The Story Of The Second Son Of The Baron Family [EN]: Chapter 84

“Who said anything about moving it with magic! Anyone can do that! Use your will, your will to move the water in the glass!”

What nonsense is this now? After seeming lost in thought for a while, she’s come up with a training method I’ve never heard of. To move the water in the glass without touching it or using magic—it’s either ingeniously creative or utterly absurd. But I couldn’t utter a single objection and had no choice but to stare at the glass, focusing my will as she instructed.

“Like this! I don’t know why you can’t do something so easy.”

She didn’t move her body even slightly. There was no movement of magic either. Yet, the water in the glass rotated clockwise and counterclockwise according to her will, and even floated up, down, left, and right. How could I possibly complain when she showed me such a sight right before my eyes? Just as she said,

“Effort! Eeeeeffort!”

I had no choice but to put in the effort.

She said that Dragon Words are the user’s will to move the world. Just as a mage uses magic as a medium to create spells, Dragon Words are created by the user using their will as a medium. I had heard it so many times that my ears were calloused, but it was still incomprehensible.

Of course, she added this: Did I feel magic from birth? Of course not. Handling will isn’t much different. It only feels like an unreachable sky because I haven’t experienced it. Once I touch it even once, it won’t be that difficult afterward.

It was still like grasping at clouds, but at least it told me what attitude I should have toward the current training with the glass. A long time ago, when I realized that this place was a fantasy world like in novels, I needed to return to the beginner’s mind I had when I was striving to learn magic.

#

Damn it. I had a strong feeling that this wasn’t right, no matter how much I went back to my beginner’s mind. More than a month had passed since she introduced the new training method, and white snow was falling heavily outside the window. Yet, despite all the time I had poured in, there wasn’t even a slight change in the water in the glass.

‘Is this really effective?’

Because she shouted about effort with such a confident voice, I put in as much effort as I could. But at this point, I couldn’t help but doubt it. Even if she could perfectly handle Dragon Words.

‘It’s a similar case to Master.’

She is a genius. A genius with an insurmountable gap between us. If she is the sun, I am moonlight, no, a firefly, no, not even that, just extinguished ashes. In other words, what she is telling me as guidance is likely something that people at her level, or those slightly below who have pondered as much as she has, can understand.

“Actually, the order itself is wrong.”

Let’s take magic as an example. To wield magic, you must first awaken magic power. Magic is a method of arranging magic power in a certain form to create a result, so if you can’t move magic power, it’s useless no matter how knowledgeable you are about magic.

In that sense, Serena said that Dragon Words are not much different from magic. Just as you move magic power to use magic, you move will to use Dragon Words. If so, shouldn’t you be able to feel will, just like a mage feels magic power before learning magic?

‘But how?’

How can I feel the abstract concept of will? Even though I saw her unleash Dragon Words right before my eyes, I didn’t feel anything, and I didn’t feel any sense of incongruity in the phenomena that occurred as a result. I can’t exactly concentrate will around me like I did when I awakened magic power.

“Ugh.”

Tap, tap, tap, tap-

The more I pondered, the faster my fingers tapped on the desk.

“Focus! Focus!”

Even when she was watching me, focusing my gaze on the glass, I couldn’t concentrate on the training and continued to try to find other methods in my head.

‘This method won’t work.’

There is an order to everything. If you tell a primitive man who knows nothing to cut down a tree with a stone ax, you should teach him how to make the stone ax first. If you just tell him to cut down the tree, he won’t achieve anything. Right now, I need to know how to make the stone ax.

“Hey, Serena.”

“Effort! Effoooo, why?”

“It’s been over two months, and you still don’t know such a basic thing?”

Didn’t she talk about a hundred years at the beginning? How can she say this after only two months? Two months is only 0.2% of the time I expected in advance.

“Still, I’ll tell you one more time for the sake of you, who is incredibly foolish. What do you think will is?”

“…A thought or action to do something.”

“That’s right! That’s exactly what will means. But a mediocre level is not enough. Burn your will so intensely that this entire area, the world, has no choice but to listen to your will!”

It’s still an abstract answer. I can’t quantify will, so how can I burn it more intensely? What a reckless thing to say.

