he could at least counter Mars' slashes, but against Shino the fight is completely one-sided—Nozomu is nothing more than a toy in her hands. After only about three exchanges, he is broken and sent flying. Shino immediately pursues the rolling boy and swings her sword down without a moment's hesitation.
Nozomu concentrates energy into his legs and unleashes one of the kijutsu techniques: "Instant Legs." He explodes forward in a burst of acceleration to break away. But Shino instantly matches the same technique, accelerates while swinging her sword, circles behind him, and unleashes a surprise iaijutsu (sword-draw) strike. Unable to stop his momentum, Nozomu pivots on one leg to parry the attack, but his posture collapses badly.
Shino presses the chase. Nozomu angles his sword against the path of her blade, deliberately relaxes his legs, and drops his body low. Her returning cut slides harmlessly along his sword without touching him. Yet at the same instant, her kick lashes out. Realizing he can't dodge while low to the ground, Nozomu suddenly tenses his legs, leaps backward, and wedges the hilt of his sword between her kick and his body. Even so, he is blown away.
Nozomu crashes to the ground. Before he can recover, Shino closes the distance and thrusts her sword at his neck.
「...I give up.」
"Hmm. There's still a long way to go."
Shino says calmly and sheathes her sword. This old woman, Shino, is Nozomu's master in swordsmanship. They first met when Nozomu was training alone in the forest. At that time, he had been dumped by Lisa, could no longer fulfill his oath, and was in despair. He trained recklessly—not out of discipline, but as an escape. By pushing his body until it was in tatters, he tried to avoid thinking about his former lover. Shino could no longer stand watching such harsh, meaningless suffering, so she called out to him.
"It's time for dinner, Nozomu. Please prepare it."
"Yes, Master."
Nozomu answers her call. Though fatigue colors his voice, he replies clearly and begins preparing the meal.
(I'm still dragging along, but I'm doing better now.)
Shino watches him silently and mutters the words to herself. When she first met him, his condition in the forest had been terrible. He had trained so relentlessly without giving his body time to recover that his muscles had wasted away, his cheeks were sunken like a starving ghost, the skin on his sword hand was peeling, his joints were inflamed, and his whole body was ruined. She had spoken to him because it was so bad, but he showed no sign of stopping. His face had been lifeless, and even darker negativity lurked deep in his eyes. Seeing her own reflection in those eyes filled her with revulsion, and she had left immediately.
At first she decided to ignore him, but as time passed, those dark eyes weighed on her mind. Even when she tried not to think about it, the heavy karma she sensed in him overwhelmed her. When she went to check on him, she found him being attacked by demonic beasts—wild dogs, low-ranked monsters common across the continent that usually hunt in packs. To ordinary adventurers they were easy prey, but to Nozomu, exhausted to his limit, they were as deadly as dragons.
His body was covered in wounds, his consciousness hazy, and no one else was around to help. Yet where most people would have given up, he refused. Even after losing so much blood that death should have come, he kept resisting the wild dogs.
"I don't want to die." "I won't give up."
His swordsmanship and tactics were still immature, but the eyes that once held only darkness now shone with a clear, powerful will to live. The moment Shino saw it, she cut down the attacking wild dogs.
A week later, she found the boy standing in front of her hut, swinging a wooden sword.
After dinner, Nozomu cleans up and sits across from his master, who is drinking post-meal tea. He drinks some too. Meeting Shino, learning swordsmanship from her, and being taught so much has continued to this day. It feels as though he finally saw a light while lost in darkness. Dumped by Lisa, unable to keep his oath, alone—then recklessly training as an escape from reality, attacked by wild dogs while his body was already in ruins. In that life-or-death moment, the feeling shifted from "I want to die" to "I don't want to die." That became "I want to live," and then the unbreakable will to "not give up." His master saved him from that crisis, took him as an apprentice, and he has kept training ever since.
Thinking about Lisa is still painful, but now it feels lighter than before. It must be because he has a master. As these thoughts cross his mind, he glances at Shino—she is smiling broadly at the tea sweets, looking almost childlike despite possessing strength far beyond her age. Nozomu can't help but smile a little at the sight.
"What? Fallen for me already, huh?"
He immediately counters his playful master.
"Please consider your age before saying things like that."
The words barely leave his mouth before a shock runs through his face. Shino had swung her fist like a surprise attack, releasing a pinpoint shockwave. Yet the tea and sweets on the table don't even stir in the slightest breeze.
"Nozomu, what was that?"
His master glares at him with a dragon-like expression. He apologizes on pure reflex to preserve himself.
"No, it's nothing! I was just admiring you, Master!"
Even though it was only a light tsukkomi, she unnecessarily shows off her advanced skill. Though she lives in seclusion in a place like this, her ability is undoubtedly among the very top on the continent. She herself says she is on par with the academy's strongest swordsmen. By the way, the top swordsman at Solminati is Jihad Roundel—an S-rank knight and a swordsman renowned throughout the continent. To think his master stands on the same level… who exactly is she?
Lost in these thoughts, Nozomu finishes his tea. Eventually, it's time to return to the dormitory.
"Then Master, I'll head back."
"Hmm. See you tomorrow."
"Yes. Good night, Master."
Shino watches Nozomu's back as he leaves and returns to the hut. He has become much stronger. Because of the ability suppression weighing down his physical potential, he doesn't even realize how far he's come—but it's only a matter of time before his swordsmanship reaches her level. His growth over the past year has been extraordinary.
Originally, he favors curved blades rather than the straight swords common on this continent. Instead of relying on arm strength alone, he cuts using his entire body. Above all, it is his own relentless effort that has made him stronger—even if that effort originally came from escaping reality. At first he repeated basic swings all day long, then ran through the forest without rest. Naturally, demonic beasts attacked him, but he handled what he could on his own. When opponents were too much for him, Shino quietly dealt with them so he wouldn't notice.
Next came mock battles. Naturally, she poured every technique she could into him—short of killing him. At first he was helplessly knocked down; fractures, vomiting, and fainting were everyday occurrences. Now he endures much better and rarely suffers serious injuries like broken bones.
He withstands the training she imposes. An average person would quit within a week. Without the ability suppression, there is no doubt he could face her as an equal. Yet the reason he still can't win their spars—and why his academy grades never improved—is that very suppression. His strength and spirit are limited, he has almost no magical power, and he can't even use beginner magic. Enhancements from techniques or items barely work, and enhancement magic is impossible for him.
To compensate for these handicaps, he has sharpened his pure skill and qi control. But the techniques he favors are inevitably single-point focused and carry extremely high killing power, so they cannot be used in academy mock battles. Fortunately, while explosive muscle power is affected by the suppression, his basic motor skills and endurance remain untouched, allowing her to train those aspects. Still, even when he tries to strengthen them with kijutsu, the effect is minimal—and if the opponent uses enhancement, he is quickly overtaken.
It doesn't work out very well.
Another thing that troubles Shino is that Nozomu has not set any clear goals for the future. In the heat of immediate battle, the simple will to "live" may be enough for now—but that won't hold in the long term. To answer "why become stronger," a person needs a "core of the heart." Gain power without that core, and eventually the power itself will sway and control you. And Nozomu's core was already shattered once before.
She doesn't yet know what path he will choose, but she will teach him everything. So that he never has to live with the same regrets she carries.