‘I have no choice.’

You can find such cases in geniuses. They clearly struggle when asked to teach others what they do easily and effortlessly. What can I do? Geniuses don’t even know why ordinary or dull people struggle.

‘I have to find a way. A way for ordinary people, not geniuses.’

#

I was confident in my thinking, but the truth was, I felt lost. There was no one who had walked this path before. I didn’t know if the path I was walking was the right one. I didn’t know what traps and hardships were waiting right in front of me. There wasn’t a single thing that didn’t make me feel lost.

And in times like these, I had to look back. If the path I had walked so far was wrong, then the path I would walk in the future would obviously be wrong as well. But if the path I had walked so far was not wrong, then no matter how far and rough it was, there was a possibility that it was the right path. Besides, if I remembered why I had walked this path so far, I would also know the destination.

‘Something, I’m missing something.’

I didn’t think the path I had walked so far was wrong. But if I were asked if I had taken even one step forward in the two months since Serena appeared, despite doing my best, I would have to answer no.

Of course, since the path I had to walk was so long, these two months might have been such a long time that I couldn’t even realize that I had taken one step. But my instinct was strongly warning me that I was missing something.

‘What could it be…’

I couldn’t help but ponder deeply. If it was a short-lived concern from the start, it wouldn’t have become such a problem. At that time, Armin came to me as if he had a concern.

“What’s wrong?”

“Great Disciple, there’s a bit of a problem…”

“A problem?”

Armin, who was hesitant at first, came to me when he thought it wouldn’t work out after repeating these moments several times. Because problems that were like challenges to him were often not so difficult for me.

For personal growth, it is best to solve problems through contemplation, effort, and effort, but unfortunately, we didn’t have time for that. The Titan Project was about proving skills as a result, not promoting personal growth through research.

“What’s the problem?”

I couldn’t help but become a little negligent in the Titan Project since Serena appeared. Three hours out of twenty-four, but considering the actual working hours, it was by no means a small amount of time. However, although three hours had been reduced, numerous problems had been corrected over the past two months. Now that we had a certain framework, what other problem had caught our attention?

“It’s a question that arose in the process of creating the exoskeleton.”

“A question?”

“Doesn’t the size of the exoskeleton exceed 5m? The weight is also enormous. No matter how much we borrow the power of magic, a large amount of magic power will be required to operate it for a short time. To secure a meaningful operating time, one person’s magic power will not be enough. I think creating a core to support the pilot is a more urgent task than creating the exoskeleton.”

It’s not a problem I hadn’t thought about. Designing an exoskeleton is relatively simple compared to designing an engine for a car. But there was a reason why I started with the exoskeleton first.

Results.

This method was right to show proper results even for a short time. Also, creating an engine was a daunting task even for me alone.

This was because when the Empire decided to push the Titan Project in earnest, it was planning to pour in huge amounts of supplies and manpower.

“There’s no way the Great Disciple couldn’t have thought of what I was thinking. Then I’ll step back now.”

“Good work.”

Clack-

At that time, there was a thought that flashed through my mind as Armin left the room and the door closed.

“…Foolish. What’s the point of reaching the 7th Circle or being thirty years old? I’m still leaving out important things.”

#

Why am I trying to learn Dragon Words? Because I made a promise with her. In exchange for her teaching me Dragon Words, I would show the results in front of another dragon.

Then why did she say she would teach me Dragon Words? Because her kin were making a fuss over her. Then why were they making a ‘fuss’? Wasn’t it because they saw another possibility that transcended the limitations of the human race?

Engraving.

Everything started with engraving. But at some point, didn’t it get pushed to the sidelines? The action I need to take now is not to climb a new cliff, but to climb the cliff I was already climbing to the end. Wasn’t I being swayed by her greed?

She also said that engraving is a minor version of Dragon Words. A technique that is not as good as Dragon Words, but is different from magic, a middle ground between Dragon Words and magic. Then, if I perfect engraving, wouldn’t I be able to touch even the lowest part of Dragon Words?

“That’s not a wrong idea. It makes sense.”

Baron’s Family Second Son – Episode 84 – End